The passage of time sometimes seems like a dream when reflecting back, which is appropriate when you realize that it’s been 20 years since Neil Gaiman, along with a host of brilliant artists, first introduced the world to The Sandman and created a series that is considered required reading by many.

10 years ago, Gaiman released The Sandman: The Dream Hunters, as a prose novella and a standalone story that could be read without prior knowledge of the earlier volumes, with illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano. Final Fantasy fans may be familiar with Amano for his design contributions to the popular videogame series.

This Wednesday, DC is marking the 20th anniversary of Sandman with the first of four issues of the comic adaptation of The Dream Hunters by P. Craig Russell, an artist whose career spans over 30 years across various publishers and genres in the comic industry. The first issue of The Sandman: The Dream Hunters comic adaptation will feature a regular cover by Yuko Shimizu with a variant cover by Russell.

P. Craig Russell is also no stranger to collaboration with Neil Gaiman as a contributor to the original Sandman series. His most recent work was the graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline from Harper Collins, which is also due out as an animated feature in theaters next year.

I recently spoke with Russell about The Dream Hunters, Neil Gaiman’s confessions of originality, and the art of adaptation.

ComicMix: For those who may not have read the original prose story, what is The Dream Hunters about?

P. Craig Russell: It’s an original story told in the style of a Japanese fairy tale. It’s the story of a fox who falls in love with a young monk. She falls in love with him and his soul is stolen by a rich onmyōji, who is sort of like a wizard, and the fox then takes her revenge on the onmyōji.

If you haven’t read it, it’s a beautifully written story and I just found out for the first time in Neil’s notes that he just wrote for the first issue of Dream Hunters that the story he told in his afterword to the original book, was that this was based on an old Japanese fairy tale which, in fact, it wasn’t. He made it up entirely. (more…)

Better start your 2009 Christmas letter to Santa now because you’re going to want The Beatles video game.

MTV has managed something unique: getting the rights to turn the fab four into a video game in an age when you cannot download their music catalogue.

Apple Corps, EMI Music, Harrisongs and Sony/ATV Music Publishing have, according to Variety, signed a deal allowing MTV to work with Harmonix on the game.  The announcement occurred Thursday in London. Harmonix, known for Rock Band, has been granted permission to us 45 songs from the Beatles’ playlist from EMI.

Everyone made certain to stress that this game will be apart from Rock Band and no Beatles music will be heard there or even Activision’s Guitar Hero.

"The game is in development," said Apple Corps CEO Jeff Jones. "We don’t want to talk about how it will turn out a year from now. We’re in the process of creating the game."

Yes, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono Lennon have all been made aware of this development and have been apprised as to the design, layout and rollout of the game. This was the culmination of a 17 month process and the contracts were finally signed four weeks back.

Giles Martin, son of legendary Beatles’ producer George, will be overseeing the music for the game and stressed, "We are trying to present the songs as they were played, adhering to the (original) mix."

Does the game announcement mean the influential music from 1962-1969 will finally be made available in mp3 format?

It’s "the biggest puzzle and so illogical that the Beatles music is not available for use on MP3 players," Martin Bandier, chairman-CEO of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, told Variety. "Maybe the fact that this deal is done will offer an impetus to Apple and EMI" to finalize a deal, he added.

The article noted that with this deal in place, Led Zeppelin remains the final major musical act to eschew lending their songs for commercial exploitation.

The King of Cool himself, Samuel L. Jackson, booked two new acting jobs this week. Up first is the widely reported remake of The Last Dragon. Jackson will play Sho’nuff, the Shogun of Harlem, a part originally played by the late Julius Carry.

The Last Dragon, released in 1985, focuses on a young martial artist named Leroy Green. He travels New York City to achieve the Last Dragon, the highest level of martial arts accomplishment. Those who achieve the Last Dragon possess the Glow and become the greatest fighter alive.

In the film, the character of Sho’nuff is a tough-talking egomaniac, a character type that Jackson typically excels at. The Hollywood Reporter describes one of his character interactions:

"[Sho’nuff’s] spiel included asking ego-driven questions like ‘Am I the baddest mofo lowdown around this town?’ Each time his gang of thugs answered, ‘Sho ’nuff!’"

Says Jackson of the role: "I’m a huge fan of the original and look forward to bringing Sho’Nuff into the 21st century."

The film will be produced by John Davis and Kerry Gordy. Gordy is the son of Berry Gordy, the man behind the original The Last Dragon.

Jackson also landed a role in Quentin Tarantino’s latest picture Inglourious Basterds, which is intentionally misspelled. Jackson will provide the voice of the narrator, who isn’t present often in the film, "but mostly pops up at random time in the script to add some context and background info" according to The Playlist. The Web site also says that Maggie Cheung has been cast in the film as Madame Mimieux, a French matron of the Cinematheque, one of the film’s centerpieces. She also takes in a homeless Shoshanna (Melanie Laurent), the film’s female lead.

The announcement of David Tennant’s withdrawal from Doctor Who overshadowed his win for Outstanding Drama Performance at the National Television Awards this past week.  He beat out costar Catherine Tate although the series won the Most Popular Drama award.

Tate, who collected the Drama series award alongside Executive Producer Russell T. Davies, said "I know it’s won the award for the last three years, but I was sweating that we wouldn’t the year I joined!"

Meantime, the UK press has been in overdrive handicapping who might be the next Doctor, a game ComicMix indulged in not that long back. Tennant himself joined in the fun saying, "I’ve always been a big supporter of Wee Jimmy Krankie and I, you know, if it wasn’t me it was gonna be him, her, him. So the campaign starts here for me, to get wee Jimmy Krankie in the TARDIS and big Ian Krankie as the companion. I think that works." (more…)