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‘Sarah Connor’ gets Full Season Order

  • News
  • October 19, 2008

After all the hubbub in recent weeks, it’s somewhat of a surprise to see Fox quietly announcing the full-season pickup for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Just last week, the show was given a sign of hope when additional scripts were ordered but now the full complement of nine episodes have been ordered bringing the full season total to 22.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Monday night series has seen only modest ratings in a tough time slot. Just 5.7 million viewers saw the most recent episode which sounds like a lot but in television terms is not.

Details will be formally announced Monday.  Speaking of tomorrow, the show’s blog has a post from Denise Thé, who wrote the episode and says, “’The Tower’ is the first of our episodes to be directed by a woman – the very talented Tawnia McKiernan. In the episode, Cameron fights a female Terminator – our first female-on-female Terminator fight. It’s a knock down, blow-your-hair back, jab-your-eye out (literally) fight scene. Be sure to watch closely – the arm and leg twists are not special effects! It’s also the first peek at The Turk since Samson and Delilah. The first insight into Weaver’s relationship with her daughter, Savannah. And at long last… the first time we address the mystery of who killed Sarkissian.”
 

The Theory of Webcomics: The Daily Grind

  • News
  • October 19, 2008

The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge is a competition between online comic artists to see who can maintain the longest Monday to Friday update schedule, following a strict set of rules. Each artist lays $20 USD on the line. The last man left standing takes the entire pot. The competition started on Monday, February 28, 2005, and is still going with ten contestants remaining.

Webcomics giants like Scott Kurtz, Chris Crosby, Steve Troop, and Jennie Breeden have all missed updates and been beaten out for the top spot. Conversely, none of the remaining contenders feature on Wikipedia’s list of Self-Sufficient Webcomics. Does this seem counter-intuitive?

Any successful webcomic creator will tell you that regular updates are important — in order to build an audience, you need to provide regular content to keep people coming back to the site. And very few comics have come into success with only one comic a week — you could pretty much count them on one hand — so you’d need at least two or three updates each week. If you can stretch it, five is optimal, because it gets the working world checking your site as part of their daily routine.

If your readers have the right sort of personalities, an irregular update schedule could work in your site traffic’s favor. Studies of gamblers has shown that irregular rewards — that is, receiving a reward only sometimes, and seemingly at random, for the same action — play all sorts of fun games with human brain chemistry. This is pointed to as the cause of the Las Vegas zombies who sit at slot machines for days. Is that any different from checking Order of the Stickevery day hoping that one of the three weekly updates will be there?

(Well, how different it is depends on how much of a reward you consider a new OotS comic to be. Money is a pretty universal reward. The comic needs to be good enough to trigger a “reward” response, because a sporadic, unfunny comic quickly gets dropped, rather than obsessively watched.) (more…)

Warner Bros. Releases Complete Flintstones Box Set

flintstonesThose of you who are like me and impatient when it comes to the World of DVD’s knows what it’s like to buy each season of a TV show on DVD and then miss out on a glorious looking box set with better extras and a shinier box for your collection. Well, out next week is definitely one box set you won’t want to miss, as Warner Home Video is realasing The Complete Flintstones Series on DVD. The set will include all 166 episodes from six seasons (1960-66) on a whopping 24 DVD set in a cool looking "stone age" style box. No word on whether the box will include any of the films such as A Man Called Flintstone, but you can still hold your inner child over with hours of bonus footage never before seen on DVD.

Here you can check out a clip from one of the extras where the original writers and animators of the beloved series discuss how The youngest Rubble, Bam-Bam came to be and how the voice talent created the characters we know and love to this day. 

 

You can finally get your Yabba-Dabba-Doo on with the box set on October 28.

Hulk Smash RiffTrax! For Free!!

  • Uncategorized
  • October 19, 2008

hulkRemember sitting through any particularly bad episode of The Incredible Hulk and thought to yourself, "Boy, this would be great for Mystery Science Theater!"? Well, look no further because Mike Nelson and his band of riffers from RiffTrax.com have decided to take on the very first episode of season one entitled "Final Round".

RiffTrax, for those not in the know, is a website where you can buy MP3’s of the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy) doing what they do best for movies that deserve it. After purchasing the Riff MP3, you then synch it up to the movie you purchased, like a makeshift commentary. With a selection ranging from Plan 9 From Outer Space to Ben Affleck’s Daredevil, you can purchase each "podcast" and watch it along with your DVD in the comfort of your own home. In a new deal, Rifftrax has partnered up with Overcast Media who will pre-synch the RiffTrax onto content posted for free by Hulu.com. This episode of Hulk is being offered for free as a Beta test and those who check it out are asked to give their feedback on how the service worked.

In the episode, Bruce Banner, going under the name David Benson (ugh) gets saved from muggers by local boxer "Rocky" (no relation) . Later Banner becomes Rocky’s friend and corner-man and uncovers a plot by Rocky’s manager for him to mule drugs. Not only do we get Martin Kove playing "Rocky", who is best remembered as the instructor who told Johnny to "sweep the leg" in Karate Kid, but we also get Ferrigno in green jumping in the ring to beat on the baddies!

Enjoy the full episode with RiffTrax commentary here.

 

‘Doctor Who’ Director Named

  • News
  • October 19, 2008

Two tidbits for Doctor Who fans.  First up, James Strong has been announced as director for the Easter Doctor Who Special for 2009. He will be working from a script by Gareth Roberts ("The Unicorn and the Wasp").

"We’re so happy that he’s returning to the fold," Russell T. Davies told Doctor Who Magazine. "James has handled Daleks in sewers, hordes of Adipose and Satan himself, as well as a Titanic with Kylie on board. But believe me, none of that will have prepared him for what we’re about to unleash in this next script!"

The soundtrack CD to the fourth season of the current Doctor Who will be released by Silva Screen Records on November 17. The disc will carry 27 tracks taken from throughout the season, which completed airing during the first half of 2008.

Those interested in downloading the album from the company can obtain it sooner.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Doctor Who Season Four Opening Credits (0:46)
2. A Noble Girl About Town (2:14)
3. Life Among the Distant Stars (2:30)
4. Corridors and Fire Escapes (1:12)
5. The Sybilline Sisterhood (1:53)
6. Songs of Captivity and Freedom (4:03)
7. UNIT Rocks (1:11)
8. The Doctor’s Daughter (1:38)
9. The Source (3:21)
10. The Unicorn and the Wasp (3:11)
11. The Doctor’s Theme Season Four (2:47)
12. Voyage of the Damned Suite (10:21)
13. The Girl With No Name (2:45)
14. The Song of Song (2:14)
15. All in the Mind (1:18)
16. Silence In The Library (2:57)
17. The Greatest Story Never Told (6:17)
18. Midnight (3:07)
19. Turn Left (2:20)
20. A Dazzling End (2:22)
21. The Rueful Fate of Donna Noble (2:44)
22. Davros (2:07)
23. The Dark and Endless Dalek Night (3:44)
24. A Pressing Need to Save the World (4:55)
25. Hanging On The Tablaphone (1:07)
26. Song of Freedom (2:51)
27. Doctor Who Season Four Closing Credits (1:07)

GoComics Adds iGoogle Gadget

  • News
  • October 18, 2008

People who enjoy customization, will be delighted to know that Uclick has launched a gadget for iGoogle.  Over 350 comic strips can be selected to appear on your homepage.  According to a release, the gadget, which was launched Thursday, will also contain comments, tagds, and posts from people who visit the GoComics.com site.

"Our new GoComics gadget for iGoogle is part of our strategy to expand the cartooning medium to readers old and new through digital media," said Uclick CEO Douglas Edwards in a statement. "We deliver daily entertainment features wherever our readers want their comics."
 

ComicMix Radio: Robert Tapert Storms Back

  • News
  • October 18, 2008

He was the “father” of Hercules and (actually) the husband of Xena, and now Robert Tapert returns to pop culture with a hand chosen set of horror movies and a new television series. In our exclusive interview, Robert fills us in on both plus where things stand with Xena and Evil Dead, plus:

  • Witchblade on ITunes
  • DC prepares a crash course on The Spirit
  • Neil Gaiman, Guillermo delToro and Dr Strange oh my!

Catch the full exclusive ComicMix interview with Robert Tapert right here on Sunday, and in the meantime get warmed by and Press the Button!

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-5939149 or RSS!

 

Iris Wildthyme Back for Second Season in February

  • News
  • October 18, 2008

iris-wildthyme-8711333Big Finish, the British audio producer, announced this week that four new Doctor Who pastiches will be released featuring their own character, Iris Wildthyme.  She was created by writer Paul Magrs and she’s described as “Bracing the temporal winds in her trusty bus and accompanied by the ever-loyal Panda (a ten inch tall stuffed bear), Iris travels from the depths of space to the gates of Wonderland and beyond. Iris and Panda will bamboozle and befuddle a host of new friends and enemies while always having time to mix a sharp Gin and Tonic.”

Katy Manning, a former companion of The Doctor, will reprise her role as the voice of Iris in this second season of adventures. David Benson also returns as the voice of Panda.

The new season kicks off in February with The Sound of Fear, written by Mark Michalowski. “Iris and Panda encounter the deadly Naxians aboard space station Radio Yesterday, along with Iris’s ex-husband, Sam.”

The second installment, Land of Wonder, from Magrs, features “Iris exiled to Earth and working with top-secret organization MIAOW to investigate dark happenings in the Underground.”

Simon Guerrier writes The Two Irises and “Panda has not only the return of the Naxians to deal with, but there’s a new Iris aboard the bus – an Iris who is decidedly male…”

The concluding escapade will be Mark Margs’ The Panda Invasion. “As San Francisco celebrates the millennium, Iris must save the world from destruction, while Panda faces his evil twin, and all because somebody spilt their gin and tonic…”

Big Finish intends to release the four dramas as single CDs, available monthly beginning in February, or a single box set.

joker21-8422230

Review: “Joker” HC one-shot

joker21-8422230On October 22, DC will be releasing the hardcover graphic novel Joker (originally titled [[[Joker: The Dark Knight]]]), presented to you by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo. This is the same creative team who were behind the mini-series [[[Lex Luthor: Man of Steel]]], which explored the mind-set of the Metropolis multi-millionaire and touched on his justifications for why he sees himself as the necessary anti-thesis to the Last Son of Krypton.

[[[Joker]]] is a story of roughly the same note, though not narrated by the villain as Lex Luthor: Man of Steel was. In this hardcover graphic novel, the story is narrated by Jonny Frost, a two-bit hood. In an interview with Newsarama, Azzarello said that the reason for this was because the Joker’s narration couldn’t be trusted, given that he was insane, and so it was important to see it from the point of view of someone close to him.

As the tale begins, the Joker has been in Arkham for some time now and has only just now been released, legally and by the book (though how is never explained). This book plays the Joker as a gangster rather than a mass murdering psycho constantly trying to prove there is no point to life. As such, one of the major plot elements is that the Joker had several criminal operations going on when he went in and now he’s found that they have been taken over by others. To regain his criminal power and his money, the Joker begins hunting down the Gotham mobsters who have dared to dip into his operations, telling them, “I want what’s mine back.”

To help him on this quest, he grabs Killer Croc and Harley Quinn (who seems to be a mute in this story), as well as new assistant Jonny Frost, our narrator, a small-timer who admires the Joker and wants to be just like him. As the story goes on, the Joker directly challenges Two-Face, who has taken control of Gotham’s underworld while the Clown Prince of Killers has been away. And with each passing day, Jonny Frost realizes that the Joker is not a person to admire at all.

Not a bad idea. How was the execution?

(more…)

xmennesbox-9758167

Comic Mix Six – The Six Worst Comic Book Video Games

  • Uncategorized
  • October 18, 2008

xmennesbox-9758167Comic books, admittedly, don’t have a great history when itcomes to video game adaptations.  Hell,most games based on licensed properties have a certain stigma about them.  It probably stems from the fact that theyfeel like a cheap cash-in…a way to make a quick buck on a popular fad such asmovies, TV shows, and yes, comics.  Now,that’s not to say ALL comic book games are bad, no; but the genre does have itsshare of stinkers.  Out of all thepossible crap-fests out there, these are the top six games that should never beallowed near your console of choice…EVER.

Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men– 1989: NES

Back in the heyday of the Nintendo Entertainment System,they were making games for EVERYTHING. At the time, publisher LJN held the rights to the Marvel license, andsadly, churned out turd after turd.  Oneof their biggest steaming piles was this mess, based on Marvel’s MightyMutants.  What made this game sobad?  Well, sadly, the technology of theday seems to be the biggest culprit.  Thegame took a top-down view of the action, and since there was only so much youcould show in 8-bit, character details were pretty much non-existent.  That, combined with the muddy, dirty colorsof the backgrounds and you were lucky you could see anything at all, let alonewhich character you had selected. Nothing was recognizable, despite the fact that it had a decent sized rosterselected from the books.  Thankfully, it’sone of the few bad marks on an otherwise mostly successful game franchise.

Fantastic Four – 1997:Playstation

Ugh.  When you talkabout ugly games, two system generations ago, we had some DOGS.  3D graphics were all the rage, and polygoncounts were climbing higher and higher. Sadly, they still couldn’t figure out that muddy background thing, andso stuff tended to blend together – badly. At least this time you could see what was happening…but it wasn’tpretty.  Take a tried and true gameplaystyle, affectionately known as the “beat ‘em up”, and add comic’s firstfamily.  What could go wrong?  Well, how about poor control, terrible plotand just plain shoddy gameplay?  First,the game is about the Fantastic FOUR…so you have Mr. Fantastic, InvisibleWoman, Human Torch, The Thing and…She-Hulk? Wouldn’t that be FIVE?  Then, you have repetitive, lazy combat (anormal pitfall for the “beat ‘em up”) of miscellaneous enemies that are largein number and small in variety.  Add to thatthe poor hit detection, lousy control response and just a general sense of “whybother?” and you fantfour-screen002-7432099have this mighty gem.  Fantastic,indeed.

(more…)

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