After laying dormant for nearly a year, Rosario Dawson is ready to kick start The Occult Crimes Task Force back to comics and a film. She tells us why she believes morethan ever in comic based movies,  plus:

• Jimmy Palmiotti takes on Vampire Hunter D
• Warehouse 13 set for The SciFi Channel
• Our rundown of this week’s huge line-uo of new comics and DVDs

Don’t forget, ComicMix Radio will be broadcasting direct from the floor of the Baltimore ComicCon  with extended broadcasts Saturday and Sunday, and to join us all you have to do is Press the Button!

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

The Sunburst Awards for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic were won by Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet by Joanne Proulx and The New Moon’s
Arms by Nalo Hopkinson. Hopkinson’s previously won in 2003.

Proulx’s Sunburst is the first winner in the new separate category for young adult speculative fiction.

The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is a prized  and juried award presented annually. It is based on excellence of  writing and awarded to a Canadian writer who has published a  speculative fiction novel or book-length collection any time during the  previous calendar year. The award consists of a cash prize of $1,000  Canadian and a hand-crafted medallion.

IDW Publishing has announced that veteran entertainment and media executive Greg Goldstein has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer.  Goldstein will manage the company’s day-to-day operations as well as help guide IDW as it expands its existing product lines and enters new categories.

Goldstein is an industry veteran since working for Topps Comics followed by stints at Inkworks, Activision, Acclaim and most recently Upper Deck.  He also founded and ran his own entertainment concern, Popmania.

Well be presenting an exclusive interview with Goldstein later this week.

This comes at a time when IDW has surpassed Image as the number four comic book publisher in America.  It’s best known for its mix of media tie-ins from the just acquired G.I. Joe to Star Trek.  They also publish original works such as Joe Hill’s Locke & Key.

Note: Click here to relive the past episode!

This Week’s Operation: "The Mousetrap"

Mission Briefing:
Charley Dixon and his wife Michelle are fleeing town from the big bad Terminator, when Cromartie himself shows up and abducts Michelle. Charley enlists the help of Sarah and Derek Reese, who track Michelle to an abandoned shack in the desert. She’s strung up to a series of explosives, that turn out to be fake. Cromartie was trying to lure Sarah out in the open so she’d contact John, and then he could trace his location. His mission successful, Cromartie blows up the shack and drives off in pursuit of John. Michelle is severely injured in the blast and needs a hospital, but Cromartie has sabotaged Sarah’s car. They hijack a van and race against time to save both John and Michelle.

Meanwhile, John goes to buy a computer with Cameron, but ditches her to hang out with his new friend Riley. Cameron stalks them from a distance, but Riley and John catch on and run off. John gets a phone call from Cromartie posing as his mother. Using Sarah’s voice, he tells John to meet at a nearby pier. John shows up and sees that it’s not his mom at all, unless she’d undergone extensive work in the past couple hours. John pulls some Mission: Impossible moves to evade Cromartie, and the two eventually wind up in the ocean. Luckily for John, Terminators don’t move so well in the water, and Cromartie sinks to the bottom. John and Cameron later reunite with Derek and Sarah, and John notices blood in the hijacked van. It’s revealed that Michelle died from her wounds, and Charley is not happy at all.

Elsewhere, former FBI agent James Ellison is contacted by mysterious CEO Catherine Weaver, who is secretly a T-1000. She tells him that her company has been trying to reverse engineer Terminator technology from parts they’ve found in recent years, but their attempts haven’t been successful. She wants answers, but more importantly, she wants Ellison to help her find another Terminator.

(more…)

While promoting his role on TNT’s Raising the Bar, J. August Richards was asked about Gunn’s role in the Angel: After the Fall comic.  The comic, from IDW, continues the WB’s series as a sixth season which saw Gunn turned into a vampire and becoming the latest Big Bad.

“You’re kidding!” he exclaimed to ifmagazine. “Oh, my God. I need to see this. That is crazy. I was told that that was what was going to happen if we were to continue or do a TV movie, but I’m so happy to actually see it happening somewhere. I always thought Gunn’s end should be, he should turn into a vampire and kill himself. That’s always how I saw that character ending. I hope I get to act that one day, I really do. I’m still connected to that character.”

The Times of London confirms that the Hot Fuzz duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost has been asked to play the Thompson Twins in Steven Spielberg’s Tintin. Hergé’s identical twin detectives were usually played for comic relief so the casting sounds ideal.

"[Spielberg] said, ‘Hey, maybe you and Nick Frost could play the Thompson Twins’", Pegg ttold the Times Online.

Thomson and Thompson as they are known, can only be told apart in the albums by their mustaches. Thomson is the bumbling detective with the flared moustache whle the bumbling detective with the flat moustache is Thompson. The duo of incompetent detectives first appeared in Cigars of the Pharaoh which was first published in 1932. At the time, they were intially identified just as X33 and X33bis.

The pair are said to be physically inspired by Hergé’s father and uncle, who were twins, complete with matching bowlers. Historians say a picture of two mustachioed, bowler-hatted, formally dressed detectives appearing on the cover of the March 2, 1919 Le Miroir also influenced the storyteller.

With the news that Albert Finney has been cast for one of the Doctor Who 2009 Specials, speculation is running at Blogtorwho that he will reprise Winston Churchill, a part he’s played on television in the past.

So, it’s probably best to sum up all that we know to date about the four Specials and the annual Christmas story so we can keep fact from fiction straight.

The 2008 Christmas Special, entitled "The Next Doctor" according to the BBC, will guest star David Morrissey (The Other Boleyn Girl) and Dervla Kirwan (True Dare Kiss) and air on the BBC in December.  No American airdate has been announced.

The four 2009 specials have two written by producer Russell T. Davies, one written by Davies and Phil Ford and one by Davies and Gareth Roberts. Two are expected to be filmed in the United States.  One will feature the characters of Donna Noble(Catherine Tate) and her grandfather, Wilf (Bernard Cribbins).  The Master (John Simm) will be back for one story. Brian Blessed has been announced but either as Yrcanos or someone new. George Moffett will be back as the Doctor’s daughter Jenn.

As for opponents beyond The Master, the site says a scene from the season finale featuring Cybermen aboard the TARDIS was cut (but is expected on the DVD release) and may set up the first Special. The Sea Devils, last seen in 1984’s “Warriors of the Deep”, are said to be coming back.

The first special is currently scheduled to air in the UK next April. The second special may not air until Christmas time and then the final two are set to run the week following.

Finally, a new Children in Need special is rumored as being planned fopr their November 14 broadcast which will feature former Doctors Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker.  To raise funds, a behind-the-scenes tour of the studios where Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood are filmed is being offered as a prize in this year’s BBC Children In Need appeal.

Cardiff will play host to 100 competition winners, who must be UK residents, and their friends and families on November 8 and 9, during a brief gap in the production schedule.

Russell T. Davies said in a release, "This is so exciting. Giving fans the opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes look at where we film Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures is just brilliant.

"It’ll be the perfect opportunity for the whole family to experience something unique and truly extraordinary. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience – and the best thing is that all the money raised will go towards BBC Children in Need."

To be in with a chance of winning a place on the tour, people will have to correctly answer a multiple-choice question. This will be announced on Friday, September 26 on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 and on BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru. It will also be available on the official Doctor Who website, along with the full terms and conditions.