After the August issue of DC Comics’ MAD Magazine featured a spoof on consumer electronics retailer Circuit City titled "Sucker City," the retailer’s corporate office had the publication banned from stores, according to a recent report from Associated Press. The ban was lifted a short time later, however, and the store issued an apology to customers and MAD Magazine.

"We apologize for the knee-jerk reaction, and have issued a retraction order; the affected stores are being directed to put the magazines back on sale," spokesman Jim Babb said in an e-mail response. "The parody of our newspaper ad in the August MAD was very clever. Most of us at Circuit City share a rich sense of humor and irony … but there are occasional temporary lapses."

The spoof features advertisements for items like HDTVs and video games, including the Nintendo Wii "Guaranteed In Stock … if you’re friends with an employee who hid it in the back for you. Otherwise, ooh, sorry, all sold out."

What made this story especially interesting to me, though, was the sense of humor the retailer showed in its response:

"As a gesture of our apology and deep respect for the folks at MAD Magazine, we are creating a cross-departmental task force to study the importance of humor in the corporate workplace and expect the resulting Powerpoint presentation to top out at least 300 pages, chock full of charts, graphs and company action plans."

At least, I think that was a joke. It had to be a joke, right?

Check out the AP story for more on the Circuit City/MAD Magazine hub-bub, including the customary, humorous response from the MAD crew.

Actor Jamie Bamber has had a diverse and successful career, gaining noteriety playing Lt. Archie Kennedy in the Hornblower series of TV movies, working in HBO’s Band of Brothers and guest appearances on the series Cold Case and Ghost Whisperer. However, Bamber’s career rocketed into the spotlight when he took the role of Lee "Apollo" Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series — which is soon to broadcast its final season on the Sci-Fi Channel.

During the recent San Diego Comic-Con, I had a chance to speak to Bamber about his upcoming direct-to-DVD feature film Pulse 2: Afterlife and Battlestar Galactica. We discussed what made him interested in Pulse 2, how he feels about the end of Battlestar Galactica and what moments from the show were his favorites.

COMICMIX: Jamie, what can you tell us about Pulse 2: Afterlife?

JAMIE BAMBER: It’s like Kramer vs. Kramer in an armageddon backdrop, featuring a dad who is trying to put his life back together. He’s working on his relationships and putting them back together in the aftermath of an Internet-fueled apocolypse zombie scenario.

CMix: What made you take on this film?

JB: I had time. I liked the character and I could relate to what he’s going through. I can understand and empathize with a dad and his fear for his child in a dangerous world.

CMix: Having been on such a strong ensemble show like BSG, playing the lead in a film must have been appealing…

JB: I liked the idea of fronting a movie on the quiet, which as an actor is quite a useful thing to do without it being everywhere. This is also a straight-to-DVD project, which also appealed to me.

CMix: You’ve finished shooting on Battlestar now, right? (more…)

In a Variety article discussing director Brett Ratner’s recent move to Paramount Pictures, the man who helmed X-Men: The Last Stand name-checked an adaptation of Valiant comics’ Harbinger series as one of his first priorities with the new studio. We previously reported on the series being optioned by Paramount back in March.

As producers, Ratner and Stern are teamed with producer Alexandra Milchan on "Harbinger," an adaptation of the Jim Shooter-created comic series published by Valiant Comics.

Ratner said after directing "X-Men: The Last Stand," he was eager to build a superhero franchise from the ground up. The studio will set a writer shortly.

Ratner described Harbinger and his planned Beverly Hills Cop 4 project as "mainstream tentpoles" for the studio.