As the clock counts down to the May explosion of genre releases, additional clips are rolling out. For example, with a week to go, we get one more glimpse from Iron Man 3:
Meantime, two weeks later is Star Trek Into Darkness and here’s an extended moment already teased in the trailers:
And here’s the final Monsters University trailer ahead of its June release.
WAREHOUSE 13 is back on SyFy for a new run of episodes, and fans are wondering how they can begin to clean up the mess left at the end of last fall’s season. Show Runner Jack Kenny along with stars Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly talk about how it will all play out for the show. Plus WalMart gives of MAN OF STEEL and DAREDEVIL comes home to Marvel Studios.
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The Toledo Mud Hens, home team of Maxwell Q Klinger,will be decked out in Star Wars inspired jerseys the weekend of May The Fourth Be With You and The Revenge Of The Fifth. The team will be decked out in Chewbacca-themed jerseys for the May 4th and 5th games, as part of their Star Wars Weekend celebration.
Other attractions will be appearances by Vader’s Fist, the 501st Legion, Star Wars – themed fireworks, and the use of sound effects from the films during the games.
The jerseys will be auctioned off after the games to benefit charities – proceeds from Saturday’s jersey auction will benefit Read for Literacy. Sunday’s proceeds will go to the Spina Bifida Association of Northwest Ohio.
Minor and major leage baseball has teamed with Lucasfilm before for publicity and fundraising. Several teams hosted Star Wars Nights to celebrate Star Wars Celebration VI, with proceeds helping Stand Up To Cancer.
While the jerseys will not be available for regular purchase outside of the silent auction, they have made a Star Wars-themed t-shirt available in their online shop.
I don’t even remember the first time I met Bob Morales. We might have met when he was an intern at the Village Voice and I was a freelance writer, but I have no memory of that. When I was publicity manager at DC Comics, he was always around. As a writer and editor – for Reflex, for Publishers Weekly, for Vibe – he was an invaluable asset for me to exploit.
But he was so much more.
Bob was a world-class gossip. If you read Bleeding Cool over the last 20 years, you’ve read one of Bob’s stories. He would, occasionally, let me use him to snipe at someone who was annoying me, on the condition that Bob agreed the person in question deserved it (he always agreed).
Bob was a brilliant writer, of comics and of prose. Most comics fans know him from his work on Captain America, but he was a brilliant critic, and an hilarious comedian. He wanted to do an Elseworlds Batman story with Mark Twain as Batman, just so he could refer to “Twain Manor.”
Bob was connected. He was editor and literary executor for writer Samuel R. Delany, and he helped put together the graphic novel Delany wrote, illustrated by Mia Wolff. He helped me to get this interview with Harlan Ellison. He talked about working with Neil Gaiman on packaging a line of public-domain novels. He knew everyone in science fiction. He knew everyone in hip-hop.
Bob was vicious. If you ever crossed him (and didn’t try to correct your mistake), you were on the list. And if you were on the list, he would do everything he could to destroy you. Because he was so connected, that meant a lot. If he found out you were looking for a new job, he’d make sure the stories of your treachery reached human resources at your hoped-for employer.
And yet …
Bob was a pussycat. If you were his friend, there was nothing he wouldn’t do for you, as Heidi describes in this memory. He always called you on your birthday. He called all his friends who were moms on Mothers Day, and all his friends who were dads on Fathers Day. He called me on every Jewish holiday. He was thoughtful in ways that were unpredictable and touching.
Bob was my family. He babysat for my son, and told me stories about my son’s other life, when he was his own person and not just my kid. He introduced me to the woman who became not only one of my best friends, but also my son’s West Coast mom. He stayed in my apartment when we went out of town so the cats wouldn’t have to be alone. Quite often – almost always – some horrible mechanical event would occur in my building, and he would deal with it.
This is from Alan Moore (slightly edited), sent to be read at Bob’s funeral.
“I’m going to miss the savvy New York creak his conversation had as much as I will surely miss his writing; the commitment, insight and rare passion that he brought to every story, ever feature, every line. One of the comic field’s conspicuously rare voices of colour, he was also one of its most gifted and original contemporary writers. As a genuine creator of integrity, inevitably he came into conflict with an industry that much prefers a bland subservience in its employees to the fierce, ungovernable talent of an actual artist who has something deeply felt to say and does not care to compromise a work which he or she believes in…Moving with no apparent effort between his extraordinarily diverse realms of endeavour, Bob was like a human cultural adhesive that connected up a vast cobweb of people who, in every probability, would never have been introduced to one another save through him. One of the last authentic hipsters, he was sharp, astute, and very, very funny. If I’m honest it might be his anecdotes that I’ll miss most of all, the unexpected courtesy and deference extended to him by a crowd of strangers at a party whom, it transpired, had been informed Bob was a Puerto Rican mafia prince… Robert Morales had a fine and blazing life, a side or two of classic vinyl that I’m convinced will replay unendingly, just as I entirely expect to pick the ’phone up for an interview with Vibe, one day back in the hectic1980s, and commence a long, sweet friendship full of warmth and great ideas and lots of memorable laughs. So long for now, Bob, from me and Melinda, and I’m looking forward to enjoying that mafia anecdote again.
The last time I saw Bob was on Saturday, April 13. He’d been taking care of my cat while I was in Japan, and while I was gone he came down with a stomach flu. He swore he was over it, but he insisted on doing the laundry before he left. While we waited on the machines, we watched Rock of Ages on HBO, agreeing that Mary J. Blige should have been the main story, and that Catherine Zeta-Jones looked like Marie Osmond.
When he left, he said he was glad he could help me get away for a real vacation. I think – I hope – I told him I loved him. On Thursday, I got the call that he had died.
Bob was a talker. He’d call and say, “Hey, got a minute?” and you’d be on the phone for an hour, minimum. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all this new free time, but it won’t be nearly as much fun, nor as valuable, as what I did with Bob.
SATURDAY: Marc Alan FishmanSUNDAY: John Ostrander
New Pulp Publisher Pulp 2.0 Press has released The Knight Watchman: Graveyard Shift collected edition.
Press Release:
KNIGHT WATCHMAN: GRAVEYARD SHIFT
BUY IT NOW!
ONLY $8.99
CREATESPACE
AMAZON
From the Big Bang Comics Library comes this Pulp 2.0 graphic novel collecting the 1998 Image Comics 4-issue mini-series. This is the gripping story by Chris Ecker, Gary Carlson with stark, atmospheric, film noir-ish artwork by Ben Torres.
It’s been five long years since the Knight Watchman prowled the streets of Midway City…
Now the city is under siege, and the streets are deadlier than ever before…
But so is he.
On the heels of an assassination attempt that leaves the Mayor in a coma and the city’s hero, GALAHAD, in traction; THE KNIGHT WATCHMAN ends his retirement and returns to the streets to keep the city from falling further into chaos.
However, chaos is exactly the plan orchestrated by the Knight Watchman’s arch enemy, PINK FLAMINGO. The master criminal has taken over the city government by installing Deputy Mayor PRINCETON into office, and unleashing the dirty cops on his payroll. When a mugger turns up dead and the evidence points straight at the Knight Watchman, Midway City’s former hero becomes its most wanted criminal.
This edition from Pulp 2.0 features the gritty, urban superhero storytelling that was a hallmark of the 90′s, and reinvented one of the founding heroes of the Big Bang Universe. This edition is complete with bonus features making it a must-have for all comics fans.
6.69″ x 9.61″ (16.993 x 24.409 cm)
Black & White Bleed on White paper
122 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1481885348
ISBN-10: 1481885340
BISAC: Comics & Graphic Novels / Superheroes
Learn more at http://pulp2ohpress.com
Every now and then an anniversary comes along and it makes you pause and realize just how much time has passed and how much the world has changed. Twenty-five years ago, the idea of mixing animation and live-action was nothing new, but using computer-enhanced animation was a fresh approach. Then there was the mind-blowing idea of mashing up every animated icon from the golden age of animation. Yes, Disney and Looney Tunes side by side. The Fleischer Studios creations hobnobbing with the others. It had never been attempted before and was cause for celebration.
In the two and a half decades that have passed, Disney’s attempt to turn Gary K. Wolf’s protagonist into a cartoon perennial has petered out. Roger Rabbit was first born in Wolf’s 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? and was turned into a major player thanks to Robert Zemeckis’ ambitious adaptation followed by a series of shorts featuring the bunny. Sadly, he hasn’t been seen since 1993’s “Trail Mix-up”.
As a result, the anniversary release of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is cause for celebration and reflection. First, the film has been released for the first time on Blu-ray and looks wonderful. The combo pack comes with both a Blu-ray and DVD but no digital copy. The murder mystery featured Bob Hoskins as the proverbial private eye hired to investigate the alleged murder, bringing him to Toontown and its wacky inhabitants. There, you could see Donald and Daffy, Bugs and Mickey; imagine the pairing and there it was. Thanks to the production prowess of Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, everyone happily signed off on their creations being a part of the fun.
The film nicely mixed the film noir aspects of the real world with the slapstick shenanigans of the denizens of Toontown. It’s 1947 and Eddie Valiant is spying on Roger’s wife, the curvaceous Jessica (voiced by Kathleen Turner). Given the challenge of crafting a unique, distinctive cartoon voice, Charles Fleischer succeeded admirably. Roger’s disbelief at the revelation that Jessica has been playing pat-a-cake with Acme Corporation owner Marvin Acme (the late, great Stubby Kaye) is filled with pathos. When Acme turns up dead, Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) accuses Roger of the crime and the chase is on.
Nearly stealing the show is cigar-chomping Baby Herman (voiced by Lou Hirsch), sick of being an infant after five decades. But he’s a sidekick in service to the bewildered Rabbit. And when the chips are done, Herman stands by roger’s side. The humans do a fine job treading the line between playing things straight and interacting with just enough exaggeration to work well with the toons.
The novel had the unique aspect of the characters speaking with tangible word balloons that become slid objects and fill the air (he also used comic strip characters rather than cartoon players). Instead, Zemeckis filled the screen with larger-than-life antics and cameos galore (my favorite may be Snow White helping the disguised wicked stepmother down the street).
The transfer to high definition is handled with the usual Disney excellence and makes for a very pleasurable viewing experience. The sound nicely compliments the video so sit back and enjoy.
There should be fresh bonus material but we’re left longing. Instead, the DVD material from the last DVD release is here, some of it upgraded to high def. As a result, you still get Audio Commentary from Zemeckis, Marshall, associate producer Steve Starkey, screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, and visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston; the three Roger Rabbit Shorts (“Tummy Trouble”, “Roller Coaster Rabbit”, and “Trail Mix-Up”); Who Made Roger Rabbit (10:55) featuring Fleischer; Deleted Scene: The Pig Head Sequence (5:30); Before and After (3:07), live-action shots followed by their blended counterparts; Toon Stand-Ins (3:14), the on-set rubber puppets designed to guide the animators; Behind the Ears (36:37), the standard Making Of; On Set! (4:50), behind-the-scenes footage; and, Toontown Confidential, a separate pop-up track featuring text-based facts and trivia.
Altus Press has announced the release of The Secret 6 Classics: Blood, Sweat and Bullets by Emile C. Tepperman.
Press release:
Another day, another new release!
The Secret 6 Classics: Blood, Sweat and Bullets by Emile C. Tepperman
The Suicide Squad returns in six more adventures:
Coffins for the Suicide Squad: Boldly, New York’s crime czar flung bis challenge before the F.B.I., daring the full might of America’s prize crime-fighting machine to a finish war! And Washington answered with the Suicide Squad—three grinning, fighting Volunteers of Death—to tame a murder empire!
The Coffin Barricade: Eight young special agents went out to get the Undertaker, unknown Czar of the Corpse Bazaar. Eight came hack—in caskets and embalmed! So the Chief sent out the Suicide Squad—Murdoch, Kerrigan and Klaw. He figured they’d lived close enough to Death to be able to find the Undertaker—and put him six feet under!
The Suicide Squad Meets the Rising Sun: We are all engaged in the defense of our great nation. But, in one of the most amazing chapters of this war, it became the grim task of Kerrigan, Murdoch and Klaw, three lone champions of democracy, to find and destroy a Japanese Army of nine thousand brutal fanatics—who were hidden here in the United States!
So Sorry, Mr. Hirohito!: Kerrigan, Murdoch and Klaw, the famed Suicide Squad, had always fought side to side, welcoming any odds. But on that nightmare night in Valparaiso, Johnny Kerrigan stood alone against the Jap horde, while Steve Klaw went to wrest the great ship-building works from the Axis—with a thirteen-year-old girl as his only ally!
Targets for the Flaming Arrow: They had no clues, nothing but the charred arrow which had snuffed out the life of the American diplomat. But more important, Kerrigan, Murdoch and Klaw had almost no time at all in which to work, for within four days, the Flaming Arrow’s medieval minions were scheduled to destroy America’s vast war effort. Could even the famed Suicide Squad stop this Axis grand coup—before they too became living targets for the Flaming Arrow…?
Blood, Sweat and Bullets: The Ox had America neatly packaged to deliver to Hitler on Christmas morning. And, with only five shopping days left to Christmas, Kerrigan and Murdoch bartered their partner’s life as the price of her freedom. But Steve Klaw found that he had to chase death three thousand miles to seal his bargain—while Kerrigan and Murdoch were helpless save to rush him to his doom!
305 pages, approx. 6″x9″
Order the paperback from Amazon: $24.95
Order the limited edition hardcover: $34.95 (only 100 made)
Learn more at http://www.altuspress.com/projects/the-secret-6-classics-blood-sweat-and-bullets/
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| The Shadow by Michael J. Kaluta |
The Shadow Fan returns for his 29th episode! This week, New Pulp Author, Barry Reese tackles “The Eyes of the Shadow” (July 1931), “The Money Master” (December 15, 1942) and the the 11th issue of Dynamite’s comic series. Featuring more fawning over The Black Sparrow, Barry’s concerns about the upcoming Chris Roberson run and some fun commentary about the early days of The Shadow, this episode is not to be missed! Also: Listener Feedback!
If you love pulp’s greatest crimefighter, then this podcast is for you!
Listen now at http://theshadowfan.libsyn.com/
Larry Tye’s book was on the living room shelf for a month or more before I got around to reading it last week, and I’m not exactly sure why. I‘ve spent time with Larry and never doubted that he’d do good work, and he was kind enough to mention me in his biography, Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero. But whatever the reason for my tardiness, I’ll mark it “happy” because when I did finally delve into the book, it happened to be during Superman’s 75th birthday week. (Note to casual fans: the Man of Steel’s debut was on April 18th, 1938.)
And here it was, the whole story: the early lives of Superman’s creators, a couple of Jewish kids from Cleveland named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster; their attempts to sell their brainchild as a comic strip before they finally placed it at a comic book publisher that later became, and remains, DC Comics; the instant success, and then the deluge – radio shows, movies, novels, early television, recent television, trading cards, cereal boxes, animation, lunch boxes, Halloween costumes and everything I’m forgetting to mention. Larry Tye covers it all with a skillful combination of contemporary reporting and historicity.
The story isn’t always pretty. It has its share of sleaze. The most familiar scandal concerns the death of television’s first Man of Steel, George Reeves, found shot to death in his Hollywood bedroom with a gun at his feet. Suicide? Maybe. But there are doubts. That was the ugliness that made the papers, was the subject of other books, and was even the basis for a movie starring Ben Affleck.
The rest of the dubious behavior wasn’t as sensational – no slain actors – and mostly happened behind doors and walls.
I was around for some of it – that is, I was working for DC and even wrote the flagship Superman title for a year. Being close to the hub of big-time comics (though not very close) I must have heard rumors, and I did have a rough notion of the tribulations of Superman’s creators, and hey, I’m not immune to gossip, but I guess I wasn’t more than casually interested. I walked past those doors and walls, but I was never invited inside, and might not have cared to be. I mean, wouldn’t they have wanted me to wear a tie?
Good or bad, my ignorance? I don’t know. I can’t see how getting the inside dirt would have enhanced my scripts.
Would it have lessened them – maybe provide a distraction from the tasks at hand? Again, I don’t know. Never will, and don’t have to. But the information itself? That I’m glad to have, and I’m grateful to Larry Tye for providing it.
FRIDAY: Martha Thomases
SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman
Altus Press has announced the release of The Black Bat Omnibus Volume 2 by Norman A. Daniels.
Press release:
Another new release… now available!
The Black Bat Omnibus Volume 2 by Norman A. Daniels.
The Black Bat returns! This collection contains the next three adventures of the Black Bat: “The Black Bat’s Challenge,” “The Black Bat’s Spy Trail,” and “The Black Bat’s Crusade,” uncut and restored. It’s the next volume of the complete reprinting of the series.
400 pages, approx. 6″x9″
Order the paperback from Amazon: $29.95
Order the limited edition hardcover: $39.95 (only 100 made)
Learn more here.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
Stephen Colbert, we have your writer for “The Chronicles of Amber”!
January 20, 2023
The Law Is A Ass #460: Those “For Life” Sentences Are Nonsense
February 24, 2022
