LOS ANGELES – Sept. 18, 2012– Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment today announced the launch of DIGITAL HD™ — a new initiative that allows consumers to download or stream their favorite Fox movies on a variety of connected devices. Customized for today’s digital lifestyles, more than 600 Fox films can now be enjoyed anywhere, anytime in amazing high-definition immediately in the U.S. from Amazon, CinemaNow, Google Play, iTunes, PlayStation, VUDU, Xbox Live and YouTube.

The epic sci-fi thriller PROMETHEUS is also available today on DIGITAL HD™ for less than $15, arriving three weeks before Blu-ray, DVD and video-on-demand (VOD).

Digital HD™ combines four key benefits into one offering with earlier access to new releases, attractive pricing, cloud storage and availability across multiple devices.  Whether the plan involves watching Fox movies on connected HDTVs in your living room, or on your tablet or smartphone on the run, Digital HD™ offers up versatility and convenience.

“With almost 800 million broadband connected devices globally, and millions of people accessing entertainment on those devices, we feel the medium’s time has come,’’ said Mike Dunn, President Worldwide, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. “DIGITAL HD™ redefines digital ownership in a way that presents consumers with a full range of benefits in a coherent way, and it allows them the chance to build digital movie collections that can literally be carried in the palms of their hands. ”

“Available in more than 50 countries, DIGITAL HD™ is a brand that will define the convenience and selection that digital ownership brings,” added Mary Daily, President of Worldwide Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. “Over time, DIGITAL HD™ will embody the benefits of HD quality and the ultimate all-access pass to the best in entertainment.”

Today’s launch will coincide with the most extensive all-digital media campaign to date for digital movies that will reach over 100 million active movie viewers across online retailer sites and through the No. 1 sports, music and gaming sites.

PROMETHEUS on DIGITAL HD™ is also Fox’s first UltraViolet-enabled title. Additional DIGITAL HD™ new releases this year include ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT, THE WATCH and DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: DOG DAYS.

I have reported here and elsewhere about the goings-on at Archie Comics. While DC keeps on hitting the reset button like a monkey in a crack experiment, and Marvel keeps on doing endless – literally endless – mega-events, Archie has been slowly making history.

In the past several years they’ve added a major gay character and they’ve had Archie fall in love (on the cover, no less) with a black woman. They’ve taken ongoing looks into the potential futures of their characters, which plays against the assumptions held by our culture for more than 70 years. They’ve tried to make Riverdale look and feel more like the real world: even the hallowed Pop Tate’s has had to endure competition by national fast food chains. Archie Comics continues to be the major force in entertaining each next generation of comics readers; without their efforts and similar, but smaller, endeavors by Boom!, Bongo and others, we would have no future readers for the graphic novels published by Fantagraphics and Abrams.

And, I’m happy to report, now Archie Comics is just getting weird.

In Archie #636 (the alternate cover is shown here; the newsstand cover is done in sort of a traditional 1950s Archie style), the current issue, the Riverdale gang swap sexes. Yep, the boys become girls and the girls become boys. This doesn’t happen voluntarily; Sabrina the Teenage Witch has a snarky cat who casts a spell so that the kids can see things from the other side of the gender bend. Hilarity ensues, and the point is made. Two points, if one wants to infer a warning about the dangers of catnip.

Mind you, I like weird. Weird is the antidote to boring. It’s the elixir that promotes experimentation and new story concepts. But I doubt Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and Reggie will be getting permanent sex change operations any time soon.

Mister Weatherbee… Well, I’m not so sure.

THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil’s Autumnal Time Warp

The Halloween Legion ™ Martin Powell. Artwork © Diana Leto

New Pulp Author Martin Powell has unveiled the terror-ific atmospheric title page and peeks of partial panels for an autobiographic back-up tale, by Sesame Street artist Diana Leto, featured in his upcoming HALLOWEEN LEGION graphic novel. From Sequential Pulp/Dark Horse Comics.

You can see more Once Upon A Halloween art at Martin’s blog.

A&D is the way my fellow classmates refer to the high school we attended, The High School of Art and Design in New York City. A&D is without a doubt the greatest high school on earth.

Really.

I know for a fact that my high school is the greatest high school in the history of the world. If you went there, you would think so also. Oh, before I forget, fuck the High School of Music and Art. They were our rivals as were those mofos from the High School of Performing Arts as well as the High School of Fashion industries can all kiss my ass.

School pride… yeahhhhhh!

All of the high schools I’ve mentioned are in New York City. None of them are as good as A&D but clearly they have something to offer. All of the schools I’ve mentioned are magnet schools for the arts. Remember that movie Fame?

Fame was the story of the High School of Performing Arts, or as they referred to it in the film, P.A. I have to admit I really liked the film but P.A. can still kiss my ass.

School pride… yeahhhhhh!

I won’t bore you with the list of bad ass comic book and other artists that graduated from A&D but it’s as impressive as shit. Check out this link if you care to know just how A&D rolls.

I’m not writing this just to brag about A&D and put down our rivals, I’m writing this because the arts in this country are under serious attack. The GOP is threatening to pull funding from art programs like the National Endowment Of the Arts and the first thing cut in any high school budget are the music and art programs.

What kind of goddamn country would this be without art? What kind of comics will there be in a generation if comic artists don’t have places like A&D to attend? Like I said, all of the high schools I mentioned are in New York City.

New York leads the world in the arts. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

America needs and quite frankly wants the arts. The mega popular show, America’s Got Talent, had two – that’s two – artists in the finals.

If the comic book and related industries just turn a blind eye to the assault on the arts then we will get what we deserve. That’s work that sucks and leads to a continuing declining fan base and the death of comics.

Lastly, I’m sure you know I did not mean all the rude things I said about the rivals of A&D. They are great schools and I have nothing but respect for them. In case anyone is wondering I did my undergrad work at The Pratt Institute and I’d just like to say, fuck Cooper Union, the School of Visual Arts, Parsons and a special fuck you to Art Center.

School pride… yeahhhhhh!

WEDNESDAY: Mike Gold and Archie’s Sex Change

A mysterious creature is on a vendetta to track down the men who wronged him, and there’s only one left, a man he calls…the Doctor?  Quite a start for this western-themed outing, the first for the show since 1966’s The Gunfighters. Spoiler alerts are in full effect, mind the fellows with the guns, and let’s mosey into this town and see what’s going on…

A TOWN CALLED MERCY by Toby Whithouse directed by Saul Metzstein

A western town in 1870 has been barricaded behind a field that prevents food delivery.  The being behind it, known only as The Gunslinger, had demanded the town turn over an alien only referred to as “The Doctor”.  So when The Doctor arrives in the town, the welcome is a bit…cold.  He learns quickly that he is not the one being searched for – another alien came to this town some years ago, and has been their savior and protector from a number of deiseases and natural disasters.  Alas, it turns out he’s being chased for a very good reason – he was a scientist on his home world, one who converted many of his own people into cyborg warriors to win a massive war.  When they were “decommissioned”, one survived, and he is the one placing the town under a one-man siege. The Doctor is in a strange position – can he bring himself to hand over a war criminal to meet his just demise?

An episode quite heavy with drama and portent, one far more about The Doctor’s life and past than the ostensible bad guy of the story.  Once again, we get a look at how The Doctor has grown darker when he doesn’t have any friends about him.  Matt Smith is doing a very good job of playing a man far older than his looks, and carrying a heavy load of acts.

GUEST STAR REPORT

Ben Browder (Isaac) may be known to you.  He played John Crichton on Farscape, Cameron Mitchell on Stargate SG-1, and Sam Brody on Party of Five.  He even got to do another genre western – he played Bat Lash on the Justice League cartoon.

Adrian Scarborough (Kahler Jex) has most recently been seen in the remake of Upstairs Downstairs, and a long list of work in British film and television, but fans of Mark Gatiss’ friends The League of Gentlemen will recognize him as the surgeon turned children’s clown Mister Jolly in in Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s project Psychoville.

Garrick Hagon (Undertaker) is one of less than 30 actors who have appeared in both the original and new series of Doctor Who.  He first appeared in The Mutants back in 1972.  He’s had a long career in both film and TV. And oh, yeah, he played the most famous character to be almost entirely cut out of Star Wars – he was Biggs Darklighter, Luke’s best friend, who said Luke was “never going to get out of here”.  His big scene on Tatooine was cut out, and has yet to be restored – it only exists in a couple photos from an early storybook adaptation of the film near its release. Some footage in the rebel base was restored in a recent special edition, but there’s still a sense of “Who is this guy” to the whole thing.

Toby Whithouse (Writer) is an old hand on the series, having written four episodes for the new series before this (and one for Torchwood), and is also the creator of Being Human, another popular genre series, and one sharing a number of castmembers with Who.

Saul Metzstein (Director) did the previous episode, and will be back with two more episodes in the second half of the season.

THE MONSTER FILES – One could argue that there is a monster in this episode, though not of the most commonly accepted variety.  The Kahler are described by The Doctor as one of the most ingenious races in the galaxy. Considering the work he did improving the lifestyle of the town of Mercy, that certainly appears to be so.  Alas, that ability to build things carries over to engines of war, and when one is in the middle of a war, one becomes short-sighted, not considering the long-term results of one’s choices.

The Gunslinger is a more obvious monster, but one doing things for a more just reason, if a bit personal.   We’ve seen no end of cyborgs on Doctor Who – from the obvious example of the Cybermen, there’s The Captain from The Pirate Planet, the Toclafane, the converted final members of the human race in Last of the Time Lords, and even monsters like the Loch Ness Monster (Terror of the Zygons) and the Peking Homunculus (Talons of Weng-Chiang) qualify.

BACKGROUND BITS AND BOBS – Trivia and production details

UNDER WESTERN SKIIIIES – This episode is steeped in history in a very real way. It was filmed at both “Mini Hollywood” and “Texas Hollywood”, a pair of combination movie sets and tourist attractions in the Andalusia area of Spain.  Mini Hollywood was designed and filmed for Sergio Leone’s classic For a Few Dollars More.  When it was later used for The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, it was bought by the extras and made into a tourist attraction.  The two site have been used for dozens of classic films, including a staggering list of “Spaghetti Westerns”, like the aforementioned Leone films.

This isn’t the first time the show has used standing sets.  The Fires of Pompeii was filmed in Italy on the same sets as HBO’s series Rome.

IT’S WRITTEN ALL OVER YOUR FACE – The face mark of the Kahler are unique, and as individual as a fingerprint.  This is similar to the spot patters of the Tenctonese on the short-lived Fox series Alien Nation.

“Has someone been peeking at my Christmas list?” We learned only last week that The Doctor still has a Christmas list.

“I speak horse; his name’s Susan, and he wants you to respect his life choices” Once again, subtly slipping the non-traditional gender roles into the series without making a big thing of it. Even as a gag, it gets across an important point.  Oh, I’m sure some will complain te topic’s not being taken seriously enough, but some people have made never being happy their career.

“You’re a mother, aren’t you?  There’s kindness in your eyes. And sadness.” Jex sees a lot in The Doctor’s eyes later, but he’s not the first to sense Amy’s emotions.  Vincent Van Gogh sensed that Amy had “lost someone”, even though at the time she wasn’t even aware of it.

BIG BAD WOLF REPORT

“I’ve matured – I’m twelve hundred years old now” The Doctor’s age has accelerated greatly in the last couple of seasons.  He jumped from nine to eleven hundred years old in the period he was traveling alone when he came back to see the Ponds in The Impossible Astronaut, and now, in between visits to see them, has aged another hundred.  Assuming he’s not just pulling numbers out of his Stetson, he’s spending a LOT more time alone than we’d ever seen before.  The tenth incarnation traveled alone for quite a bit in between the four specials of the last Tennant season, and he got quite arrogant, almost swaggering in his demeanor.  Last episode we saw him cast judgment on Solomon, and he almost does the same here to Kahler Jex.

“Looking at you is like looking into a mirror, almost” Jex makes The Doctor confront his own choices, the people whose deaths he’s been responsible for, and the ones he’s killed personally.  The episode is about how one atones for those choices, and whether or not that atonement balances things out.  There was a similar comparison at the end of The God Complex when the minotaur draws a similarity between himself and The Doctor.

“See, this is what happens when you travel alone for too long.” When he starts pushing Jex towards the border of the town, you expect it’s because he’s hoping the people of Mercy to stop him, to realize that they need to project their friend, and you realize no, he really is just handing him over to the Gunslinger.

We’ve seen a lot of discussion on the effect The Doctor’s companions have on him, even more so than the other way around.  Donna Noble cogently pointed out that “Sometimes you need someone to stop you”.  The periods we’ve seen him alone in recent seasons have resulted in a much more hard man.  Matt Smith said he’s certainly become a “darker” character of late, and the choices made in the past two episodes are examples of that.

“That’s how it started, Jex turned someone into a weapon.” Which is exactly what Mad Dalek Caan accused The Doctor of doing to his Companions.  And the longer he is without a Companion, well…someone has to be the weapon.  Note that The Doctor is wearing, drawing, and is ready to use a gun, something he abhorred only a short time before.  That’s not a mistake, it’s very deliberate writing.

NEXT TIME ON DOCTOR WHO – Little boxes, on the roadside, little boxes made of…well we don’t quite know. The return of UNIT, and The Power of Three, coming in a week’s time.

One great thing about Dragon*Con is that sometimes it inspires me to check out new shows or genre fiction, and sometimes it inspires me to re-visit a past favorite. After this year’s Battlestar Galactica panel I had a super-cravi ng to go back and watch the show again; thanks to Netflix I’ve been re-living the intensity that is BSG.

What I love about the show, as someone pointed out in the panel (BSG – Bright Shiny Futures Are Overrated) is that it uses the harsh situation that the few remaining members of the human race find themselves in to explore numerous complex themes that resonate with real world conflicts and historical events. Along with plenty of action and drama, it’s an intellectual show that challenges viewers to think about the choices being made, and highlights the complexity and imperfections of the main characters as they constantly make difficult decisions that will affect the whole of humanity. It’s also sometimes exceedingly grim – so much so that the first time I was watching it, I found that I had to take a break for awhile about half-way through the series and go watch something a little less bleak. But that is a testament to the way the show tries to confront the cruel realities that must be faced in times of war; and is balanced by the way it also celebrates the kindness and heroism that can be drawn out by the same intense situations.

Another thing that’s great about the series is that since it appears at first to be set in a far, far distant (though not technologically unrecognizable) future, it’s aged well. Also, in tune with the recurring theme that “all of this has happened before; and all of this will happen again,” the stories and interactions follow cycles of our own human interactions that we can identify with, so they do not seem not dated, and the themes are still relevant. If you haven’t seen it, I definitely recommend giving it a try. Even if you have, you may not have known (as I didn’t, the first time I watched) about the tie-in material like Razor and the webseries, so you could always check those out as well. In the meantime, here are a few words from some of the stars of the show, who I got to talk to while at Dragon*Con (although I sadly missed getting to chat with Katee Sackhoff).

While discussing film projects, James Callis (a.k.a. Dr. Gaius Baltar, who looks and sounds uncannily similar to his character in person, but is thankfully much nicer) shared with me the interesting tidbit that his favorite TV or film character – not one he wants to play, per se, but one he loves – is Frank-n-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (as played by Tim Curry). I can’t deny that he’s a fascinating character! And Callis’ favorite part of the con? “Meeting all of you guys.”

Jamie Bamber (a.k.a. Captain Lee “Apollo” Adama), who was wearing a fantastic “My Other Ride is a Viper” shirt, told me he’s currently involved in a new series based on Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s novel Monday Mornings (also starring Ving Rhames and Alfred Molina). The show will be produced by Gupta and David E. Kelley and is centered around the Monday morning morbidity meetings at a Portland hospital, where the doctors reflect on what went wrong the previous week. Bamber says, “I’ve seen the pilot, and it’s really the best start to something that I’ve ever done.” High praise, considering how awesome Battlestar Galactica was! And Bamber’s favorite part of the con is “catching up with old friends, like the Battlestar Galactica group and everyone.”

Michael Trucco (a.k.a. Sam Anders), who is super tall in person, let me know that next on his agenda is at least six episodes of season eight of How I Met Your Mother… “and I can say that my character takes a turn that’s… ‘ironically comical.’“ As for what he loves about Dragon*Con, that’s pretty much everything, i.e. “the panels and the Walk of Fame, as well as the interactions with the fans.”

Richard Hatch, (a.k.a. Tom Zarek, and also Captain Apollo on the original 1978/80 series) and I chatted about a number of upcoming events in his life, including (alert, alert!) a Battlestar Galactica con from May 23-26, 2013 in Houston, Texas, with actors from both the original series and the new series. And we just re-launched battlestargalactica.com, which is sort of like a Facebook for fans.” Also he recommends fans check out whothefrak.com. “We’re developing it into a reality show with me and some industry friends. I’m also hosting a cruise to the Mediterranean next year, and will be teaching my seminars and everything during the cruise.”

There’s also an album out called “From Apollo to Tom Zarek: The Battlestar Galactica Memoirs,” regarding his career in both of the series’.”And I’m also working on a big epic sci-fi series that’s in development called The Great War of Magellan, for which we are developing a game and a novel.” Whew! Busy times in the life of Richard Hatch! But he still has time for the fans, and at Dragon*Con, says “I love the Battlestar party and the steampunk ball and the panels.”

Thanks to the stars of BSG for their time and awesomeness! And that’s it it for this year’s Dragon*Con experience, but stay tuned, because Baltimore Comic Con, which is next up, was just as fun!

Until next week, Servo Lectio!

TUESDAY AFTERNOON: Michael Davis Goes Back To High School

WEDNESDAY MORNING: Mike Gold and Archie’s Sex Change