Mike Bullock, Barry Reese, and Bobby Nash are back for another installment of NewPulpFiction’s Table Talk. This week, the guys discuss the rising cost of books and what it means to readers, writers, and publishers.
Table Talk: At What Price? with Mike Bullock, Barry Reese, and Bobby Nash is now available at http://www.newpulpfiction.com/.
We know you’ve been saving up all summer to buy Star Wars: The Complete Saga so we wanted to make you aware that the Early Access App is now available for iPad, Iphone and iTouch. An earlier version of this was unveiled in time for Comic-Con International, but this updated free download will tide you over until the actual DVD release.
Before Star Wars: The Complete Saga hits shelves on September 16, fans can get a sneak peek at the 40+ hours of bonus footage on the Blu-ray collection through the Star Wars Blu-ray: Early Access App. The App, available for all iDevices including the iPad and iPhone highlights a sampling of bonus materials featured in the Blu-ray collection, including never-before-seen content sourced from the Lucasfilm Archives such as matte paintings and concept art; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; supplementary interviews with cast and crew; and more.
Sapper’s BULLDOG DRUMMOND, ex-military man turned adventurer, is coming to BBC Radio on Tuesday, August 9th 2011. An adventure in six parts, read by Julian Rhind-Tutt, the episodes will air in chronological order all week, and will be available on BBC iPlayer for those of you unlucky enough not to be British.
Hey, here’s a real shock. From all the teaser press releases Marvel sent out yesterday alone, it appears November will see the return of Fantastic Four. Amazing! Incredible! Astonishing! And all sorts of other adjectives Marvel has copyrighted as part of title names.
They’re doing this just in time to miss the actual 50th anniversary of Fantastic Four #1, which happened this past week. Nice timing, guys! It’s sort of like Fleetway launching 2000 AD back in 1977… but calling it 1976AD.
The event was predicted in this very space a couple weeks ago, but I take no credit. It’s sort of like predicting the sun will rise after the rain passes. So they missed a wonderful marketing opportunity that, in all fairness, would have gotten lost in the Captain America movie hysteria anyway. Big deal. They just jerked us around again, proving DC doesn’t have the market cornered in disingenuous redundancy. We’ll live.
The only question is, when will the Human Torch return? Oh, you think he’ll stay dead? Really? No you don’t. You’ve seen Bucky and Phoenix and Aunt May and, oh, damn, everybody else come back from the dead. Maybe they’ll bring back Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch who was an android and, therefore, never really was alive in the first place. But I think he’s committed to the last couple episodes of Torchwood: Miracle Day… and probably Captain America 2: For Whom The Bell Jar Tolls.
(Yeah, it was really cool to see HT in the Cap movie. A genuine fanboy moment that proves I’m not completely jaded. Actually, I’m only jaded for a living.)
Will they go back to some version of the classic costume? Let me answer my own question with another question. Have you bought any action figures lately?
Will Spider-Man stay in the group? I don’t know; lately he’s been bitching about being in too many groups. But unless Johnny Storm returns or Wolverine finds a costume made of unstable molecules with “4X” on the chest, I think he’ll be there for a while. Not a long while. There’ll be a Human Torch there eventually – certainly in time for the next FF movie – and he’ll probably be Johnny.
There are two lessons to be learned here. I’m not addressing this to comics fans, as we learned this lesson a long time ago. I’m addressing this to employees of Marvel and DC Comics.
The first lesson is: no more death stories. They totally lack verisimilitude. And they’re kind of insulting to anyone who has ever lost a loved one. Which is, like, everyone. Second: stop the cancel/replace/revert cycle. We know you’ll revert, usually within two years. It’s just another phony, contrived attempt at attracting sales on the collectibles market. Fight the impulses with another #0 issue complete with nine variant covers, one printed on bubble-gum and shrink-wrapped for your protection.
Ah, well. Even though they could have retitled the book Reed Richards’ Cosmics and Stories, it will be nice to see Fantastic Four back.
Until it’s not.
THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil
[[[Paul]]] was an underrated humorous movie aimed at us. Sadly it performed poorly at the box office this spring and you’ve probably forgotten all about it.
Today, the movie from Simon Pegg came out on disc, available in a combo pack complete with Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copy. The best part may be that it has the Unrated version as well as the Theatrical version. We’re eagerly awaiting to see what was missing.
Universal did send us this Bonus Clip with film stars Bill Hader (Haggard), Joe Lo Truglio (O’Reilly) and Kristen Wiig (Ruth Buggs) deciding to come up with their own musical version of Paul on the set in this behind-the-scenes clip from the “Paul the Musical”. The clip is also included on the DVD so you can cherish it forever.
Paul reunites Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) as two sci-fi geeks on a pilgrimage to America’s UFO heartland, where they accidentally encounter an alien who sends them on an insane road trip that alters their universe forever. Written by Pegg and Frost, Paul boasts a star-studded cast that features Seth Rogen (The Green Hornet, Knocked Up) as the voice of Paul, Sigourney Weaver (Avatar), Jason Bateman (Hancock), Kristen Wiig (Date Night, Knocked Up), Jane Lynch (“Glee”), Bill Hader (Pineapple Express), Joe Lo Truglio (Role Models), Jeffrey Tambor (“Arrested Development”) and Blythe Danner (Little Fockers). Directed by Greg Mottola (Superbad), Paul comes loaded with in-depth, behind-the-scenes features, bloopers, filmmaker and cast commentary and more, to take viewers on a comical journey behind the making of this critically hailed film. (more…)
We love cool, new technology, as much as the next guy. But when the technology comes from Lucasfilm, where so much movie magic has been conjured up since 1977, it caught our attention. This press release just arrived:
VANCOUVER, B.C. – August 9, 2011 – Alembic 1.0, the open source project jointly developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks and Lucasfilm Ltd. was released to the public today, it was announced at ACM SIGGRAPH conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Alembic is the computer graphics interchange format developed by the two entertainment giants last year and focused on efficiently storing and sharing animation and visual effects scenes across multiple software applications. It was designed to handle massive animation data sets often required in high-end visual effects and animation, which are routinely developed and produced by companies such as Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic and Lucasfilm Animation Ltd and Sony Pictures Imageworks. The studios each saw the need for a tool like Alembic, something that would fit within existing pipelines and allow for customization at the facility level without impeding the ability to share work.
In addition to the features announced at last year’s SIGGRAPH, Alembic 1.0 includes automatic data de-duplication. The software automatically recognizes repeated shapes in complicated geometry and only writes a single instance to disk. This makes Alembic 1.0 use dramatically less disk space than promised without requiring any extra steps on the part of the user and can improve both write and read performance as well. In the case of hero deforming humanoid characters, including hair, shot caches have been reduced by more than 70%. For complex, deeply hierarchical and mostly rigid assets like the Transformers characters, tests have shown cache reduction in the order of 98%.
The code base for Alembic is available for download on the project’s Google Code site and more information can be found online at: http://www.alembic.io
Joint development of Alembic was first announced at last year’s Siggraph by Lucasfilm’s visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic and Sony Pictures Imageworks. The companies joined forces when it became apparent that they were independently developing software designed to solve a problem universally faced by the visual effects and animation production community: how to easily share complex animated scenes across a variety of disciplines and facilities regardless of what software was being used.
Alembic includes tools that allow collaboration while working with a generic, extensible, data representation scheme. In essence, it distills complex and often proprietary, animated scenes into application-independent files with baked geometric results. These baked results can be fully re-importable across the range of supporting software.
“Alembic addresses a fundamental issue in a world where assets are shared across many companies. Alembic’s production-ready ability to seamlessly translate shapes across a wide variety of applications saves time and resources,” said Rob Bredow, CTO of Sony Pictures Imageworks. “By releasing Alembic as an Open Source project, users have the opportunity to improve the software based on their needs and experience. We’re really starting to feel the positive effects of Open Source, as a community of visual effects and animation professionals come together to solve problems more effectively today than ever before.” (more…)
When I came back to ComicMix it was decided that the focus would be on comics and related media. My former column was often politically charged and often had nothing to do with comics. I still write weekly rants about politics and other things that drive me nuts on my website, michaeldavisworld.com, but ComicMix should be about comics!!
Glenn Beck has a problem with Marvel’s decision to create a half-Latino, half-black Spider-Man.
Now, now… I’m not going go on a “Glenn Beck is a racist bastard” tirade. I’m a man of my word and this is about comics!
Glenn Beck has written a few best-selling books. so I was wondering what the new Spider-Man would be like written by Mr. Beck. He is a very successful writer and his views would bring something new to the superhero genre…
Spider-Man: The Rice & Beans War
By Glenn BeckSo far Juan and Manny had no problem driving their rented U-Haul truck in Arizona. It was late and as Juan dozed Manny listened to the sweet sounds of James Brown on the trucks radio. Manny loved R&B. Manny’s father was black, his mother Mexican and had inherited traits from them both.
Juan snoozed on while Manny continued to listen to soul music while at the same time he was enjoying rice and beans. This was a happy time for Manny. Whenever he was in his happy place alone with his thoughts he would play his happy place game.
Where oh where is my daddy?
That was the name of the game Manny would play in his head. Manny’s father had left when Manny was just seven years old. He had chosen seven because that’s the best time for a black father to leave his family. Seven gives the child ample time to grow to love daddy thus assuring the pain on the child is, well… painful. Seven also allow the memory of that fateful day, especially the image of daddy walking out the door one last time to be forever etched in the kid’s brain.
Coincidently, seven is also a great age for mommy to start telling the kid, “Your daddy didn’t want you, that’s why he left!” Or “It’s because of you your daddy didn’t stay with me!” Or my favorite, “He’s not your daddy! Who is? How would I know? I’m a stereotypic Latino single mother and I’ve had dozens of lovers and dozens of children so how the Hell would I know who you daddy is? Now, past me my crack pipe and don’t wake up your new uncle who’s in the bed next to me boy!”
So Manny passed the late night into the early morning playing; where oh where is my daddy?
Then Manny’s world changed.
The “experts” said it wouldn’t work, but RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES still made big box office. ROPTA Director, Rupert Wyatt, explains how he was challenged with making this APES unlike what had come before. Plus a hot new Image comic gets picked for a movie deal.
The POINT RADIO 24/7 Feed is coming back – 8am THIS Wednesday (Aug 10th). You can listen FREE on any computer or mobile device at The Point Radio – and please check us out on Facebookright here & toss us a “like”.
As this summer season winds down, Sony is looking three years ahead. According to Deadline, they have already staked out May 2, 2014 for the sequel to 2012’s Amazing Spider-Man. James Vanderbilt, who penned the first script, has already been tapped for the sequel although it’s way too soon to know anything about the content. The first film continues production although footage shown at Comic-Con International wowed skeptical audiences. Additionally, fans were stunned when star Andrew Garfield took the mike, dressed in a store-bought Spidey suit and read from notes about what the character means to him, apparently truly heartfelt words.
UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter says that Marvel has staked out two weekends in 2014 for two unnamed films. Two weeks after the Spider-Man sequel, May will see Marvel To Come #1. The second Marvel movie will open June 27, and since that’s around July 4 we’re willing to bet this will be eventually be called Captain America 2 .
Meanwhile, Naturi Naughton, about to be seen weekly in NBC’s The Playboy Club, has been signed to portray Cecilia Reyes in 20th Century-Fox’s The Wolverine. The sequel, starring Hugh Jackman, is in production for a 2012 release. Directed by James Mangold, the story is largely based on the classic Wolverine miniseries written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by Frank Miller and is set in Japan. Reyes was not a character in that story, introduced decades later.
In the Marvel Film Universe proper, 2013’s Thor 2 may see Brian Kirk in the director’s chair. Kirk, who gained acclaim for his work on HBO’s Game of Thrones, would replace Kenneth Branagh, who bowed out recently.
In a decision seeming out of left field, Twitchfilm reports that Marvel Studios has placed the futuristic Guardians of the Galaxy into active development. First introduced in Marvel Super-Heroes #18, released in 1969, the quartet of freedom fighters from the 27th Century. The team has grown and evolved through the years with more than a few ties to the modern day Marvel Universe. Whether those connections would remain on screen is unknown. It joins Black Panther, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and Iron Fist in the second tier of characters being readied.
While an early announcement, Amazing Spider-Man 2 is not the first major property to stake out 2014 dates. Already on the schedule are DreamWorks’ Mr. Peabody & Sherman, due out March 21 and their How to Train Your Dragon 2 is expected June 20. In the same THR report, Pixar has claimed Memorial Day weekend for an untilted film as well.
As for Marvel’s rival, DC Entertainment has announced no super-heroics beyond 2013’s Supeman: Man of Steel although The Flash, Green Lantern 2, and Justice League of America were all recently mentioned by Wanrer Bros. President Jeff Robinov as being developed
…Or How The Fuck Did That Happen, Part Two
Where was I last week?
I was in the midst of a great crusade against the most terrifying villain ever unleashed upon the universe. A tyrant created by an evil greater than Mephisto – or Emperor Palpatine or Darkseid, choose your poison – whose sole purpose is to destroy humanity. A crafty, insidious, and totally nasty piece of work, capable of twisting even the greatest brains ever known – Einstein, Newton, Hawkings, Reed Richards – into Roquefort cheese, of destroying REM sleep, of chaining even the raging Incredible Hulk to a chair for weeks.
Oh, yes, it was a battle for the ages. He tried driving me mad with visions of z-scores and ANOVAs and Pearson Correlations and Chi-Square Tests for Goodness. Of blinding me with rs = 1 – 6∑D2/n(n2-1) and SSA = ∑T2ROW/nROW – G2/N and t = (M1 – M2) – (µ1 – µ2)/s(M1 – M2) equations and incapacitating my ability to write my column.
Who is this creature from which Doctor Doom hides in the blackest caves of the deepest forests of Latveria? Who is this monster that chases Galactus through the Andromeda galaxy? What is this, this thing, which sends Doomsday scurrying for his Mommy?
He is Statistics.
And though in the end I was bloodied and broken, I triumphed.
So where was I?
I had found some typewriting paper in a drawer. I had pulled my old portable manual out from underneath my bed, where it has been collecting dust bunnies for I-couldn’t-remember-how-long. I had gotten a paper towel and some Windex and had wiped off the keys. I had prayed that the ribbon was still good. I had rolled the paper in. Had set the margins.
And started writing…
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
