Forces of Geek: we like pop culture: 4/1/11

Saturday, April 30, 2011

TEENAGE SATAN Trailer!

First look at the extremely entertaining trailer of Teenage Satan, animated by Darwyn Cooke!

Check it out after the jump!

The Boston Comic Con played host to a major announcement during the Female Creators Panel as it was revealed that Marsha Cooke, Stephanie Buscema, and Candis Cooke are launching a new digital app called Teenage Satan, which combines comics with music, games, and more.

I was fortunate enough to get the lowdown from the trio on this amazing new project.

Check back in one hour for the big news...

I'll give you a hint after the jump.

I'll be covering the Boston Comic Con this weekend which should be amazing as some of the industry's most talented folks are in Beantown sippin' on chowda and lookin fah Joyce Kulhawik ahn tha tee-vee.

I'll be hosting the Joe Kubert panel on Sunday, so if you make it to the show, come up to me for a FOG! button.

Among the guests at the show are Neal Adams, Joe Kubert, Darwyn Cooke, Adam Hughes, J. Scott Campbell, Frank Quitely, Frank Cho, Matt Wagner, Howard Chaykin, Tim Sale, JG Jones, Dave Johnson, Gahan Wilson , Terry Moore, Stan Sakai, Mark Chiarello, Bob Schreck, Stephanie Buscema, Greg Capullo, Tony Harris, David Mack, Craig Rousseau, Sean "Cheeks" Galloway, Christopher Golden, Allison Sohn, Ming Doyle, Sara Richard, Tom Sniegoski, Ryan Ottley, and Scott Wegener (!)

Come back at noon for a very exciting announcement!

And check out a Batman song and dance number after the jump.

Comic News Rodeo - April 29, 2011

The Comic News Rodeo reports on all the comic book news that is so important we couldn't find any other place for it. It's a Rodeo. These things are dangerous.

It's Friday, and that calls for looks at Bodyworld, Gay Genius, Snow, and a Lovecraft Anthology.

It calls for news of Deodato and Simonson.

It calls for a Bendis moratorium before the inevitable backlash occurs.

It calls for more Jim Shooter.

Professional wrestling is, in theory, a young man's game. It's punishing, demanding, and grinding to the point where lesser men give up early on to make a less strenuous living. Those who continue are sometimes subject to addictions created by life on the road, be it drugs, alcohol or sex.

The most addictive substance, however, is the spotlight. Professional wrestling seems to be harder to give up than it should. Men like Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, and Hulk Hogan battle through old injuries and a lifestyle filled with pain in order to continue performing, despite the advice of medical professionals.

It's no wonder that Flair and Hogan are the exceptions in a business that destroys many of its own at relatively young ages. Lives and careers can change irreversibly or end with one wrong move or as a result of years of bodily mistreatment.

Adam Copeland's career suddenly ended a few weeks ago.

Happy 25th Anniversary Super Mario!

Produced by Kevin Feige
Screenplay by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Don Payne
Story by J. Michael Straczynski and Mark Protosevich
Based on characters created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston,

Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings,

Clark Gregg, Idris Elba, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano,

Josh Dallas, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo

Directed by Kenneth Branagh

Marvel has just released some early pencil pages from Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #1

This 4 part Fear Itself tie-in features Man-Thing, She-Hulk, Howard the Duck, and Nighthawk.

Out of all the Fear Itself tie-ins, this one should be one of the weirdest.

Wait until you see Ryan Bodenheim's take on Howard the Duck!

Check out the pages after the jump.

From Gobotron to your home, it's the original 5 episode mini-series that brought the GoBots to life. When Cy-kill embarks on his mad quest to conquer the galaxy starting with Earth, only Leader-1 and his band of Guardians stands in his way. The mini-series that launched a legend! Newly remastered from original film elements, Challenge of the GoBots has NEVER looked this good.

On May 16th, the Original Mini-Series will be released on DVD!

After the jump, check out a comparison of the restoration work.

Fantastic TORONTO COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL promotional video you should see!

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is going down on May 7th and 8th in ... well ... Toronto, of course.

The likes of Chester Brown, Darwyn Cooke, and Chris Ware will be there.

They've released a promotional video for TCAF, featuring participating cartoonists Chester Brown, Michael Comeau, Steve Manale, Vicki Nerino, Michael Cho, Michael DeForge, Seth, Fiona Smyth, and Britt Wilson.

If you are an artist or want to hear some great artists talk about their work, check it out after the jump.


I feel like I could get arrested just looking at this picture

The mega popular group Kidz Bop (which takes adult songs and allows overtly young children to sing them so that you feel like a child molester when you accidentally listen to them) has released their new single, Beyonce's Single Ladies which is about a girl making her former beau jealous because the dude had the audacity to refuse being trapped into a marriage proposal.

So, in a sense, it feels like a song about a spurned child bride.

And, yes, there is a music video for it so you can get the full effect of inappropriateness.

Happy Friday.

Dynamite Entertainment wants you to know that Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek's Kirby: Genesis #1 is set for a June 2011 release.

It's going to be released with six (yes, 6) different covers. Three of the covers by Alex Ross, and the rest by Ryan Sook, Paul Renaud, and Dale Keown.

Their press release after the jump

Marvel has posted some preview pages for FF #4

From what I can gather, issue 4 starts a new arc, "War of Four Cities".

On the cover, I see a little silhouette of a Doom. Can he do the fandango?

Check it all out after the jump.

Grant Morrison has written a book about the superhero archetype. It's called Supergods. If anyone can turn this into something I want to read, it's Morrison.

Morrison has explored this topic before in many of his books, especially Animal Man and Sea Guy, but to have him laser focus in prose holds great potential. It should be "Magick."

The DC blog has released a preview of the cover of the book. They've also released a bit of a blurb in support of the endeavor.

Check it out after the jump.

You have to love Star Wars fans, especially when their obsessive desire to showcase their love affair extends to real-world objects, like the cars they drive to work.

There is something really beautiful about an old beat-up truck painted to look like an X-Wing that defies all attempts to describe it (perhaps only poetry can capture how the sun glints off the grey-body of the truck) and I for one applaud the huge nerd that made this happen:

But let's not forget the other Star Wars freaks out there that can look at a van and say to themselves, You know, this wouldn't look half-bad if I airbrushed the epic space battle from Return of the Jedi on it.

So this, my fellow geeks is for you:

For the past two days I have dove deep into my most favorite of 90s television shows, Twin Peaks and have returned to the second decade of the millennium deeply depressed and more than a little pissed that I am no longer living in a world of mom jeans and oversized button-down shirts with a brooch attached at the collar.

I am also a bit disappointed to discover that I miss all the smoking I did at seventeen AND NEVER GOT YELLED AT as long as I was in the designated smoking area at school, or that I could freely walk into a bar and get served as long as I wasn’t sitting at the actual bar (can you imagine that?).

Which brings me to the point of this post.

I desperately miss the 90s.

Synopsis

Sometimes the law is personal. Packed with full-throttle action and vengeance, Lionsgate debuts Blood Out on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, Digital Download and On Demand this April. The good cop/bad cop action-drama features an all-star cast including Val Kilmer (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson (Get Rich or Die Tryin'), Vinnie Jones (X-Men: The Last Stand), Luke Goss (Hellboy II: The Golden Army) and AnnaLynne McCord (TV's "90210"). The DVD and Blu-ray Disc, available in limited edition collectable packaging, also includes a behind the scenes featurette and cast interviews as well as music from BlesteNation and La Coka Nostra.

In the vein of Training Day and Street Kings, Blood Out stars Luke Goss as Michael Spencer, a small town cop who loses his brother in a gang-related murder. City police quickly abandon the case, so Michael takes matters into his own hands and goes undercover to avenge his brother's death.

In Action Comics #900, Superman renounces his American citizenship after clashing with the U.S. government. What does this mean for his longtime motto: Truth, Justice and the American Way?

My catch-up continues!

I'm a huge fan of the Warner Archive. Month in and month out they release some amazing gems, some of them reaching video for the very first time.

After the jump, check reviews for five titles that without the Archive program likely would stay in the vaults forever.

WHEN SAMPLING GOES (NOT SO) WRONG PART 2

In the latest installment of When Sampling Goes Wrong, we take a bit of a turn.

This is not the usual example of a great song being sampled for a shitty one.

This is about a great 80s song being re-worked into the one of the bigger hits of the 2000s.

Enter The Clash with "Straight To Hell."

The last great single from The Only Band That Matters.

Walt Disney liked to appeal to the varying aspects of everyone’s internal self.

Disneyland was built, for example, to appeal to the child in all of us.

The Haunted Mansion was designed to captivate both the morbidity and dark humor that many guests harbor (whether secretly or openly on a t-shirt of dead celebrity zombies). Pirates Lair (formerly Tom Sawyer Island--suck it, Mark Twain!) is a world in which visitors could get in touch with the glorified drunkenness, murder and thievery associated with our romanticized ideals of piracy.

Mickey Mouse, as another example, was a sensation simply because he appealed to the belief in us that everyone, no matter how deep one might have to dig, is essentially good and honest at their core.

Snow White, Cinderella and scores of other films reinforced human nature’s belief that good conquers evil and that love will always conquer hate.

Unintentionally, of course, Disney appeals to other elements in our society that may not share a consensus or shared vision with the general population, but who still have money to spend and are, therefore, equal in the eyes of capitalism.

One element (or sub-culture) that has found an outlet, an outlet not frowned upon by those hoity-toity “normals” that pollute the world, is that of the connoisseurs of that genre of film known as snuff films.

Thanks to some clever marketing by Disney, snuff film aficionados (or Snuffies) that are also happen to be parents now have an outlet they can be share with their kids without having to worry about police involvement.


Disney snuff or a screening of The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

My great dane just ran outside. I lost her in the backyard. I should probably think about mowing. Anyone want to mow my yard?

Today in the Comic News Rodeo there is plenty to love. How I Came to Work at the Wendy's, Hamburgers for One, Iggy loves Zippy, Scenes from an Impending Marriage, Forming, Eric Stephenson, Kirby: Genesis, Marvel Monster Trucks, Weathercraft, Ryder on the Storm, Lost and Found, Ms. Marvel's Day Off, Bulletproof Coffin, Boston Comic Con, and, as always, Shooter.

Is it a worthy Transformers sequel?

Shia √
Giant robots that turn into stuff √
Michael Bay action √
Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro √

Wait, where's Megan Fox?

THE KIDS IN THE HALL return with this new, hilarious mini-series!

When Death gets off the Greyhound bus in small town Shuckton, Ontario, everyone in town is implicated when one of its most distinguished citizens is found murdered. As a suspect is arrested and the trial plays out, the entire town is affected and its dark secrets are unraveled and exposed. Featuring the Kids playing all the characters, this uproarious mini-series showcases Canada’s most irreverent exports in a must-see production that marks the return of the audacious comedy troupe to U.S. television for the first time since their cult series ended in the mid-1990s. Extras include audio commentaries with Dave Foley and Bruce McCulloch; deleted and extended scenes and bloopers.

And we're giving away two copies!

"Hey Dad, whatever happened to Uncle Charlie?"

Now speculated for a mid-season return, it looks like Two and a Half Men will return without series star Charlie Sheen.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, series co-creator Chuck Lorre "has hatched an idea to reboot the Warner Bros-produced sitcom with a new creative direction that does not involve Sheen, who was fired from the series in March."

What if everything you learned in history books were only half true? In Brad Meltzer’s Decoded: Season One, best-selling author and history buff Meltzer separates fact from fiction as he investigates the hidden history and coded truths behind everything from the Statue of Liberty to the dollar bill to the assassination of President Lincoln. Mysteries explored in BRAD MELTZER’S DECODED: THE COMPLETE SEASON ONE include: the real story behind the White House cornerstone, which has been missing for two centuries; the location of the lost Confederate treasury; the hidden messages of the Statue of Liberty; and whether Lady Liberty is anti-religion.

And we're giving away two copies!

Produced by Morgan Spurlock, Jeremy Chilnick,

Abbie Hurewitz, Keith Calder, Jessica Wu
Directed by Morgan Spurlock

IDW Publishing will be making its presence known at Austin, Texas' World Horror Con this weekend.

They are bringing out some of their big guns, too.

Locke and Key's Joe Hill and 30 Days of Night's Steve Niles will be conducting panels and (I assume) signing things.

Check out their schedule after the jump.

Need Tank Girl or Lenore on the go? Titan Comics has an app for that.

Read their press release after the jump.

For nine generations an evil sorcerer has been victorious in hand-to-hand battle against his mortal enemies. If he wins a tenth Mortal Kombat tournament, desolation and evil will reign over the multiverse forever. To save Earth, three warriors must overcome seemingly insurmountable odds, their own inner demons, and superhuman foes in this action/adventure movie based on one of the most popular video games of all time. Starring Christopher Lambert ("Highlander," "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan"), Bridgette Wilson (“Shopgirl,” "The Wedding Planner"), Linden Ashby ("Prom Night," "Resident Evil: Extinction"), Robin Shou (“Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li,” “Death Race”) and Talisa Soto ("Don Juan DeMarco," "License to Kill"). Directed by Paul Anderson (“AVP: Alien vs. Predator,” “Death Race”).

Now, Mortal Kombat, the movie, inspired by the gaming phenomenon is now available for Download on iTunes!

And thanks to the folks at Warner Digital, we're giving away an download of Mortal Kombat via iTunes.

Marvel Comics has released some tasty first looks at Steve McNiven's art for Captain America #1.

The issue will be written by Ed Brubaker. It will also feature variant covers by Olivier Coipel, John Romita Sr., and Neal Adams (quite a line-up).
The issue will be available in stores July 13.

Press Release and pictures after the jump.

Vertigo has announced that Strange Adventures #1 is in the publishing pipeline.

This title is a collection of sci-fi stories featuring some of Vertigo's hottest talents.

Contributors include: Jeff Lemire, Brian Azzarello, and Eduardo Risso. It also features a cover by Paul Pope.

More information, including a full table of contents, after the jump.

I've only seen The Jersey Shore a handful of times (usually by mistake) and have been appalled at how utterly stereotypical every single member of the cast is (and I know that this is certainly not the case as I married a Jersey boy who happens to live a few miles from where they shoot this show).

But, I have to admit, that when I have watched it, the bile that filled the back of my throat was tempered slightly by the need to laugh hysterically because, let's face it, it is oddly affecting (in that "thank-god-i'm-not-them" kind of way).

But what would happen if you tried to class up the show by injecting a bit of Oscar Wilde into it while maintaining the dialog of the cast members?

Well, it's just as awesome as it sounds.

After the break you can experience the cinematic thrill that is The Jersey Shore Gone Wilde.

Enjoy.

The Social Network Winklevii Armie Hammer hasn't slowed down since his breakout performance in the David Fincher film.

So far he's signed on to Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and as the Prince in Tarsem's The Brothers Grimm: Snow White with Julia Roberts and Lily Collins.

Now, the baking soda heir is ready to sign on for his first franchise, The Lone Ranger.

The premise of Issac Marion's book Warm Bodies is a weirdly existential one.

A Zombie (known only as R) moves around a decaying world doing what Zombies usually do (i.e-eating, moaning, and shuffling around) but deep inside of himself he begins to question his way of life.

When R happens to eat the brain of a teenage boy, he is flooded, momentarily, with memories of his victim which sets off a chain of events (including hiding his victim's girlfriend from his fellow undead to protect her) that just might change everything around him.

The book, released on April 26th, has already garnered good reviews and there's news that come next year, Marion's tale of romantic zombie love will be made into a movie, so why not pick up or download a copy.

Who knows, this thing might just become a classic (a'la Frankenstein).

Book trailer after the break.

According to Deadline, director Justin Lin might be following up Fast Five with the return of former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role that he is likely most identified with, The Terminator.

Although the previous two Terminator films lacked the charm or excitement of the first two, Schwarzenegger's commitment might reinvigorate the former action stars box office cachet.

On May 3rd, Call of Duty will release a new level available for download on XBox 360.

What makes this level special is that features zombies (and Activision has recruited Zombie-maestro George Romero to appear as his own avatar) and best of all, a guest cast of recognizable genre icons which includes Sarah Michelle Gellar, Danny Trejo, Robert Englund and Michael Rooker.

The actors all lent both their likenesses and voices to the update which "focuses on a shipwrecked crew of fearless explorers who are hopelessly stranded in a remote abandoned Siberian outpost. Their dream of discovering the true origins of the mysterious Element 115 unravels into a hellish nightmare hosted by hordes of ravenous zombies."

Awesome trailer after the jump.

"Once you consent to some concession, you can never cancel it and put things back the way they are."

–Howard Hughes

May approaches, and with it arrives the evil twin of the "New Fall Lineup" known as Spring Cancellations.

Right about now the Networks are passing performance-rated judgment on their current roster before presenting their new lineups to Madison Avenue at the end of final sweeps (May 25th).

This year, there are quite a few sacred cows on the bubble between renewal and cancellation.

The politics of Cancellation are many.

Sometimes shows fall victim to network expectations, public derision (or apathy), and sometimes even successful shows are 86'ed because the production budgets have spiraled beyond the boundaries of safe profit. In some cases, established producers with tenure have been promised slots in the new fall line-up and the lowest show on the Nielsen Poll has to surrender that position.

Regardless, here are the contenders on the race to last place:

Although I reported this on Monday, after the jump check out the official announcement from Marvel Studios.

Behold, The FINAL HARRY POTTER Trailer!

In hindsight this whole thing went pretty quick.

It seems like just yesterday (2001, in fact) that the cinematic saga of Harry Potter began.

It's amazing to see how much the cast has grown up. This summer, the final Potter film will be released.

Check out the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II after the jump.

Now it's Wednesday already? Where do the hours go? I think someone is stealing time and hording it for themselves. Bastards....

Today's Rodeo features the likes of Shannon Wheeler, Dave McKean, Twisted Savage Dragon, Alex Toth, Howard Shum, Mike Choi, Spider Jerusalem, Marksman, David Aja, Action Comics covers, Patrick McEown, and some guy named Shooter.

The dish is hot.... Enjoy.

The complete journey of Clark Kent becoming Superman will arrive on DVD this fall Smallville: The Complete Series containing all 218 episodes and a barrage of special features exclusive to the set (Why don't studios make these bonus discs available to fans who have been buying the series all along continues to be a frustration) including a feature length retrospective and the Superboy tv pilot from 1961.

What's even more surreal is that Tom Welling has played the character in more screen hours than any other actor, but will have worn the distinctive costume (likely) for no more than a few minutes of screen time.

Full press release after the jump.

Check out trailers for X-Men: First Class, Red Band Bridesmaids, a teaser for The Immortals, Red Band The Change-Up, Red Band 30 Minutes Or Less, The Devil's Double, Our Idiot Brother, and Another Earth.

Trailers Galore after the jump.

It wasn't too long ago that Antonio Banderas was a box office star.

Unfortunately, audiences can be a bit fickle, but it looks like he's back in what looks like a ridiculously entertaining film with an extremely eclectic cast which includes Sam Elliot, William Fichtner, Snoop Dogg and Delroy Lindo.

Full press release after the jump.

Sometimes the most universal truths can be found in the smallest slices of life.

That’s what makes independent documentaries so powerful, engaging, and entertaining.

Not only do they show you little worlds to which you’ve never had access, but they oftentimes also tell the larger story of what it means to be human.

Armed with this intellectual conceit, a bag of Funyuns, and a couple of Miller beers, I curl up in front of the TV and delve deep into the bowels of Netflix Documentaries to find out a little bit more about all of us.

Today I found, Sweetgrass by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash, released at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival.

Sweetgrass has to be one of the most visually stunning documentaries I have ever seen. It is this beauty that kept me glued to the screen.

Pages

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Friday, April 29, 2011

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Wednesday, April 27, 2011