Monthly Archive: February 2007

Someone gave the Garfield statue near downtown Marion, IN’s Riverwalk a little too much love.

Seems 23-year-old Joseph P. Savarino didn’t know his own strength.  Savarino said he panicked when the cartoon character’s head came off when he hugged it, so he made off with it and left it alongside a road where it later was found.  Perfectly understandable, we all do silly things when we panic upon squeezing off a comic strip character’s statuesque head.

The cops noticed the head was missing last December 15. On the 18th an employee with the Army Corps of Engineers found the fiberglass head and retrieved it from the side of a road near the Mississinewa Reservoir. The statue’s base has since been moved to the Grant County Parks and Recreation maintenance building to protect it from further overly-enthusiastic fans who just can’t get enough of Mark Evanier ‘s television cartoons.  No word on whether base and head have since been reunited, but we like to think they joined again sometime around Valentine’s Day and went out for a nice lasagna dinner.

Heidi McDonald’s already done the heavy lifting on where all the post-NYCC parties are going to be. A word to the wise: sleep is not an optional item. You need to rest sometime. On the other hand, if you’re used to pulling all-nighters to hit deadlines, go wild.

Even though some of us think that superhero stories would be swellerific if only it weren’t for those bad guys, that notion flies out the window when a villain — or a villain to be — is given such a consistently nuanced and rich portrayal.  The actor who does that for Lex Luthor on Smallville (and whom many consider one of the best aspects of that show), Michael Rosenbaum, has confirmed that he will be departing the series at the end of next year’s season. 

Even though that’s a long way away, viewers are doubtless already wondering who if anyone could take Rosenbaum’s place, and speculating that, if the show’s creators are wise, they’ll wrap up the entire series next year and go out with a bang.  Of course, it’s based on comics, so you could always have Lex die and be resurrected as another actor…

With Christopher Eccleston making such a big hit in Heroes, one could scarcely have imagined anyone else that could have brought forth the intensity and range to the first season of the revived Dr. Who series.  Well, David Tennant, of course, who’s done a bang-up job on Series 2 and (from what we hear) 3 and is wonderfully easy on the eyes to boot.  But — Hugh Grant? 

According to Paul Hayes at Outpost Gallifrey, "actor Hugh Grant has expressed his regret at not taking on the role of the Doctor when the BBC Wales production team offered it to him on the off-chance back in 2004."  Grant is quoted as saying, "I was offered the role of The Doctor a few years back and was highly flattered… "The danger with those things is that it’s only when you see it on the screen that you think, ‘Damn, that was good, why did I say no?’"  Grant doesn’t rule out future guest shots, though:  "I’m in talks about a one-off role. I’d prefer to be a baddie. They’re always much more fun to play."  The possibilities are a bit overwhelming.  Not to mention the setup lines.

Of course, Hugh had already played the Doctor previously, in the Comic Relief benefit piece, The Curse of Fatal Death, co-starring Rowan Atkinson, Jonathan Pryce and Joanna Lumley.

Wizard has a nice overview of DC’s upcoming weekly series Countdown, including an interview with head writer Paul Dini, who will supervise other writers (including Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Tony Bedard and Adam Beechen) plus a revolving cadre of artists (including Jesus Saiz, Jim Calafiore, Carlos Magno and David Lopez) working over Keith Giffen breakdowns, the same way that the company’s current wildly popular 52 is arranged.  Buzz and expectations are already high for this one, and it isn’t even coming out until May!

For those who still can’t get enough, Newsarama has an interview with DC Senior VP-Executive Editor Dan Didio and Senior Editor Mike Marts (who will be editing the series) talking about the project in greater detail. The first block of four covers will be done by Andy Kubert and Tim Townsend.  This is a very big deal for those of us who’ve only ever seen Tim’s magnificent and award-winning inking work at DC’s "crosstown rivals."