Category: News

April’s Fool round-up

April’s Fool round-up

Man, I’m disappointed in you guys.

We were expecting lots of joke entries from all over the web — you know, Joe Quesada buys Forbidden Planet, Jenette Kahn buys down coat filled with Donald Duck’s feathers, Classics Illustrated adapts Portnoy’s Complaint, Rob Liefeld reads an anatomy textbook — but no. Nothing from the regular comics haunts.

C’mon, I know April Fool’s day was the same day as Palm Sunday, but we all know it’s all Jews in the comics industry anyway. (And stop trying to convince us that Macdonald isn’t a Jewish name, Heidi.)

Luckily, we were able to find a few items:

And we tried to do what we could, but sadly, we accidentally put a real piece in with our April Fool’s coverage. We’re sorry, and promise to do less real news next year.

Dying to get on television?

Dying to get on television?

The SCI FI Channel is hosting a national casting call/contest for entrants for its "SCI FI Saturday: The Most Dangerous Night of Television". One viewer will win a Die-On role in a future SCI FI original movie which will debut within the Saturday 9pm time period. The winning entrant will be selected at random and receive a trip for two to the filming location of the SCI FI original movie. The deadline to enter is May 26, 2007.

With any luck, you’ll be cast in Mansquito 2: The Itchening. But personally, I wouldn’t be caught dead in one of those films.

Star Trek Star in Space

Star Trek Star in Space

The Associated Press reports that the ashes of James Doohan have been loaded into a rocket scheduled to launch in New Mexico later this month.  Doohan, as geeks everywhere know, played Scotty in the original Star Trek television show and movies.

Also on the rocket are the ashes of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper and 200 other people, according to Charles Chafer, chief executive of Celestis.  The company contracts with rocket firms to send cremated remains into space. 

You, too, can orbit the earth post-mortem for $495.  This fee allows a few grams of your ashes to be included in the rocket.

Scotty follows the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, which were launched into space in 1997.

Addicted to videogames?

Addicted to videogames?

A new Harris Survey suggests that video games are truly addictive and this addiction is increasing.  The report states that, in the United States, 8.5% of gamers between the ages of eight and 19 can be classified as "pathological" or clinically "addicted.  At the same time, 23% say they have felt "addicted to video games" including 31% of males and 13% of females.

Nearly four fifths (81%) play video games at least once per month, including 94% of all boys.

The survey was conducted online between January 17 and 23 this year.  Harris reports that 1,178 children and teenagers participated.  Among the findings:  The average 8- to 12year old plays 13 hours of video game per week, while 13- to 18 year olds play 14 hours per week.  Girls play about a third less than boys.

Dr. Douglas Gentile, Director of the Media Research Lab at Iowa State University and the director of research for the National Institute on Media and the Family, states, "It is important that people realize that playing a lot is not the same thing as pathological play. For something to be an addiction, it has to mean more than you do it a lot. It has to mean that you do it in such a way that it damages your life. This is why we based our definition on how pathological gambling is diagnosed in the DSM-IV. Almost one out of every ten youth gamers show enough symptoms of damage to their school, family, and psychological functioning to merit serious concern."

The genius of Gollum

The genius of Gollum

Andy Serkis – a.k.a. Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilory – has been cast as Albert Einstein in an upcoming HBO / BBC co-production, Einstein and Eddington. The "Eddington" part of the title refers to astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington, the man who actually understood Einstein’s theory of relativity and promoted it to a skeptical scientific community back in 1920. This particular Sir Arthur will be played by David Tennant, who is wrapping his third season as the lead in Doctor Who.

The script was written by Peter Moffat, who previously brought another genius – Stephen Hawking – to the BBC screen.

It’s hard to imagine Serkis playing Einstein, but at least he’ll be doing so in the flesh and not in CGI.

Serenity beats Star Wars

Serenity beats Star Wars

The BBC is reporting that Joss Whedon’s film Serenity topped a poll by SFX magazine as the best science fiction film of all time.  The magazine polled 3,000 fans.

Star Wars came in second, and Blade Runner was third.  Other films that made the list include Planet of the Apes, The Matrix, Alien,  Forbidden Planet, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Terminator and Back to the Future.

SFX editor Dave Bradley said it was a "massive surprise" to see Serenity beating Star Wars.  "The TV show may have been cancelled, yet the Serenity universe clearly struck a chord with fans, thanks to its likeable characters, witty dialogue and amazing special effects."

Wallace and Gromit Go Sony

Wallace and Gromit Go Sony

Aardman Animation , of Wallace and Gromit fame, signed a three-picture deal with Sony Pictures, it was announced today.  The company, based in England, had been without a Hollywood partner since being dumped by Dreamworks in January. 

"We couldn’t be more excited about working with the entire Aardman team," said Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal.

Aardman co-founder David Sproxton said: "We are delighted to find a partner in Sony that shares our vision.  We are all very excited by the potential and have a number of projects we are keen to bring to fruition with this new relationship."

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit won an Oscar.  However, it lost money, as did Aardman’s following film, Flushed Away.  These losses were blamed for Dreamworks ending a five-picture deal after only two films.

Now YOU can slurp Spider-Man!

Now YOU can slurp Spider-Man!

Spider-Man fans (and people like me who collect lenticulars) can take part in the upcoming media frenzy over the release of Spider-Man 3 this month at more than 5,800 participating 7-Eleven stores in the United States and Canada.  Fans can buy Slurpee’s in a selection of three Spidey-related lenticular cups. 

In addition, there’s an online contest at hhttp://www.slurpee.com with prizes that include three trips to New York for the movie’s premiere April 30.  Other prizes include Spider-Man 3 video games and Spider-Man 2.1 DVDs.

Fans in Denmark, Hong Kong, southern China, Taiwan, the Phillippines and Sweden can buy the special Slurpees but are not eligible for the contest.

"This is one of the coolest cups we have ever designed, perfect for a perennially cool product like Slurpee," said Rita Bargerhuff, 7-Eleven Senior Marketing Director. "We worked very closely with Columbia Pictures to create lenticular illustrations that would make great collectibles for any Spider-Man or Slurpee fan. I expect the cups will sell quickly."

In a related event, the featured Slurpee flavor for April is Black Cherry Lemonade.

Mad about Bush?

Mad about Bush?

The MAD War on Bush will be released by DC Comics in June. The trade paperback reprints many of Mad Magazine’s recent features tweaking our president, all under an original and reverential introduction by Jimmy Kimmel.

This is a rush release. Perhaps our friends at DC know something about Bush’s future that they’re not sharing with sister-company CNN?

What you may have missed

What you may have missed

I’m back, and on a personal note I would like to thank everyone for their very kind wishes and condolences on the death of my father, more about which on Wednesday if I can manage to make Dad the focus of my next column. 

In the meantime, things here seem a bit — different, don’t they? So let’s get caught up first before we jump into the newer stuff.  Here’s your one-click guide to the regular columns and podcasts from the past two weeks.  First the columns:

Flip through our pages for the past couple weeks to check out contributions from Martha, Robert, Kai, Matt and others in our extended ComicMix family!  And I hope that you’re as eager as I am to catch up on all our podcasts as Mellifluous Mike Raub marches on:

There you go, lots of reading and listening — and all fodder for much commentary from you, we hope!  Feel free to let fly in our brand-new comments section below, coming shortly!