Set your DVRs so you can see David Tennant and his great change.
Which is an obvious segue to this:
No, we have absolutely no shame.
The Waters Of Mars is this Saturday, The End Of Time part 1 is next week (day after Christmas) and part 2 is January 2nd.
Six more windows to close… at this rate, I’ll be down to only two hundred open windows by the end of the year. Sigh…
I’ve been looking for some place to use this image for a loooong time, and I’m tired of waiting.
Think of it as a magic of Christmas thingie.
Consider this an open thread.
Back in the days before direct sales and specialty shops overwhelmed comic book sales, you couldn’t find a new comic book on the newsstands to save your soul. The theory was, nobody buys magazines between Christmas and New Years Day, and even now “weekly” magazines like Time and Newsweek skip that week. The fact was, the newsstand distributors and shippers thought that would be a swell week to take off, so they did.
Well, those sing-along days are back. Diamond will not be shipping anything the week of December 30, 2009. Nada. Zippo. Nothing.
There’s a bit of a difference between modern times and those thrilling days of yesteryear. Maybe the old mom and pop stores could survive selling Brylcream and Ipana, or maybe they’d take the week off as well. But today’s comics shop owners can’t afford to close down that week – yes, comic book selling is that marginal a business – and they’ve still got to pay the rent.
Expect a lot of in-store post-Christmas sales, which might be lucrative for those retailers whose customers get cash as holiday presents.
Sylvester Stallone is assembling an all-star cast for his latest adventure film, The Expendables. Already he lined up Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Forest Whitaker and Randy Couture as the team of mercenaries hired to dethrone a dictator. The film has been written and will be directed by Stallone with production slated to begin in March for a 2010 release. While Lionsgate will distribute in the UK, no word on who will release this in the states.
Jo Blo reports that Stallone is trying to entice his Demolition Man co-star Sandra Bullock to join in on the fun. She would play “a government agent (paired up with Whitaker) on the hunt for Stallone’s crew of hired guns. Delicious.”
Moviehole unearthed character breakdowns from the flick, including verification/speculation as to which actors are in the roles. The site says the film has been described as "Clear and Present Danger on acid.”
Here’s a few of the roles still being cast :
Agent Diane Lickson – C.I.A agent, based out of Langley. She’s determined to find out the identities of the hired-contractors (Stallone, Statham, Lundgren etc) but the only video footage they have of the guys is grainy and unwatchable so the facial recognition software is useless. Her colleague, agent Will ‘Willy’ Sands (Forest Whitaker), whose been out of the field for about seven years, is called in to assist her. He’s convinced the team of mercenaries is lead by someone he’s had a previous run-in with.
Church – The man that hires the ‘Expendables’ (run by ‘Barney’ and ‘Christmas’, assumingly the characters played by Stallone and Statham, respectively) to go after General Garza (who essentially runs his own island – described as a human rights graveyard). He’s an older bloke, and has a connection to the young man who Garza has apparently assassinated. This is personal, in other words. He wants Garza killed and his island burnt down. Five million dollars does the trick. (The rumor is, the role was written with Arnold Schwarzenegger in mind).
While we’re inundated with good, classic and fairly crappy Christmas specials, we here at ComicMix take note of what we think may be the first holiday special surrounding Three Kings Day, a.k.a Little Christmas, of the day when the three kings arrive to see the newborn baby.
Nickelodeon will air its Dora Saves Three Kings Day, on Tuesday, January 6, at 8 p.m. We’re not sure how Dora the Explorer will accomplish this miracle but Nick wants to make sure we’re all aware of the impending event with the following planned:
• A two-minute sneak peek at the episode and clips from a song from the show, along with additional episodes, will stream on Nick Jr. Video from Monday, December 29. The entire episode will be available on Nickjr.com from January 7.
• The two-minute sneak peek, song and episode clips from the episode will be available on various wireless carriers also from December 29.
• Nickelodeon on Demand will offer a sneak peek, shorts and song clips from the episode, as well as additional Dora episodes Throughout January.
Letterer extraordinaire Todd Klein has announced the release of his latest signed print, Comic Book Dreams, in collaboration with famed artist Alex Ross. This one is for comics fans of all ages. The print goes on sale this Sunday, November 30, at Noon, Eastern Standard Time at Todd’s website.
Available at the same time will be the third printing of Alphabets of Desire, written by Alan Moore, and the second printing of Before You Read This, written by Neil Gaiman. All prints are 11 by 17 inches, printed on Exacta Vellum Bristol paper, and each has elements hand-painted by Todd. There will be 500 copies available of each print, which will be placed in a protective plastic sleeve and mailed in a sturdy mailing tube. Todd expects all orders received in at least the first week to arrive before Christmas.
Todd has written about the projects here and here.
Fantasy Flight Games will release their new board game, Android in December, according to ICv2. Designed by Kevin Wilson (Arkham Horror, Descent), the game has been two years in the making and is described as “a groundbreaking game of murder and conspiracy set in a dystopian future that is made to order for Bladerunner fans. Players assume the role of detectives who must travel between the city of New Angeles and the moon colony Heinlein to chase down leads and in the process they must balance their pursuit of the murderer against the turmoil in their personal lives while wrestling with their inner demons.”
After months of teasing the game through viral marketing, the $59.95 game is ready for release, designed for 3-5 players and takes between 2-4 hours to play. A trailer previewing the game is now available on the company’s website.
Top Cow sent along the cover to Jingle Belle: Santa Claus Vs. Frankenstein illustrated by Wizard Fan Award-winning artist Greg Horn (Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk). This one-shot issue kicks off the move of superstar creator Paul Dini’s line of characters in the Dinicartoons universe to Top Cow.
The book is written by Dini with art and standard cover by Stephanie Gladden.
The solicitation copy for the book, due in stores December 3, reads:
Paul Dini’s JINGLE BELLE comes to Top Cow in a special “Halloween collides with Christmas” one-shot written by Dini and drawn by Stephanie Gladden (POWERPUFF GIRLS, CHOWDER, HOPSTER’S TRACKS). In years past, Santa has triumphed over a variety of enemies, including the Devil himself. Now, St. Nick gets ready to face his greatest challenge ever in JINGLE BELLE: SANTA CLAUS VS. FRANKENSTEIN!
Inspired by Mary Shelley’s original novel (sort of), the story of Frankenstein’s monster takes a new twist when he is found by Jingle in the Arctic wastes and “rehabilitated” to fit in with the elves at Santa’s Workshop. All goes well until an ultra-PC city declares Santa Claus taboo and awakens Frankie’s monstrous side in a misguided attempt to help his friend. It’s up to an ailing Santa and a reluctant Jingle Belle to stop their monstrous “apprentice” before he destroys the town and ruins the reputation of Christmas forever!
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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