Tagged: Sci-Fi

COMICS LINKS: Inferior Five Edition

COMICS LINKS: Inferior Five Edition

  • News
  • August 31, 2007

Comics Links

Hipster Dad thinks that there should be an Inferior Five collection.

Comic Book Resources talks to Christos Gage.

Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog presents more evidence that Bob Kanigher was a mad genius.

Greg Burgas of Comics Should Be Good reviews this week’s comics, starting with Batman Annual #26.

Brian Cronin of CSBG reviews the unpublished graphic novel Division Shadow.

Living Between Wednesdays’ weekly reviews start with Countdown to Adventure #1.

The Daily Cross Hatch interviews Peter Kuper about his new book Stop Forgetting to Remember.

Comics Reviews

Fantasy Book Critic reviews The Nightmare Factory, a graphic novel based on four stories from the collection of the same name by Thomas Ligotti.

Wizard reviews the covers of three recent comics.

Blogcritics reviews Good As Lilly by Derek Kirk Kim and Jesse Hamm.

Panels and Pixels has a manga review roundup.

The Daily Cross Hatch reviews the first collection of “Perry Bible Fellowship” strips by Nicholas Gurewitch, The Trial of Colonel Sweeto.

The Savage Critics reviews:

 

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Battlestar Galactica Goes Unrated For Christmas

Battlestar Galactica Goes Unrated For Christmas

  • News
  • August 28, 2007

There’s this great scene at the very beginning of The Simpsons Movie where Homer is at the movie theater watching Itchy and Scratchy – The Movie and then asks why anybody would want to pay for something they’re used to seeing for free. Then they cut to the opening titles.

The Sci Fi Channel is doing the same thing, only backwards. The two-hour Battlestar Galactica: Razor movie will be broadcast on November 24, 2007. On December 4, NBC Universal will release the Battlestar Galactica: Razor Unrated Extended Edition. Hmmm… were I a BG fan – and, well, I am – I’d just wait the ten days and watch the real thing, if for no other reason than in hope that there’s some seriously X-rated material in the unrated extended edition. When it comes to "extended," perhaps I misunderstand their meaning. But if I were buying ad time on the Sci Fi broadcast, I’d want a discount.

By the way, I’d love to see Itchy and Scratchy – The Movie.

Sarcasm aside, our correspondent Robert Greenberger adds significant detail to this story:

The DVD, retailing for $26.98, is said to contain an additional fifteen minutes of footage in addition to the usual assortment of extras. Among the extras will be the eight mini-episodes the channel will begin airing in October. The lead-in material, which will also be available at their website, will set up events seen in the movie and edited into the home video version. The miniseries features young William Adama, to be played by Nico Cortez and is likely to be about the early Cylon War with glimpses of the original Cylon designs from the ABC series.

The telefilm’s story is told in present day and will feature the entire Galactica cast but will have extensive flashbacks to a mission of the other Battlestar, the Pegasus, which was helmed by Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes).  As a result, familiar faces from that ship will appear as guest stars, including Steve Bacic as Colonel Jurgen Belzen.

What’s a razor, you ask? In “Resurrection ship, Part 1” Cain told Fisk she needed people who were,"…completely reliable. Completely loyal. Razors."

Producer Ronald D. Moore has indicated the story is an important piece of the bigger picture and elements introduced here will pay off in the fourth and final season, which Sci-Fi is expected to schedule to debut in January. Much of Cain’s background will be explored including a hint of romance with Gina. Additionally, part of the story shows Lee Adama in charge of the Pegasus and his search for an XO which introduces Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen as Kendra Shaw.

Two trailers for the event have already run on Sci-Fi and can be found on their website.

Klattu Barada Nik-whoah

Klattu Barada Nik-whoah

  • News
  • August 27, 2007

According to Variety, Keanu Reeves will be there the day the earth stands still– no word whether he will tell us where to stand. Presumably, on our feet.

Twentieth Century Fox has set Reeves to star in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," its re-imagining of the 1951 Robert Wise-directed sci-fi classic. Reeves committed over the weekend to play Klaatu, a humanoid alien who arrives on Earth accompanied by an indestructible, heavily armed robot and a warning to world leaders that their continued aggression will lead to annihilation by species watching from afar.

The robot, of course, will be the robot double of Ted from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.

TV REVIEW: Flash Gordon

TV REVIEW: Flash Gordon

Okay, I’ll get this over with real fast. Sci-Fi Channel’s new Flash Gordon show really sucks. I sat through the 90-minute pilot, and I sat through the next episode. No more. Life is too short.

Here’s the first tip-off: Flash Gordon creator Alex Raymond is not in the opening credits. Hell, he got better (far better) treatment in that campy movie from 1980. Say what you will about that movie, compared to this waste of time that movie was [[[Citizen Kane in Outer Space]]].

Second tip-off: No rocketships. Rocketships are not “dated.” In fact, we launched one into space with a whole bunch of people in it right when this show debuted. Doing Flash Gordon without rocketships is like doing The Lone Ranger without horses. Hi-yo, moccasins!

Third tip-off: They only refer to Dr. Zarkov by name once in the 90-minute pilot and once in the subsequent episode. That’s crazy. Dr. Zarkov is to Flash Gordon what Dr. Watson is to [[[Sherlock Holmes]]].

Mind you, if there were a real Hans Zarkov, he’d sue. The real Zarkov was a genius; this guy is a bumbling fool. The real Zarkov was driven mad by the fact that he could save the Earth from destruction but had no way to do it; once Flash appeared on the scene and they got to Mongo (in their rocketship!) he got better.

Fourth tip-off: No longer merciless, Ming is a dick. He’s about as threatening as [[[Garfield]]] after a place of lasagna. I understand they wanted to update the character – these guys should have taken a cue from the way Russell Davies updated The Master on Doctor Who. Ming wouldn’t even make it as a member of George Bush’s cabinet, and from the first (and for me, only) 150 minutes of the series, he’s not even that competent. Plus, he looks about seven weeks older than his daughter.

So here’s my question. Why the hell did these people pay King Features for the license? They could have saved themselves a bundle and called this limp and lame pile of fly-feed “Bill Jones.”

If you’re a fan of Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon or of the 1930s serials, avoid this teevee waste like Chinese toothpaste.

Artwork copyright King Features Syndicate, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Women Spotted at Comics Convention

Women Spotted at Comics Convention

  • News
  • August 18, 2007

Comics Links

Comic Book Resources investigates the existence of women – often attractive women, some of whom actually read comics – at comics conventions. Astonishing! (Illustration: one of those elusive “real women.”)

A long 1977 New York Times article about Harvey Kurtzman and Mad magazine has been posted by Mike Lynch. [via Mark Evanier, who had some comments on it]

The Times (of London) checks in with Cam Kennedy and lan Grant about their in-the-works graphic novel adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

Mark Trail likes squirrels. [via the Comics Curmudgeon]

Kleefeld on Comics posts scans from the mid-70s Mighty Marvel Comics Strength and Fitness Book. [via everyone else blogging about comics, basically]

Comics Reviews

Bookgasm reviews the second trade paperback collecting the DC series 52.

Richard of Forbidden Planet International reviews The Other Side.

Eddie Campbell reviews Robert C. Harvey’s biography of Milton Caniff.

Dana of Comics Fodder reviews this week’s Marvel comics.

Greg Burgas of Comics Should Be Good does that one better – reviewing a pile of this week’s comics regardless of their publisher.

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Misery Loves…Nancy?

Misery Loves…Nancy?

  • News
  • August 9, 2007

Ivan Brunetti nearly became the new cartoonist for Nancy in 1994 – and Mike Lynch has posted the thirteen-page magazine article from 1999 where Brunetti explains the whole thing.

Forbidden Planet International has a story about Orbit’s recent announcement that they are teaming up with other elements of the far-flung Hachette media empire to launch a new manga line, the Yen Press, in the US and UK.

Either the Star-Tribune or the Journal-News (both names are on the page, various places) talked to Neil Gaiman about that Stardust movie.

Publishers Weekly talks with George R.R. Martin about the graphic adaptations of his “Song of Ice and Fire” novellas.

John Mayo of Comic Book Resources attempts to explain how everything sold in June, and what it all means.

The Beat is having flashbacks to Thursday at Comic-Con. (My flashbacks are usually to the Boer War, but I understand what she’s going through.)

Greg Burgas of Comics Should Be Good reviews a bunch of graphic novels.

The Onion’s A.V. Club interviews Bill Willingham, writer of Fables.

Book Fetish reviews Mike Carey’s first novel, The Devil You Know.

The Agony Column gets off its literary high horse long enough to take a look at Star Wars: Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry.

News of the Obvious Department: Monsters & Critics have perpetrated the headline “New novel gets bad review.” Coming soon: Pope Is Catholic, Bear Shits in Woods.

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Gaiman to conquer all media

Gaiman to conquer all media

  • News
  • August 8, 2007

The San Francisco Chronicle notices that Neil Gaiman is in the middle stages of a fiendish plan to completely conquer all media. (The New York Times also discovered Gaiman this weekend.)

The Los Angeles Times looks at some novels written by comic-book types, starting with Warren Ellis’s Crooked Little Vein.

Comic Book Resources chats with Tony Bedard, one of the approximately three million writers cranking out Countdown.

Erik Larsen looks back at San Diego.

Comics Reporter interrogates Tom Neely — animator, cartoonist, author of The Blot.

You want someone to review a whole bunch of this week’s comics? Greg Burgas of Comics Should Be Good is there for you.

SyFyPortal reports that the Sci-Fi Channel has officially announced that The Dresden Files is cancelled. The reason: it “just didn’t make a big enough profit.” Man, I’d love to be in a business where you can make decisions like that – “Butler! The pile of twenties in the corner is getting too low! Cancel one of those shows that doesn’t make an obscene amount of money!”

Bookslut is either posting from a time warp, or attending some weird other dimensional San Diego Comic-Con, since the reports are as if the con is going on right now.

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Slices of Galactica Pie

Slices of Galactica Pie

  • News
  • July 17, 2007

In what is certain to be received with shock and awe, the vaguely innovative Sci-Fi Channel is going to precede the November 24th broadcast of the two-hour Battlestar Galactica teevee movie Razor with a bunch of two-to-three minute "mini-sodes" (their term, not mine) that will "provide background and context" for the movie special and, no doubt, help round-out their DVD release.

The micro-story will revolve around the first Cylon War and a young William Adama (Nico Cortez). The gumball-sized mini-sodes will be broadcast on Sci-Fi in October and November. Consult your local listings for time, but don’t be too surprised if you discover nada en detalle.

Remember, while watching, you can blink, but don’t dare sneeze.

Science Fiction/Fantasy News & Links

Science Fiction/Fantasy News & Links

Mark Evanier shows off the cover to his upcoming book Kirby: King of Comics, and explains what this book is (a big, heavily-illustrated look at Jack Kirby’s comics work) and what his next book will be (a much longer, text-heavy biography of Kirby).

Columnist Alex Stein, in the Guardian, likes to argue with a friend about the use and importance of science fiction. (He’s on the side of the angels) Sadly, Stein seems to be content to argue that there’s some good stuff out there amid the dreck, rather than calling the friend on his category error – the unnamed friend stacks the deck by using the new Transformers movie as the SF exemplar and “some new French slow-burner about adultery” as his example of “real life.” The equivalents of a good serious “real life” movie are movies like Gattaca, or 2001, or Blade Runner; if you want a “mainstream” comparison movie on the same level as Transformers, you’ll have to dig up something like Monster-In-Law. Defenders of SF need to point out that there’s just as much “real life” dreck as fantastic dreck – and our dreck at least has cool pictures to go with the lousy plots.

The Baltimore Sun reports on an exhibition of Star Wars paraphernalia at Geppi’s Entertainment Museum in Baltimore. The materials are all from the collection of Thomas Atkinson, who runs the Star Toys Museum.

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Science Fiction/Fantasy News & Links

Science Fiction/Fantasy News & Links

Variety reports that Robert E. Howard’s most famous sword-swinger, Conan the Barbarian, may be coming back to the screen via New Line Pictures, mere weeks after Warner Brothers lost the rights to the Cimmerian. [report – but not link – originally from SciFi Wire]

Warming us all up for the publication off Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in less than a month, the Californian provides a short history of the boy wizard, with lots of learned quotes.

Time Magazine, also on the Harry Potter beat, talks to the “brain trust” at Scholastic – J.K. Rowling’s US publisher – about all of the security measures in place to keep the events of Deathly Hallows secret.

Onelowerlight has thrown down the gauntlet: Serenity is “not good SF” because it has too much sex and is “preachy” about things that blogger does not agree with. The sound you hear is a million browncoats screaming in unison… [via SF Signal]

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