Britney Spears, Superhero

I can't believe I haven't heard of this before. It's been out for nearly two months, and I just happened to stumble across it today. I suppose it's because I'm a not big Britney fan. Anyway, if you haven't seen it, you should check out Britney's superhero debut (for her recent song, Break the Ice). It's not the best thing I've ever seen, but it was worth watching once...



It looks like they're not allowing these videos to be embedded. It took me forever to come across on I could put here, but I don't know how long it'll last. Here's a direct link to it if the one above disappears. (The video in the link is also a bit higher quality.)

You Can't Stop Crap!

In a recent interview with Stan Lee, when he was asked about current projects, the Disney superhero films came up, as well as some other stuff that's made the round in the news. (I'm sure you've heard about the Disney deal - I didn't realize the films had names: Tigress, Blaze, and Nick Ratchet - they sound like winners.)

What I didn't know about was the animated TV series he had planned with Paris Hilton. Or maybe I heard it and blocked it out.

He made Pamela Anderson into a supehero stripper. I cringe to think what he could do with Miss Hilton.

Marvel Animated

Want to catch some cartoons from Marvel you may have missed? You may get a chance to.

The Spider-Man, the New Animated Series CGI toon (starring Neil Patrick Harris) that was on MTV a few years is coming to the internet and cable. Apparently, Kabillion.com will begin hosting episodes on May 1, but you'll also be able to catch these On Demand with various cable companies, like Comcast and Bresnan Cable. This seemed pretty enjoyable, though I only caught one or two eps. And who doesn't love Neil Patrick Harris?

And if you were like me, and missed most of the episodes of Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Heroes because your cable guide never matched what they were actually airing on Cartoon Network, Marvelkids.com has those episodes for you. (Though at the time I didn't think it was good enough for me to try to hunt down the shows I missed.) Soon, Marvelkids.com will also have episodes of X-Men: Evolution.


Thanks to Comics2Film.

Premiers and Releases

I guess I haven't been paying much attention to the news wire...a ton of stuff has been happening. Now I've finally caught up and updated some dates and links to the right.

Batman: Gotham Knight is finally available by pre-order from Amazon.com.

The two short-lived series - WB's Birds of Prey (which I enjoyed) and TNT's Witchblade (which I never actually caught) - are both coming to DVD.

(Huh - apparently, July is a big month for comic adaptations - all three of these DVDs are out that month.)

Punisher: War Zone has been pushed back a few months.

And finally, everyone seems to be all excited about XIII coming to NBC. I realize NBC officially announced it on their winter line-up, but still - I think I heard about this a while back.

I Can't Think of a Good Title for This Post

I guess it's been a couple weeks since I've posted. I was off of work for a few days for various reasons and "got to" to lay around and do nothing for a while, so I was able to catch a few films. Silver Hawk had been sitting on my DVR for a few weeks. My brother gave me Comic Book: The Movie for Christmas, so I finally watched that. And finally got to sit through Superman: Doomsday. Of course, I've been playing catch-up with work and life since.

Dang but Kevin Smith got a lot of mileage out of writing that Superman Lives script. Probably more than he would've gotten out of it if it was the script they actually used for Superman Returns. It came up in Comic Book: The Movie, and even as a weird cameo in Doomsday. But I think the funniest telling was in An Evening with Kevin Smith. That DVD's a bit raw, but if your ears can handle it, it's pretty funny.

Doomsday wasn't bad. I wouldn't go out and spend the money on it for myself, but I was lucky enough to have a friend who bought it and didn't like it, so he gave it to me. I'm not sure if it needed to be PG-13. It seems like they just added some gratuitous language and a suggested sexual relationship between Superman and Lois just so they could up the rating. If you haven't seen it, you didn't miss a lot. You already know what I think of Silver Hawk, and I still need to post my Comic Book: The Movie review.

Ah, well; I'm off to see Superhero Movie.

Here's hoping I laugh more than twice.

They come in threes? (Spider-Man, Batman, Punisher)

Well, Spectacular Spider-Man is the third animated television premier I've missed. Maybe this'll be the last. And this one is only because I was too stupid to set the DVR in time. What an idiot. I've got it set now, so I'll be able to catch them from now on.

At least I was able to see The Batman two-part finale. I enjoyed watching the Justice League, but it seems odd that they had to pull in aliens for a finale the second time in a row. It's not like Batman doesn't have a rich history and cast of characters on his own.

Completely unrelated, I happened across the Punisher: War Zone official site. It's got limited content, but it's a pretty cool set up. Check out the link to the right under Upcoming Films.

Comics on DVD

I've never been much of an anime fan, but Batman: Gotham Knight looks really promising. Comics2Film posted the Press Release for Gotham Knight (which is due out July 8). Apparently it bridges the gap between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Watching clips reminded of the Animatrix, which I really enjoyed; heck, I even went to see Dreamcatcher just because one of the Animatrix stories (Final Flight of the Osiris) was screening in front of it. The Animatrix ep was worth the $7, even if Dreamcatcher wasn't.

I now realize the following video has been around the 'net (now I'm a day late and a dollar short), but I just watched it, so I thought I'd share this look at Gotham Knight.

In other news, I never realized Sam & Max was adapted to a cartooon - but that complete series is coming out on DVD in a couple weeks. The weird thing about that is my son's name is Max, and we have some close friends who have a son two weeks younger than Max, whose name is Sam. They'll both be 1 in March.

And BTW, it looks like when it was released, Amazon dropped the price of The New Frontier by about 30%. You can pick it up now for $17. Hmmmm...they did the same thing with Confessions of a Superhero. I may think twice about pre-ordering from them...

Missed Another Premier

Well, one of the main reasons I started this blog was so that *I* had a place to keep track of upcoming movies, DVDs, and TV shows. So what do I do? Completely miss the premier of the Witchblade anime series on IFC Friday night. There was an encore an hour later, but that didn't help me since I didn't realize it until I read it on Pop Candy the next day. I've never really been into anime (*gasp* - a comic fan who's not into anime?!?), but I would at least like to have seen the first episode.

Of course, the good folks at IFC assume that if you miss the first one, you won't want to see it before the second one airs, so there's not another encore, and the second episode airs next Friday night at 11:30 (that's Central, I think). And they don't even stream the first episode so you can catch up.

*sigh* Afro Samurai, all over again. Let me know if this was any good.

Comic Book Thesaurus

I'm holding onto the phrase comic book, but it seems there are new terms popping up everywhere. I think all of the comic book movies last year were based on graphic novels. And I read a new one yesterday in my wife's Redbook. (Hey - I just can't bring myself to leave my comics laying around in the bathroom.) It talked about how the animated film Persepolis was based on an illustrated autobiography. I hadn't heard that one before. Good grief, what's next? Should we start referring to our comics as "pictorial fiction"?

I'm sticking with comic book.

Not to detract from the fact that Persepolis does indeed look like an interesting, even socially relevant movie.

It got a limited release here in the States yesterday. Who knows if it'll come anywhere near here. Maybe if it gets good Oscar buzz. Here's a trailer if you haven't seen it.

Turok is how old?

Shows how much I know.

I've got that cool foil cover of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #1 from Valiant floating around in my comics collection. It's not worth anything - you can buy it on eBay right now for about a buck. And I remember playing Turok on my brother's Playstation many moons ago. I always figured it was a cheap comic that was based on the video game. Come to find out, the Valiant comic (1993) came out about four years before the first video game (1997). So I was obviously wrong there.

But now I just found out that Turok's been around since the 50s. How'd I miss that? Spending too much time working and not enough time reading comics, I guess. So, anyway, Turok made his first appearance in 1954 in Gold Key's Four Color Comics #596. He's had several incarnations as well as several video games since then.

What's the point of all this? In February, Genius Products and Classic Media will be releasing Turok: Son of Stone, an animated feature on DVD. Going for about $20, the hour-and-fifteen-minute animated film was supervised by Tad Stone (who is responsible for the Hellboy animated movies - see that blog to the right). It looks interesting, but I'm not sure it'll be worth buying. Here's the trailer.



It looks like it coincides with the release of a new Turok game for Playstation 3 and XBOX 360. This trailer looks a little more interesting.

Justice League: The New Frontier

Not available for pre-order, yet, but Justice League: The New Frontier finally has a release date: February 26. I'm looking forward to this - David Boreanaz (Angel, Bones) is Green Lantern, Neil Patrick Harris is The Flash, Lucy Lawless is Wonder Woman.


No word yet on Teen Titans: The Judas Contract.

Terminator Homage in The Batman

Did anyone catch the homage to Terminator in The Batman last Saturday? At first I thought it was just a reference, but the more I look back at the movies, I think it may have been a conscious homage. Of course, we have Metallo - who kind of looks like the Terminator, anyway; but the one that jumped out at me was Robin's "Hasta la vista, baby!"


It wasn't until after I started looking at screencaps did their seem to be more than just the reference above. Maybe just a coincidence, but tell me these look like an accident...


And the spoiler-filled final moments of both:

And here I am...

...visiting the comic book store in Springfield.





Thanks to simpsonizeme.com.

PVP Comic Adaptation

Had to pick up this comic adaptation info on a cartoon site.

Apparently, the webcomic PVP (which has also reached print - the monthly comic is listed with Image in Previews) has been adapted to a webcartoon.

The cartoon (which features role playing, gaming, and other stuff of geekdom) can be found from the PVP site and costs about $3 per episode. I haven't ponied up the money - I'm only an occasional reader of the comic - but it looks funny. If you've seen it, let me know what you think...

Thanks to Toon Zone.

Hellboy and Spider Spud on Sale!

A couple of awesome finds yesterday.

First, if you have a Sam's Club membership (or better yet, know somebody like I do), you may be interested in picking up the Hellboy 3-DVD Director's Cut Gift Set (including Hellboy bust) they have for under $8. At least that's how much it is in Florence, AL. Don't know if that price tracks to other stores around the country.

And, Kung Fu Rodeo alerted me to the way cool Spider Spud that just came out. I found it at Toys 'R Us yesterday, and had to pick one up, for, um, my 2-week-old son. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Anyway, thought I'd let you know in case you're interested...

Aw, Crap.

Well, I didn't think Hellboy: Blood and Iron was quite as good as Hellboy: Sword of Storms, but I won't know for sure until I see the end because my stupid DVR cut it off. I nearly missed recording it (with my son being born and all), but I guess it didn't really matter.

I don't know if it's the Comcast DVR, Comcast itself, or the horrible guide the Comcast uses for it's recorder, but this is getting old. Can someone tell me - was the end worth it?

First Afro Samurai, now this...

*sigh*

Ah, well - just a good excuse to watch it again.

El Laberinto del Hellboy

Just a note about a non-comic related movie. Guillermo del Toro's (Blade II, Hellboy) most recent film, Pan's Labyrinth (or El Laberinto del Fauna, in the original Spanish) is a fascinating piece of art. The movie is completely in Spanish, which is why I was surprised, among the Spanish names: Ariadna Gil, Ivana Baquero, Maribel Verdú, Sergi López...one stands out as decidedly not Spanish.

Doug Jones.

Jones, of course, has worked with del Toro before. He played Abe Sapien in the Hellboy movie (but not his voice); but did voice the character in the animated film. Note, that's him in the poster.

I didn't realize he's done so many comic book films: Men in Black II, Monkeybone, Mystery Men, Tank Girl, Batman Returns. Six degrees of comic book separation.

Waiting for the Trade

I've heard a lot lately about people waiting for the trade paperbacks to come out instead of picking up the monthly comics.

I guess that's what I'll have to do with Afro Samurai. I missed the first episode, and it's nowhere to be seen. So, I've deleted the multiple copies I have of episodes 2 and 3 from my DVR and will wait for the DVD to come out in May. Maybe the local Florence, AL stores will carry it.

But why does the uncut version cost twice as much as the edited version?

I Missed It Again!

OK, so I set the DVR to record both of the Afro Samurai episodes on Thursday night (the 1st one being the second episode, and the 2nd one being a rerun of the first). And while it recorded the first one, the show immediately after it ended up being some other crappy Spike TV show.


I guess I'll be watching the first episode on-line.


Sometimes I hate technology.


No, wait. I just checked Spike's web page, and now they have the 2nd episode on-line.


*AAAAAARGH*


I'm gonna open up a can on somebody.

Did You Miss Afro Samurai?

I did, and I'm annoyed as crap.

Apparently, the first episode aired last Thursday night, and I had no clue. I talked about this back in August, but I had no idea when it was airing. I still wouldn't know anything about it if I hadn't followed CBR's link to Spike talking about Spike's first look at the show. Apparently, they'll be airing it in 5 30-minute parts, with the second ep airing this Thursday night at 11/10C. You can catch the first episode on Spike's Afro Samurai web page, or immediately after the new episode Thursday. Take a look at Spike's schedule; it's airing a bunch so you should be able to watch it at some point.