Joe Kubert 1926-2012: A Brief Note of Anger

One of the greatest and most inspiring comics creatives in history passed away over the weekend. Some massive jerk compared him to Joe Paterno for doing "scab" work like Before Watchmen...in a piece eulogizing a better man than he'll ever be.

Naturally, pissing off a fanboy for daring to do work-for-hire on a property deemed by a few asshats to be untouchable sacred ground is equivalent to covering up the rape of a child. He used the word "unethical" to describe one of the paragons of sequential art. He has since issued an unapologetic "apology". He'd have been better off just fully taking his lumps and admitted that he made an incalculably bad comparison. Instead, his mea culpa was "I'm so sorry that you guys misunderstood my towering critical genius and don't like, get me" (sarcasm added mine).

I recommend against giving this guy the traffic by not going to his site to read this stuff, but you're an adult, police yourself as you see fit. I do fully endorse the recourse I urged in this tweet.

New DRAGONBALL Z Anime Feature in 2013

JEFusion is reporting that it takes place during a "lost decade" in the story after the defeat of "Maijin Buu". The trailer embedded below features loads of CG, and I have no idea is that's consistent with what they plan to do in the finished product. You never can tell with these anime trailers.

My wife was big into Dragonball Z when she was in grade school. I never got into it until she and I got bored with too much money and started buying the Dragon Box DVD Collector's Sets, which included the original Japanese audio, retranslated subtitles, and no edits...and loads of filler.

Brian Posehn Writing Marvel's DEADPOOL #1

This is the best news since the invention of fire. Mega-ultra-nerd Brian Posehn is co-writing a Deadpool comic alongside Gerry Duggan, with whom he did The Last Christmas with a few years ago. 

Posehn is not only one of my favorite comedians from the Comedians of Comedy side of the standup world, but he's also one of the most authentic comic book nerds in the universe.

The Defenders Ends in November at #12

Multiversity Comics caught something in an interview in USA Today:

She-Hulk has a pedigree with the team since she has been a member of the Fantastic Four, plus she’d be Ben’s pick because she’s “the one person he knew he could never lick,” says Fraction, who writes Red She-Hulk in Defenders, which ends its run at issue 12 in November.

This is a shame, as I felt the book was getting a good footing, and the team dynamic could work in the ongoing and broader-than-ever Marvel U.

Patrick Stewart, Simon Pegg, and Olympic Ticket Scalping

"That's called a 'murdering them'."

The Olympic Ticket Scalper with Patrick Stewart, Ryan Lochte, Simon Pegg & Maisie Williams from Patrick Stewart

Konami Refuses to Patch 1 of 2 Versions of SILENT HILL HD

Go read The Verge's post, which links this incident to indie developer Polytron refusing to patch the PS3 version of Fez.

HOBBIT in 48fps only in Select Screenings

Variety has the exclusive on this news:

According to source familiar with Warner's release plans for Peter Jackson's first "Hobbit," the HFR version will go out to only select locations, perhaps not even into all major cities.

People who have seen much of the film in 48 frames-per-second 3D tell Variety the picture now looks vastly better than the test footage shown this April at CinemaCon, which had not yet undergone post-production polishing and got a mixed reception from exhibitors.

I don't think this choice is unwise in the least. It definitely looks quite different from what literally everyone is used to. I'm still very hopeful and optimistic. There are those who said that talkies, color, and 70mm weren't cinematic.

Maybe I'll love it, maybe I'll hate it. Can't wait to see.

Marvin Hamlisch 1944-2012

I met Marvin Hamlisch once, after a Tate Lecture Series event at SMU in December of 1999. His most called-back reference was about how he found Kim B-"ass"-inger (emphasis his on "ass", which I didn't entirely get at the time) has an amazing rump. He brought this up no less than six times.

He was lively, funny, and candid. When I asked from the audience about his thoughts on the movie of A Chorus Line and film musical adaptations at large, he responded very bluntly that it was a waste of the material. He actively wished someone would remake it. He hated it.

He told me in the hall afterward that "if only the business people still cared about making something people will want to watch, the movie business wouldn't be in the toilet". That was 13 years ago, before 9/11, the explosion of comic book blockbusters, and the rise of streaming.

I genuinely love and cherish so much of his work, from the Bond tune "Nobody Does It Better" to the score of A Chorus Line to the under-appreciated musical Barnum, and on and on.

The Comic Shack #9 and "Marvel: Season One"

As of a couple of weeks ago, I'm regularly co-hosting The Comic Shack podcast on 5by5. On last Friday's show ("Concatenation of Severed Heads"), I talked with host "Captain" Jim Metzendorf about how Captain Marvel #1 made me cry, X-treme X-Men threatens to make Dazzler awesome, and how terribly behind I am on The Defenders, which I caught up on last night. Jim also gave a crash course in comics grading and storage technology. Yes, it qualifies as technology.

Regarding "Season One", Marvel is retelling the origin stories of many signature characters in graphic novels that are around the length of five issues of comics. I'm shocked they didn't do one for their new highest-profile team in advance of The Avengers hitting theatres.

I wasn't really aware of these until Greg Pak announced he was doing one for Doctor Strange. For the record, Strange is my favorite Marvel character. You'll hear more about him from me, rest assured.

I picked up the X-Men and Ant Man ones the other day at the comic shop. They're clean, crisp quality hardbound trades that include a digital copy slip. This is the future of how to make money on printed books. Give it to us at a reasonable cover price and bundle digital at no additional cost. I just ordered Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil. I'll get around to pre-ordering Hulk and Doctor Strange soon.

DOCTOR WHO Series 7 Trailer

Dinosaurs on a spaceship, folks.

Sampled: Mac OS X Snoop Lion and Snoop Voltron

After tweeting both of these jokes regarding Snoop Dogg's "reincarnation", they've been sampled, shared, reappropriated, and expanded upon. Here are the original jokes:

Who else does Snoop Lion need to form Snoop Voltron? What space monsters will he defeat?

Later...

BREAKING: Mac OS 10.9 Snoop Lion leaks early

Amazon Instant Releases an iPad App (That Kinda Sucks)

On the heels of Hulu Plus releasing an AppleTV app, Amazon has put Amazon Instant Video on the iPad. I downloaded the app, and sure enough...no AirPlay compatibility. Watch everything you want, only on your iPad and not on your TV. I'd love to watch all of The West Wing on my TV, not necessarily so on my iPad.

Movie Producer Says We Must "Tear Down These Walls"

Keith Calder has produced an indie CG animated movie (Battle for Terra), a documentary directed by Morgan Spurlock (POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold), and some fantastic indies (Thunder Soul and The Wackness among others). He's a very smart guy and happens to also be a friend.

He took Patton Oswalt's Just For Laughs keynote address to heart and penned a piece about breaking down the barriers between fans and content:

In the entertainment business, we’re living in very interesting times. There’s a wave of momentum pushing forward a powerful new relationship between artist and fan.

I could not agree more. I discussed this very subject on the pilot of my new show Screen Time, coming soon on 5by5. I think I've found my second guest.

Regarding THE HOBBIT in Three Parts

Peter Jackson is in the "more money than God" tax bracket. He's not making a third Hobbit movie for the money.

I'm not personal friends with the guy. I've never spoken to him in person. I really, really love his early films as well as his Lord of the Rings trilogy. King Kong lost a bit of its luster after the first viewing, and The Lovely Bones is a narrative that I'm convinced no one could make "fun" (since it's drenched in dreariness).

If there's a third movie to be made, it's because the narrative bears out with the breathing room of three features. As far as I know, part of the issue is the 150-160 minute limit arbitrarily placed on the studio by the exhibitors. Jackson isn't making a trio of 4-hour movies, and I trust that he is focused on telling the best story possible. Then again, I think that 48fps isn't an aberration on the face of cinema, so what do I know.

TNG S1 Replacement Discs

CBS has done the right thing. When you call, make sure to have your Blu-ray set in-hand. They'll need proof of purchase info. You also won't have to mail in your flawed discs to get the replacements.

From the press release earlier today:

Dear Star Trek Fans, We have discovered an anomaly in the English 7.1 DTS Master Audio track in our Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 Blu-ray Box set.

There are some episodes that inadvertently had their front channel designations incorrectly mapped, resulting in an undesired playback experience when listening to them in a 7.1 or 5.1 Surround Sound environment.

We are quickly working to remedy the situation. Replacement discs (Disc 1, 3 and 4) will be made available free of charge.

Please email phe.stng@bydeluxe.com for details regarding the replacement program.
You may also call 1-877-DELUXE6 (877-335-8936) between 8am to 6pm Pacific, Monday-Friday. We strive to provide our fans the best Blu-ray experience possible and sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.