Pop culture roundup: Don't spoil Cabin in the Woods! DC Direct now DC Collectibles! Jack Kirby's son remembers! Jaw restored!

"The Cabin in the Woods," the long-awaited more-than-just-a-horror-flick from Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon opens this weekend in the U.S. and those wanting to be shocked and surprised would do well to avoid reading spoilerish reviews such as those in the New York Observer and Village Voice. Entertainment Weekly, meanwhile, gives the film a "B minus" without being too spoiling the works.

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DC Direct, which for years has manufactured DC Comics action figures and other items available via the direct comic shop market, has re-branded itself as DC Collectibles and is now selling it's wares via a website, as well as retailers. According to a press release:
“Not all of our fans have access to comic book retail locations, so by expanding our website to offer the entire product line, we’re adding an element of convenience and the ability for fans to collect every single product they’re interested in,” stated Hank Kanalz, senior vice president of digital, DC Entertainment.
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In a Los Angeles Times column, Jack Kirby's son, Neal recalls growing up watching his dad create the adventures of the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, X-Men others while growing up in the 1950s and 60s.

...what I remember most is my father’s studio. Buried in the basement, “The Dungeon” was tiny (just 10 feet across) and the walls that separated it from the rest of the cellar were covered in stained, tongue-and-groove knotty pine with a glossy varnish. Dad’s drawing table faced a beautiful cherry wood cabinet that housed a 10″ black-and-white television.
To the left of the cabinet was a beat-up, four-drawer file cabinet that was stuffed with Dad’s vast archive of picture references to, well, everything. I could sit for hours and just mull through musty old folders with bayonets, battleships, medieval armor, cowboy hats, skyscrapers, satellites — countless files on countless subjects. And — much out of character for my father — that metal cabinet sat beneath a stuffed and mounted deer’s head. I can’t remember where he said he got that damned thing, but it was always there.
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A digitally restored version of "Jaws" is out Aug. 14. Apparently, sprucing up the film took a lot of work, as the original negatives were in bad shape, as evidenced in this account from Entertainment Weekly.

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