Pop Artifact! Marvel Super Heroes lunch box

DVD new releases for July

July 5



The Film Noir Classic Collection 2: (Born to Kill / Clash by Night / Crossfire / Dillinger (1945) / The Narrow Margin (1952)



Monk Complete Third Season



Fantastic Four Complete 1995 Animated Series



July 12



Million Dollar Baby



Cry Baby



July 19



Earth 2 the Complete Series



Constantine



Sliders the Complete Third Season



Lost in Space Season 3, Vol. 2



Dead Like Me Complete Second Season



July 26



The Brady Bunch Complete Second Season



The Return of the Pink Panther



Gilligan's Island The Complete Third Season



Silk Stalkings The Complete Third Season



The Jerk



Star Trek Enterprise Complete Second Season



The Mary Tyler Moore Show Complete Second Season



Third Rock from the Sun Complete First Season



Remington Steele The Complete First Season



Profiling Joe Simon

The Philadelphia Daily News has a feature story on the 91-year-old comics pioneer and co-creator of Captain America:

"We were just trying out new superheroes at the time," said Simon. "We were at war, and Adolf Hitler, of course, was the villain of the world. Villains seemed to be in fashion at the time, and we had one ready-made for us, even if he wasn't a figment of someone's imagination."

..."We just caught on immediately," he said. "I gave Jack Kirby the scripts. It was both of us that came up with it. We were both responsible."

And now today's weather report...

from David Lynch?!

Found via BoingBoing.

Comics Buyers Guide launches Web site, forums

Yeah! A new place to fight and argue about comic books!

The Comics Buyers Guide--one of the longest-running magazines devoted to comic book news and collectors info around--has announced a new Web site with several discussion areas:

They include ones to talk about recent features (including this month’s Battle of the Ages among its columnists and editors about when the Golden, Silver, Bronze and Mylar Ages began) and one for each columnist. The Mr. Silver Age one is the only on-line message board he runs (as opposed to columnists like Peter David, Tony Isabella and Captain Comics, who have their own long-time boards elsewhere). The Mr. Silver Age board already has several features, including a full table of contents for his book, Baby Boomer Comics, and several long-gone features from 1990s issues of CBG.

Check it out here.

San Diego Comicon gets sneak preview of new Eisner documentary film

A 45-minute preview of "Will Eisner: The Spirit of an Artistic Pioneer" will be shown at this month's Comicon International in San Diego.

According to a press release from filmmaker Andrew Cooke:

WILL EISNER: THE SPIRIT OF AN ARTISTIC PIONEER chronicles the brilliant innovator's astonishingly prolific life, beginning with his modest upbringing in Depression-era New York City, into his burgeoning career at the birth of comics in the mid-1930s, and all the way up to the completion of his final graphic novel, The Plot, shortly before his passing in January.

In interviews with such luminaries as Stan Lee, Denis Kitchen, Kurt Vonnegut, Art Spiegelman, Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, Gil Kane, and with as yet unseen home movies, audio tapes (with Jack Kirby, Milton Caniff, Gil Fox), and newly uncovered archival photographs, the documentary honors the true master of sequential art as never before.

A 45 minute preview of Andrew and Jon Cooke's documentary will premiere on Thursday, July 14 at 1:00pm in Room 8.


There's an official site for the film here.

Pop Artifact! Mego Fantastic Four figures

New CD releases of note

June 28

The Adverts Anthology and Cast of Thousands (two CDs each) and Crossing the Red Sea
Electric Light Orchestra All Over the World: The Very Best of
Fountains of Wayne Out-of-State Plates
The Posies Every Kind of Light
Teenage Fanclub Catholic Education and Deep Fried Fanclub
Television Personalities And Don't the Kids Just Love It, Closer to God, Mummy You're Not Watching Me, Priviledge, The Painted Word and They Could Have Been Bigger Than the Beatles
DVD Jimi Hendrix Deluxe Edition

July 5

OST Dark Water (score by Angelo Badalamenti)
OST Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: The Album
SACD Jeff Wayne Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds
VA Hal Lifson Presents Music for Lonely Housewives

Out now: Japanese Batman figures

The latest batch of DC Direct/Yamato Toy Batman figures are out this week. You can get 'em via comics shops or CMDstore.

Conan 'toon planned

An animated film based on Robert E. Howard's "Red Nails" is in the works, according to the official Conan site:

Sherman Oaks, California-based Swordplay Entertainment Inc., has begun principal production on the animated feature film, CONAN: RED NAILS, based on the classic story by the best-selling fantasy author Robert E. Howard, a new 2D/3D animated feature film, targeting a 2006 release on video/DVD. New Line Home Entertainment has acquired all North American distribution rights to the animated feature film.

Cinema Management Group (CMG), an international sales company based in West Hollywood, headed by sales veteran Edward Noeltner, will be taking CONAN: RED NAILS to the Cannes Film Festival where it will be looking to set-up international pre-sales on the feature.

CONAN has previously been adapted into feature films, and television, but this is the first full-length animated feature film based on Conan the Cimmerian, a character Howard created in 1932.

The feature film is being directed by animation veteran Victor Dal Chele, (SPIDER-MAN, GHOSTBUSTERS, THE REAL ADVENTURES OF JOHNNY QUEST, BUTT-UGLY MARTIANS and ROBOCOP: ALPHA COMMANDO). Comics, animation and superheroes expert Steve Gold is onboard as the film’s writer/producer while Larry Houston (THE X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, HBO'S SPAWN and DISNEY'S GARGOYLES) is animation director.

CONAN: RED NAILS, one of Howard’s most famous stories, is both a sprawling epic and an equally engaging love story. When Conan and the female warrior Valeria, are betrayed in battle, they flee across harsh desert and trackless jungle only to confront the mystery and horror of a fabulous lost city. Conan becomes embroiled in a feud between the city’s factions, and must triumph over dragons, demons and a host of human and magical foes to end the war and win Valeria’s love.

“Steve Gold is an incredible cinematic storyteller, and renown Conan expert,” said producer Jonathan Bogner. “We’re all thrilled at this opportunity to bring his vision of Conan to life and work with some of the best artists in the world.”

Gold and Dal Chele have assembled an impressive team of award-winning visual artists and tapped legendary illustrator Michael Kaluta as the key concept designer for the film.

“Michael has been associated with CONAN and the works of Robert E. Howard for more than 30 years. He brings an amazing scope and pedigree to the film,” said Dal Chele.

Mark Schultz (CADILLACS & DINOSAURS) who recently illustrated THE COMING OF CONAN THE CIMMERIAN: VOLUME 1 for publishing house Ballentine and Del Ray, will add additional concept designs, as will leading fantasy painter and book cover artist, Donato Giancola. Greg Horn, a longtime Conan fan, and a hot young artist for comics and videogames will also be contributing artwork for the project.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with the creative and business teams we’ve assembled for this film. We all feel a tremendous respect and responsibility to the Conan franchise and Conan’s legions of fans around the world,” said Gold. “This is going to be an incredible ride!” he added.