Pop Culture Safari!

BBC's Desert Island Discs archived online

The archives of the BBC's long-running "Desert Island Discs" program, in which various notables name their favorite recordings, will be available on the show's official site beginning next month.

Kaboom! Comics to publish Peanuts movie adaptation

The mystery of Kaboom's upcoming Peanuts comic and what it is, exactly, is solved.

Turns out Kaboom will publish a comics adaptation of "Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown," an upcoming film featuring the Peanuts gang.

Based on the previous works of Charles M. Schulz, the voice cast includes Austin Lux, Amanda Pace, Trenton Rogers, Grace Rolek, Shane Baumel, Blesst Bowden, Ciara Bravo, and Andy Pessoa. New animations for this production are created by the likes of Craig Schulz (son of Charles), and cartoonist Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine).

"New original PEANUTS comic book content is a tradition that goes pretty far back in comic book publishing," said BOOM! Studios Editor-in-Chief, Matt Gagnon. "Dell Comics published 'Tip Top Comics' which featured new PEANUTS comic book content created under the guidance of Charles Schulz. 'Tip Top' ran from 1936 until 1961, creating well over 40 original PEANUTS stories and countless covers. It's exciting to be a part of the return of PEANUTS to the comic book format."

Featuring artwork by Bob Scott, Vicki Scott and Ron Zorman, Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown is the latest project from kaboom!, a rebranding of BOOM! Studios popular children's line that's produced hit licensed series including The Muppet Show, The Incredibles, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.

Fantagraphics details upcoming Mickey Mouse collections

Fantagraphics' collection of Floyd Gottfredson's complete run on the "Mickey Mouse" comic strip of the 30s and 40s is one of the most exciting things on upcoming comics collection list (although I'm most excited about the same publisher's announced reprinting of Carl Barks' complete run of Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge comics).

Here, Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth details the first volume, "Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol. 1: The Race to Death Valley."

"My impression is that most parents and children have very little understanding of the Mouse as anything but a one dimensional icon. I think readers may be surprised at how feisty a character he was," Groth said. "The stories themselves are classic adventure stories, full of mystery and intrigue. My favorites -- and I have by no means read them all -- have the great, classic villains, The Phantom Blot, for example, and take place in a world of gothic menace."

Jane Russell dies at 89

From The New York Times:

Jane Russell, the voluptuous actress at the center of one of the most highly publicized censorship episodes in movie history, the long-delayed release of the 1940s western “The Outlaw,” died on Monday at her home in Santa Maria, Calif.