Pop Culture Safari!

Pop Culture Roundup

Crusade Fine Arts is publishing a 576-page collection of Billy Tucci's comic "Shi." The book, "Definitive Shi - The Essential Warrior Vol. 1," ships next March.

Booksteve shares a 1979 Christmas card from Wendy and Richard Pini.

Fred Hembeck celebrates Christmas in Riverdale.

Newsarama has an interview with DC Direct toymaster Georg Brewer.

Dark Horse presents Universal Monsters novels

From the press release:

Drawing on the legendary history of Universal Pictures' rendition of cinema's most famous monster icons, DH Press revamps classic movie characters from the Golden Age of horror films for a new generation. These all-new original prose novels, based on legendary characters such as Dracula and The Mummy, will be infused with the intensity of modern horror classics. The first wave of books coming in 2006 will feature Dracula, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. The initial releases coming out in January 2006 will be Dracula: Asylum and Wolf Man: Hunter's Moon, both retailing for $6.99 each.

In Dracula: Asylum (ISBN-1-59582-018-3, $6.99) we find ourselves back at Dr. Seward's Sanatorium, where Dracula was originally destroyed, in the days directly following the end of World War I. After being gone for years Dracula finds himself trapped beneath the grounds of the madhouse where his evil reaches out into the minds of the weak and insane. As death claims victim after victim, will anyone be able to stop him?

Dracula: Asylum is written by Paul Witcover, the author of the visionary science fiction novels Tumbling After and Waking Beauty, a biography of Zora Neale Hurston and numerous short stories. He is the co-creator of the cult comic book series Anima and has served as the curator of the New York Review of Science Fiction reading series.

In Wolf Man: Hunter's Moon (ISBN-1-59582-030-2, $6.99) we meet Lawrence Talbot who, on a vacation in Europe, has his life changed forever when he is bitten by a lycanthrope and is cursed to walk the Earth for the rest of eternity no longer a man, not fully a beast but as one of the damned: a werewolf. In this story Talbot is chased by a heretical cult dedicated to destroy all marked by the sign of the Wolf. But will the friends he finds, an order whose mission is to protect the werewolves, prove to be even more dangerous?

Wolf Man: Hunter's Moon is written by Michael Jan Friedman, a New York Times best-selling author who has written or co-written numerous novels in the fantasy, science fiction, and young adult genres - many in the Star Trek realm.

Comic book birthday: John Severin

Images from the Grand Comic Book Database.

New comics Dec. 21, 2005

Available now at yer local comics shop or via This is Pop!-supporting links:

40 Years of X-Men DVD-ROM

Abomination Mini-bust - Bowen Designs

Acme Novelty Library #16

Comics As Philosophy HC

Conan And The Jewels Of Gwahlur HC

Coyote Vol 2 TP

Crisis On Multiple Earths The Team Ups Vol 1 TP

Daydreams and Nightmares SC

Diamond Select G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes Vs. Storm Shadow Bookends

Fantastic Four By J. Michael Straczynski Vol 1 Premiere HC

Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol 1 Family Heroes Digest

Marvel Masterworks Avengers Vol 5 Ltd Ed HC (#54)

Marvel Masterworks Avengers Vol 5 New Ed HC

Marvel Milestones Thor Statue

New X-Men Academy X Vol 3 X-Posed TP

Owly Vol 3 Flying Lessons TP

Plastic Man Vol 2 Rubber Bandits TP

Star Wars Darth Vader Mini Bust

Star Wars General Grievous TP

Star Wars Prelude To Rebellion TP

Superman Batman Deluxe Bookends

Swamp Thing Spontaneous Generation TP

Tom Strong Book Four SC

Ultimate Galactus Book 2 Secret TP

See a Complete List of Upcoming Comics.

Pop Artifact! King Kong game

Christmas comics!

Pop Culture Roundup

Fred Hembeck is back with the many (many, many, many) faces of Santa.

Dial B shares his all-time favorite Christmas comics tale (which, I might add, is a real downer!).

JoBlo has pics of lots of upcoming Fox movies, including "X-Men 3," "Bandidas," "Date Movie," "Ice Age 2" and "My Super Ex-Girlfriend."

CDs Dec. 20 new releases

Art Ensemble of Chicago Chi-Conga

The Damned The Black Album

Bob Marley & the Wailers Man to Man

Last week's new releases.

DVDs Dec. 20 new releases

Battlestar Galactica - Season 2.0

Brothers Grimm

ER - The Complete Fourth Season

Party of Five - The Complete Second Season

Serenity - Widescreen Edition

Doctor Who books and toys 2005

Great Britain is in the midst of Whomania, thanks to this past year's revival of TV's longest-running sci-fi series.

The new series is set to air sometime/somewhere on U.S. television next year and is due out on DVD Feb. 14.

Whether it will generate the same excitement here as there remains to be seen. But here's a look at some of the recent Who items now available overseas.

Doctor Who Toys