Vintage Marvel Comics house ad



Pop Artifact! Thor tricycle toy



Pop Culture Roundup May 1, 2007

A second DVD set of vintage "Sesame Street" episodes and segments is in the works.

"Yes! Indeed there are plans to release a Sesame Street Old School: Volume 2 some time between August and October of this year."

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"Spider-Man 3" is a "bloated, uneven behemoth," says The Associated Press.

Spidey the Third feels like an even greater letdown following Spidey Part Deux, which was the rare sequel that surpassed the original. "Spider-Man 2" was driven by a strong story and compelling character development, and didn't just feel the need to dazzle us with elaborate effects (though the effects did indeed dazzle).

Here, Raimi overloads us with more -- more villains, more supporting characters and more plot lines -- spread out across more time. People and threats come and go, and the narrative feels scattered
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As if modern attention spans weren't short enough already: Sony is shrinking down episodes of old TV shows like "Starsky and Hutch" and "Charlie's Angels" to 3.5-minute "minisodes" for distribution on the Web.

As Steve Mosko, the president of Sony Television, described it, "So in 'Charlie Angels,' they have a meeting, Charlie's on the intercom telling them what the assignment is, there's a couple of fights, and then a chase, and they catch the bad guy. Then they're back home wrapping it up."

"T.J. Hooker," an especially formulaic cop show from the early 1980s, can be seen in short bursts of action as William Shatner interrogates suspects, fires shots and chases bad guys. "Shatner is just hilarious," Mosko said.

That sums up the main aim of the minisodes. Nobody expects these shows to captivate anyone with their exciting plotlines, writing or ageless acting. "It's really campy and fun," Mosko said.


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Booksteve's joined the Captain Marvel Club. Howdy Steve! Remember: The old stuff sucks!

Lost preview May 16 episode

Highlight hidden text for spoilers:

JACK DEVISES A PLAN TO DO AWAY WITH "THE OTHERS,"
SAYID UNCOVERS A FLAW IN "THE OTHERS'" SYSTEM THAT COULD
LEAD TO RESCUE, AND CHARLIE'S DANGEROUS TASK MAY MAKE
DESMOND'S PREMONITION COME TRUE, ON ABC'S "LOST"

"Greatest Hits" - While Jack devises a plan to do away with "The Others" once and for all, Sayid uncovers a flaw in "The Others'" system that could lead to everyone's rescue. But it requires Charlie to take on a dangerous task that may make Desmond's premonition come true, on "Lost," WEDNESDAY, MAY 16 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.

"Lost" stars Naveen Andrews as Sayid, Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond, Emilie de Ravin as Claire, Michael Emerson as Ben, Matthew Fox as Jack, Jorge Garcia as Hurley, Josh Holloway as Sawyer, Daniel Dae Kim as Jin, Yunjin Kim as Sun, Evangeline Lilly as Kate, Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet, Dominic Monaghan as Charlie and Terry O'Quinn as Locke.

Guest starring are Tania Raymonde as Alex, Blake Bashoff as Karl, Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, Mira Furlan as Rousseau, Brian Goodman as Pryce, Marsha Thomason as Naomi, Neil Hopkins as Liam, Joshua Hancock as Roderick, John Henry Canavan as Simon Pace, Jeremy Shada as young Charlie, Zack Shada as young Liam, L. Scott Caldwell as Rose, Sam Anderson as Bernard, Andrea Gabriel as Nadia, Lana Parrilla as Greta and Tracy Middendorf as Bonnie.

"Greatest Hits" was written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz and directed by Stephen Williams.


See the Best "Lost" Sites on the Web.

DVD cover art: Space Ghost and Dino Boy, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio sets

Here's cover art for these two sets detailed last week.

Click the artwork to pre-order either set from Amazon.





DVD: Flash Gordon out Aug. 7

This Queen-soundtracked 1980 film will be out on DVD Aug. 7.

Dubbed the Flash Gordon Saviour of the Universe Edition (the original film was just "Flash Gordon." Don't know what's up with the British spelling of savior.), the DVD featuring the remastered movie and assorted extras.

Here's the info:

An All-American football player must foil an extraterrestrial plan to dominate the Earth in Flash Gordon: Saviour of the Universe Edition, rocketing into stores August 7, 2007 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Available on DVD for the first time, this rollicking sci-fi classic stars Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Timothy Dalton, and Academy Award® nominees Max von Sydow (Pelle the Conqueror) and Topol (Fiddler on the Roof) in the ultimate otherworldly adventure.

An all-new digitally remastered picture and 5.1 Surround Sound brilliantly enhance the tongue-in-cheek dialogue, outrageous costumes and over the top sets, as well as the now legendary soundtrack by the celebrated rock group Queen.

Directed by Mike Hodges (Croupier, Get Carter) and produced by Dino De Laurentiis (Barbarella, King Kong -1976), Flash Gordon: Saviour of the Universe Edition brings to the screen all the action, romance and fun of the original 1930’s comic strip that inspired it.

The special edition DVD includes exclusive bonus features, packaging art by renowned comic book artist, Alex Ross, and an “alternate” collectible postcard of the packaging art that make it a must-have addition to the collection of any sci-fi fan. The creation of cartoonist Alex Raymond, Flash Gordon is the original epic outer-space fantasy.

BONUS FEATURES
* ALEX ROSS, RENOWNED COMIC ARTIST, ON FLASH GORDON - Alex Ross talks about his favorite movie of all time, Flash Gordon, and about how the film has inspired him in his life and work.
* WRITING A CLASSIC: SCREENWRITER LORENZO SEMPLE, JR. - Screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. speaks about the deliberately campy script for Flash Gordon.
* FLASH GORDON 1936 SERIAL EPISODE - Chapter One of Planet of Peril.

Check pre-order info from Amazon.



DVD new releases May 1, 2007

Dreamgirls (Two-Disc Showstopper Edition)

Will & Grace: Season Six

Dreamgirls (Widescreen Edition)

Beverly Hills, 90210 - The Second Season

The King of Queens - The Complete Eighth Season
Tyrone Power: The Swashbuckler Box Set (Blood and Sand / Son of Fury / The Black Rose / Prince of Foxes / The Captain from Castile)

The Girls Next Door - Season 2

Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days

Melrose Place - The Second Season

The Best of the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

What I Like About You - The Complete First Season

Clint Eastwood Western Icon Collection (High Plains Drifter/Joe Kidd/Two Mules For Sister Sara)

Gene Autry: Singing Hill

More Upcoming DVD releases

CD new releases May 1, 2007

Beyond by Dinosaur Jr.

BBC Sessions 1967-1970 by The Moody Blues

Look Thru the Eyes of Roy Wood & Wizzard by Roy Wood

American Doll Posse by Tori Amos

The Time Has Come by Pentangle

Spider-Man 3: Music from and Inspired By by Original Soundtrack

Rock & Roll Music by Elvis Costello

The Best of Elvis Costello: The First 10 Years by Elvis Costello

Imperial Bedroom by Elvis Costello & the Attractions

Punch the Clock by Elvis Costello & the Attractions

King of America by Elvis Costello

Almost Blue by Elvis Costello & the Attractions

Trust by Elvis Costello & the Attractions

This Year's Model by Elvis Costello & the Attractions

Get Happy!! by Elvis Costello & the Attractions

Armed Forces by Elvis Costello & the Attractions

We Three by Roy Haynes With Phineas Newborn and Paul Chambers

Mating Call by Tadd Dameron with John Coltrane

More upcoming CD releases

Today's video: John Romita, Sr., draws Spider-Man

After the hero's co-creator Steve Ditko, Romita, Sr., was the classic Spider-Man artist. Here's part one of him sketching Spidey at a comics convention.



Pt. 2
Pt. 3
Pt. 4
Pt. 5

Pop Artifact! Wind-up Spider-Man toy



Vintage Marvel Comics house ad



Pop Culture Roundup April 30, 2007

Paul McCartney talks about his upcoming album, due out June 5.

The 13-track set is due June 5 in North America via Starbucks' new Hear Music label and will also be the first McCartney album to ever be available digitally.

..."Memory Almost Full" concludes with a five-song medley end "and that was purposefully retrospective," McCartney says. "I thought this might be because I'm at this point in my life, but then I think about the times I was writing with John (Lennon) and a lot of that was also looking back. It's like me with 'Penny Lane' and 'Eleanor Rigby' -- I'm still up to the same tricks!"


The album is available for pre-order now from Amazon.

There's also a deluxe version available, featuring a scond disk including three bonus tracks, "audio commentary" by Paul and six fold-out postcard-size photos.



Best Beatles Sites

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See a teaser for the straight-to-DVD animated film "Superman: Doomsday."

Best Superman Sites

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Fox Home Entertainment is releasing a limited edition 9-DVD set July 24 that collects all 51 episodes of Irwin Allen's 1960s sci-fi series "Land of the Giants." You can pre-order it now from Amazon.

TV Shows on DVD: Complete List

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From the Animation Archive: a 1939 magazine article detailing the then-new Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.

Best Disney Sites

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A series of Doctor Who trading cards is planned.

Trading cards based on the first three seasons will be released over an 18-month period, to catch up the trading card releases closer to the TV series broadcast in the States.

Best Doctor Who Sites

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Dial B for Burbank presents a Shadow Art Gallery with lots of pics of the famed pulp hero.

More Shadow

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Newsarama has info about Marvel Comics' new "clasics comics" series, featuring adaptations of "The Last of the Mohicans," "Treasure Island," "The Man in the Iron Mask" and more. Veteran writer/editor Roy Thomas is handling the scripts for those first three. Each "book" will run as a six-issued mini-series.

Best Marvel Comics Sites

Today's Video: 1960s Spider-Man cartoon theme song

In color!



Cover art for Evanier's Kirby: King of Comics

Looks nice! This is the cover for comics historian Mark Evenier's upcoming looking at the life and groundbreaking art of Jack Kirby, co-creator of the X-Men, Hulk, Fantastic Four and many more.



Published by Abrams Books and due out Oct. 1, this book is a coffee table tome, heavy on the art, and should be gorgeous. Evanier's long-awaited big biography of Kirby will be out later.

Evanier was a friend of Kirby's and worked as the artist's assistant in the late 1960s and early 1970s before embarking on a screenwriting career. You can stay up to date on Evanier's Kirby bio and his other projects at his official site.

"Kirby: King of Comics" will be a 224-page hardcover with an original pull-out poster by Alex Ross (an artist that doesn't seem, to me, to have much to do with Kirby at all in terms of style or visual power, but he's popular, I guess).

Pop Artifact! Rubber Captain Marvel figure

Could be a pencil topper, I think.



Vintage Marvel Comics house ad



Best Marvel Comics Sites.

Pop Culture Roundup April 27, 2007

A big screen film tracing the origins of X-Men villain Magneto is in the works.

David Goyer will direct "Magneto," an "X-Men" spinoff film from 20th Century Fox and Marvel Studios that's drawn from the villain played in the original trilogy by Ian McKellen.

...McKellen's participation in "Magneto" will likely be limited, since the film is an origin story. In a storyline hinted at by the original "X-Men" films, Magneto comes to grips with his mutant ability to manipulate metal objects as he and his parents try to survive in Auschwitz. Magneto meets Professor Xavier (played as the wheelchair-bound mutant leader by Patrick Stewart) when Xavier is a soldier liberating the concentration camp.


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Here's the first production shot of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in the upcoming "Iron Man" movie.



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The Sci Fi Channel's new "Flash Gordon" series debuts Aug. 10. The network also starts airing the third season of "Doctor Who" this summer, with the first ep set for July 6.

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Tarzan toys!

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Dial B for Burbank looks at a book Shadow creator Walter B. Gibson and his wife wrote about psychic phenomena.

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Musician Bobby Pickett of "Monster Mash" fame has died.

Mr. Pickett’s multimillion-selling single — with the indelible chorus “He did the monster mash, it was a graveyard smash” — hit the charts three times: on its original release in 1962, when it reached No. 1, and in 1970 and 1973. Mr. Pickett’s Karloff impression was forged in Somerville, Mass., where as a 9-year-old he watched horror films in a theater managed by his father. He later made it part of his act when he began performing in Hollywood nightclubs in 1959.

Full details on Tex Avery's Droopy The Complete Theatrical Collection DVD

Animation fans should be excited about this set, due out soon. Here's the skinny:

It's a doggone good time as Warner Home Video presents Tex Avery's Droopy The Complete Theatrical Collection, available for the first time on DVD! The 2-Disc DVD Collector's set, a must-have for fans of classic animation, is available on May 15, 2007 and includes the Academy Award® nominated animated short "One Droopy Knight".

World renowned Tex Avery created Droopy Dog, a low-key animated movie character at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This mournful deadpan witty basset hound detective, who spoke in a jowly monotone voice, was shrewd enough to outwit his enemies - the conniving Butch the Irish bulldog and the thieving, Nasty Wolf and English Fox.

SYNOPSIS
Droopy, a detective basset hound, lulls the bad guys into a false sense of security by acting slow and dumb when in actual fact he is a genius. The shrewd Droopy always outwits his enemies!

Tex Avery's Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection DVD features 24 re-mastered and unedited animated shorts including:

* Dumb-Hounded
* The Shooting of Dan McGoo
* Wild and Woolfy
* Northwest Hounded Police
* Señor Droopy
* Wags to Riches
* Out-Foxed
* The Chump Champ
* Daredevil Droopy
* Droopy's Good Deed
* Droopy's "Double Trouble"
* Caballero Droopy
* The Three Little Pups
* Drag-A-Long Droopy
* Homesteader Droopy
* Dixieland Droopy
* Deputy Droopy

Tex Avery's Droopy The Complete Theatrical Collection DVD also features 7 animated shorts in its original 16x9 Cinemascope version including:

* Millionaire Droopy
* Grin And Share It
* Blackboard Jumble
* One Droopy Knight
* Sheep Wrecked
* Mutts About Racing
* Droopy Leprechaun

EXTRA DVD CONTENT
The special features include:

* "Droopy and Friends: A Laugh Back" - a documentary retrospective featuring the highlights of Tex Avery's iconic character and band of regular misfits, which made the collection so memorable and dear to our hearts. Peppered through the featurettes will be moments reflecting Tex's early days, from inspiration, to his passions as an artist, entertainer and eventual auteur.

* "Doggone Gags" - a montage of great moments from the Droopy series, culled together in the fashion of a gag reel.

You can pre-order the set now for $19.99 from Amazon.



Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie poster