Neil Gaiman gets animated on Arthur

The celebrated author/comics writer appears on the PBS kids toon today.

Gaiman’s role comes in an episode called “Falafelosophy,” inspiring one of the kids who’s trying her hand at writing and illustrating a graphic novel. It’s paired with what sounds like a suitable companion story, “Tales of the Grotesquely Grim Bunny,” about changes on the shelves at the local comic shop.

Spock behind the scenes

New Battlestar Galactica prequel planned

Cool. I'm up for more stories from the BSG universe:

The Syfy network just greenlit a two hour pilot called Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome which will follow a young William Adama as a Viper pilot on the battlestar Galactica during the first Cylon war.

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome takes place in the 10th year of the first Cylon war. As the battle between humans and their creation, a sentient robotic race, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, a brash rookie viper pilot enters the fray. Ensign William Adama, barely in his 20′s and a recent Academy graduate, finds himself assigned to the newest battlestar in the Colonial fleet’ the Galactica. The talented but hot-headed risk-taker soon finds himself leading a dangerous top secret mission that, if successful, will turn the tide of the decade long war in favor of the desperate fleet.

Updates at the Mighty Marvelmania Museum

Check out some new items at our Mighty Marvelmania Museum!

Vintage Star Trek cast pictures

Star Trek cast pictures: William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy

Remembering Apple Records

On the heels of remastered reissues of most of the Apple music catalog, The Independent recounts the story the Beatle-spawned label and related businesses.

"We've got all the money we need," Paul McCartney, then a worldly wise 25-year-old, told me at the time. "I've got the house and the cars and all the things that money can buy. So instead of trying to amass money for the sake of it, we're setting up a business with a social and cultural environment where everyone gets a decent share of the profits. I suppose it'll be like a sort of Western communism."

First sketch of Wonder Woman?

Via Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool: A 1946 letter from cartoonist H.G. Peter to Wonder Woman writer William Marsten Moulton, containing Peter's early sketches of the Amazon princess.

Marvel Comics January 2011 solicitations

Highlights from Marvel's January releases:

THE X-MEN OMNIBUS VOL. 2
Written by ROY THOMAS, ARNOLD DRAKE, GARY FRIEDRICH, JERRY SIEGEL, DENNIS O'NEIL & LINDA FITE Penciled by NEAL ADAMS, JIM STERANKO, WERNER ROTH, DON HECK, GEORGE TUSKA, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, JOHN BUSCEMA & SAL BUSCEMA Covers by JOHN CASSADAY & GEORGE TUSKA
Marvel's merry mutants are coming at you again with another massive Omnibus! It's the original X-Men--Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Iceman and Marvel Girl--in their first adventures as Professor X's mutant teen team supreme. Featuring page after page of X-Men milestones--from the team's new costumes, to the death of Professor X, and the first appearances of Havok, Polaris and Sunfire, this volume chronicles a turbulent era for mutantdom. But for every problem there is a solution: Enter Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, and True Believer, you had better grab onto your hat and get ready for one of the most amazing evolutions in Marvel history! These two titanic talents threw caution to the wind with sensational stories that brought the X-Men in sync with the thriving youth culture of the late '60s. Adams' lavish and dynamic visuals merged with Thomas' challenging and contemporary stories to create a comic book series that throbbed with the pulse of the times like none other. Featuring bonuses galore, not to mention the original letters pages, this collection is one for the ages, so reserve your copy today, True Believer! Collecting X-MEN #32-66, AVENGERS #66, KA-ZAR #2-3, MARVEL TALES #30 and NOT BRAND ECHH #4 & #8.

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: DOCTOR STRANGE VOL. 5
Written by STEVE ENGLEHART & FRANK BRUNNER with MIKE FRIEDRICH Penciled by FRANK BRUNNER & GENE COLAN Cover by FRANK BRUNNER

Entering the good Doctor Strange's world like a bolt from above, Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner teamed up to take the Master of the Mystic Arts to new heights of cosmic consciousness and other-dimensional adventure--and now you can experience it all in one amazing MARVEL MASTERWORKS edition! From the conclusion of the Shuma-Gorath saga and death of the Ancient One, to Stephen Strange's assumption of the mantle Sorcerer Supreme; from the time-lost Sise-Neg Genesis with Baron Mordo, to the classic Silver Dagger epic--these are Marvel comics at their very best! Brunner's art mixes a deliriously lush line with psychedelic stylings, while Englehart's scripting plumbs the depths of Strange's soul to create a strikingly personal epic that's just as challenging today as the first day it hit the racks. And with Gene Colan waiting in the wings for a massive Dormammu/Umar attack on Earth, there's no question what you have here is something special -- a true MARVEL MASTERWORKS! Collecting MARVEL PREMIERE #9-14 & DOCTOR STRANGE #1-9.


MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 5 TPB
Written by STAN LEE Penciled by JACK KIRBY Cover by JACK KIRBY & DEAN WHITE

Stan The Man called it the World's Greatest Comic Magazine, and he wasn't kidding. If Lee and Kirby set the comics world on fire in 1961 with the debut of The Fantastic Four, in 1965 they burnt the house down. Letting loose an unmatched burst of rapid-fire creativity, they gave birth to the Frightful Four, the Inhumans, Galactus, the Silver Surfer and even pulled off the first super-hero wedding while they were at it, and all in just 11 issues. With incomparable embellishment by Joe Sinnott, guest-appearances by everyone in the Marvel Universe, there's no denying that this is the essential volume for any and every Marvel fan! 'Nuff Said! Collecting FANTASTIC FOUR #41-50 and ANNUAL #3.


THOR: THE WARRIORS THREE UNLEASHED PREMIERE HC
Written by STAN LEE, JOHN LEWANDOWSKI, TOM DEFALCO, RON FRENZ & WALT SIMONSON Penciled by JACK KIRBY, KEVIN KOBASIC, RICH YANIZESKI, HERB TRIMPE, MARK TEXEIRA, JOE BARNEY & DEODATO STUDIOS Covers by JOE BARNEY & JACK KIRBY

Sometimes even the God of Thunder needs a little help from his friends! When Thor is off on Midgard, and Balder is fraternizing with the Queen of the Norns, who's left to protect Asgard? The Warriors Three! Fandral the Dashing! Hogun the Grimm! Volstagg the Voluminous! Three unlikely allies prepared to face any and all threats -- even the trickster god Loki, the savage Ulik the Troll, the magical Enchantress and the indestructible Destroyer! Collected here, the epic battles of the Warriors Three! Collecting THOR ANNUAL #2 & #17; THOR (1966) #400, #410 & #415-416; MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS (1988) #66; MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (1990) #15 and JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #-1.

Super Weisinger!

Mort Weisinger: Kind of a lousy guy, but he produced a fun, huge-long run of Superman comics under his iron fist. The Comics Journal presents a detailed look at where you can find various about Mort and the Weisinger Era of Super comics, including this interesting 1946 Life magazine article attributed to the man himself.

Beatles red and blue album video

There's a promo video celebrating the release of the group's remastered "red" and "blue" compilations on the official Beatles site. The albums are out now. Apart from a "cold start" version of "A Day in the Life," all songs are the same as those appearing on the Beatles' remastered 2009 albums. These comps, originally released in the 70s, introduced my generation to the band, since we were too little to know what we were missing in the 60s!

"Boy" from Tarzan films dies

Johnny Scheffield, who played Tarzan's sidekick "Boy," opposite Weismuller has died at age 79 after falling out a  tree in his backyard (I'm not making this up), reports Variety. Scheffield also starred in several "Bomba, the Jungle Boy" films.

Green Hornet movie poster