Pop Culture Safari!

Build a TARDIS contest

BBC America is sponsoring a homemade TARDIS contest as a "Doctor Who" promotion. Entries can be made of nearly anything and need not be able to traverse space or time (although that certainly would give you a leg up...)

Letter columns returning to DC Comics

DC has announced the return of regular letters pages to its comic book series -- a move I like. Sure, some may argue that lettercols are no longer necessary, and even silly in an age of online forums, but I believe they give comics titles a sense of community. Besides, I'd rather read reasonably thought out and concise opinions on a printed page than scroll through the trolls online.

Fantagraphics to publish complete Carl Barks Duck collection

Oh yeah, sign me up:

In what is sure to be one of the most acclaimed comics events of 2011, Fantagraphics has announced that they will be publishing a definitive collection of Carl Barks’ seminal run of Donald Duck comic stories.

...the first volume will be released in fall of this year. The comics will be published in hardcover volumes, with two volumes coming out every year, at a price of about $25 per volume.

CD, vinyl and download new releases Jan. 4, 2011

Twelve Nights in Hollywood 1&2 Ella Fitzgerald

Twelve Nights In Hollywood: Volumes 3 & 4 Ella Fitzgerald

Lost & Found 1963-74 (Rare & Previously Unreleased Tiny Tim

Primitive London Basil Kirchen

DVD new releases Jan. 4, 2011

Machete

Dinner for Schmucks

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Third Season

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 Motion Comic (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Mannix: Fourth Season

Ricky Gervais Show: Complete First Season

Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends: Complete Series

Super Hero Classics-Green Hornet Strikes Again

Hear the Decemberists' new album

Now streaming via NPR.

New 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea film in the works

One of my favorite stories and films (the Disney version). I'm sure they'll screw it up. It's in 3-D, for a start...

New Johnny Cash compilation of unreleased tunes on the way

Bootlegs: from Memphis to Hollywood, out Feb. 22, features previously unreleased demo recordings and a smattering of non-album singles and b-sides from the Man in Black. No track listing yet.

Video find: This is Ska

Via Dangerous Minds:

Al Jaffee gives snappy answers to not-so-stupid questions

Along with the long-running "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" feature, Al Jaffee, 89, is famed for creating the back-cover, fold-in cartoon for Mad Magazine. He continues to supply a fold-in for nearly ever issue and is the subject of a new biography, "Al Jaffee's Mad Life" by Mary-Lou Weisman. Nice interview with him here.

Kinks documentary on BBC Radio 2

Announcer Johnny Walker speaks to the Davies brothers and traces the Kinks' history. Listen here.

John Lennon's Abbey Road suit sells for $46,000

The white suit worn by John Lennon on the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road LP has sold at auction for $46,000.

"I was twice in his presence in this suit in 1969 as a teenager in Toronto," marveled Andrew Jack of Easton by way of Scotland.

"It was during a Toronto tour and my friends and I -- college students at the time -- followed his limousine around in a Volkswagen."

"We were able to come up side by side with the limo and John Lennon was sticking his head out the window, throwing up," Jack recalled. "I think he was nervous from the tour or it was the heroin."

Regardless, there were no permanent stains in evidence on the smartly-tailored suit, its jacket draping below the hips and a waist-high vent lending grace to Lennon's long stride ahead of Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, as captured in the iconic photograph.

I believe Lennon had reportedly kicked heroin by this time as "Cold Turkey," his song about that experience, had already been released by the time he played Toronto with a group including Yoko, Eric Clapton and others.

Deal alert: Complete Twilight Zone on DVD $93.99

Today only:

The Beatles in Lord of the Rings

At one point in the 60s, the Beatles reportedly expressed interest in producing, and acting in, a production of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Accounts are sketchy as to why this never happened (although, thank God, it never did. Much as I love both the Beatles, the prospect of such a film sounds terrible).

Anyway, if such a thing had been produced, here's what the movie posters might have looked like.

Big names on tap for return of Dark Horse Presents

Dark Horse Comics' anthology title returns in a new 80-page, bimonthly format beginning in April with new stories by famed comics creators including Frank Miller, Howard Chaykin, Paul Chadwick, Neal Adams, Richard Corben and others.