New pop culture books

Art of Jim Starlin


Creators Of The Superheroes


The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies Volume 2: 1937-1939


Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades


Bond Girls


Bond Villains


The Art of District 9: Weta Workshop


Hiroshima: The Autobiography of Barefoot Gen (Asia/Pacific/Perspectives: Asian Voices)


Sucker Punch: The Art of the Movie by Zack Snyder


Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made


The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman: My Life as Indiana Jones, James Bond, Superman and Other Movie Heroes


Whedonistas: A Celebration of the Worlds of Joss Whedon by the Women Who Love Them


Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster 

See FOOM magazine, issue 1

Jon takes a look at Marvel's 1970s fan magazine.

Spider-Man musical, you guessed it....

Delayed again (not that I'll likely make it to Broadway to see it anyway, but I find the whole debacle interesting. Like everyone else, I guess.) This time the delay is so cast members can rehearse a new ending. Hopefully nobody will get hurt.

The show had been scheduled to open in February.

Earlier this month it was announced that U2 stars Bono and The Edge, who wrote the score, would return from touring to help fix the show's problems.

Four actors from the production have been injured during previews, while frequent technical glitches and negative early assessments from critics have caused further problems.

In December lead actress Natalie Mendoza announced she was pulling out of the show.

Despite its fraught preview performances, the musical is still selling out the 1,930-seat Foxwoods theatre in Times Square almost every night.

Pilot a go for new Charlie's Angels TV series

Via Entertainment Weekly:

The producers (Leonard Goldberg, Drew Barrymore, Nancy Juvonen), Sony Pictures TV and Flower Films will now dive into casting to figure out the tricky task of finding TV’s new Angels. We hear there’s an offer out to Mark Piznarski (Gossip Girl) to direct.

New full-costume pic of movie Captain America

Here's a new shot of actor Chris Evans in costume.

New Sucker Punch movie poster

Startling Stories pulp covers

Red Riding Hood movie poster

Disney's Lone Ranger movie logo revealed

From producer Jerry Bruckheimer's official site:

Entertainment Weekly gives Green Hornet a C-

This doesn't bode well.

John Lennon's psychedelic limo on display

A Rolls Royce that Lennon had painted in psychedelic paisley is on display at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, British Columbia.

The museum, which acquired the vehicle as part of its permanent collection in 1987, says it can't keep the car on display all-year round because of crowds and its large size so it is only displayed for a short time each winter.

The Beatles singer purchased what was then a black Rolls Royce in 1965, the same year he received his driving permit. The vehicle was custom-made with a rear seat that converts into a double bed and also has a telephone, portable refrigerator, Sony television and custom sound system.

The car was painted yellow two years later. A Dutch gypsy artist friend of Lennon's used latex house paint to apply the flower-power design, complete with swirling vines and spiral hubcap covers.

New DC Retro Action Figures available

Retro-Action DC Super Heroes Captain Cold Figure


Retro-Action DC Super Heroes Cheetah Figure


Retro-Action DC Super Heroes The Flash Figure


Retro-Action DC Super Heroes Wonder Woman Figure 

New comics Jan. 12, 2011

Batman: Joker's Asylum


Doom Patrol: Brotherhood


Superman: The Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 2


Avengers: The Coming of the Beast


Fantastic Four: Resurrection of Galactus (Fantastic Four (Graphic Novels))


Marvel Adventures Avengers: Thor


X-Factor - Volume 10: Second Coming


Asterix and Cleopatra 


Uncle Scrooge: Like a Hurricane TP

BBC digs upcoming Wanda Jackson album, produced by Jack White

Jack White did a great job several years back producing Loretta Lynn. He and rockabilly queen Jackson seem like an even better match. I look forward to hearing this one.

From the Beeb:

None of which would matter if age had wearied Jackson’s voice, but it doesn¹t sound like age has even been trying. Her trademark kittenish snarl is in devilish form on Eddie Cochran’s Nervous Breakdown, and she's never crooned anything so affectingly as she does Sammy Cahn and Gene De Paul’s Teach Me Tonight. This is a rich, warm, big-hearted and hilarious album.

New Bond film set for 2012

MGM announces via press release:

Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of EON Productions, together with Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, Co-Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., today announced that the 23rd James Bond film will commence production in late 2011 for a worldwide release on November 9, 2012. Daniel Craig will be returning as the legendary British secret agent, with Sam Mendes directing a screenplay written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan.

Revived love of hip hop inspires Chabon's next novel

A reignited love affair with comics led Michael Chabon to pen his wonderful novel, "The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay." Now, he's rediscovered a passion for hip hop music. He describes his writing process:

Every novel is a license to obsess. To fixate on a subject--chess, comic books, Yiddish, the Khazars. To go overboard; to pluck the beeswax stoppers from the ears, cut the restraints, and freestyle madly toward the siren subject that is calling from the shore.

Vinyl records, for example. Early on, I decided to make a used-records store on Telegraph Avenue one of the key settings of my novel in progress. Okay, maybe "early on" is an under-exaggeration. Maybe it would be more accurate to say "the entire novel is just a pretext for spending as much time and money as I possibly can in used record stores." (A similar rationale doubtless underlies my projected next novel, the epic Tacos Al Pastor.)

BTW: If you're a regular visitor to this site, and you haven't read this book, please do. You'll be glad you did:

Trailer for new Camelot series on Starz

Video documentary on Jack Kirby

I haven't had a chance to watch all of these yet, but here's a collection of video interviews of comic industry folks talking about the King -- I guess from the bonus disk to the first "Fantastic Four" film from a few years back. Looks pretty well done. I do think that Kirby is deserving of a big-budget PBS-style documentary. Maybe a project for Ken Burns?