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Free Comic Book Day is Saturday!

Check out some freebies, and spend some money, at your local comic book shop this Saturday. Then check out the new Thor movie afterward. That's my plan anyway.

Here's a list of this year's free offerings.

Fantagraphics' new Mickey Mouse collection: Download an excerpt!

You can download 19 pages from Fantagraphics'upcoming Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 1: Race to Death Valley by Floyd Gottfredson now. I'm looking forward to this book, the first volume in a complete reprinting of Gottfredson's work on the Mouse.

Man from U.N.C.L.E. paperback covers

Final Green Lantern movie trailer

George Harrison was a "Dallas" fan

As indicated from this entry in the second volume of Monty Python member Michael Palin's recently published diaries:

An entry for January 8, 1982, about Palin phoning Harrison to discuss one of the several film projects they had going:

Call George in Henley at nine o'clock. After a few rather terse exchanges he says "You're obviously not a Dallas fan, then" and I realise I've interrupted a favorite viewing.

New X-Men First Class movie banner

Conan the Barbarian movie trailer

True Blood premiere features Zombies cover tune by Nick Cave and Neko Case

Nick and Neko have recorded a copy of the Zombies'"She's Not There" for HBO's vampire show, "True Blood," reports Billboard.

Van Dyke Parks on upcoming projects, SMiLE sessions release

Composer/songwriter and Brian Wilson collaborator Van Dyke Parks tells Mojo mag he's planning to release songs on a series of 7 45rpm singles next year, plus provides some details on the upcoming release of the Beach Boys' version of SMiLE.

The Smile Sessions are finally being released in September. When somebody mentions Smile, what's the first thing that pops into your head?
Crows over a cornfield [a reference to the Parks-penned line in Smile's Cabinessence]. I hear the box set is going to be absolutely beautiful. It will be very comforting to see that it's finally commercially available.

How has your relationship with the songs on Smile changed over the years?
I really think they're fine. I don't see any septic quality in them at all. In fact, the unvarnished truth is that they are without malice. Please bring that into the contemporary framework! But I wish, darn it, that it hadn't had so much celebrity. The celebrity of it got in the way. Otherwise, it would have been fine.

Religion, to me, is music. What Brian brought to the table was a closeted understanding of low-church hymns. I knew that that man had a divine regard. That's what really made me want to serve his interest with all my heart. We were coming from entirely separate arenas - he from right-wing comfort and me from the left-wing shock therapy of being out in Los Angeles with no money. I think our common thread was that we shared that music.