All hail Hypnotoad!

Matt Groening’s sci-fi romantic comedy Futurama, canceled by Fox six years ago and recently revived for a series of straight-to-DVD movies, will come back to the small screen in 2010 with 26 new episodes on Comedy Central, according to Entertainment Weekly‘s Michael Ausiello.

Like Family Guy before it, Futurama‘s return has been credited mostly to what fox calls “blockbuster” performance on DVD (although in the case of Futurama, they had to make some feature films before the decision was made–Family Guy, if you remember correctly, was resurrected and THEN there was Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story just before new episodes hit the airwaves. Can this mean there’ll be one more Futurama movie in the offing? Maybe something to untie all the loose ends nicely tied up at the end of Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder?

In related news, actress Jaime Pressly suggested to E! News yesterday that an announcement may be forthcoming today regarding the future of Fox Television’s other embattled comedy, My Name is Earl. According to Pressly, Fox and TBS were in the midst of a crucial, 24-hour negotiation window as of press time for E! yesterday.

Newsarama is running an interview with J.M. DeMatteis about the overarching themes of The Life and Times of Savior 28 on its main page right now—and it goes nicely with our monthly Savoring Savior feature that sits down with DeMatteis and artist Mike Cavallaro to give a creator’s-eye-view of each individual issue of this smart, challenging and fun miniseries from IDW.

Blog@Newsarama: I didn’t realize until the beginning of this issue that our whole story was being narrated not just for the benefit of his own peace of mind, but for some kind of public record. Is McNulty planning something?

J.M. DeMatteis: He’s got something on his mind…but do you really think I’m going to tell you what? (more…)

Written by Christian Beranek and Tony DiGerolamo

**NOTE: Christian Beranek and Tony DiGerolamo will be attending Wizard World Philly June 19 – 21. In addition to being at table 154 all weekend, CB and Tony D will be doing a “Hollywood and the Graphic Novel” panel the Sunday of the show. Check http://www.wizardworld.com for more details. Now, onto the column!**

Imagination is a dangerous thing.

I never realized how dangerous it was until I started doing comic book conventions, especially the ones I did with my pal, CB.  Now you might look at us behind the SJRP/Silent Devil/Lead Pipe or other publisher table, imagine what it’s like and say, “Damn!  Look at those guys!  They are living the dream!  I wish I had that today!  I wish I was hanging easy at a comic book convention.  Relaxing.”

But comic book conventions, for those of us on the other side of the table, are anything but relaxing.  Sure, there are moments of repast, but in a larger sense the comic book convention is a delicate balance of fan interaction, promotion, and hopefully… sales.  Every show is a battle that each and every comic book publisher fights for to survive.  Because if you “lose” enough comic book conventions, you’re out of business, out of the game and back to the front side of the table staring at guys going, “Man, I wish I was hanging easy at a comic book convention.”

Now, I’m an iced tea kinda guy. Always have been. What gets me through a con are gallons of it. And I hold it in like a camel. I hold the line at the table. I’m the Rock of Gibraltar.  That’s how I make it look easy.

CB, he’s a salesman, but like any good promoter, he has to fuel his creativity via vices. Sometimes it’s a glass of rhubarb soda. Sometime it’s another type of carbonated beverage.  He’s the schmoozer.  The guy that’s wheeling and dealing for our next gig, while I’m trying to unload the previous ones.  That’s how we operate.  All of it for one thing and one thing alone:

To get paid to use our imaginations.  See?  Told you it was dangerous.

Because getting paid for your brain juice means that your brain must be in tip top form.  Like a shark, it must be in constant motion: Creating, moving, thinking upon the next thing and hopefully the next BIG thing.

There are only two kinds of people at convention; those that are helping us and speed bumps.  Helpers are nurtured, rewarded and thanked.  Speed bumps must be destroyed quietly, discreetly.

Fans are the biggest helpers.  Without them, you are pissing into the wind.  Most fans are honest, hardworking people that want nothing more than to meet the people whose brain juice they have sipped.  They chat and most importantly, they buy.  Buying is helpful.  That buying helps remove copies from our basements, spreads the word of our great brain juice and gives us money to buy iced tea and carbonated rhubarb.  Even fans that are speed bumps can be won over with time and patience.

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I guess if Aquaman‘s archenemy is the biggest black supervillain, then there probably is a problem: Vince Moore has a pretty interesting piece up over at Comics Waiting Room about the dearth of great black supervillains, and he casts about for the biggest names—Black Manta, Moses Magnum—while wondering why there aren’t more and better black villains. Is Apocalypse black? Does he count? I certainly can’t think of any others; do you guys have any suggestions? Anyway, it’s an interesting question, and an interesting piece.

Oh wow, that’s Batman’s happy face?: Here’s another particularly strong panel from The Daily Batman. Do visit it often, and then I won’t feel compelled to link to it in, like, every one of these link round-ups.

Christopher Bird Is Evil: Bird gives Mark Waid and Peter Krause’s Irredeemable the “Honesty In Comic Book Covers” treatment. If you haven’t seen any of these before, do click on previous ones.

Oh thank God: I realize I may be the only comic book reader who thinks of the next Spider-Man movie as the next Kirsten Dunst movie instead of the next Spider-Man movie or next Sam Raimi movie, so maybe you won’t be as excited by this headline as I am, but, “Kirsten Dunst Returning For Spider-Man 4.” Huzzah!

“It’s just story, and it moves, and I can get the characters from the way they act”: One of the best barometers by which to gauge whether or not what you might think is a good comic book is actually a good comic book or not is to check and see what Comic Book Virgin Nina Stone thinks of it. Like, what does someone who didn’t even know that Dick Grayson used to be Robin think of the last week’s Batman and Robin #1?

She liked it:

I love that I find out in this issue that not only did Nightwing become Batman, but that he used to be Robin, too. Now I’m sure you all know that. But I didn’t. I’ve read some Nightwing comics, but all I can remember is that the art was kind of boring and he was always hang gliding in New York. But it’s written in so well here, it seems to come up naturally and move right along within the story. This little formula looks like it’s going to make for dramatic tension at its best…

I’m excited to keep up with this one. That doesn’t mean I’ll be reading it regularly, but I could see myself asking somebody about it after they read it.

Much more at the link.

So while I was making some epic cross-state drives this weekend, I came across a new product: Strawberried Peanut Butter M&Ms.

I sadly purchased a pack. And after eating one, I pretty much felt just like this:

Which, after seeing this ad in Entertainment Weekly, then sets me up for an easy joke about wanting to punch this guy in the nuts.*

[Thanks to SlashFilm for the ad news]

*(Either almonds or peanuts, of course.)

Yeah, you read that right.

Topless Robot has posted a link about that most geeky of purchases: a Star Trek coffin. So when you do go to the Final Frontier, your family (if you have one) will remember all the times you dressed up as a Klingon and attacked the cat with your bat’leth.

And don’t worry, if you’re setting phasers to “cremate”: there’s also a Star Trek urn, too.

If you’re interested in going out in — well, I can’t exactly call it “style” — check out Eternal Image for pricing details. And be prepared for your mother to disown you.

Hello, Avon calling!

Variety has reported that the master of eerie suburban subversion, Tim Burton, will be getting his own exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City starting on November 22.

This makes a lot of sense for the visually-oriented director, who left an indelible mark on the first two Batman films’ towering concrete skyline, as well as the weird trees and horror-inspired visuals in Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, and Sweeney Todd.

“It’s easier for me to think things through visually instead of verbally, so it’s like a diary in that way,” Burton said to Variety. “I have so many drawings. I never look at the stuff — I just keep doing it.”

The exhibit will hold 700 pieces of work created by Burton, including drawings, storyboards, maquettes, and puppets, as well as unseen work from the Disney films the Fox and the Hound (what?!) and the Black Cauldron. It is being sponsored by the Sci Fi Channel.

It’s Wednesday, and I have to leave for work in a few, and I’m getting adjusted to a new comic shop that doesn’t automatically pull things for me that I might like (I miss you, Brave New Worlds!)

However, it is a pretty bloody amazing comics week, what with a new Anna Mercury and the next Unwritten, the new Young Liars trade and this little book you might’ve heard of called DMZ, with this Ryan Kelly guy doing a guest spot on art. There’s also Fables, and a few other things I might pick up, but as always, I’m looking at you for suggestions.

Our very own Lan Pitts has made an Iron-ic discovery for Iron Man 2:

Take a look here with Mickey Rourke as Whiplash. Interesting enough though, they made him Russian (hence the Russian prison tattoos and the rumors about him playing Crimson Dynamo). Mr. Comeback Kid has also stated that his dialogue in the movie is more than half in Russian. Talk about dedication. We’re not quite sure what’s going on in the picture, it sort of seems like a weapons display. Him being in his prison attire maybe we are to assume he’s used as a guinea pig for the weapons. He looks pretty damn gangster.

[Link via USA Today]

Three great, A-list actors with nerd street cred are all celebrating birthdays today. So let’s all join in and wish happy birthdays to:

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Laura Lee, who does a pretty rad rendition of “My Sharona” in addition to her artistic skills, was introduced to me as another new New Yorker at the CBLDF party on Saturday night.

Her comic, Sealed: Growing Up Tupperware, is up on the Act-I-Vate site (if you aren’t checking out their webcomics regularly, you are missing out). It’s a quirky tale of growing up in a home defined by her mother’s Tupperware sales career, and the effects on her burgeoning feminism.

Sealed is destined for inclusion in an upcoming anthology called “The Big Feminist But” that is collecting comics about navigating the strange “post-feminist” world we live in. If it’s any indication of the type of work they’re getting, I’m going to love the collection.

Lee’s comic is full of hilarious little footnotes that made me giggle out loud in between observations about her family history with Tupperware. Versions of Tupperware ads are layered into the panels, which might feel parodic if Lee didn’t have a deep love for her subject that comes from having really thought about its effects on her character.

Her pages flow nicely, her panels layered and blended into one another and her art charming and distinctive–it reminds me of something I’ve seen before, but at the same time I can’t think of anything it looks like. The soft green tones have the comforting feeling of Tupperware itself.

Rumor has it that Lee is working on a graphic novel, and I for one am looking forward to it. There’s no good reason, though, for you not to check out her work on the Web. It’s free!

Oh Perez Hilton, Miss America’s not a beauty pageant competitor, she’s a red, white and blue Golden Age superheroine, and she’ll be starring in this week’s Miss America Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1, the latest in Marvel’s line of ridiculously long titled one-shots pairing all-new adventures of Golden Age heroes with classic Golden Age reprints.

They haven’t published a bad one yet, and some of them have been just excellent, so I imagine this one will follow suit.

The new story is by Jen Van Meter and Andy MacDonald, and there are some back-up stories featuring the, um, Whizzer. Who runs so fast that he, like, whizzes right by you. That’s why he has that codename. Not the other reason you might be thinking. The main site has a preview here; MacDonald’s art sure looks nice.

As for the rest of the week’s new releases, join me after the jump for an overview.

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If you like what you’ve read so far (c’mon, how can you not?) totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

This one is making the internet rounds, and is just plain full of win. Liquid Generation put this together, and it’s a ridiculous 100 “best lines” from movies in a bit over 3 minutes. Enjoy the nonsense, and see if your favorite line is in there.

That’s a terrible attempt at keeping a sad situation light. We missed this last week, but apparently another high profile member of the Wizard Magazine crew has been fired. This time around, it’s Arlene So, a designer that did the flashy layouts the magazine’s features always showed off.

Add this to the troubles we reported on a couple weeks ago with their Amazon Store, the massive layoffs over the last few months, the closing of their upstate New York office, the ending of Anime Insider, the ridiculous turnover of the convention staff, including organizers that were much beloved, the “postponement” of Wizard World LA… the list is getting rather long, and if anything seems to be picking up steam.

With fond memories, as a child, of reading Wizard magazine for the latest in comic news, and fond memories, as an adult, of attending Wizard World cons, this is far from a happy occasion for me. Luckily, with a group like Reed Exhibitions stepping up to bat, and only having to focus on cons, not on the ridiculous overhead of print, that aspect seems to be filled. You’ve heard that video killed the radio star, well it seems internet is killing the novelty mag, and this is the latest hole in its chest.

[via TCR]

UPDATE: Even as we were running with this story, we’re hearing of more layoffs. Bleeding Cool reported on the dismissals of Scott Klein and Darren Sanchez. Klein was company controller, and Sanchez was VP of production and circulation. Bleeding Cool also reiterates what we reported recently: the troubles with Wizard’s online sales. We’ll have more as this develops.

Probably the coolest thing you’ll see on the web today right here. Sorry to apoil the internet for you the rest of the day, but this is just too cool:

In honor of Gundam’s 30th Anniversary, they’ve built a life size model. Unfortunately, this means a war between Earth and the Space Colonies is bound to happen soon, so any teenagers out there in Tokyo should get ready to stumble upon this behemoth and have some natural intuition on how to use it. Everyone else, just drool at the awesome, and click through the link above for more pictures of this bad boy.

[via Twitter]

While not a sales juggernaut like some artists (*cough* Hitch *cough* Lee *cough), artist Chris Sprouse does have a dedicated fanbase… one of which I am a part of.  So it’s great news to read on Sprouse’s blog this week an update on his comics projects. He’s currently at work on a new Tom Strong miniseries with writer Peter Hogan called Tom Strong: Robots of Doom. While original writer and co-creator Alan Moore isn’t returning to the character, Moore has given the blessing for his co-creators to continue on the ABC creations if they would like (such as the recent Top 10 miniseries).

According to an earlier blog post by Sprouse, the plan is to do several miniseries “so that Tom Strong can live on–Hellboy-style–as an ongoing series of self-contained mini-series.” While this new miniseries hasn’t been official solicited by DC/Wildstorm/ABC (is that confusing?) yet, this writer expects a Late Fall 2009 release.

Looking to give back to the comic book community?

There are few organizations that help creators more than the Hero Initiative, which helps out creators in financial or medical need. (And the Hero Initiative has also had some cool incentives for signing up, including free gift packages at some of the Comic Cons nationwide.)

However… the time to sign up is getting limited.

Hero’s Jim McLauchlin announced that sign-ups for 2009 would end June 30, 2009, because “we’d just kinda feel badly taking your money for a yearly membership when you’re only there half a year.” However, hope is not lost, as they are planning some major surprises for 2010 — but if you sign up now, you can (A) renew your membership in 2010 for discounted price, (B) if you sign up at the Philadelphia Comic Con, they promise a special incentive, as well as all the new premiums and events in 2010!

Marvel has announced that Activision has released a fun online minigame for those who just can’t wait to get your Civil War on!

With Civil War Online, you can put together teams of four heroes, to play on an online board, with the outcome of these individual battles being tallied out for a global count. Based on my current count, it’s looking like the Anti-Registration heroes are enjoying a lead of about 23.

This will reflect at least some of the storyline for the upcoming game Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion, which will chronicle the struggle between Captain America and Iron Man over the Superhuman Registration Act. This next-gen systems game is due out in the fall.

Abe Sapien, the psychic humanoid amphibious paranormal investigator of Hellboy fame, gets the deluxe treatment with this super-sized figure. Standing a towering eighteen inches tall, this Abe Sapien is faithful to the design of Abe as seen in Hellboy 2:The Golden Army. Abe features fifteen points of articulation, removable goggles, and removable breathing apparatus.

Abe will be available at San Diego Comic Con in July 2009 or through Mezco Direct at
http://www.mezcotoyz.com/store/detail.aspx?ID=728

Abe Sapien photos by Jason Jerde.