NOTE: The Phelps thing is included here because I wrote this before I had a chance to look and see everyone was already writing about it, and I don’t care to change it.

There are not one, but two issues of The Gold Exchange currently fermenting on my computer (I’ve written interview questions, but not the stories to go with them, for Dan Jurgens on Time Masters #1 and J.M. DeMatteis on Booster Gold #34), and a quick once-over of my contributor page reveals that really, other than Best Shots, I haven’t done just about anything for Newsarama lately that didn’t have to do with Booster or Savage Dragon. So it’s time for a quick linkblog, where I’ll touch on a number of issues that I’ve had waiting in my e-mail for a while.

First of all, because it’s this weekend, I should point out that Zach Roberts (editor of 2008′s Steal Back Your Vote comics anthology and director of the upcoming film The Rogue Candidate, of which I’m a producer) sent me a link to a Gizmodo article that Fred Phelps and his merry band of lunatics (also called the Westboro Baptist Church, but as a Christian I can tell you that what they do has very little to do with church) have decided to visit Comic-Con this year. Desperate for press as always, they have decided that the convention is an abomination (of course, when you’re dealing with those guys, what isn’t?).  Says the “Church”: “The destruction of this nation is imminent – so start calling on Batman and Superman now, see if they can pull you from the mess that you have created with all your silly idolatry.” To counter this, Phelps-A-Thon has set up a San Diego page, where for every minute Phelps protests you can pledge money to support the CBLDF and the Hero Initiative. Check it out.

Ted Sikora, whose film Hero Tomorrow has been a small-scale sensation among comics fans and is one of those rare independent films to find a home on iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewMovie?id=350659540&s=143441&uo=4), has got a comic together based on the imaginary superhero Apama from the film. A review will be forthcoming on the comic itself, but check out the press release here and readthe comic for yourself here.

Again, this falls into the “more reviews to come” category, but I think it’s worth noting that Warner Brothers Home Video has got Comic Con covered, with three pretty decent-sized fanboy-friendly releases coming to home video this week. I received a box from Warner last week with Blu-Ray copies of Kevin Smith’s Cop Out, The Losers (based on the Vertigo comic) and the recent Clash of the Titans remake. All of them are hitting video within a week and all I can say is that the two I’ve seen so far were both better than I expected them to be–and the third (The Losers) is the only one I expected to actually be good. Cop Out and The Losers are both available On Demand right now if you’ve got Time Warner Cable.

Also from Warner Brothers: The Dark Knight came to iTunes recently in a special edition with a half an hour more unseen features. Says Warner Digital Distribution: “As part of our DC 75^th Celebration, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution has released THE DARK KNIGHT on iTunes with 31 Minutes of Bonus Content not available before on DVD or for Download.
http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/dd/med/darkknight/clips/dkdvdepkint_sfgu_batsuit-itunes_qt_500.mov
THE DARK KNIGHT with the Bonus Content is now on iTunes at: http://bit.ly/CR_TheDarkKnight”

Those of us in Syracuse never get to see any smaller titles becuase, frankly, Syracuse is kinda nowhere. Therefore, be excited that George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead (a sequel to Diary of the Dead, but with better reviews) is coming to the Palace Theatre in Syracuse on August 1 before its video release on August 24. More details…

J.M. DeMatteis (of Booster Gold, The Life and Times of Savior 28 and Ardden Entertainment fame) recently did a video interview for HarperKids to support Imaginalis, a just-released book of his. Check it out; most of the man’s best work has been outside of the Big Two for several years now.

More to come…!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 23rd, 2010 at 10:35 am and is filed under News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.