Saturday, July 4
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Need a little bit of music with your webcomic? Well, look no further!
Matthew Petz, creator of the supernatural western adventure The Corpse Carries A Gun, has written a nice little theme song for his Zuda comic.
You can rock out to the song here, and learn more about the series by clicking here!
This week kicked off with some interesting news, with Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus announcing that the ailing entertainment company would be assuming the reins of FunFare, a toy magazine aimed at younger children.
Yet at the same time, we’ve also heard reports of even more layoffs, in addition to general complaints about Wizard’s online store. With competition looming in the convention department, and Wizard’s staff and funds shrinking to the point of consolidating into one New York office, what’s the company’s next step?
You may be surprised, but apparently it’s taking over a new convention — in Toronto.
According to the Beat, Wizard has announced that it has purchased the Toronto Comicon. “We’ve always had a strong following in Canada, so buying the Toronto Comicon is something that allows me to give back to our fans. These attendees are known to be serious collectors and comic industry followers,” Shamus said in a press release. “I am thrilled to offer the guests, celebrities, artists, dealers and exhibitors to our Canadian audience for the very first time.”
Peter Dixon, the former owner of the con, will be “intimately involved” with the new management, who are scheuled to debut the all-new, all-different con in 2010. But with Wizard’s shrinking fortunes, is this a sound reinvestment strategy, or a Hail Mary in the face of opposition from exhibitors like Reed and websites like, well, us? What say you, Rama readers?
Need something emblematic when you’re reading about Niko, Chase, and company? Look no further!
Marvel editor Nick Lowe has put together a theme song for the cult series, which is now on Marvel.com. MTV has a music video for the whole thing, which you can see above!
IDW has posted on their blog that Linkin Park has released a video for “New Divide,” the theme for the upcoming film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
The soundtrack will be available in stores on June 23rd.
I, uh… well, there’s really no good way of introducing this, is there?
No lie, I can’t really put these two icons together without feeling a little bit uncomfortable. But Marvel has done the impossible, making a two-part comic mixing Eminem and the Punisher! The book is due out May 5.
To me, however, this cover of XXL Magazine is additionally interesting because of the weird history Eminem has had with comics: anyone who has read Wanted will know that J.G. Jones specifically modeled the character of Wesley Gibson off of the Great White Rapper.
Yet when rumors swirled around Eminem possibly taking the role in the comics’ film adaptation, he flatly refused, as he accused Mark Millar of exploiting his name to garner hype for the film: as Rap Basement explained, “since the creator of the comic not only lied about Eminem being attached but didn’t even run it by Eminem’s people, his camp didn’t consider the project anymore.” Also, the genre film Jumper apparently also was considering having Eminem star. I can’t even imagine what that would have looked like.
And yet, at the same time, Eminem also wrote NSFW songs called Superman, and regularly references the superhero in other songs like Rain Man (granted, this was probably more due to the Christopher Reeve jokes rather than any affection for Clark Kent). And of course, in his song Real Slim Shady, Eminem has his own Buttman-style character, which you can see here.
Now discuss.
Capcom’s Dark Void, a Sci-Fi “Vertical” 3rd Person shooter looks to bring some new mechanics (namely jetpacks and mostly vertical levels) and an engaging story to the 3rd person shooter field. Now, they’ve gotten some help from composer Ben McCreary. While the name may not be a household one, most Sci-Fi fans have heard his music. McCreary provided score for the recently completed Battlestar Galactica re-imagining, as well as Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. According to the press release, this is his first video game score:
“When I got the call from Capcom to work on the music for Dark Void, I jumped at the chance to do it, considering my love for Capcom games.” said McCreary. “I have been looking for the opportunity to compose a game score for a long time, but I’ve been waiting for the right one. Dark Void’s epic story and unique gameplay drew me in immediately and I have had a lot of fun working on the project.”
So at least the music is sure to be awesome! Gamers can find out if the rest of the game is, too, on August 25, 2009, the currently scheduled release date.
Rock Band may not be “genre” in the sense we usually speak of here, but just about everybody has played it or its competitor, and they are games nearly universally liked, so I thought this bore a mention here. So often, in an economic downturn, charity is forgotten. As bad as things may be for some, it is always relative. That makes it especially nice to hear that MTV Games and Harmonix have made a donation of 650 Rock Band bundles to hospitals and Starlight Children’s Foundation Great Escape events. In addition, they’re providing funds for families with chronically or terminally ill children to attend Rock Band Tour concert events, and are sponsoring more Great Escape events for the kids and their families to get away for awhile and enjoy activities that take a back seat when medical bills are in the forefront, including behind-the-scenes looks at the already released and upcoming games. The “minimum $50,000″ donation may not sound like much, but that makes for quite a bit of fun, distracting gaming for hospitalized kids across the U.S. Bravo, MTV and Harmonix. Rock on.
It’s a small, small world when it comes to the comics industry.
MTV has reported that Gerard Way, the writer of the critically-acclaimed Dark Horse series The Umbrella Academy, will be leading his band My Chemical Romance for a track on the upcoming Watchmen movie soundtrack.
Way and Company will apparently be contributing a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row.” The song will be released January 27th.
I am an unabashed, hardcore fan of Nerdcore Hip-Hop. For the uninitiated, Nerdcore is a movement by underground do-it-yourselfers who happen to be nerds and geeks, seeking to bring storytelling and topical conversation back to hip-hop. You won’t hear raps about guns and hos in these rhymes. Instead you’re more likely to hear about Star Wars, video games, comic books, and the latest technology. Being a fan of such rappers as MC Lars, MC Frontalot, YTCracker, Optimus Rhyme, and many others, I was excited to hear that RAVAGE aka MeccaGodZilla sparked a new personality, Ryu Black, for a single about Chun Li that will be followed by an album in 2009. The entire album will be Street Fighter themed, in honor of the Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li movie coming next year, along with Street Fighter IV. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, besides having the awesomest title of any game in recent memory, just came out on PSN and Xbox LIVE, as well. Check out the killer love song to Chun Li at THIS LINK HERE and head HERE for more of RAVAGE’s beats.
The Dark Knight leads the nominations for the 35th annual People’s Choice Awards, with seven nods in such categories as Favorite Movie, Favorite Action Movie, Favorite Cast and Favorite Superhero.
Iron Man received five nominations, including Favorite Movie, Favorite Action Movie and Favorite Superhero.
Fans may vote for their favorites in each category beginning today at the People’s Choice Awards website. Voting ends on Dec. 7. The winners will be announced Jan. 7 during a ceremony broadcast on CBS.
Other noteworthy nominees are Angelina Jolie (Wanted) for Favorite Female Movie Star and Favorite Female Action Star, Will Smith (Hancock) for Favorite Male Action Star and Favorite Superhero, and Heroes for Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show.
The full list of nominees can follows after the break:
To close out the day, here are 13 fun & frightening links — some comic related, some not — to enjoy …
• Splash Page has a preview of Dark Horse Comics’ upcoming Creepy archive.
• Great Caesar’s Post has been running horror posts for the past couple of weeks, including Iron Man pumpkins and Hellboy stories.
• The Beat has the complete “Teratoid Cystoma” from Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack Volume 1 as a Halloween treat.
• Bruce Springsteen has a free song about the Jersey Devil up on his site for Halloween.
• Check out one of the special features from the upcoming Hellboy II DVD release.
• Marvel.com talks to various creators about terrifying moments in comics.
• Character Design looks at various characters from Nightmare Before Christmas.
• Neil Gaiman shows the one-sheet poster for the upcoming adaptation of his book Coraline.
• Freddy Krueger, registered offender.
• I’ve had this nightmare before.
• And finally, Halloween is a good time to check out Necessary Monsters if you haven’t yet.
Happy Halloween!
Eisner winner Chuck BB is working on a comic starring the rock band Hinder for Devil’s Due Publishing.
“The band’s ability to tell stories in their songs makes this a good marriage,” Stephen Christy of Devil’s Due Publishing told USA Today. “It doesn’t hurt that there’s always a ton of hot girls hanging around them.” No release date for the book was given.
(Via Irene Gallo)
A few minutes after I finished posting that old Batman clip in my previous post, Jeff Trexler emailed me to let me know that Neal Hefti, who wrote the theme to the 1960s Batman song, died on Saturday.
The New York Times reports that the 85-year-old composer died “suddenly from an undetermined cause.” In addition to his work for Hollywood on shows like Batman and The Odd Couple, he was also a noted jazz trumpeter, arranger, conductor and record producer who worked with Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Mel Tormé and Tony Bennett.
“He told me he tore up more paper on Batmanthan on any other work he ever did,” his son Paul told the Times. “He had to find something that worked with the lowest common denominator, so it would appeal to kids, yet wouldn’t sound stupid. What he came up with was a 12-bar blues with a guitar hook and one word.”
KISS is joining Indiana Jones, Optimus Prime and Spider-Man by being immortalized in potato form — as a set of Mr. Potato Heads. The toys hit the stage in 2009.
I’m pretty sure that “What comic-book character would you like to play?” has replaced “Would you like to direct some day?” — or maybe “So, who are you wearing?” — as the question to be lobbed at Hollywood types.
As evidence, I present MTV’s Splash Page, which corners Garbage singer-turned-actor Shirley Manson, who’s in her first role in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
“I’d love to play Catwoman,” says Manson, who throws her name into the hat along with everyone from Angelina Jolie to … Cher.
“She’s supposed to be difficult,” she says, referring to Catwoman, not Jolie or Cher. “I just think Catwoman hasn’t really been fully realized yet. Certainly I haven’t seen it. Halle Berry wasn’t quite right. And while I liked Michelle Pfeiffer, to a certain degree, I didn’t think she was dangerous. She was more cute than fierce. Not enough of the beast in her. If you’re going to embody a cartoon character like that, you have to be a bit more inexplicable, intangible. Make it more of a mystery.”
I first heard the words “Chumble Spuzz” at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, during the SLG panel. “I like anything that makes me laugh,” SLG publisher Dan Vado said about the book, which at the time was being serialized on their EyeMelt website before the collection came out. He promised a pig possessed by Satan and an over-the-top story, which is exactly what creator Ethan Nicolle delivered in that first volume.
The second volume of Chumble Spuzz came out right before this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, featuring many of the same characters in different but equally as over-the-top situations. Heck, maybe even more so. I interviewed Nicolle over email last week about both books, conventions, poop jokes and working with his brother.
JK: So first off, San Diego … how did the show go for you?
Ethan: I’ve been going to San Diego every year since 2002. This was my first year with books published on SLG, along with a stack of books over at Bad Karma Productions in small press. I brought my brother along, who co-wrote on Chumble Spuzz book 2. We had a blast. I made some awesome contacts this year, and it was awesome how many people knew about my book. BJ Novak, from The Office, stopped my table at the SLG booth. That was cool. But I think the best part of Comic Con is always the group of close geek friends I have that I don’t get to see but about once a year. And slave Leias.
Comic retailer Joe Ferrara, owner of the awesome shop Atlantis Fantasyworld in Santa Cruz, Calif., will attempt to “set a world record for a solo performance by an individual in a club setting without repeating a song or using sheet music or lyric sheets.” He starts at 10 a.m. Sept. 14 and ends at 10 p.m. in the Rock Room Lounge at the Shadowbrook Restaurant in Capitola, Calif.
From the press release:
September is National Prostate Cancer awareness month. “The average woman has a working knowledge of the facts about breast cancer,” says Ferrara, a three-year survivor of prostate cancer. “The average man knows almost nothing about prostate cancer. I hope to change that.”
The event promises to be a challenge. “I know over 400 songs,” says fifty-nine year old Ferrara. “I play folk, standards, soft rock, show tunes and classic rock so material is not the problem. However, I’m only allowed a five-minute break every hour! I plan to save them up and only take four breaks but we’ll see if Mother Nature has other plans!” Ferrara hopes folks will take a few minutes out of their day to help him set the record. “Come for five minutes or five hours it doesn’t matter. Request a song and even sing a long”, he says. “Just come have a good time. I can’t set the record without an audience.”
Information about prostate cancer will be available during the event. Members of the Santa Cruz County Prostate Cancer Support Group will also be in attendance to answer any questions
More information can be found on the Atlantis Fantasyworld site. You might recognize the shop, as it was featured in the film Lost Boys.
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