My apologies to our entrants for taking so long to post this, but I finally have the results of our Blog@ Go Team Blaze! Movie Review Contest. So here we go …

Our first winner is Martin Allen, who wrote and emailed his review to me specifically for the contest:

Spider-Man has nothing to worry about. Ghost Rider will not soon replace him in public hearts.

The film’s first reel is its best, relating Johnny Blaze’s youth and the deal with the devil he has made. Nicholas Cage brings goofy charm to Blaze, gobbling jellybeans from a martini glass and grooving to the Carpenters between death-defying motorcycle jumps, pushing his limits while waiting for the contract on his soul to come due. Unfortunately, he is soon replaced by a characterless, digitally generated Spirit of Vengeance, battling against Blackheart, son of Mephistopheles, in a series of increasingly dull face-offs.

Some game performances surround the noise. Cage works hard, and Eva Mendes tries valiantly to put some emotion into her role as his long-lost love, even though so much of the budget went to special effects that they were unable to afford top buttons for any of her shirts.
Despite a nice set-up, however, these characters are soon lost in a flurry of computer-on-computer violence as Ghost Rider battles a gang of elemental demons. This group is certainly the worst part of the film, a snickering band of emo-affected nincompoops in costumes straight out of 1987’s The Lost Boys, but with far more questionable facial hair. When they are finally dispatched via flaming chain, the viewer is not cheered at the defeat of evil, but simply relieved to finally have them off-screen. Given such unthreatening and frankly annoying villains, victory seems both assured from the start, and anticlimactic when it arrives.

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So I was supposed to get free tickets to go see Ghost Rider, but instead of sending me passes they sent me four “Team Blaze” hats and four Ghost Rider wallets — with chains! Y’know, for swinging around and hitting people like the Spirit of Vengeance does. Here’s the hat; I’d post a picture of the wallet, but its awesomeness would likely cause havoc and chaos, which nobody wants:

Anyway, I’ve already got a favorite baseball cap and I’m not a wallet/chain combo kind of guy, so I’m passing these bad boys on to you in the form of the official Blog@ Go Team Blaze! Movie Review Contest. That’s right — review Ghost Rider, win a cap and wallet — with chain! Here’s the deal:

1. Email me a review of the Ghost Rider movie, 250 words or less. If you’ve reviewed the movie on your blog already, feel free to just send me a link (over 250 words is fine in that case). If you haven’t seen the movie, then review your favorite Ghost Rider comic. If you haven’t read a Ghost Rider comic, then write a 250-word essay about why you don’t care about Ghost Rider. (Tip: If you do this, it’s very unlikely you’re going to win).
2. Include your name and address. I’m going to need those if you win.
3. I will read your reviews and pick out four that make me laugh, cry, etc. Those four will win a hat and wallet, and I’ll post the reviews on the site. Prizes AND fame. Wohoo.
4. Deadline is end of day Monday, Feb. 26. If nobody enters, the hats and wallets will likely go to Goodwill. Or to my fellow Blog@ contributors as Christmas gifts this year.

Enter early and often!

For anyone wondering what happened to Kevin Melrose’s Comics, Covered feature, Kevin has decided to launch it as its own blog … again. Kevin explains:

I collect blogs like some people collect comics, or little ceramic owls.

It all began in October 2003, with Thought Balloons, which I wrote for about 1 1/2 years before helping to launch the horror blog Dark, But Shining in 2005. From there, I started a personal/work blog, and then the earlier incarnation of this blog, Comics, Covered.

Wait, I’m not done yet. I closed those two last year to join The Great Curve just before it became Blog@Newsarama. That brings us to today, and the new Comics, Covered.

Like the previous version, this one will focus on comic-book cover art and design. But here I’ll also post reviews and creator interviews, and write about all-ages and young-adult fiction, contemporary fantasy and whatever else piques my interest.

If you browse through the site you’ll find archived pieces that originally appeared at Blog@Newsarama, Comic Foundry and on the previous version of this blog. And shortly, the new content will begin to appear.

Next week, Kevin reveals how Fenton & Fenton grew up to be accountants …

I want to throw out another big “Welcome” to another new member of the Blog@ family, Chris Mautner! Chris will be helping out around here with the daily blogging chores. You might know Chris from his blog, Panels & Pixels, as well as from his column, Graphic Lit, at the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Watch for posts from Chris to start popping up later today …

I want to throw out a big “Welcome” to the newest member of the Blog@ family, Wayne Beamer! Wayne’s going to be helping us out with the daily blogging chores, filling the opening we had when Chris Hunter left us earlier this month.

For a preview of what’s to come, check out his blog, Illustrated Fiction, and watch for posts from Wayne to start popping up later today …

I’ve been meaning to get this up for a couple of days, but a nasty eye infection kept me away from the computer. I wanted to let our readers know about a couple of changes to our Blog@Newsarama line-up:

First off, due to school and other “real life” events taking up a lot of his time, Chris Hunter is leaving Blog@Newsarama. Chris has been with us since the beginning and was with the blog’s predecessor, The Great Curve, for even longer than that. When I first joined The Great Curve back in 2005, Chris was one of three people (the others being Alex Segura and Tim O’Shea) who really helped get me up and running, as he handled a lot of the back-end stuff for the blog. And when Alex handed the reigns over to me when he left for DC Comics, Chris was a huge help on everything from the technical stuff to helping decide the direction of the blog. So Chris, thanks for everything and best of luck with school over the next few years.

And second, as one person leaves, another one comes back … I’m really excited to announce that Shane Bailey recently rejoined us and will be bringing back the Meanwhile … column later this month. With the recent death of the Comics Weblog Update, many of our readers thought now more than ever we needed something like Meanwhile … And who am I to argue, especially after Shane agreed to return? Between Shane and Melissa, who does Point/Counterpoint, we’ll have a great team covering what’s going on out there in the blogosphere.

So again, thanks and good luck to Chris, and welcome back Shane!

Coming out this March is a book near and dear to us here at Blog@, Half Dead, as “color nerd” Dean Welsh, the boyfriend of our own Stephanie Chan, is the colorist. It’s also a book with a history, as Steph said in an email earlier this week:

This is my boyfriend’s first book as a colourist. It was originally going to be published by Speakeasy, but when it folded, the colourist found another gig. My boyfriend came on board for chapters 3-5 (last half of the book), after the Dabel Brothers picked it up.

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So, it’s the first week of 2007, so you’d think that Newsarama would be pretty slow, right…? Well, if it hadn’t been for Chuck Dixon, Tom Brevoort and Joe Quesada, that might’ve been the case. For those who haven’t had the time or the inclination to check out the mothership this week, this is what you missed.

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As I steal an image from Kevin’s Christmas covers post, I wanted to take the opportunity to wish our readers a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukkah, Season’s Greetings and all that good stuff.

In the spirit of the season, our last gift to you before signing off for Christmas: holiday-themed links to explore after you’re done opening presents, drinking eggnog and watching the Eagles bow down before the might of the playoff-bound Dallas Cowboys. (Although how can you not like Brian Dawkins?)

Enjoy, and be sure to check back next week, as several of us will be around post-Christmas:

–Chip Zdarsky shares a holiday tale.

–Seven Hells has been counting down the ten heroes that could liven up your holiday party, from Jonah Hex to Mary Marvel.

–I remember seeing this for the first time a few years ago: Cecil and Britches in “No Santa Today.”

–Paul Pope illustrates what Reed gave the Thing this year.

–Paul Dini has a new Christmas-themed Rashy episode.

–Santa and Rudolph have been rescued.

–Fox’s the 24th:

–CNET’s Daniel Terdiman helps Spider-Man save Santa.

–The Edmonton Journal looks at high-end toys as last-minute gifts.

–Holiday fine print.

–And to top it off, a look back at some B@N holiday-related posts: Santa Claus’s greatest hits, Crime’s gonna need a miracle, ‘Twas the night before Week 33, Day 6…, Christmas, covered, Happy Holidays from ACT-I-VATE, Child’s Play charity raffle, ‘Tis the season, Spurgeon as Santa: Sack o’ conversation, Humbug, I say! Humbug!, Holiday Heroes Auction kicks off, Is this the press release of the holiday season?, Infinite Christmas? That’s sooo 2005, Does whatever a spider can. But in a fireman’s outfit, Nothing says ‘happy holidays’ like …, The gifts that just keep giving, Batman and Robin, last-minute shoppers, Fa la la la la, la la la la, What would Hiro want? The New Frontier, apparently and last but not least, our gift-giving guide, parts 1, 2 and 3.

Have a great holiday!

Congrats to our own Tom Bondurant, who has an essay that appears in the recently published Inside the World of Comics. It’s now available over on Amazon and at finer shops everywhere.

Three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree … following up on our gift-giving guides from last week, where we heard from various comic folks on Monday and Friday, our third and final gift-giving guide post features gift recommendations from the Blog @ Newsarama crew.

As with the pros, we answered two questions:

1. What comic-related gift or gifts would they recommend giving this year, and why?
2. What gift (comic or otherwise) is at the top of their personal wish list, and why?

So here we go …

Michael May

1. For the gamer in your life, Artesia: Adventures in the Known World is an unbelievable fantasy role-playing game that strikes a great balance between realism and ease-of-play. And since it takes place in the world of Mark Smylie’s excellent Artesia comic, it also includes all-new as well as reprinted art from that series.

2. So many, excellent Absolute editions are out now, but I’d be most happy with Absolute Sandman or Absolute New Frontier. I’ve been holding off on buying the Sandman trades for just such an occasion, and somehow I successfully ignored the praise of everyone in the world and didn’t read New Frontier as it came out. Now I’m itching to read it for the first time and the Absolute edition is the way to do that.

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Following up on the merriment from earlier this week, we have a second round of holiday gift ideas from folks out in the comics community. Again, we asked them …

1. What comic-related gift or gifts would they recommend giving this year, and why?
2. What gift (comic or otherwise) is at the top of their personal wish list, and why?

We’ll have part three on Monday, featuring suggestions by the Blog@ crew. And props to Mark Engblom, who provided the cartoon up above. Go check out his blog to see more of his stuff, or visit his Cafe Press shop if you want greeting cards, an ornament or anything else with the above artwork on it.

And without further ado, let’s go shopping …

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‘Tis the season for merrymaking, the decking of halls, lighting the menorah and, of course, figuring out what to buy your friends and family. To help give you some ideas, we checked in with a few of our buddies to see:

1. What comic-related gift or gifts would they recommend giving this year, and why?
2. What gift (comic or otherwise) is at the top of their personal wish list, and why?

So pour a round of eggnog, throw another log on the fire and read on …

Scott Kurtz

1. This is going to be a little shameless, but I recommend a subscription to PvP: The Animated Series. The comic geek on your Christmas list will get a brand-new, fully animated PvP short every month all through 2007. It’s the gift that keeps on giving all year long. You can buy a subscription for your friend right off our website. Just enter in your buddy’s email address and a holiday greeting, and Santa will deliver his subscription ID and password right to his mailbox.

2. At the top of my list is the new super-mega Invincible hardcover book. It’s a giant brick of the best superhero comic book on the market. You would think that my friend Robert would just set me up with one, but no. I gotta ask for it for Christmas.

Scott Kurtz is the creator of PvP, the Eisner-winning online comic strip collected into comics form by Image. As Scott mentioned, it will be adapted into an animated web toon beginning in February.

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You may have noticed that our time stamps have gone wonky, resulting in several comments made earlier today showing up with tomorrow’s date. And comments responding to those comments having the correct time stamp, so they appear before the comments they were responding to, and the whole world turning topsy turvy … dogs and cats, living together … pure hysteria.

Anyway, our crack squad has fixed the posts and is working on the comments. Hopefully we’ll have it all resolved soon.

And so, we come to the end of Kleid’s little stint blogging at Newsarama.

It’s been fun – I hope you all learned something and were exposed (in the, ah, legal way) to some creators you might not have known and along the way were entertained. Thanks to John Parkin for the opportunity and everyone who participated in the interviews. I had fun, and I’m hoping you all did too.

What does the future hold for me? Starting in 2007 I’ll be rolling out a series of projects – graphic novels, webcomics and more – and as always, I can be found writing TODT HILL at www.chemsetcomics.com and my serialized novel, COFFIN.I can be found blogging regularly here and on message boards across the internet.

To recap:

The Five Kickass Creators You Should Know:
Dean Trippe, Jane Irwin, K Thor Jensen, Josh Fialkov, Kevin Colden

Writers on Writing:
Warren Ellis, Marc Bernardin, Chip Zdarsky, Andrew Dabb, Geoff Johns

Features:
Graphic Design with Antony Johnston, Webcomics: The Chemistry Set Roundtable, Anthologies with Brandon, Hasselberger and Rodriguez, 20 Questions for 20 Years of SLG: Dan Vado , Civil War PSAs: One and Two

The Kleid Link of the Day:
Coffin, Migdal David, Todt Hill

What I Bought and Didn’t for October 18, 2006

Well. That’s kind of impressive when you look at them all together.

Thanks for reading – see you all in the comics pages.

-Kleid

Earlier this week Graeme posted about creators who answer fan emails. Neil Kleid, writer of Ursa Minors!, Brownsville and Todt Hill, among others, answered an email I sent him a few weeks ago, which led to him agreeing to guest blog with us all next week. We’ll see if he adds my email to his spam filter after next Friday …

Seriously, we’re thrilled to have him on board, and he has some great things lined up for next week. To give you some background on our latest contributor, we asked Neil a few questions …

B@N: First off, welcome to Blog@Newsarama. We appreciate you taking the time to play in our sandbox this week. For those who may not be familiar with your work, can you give us the rundown on your current comic projects?

Neil: Hey, thanks for letting me play. I’ll try to keep the toilet seat down while I’m here.

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With Graeme off gallivanting around the globe and Kevin in recovery, I bet you were thinking you’d be stuck with me doing the daily linkblogging shuffle. Lucky for you, I’m not that mean.

Instead, we’re bringing in some special guests to pitch in. Joining us for the next few weeks is Rich Watson, who generously agreed to help us out in our time of need. You might know Rich from his blog, Glyphs, or his columns at Comic World News and PopCultureShock. Welcome aboard, Rich!

Fenton & Fenton, Boy Detectives will return tomorrow eventually. We apologize for the delay.

… which likely means no, or very limited, blogging from us. I know I’m not blogging any more today. While Superboy looks for a job, I’ll try to meet a deadline. (I was going to go with a cover featuring Hercules, but thought it might be, I don’t know, too on the nose.) Enjoy your holiday.

Just wanted to let everyone know we have two new contributors joining us.

First up is Carla Hewitt, who you may know from her blog Snap Judgments. Carla’s new weekly feature will premiere tomorrow afternoon, so be sure to check back then.

Secondly, Melissa Krause, who wrote today’s edition of Meanwhile …, has agreed to take over the column full time. You can also find her at her own blog, Pretty, Fizzy Paradise and at When Fangirls Attack.

Welcome aboard, ladies!