The Goon is well known for fighting all sorts of ghastly creatures – zombies, hags, giant squid – but one enemy has finally stopped him in his tracks. Sparkly vampires.

Now being sold at Hot Topic, Eric Powell’s beloved character from Dark Horse has made the jump to apparel in this limited edition t-shirt. Part of their “Dark Horse does vampires right!” campaign, something tells me Goon’s shock won’t last long and he’ll put those Twilight vampires to work.

I have no doubt who’d win that fight but can The Goon beat the Twilight vamps at the box office? The TBA release is completely computer animated with the voices of Clancy Brown as The Goon and Paul Giamatti as Franky. Powell is writing the script, David Fincher is producing and  Jeff Fowler and Tim Miller will direct.

The Twilight phenomenon is nothing new. It’s just the apotheosis of a sort of pop-cultural nosferatu makeover that has been chugging along since Anne Rice sent moody young romantics swooning with Interview With a Vampire way back in 1976. Purists may scoff at the melodrama and angst that have been infused into the sinister vampire archetype by authors like Stephenie Meyer or Laurell Hamilton, but nowadays, the real paroxysms of angst are coming from tormented horror fans who can’t stop moaning about the sparkling Nu-Vampire paradigm. Still, whining sourpuss fans should take heart. If you hunt hard enough, there are still plenty of counterpoints to the new moon that is rising, and even stories that integrate elements of the romanticized Nu-Nosferatu in a way even anti-Twilight curmudgeons can appreciate. Consider the following suggestions a sort of prescription for the current vampire epidemic going around, a treatment regime of literary inoculations and cinematic antidotes that can help you survive. (more…)

It’s not really all that surprising that someone with Matt Phelan’s background would end up making a graphic novel. Phelan’s a rather prolific illustrator, probably best known for picture book Always with writer Ann Stott and 2007 Newbery winnerThe Higher Power of Lucky with Susan Patron.

While illustrated books and comics are, of course, different media, it’s certainly possible to think of them on the same imaginary spectrum, with a comic being a little like an illustrated prose book with the dial that controls the picture-to-word ratio turned way up.

That seems as good an explanation as any as to why Phelan’s first graphic novelThe Storm In The Barn (Candlewick Press), is such an accomplished one—it’s basically just a very long picture book, with very few words, and more than one picture per page, you know?

It’s set in Kansas in 1937, during the Dust Bowl period that generated all of those sad Dorothea Lange photos in your junior high history class.

Our protagonist is Jack, an eleven-year-old boy whose family is suffering like all the other farming families. It hasn’t rained in years, and no rain means no farming, and no farming means nothing but poverty and dust as far as the eye can see.

(more…)

…cause it looks like it might actually be good. By Pitchfork standards, which are of course “If you’ve heard of it, it’s not cool anymore.” Well, not all the time, but often enough. While the blogger has to obnoxiously make sure that we know that he doesn’t know any of the character names in New Moon (yet of course he knows that it sucks–but I digress), he is shocked–shocked!–that artists like Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Grizzly Bear and Bon Iver are contributing tracks.

I shatter all my hipster cred constantly, so it will be no surprise to regular readers here that I like New Moon. Furthermore, I don’t like Radiohead. I find Thom Yorke’s voice far more grating than Stephenie Meyer’s dialogue, and I find pretentious indie rock bloggers more grating than either one.

Whatever, I’m just a nerd girl. But if you’re interested in the tracks on the soundtrack, here they are:

Twilight: New Moon Soundtrack:

01 Death Cab for Cutie: “Meet Me on the Equinox”
02 Band of Skulls: “Friends”
03 Thom Yorke: “Hearing Damage”
04 Lykke Li: “Possibility”
05 The Killers: “A White Demon Love Song”
06 Anya Marina: “Satellite Heart”
07 Muse: “I Belong to You (New Moon Remix)”
08 Bon Iver and St. Vincent: “Rosyln”
09 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: “Done All Wrong”
10 Hurricane Bells: “Monsters”
11 Sea Wolf: “The Violet Hour”
12 OK Go: “Shooting the Moon”
13 Grizzly Bear: “Slow Life”
14 Editors: “No Sound But the Wind”
15 Alexandre Desplat: “New Moon (The Meadow)”

My friend Tammy wrote a piece about the ladies of Wizard Rock (for the uninitiated, that’s bands spun out of the Harry Potter universe) and the new, growing subculture of, yes, Twilight rock.

But plenty of DIY communities, especially within the indie music scene, are male-dominated and less than female-friendly. The difference in wizard rock is the sheer number of women and girls making the music, and the extraordinary amount of encouragement wrockers and fans provide each other. Many men who are involved in wizard rock actively support their female peers, and the vast majority of wrock music avoids demeaning or stereotypical treatments of women.

Wizard rock has also paved the way for Twilight rock, a small but growing collection of musicians and bands devoted to making music inspired by Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling series. Mostly made up of solo acts and acoustic bands who sing from the perspective of the novel’s many characters, Twirock is overwhelmingly (and, given the book’s fan demographics, unsurprisingly) dominated by women. Katie Parr of the band Bella Rocks! says, “Obviously, Twirock is a branch of wizard rock. We’re still in our young stages, but we are related to them in almost every way.” But Twilight rock doesn’t seem to have the momentum that wizard rock had at the same time in its history, leaving one to wonder if Twilight’s female-dominated readership hinders the growth of its fan-based musical movement.

Most wizard and Twilight rockers will acknowledge that the treatment of women in their source materials is problematic, and some wrockers have also raised questions about gender issues in the scene.

I love when a creative work, whatever that work might be, spawns other creative work, and particularly since Twilight faces a lot of criticism for encouraging girls into traditional gender roles, it’s nice to see girls who love the books taking that love to a very untraditionally feminine place: fronting a rock band.
Of course, there’s the usual downside:

Although there’s no open feud, and a few wizard rockers even have Twirock side projects, Twirockers are often received in the same way that the public tends to characterize all Twilight fans: as screaming, silly girls.

Still, it’s a start. Maybe the more active and involved Twilight fans get, the easier it will be for people to take them seriously–at least as seriously as grown men who call themselves “Harry and the Potters.”

No, not from me this time. Just in case you can’t get enough Twilight and comics blogging, the fine folks at Comicopia have started a blog just for Twilight and comics–both the upcoming manga and Stephenie Meyer comic, and recommendations for comics that Twilight fans might like.

In the wake of all the disputes around SDCC and fangirls, it’s nice to see someone picking up the ball and making an active effort to get Twilight fans to be more involved with comics. There’s a ridiculous amount of people out there reading Meyer’s books, and if more of them were buying comics and coming into comic shops for merch, it would be a nice boost for the industry, whatever you think of the books (and by now you should know how I feel about ‘em).

A friend forwarded me this article on Slate on the new vampire phenomenon, and pointed out a piece of it that I haven’t thought much about: the new sexy vampires don’t actually drink blood. Or if they do, they don’t kill.

Yet, like many people who acquire mega-celebrity, the vampire has developed an eating disorder. Read the books. Watch the movies. You’ll see vampires who manage nightclubs, build computer databases, work as private investigators, go to prep school, lobby Congress, chat with humans, live near humans, have sex with humans, and pine over humans, but the one thing you won’t see them do is suck the blood of humans.

Grady Hendrix snarks on a lot of the most popular vampires of recent pop culture, starting with Anne Rice and moving on to the one that many of my peers grew up crushing on: Angel, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Faced with the impact of his diet on humans, Angel accepts a yucky, cruelty-free substitute, then endlessly lectures other vampires about their moral failings because they don’t do the same. He’s not a vampire—he’s a vegan.

I’ve more than once made the comparison of Angel to Edward Cullen in Twilight, but I hadn’t thought about the spiral this way: as one spinning from less and less consumption of human blood. (There are, of course, occasional recurrences of the bloodthirsty, evil vampires like those of 30 Days of Night, but I digress.)

But Hendrix doesn’t seem to actually be that up on the details of Buffy. Witness:

At least Angel, Anita Blake’s vampires, Sookie Stackhouse, and most of the rest of them have a lot of sex.

Well, I haven’t gotten around to Anita Blake or into True Blood yet, but I know my Buffy, and Angel didn’t have a lot of sex–because if and when he did, he lost his soul and turned evil. People love to compare Buffy to Twilight, but the fact is that Angel and Edward Cullen indeed have a lot in common. They can’t get it on with their human lady-loves, because something BAAAD could happen. They don’t drink blood, because they have consciences.

The whole story of both Angel and Edward Cullen, in other words, is that of the monster tamed by the woman he loves. The just-bad-enough boy who’s really a sweetheart on the inside. Sure, Buffy kicks Angel to the curb (after running him through with a sword) but soon enough she’s taken up with a new vampire–this one with a chip in his brain so he can’t, er, drink human blood.

I don’t agree with Hendrix’s faux concern for the way kids might be receiving mixed messages from their media, because I tend to read media for clues about the way we’re already heading, not look at it as something that shapes us. Pop culture as a symptom. So what does it signify to me that out of millions of books, I see more women (yes, grown women) on the subway reading Twilight books than anything else? After all, we’re adults. We’re not adolescent girls having our perception of men shaped by some sensitive emo-boy vampire. We already know that relationships are messy and fraught with danger.

True Blood is next on my Netflix list, so until then, I really can’t comment on the symbolism there, but this piece has set me thinking in yet another way about what it might be that we get from these defanged monsters. If you take away the blood drinking and sleeping in coffins (which neither Angel nor Edward do), what do you have but a boyfriend who never grows old?

Yesterday, Summit Entertainment took another step to piss off fangirls nationwide. They announced that Bryce Dallas Howard (best known to comic fans as Spider-Man 3‘s Gwen Stacy, or perhaps as Ron Howard’s daughter) would be replacing Rachelle Lefevre as Victoria, the one of the series’ baddest vampires, for Eclipse, the third movie in the series. Since Summit already sped on to make New Moon and Eclipse without Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the first film, I wasn’t too surprised that the reason given was “scheduling conflicts.”

Now, though, Lefevre’s statement seems to imply that there was something else behind her bump:

“I was stunned by Summit’s decision to recast the role of Victoria for Eclipse. I was fully committed to the Twilight saga, and to the portrayal of Victoria. I turned down several other film opportunities and, in accordance with my contractual rights, accepted only roles that would involve very short shooting schedules. My commitment to Barney’s Version is only ten days. Summit picked up my option for Eclipse. Although the production schedule for Eclipse is over three months long, Summit said they had a conflict during those ten days and would not accommodate me. Given the length of filming for Eclipse, never did I fathom I would lose the role over a 10 day overlap. I was happy with my contract with Summit and was fully prepared to continue to honor it. Summit chose simply to recast the part. I am greatly saddened that I will not get to complete my portrayal of Victoria for the Twilight audience. This is a story, a theatrical journey and a character that I truly love and about which I am very passionate. I will be forever grateful to the fan support and loyalty I’ve received since being cast for this role, and I am hurt deeply by Summit’s surprising decision to move on without me. I wish the cast and crew of Eclipse only the very best.“

Twilight is hardly Shakespeare, and I don’t have a problem with movies being a commercial product per se, but I don’t like the rush to capitalize on the success of the first film making subsequent ones suffer. This seems to be less of a scheduling conflict on Lefevre’s part and more of a calculated decision by the studio–is Howard that much more bankable a name than someone who’s already built the part through two films and will thus have fan loyalty?

Judging from her brief screen time in the first film, it certainly wasn’t Lefevre’s acting or looks that hurt her–who can forget the last shot of her walking down the stairs, shaking her mane of hair loose with a look on her face that needs no words to tell us that Bella is in deep trouble? The directors stuck with Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black despite obvious physical differences between him and his character–several inches in height, for a start–so why dump Lefevre just in time for the movie where she gets her biggest scene?

Update: Thursday 7/30 1245 Eastern: The Plot thickens. Over on SciFiWire, they have an interesting rebuttal from Summit, claiming, well, that it’s all her fault to begin with.

Here’s Summit’s reply:

Ms. Lefevre’s representatives were advised as early as April that THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE was expected to start shooting in early August.If Ms. Lefevre was, as she describes “passionate,” about being part of THE TWILIGHT SAGA, we feel that she and her representatives would have included us in her decision to work on another film that would conflict with the shooting schedule of THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE.

It was not until July 20th that Summit was first informed of Ms. Lefevre’s commitment to BARNEY’S VERSION, a commitment we have since been advised she accepted in early June. Summit had acted in good faith that she would be available to fulfill her obligations both in terms of rehearsals and shooting availability for THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE. We feel that her choice to withhold her scheduling conflict information from us can be viewed as a lack of cooperative spirit which affected the entire production.

Furthermore Ms. Lefevre took a role in the other film that places her in Europe during the required rehearsal time, and at least ten days of THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE’s principal photography. This period is essential for both rehearsal time with the cast, and for filming at key locations that are only available during the initial part of production.

Contrary to Ms. Lefevre’s statement, it is simply untrue that the Studio dismissed her over a ten day overlap. It is not about a ten day overlap, but instead about the fact that THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE is an ensemble production that has to accommodate the schedules of numerous actors while respecting the established creative vision of the filmmaker and most importantly the story.

If all that is factual, Summit may actually have a case for being “right” this time.

Robot 6 has an excellent roundtable up about girls and fandom and the drama over Twilight “invading” comic-con. I’m posting a few excerpts here, with my thoughts, but you really should read the whole thing.

Robin Brenner: I find it especially distressing that the SDCC crowd, made up of fans who have been typically dismissed and marginalized by the larger culture including comics fans, fantasy fans, and sci-fi fans, seem to think it’s perfectly warranted to dump on fans who you would think they have a lot more in common with than traits to divide them.

I’ve seen this over and over again, though, in groups gathered around everything from punk rock to politics. When you’re marginalized from the larger culture, in part by choice but in a much larger part than we’d like to admit, not by choice, it’s easy to try to police your boundaries. Maybe it even gives you a better sense that you ARE different because you choose to be and not because your peers don’t understand your passion for the Misfits/Dennis Kucinich/Superman/Twilight. In other words, maybe enforcing the “no girls allowed” clubhousey nature of certain parts of comic fandom makes comic fans feel more special. Groups often define themselves by what they aren’t, after all.

Kate Dacey: The other thing that bothers me about these statements is that many of the folks dissing Twilight have never read it or watched the movie, yet they feel perfectly qualified to assess its merits solely on the basis of who likes it. Teen girls love it, ergo it must be junk.

I’ve taken this on myself, and I still believe it’s true. Listen, ain’t no one arguing you have to like Twilight. But if you haven’t read the damn thing, how do you know it’s crap? It sounds entirely too much like the people who go “You read COMIC BOOKS?” at my day job(s).

Eva Volin: The librarian half of my brain wants to sit the fanboys down and explain to them about the birds and the bees, about brain development, and the statistics on reading patterns and buying habits of girls vs. boys. To remind them that teenage girls have expendable incomes, too, and ask if they’d really rather the girls spend that money somewhere else, like at a chain bookstore, or Hot Topic, or on eBay. Or at the booths in the dealers rooms where they sell cell phone charms of Naruto characters or the twins from Ouran High School Host Club. The librarian half of my brain wants to reason with people who would rather stomp their feet than get with the program and embrace this new generation of fan—a generation who, if encouraged, could save the comics industry.

Um, what she said.

Volin, cont’d: That because I have two X chromosomes I need to have sequential art explained to me in small words and if I’m in a comic book shop it must be because I’m there to buy books for my son or nephew. And to all of that I say, “Bite. Me.”

I’m going to SDCC. I’m going to line up to see the panels I’m interested in. I’m going to cheer for the artists whose work I enjoy. I’m going to ask questions and get autographs and maybe even do a little cosplaying. And I’m going to spend money at booths that have the merchandise I’m interested in. Lots of money. And if you don’t want my business, don’t worry. Call it women’s intuition, but I’ll be able to tell. And I’ll remember. And I’ll take my business, as well as my nieces’ and their friends’ business, to someone else’s booth.

Exactly this. Over the years, I’ve grown exceptionally good at navigating comic shops and the varied reactions of the employees/owners. And I remember each clerk who was condescending, who was rude, and I took my money elsewhere. I’m still here, reading and writing about comics, because I love them and I believe in the medium AND the industry. I am quite certain there’s a place for me in this world. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that some of the most overt sexism I’ve ever dealt with in my life has come my way through comics. And I don’t mean Wonder Woman’s costume.

So, con-goers and fans, think about all of this when you’re at SDCC and you roll your eyes at the squealing teenage girls (and trust me, I don’t like listening to squealing either). Those girls have money and just as much right to be there as you do. And it couldn’t hurt to be nice to them.

Valerie D’Orazio makes some excellent points over at her blog.

Truly, my heart weeps for those fanboys inconvenienced by 1,000s of Robert Pattinson fans. It is so unfair. And they’re “not even really supposed to be there,” right?

[snip]
Where was this whining when people were going freakin nuts over “Watchmen?” Or when I couldn’t even get through the fanboy phalanx to meet up with friends because of the Hellboy roadblock?

Fandom and conventions are big enough for EVERYBODY. And instead of complaining about “Twilight” fans, maybe somebody should figure out how to get these legions of fangirls to buy more comics.

Seriously. The headline she links–”Female Fans Prepare to Trample Men“–is hilariously ironic because it reflects perfectly the fear in so many articles. The implication that ZOMG WOMEN ATTACK is just so darn Freudian it’s hard for me to unpack it without giggling.

I’m a female fangirl. I have been for years. And I’ve absolutely been trampled at cons–and punk rock shows, and even sporting events, all areas with typical male fan bases that certainly didn’t seem to think anything shocking about being in a room with hundreds of boys and a few girls.

I came to comics through a subculture that, if it had existed back in the day, would certainly have embraced Twilight. As a somewhat overeducated adult, I read the books and saw the movie and thoroughly enjoyed both, if occasionally with the very adult pleasure of laughing at all the wrong moments. I both defend the right to have something like Twilight that is so unabashedly girly that it inspires tons of squealing girls to unload at Comic-Con just for its panel, and despise the tendency to split fandom into two worlds: the comics are for boys, the sparkly vampires are for girls.

Leaving out for a moment the teenage boy sitting next to me at a subway stop reading New Moon on his iPhone (yes, I can recognize the story from a glimpse over his shoulder. What?), why the heck can’t we admit that comic cons were packed full of people fighting for seats before Twilight was thought of, that Hollywood has been trying to find ways to tap into the zealous–and zealously consumerist, willing to buy tons of movie-related merch–comic con audience for a good while now, and that the only thing different when it’s Twilight is that the fans are teenage girls (and their moms, the fear of whom brings up a whole other level of Freudian analysis that I’m REALLY not qualified to do).

So really. Do these guys need to keep Comic-Con a He-Man Woman Hater’s Club that badly, or can they learn to embrace the girls and cross that invisible line between Twilight fans and comic fans? Because who knows, maybe if they dropped the defensive act and realized that more girls in their fandom does not mean less stuff for them, that pop culture is not a finite commodity, maybe more girls WOULD buy comics. And far from that being a problem, it would create more money for comics creators, and thus…MORE COMICS FOR ALL. Win-win.

I’m particularly happy that it’s Friday this week–I’ve got an exciting weekend planned. To kick things off right, though, here are some stories from around the web.

Splash Page is speculating about Twitter rumors that Nathan Fillion and Rainn Wilson had a meeting with DC Comics.

Daryl Cagle‘s been posting videos from the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists Convention. This one’s an interview with Mikhaela Reid and Jen Sorenson, two female editorial cartoonists.

More dirt on the terrible idea know as The Crow remake, which maybe isn’t so much a remake? Um, what?

To celebrate the release of The Nobody, Jeff Lemire has some lovely art and linkage over at Standard Attrition.

Since Neil Gaiman is off to accept his Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book today, check out video of him reading from the book on his tour.

Finally, if you have a spare $20,000 or so, you can get a second-tier Twilight star at your party. No Robert Pattinson or Kristen Stewart, sadly.

File this under “things that make you go… oy.”

Contact Music is reporting that Hayden Panettiere, or Claire from Heroes, is “preparing for girl-on-girl love scenes in the next series of HEROES.” According to them, she will be sharing a kiss with her college roommate.

But wait — we’re not at the “oy” yet. Here’s where it gets exploitative and just plain weird:

A source tells British newspaper the Daily Star, “It’s just girlie fun at first. But it might progress into something more serious. It depends on how viewers respond.”

Um. Urm… are they suggesting a call-in poll? Because we all know how well that worked out for Jason Todd. All in all, this feels less benign and more exploitative, less of an appeal to the LGBT community and more of the cheerleader fantasy crowd. Valerie D’Orazio, who I picked this link up from, has a nice takedown of the whole process. All I can say is: if this is true, who thought this was a good idea?

This is a “remix” of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Edward Cullen from Twilight. And yep, it’s pretty funny. It plays the overwrought, overdramatic bits of Twilight up against the snarky, sarcastic Buffy we all love.

Yet I am a bit irritated by the constant comparison of Buffy to Twilight as if Buffy was perfect and Bella Swan just a horrendous corruption of all feminist ideals. Was I the only one who remembers the part where Buffy slept with not one, but two vampires who also stalked her, hovered outside her bedroom while she slept, and in one instance, tried to rape her?

Buffy gets a pass because mostly she kicks vampire ass and in the end she doesn’t need any of the men. However, I very much doubt if you can scratch a Buffy fan and find someone who doesn’t get a bit emotional about Buffy and Angel. Forbidden love is as much a part of the Buffy mythos as Twilight–in fact, I describe Twilight to people as “The Buffy and Angel part of Buffy, without most of the sarcasm and action.”

But you know, the reason a lot of girls don’t want to call themselves feminists is because they think it means they have to hate men, or fit some certain vision of a “strong woman” that maybe they don’t want to fit. What if they’re quiet and bookish, like Bella Swan, not coordinated enough to fight vampires?

I’m not saying that Twilight is a perfect vision of the romance I think girls should aspire to–it’s not. But it’s fiction. The romance in Love in the Time of Cholera or Lolita or Beloved isn’t one that I want teenage girls aspiring to, either, yet I think those are all wonderful works of literature that should be widely read. And Buffy? Well, the human parts of Buffy are the ones that really kept us with her for seven seasons, not the perfect ass-kicking sarcasm machine. That would’ve gotten old, fast.

Teenage beefcake, melodrama, mortal danger, blood, and birthday cake. What more could a girl want?

And the wolf CGI isn’t as bad as it could be, I suppose. Though I can’t believe they gave it away in the trailer.

Yes, my friends, it’s the first official poster for the New Moon movie, the second in the Twilight saga and guaranteed to make teenage girls (and, um, some non-teenage girls) squeal.

Edward is still pale and pretty, Jacob’s gotten a haircut, and Bella looks a bit lost, as usual. After some terrible fan-made posters with poor Taylor Lautner’s face spliced into a wolf’s, at least this doesn’t contain any previews of the CGI wolves to come. That could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how well-done the werewolves are. In the book, they’re just oversized wolves, not weird man-wolf hybrids like in Underworld, so in theory the only time they need CGI is for the transformations, which were themselves rather cringe-inducing in the books. (“The boy exploded”?)

For all the snark I can easily unload on this series, I ain’t gonna lie, I’m looking forward to it far more than I should be at my age. And even though my moviegoing buddy and I will no doubt giggle and wisecrack our way through the showing, we’ll probably love it.

-Your official Twilight correspondent.

It’s confirmed: There will be a fourth Twilight movie. Wrapping up filming on New Moon and Eclipse, Robert Pattinson confirmed that he’s going to make Breaking Dawn.

Readers familiar with the Twilight saga–or those who’ve just heard about it on the Internet–know that the fourth book is the one where things finally get, er, physical between Bella and Edward, and that things don’t go according to plan.  Breaking Dawn contains some scenes that would make the staunchest horror-movie fan a bit queasy. Added to that the fact that the book is essentially three books stuck together, and you get something that might be quite hard to film.

Still, fans might be ready for a little action (double entendre intended) after three movies where most of the plot centers around the breakups and makeups and tension between Bella and Edward (and of course Jacob). Stephenie Meyer’s skill doesn’t lie in epic battles or other things that translate well to film, but in getting inside the head of a teenage girl in love. Yet the middle of Breaking Dawn is told through Jacob’s voice, and it comes out surprisingly convincing as well.

So there are several things in Breaking Dawn that haven’t been in the previous books, some for the better, some decidedly worse, and I wouldn’t want any part of having to translate it to film, but we’ll get to see what becomes of it sometime in the next couple of years.

Or not-gettin’-any-action-figures? (OK, OK, that was awful, I’m sorry). Lucas drew my attention to this on Twitter (via GeekGirlDiva), and I just had to share it. I stopped collecting action figures ages ago, though I still have my Death and a few McFarlane NHL figures. I’m certainly not going to break that streak for Twilight figures, but maybe someone else will.

There are also quite ridiculously priced dolls of Edward and Bella that are temporarily out of stock–which means there’s a significant number of people who spent $139 plus shipping and handling on them.

What could possibly make my inner fourteen-year-old squeal more than the Twilight DVD?

SciFiWire reports that the DVD bonus features (which they are ruining for me, per my planned Twilight DVD party on Saturday) include the mention of a possible anime flick in Japan:

During the final sequence of the film, in which Stewart’s Bella and Pattinson’s Edward Cullen discuss transforming her into a vampire so the two of them can be together forever, Pattinson notices that he looks different from previous scenes. “I look Asian in this scene,” Pattinson says. “I do, I look like an anime character.”

Hardwicke responds, “Hey, I think there’s going to be an anime version of this in Japan. So you will be an anime character.”

I’ve fallen out of my anime-watching habits over the years, but I have to say that I’d watch an anime Twilight.

And now that your opinion of me is thoroughly ruined, I’m off to finish reading Blankets. Also, in srs bizness, my interview with Brian Wood is up on the main page here today. /shameless self-promotion.

Lots of linky goodness for you today.

Kevin O’Neill talks League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Marshal Law, and many other things with The Times. That’s right, the NEW League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, coming your way in the not-so-distant future from Top Shelf. Keep an eye out for more on this…

More Twilight-related news (because I totally love it): Drew Barrymore may be in talks to direct the third Twilight film, Eclipse. Drew recently wrapped her directing debut, a film about roller derby (really!) starring Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde in X3).

More academia as well: do you write research papers on superheroes? There’s a call for papers for an interdisciplinary conference at the University of Oregon.

We invite 1-2 page proposals for 20-30 minute conference papers considering the implications of superhero fantasies for our understanding of such diverse topics as gender identity, queerness, theological yearning, and nationalist politics. We also welcome appreciative discussions of superhero comics as significant aesthetic achievements — particularly insofar as those discussions contribute to the ongoing project within contemporary Comics Studies, to map the unique conventions of the comic art form. Above all, we are interested in sophisticated, lucidly written analyses that utilize the conceptual tools and hermeneutic lenses of contemporary literary and cultural theory.

Molly Crabapple hipped me to Sketch Theatre, which is a super-cool site that sets high-speed video of artists at work to music. Molly is the featured artist right now. Also, you can check out her fashion week coverage at Coilhouse, if you’re into that sort of thing (which I so am).

Johanna at Comics Worth Reading previews Secret Identities: The Asian-American Superhero Anthology. Sounds like good stuff. Check it out.

Racialicious takes on Frank Miller and Zack Snyder’s 300.

The Guardian puts Sight and Sound’s top ten movies of all time to the Bechdel test.

Finally, via Daryl Cagle, a lament for another dead newspaper from my former (albeit briefly) hometown.

The New Moon casting rumors have been floating around ever since Twilight broke, so I’m not surprised to hear yet another one. But I determined that this one was blog-worthy because, well, it’s Dakota Fanning.

Child actors usually go through that awkward phase where they don’t really fit into any roles, but the previews from Fanning’s latest, the superhero movie Push, have her maintaining her eerie presence while adding a certain something. She looks awkward, yet comfortable in her own skin.

The role of Jane in New Moon (and the other Twilight sequels) isn’t exactly a nuanced one. She’s a young vampire with an ability to inflict intense pain on others just by smiling creepily at them. So Fanning might well be a perfect choice, since she’s got the looking-otherworldy bit down without having to work very hard at it.

But the character also has a twin brother, and where on earth are the producers going to find an actor who looks enough like Fanning?

(This is what I get for diving into Hollywood rumor mills.)