"Paperback Believer"

This is just too cool for words -- a mixing of the Beatles' "Paperback Writer" and the Monkees' "I'm a Believer" in a song/video called "Paperback Believer."

Miller Covers Robin

This week, issue #2 of Frank Miller and Jim Lee's All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder comes out. Last week, DC unveiled an alternate cover by Frank Miller, seen here:

Family Guy Direct-to-DVD Clip

Tonight begins the second season of Family Guy's second shot on Fox. And more Family Guy is on the way. At the end of the month, look for the direct-to-DVD movie: Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin - The Untold Story. This new, unrated movie focuses on Stewie's quest for his real father. See a clip here.

More Sin for Your Home

Sin City was released on a bare-bones, single disc DVD a few weeks ago, but as expected a deluxe, two-disc version is coming out in December. Check the specs out here. One highlight: an entire Sin City graphic novel!

In addition to the orginal theatrical cut, the collection will include an extended 147 minute version. Some of the other extras include:

• commentary track with director Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller
• commentary track with Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino
• commentary track featuring Austin, TX crowd reaction
• 15 Minute Film School featurette
• Movie in High-Speed Green Screen feature
• 17 un-interupted minutes of Tarantino's segment
• footage from the Sin City cast/crew party.
• 10 minute Cooking School with Robert Rodriquez

Spacey as Luthor

Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor in Superman Returns

Katrina Wakes up the Media

One of the few postivie things to come out of the Hurricane Katrina disasters is that the news media seems to have woken up from the funk it has been in for the past four years. As this article indicates, rookie NBC news anchor Brian Williams star has risen as a result.

See Williams' barely contained anger at government's handling of the sitiuation during his interview with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show last Thursday.

Ultimate Spider-Man Video Game Trailer

This trailer for the new video game based on the Ultimate Spder-Man comic, includes lots of clips for the game but also gives a brief comics history of Spider-Man, leading up to the creation of the Ultimate Spider-Man series. Even if you have no interest in the game, the trailer is worth a look.

Here's the offical site:

Music Notes: Links and Licks

Here's some music-related links of interest, including interviews, obituaries and new releases streaming online:

• Paul McCartney's new album, Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, his 20th solo album, is streaming online here. (Note: there's an annoying voice-over that pops up every other minute that says "sneak peek"). The album hits stores this week. in related new, Paul has officially "sold out."
  

• Bring me no more blues: Last week, blues artist R.L. Burnside passed away. Last night, we lost another: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown has died in Texas, where he relocated following his evacuation from his New Orleans home in the wake of Katrina. He was 81.
  

• You might be able to hear the new Dandy Warhols album, Odditorium Or Warlords Of Mars here, though I had some problems. The album is also released this Tuesday.

• Here's a new Brian Wilson interview. Hear him talk about Smile, the Beach Boys then and now and the Beatles.

• Way more Ray: The spotlight continues to shine on the late Ray Charles following the success of his Oscar-winning bio-pic. On the heels of last year's triple-platinum-selling duets album, Genius Loves Company, the soon-to-be platinum Ray soundtrack and the gold hits collection, The Very Best of Ray Charles, come two new collections in honor of what would have been the singer's 75th birthday. On Sept. 20, Rhino releases duets collection Genius and Friends and the,146-track boxed set, Pure Genius -- The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959), which includes never-before-released rehearsal tracks.

Superman Returns Teaser Trailer?

Stumbled on this through a message board, but it looks legit. Check it out!

Superman Returns Teaser Trailer

OK, after reading a little more, it's probably fake, but still it has new footage, most of which apparently came from http://www.bluetights.net/

Newsweek spotlights Superman Returns

The new issue of Newsweek features an article on next summer's Superman Returns, and includes a new photo of Brandon Routh as Superman, seen here:

DC Animated Updates

Both Justice League Unlimited and The Batman will have their season premieres on Saturday, September 17.

Justice League Unlimited begins its new season at 10 pm on Cartoon Network with two episodes. Debuting that night are:

• "We Are Legion" -- Lex Luthor escapes from a maximum security prison, only to be invited to join Grodd's unstoppable Legion of Doom.
  
• "Shadow of the Hawk" -- Batman is suspicious of Shayera's new boyfriend, a mysterious archeologist with sinister ties to her Thanagarian past.

Read about other upoming episodes of Justice League Unlimited here.

Several hours earlier, Kids WB! will be premiering the third season of The Batman, and featuring the debut of Batgirl, seen here:

In November, the new season of Teen Titans will premiere on Cartoon Network, including a two-parter spotlighting Beast Boy and the Doom Patrol.

One Man Stars Wars Show

Charles Ross, a Canadian actor, has developed a one-man show of the orignal Star Wars trilogy, which he has been performing since 2001 By himself on a stage with no props, he recreates the entire original trilogy. It has to be seen to be believed, so check out a clip here.

He also performs one-man Lord of the Rings trilogy. A clip from that show is available at the same link.

How Do You Tullamore Dew, part 2

Happy 60th Birthday Dad!

Happy Blog Anniversary -- Anybody Here?

This week marks the 1-year anniversary of this blog, as seen here.

Activity has been pretty light lately because nothing interesting has come up in the pop culture in the dead zone of August -- no movies, TV, or DVD of note hae popped up, and comic convention season is over, so no more comic news.

With the fall comes a new movie and TV season and the release of holiday-timed DVDs. In comics, DC's Infinite Crisis starts in October, as does Marvel's big Spidey crossover, the Other. Until then, not much.

As for TV, Smallville starts on Sept. 21; I'm watching Lost now, so I'll probably start writing about that. I'm not sure what other TV shows I'll cover, but I'm sure post-Labor Day, the topics will start popping up again. I may even start writing more about music.

So until then, Happy Labor Day!

Marvel Announces new Daredevil Team

At Marvel, the only two characters I'm interested in are Spider-Man and Daredevil. At the moment, the only Marvel trades I buy are Daredevil and Ultimate Spider-Man, both written by Brian Michael Bendis.

Earlier this year, Bendis announced that he and artist Alex Maleev will be leaving Daredevil soon (they will work together on a new Spider-Woman series), and speculation had begun on the next creative team. Most of that speculation centered on recent Marvel exclusives, writer Ed Brubarker and artist Michael Lark (who worked together on DC's Gotham Central), but until this weekend, no one knew for sure.

At WizardWorld Chicago on Friday, Bendis confirmed that Brubaker/Lark are indeed the next Daredevil team. From the Marvel Knights panel report at Newsarama:

Brubaker and Lark take over the series in February ’06. Quesada acknowledged it was one of the worst kept secrets in comics, but that they couldn’t think of anyone else other than Brubaker and Lark to take over the series. He added Brubaker’s pitch contains enough material for at least 2 years worth of stories. Bendis touched on something he said in his own Q&A earlier that day that his last story arc “The Murdock Papers” ends rather uniquely and would only work if the writer that followed him on DD agreed to pick up on some elements from that story, and the Brubaker was up to the task and his first story arc will follow-up on it as well as kick off his own run.

Brubaker give his own take on the transition here.

I love Brubaker's Gotham Central stories (the curent arc, his last, is co-written with Greg Rucka) and his Sleeper series for Wildstorm, and Lark is a great, gritty street crime artist, so it looks like I will keep buying Daredevil trades.

And Bendis isn't leaving Ultimate Spider-Man anytime soon either.

It's a shame I've lost complete interest in the regular version of Spider-Man. Maybe "The Other" storyline will bring me back. There's a panel on that today. Plus, another favorite writer, Peter David, is doing a new Spider-Man title, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (which unfortunately kicks off as part of "The Other" crossover), so maybe I'll be buying that in trade as well.

Good News for DC: Jeph Loeb, Michael Turner Exclusive to Marvel

At last month’s Comic-Con in San Diego, DC had the biggest spotlight (biggest news being the exclusivity of Mark Waid and his Brave and the Bold series), while Marvel was pretty low-key. The situation was reversed at this weekend’s WizardWorld Chicago, with very little new DCU information, but lots of announcements and teases from Marvel.

The biggest Marvel news to affect DC fans is probably the signing of writer Jeph Loeb and artist Michael Turner to exclusive contracts. Loeb is the current writer of Superman/Batman, and it’s just launched spin-off Supergirl. Loeb is already on his previously announced final arc on Superman/Batman, and has stated that his Marvel contract allows him to take the Supergirl series to a point where it will be easier to hand off to another writer.

Turner has mostly drawn covers for DC for the past two years, most notably Identity Crisis, as well as a perpetually late arc of Superman/Batman (the one that introduced the new Supergirl, actually). He also wrote a Superman story arc about a year ago.

Frankly, as a major DC fan, I’m not sorry to see either go. While many of Loeb’s stories are fun, they mostly too convoluted with little resolution at the end of stories. His Batman: Hush arc was entertaining as a parade of Batman’s greatest villain, but the story was a little weak (though it did open the door to the current return of Jason Todd). And Turner, he’s pretty much a cheesecake artist who draws figures out of proportion. The Identity Crisis covers should have been by series artist Rags Morales, and when the collection comes out with a choice of covers by the two artists, I’m getting the Morales version.

Their Marvel projects have yet to be announced.

So Marvel’s happy and so am I. And I’m sure Loeb will be back to DC at some point.

Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology 1989-1997

Coming in October to DVD: Special editions of all four previous Batman movie. While all four were previously released on DVD, they were bare-bones editons, and not the highest quality. These new ones are PACKED with special features, including commentaries from directors Tim Burton on the first two and Joel Schumacher on the final two.

I've always held out on buying the first two Batman movies on DVD, knowing that SOMEDAY there would be special editions. That day arrives n October. But now with so much time passed and a GREAT Batman movie made since then, I'm not as excited as I once would have been.

No way am I buying the whole set, but I might get the first two,. I wouldn't mind renting the third, if the specal edition is available for rent.

Read all about the special editions here.

Oh, and Batman Begins will be on DVD in October as well.

The 52 Weeks After Infinite Crisis

At WizardWorld Philadelphia and the San Diego Comic-Con, DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio said that during the Infinite Crisis (after issue 5 of 7), the DCU timeline and all of the books will jump ahead to "One Year Later."

As revealed in the new issue of Wizard, and now expanded on at Newsarama, DiDio explains how we will find out what happens during that year: a 52-issue weekly comic, tentatively called 52:

“The story of 52 begins the week after Infinite Crisis concludes and runs weekly thereafter,” DiDio told Newsarama. “It answers most of the outstanding questions from the missing year, but more importantly it sets the tone for our world and the direction of the DC Universe for the years to come. With each issue one week passes, and yes, we plan to show the change in time as the series progresses. We get to show how the life of the DC Universe changes over the course of a year, in real time."

Price, page count and creative teams are yet to be revealed. The book will debut in May 2006, followng the conclusion of Infinite Crisis.

Major Superman Returns Plot Spoilers?

Though not confirmed as true, some major plot spoilers for Superman Returns have shown up online.

Click here to read, but be warned, there is at least one major plot element contained.

The original site that posted this removed it at the request of Warner Brothers.

Blade TV Series coming Next June

This week, writer/director/producer David Goyer told the SciFiWire that he's producing an hour-long action series based on the Blade movie trilogy (for which he wrote all three screenplays, and directed the final installment) for Spike TV, set to debut in June 2006.

He said the that the series will be "different" than the movies and not star Wesley Snipes. Goyer is co-writing the pilot with fellow comics writer Geoff Johns (the two teamed on the JSA comic series).13 episodes have been ordered.

Goyer, who wrote the screenplay for Batman Begins, is also executive producer on a new SF series debuting in the fall for CBS called Threshold. In addition, Goyer is curently developing The Flash as a movie for Warner Bros. He is set to write and direct this latest DC superhero to hit the big screen.

Finally, Goyer recently "had a meeting" with Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan about a sequel to this summer's supehero hit. He would say no more on that subject.

Its a nice time to be David Goyer.