Here is some very cool Smallville art from the episode “Warrior,” which airs January 29. This episode pokes fun at one of sci fi’s most revered events – the comic book convention. And DC character Zatanna returns.
“SMALLVILLE” — (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET)
“Warrior” (TV-PG, V) (HDTV)
METROPOLIS HOSTS A COMIC BOOK CONVENTION — DC COMICS’ CHARACTER ZATANNA RETURNS — Clark (Tom Welling) meets Zatanna (guest star Serinda Swan) at a comic book convention, where she tells him her father charmed a copy of the comic book “Warrior Angel” and it holds magical powers. A young man named Stephen (guest star Carlo Marks) steals the comic book and develops super powers, transforming himself into Warrior Angel and saving Chloe (Allison Mack) from a horrible accident. Meanwhile, Lois (Erica Durance) becomes jealous of Clark’s relationship with Zatanna. Allison Mack directed the episode written by Bryan Q. Miller (#3X5261).
Don’t forget Smallville returns to originals next Friday, January 22 at 8pm EST with “Disciple.”
“SMALLVILLE” — (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET)
“Disciple” (TV-PG, V) (HDTV)
NO LOVERS, NO ALLIES, NO DISCIPLES; INTRODUCING DC COMIC CHARACTER THE DARK ARCHER — Oliver’s (Justin Hartley) past comes back to haunt him in the form of The Dark Archer (guest star Steve Bacic), Oliver’s former teacher, who seeks revenge on his student by taking aim at Lois (Erica Durance) and Chloe (Allison Mack). Oliver faces down The Dark Archer after his former mentor kidnaps Mia AKA “Speedy” (guest star Elise Gatien) but is pushed to his limit and Clark (Tom Welling) races to stop him from making another deadly mistake. Mairzee Almas directed the episode written by Jordan Hawley (#3X5260).
Read more...
Read More
In anticipation of the January 26th release of SURROGATES on Blu-ray & DVD, Disney presents a first look at the bonus features!
Featurette: Best Version of Yourself (Bonus)
Deleted Scene: Apologies & Theories (Bonus)
Read more...
Read More
Tessaract: Part 1 of 2Doctor Who #7 revolves around yet another villain who is out to get the Doctor for past events. Thanks to the Doctors previous adventure involving the Shadow Proclamation, someone has managed to tamper with the one device which would allow them to gain possible access to the TARDIS undetected: The Doctors ever trusty Sonic Screwdriver. This act allows the main villain to merge their ship with the TARDIS within Fifth dimensional space, creating a situation where not only is the TARDIS breached and boarded by a hostile force, but it’s control room becomes even more “lost”, and turns both ships into ticking time bombs. 
I liked how even amongst all the chaos, the Doctor manages to give one of the simplest explanations of how the TARDIS and its various rooms are interconnected, and how he is Psychically connected to the TARDIS, which is giving him a hard time keeping everything together. It’s explanations like this which make the series more accessible in my opinion, and bring it down to a level which anyone can enjoy.
Further along we learn the villain’s possible motives behind this attack, and it has to do with two of the doctors most notable companions: Adrid & Vislor Turlough. Both were companions to the Fifth Incarnation of the Doctor. Adrid was the one companion who seemed to die a “pointless death” in the eyes of many, while Turlough was the only companion who ever tried to murder the Doctor. I will not go into details here, but for those who wish to know more about these companions, I would suggest using your favorite online search resource to further investigate.
Overall, I found the first part of this story arc to be very informative, yet puzzling at the same time. But then again, what good Doctor Who story doesn’t start off like that? The opening scene will have fellow Whovian’s in stitches, and wishing they were in the Doctors current companions place. Access to certain Rooms within the TARDIS is usually off limits (and for good reason), so it’s nice to get a tour of its fabled interiors.
While the quality of the stories seems to be improving, I find the art continues in its minimalist vein. I understand that with a character like the Doctor, with the whole universe as your backdrop, less is more. But there does come a point where I feel more detail is needed in order to match the level of the story being told.
I would recommend this as a starting point for anyone who is interested in the continuing adventures of Tenth Doctor. But mostly I would also recommend this to any David Tennant fans out there that are looking for their Tenth Doctor Fix.
Writer: Tony Lee
Artist: Al Davison
Ed Rondo
Senior Critic
Read more...
Read More
Line of $1 Image Firsts Coincides with Free Comic Book Day 2010
Just in time for the ninth annual Free Comic Book Day, Image Comics is releasing Image Firsts: a line of titles re-presenting ten key first issues as an introduction to Image's most acclaimed titles. Priced at only a dollar, each first issue serves as the perfect primer to their ongoing series and collected editions, including THE WALKING DEAD, SPAWN, CHEW, INVINCIBLE, AGE OF BRONZE and many more.
"As discussions for Free Comic Book Day began, many of our retail partners brought up how helpful it would be to have additional, inexpensive supplements to our featured title, Silverline's FRACTURED FABLES, as a way of bringing in an even wider range of fans," explained Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson. "We developed the 'Image Firsts' program to showcase the great variety of titles we have to offer. Between the superheroics of SPAWN, INVINCIBLE, WITCHBLADE, SAVAGE DRAGON and YOUNGBLOOD to the science fiction of GIRLS and PROOF to Eric Shanower's historical epic, AGE OF BRONZE, and the horror of THE WALKING DEAD and CHEW, there's something for every reader, old and new."
All the Image Firsts will reprint the first issues of each series in its entirety, acting as the perfect primer to the ongoing series and their corresponding backlists. Available in the weeks leading up to Free Comic Book Day, the 10 Image Firsts titles will give retailers an opportunity to expose their incoming new readers to a broad range of Image material. Two titles will be released every week beginning March 31 and continuing through April 28.
All Image Firsts will be 32-page comic books priced at $1.00 and will be available for order in the February issue of Diamond Previews. The full schedule of Image Firsts follow the press release.
IMAGE FIRSTS SCHEDULE
IMAGE FIRSTS: YOUNGBLOOD #1
story ROB LIEFELD & JOE CASEY
art & cover ROB LIEFELD
MARCH 31
32 PAGES / FC
$1.00
The original celebrity superheroes make their debut in this remastered tale by Rob Liefeld and Joe Casey.
IMAGE FIRSTS: THE WALKING DEAD #1
story ROBERT KIRKMAN
art & cover TONY MOORE
MARCH 31
32 PAGES / BW
$1.00
A continuing tale of survival horror in a post-apocalyptic world.
IMAGE FIRSTS: SPAWN #1
story TODD McFARLANE
art & cover TODD McFARLANE
APRIL 7
32 PAGES / FC
$1.00
Todd McFarlane's arcane superhero discovers the truth behind his unholy resurrection.
IMAGE FIRSTS: CHEW #1
story JOHN LAYMAN
art & cover ROB GUILLORY
APRIL 7
32 PAGES / FC
$1.00
Bizarre culinary crimes investigated by the FDA's premier psychic detective.
IMAGE FIRSTS: SAVAGE DRAGON #1
story ERIK LARSEN
art & cover ERIK LARSEN
APRIL 14
32 PAGES / FC
$1.00
A lone supercop fights against a city of organized supercrime.
IMAGE FIRSTS: AGE OF BRONZE #1
story ERIC SHANOWER
art & cover ERIC SHANOWER
APRIL 14
32 PAGES / BW
$1.00
Eric Shanower's epic retelling of the Trojan War.
IMAGE FIRSTS: WITCHBLADE #1
story DAVID WOHL & CHRISTINA Z
art & cover MICHAEL TURNER
APRIL 21
32 PAGES / FC
$1.00
The only weapon powerful enough to keep the forces of Darkness and Light at bay is in the hands of a New York cop.
IMAGE FIRSTS: GIRLS #1
story JOSHUA LUNA
art & cover JONATHAN LUNA
APRIL 21
32 PAGES / FC
$1.00
A small town trapped in an invisible dome becomes the epicenter of an alien invasion unlike any other.
IMAGE FIRSTS: INVINCIBLE #1
story ROBERT KIRKMAN
art & cover CORY WALKER
APRIL 28
32 PAGES / FC
$1.00
When a teenager inherits his father's superpowers, he learns there's much more to being a superhero than he ever anticipated.
IMAGE FIRSTS: PROOF #1
story ALEX GRECIAN
art & cover RILEY ROSSMO
APRIL 28
32 PAGES / FC
$1.00
Crypto-zoological horror as investigated by Agent Ginger Brown and her partner, Bigfoot.
Read more...
Read More
Marvel is proud to announce a bold new beginning for the critically acclaimed Marvel Adventures line with Spider-Man #1 and Super Heroes #1!
Perfect for readers of all ages, these two all-new series are the perfect jumping on point for readers new and old with oversized debut issues, packed with a full length all-new stories and bonus back up stories, just like the comics from when you were a kid! Subsequent issues will be regular sized and priced at $2.99, perfect for everyone’s summer reading!
“The Marvel Adventures line has been a runaway success for over 5 years now,” said Marvel’s Senior Vice President of Sales David Gabriel. “We’re extremely proud of not only the longevity of the line and the strength of the brand, but also of the quality of all the series. These are the perfect starting point for the youngest of readers. You’re going to see all the biggest Marvel heroes—Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and more—appearing in Super Heroes. Along with Spider-Man, these books are a fresh new start for the Marvel Adventures line—but with the same unparalleled all ages storytelling you’ve experienced!”
In Spider-Man #1, join Peter Parker as he balances homework, family and saving New York from the deadliest villains around! Acclaimed scribe Paul Tobin and fan favorite artist Matteo Lolli join forces to bring you Spidey’s newest ongoing series!
Join Iron Man, Marvel’s box office sensation, as he unites a team of super stars in Super Heroes #1! Tobin and dynamic artist Ronan Cliquet send the newly formed Avengers against Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants in a battle you can’t miss!
Fans and critics agree—the Marvel Adventures titles are a hit!
“Marvel Adventures Spider-Man maintains a sense of history while presenting Spider-Man in a thoroughly modern form”—Ray Tate, ComicsBulletin.Com
“For an all ages read, [Marvel Adventures Super Heroes] provides a great deal for younger readers, a few treats for old hands and the promise of stories that are not steeped in darkness”-- Doug Zawisza. ComicBookResources.Com
This April, there’s only one place for the greatest all ages, action packed super hero comics in the world—don’t miss Spider-Man #1 and Super Heroes #1!
Retailers, please check the Marvel Mailer and Marvel Retailer Resource Center (www.marvelretailers.com) for details on ordering incentives!
SPIDER-MAN #1
Written by PAUL TOBIN
Penciled by MATTEO LOLLI
Cover by KARL KERSCHL
MARVEL ADVENTURES All Ages …$3.99
ON SALE IN APRIL!
SUPER HEROES #1
Written by PAUL TOBIN
Penciled by RONAN CLIQUET
Cover by CLAYTON HENRY
Variant Cover by TODD NAUCK
MARVEL ADVENTURES All Ages …$3.99
ON SALE IN APRIL!
Read more...
Read More
First-ever comic series for fan-favorite tabloid characters
In stores Wednesday, January 13th
Bat Boy and the other bizarre denizens of the Weekly World News universe storm comic stores starting tomorrow! Celebrating the tabloid’s 30th anniversary in 2010, the colorful characters of Weekly World News are making their comic debut with IDW’s four-issue miniseries. Written by IDW’s Publisher/Editor-in-Chief and WWN fanatic Chris Ryall, with art by Alan Robinson, Weekly World News revives the tabloid's best and sees them band together to take on, among other things, the world-destroying threat of Chaos Cloud. Each issue will also feature original articles from the original Weekly World News, and a variant cover that pays insane “tribute” to a classic image.
“I feel like I’ve been obsessing over Bat Boy for at least a decade, so it’s great to be able to tell people that ‘obsession’ was actually all just ‘research’ for this comic,” said Chris Ryall. “I’m happy to finally get the comic about that beloved bat-eared freak and his even more colorful friends into peoples’ hands. Hopefully they enjoy reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.”
Weekly World News #1 kicks off this daring series with a Joe Corroney cover, featuring a version of Bat Boy inspired by Alex Ross’s painted Barack Obama pose. As an added bonus, issue #1 will feature some of the classic Bat Boy newspaper strips by the great Peter Bagge.
Beginning with issue #1, “The Irredemption of Ed Anger,” the series unites the beloved Bat Boy with Ph.D. Ape (simian psychologist to the stars), UFO Alien (presidential-predicting pundit from the stars), Manigator (half-man/half-gator good ol’ boy), Lemmie (the Lake Erie Monster) as they battle Chaos Cloud (unpredictable weather front with the face of François Mitterand). Caught in the middle of all of this is the far-right-wing columnist Ed Anger (“pave the Rain Forest!”), who thinks inhuman freaks have as much place in America as liberals, female voters and foreign beer. Along the way, the series pays tribute to other comics and numerous other pop-culture visuals and references (so many that Ryall will be offering annotations in the back of each issue, too).
“Now in addition to enjoying our product online, in tabloid form, and as a musical, our legion of fans will have an opportunity to see WWN’s 100 character library come alive in comic book form. Never before has this group of Weekly World News freaks, I mean characters, banded together for a common cause. The results make for an unforgettable story.” said Neil McGinness, CEO Weekly World News. “IDW’s first installment brings the most popular characters in the Weekly World News’ stable, and its masthead icon, to life in comic form for the first time.”
The Weekly World News, which carried the tagline “The World’s Only Reliable News” and spent years living up to that description, launched in 1979 as a supermarket tabloid focused on sensational stories. The brand’s website www.weeklyworldnews.com is a leading entertainment news website.
Weekly World News #1 (of 4), a 32-page, $3.99 comic book, debuts on January 13, 2010. Diamond order code NOV09 0841.
Read more...
Read More
Because You Demanded It! Kitty Pryde returns this March in Uncanny X-Men #522—but how? And what does this mean for the X-Men? Don’t miss a single issue of Uncanny X-Men!
Read more...
Read More
Westfield Comics teams with BOOM! Studios for an opportunity for a fan to appear in The Anchor
Why just read THE ANCHOR, when you can be in the actual comic? Westfield Comics and BOOM! Studios are excited to announce a contest where one lucky fan will be drawn into an issue of THE ANCHOR, the hit new series by Phil Hester and Brian Churilla published by BOOM! Studios.
To enter the contest, simply send an email to anchor.me@westfieldcomics.com saying why you should be drawn into THE ANCHOR. Entries should be no more than two sentences and 100 words or less. The contest begins Monday, January 11 and ends on Monday, January 18.
Each entry will be judged by both BOOM!’s editor-in-chief Mark Waid and Westfield’s Content Editor, Roger Ash. The winner of the contest will be announced on Sunday, January 31 with the winner to be drawn into a forthcoming issue of BOOM!’s THE ANCHOR. For a complete list of rules, go to www.westfieldcomics.com/store.cgi?LoadPage=anchormerules.
“I’m really excited about this contest,” says Westfield’s Roger Ash. “When Phil Hester and Brian Churilla agreed to the idea, I knew this would be something fun for Westfield customers and fans everywhere. Working with BOOM! has been great and I hope we can do more together in the future.”
Read more...
Read More
One of my absolute favorite pastimes is perusing the tabloids at the grocery store. Yes, I majored in English in college, and I’ve read (and subsequently analyzed) the classics. But there’s something so delightful about checking out the headlines of the trashy magazines in the checkout lines. It’s something I’ve done since I first learned to read (much to my grandmother’s chagrin, especially when I started reading everything out loud). Probably the most fun to read is the Weekly World News, just because it’s so far from reality. The fine folks at IDW have taken that idea and turned the Weekly World News into a limited comic series. Given my love of the source material, I thought it only fitting to give this comic a whirl.
The first thing that caught my eye was the cover—Cover A is Alan Robinson’s careful adaptation of the kind of cover you might see at your local supermarket, complete with familiar faces Bat Boy, Ed Anger, and even Manigator (whose headline made me laugh out loud)! It’s one of the few times I actually dig Cover A more than the other covers. Cover B is Joe Corroney’s version of Alex Ross’s Obama as Superman, except this time the hero is Bat Boy. Cover C is also by Alan Robinson, but this time Bat Boy is Rodin’s Thinker. Though often you could get burned by judging a book by its cover (especially a comic book), this is one time you’re safe. If you like what’s going on on the cover, you’re going to like what’s inside.
The main story (penned by Chris Ryall) is the plight of pseudocolumnist Ed Anger. If you’re familiar with the guy in WWN, you know that he’s the curmudgeonly gent who has had a letters/commentary column in the mag for years. In this story he’s very much like my grandpa: angry that the world is going to hell in a handbasket and upset that the liberals, freaks, and aliens are taking over the planet (although in Anger’s case, it’s actual extraterrestrials). He’s a disenfranchised Charlton Heston-type, and at every turn the world is telling him he needs to calm down. One of the loudest voices is Ph.D. Ape, the world’s smartest primate. You see, he’s Anger’s shrink, though this fact is not a happy one for Ed. Ed’s main beef is that he’s always pitted against a gray alien in TV debates, and that Bat Boy not only attended Obama’s inauguration, but he also saved Ed from a freak accident. Seemingly, the guy can’t catch a break, but that’s a good thing for us.
One of the most interesting parts of this comic is the easter eggs. They were all easy to spot for me, but lucky for readers, there’s a handy-dandy guide in Ryall’s column at the end of the book should you miss something. Ryall assures readers that this issue was just the beginning, as subsequent issues are going to be chock full of goodies for readers to enjoy. The issue also includes a couple of Peter Bagge’s Weekly World News comic strips, and a reprint of stories from the magazine itself (including some Ed Anger columns).
All in all I highly recommend this book. It’s a fun read, and let’s face it, we could all use a fun read in our stacks after reading Blackest Night. If you’re a fan of the old magazine, it’s a creative way to revisit it, and if you’re not, you may find yourself reading this and thinking, “Wow, they actually printed this stuff as news?” Either way, you’ll have a good time.
Stacey Rader
Staff Reviewer
Read more...
Read More
Posts
