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Comic Book Releases for the Week of November 24, 2008

PipedreamerGrey — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:00:01 +0000

Comic Book

The following are the highlights of the comics that will be shipping Wednesday November 26th, 2008. See a complete list of this week’s comic releases organized by publisher at Diamond Comics Previews.

Comics

Books & Trade Paperbacks

Geek Media Round-Up: November 25, 2008

PipedreamerGrey — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:00:42 +0000

Comics

The readers of Comic Book Resources has voted on The Top 25 Comic Book Battles of all time.

Film

I Was Trapped In A Movie Theater With Teenage Twilight Fans is a great look at Twilight phenomena from the perspective of someone who isn’t a teenage girl.
The LA Time rattles off the long sad list of remakes of classic sci-fi films Hollywood will be butchering in the near future.

Literature

Free Fiction: Listen to “Marionettes, Inc.” and “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury, read by - wait for it - Burgess Meredith at Zombie Astronaut. Try not picture him a purple top hat.
Harlan Ellison says “‘Sci-Fi’ is a debasement,” and even though I realize that he means that the abbreviation is derogatory, I still say that Ellison is far and away the whiniest bitch ever to publish.

Television

io0 counts down the 45 Coolest Moments In Doctor Who’s History. Why not fifty or an even hundred, I don’t know, but they do a fair job picking out the moments.
Over the weekend, a clue to who the next Dr. Who might be was leaked.

Video Games

20 Video Game Commercials That Will Make You Nostalgic.
Alt Text names the Top 5 Most Guilt-Inducing Videogames, dubbing World of Warcraft the “Guilt Parfait” of video games.
Cheryl Olson, author of “Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do” says that video games are like books, healthy if age appropriate. It’s a refreshing take on game violence.
GameRadar presents 101 game facts that will rock your world and The Surprising Origins of Your Favorite Games.

Geek Media Round-Up: November 24, 2008

PipedreamerGrey — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:00:51 +0000

Art

Get your own Complete and Official Map of the Verse, an accessory to the Serenity Role Playing Game, over at Quantum Mechanix now.

Film

A brief but truthful critique of Twilight from a man’s perspective.
CNet’s Geek Gestalt looks at the the evolution of the benevolent alien in film.
Han Solo was raised by Wookies? WTF Damn you to hell George Lucas. Stop ruining my favorite childhood films.
JustHastoBePlausible has compiled a great list of the Top Ten Obscure SF Films, most of which I haven’t seen (which is a good trick.)
Newsrama nominates Mark Valley for the role of Captain America.
Topless Robot, which already explained why Luke Skywalker is an idiot, rips into Padme Amidala for an encore, and I must say, I can’t entirely disagree.

Literature

Free Fiction: BBC Radio 7 will have Out of the “Silent Planet” by CS Lewis posted for one more week. Listen to it while there’s still time!
Free Fiction: Read “The Bloated Curse” by Steve Goble over at Flashing Swords.
Interview: The Future of Science Fiction discusses the science fiction genre with Ursula K. LeGuin and George R.R. Martin.
Pan MacMillan has released Sci-Fi ebooks for the iPhone, including titles from Hal Duncan, Peter F Hamilton, and John Scalzi.
Robert J. Sawyer inspires jealousy by rubbing in just how many genre authors live in Toronto. Thanks for rubbing it in Sawyer! Eventually, I’ll find something Michigan has more of, then we’ll see how you like it. Guns, Lakes, or Taxes, maybe.

Television

According to SF Signal, Heroes creator Tim Kring is eat crow and sending apologies to various bloggers after blaming television audiences for Heroes sucking so badly. Only you know what? Anyone still watching that trainwreck probably deserve to be called a “dips__s.” There are too many channels to watch crap made by writers who don’t love their job.
io9 lists Twelve comic book TV shows that were never made. Personally, I think that Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. would have kicked 24’s ass, but what does an television-addict know about programming.

Writing

In honor of NaNoWriMo, the Paperback Writer has posted the delightfully snarky Devil’s Writing Dictionary. (Don’t miss part two.)

Happy Thanksgiving from Coraline!

PipedreamerGrey — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:00:57 +0000

As if I weren’t already stoked about another film from Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, they keep reminding me of what’s coming. First, their promotions department reminded me of their the upcoming Coraline with a Halloween pumpkin and now they’ve sent me a Thanksgiving pie.

Not that I’m complaining! The best blog swag I ever got before this was an offer for ten percent rebate offer on Viagra left in my comments. Now, I’ve got a delicious blog pie to remind me to go to the movie I was already going to be in line for opening night. *Nom nom nom* I seriously wish more films were promoted this way.

At least now when the little kids shoot me dirty looks while we’re all waiting in line to get into the theater, I can justify myself with a “They sent me PIE!”

Trailer: Coraline

PipedreamerGrey — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:00:26 +0000

The latest trailer for the adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, directed by Henry Selick. It looks to be another animated classic like The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Geek Media Round-Up: November 21, 2008

PipedreamerGrey — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:00:51 +0000

Film

Film School Rejects interviews Ben Burtt the genius behind the sound effects of Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Wall-E.
Rotten Tomatoes names the sexiest vampires in film.
Spill counts down 10 Vampires Who Will Turn Your Skin White… a few videos you may want to rent to ward off all the teenage girl mojo of the Twilight film in theaters this weekend.
Vanity Fair hypes the Twilight film, mainly because every single person in it looks as if they stepped out of an Abercrombie & Fitch ad.
You can save yourself a fortune in video rental fees by heading over at College Humor, where The Fine Brothers spoil 100 films in under 5 minutes.

Internet

Chris van Dyke discusses Race in Dungeons & Dragons and presents a powerpoint presentation on the topic at Nerd Nite. Now there’s a discuss on the essay over at Ta-Nehisi Coates’ blog.
Don’t bother clicking this link, but take note: The Europeana is the European Union’s new digital library. It provides multilingual access to two million digitized books from over a thousand institutions in the 27 EU states. Just after its launch, the site crashed as its servers were overwhelmed by over “10 million hits an hour.“
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, my favorite magazine, is switching its URL to http://www.fandsf.com.
Monty Python has announced its decision to launch a YouTube channel. Check out the video announcement.

Literature

Free Fiction: Read “The Last Devil” by Sarah L. Edwards at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
Over at the Barnes and Noble Bookclub Forums, they’re discussing the Top Ten Paranormal Releases of 2008. The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison (which was great) makes number one on the moderator’s list, though I would have personally chosen Jim Butcher’s Small Favor.

Music

Jonathan Coulton performs the song “Creepy Doll” with the assistance of Neil Gaiman on a tamberine. Yes, I said Neil Gaiman on the a tamberine.

Television

Watch the full episode of Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II online.

Video Games

You know it’s true love when… An Eve Online player has agreed to marry his girlfriend if she fills a Choron with corpses. For those of you not familiar with the game, that’s 50,000 - 80,000 corpses. I can’t wait to hear what he has to do before the wedding night.

Geek Media Round-Up: November 20, 2008

PipedreamerGrey — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:00:25 +0000

Film

As if you needed more reasons, Fantasy Magazine shares Five Reasons to be Psyched for the Watchmen Movie.
The Dark Knight is on its way to becoming the most pirated movie of 2008. Personally, I think that deserves an award.
David Denby of the New Yorker presents a lecture at Princeton in which he asks Do Movies have a Future? [ASX Streaming Video]
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the ironic link of the day: The Sci-Fi Channel suggests 10 Ways To Update Earth Stood Still. Yes, the people would brought you what, like five films about a gigantic python, think they can improve other people’s films.
Sci-Fi counts down the 6 Scariest Environmental Doomsday Movies, reminding us that, despite the increasing visibility of environmental issues, Hollywood still isn’t as worried about global warming as it is about zombies.

Literature

Interview: Chasing Ray interviews Ellen Datlow, Editor of Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror.
Media Shift examines the issue of Pulp Magazines Struggling to Survive in a Wired World.
Over at Auxiliary Memory, James Harris considers who his literary relatives are as a child of science fiction and the 1960s in his article, The Children of Science Fiction.
The Top Ten Reasons Books Are Better Than Sex.
The Written Weird’s Jay Garmon lays out a plan for Building the Perfect Web 2.0 Sci-fi short Fiction Magazine.

Television

The BBC Archive Project has posted some amazing memos and reports revealing the thought processes that led to the creation of Doctor Who.
Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in. Who is the Final Cylon?

Video Games

An Italian boy has been diagnosed with PlayStation Addiction.
Researchers in Birmingham have been developing new technology to add smells to the virtual world of video games.

Geek Media Round-Up: November 18, 2008

PipedreamerGrey — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:00:07 +0000

Comics

Den of Geek lists 75 comics being made into Films.
I agree with Heckler Spray’s choice of Jessica Alba as number one on the list of the Top 26 Comicbook Movie Babes, but I’m questioning the choice of Jessica Biel as number two.
io9 looks at 5 Ways That Sandman Changed The World.
USA Today takes a look at the Batman 681, out November 26. According to the article, the issue will wrap up Grant Morrison’s Batman R.I.P. story line and kill off Bruce Wayne.

Film

Bloody Disgusting has posted a first look at the upcoming sci-fi film Moon, which looks to be another “isolation thriller” like Sunshine or 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The latest Star Trek trailer is up all around the web.
Slash Film looks at the Art and Development of Wall-E, cute robots and all.

Literature

Free Fiction: Read “The Curse of the Monolith” by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter at Unexplored Worlds.
Free Fiction: Read “Knight of Sorrows: Frozen Shadows” by Jonathan Moeller at Mindflights.
Free Fiction: Read “Never on a Birthday” by Patty Jansen and “Puppet Strings” by Terry Ollila at Byzarium.
New Scientist asks six leading writers for their thoughts on the future of science fiction, including Margaret Atwood, William Gibson and Kim Stanley Robinson. Their answers are surprisingly shorts for genre authors.
This holiday season, sci-fi author John Scalzi is offering to sign books you order through the mail from his local bookstore.
A documentary on science fiction author John Wyndham, author of Day of the Triffids, has been posted to YouTube: The Invisible Man of Science Fiction.

Film and Video Releases for the Week of November 17, 2008

PipedreamerGrey — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:30:01 +0000

Geeks take cover! It’s going to be a rough weekend at theaters. Not even the testosterone fest that is Quantum of Solace will be enough to counter-balance the millions of teenage girls who will be flooding theaters this weekend to see Twilight (PG-13) or the squealing hordes of nose-pickers that poor in to see the latest animated offering, Bolt (PG).

Video Releases

Wall-E (G)

Television

Bones: Season 3
Complete Monty Python Flying Circus
Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series
Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3

Re-Releases & New Formats

300 [Collector's Edition]
Zombie Diaries [WS]

Animation

If you know of any major releases that I missed, mention it below.

Comic Book Releases for the Week of November 17, 2008

PipedreamerGrey — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:00:55 +0000

Comic Book

The following are the highlights of the comics that will be shipping Wednesday November 19th, 2008. See a complete list of this week’s comic releases organized by publisher at Diamond Comics Previews.

Comics

Books & Trade Paperbacks

Review: Quantum of Solace

PipedreamerGrey — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:30:23 +0000

Movie: “Quantum of Solace”

Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense violence and action, some sexual content.
Release: November 14
Running Time: 1 hr 35 min
Starring: Daniel Craig, Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Gemma Arterton, Judi Dench… IMDB listing

Verdict: Daniel Craig falls far short of his processors in the role of Bond and I was heart-broken that there was no scene with Q or some other gadget guy, but Quantum of Solace has all the marvelously cliche thrills you’ve come to expect from the James Bond franchise, so goes down as a “must see” in my book.

Seriously, I don’t know why you’re even reading a review. Every straight male under sixty and over ten in the western world is going to see this film at some point in the next eighteen months. Just give in, and go see it on the big screen where it was meant to be seen, already!

Synopsis:
Picking up just hours after the end of the previous Bond film, Casino Royale, Bond’s turns his captive, Mr. White over to M, only to have him assassinated right under their nose. Bond’s only link to truth regarding his fallen lover Vesper is a hotel room number linked to the dirty agent who pulled off the assassination.

Striking out on his own, Bond pursues the lead to Haiti in search of the mastermind behind the secret organization of which White spoke before dying. There, driven by a need to unravel the truth behind Vesper’s death, he kicks off a rocky relationship with a mysterious maiden in distress, is forced to flee MI6 agent, and is drawn deeper into the mysterious organization plotting to exploit the planet’s most precious natural resource.

Review:
The truly wonderful thing about the Bond franchise is that you can lay back, completely disengage your brain, and just veg out. You know what you’re in for when you sit down: Vehicular chase, gadgets, at least two hot chicks, one over-confident villain, a couple of shoot outs, a man-on-man chase, exotic locals, etc. The films practically write themselves. As such, it’s really hard to throw stones.

However, I must admit that I do have two complaints regarding this film.

First, actor Daniel Craig just doesn’t do it for me. He’s darker and more more menacing than his predecessors, but he’s also less debonair and witty. The film’s director is clearly aware of the shortcoming. He attempts to compensate for Craig’s less dynamic performance with big, faster, louder action sequences that are difficult to follow when while watching the film for the first time and by placing Judi Dench in front of the camera as often as possible. I don’t mind either the faster sequences or Dench’s outstanding performances.

My second complaint is the sub-par gadgetry of this film. Armed only with a fancy iPhone, Microsoft Surface desks, and his signature sidearm, this is far and away the most poorly equipped Bond audiences have seen since Dr. No, which came as a HUGE disappointment. When I buy a ticket to a Rambo film, I expect machine guns, when I buy a ticket to a Star Trek film, I expect the Enterprise to be all but crippled in the middle of a life-and-death battle, and when I buy tickets to a Bond film, I expect to see gadgets, damn it! There are about a dozen other franchises I could get my chase-shoot-boom fix. Bond is the only place I get to guess how an exploding pen will save the day.

Even in the face of these complaints, it’s important to remember this is Bond film, which still makes it top-shelf material in my DVD collection, heedless of its flaws.

Film Review: Let the Right One In

PipedreamerGrey — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:00:26 +0000

Movie: “Let the Right One In”

Taglines: Based on the bestseller from John Ajvide Lindqvist

Rating: Rated R for bloody violence, disturbing images, brief nudity, and language.
Release: October 24, 2008
Running Time: 114 mins
Starring: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, and Per Ragnar… IMDB listing

Verdict:
Let the Right One In is neither a fairy tale nor an Underworld-style action flick, no matter what you read in other reviews. Far from it, this is a delicate but chilling coming of age tale fraught with disturbing sexual overtones and paced to lend it a dream-like quality that is going to haunt you for days.

Audience:
Anyone who enjoyed Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone and The Orphanage or the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire should rent this film and carefully savor it. It takes more patience than that of your run-of-the-mill film, but the payoff is significantly greater.

Those looking for a post-Halloween slasher flick will be gravely disappointed.

Synopsis:
Oskar is a lonely twelve year-old school boy who spends his life alternatively dreading the abuse a trio of school bullies heap upon him and fantasizing of revenge. When a strange young girl named Eli moves in next door, the two outcasts slowly form a deep bond. As a series of gruesome murders threatens the safety of the community, Oskar finds himself entranced with the girl’s eccentricities and completely smitten. But when Eli’s father is arrested by police for his possible connection to the killings, her dark secret is finally revealed and Oskar must cope with the both the bizarre truth and the fact that she must leave him.

Review:
This is a difficult film to review because there are a hundred things I want to say about it. It’s a film that inspires conversation rather than mute passivity, and in today’s world of Hollywood films, neatly concluded forty minute television episodes, and Twitter feeds, I think that’s the highest praise I can award a film.

Let the Right One In is ripe for literary analysis or a film class screening and miles away from Hollywood’s treatment of the vampire. Not a single scene in this film unfolds as expected. Not a single line of dialogue spoon feeds the audience. The main characters are complex and well-developed. The plot is bizarre and open-ended.

In short, it’s everything a very intelligent film that literary types, film snobs, and bookworms should enjoy. And anyone who thinks otherwise should trying sitting through next week’s Vampire release, Twilight, before passing judgement.

Geek Media Round-Up: November 14, 2008

PipedreamerGrey — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:00:49 +0000

Art

Geek Are Sexxy rounds up various Lego renditions of Alien.

Comics

Vectortuts shares 10 Lessons From Comic book Illustration Legends.

Film

Some people are saying that Blu-Ray has done itself in, but TechRadar has named 10 Movie Releases that Could save Blu-ray.
Wired counts down The Best Fictional Doomsday Devices.

Literature

Free Fiction: Listen to “The Trouble with Superman” by Chris Roberson at RevCast.
Free Fiction: Read a preview from Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, “The Only Known Jump Across Time” by Eugene Mirabelli.
Free Fiction: Read the 1910 “A Dreamer’s Tales” by Lord Dunsany at Feedbooks. A Dreamer’s Tales was Dunsany’s fifth book, and it had been considered a major influence on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula LeGuin, and many other genre authors.
Interview: Orson Scott Card talks about Ender in Exile.
Omnivoracious has selected the 10 Best Science Books of 2008.
Tor’s Jane Lindskold discusses The Problem of Series: “Fantasy and SF series are too often an excuse for writing one novel that spans several volumes. Unlike Mysteries or Thrillers, which have a set goal, Fantasy and SF series can go on and on without closure. Why did this become acceptable?”

Video Games

College Humor shares the Actual Titles 10 Popular Games Should Have Had.
Old Wizard picks the Top 11 Video Game Endings.

Trailer: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

PipedreamerGrey — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:30:29 +0000

A longer trailer for the Half-Blood Prince has hit the interwebs, and this one is even darker than the shorter version. This film is about half a step from a Tim Burton film, which leaves me with seriously high hopes for the seventh installment.