Dr. Horrible the Book

Recently published by Titan Books. The book is a must for die-hard Whedon fans and a maybe for the rest  for the rest of us:

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog: The Book

PRODUCT DETAILS

ISBN: 9781848568624
Dimensions: 8 1/2 x 10 7/8”
Paperback: 160pp
Publication date: March 29 2011
Illustration detail: Colour photos throughout
All authors: Joss Whedon

SYNOPSIS

“Once in a generation, a movie comes along that changes everything. Dr. Horrible is way better than that. It’s like a combination of everything-changing movies; it’s Gone With the Wonderful Life of Citizen Goonies. And it’s shorter.” -- Joss Whedon

“I hope you enjoy the pictures of me. I know I do.” -- Captain Hammer, from his introduction.

Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) stars as Billy, A.K.A. Dr. Horrible, a budding super-villain whose plans for world domination continually go awry. His two goals: getting accepted into the Evil League of Evil, and working up the guts to speak to his laundromat crush Penny, played by Felicia Day (The Guild). The only thing standing in his way is Captain Hammer, Billy's superhero arch-nemesis played by Nathan Fillion (Castle). With one big score, Billy could get into the E.L.E. and earn the respect of Penny, but only if he can keep her away from the dashing Captain Hammer...

Joss Whedon’s award-winning, Internet server-melting, genre-twisting musical tragicomedy shook the movie industry to its very roots, and quickly became a sensation. Here, at last, is the book the fans have demanded! Compiled by Whedon and the production team, this definitive companion features:

Behind-the-scenes memories from Joss and his fellow writers Jed Whedon, Zack Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen.

Exclusive contributions from stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day and Simon Helberg.

The full, uncut shooting script, original handwritten lyrics, costume designs, and scores of previously unpublished photos.

The official sheet music.

George O'Connor's Olympians

I recently discovered George O'Connor's ongoing series of Olympian graphic novels, which presents the Greek gods as the world's first superhero. The first volume, Zeus, offers an innovative and interesting account of the rise of the Olympian gods and the creation of the world. This is definitely a series to watch.

Other volumes include: Hera, Athena, and, due in 2012, Hades. O'Connor also runs a website that presents details on the creation of the series and a wealth of resources for students and teachers.

Batman: Year One--The Movie

Due out on 18 October 2011 from Warner Bros. is the new animated film Batman: Year One:




Details on the upcoming film can be accessed at its website. All versions of the film include a Catwoman short set within the movie universe and preview of the next film, Justice League: Doom. In addition, the Blu-Ray combo pack includes the most extras (including 2 featurettes, commentary, and 2 Batman: The Animated Series episodes from the "Bruce Timm Collection"), and a two-disc DVD includes a sampling of the extras (but no commentrary track). There is also a one-disc DVD option with no extras. Given the various editions, I ask, once again, why can't we have a DVD with all the extras and omit the non-essentials, like the extra cartons and the additional previews of older DCU animated films that reappear with every release?

Catching Up on Green Lantern

I posted back in May on upcoming GL films, and, while there is still no release date on the DVD/Blu-Ray versions of the GL feature film, here are the details on the original video prequel Green Lantern: Emerald Knights:

The film is available on both DVD and Blu-Ray, but (alas) all of the extras are on the Blu-Ray disc (a disturbing trend):

Sneak Peek at upcoming DC Universe animated movie
Sneak Peek at “All-Star Superman"
Featurette:“Only the Bravest: Tales of The Green Lantern Corps”
Featurette: “Why Green Lantern Matters: The Talent of Geoff Johns"
Feature Film Commentary with Dan DiDio and Geoff Johns
Pod: “From Comic Book to Screen: Abin Sur”
Pod: “From Comic Book to Screen: Laira Omoto"
This short pod will take a peek into Geoff John’s Green Lantern Secret Origin book, which for the first time, showed fans what really happened to Abin Sur before he crashed landed on Earth, and passed on his ring to Hal Jordan.
Bruce Timm’s Picks:
-Excerpt from “The Siege of Starro! Part One” from “Batman: The Brave and The Bold”
-“Revenge of The Reach!” from “Batman: The Brave and The Bold”
Digital Comic: Green Lantern

I (for one) continue to not see the point in Warner Bros continually replicating its trailers and sneak peeks for older DCU original animated videos and the "Bruce Timme collection" of cartoons. Why can't we get a DVD (as we did in the beginning of the series) with the extras and commentary track instead?


In addition to the feature film, original video, and upcoming animated series, Warner Bros. is also releasing on 11 October Best of the Green Lantern, a compilation DVD including appearances of the Green Lantern in various DCU animated series, including Superman: The Animated Series, The Justice League, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold:

Studio: Warner Bros.
Run Time: 88 minutes
Episodes Info :
In Brightest Day
In Blackest Night Part 1
In Blackest Night Part 2
Ring Toss
The Eyes of Despero!
Packaging Type: Eco Amaray Case

Synopsis:
Together for the first time is the best of the Green Lantern in a single disc. Each Green Lantern has been chosen by the Guardians of the Universe and wields a power ring that can generate a variety of effects, sustained purely by the ring wearer's strength of will; the greater the user's willpower, the more effective the ring. The ring can be used for antigravity, space travel, flight, unleashing torrents of energy, translating alien dialects, and creation of green objects (constructs) of any shape. Across the years, the ring has been shown capable of accomplishing anything within the imagination of the ring bearer. This compilation contains 5 fan favorite action packed episodes that have been taken from other series.

New to DVD: Secret Origin

Narrated by actor Ryan Reynolds and written/directed by Mac Carter, Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics is an original film released to DVD and digital download last fall. The film offers a comprehensive history of DC Comics and includes insightful commentary from many influential writers, artists, and editors at the company.

Chapman on British Comics

Coming soon from Reaktion Books:

British Comics: A Cultural History
James Chapman

234 x 156 mm
320 pages
70 illustrations

Hardback
978 1 86189 855 5
Forthcoming October 2011
£25.00

British Comics is a unique cultural history of British comic papers and magazines, from their origins in the late nineteenth century to the present day. It shows how comics were transformed in the early twentieth century from adult amusement to imaginative reading matter for children, and relates the rise of the major comic publishers and the emergence of the mighty duopoly of Amalgamated Press and D.C.Thomson that would dominate the industry for half a century.

Beginning with the first British comic ‘superstar’, Ally Sloper – ‘A Selection, Side-splitting, Sentimental, and Serious, for the Benefit of Old Boys, Young Boys, Odd Boys generally and even Girls’ – whose various misadventures reflected the emergence of a middle-class leisure economy in the late nineteenth century, British Comics goes on to describe the heyday of comics in the 1950s and ’60s, when titles such as School Friend and Eagle sold a million copies a week, and analyses the major genres including schoolgirl fantasies, sport and war stories for boys. The author charts the development of a new breed of violent comics in the 1970s, including the controversial Action and 2000AD, and also considers the attempt of an American comic publisher, Marvel, to launch a new hero for the British market in the form of Captain Britain. He goes on to document the appearance in the 1980s and ’90s of adult-oriented comics such as Warrior, Crisis, Deadline and Revolver and alternative comics such as Viz, and concludes by considering the work of important contemporary comic writers including Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Ian Edginton, Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis.

British Comics explains what children and adults thought of their comics and why some titles prospered while others failed, and also maps the changing structure of the comic publishing industry and how comic publishers, writers and artists have responded to the tastes of their consumers. Ultimately, the book argues that British comics are a distinctive kind of publishing that is different from (and certainly not inferior to) American, French and Japanese comics. An invaluable reference for comics collectors and fans worldwide, British Comics is a fascinating and thorough history that showcases the major role that comics have played in the imaginative lives of British juveniles – and some adults.

James Chapman is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Leicester, UK. He is the author of many books, including Cinemas of the World: Film and Society from 1895 to the Present (Reaktion Books, 2004) and War and Film (Reaktion Books, 2008).

Contents List IJoCA 12.2-3

As promised, though I apologize for odd formatting. See their website for a cleaner list.

Vol. 12, No. 2/3, Fall 2010
708 pages / 38 Articles

John A. Lent 1 Editor’s Note
Fabrice Leroy 2 Yves Chaland and Lue Cornillon’s Rewriting of Classical Belgian Comics in Captivant: From Graphic Homage to Implicit Criticism
Giancarla Unser-Schutz 25 Exploring the Role of Language in Manga: Text Types, Their Usages, and Their Distributions
Rick Marschall 44 Nurturing the Butterfly: My Life in Comic Art Studies
Derik A. Badman 91 Talking, Thinking, and Seeing in Pictures: Narration, Focalization, and Ocularization in Comics Narratives
Enrique Garcia 112 Coon Imagery in Will Eisner’s The Spirit and Yolanda Vargas Dulché’s Memín Pinguín and Its Legacy in the Contemporary United States and Mexican Comic Book Industries
Kerry Soper 125 From Jive Crows in “Dumbo” to Bumbazine and “Pogo”: Walt Kelly and the Conflicted Politics Reracinating African American Types in Mid-20th Century Comics
Robert Furlong and Christophe Cassiau-Haurie 150 Comic Books, Politics, and Manipulation: The Case of Repiblik Zanimo, the First Comic Strip and Book in Creole
Grazyna Gajewsk 159 Between History and Memory – Marzi: Children Should Be Seen and Not Heard Marzena Sowa and Sylvain Savoia
Matthew M. Chew and Lu Chen 171 Media Institutional Contexts of the Emergence and Development of Xinmanhua in China
Jörn Ahrens 192 The Father’s Art of Crime: Igort’s 5 Is the Perfect Number
Marco Pellitteri 209 Comics Reading and Attitudes of Openness toward the Other: The Italian-Speaking Teenagers’ Case in South Tyrol
Iren Ozgur 248 Have You Heard the One about the Islamist Humor Magazine?
Weidan Cao 251 The Mountains and the Moon, the Willows and the Swallows: A Hybrid Semiotic Analysis of Feng Zikai’s “New Paintings for Old Poems”
Candida Rifkind 268 A Stranger in an Strange Land? Guy Delisle Redraws the Travelogue
Daniel Stein 291 The Long Shadow of Wilhelm Busch: “Max & Moritz” and German Comics
Hannah Miodrag 309 Fragmented Text: The Spatial Arrangement of Words in Comics
Christopher Eklund 328 Toward an Ethicoaesthetics of Comics: A Critical Manifesto
Muliyadi Mahamood 336 The Malaysian Humor Magazine Gila-Gila: An Appreciation
Roy Bearden-White 354 Inheriting Trauma in Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
Philippe Gauthier 367 On “Institutionalization”: From Cinema to Comics
Marc A. Londo 376 Mr. Tap and His African-American Cartoons of the 1940s/1950s
Marcia R. Ristaino 395 Two Linked by Another, Ding Cong: Interviews with Betty McIntosh and Shen Jun
Shelley Drake Hawks 402 Ding Cong’s “True Story of Ah Q” in Art and Life
John A. Lent and Xu Ying 425 Fengjing – The Town That Claimed Ding Cong
Phillip Troutman 432 The Discourse of Comics Scholarship: A Rhetorical Analysis of Research Article Introductions
Ross Murray 445 Referencing Comics: A Comprehensive Citation Guide
Sylvain Rheault 459 Curvy Alterations in “Gaston” by Franquin
Miriam Peña-Pimentel 469 Baroque Features in Japanese Hentai
Yuko Nakamura 487 What Does the “Sky” Say? – Distinctive Characteristics of Manga and What the Sky Represents in It
B.S. Jamuna 509 Strategic Positioning and Re-presentations of Women in Indian Comics
Meena Ahmed 525 Exploring the Dimensions of Political Cartoons: A Case Study of Pakistan
Camila Figueiredo 543 Tunes Across Media: The Intermedial Transposition of Music in Watchmen
Rania M. R. Saleh 552 Making History Come Alive Through Political Cartoons
Bill Kartalopoulos 565 Taking and Making Liberties: Narratives of Comics History
Toni Masdiono 577 An Indonesian Bid for the First Graphic Novel
John A. Lent 581 In Remembrance of Five Major Comic Art Personalities
Perucho Mejia Garcia 588 Ismael Roldan Torres (1964-2009) of Colombia: A Memorial Tribute
Zheng Huagai 598 Tributes to Two Famous, Anti-Japanese War Cartoonists: Zhang Ding and Te Wei
John A. Lent 614 The Printed Word
620 Book Reviews
644 Exhibition and Media Reviews
696 Correction
697 Portfolio

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Nicholas Cage returns as the Ghost Rider in next year's Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance feature film. Images from the film have been posted to the Empire magazine website. (Again, thanks to Spinoff Online for the head's up.)

Green Lantern: The Animated Series

Coming this fall to Cartoon Network:



There is also an extended clip at the show's website.

Man of Steel First Look

Warner Bros. has recently released the first look of the new Superman for the upcoming film Man of Steel. There has also been some significant updates to the cast, and these can be reviewed at Spinoff Online, which links to the original articles.

Spider-Man and Batman Trailers

The fruits of Comic Con: trailers for next year's films The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises, a reboot and continuation, respectively, of the popular Spider-Man and Batman film franchises.

New TV

The cable network G4 is now airing two new anime series based on Marvel's Iron Man and X-Men franchises. Trailers follow:

X-Men First Class DVD Details

Details are now available on the extras for the DVD and Blu-Ray release of X-Men First Class (due of 9/9/11) as follows, and, as is now the trend, the majority of the extras are only on the Blu-Ray set:

DVD

Theatrical Feature
Children of the Atom


Blu-Ray

Disc 1: Theatrical Feature Blu-ray
X Marks The Spot
Composer's Isolated Score
Cerebro: Mutant Tracker
Children of the Atom – 8 Part Featurette Series
Deleted Scenes

Disc 2: Digital Copy