The Silver Age Batman Next For Hardcover Treatment

From IDW

IDW And The Library Of American Comics Next Team-Up!

Renowned for its Eisner and Harvey Award-winning archival work, IDW's The Library of American Comics will continue its collaboration with DC Entertainment by collecting the Batman's Silver Age newspaper strips in a matching format to the Silver Age Superman series!

Hot on the heels of the successful hit Batman television show starring Adam West and Burt Ward that resulted in what can only be described as "Batmania," the Batman newspaper strips debuted in 1966. Written by longtime Batman editor Whitney Ellsworth, with art by DC Comics giants Shelly Moldoff, Joe Giella, and Carmine Infantino, the newspaper strip was a huge success.

The first volume, reprinting all B&W dailies and color Sundays from 1966 and 1967, features an all-star list of Batman and Robin characters, including Catwoman, the Penguin, the Joker, Poison Ivy, and Batgirl! The 11 x 8.5" hardcover designed and edited by Dean Mullaney will feature a dust jacket cover by Pete Poplaski, and will be 256 pages, including an introduction by Joe Desris, "Ellsworth and the artists perfectly captured the flavor of the television show," Mullaney says. "It's a tremendous amount of fun, both as nostalgia and as a unique creation of its time."

Created in 1939 by Bob Kane, Batman has become an icon, a catalyst, and one of the most revered comic book properties of all time. With countless series, animated television shows, video games, and feature films under his utility belt, Batman perches on the top of American pop culture.

Monster Worship exhibits kaiju art at F.O.E. Gallery in Northampton

From Mass Live

Everyone knows Godzilla. But if you want to meet some of his weirder friends and extended family, visit F.OE. Gallery in Northampton.

That's where an exhibit feature the kaiju artwork of Chad Rugola is now on display. Kaiju is the Japanese word meaning "strange creature" (or "monster") and is how beasts such as Godzilla and Mothra are described.

Rugola's company, Monster Worship, produces kaiju art in several formats, from vinyl toys to prints to apparel. Monster Worship is now in its fifth year of operation and has produced 12 unique vinyl toys in over 100 unique colorways. The exhibit runs through Jan. 5. Check out www.monsterworship.com for additional information. F.O.E is at 114 Main St.

Rugola recently answered a few questions about his craft and interest in this form of art.

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How Man Of Steel Stopped The Shazam! Movie

From Cinemablend

It was all the way back in 2006 that director Peter Segal became attached to direct the DC Comics movie Shazam!, a superhero film about the character best known as Captain Marvel. The project made a good amount of progress building towards production, landing John August to pen the script and Dwayne Johnson to play the villainous Black Adam, but despite its efforts the film wound up falling in Hollywood's dreaded development hell anyway. Given how popular comic book movies are nowadays, it's strange to think that a project as high profile as Shazam! could fall apart, but now the director has revealed to Coming Soon exactly what happened behind the scenes.

While Black Adam may have been Captain Marvel's big screen foe, the character's biggest enemy behind the scenes of Hollywood is Superman. According to Segal, Captain Marvel has always had a problem co-existing with the Man of Steel, as the two characters have very similar powers. As a result, any time that a movie about him has been in development it has been undercut by the guy in red and blue tights. Said the filmmaker,

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Has It Really Come To This? Gal Gadot Defends Breast Size For Wonder Woman Role In 'Batman Vs. Superman'

From The Playlist

From Jennifer Lawrence sharing her stories about producers telling her she needs to lose weight, to websites seemingly devoted to nothing but shots of sideboobs or actresses or musicians parting their legs as they step out of a car, being a woman in the biz brings with it a whole bizarre set of baggage. But in case you need a bit more evidence of how surreal it can all get, let's turn to Israeli entertainment show, "Good Evening with Guy Pines."

Gal Gadot, the "Fast & Furious" star who is suiting up to play Wonder Woman in "Batman Vs. Superman," was recently interviewed on 'Pines' and of course, the conversation turned to the superhero sequel. But the questions weren't about trying to dig up plot points, or how much of a factor the character will be in the highly anticipated "Man Of Steel" followup, rather it focused on Gadot's chest. Here's the excerpt

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The Gross Secret Behind Star Trek's Old Costumes

From Fast Company

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was nothing if not utopian. In his original vision for the science-fiction series, Roddenberry imagined a future in which a generation of space hippies went forth as explorers into a strangely psychedelic cosmos to bring peace, brotherhood, and free love to all. In this future, there would be no war, no money, and everyone could get as drunk as they wanted with no consequence.

But by the time Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted on TV in 1985, Roddenberry's vision of the future encompassed more than peace, love, and harmony. It also included Spandex. In this archived interview with the BBC, Bob Blackman, the costume designer behind the show's iconic uniforms, talked about the problems that Spandex caused the cast and crew and how he used design to fix it.

Joining the show in the third season, Blackman found the costume department of The Next Generation to be a smelly and unpleasant place. When Roddenberry launched the show a couple years previously, he had told his costume designers that Spandex, the super-stretchy artificial fabric so synonymous with the '80s, was also the preferred fabric for the clothes of the future. But Roddenberry's forte was sci-fi, not fashion, and his textile of the 24th century was a disaster in the 20th.

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Have a superhero New Year’s

From Japan Times

Here’s an opportunity to have an ultra-special time this holiday season. The popular Ultraman superheroes, including the superhero himself and new hero Ultraman Ginga, will be in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, from Dec. 27 until Jan. 5 for the Oshogatsu Dayo! Ultraman Zenin Shugo (It’s the New Year! with All of the Ultraman Heroes) event.

The Ultraman series, featuring epic battles between heroes and giant monsters, first appeared on television in July 1966 and quickly became hugely popular, with fans mimicking the heroes’ unique energy-beam gestures.

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Singled Out: Varga Tell Story Behind Gamera

From Antimusic

Veteran Canadian metallers Varga recently released "Enter the Metal", their first new album after a long absence. To celebrate we asked Adam Alex to tell us about the song "Gamera" from the new album. Here is the story:

Gamera is an eight minute song in which we try to lay down a soundscape to the images of the legendary science fiction monster causing havoc and chaos across the Japanese countryside. The numerous parts and grooves we laid down are meant to represent different aspects of the story and provide the listener a soundtrack for the destruction that ensues .

Read more at http://www.antimusic.com/news/13/December/23Singled_Out-_Varga_Tell_Story_Behind_Gamera.shtml#FRm2Og53HcYwePXj.99

MONSTER PORN: Amazon Cracks Down On America’s Latest Sex Fantasy

From Business Insider

Author Virginia Wade's fiction debut follows a group of women who embark on a week-long camping trip to Mt. Hood National Forest. There, in the shadow of Oregon’s highest mountain, they are kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a mysterious woodland creature. "What the hell is that thing?" asks one protagonist.
“‘It's f---ing Bigfoot,’ hissed Shelly. ‘He's real, for f---'s sake.’ Horror filled her eyes. ‘With a huge c---.’”

The book, with the decidedly un-PG title "Cum For Bigfoot," is just the first of 16 fiction ebooks that Wade (a pen name) has written about the legendary beast sometimes known as Sasquatch, each detailing a series of graphic and often violent sexual encounters between the apelike creature and his female human lovers. Wade has made an exceptional living writing these stories.

It began in December of 2011. A stay-at-home mother from Parker, Colo., Wade had no ambition to be a published author and no real writing experience other than a few attempts at historical romance in the mid-90s. But then, she says, "I got this crazy idea for a story." So she sat down and wrote the entire book — more of a novella, at just 12,000 words — in a matter of weeks. She never even considered trying to sell it to a mainstream publisher. Instead, she went directly to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, an online platform for self-publishing with a 70% royalty rate for authors. (The average royalty percentage for authors with mainstream publishers is between 8 and 15%.)

"Cum For Bigfoot" wasn't an overnight best-seller. "The first month, I think I made $5," Wade admits. But over the course of 2012, the book was downloaded well over 100,000 times. "And that was just Amazon," she says. "That's not counting iTunes or Barnes & Noble or any of the other places that sell self-published books." With no marketing muscle, no bookstore tours or print reviews or any of the publicity that most top authors use to sell books, she started bringing in staggering profits. During her best months, she says, she netted $30,000 or more. At worst, she'd bank around six grand — "nothing to complain about," she says.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/monster-porn-amazon-crackdown-sex-fantasy-bigfoot-2013-12#ixzz2obFbR2ow

A Star Wars Christmas Bonanza

Star Wars Trivia:

 

George Lucas had planned the character of Han Solo to be a huge green-skinned monster with no nose and gills. Then Lucas changed the idea of Han Solo to a black human. He auditioned several black actors and even musicians (including Billy Dee Williams) until finally settling on Glynn Turman. But after this he decided to make the role white. Kurt Russell, Nick Nolte, Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Robert Englund, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta and Perry King were all candidates for the role of Han Solo. George Lucas also wanted to stay away from any actors he had previously used in his films. James Caan, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Burt Reynolds turned down the role. Harrison Ford (who had played Bob Falfa in Lucas's American Graffiti) read the part of Han Solo for screen tests of other characters but wasn't originally considered for the part. During these tests Lucas realized Ford was perfect for the role.

Due to the limited budget the American cast members and crew (including George Lucas) all decided to fly coach class to England, rather than first class. When Carrie Fisher's mother Debbie Reynolds heard about this she called Lucas, complaining about how insulting it was for her daughter to be flying coach. Fisher was in the room with Lucas when he took the call, and after a few minutes asked if she could talk to her mother. When Lucas handed her the phone she simply said, "Mother, I want to fly coach, will you f**k off?!" and hung up. 

More at Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope 

Looks like Wormie's caught too much sun.

They all exit the station and climb to the platform that surrounds the generator room. They all begin to survey the sky. Biggs soon decides that there is nothing really to see. Camie grabs the binoculars from Luke to see for herself. Luke protests and Fixer attempts to start to protect her. While Camie scans the sky Biggs gives Luke some advice.
 
Star Wars - The Missing Pieces 

 He left his mother at a tender age to join the Jedi only to seek her out as a teen, he finds her after she was captured by Sandpeople hen she dies in his arms. He got a little upset and went on a killing spree. He always thought that his fellow Jedi were holding him back so he turned to the dark side and slaughters his comrades, kills his own wife and tries to barbecue his best friend and mentor only to end up becoming a half-machine half-man monster with a bad Asthma problem.

Darth Vader Had Emotional Problems ...... Ya Think?















Mark Hamill Talks About His Experience Making Star Wars

There are things that don’t satisfy the audience about Luke – I’m too naïve, too straight forward, too earnest. All those things are complicated by Harrison Ford’s character, who is cynical, or Carrie Fisher’s character, who is very aggressive and sure of herself.  Every creature in the story line has such a recognizable human quality. The kids, of  course, respond to the Wookie because he’s big and furry and scary, but also he’s more scared than they are. That they love!
 

Mark Hamill - 1978 Star Wars Press Conference  

 Carrie Fisher – Lunch With Monsters At A Chinese Restaurant

In STAR WARS, Carrie Fisher has a film role that measures up to her fantasy life. She portrays the beautiful Princess Leia, a senator from the plant Alderaan and a rebel-leader working secretly for freedom and justice against the oppressive, evil Galactic Empire.

“When I made my first film, SHAMPOO, my scene was shot in Beverly Hills, which is where I grew up. I wore this little tennis outfit, which was something I might wear in real life. It wasn’t at all what I expected making movies would be,”  Carrie Fisher said. “I grew up watching movies  and they always seemed like adult recess. And that’s exactly what making STAR WARS turned out to be – a kind of adult recess. I got to go to lunch with outerspace monsters at a Chinese restaurant.”









I Thought I Would Find You Holding Vader's Leash 

“The horror movies give so much pleasure. And that’s what filmmaking is all about, isn’t it? That’s why I wanted to do STAR WARS. It’s a fantasy. People can experience emotions watching STAR WARS that they can’t experience in their ordinary lives,” Cushing said.

“Certainly I want to do other things than Horror films and play villains. I enjoyed playing in Laurence Olivier’s production of HAMLET. But I hope there are Dracula and Frankenstein films I can play in a wheelchair when I get old. Give up playing Van Helsing in DRACULA? Over my dead body.”
 
Peter Cushing – The Good Man Behind Evil Characters  

Japanese "Godzilla" Site Game

Have you ever imagined yourself as Godzilla and set about destroying cities and killing other monsters?

The Japanese website for the Legendary Pictures/Warner Bros. Godzilla has an arcade game where you can do just that, along with sound effects!

To give it a try, go here.

50 Years of Marvel's The Avengers

By Matthew Luke
Photo By: Ken Hulsey

It was 50 years ago that Marvel Comics' The Avengers made its first appearance at newsstands, candy stores, and pharmacies -- the comic book stores of the 1960s. Today The Avengers is Walt Disney's (NYSE: DIS  ) $1.5 billion dollar box office hit movie, with an equally promising sequel on the horizon. In 1963, however, The Avengers comic book was a desperate attempt by Marvel to prevent a huge financial mistake.

A deal with the devil

The year 1963 was a year of many firsts for Marvel Comics. Spider-Man -- introduced seven months earlier -- received his first comic book series The Amazing Spider-Man in March, while Iron Man made his first public appearance in the pages of Tales of Suspense issue No. 39 that same month. Marvel's newest comic book team, The X-Men, was also introduced for the first time in Uncanny X-Men issue No. 1.

The year 1963 was also supposed to include the first appearance of yet another popular Marvel character, Daredevil. A blind New York City attorney by day and an acrobatic crime fighter by night, Daredevil's scheduled September 1963 series launch was intended to replicate the success of Marvel's popular web-slinger, Spider-Man. Due to some extremely late artwork by artist Bill Everett, however, Marvel Comics was forced to delay Daredevil issue No. 1 until April of the next year.

It was just a seven month delay though. These things happen. No real harm, right? Wrong. A deal is a deal, as was the case with Marvel Comics and its comic book printer. Daredevil or no Daredevil, Marvel's printer was contractually owed the money regardless. Since these deals were negotiated well in advance, this not only included September's printing of Daredevil issue No. 1, but the printing of future issues as well. So Marvel had two options before it: (1) not publish anything in place of Daredevil and take the financial hit or (2) very quickly create a new comic book series before the printing deadline. Marvel wisely chose option two.

Financial mistake to billion-dollar franchise

Creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby got to work creating a new series in a hurry. With no time to devise new characters who had complicated origin stories, it was decided to instead use Marvel's roster of existing characters in a team-up comic featuring Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and Wasp -- Captain America would join the team three issues later. Similar to Disney's 2012 The Avengers movie, Thor's brother Loki, another already established character, was used as the first villain for our very unlikely teammates. Thus Earth's Mightiest Heroes were born.

To be honest the artwork wasn't much to look at even by 1960s standards. And the story and character interactions were rather simplistic. That was all to be expected considering how very little time Lee, Kirby, and inker Dick Ayers had to unexpectedly create an entirely new series. It was really quite amazing that they even made the deadline at all. However, the concept proved to be a screaming success. For 50 years now The Avengers has been one of the industry's most enduring comic properties; making billion dollar franchises out of a guy in a silly metal suit, a Norse god wearing a winged-helmet, a frozen soldier decades removed from his own time, and a big green rage monster.

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Comic Book Collectors Report

The Doctor returns for a Christmas Special on BBC One

Orbiting a quiet backwater planet, the massed forces of the universe’s deadliest species gather, drawn to a mysterious message that echoes out to the stars - and amongst them, the Doctor.

Rescuing Clara from a family Christmas dinner, the Time Lord and his best friend must learn what this enigmatic signal means for his own fate and that of the universe.

Read Interviews With Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman and Orla Brady at: Doctor Who - The Time Of The Doctor

Eleven Days Until "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan" Holiday Sale Ends

by Armand Vaquer

Above, Yuu Asakura with "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan." Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan print edition will be available at a 20% holiday discount for another eleven (11) days.

To get "that perfect stocking-stuffer" for that kaiju fan in your life (or for yourself), just go to the order form here, print it out and mail it up to and including December 24 (Christmas Eve).

$12.00 is all it takes to get the travel guide to Japan's monster movie locations and landmarks, and that includes shipping and handling thrown in!

Don't delay, order today!

"Godzilla" Japanese Trailer

Legendary Pictures/Warner Bros. have released the Japanese Godzilla trailer and website.

The trailer is slightly different than the American version and it seems to be much clearer.

It will be released in Japan through Toho Co., Ltd. on July 25, 2014.

To view it, go here. 

"Godzilla" Website and Teaser Trailer Now Available

What everyone's been waiting for, the official Godzilla (2014) teaser trailer and website are now available for your viewing pleasure!

To view both, go here.

Tsuburaya Productions Celebrates 50th Anniversary

by Armand Vaquer

Above, Eiji Tsuburaya during the filming of "King Kong vs. Godzilla." Photo: Toho Co., Ltd.

The production company that Japanese special effects pioneer Eiji Tsuburaya founded is celebrating a milestone.

An exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of Tsuburaya Productions is opening Thursday in Yokohama.

According to the Asahi Shimbun:

An exhibition devoted to Ultra superheroes and live-action “tokusatsu” special effects will be held in Yokohama to mark the 50th anniversary of Tsuburaya Productions Co. 

The event, from Dec. 12 to Feb. 16 at the Broadcast Library, will look at the history of the nation’s leading special effects studio, best known for the live-action “Ultraman” gigantic superhero shows and movies. 

Visitors will be greeted at the entrance by a statue of Ultraman Mebius and photographs of about 30 Ultra heroes and 50 “kaiju” monsters from the franchise.

To read the full article, go here. 

"Godzilla" Trailer Premieres Tomorrow

Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.

The first Godzilla (2014) trailer will be premiering tomorrow.

According to USA Today:

The first Godzilla trailer premieres online Tuesday (1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT) and is attached to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug starting this weekend. 

Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the atomic-powered mega-beast laying waste to Japan in Toho's 1954 Godzilla, and the new movie harks back to the roots of the original in both look and theme.

To read the article, go here.