Jericho: The Comic

If you were as disappointed as I was that Jericho had to wrap up as quickly as it did (although it did a very fine job of doing it), you'll be as excited as I am to learn that there's going to be a Jericho comic.

From the press release I got:

Devil's Due Publishing and CBS Consumer Products Give New Life to Fan-Favorite TV Series Jericho With New Comic Book Series

CHICAGO - March 5, 2009 - Devil's Due Publishing (DDP) has announced a deal with CBS Consumer Products to publish a new comic book series tied to fan-favorite Jericho, the one-hour drama series that garnered critical acclaim and ran on CBS for two seasons, from 2006-2008. The series centered on the residents of the fictional town of Jericho, Kansas in the aftermath of nuclear attacks on 23 major cities in the contiguous United States. The comic book series will pick up where the television program left off, answering many questions for its passionate fans. DDP has teamed up with the show's creators and producers to develop an authentic story that will hit comic book retailers this fall.

Jericho fans are some of the most dedicated in the world of television. In 2007, devotees to the show produced by CBS Paramount Network Television rallied together to bring back the fan-favorite which was initially cancelled after just one season. The show returned for a seven-episode second season, but was not renewed for a third season. While fans received a little more closure with the end of season two, there were still loose ends that could be addressed.

"Jericho is alive and well, thanks to the amazing fans who've driven us to find new and fresh ways to tell the Jericho story," says Dan Shotz, Co-Executive Producer of Jericho. "Josh Blaylock and the DDP team are great partners and have shown a true love for our show. We are so thrilled about this comic book series and the endless possibilities for the future of Jericho."

Joining Shotz in developing the comic book will be most of the original creative team including Jon Turteltaub, Carol Barbee, Karim Zreik, and Jon Steinberg.

"I can't tell you how cool it is for DDP to be able to continue the Jericho story in comic book form," says DDP President Josh Blaylock. "We plan to give fans the story they've been craving. This is going to be epic stuff."

Edited to add: Gwen from Jericho-Kansas.com reminds me in the comments that there's also a movie in the works. Thanks, Gwen!

The Awesome List: Fantastic Four and Jericho RIP; my collaborators have lives outside of me

Johnny Storm says, "No more Fantastic Four... probably."



Chris Evans was my favorite part of the Fantastic Four movies. He continues to impress with this interview in which he talks frankly about the failings of the movies and how he's pretty much giving up on the idea that they'll have a chance to get better.

Here's hoping he'll get his wish for a Johnny Storm appearance in some of the other Marvel movies though. (Via.)

Jericho RIP

Speaking of giving up, that's what CBS has done with Jericho.

It's too bad. I've been frustrated with the accelerated pace of this abridged season, but I've put up with it in hopes for a normal, third one. Hopefully Skeet Ulrich will find something else soon. First Miracles; now this.

Jess Hickman on Oddly Normal



Jess Hickman is a friend and sometime collaborator of mine. Her current project is illustrating the most recent volume of Otis Frampton's Oddly Normal comic for Viper, the first two chapters of which you can read here.

Speaking of friends and co-workers

My Jesses James vs. Machine Gun Kelly co-writer Alex Ness has started a new comics blog.

The Awesome List: God Squad, Forbidden Kingdom, Dracula Meets the Wolf Man, new Resident Evil movie, Automatons, vikings vs. aliens, and more

The God Squad



Marvel's solicitations for June just came out and I've only just read May's. Sad.

But I'm glad I didn't skip over it because then I wouldn't know about Snowbird's upcoming appearance in Incredible Hercules. You know, Marvel... it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if she were to stick around for a while.

The Forbidden Kingdom

Went to 10,000 BC the other night and saw a huge lobby display for The Forbidden Kingdom. The display made it look like a bad video game movie except that it has both Jackie Chan and Jet Li in it. That's worth gambling on right there even if it ends up sucking.

Fortunately though, the trailer makes it look really good, like it's sort of combining the humor of Chan's movies with the artsy fartsiness of Li's.

The Many Moods of Wonder Woman

Includes: Smug, Pensive, Surrounded by Idiots, and Running in a Nightie. Thank you, Dorian!

Frank Frazetta's Dracula Meets the Wolf Man



Steve Niles is writing the latest comic based on a Frank Frazetta painting: Dracula Meets the Wolf Man. So far, the Frazetta comics have been amazing and this should only raise the bar a bit.

It was Lassie ruined Xena

So, I've been watching Jericho again and was surprised to recognize the guy who plays Constantino, the whacked out mayor of New Bern. When I was watching Jericho last season, I hadn't yet discovered Psych, but now I realize that Constantino is none other than Timothy Omundson, who plays Psych's Carlton Lassiter. But that's not all.

I wanted to make sure that Jericho hadn't switched actors for Constantino and that Omundson had actually played him in the first season too, so I took a trip to IMDB. Sure enough, he had, but the big surprise was when I learned that Omundson also played the character who ruined Xena: Warrior Princess for me.



I can't possibly tell you how much I grooved on Xena up until the point where she and Gabby met Eli and moved to India to become hippies. After that, it was a long, slow descent into crazytown. I'm going to take extra special pleasure every time Shawn and Gus torture Lassiter from now on.

Resident Evil: Degeneration

Not quite the sequel to Extinction I was hoping for, but then, I'm a little fuzzy on whether this is supposed to be a sequel to the Milla Jovovich movies at all. Maybe that one's still coming.

RESIDENT EVIL DEGENERATION TRAILER
Uploaded by PANZERDRAKO

Automatons



This is how humanity dies. Holy crap, that looks cool as hell.

Outlander

And it just gets better. Vikings vs. Aliens.

The Sinai Secret

Bookgasm mentions a book by Gregg Loomis that sounds like enough of a mixture between Indiana Jones and National Treasure that it would have to try really hard to make me not like it.

The Awesome List: Jungle Girls and Giant Apes, new Star Wars movie, Doctor Who, Hellboy, Lost news, Jericho comics, Terminator stuff, and more

Kala & Go–Go



I can't tell much about 5-Color Comics from their website, MySpace page, or even their mention in Rich Johnston's column, but I'm pretty sure that all I need to know is in that picture right there. Also, some damn fine comics creators are involved.

I'm going to start reading Iron Man comics

People keep telling me that before he was Marvel's greatest villain, Iron Man was the star of a pretty cool spy comic. I'm on the verge of checking that out for myself, but in the meantime, Matt Fraction's taking a stab at the character and I know he can write an awesome spy story.

Clone Wars cartoon to hit theaters before TV

And here's the trailer.

Doctor Who is Destro

The G.I. Joe movie just got a lot more interesting.

Speaking of Doctor Who

I was just wondering what Pia Guerra's next project after Y: The Last Man would be. I could hug IDW's Editor in Chief Chris Ryall right now.

Cavegirls in Fur Bikinis

The name pretty much speaks for itself, really.

Hellboy stuff



PVC characters, a mug, and action figures.

Lost plans

Carlton Cuse talks about how the rest of the season will go now that the strike's over:

"Damon [Lindelof] and I are going to try to make five more episodes before the end of May, which is ambitious. But we've found ourselves in a situation where we had eight episodes of story planned, and we're going to try to fit that into five hours of the show. Even though it's going to be very hard to execute, we felt like any less would be doing a disservice to the story we had planned. We really want to give the fans the best possible experience and ending... to Season 4."

Much, much more at the link.

Also, those five episodes will air after new episodes of Grey's Anatomy, meaning that ABC now totally owns Thursday night.

Jericho graphic novel

I must be living right or something.

Terminator 4

I've been ignoring news about new Terminator movies, because frankly I lost interest in the franchise when Linda Hamilton stopped being part of it. But... I wanna check out The Sarah Conner Chronicles and before I watch my TiVoed episodes I want to rewatch the movies. I'm also going to finally see T3, which I've never seen before, but have been told is sort of necessary viewing before watching the TV show.

I say all that to say that now that I'm immersing myself in that world again, I'm interested in the new movie sequels, especially with Christian Bale playing John Conner in them.

The Awesome List: Hitchcock mashups, 30 Days of Night contest, T-Rex vs. Kitty, Lolthulhu, Reptisaurus, weekly Wonder Woman, and more

I know what I'm buying at the grocery store tonight.



Vanity Fair's Hollywood Issue featuring reshoots of Hitchcock movies with modern stars.

Curious about Spiderwick again

My interest in The Spiderwick Chronicles was slipping, but Neil Gaiman and family give it a thumbs up and that's a high recommendation even when the review is simply, "I really enjoyed (it)."

30 Days of Night movie contest

Win a buttload of stuff related to the 30 Days of Night movie.

From the "I Wish I'd Thought of That" Dept.

T-Rex vs. Kitty! And don't bet too quickly on the dinosaur.

Lolthulhu



UR Soul. I Has It.

Obedience

Bookgasm's on a roll lately with adding stuff to my Wish List. The latest is Will Lavender's Obedience, a thriller about a college professor who challenges students to unravel clues in order to save a girl who may or may not be hypothetical.

Indy trailer update

Someone commented here that the Indy trailer "will be broadcast Feb. 14 on Good Morning America, sometime between 8-9 am. It will then be available online at the official site." The press release is also up at IndianaJones.com again (if it ever went away).

Jericho cast appearance update

Got an email with the following update about the cast members who'll be appearing at the Los Angeles Comicbook and Science Fiction Convention this Sunday:

"Appearing on the CBS-TV Jericho panel at 2:00 P.M. will be stars Esai Morales (joining the series in season two as Major Beck), Kenneth Mitchell (Eric Green), Brad Beyer (Stanley Richmond), Alicia Coppola (Mimi Clark), Jonathan E. Steinberg (Co-Creator of Jericho), Executive Producer Carol Barbee, Co-Executive Producers Karim Zreik and Dan Shotz. At 1:00 P.M. there will be a advance screening of the next week's episode of Jericho."

So, no Skeet, but not a bad lineup at all. Especially with Stanley and Mimi. I love those kids.

Reptisaurus

Someone's making a movie out of an old Charlton comic about a giant monster. It doesn't sound very good.

Of course I'm going to see it.

Weekly Wonder Woman comic

Not really, but almost. DC's announced that their next attempt at a weekly comic will be called Trinity and will feature Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman.

This one bodes well for me, I think. I enjoyed 52, but would've liked it more if it had featured more heavily characters I already cared about. Countdown should've had a leg up on 52 in that regard by co-starring Mary Marvel, but as everyone has pointed out, it's too tied into 600 other series to be enjoyable on its own. I've taken to skimming through issues at the store and only buying them if there seems to be development in the Mary Marvel plot.

Trinity promises to fix both of those things by a) featuring Wonder Woman, and b) not being tied to other events in the DC Universe.

The Awesome List: Indiana Jones, Giant Monsters, Albert Einstein’s secret doomsday device, and the Return of TV

Indy's hat and jacket

IndianaJones.com has a new featurette about Indy's iconic look and trying to recreate it for the new movie.

Indy's trailer

Apparently, the teaser trailer for Indy and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be attached to The Spiderwick Chronicles when it hits theaters on Thursday. I also saw something on IndianaJones.com earlier today about the trailer's TV and 'net debuts, but I can't find it now. Either I've gone stupid (entirely possible) or the info was released prematurely or is being changed. I'll let you know which once I know.

Giant Robots are stupid.

According to TechRepublic.

Oh, wait. No, they're not.

Says Jeremiah Tolbert.

Three Days to Never

According to Bookgasm, Tim Powers' Three Days to Never contains all of my favorite things: "hidden histories ... spirits, spies, talking disembodied heads, dybbuks, time travel, Charlie Chaplin’s quest for magical power, Albert Einstein’s secret doomsday device, and about a million other awesome things." So totally sold.

Welcome back, TV.

With the WGA strike all but officially over, TV Guide has a new strike chart up predicting when we'll start seeing new episodes of our favorite shows. Here are the ones that interest me:

Battlestar Galactica: Returns April 4 with first half of 20-episode final season. Production on second half could start as early as March. Airdate for those TBD.

The Big Bang Theory: Expected to shoot 5 to 7 new episodes to air in April/May.

Burn Notice: Production on Season 2 expected to get underway in late April. New episodes could start airing as early as July.

Chuck: No new episodes until fall.

Grey's Anatomy: Expected to shoot 4 to 7 new episodes to air in April/May

House: Expected to shoot 4 to 6 new episodes to air in April/May.

Jericho: Seven episodes remain. No additional episodes expected for this season.

Lost: Six pre-strike episodes remain. Six additional episodes could air this season.

Men in Trees: Eleven pre-strike episodes remain. No additional episodes expected this season.

The Office: Expected to shoot 5 to 10 new episodes to air in April/May.

Private Practice: Slim chance it could return with 4 or 5 new episodes this season. Either way, it'll be back in the fall.

Pushing Daisies: No new episodes until fall.

Scrubs: Four pre-strike episodes remain. Four additional episodes will likely be shot; unclear whether they'll air on NBC or go straight to DVD.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Five pre-strike episodes remain. Future beyond that TBD.

The Awesome List: Meet the Jerichos, Josh Ortega's She-Devil, Plan 9 the comic, and Mouse Guard the game.

Meet the Jericho cast

The Los Angeles Comicbook and Science Fiction Convention's being a little secretive about exactly which Jericho castmembers will be appearing at their show on February 17th, but they have some coming, and producers as well. If I knew for sure that Skeet was going to be there, I'd already have my ticket.*

*Not really.**

**But I do love Skeet.

Josh Ortega on Red Sonja

Josh Ortega (Necromancer, Death Dealer) is one of my favorite comics writers, so I think it's very cool that he's writing an issue of Red Sonja. Hopefully it leads to more.

Plan 9 from Outer Space: The Comic

It's so crazy it just might work.

Mouse Guard: The Board Game

I'm so getting this. As long as it has little plastic Mouse Guard characters and David Petersen's illustrating the board.

The Awesome List: Cloverfield manga, cool statues, JJ Abrams' X-Files, Jericho, and more

Last night wasn't just about the bad movies. I also saw The Orphanage and Cloverfield, so I'll get reviews of them up as soon as I can. But first, I want to make sure I'm as caught up on news as I can be, so...

Speaking of Cloverfield

Following the clues in the online marketing campaign, fans have uncovered an online manga that may or may not tell the origin of the monster. Unfortunately, it's untranslated from Japanese right now.

Lost Season Four cast photo



(Thanks, Grant!)

Some very cool stuff coming out from Dark Horse in April

Like this:






The Amazon Bubble

Siskoid has a great observation about why Gail Simone's Wonder Woman is so good and what it has to do with Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction's take on Iron Fist.

And speaking of Wonder Woman, I have comments about the new issue of Playboy with Tiffany Fallon as Wonder Woman, but they got to be too long for this post, so I'll do them up as a separate deal.

Fringe

Sounds like JJ Abrams' take on The X-Files. I'm in.

Jericho tease

This article on the new, partial season of Jericho is mostly a repeat of what we already know: it's a seven-episode season and they've filmed two endings to air depending on whether or not there'll be a Season Three. But there's also a new bit of tease about what Seasons Two (and Three, should there be one) will focus on.

New Stuff to Watch For: Bond reprints, Venetian Betrayal, and Jericho

"Mink-lined, with first-class service."

I've discovered a cool, relatively new blog called The Literary 007. As you'd expect, it's full of lots of great info on James Bond in novels and comics. Like that Penguin's releasing a complete box set of Fleming's Bond as well as a hardcover collection in celebration of Fleming's 100th birthday next year. Both are only available in the UK, so far, but surely they'll eventually sell them over here. Right? (Actually, I learned about the hardcover versions from my pal Jason Whiton, and it was looking for more info on those that led me to Literary 007. So double thanks to Jason for that.)

The lost tomb of Alexander the Great

The Venetian Betrayal by Steve Berry sounds absolutely awesome.

"In 323 B.C.E, having conquered Persia, Alexander the Great set his sights on Arabia, then suddenly succumbed to a strange fever. Locating his final resting place–unknown to this day–remains a tantalizing goal for both archaeologists and treasure hunters. Now the quest for this coveted prize is about to heat up. And Cotton Malone–former U.S. Justice Department agent turned rare-book dealer–will be drawn into an intense geopolitical chess game."

It comes out next Tuesday (Dec. 11).

Jericho's back

The seven new episodes of Jericho begin on February 12.

Links du Jour: Moneypenny RIP, Lost news, and Star Wars galore

Let's catch up on some movie/TV news, shall we? And for old times sake, I'll divide the links by genre.

Adventure

The Young Indiana Jones DVDs are almost here!

Spies

Miss Moneypenny passed away. Of all the late items in today's post, I feel worst about not mentioning this one earlier. Christopher Mills has a nice obituary.

Mystery

Since the new TV season started without Lost, the show's producers want to make sure we don't forget that it's coming back in January. So they're already talking about what's going to happen in Season 4. I don't know that I'd call what they're dishing "spoilers," but there are some nices teases that I'll send you to the link to read.

One Lost thing that I want to mention though is that Fisher Stevens is joining the cast this season. He's not the kind of actor where I want to track down everything he's done, but I'm always fascinated by his performances and I'm looking forward to his being on the show. He was in one of my all-time favorite episodes of Friends too. "Remember, Monica. It's just a cookie. It's not love."

Just in case Jericho gets cancelled again after this season, they've come up with an alternate ending to tie everything up. I love those guys. Here's hoping they won't have to use the alternate.

Horror

A local puppet studio is premiering their new show Transylvania TV on our CW affiliate at midnight tonight. Sponsored by my comic shop. Definitely TiVoing this one.

Fantasy

One of my favorite cult TV shows that never caught on was Cupid starring Jeremy Piven. Looks like it may get a second life, but without Piven in it, I'm really not interested.

Science Fiction

According to David Duchovny, X-Files 2 starts filming in December.

The Terminator franchise is getting a reboot with a new trilogy of movies in the works. No thanks. Without Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton -- heck, without just Linda Hamilton -- I don't care. Plus, it's already a confusing story. Why make it more complicated?

Did you hear about the Star Wars fans who made a (nearly) functional X-Wing rocket? How about the ones who thought a Y-Wing would work better?

Cartoonist James Baker has a huge set of Star Wars links for you to check out. I'll leave them for you to explore, but among them are possible sources of inspiration for Wookiees and Imperial Walkers, speculation about R2 and Chewie's roles in the two trilogies, and theorizing over whether or not Luke and Leia ever hooked up.

Jericho: Season Two, Simpsons donuts, and how to tell when you're too into your fantasy series.

Kill All Monsters!-Related

Steve Bissette continues his look at giant monsters.

He also talks about DC's GIs-versus-dinosaurs comics that are collected in Showcase Presents: The War that Time Forgot. I started reading them myself, but was disappointed that instead of a continuing storyline about soldiers stranded on an island of dinosaurs, most of the stories are self-contained (except for an occasional one that takes two or three issues to complete) and feature new characters in every tale. It's still a cool idea, but I was hoping to get to know the soldiers better than the format allows.

Chris Sims convinces me to read Marvel MegaMorphs, about Marvel superheroes who pilot giant-robot versions of themselves.

Forget Transformers. How'sabout a life-sized Gundam giant robot figure?

Blogarama has a preview of Josh Cotter's giant-robot-featuring contribution to the Indie Spinner Rack anthology. Cotter's very cool Skyscrapers of the Midwest series frequently features giant robots, so this is no surprise. That doesn't make it any less welcome though.

Dust to Dust-Related

Looks like I missed TiVoing Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda in Jesse James on Fox Movie Channel this morning, but they're rerunning it on August 24th. Now if I can just remember...

Pulp

This is only a rumor as far as I can tell, but everyone else is talking about it so I might as well mention that Knocked Up star Seth Rogen may be writing and starring in a Green Hornet movie.

Mystery

You'll have to click on the link to get the full skinny, but the Sci Fi Channel's got some details about the second season of Jericho. Like how they're going to squeeze 22 planned episodes into the 7 that CBS ordered and how the plot will be intentionally reminiscent of events in Iraq.

In the comments to my post on Erle Stanley Gardner's birthday, Rupert from The Book Garden mentions that he's building a Squidoo list of Perry Mason novels. Quite an undertaking and very useful information considering the huge number of them that Gardner wrote.

Fantasy

Starting tonight, I'm not reading anything online that has either "Harry Potter" or "HP" in the text. Hewlett Packard news will just have to wait until I'm caught up. But before I go dark on the Harry news, I've got to share this press release that a friend forwarded to me. It's from a grief counselor offering "to speak with parents and children, as well as the media, on how to cope with feelings of grief and loss" once the series concludes. "This could have a serious impact on children, millions of whom have grown up reading, watching and profoundly enjoying the characters and storylines of the Harry Potter series." Maybe I'm a heartless bastard, but really?

Science Fiction

This is even more rumor than the Green Hornet story, but the Disney Blog is reporting conversations about Disney's remaking 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, possibly with "a certain captain from the Pirates franchise" as Nemo. That last bit sounds like wishful thinking more than informed speculation to me, but I don't have the contacts that the Disney Blog does, so don't listen to me.

Wonder Woman

That's Fit has links to some cool Wonder Woman gear for women. It's all under item number four in their "five ways to emblazon yourself with a message of strength."

Alpha Flight

Ramon Perez (Butternutsquash) has a fantastic post where he's drawn all the characters from the classic Alpha Flight team. Made me homesick it did.

Writing is Hard

One of the Three Golden Rules of Writing is "show, don't tell," but Writer Unboxed read a review of Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo that made them wonder how strictly the rule should be followed. After all, "does the description of 'a little man with no compassion or concern for others' really hurt him? It helps the reader develop an instantaneous feeling about the character so the story can move forward, after all. Is that always bad? Did (Leven Thumps author Obert) Skye need to develop a sequence showing the character acting like an a-hole?" Good question. I'd be interested in hearing opinions on this one.

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

This post on the Simpsons Movie promotional donuts made me very hungry. I gotta find a 7-11.

Links: Shannara movies, Kill All Monsters!, and Captain Action

Still catching up.

Mystery

• CBS rules. Jericho has been renewed.
• Play Dead -- about a dog who witnesses a murder and the lawyer who tries to keep him safe -- isn't at all the kind of mystery I usually read, but that might be part of the attraction I'm feeling.
• I don't know anything about Domino Lady, but I do love a crossover and a good femme fatale, so Moonstone's collection of Domino Lady stories -- featuring her meeting folks like Sherlock Holmes, The Phantom, and Airboy -- sounds worth checking out.

Spies

• My Kill All Monsters! collaborator Jason Copland has an interview out on Newsarama about the thriller he and A. David Lewis did called Empty Chamber. The first issue was fantastic and the second one should be out soon (next week, I think?). Update: In the comments, Jason says that he just heard from Silent Devil that it'll be out July 27.
• I'm not expecting much from it, but Paul W.S. Anderson (Alien vs. Predator) is directing a movie based on the Spy Hunter video game. The Rock was previously attached as the film's star a couple of years ago when John Woo was going to direct it. No word yet on whether he'll still be in it.

Horror

• Horror novelist Peter Straub is writing a graphic novel for DC/Vertigo.
• The trailer's out for Will Smith's I Am Legend movie. It's very coy about whether the threat is vampires (like in the book) or zombies (yawn) or something else, but it looks good so far.

Fantasy

• Warner Brothers wants to turn Terry Brookes' Shannara books into a movie franchise. Wisely, they plan to skip the first novel in the series, the Tolkein rip-off Sword of Shannara, and begin with the second book, The Elfstones of Shannara. As much as I complain about Brookes' style and the derivative plot of Sword, I really do have a fond place in my heart for these books and I'd love to see them done well as a series of movies.
• It's been a while since I'd heard news about the next Narnia movies. Sounds like the next one, Prince Caspian, comes out next summer, with the third one, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, coming out the summer after that.

Blogger's acting weird, so I think I'm going to have to finish this in a separate post.

Link: Jericho to get closure, Eli Stone looks really funny, and I gotta read The Cage

Mystery

• Taking the sting out of Jericho's cancellation, Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment, responded to huge fan outcry by saying, "Thank you for supporting Jericho with such passion. We truly appreciate the commitment you made to the series and we are humbled by your disappointment. In the coming weeks, we hope to develop a way to provide closure to the compelling drama that was the Jericho story." No word on if that means a mini-series, a TV movie, or something else, but it's cause for hope.

Fantasy

• I'm trying not to comment on any of the promised Fall TV shows yet, because I'm still not over some of my favorites getting cancelled this season and I'm certainly not ready to start welcoming in their replacements. But I've mentioned before that I'm curious to see Victor Garber's new show, Eli Stone. Even though the premise didn't immediately grab me, it's Victor Garber. His Jack Bristow from Alias is the one guy I'd put up against Jack Bauer and not immediately know which to bet on. But anyway, any hesitation I had about the premise is now completely gone thanks to this trailer. Oh, man, I can't wait to watch this show now.
• Jason Brannon's crytozoological thriller The Cage sounds really really good. Sort of like Day of the Animals meets The X-Files. "A Wendigo, Bigfoot, El Chupacabra, The Jersey Devil (think horned horse and awfully mean), The Dragon of Bone Island and a little somethin’ somethin’ called The Beast of Exmoor" attack a small, family zoo and everyone in it.
• I liked Pan's Labyrinth pretty well, but I don't think I'd consider buying it if the special edition didn't have "animated DVD comics (one-page stories with floating captions), beautifully illustrated by Guy Davis, Jason Shawn Alexander and Mike Kaluta, that provide interesting back stories to the mythical characters Ofelia encounters in the labyrinth: The Faun and Great Toad (Davis), Pan (Kaluta) and The Fairies (Alexander)."

Science Fiction

• This could also have gone under Superheroes, but I'll keep it here. I really liked DC's 52 series, but one of my regrets about it is that I wanted more Adam Strange, Starfire, Animal Man stories. DC read my mind and launches Countdown to Adventure this August.
• Lucasfilm has released a look at the art from its upcoming Clone Wars CGI series.
• My local theater had a showing of the first Terminator movie on the big screen last week. Seeing Linda Hamilton even as the whimpy version of Sarah Conner made me less excited about FOX's upcoming The Sarah Conner Chronicles, but maybe my prejudice will ease off between now and next January when Chronicles kicks off.

Superheroes

• If you read superhero comics at all, you're aware that Mary Jane Watson's first words to Peter Parker were, "Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot." But if you're like me, you don't know the context of where that line came from. I've been confused for years about why those would be the first words out of someone's mouth when she's meeting you for the first time. Fortunately, Comics Should Be Good helpfully recaps the story for us.
• Fox and the Franklin Mint have teamed up to release a limited edition Silver Surfer quarter to promote the new Fantastic Four movie.
• I gave up on Heroes about six episodes in and decided that if I was missing out, I could always catch up on DVD. Well, now the DVD is scheduled for release on August 28th and I'm still having a hard time mustering excitement for it. Some of my friends tell me that it got better as the season progressed, but I haven't yet read a thorough review that acknowledges the show's early flaws and explains how it corrected for them. I need convincing.

Other Comics

• The winners of this year's Glyph awards honoring black comics creators and characters have been announced. I'm definitely going to have to give Stagger Lee a read.

Writing is Hard

• Bestselling author Brad Meltzer shares some tips for getting published. Some of it's old news if you already read agents' blogs, but there's some good, new info too, like the caveat to Miss Snark's "Query widely" advice where Meltzer suggests you only query ten agents at a time in case you decide to rework your query letter after the first go-'round.
• Another good advice list. This one on developing effective writing habits.
• I suck at titles, so any source of ideas for them is welcome. I totally want to write a comic called Stab!

Links: CBS fall schedule, Elephantmen: the puzzle

So, yeah. I only have a couple of links in my folder, so I think I'll just put those up and spend the rest of my time reading stuff for tomorrow.

Mystery/Scifi/Action/Stuff Nobody Cares About/Whatever

I was seriously considering writing a full post on Jericho because of how much I've fallen in love with the show the last few months. It started off "okay" in the Fall, but not great and I admit that when it came back in the Spring I let a few episodes stack up in TiVo before I dug into it again. In other words, I wasn't exactly sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for it to return. And apparently, neither was anyone else. Even though it's been an amazing show in the second half of the season, the winter hiatus killed it. And the finale was a great cliffhanger too. Between this and Drive, I'm starting to hate TV. I hope Skeet Ulrich finds another show quickly. The world needs Skeet Ulrich TV shows, even if it doesn't know it.

In that same link above, CBS also announces that The Unit has been picked up for another season, which is excellent news. I don't think it's as strong a show as Jericho had become in terms of the plot's direction and consistently making me anticipate the next episode, but the missions are always exciting and I love Scott Foley even more than Skeet. And The Unit's finale was an even bigger nailbiter than Jericho's was.

Also in that link: The Class has been cancelled, but Rules of Engagement has been renewed. I laughed harder at The Class than Rules, and I liked its plot and characters better, so I'm sad to see it go, but I'm glad that I'll be able to keep getting a weekly dose of Patrick Warburton and Megyn Price. Oliver Hudson was just starting to get comfortable in his role towards the end of this season too, so it'll be nice to see if that continues. David Spade's character needs some attention in the writing department, but Spade's doing a good job with what he has to work with.

And if I need to laugh really hard, I still have The Office and Scrubs.

Science Fiction

I mentioned this at Comic World News, but it's pretty cool so I want to share it here too. Image Comics is putting out a jigsaw puzzle of one of the covers of the Elephantmen comic. Even if you don't read the comic, you have to love this image of a trenchcoated hippo walking through the rain-soaked streets of a cyberpunk city.