Awesome List: Tonner's Leila doll from Jonah Hex

I'm not fond of Megan Fox, but that has everything to do with how she comes across in interviews and nothing to do with the way she looks. She certainly makes a very lovely doll, but then, all of Tonner's dolls are lovely.

This one from Jonah Hex will debut at San Diego Comic-Con.

Art Show: Death's Stagecoach

Pirates



By Todd Lockwood [Illustrateurs]

Amphibian



By Mathieu Reynès.

Sheena and Snowbird



By Katie Cook. [Tons of other Marvel heroes in that link]

Jurassic Park



Artist Unknown [Illustrateurs]

Dinosaurigami



By Petr Stuchlý. [Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs]

Knighthood, a ghost-cowboy, a warrior-goddesses, and the greatest team-up of all time after the break

Pass the Comics: Thrilling! Exciting! Educational!

Captain Daring vs the Alliance of Evil



[Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine]

The Kilgore Monster



[Golden Age Comic Book Stories - you'll need to scroll way down, but there's other good stuff in there too]

Jungle folks, Machine Gun Kelly, and a space girl after the break.

Comics News: He talks to fish

Geoff Johns discusses Aquaman



Johns keeps his Brightest Day cards hidden really well in this interview, but he does talk a bit about why Aquaman is cool:

He's a character that everybody knows. He has had successful runs in the past, and I guess he's probably more well known to the general public than Green Lantern even is at this point...

And defends him against those who think he's lame:

The whole thing is, they always say, "Well, he talks to fish." It's part of who he is. I think there are some inherent things that may be there, but every character is like that. I think the key is to embrace what Aquaman is and not turn away from it. So often, we turn away from the core of what Aquaman is. I think the key to success is embracing exactly who Aquaman is while adding some dimensions to it, building off the strong foundation that's already there. There's a reason the character is popular. There is a reason that people like that character. If you look at the mainstream DC t-shirts that they sell in stores, Aquaman is always there. He definitely has an audience.

I understand the need for secrecy about story details, but I do wish he'd said more about who exactly he thinks Aquaman is. That "iconic interpretation," as Dan Didio calls it, is going to be what makes or breaks this relaunch of the character. Surely Johns could've talked about that without revealing Brightest Day story details?

A masked Nazi-fighter, a Daring contest, and the Day of Death after the break.

SpringCon Date Change: Now May 15-16

SpringCon was originally announced as being on May 22-23, but I've just noticed that that's changed (I wasn't paying that close attention to the recent ads apparently). It's actually NEXT WEEKEND. Which does bad things to my Getting Ready Timeline, but I'll cope.

If you were already planning on coming, you're in for a treat by the way. If you weren't, maybe Sarah Douglas' being there will help change your mind.

We don't usually get actors at SpringCon and FallCon, so this is a treat. And a special one for me because Ursa and Taramis were huge parts of my childhood. Many thanks to Krypton Comics and Spud's Emporium for making this possible.

Other guests I'm looking forward to meeting for the first time are Pat Broderick (long-running artist on Alpha Flight), Jim Shooter (man-myth-legend), and Evan "Doc" Shaner (who's artwork gets featured a lot in my Art Show posts). Then of course there's you guys and other friends I only get to see a few times a year. It's going to be an exciting show.

Plump Sister becomes an Old Sinner

If you haven't checked my Christmas Carol blog in a while (or just didn't know about it until now), I've given it a new name. Plump Sister was me being clever, but at the sacrifice of providing an accurate description of what the thing's about. The new title not only describes Scrooge through most of the story; it also comes from a more recognizable part of the text and isn't as easily confused with a porn site featuring large women.

I've also updated it a couple times recently. We've started looking at the first scene with Scrooge's nephew and have covered Dickens' text, the silent movie version, the Seymour Hicks film, and the Reginald Owen one.

I update as I have time rather than on a regular schedule, so it's best experienced in an RSS feed (there's a handy subscription button at the top of the sidebar), but it's turning into a fascinating project. For me, anyway. I hope you'll check it out if you have any affection for that story.

TV News: Dinosaur shows, JJ Abrams spies, a post-Jedi cartoon, and more

Terra Nova cast



Steven Spielberg's show about a time-traveling family in the age of dinosaurs may have its first cast member. Kyle Chandler (also known in our house as The Handsome Man) has been offered the lead role. As the dad perhaps?

I hope he takes it. Not only is he a favorite actor of mine, he's got some experience running from dinosaurs in King Kong. [The Ausiello Files]

Reign of the Dinosaurs



A while back, /Film had some interesting evidence suggesting that Pixar might be working on a dinosaur movie. No such luck, unfortunately, but they are working on a Discovery Channel special called Reign of the Dinosaurs. The subject matter sounds fun, if not all that ground-breaking. The visuals should be really cool though. [/Film]

Animated Star Wars, Big Bang Blossom, and the family that spies together, after the break. 

Valley of the Kings (1954)

Valley of the Kings wasn't everything I'd hoped it would be, but it came a lot closer than I had any right to expect. I'm always looking out for movies that'll scratch that Raiders of the Lost Ark itch, so I was immediately interested in this story about an archeologist and his teacher's daughter searching for lost treasure in Egypt. That sounds a lot like the plot for Raiders, but I'm not suggesting that Raiders ripped it off. It's really a very different story.

Religion plays a big part of Valley of the Kings too though. More so, in fact, than it does in Raiders. In Valley of the Kings, Eleanor Parker (The Baroness from The Sound of Music) plays the daughter of an archeologist who recently died before completing his life's work. His quest was to find the tomb of the Pharaoh who ruled during the time of the Biblical Joseph. Picking up her father's work, Ann hires one of her dad's former students, a rough character named Mark Brandon (Robert Taylor from Ivanhoe). Along with Ann's new husband - who may or may not have his own reasons for wanting to find the tomb - they follow clues around Egypt and it's great fun watching them do it.

They begin by tracing Moses' path across the Red Sea to a secluded monastery at Mt. Sinai where Ann's father ended his search. After that, they visit quaint little curio shops in Cairo, meet mysterious strangers in taverns, sail the Nile, ride camels, take refuge in ruins from a sandstorm, meet desert bandits, fight villains on top of enormous statues, and yes, explore lost tombs. Plot-wise, it's everything you want in an Egyptian adventure story.

What it lacks, after the break.

Movie News: The Happiest Hive of Scum and Villainy on Earth

Well, the Twitter experiment is a bust. Partially because I got tired of struggling with Tinying links, but mostly because it just wasn't as much fun. Time consuming as they are, I actually like creating these posts. Thanks for your patience while I figured that out.

Some of the stuff below was on Twitter last week, but not all of it.

Empires of the Deep



Empires of the Deep is the undersea adventure being produced by both US and Chinese filmmakers. I've talked about it before because I love the concept, but I've also been skeptical that it'll be any better than Dragon Wars. There's some encouraging news though in that Olga Kurylenko (Hitman, Quantum of Solace) will be in it. Dragon Wars also had some folks I liked in it, so this is no guarantee of quality, but Kurylenko is much better looking than Jason Behr and Craig Robinson. If nothing else, the movie will still be breathtakingly gorgeous. [/Film]

How to Train Your Dragon 2



Repeating myself from Twitter: I'm tempted to take a cynical view of Dreamwork's greenlighting a How to Train Your Dragon sequel, but a) this should come as absolutely no surprise, and b) I loved the first one so much that I'd like more. I just hope it's more along the lines of Shrek 2 (which I liked better than the first one) than Madagascar 2. [/Film]

Robin Hood Stills



/Film has tons of them.

A teenaged assassin, Thor, and Star Wars Land after the break.

My Favorite Actor: Timothy Olyphant

I don't talk about myself much around here. I figure that's not why you're here and anyway, that's what Facebook is for, though I don't update that as much as I probably should either.

But I'm starting to feel like I'm getting to know some of you guys and a little reciprocation would be good, right? So I think I'm going to participate in Brother Calvin's 30-Day Challenge. Only, I'm changing it to a 30 Week Challenge for a couple of reasons.

Mostly, I just don't have time to commit to an extra post every day. But also, if you really don't care about my favorite flower or want to see pictures of my room, then it'll be much easier for you to skip past this if I limit it to Sundays.

First up: Favorite Actor. Of the moment, anyway. It seems like this changes annually, but right now it's definitely Timothy Olyphant. I've been a fan of this guy's work since being so surprised by Hitman. He popped up again in A Perfect Getaway - possibly my favorite movie from last year - and was my favorite part of it. Though I wasn't totally excited to see The Crazies, Olyphant made it fun to watch. And now he's in Justified, my favorite new TV show.

He's a talented actor, but he's also loaded with charisma. He's young Harrison Ford, is who he is. And while I'm sure he'll eventually pick a role in something horrible and I'll be disillusioned, for now I can't get enough of the guy.

Quote of the Month: Set Phasers to Stunning!

While discussing this at work, I was asked what Shirtless Kirk would smell like. “He would smell like adventure,” I replied.
--Mike Sterling, on Shirtless Kirk cologne.