Amazon Black Friday Deals!

Hey pop culture fans, here's your link to Black Friday deals at Amazon. Any sales help support this site:

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Happy Thanksgiving!

There's just something creepy about ducks eating turkey...









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Hulk Vs. straight-to-DVD cover art

Here's the cover art for the straight-to-DVD animated film "Hulk Vs.", due out Jan. 27 and available for pre-order now from Amazon for $14.99.

The disk features the Green Goliath squaring off against both Thor and Wolverine.

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The Family Way, featuring McCartney soundtrack, due on DVD

"The Family Way," a 1967 film starring Hayley Mills and featuring a soundtrack composed by Paul McCartney and arranged by George Martin is finally DVD-bound.

The DVD is due out Jan. 27 and is available for pre-order at Amazon for $22.49.

Pop links: Wally Wood, 60s Marvel

Wally Wood Week continues over at the Fortress of Fortitude with Animan!

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Golden Age Comic Book Stories has a gallery of favorite 1960s Marvel Comics covers.

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Captain Britain Omnibus on way from Marvel

Marvel Comics has announced a "Captain Britain Omnibus by Alan Moore and Alan Davis" collection due out next April.

Here's the skinny:

This is one of the Marvel Universe's most staggering sagas from two of Britain's most remarkable writers, reprinted in total for the first time! Captain Britain fights to save a universe...and fails! But a single reality is small change in the game Merlyn's playing against Mad Jim Jaspers, who's rewriting reality so he's the center of the universe! Worlds collide, heroes and villains die, and Captain Britain's beside himself - except when he's fighting himself...to the death!This title is featuring the first appearances of the metamorphic Meggan, Opal Luna Saturnyne, the Captain Britain Corps, and more! Plus, Psylocke joins the X-Men, and the X-Men join Captain Britain on a cosmic quest into the secrets of life and death! The fiendish Fury, the horrific Horde, and the malevolent Mojo are only a few of the adversaries who await within! Also guest-starring the New Mutants and Captain America! This title collects "Marvel Super-Heroes" (UK) Numbered 377-388, "The Daredevils" (UK) Numbered 1-11, "Captain America" Numbered 305-306, "Mighty World of Marvel" (UK) Numbered 7-16, "Captain Britain" (UK) Numbered 1-14, "New Mutants Annual" Numbered 2, and "Uncanny X-Men Annual" Numbered 11.


The book will total 672 pages.

Click the title link above to pre-order at $69.99 from Amazon. Regular price is $99.99.

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See more Marvel Omnibus books here.

More DC Comics Classic Library Collections on the way: Flash of Two Worlds and Perez JLA

DC has some more entries in its new hardcover series, which collect key storylines from various series. Coming up we have:

DC Comics Classic Library: The Flash of Two Worlds

DC Comics Classic Library: Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis

and

DC Comics Classic Library: Justice League of America by George Perez

Also on the horizon:

Golden Age Starman Archives Vol. 2

Click the title links to pre-order these books from Amazon--and help support this site.

More DC Comics Classic Library books.

New comics Nov. 26: Buffy, Sgt. Rock, Frazetta

Here's what looks good to me this week. Click title links to pre-order items from Amazon--and support this site!

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #19 $2.99

SHOWCASE PRESENTS SGT ROCK Vol. 2

FANTASTIC WORLDS OF FRANK FRAZETTA

Pop links: Still no Beatles on iTunes, White Album at 40, Dr. Who at 45, more Sarah Jane, Wally Wood and more

Plans to post the Beatles catalog on iTunes have hit a snag, says Paul McCartney. The problems seem to be between the band and its label, EMI, not the Fabs and Apple.

Sir Paul explained that EMI couldn't agree with The Beatles on the terms that should be set for iTunes and other download services. He was oblique about the exact points of contention: "They [EMI] want something we're not prepared to give them. Hey, sounds like the music business." For its part, an EMI rep told BillboardBiz that they have been "working very hard" on a deal that would bring The Beatles' tracks to iTunes to no avail. The rep added, "but we really hope that everyone can make progress soon."

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Speaking of the Beatles: Here's an NPR program documenting the band's "white album," released 40 years ago this week.

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"Doctor Who" spin-off "The Sarah Jane Adventures" will be back for a third season, according to the BBC.

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Speaking of "Doctor Who," the series marked its 45th anniversary this week. Check out this list of the top 45 (interesting number) moments of that phenomenal run.

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Wally Wood. Sirens of Space. What more do you need to know?

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New DVD, CD releases: Colbert, Beatles, Gomer, Fireman, Mod Squad, David Lynch and more!

Here's what looks good this week. Click the links to order from Amazon--and support this site!

DVDs

A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!

Bottle Rocket - Criterion Collection

Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. - The Final Season

Spy Who Came in from the Cold - Criterion Collection

The Mod Squad - The Second Season, Vol. 1

David Lynch The Lime Green Set

The Beatles: Composing the Beatles Songbook

CDs

Electric Arguments by Fireman (Paul McCartney)

40th Anniversary Singles Collection by Tommy James

Upcoming pop culture books

Here are some new and upcoming books that may be of interest to readers here. Click the title links to order from Amazon--and help support this site!

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Brush with Passion: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens


This work offers an introduction to the first retrospective popular comic film illustrator David Stevens. "Brush with Passion" charts the career of beloved and influential artist David Stevens. Encouraged by legendary creators like Jack Kirby, Milton Caniff, and Burne Hogarth, Stevens talks about his work as a storyboard artist for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video and Steven Speilberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark", his days drawing comics, and the trials and tribulations of bringing his character to the big screen in the 1991 Disney film, "The Rocketeer". Renowned for his wink-and-flirt pin-up art, Stevens is credited with revitalizing interest in, championing the rights of, and befriending the reclusive 1950s model Bettie Page and he recounts their first meeting and subsequent adventures together - including a trip to the Playboy Mansion.Featuring a wealth of iconic paintings and previously unpublished art, "Brush with Passion" also features commentary by comic book greats Todd Schorr, Richard Hescox, Michael William Kaluta and William Stout.

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Al Williamson's Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic

Flash Gordon, introduced as a Sunday newspaper comic strip by King Features Syndicate in 1934, remains after more than 70 years, one of the best-known and most beloved epics of heroic fantasy produced in America. Initially envisioned and drawn by the brilliant Alex Raymond, the strip’s mélange of alien wonders, beautiful damsels, interplanetary evil and peerless derring-do remains potent today, as witness its many adaptations in print, motion pictures and television. It has been cited by no less a popular fantasist than George Lucas as a primary influence on his Star Wars series. Beyond the lasting impact of the strip’s heroic themes, the drawing skills of Raymond inspired a small army of succeeding cartoonists to take up his illustration-based stylistic mantle. Al Williamson is arguably the foremost of these acolytes, widely acclaimed as the artist who best exemplifies the original spirit of Raymond’s creation, as well as being the most distinctive and lyric. His vision of the character, formed in childhood and deeply personal, captured the hearts of Flash Gordon readers like no other. Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic, collects all the major works of the artist featuring the character. At 256 pages, it encompasses Williamson’s three stints of depicting Flash in comic book format: the legendary King Comics stories from the 1960s, the 1980 adaptation of the Universal Flash Gordon motion picture, and the Marvel Comics miniseries of 1994. In addition to these classics of sequential storytelling, Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon features Williamson’s Flash drawings done for commercial illustration and prints, his assists on the Flash Gordon comic strip, a variety of Flash images contributed to amateur publications, and a selection of largely unpublished images spanning his interest in the character from childhood to the conclusion of his career. With an introduction by Sergio Aragones, text by Mark Schultz, and images reproduced directly from the artist’s original drawings, this long-overdue collection of evocative artwork documents the lifelong impact that Flash Gordon had on Williamson and the particular impact that Williamson had on Flash Gordon.

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The Don Rosa Library Volume 1: 1987-1988

This is it! Duck fans worldwide, wiggle your webbed feet for joy - the complete, chronological Keno Don Rosa collection is here! Uncle Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and Huey, Dewey, and Louie headline a cast of classic Carl Barks bit-players, reinvigorated in fighting trim for Don's first 1987-1988 triumphs: "Son of the Sun," "Nobody's Business," "Mythological Menagerie," "Last Sled to Dawson," "Metaphorically Spanking" and more. Restored, recolored, and furnished with numerous editorial features, here's the first in a cracking, wakking Gemstone multi-volume series!

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Frazetta: The Definitive Reference

The work of Frank Frazetta, the greatest fantasy artist of all time, has influenced generations of artists, fans, designers, and movie directors. Now, collected in Frazetta, The Definitive Reference, are essays and illustrated data in a one-of-a-kind volume tracing the entire arc of Frazetta’s career with more than 800 of his unforgettable images. From his early 1950s comics, to Tarzan, Pellucidar, and John Carter of Mars book covers; to his 1960s monster mags, Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella; to his major movie posters, including After the Fox and What’s New Pussycat; to, of course, his revolutionary Conan paintings--it’s all here. Frazetta overflows with fantastic images, insightful commentary, and the most complete index of artwork ever compiled on this fantastic icon.

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The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels 1

The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels is the ultimate companion to the expanding world of the “literary comic book”. Written by comic industry insider Danny Fingeroth, it includes the mediums history, from sequential art in Egyptian tombs, through the superhero boom of the 1940s to the birth of the graphic novel movement and the latest online offerings. All you need to know about the best and rest with 60 must-read graphic novels, including the genre-defining Maus and A Contract with God, plus modern classics-in-the-making Fun Home and Alice in Sunderland. The guide profiles the movements legends including Harvey Pekar, Chris Ware, Denis Kitchen and other amazing illustrators, writers and publishers who’ve helped win respect for this once marginalised art form. And everything else you need to know from “how to make a graphic novel” to Persepolis and the lastest film and television offerings, manga, documentaries, conventions, books, magazines and websites.

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Pop Surf Culture: Music, Design, Film, and Fashion from the Bohemian Surf Boom

From original beachcomber personalities like the Waikiki Beachboys to the rise of Venice Beach as a creative center for music, art, and film, this insightful chronicle traces the roots of the surf boom and explores its connection to the Beat Generation and 1960s pop culture. Through accounts of key figures both obscure and popular, such as Mike Dormer, Rick Griffin, the Trashwomen, and the Beach Boys, the book illustrates why surf culture is a vital art movement of the 20th century. The entire spectrum of pop culture is covered, including discussions of the advent of surf magazines and the immense popularity of the “beach” movies starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon.

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Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts

In 1982, Lucasfilm wanted to branch out into other forms of entertainment and formed an agreement where videogame pioneer Atari provided $1 million in seed capital with only the vague directive of "see what you can make." The resulting two games sold 100,000 units, twice as many copies as had been projected, and were a critical and commercial success. In 2005, LucasArts' Battlefront II game sold 2.1million copies and generated an estimated $200 million in revenue. In the past 25 years, LucasArts has cemented its place in videogame history though a combination of the two strengths of its parent company: master storytelling and innovative technology."The Magic of LucasArts" reveals its illustrious history, including more than 250 samples of never-before-seen art, including storyboards, concept paintings, and character developments from its cherished games, as well as art from cancelled projects that were never announced to the public. George Lucas contributes a rare foreword on his vision for interactive entertainment. Original interviews with key team members past and present make this book a must-have for gamers young and old.

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Fall Out: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner

The impact of The Prisoner upon society was explosive, transforming art, storytelling and popular culture like no other television programme before or since. Patrick McGoohan spearheaded the project in his role as an unnamed man, held against his will in a strange isolated Italianate village, tormented by a succession of individuals, each calling themselves Number 2, whose true motivations and intentions towards him remained a constant mystery.

The man, known only as Number 6, attempted escape, was befriended and betrayed, underwent hallucinogenic journeys, and experienced many strange revelations, before the series achieved its cathartic climax.

The Prisoner was ahead of its time, and in this book, Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore take on the task of debriefing the programme and attempting to make sense of the many interpretations and readings which have been placed on it. This is not the book with all the answers but it may help you ask the right questions.

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The Best Music You've Never Heard 1

The Rough Guide to the Best Music You’ve Never Heard is a winning collection of amazing stories of tragic mavericks and unlucky contenders, with hundreds of lost classics and hidden gems. The guide traces the musicians that fell by the wayside from the bands that could have been The Beatles to the acts that were better than the acts that made it. Find out why David Ackles is the Elton John that never was (and why Elton John agrees). Whether they were psychedelic hippies, lost soul divas, geeky prog-rockers, hell-raising rockers or pop-star wannabes, they are all in this book for one reason: they made truly fantastic music. Frank and opinionated, the guide is packed with playlists, includes stylish archive photos as well as contributions from music industry insiders including Bat for Lashes. Clue-up on the infamous lost albums from some of rock’s biggest stars and discover the tails of the famous-name side-projects that got away, not forgetting the cult albums reviled at the time… that are actually really good. If you’re looking for great new music, this book will show it to you. If you think you’ve heard it all, it’ll put you to the test.

More Star Trek movie posters

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IDW plans Star Trek movie prequel

IDW Publishing will publish a prequel comic for the upcoming Star Trek movie.

The first comic in the series, Star Trek: Countdown #1, will be released in January 2009 to the comic book direct market. The story is presented by Abrams and plotted by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. It is written by Mike Johnson (Superman/Batman) and Tim Jones, and features stunning art by David Messina (Star Trek: Mirror Images). Messina also provides covers for the series.

“There was a lot of back and forth about doing this project, how to do it, what it would be about, but what all parties agreed on was that we needed the right story and that it needed to matter. It had to count both on its own merits and when read in conjunction with the new movie,” said series editor Andy Schmidt. “I couldn’t be happier with the project and what it means to the overall Star Trek franchise!”


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Pop links: Walt Kelly, Disney Menagerie, Wally Wood story, Dr. Who at 45, TV Get Smart outtakes

Pappy presents Walt Kelly's "Berried Treasure."

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More on the funny animal front: Those Fabulous Fifties features the Disney Studio one-panel strip "Merry Menagerie."

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Fortress of Fortitude begins a three-day tribute to the great Wally Wood.

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Here's a YouTube video celebrating 45 years of "Doctor Who."



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Classic Television Showbiz offers up some "Get Smart" TV show outtakes.

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Check out a new site celebrating the Catwoman's Kitty Car!

Black Adder cast returning for TV special

The cast of Rowan Atkinson's hilarious, time-spanning "Black Adder" series is reuniting for a BBC Christmas special.

The broadcaster said "Blackadder Rides Again" would feature the first in-depth interview with actor Rowan Atkinson, who played Edmund Blackadder and his descendants in the show's four series between 1983 and 1989.

Other stars from the historical comedy taking part in the behind-the-scenes feature include Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson and Tony Robinson, who played Blackadder's long-suffering sidekick Baldrick.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine pics

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Lost season 5 promo poster

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Pop links: Astro Boy trailer, Mac Raboy art, deal alert on Buffy DVDs, Kirby's Thor at DC!, New Order CDs suck, more

Watch the first trailer for the upcoming animated Astro Boy film.

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The New York Times recounts the films of Carole Lombard, the subject of a new retrospective in the Big Apple. I love her screwball comedies.

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Golden Age Comic Book Stories
spotlights the work of the great Mac Raboy--including a few of his rarely seen Dr. Voodoo stories from Whiz Comics and a series of Flash Gordon puzzles he illustrated.

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Today's deal alert: The Complete Buffy the Vampire Slayer set for $69.99 today only at Amazon, regularly $199.98.



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Dial B for Blog explores the hidden history of Jack Kirby's Thor.

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If you're a New Order fan, you might want to hold off on buying those Rhino reissues of the band's back catalog.

Rhino Records reissued "collector's editions" of New Order's first five albums, which all originally came out in the 1980s. Each one features a bonus disc, with 7- and 12-inch versions, instrumentals and remixes.

But alert fans quickly complained of about 300 errors, mostly relating to poor sound quality on the bonus discs. The pops and crackles on many of the tracks suggest they were transferred directly from commercially available vinyl recordings rather than from the original master tapes.

The discs were released in Britain last month, and music magazines there, such as Q and Mojo, did not mention any of the technical shortcomings in their rave reviews.

But Peter Hook, the bass player with the defunct group, said in his MySpace page that the reissue project was a "mess." He blamed the label for not sending out advance copies so that he and his former bandmates could do some quality control.

Despite the discontent, Rhino released the discs in the United States last Tuesday, and U.S. fans noticed the same problems. Rhino, an affiliate of Warner Bros. Records, plans to reissue the reissues, and will allow fans to exchange their dud CDs.

More Star Trek movie pics

Some of these I think have been posted here before. Others may be new. At any rate:

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Pop links: Screaming deal on Python DVDs, Conan radio drama, pulp cover scans galore,

Today's deal alert:



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Listen to a full-cast audio production of Robert E. Howard's Conan tale "Queen of the Black Coast."

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Golden Age Comic Book Stories presents a gallery of Famous Fantastic Mystery pulp covers.

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Coraline movie pics

Here's a batch of images from the upcoming animated adaptation of Neil Gaimin's "Coraline."

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