A group of rival gamers cut in front of The Guild at the game store. And they aren’t nice about it.
Stars Will Shine Brightly at Celebration V
from StarWars.com:
Autograph fans attending Celebration V in Orlando August 12-15 can look forward to meeting their favorite cast and crew stars from the Star Wars movies, particularly from The Empire Strikes Back, when Official Pix returns to Celebration with a great list of guests.
“We are once again honored to be chosen to produce the autograph program for Lucasfilm, and for Reed Exhibitions at Celebration V,” says Ben Stevens, co-owner of Official Pix.
Stevens and Philip Wise, partners in the company, plan to bring guests whose combined careers span all six episodes of the saga, with special attention to guests from The Empire Strikes Back to honor the 30th anniversary of the beloved movie, and from the popular television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Official Pix will use an efficient fast path system to minimize time spent waiting in line, allowing more time for fans to enjoy the abundance of Star Wars programming at Celebration V. The company is the licensed supplier of authentic Star Wars autographs, and have brought memorable guests to Celebrations II, III, IV, and Japan. Collectors can rest assured that they will get their autographs on high-quality prints of unique images of the stars.
The company plans to use a coupon system at the show, with details soon to be announced. In general, fans will purchase and use an appropriate number of coupons for each autograph. The coupons will be good for autographs on Official Pix Celebration V images, or can be used for autographs on items brought from home. Fans should note that licensed Star Wars products are typically acceptable, but signing non-licensed items, like homemade images or toys, is up to the discretion of each autograph guest.
Collectors who do not wish to wait may purchase previously-signed photos from many of the stars who will be signing in the Official Pix area in the exhibit hall.
Autograph guests who will appear at Celebration V will be announced soon, and new guests will be added and announced as the show draws near. Look for updates at starwarscelebration.com and officialpix.com.
The Greatest Deal in the Universe
from Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls:
Galaxy Girl Dolls now for 20 bucks less!!
FAO Schwarz has lowered their prices on merchandise including SERIES 1 MILKY WAY AND THE GALAXY GIRLS DOLLS!
Originally priced at $49.99, you can now get your MWGG favorite: Milky Way, Venus, Mars, Pluto, and Jupiter for only $29.99!!! Not only that, but to celebrate the Easter season, FAO is offering free shipping on purchases of $99 or more!
You can’t find a better deal than that anywhere in the entire Solar System. Try it. Go ahead. I dare you.
Quantities are limited, so order now before this deal vanishes into space.
Over and Out!
Mother Earth
RiffTrax’s riff of “Twilight: New Moon” is now available!
from RiffTrax:
Twi-Hard. A once proud word that has been shockingly cheapened by over-use. It used to mean something. These days, any given twelve year old girl with Team Edward wallpaper on her iPhone can be the star of a “Vampire Fever” cover story photo in USA Today. It’s not right. Just because some soccer mom blows two months of grocery funds on an elaborate face tattoo replicating the iconic “Cullen baseball” scene, that DOES NOT make her a real Twi-Hard, okay? It’s something you earn. It’s something you live.
Forgive our emotion on this issue, but it’s just that Mike, Kevin, and Bill are probably the biggest Twilight fans on the planet. Just survey Kristen Stewart’s file of restraining order requests, and see which names pop up the most (Stephenie Meyer’s file is alarmingly similar). So it should surprise no one that these three sparkly warriors trekked to the theater dozens upon dozens of times to feast upon the sweet succulent cinematic nectar that is New Moon. After the fourteenth viewing, the girl at the ticket counter was unable to make eye contact with them, muttering something about “grown men” under her breath. The pimply popcorn vendor filled his friends’ inboxes with texts like “OMG third time today,” while the theater janitor constantly fought the urge to beat them with his mop. In a word: epic.
But the shame they endured, along with the suffering of their long-neglected wives and children, is your gain. Thanks to these endless, obsessive, life-destroying viewings, Mike, Kevin, and Bill are able to present this RiffTrax of New Moon on the eve of its DVD release. Let’s just hope that, now that the ride is over, they can put their lives back together once and for all (they’re not making any more of these movies, right?).
Get it here.
Dark Horse Announces C2E2 Convention Exclusive! Collectors Rejoice Over All-New Domo Qee!
from Dark Horse Comics:
Dark Horse Deluxe, the product arm of Dark Horse Comics, has announced a special exclusive variant in their popular line of toys based on fashion and viral superstar Domo. The Domo Qee figure is unique to the Hong Kong–based toy company Toy2R and has been a massive hit since the line was launched in 2009.
The debut Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) will be held at McCormick Place, located at 2301 South Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois. Dates are April 16–18, 2010.
The convention exclusive features Domo covered with a Hawaiian-style print, setting it apart from previously released figures in the series. Only 1,200 of this special variant have been manufactured, and they will be made available to both casual fans and collectors at the Dark Horse Comics booth in the exhibit hall on a first-come, first-served basis.
“We made a Domo Qee exclusive for Comic-Con International in San Diego last summer,” Dark Horse’s vice president of product development, David Scroggy, recalled. “We were surprised to find it had sold out by the end of the first day of the show. We made even fewer of them this time around, and as this promises to be a very well-attended first-time event, we advise attendees to drop by early if they are interested in owning one.”
The release of the C2E2 variant closely follows the on-sale date of the second “mystery box” series of Domo Qee toys, which are scheduled for release on March 31, 2010. This “blind-box” assortment features figures individually packed at random. The only way to know which is inside is to purchase it! In the Domo blind-box assortment, figures are sold in counter displays of fifteen, and each display box of fifteen figures is packed into a master carton of four cases.
The special two-inch version of the lovable mascot turned iconic viral superstar from Japan’s NHK television network is growing in popularity in the United States. Dark Horse was an early licensee of Domo, under the auspices of licensing agency Big Tent Entertainment, and has already produced sold-out limited editions of Domo as various sizes and colors of flocked vinyl figures, stationery, journals, and sculpted magnets. Party lights, sticky note books, and other new Domo items are on tap for summer.
Starting from a very unusual place as an advertising icon, Domo’s unique look and personality have catapulted the character from four hundred television spots in Japan into one of the Internet’s biggest sensations, sparking worldwide recognition. As the poster child for personalized, user-generated content, Domo has been able to transition from popularity within Japan to a worldwide following, spawning countless fan-made images, websites, and videos, along with a first-ever licensed product line including plush, toys, fashion, and collectibles selling at major trend retailers nationwide.
The Heroic Age
from Things from Another World:
Marvel’s heroes have seen their darkest days. First, a Civil War pitted friends, teammates, and family against each other. Then an alien race tried to take over the planet. Then a villain actually did. But all that stuff was just a prelude to this — those events have ushered in a new Heroic Age!
Heroes will be heroes again. That doesn’t mean there won’t be struggles. The villains will still be there, doing their thing. The Heroic Age does mark a shift in the overall tone from a dark, bleak outlook to one of optimism. A sort of throwback to classic Marvel comics, if you will.
So get ready for new heroes, new villains, new team rosters, and new series! It’s a new age, and it’s all right here! Check out our Heroic Age page to see all the new series that tie into this new direction for the Marvel Universe.
Help Beatrix’s Esther raise money to educate and empower girls in Africa!
from Dante Beatrix:
Beatrix is proud to support Camfed International, an organization dedicated to educating girls in Africa and empowering them to become agents of change in their communities. Every dollar from the sale of our Esther the bunny t-shirts will go to support this important cause.
Get the NEW Giddy Up MIMOBOT + Infectious iPhone skin + FREE Shipping now!
from Mimoco:
Introducing GiddyUp, Grand Prize Winner of the Infectious x MIMOBOT Design Challenge, by Hila Rosenberg Arazi!
Special thanks to all the entrants for participating and to Infectious for hosting the Design Challenge!
Hila’s whimsical, dreamy illustration makes for a killer MIMOBOT and includes fun GiddyUp themed digital extras like wallpapers, icons, avatars, and a screensaver!
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Life and Death Continue to Hang in the Balance in the Comedy and Action Manga Series “Rosario + Vampire: Season II”
from VIZ Media:
VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, lets fans quench their desire for stories of the undead with the premiere of the sequel to Akihisa Ikeda’s smash hit manga series Rosario + Vampire. Rosario + Vampire: Season II will be published under the Shonen Jump Advanced imprint and hits stores nationwide on April 6th with a “T+” for Older Teens rating and a MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.
In this action filled series, average teenager Tsukune accidentally enrolled at a boarding school for monsters — no, not jocks or the popular kids, but bona fide werewolves, witches and other unnamable denizens from his wildest nightmares! On the plus side, all of the girls have a major crush on him. But on the negative side, all the boys are so jealous they want to kill him! And so do the girls he spurns, because he only has eyes for one of them — the far-from-average vampire, Moka. Still, on the plus side, Moka only has glowing red eyes for Tsukune. But on the O-negative side, she also has a burning, unquenchable thirst for his blood!
“They’re sexy, they’re undead and unlike any student body you’ll find!” says Elizabeth Kawasaki, VIZ Media Senior Editorial Director. “The popularity of the vampire genre has exploded in the wake of films like Twilight and TV shows like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, but it’s also long been a favorite subject for manga. Rosario + Vampire: Season II continues to find Tsukune’s life at Yokai Academy anything but normal. Readers will want to hold on tight to the page, and their souls, with this exciting new action comedy release from VIZ Media and Shonen Jump Advanced!”
Creator Akihisa Ikeda debuted in 2002 with the four-volume magical warrior fantasy series Kiruto, which was serialized in Japan in Monthly Shonen Jump magazine, which later went on to feature Rosario + Vampire beginning in March 2004. Rosario + Vampire also spawned an animated series and a drama CD, produced by studio Gonzo.
For more information on this title, or others from VIZ Media, please visit viz.com.
RiffTrax Live! Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza is now available on DVD!
from RiffTrax:
What do ice-skating reindeer, pipe-smoking santas and a parade of aquatic champions have in common? You’ll see them all in the RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza! The stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 have a sackfull of delightful and demented shorts to riff live onstage. Some of the forgotten gems of Christmases past prove to be the perfect targets for the rapid-fire riffs of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. And if that wasn’t enough, they’re even joined by comedy legend “Weird Al” Yankovic for a musical short about the wonders of pork! It’s funnier than Ernest Saves Christmas and far less creepy than The Polar Express!
Get the new Live DVD here.
Joe Hill, bestselling author of “Horns”, makes his debut in Canada!
from HarperCollins Canada:
The author of the critically acclaimed Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill is a two-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award and a past recipient of the Ray Bradbury Fellowship. His stories have appeared in a variety of journals and Year’s Best collections. His latest book is Horns, the hottest thing in fantastic horror since Stephen King’s last book (Joe Hill, incidentally, is Stephen King’s son), and it is an amazing read. Hill will be signing copies of Horns and meeting his fans at the Toronto Public Library. This is seriously an event not to be missed.
Monday, March 22
7:00 PM
Toronto Public Library — Lillian H. Smith Library
The Merril Collection, 239 College Street
For more information, call (416) 963-9993
Joe Hill’s Official Website
The Joe Hill Message Board
Joe Hill on Twitter
VIZ Media Announces the Exciting Finale to “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka” Manga Series
from VIZ Media:
VIZ Media will be releasing the much anticipated final volume, Volume 8, of Naoki Urasawa’s manga masterpiece Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka on April 6th.
Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka is a modern reinterpretation of the work by the master of manga, Osamu Tezuka. In an ideal world where man and robots coexist, someone or something is after the seven great robots of the world. Interpol assigns robot detective Gesicht to this most strange and complex case — and he eventually discovers that he is one of the targets!
In the final volume Atom is back, and the fate of the earth is in his hands! Now that Atom has all the answers to the unsolved mysteries around Pluto, Bora and more, he’s prepared to put everything on the line. With the memory of his fallen brethren — Gesicht, Mont Blanc, North No. 2, Brando, Hercules and Epsilon — etched deeply into his heart, Atom is headed for one last battle to save the world!
Naoki Urasawa’s career as a manga artist spans more than twenty years and has firmly established him as one of the true manga masters of Japan. Born in Tokyo in 1960, Urasawa debuted with Beta!! in 1983 and hasn’t stopped his impressive output since. Well-versed in a variety of genres, Urasawa’s oeuvre encompasses a multitude of different subjects, such as a romantic comedy (Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl), a suspenseful human drama about a former mercenary (Pineapple ARMY; story by Kazuya Kudo), a captivating psychological suspense story (Monster), a sci-fi adventure manga (20th Century Boys) and a modern reinterpretation of the work of Osamu Tezuka (Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka; co-authored with Takashi Nagasaki, supervised by Macoto Tezka, and with the cooperation of Tezuka Productions). Many of his books have spawned popular animated and live-action TV programs and films, and 2008 saw the theatrical release of the first of three live-action Japanese films based on 20th Century Boys.
No stranger to accolades and awards, Urasawa is a three-time recipient of the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award, a two-time recipient of the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize, and has received the Kodansha Manga Award. Similarly, Monster has been nominated three times for the Eisner Award in America. Urasawa has also become involved in the world of academia. In 2008 he accepted a guest teaching post at Nagoya Zokei University, where he teaches courses in, of course, manga.
Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka is rated “T+” for Older Teens and has a MSRP of $12.99 U.S. / $16.99 Canada. For more information on this and other titles from VIZ Media, please visit viz.com.