Entertainment

George R. R. Martin's fantasy epic is coming to HBO, and the series is coming to WonderCon with this great booth featuring:

It's incredible what some Disney marketing dollars will do. Marvel has been running a big promo for their Avengers/Thor/Captain America/Iron Man movie franchise gaggle where you try out to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent -- they were running it in Chicago at C2E2 but it didn't get the attention it has here in San Francisco where we were awoken this morning by someone slipping the above promo piece into our room at the convention hotel, the Marriot Marquis.

Ahnold is back. As a cartoon based on his "Governator" persona. And it took no less than Stan Lee to figure out how to do it, EW explains:

Comic fans care about the character or than a particular story. Be true to the characters and fans (in general) will be pleased.

And a stick figure shall lead them. The sequel WIMPY KID: RODRICK RULES was the box office champion this week, knocking out Zack Snyder's snappy looking SUCKER PUNCH, $24 million to $20 million. Based on Jeff Kinney's immensely popular and charming Wimpy Kid series, the success of the film should come as no surprise. We caught a screening on Thursday as the guest of publisher Abrams, and laughed quite a bit -- it isn't as inventive as the books, but the film treats its characters with fondness, and the kid actors are all cute and funny. Plus Devon Bostick, who plays the evil older brother Rodrick, has "teen idol" written all over him in eyeliner. The humor is classic family stuff - one person we talked to compared it to "Christmas Story" and if it isn't that good it does have the same kind of classic situations -- a party out of control, a scary movie about a foot, a bathroom door without a lock.

Hooray! A grown woman will play the grown-up Lois Lane in the Superman reboot being prepped by Zack Snyder. Oscar-nominated Amy Adams will play the nosy reporter, “There was a big, giant search for Lois,” Snyder said of the casting. “For us it was a big thing and obviously a really important role. We did a lot of auditioning but we had this meeting with Amy Adams and after that I just felt she was perfect for it.”

While the Spider-Man musical has been struggling along with all the momentum of an elderly man wearing roller skates trying to go up Lombard Hill after it has been covered with lard, another nerd-derived Broadway musical has opened with the fanfare of a million angels playing Handel's Water Music while flying over a burning fireworks factory.

CHEW, the cibopathic comedy smash comic by John Layman and Rob Guillory has been picked up for development at Showtime, and a script by Terri Hughes Burton and Ron Milbauer has been purchased. It's being planned as a half-hour comedy; Stephen Hopkins will direct as well as executive produce.

Zenescope is one of those publishers that hangs around the middle of the pack; they've been a it for a while, and if they don't sell giant numbers or have household name hits, they are still at it, occasionally pacting with Discovery or putting out a kids line or doing something else to expand their line. But the bread and butter that keeps Zenescope afloat is cheesecake -- especially of the variant we like to call "loincloth comics." It's like the '90s "Bad Girl" era never went away for GRIMM FAIRY TALES, their flagship title which features skimpily clad girls thrusting their body parts at various fairy tale based characters on the covers. Sometimes tacky, but harmless.

Intensive lab scene accompanied by anxious music? Check. Unsubtle reference to Avengers franchise in title? Check. The line "You don't know when to quit, do you?" Check.

Artist Colleen Doran has been talking about a secret graphic novel project she's been working on for over a year, and it's finally been announced: MANGAMAN, written by Barry Lyga, author of The Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl, and Boy Toy The tale is described as a "metafictive" tale of a character from a manga who falls through a "rip" into the real world and falls in love with a real girl. Doran talks about the project here:

Well, this is sad. T.V. Carpio, who plays the much-dreaded Arachne character, has been on hiatus from the soon-to-be-rebuilt Spider-Nan musical after what some are saying is whiplash: