Entertainment

With Cowboys and Alien on the way to becoming areal live movie starring move stars like Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig and directed by Jon Favreau, Platinum Studios is on its way to being a real live content provider, and so ICM has signed up to rep them, Deadline reports.

 BookExpo America is kicking off today at the Javits Center with a day of panels and roundtables The exhibit floor opens tomorrow. Image Comics...

With Comic-Con's rise in the popular imaginaion over the last decade, we've heard many folks mutter over the years "I need to write a screenplay about Comic-con!" If you have been working on such a script, it is time to quietly set it aside and start working on that oil spill comedy you had been pondering. In keeping with the times, Comic-Con will be the subject of a geekumentary by Morgan Spurlock (Super-Size Me) following the fan's journey of seven con attendees. But Spurlock's not going it alone, because that would be too much for any man.

While your recovering from the emotional overload of last night's Lost finale, you can say goodbye just a little more with this interactive guide to all the characters and how they died from the National Post's Steven Murray, a.k.a. Chip Zdarsky.

Some pissing and moaning this week about the fact that Marvel/Deisney will be shooting the Captain America movie in the UK instead of the US. The reason? Oh, budget and so on.

Today is the 30th anniversary of the release of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, probably the single greatest event in the history of nerddom. STAR WARS might have been new and cool and funny and fresh, but EMPIRE was all that AND sad and tragic and shocking and filled with the kind of terror and awe that the greatest storytelling inspires. From the frozen beauty of an icy horizon studded with AT-ATs, to the steaming green swamp where Luke Skywalker begins his archetypal but unique hero's journey, to the crimson horror of the carbon freezing chamber, to the primal red and blue of the final battle between Luke and Vader, no SF blockbuster has ever captured the imagination so cleanly and completely. It was grown up in an unself-conscious way that nothing to do with Star Wars would ever be again. (Almost certainly because it was the last one that producer Gary Kurtz would in involved with; after EMPIRE it was George Lucas all the way.)

Graphic Novel Reporter, the resource site for book industry professionals, has released a list of "core" graphic novels that librarians and store owners should consider basics to carry. The list starts with a basic ten book list:

Amulet/Abrams has just announced that the next Wimpy Kid book goes on sale November 9, 2010. The title has yet to be revealed, but creator Jeff Kinney promises changes for Greg and Rowley. The press release also reminds us that a second Wimpy Kid movie is also in the works.

It would probably be fair to say that a lot of people were snickering a bit when it was announced that Jazan Wild (real name Jason Barnes) was suing Heroes for similarities between his carnival plot and theirs:

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, lists similarities including a carnival that can magically appear and disappear to collect protagonists, a young boy who develops special abilities, a carney or hero running through the woods chased by a mob, a circle of mirrors tied to the key plot, similarities in dialogue, and more.

As anyone who has been reading comics or watching tv for more than, oh, five minutes can attest, none of those elements are particularly novel or special. Fact: we edited a carnival story once ourselves and at least one of those elements was in it.

We can't POSSIBLY be the first person to point this out...are we???? While the SCOTT PILGRIM trailer briefly supplanting Justin Bieber as the most important topic on earth has been noted, Bieber's uncanny resemblance to an animated manga character has not -- or at least not on comic book message boards.

Frank Miller, what do cartoonists eat, the iPad as salvation, and a look at Warner's plans for the Looney Tunes in today's news roundup.

With Lost sailing off to TV Valhalla, ABC is left the task of filling the hole on their schedule, and their choice is a live action remake of The Incredibles called No Ordinary Family, about a family that has their superpowers thrust upon them.