Entertainment

"I think a solid core of high-selling mainstream-y genre comics would be nice, but it really hasn't happened (except for arguably the manga phenomenon,...

With the growing ascendancy and popularity of the "nerd" archetype, especially as exemplified by the hugely popular THE BIG BANG THEORY, a bunch of television programs exploring and/or exploiting this personality type are on the drawing board. Some of them might be fun, but some of them are probably going to make nerd blood boil and dominate late night discussions at SF conventions for months to come. Herewith, a field guide.

Hey America! You've been given what you always wanted -- a TINTIN movie directed by Steven Spielberg! Right? But despite the years of clamor for this entertainment -- and the enthusiastic bowler-hatted selling by Spielberg and co-producer Peter Jackson -- THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN has been a bit of an underperformer at the crowded Chrsitmas box office, coming in at #5 for the long weekend with a 4-day weekend take of $14.3 million and a cumulative of $22.3 million. This has not been a huge worry to Paramount and Sony, however, because worldwide, it's already made $240 million.

Nothing tops off a holiday like a nice slice of cheese. The Star Wars Holiday Special, in case you missed the briefing, aired for the first and only legitimate time on November 17, 1978. It was the very first filmed Star Wars spin-off and introduced to the Star Wars mythos Boba Fett, the planet of the Wookies, and Life Day. It also introduced to the Star Wars universe characters played by Art Carney, Harvey Korman and Beatrice Arthur -- all sitcom stars of the era. In case you haven't figured it out, it was a mystically horrific comedy/musical that was, if not the worst thing ever associated with Star Wars, then at least the most ludicrously inappropriate.

Cartoonist/writer/editor Dave Roman has created a Christmas Classic:

By Todd Allen Looks like the reality television is getting into Geek.  "Fandom Rising" is an attempt by the creators of Jersey Shore to do...

2012 is not only set to be the end of the world, but perhaps the greatest box office showdown in modern times as THE AVENGERS and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES are both coming out...both movies have a chance at rewriting box office history. THE DARK KNIGHT is already #2 on the all-time list and has now won the first battle: the new trailer was downloaded 12.5 million times in its first 24 hours on iTunes, breaking the record of 10million downloads set in October by THE AVENGERS. What do you think? Which movie has YOU ruining a perfect good pair of jorts?

Looking for the unusual? The overlooked? Something a bit different? Take a look here!

Piskor has a new strip up at Boing Boing that examines the similarities between these two American artforms.

Matthias Wivel is one of a trio of reviewers -- Domingos Isabelinho and Ng Suat Tong are the other two -- known for applying the most stringent possible personal standards to comics in their criticism. Thus, seeing Wivel come to the defense of HABIBI at The Hooded Utilitarian is a bit of a surprise -- but he makes a plausible point. Running down a host of critical beatdowns administered on that site over stereotypes and gender issues, he says that "parts of the comics intelligentsia seem to be developing an unhealthy obsession with ideological readings of comics."

We've had a Hobbit trailer. We've had Dark Knight Rises trailers. We've had John Carter trailers. But Craig Ferguson's favorite geek-to-film adaption is getting the short shrift. Behold: the new trailer for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Ghost Rider 2, if you prefer).

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY trailer is up. We need to watch it about 39 more times before we can really render judgement, but Empire has a nice breakdown, including this guide to the dwarves, and already some how they did it info. The tone is pure LORD OF THE RINGS, none of this kid's tale stuff. And obviously the story is going to borrow liberally from the appendices -- Dol Gulder! Galadriel and Gandalf (The White Council!) The shards of Narsil!