Entertainment

Fairy tales are hot again -- with multiple movie versions of Snow White coming out next year and two competing fairy tale set shows on TV this fall -- NBC's Grimm and ABC's Once Upon a Time -- the universality of these iconic tales is once again proved. After all, fairy tales are a fun way for kids to learn all about abandonment and death, as Bruno Bettelheim once pointed out. In all this celebration of the collective unconscious, however, it has been noticed that maybe Once Upon a Time was perhaps sleeping in the same brain as Bill Willingham's FABLES -- both deal with fairy tale characters dealing with the modern world and -- smoking gun? -- FABLES was even once in development at ABC.

Jon Bernthal, who plays the hunky and aggro bad boy/survivor Shane on The Walking Dead shows that the brokeback pose can actually work with guys! In fact, this seems to be Bernthal's favorite way to pose!

YouTube has a new promotion for its new streaming service where you can watch recent movies for 99 cents -- among them GREEN LANTERN. If you've been waiting for a budget-conscious way to watch Hal Jordan save the universe from an angry cloud, this is your chance. You can also watch Harry Potter, Conan and that movie where Ton Hanks lives out his biker fantasy by riding a scooter with Julia Roberts on the back.

By Todd Allen Back in August, DC released the "TALES OF BATMAN: GENE COLAN VOL. 1" hardcover book. This book reprints Batman #340, 343-345,...

Our review copy of THE NEW 52, the $150, 1216-page collection of EVERY SINGLE NEW 52 #1 issue has arrived. Future uses: pressing flowers, anchoring papers during hurricane. This thing is HEAVY. And big. We've shown it here next to a cup of coffee for size reference. Meanwhile, James Robinson is on Twitter drumming up support for the non-New 52 SHADE which is selling badly and in danger of cancellation. Which, if it had been a New 52 book, would probably be selling as well as BATWING or OMAC.

The Graphic Classics line of comics anthologies has been around for over a decade without getting much attention the comics world -- but in libraries, they love these thoughtfully produced collections of comics adaptations of single authors or themes. And here's a neat idea that comics haven't really covered before: early black authors such as Florence Lewis Bently, Charles Chestnutt, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. Editor Lance Tooks has rounded up a fine slate of cartoonists for the adaptations, including Kyle Baker, Afua Richardson, Christopher Priest and Trevor von Eeden.

While Twilight-mania lapped it at the box office over the holiday weekend, The Muppets relaunched their film career. "The Muppets" (As opposed to "The Muppet Movie") is a little bit of a departure from previous Muppets flicks in a number of ways. First off, the classic Muppets were not the main characters of the story. It was a very self-referential film, filled with in-jokes for adults who grew up with the franchise. It had more political overtones than one would expect from the Muppets. It also was a lot of fun.

"The Book Job," the sixth episode of the 23rd season of The Simpsons, co-stars Neil Gaiman. Not in a cameo, but as the main storyline.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are still around! And to prove they are still in touch with the kids they have hopped on the hot graphic novel trend for their latest video -- because graphic novels aren't just for kids any more. Under the bridge downtown, is where I drew some mini comics. Actually, the video for "Monarchy of Roses" is more an homage to Raymond Pettibon than comic books. Amazingly, Anthony is still rocking the shirt-off look as he nears the half century mark...clean living, I guess.

Continuing the quest for a follow-up to Smallville, Booster Gold is the latest DC superhero to get a TV development deal, this time at the SyFy channel, under Greg Berlanti's production banner. The script is being written by Andrew Kreisberg, formerly of Fringe. Booster Gold appeared on the final season of Smallville, so he isn't a complete TV virgin.

X'ed OUT was one of 2010's best comics, a fantasmic, multi-leveled horror fantasy by the man who practically invented the category, Charles Burns. It was also an interesting experiment for publisher Pantheon, as it was at a slender 56 pages really only the first chapter in a story. The second part has been long in coming, but Entrecomics has posted what appears to be the cover to part two, THE HIVE. Dunno if it's the real thing or not, but hopefully the next part is coming in 2012.

We've never found much amusing in THE BIG BANG THEORY, the nerd comedy for our times, but we are distinctly in the minority on this, as it's one of the signature sitcoms of the day (and the #1 show in Canada!) However, in recent years its girl-fearing cast of hardcore geeks has been joined by all kinds of women -- not just the hot chick across the hall but smart women like Blossom and...now, actual girlfriends. John Doyle at the Globe and Mail sees this as clear shark jumping territory: