Entertainment

Filmmaker Anthony Desiato became so fascinated by the social scene at the local comic shop that he decided to make a documentary about it. "My Comic Shop DocumentARy" (SIC) explores Alternate Realities Comics in Scarsdale, NY and its owner, Steve Oto.

Did you know that Disney owned Marvel Comics? You do now, as Marvel is putting out a licensed comic from the ABC show Castle, which stars nerdlebrity godhead Nathan Fillion as a mystery writer who also solves crimes. The GN. will not be an adapttaion of the show, however, but a story about Castle's best-selling character, Derrick Storm. Tellingly, this will not be a periodical, but a standalone graphic novel, due in September, written by Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick with art by Lan Medina and a cover by Carlo Pagulayan.

If you follow our Twitter feed - and who doesn't! - you know we're been having lots of computer problems. We'll share our exciting process when it's finished, and hopefully successful (for the moment we have to use our travel backup) but it's already taken up the whole weekend, which, what with FMB being out of town for a (from what we hear) very successful signing at Black Cat Comics in Salt Lake City, we slaved away all weekend with a steady background of whatever happened to be on the TV, giving us a chance to rewind with a fine selection of films from our nerd heritage collection and a few new gems as well.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN writer Dan Slott attended the premiere of the NEW, revised, less Arachne Spider-Man musical last night, and he tweeted his review!

Both Variety and Deadline are reporting that a pick-up for NBC's WONDER WOMAN pilot looks unlikely, contravening some rumors that went out this morning. WW show runner David E. Kelley might not get blanked, however -- his show HARRY'S LAW, starring Kathy Bates, is likely to be renewed.

Networks are announcing their fall pick-ups and spring cancellations, and comics properties are very much in play. Fox has canceled Human Target, now in its second season. It was never much more than a ratings outlier and doesn't fit in with Fox's newly announced focus on female-audience-friendly shows.

James Kochalka alertly spotted a tribute/homage/rip-off of Jim Woodring's peculiar iconography on the cartoon ADVENTURE TIME, which generally features lots of art-comix references and tributes. The essential education of America's youth proceeds apace.

YouTube user BronyVids has been sharpening his/her Final Cut skills on My Little Pony Mash-ups, and it is WATCHMEN's turn. We had no idea My Little Pony looked so good and we totally want to watch it now.

Hollywood is a tough place. Grant Morrison may be a god of comics -- the most inventive superhero idea smith since Kirby, even --...

NY Magazine recently commissioned a bunch of designers to reimagine the mistress of all the surveys, Lady Gaga, just in time for her new album's release. While it's hard to out-weird someone who wears a meat dress and goes to a Mets game in her underwear, several cartoonists gave it a shot, including Ariel Shrag, David Reese, Tim Hensley and Mike Keefe.

A newly family-friendly and sense-making version of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark opens on Broadway tomorrow, and its faithful Boswell, Patrick Healy, has the new storyline for the creators. The new version of of the show, as rejiggered by director Philip William McKinley and writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa includes MORE Green Goblin, MORE Mary Jane, Uncle Ben and Aunt May, FIVE MORE flying sequences, MORE songs, and LESS Arachne. The experience seems to have been an unusually humbling one for the normally egotistic Bono, who co-wrote the songs and shared the blame when it went far off the rails.

To no one's surprise, THOR scored a hit at the weekend box office topping the domestic till with $66 million, adding up to a worldwide gross of $242 mil. The thunder "god" lagged only IRON MAN and SPIDER-MAN's debuts, making the third biggest first appearance for a Marvel character. (But NOTE the others didn't have the benefit of inflated 3D ticket prices. It was also proof that a film can make a big debut despite two weeks of piracy: THOR opened two weeks ago overseas to take advantage of various local holidays and the Royal Wedding 3-day weekend in Britain. Although THOR also handily blasted the Mel Gibson come-back vehicle, THE BEAVER, it was not all good news: