Entertainment

It's very obvious that Marvel Studios movies have developed a style and look that's quite consistent, from the type of villain to the type of love interest to the Stan Lee cameo. On the spectrum of Marvel movies, THOR falls a little bit south of the first IRON MAN in terms of sheer enjoyability, but north of just about everything else. The good parts of the formula as developed by Avi Arad and perfected by Kevin Feige are just common sense: a reliable, solid director; respected, award-nominated actors in the villain, father figure, troublesome government figure and love interest roles; and a charismatic hero who looks good in a wife-beater. In the typical Marvel movie, science is both the hero's friend and enemy -- he (and it is always a he) uses science to better his own powers, but the forces of evil are always trying to duplicate and better that research, with the resulting showdown between the forces of order and the forces of chaos at about the 1:45 mark.

If you've been enjoying Jason Momoa's portrayel of Khai Drogo, the Dothraki warlord whose fierce nature is tamed only by a knowledge of new sexual positions on Game of Thrones, you will enjoy this first full-length trailer for the new CONAN movie which is action packed, full of lovin' and killin' and Hyborean era fashion. And also someone who looks kinda like Lord Voldemort about 45 seconds in.

Well, now we can't say we don't know what this movie is about!

It's billed as "The Fastest and Funniest LEGO Star Wars story ever told...The Prequel!" and it shows that when you have access to ALL the Lego sets you can make a pretty bitchin' lego toon . May 4th is celebrated around the galaxy as Star Wars Day not because it's when the original STAR WARS opened (that would be May 25, 1977) but because it's a pun on "May the Fourth Be With You." It is celebrated by gradually replacing humans with droids and disappointing expectations.

Last night the newest reboot of the Looney Tunes, The Looney Tunes Show aired on the Cartoon Network and I didn't watch it, but there are a bunch of clips floating about such as the above. The show is billed as a new concept for the venerable characters -- Bugs and Daffy have moved to the suburbs and are roommates and have wacky neighbors. YOU know...a sitcom. You should probably give this clip it a watch before you read the following, because I wouldn't want to prejudice anyone. Rebooting the Looney Tunes is one of the most thankless tasks on earth, and the general level of wretchedness of the various efforts over the years testifies to how pointless it is.

While we were checking out our ego Google alert, we found a response to our brief critique of a piece on the Anaheim Comic-Con that didn't mention a single comics type person. The writer of the piece, one Matt Patches, says he was right to stay mute on comics, because everyone expects to find comics and cartoonists at a comic-con so it is not noteworthy enough to report:

We'd venture the opinion that a fairly entertaining film could be made of Mark Ruffalo just wearing Hulk Hands. BTW, is this the slowest news week ever or what? Is everyone just exhausted from the brutal spring convention schedule? Probably.

Why do all the mutants have English accents? Jennifer Lawrence, hot off her Oscar nod, is steamy as Mystique! X-MEN: FIRST CLASS opens on June 3rd.

Speaking of con wars, this rather odd story from UGO goes on and on about how great this weekend's Anaheim Comic-Con is going to be, without ever mentioning of the fact that it is part of the Wizard World Tour:

Oh boy!

Marvel has released the first still from the just commenced AVENGERS movie, and it's all about the sitting down. Director Joss Whedon and crew went into production yesterday in Albuquerque for the movie you may have always dreamed would happen.

Librarians love cartoonists who create books that people of all ages want to actually check out of the library. And cartoonists love librarians who buy their books and shelve them in high traffic GN sections. This great love affair for our times is going even further at this year's American Library Association conference in New Orleans -- organizers are making space available for an Artist Alley for the first time.