READ A BOOK, GO TO JAILBanned Books Week runs through September 30, and during this week the American Library Association and the ACLU encourage you to read banned books. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the most frequently challenged title of 1999 was Harry Po...
As mentioned last week, we have a slew of new releases in every category. There’s going to be some tough purchasing decisions that need to be made. We have two anthologies of the best fantasy literature of the year, one from St. Martin&rsq...
Tonight, at 7:00 p.m. Central time, the Marshall Public Library Board of Trustees will convene to vote on whether or not to remove two graphic novels from their shelves BLANKETS by Craig Thompson and FUN HOME by Alison Bechdel. Louise Mills, a resident ...
...ill be no LibraryVault next week due to my gallbladder surgery on Dec. 26. As we learned a few weeks ago from Dr. Bob Brier, during mummification the Egyptians removed the vital organs and placed them in vessels called canopic jars. I asked the nurse ...
What They SayThe Review!This show about librarians in frilly French maid outfits has been popular among fansubbers. I just had to see for myself what the fuss was all about.
Audio:
The disc only includes the original Japanese language production. The a...
The Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of suburban San Bernadino County, California, has ordered the county's libraries to remove Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics from circulation. He called the book "obscene comics" and also stated the "book is ...
LONDON, Ky.,– Toy Vault, Inc. announced today that it signed a licensing agreement with FUNimation Entertainment to create high quality plush, and plush accessories based on “Shin chan,” a Japanese anime series based on the manga written...
The Board of Trustees for the Marshall Public Library called a bureaucratic time-out on Wednesday of last week regarding the removal of Craig Thompson's BLANKETS and Alison Bechdel's FUN HOME. The board had intended to vote on the removal of the books af...
What They SayWill the prophesy be fulfilled?
Lupin the 3rd is up to his old tricks as he and Jigen steal a precious diamond during the height of Carnivale. Easy enough for the world’s greatest thief. But Lupin’s walking straight into trouble ...
Image Comics has announced its tentative release schedule for the LINSNER LIBRARY, a series of graphic novels, prestige format and standard comics from Joseph Michael Linsner."This is one of the single most comprehensive and ambitious projects Image has e...
Last year Running Press gave comic book fans the very cool Marvel Vault, a “Museum in a Book” as they refer to it. This year Running Press is back with the DC Vault. If you haven’t seen the Marvel Vault these books are part history boo...
The Star Wars Vault may not be the greatest book ever published, but it might be the greatest thing to come off a printing press since Noah Webster published his first dictionary. This is the type of book that will have Star Wars fanatics all wide-ey...
LOS ANGELES,12 December 2006: The American Library Association (ALA) and graphic novel publisher Go! Comi announced today that renowned manga artist You Higuri has created an exclusive poster for the ALA's popular poster series. The poster depicts C...
In March of 2007 Casino Royale wasreleased on Blu-ray. It was the only James Bond film, out of the 20 that preceded it, to be released on the new format. This was not surprising to me. Having been raised on Bond and working at various video stores...
Today is your
last chance to enter to win the grand prize in Comics2Film Fifth
Anniversary Celebration! Enter to win the C2F Mega-Library. This is the
mack-daddy of all comic book movie collections. There's 33 DVDs of your favorite
comics-to-film. I...
INVASION '55 becomes the second book in the Chuck Dixon Library series from IDW Publishing in September. INVASION '55 was originally published by Apple Comics as a three-issue mini-series. This is the first time the story has been collected. It's 80 blac...
This is just a
reminder to readers that the Comics2Film Fifth Anniversary Celebration
giveaway is not over yet. We still have to give away the grand prize: the C2F
Mega-Library. This is the mack-daddy of all comic book movie collections.
There's 33 ...
For months we've
seen prizes come and go as part of Comics2Film's Fifth Anniversary
Celebration! Of course, the grand prize in that giveaway is set to be the
C2F Mega-Library.
We've hinted at what's in the library here and there. Now, we've
finally s...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS After a pair of thunderously powerful retrospective recordings of classic horror film music released in 1996, and an in-depth collection of jungle horror film music like THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and THE ALLIGATOR PEOP...
Last year Running Press gave comic book fans the very cool Marvel Vault, a “Museum in a Book” as they refer to it. This year Running Press is back with the DC Vault. If you haven’t seen the Marvel Vault these books are ...
The Denver Public Library has removed approximately 6,500 "fotonovelas," Spanish-language comic books, from its shelves after receiving complaints of pornographic and violent content, reports the Associated Press. The short books usually follow "a single ...
At the Dover Public Library on Sat., March 18th at 2.00 pm the Dover Public Library are organizing a screening of Ultimate Avengers in the Lecture Hall.
In this, his first regular issue (if you can call it that) since the debut of his breath-takingly complex hardcover compilation cum graphic novel, JIMMY CORRIGAN, Chris Ware returns to his usual blend of humor and heartbreak with only the slightest nod to...
Crunchyroll has put out a new press release this evening talking about their new partnership with Speed Racer Enterprises. The company, which recently received an infusion of venture capital funding, will put up select episodes to start and then add more ...
In an overloaded release schedule of sci-fi, horror and fantasy book debuts a few reduxes by renowned authors George R.R. Martin, Robert A. Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, and Naomi Novik stand out amongst dozens of new titles.
The month of July has se...
Happy Wednesday, Maniacs, and welcome to another fantastic foray into the heart of sequential art with this week’s Comicscape! I, your loyal columnist, will lead this journey into the dark digital future as we examine Marvel’s newest onli...
This Friday, May 4, from 12:20-2:00 pm Pacific Time (3:20-5:00 pm Eastern Time), DMP will be featured on the special 350th Broadcast of Visions In Sound, a film music radio program on Canadian radio station CKMS 100.3 FM. In between interview segments, th...
According to a Press Release, SEGA has acquired the rights to develop and distribute games based on the following franchises: Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Iron ManMore from the Press Release:"Video games are an ideal medium to showc...
Perhaps the last piece of vintage sci-fi to withstand the recent barrage of big budget remakes, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA will soon be making its triumphant return to the small screen thanks to the collaborative efforts of Tom DeSanto, Bryan Singer, Dan Angel ...
So I caught KIDNAPPED at the Alamo North the other day, the first time I'd seen it, which is no big surprise because practically nobody's seen this movie, except about nine people who bought a previous DVD version called RABID DOGS. This movie is not RABI...
...overed in LibraryVault #12. I told the clerk about it, and he said the person on the phone claims that the witchy info in the book is actually used as background for the show.Now I`ve found a new book by N. E. Genge. Beyond Blair Witch: the Haunting o...
From a press release
The Walt Disney Studios has signed a multi-year deal with Ahmet Zappa, Harris Katleman and Christian Beranek to oversee the newly christened Kingdom Comics, an innovative new venture of developing graphic novels to create new film pr...
The story of EC Comics really is one of the most intriguing in the lore of comic history. EC's founder, Max Gaines is really the father of the modern comic, having been the first one to devise the idea of printing newspaper comic strip re-prints into a ma...
I donât know how it was in your town, but back when local TV stations showed movies on a regular basis, quite a few of these stations found a niche for mystery movies on early Saturday or Sunday afternoons, filling a gap between lunch and an afternoon bal...
What They SayLife a Mahora Academy is anything but predictable, a theorem which Negi Springfield and the girls of Class 2-A seem determined to test! When a class project incurs the wrath of one of their own, what follows is a virtual, digitally-enhanced p...
Bat-fan and U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy is set to make a cameo appearance in 'The Dark Knight', which will be his second cameo in a Batman movie, according to Library Journal. As with the first appearance, Leahy will donate any proceeds from the venture to...
What They SayLife a Mahora Academy is anything but predictable, a theorem which Negi Springfield and the girls of Class 2-A seem determined to test! When a class project incurs the wrath of one of their own, what follows is a virtual, digitally-enhanced p...
OPINION: Before we get started, two plugs: one, an invitation to visit CINESCAPE's comic book message forum in addition to sending e-mail to yours truly, so that you don't have to wait for me to reprint your letter before others can respond to it; and two...
What They SayThe End?
Despite the success of the global brainwashing, Mr. Carpenter\'s plan to restore Great Britain to its position as the dominant world power remains incomplete. To execute the final stages, he takes his prisoners back to the British L...
Science fiction is endlessly fascinating for the vision it gives us of the future - in retrospect, not only for the predictions it gets right, but also for its amusing missteps. Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's highly entertaining marionette series THUNDERBIRD...
Creative TalentWriter/Artist:Writer: Kideyuki Kurata / Artist: Shutaro YamadaTranslated by:Steve BallatiAdapted by:What They SayNot Your Average Bookworm
Yomiko Readman\'s love for literature goes far beyond any run-of-the-mill bookworm\'s! In fact, sh...
INNOVATIVE LIBRARY OF FICTION NOVELS BASED ON POPULAR ANIME AND MANGA PROPERTIES
San Francisco, CA, JUNE 3, 2005 – VIZ Media, LLC. (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive manga and animation licensing and ...
The follow-up to Monstrous Movie Music’s first pair of releases (two self-titled compilations of classic horror movie music) carries on the tradition of the label’s genesis: providing faithful and full-blooded new recordings of hitherto unreleased classic...
Top U.S. Anime Company Opens Digital Store
HOUSTON, September 25, 2006 " ADV Films, the number one producer-distributor of anime outside of Japan, is pleased to announce the launch of the ADV Universe™ Digital Download Store.
ADV Universe opens to t...
The New Xbox Experience is here and it’s a good one.
As many of you may know by now the old “blade” system is gone. An Ipod-like inventory/library/product system replaces the good ‘ol blades.
There will probably b...
Ed Chavez: Well, thanks for joining me today, Dallas. I have to say, at least for Anime on DVD and for my own podcast, Mangacast, it’s just been the general consensus that, over the past year, Del Rey has basically been the best publisher for, rea...
What They SayIn the 26th installment of the show voted best comedy featuring an alien girl with green hair, the finest fast food fighters in the world converge in town for an all-star eating contest in \"Sure Death! The Fast Food Wars!\" Cabin fever strik...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONI Hear Dead People: The music for George Romero's DEAD saga was inaugurated in 1968 to the accompaniment of an assemblage of vintage library music with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (re-released in 1998 in a new version by John A. Rus...
A couple of weeks ago, a COMICSCAPE reader asked me to do a column about breaking into comics. Here, I present the first of a couple of columns on the subject. Many comics professionals began their career in self-publishing they created their own books, ...
Anime and manga fans in San Francisco are excited about the impending birth of manga cafe.
“What's a manga cafe?”
A good manga cafe provides its customers with a great taste sensation. You haven't lived until you've tasted ham and butter san...
This past weekend, Image Comics announced at Wizard World that fan faves Garth Ennis, Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti will be producing the company's first adults-only title since publisher Jim Valentino's own VIGNETTES. PRO will be a prestige format on...
What They SayThe hobbled Elrics return to their childhood village for the first time in four years. As the Rockbells construct Ed\'s new limbs, the boys sift through the ashes they left behind. While Al comes to the fearful realization that his memories a...
What They SayThere are two sides to every love story, and Boys Be... reveals what\'s really going on - from the guy\'s point of view!
Meet three normal high school guys with just one thing on their minds: girls. Quiet Kyoichi has been friends with Chihar...
The Review!"Tenchi Muyo in Love" is one of my favorite Anime movies; right up there with "Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer" and "Kiki's Delivery Service". I consider it to be to the regular "Tenchi Muyo" series what "First Contact" is to "Star Trek: The ...
Top-selling Anime Brand launches new multi-faceted entertainment site with 100s of videos for free, ad-supported viewing
Los Angeles and New York – Starz Media’s Manga Entertainment today announced the launch of its new streaming video ent...
From a press release
Platinum Studios, Inc. (OTCBB: PDOS), an entertainment company that controls an international library of more than 3,800 comic book characters which it adapts, produces and licenses for all forms of media including print, film, onlin...
Creative TalentWriter/Artist:Writer: Kideyuki Kurata / Artist: Shutaro YamadaTranslated by:Steve BallatiAdapted by:What They SayNot Your Average Bookworm
Yomiko Readman\'s love for literature goes far beyond any run-of-the-mill bookworm\'s! In fact, she...
What They SayFor centuries, those in search of self-discovery and knowledge of the world have hit the road in furtherance of those quests. Young Kino, along with her talking motorcycle Hermes, has the same goal - to travel and observe and learn from diffe...
What They SayRunning for their lives, our heroes seclude themselves in Yomiko’s parents cabin deep in the woods to plan their next steps. Yomiko then enlightens everyone about what happened during the British Library incident and Anita is re-acquain...
Platinum Studios has struck a deal with Top Cow Productions, the comic book publisher of THE DARKNESS, to bring a movie based on the action/horror series to the big screen. Partnering with the two companies is Dimension Films. The announcement of a DARKNE...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONSOpening with a wonderfully raucous vocal by the unmistakable Italian singer Christy (TEPEPA, RUN MAN RUN), the score for Albert De Martino's 1967 spy spoof, OK CONNERY (aka OPERATION KID BROTHER in the USA and Japan) is a terrif...
Six years ago, Robert Weiner set out to conquer the Marvel Universe—or at least to read as much of it as he could. Being both a fan of Marvel and a librarian and instructor at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, he combined his passions to create...
While the Suliban prepare a captured Enterprise for destruction, Archer and Daniels attempt to find their way out of a ruined 31st Century in which the Federation never existed.ENTERPRISE begins its second season in the time-honored STAR TREK tradition, b...
What They SayShizuku is spending her last summer vacation in junior high school, reading and translating lyrics of popular foreign music into Japanese, daydreaming of becoming a writer. Lately she finds that all the books she chooses in the library have b...
What They SayRakka works with Nemu at the library to find her place in life and renews her curiosity about the outside world. Kuu, a younger Haibane who is normally bright and cheerful, helps Rakka find her place in the Old Home, but then becomes subdued...
What They SayThe hobbled Elrics return to their childhood village for the first time in four years. As the Rockbells construct Ed’s new limbs, the boys sift through the ashes they left behind. While Al comes to the fearful realization that his memor...
Creative TalentWriter/Artist:Story by: Hideyuki Kurata / Art by: Ran AyanagaTranslated by:JN ProductionsAdapted by:What They SayMichelle is a romantic daydreamer and hardcore book collector. Maggie is a soft-spoken bookworm who always gets mistaken for...
VIZ DONATES $100,000 IN GRAPHIC NOVELS TO U.S. PUBLIC LIBRARIES
MANGA OUTREACH TO NEW AUDIENCES NATIONWIDE
San Francisco, CA (6/16/00)-Viz Comics, America's 5th-largest comics publisher and largest publisher of Japanese comics, has recently donated over...
Apple® today announced iTunes® 7, the most significant enhancement to the world's most popular music jukebox and online music and video store since it debuted in 2001. iTunes 7 delivers stunning new features such as the new album and Cover Flow views of m...
What They SayAfter years of writer\'s block, Nenene finally begins to write. Perhaps the Paper Sisters are more than just an annoyance. Meanwhile, Anita makes great friends at school, including the enigmatic Junior as the Paper Sisters continue to hunt do...
What They SayThe hobbled Elrics return to their childhood village for the first time in four years. As the Rockbells construct Ed’s new limbs, the boys sift through the ashes they left behind. While Al comes to the fearful realization that his memor...
The Review!One of the biggest OVAs in recent history from Japan has finally reached the US. Are we ready for a heroine called ?The Paper??
Audio:
Manga decided to go all out and placed four different soundtracks on this DVD. There are 2.0 and 5.1 versio...
Many authors of young people`s books dream of having their works adapted into movies—but if their character is not named `Harry Potter,` the chances are slim. In 1997 Francess Lantz wrote a comedic science fiction book, STEPSISTER FROM THE PLANET WEIRD, i...
Greeting, Maniacs, and welcome to another heart-stopping, villain-crushing edition of Comicscape. This week, I feel woefully short of ideas. I also failed to schedule an interview or garner enough mail to create a column. In lieu of ...
What They SayRakka works with Nemu at the library to find her place in life and renews her curiosity about the outside world. Kuu, a younger Haibane who is normally bright and cheerful, helps Rakka to find her place in the Old Home, but then becomes subdu...
You can tell Christmas is right around the corner when the publishers start busting out the new collector’s editions and staple genre series guides. This Tuesday, November 14th brings a Voyage of Jerle Shannara and Gotrek & Felix compendiums...
Creative TalentWriter/Artist:Kazuki SakurabaTranslated by:Andrew CunninghamAdapted by:Laura WyrickWhat They SayThe year is 1924, the place, Sauville, a small European country neatly tucked beside the Alps... Kazuya Kujo has been studying abroad at the pre...
Creative TalentWriter/Artist:Ken AkamatsuTranslated by:Douglas VarenasAdapted by:What They SayKnowledge Can Be Dangerous! For ten-year-old teacher Negi Springfield and his all-girl class, it's time for final exams! If his students manage not to end up wit...
In the 1950s, film music was a far different game than it is now. The studio system was still in effect and film composers were, for the most part, contracted to one studio or another. Universal Studios was one of Hollywood's most productive movie facto...
I was going to give this book an "A" (and an enthusiastic one) until I got towards the end of the book. Before I tell you why, let me go into what the book is about.There is a serial killer on the loose in Syracuse, New York. This killer likes children, p...
Jim Butcher propels the Dresden Files, Janine Cross’s dark fantasy series reaches its conclusion, and entertainment journalist Edward Gross takes a stab at chronicling the development of all things Harry Potter in a very weighted edition of this ...
What They SayRunning for their lives, our heroes seclude themselves in Yomiko\'s parents cabin deep in the woods to plan their next steps. Yomiko then enlightens everyone about what happened during the British Library incident and Anita in reacquainted w...
Greetings Maniacs, and welcome to The No-Fly Zone. This week, we’re beginning an irregular feature in which we highlight a comic or graphic novel that may have gone unnoticed by fans. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to take somebody...
The press release I got in the inbox this morning is the major reason that we have a WGA strike going on right now. It's also a reason that many people are holding off on buying a Blu-Ray or an HD-DVD player. Here's the press release folks..
Apple® t...
What They SayJust another love story? No way! After ages about hearing what girls have to say about relationships, BOYS BE... steps forward to reveal the flip side of love – what\'s really going on from a guy\'s point of view! Meet Kyoichi, Makoto a...
What They SayThe Library of Congress Never Planned for This!
A sinister plot is afoot and only one schoolteacher, a special agent with an affinity for literature, can stop it. She is Ms. Yomiko Readman - better known to her colleagues in Section A of Li...
What They SayThe paper Sisters declare war on Dokusensha! Anita, Maggie and Michelle launch an attack on Dokusensha\'s headquarters in Hong Kong to rescue Nenene and face off against a building full of machinegun-armed private security guards and robots a...
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Harry Gregson-Williams has taken a sidestep from the magnificent orchestral sweep of Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Flushed Away to provide a somber and spooky score...
Wow, last week’s column on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Throwie brouhaha in Boston ignited a little flame war among the readers. As with so many things these days, the news was taken as an opportunity for debate over political opinion, which immediate...
I’ve been hooking up with this guy lately with whom I have absolutely nothing in common with except for one (very odd) thing: our mutual love of old school, live-action Disney movies. Pollyanna, The (original) Parent Trap, Swiss Family Robinson, The...
MPI Home Video, purveyors of the popular 1966 daytime vampire/soap opera TV series, has released an eight disc CD set containing virtually all of the music composed for and recycled throughout the 5-year series. The 1966-1971 ABC-TV Gothic...
The seventh and final book in the remarkably popular series by J.K. Rowling, titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be published on July 21, 2007.The publishing date comes just 8 days after the theatrical release of Harry Potter and the Order o...
We’ve got a full list this week, so let’s get right into it!
SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK
Though a deluxe edition was released in 1999, a new edition of Phantasm is overdue. Here ya go:
(O) PHANTASM (Anchor Bay...
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Eric Bana has signed on to join the upcoming film, The Time Traveler's Wife. He will join Rachel McAdams in the cast.The film, to be directed by Robert Schwentke, is more a love story than a fantasy. The bo...
LAST YEAR’S BIG RECOMMENDATIONS
As with previous years, I have separated my assessment of the year’s best soundtrack releases into new scores (soundtrack CDs of scores for films released in 2006) and newly-released archival re...
In our last week’s column, I alluded to how passion for the arts molds that star to be elevated to a whole other echelon of achievement inside Hollywood’s history books. Certain actors find such passion with every word they utter in the gla...
The New York Public Library recently selected the novel Chance Fortune and The Outlaws for inclusion in Books for the Teen Age 2007. The list, now in its 78th year of publication, selects the best of the previous year’s publishing for teenager...
Before Sam was murdered he told Molly he'd love and protect her forever. This week our Prize Closet contains 2 copies of Ghost: Special Edition. To be eligible to win one, just send an email to which includes your name and address to DVD Shopping Lis...
It’s time to talk about the Godfathers of Modern Cinema. Only a select few can be properly placed in this type of category because of the lasting imprint they collectively shaped from the 60’s through the 70’s, 80’s onward to to...
Imagine popping CASABLANCA into your DVD player. When Ilsa Lund utters the immortal line "Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By," Sam obligingly pounds the keys of his piano producing a generic piece of 40s era music completely devoid of the requested son...
Hot damn! Last week's lame outputting of new fantasy and sci fi literature is officially eclipsed by the cornucopia of new hardback releases coming out today. From armor-plated unicorns to world-destroying aliens, we've got a flavor to fit everyone's ta...
Thankfully for all of us, there are actually some happenings worth talking about this week. Poking Fun at Americans Normally, I leave DVD discussions to the end of each column but this week's release of the classic anime movie 'Only Yesterday' a Studio G...
I'd like to do a review every now and again of a film from my personal collection at home. Whether it's an old film or recent release, if it's on DVD and it's in my film library, it's fair game for review. I like to find time on my weekends when I can dus...
Although American publishers have no problem churning out movie novelizations on time and en masse, some great genre literature is falling through the cracks, getting too little publicity or attention to garner the widespread praise it rightfully dese...
EQUINOX was a bit of an event for the Monster Kids that read about it in FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine, as it featured stop-motion monsters created by fellow readers and the buzz was hot. Released in 1970 when fantasy films were scarce, peppy TV ad...
Classic horror film score record label Monstrous Movie Music has announced two new CDs. The first, THE BLOB (and other creepy sounds) is a special, numbered limited-edition of 3,000 copies, featuring the world-premiere release of the complete Ralph Carmic...
Nintendo will reshape the home entertainment and video game landscape with the launch of its heralded Wii home video game console. The Americas will lead the worldwide launch on Nov. 19. Wii will be sold as an affordable, mass-consumer product at an MSRP ...
Blizzard Entertainment unleashes their first novel surrounding the Ghost assassin Nova, Paul Kearney and James M. Ward blend good old-fashion magic with maritime warfare, and Mercedes Lackey debuts another novel in the Scepter’d Isle sequence wi...
I've been a fan of Becky Cloonan for years, since I stumbled upon the Estrigious website years ago, when looking at RPG fanart. For me, she�s a sign that yes, people my age can go out there and do some wonderful stuff and get paid for it. (Of course, I'...
Mexican cinema, like that of most other countries, entered the USA through two doors. Respected films by acclaimed directors like Luis Buniel came in through the front door, released to arthouse theaters in big cities with subtitles. But popular genre ci...
Neal Asher releases the newest Polity novel, McKenna continues the Aldabreshin Compass series, and Black Library author Ben Counter takes over the reins of the newest Horus Heresy installment this week. Happy Tuesday everyone! A handful of fantasy sagas a...
Putting together an orchestral concert is always an enormous undertaking. Getting a small army of musicians through rehearsals, picking a suitable concert hall, getting enough publicity to actually fill said concert hall – all of these tak...
The New Year is officially here, and with it a new crop of science fiction, fantasy, and horror literature is beginning to spring up from the fertile minds of genre authors everywhere. But though 2008 is the year of the new, some authors from the past, ...
A slim release schedule doesn’t mean skimpy genre fare as this week’s debuts prove with big releases from powerhouse authors Kate Elliott, Orson Scott Card, and Ursula K. Le Guin along with newcomer Paul Genesse and a handful of talent from ac...
A day after Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer grabbed the female lead in the upcoming Da Vinci Code prequel, Angels & Demons, actor Ewan McGregor is also said to be joining the cast. The trade says McGregor is set to play a powerful Vatican insider who hel...
Unlike Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2, which has sold 2 million units in 2 weeks, the latest demo hitting Live for the Xbox is Army of Two in an attempt to improve user awareness of the title since sales have been shaky in its first month. The demo is n...
Have you Hulu’d yet? If not, then you definitely should because surprisingly it’s pretty much all it was hyped to be. Many months ago much was made of NBC pulling all of their programming from iTunes. The word was that Apple was...
Lionsgate has become the second studio to allow its movies to be copied from DVDs onto iPod devices, reports Variety. Although several studios have started experimenting with digital copies of discs -- a strategy considered an important hedge against pira...
Bandai Visual has announced their intentions to release the anime Freedom series, as well as other anime titles in their library, on the high definition Blu-Ray player in the fall. The upgrade will be getting a simultaneous release around the world, offer...
Although, as all happy comic fans know by instinct and increasingly lighter wallets, today is Wednesday, and time for another weekly installment of Comicscape (should this not be renamed Comania?), I can’t help feeling the dreary drag that can only ...
Last week regular reader phillipej suggested the idea of a website devoted to keeping track of different "special editions" DVDs in response to the new re-release of THE PRINCESS BRIDE. I think this is a fine idea other sites have this info, but sort of ...
In the midst of preproduction announcements on Paramount’s and Peter Berg’s upcoming Dune remake, Frank Herbert’s God Emperor of Dune is getting the audiobook treatment from Macmillan Audio. Read by Simon Vance, Scott Brick and Katherine...
Another gaming convention has come to a close with Capcom's Captivate 08 wrapping up last week, the newly titled event formerly known as their "Gamer's Day". With it coming to a close, a slew of new footage and trailers have hit the net and I'll...
The nice thing about anime fandom is how dependable it can be. Anime enthusiasts are often video game enthusiasts, and vice versa. Many of us got our earliest exposure to Japanese animation through the monster and character designs found in early Nintendo...
Update: A new report over at Variety goes into more detail about what to expect within the WGA membership voting process after the tentative agreement has been reached.
WGA members will have the chance to vote on whether to end the strike unde...
Soundtracks are now a pre-packaged business. There have been a few instances where the soundtrack or score is all that is available to the audience when a film is released. James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ and Zack Snyder’s &lsq...
Greetings, Maniacs, and welcome to another exciting Wednesday with Comicscape! Last week’s column about DC’s new web-only Zuda imprint ran later in the day, for which I apologize. Then again, it also ran next to the review of the new...
Aurelio Voltaire Hernández – known to most by his shortened nom de plume, Voltaire – has established himself as a one-man traveling dark carnival. His résumé includes his own brand of catchy, comedic music – dub...
The E3 Summit officially began today and the first major announcement from Microsoft has already happened. Microsoft, Disney & ABC Television have joined together in a partnership to bring movies and media rentals through XBOX LIVE. Here's the press r...
Last week I wrote about DVD releases reaching a saturation point. Somebody must have been paying attention because this week they’re down to a trickle. Either that, or nobody wants to spend a holiday shipping discs. Well, I hope you all are enjoying...
Comics and manga lend all kinds of memories and stereotypes. Who can forget old Disney after-school specials where the good-for-nothing class troublemaker sneaks a Batman comic in the pages of his history textbook? (Ironically, this is also a preferred st...
His name, his face, and his voice are synonymous with Horror, however Vincent Price began his career on Broadway, but where it would end was far cry different then he could have ever predicted. Vincent Price would go on to become the Master of the Ma...
There's been a few changes to the DVD release of HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX by Warner Bros Home Video. One of those changes is the additional/deleted scenes which was originally listed as 10 minutes of footage not seen in the theatrical ver...
The horror-comedy genre has been alive and kicking for a long time, namely because of Troma Pictures, a production company that has been around for 33 years now. Troma has over 800 titles, film and television, in their collection and their influence ...
As with most media, comic books experience a fair amount of piracy on the Internet. Most of the time, sites only host BitTorrent trackers over actual scanned comics. The trackers allow the downloader to assemble the file in small pieces from oth...
The Halcyon Company who recently purchased the TERMINATOR franchise rights have expanded their library to Phillip K. Dick material rights for the next three years, says Variety. With over 120 short stories and 45 novels, they have plenty of choi...
Greetings, Maniacs, and welcome to another exciting adventure into the dark soul of American comic books! This week, I’ll expound upon a recent and controversial announcement by Diamond Comic Distributors. For those of you that may not kno...
Penguin Group USA unveils a powerful new anthology on hardcover featuring fantasy’s most prestigious character archetypes: the almighty, all-ass-kicking wizard. Neil Gaiman, Kage Baker, Orson Scott Card, and many other established fantasy authors ro...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONSNino Rota's music for Federico Fellini is among the brightest and most interesting Italian film music of the '60s and early '70s. Scores such as LA DOLCE VITA, LA STRADA, JULIET OF THE SPIRITS are among the composer's most profo...
Bet you never thought you’d see NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with a 20th Century Fox logo on it, did you? Sure, the fact that director George Romero and company didn’t think to put a copyright notice on the initial release prints caused their hit film to slip...
DS/PSP Wishlist by James Stevenson and Troy Roberts (Fri 10-08-2004)
With the FINAL FANTASY III (Japan) Nintendo DS announcement today we thought it'd be good to look at games we'd like to see brought to our DS/PSPs in the not too distant future.The opportunity of having the power of an N64 and wireless gameplay begs for s...
Well, I've devoted a few of my columns in the past to discussing the Sega "hit" SHENMUE, and with Sega's recent announcement, I figured I'd do it again. Earlier this week, Sega announced that it had plans to develop SHENMUE ONLINE, a MMORPG set in the SHE...
After much complaining by fans, Columbia TriStar Home Video has finally confirmed that they will release of the first three seasons of SEINFELD to DVD before the end of the year. CTHV will sell Beginning November 23 Columes 1 and 2 of SEINFELD will be sol...
I’m writing this column from G-Fest, the annual Godzilla fan’s North American convention, which should not be confused with B-fest, the annual 24-hour B-movie marathon, but it’s almost as much fun. Every summer for the past 11 years, Godzilla fans from al...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONSEngland's Harkit Records continues to mine the retrograde treasure trove of 1960s film music with three new releases that are a delight of the period. Making its first foray onto CD, George Duning's lighthearted and theatrical s...
Texts on fiction writing are fond of telling writers that any story is allowed one major coincidence. This weather disaster epic is composed of a whole pile of coincidences. However, writer/director Roland Emmerich shares with Steven Spielberg a great tal...
Remember that scene in George Pal’s THE TIME MACHINE where George goes to the library and listens to the Talking Rings? Just spin ‘em on the magic mirror and they tell a story. That seemed pretty far fetched in 1960, but not anymore. Let me whip out my cr...
Unsaid Music by Randall D. Larson (Thu 12-16-2004)
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONSPrometheus Records of Belgium has released Don Davis' sublime and poetic score for Tom McLoughlin's psychological thriller, THE UNSAID (PCD 156). Davis, best known these days for his MATRIX scores, provided a warm orchestral sco...
Well, you already have the special edition Gold and Platinum Collection DVDs of all three MATRIX movies, including the REVISITED extras discs, plus the ANIMATRIX anime anthology, and you've even downloaded a bunch of stuff from the internet. Why shou...
REMEMBERING GIL MELLEFor nearly five decades, Gil Melle had made a mark in the world of jazz as an outstanding saxophonist, composer, and also noted as a painter. In the world of film and television, his work has been extraordinarily notable if not t...
When I first heard about these Game Boy Advance video cartridges, I thought to myself, "Why?". I carry around a case of TV shows like Seinfeld on CD-Rs and I can watch them on my laptop during trips. But I've never had the urge to blow twenty bucks on a f...
DVD distributor Anchor Bay Entertainment announced today that it had brokered a deal with veteran television producer/writer Stephen J. Cannell to market and distribute TV shows from the Cannell library. Among the many action shows that Cannell created ar...
Got a lot of DVDs? So many that it's starting to be difficult to keep them organized? Me, too. For years I've been looking for some decent software to help out, but all the ones I've tried either don't have the features I want or are all-inclusive databas...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS It's not a soundtrack but it's remarkable rock and roll theater. Lou Reed's new album, THE RAVEN, is a musical tribute to Edgar Allan Poe, commissioned in 2001 by the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg, Germany for a theatrical per...
For years, The Video Beat (www.thevideobeat.com) has been providing rare '50s and '60s era videos to fans and collectors, and they now join the List with their own high quality DVD-R titles that include menus and specially selected extras.SPOTLIGHT OF THE...
Day two of ManiaFest opened with screenings of PREDATOR, TERMINATOR and PUMPKINHEAD, all in honor of special effects master Stan Winston. In recognition of his groundbreaking work on these cinematic classics, Winston would be receiving the first Maniac Aw...
If it worked for The Sci-Fi Channel, why not for horror? That's what entrepreneurs Nick Psaltos and Kim Bangash are thinking of when they pitch their concept of The Horror Channel, a 24-hour cable specialty network that will broadcast the darker side of e...
IM MEMORY: MICHAEL SMALLFilm composer Michael Small, 64, passed away on November 24, 2003. Small wrote musical scores for over 50 feature films and TV programs, as well as hundreds of TV and radio commercials. His many credits as include the music for Ala...
There’s no keeping this image under wraps as it takes up an entire wall of a building. This painting depicts the entire planet blowing up - quite a leap from the last mass destruction painting that just showed New York City blowing up. This is a ver...
THE LIBRARIAN is coming to TNT.ER star Noah Wyle will play the overly smart curator of an ususual library where magical items are stored. After one of the library's items is taken and not returned, the librarian seeks the assistance of a young female mart...
Universal Pictures is remembered as the top studio for classic mystery, comedy and horror B-movie series of the 1930s and ‘40s, but Universal owes one of their best loved series to rival 20th Century Fox. As revealed in the generous liner notes to this DV...
When American fighting men (and women) returned from service in World War II, they returned with their horizons expanded. While our boys in Europe had some romantic adventures along the streets of Rome and Paris, commandoes of the Pacific theater got to k...
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONSA perhaps forgotten short-lived TV series from 1977 has been mined as this month’s Silver Age Classic from FSM. A thoroughly satisfying compilation of all the original music written for the 14-episode TV series, LOGAN’S RUN (FSM...
Welcome to another fun-filled week at COMICSCAPE! Last week I asked you to write in with your thoughts regarding Marvel's hiring of Orson Scott Card to write ULTIMATE IRON MAN. The problem, according to many gay and lesbian comics fans, is that Card has w...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS In SON OF THE MASK, composed Randy Edelman reprises his vibrantly quirky heroic theme from 1994's THE MASK, but only three tracks of score are included on the soundtrack album, released this week by Silva Screen (SILCD 1179). H...
THE FILM MUSIC OF AKIRA IFUKUBE Akira Ifukube has maintained a notably symphonic style in his prolific array of film scores, utilizing traditional Japanese styles and voicings for many of his adventure and dramatic films, while embodying his music for sci...
Though the American version GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS has long been a staple on home video, there has always been speculation as to if and when the original 1954 Japanese version would become legally available in the USA. Speculation has heated up ov...
For the first time ever on CD in North America, La-La Land records presents the original motion picture soundtrack to the classic 1962 Toho Studios monster thriller KING KONG VS. GODZILLA. Legendary composer Akira Ifukube (GOJIRA/GODZILLA) fashions a spel...
Italy's Digitmovies has just released three more notable titles in its series of European horror and Italian Western scores. Volume Three in the Mario Bava Original Soundtracks Anthology continues the label's musical celebration of Mario Bava, The Italian...
Well, you probably won't get them in time for Xmas or Hanukah, but we've got some nice stuff in the old Prize Closet for you this week. To win a prize, just send an email containing your name and address with the designated subject line to me at psycho@ps...
While over the past few weeks I've been writing about bargain box sets of (most often) public domain titles, there's one way you can see a lot of these features for even less money. To be specific, for free. Sites like Veoh [http://www.veoh.com/] speciali...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS Howard Shore's latest composition is a broad orchestral and choral score for the new South Korean Webzen computer game, SOUL OF THE ULTIMATE NATION (aka SUN), has been released on a splendid soundtrack CD by Sony/BMG of Korea (...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONJohn Powell (THE BOURNE IDENTITY, ICE AGE 2: THE MELTDOWN, SHREK) has composed a magnificent, melodic, and powerfully reverent score for X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, released last week by Varese Sarabande Records. The music has plenty ...
I was discussing the upcoming weekend's new theatrical releases with some friends last week, and inevitably OVER THE HEDGE was mentioned. Someone said that they definitely wouldn't be seeing it, because they "don't watch cartoons". Some tried to sway him ...
Picking up immediately after the events of "The Horizon," "S.O.S." finds the very pregnant Sydney Bristow (and her equally expectant actress counterpart Jennifer Garner) sidelined for much of the hour. Strangely, this is not a bad thing as the episode of...
It may have been the cult movie archivists at Something Weird Video who first identified the fact that, while only a relatively small group of western fans would take interest in their huge library of old public domain oaters, horror and sci-fi fans might...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS Patrick Doyle has proven to be an outstanding choice to compose the music to the fourth film in J.K. Rowling's cinematic franchise, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE. Based on Rowling's then-longest and darkest series entry, ...
The Hollywood Reporter has reported that Aardman Animations has signed several international mobile phone deals to distribute its library of content to mobile phone users. The company has signed a deal with Orange U.K. to promote WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CUR...
Two movies based on the comics of Frank Miller are released two months apart. One becomes the darling of critics and cleans up at the box office. The other is panned all around and is deemed a flop. Why? While SIN CITY revels in the hard-boiled genre trad...
Majesty is an ambitious project conceived by Cyberlore studio's programmers. It has all the basic features of both simulations and real time strategies. This game will give you a chance to create your own fantasy kingdom, employ heroes, take care of t...
We may have issues with the quality (and source) of their transfers. We may not review their titles due to their refusal to send screeners. But everyone has to agree that Alpha Video has some of the most eye catching covers on their DVDs. In fact, they're...
For years, some video labels have sought to lure in movie fans by offering movies in "letterboxed" format that are actually just the cropped fullscreen version matted with black bars top and bottom, advertising more image area while delivering far less. I...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS England's Harkit Records, who have preserved on CD such quirky and cultic scores of the '60s and 70s as BARBARELLA, THE PENTHOUSE, VANISHING POINT, THEY CAME TO ROB LAS VEGAS, and MODESTY BLAISE (and who will soon release BURKE...
Universal monsters fans have been waiting for the remaining horror classics (and near classics) in their library to make their DVD debut. Here's the good news: THE BELA LUGOSI COLLECTION has been announced for a September 6 release. Priced at $26.98 SRP, ...
THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATIONS A pair of vintage 1960s TV jazz scores have been released by those intrepid preservers of 60s pop culture, England's Harkit Records. Herschel Burke Gilbert was one of the pervasive composers of 1960s television music. While gai...
Anchor Bay Entertainment has been accused of milking certain popular films in their library by producing as many variant DVD editions as they can. On the other hand, fans do keep buying these variants as long as they deliver some new angle on an old class...
It's the last week before the new season begins (some would claim that PRISON BREAK marks that boundary, but ROME seems like a better dividing line to me) and we're in w