"The Doomsday Machine" - Behind the Scenes

I don't have a lot to say about this video other than the fact that it's kind of cool that the original writer of the classic Star Trek episode decided he would give some background on how he became involved with the show and give some commentary on the new remastered version of the episode done by CBS Digital.

I'm not a huge fan of this remastered Trek that they're peddling right now, but some of the new work being done is very nice and I can understand the impulse to want to go back and fix some things up. That being said, I love my old Trek, analog control panels and all. Every last ridiculous nut and bolt of it.

Anyway, here's writer Norman Spinrad...



Later!

mike

My Favourite Videos #6 (With the Video Finally Fixed)

It's been a while since I posted one of these, but I've been trying to get into the two most recent U2 albums for the last couple of days (I've been trying for years, if you must know) and while talking to my brother about it he reminded me of this video which I love dearly for various reasons.

Possibly the last great video from U2, "Stuck in a Moment" features football, John Madden, in-jokes galore, great direction, and Brendan Fehr as the ill-fated kicker aptly named, Paul Hewson (Bono's secret identity for those of you who don't know).

After a failed kick, losing the game to the opposing team, Hewson is doomed to relive the tragic defeat over and over again (by the way, the video is buggy in my browser so if you have problems, you'renot the only one).



There's also an international version of the video directed by Kevin Godley (who has a few U2 videos to his credit) which is almost as good, but doesn't have that extra little 'oomf' that pushes the US version to the Faves list. Here's a peak at it:



One thing I like about both videos is the fact that in the first, Bono seems more like himself in the early '90s, sporting the Fly duds and sunglasses and full of pathos. The second video seems to be reminiscient of a pre-"Achtung baby!" Bono, just arriving in Berlin with his suede coat, shoulder length hair and looking earnest. Considering the faux Bono that has been milling about for the last few years, it does my heart good to get a glimpse of an old friend, however briefly.

Until next time!

mike

From the Back Issue Bin

For whatever reason, I decided to read Avatar's first licensed Stargate SG1: P.O.W. comic book series tonight and thought I would post some reactions to it.

I remember being really excited when I first heard about this title. Stargate SG1 was, at the time, my favourite sci-fi show on TV and being a fan of The X-Files comic and the original Buffy comics (published by TOPPS and Dark Horse, respectively) I figured this would be one more 'expanded universe' that I would get to play in. Once the issues came out, though, I never bothered tpo pick them up. I don't know if it was finances, or an overall dislike of the art style (it could have been both, really) but I left them on the rack and didn't pick up my first Stargate issues until "Fall of Rome", where the addition of Roman gods to the mix was too tempting to resist.

Anyway, enough history.

The series itself ran three issues and was written by James Anthony Kuhoric and illustrated by Renato Guedes with colours by Nimbus Studios. Story-wise, the plot is pretty simple. Jack O'Neill jumps through the gate chasing one of the series baddies who used to be an ally and friend to him (also something of a surrogate son). Everyone wants to go through and recover him but the Goa'uld have left behind a device that jeopardizes Stargate Command. There is also the added threat of the Goa'uld getting information about the SGC through torturing O'Neill with a device that will drag the desired info out of his mind.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of this plot, which feels hackneyed and contrived, but I was still willing to go along for the ride if it was paced well and the characters were true to their TV counterparts. This was something Kuhoric did not do. I'm not sure how much of the bad pacing should be credited to Guedes, but the dialogue was stiff and often felt like it was cut and pasted from moments in the show. The jokes that O'Neill spouts are trite and there was just nothing organic about the way any of these people behaved.

I wouldn't often dare to say this (in the likelihoodthat someone actually called me on it) but I could have dialogued this better than Kuhoric. Given some time (and deep imersion in the subject matter) I may even have been able to come up with a better storyline, too, but for arguments sake, I'm going to stick with just the dialogue.

The artwork by Guedes was something else, too. The strange painterly look is likely the fault of Nimbus (based on the look of Guedes's pencils as well as his straight pencil & ink work seen in the convention specials that Avatar produced) but his characters are still extremely stiff and his overall storytelling ability is limited in these three issues. I ran into several jump cuts that kill the flow of things and panels that make me shudder with their lack of imagination all serve to kill this story before it ever really gets off the ground. I think I probably made it three or four pages in before I knew this was going to be a bad trip, so I'll give him credit for the opening action sequence. Once they get into the SGC, though, wooo...

On a side note, Kuhoric did his best to weave the story of the feature film into the narrative (for which I give him props) but it ended up coming off kind of stilted and felt more like he was trying to kill pages off with what has come before rather than coming up with some original story to fill those in.

I gotta say, I did not like this mini-series, despite (or possibly because of) having an appreciation for the source material and wanting this to be good. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone except maybe the most die-hard fan who wouldn't be totally turned off by it in the end. If I was wanting to make a good impression on a new reader, or someone looking for a proper Stargate fix, I think I would probably throw them one of the later minis, just to be safe.

Later!

mike

Young Indy - The Adventure Continues...Sort Of

What's a week without some Indy news, eh? I just caught this article on StarWars.com regarding the third season that wasn't for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. As a fan of the show, I find it fascinating, but for more general Indy fans it's likely just a curiosity since they probably don't view the shows as canon, anyway.

The geek in me loves the new timeline, though.

mike

Reported Cult Activity

Just got back from seeing The Cult in town. It was a powerful set with a mix of some of their new tunes mixed with classics from previous albums. Jen enjoyed the show up to the point where she couldn't breathe from the smoke and was practically deaf from the noise. We left the show about a half-hour early, though, so we didn't get to see the end or the encore.

Jen says that she saw "Fire Woman" and "Sweet Soul Sister" performed live and that's all she really cared about. That and she bought a purple Cult bunny-hug/hoodie.

I might post a show review later.

mike

Exorcising The Heretic

I picked up Exorcist: The Beginning today which, I think, officially completes my Exorcist collection. I have the 25th Anniversary edition of The Exorcist as well as The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen, I have Legion, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist and now, The Beginning (I also include Blatty's non-Exorcist film, The Ninth Configuration, in that list because of its continuation of thematic elements introduced in the first Friedkin directed film).

Even though I consider Dominion to be the Blatty approved prequel, I wanted The Beginning almost for academic reasons. The fact that they were both born of the same idea, share many cast and crew members, but are completely different films, is something that intrigues me. I also wanted to hear Renny Harlin talk about the making of his version in the audio commentary, so it was one of those things I always knew I'd pick up someday, and that day just happened to be today. I think Renny's version is worth $5.99.

Astute readers will probably notice that I did not include The Exorcist II: The Heretic in the list above. To be honest, I do not consider this to be a part of the series and have no desire to ever see it, even though I've heard that seeing James Earl Jones in a giant locust suit is worth the rental (see this review if you need something to back that decision up). I try to stick to the Blatty approved material and The Heretic was only approved insofar as Warner Bros. asked him for a sequel, he said he wasn't interested, they asked how much it would cost to do one themselves, he gave them a ridiculous number and they said SURE!

I wasn't even prepared to accept Dominion as canon until Blatty saw a screening of the film and thought it was pretty darned good, giving Schrader and his little film that wouldn't die the Exorcist thumbs up.

So, if anyone has any reasons why they think I should be giving The Heretic a try I'd love to hear them. Until then, however, I'll consider my Exorcist collection complete.

Later!

mike

Stephen King's Multiverse

In the foreword for The Gunslinger, Stephen King talks about writing an epic. He said that he, like so many others of his time, was completely smitten with Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and knew that he wanted to create something like it, but different enough that it would be his and not just a copy. To quote the text he says:

...although I read the books in 1966 and 1967, I held off writing. I responded to the sweep of Tolkien's imagination...but I wanted to write my own kind of story, and had I started then, I would have written his. That, as the late tricky Dick Nixon was fond of saying, would have been wrong. Thanks to Mr. Tolkien, the twentieth century had all the elves and wizards it needed.

After re-reading the book, and exploring some of the other works of King (I know, I said I wouldn't, so sue me) I realized that, despite trying his best to not write a Tolkien-esque story with halflings and dwarves, he was, in fact, doing something very similar to another popular fantasy writer of the time, Michael Moorcock.

Moorcock is well known for creating his famous Multiverse and all the myriad characters who inhabit it. From Elric of Melniboné to Jerry Cornelius, Moorcock's characters have weaved in and out of each others stories for the last 40 years, with some characters even sharing a common aspect of a single entity, The Eternal Champion. From the Wikipedia entry:

The Eternal Champion, a Hero who exists in all dimensions, times and worlds, is the one who's chosen by fate to fight for the Balance; however, he often doesn't know of his rôle, or, even worse, he struggles against it, never to succeed.

All the incarnations of the Eternal Champion are facets of each other, and the Champion may also be aided by a companion, who, like himself, exists in various incarnations. Likewise the Champion is often associated with one romantic association that is possibly an aspect of an eternal figure. Other characters in the various books have occassionally crossed over from one universe to another, although it is unclear what their status in the multiverse may be.

From what I've gleaned about The Dark Tower series is that King has created a very similar fictional construct, one in which he is able to explore all sorts of possibilities, including bringing in characters from other books (like Randall Flagg who debuted in The Stand but also appears in The Eyes of the Dragon and The Dark Tower series).

Anyway, I know I'm not the first one to see this, and it's not huge news or anything, but it's the first time I'm thinking of Kings work as a larger piece of interconnecting fiction. As a huge fan of Moorcock and his Multiverse, this appeals to me a great deal.

That's all I have to say on that subject for now. I apparently have a date to read some Prince Caspian to a couple of troublemakers before bed so I'm off to do that.

Later!

mike

On Reading the King

I've read my share of Stephen King books in my time (who hasn't) and seen my fill of movies based on his books and short stories. Everything from Carrie to The Mist which is sitting in my bag recently rented from the local Blockbuster, have passed these eyes, and I count reading It, Cycle of the Werewolf (which was beautifully, and I mean, beautifully illustrated by Berni Wrightson) and Pet Sematary as landmarks in my youthful experiences with horror fiction.

Still, I would never go so far as to call myself a fan. I didn't seek out the man's work, nor did I look forwrd to the next Stephen King 'joint', as it were. I never questioned the quality of his writing as I was sure that he remained a proficient author who likely had only improved in the many years since I stopped paying his books any mind. It was simply a matter of my interests waning, and possibly a smattering of literary snobbery as I may have convinced myself that popular thriller/horror novels couldn't possibly have anything to offer.

I should also qualify that my position on King hasn't changed insofar as I'm going to seek out everything of his that I haven't read and gobble it up until I can't stand it anymore. I'm still not compelled to read From a Buick 8 or Hearts in Atlantis or Dreamcatcher or The Long Mile or Rose Madder and countless others.

So, why the heck am I writing this post, you may be asking yourself?

Well, I stumbled across the first two issues of Marvel Comics' Dark Tower books and figured for a buck a piece I should see if it lives up to the impossible hype it has been receiving. I think I was a half-a-dozen pages into the first issue when I realised that this stuff was dynamite. Not only had I never seen more superb Jae Lee artwork in my life, but Peter David has never read so perfectly, either. It reminded me of when I was initially given the first volume in The Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger by my long-time chum, Brad. He was a big King fan at the time and, along with Eyes of the Dragon (which I've yet to read), told me that I would be remiss if I didn't check this book out.

It seemed interesting. I mean, King doing a western was certainly a change of pace, and a fantasy western at that. Plus, the book was really short and, as anyone who knows me will attest, getting me to read anything that I'm unfamiliar with is always easier if the book is a short one. And, in all fairness, it was interesting but it came at a point when I was moving on to other stuff and I was finding King's work to be a little long-winded and over-descriptive to continue on with it.

It's kind of funny, then, how the comics rekindled my interest in The Dark Tower, which led me to get a copy of The Gunslinger, which had two interesting and well-written forewords to the text in it, which is where I first heard of King's memoir, On Writing, which I then went out and found and read in a couple of sittings.

It was pretty decent timing, too, because I had recently finished reading Nick Hornby's Songbook and I was still in the mood for something non-fiction that was written in the author's voice. I'm trying to get myself back into the habit of writing regularly again (and not just the interviews and articles but proper fiction and screenplays) and I found Hornby's essays to be somewhat motivational. Granted, I was pretty tired of his particular voice after a day or two of Songbook but I still needed something that was a conversational piece.

Enter Stephen King's On Writing.

I won't go into details or review the book or anything like that, but I will say that even though I may not have a desire to go out and read every piece of the man's fiction, this piece of non-fiction memoir/seminar/affirmation has done wonders for getting my juices flowing (not to mention being a brisk and entertaining read, to boot). Strangely enough, having someone telling you not to be a fool and just write ended up being some of the most helpful advice I've been given, of late. It sounds retarded, I know, and there were some writing techniques of his that he shared in the book that were also of great value to me, but writing is such a lonely endeavour that you just have to be reminded from time to time that it isn't all a collossal waste.

The bad side of this is that I'm now feeling like every minute I spend at work is time I could be writing something, but maybe having that obstacle also helps fuel the desire to be doing the work. Absence making the heart grow fonder and all that jazz.

Well, I'm off to go and put something down on the ol' pages.

Later!

mike

...and Teaser

Okay, this blurry, choppy, bootlegged little teaser has given me goosebumps like the Indy image from a few months ago did. The pictures I have seen from the set have been lackluster and unable to really spark the imagination, but this teaser from WonderCon has me excited, now.

Apology Is Policy!

mike

X-Files 2 Poster...

I'm equally excited and wary of this sequel that comes possibly 5 years too late to mean anything to us die-hard fans of the series, especially since it purports to not have any bearing on the alien colonization mythology that was left greatly unresolved at the end of season 9. Still, rumours say that this story may revolve, or just involve, Scully's son, William, who she gave up near the end of the series in order to give him a normal life (and for those of us who watch, William is anything but a normal baby).

Anyway, I just caught this image of the teaser poster and am cautiously giddy with excitement for July 25th.



Trust No One!

mike

Spirit Worries

The more I see of Frank, and the more I hear about this film, the more I worry. I experience a slight, uncomfortable tightening of the sphincter while listening to Miller talk about this project.



Form your own opinions. I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Later!

mike

Indy Fans, Check This Out

I don't think I've blogged about this article that Vanity Fair ran last month (or was it 2 months ago) and I ran across the online version of it sitting in my bookmark folder so I clearly intended to. Anyway, I figured I should post it, have one less bookmark to worry about and bring joy to those Indy fans who have yet to see this piece (in its entirety) with the accompanying Annie Liebowitz photos.

Later!

mike

Foo Fighters Setlist 03/27/08

1. Let It Die
2. Pretender
3. Times Like These
4. Breakout
5. Learn to Fly
6. Cheer Up Boys, Your Makeup’s Running
7. This Is a Call
8. The One
9. Stacked Actors with a long drum solo from Taylor Hawkins

Acoustic Set on Smaller Stage In-the-Round

10. Skin & Bones
11. Marigold
12. My Hero
13. Cold Day in the Sun (ft. Taylor Hawkins on drums & vocals)
14. But, Honestly
15. Everlong

End Acoustic Set

16. Monkey Wrench
17. All My Life

Encore

18. Big Me (feat. Jessy Green)
19. Long Road to Ruin
20. Best of You

Watching the Foos

I'll be hitting the Foo Fighters concert tonight with my brother and his new beaux. I'll post some comments on it later tonight, perhaps.

Later!

mike

Plissken by Watson

Who would have thunk it. John Carpenter and Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken by Andi Watson. Not only was it an unexpected thing to run across, but it's also awesome to behold. Go check out Andi's sites and books.

Later!

mike

Nearly Thwarted by the Six Feet Under Packaging

A couple of weeks ago I bought the first season of Six Feet Under at the local Wal-Mart for a mere $18. I finally got around to opening it up tonight and found it to be a frustrating and complicated ordeal. I mean, I've heard of gimmicky packaging before but HBO must have broken out their rocket scientists to develop this one.

I couldn't find a picture of it online, so I'll have to see if I can take one myself and slap it up on the blog for those of you who do not know of what I speak.

Essentially, the set is packaged in such a way as to recall a casket, I believe, and sits horizontal with a base and a lid. The lid is supposed to flip upwards and, as it opens, lifts the DVD case out of the box revealing all the HBO goodness inside. You then remove the DVDs (packaged in the same book-like flip-open case that anything not in a thinpak is generally sold in), watch the discs you want and, if you're smart, do not replace them in the 'casket'. Just keep them open and free, it'll be much easier for the next time you want to watch them. Once you've watched the whole series and featurettes, then you put it away until the next time you wanna wrassle with the absurd thing. Beyond wrecking the packaging, opening and closing the thing is just a pain in the ass. It's a good thing the show's so good otherwise I (and, I'm sure, many others) wouldn't even bother with the thing.

Not much of a post, I know, but something that really irritated me when it took me 30 or so minutes to figure the damn thing out (that includes the time I spent surfing the internet looking for images of an opened case for clues).

Later!

mike

Early Thoughts on Southland Tales

Now, I've been waiting for this movie for some time (many of us who watched and loved Donnie Darko have been) and I have to say that after months and months of watching it get beat up by the media and go through recutting and release dates being pushed back and none of my local cineplexes running the film, the DVD has foinally arrived to mixed response. In some ways the movie is exactly what I expected and so many ways it is very much not. The trademarked Richard Kellyisms are all there (the satire, the sci-fi, the high-concept, ensemble cast and the socio-political commentary) but they are organized in such a way as to make the film almost totally impenetrable. I read the three graphic novels that comprise the prequel trilogy and still had a hard time following certain sequences. Sure, it sort of comes together in the end in a somewhat understandable manner, but on the whole it feels like the movie fails in paying off the 144 minute running time.

I knew going in that I would have to do some work on my own, that I would have to read the prequel trilogy and hit the website and dig through additional sources to fully appreciate the movie, but on a basic sit down and watch a show for a couple of hours level, Southland alienates the viewer almost from the outset with its wealth of backstory that you're never really given a glimpse of, the awkward dialogue being delivered by Dwayne Johnson and Sarah Michelle Geller, and the often improvisational nature of Kelly's shooting style (I don't know how much of it was improved, but seeing as how half the cast are ex-SNL alumn, I'm thinking a bunch).

Is there method to the madness? Perhaps. Is this gleanable upon a single viewing? Certainly not.

I want to like this movie, and I'm willing to put the work into it to see where it takes me as a viewer and as someone who appreciated the technical side of filmmaking, but I'm not reccomending this one for everyone. Unless you're already a Kelly fan, this may not be appropos for you.

More on this story as it develops.

Later!

mike

Stargate Defective Disc Blues Cured

I picked up Stargate: Atlantis Season 1 many months ago and watched a couple of episodes before putting it back on the shelf. It's not that I didn't like the show, I just got it for a really good price and I had seen the entire first season so I wasn't in any hurry to revisit the show. I checked out a few of the commentaries and features and there you go.

Fast forward a few months and a friend from work asks me to borrow the discs. No problem because I'm not watching them, so I give them to her and everything is business as usual. Then I get a call from her a bit later telling me that disc 5 is the same as disc 1. They're labelled properly, but the actual information on them is identical. Having no receipt, and being many months from the purchase date I was worried that I would not be able to get an exchange or satisfaction of any sort.

I had this problem before with my Ultimate Superman set, and Warners was nothing if not accomodating, so I hit the internet hoping to find a customer service line for MGM to contact. I discovered that this was a common problem, got a number and was raring to go. I still thought of calling the local London Drugs where I purchased the set just in case, possibly saving me some time and effort in getting the thing replaced.

Well, I just got off the phone with the salesman and he was aware of the problem and had no issues with me coming in and exchanging it there. Not too shabby.

I'll be heading over there later today and hopefully have the whole thing resolved quickly.

Later!

mike

The Comic Haul Redux

I never got to finish the previous Comic Haul and I've picked up even more comics since then, so I'm going to try and get some of those out of the way, review-wise.

The Umbrella Academy #4-6: I really enjoyed this series and was happy to finally catch up with the issues that I had missed. Gerard Way came out of nowhere and surprised everybody with how entertaining and just plain great the story was and Gabriel Ba's artwork is beyond compare. I don't think I would go so far as to call these characters the heroes of the 21st century as Grant Morrison does on the cover blurb, but they're certainly more interesting than most of the claptrap currently out there on the stands.

I'll also add a bit of a post script and say that since picking up this book I've also come to enjoy Way's band, My Chemical Romance. The main point in referring to that here is to emphasise that, although there are some definite stylistic similarities (a la the James Jean covers and the murky, theatrical, gothic vibe that it shares with The Black Parade), this comic book exists wholly outside of My Chemical Romance's rock'n'roll world. This is not some tie-in book like a KISS comic and, so far, there have been no coy references to ideas MCR presents in their music and vice versa. I think that is a definite strength of this series, especially in its first arc, and a well thought out choice on Way's part. I think I wouldn't mind it so much the second time around, but I'm not clamoring for it, either.

Anyway, check this book out.

Youngblood #1: One of the greatest things to happen to the Image super-hero universe was to have Alan Moore come down from on high to take over the writing chores on WildC.A.T.s and than to have that effort followed by the ever-capable Joe Casey. They brought something to the Imageverse that it hadn't really seen before in any long-term sort of capacity on one of its bigger books - a real writer. Both of these guys gave some street cred to these upstart third-generation X-Men clones and started a trend that continues to this day, sometimes successful, sometimes not-so-successful.

A little ironic then that Casey's previous work manages to overshadow his current debut on a new Youngblood series for upstart comic guy, Rob Liefeld. I picked this first issue up hoping to have something fresh and dynamic, political and fun, but there are just a lot of recycled ideas here, unfortunately. Some of them we've seen Casey implement before on other team books like the aforementioned Wildcats, others just seem overdone and clichéd, none moreso than the super-hero as celebrity set-up. Casey tries to give it some colour by adding the reality TV show into it, but that was just seen over in Civil War with the New Warriors and the team as a government-sponsored and created entity who exist to be more of a PR stunt than protectors of freedom was done over in The American Way a couple of years ago.

And that's just before dragging Peter Milligan's X-Force into the mix.

What can I say, I was disappointed. I think my feelings mirror those of the main character, Shaft, who seems equally unconvinced that this story and team are going anywhere. When he was playing in Jim Lee's sandbox, Casey gave us something we could chew on, but here we're just seeing more of the same old same old.

There's a very good chance I will not bother with issue 2.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #48-49: I don't know if I have anything more to say about this series other than I miss Pascual Ferry. Carey's writing stays sharp, the stories stay interesting and I'm willing to give Mark Brooks a chance before officially bitching and moaning for Ferry to return to the title instead of moonlighting over with Orson Scott Card on that ol' Iron Man book.

I have numbers 49 and 50 on the read pile so expect to see more UFF in future Comic Hauls.

Legion of Super-Heroes #37-39: The last time I bought a Legion #37 Giffen and the Bierbaums were writing it, Jason Pearson was drawing it and they blew up the Earth.

This is a little less grand but still more entertaining than I ever thought it could be, especially with Jim Shooter on writing chores.

So often the companies will bring back the old guard to try and revive that ol' '70s or '80s magic, and so often it fails miserably. Claremont's multiple returns to the X-Men, Wolfman's recent run on Teen Titans, and I'm sure if I hit a Google search I could drum up a few more. My point is, Shooter being back on Legion had disaster written all over it for me, but it's actually a pretty good read. It's very entry level, as far as Legion stories go, but I'm going to stick around and see where this all leads. The characters intrigue me, the art by Francis Manapul is nice to look at, and it does feel good to be picking up this book again after sooooo long a hiatus.

If you were ever a Legion fan, try an issue or two of this. You may not be disappointed.

The Spirit #11-12: I'm still trying to get a handle on this book. I love Darwyn to itty-bitty pieces, and think Will Eisner's Spirit stories are some of the best comics ever produced, so I'm confused as to why this series doesn't fire on all cylinders for me. I know it sounds ridiculous, but maybe I'm reading it wrong. Maybe I'm hanging on to Will tighter than I think I am which colours what Darwyn is trying to do.

I think after I get through 13 and 14 I'll have a better opinion, just because I'll see how someone else would have done it.

Still, each issue is a dream to look at, particularly those title pages.

Welp, that's it for tonight. More when I have time.

Later!

mike

Never Thought I'd See the Day

Despite being a popular film series, the Indiana Jones merchandising machine has never been on the same level as the Star Wars one. Indy collectables, comics, and toys just haven't had the same market penetration due either to lack of effort or interest by all parties involved.

But then I ran across this today:



Warms the heart it does. When you get Lego sets based on you, you've finally made it into the mass market. Add to this the Lego Indy game that's coming out, the revolutionary new Indy game from LucasArts, and the new comics from Dark Horse and you've got a movie/franchise that's finally getting its due and fans who, I'm sure, will be thrilled to have some merchandise to hunt down and legos to build.

Later!

mike