A couple of months ago I told you all about Joss Whedon’s during the strike created web show called Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Well, now it’s almost about to be launched!

Dr Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) is a super villain, just not that good a one. His arch nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) keeps beating him up and he’s too shy to talk to the cute girl from the laundromat (Felicia Day). It’s a comedy and it’s a musical, so it’s going to be silly, funny and oh so sing-alongable.

I loved Buffy’s musical episode Once More With Feeling (I’m not ashamed to admit I know all the lyrics of those songs), so I have high hopes for Dr Horrible. The casting of Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion to me is just a great added bonus. Even if they weren’t in it I would have adored this, but with both of them it just makes it a bit more special. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, check it out:

Teaser from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo

The idea is to have three acts (episodes) of about 15 minutes debut online on DrHorrible.com in the next couple of days. Act 1 will be launched tomorrow (Tuesday July 15th), Act 2 on Thursday (July 17th) and Act 3 on Saturday (July 19th). All three acts will be available for free online till Sunday midnight (July 20th). After that they’ll be downloadable for a small fee and eventually also released on DVD.

There’s also a mini comic book story that serves as a preview called Captain Hammer: Be Like Me!. It’s not that important to the story, but it’s a great little extra marketing. I so hope this whole setup is going to work, but if there’s one guy out there who can make it happen it’s Joss Whedon. 

So don’t forgot! Tomorrow is the first installment of Dr Horrible. Will you come along to see evil take over the world?

Because of a conversation this afternoon with londonfilmgeek on Twitter, I was reminded of the brilliance that is Labyrinth. This was one of my favourite films as a kid and it still remains one of my “rainy day” or “I’m sick and want chicken soup” movies. Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) is one of the first movie heroines I could identify myself with (it helped that I had a younger brother named Toby too) and the movie never fails to lift my spirits. And I love the Escher inspired hallways:

So you’d think with a blog post title named ‘Return to Labyrinth’ I’d be reminiscing about the movie, going on about how much I loved it and adored it. Well, not exactly. You see, while browsing this afternoon for all things Labyrinth, I stumbled on… Return to Labyrinth. It’s an original English-language (OEL) manga based on Labyrinth. Set 13 years after the events of the movie, it centers around Toby, now a teenager, who Jareth the Goblin King still wants as the heir to his throne. The manga is supposed to be a four part series with the first two parts released in August 2006 and October 2007.

Why have I never heard of this? The first volume came out back in 2006. 2006! That’s almost 2 years ago! So why does nobody I know know about it (I’ve got some big Labyrinth fans friends)? Bad marketing or just a very bad story? I’m hoping it will be a great and worthy sequel, but if it isn’t we can always pretend it never existed (yes, Wachowski brothers, I am looking at you).

To make it better though, there’s also an online version, so you can start reading right away. I haven’t tried it out yet, so I’m not 100% sure that all of it is available, but from what I can tell it seems to be the whole thing. Three chapters are available; it’s about 60 pages from the 208. So far I’m really enjoying it and will order paperback. If you want the dead-tree version, you can get it at the TokyoPop store or Amazon.

After seeing Iron Man and the special tidbit after the end-credits, I decided to finally try and delve into the world of the comic book geek. One of the comics I picked up was The Ultimates: Volume 1 Super-Human, a re-imagining of the Marvel’s superhero team the Avengers. Why this comic? Because the Avengers movies coming out in 2010 and 2011 is rumoured to be based on it and for once I wanted to read the comic before seeing the movie.

Since the announcement of these two movies a couple weeks ago, the rumours and fan speculations on the casting have began to increase. First, we heard Matthew McConaughey was in the running for Captain America. Then that Marvel wants Brad Pitt as Thor. The Empire Blog even has a list of potential Captain America candidates. On fan sites, the theories range from Paul Walker as Captain America and Maggie Q as Wasp to Dominic Purcell as Thor. The casting of this movie has got the geek crowd reeling and it’s fun watching everybody come up with their own ideas on who should play the parts.

The casting of three characters are set already: Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Edward Norton as Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. They haven’t actually confirmed yet that they will be in those movies, but I’m being the optimist here and believing they won’t pull out of it. By the way, I love that the artists used Sam Jac’s likeness in the comic (mind you, before the movie came out) and it’s perfect he agreed to playing the movie character.

What nobody so far has mentioned though is that the characters in “The Ultimates” actually have a discussion about who should play them if there’s ever a movie! Here’s the dialogue:

Nick Fury: Hey, did you hear you’ve been optioned as a movie? Betty Ross was telling me they’re already in discussions with Brad Pitt about a three picture deal to play Captain America.

Captain America (Steve Rogers): Who’s Brad Pitt?

Giant-Man (Henry Pym): What, are you serious? My God. This might not be such a disaster after all, huh? Who do you think they could get to play you, Nick?

Nick Fury: Why, Mister Samuel L. Jackson, of course. That’s not even open to debate, Doctor Pym. And I’ll tell you the one guy who could do a convincing Tony Stark — From Hell’s Johnny Depp.

Wasp (Janet Pym): What? Depp’s too much of a pretty-boy. Stark’s a crazy kind of Howard Hughes character. I’d rather see someone with more of an eccentric range.

Nick Fury: Don’t underestimate Depp, Mrs. Pym. A lot of people tag him with that pretty-boy label, but he’s actually one of the most accomplished actors in Hollywood at the moment. Picture him doing Ed Wood in an Iron Man suit and you’ve got Tony Stark up there in celluloid, baby.

Giant-Man (Henry Pym): Yeah, I could see that. You know, you’ve actually got a real knack for this casting thing, Nick. Who do you think they could get to play me?

Nick Fury: Oh, that’s easy. Lantern-jawed Matthew McConoughey, of course.

Wasp (Janet Pym): What about me?

Nick Fury: Heck, who else but Miss Lucy Liu?

Wasp (Janet Pym): Oh, naturally. Even though she looks absolutely nothing like me, she’d be great because all Asian people are basically identical, right? Who’d be your back-up choice, General? Bruce Lee?

Captain America (Steve Rogers): Who’s Bruce Lee?

The characters then go on to make fun of Bruce Banner (the Hulk), claiming he could be played by “Woody Allen”, “the creepy, little kid from the Sixth Sense”, “Stuart Little” and “Steve Buscemi”. While I don’t think any of this casting will actually come to pass (besides the Samuel L. Jackson one of course), it’s still interesting to see this piece of dialogue.

Now a question for you, dear readers: who would you cast for these movies?

As a continuation on my previous post, I have a confession to make: I’m a comic book newbie. Rookie. Beginner. Call it what you want (not virgin though, cause I have read some comic books), but I’m really just starting out with comic books here. Or should I call them graphic novels? This is one geek lingo I’ve never taken the time to learn and I want to change that.

I do know my superhero lore, but most of that comes from watching the cartoons as a kid and procrastinating reading up on Wikipedia. I’ve only recently (=3 years ago) “gotten into” comic books, but most of the stuff I’m reading is movie or TV related. On the one side those are the comics based on movie/TV shows; I’ve got the Heroes, Buffy and Serenity ones and want still want to get the Battlestar Galactica spin-offs. On the other side, I’m also reading the comics which are getting movie adaptations, like V For Vendetta and Sin City.

Truth though is I don’t want to read comics purely because of some movie. I want to read comics, because of the great stories being told. Now here’s where I need your help: Where the heck do I start?!? Take Batman and X-Men, for instance, I have no freaking idea which line I’m supposed to pick up. And then there are of course a million and one comics I most probably never have even heard of, which deserve to be read too. The pool of choices is just so large and I need some people to point out the best starting points. Faithful readers, help me please?

I just found out that tomorrow today (I haven’t gone to bed yet, so for me it’s still “tomorrow”) on Saturday May 3rd is Free Comic Book Day. As the name indicates, it’s a day when participating comic books stores give away comics to anyone who comes to their stores. It depends on the store and their policy how many free comics you’re allowed to receive, but every visitor will receive at least one absolutely free comic book.

Free Comic Book Day is an annual event, held on the first Saturday of May. It started 7 years ago as a promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to help attract new readers to independent comic books stores. Typically major comic book book publishers will produce special edition comics aimed to attract non-comic book readers. For instance, past special editions included titles from Archie, Disney and Battlestar Galactica.

This year’s FCBD has 41 titles to giveaway for free, as well as 2 miniature Star Wars and Iron Man figures (again it does depend on the store). If you want to see the full list of comics offered, check out the FCBD site. There are a couple of interesting looking comics, a number of which I could easily see non-comic book readers pick up*.

So people: check if your local comic book store is participating and if so, head on down to it and get your free comic books!

*Disclaimer: I am not a real comic book reader… yet. See my next post.

Until about a year ago, I didn’t really have a daily morning ritual. I wasn’t so addicted to my computer that I had to check it the moment I woke up. At the time I didn’t even follow any blogs or other news sources. Since I got a laptop though that kind of changed. My laptop is with hand’s reach of my bed and every morning I sit at least half an hour in bed, slowly waking up and reading all the items in my news reader. Among those items are a great collection of geeky web comics. I’ll share with you a couple of my favourites.

xkcd

Every geek should read xkcd; it’s a weird mix of humor, math, romance and language.

Geek and Poke

Cute comic with some great humor on blogging, Twitter and other “social media”.

Applegeeks

Surprisingly it’s not always Apple related.

Sinfest

I mainly like the cat and dog comics here. The rest can be funny at times, but the cat and dog are always hilarious.

Real Life Comics

Funny comic about a geeky couple, Greg and Liz.

PHD Comics

While I’m not doing a PHD, I am still trying to finish my master’s and this comic sometimes captures exactly how I’m feeling.