Darth Maul Prequel Novel Preview

Every month Del Rey Books release a very generous 50ish page preview of some of their upcoming releases. This time, if you’re a Star Wars or Transformers fan, then you’re in luck.

Star Wars: Maul: Lockdown is set before the events of Episode I: The Phantom Menace, in which Darth Maul still had his own legs. It’s written by Joe Schreiber who made a splash with his “zombie Stormtroopers” novel, Star Wars: Death Troopers. You can read a gripping excerpt right here, and if you like transforming ‘bots, then here’s a preview of Transformers: Retribution. Below are the covers and official descriptions for the novels, both of which go on sale on January 28.

Maul Lockdown

Set before the events of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, this new novel is a thrilling follow-up to Star Wars: Darth Plagueis.

It’s kill or be killed in the space penitentiary that houses the galaxy’s worst criminals, where convicts face off in gladiatorial combat while an underworld gambling empire reaps the profits of the illicit blood sport. But the newest contender in this savage arena, as demonic to behold as he is deadly to challenge, is fighting for more than just survival. His do-or-die mission, for the dark masters he serves, is to capture the ultimate weapon: an object that will enable the Sith to conquer the galaxy.

Sith lords Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious are determined to possess the prize. And one of the power-hungry duo has his own treacherous plans for it. But first, their fearsome apprentice must take on a bloodthirsty prison warden, a cannibal gang, cutthroat crime lord Jabba the Hutt, and an unspeakable alien horror. No one else could brave such a gauntlet of death and live. But no one else is the dreaded dark-side disciple known as Darth Maul.

Transformers Retribution

For decades, Transformers fans across the globe have marveled at the mighty clashes of Megatron and Optimus Prime, and speculated about their arrival on planet Earth. Now, in Transformers: Retribution, the prequel to the Transformersanimated series, the epic odyssey of these two great warriors is finally revealed as Autobots and Decepticons battle one another . . . and the most diabolic foe they’ve ever encountered.

Aboard the Ark, Optimus Prime leads his Autobots through deep space, searching for the AllSpark so vital to their home planet, Cybertron. Megatron’s not far behind, and his Decepticons are itching for war. But a mysterious planet conceals an enemy far more cunning and powerful: the Quintessons. Masters of tyranny, technology, and twisted double crosses, the Quintessons are out to enslave both Autobots and Decepticons. Their deadly bag of tricks includes fiendish trials and a secret link all the way back to Cybertron, where Shockwave is wreaking havoc with supercomputer Vector Sigma. In the coming conflagration, Star Seekers, Wreckers, Alpha Trion, and Sharkticons all have their parts to play. For none can dodge the Quintesson juggernaut of evil, and none will escape the cataclysmic life-and-death battles that will catapult Autobots and Decepticons to Earth.

S.H.I.E.L.D and Arrested Development Trailers

Agent Phil Coulson is back from the dead, in typical comic book fashion. He may have died in The Avengers, but now he’s headlining the new Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D TV series, with new recruits by his side. Yes, his resurrection will be explained and yes, the pilot was co-written and directed by Joss Whedon.

SHIELD TV poster

Seven years after going off the air, we’re getting another season of one of the funniest, most quotable series ever made – Arrested Development! Yay! The 3 seasons are very re-watchable and 15 new episodes will be available all at once on May 26 from Netflix.

Arrested Development Returns

The Walking Dead Magazine

THE WALKING DEAD, THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE LAUNCHES TOMORROW!

Hotly anticipated first issue of The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine hits newsstands and digital platforms.

Titan Magazines and Skybound’s premier issue of The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine, based on Robert Kirkman’s Eisner Award-winning comic book series, best-selling graphic novels and Emmy-winning AMC television series, hits newsstands and digital platforms on October 23.

This 100-page issue features an inside look at the TV show, comics and everything in-between: The Walking Dead creator/writer Robert Kirkman reveals what’s coming up next on the TV show, which broke basic cable records again with the season three premiere, and how the shocking events of issue #100 of The Walking Dead Comic will affect Rick and our favorite survivors; an exclusive interview with Danai Gurira, who plays the iconic character “Michonne”; an exclusive prologue to the new Walking Dead book, The Road to Woodbury, about the rise of Philip Blake aka The Governor written by Jay Bonansinga and Robert Kirkman; behind-the-scenes set visit report; executive producer/showrunner Glen Mazzara tells us why he’s so excited about season three; plus, all the latest news, revelations and tips for fans of the entire The Walking Dead universe.

The first issue debuted at this year’s New York Comic-Con with a special NYCC variant cover, and an additional nine variant covers are released tomorrow: a newsstand cover featuring “Michonne”; an alternative art cover by The Walking Dead comic artist, Charlie Adlard and colored by The Walking Dead comic colorist Cliff Rathburn; seven retail variant covers with stores Comickaze, Forbidden Planet, Midtown Comics, Redd Skull Comics, Ultimate Comics, Ultimate Treasures and Wade’s Comic Madness, each featuring art by Adlard and Rathburn.

Discussing what fans can expect from the magazine, Robert Kirkman, creator/writer of The Walking Dead, says, “We’ll be talking about what’s coming up on the TV show, we’ll fill you in on what to expect from the comic and you’ll hear from all the talented people who work on all the various Walking Dead projects. This magazine is going to rock!”

The magazine will also be available to read on the iPad, Nook and Kindle Fire starting tomorrow, giving Walking Dead fans an exciting alternative to the print edition and a high quality digital reading experience. Just search ‘The Walking Dead Magazine’ on your device’s newsstand or app store.

The magazine is currently offering fans an exclusive FREE The Walking Dead T-Shirt (not available in stores) with new print subscriptions. For more information on this subscription offer and other offers in your territory, visit the magazine website,www.TitanMagazines.com/WalkingDead. Readers can also join the magazine on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/WalkingDeadMag and Facebook at www.Facebook.com/WalkingDeadMagazine to keep up to date with news and special offers and www.Skybound.com, the source for all news on The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman and all Skybound titles.

The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine issue #1 will be available on newsstands and comic book stores in the U.S. on October 23, in the U.K. on November 8 and Australia & New Zealand on December 18. Digital editions will be available globally on the iPad, Nook and Kindle Fire from October 23.

Contact Details Of Stores With Variant Covers:

Comickaze Comics, San Diego, CA –www.comickazeonline.webs.com

Forbidden Planet, London, U.K. – www.forbiddenplanet.com

Midtown Comics, New York, NY – www.midtowncomics.com

Redd Skull Comics, Calgary, Canada – www.reddskull.com

Ultimate Comics, Durham, NC – www.ultimatecomics.com

Ultimate Treasures, 11240 Village Lane Clinton, MI 49236-9595

Wade’s Comic Madness, Levittown, PA – www.comicmadness.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lou Scheimer Book

From the fine folks at TwoMorrows publishing, who specialise in comics history, comes this look at one of the leading men of ’80s animated TV. Official lowdown below.

Lou Scheimer: Creating The Filmation Generation
Hailed as one of the fathers of Saturday morning television, Lou Scheimer was the co-founder of Filmation Studios, which for over 25 years provided animated excitement for TV and film. Always at the forefront, Scheimer’s company created the first DC cartoons with Superman, Batman, and Aquaman, ruled the song charts with The Archies, kept Trekkie hope alive with the Emmy-winning Star Trek: The Animated Series, taught morals with Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and swung into high adventure with Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, and Zorro.  Forays into live-action included Shazam! and The Secrets of Isis, plus ground-breaking special effects work on Jason of Star Command and others. And in the 1980s, Filmation single-handedly caused the syndication explosion with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and its successors. Now, with best-selling co-author Andy Mangels, Lou Scheimer tells the entire story, including how his father decked Adolf Hitler, memories of the comic books of the Golden Age, schooling with Andy Warhol, and what it meant to lead the last all-American animation company through nearly thirty years of innovation and fun! Profusely illustrated with photos, model sheets, storyboards, presentation art, looks at rare and unproduced series, and more — plus hundreds of tales about Filmation’s past, and rare Filmation-related art by Bruce Timm, Adam Hughes, Alex Ross, Phil Jimenez, Frank Cho, Gene Ha, and Mike McKone — this book shows the Filmation Generation the story behind the stories!
Order at your local comic book shop, or use the links below to get it directly from TwoMorrows at 15% off (and get the free Digital Edition)!288-page Trade Paperback with COLOR, $29.95
CLICK HERE
 to get 15% off the cover price (plus a free Digital Edition)
or the Digital Edition alone for only $9.95:

http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=662ISBN10: 1-60549-044-X
ISBN13: 978-1-60549-044-1
Diamond Comic Distributors Order Code: JUL121245

In anticipation of this book’s release, TwoMorrows Publishing is letting readers download a FREE PDF PREVIEW at this link:

http://www.twomorrows.com/media/ScheimerPreview.pdf

Lou Scheimer: Creating The Filmation Generation will be on sale Wednesday, November 7.
 

The Walking Dead Magazine

Could a Game of Thrones mag be next? Press release below, plus the cover, and an alternate cover by TWD artist Charlie Adlard that will only be available through comic shops.

The Walking Dead Magazine – Coming Soon!

Titan Magazines and Skybound are pleased to announce the launch of The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine, based on Robert Kirkman’s Eisner Award-winning comic book series, best-selling graphic novels and Emmy-winning AMC television series based upon them.

Following its transition from groundbreaking comic book to the highest-rated basic cable drama of all time, The Walking Dead has cemented its status, not only as a phenomenon with the wildly diverging fans of horror and of character-driven drama, but as a milestone in quality, mainstream television.

Robert Kirkman, creator/writer of The Walking Dead, debuted the groundbreaking Skybound/Image comic in 2003. In 2010, AMC debuted the hit television series, The Walking Dead, based upon the comic series. The television series became the highest-rated original basic cable drama of all time and an international success in 120 countries and 250 million homes, and counting. In 2011, The Walking Dead graphic novels were the best-selling graphic novels of the year. Now, in 2012, Titan Publishing/Skybound and AMC bring you The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine to answer the burning questions insatiable zombie-loving fans have about the Emmy-winning television show, comics and graphic novels.

The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine will feature an inside look at the comic and show as only a fully sanctioned quarterly can. No one will get more exclusives than this magazine. Get exclusive access to the most successful television adaptation of a comic ever, including in-depth interviews Kirkman, Executive Producer/Writer on the show; Glen Mazzara, Showrunner/ Executive Producer/Writer of the series and David Alpert, Executive Producer of the series. That’s not all, readers will hear from all of the leads on the hit TV show beginning with Andrew Lincoln, who stars as Rick Grimes; Sarah Wayne Callies, who stars as Lori Grimes, and Jon Bernthal, who played fan-favorite bad boy Shane.

To get behind-the-scenes on the set with co-Executive Producer Greg Nicotero and see how he creates the greatest on-screen zombies ever, fans should read The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine. The only way into the closed door writers’ room to learn about the scripting process lies within the magazine’s pages. Fans will also get the opportunity toask Kirkman what’s coming up in future issues of The Walking Dead, or find out how the series artist Charlie Adlard keeps up with the fast pace of the monthly comic so brilliantly.

The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine debuts on October 23 with 100 pages of all access, no holds barred zombie festing and feasting. With all the latest news, revelations and tips for fans of the television show and the graphic novels. Get it, read it or be the last to know all the exclusive scoops for every incarnation of The Walking Dead.

Issue #1 of The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine comes with an alternative cover featuring an exclusive, colored zombie scene by The Walking Dead comic artist, Charlie Adlard. This alternative collector’s edition is only available through comic stores. Retailers can order via August Diamond PREVIEWS.

Robert Kirkman commented, “This magazine will be your one stop destination for all the news

pertaining to the comic, TV show, video game, toys, games, and whatever else exists in the ever-expanding Walking Dead universe!  If it’s happening, you’ll find out all about it right here!”

Nick Landau, Titan Publisher, added: “We’re very excited to be publishing the quarterly The Walking Dead Magazine with Robert Kirkman and Skybound, which will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for fans to get unlimited access to the show and comic.”

Fans of the show are urged to join The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with exclusive developments and deals. The magazine is currently offering fans a special pre-order subscription saving 20% off the newsstand cover price! – click here.

The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine issue #1 will be available on newsstands and in specialty comic book stores in the US on October 23, in the UK on November 8 and Australia & New Zealand on December 18.

For more information on The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine visit:

http://titanmagazines.com/t/the-walking-dead/

Rachel Rising in The Walking Dead #95

Well, this is very nice of Robert Kirkman. The successful writer behind The Walking Dead comic, and the inspiration for the hit TV series, is showing an excerpt of Rachel Rising, the undead mystery comic from Terry Moore, in this month’s ish of The Walking Dead. Nice one, Kirkman. He did the same a while ago by running a preview of Chew, and that went on to great success. Good on Image for showing this excerpt too, considering Rachel Rising isn’t even a comic published by them. I’ve read its first issue and was pretty impressed so may just have to pick up the TPB when it goes on sale at the end of this month.

Oh, and if, like me, you’ve missed The Walking Dead TV series, you’ll be happy to know that the DVD and Blu-Ray collection of the first season is now on Aussie shores.

THE RISING DEAD
Rachel Rising excerpt to appear in THE WALKING DEAD #95

THE WALKING DEAD #95, in stores on March 28, will have a five-page preview of Terry Moore’s horror comic Rachel Rising, published by Moore’s own Abstract Studio. The trade paperback collecting the first six issues of the ongoing series by the Strangers in Paradise creator, Rachel Rising: The Shadow of Death, will be in comic book stores the same day.

Rachel Rising tells the story of a young woman who cannot die. She wakes up at the foot of her own shallow grave, looking at her own freshly-murdered corpse. The events of her last night are hazy, and Rachel must piece together the events that led to her death — so that she can take revenge on the right person. Comic Book Resources described Rachel Rising as being “chock full of decadent mystery, unspeakable horror, strong characters, and beautiful black and white artwork, and it’s on its way to becoming the best of Terry Moore’s already impressive work.”

THE WALKING DEAD creator Robert Kirkman decided to include the preview in the latest issue of the Image Comics bestseller to support Moore’s work.

“Terry is a personal hero of mine dating back to my self-publishing days,” he writes in his introduction to the preview. “I’ve always been a fan of his work and an admirer of everything he’s been able to accomplish independently.”

THE WALKING DEAD #95 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Cliff Rathburn continues the series’ “A Larger World” storyline. Rachel Rising: The Shadow of Death (ISBN 978-1-89259-751-9) is a 120-page black-and-white trade paperback.

Woodley and Danger 5

I rarely watch TV these days. Well, I do watch Top Gear, Mythbusters and sometimes The Big Bang Theory and Whose Line Is It Anyway? but most of my TV watching is done on DVD now, such as The Office, 30 Rock and Community.

However two new shows on Australian screens caught my eye.

Woodley is an 8 part series that debuted on ABC this week. Frank Woodley plays an accident prone man attempting to bond with his daughter, and reconnect with his ex-wife. I was disappointed by the first episode, which you can watch here. Largely silent, and filled with Mr Bean like antics, it had some good moments, but nothing like what I experienced while watching Woodley’s previous sit-com, the hilarious The Adventures of Lano and Woodley. It starred Colin Lane along with Woodley and ran for two seasons from 1997-1999, as two housemates who always got fired, and was filled with superb moments of physical comedy. If you can grab it on DVD, do so. It never fails to crack me up. Here are just two clips from different episodes, but just check any of their videos out on YouTube.

 

 

If you remember the spoof Italian Spiderman web series from a few years ago, you’ll be happy to know that the Aussie duo behind it have a new project, which is also a parody and looks just as madcap. Danger 5 is well, check out the trailer below. It begins on Monday Feb 27 at 9:30 pm on SBS here in Australia.

 

Spidey and Star Wars on TV plus Supes on Console

Similar to Cartoon Network’s upcoming DC Nation block of programming is Marvel’s version, led by the long in the works Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. It launches on April Fool’s Day (yes, true) and is called Marvel Universe. It will feature not only Spidey, but also the return of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes cartoon and some other animated and live action bits and pieces.

Talking about overdue TV series, the Star Wars live action show at least has a name – Underworld. Producer Rick McCallum says that there have been 50 scripts completed so far, and that the show will focus on the seedy underbelly of the Star Wars Universe. I’m keen to see this, so I hope that despite the budgetary issues it gets made.

Superman, unlike Batman, hasn’t had a good video game in a long time. Here’s some great concept art from  a 2008 Supes game that never came to be unfortunately. It would’ve featured Darkseid, Kalibak and more and was code named Blue Steel, just like the Jamie Lee Curtis film, or Zoolander’s facial expression!

A game that has been made though is this new one called Marvel: Avengers Alliance which will launch on Facebook sometime this year. Just before the film, I’d imagine.

Buffy in a Nutshell

Not that any nut product could contain the best vampire slayer since Blade of course. Following this link from writer Tom Taylor’s Facebook page about his excellent The Deep OGN (get it for a young’n, or old’n, for Christmas!) I happened upon this great summary of the awesomeness that was, and is, Joss Whedon’s Buffy TV series. I caught up to Buffy, and soon after Angel, a bit late in my Uni days but I’m so glad I did. It’s one of the best shows ever to grace our TV screens.

Oh and for an added bonus, check out this well edited clip of Buffy vs a stalking Edward Cullen from Twilight.