Mortal Kombat With a Friend in Vietnam

Marvel debuted their new online comics venture, Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, last week to much discussion and consternation. Have you checked it out? I played around with it myself, and found about a million things I despise about the interface, but overall was generally surprised by its breadth of content and affordability. Sadly, they won't be getting my sign-up moolah as I can't stand reading comics on a computer screen for an extended period of time, and I have a healthy obsession with books. More on this in a moment.

I was watching Charlie Rose last night (quiet you! I love Charlie Rose. I wouldn't marry him or anything, but his show is a shining beacon of hope in the cultural wasteland that is Televisionland) and his guest was Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon.com, Newsweek cover boy, pimping his company's new product, Kindle. It's basically an iPod for books; it's about the size and heft of a trade paperback novel and features a current library of 120,000 titles is available for wireless download in under sixty seconds, $10 each regardless of the physical book's cover price. Kindle looks like the biological baby of a Star Trek datapad and an Etch-a-Sketch Animator (remember that thing? Jeez I loved that toy!). It'll store 200 books at a time, and any that you delete are stored on the website's server for future reference. All in all it's kinda nifty. (*Please note: I have no idea the details of Kindle's legal ramifications, nor creator's rights and royalties issues. It appears that Amazon has shored up agreements with most major publishers, but you never know what those pesky writers will do to get paid for the digital reproduction of their work -- see: WGA strike. BTW -- Power, brothers and sisters!).

All this is prologue to the following: This is by no means the death of The Book, nor are these the digital John the Baptist of the great paradigm shift in how we read and enjoy the written word. Not to be presumptuous or overly inclusive, but if you're like me, we love BOOKS, the physical books. The smell of them. The lending to your friends. The joy of giving your favorite as a gift. Owning a 1st Edition of your favorite. When were you last inclined to pay ten bucks for the e-Book edition of a cheap mass market SF novel? With regards to a book's design -- When was the last time you looked at an e-Book brilliantly designed by Chip Kidd or Catherine Casalino? Never, because it ain't gonna happen. When was the last time you wished they'd get the single issues finished so you can wait for the online trade? Never because, frankly, why bother?

We're Forbidden Planet, and we realize you want your BOOKS. And we gots lots of 'em!!! And they smell terrific!

X-Men: God Loves Man Kills Premiere HC - Fancy schmanzy reprint of seminal X-story by Chris Claremont (w) & Brent Anderson (a). One of the best, if not THE BEST, X-Men stories of all time. I carried this book around with me everywhere I went for a year when I was twelve, This book is hardcore. From the opening scene of Magneto discovering the bodies of two executed mutant children, throughout the rest of this gripping yarn, GLMK never feels like a dopey super-hero book. Never treats you like a short bus reject. It also features my favorite X-Team -- Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, Wolverine and Professor X. It also takes place outside the realm of the soap opera of X-Men continuity. Thusly, GLMK is the least convoluted, most accessible X graphic novel. If you've never read a Marvel mutant book, this is the one to start with. I'll be picking mine up this week -- I need it in sexy hardcover/book form!

This Week's Hugo Award Winning SF Novel?

Dune - by Frank Herbert. The dreaded winter looms (We hates the nasty cold! We does, my precious... we hates it!) so let's read Dune in an attempt to psychosomatically warm ourselves up, huh? The great SF adventure epic for the ages, Dune follows the saga of the desert planet called Arrakis, unassuming power center of a sprawling galactic Empire, and sole source of Melange, the Spice that powers interstellar travel and source of great psychic power. Indigenous religious fanatics, Sandworms that'd dwarf Union Square, weapons powered by a single sound, "I, Claudius"-type political intrigue, more back-stabbing and deception than a novella on Telemundo... Dune's sheer scope is astounding and exhilarating. Dune makes Star Wars look like a quaint movie for a dreary afternoon -- a real yawnfest, Daddy-o! If you've never read Dune it's time for you to take the plunge into the big kids' end of the plasma pool. If, like me, you're old hat at this: The Spice Must Flow.

"Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."
-Mark Twain

Be Well,
JEFF

The Future: Far More Futuristic Than Originally Expected

The only cool thing about writing the Weekly Planet later than most everybody else this issue is that most of the grunt work's already been done for me on this week's libro numero uno -- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier -- as Unkie Dev's article stresses the paramount importance and unmitigated awesomeness of Messrs. Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's new work rather nicely. Which frees me to review the following graphic novel I want you kids to read...

Shooting War
by Anthony Lappe & Dan Goldman

"I'll tell you 1 and 1 makes 3."
-Living Colour

It's 2011 and John McCain is president, America still writhes in an impossible quagmire in the Middle East, Dan Rather and Bill O'Reilly are kickin', gas is fifteen bucks a gallon, and terrorist cells are going at it a la The Invisbles by infiltrating the system from the inside (the popular video game of the moment is Infidel Massacre, secretly developed by the super tech savvy Abu Abdallah -- Big Mac chomping leader of The Sword of Mohammed). Jimmy Burns, small-time activist and hipster, witnesses and inadvertently video blogs the terrorist bombing of a Starbucks in Williamsburg. Global News Network pirates the footage, airing it and instantly propelling Jimmy to celebrity "journalist." On assignment embedded in Iraq's civil war, Jimmy finds himself in the midst of chaos and destruction, faking his way through the muck that we're currently helping create.

Were I a Hollywood jamook I'd pitchline Shooting War as Max Headroom meets DMZ.

Writer Anthony Lappe, unlike the majority of the punditocracy, has actualy been to Iraq, executive editing the Guerilla News Network's website and producing an award-winning documentary on the embattled nation called Battleground: 21 Days on the Empire's Edge. So he's got street cred in spades. Storytelling-wise -- his pacing, dialogue, and media savvy excel. Shooting War is damn harrowing, man. Dan Goldman's art, a technique combining photography, vector illustration, and digital painting is fluid and lucid. Unlike last week's pretty and gussied up Silver Surfer release, the reader can always tell what's going on and the story is only complimented more so by it's art. Congratulations, Dan. You're the only comicker I've ever to pull this style off WELL!

Shooting War was originally serialized online at ACT-I-VATE, but we should all rejoice this hip, relevant and important comic work is now available in a beautiful hardcover. It's accessible by the masses/mundanes and readily available for those of us book fetishists; just check out Dan's provocative cover!

The best compliment I got reading Shooting War on the train to work this morning was the lady next to me sucking her teeth and muttering under her breath why she had to be subjected to such filth. Guess my morning reading wasn't laced with enough pics of Brangelina for her. Good.

- Also of note: Southland Tales, Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly's long-awaited and much-ordealed second film hits theaters nationwide this week. And while many of you will flock to Beowulf (why must every genre film look exactly like Lord of the Rings mixed with a cauldron of 300-style violence? And, yes, I am very familiar with the Anglo-Saxon poem and its influence on Mr. Tolkien -- I'm just sick of Hollywood's exploitation of fantasy classics, and quite frankly need not see some uber-dude actor viciously behead the baddies while gnashing his teeth in front of a green screen for some time to come... ever again, really), I'll be checking out the former. Hope to see ya there. Oh, but make sure you've read Richard's prequel graphic novel first! It features the fantastic talents of artist Brett Wedele (I've gone so far as to have bought an original page from him for someone special to me!) and is sure to enhance the experience.

"How can you tell a network executive is lying? His lips move!"
-Max Headroom

Luv-luv-luv Love Ya,
JEFF

Mahna Mahna

There used to be this really boss and fun radio show on WFMU that we'd listen to in the store on Saturday mornings called "Greasy Kid Stuff". They'd occasionally play this song leading in to the DJs that'd maddeningly jingle over and over, "We could be heroes, dah dah dah du-duh dah..." I have know idea any of the other words or who did it, but the derned thing tattoos itself on my nimble, yet susceptible mind about once a week this fall, with no end in sight as the following book hits FP's shelves 11/7/07:

Heroes HC - When this TV show first aired last season I gave it a three episode trial, after which I held it in such low esteem that snorting wasabi was preferable. Customers would ask what I thought about it, affording me a chance to use the tried and true Han Solo quip, "I'm trying not to, kid."

Then I found myself at Shea with my friend MDO one night, idly chit-chatting as Johan Santana made the Mets look like tee-ball rejects. Now this guy and I have many things in common and I usually respect his opinions (except when it comes to his creepy Harry Potter obssession), so when announced his unreserved and unexpected fandom of the show he convinced me to give this thing another chance when it was DVD-ified. And I have. And I really dig it -- even if it is the world's corniest super-hero comic on screen. I know I wrote a few weeks ago about not wasting time for serials to "get good," but some things deserve a second, third, or fourth chance. Nobody ever got anywhere without taking a chance.

Now DC Wildstorm presents us with a comic of television's comic booky. Collecting the online comics based on the show, this volume -- featuring two covers by comics giants Jim Lee and Alex Ross -- also includes an introduction by Masi Oka (Hiro -- this guy's terrific), all 34 chapters of Season One, and Tim Sale's artwork as seen on the show. The comics included have been written and illustrated by some of comics' and television's top writers and artists, including Michael Turner, Phil Jimenez, and more! Now, I know I can happily listen to "Greasy Kid stuff online at www.wfmu.org, but I ain't got a lot of me time coming up, so if anybody knows or gathers details of the song I refer to up top, contact me so that I might seek it out and further my dementia, will ya? I've got a terrific no-prize to give out!

Acme Novelty Library Vol 18.5 PX Portfolio - Attn. Chris Ware acolytes: You ain't gonna find this book just anywhere, and it ain't gonna be available for long. Act accordingly. This print portfolio contains all four "Thanksgiving" covers drawn by the cartoonist for the November 27th, 2006 issue of The New Yorker, as well as an additional fifth comic strip previously available only in digital form.

Dark Tower Gunslinger Born Premiere HC - collecting Marvel's seven issue series of the year, this is essential for you milions and millions of Stephen King fans.

And in case you won a buncha dough with a scratch-off ticket, or just worked hard for it, or were born into it, here are three more high end books of note from last week that I highly recommend:

Storeyville - by Frank Santoro.

New Engineering - by Yuichi Yokoyama.

Mw - by Osamu Tezuka.

Mahna mahna-ma nana nee nee yee-dee-dee!

JEFFY

PBF & the JMan

My Stars. Thank the universe for small miracles. I'm up to my eyeballs in the fabulous Previews catalog, the book we order much of our wares from and due tomorrow night, as of this writing. (BTW, when I use the term "fabulous" I mean the exact opposite of its definition, usually through gnashed teeth -- if something's fabulous, it bites Beelzebub boobs) I was gonna take a hostage a second ago, kvetching to the office walls that I also had to write a Weekly Planet on top of swimming through the muck of this 526-page bundle of inane solicitations and ca-ca. But crisis was averted when I perused the list of items hitting our shelves this week! OMG! I've been waiting to write this column for months now! Been eagerly awaiting this one book for years now!The first collection of Nick Gurewitch's Perry Bible Fellowship releases Wednesday, making this your lucky day, kids. Better buy a lottery ticket. Let's delve deeper, shall we? (And I ask your forgiveness in advance for all the superlatives I'm about to use.)

PBF: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto HC - Dark Horse Comics finally presents this collection of Gurewitch's comic strips, which appear online and grace the pages of newspapers and magazines the world over. PBF is my favorite comic strip going these days. It's my opinion that Nick Gurewitch is the greatest young strip artist to break out since Bill Watterson. Possessed of a singular, and disturbingly jagged wit, his strips will make ya laugh to be sure. But, PBF excels when it examines our human frailties, our foibles, insecurities, and our world, skewing them slightly... and then you get eaten by a dinosaur. Enough telling -- let me show you what I'm talkin' about. Here's a reprint of my most favoritest strip of the 21st Century (don't sue, Gurewitch), Punch Bout:

I think that sums it up nicely. Buy the book. Check out his website www.pbfcomics.com. Enjoy.

Also recommended and releasing this week:

Special Forces - Kyle Baker (Why I Hate Saturn, Nat Turner) presents the tale of an army whose recruitment quotas, lagging during the President's troop escalation, calls for a few good men. Whadda they get instead? Follow a small-town autistic teen from his recruitment, through basic training, and then off to war in Iraq. With violent felons, mental patients, a violent mental hot chick and at least one "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", his unit is composed of the military's last line of defense. The very last line, and this is NOT a true story!

Biff Bam Pow #1 - by Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer. More titans of comic-dom releasing books this week, this time Evan (Dork, Milk & Cheese) and his lovely partner in crime Sarah bring you superheroes, monsters, monkeys, and the neverending battle between the good, the bad, and the stupid. A steal at three bucks.

Moomin the Complete Tove Jannson Bk. 2 - The Moomins are a family of Scandinavian trolls that resemble hairless hippos. If you're still reading this, your mind is open enough to trust me that these books are magical, and should be cherished by anyone with an imagination.

This week's Hugo Award Winning Novel?

Downbelow Station (1984) - By C.J. Cherryh. - Grandiose space opera at its finest, as war rages between Earth and her Colonies in the year 2352. It also stars a character with the same last name as me! Segust Ayres... Well, it's pronounced the same, smarty-pants!

One More Time!

Orphanage Misfortune

Be Well,
JEFF

Date From Hell

A quick announcement:

Fantasy artist extraordinaire Wayne Barlowe has just been confirmed as our esteemed guest at this year's Big Apple Comic-Con National Show! Mr. Barlowe will be signing to promote his just-released first novel, God's Demons, which is highly recommended and in stock now. Inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost, the book tells the story of the demon Sargatanas, exiled from Heaven eons ago. His dream of returning leads him to amass an army of human damned and demons to aid him in overthrowing Lucifer's regent, Beelzebub, in an attempt to catch God's eye and achieve redemption.

If you're familiar with Mr. Barlowe's art (and if not you oughta get familiar; it's phenomenal) you'll know that demons and Hell are his forte, especially so in the masterful Barlowe's Inferno (a graphic adaptation of the Dante classic). Hence, if that stuff's your thing, I think you should check Wayne's book out. Then I think we need to get the two of you together. How about at a comic book convention in NYC on a Saturday? Saaaay... November 17th? I'm thinking 2ish? Cool? Then it's a date. He'll bring the Roylance Guide and you'll eat and read.

Jellyfist - by Jhonen Vasquez & Jenny Goldberg. First, here's the publisher's solicitation:

"Barely conscious and muttering to himself, Jhonen Vasquez grabbed a fishbone and scrawled on the side of a cat a series of surrealist scripts never meant to be read by anyone. Two thousand miles away, J. Goldberg hears these very scripts whispered to her in her sleep by her pet ferret, devoid of any real direction beyond the dialog. Goldberg awakens to find that she has illustrated these scenes. In Jellyfist, two artists battle with interpretation - however absurd the intent or outcome - with running commentary from the creators on just how wrong or right it's all gone. The first book published as a result of ferret-aided, carved-kitten-transmitted telepathy, Jellyfist's collection of highly important nonsense just might change your opinion of almost all known things. This full-color comic will have production values and bindings far beyond what the content would dictate."

Having witnessed firsthand how Jhonen Vasquez' work (beginning with nigh on hundreds of printings of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Squee, Filler Bunny, and his TV show Invader Zim) gains a new and ever vast audience year after year, project after project, I can say with impunity that: Wow. Wow. Like "acceptable losses" in a war, there seems to be a never-draining pool of replacement army of Vasquez fans. Now while these new ranks are always aged around, say sixteen to eighteen and of a certain darkish demeanor and sarcastic humor, they are drawn to it in loving droves. To say that Orson Welles was a hungry guy would be an understatement.

To say Vasquez fans dig his comics is the ultimate understatement. And that's just swell. That's terrific. The guy's produced but a handful of comics in the last fifteen years or so, and yet there's still an audience for it. Moreover there's a perpetually burgeoning audience for the work. And while there's something to be said for the Bart Simpson quote, "Making teenagers depressed is like shooting fish in a barrel," there're a few irrefutable truths here. Kids buy comics, dammit: even though the publisher has no dough to spend on mass market advertising, their customers come to the material through generational word of mouth -- one older brother or sister's old comics become the younger's new hotness, or the hip kids who were juniors or seniors devoured this and yesterday's frosh mimic in turn. Pass on your passion, in this case COMICS, and you can affect the universe. And, if you're the author, find your artistic voice and rock it.

X-Men #204 - Wow. Gambit and Rogue snogging on the cover of an X-Men comic. In 2007. The more things change the more they stay the same, huh? I smell a Xavier Institute mutie baseball game coming soon. Sweet Jesus, where's my New X-Men Omnibus when I need it?

This week's Hugo Award Winning Novel?

The Gods Themselves - by Isaac Asimov. Need an abundant and efficient energy source in the year 2100? The invention of the Inter-Universe Electron Pump, derived from alien technologies from a parallel world, is the answer to all your energy woes, Humanity. Only problem is it affects the rate of hydrogen fusion in the sun, leading, inevitably, to the possibilty of an Earth-engulfing supernova. Kinda puts a cramp on your poker night. Energy's kinda like playing Black in Magic the gathering, folks. It's all about attrition.

P: She says she's the Gatekeeper, does that make any sense to you?
E: Some. I've just met the Keymaster. He's here with me now.
P: Oh, wonderful, we have to get these two together.

Have a Great Week,
Jeff

Time & Attention

Our sheer existence, our mere experience, is, at its best boys and girls, precarious to say the the least, scatalogical by nature, and limited to a fault. There's so little time and so very much to breathe. I find that often when writing for this newsletter, while I'm very proud of the corner I've carved out for myself on this plane, I rue that which my time and attention limit me from experiencing. I, like Mr. Steve Martin before me, wish to be the All-Being, master of time, space and dimension (and if that comes off as super-villainy: sue me, I'll be your Huckleberry). I, too, wish to be omni-prescient, omnipotent, obsequious, kind, and omnivorous. And in many ways the J-MAN is. But, in rare moments of clarity and self-effacing despondence I'm man enough to realize I ain't. You can't be everywhere at once, and cool gigs can slip through the cracks. There's only so much geekdom one can ingest before one's chest bursts, a la John Hurt.

This was never more recently apparent than when viewing this past weekend's SPX correspondence. (SPX, for those of you not in the know, stands for Small Press Expo, and is THE east coast event for such comickers.) Having to help hold down the fort in NYC, plus having personal plans, meant not being able to attend the show, not even for business, while boatloads of friends and co-workers got to make the trek down to Maryland. I spent much of this past Sunday night and Monday PM catching up with friends and bloggers about what I missed, and, not to diminish the good times this weekend brought me here, jealous of SPX karaoke jams, new books, and a comics community together in one place.

But that's cool. I knew it was coming up, and focused neither my time nor attention to the show, having other concerns. That's life and sometimes that's gonna happen. But in this communication thing you and I have going here, kids, it's our job to alert you to what is worthy of your time and attention. And hopefully we pull that off pretty well. If there's anything you want to share with us, or anything of yours for us to possibly plug, send a merry email to me: jeff.fpnyc@gmail.com.

Oh -- and next year? We're gonna tear SPX up.

There's often little to suppress the twelve-year-old in me, thus the allure of the phrase "time and attention." Sure it has its pragmatic usage (in this case alerting you guys of cool new stuff and happenings), but it also shortens to the wonderful T&A >snicker<. Without further ado, let the T&A fly!!!

Items and To Do's Worthy of Your T&A:

FIRST ANNUAL FORBIDDEN PLANET D&D GAME DAY

WHERE	Children's Aid Society 219 Sullivan Street (between Bleecker and W. 3rd St.) New York, NY
WHEN	Saturday October 27, 2007 11am - 3pm 3:30 pm - 7:30pm

• Ever wondered how to play D&D? Is it just for Nerds and Geeks? Are you a Nerd or Geek?


• This is your chance to find out the answers to those questions and more, and have some fun doing it.


• Enjoy a great, imaginative, interactive game, run by a DM with over 20 years of experience.


• There will be treasures available to take home and coupons given away for you to use for cool stuff at your favorite comic shop.


• There will be adventure, excitement, and perhaps a bit of horror -- PLUS you'll be introduced to a medium for your imagination whose scope is boundless.


• All for only six bucks.


• RSVP Zane at sumofallbears@yahoo.com by Wednesday October 24th to reserve your spot.

Persepolis - This past Sunday I was privileged to attend the NY Film Festival screening of Persepolis, the wonderful animated adaption of Marjane Satrapi's splendid graphic novel. Believe the hype. It's that good. All that and a bag of chips, etc. In terms of review the film differs slightly in tone (I feel the 1976 Marjane to be portrayed as a little too cutesy, and some storytelling shortcuts grating), but it conveys the young woman's very heavy story of politics, nationalism, and growing up so magically and so poignantly that I have to make sure that each and every FP adult customer has some desire to read the source book TODAY and see the film when it releases stateside in December.

You lucky boys and girls in Europe get to see it sooner than us, and in its intended French! We Yanks are gonna get a dub, featuring Sean Penn and Iggy Pop (?!). This is not at all necessary, as the subtitles do not hinder the film whatsoever, but I suppose their vocal "stylings" will draw some kind of mundanes to the picture. In a world of pixels and Pixars and cliched done-to-death family animation, Persepolis looms like Citizen Kane (especially apparent in that since I had to turn the anesthetic, odious, idiotic and hollow Happy Feet off fifteen minutes into watching it earlier that day). Go to IMDB to for more details on the film.

Come to Forbidden Planet ASAP to pick up your copy of Ms. Satrapi's masterpiece, Persepolis, or any other of her fine comics (the similarly lovely Embroideries, and Chicken With Plums), as we will strive to have each and every one of them in stock at any time!!!

Forbidden Planet is hooking up with (heh, heh) Comixology.com for an incredibly wild stab at informing our customer base better than ever. Don't believe me? Check out comixology.com/forbiddenplanet for details. But trust me, when you sign up for your free membership, your comics-buying habits'll never be the same.

Last but not least, it's that time of year again! Fall convention season is upon us here in NYC, and two biggies are coming up:

• Big Apple Con's National is Fri-Sun 11/16-11/18. Big name guests? You got 'em. Hayden Panettierre (Claire from Heroes) and Adam Hughes and Tim Sale and tons more! And as usual, we'll have a big, sexy booth, Their website: http://www.bigapplecon.com/





• And the inaugural New York Anime Festival sponsored by New York Comic-Con kicks off December 7th-9th, and, even in its infancy is poised to be one of, if not THE biggest east coast celebration of Japanese pop-culture on the East coast. FP will be selling tickets soon! Their website: http://www.newyorkanimefestival.com/

Gotta Jet,
JEFFY

Bric-a-Brac

By the power of Thor!!! No events, no signings, no in-store TV shoots, no nonsense this coming week. Don't get me wrong; FP loves all of the above! But I write this we're in the midst of receiving oodles and oodles of stock and it's refreshing to only have to deal with the buying, selling, and processing of said wares this week. And by oodles I mean a googltastic plethora of very magnituderific & heavy proportions. To give you an idea of the sheer scope of new stuff, let alone re-stocks, we have to offer you guys I will posit the following rhetorical question: Who knew Columbus Day would be our biggest receiving day of 2007 so far???

Nobody. That's who.

So, like that Anthony dude Billy Joel croons about in "Movin' Out," I hope you've been saving your pennies for someday because that day has arrived, my friend. A broad overview, with pretty pictures, starting with a focus on books cuz they my thing and I gots to do my thing!:

Books

I Am America (And So Can You!) - by Stephen Colbert. Is he for real?

Shortcomings - by Adrian Tomine. All our copies currently in stock are SIGNED, amigo!

America - by James Sturm.

Maggots - by Brian Chippendale. More Picturebox mayhem from the creator of last year's lauded Ninja.

Heroes of the Negro Leagues - by Jack Morelli (w) and Mark Chiarello (a). originally published as trading cards, now a snazzy tome with a DVD included!!!

Exterminators v. 3 - by Simon Oliver (w) and Various (a).

Imaginistix - by Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell. Their first new art book in years. Rejoice!!!

Yearbook Stories 1976-1978 - by FP buddy and Top Shelf publisher Chris Staros about his formative H.S. years and sleazy 70's mustache.

Absolute Sandman vol. 2 - The 2nd sexy-bound volume outta 4.

Best American Comics 2007 - edited by Mr. Happy himself, Chris Ware.

Toys

Cult Classic Series 6 - featuring Lost Boys Keifer and Army of Darkness Ash in S-Mart gear!!

7" and 12" God of War Kratos - You kids love them damn video games. Here're figures for ya.

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas - McFarlane Toys does 'em justice.

Back to the Future MiniMates - Their destiny has brought them to you. Dork thinks he's gonna drown!

12" Dorothy of Oz - naughty 12" toy. That description could be SO misconstrued.

Death Note - Ryuk and Rem vinyls!

Doctor Who - from Judoon Helmets to Dalek phone charms, we've got more Doctor tchokes than one can shake a stick at!

Disney Princess PEZ dispenser Sets - I think these are just here to kinda clear the palette.

T-Shirts

Christopher Lee as Dracula - Slammin' Hammer Horror Action!

Resident Evil - sweatshirts and tees.

Venture Bros. - Monarch Symbol shirts.

And all that's just the proverbial tip of the old timey iceberg -- the one that's not melting. Just blips on the FP radar. Just ripples in the Awesome Ocean. "Ted, you and I have witnessed many things, but nothing as bodacious as" all the stuff Forbidden Planet has in stock!

Station,
JEFFY

This Week's featured Hugo Award-winning SF Novel?

Hominids - by Robert J. Sawyer. In dubious honor of last week's Cavemen premiere on ABC TV, may I present a relatively recently released selection? The first volume in a new science fiction trilogy examines the humans of this universe and the Neanderthals of a parallel world where they are the dominant intelligence. When a Neanderthal physicist pierces the barrier between the two worlds and finds himself in this universe, he is quarantined and studied, while in his own world his lab partner is investigated for his murder.

Of Note, Point by Point

Lost and Found can be pretty interesting in this joint. Know what we found magnetized to the magazine shelf last Saturday night? An awesome telescoping pointer that I haven't been able to stop playing around with since! Hence, when reading the following, try to picture me looking all smaht and stuff as I use my new acquisition to illustrate my points. And if it's your pointer, you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands to get it back. Or ask me real nice.

• I know it's a bit of a short notice reminder, but I wanna talk about this coming Thursday night, and our part in Nightmare: Ghost Stories once again!!! Even if you're just hearing about this now, I expect to see a bunch of youse guys at the CSV Cultural Center (108 Suffolk St. at Rivington) Thursday night. We're hosting an evening with Marvel Zombies cover artist Arthur Suydam, raffling off a bunch of cool free swag, we'll have a bunch of comics and T-shirts for sale -- the whole nine!



Once More The Dilly:
What? FP night at a cool Haunted House in NYC. Nightmare: Ghost Stories
Where? CSV Cultural Center (Scary lookin' building Lower East Side) 108 Suffolk St.
When? Thursday 10/4/2007 evening 6-11pm. 7:30pm for Arthur Suydam event.
Why? Because it's gonna be bodacious!!!

• One of my must have FP New Releases this week? In fact, my numero uno? Tekkonkinkreet on DVD!!!





• Speaking of DVDs, I watched the new Superman/Doomsday DVD this week. The animation's pretty okay, but 75 minutes of Superman getting the poop kicked out of him is not really my thing and felt like more like 175 minutes. Many of you I know either own or will own/love this movie, but for those of you yet to see it, especially you parents out there, a grave and dire warning: I would not let any child under the age of 10 watch this DVD. It is extremely, extremely violent, and features more death (some of it quite graphic, some perpetrated by Supes himself, albeit a clone of Big Blue, but no less confusing to an impressionable mind) and destruction than any two Schwarzenegger from the 80's combined. I'm a pretty liberal dude, but trust me... This is 100% not for kids!!!



• Our friends at ComicMix.com start a new week-daily web comic venture this week. While not a devoted fan of reading my funny books online, I fully support the efforts of a myriad of talented writers and artists who toil every day, producing quality work for a new paradigm in comic story-telling. From their Pretty Rad Press Release:

"Starting 10/2, ComicMix.com changes this forever. ComicMix debuts with a new episode of a new series every weekday:
"GrimJack: The Manx Cat a swashbuckling detective story set in the dimension-spanning city of Cynosure written by John Ostrander with art by Timothy Truman;

"EZ Street by Mark Wheatley and Robert Tinnell, a story about action, family, show business and imagination in Pittsburgh; a new Southern gothic horror story,

"Fishhead, by Mark Evan Walker, Larry Shell and Michael H. Price;

"Black Ice written by Mike Baron and art by Nick Runge, an action adventure story with pirates and motorcycles;

"The Adventures of Simone and Ajax, the story of a girl and her pet dinosaur;

"The Demon of Sherwood, a new take on the latter Robin Hood myth written by Robert Tinnell and painted by Bo Hampton;

"...and the long-awaited return of Munden's Bar, written by playwright and Batman writer John Ostrander with art by the most surprising collection of artists online, starting with underground comix legend Skip Williamson. Upcoming new projects will include efforts from Ian Gibson, Marc Hempel, Mike Grell, Trevor von Eeden, Val Mayerik, Dick Giordano, John K. Snyder III and more.

"There's more! In addition to new comics, ComicMix.com allows visitors to read classic series, including Jon Sable, Freelance, GrimJack, Mars, The Badger, Simone and Ajax, Fashion In Action, Scout, Breathtaker and many others for free. Unlike most webcomics, the stories on ComicMix.com are written and drawn by both experienced and new comics professionals, in a format that's easy to read and more closely resembles the experience of reading offline comics. Using proprietary software developed by the team responsible for some of the Internet's most popular programs, ComicMix.com allows readers to zoom in on details, pull back to scan an entire page or sequence, and read at the pace and intensity that works best for them. Every day, readers can also find columns, news and blogs by an array of informed and opinionated writers, including Denny O'Neil, Michael Davis, Elayne Riggs, Mike Gold and John Ostrander..."

Next week I will have a very cool announcement about one of our most prominent new items. Watch for it!!!

And don't worry, there will probably be no more baseball analogies, nor Mets boasts from me for the next coupla months! Yep, no baseball whatsoever. None except go Pads, and/or Cubs, and/or Rockies -- That is all.

Rock 'n' Roll,
JEFFY