Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 7/31/2007

7/31/1997:
Imperceptibly adding two vital cogs to the team that will ultimately "reverse the curse" in Boston, the Red Sox part with veteran closer Heathcliff Slocumb to obtain rookie pitcher Derek Lowe and catching prospect Jason Varitek from the Seattle Mariners. While the erratic Slocumb will fall out of favor with his new employers almost overnight, Lowe and Varitek become essential components of the Red Sox team that will eventually win the World Series in 2004.

Birthdays:
Curt Gowdy b. 1919
Hank Bauer b. 1922
Vic Davalillo b. 1936
Evonne Goolagong Cawley b. 1951
Kevin Greene b. 1962

WEIRD SCIENCE

Vaillant takes British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Islands—seemingly serene Pacific Northwest territory—and exposes the churning violence and conflict that has simmered there for centuries. Haida Indians, European settlers, loggers, and environmentalists have all clashed over the ownership and use of the land. Through all the turmoil one unique 300-year-old golden spruce stood tall, revered by all...until one extreme environmentalist chopped it down. Vaillant takes a small patch of land and a small cast of characters and portrays an epic struggle of man versus nature. A brilliant and tragic read.

THE GOLDEN SPRUCE: A TRUE STORY OF MYTH, MADNESS, AND GREED, by John Vaillant (W.W. Norton & Company, 2005)

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Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 7/30/2007

7/30/1947:
Ewell "the Whip" Blackwell's 16-game winning streak is snapped when he suffers a 5-4 defeat by the New York Giants in 10 innings at Crosley Field. Leading 4-3 in the night, Blackwell surrenders a game-tying homer to Willard Marshall; an inning later, shortstop Buddy Kerr's RBI single wins it. Blackwell, now 18-3, hadn't lost in nearly three months. He'll enjoy his finest season, finishing with a league-leading 22 wins, 23 complete games and 193 strikeouts.

Birthdays:
Jim Mandich b. 1948
Billy Paultz b. 1948
Bill Cartwright b. 1957
Daley Thompson b. 1958
Chris Mullin b. 1963


In stories “elegant and vivid” (The Washington Post Book World), Lapcharoensap conveys universal themes through the ambiance of contemporary Thailand. Characters struggle with issues of loyalty, infidelity, heartbreak, regret, and shame. The details are immediate and exotic—you can nearly smell mangoes and roasting pigs—but the people are all human. An exciting, memorable debut.

SIGHTSEEING, by Rattawut Lapcharoensap (Grove Press, 2005)

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Sunday, July 29, 2007

Buffy s.8: Paul Lee Comicon.com Interview

From Comicon.com - By Jennifer M. Contino -
Buffy s.8: Paul Lee Comicon.com Interview

Artist Paul Lee might not be a vampire slayer by profession, but that didn’t stop him from drawing them in the pages of Buffy The Vampire Slayer # 5. He’s a fan of Joss Whedon’s creations and hopes that shines through in the art ....

THE PULSE: I remember the first time I saw Buffy the Vampire slayer on television, I purposely avoided watching the series, because I thought I’d like it, then it would be canceled before one season — like a lot of other shows of that ilk. What was it about Buffy that you think allowed it to outlast so many other shows and become the stuff of legend?

PAUL LEE: Good writing. Simple. Joss and his writing staff really tapped into the spirit of the times. There was something so witty and entertaining about the show that transcended the genre. And the characters were lovable.

THE PULSE: What do you remember being your initial thoughts when you first heard about or saw the television series?

LEE: My first thought was that it was just another WB teeny bopper show. Like so many others around that time. Boy was I wrong.

THE PULSE: I think a lot of the success of Buffy was the chemistry between the cast. How tough is it to translate that chemistry into the pages of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book?

LEE: It helps to be a huge fans of the show. Having watched every episode, I got to know the characters, and hopefully I’ve been faithful to them when I draw them.

THE PULSE: You’re working on the first stand-alone issue in the new series. How influenced were you by what Georges Jeanty had done in the prior issues in terms of how you illustrated the issue?

LEE: I did try to incorporate some of his characters in some of the background scenes, and I tried to keep in step with his visual direction.

THE PULSE: What were some of the other things that influenced how you saw these characters?

LEE: Well, in my issue, Giles and Andrew are the main cast members I dealt with. There are also appearances from some of the "Slayerettes" from season 7. I actually try really hard to get accurate likenesses. That’s one of my strengths, and why I got the gig.

THE PULSE: How tough is it to draw characters who were immortalized on television, but have to make them slightly different for the comic book universe? Do you ever find yourself slipping and maybe making Buffy look too much like Sarah Michelle Gellar? Was there even something in place that said you couldn’t make them look like their TV counterpoints?

LEE: Well, likenesses are always a challenge. And, translating anything to a different medium always requires some adapting. I don’t think there is a prohibition against making Buffy look like SMG, though.

THE PULSE: I know your story features one of the "decoy" slayer slayers. How did you approach that character?

LEE: I pictured a girl who was of similar build but looked different enough as to clearly not be SMG. I thought of a girl who would be your typical fan of the Buffy show. Joss wrote her with great edgy attitude. She had a subversive streak to her. So I did my best to capture that.

THE PULSE: What is the collaboration like with Joss Whedon? He seems to be getting a lot of comic book experience lately with all his work. How does working with him stack up to those comic writers who are JUST comic writers?

LEE: Joss is a great writer. Hands down. He knows his craft. He brings the same degree of wit and intelligence as he does to his TV scripts. It was a real joy to work on this book. It actually contains a really complicated story telling structure involving many flashes that jump around in time. So it took a few reads for me to get it right. I would love to work with Joss again.

THE PULSE: What have been some of the toughest parts of this story to convey? Were there any pages that you really struggled with getting just right?

LEE: This story had a personal element to Joss. The biggest challenge was to remain true to how Joss felt about the story. The last sequence took a few passes to capture just the right tone Joss was looking for.

THE PULSE: What are some of the things that add to the degree of difficulty in illustrating a page?

LEE: Well for me, finding the right balance between dynamism and realism is what I find most difficult. On the one hand I want the world to feel real and believable. I do a great deal of reference research. But the comics medium also requires a degree of exaggerations and drama. So my struggle is to find the right mix of the two.

THE PULSE: What did you personally enjoy the most about this assignment?

LEE: The best thing was getting to work on Buffy again. I am still such a huge fan of the show, that to be able to take part in Season 8 is a fanboy’s wildest dream. And to work on an issue written by Joss, it’s all icing.

THE PULSE: What other projects are you working on?

LEE: I am working on some fill in issues of Conan. A Devil’s Footprint Graphic Novel. And other things I can’t talk about yet.

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Joss Whedon Comicbookresources.com Interview

From Comicbookresources.com -
Joss Whedon Comicbookresources.com Interview

Writer Joss Whedon’s depiction of strong leading ladies is well known to his fans. His breakout television series "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" is evidence of that and continues in the monthly "Buffy" comic from Dark Horse. While Whedon’s fictional worlds wow and amaze his fans monthly, it’s his work in the real world Whedon hopes his fans will embrace next.

Whedon has joined with Dark Horse Comics and eBay to offer fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a private dinner with him at Comic-Con International in San Diego next month. Beginning on July 2nd and running through July 12th, fans will have a chance to bid on seats at his table. There will be additional offerings as well, including signed editions of Dark Horse’s upcoming "Serenity" hardcover collection. Full details can be at www.ebay.com/josswhedon.

Proceeds from the auction will benefit Equality Now. Found in 1992, Equality Now works to protect and promote the human rights of women around the world, mobilizing action to stop human rights abuses against women.

Wednesday morning, CBR News caught up with Whedon to learn more details about the auction and the dinner, his work with Equality Now and to get some answers about what’s to come in "Buffy."

First off, Joss, how did you begin working with Equality Now?

Well, I love the phrase "working with them" because they’re in the trenches doing so much and I’m just like, "Hey, you guys are cool!" Seriously, one of the founders of Equality Now was a student of my mother’s and a dear friend, so I’ve known about it since its inception. She used to work at Amnesty International and Equality Now is built upon the same sort of methodology. So, whenever I’ve been able to help out a little bit I have. When the Browncoats asked if there was a group or charity I was interested in, I pointed them towards Equality Now and since then we’ve raised 10s of thousands dollars over and over again and it’s been amazing.

I see the Browncoats raised over $60,000 through screenings of "Serenity" last year.

Yeah, it’s really terrific and it helps get people get aware of a good cause. They’re not huge, they don’t have a giant press machine. The fact that my working with them is news tells you something about their size.

Have you ever done something like this before, where you’ve auctioned yourself off for a dinner or lunch?

I’ve auctioned myself off obviously for sex, but nothing this civilized.

Oh, so how’d the sex auction go?

Uhhh, nobody bid. [laughs] That is of course my terror that no one will bid on this and I’ll be sitting lonely at my table telling the violinist, "Play ’Moon River’ again."

Oh, I doubt that’ll happen.

Yeah, I don’t think violinists can play "Moon River." [laughs]

Do you have a plan or agenda for this dinner? Obviously you’re going to let the winners of this auction ask you questions about your work.

This is something I’ve been thinking of for a long time, to have an experience you don’t commonly get to have with fans where it is just a give and take, like "What are you interested in" and let’s talk about that because I have opinions on everything. [laughs] Ask me anything, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to answer everything. "42! What’s the next question?" [laughs] Yeah, it really is supposed to be a back and forth, a get to know you dinner. So, if people want to talk about their obsessions, great. If they want to hear about mine, great. I’m sure there’s some overlap there.

So, you’re taking five lucky fans out to dinner in San Diego. Now, obviously we can’t name the restaurant or we might have a small riot on our hands, but have you got a favorite location picked out already?

Yeah, we have a really nice restaurant picked out. We’re not just going Drive-Thru, we’re actually going to sit in McDonalds. Ahh, wait, I’m not saying which McDonalds!

[laughs] Now, I hear issue #5 of "Buffy," an issue with a stand-alone story, ties in some way with your work with Equality Now, at least thematically.

Well, it doesn’t officially tie-in. The thing is everything I do ties-in with Equality Now in the sense that Equality Now is about taking a look at the world and the gender injustices and inequality and trying to very actively and specifically do certain things. For instance, I just got an e-mail from Jessica Neuwirth, who runs Equality Now, saying they had just stopped a couple from being stoned to death. They had 24 hours notice that these people, who have been in jail for 11 years, were about to be executed and they managed to put pressure on the government and NATO to make it stop. That kind of looking at the world and the extraordinary panoply of injustices, moving on one and choosing one, it’s kind of what the Slayer army is all about, in that sense of they’re addressing problems all over the world. Now, obviously mine is a fantasy and I realize that, and this issue is about one slayer who has a particularly difficult task, but it actually is a very personal story in a weird way. It’s not about what it’s about, exactly - it’s kind of a metaphor, something new I’m trying! I can’t really explain it because if you explain it before people read it I think the experience isn’t as pure, but yeah it works on a political level because pretty much the scenario that Buffy is working under does, but it’s also very personal.

Now, as I understand it we’ll see stand alone issues every fifth issue of the series, right?

Yeah, the basic structure of the season is going to be a four-issue arc, then a standalone, and so forth. It’s great for me because it allows me to pop-in from time to time. I did issue #10, which is the one featuring the contest winner from the MySpace contest. It was a joy to write. In fact it was such a joy to write that I was three pages over the normal length. I could have really used a couple more pages, but I couldn’t do that to poor Scott [Allie, "Buffy" editor].

Oh, I’m sure Dark Horse would bend over backwards to accommodate you, if need be.

They always have. They’ve been extraordinary, including working on and helping fund this Equality Now auction. Dark Horse has jumped through hoops for me and Scott and I have become e-mail buddies to the point where my wife is asking questions. [laughs] I don’t like to abuse that, though. It was just an example of how I can’t stop Buffy and Willow talking. I love them so much!

Why is doing something like this with Equality Now important to you personally?

Because Equality Now represents, I think, in a very pure sense, the mission I’ve always had with my fiction - they do it in a different way than I do - to highlight the absolute crippling and absurd inequality between the sexes. That doesn’t mean just the differences between men and women, but there is so much misogyny and injustice and there’s so much that women just aren’t afforded. In my world, it’s the chance to be a hero and that was something I was looking for in fiction so I set about deliberately to make that a part of what I was doing.

I’m always looking for the funny because you want people to show up, but gender studies was my unofficial minor in college when I was studying film. Everybody’s lecture was always about what they were obsessed with and that was mine, how women were presented, what roles they have and how they function in mythic narrative and stuff like that. So, it just absolutely made sense to work with this organization, which takes Amnesty’s International’s view of preserving human rights and introducing them in countries where they haven’t figured them out yet and to take that with a gender based slant because things are so much worse for women in every country than they are for men.

As we close things up here, we’ve got to get some Buffy questions in or else some of the CBR regulars will kill me, so here we go. At one of the recent conventions, Brian K. Vaughan said that if Joss killed any of his Runaways, he would turn Giles into a goat when it came time to write his Buffy issues, so…

Spoiler alert! You just spoiled the whole goat arc! [laughs]

Uh oh!

Look, if he has a good reason and a good payoff, I have no problem turning him into a goat.

[laughs] Of course, you’d have to kill someone in "Runaways" in order for this all to take place.

Well, I’ve decided to step up. He challenged me, I wasn’t going to kill anybody, I was just going to pull off a few limbs, but now I’m going for death. Maybe I’ll do a poll to see who people want me to kill the most, then I’ll kill someone else. Wait, I’ll kill Robin! [laughs] It’s weird. It’ll be a big cross-over event.

OK, so Brian’s first issue stars Faith and is a four part story. How has Faith changed since we last saw her?

It’s a very Faith centric story, so it steps a little to the left of the main story, although that’s a part of it, it folds into it, but it really is Faith’s story. Where we find her is not really in a great place. Because she’s so hard core and always has been, she’s been doing some of the nastier jobs and it’s starting to grate a bit. Brian writes Faith beautifully - her patter and her attitudes are spot on and with Georges Jeanty drawing her, it’s Faith-a-licious.

How’s Buffy taken the General’s revelation that members of the human race have declared war on her and her friends and associates?

Oh, they laugh and laugh and that’s it!

I’m sure.

Since the next story arc is Faith’s and dealing with the next huge thing, we don’t spend a lot of time exploring how she feels about that, she’s just trying to figure out what exactly they have up their sleeve more than reacting to it emotionally. At the end of the day there’s this cult - and I should mention because people have been getting it wrong that it’s not the American military. There is a military wing involved, but it’s more global and shady than that, so this is not a book about hating the Army or anything like that. But, after the Faith thing, Buffy will be dealing with it on a lot of levels, asking who it is that really hates her. I don’t think she really believes the entire human race is out to get her, but some things are going to happen that are going to make things, well, what’s that word I love? Worse.

It appears from the end of issue #4 that Buffy has access to some of Willow’s magical abilities? How does it work? Is Buffy casting spells? Or is Willow actually casting spells through Buffy?

In that instance the idea was simply that Willow had given Buffy a little hit so that in case something did happen, because they knew they were up against Amy, she gave her a little protective mojo. It’s not something I plan to repeat that often because it could get too convenient and that’s sort of what separates the two of them. However, as we did in episode 21 of season four, making that connection between them really highlights the strength of their friendship, so I like doing that.

Wrapping up, Joss, have you heard from any of the cast of the show about the book? Are they reading it and have they given you any thoughts on it?

I just saw Aly yesterday and Tom Lenk brought her some issues. None of the cast are really aware of it and, generally speaking, you don’t want to show the actors it because they’ll just go, "Hey, that’s not my nose!" Aly was like, "I guess that’s an OK picture of me, but I seem kind of big!" And Tom said, "That’s Dawn, you ninny!" [laughs] But, no, I haven’t really heard anyone’s opinion about it and [whispers] that’s probably best! They are being beautifully rendered; don’t get me wrong, I wish someone would draw me looking that hot.

Thanks, Joss.

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Hitch a Ride: The Top 11 Coolest Spaceships

http://www.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id=17527&sectionId=88

Hitch a Ride: The Top 11 Coolest Spaceships

By Brian Tallerico

"Almost every boy on Earth has gone through that period when there's absolutely nothing cooler than spaceships - be they rockets, space shuttles, or X-Wing Fighters."

Worshipping spaceships is as much a passage of life as puberty for most young men. Almost every boy on Earth has gone through that period when there's absolutely nothing cooler than spaceships - be they rockets, space shuttles, or X-Wing Fighters. It's usually right after the days when nothing's cooler than a dinosaur and just before you discover that boobs aren't all that bad. Aside from promiscuous alien women and ray guns, they're one of the main reasons why we love science fiction so much. With Danny Boyle's Sunshine opening this weekend, adding the Icarus 5 to the list of cinema's most kick-ass spaceships, we thought we'd indulge in the classic game of picking favorites. Which spaceships sparked our imaginations the best and why? What makes a cool spaceship? What are our favorites? After some harsh cuts, we came up with the top eleven spaceships that have quickened our nerd pulses over the years. So, strap in, prepare for blast-off, and take the ride...

11. Eagle 5 (Spaceballs)

It may not win any style awards, but the Eagle 5 stays cool by being true to itself. It's a rocket-propelled Winnebago with wings. It's driven by a half man, half dog (a 'mog') named Barf and a bad-ass drunk named Lone Starr. What more do you want from an outer space recreational vehicle? The Eagle 5 is the Ted Nugent of hyperspace travel - not too pretty, a little trashy, but it can still kick your ass even if it's half-drunk. A Winnebago may not be the easiest ship to maneuver in an intergalactic dogfight, but it gets the job done... and with diesel gas (Liquid Schwartz package is optional. Talk to your dealer for more information).

10. Event Horizon (Event Horizon)

You wouldn't want to hang out on the Event Horizon for too long, but it comes in at number 10 because it's basically a portal to Hell... and, to be honest, we're a little scared NOT to put it on the list. The Event Horizon was big, dark, scary, and it totally stole the movie from the actors who were struggling to keep their sanity on Paul W.S. Anderson's ship of doom (wait, there were actors in Event Horizon?). How can you not get a vicarious thrill out of a spaceship that can fold space-time, creating a wormhole to anywhere in the universe, all while it convinces you to gouge your own eyes out? It's like teenaged Clive Barker's wet dream come to life.

9. Eagle Transport (Space 1999)

The Eagle Transport brought space travel out of the outer reaches and into our homes. Unlike a lot of sci-fi vehicles, the Eagle looked like something that could actually work. In fact, it looked like if you got a military helicopter and had an A-Team-style construction montage, you might be able to build one in your garage over a long weekend. The Eagles were the cars of the future, not overly-hyped or pumped up, but functional and ready for action. They didn't even have individual names. One would blow up, they'd make another one. If you took the Millennium Falcon or the Enterprise out for a test flight, wouldn't you be terrified about messing it up? Not the Eagle Transport. It's the one spaceship you can go joyriding in with no worries.

8. USS Swinetrek (The Muppet Show)

Three words - Pigs in Space. Captained by Link Hogthrob, the USS Swinetrek was the heart of one of an entire generation's favorite sketches on The Muppet Show. First Mate Piggy, Dr. Julius Strangepork, and the rest of the red-shirted pig passengers poked fun at Star Trek way before geek humor was cool and were hilarious every time out. And, even if you ignore the timeless appeal of the Muppets, you've got to love that the Swinetrek was shaped like a pig, for God's sake. Flying in a vehicle that's actually shaped like its passengers is just pretty damn cool. If you could fly a spaceship that looked like a giant man, wouldn't you? Of course you would, and you would name him Voltron, and you would love him.

7. Nostromo (Alien)

The Nostromo isn't a flashy spaceship, but Alien is such a sci-fi classic that it almost has to make the cut. But what it lacked in flash or features, the Nostromo more than made up for with pure, unbridled suspense. You have to give it to Ridley Scott. The Nostromo was the first outer space haunted house, a beyond-cool postmodern backdrop for a horror film that finally gave a great answer to the age-old question: "Why doesn't the girl being chased by the monster just run out of the haunted house?" (Answer: Because she's surrounded by the crushing vacuum of space.) On its own, it's really just an intergalactic tugboat, the blue collar worker of spaceships, but when you add in Ripley, the alien, and the two hours of terror that took place between its walls, the Nostromo becomes one of the most bad ass spaceships in history.

6. Heart of Gold (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

If we're ranking these ships on special features alone, the Heart of Gold should probably be number one. This oddball space-liner, mined from the brain of Douglas Adams, can travel through every point in the universe at the exact same time with its Infinite Improbability Drive. Wrap your brain around that. Your Toyota Corolla can't even get you to work on time. The Heart of Gold can get to every work at every time all at once. Whoa. My brain hurts. It was stolen by Zaphod Beeblebrox at its unveiling on the planet Damogran, but unfortunately for Zaph, the ship is as random as it is powerful. When you turn on the Improbability Drive, you might get to your destination or you might turn into a sofa. Deal with that. Wait, my brain hurts again.

5. Serenity (Firefly)

The coolest spaceship of the new millennium had a movie named after it - a movie that not nearly enough non-nerds went to see. If Fox hadn't been such jerks to Joss Whedon and his under-rated sci-fi western Firefly, kids everywhere would probably be playing with their Serenity toys right now, filling them with Mal and Wash action figures and throwing them off their roofs. ("I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soaaaaarrr...") Wouldn't that be a beautiful world? Seriously, like the Nostromo, the Serenity was made significantly cooler by its passengers. She's really just a run-of-the-mill cargo vessel. The poor girl has no weapons or defenses... unless a sarcastic wit and a hot crew count as a weapon (never hurt the Millennium Falcon).

4. Discovery One (2001)

In the pantheon of spaceships, the Discovery One is especially cool because it doesn't take sh*t from anyone. Want to go somewhere? It'll take you... if it's in the mood. Want to land? Not today. Want to be taken to Jupiter and have a really trippy journey across space and time and be turned into a giant star fetus? OK, on that one, the Discovery can oblige. We're not sure if the Discovery would have been as nearly cool without its control freak AI, HAL, but it had to make the list. We were afraid our computers would try to kill us if it didn't.

3. Battlestar Galactica (Battlestar Galactica)

We never thought that we'd have such a nerd-crush on something driven by Edward James Olmos (well, he was pretty dreamy in Blade Runner), but the Battlestar Galactica leads the one of the best sci-fi wagon trains in history. And, of course, we're talking about the new SciFi Channel version of BG, not the original '70s version. That ship probably would never be called cool... cheesy maybe... or disco-licious. But the 21st-century Commander Adama, Gaius Baltar, Starbuck, and the rest of the gang have finally made the Battlestar bad-ass. It's the only ship that survived the Cylon attack because it wasn't all wi-fi and techy. The Galactica is an outer space workhorse, an old school battleship that has no bells and whistles, but will never go down in a fight. This helps when you're being pursued by murderous, cyborg, six-foot-tall swimsuit models. It really does.

2. Enterprise (Star Trek)

You have to admit that the Enterprise has a bit of an unfair advantage when you consider how much more exposure it's had over the years than most of its competitors on this list. The setting of countless nerd-centric fantasies the Enterprise is arguably the most recognizable spaceship in the world. You could draw just the outline of the Enterprise, and even people who don't speak English would say "Make it so" or start doing a bad Kirk impression. The Enterprise is the alpha-spaceship, the one that every kid of every age wants to hang out on. It's been the focus of rides, games, and served as the foundation of a decades-old multimedia phenomenon. Heck, they even named a REAL space shuttle after it. There's only one ship cooler...

1. Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)

Has any other ship on this list made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs? We think not...

When ranking the coolest of the cool spaceships in history, a few things become clear. Ships like the Serenity prove that the passengers are as important as the ship itself. Ships like the Heart of Gold prove that being able to do something amazing makes you even cooler. It's hard to beat a ship that becomes an essential part of a universe or mythology like the Enterprise, and every ship on this list made the grade thanks to a healthy dose of character and personality. And while most of the classic spaceships can boast a few of these qualities, none meet all of them nearly as well or as memorably as the Millennium Falcon. Cool passengers? You can't get any more bad-ass than Han Solo and, when you consider that he won the ship playing Sabacc with Lando, it makes it that much cooler. Awesome abilities? Um, without the Falcon's maneuverability, quick guns, and hyperdrive, Luke Skywalker would've been dead long before he became a Jedi and the Empire would still be striking back nearly thirty years later. Importance to mythology? Are you kidding? The Millennium Falcon has been represented in toy form, game form, movie form, lunchbox form, Trapper Keeper form, and every other form that a kid finds cool. As for personality, you simply can't beat the Falcon. "It's fast enough for you, old man." Hell yeah, it is.

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Buffy s.8 Comic: Turning Civilians into Comic Book Geeks

From Publishersweekly.com -
Buffy s.8 Comic: Turning Civilians into Comic Book Geeks

Comic book stores are pretty good at keeping their regular customers coming back again and again. What they often aren’t as good at is bringing in new customers or turning first-time customers into regulars. In the past few years, the industry’s been trying to convert "civilians" into comics readers with initiatives like Free Comic Book Day, in addition to reaching out to creators and properties from outside the mainstream comics world. But what works to lure in and hook new comics readers, and what doesn’t?

One of the biggest new-reader project of 2007 is Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, and the reason is two words: Joss Whedon. The TV show’s creator has been writing the new comics series, picking up where the canceled TV show left off, and Buffy fans have been coming into comics stores to get it—and not stopping there. The Buffy series is currently the bestselling title at Rocketship, the Brooklyn, N.Y., comics store, "by a pretty considerable margin," said owner Alex Cox. The new customers it brings in are starting to buy other comics, too, Cox said, especially Joss Whedon’s other projects, like the superhero series, Runaways. "We’ve pulled in extra Runaways sales just by racking it next to Buffy. They’re not just coming in for Buffy and leaving. With the death of Captain America, people came in, wanted that one issue, and we’ll never see them again."

Joe Ferrara, who runs Santa Cruz, Calif.’s Atlantis Fantasyworld comics shop, reports that "every issue of Buffy that comes in is currently outselling X-Men in my store by a six-to-one margin." In Missoula, Mont., Muse Comics’ owner Amanda Fisher has figured out how to sell more comics to Buffy fans visiting her store for the first time: "We rack it like grocery store racks. You have to walk to the back to get it."

The other huge new-reader success story for the year is Marvel’s Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born series, adapted from Stephen King’s bestselling prose novels. Rick Lowell operates Casablanca Comics in King’s home turf of Portland, Maine, and said the response to the Dark Tower comics has been overwhelming. "It’s our bestselling book ever, by far—and these were people who’d never set foot in a comics store in their lives,” said Lowell, who points out that King used his own Web site and e-mail to notify fans about the new series. “That was outreach that the comics industry really couldn’t do on its own,” Lowell said. “There’s not a day goes by that we don’t sell a good number of copies."

Buffy is also a hit at Casablanca Comics, Lowell said. "It’s been selling at Civil War [sales] numbers for us, and these are all new people. And once they get into the store and see what else we have, enough of them start reading some other comics to make it pretty satisfying,” said Lowell, pointing to such series as Astonishing X-Men or Runaways or Brian K. Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man. Lowell said that “Dark Tower customers mostly are sticking with the Stephen King material. Buffy customers are more willing to try some other things."

Other recent comics adaptations of TV series and books haven’t been nearly as big, though. Rocketship’s Cox said that the comics adaptation of science fiction TV series Battlestar Galactica "died a slow, slow death on the shelves." Muse Comics’ Fisher noted that a successful tie-in needs to involve the original project’s creators closely and has to offer new material: "There are plenty of CSI and The Shield and Star Trek comics, but they need to be something that fans just have to have, that’s only in the comic book medium." Fantasy prose novelist Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake comics (created by the Dabel Bros.) have sold fairly well at Muse, she said, but Marvel’s other Dabel Bros. titles haven’t really taken off for the store.

Five years into its existence, Free Comic Book Day is still effective at bringing in new customers and sometimes at converting them into regulars, according to Casablanca’s Lowell. Dark Horse’s The Umbrella Academy giveaway written by Gerard Way, from the band My Chemical Romance, was particularly useful this year: "We saw so many My Chemical Romance fans coming in looking for that comic, people we’d never seen in the store before."

"Free Comic Book Day is extremely successful at reintroducing people to the joy of reading comics," said Atlantis Fantasyworld’s Ferrara. "It creates magic in the store, it creates excitement, and it creates a memory—it’s like a trip to Disneyland. You have to create customer loyalty, not just a new customer, and that’s its crowning glory here. Do we see immediate return from it? Yes. Do we get long-term customers? Yes. It’s one of our top three promotions."

Outside media coverage, of course, always drives new customers to comics stores. "Any time something’s reviewed in the New York Times, it’s huge for us at Rocketship," Cox said. "’[Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli’s] DMZ got an enormous amount of press for us when it came out, and for three months it was our bestselling trade." Lowell noted, "NPR did an interview with Brian K. Vaughan about Y: The Last Man, and a woman came into Casablanca, probably in her 60s, never been in a comic shop in her life. She said, ’I heard about this thing, Y: The Last Man. Do you have that?’ I showed her the first volume, and she bought it. The next day, she came back and bought the rest."

One of the most effective kinds of new-customer outreach, though, can’t be supplied to comics stores by publishers: it’s working with local schools and library systems. Casablanca’s Lowell said his store deals with more than 100 libraries on a regular basis: "Some stores are afraid that if it’s in a library, people aren’t going to come into the store, but it’s just the opposite." Atlantis Fantasyworld participates in a Santa Cruz library program in which "kids get reading dollars for reading books, and we let them redeem them here," Ferrara said. "Once they find something they like, they can’t get enough. The summer reading program creates more long-term customers for me than any other program. And I mean long-term—I’ve got parents coming in with kids who are close to the age the parents were when they began buying comics with me."

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The end of Harry Potter, as written by Joss Whedon and others!

From Windypundit.com -
The end of Harry Potter, as written by Joss Whedon and others!

The end of the Harry Potter series, as written by

Mario Puzo (The Godfather) :

Replacing the fallen Dumbledore as head of Hogwarts, Professor Minerva McGonagall proves to have balls of steel. In a well-coordinated series of carefully-timed attacks, the Order of the Phoenix kills every single Death Eater in a single night, settling all accounts. John Grisham (The Firm, The Rainmaker, The Pelican Brief) :

Over the course of the book, Harry becomes disillusioned with the wizarding life as he realizes that it’s just endless conflict in the service of his corrupt and power-hungry masters. He and Ginny change their names and assume new identities so they can leave the wizarding world and live happily ever after.

George Lucas (American Graffiti, Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars) :

The battle between Harry and Voldemort comes to a close with an exciting magical glowing sword fight in the never-before-seen high-tech part of Hogwarts during which Voldemort reveals that he’s Harry’s real father. Then the Death Star blows up.

Joe Haldeman (The Forever War, Forever Free, Worlds Enough and Time) :

During the final confrontation, Neville Longbottom reveals unsuspected powers when he kills all the Death Eaters all over the world, including Lord Voldemort, by making them blow up into steaming bloody chunks. Neville explains that he is God The Creator Of The World in disguise, and then he blows up all the muggles in the world. God-Neville then proceeds to blow up all the all the wizards and witches in the world except Harry. Then he blows up Harry.

Dean Koontz (Bestselling Thriller Author) :

While Voldemort is preparing his final assault on Hogwarts, Arthur Weasley uses his knowledge of muggle artifacts come up with a plan to defeat Voldemort. He and Ron work desperately to connect the flue network to a fireplace in the house of a major Columbian drug lord. Harry and Hermione go through, stun everyone in the house, and steal all their Uzi submachineguns. When the Death Eaters arrive at Hogwarts, members of the Order of the Phoenix gun them down.

Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly) :

As the conflict with Voldemort comes to a head, Ron Weasley is suddenly and shockingly killed. Hermione responds with steely determination, joined by Luna Lovegood, who turns out to be a rare witch who has super-powerful martial arts skills. While Harry tries ineffectively to help—often with comic results—Luna kills the Death Eaters with Unblockable Scorpion Kicks and Hermione defeats Voldemort in a head-on battle of magic.

Tom Clancy (The Hunt For Red October, The Sum of All Fears, Rainbow 6) :

All seems lost for Harry until the Voldemort problem is brought to the attention of American President Jack Ryan, who sends the Enterprise Carrier Group to defeat the Death Eaters in a series of air strikes. Distrustful of the Ministry of Magic, Harry Potter defects to the United States where he helps Ryan get elected to his fourth term as President.

David Chase (The Sopranos) :

Discouraged by Lord Voldemort’s tiresome battle against Harry Potter, Lucius Malfoy makes peace with Harry Potter in a bid to take over the Death Eaters for himself. Meanwhile, Alicia Spinnet spots Lord Voldemort in Diagon Alley and catches him by surprise, killing him easily. Through a strange series of random events, all Voldemort’s horcruxes are also destroyed. Thinking the danger is over, Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione make plans to meet at the Three Broomsticks for butterbeers. Just as the last of them arrives

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'Buffy' Fans Show Their Undying Love

From Washingtonpost.com -
'Buffy' Fans Show Their Undying Love

A Midnight Singalong Gives Everyone a Stake In the Proceedings

Ben Hatton is not, like, the biggest "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fan ever.

Yes, he might have arrived three hours early to score the first spot in line for "The Buffy Musical Big Screen Interactive Extravaganza" at the Avalon Theatre on Friday at midnight. Yes, he might have downloaded all of the songs to said extravaganza, and he might have memorized them, and his wife might be sitting on a park bench 20 feet away because she is embarrassed he made them come so early.

But compared with the other 427 wannabe slayers who advance-purchased their tickets for Friday’s sold-out show and formed a queue stretching around the corner, Hatton swears his fanship is relatively puny. "I didn’t wear a costume or anything," said the stocky 26-year-old video store clerk. "I’m not going to be that fat dude dressed as Angel."

"The Buffy Extravaganza" is an audience-participatory screening (think "Rocky Horror Picture Show") of "Once More, With Feeling," a "Buffy" episode from 2001 in which a demon forces the residents of Sunnydale to sing and dance out their darkest secrets. The mass-viewing concept began in 2004 with uber-fan Clinton McClung, 36, mourning the 2003 cancellation of his favorite TV show after a seven-year run.

McClung, a midnight movie programmer at a Boston theater, decided to "geek out" by running "Once More, With Feeling." He prepared for 150 guests. He got 600.

Buffy nights soon became regular events in Boston, and when McClung relocated to New York, he took the show with him. For the past three months it’s been his full-time job. He’s traveled to 13 cities, with 12 more on the docket, to create "roomfuls of Buffy love," which, in addition to the screening, include Buffy trivia, Buffy-oke (vampirilogical karaoke) and montages of favorite Buffy characters.

He begins every show by arming his audience with the tools needed for participation, passing out props and instructing them on appropriate callouts: "Okay, the first time the cast sings ’ Buuuurn,’ we’re going to do the wave to the left. Okay? And the second time, we do the wave to the right. And the third time, everyone puts their hands up and does spirit fingers. Everyone got it?"

Friday night he proudly told the packed house that though he knew Washington was a Harry Potter city — "Deathly Hallows" had just gone on sale and some audience members planned post-Buffy trips to Borders — he was glad to see it was also a "Buffy" city: "D.C. sold out faster than any other show I’ve done anywhere else."

Thanks, in part, to fans like Amanda Howard and Jennifer Ruffo. They drove two hours from Glen Mills, Pa., for the screening, and planned to catch the second show (also sold out) on Saturday. Howard, 22, wore a red T-shirt reading "Sunnydale," the name of Buffy’s fictitious home town. She estimated she’d seen "Once More, With Feeling" on DVD more than 50 times. "I’ve been checking my ’Buffy’ Listservs for something like this to come nearby," says Howard. She and Ruffo, 23, prepared for the event by singing "Under Your Spell," a romantic power ballad between Willow and Tara, on the car ride down.

Participating in a Buffy singalong is an exercise for the musically uninhibited. The fans, primarily in their 20s and 30s, sang as if transported without warning from their showers in mid-warble. "Walk Through the Fire," a let’s-kick-some-butt anthem, prompted some audience members to close their eyes while singing, giving in to the overwhelming emotions of the Buffinator. McClung, for his part, flitted through the theater like a quick-change artist. He crashed through the back doors in full rabbit regalia for crowd fave "Bunnies," then reappeared minutes later down front to sprinkle the audience with flowers during a love song.

Comparisons to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" are inevitable, but not entirely accurate. Tim Curry’s participatory dragfest was an organic creation, the gradual result of dozens of wiseguys shouting at the screen. Even in its relatively codified modern state, "Rocky" still retains a grassroots sensibility: Fans bring their own props, the "script" was honed by ongoing trial and error. Rocky-philes pass down callout lines through oral tradition rather than institutional decree, and performance variations abound throughout the country.

"Buffy," on the other hand, has always been pre-packaged. From McClung’s first Boston show, he has passed out those standardized goody bags, which contain kazoos, confetti poppers, finger puppets and vampire teeth. Also included: programs instructing the audience when to sing, boo or kazoo. McClung calls them "participatory interactive props" — fabricated fun-in-a-box. He has invented all of the callouts; no ad-libbing exists in Sunnydale. Without McClung, the show simply could not exist. He is both the pep squad and the team captain, teaching the art of midnight movie-watching to people who weren’t even born during "Rocky’s" heyday in the late ’70s.

But if the fans are being subjected to fabricated fun, they don’t mind. At the end of the show, McClung announced that due to the event’s popularity, the Avalon had invited him back for another "Extravaganza" in November.

"I did think that the show would be a little crazier and less structured," said Jason Powell, a graphic designer, after the screening. "But I’d definitely see it again. When you watch the shows on DVDs, you start to think that maybe you’re the only person into them." He gestured to the crowd exiting the theater. "Um, clearly you’re not."


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