Pop Culture Safari!

Comic book cover conventions: World of trouble

Best Comics News and Review Sites on the Web

Newsarama
Good site for the latest news from the major comics' publishers. Also see: The Comics Continuum.

The Comics Journal
Online home for the influential critical journal. Gives a peek into the latest print issues, plus occasional full articles and "audio archives" featuring interviews with top writers and artists. They have a great message board too.

Comic Book Resources
One of the more extensive comics news sites on the Web. Includes the excellent and very funny column Oddball Comics, which features unintentionally hilarious art from comics of the past, and a groovy section featuring sound files of superhero cartoon shows. "Spider-man, Spider-man, does what ever a spider can..."

Superhero Hype
This site does a nice job of tracking all the buzz about the increasingly popular superhero movie genre.

Comics Worth Reading
One fan's thoughtful commentary on the latest comics from major and independent publishers alike.

Comic Monsters
Dedicated to horror and monster comics of all stripes (and even those without stripes).

The Beach Boys - Endless Harmony

The Beach Boys - The Lost Concert

Beach Boys An American Band

Brian Wilson - I Just Wasn't Made for These Times

Brian Wilson presents SMiLE

Best Toy Car Sites on the Web

Corgi: Official Site
Order online, information about collecting, news, latest series (which they call "ranges"). Also see: Vintage Corgi/Dinky Toy Catalogues for tons of drool-inducing photos.

Hot Wheels: Official site
Information on the latest cars and paraphernalia, collectors club info.

Matchbox Toys: Official Site
Info and pictures of the latest releases, history of Matchbox cars.

Shabbir Malik's Matchbox Page
A wealth of information on the history of Matchbox cars with a guide to reference books/price guides and useful links.

Best Beatles Sites on the Web

What Goes On: Beatles News
Good site for the latest news, TV and magazine alerts, updates on releases, etc.

rec.music.beatles.moderated
Intelligent discussion among knowledgeable fans.

Beatles Ultimate Experience: Press clippings
A collection of clippings/interviews from the 1960s.

What's Goes On: The Beatles Anomalies List
An in-depth guide to sonic oddities--glitches, mistakes, rough edits, etc.--in the Beatles' recordings. Does somebody really say "Hit me with a pizza" in the background of "Across the Universe"?

The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations
A look at how the mono/stereo, American/British versions of the Beatles' official release vary in sound.

Beatles at the Bootleg Zone
Excellent database providing information on unofficial Fabs' releases.

Beatle Money
Facts about the Beatles' ill-fated business/record company, Apple Corps.

John Lennon FBI Files
Author John Weiner presents information culled from the FBI's 1960s and 70s surveillance files on the late Beatle.

Paul McCartney: Official site
The latest news, a bio, discography and more.

The Get Back Sessions
A handy site for tracking down the best bootlegs from the 1969 sessions that led to the Let it Be album.

Beatles CD discography

Please Please Me

With the Beatles

A Hard Day's Night

Beatles for Sale

Help!

Rubber Soul

Revolver

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Magical Mystery Tour

Yellow Submarine

The Beatles ("The White Album")

Let It Be

Abbey Road

Anthology 3

The Beatles 1

Let It Be... Naked

The Capitol Albums Vol. 1

The Capitol Albums Vol. 2

Love

Beatles DVDs

Recommended Books about the Beatles

Best Movie Serial Sites on the Web

Flash Gordon
Great historical resource on the 30s and 40s movie serials based on Alex Raymond's famed comic strip.

The Serial Squadron
Extensive site with info on movie serials and radio series, including info on different characters, news about what's newly available on DVD and much more.

The Prisoner TV series Best Sites on the Web

The Prisoner: Information, Rarities, Photos and More
Great resource for fans of the classic Patrick McGoohan series. Includes an episode guide, reviews and information on Prisoner DVDs. Includes photos of Portmeiron, the unusual Welsh location that served as the Prisoner's bizarre Village.

The Prisoner Appreciation Society
Headquarters for the British-based Prisoner fan club, which holds regular conventions and publishes a magazine. The site includes historical information about the series and news updates.

alt.tv.prisoner
Usenet home for fans who want to discuss the series.

Best Old Time Radio Sites on the Web

Old-time Radio Logs
A huge list of logs recording the episodes and airdates for classic radio programs. A wonderful resource for collectors of old broadcasts.

The OTR Plot Spot
Offering concise, non-spoiler descriptions of individual episodes of famed old-time radio series.

alt.radio.oldtime
Usenet group for fans of OTR.

Best DC Comics Sites on the Web

DC Comics: official site
Online home to the publishers of Superman, Batman and many more. Includes news about upcoming comics, animated online comics, info about characters and more.

DC History
A very nice collection of timelines that detail the real-life publishing history of DC Comics from the beginning.

Toy Otter
Offering a wealth of information about DC Comics action figure lines from various manufacturers. Lots of pictures.
Also see: The Complete Guide to Batman-related Toys.

Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics
A huge site dedicated to DC history, including indexes of comics titles and an enormous cover scan gallery.

Infinite Atlas
A detailed guide to the pre- and post-Crisis on Infinite Earths' DC Universe. You know, Earths 1-3, etc. The page details significant happenings and mentions of all these worlds in DC's comics throughout history.

DC Comics Fortress of Memorabilia
Our own extensive image collection of off-beat and classic DC Comics-related memorabilia.

The World's Finest
A nice site dedicated to the Warner Bros. cartoon versions of Batman, Superman and the Justice Leage, featuring news, program schedules and episode guides for "Batman: The Animated Series," "Superman: The Animated Series," "Batman Beyond" and "Justice League."

Debut date set for Joss Whedon's Dollhouse

The new show by "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon is set to debut Feb. 13 on Fox. It'll air at 9 p.m. following the network's "Terminator" spinoff, "The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Not the greatest time slot, as The Hollywood Reporter notes.

The "Dollhouse" shift to Friday is certain to provoke a despondent cry from Whedon fans, especially after having watched "Firefly" wither away on the same night. Fox could have given the series a premiere behind "Idol" before shifting it to Fridays -- something the network has done a few times to boost sampling of new shows. And if that weren't unlucky enough, "Dollhouse" premieres on Friday the 13th.

Pop links: Super trial, comic book library, new DC figures, Doctor Who ABC's, Ditkomania

A January 2009 trial date has been set in the case between the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and DC Comics over rights to the character.

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Take a peek at the Michagan State University's comic book collection.

With about 240,000 comics and books about comics, the collection is larger than that of the Library of Congress.

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Here's a look at some cool upcoming figures in Mattel's DC Classics line. Doctor Fate rules.

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See DC Universe Classics action figures at Amazon.

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Let's review the ABC's of Doctor Who.

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See an awesome array of Steve Ditko art, in honor of the artist's recent 80th birthday.

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New comics

Here's what looks good to me this week. Click the links to order from Amazon and support this site!

DIANA PRINCE WONDER WOMAN VOL 03

NEW TEEN TITANS ARCHIVES VOL. 4

SHOWCASE PRESENTS WONDER WOMAN VOL. 2

ESSENTIAL HULK VOL. 5

TOMB OF DRACULA OMNIBUS VOL. 1

ASTERIX OMNIBUS VOL. 10

DISNEYS DUCKTALES GOLD ODYSSEY

TINTIN HARDCOVER BOXED SET

UNCLE SCROOGE #381

WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES #696

WILL EISNER READER

New trailer for Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse"

This just turned up...

Kinks reunion in the works?

Ray Davies is working on new tunes for a possible Kinks reunion album, the BBC reports.

"It depends if there's good music. We want good new music. I'd like to do it as a more collaborative thing than we used to do."

In September, Davies said any reunion would also depend on the health of bandmate and brother Dave, who suffered a stroke in 2004. But Dave is currently well, the singer said.

Good morning America!

And congratulations President-Elect Obama!

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I'm a happy man today.

Now back to pop culture...

Exotic singer Yma Sumac dies

The New York Times has an obituary.

Ms. Sumac created a sensation as an otherworldly chanteuse who sold millions of records, appeared onstage and in movies, filled European concert halls and fetched $25,000 a performance in Las Vegas. Most critics and musicians heard four octaves in her voice — compared with two for the average singer — though she claimed she could cover five. But few doubted a vocal ability that many experts thought belonged in opera.

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Don't forget to vote!

Or, maybe on the other hand, Megan Fox is Wonder Woman

UPDATE: The general consensus seems to be that the Wonder Woman site referenced here isn't legit. The photo is certainly photo shopped. That doesn't necessarily mean Megan Fox isn't in the running. But it also doesn't mean she IS. At any rate, somebody spent a lot of time on that site. Not sure why. But it was an interesting effort.

That's what this site says today anyway. Yesterday, I speculated Jennifer Lopez had got the part.

After a several day's tease, pieces of a poster depicted on this site were peeled away, revealing Megan Fox as the Amazon superhero.

Still no word as to whether this is at all legitimate or, if it's not, why anyone would bother.

We'll see, I guess.

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Is Jennifer Lopez the new Wonder Woman?

UPDATED: HERE

Ok, I've become a bit obsessed about this whole thing. It's my old reporter instincts, I think. I wanna figure out what's up.

The other day, I came across this site, which looks to be part of a viral marketing campaign for the upcoming live-action Wonder Woman movie.

Doing some searching around the Web, I ventured on the Wonder Woman Wikipedia entry, which contains a section on the in-production film. Although it's since been edited, that section briefly mentioned that Warner Bros would be posting an official film Web site in October (when the site I mentioned above appeared) and that Jennifer Lopez was rumored to be the lead.

A check of the Jennifer Lopez Wiki entry lists "Diana" in "Wonder Woman," out in 2010, as among her film roles.

So...

This could all be a load of bunk, or a scoop. We'll see.

New DVDs, CDs: Star Wars prequel, Get Smart, Howdy Doody, Dylan, Girl from U.N.C.L.E., more

A look at this week's new releases:

DVDs

Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

Star Wars Trilogy

Get Smart (2 Disc Special Edition)

Popeye the Sailor: 1941-1943, Vol. 3

Batman - The Complete Animated Series

Get Smart - The Complete Series Gift Set

Route 66 - The Complete Second Season

The Howdy Doody Show- 40 Episode Collection

CDs

The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs - Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006 Bob Dylan (1-disk edition)

At the BBC-Earbook Paul Weller

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. Original Soundtrack

The Golden Age Of American Popular Music Volume 2 Various Artists

Break-A-Way: The Songs Of Jackie Deshannon 1961-1967 Various Artists

Nineteen Sixty Six: The David Axelrod & HB Barnum Sessions Little Willie John