Today, 20th Century Fox unveiled their plans for a 21st century reboot the Hannah-Barbara classic, The Flintstones to by co-produced by Warner Brothers Television. Overseeing the production will be none other than Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane. However, unlike MacFarlane’s raunchier block of animated programming, the show will probably be a tad more family-oriented. Furthermore, while the production might start later this fall, the show itself may not even air until 2013. It’ll be quite the wait, but considering the amount of red tape likely surrounding a series as old as The Flintstones, and MacFarlane’s target demographic, it’s surprising the project even got the green light in the first place. Whether or not the show will be any good definitely remains to be seen.
Posted by Linda Yau on May 16, 2011 in Comic Books
In a life time, a quarter life is a milestone and put this in the context of Viz Media, who just so happens to be celebrating 25 years of being in business this upcoming year. Does it call for a celebration or what? The American manga industry has been having stormy weather recently, so for manga fans, knowing that Viz Media’s age is actually a positive one. Read more…
Above: Rica ‘tte Kanji!? really proved to an American audience that manga didn’t have to be about magical girls or robots, but could tell personal stories about the real world. Currently an Rica ‘tte Kanji!? Omnibus is being produced.
When you are around manga and graphic novels a lot, one voice or genre might pop up, and that is the alternative press of gay and lesbian that is quite popular among readers and fans. You don’t have to even be a fan for this genre, but be open minded to know that it is there. Within the past couple of weeks, there has been an issue of censorship in graphic novels on Amazon Kindle. So this week we are happy to have an email interview with ALC Publishing and Yuricon founder Erica Friedman. Erica’s blog is called Okazu which are the wonderful Japanese bread with savory fillings. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on May 15, 2011 in Television
NBC may have passed on picking up the much-maligned Wonder Woman pilot, but that doesn’t mean that they’re done with genre TV for 2011-12. In fact, they picked up two pilots — the first is called Grimm, and it’s about a cop who finds out supernatural creatures are real and has to protect the city from them. The second, Awake, may be of special interest to Harry Potter film fans, as Lucius Malfoy portrayer Jason Isaacs is playing the lead. The plot? Isaac’s character is a cop (yes, again) who lives in two worlds after an automobile accident: one where his wife survived, and one where his son survived. It’s pretty high-concept and Isaacs is a great actor, so with any luck the show will survive.
Netflix actually has a lot of genre stuff available to watch instantly, so you may suffer from what I like to call Netflix Indecision Disorder: the condition that forces you to just aimlessly browse Netflix for two hours instead of actually picking something to watch. Suffer no more, friends! SF Signal concocted this excellent chart that’ll help you find the perfect scifi show or movie to watch on Netflix based on your interests or capricious whims. That reminds me … I need to go watch Alien Nation again. Read more…
Not a live-action one, though; don’t get your hopes up for that any time soon. Roberto Orci, half of the Star Trek reboot’s writing team, tweeted last night that he’s been talking with someone about putting together another Star Trek animated series. Details were left out, of course, given the 140-character limit, so we’re not exactly sure who he was talking to about it or whether it was just musing, but you have to admit that with how far TV animation has come, there might be some potential here. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on May 13, 2011 in Television
Warehouse 13 is apparently SyFy’s most popular show ever, so it makes sense that they’d want to milk it for all it’s worth. Enter spinoff! Yes, showrunner Jack Kenny announced he’s working with the scripted content-starved channel to create a Warehouse 13 spinoff starring, of all people, H. G. Wells. No, not the author. Well, kind of the author. See, on the show, Wells is actually a woman who let her brother write stories based on her real adventures with crazy inventions in the late 19th century, so the spinoff would focus on said adventures in that time period. Kenny describes it as “steampunky environment.” I worry whenever the term “steampunk” is used by a professional.
Posted by Michael Sacco on May 13, 2011 in Pulp Fiction
No, not that kind of song, and not that kind of cover either! We’re talking book covers here. George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is getting a Japanese translation via Hayakawa Publishing, and a few well-known manga and video game artists have provided covers for the series’ run. Ken Sugawara and Yasushi Suzuki have some of my favorites on here; it’s pretty great to see such a different take on the characters compared to HBO’s recent (very successful) Game of Thrones TV series. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on May 12, 2011 in Design, Fandom
While many of you may recognize some of her work from around the net, you probably don’t know the name behind some of these nerdy Art Nouveau-inspired character portraits. Her name is Megan Lara, a 22 year-old aspiring artist and self-proclaimed fangirl and her art’s been turning quite a few heads as of late. Her art isn’t limited to these portraits either. Megan’s portfolio also includes fine art, general prints, and more. Currently, a large portion of her works are available on t-shirts via Level Up Studios, but her designs can be found everywhere from RedBubble to, most recently, ThinkGeek. If you’d like to check out more of her work, you can visit her official site or browse on over to her Deviant Art.
Namco Bandai revealed the latest trailer for the upcoming fantasy action title, Dark Souls. Like it’s spiritual predecessor, Demon’s Souls, the title promises brutal, highly difficult and unforgiving gameplay while providing one of the most immersive experiences the genre has seen to date. I have to admit, I found the previous title to be a bit too difficult at times, often needing to take extended breaks to prevent myself from stressing out. In addition, the game’s environment, though arguably beautiful at times, can be extremely creepy. It had been a long time since a game sent those kinds of tingles down my spine. Nevertheless, this upcoming release looks spectacular and I really can’t wait to give it a try. The trailer also reveals an October release date — unfortunately, the game will be available exclusively for PS3. Given Namco’s involvement, we can always hope that it’ll get ported, but only time will tell.
