Last year around this very same time, we found out that the great ThinkGeek had received permission from George Lucas and his LucasFilm to create and sell the Tauntaun Sleeping Bag, which originated as an April Fool’s Day joke and exploded in undeniable popularity (Read: Must Own: The Famed ‘Star Wars’ Tauntaun Sleeping Bag Is Now A Reality!).

Now comes the next great product that Star Wars fanatics will have to own: the Jedi bath robe. Yes indeed, now you can be a noble Jedi any time of the day, and it won’t require you wear a Halloween costume in January, which might just lead to nervous friends and family members who one day randomly stop calling.

The robe is a large one-size-fits-all offering, and yes, the Jedi logo is embroidered on it as well…you know, to prove you’re really a Jedi and not some dude who bought their gear online. That’d be like buying your PhD from www.24hourdocter.com, and the other real Jedi would no doubt bully you and steal your chocolate milk. [...]

We here at Geeks of Doom are big fans of the wave of hybrid novels, taking classic stories or historical figures and adding horrific elements such as zombies, monsters, aliens, and vampires, to name a few.

This crazy idea started with author Seth Grahame-Smith‘s alteration of the classic Jane Austen work, Pride and Prejudice, which was called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Many different types have followed like Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and a lot of them even have movie projects in the works.

Being the lead horse it is, a movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies looked to be well on the way, and last December we found out that actress Natalie Portman would be producing the movie through her Handsomecharlie Films banner, and that she would also be starring in the role of Elizabeth Bennett…though sadly not all good things last. [...]

With DC Comics announcing that they are dropping the price on their regular 32-page single issues, I wondered if Marvel Comics would follow suit. Turns out I didn’t have to wait long, because it has now been announced that Marvel in fact will be dropping the price on some of their titles.

Speaking Thursday at the ICv2 Conference on Comics & Digital, Marvel Senior Vice President of Sales and Circulation David Gabriel announced that any new books released after January of 2011 will not be priced at $3.99.

Gabriel spoke about how Marvel’s relative success in digital distribution has allowed the company to decrease their prices. While sales of digital copies of Marvel’s comics has not passed sales of print copies yet, they are still apparently strong enough to make this move [...]

Not content to wait until the New York Comic-Con starts, DC got a jump on Wednesday by announcing that the Batman Beyond comic book series, previously planned as a 6-issue mini-series will now get an ongoing series. January will see a new #1 issue, featuring the same creative team as the mini. Writer Adam Beechen and artist Ryan Benjamin will continue to bring readers the further adventures of Terry McGinnis, the Batman of the future.

The mini has seen McGinnis take on some version of the Batman villain Hush. McGinnis, with assistance from Bruce Wayne, has had to protect some of the Batman’s former villains from a bandaged foe, and while the whole mystery has yet to be revealed, it’s been a fun ride so far, and it seems that readers have reacted enough that DC thought it was a good idea to take the series full time [...]

The Walking Dead started out as a comic book series, and will soon see life as a TV series on AMC, and now it will set out to conquer another format as a series of prose novels, set to release sometime next year. As reported by Deadline, Robert Kirkman’s story about life after the zombie apocalypse will get three novels published by St. Martins Press’s Thomas Dunne books.

The three books will be based on ideas and an outline from Kirkman, with horror novelist Jay Bonansinga writing the actual texts. Bonansinga has several novels to his credit already, and looking at the description of the books (Perfect Victim, Twisted and Shattered) he seems to be a writer whose style will fit well with Kirkman’s own style. Deadline says that the story will take place in the Walking Dead “universe,” so I’m not sure if it will feature Rick Grimes and the rest of the cast of the comic book series, or if Bonansinga will create his own characters and keep them separate from the main cast [...]

Recorded October 4, 2010.

Check out Episode 22 of Comics of Doom, the official comics podcast of Geeks of Doom, where we doom All Star Superman!

Click HERE to open the podcast player in a new window.

Podcast player is here below.

Listen now!

E-mail us at comicsofdoom [at] gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter – @ComicsOfDoom
Subscribe to the Podcast: RSS | iTunes | Zune [...]

A Reddit user by the name lolbacon has created a classic 3×3 character alignment chart for Battlestar Galactica that is pretty dead on. For instance, Kara “Starbuck” Thrice represents “chaotic good” while the Adamas represent the rest of the good spectrum. Also, Baltar is “True Neutral,” which is an interesting choice.

While some of the comments from the submission criticized breaking down the rich and vibrant BSG personalities into overly simplistic categories of good, neutral and evil, lolbacon said he sympathized and agreed that the characters are so often varying shades of grey.

“It was pretty difficult to try to pigeonhole them. I just had a weird dream last night about playing a BSG D&D campaign and spent the better part of this morning thinking about how the characters would fall on an alignment chart.”

Check out the image here at right (click for large view) [...]

Fans who have been lamenting the price of comics have cause for celebration today, as it was announced that DC Comics would be dropping the price on most of their comics.

A press release on DC’s blog, The Source revealed that they are “lowering the prices on all standard length 32-page ongoing comic book titles currently priced at $3.99 to $2.99.”

Here’s the full press release below [...]

A new project that has been in the works for over a year now has been announced. The new venture sees god of comic book and superhero creationism, Stan Lee, joining forces with an unlikely ally, the National Hockey League.

Since the NHL had a lockout a while back, they’re been fighting to slowly regain the loyalty of their fans while also finding ways to lure new fans to their sport. Some things have worked, some have not. Hockey has a faithful fanbase, but their numbers are still far below fellow top sports like football, baseball, and basketball. So why not call the man, the myth himself, Stan Lee?

And what have they been working on, you might ask? It’s called The Guardian Project, and its aim is to create 30 brand new superheros in conjunction with the 30 different hockey teams and cities in the NHL. While each new superhero will be made to uniquely represent the hockey team and city they stand for, including with their special powers, they won’t be specifically set in just the world of hockey alone. [...]

Body/Antibody
DVD
DIRECTORS: Kerry Douglas Dye, Jordan Hoffman
STARRING: Robert Gomes, Leslie Kendall, Frank Deal, Deborah Gibson
LeisureSuit Media
RELEASE DATE: July 13, 2010

All over the world, many people suffer from extreme obsessive compulsive disorders which constrict them from taking part in normal day-to-day activities. But what happens when one of them decides to step out of their comfort zone just a little bit and try to be normal?

This is the basic idea behind Body/Antibody, an independent film from Kerry Douglas Dye and Jordan Hoffman. The movie was released back in 2007, but remains relatively unknown and unseen, and this is a shame.

Body/Antibody tells the story of Kip (Robert Gomes), and man being held prisoner in his own apartment by his obsessive compulsive disorder. Kip isn’t a big fan of any type of germs, and he goes to extreme lengths to keep them out. He works out of his home from his computer; he pays people to deliver food he needs or take out his trash; he does his laundry in the bath tub; he washes, scrubs, and sanitizes any and everything as often as he sees necessary, including constantly washing his hands and taking many showers a day. [...]

A new name has been cast in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, as announced by author Stephenie Meyer on The Twilight Saga Facebook page.

Meyer reveals that Mackenzie Foy has joined the cast of the two-part final movie. The 9-year-old actress will play the part of (SPOILER Warning?) Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Bella Swan’s (Kristen Stewart) love-baby, Renesmee Cullen, a half-vampire/half-human member of the Olympic Coven. She’s also the imprintee of Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner)… whatever that might mean. You Twilight fans should all know what this stuff means.

The movie is directed by Bill Condon, and it also stars Billy Burke as Charlie Swan as well as returning members of the Cullen Family including Peter Facinelli as Carlisle, Elizabeth Reaser as Esme, Jackson Rathbone as Jasper, Nikki Reed as Rosalie, Ashley Greene as Alice, and Kellan Lutz as Emmett, Dakota Fanning as Jane, Maggie Grace as Irina, and Anna Kendrick as Jessica. [...]

Amazon is offering up Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country for purchase for only $3.99 through their Video On Demand service.

This digital deal is only for today, Thursday, October 7 until midnight PST, so grab it while you can. The digital version is regularly $9.99, and the 24-hour rental is $2.99.

Visit the Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country product page to purchase the film.

Released in 1991, this is the final film in the franchise to feature the entire original Star Trek cast, including William Shatner as Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. The film also saw the return of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer to the director’s chair (previous occupied by Nimoy for Star Trek III & IV and Shatner for Star Trek V). A very young, pre-Sex and the City Kim Cattrall has a major role as a Spock’s Vulcan protege, while Christopher Plummer stars as a Klingon.

Synopsis: The crews of the Enterprise and the Excelsior must stop a plot to prevent a peace treaty between the Klingon Empire and the Federation. [...]

It didn’t take long for director Sam Raimi to find some big job offers after Spider-Man 4 was trashed by Sony. Raimi has been attached to a new take on the classic tale of The Wizard of Oz for Walt Disney, and also to the movie adaptation of video game property, World of Warcraft, leaving him needing to make a big decision.

Since Raimi was hired on to this new venture, titled Oz: The Great and Powerful, it appeared that it would be the next movie he made, but official confirmation on his commitment was still needed. This bring us to this very moment, where Raimi has indeed informed Disney that he’s ready, willing, and able to head to the land of Oz.

The hopes have always been for Robert Downey Jr. to start in this new Oz, which has been said to center around the wizard himself, before he’s whisked off to the magical world. [...]

Apart from the much-covered spat between director Michael Bay and starlet Megan Fox, which ultimately led to her replacement with Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as the female lead, and star Shia LaBeouf promising things would be much better this time around, we haven’t heard too much about Transformers 3.

The Bay directed trilogy-capper now has itself an official title, and it will be interesting to see how fans react to it. The movie will now be called Transformers: The Dark of the Moon, which ties to a trio of upcoming Transformer novels with similar titles, Transformers: The Dark of the Moon – Secret of the Autobots, Transformers: The Dark of the Moon – Autobots Betrayed!, and Transformers: The Dark of the Moon: Invasion of the Decepticons.

The third installment also stars returning actors Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, and Hugo Weaving, and an impressive list of newcomers including Alan Tudyk, Ken Jeong, Patrick Dempsey, Frances McDormand and John Malkovich. [...]

Happy Megamonth Everybody!

In honor of the upcoming Dreamworks Animated film Megamind, Will Ferrell and 1,580 caped crusaders took on the Guinness Book of World Records for Largest Gathering of Superheroes on Saturday, October 2, 2010, and completely destroyed the competition. This legion of justice gathered together at 10AM precisely in Los Angeles to take on this task to honor the film’s November release.

The Guinness rules were simple, but specific. It was required that all involved be “dressed as an easily identifiable super hero that has appeared in a published book, comic, television program, or film” and these heroes were up to the task. The previous record was for 1,500, so the Megamind crew easily took home the prize. Check out Will Ferrell’s comment on the crowd’s heroic victory below.

We just broke the record for the biggest gathering of super heroes to kick off Megamonth. If everyone would just stay in their costumes for all of October, we could break another one.

Also, check out the video of the event from Saturday here below [...]

Quite the buzz has grown recently around director Adam Green‘s slasher flick sequel, Hatchet II, and now an undying (fittingly) discussion is becoming all the more heated.

If you’re at all familiar movie ratings systems, you’re likely aware that the MPAA heads it all up and has been the source of much controversy over the years. Multitudes of films have struggled to get their movie down from an R rating to a PG-13, while many others have been forced to cut and trim crucial content just to find a way to reach an R rating down from the feared NC-17.

See, the problem with the system is that if this stuffy group of people who run the MPAA decide to pin your movie with an NC-17 rating, it’s not able to go into wide release because most theaters won’t touch them. This leaves you only the choice of releasing an NC-17 or unrated product in a limited amount of theaters, and that’s why you hear so much about movies having to cut down and earn that R. [...]

Recorded October 4, 2010.

Our October Doom Of The Month will be Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead Volumes 1 & 2! If you want to read along with us, head on over to Instocktrades.com or DCBService.com to pick up volumes 1 and 2 for some super prices! Be sure to check back at the end of October for our special review episode.

Check out Episode 21 of Comics of Doom, the official comics podcast of Geeks of Doom. Click HERE to open the podcast player in a new window.

Podcast player is here below, along with an Episode Guide.

Listen now!

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If you’re heading to New York Comic-Con this weekend, keep a look out for the Comics of Doom gang! [...]

Before your head explodes, no, this is not about a remake of the 1999 Will Smith western movie…not quite. Though surely you were all so very excited about just the thought of such a thing.

No, this is about the man behind the fantastic Battlestar Galactica reboot, Ronald D. Moore, and a new project he’s working on. According to reports, Moore is in the early stages of developing a series based on the ’60s western television series, The Wild Wild West. It was this show which the ’99 movie was based on.

Work on this potential new series is still at the very earliest stages, so pitches to networks are still off in the distance. Knowing Moore, however, it should be exciting to see what he comes up with and networks will surely be itching with anticipation.

The show ran from 1965 to 1969 and starred Robert Conrad and Ross Martin as a pair of secret service agents who are reassigned to the wild west, where they used their advanced gadgets to get things done. [...]

Recently it was reported that Emma Stone had been offered the role of Mary Jane Watson in Sony Pictures’ reboot of Spider-Man. It would appear that Stone was unable to resist the comic book temptations, as it’s now been announced by the studio that the actress has accepted the role…though it is not for Mary Jane.

In a press release put out by Sony, it was confirmed that Stone would be playing the female lead, but it would be Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man’s first love from the comics, and not the Mary Jane character that Kirsten Dunst played in the first trilogy. It’s unknown whether or not M.J. will show up at all, or if this is just Sony distancing itself even more from what they did the first time around.

Stone will star opposite of Andrew Garfield (The Social Network, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) who was announced as the new Spider-Man back in July. The actress first made her mark with a small role in Superbad, and has since starred in movies like The Rocker, The House Bunny, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, Zombieland, and Easy A. [...]

Syfy’s cylontastic hour-long drama Caprica returns to the network tonight to finish out the second half of its season, which is said to be filled with multiple robot-sentient Zoe Graystones and more screen time for James Marsters‘ character Barnabas Greeley.

We’re just doing our duty as geek journalists by reminding everyone who didn’t catch our earlier post [Read:‘Caprica’ Returning To SyFy Early, Oct. 5 Premiere].

So, consider this your official notice to do the following:[...]