Joe Quesada, Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment, announced today on Marvel’s website that Vice President, Executive Editor Axel Alonso has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Entertainment. In his new role at Marvel, Alonso will oversee all day to day aspects of Marvel’s publishing division, including advising on the editorial creative direction, developing new storylines, and brainstorming new initiatives. He will also be working on bigger corporate initiatives featuring Marvel’s stable of characters.

Quesada stated, “It’s with tremendous pride that I announce Axel Alonso’s promotion to Editor- In-Chief. For over a decade, Axel’s been instrumental in bringing fresh new voices to Marvel and reinventing our biggest characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, Wolverine and so many more. He’s fought to create unique imprints like Marvel MAX while also bringing fresh new voices to the Marvel family.”

Alonso came to Marvel in 2000 as a Senior Editor and was responsible for runs on Amazing Spider-Man and X-Men as well as helping to create X-Statix and Rawhide Kid. Alonso was also responsible for a recent partnership between Marvel and ESPN: The Magazine for an NBA preview issue [...]

DC Comics got rid of their letter columns in their comic book series a good number of years ago, but they have now proudly announced the return of the letter column in all of their monthly series. Those looking to get letters printed can email the publishers through www.dcletterspage.com or they can send them though the regular mail to the following address [...]

Oh yes! Fans of the D can now buzz with excitement with official word of a brand new album in the works.

While talking to Spinner, Jack Black revealed that he and Kyle Gass, who fused together long ago to create their band Tenacious D, are indeed working on some new music. Black said “We’re in the middle of recording it. We’re about halfway through the writing process. We need another few months. But you can look for it at the end of 2011.”

Since Black has skyrocketed to fame there’s been a lot less Tenacious D going on, with appearances here and there as well as the occasional concert. The last time we saw them on a large scale was in 2006 when their long-awaited movie, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, finally hit theaters. The movie was loved by faithful fans but didn’t fare so well at the box office, costing $20 million to make but only bringing back $13.9 million worldwide. [...]

With the new year comes brand new television and over the following days and weeks, we’ll take a look at the premieres of the Winter’s hottest shows in our Winter 2011 TV Primer!

First up will be the return of ABC’s V!

Tonight, at 9/8 Central on ABC, V is back for a second season, helmed by Scott Rosenbaum (formerly of Chuck and The Shield).

Below is ABC’s official recap summary of Season 1 which does a great job of explaining exactly what V is and what happened previously to catch you up for the Season 2 premiere. Also, embedded below is the latest V podcast that offers a good idea of what’s to come in Season 2.

First there was rumbling. Then, darkness filled the sky. The Visitors have arrived. FBI Counterterrorism Agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) stares in disbelief at one of the 29 massive alien ships hovering over the major cities of the world. A video image of the beautiful High Commander, Anna (Morena Baccarin), is seen from above. She soothingly says, “Don’t be frightened. We mean you no harm.” That’s a relief. [...]

BBC Worldwide launched a new BBCClassicDoctorWho’s Channel on YouTube today devoted to episodes from the classic Doctor Who era.

According to the BBC, the channel will feature a mix of classic clips and exclusive previews from forthcoming DVD releases. The initial launch will include 45 video clips dating back from the first episode, but more will regularly be added to page in the future.

The site will also contain new clips from Doctor Who: Meglos, which starred Tom Baker and originally aired in 1980, as well as an exclusive clip previewing the new Doctor Who: Meglos DVD boxset, which will be released in the UK by 2entertain on January 10 and by BBC Warner in the U.S. on January 11 [...]

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the death of musician Phil Lynott, frontman of the rock band Thin Lizzy.

Philip Parris Lynott was born in the UK on August 20, 1949 and grew up in Dublin, Ireland. Lynott began his musical career in the 1960s, playing with guitarist Gary Moore amongst others and in 1969 he co-founded Thin Lizzy as the band’s frontman and main songwriter, as well as lead singer and bassist. In the 1970s, the band hit it big with a rock version of the traditional Irish tune “Whiskey in the Jar” and again in 1976 with “The Boys Are Back in Town” and “Jailbreak.” [...]

Doctor Who fan favorite David Tennant (that’s Doctor number ten) is engaged to actress girlfriend Georgia Moffett, who is also the daughter of former Time Lord Peter Davison.

But that’s not the only piece of Whovian trivia about this couple.

Fans might recognize Moffett as the attractive blonde soldier Jenny from the now classic episode The Doctor’s Daughter in which a female version of The Doctor is created.

The pair plan to tie the knot on New Year’s Day 2012 [...]

The $9 t-shirt deal of the day over at Teefury today is the Lost-inspired “Rockem Sockem Candidates” shirt.

The sale at Teefury began at midnight EST (Tuesday, January 4, 2011) and will continue for 24 hours from then, and once it’s over, it’s gone from the site for good. The limited-edition t-shirt is available in Men’s in Slate and Women’s sizes in Powder Blue color. Visit the site to check out the t-shirt design by artist Michael Myers Jr.

Also, there’s a contest today for a chance to win a Lost: The Animated Series fan art poster created by Myers. To enter, follow the artist on Facebook at Drawsgood and leave a comment on one of the top two posts on that page OR follow @drawsgood on Twitter and send a tweet to that account stating “I want a freakin’ Lost poster!” [...]

Writer Steven Moffat spoke with The Guardian about the anticipated returns of two hit BBC shows: Doctor Who and Sherlock.

The writer, who took over as show runner for the fifth season of Doctor Who from Russell T. Davies, was tight-lipped about details of the sixth season, which sees the return of Matt Smith as the eleventh Doctor. Instead, he mainly spoke about the pressure and expectations on him to do well with the series.

While he didn’t spill any information about the upcoming sixth season of Doctor Who, he did give some clues as to what to expect for Season 2 of Sherlock.

“You can have three words to work from,” he laughs. “Adler, Hound, Reichenbach. Those are your clues.” [...]

The Gold Box deal of the day today over at Amazon today is the Farscape: The Complete Series DVD box set for only $49.99 (that’s 67% off the list price of $149.95).

Note, this deal is valid only for today, Tuesday January 4, 2011, until midnight PST while supplies last.

This 26-disc DVD set contains all 88 episodes of the sci-fi series Farscape, along with over 15 hours of bonus features like audio commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, and behind-the-scenes footage.

The live-action series ran for four seasons, shown in the United States on SciFi Channel, and is best known its puppetry work from the Jim Henson Company’s Creature Shop. The show starred Ben Browder as American astronaut John Crichton, who’s on a quest to find a wormhole that will lead him back to Earth [...]

The t-shirt deal of the day over at RIPT Apparel today is a Big Lebowski-inspired shirt called “The Jesus.”

The tee, by artist Tom Ledin, is on sale at RIPT only for today, Tuesday January 4, 2011 until tonight at midnight CST. Once the time is up, the shirt will no longer be available at the site.

The t-shirt is available in both men’s and women’s sizes in Purple for $10. Kids sizes are $15 (Boys, Girls & Toddlers in varying shades of Purple); Onesies are $18 (in Pink). You can also get the design on a Hoodie for $38 (in Men/Unisex sizes in Purple).

The design is inspired the character The Jesus played by John Turturro in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski [...]

We know that DC is pushing a lot of Green Lantern product this year, what with the big movie coming out this summer and a new animated series in the Fall. Readers have three current ongoing series, a big event with War of the Green Lanterns coming in February, and coming soon, another ongoing series centered around The Red Lantern Corps. Red Lanterns will launch later this year and will be written by Peter Milligan (X-Statix, Greek Street) with an artist to be announced later. The series will shed some light on the most popular group to spill out of last year’s Blackest Night storyline.

On DC’s blog, The Source, Milligan says the series will examine the origins of the Red Lantern Corps and why the leader of the Corps has remained so mad for so long. The series will star not only the leader of the Red Lantern Corps, Atrocitus, but the rest of the Corp, including everyone’s favorite blood-spewing cat, Dex-Starr! [...]

After a one-year engagement, writer Neil Gaiman and musician Amanda Palmer got married last night, then broke the news today via their respective Twitter accounts.

Gaiman proposed to Palmer on New Year’s Day 2010, and for Gaiman’s 50th birthday this past November, the couple had a mock wedding ceremony in New Orleans [Read: Still Life With Wedding Party]. Now the couple made it official in a ceremony held in writer Ayelet Waldman‘s parlor with Palmer wearing the same wedding dress she used as a street performer for over 5 years. The bride tweeted that the dress “was shredded…but it still worked.” [...]

News has been pretty slow over the holidays, and while we wait for things to begin picking up again, there’s always those ever-so-fun rumors to ponder.

Today there’s a rumor regarding another expected sequel in the magical world of Pixar Animation. As many of you know, Pixar was never big on any type of sequels not counting their Toy Story franchise. But with Toy Story 3 released this past summer and Cars 2 set for this upcoming summer, the popular studio is clearly taking time to expand upon some of their fantastic existing worlds instead of delivering more original content.

Other expected sequels from Pixar are Monsters Inc. 2 and The Incredibles (which seemed like the most likely to get a second film from the start), but it’s the former that’s on the rumor menu on this day.

Keep it very clear in mind that this is just a rumor and it’s unclear whether or not it will play out, but if it does it could be really interesting. [...]

The still-thriving 3D technologies being used in making movies today continue to dominate your local cinemas week-in and week-out. But where you haven’t seen this movie-watching phenomenon show up much yet, is in your own homes.

The purchase and use of 3D-ready television sets is still in its infancy and many have yet to throw down the amount of cash it would take to obtain one. Nevertheless, we do move closer and closer to everyone having a 3D TV in their homes, and we will be seeing many more movies becoming available with the added dimension on Blu-ray at their local retail outlets.

A few of these special Blu-ray 3D products have already been made available to those who do have the ability to watch them by Walt Disney, who always seems to be right on their game. They’ve already put out titles like Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and Robert Zemeckis’s A Christmas Carol in the format, but now many more are on the way for 2011. [...]

Here we have a small but entirely amusing little video from 1991.

The video is actually a commercial for Alka Seltzer from the country of Mexico. And who’s that starring? Well, it’s none other than Guillermo del Toro, the extremely popular director behind films like The Devil’s Backbone, Hellboy, Blade II, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Mr. del Toro also directed the commercial, which fittingly shows his turning into a werewolf before some good ol’ Alka Seltzer sets him straight.

You can see this gem of a video by clicking on over to the other side now! [...]

I love an awesomely decorated dessert, so these R2-D2 cookies caught my eye immediately. So cute!!!

Don’t ask me why the site it’s on is calling them cupcakes, as they look like cookies to me [...]

Highly recognized and respected British actor Pete Postlethwaite passed away yesterday after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Postlethwaite wasn’t necessarily the best-known actor and many likely wouldn’t even recognize him by name, but when anyone who’s seen a few movies lays eyes on him, they know who they’re looking at.

The actor’s career began in the ’70s with performances on both the stage and screen. He continued to perform in movies and in stage productions throughout his career, but it was in the 1990s that he truly made his mark on Hollywood and made his talents known to the entire planet.

Just in that decade alone, Postlethwaite appeared in movies like Alien 3, The Last of the Mohicans, In the Name of the Father (which gave him his first and only Academy Award nomination), The Usual Suspects (as the infamous Kobayashi), James and the Giant Peach, Dragonheart, Romeo + Juliet, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Amistad. These performances solidified him as one of the best character actors in the business and proved that he could be great on many different levels. [...]

Tough chicks who kick butt. The continued popularity explosion of paranormal YA. Male wizards. Hard-boiled detective stories with fantasy settings. These were the most dominant urban fantasy trends this year, and they’ll continue well into 2011.

Standouts include J.L. Bryan’s Jenny Pox about a girl who kills people with her touch. It’s a welcome change from the emo, vegetarian vampires that populate YA novels; highly recommended reading. Brandon Sanderson and Paul Hoffman showed us the darker side of epic fantasy, while Jocelynn Drake and Kelly Meding proved that their female protagonists kick just as much butt as the boys do. Thomas Sniegoski sent us on another adventure with angel-turned-human PI, Remy Chandler, and Joe Hill gave us another compelling protagonist with Ig, a human who grows horns.

My top pick, as with 2009, goes to Kill the Dead, the second volume in the Sandman Slim series. We continued Jimmy Stark’s foray into the gritty, noir-inspired Los Angeles of Kadrey’s fashioning, and this book featured a fantastic, Gaiman-esque interpretation of Lucifer. Let’s hope that the forthcoming title, Aloha from Hell, is even better.

Here’s my picks for the Top 10 Urban Fantasy and Horror Books of 2010 [...]

The t-shirt deal of the day over at RIPT Apparel today is a mash-up of Doctor Who and Space Invaders called “Invader Who.”

The tee, by artist Megan Lara, is on sale at RIPT only for today, Monday January 3, 2011 until tonight at midnight CST. Once the time is up, the shirt will no longer be available at the site.

The t-shirt is available in both men’s and women’s sizes in Black for $10. Kids sizes are $15 (Boys, Girls & Toddlers in Black); Onesies are $18 (in Black). You can also get the design on a Hoodie for $38 (in Men/Unisex sizes in Black).

The design takes the pixel aliens from the 1980′s arcade game Space Invaders and puts them together with a pixeled Dalek from Doctor Who [...]