The video game deal of the day over at Amazon today is Call of Duty: World at War Greatest Hits edition for Playstation 3 for only $15.99 (that’s 47% off the list price of $29.99).

Note, this sale is valid only for today, Thursday, October 13, 2011, until 11:59PM PST while supplies last [...]

President of programming for HBO, Michael Lombardo, has announced that they have officially renewed their hit Prohibition drama Boardwalk Empire for a third season.

The decision was made after the show received continued critical praise after its season 2 premiere on September 25.

Of the announcement, Lombardo said “Following a triumphant first season, I was eager to see what Terry Winter, Martin Scorsese and the rest of their stellar team had in store, and they continue to surpass our highest expectations. The response from the media and our viewers has been extremely gratifying.”

Boardwalk Empire is set in 1920s Atlantic City (with visits to New York and Chicago) during the Prohibition era, where various factions are caught up in a chess game of booze and politics—with public figure and the man to see when it comes to liquor, Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (Steve Buscemi), in the dead center of it all—while attempting to eliminate their competitors and rule the alcohol business. [...]

The Cape #2 (of 4)
Written by Jason Ciaramella
Inspired by a Short Story by Joe Hill
Art by Zach Howard
Colors by Nelson Daniel
Letters by Shawn Lee
IDW Publishing
Released October 12, 2011
Price: $3.99

There are a lot of comics out right now that deal with fantastic people with amazing powers who are, well, kind of jerks. The Cape #2 (of 4) for IDW Publishing is another one of these books, and it is also one seriously messed up comic. I mean, there is some really freaky stuff going on in this book. And you know what? I don’t have a problem with that because it is one well done comic. How The Cape sets itself apart from books like Irredeemable is that while it has some superhero elements, it is more of a grounded story with normal characters and a situation that many can identify with [...]

Orchid #1
Written by Tom Morello
Art by Scott Hepburn
Colors by Dan Jackson
Cover by Massimo Carnevale
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 12, 2011
Cover Price: $1.00

In all honesty, I asked to review this mainly because it was written by Tom Morello, of Audioslave and Rage Against The Machine (one of my favorite bands ever) fame. I went in with an open mind and I truly expected something slightly strange…I was not disappointed. Orchid #1 is a glimpse into a future to which none of us wish to bear witness.

Orchid is the story of a world after the sea has risen and changed the topography of the land. The wealthy live up high while the poor are forced in dirty villages and live as slaves to the folks in charge. Nature has kicked evolution into overdrive and there some scary creatures living in the forests surrounding each town. We get to see some of the rebels who want to change the way things are but are both out manned and outgunned at every turn. One of them escapes the clutches of the authority only to find himself hiding with the family of Orchid, a local prostitute who also has a healthy sized rebellious streak. It all wraps up with them being carted off to be sold as slaves [...]

If there is one thing that Quentin Tarantino is better at than most people, it is reviving the “dead” careers of various actors. Be it a stagnant John Travolta in Pulp Fiction or David Carradine in Kill Bill, the guy just knows how to reboot careers.

And now it is Don Johnson’s turn. Variety is reporting that Johnson is set to join the cast of Tarantino’s new film, Django Unchained, in the role of Spencer “Big Daddy” Bennett [...]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 9 #2
Based on the television series created by Joss Whedon
Script by Andrew Chambliss
Pencils by Georges Jeanty
Inks by Dexter Vines
Colors by Michelle Madsen
Letters by Richard Starkings, Jimmy Betancourt
Cover by Steve Morris
Alternate Cover by Georges Jeanty, Dexter Vines, J.D. Mettler
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 12, 2011
Cover Price: $2.99

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 9 #2 starts off with dead bodies, credit demons (no, really), and a big dose of cold, hard reality for Buffy. Add to that some creatures of the night doing a little breaking and entering and you have the makings of a good BTVS story! [...]

Today’s a great day if you like Liam Neeson or John McClane.

Dates have been set for the release of a cavalcade of hotly discussed projects today, and none are bigger than the upcoming fifth film in the Die Hard franchise, now titled A Good Day To Die Hard. The film, helmed by John Moore, will hit on February 14, 2013 and will find our lead in battle with Russian forces, along with his two sons. Got to have some young blood in there, I guess [...]

Ghostbusters #2
Written by Erik Burnham
Art by Dan Schoening
Colors by Luis Antonio Delgado
PCOC Pages by Tristan Jones
Letters by Shawn Lee
Covers by Dan Schoening, Nick Runge
IDW Publishing
Release Date: October 12th, 2011
Cover Price: $3.99

Simply put, reading this comic makes you remember just how much fun you had seeing Ghostbusters for the first time in the theater. One of the things I love about this series so far, and it’s only 2 issues in, is that it feel like a natural continuation of the film franchise. There’s no reboot, not pre-first film story going on. In fact, the boys actually have to deal with events that happened in the films. Just like in real life, things you do from the past come back to haunt you.

I have to give it to writer Erik Burnham, he packs a lot of story into this issue. This comic is the very definition of “page-turner”. We get to see more actual ghost busting in this issue than in both movies combined. As it was with the last issue, the dialogue is written very natural for the characters, you can hear the actors saying the lines in your head as you read the book. New characters are introduced, new story lines are set up and best of all, we get so see a full-on Ghostbusters “call” from beginning to end. [...]

Haunted City #1
Written by Chap Taylor, Peter Johnson
Illustrated by Michael Ryan
Colored by Kelsey Shannon, Beth Sotelo
Letters by Josh Reed
Aspen Comics
Release Date: October 12, 2011
Cover Price: $3.50

Paranormal comics usually aren’t my bag, but this one seemed different. A crooked cop, a Celtic goddess and children dying. Haunted City #1 brings all that to the story and a bit more. Best of all, not only is it a comic series but it will apparently transition into a feature film, a television show, and a video game.

The story is just getting started, obviously, but Chap Taylor and Peter Johnson spin one hell of an interesting tale. Secret police, female rabbis, drug dealers. A very populated first comic. And that’s not even including all the ghosts…it seems New York is an undead haven! The comic actually describes it as “the biggest haunted house in the world.” Even the bold lines of Michael Ryan‘s art is perfect for this series. [...]

Recorded October 9, 2011.

Episode Guide

Comics of Doom Intro [Section 1]

Recorded October 9, 2011. Hosted by Justin Vactor, Willie Gillis, Hunter Camp, and Chris McDavid.

News of Doom [Section 2]
- Barnes and Noble Pulls 100 DC Comics From Shelves
- DC Comics Brings Collections To Kindle Fire
- Image Comics Goes Day-And-Date Digital
- ‘Spider-Man: Edge of Time’ Out in Stores, Watch the Launch Trailer
- Watch The Trailer For Guitarist Tom Morello’s Comic Book ‘Orchid’ [...]

Each and every week “The Spider” Henchman21 and “The Microwave” MK2FAC3 read a lot of comics. Seriously you guys, a lot of comics. Maybe too many comics. I mean, it is possible… theoretically. They look forward to some more than others, I mean, who doesn’t? So, let’s take a look into the depths of their pull lists, grab some comics, and we’ll let YOU know what the top books to look forward to are for the week of October 12, 2011. Single issues and trades, they’re all here.

The ‘Wave is busy traveling to New York Comic-Con, so he’s a little preoccupied this week, what with packing his Batman costume and making sure he has enough Batarangs with him so he can fight crime on the streets of the real Gotham city, so it’s just your friendly neighborhood Henchman this week (I’m already stationed here in NYC for the week). “Wavey Gravy” does want to make sure you know about The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold #12, out this week featuring a team-up with Zatanna. Because it wouldn’t be a GoD list without MK talking about a Batman comic. Here are a few books I am looking forward to this week [...]

AMC has announced that their annual horror-themed festival Fearfest, which runs the last two weeks of October, climaxing on Halloween obviously, will be launched on Sunday, October 16, 2011 with the Season 2 premiere of The Walking Dead and will feature original programming and the network television debuts of several horror films from recent years. AMC will also air a slew of classic horror films during Fearfest, including The Omen, Bride of Frankenstein, Halloween, the 1958 and 1986 versions of The Fly, and the original Night of the Living Dead [...]

Ghostbusters #1
Written by Erik Burnham
Art by Dan Schoening
Colors by Luis Antonio Delgado
PCOC pages by Tristan Jones
Letters by Shawn Lee
Covers by Dan Schoening, Luis Antonio Delgado, Nick Runge, Alan Robinson
IDW Publishing
Release Date: September 28, 2011
Cover Price: $3.99

“Who you gonna call?” That’s right, folks. Ghostbusters #1 begins a new ongoing series from IDW Publishing. I know what you’re thinking…didn’t someone try to do this a while back…like several times? Yeah, but not like this. Someone really watched their movies, didn’t you Erik Burnham? He perfectly captured the nuances of all the original characters. It’s like you can hear them talking. No, I didn’t really hear them. Geez, I’m not quite THAT crazy. But wow, I felt immediately immersed in the story and really embraced his dialogue between the characters. Simply well done, sir [...]

The digital rental deal of the day over at Amazon today is The Adjustment Bureau, which is available for rental for only $.99.

This deal is valid only for today, Wednesday, October 12, 2011, until 11:59 PST. Once you activate the rental through Amazon’s Instant Demand service, you’ll have access to the movie for 48 hours. If you’re interested in purchasing the digital version, the cost is $9.99.

Also, if you’d like to own a physical copy of The Adjustment Bureau, which stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack is available for $23.27 while the DVD is $15.49. The DVD is part of Amazon’s “Buy This DVD and Watch it Instantly” program — you get the film as a FREE digital rental you can watch immediately when you purchase the physical copy [...]

Just recently Entertainment Weekly gathered up the casts of some popular movies for their 2011 Cast Reunions issue, which included the cast of director Rob Reiner‘s 1987 timeless fantasy classic, The Princess Bride.

And being that it happens to be my own personal favorite movie of all time, I eat this stuff up. So when I saw that Good Morning America also jumped on the cast reunion for their Totally Awesome ’80s Week, giddiness levels elevated. Stars Cary Elwes (Westley/The Man in Black), Robin Wright (Princess Buttercup), Chris Sarandon (Prince Humperdinck), Wallace Shawn (Vizzini), Billy Crystal (Miracle Max), and Carol Kane (Valerie) were present to discuss the movie and tell stories from behind the scenes, including a very funny one involving the late Andre the Giant, who played Fezzik.

You can see a video of the cast of The Princess Bride reunited on the set of Good Morning America by heading below now. [...]

A full list of achievements for the upcoming Bethesda Softworks title, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, has found its way to the ‘net.

There is 50 achievements to be had, worth a total of 1,000 points. There is also a couple of fun surprises and confirmations (at least for me personally—some of you may have heard about these things elsewhere already) included in the full list, which Elder Scrolls superfans will surely get a kick out of.

The biggest of these is the confirmation of The Dark Brotherhood. Easily the most popular side quest of the previous game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the quest saw you becoming a member of an underground assassins guild, and partaking in some very interesting “jobs” to prove your worth and take home a decent little purse. It’s always been assumed that the Brotherhood would be returning for Skyrim, but it’s nice to see it as an official part of the achievement list. [...]

Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr has been sentenced to 90 lashes for her role in the 2009 Australian film My Tehran for Sale. The actress, who was arrested in July and sentenced by the court this past weekend, appeared in the movie without a headscarf on and a shaved head, and the story involved both drug use and an observation of Iran’s oppressive ways.

In a cruel twist of irony, Vafamehr played the lead in the film, also named Marzieh, an actress in Tehran whose theatre work is banned by the government, forcing her to lead a secret life in order to pursue her passions. One night she meets a fellow Iranian named Saman who now resides in Australia and offers her a chance to also escape the everyday fears of being who you want to be that come with living there.

Continue reading for more and to see a trailer for My Tehran for Sale. [...]

Today marks the release of the first episode of Dragon Age: Redemption, a new web series based on the popular BioWare video game series.

The series stars Felicia Day (The Guild) and Doug Jones (Hellboy) and is produced by Day’s own production company, Knight of Good. The series focuses on Tallis (Day), an elf working for the Qunari, one of the groups in the fictional world of Dragon Age. She is tasked to track down Saarebas (Jones) a renegade mage of the Qunari who has escaped prison. But why am I telling you about it when you should just be watching it yourself.

Continue reading to see the video now.

Day and company have done a great job with this project, which makes sense, what with Day working for years on her own series, The Guild. They are the perfect company to handle this kind of web-series and judging from this first episode, they got it right. New episodes will launch each Tuesday, so make sure you subscribe to Machinima.com YouTube channel. [...]

Elric: The Balance Lost #4
Elric created by Michael Moorcock
Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Francesco Biagini
Colors by Stephen Downer
Lettering by Travis Lanham
Covers by Francesco Mattina, Erik Jones
BOOM! Studios
Release Date: October 12, 2011
Cover Price: $3.99

This is it! This issue begins to bring it all together. Elric: The Balance Lost #4 is obviously the precursor to a major occurrence. This team of folks is laying some seriously awesome groundwork for a great story. As we all know, I’m a big Elric fan, but it’s a really good series.

We start off in Tanelorn, the city that is both everywhere and sometimes nowhere. A quick visit to the Grey Lords leaves the reader knowing something is wrong. Jumping to Machinoix, we see Elric and the Horn of Fate trying to avoid the chaos that approaches. Next is New Orleans and Eric Beck fending off the warriors of Law. Then comes Corum in the stronghold of the Pukawatchi helping to defend against a siege. Lastly, we have Hawkmoon trapped in Narleen with a demonic cult. […]

“I’m the Thing….from another world, baby.”

Jon and Al Kaplan, the singing and songwriting brothers who brought The Silence of the Lambs to the Off-Broadway stage in the form of Silence! The Musical, have struck gold once again.

The brothers have been blitzing the Internet in recent months with a series of viral video musical adaptations, taking on Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night (released to coincide with the release of the 3D remakes of both). And with the prequel to the 1982 version of The Thing due in theaters this weekend the Kaplan brothers have gone back to the John Carpenter-directed classic take on John W. Campbell‘s short story “Who Goes There?” and worked their musical magic. You can watch the video below after the jump. [...]