Jerry Robinson, comics rights activist and creator of Batman villain The Joker, passed away Wednesday night at the age of 89 years old.

I hate writing articles like this, not only because it means that a creator whose work mattered to me as a reader and not only because he was a man for whom I have the utmost respect, but also because it’s impossible for me to do this man justice with anything I say about him. I cannot stress enough the importance of the creation of a character like The Joker and what kind of influence that has had on the comic book industry [...]

Finally, something new to report on the Lone Ranger front.

Deadline is reporting that Disney has found a baddie for its upcoming project, and an actor to fill its role. Tom Wilkinson will play Latham Cole, the leader of a gang who will be the one causing trouble for our lead, played by Armie Hammer [...]

Yeah, because there really is no better person to help spearhead an adaptation of an Anne Rice novel than one Christopher Columbus.

Joking aside, Variety is reporting that the director’s shingle 1492 Pictures are backing a take on Rice’s Christ The Lord: Out Of Egypt. The film will be helmed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, with a screenplay he penned alongside Betsy Nowrasteh [...]

Jack Avarice Is The Courier #5
Written by Chris Madden
Art by Chris Madden
Colors by Chris Madden
Letters by Chris Madden
Design by Chris Madden
Cover by Chris Madden
IDW Publishing
Release Date: November 30th, 2011
Cover Price: $3.99

I’m sure you’re tired of my always positive reviews of this title. I’m sorry, but they’re gonna keep going. Jack Avarice Is The Courier #5 is probably the best issue of the series! More and more of what is great about this series — action, adventure, laughs, and mystery. This issue is a perfect conclusion to this series.

Chris Madden, who handles writing and art duties, knows exactly where he’s going in this title and it shows [...]

On last Thursday’s episode of the fan favorite NBC series Community showed us what happens when Abed loses himself to The Dark Knight.

Now, this isn’t the first time that Abed embraced his inner Bat, but this was the most elaborate. The show’s premise was that Abed and Troy got a hold of a super rare extended edition of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight that featured commentary and a personalized autograph from the movie’s star Christian Bale. Unfortunately, some things happened that lead the character to believe that the disc had been stolen [...]

Color this writer far from shocked.

Vulture is reporting that Michael Bay is in talks to come back and helm the fourth film in the Transformers franchise.

The outlet reports that the film will shoot following Bay’s next film, Pain And Gain, and that star Shia LaBeouf is likely to skip out on this project. Furthermore, the fifth film will likely shoot following the next one, but that has yet to be confirmed by anyone involved [...]

The main video game deal of the day over at Amazon today is a $75 credit with the purchase of the Xbox 360 250GB Holiday Value Bundle with Kinect, which comes with the video games Carnival Games: Monkey See Monkey Do and Kinect Adventures, as well as a 3-Month Xbox LIVE Gold membership.

Add the item to your cart and purchase; $75 promotional code will be email to you within two days after your qualifying order ships [...]

Former Pantera and Damageplan guitarist ‘Dimebag’ Darrell died 7 years ago today. His murder was a story which shocked the whole rock and metal music world.

Born Darrell Abbott on August 20, 1966 in Ennis, Texas, he formed the heavy metal band Pantera with his brother Vinnie Paul on drums in 1981. Finally settling on a line up encompassing lead singer Phil Anselmo and bass player Rex Brown, Pantera began as a glam metal band before changing their plan of attack with their seminal heavy metal album Cowboys From Hell in 1991 [...]

Amazon is running a 19 Days of Deals sale on video games this month, with today’s entry being Sony’s “Long Live Play” Day, where you can save up to 50% on select Playstation 3 games like Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Dead Island, inFAMOUS 2, Resistance 3, Dungeon Siege III, and more, with some titles as low as $14.99.

Here’s a sample of some of the sale items:

- Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – $39.99

- Resistance 3 – $29.99
- Dead Island – $29.99
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution – $29.99
- God of War: Origins Collection – $19.99
- Dungeon Siege III – $24.99
- Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection – $14.99 [...]

I don’t know about you, but I have my fair share of Star Wars ornaments hanging on my Christmas tree. But this one is real adorable.

Lego crafter Chris McVeigh has created the Lego Star Wars Death Star ornament. Just look at the photo of it at top — how cute! And you can make your own, as McVeigh has tutorials up for the Death Star as well as a Lego Millennium Falcon [...]

Columbia Pictures has released an even longer trailer for the upcoming David Fincher film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which you can watch here below.

The 8-minute trailer was first made available last week at iTunes when the soundtrack went up for pre-order. Despite being more than three times longer than the average trailer, the extended scenes presented in this trailer (complete with an original score composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) have a nice, orderly flow to them and don’t reveal too much of the story [...]

Tim Seeley and Image Comics are offering a very special holiday gift for all fans of horror, a free Hack/Slash digital comic book!

I recently started reading Hack/Slash with the first omnibus from Image, but if I hadn’t, this would have been a perfect way to start. And believe me, I know how long it can take someone to finally start reading a comic book as I’ve gone back and forth with Hack/Slash for a few years now considering the the fact that it’s been in circulation for so many years, but this comic is quite simply a fun and awesome romp through horror. [...]

I guess we can all thank the 1960s for giving birth to the 1980s. When I look at most of the films, music, and literature made in the era of Reaganomics and legwarmers I can’t help but think that excessive drug use played a major role in it all. Granted the roads and hills running in and around Hollywood were covered with so much cocaine the city’s infrastructure closely resembled the snowy slopes of Switzerland, but it took a more powerful pharmaceutical product to grant those responsible for these cracked creative endeavors the delusion that what they were producing would never be seen as dated the moment it was released to the general public.

The music video for the titular theme song to the 1986 kung fu/horror/fantasy/comedy hybrid Big Trouble in Little China easily falls into that category. You can watch that video, which is included as an extra feature on the film’s Blu-ray, here [...]

The first trailer for the Farrelly Brothers‘ long-awaited and oft-troubled new take on The Three Stooges has arrived, and it is painful to watch.

There was always a dim ray of hope that maybe the movie would end up surprising us with word that it would be in three segments and that they would be able to use the Three Stooges theme music, as well as rumored stars like Jim Carrey, Sean Penn, and Benicio Del Toro. But as you’ll see, with stars Will Sasso, Sean Hayes, and Chris Diamantopoulos (not to mention Snooki from MTV’s Jersey Shore, for some inexplicable reason) this is already the vandalization of a beloved classic we feared it would be. [...]

The Rinse #4
Written by Gary Phillips
Art by Marc Laming
Cover by Paul Azaceta
Colors by Darrin Moore
Letters by Steve Wands
BOOM! Studios
Release date: December 7, 2011
Price: $3.99

Jeff Sinclair is about to pull off the biggest laundering job of his career if only he can survive the goons trying to kill him.

In The Rinse #4, Jeff Sinclair, a professional money launderer, is on the cusp of completing his current money laundering job but casino tycoon Steve Maxon’s goons are on his tail. In addition to that, Sinclair is working to avoid being investigated by the IRS as well [...]

Flash Gordon Zeitgeist #1
Plot and Script by Eric Trautmann
Plot and Art Direction by Alex Ross
Art by Daniel Indro
Colors by Slamet Mujiono
Letters by Simon Bowland
Covers by Alex Ross, Paul Renaud, Francesco Francavilla, and Wagner Reis
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: November 30th, 2011
Cover Price: $1.00

Flash Gordon Zeitgeist #1 is really the perfect first issue. It introduces the characters and the world and gives you a sense of where the book is, and at the same time, will have you very anxious for the next issue.

With a plot by Alex Ross and Eric Trautmann, the issue is perfectly scripted by Trautmann. There’s a number of nods to previous incarnations of Flash Gordon, from the 1980 live-action movie to the incredibly done animated movie Flash Gordon The Greatest Adventure Of All produced by Filmation in 1982 [...]

The Gold Box spotlight deal of the day over at Amazon today is the Clint Eastwood: 35 Films 35 Years at Warner Bros. DVD box set for only $76.99 (that’s 57% off the list price of $179.98).

This DVD collection comes with 35 of Clint Eastwood‘s films from Warner Bros., including titles like Dirty Harry, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and Unforgiven. (See full list of movies included here below.) Some of the films include bonus features like commentaries and featurettes [...]

That time is almost upon us, my new favorite part of the Christmas season: the annual holiday (that’s right Fox News, I said “holiday” – blow me) episode of my favorite television comedy series Community. You can check out a preview of the episode here below.

Last year the show delivered a classic send-up of the Rankin-Bass stop-motion animated holiday specials of the 1960s while delving into the complex personality of the show’s sweetly enigmatic pop culture obsessive Abed (Danny Pudi). This year finds Greendale Community College’s most diverse (in more ways than one) study group getting involved in the school’s annual Christmas pageant when the Greendale Glee Club gets sidelined [...]

Earlier today, we reported on the next big thing coming to Marvel Comics — Avengers VS. X-Men.

While you’ll have to wait until April 2012 for Avengers VS. X-Men #1 to simultaneously hit store shelves and the Marvel Comics App, you can participate in the official launch of the new event with Marvel Comics during their Live Stream event, which kicks off today at 3pm EST [...]

Each and every week “William Wallace” MK2Fac3 and “Wallace William” Henchman21 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 December 7, 2011. Single issues and trades, they’re all here.

Two men enter. One man leaves. These are the rules of any cage match that does not feature more than two opponents. However, if the “fight to the death” stipulation is invoked, then the rules will be changed slightly into this: Two men enter. One man lives [...]