Today marks the birthday of the late Tex Avery, the master class animator who stretched the boundaries of the cartoon and produced work during the 1940s and the 1950s that completely changed the game in terms of what the genre could achieve.

Starting at Walter Lantz’s studio right before their heyday in the animation ring and then jumping ship to direct some Warner Brothers and especially MGM’s finest and funniest cartoons of all-time, the work of Tex Avery stands and remains akin to a cachet of symphonies written by Beethoven or the works of Duke Ellington.

Back in 2010 we saw the then upcoming horror movie The Last Exorcism pull some crafty viral marketing techniques off by taking advantage of the users of Chatroulette.

Now The Last Exorcism Part II is on the way, and again, some viral marketing is being put to good use. This time around their victims are the patrons of a beauty salon who will see things they’re not expecting to see.

You can check out the prank video below, but be warned, people tend to say naughty things when having the crap scared out of them, and in this particular case those things are not censored. A NSFW warning is in effect!

Sherlock Holmes: The Liverpool Demon #2
Written by Leah Moore and John Reppion
Illustrated by Matt Triano
Colored by Brennan Wagner
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Covers by Francesco Francavilla
Dedicated to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 20, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Sherlock Holmes: The Liverpool Demon is a five-issue miniseries from Dynamite Entertainment that gives us a new mystery-adventure from the famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusted companion Dr. Watson.

In The Liverpool Demon #1, we see the crime-solving duo far from their Baker St. London flat finishing up what looks like a really interesting case Liverpool, England. While Holmes and Watson planned to return home once the job was done, they bump into one of the doctor’s old acquaintances and his colleagues, who convince them to delay their departure until later in the day, though Holmes seems none too pleased about it. While they dine inside, a terrifying creature bounds through the city, leaping across rooftops during an electrical storm, frightening the citizens, who refer to it as “Spring-heeled Jack.”

Red 5 Comics and digital comic shop Comixology have teamed up to bring attendees of the Emerald City Comi-Con the world’s first digital convention exclusive comic, Atomic Robo: Along Came a Tyrantula.

The comic will be available to attendees of the Seattle convention thanks to a special code on the back of their badges and will allow readers to experience the story across Comixology’s many platforms on iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle, Windows 8 devices, and over the internet. If you’re not able to attend the convention, never fear; the issue will go on sale March 8th to the general public.

Thriller, the biggest selling record of all time by one of the most successful artists ever to grace this planet, Michael Jackson, is now available on MP3 format from Amazon this month for only $2.99.

Thriller hit the number one spot 30 years ago today, back on February 26, 1983, and then dominated the charts at that spot for months and months afterwards, in fact, all told, it logged 37 weeks there ultimately. An immeasurable musical cultural artifact from the 1980s, a smooth R&B follow up, a peak for the artist who had already reached so many mountaintops and summits, a record which blew everybody out of the water, created an absolute revolution in styles, fashion, sounds, music videos, production, reshaping genres, crossing them, had luminaries like Paul McCartney and Eddie Van Halen make key contributions to it, one can go on and on with endless platitudes and details about what a powerhouse, heavyweight and seminal record Michael Jackson’s Thriller became and remains.