Today when you visit Google’s homepage the usual Google logo has been replaced with a Will Eisner-inspired doodle to celebrate his birthday. Click on the logo and you’ll find a treasure trove of information about the iconic comic book creator.

Eisner was born on March 6, 1917 and died back in 2005. He is perhaps best known for the character The Spirit, which did, for better or for worse, get the feature film treatment, but he also crafted such classic characters as John Law, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, Black Hawk, Uncle Sam, and countless others.

Eisner is known as the father of the graphic novel and he was one of the founding creators of the actual comic book bringing the art form from Sunday newspapers into what we know as comic books today [...]

The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes was a welcome surprise from Marvel Studios. It’s an animated series that’s crafted in such a way that fans of all ages can enjoy it. The series is on Disney XD which is a difficult sell to any fan above a certain demographic, but if you just hold your breath and flip over there the show will impress. Hardcore comic book fans will see the show is loosely based on Brian Michael Bendis’s Avenger’s Disassembled story arc, or at least the aftermath of that story. At any rate, the series features classic Avengers heroes on the team including Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, The Wasp, Ant Man/Giant Man, Hawkeye, and Black Panther.

If you aren’t the type to set foot in Disney kidville, then you can still see the show because Disney has announced that the first 13 episodes are coming to DVD, conveniently broken up into two volumes. Episodes 1 – 7 will be in Volume 1 and Episodes 8 – 13 will be presented in Volume 2. Both sets will be available on DVD April 26, 2011. At this point the only bonus feature we know of is a look at the upcoming Season 2 on the second volume [...]

Some exciting times are upon we the fans of Futurama. Since the show’s glorious return, it has put up some pretty strong numbers for Comedy Central and the new season (originally the second half of last season) is set to premiere this upcoming June!

But it’s the social network itself, Facebook, where Futurama is really dominating in popularity. The animated series from Matt Groening and David X. Cohen‘s official Facebook page just recently got its 10 millionth “Like” — more than Angry Birds, Pearl Jam, and NPR…COMBINED.

In celebration of this momentous occasion, two new images from one of the upcoming episodes titled “Neutopia!” have been released by Comedy Central, and you can see them by clicking on over to the other side now!

The only question I have is: if there’s now TEN MILLION fans of Futurama on Facebook, where are these people when the show is on?! In its return to TV it nailed almost 3 million viewers and set records, while the season average settled in at around 2 million. [...]

Artist Dimitris Samaras has created this awesome Star Wars – Who Framed Roger Rabbit mash-up of Jessica Rabbit dressed up in the Slave Leia golden bikini garb called A Love Song for Jabba the Hutt.

Check out more of the artist’s work, including a hi-res version of this Jessica Rabbit piece, at his DeviantART page [...]

OK, allow us to catch you up on all things Thundercats.

Way back when (a few years ago), it was reported that a new movie based on the classic animated Thundercats was on the way from Warner Brothers. The movie adaptation never quite found its legs, and has been in production purgatory ever since. Then last June we found out that WB Animation was entering into a collaboration with Japan’s Studio4°C for a new Thundercats animated series that would have anime influences.

Just recently the first images from the animated series showed up online, but today comes a special bit of footage from the lost Thundercats CG movie that was once on the way. It’s pretty cheesy, to be completely honest, and a lot of work would have to be done if they decided to bring the movie back to life, but it is worth seeing for you fans.

You can see the Thundercats movie clip as well as an image from the upcoming animated series below by clicking on over now. [...]

Anyone who’s seen The Simpsons should recognize McBain, the animated action movie star parody of a one Arnold Schwarzenegger.

What fans of the long-running show might not know, however, is that when these McBain clips from The Simpsons are fused together, they actually form their own little short movie called McBain: The Movie.

The micro-flick only runs at about four minutes in length, but is quite the amusing spoof on the action movie genre and a must-see for fans of the show.

You can see McBain: The Movie by heading on over to the other side now. [...]

Bob’s Burgers
Created by: Loren Bouchard
Starring: H. Jon Benjamin, John Roberts, Kristen Schaal
Fox
Sunday 8:30/7:30c

Fox has long relied on animated shows to fill their Sunday night line-up, and apparently Seth MacFarlane can’t be the only source for them, so the network has turned to Loren Bouchard (Home Movies, Dr. Katz) to come up with a new creation. What he has given us is Bob’s Burgers, a slice of life comedy is more King of the Hill than it is Family Guy, but are audiences interested in this style of comedy? Hopefully so, because it’s a show that has a lot of humor, at least judging from the first episode.

Bob’s Burgers centers on Bob Belcher (H. Jon Benjamin) and his family as they try to operate a burger joint and keep it afloat. The first episode deals with Bob having to juggle his restaurant’s re-re-re-opening, a health inspector that wants to ruin his business, and his wedding anniversary. The humor comes from some wild situations (the store being closed due to allegations the burgers are made of people) but it also stems from the relationships between the characters. [...]

A fifth season of Venture Bros. will indeed happen, confirmed show creator Jackson Publick on his blog.

Another season of the Adult Swim hit show seemed likely and was hinted in the end credits of last season’s finale.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many details at this point, but then again this is a show where spoilers never really mean much compared to the humor it brings.

“P.S. One last Christmas gift: I promised “news” the last time I was here. And though I’m not at liberty to disclose the full details just yet, I am happy to at least be able to tell you that we were not lying in the end credits of our season finale: The Venture Bros. will indeed return. More on that later… Happy Holidays!” [...]

A little over a week ago, the first clip for The Futurama Holiday Spectacular was released online. Since then, numerous other clips have followed in an effort to get people prepared to watch the special, which airs tonight at 10pm EST on Comedy Central.

Being the awesome friend we are, we just wanted to take the opportunity to remind all of you Futurama fanatics one more time so that no one misses it. We’re in the middle of a long wait between the end of the last season and the start of the next one, so this is the last new stuff we’ll get until sometime next year. For those of you who didn’t get the memo, those 26 brand new episodes that Comedy Central ordered, making all of our hopes and dreams come true, were ultimately split up into two seasons. We still twitch with anxiety hoping that many more new seasons will come, but that’s all still up in the air and only tuning in to specials like this can help! [...]

Take me down to the Paradise City where… I HAVE THE POWER!

Oh how I love a good mash-up.

Here’s a new one from artist Joey Spiotto, who took his two favorite things from the 1980s and found a way to put them together: He-Man cartoon characters with the classic Guns N Roses album cover for Appetite For Destruction.

The 13 x 19-inch print, which is on watercolor paper, is available at the artist’s Etsy shop for $25 and is listed there as “Appetite For Eternia” (it’s called “Masters of Paradise City” on his blog).

You’ll recognize the album cover, which has a cross background with skull faces on each point and in the center. The original cover had versions of the five GNR band members; Spiotto’s version has five characters from He-Man. He-Man in the center; to the right of him is Man-At-Arms; Orko is at the bottom (no face at all); Skeletor at the very top (with his own skull face). I don’t know who that is on the left, I would think it’s Teela, but the headpiece and coloring are wrong. The top banner reads “Masters Of The Universe”; the bottom one reads “Appetite For Eternia.” [...]

Whether you love or hate Family Guy, you have to admit that their work spoofing Star Wars (with the blessing of a one George Lucas, of course) has been pretty fantastic thus far.

It’s already been stated that they would not be doing the prequel movies of the mega-franchise, so all that’s left to be done is release the third and final spoof of Return of the Jedi. The final installment is called Family Guy: It’s A Trap!, and it will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 21. And to help get you excited, you can get your first look at the trailer right now!

Unlike the first two chapters of this epic animated parody, characters from all of creator Seth MacFarlane‘s shows will be used, including American Dad and The Cleveland Show. You’ll catch a few of said characters making brief appearances throughout the trailer.

Use the Force to bring some tasty treats closer, then head on over to the other side to check out the trailer for Family Guy: It’s A Trap! immediately! [...]

Anyone who knows and loves Futurama is aware that one thousand years in the future, Santa Clause is very real and also happens to be a very evil robot.

For fans who don’t know, while we wait for the second half of this gift of a new season to get going (and wish and hope for more new seasons to come), there will be a holiday special for the show set to air on November 21 at 10pm on Comedy Central. The special, titled The Futurama Holiday Spectacular, will see the Planet Express crew on a mission to save the X-Mas, Robanukah, and Kwanzaa holidays.

To help us get excited for this special, Comedy Central is releasing lots of goodies including clips from the show, images, and concept art. You can see the first of these goodies — a video clip showing the return of the evil Robot Santa — right now by clicking on over to the other side! [...]

Ray Bradbury + Leonard Nimoy x Halloween = WIN!

The Halloween Tree is a 1993 feature-length made-for-TV cartoon movie based on the 1972 fantasy novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury.

The story centers on a group of children all dressed up and excited for a night of trick-or-treating. When one of their friends, Pip, goes missing, the gang sets out to look for him, thinking the boy is just playing a joke on them. On their quest to find Pip, they end up going through a forest and into a mansion where they met Mr. Moundshroud (Star Trek‘s Leonard Nimoy). Moundshroud is concerned after learning that the children don’t know the history behind the costumes they’ve picked to wear for Halloween, but eventually the kids go back in time to various eras and countries to learn the origins of Halloween and also save Pip.

The entire cartoon is up on YouTube in seven parts, which I’ve embedded here below. While The Halloween Tree was released on VHS in the 1990s, there’s no DVD version, nor does there seem to be any plans for one at this time [...]

Twentieth Century Fox’s eternally popular animated series, The Simpsons, has been on the air for years and years and years now, but never has their opening sequence caused quite the stir that this past Sunday’s episode presented.

The opening, created by British graffiti artist Bansky, is traditional for the most part, side for the artist’s name tagged on a wall here and there. Traditional until the end that is; when it reaches the legendary couch gag at the end of every title sequence, things took an unexpected turn for the dark.

In fact, this little surprise was so dark, it’s set off a wave of controversy. And yes, while the gag is a bit depressing and bleak, it was only expected that certain people would scream and shout and complain, because that’s what people with clouded logic and a insatiable need for attention do. For the rest of us easy going folks, it’s easy to laugh at this knowing that it is just a cartoon, and that this quite obviously is not how things are really done on The Simpsons. [...]

We’ve known that Green Lantern: The Animated Series was coming to Cartoon Network for a little while, and attendees at the 2010 New York Comic-COn got their first look at the series this weekend. Sadly, there wasn’t any actual footage shown, but there was plenty of concept art shown (which you can view here below), as well as a a 20-second test clip of animation.

The show will be completely animated by CG (think The Clone Wars series) and Hal Jordan and Kilowog will be the main stars of the show. The good news is that Bruce Timm will be one of the showrunners, and he’s always produced consistently good shows, so there’s no reason to think this will be any different.

Details that emerged from the panel include that the show will run for at least 26 episodes, with the first 13 episodes already planned out. The main villains of the show will be the Red Lanterns, and it sounds like the other colored Lanterns will show up at some point. Everyone may assume that Sinestro would be the ideal villain for the series, but he actually won’t be showing up, at least for the first 13 episodes, although he will be getting built up over the course of the series for his eventual reveal, and they do have plans to reveal him at some point [...]

Whenever Adult Swim hosts a panel at Dragon*Con, it’s safe to assume they’ve brought their “A” games — and by that I mean those in attendance will get an exclusive performance and most likely will leave laughing their asses off.

Specifically, I’m referring to the team behind Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies, who’s panel opened with show creator and voice actor Dave Willis taking stage to recite a monologue performed by a puppet version of Carl. Soon there after, voice talent Dana Snyder joined with a Master Shake puppet.

The puppets — presumably from the ATHF live action show tour Willis and Snyder did earlier in the year — were actually a genius idea to associate the voices with the characters (since voice actors aren’t always easy to identify) [...]

There’s no denying that Futurama has always been one of the smartest shows on TV, and the writers decided to take that to a whole new level in this past Thursday’s episode, titled “The Prisoner of Benda.”

In the episode, Professor Farnsworth unveils a new invention of his which allows anyone to switch mind and body with another. It begins with Amy and Farnsworth innocently swapping bodies for personal reasons, but they soon learn that they aren’t able to swap back. By the end of the episode, all the Planet Express crew, friends and acquaintances, and even robo-utensils have used the machine, and no one is in the correct body. To get everything back to normal calls for the assistance of the brilliant minds from the Globetrotter Homeworld and some crafty mathematical equations.

Click on over for more and to see a clip from the episode showing off some of the mind-switching madness now! [...]

The list of classic cartoon characters that have been given a live-action/CGI makeover has grown so great it’s hard to even keep track anymore. One area that has remained relatively unscathed is Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes properties, which last saw a movies in 1996′s Space Jam and 2003′s Looney Tunes: Back In Action — both of which mixed live-action and the classic hand-drawn cartoon animation we all know.

Now comes word of a brand new movie featuring the undisputed king of Looney Tunes characters, Bugs Bunny. Deadline reports that WB has hired David Berenbaum to work on the screenplay for the movie — currently being called simply Bugs Bunny — that will, as is customary these days, mix computer animated characters with live actors and settings. Berenbaum previously scripted the now holiday staple Elf, The Haunted Mansion, and The Spiderwick Chronicles.

The movie will come with hopes of bringing the beloved Bugs back to mainstream eyes, but isn’t the first WB ‘toon reincarnation to be announced. Back in 2008, a live-action/CGI Marvin the Martian movie was announced with Mike Myers expected to voice Marvin. [...]

The first trailer and poster for the upcoming live-action/CGI cartoon adaptation Yogi Bear has shown up online. The movie will join Garfield, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Marmaduke, Scooby-Doo, and the upcoming release of The Smurfs as similar cartoon makeover movies we’ve seen made.

Yogi Bear features the voices of Dan Aykroyd as Yogi and Justin Timberlake as Boo-Boo. The live-action roles will be filled with Anna Faris as Rachel, Tom Cavanagh (TV’s Ed) as Ranger Smith, and Cloverfield‘s T.J. Miller as Ranger Jones.

Click the image to check out the poster and head over to the other side to take your first peek at the live-action Yogi Bear trailer. Does it look as bad as the others have, or is it set to become an exception?

The movie tells the story of Jellystone National Park and its two most famed residents, Yogi Bear and his sidekick, Boo Boo. The park has been losing a lot of business, causing the Mayor to decide to close it forever and sell the land. This forces Yogi to team up with the Park Rangers and try and save the place that they love. [...]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Vol. 7
DVD
Starring Dave Willis, Dana Snyder, Carey Means
Cartoon Network/Adult Swim
Release date: June 1, 2010

For the first three or four seasons, I was addicted to Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Hell, I even saw the Aqua Teen movie in the theater. Twice. But then I kind of fell off and missed a bunch of episodes, so this Vol 7 DVD set of the show is the first with episodes that I haven’t seen before. I watched this trying to find out if the show had regained whatever it was that I loved about the earlier seasons.

There are a lot of good episodes on this set, but I still think the show has lost whatever it was that made me love those first few seasons. I don’t know if I’m just tired of the humor, or if the jokes are just over used, but there just aren’t as many quotable lines as there used to be. There are still some good episodes, including the return of Dr. Wongburger, and an episode with Hitler returned as a balloon.

Also included in this set is the live-action episode featuring T-Pain, H. Jon Benjamin, and contest winner Dave Long as Carl. The live-action episode was a great experiment, but I don’t think it worked out as well as I hoped it would. It’s really just not that funny, other than being even more absurdist than the show normally is [...]