Category Archives: Background

K9: The Complete Series On DVD May 7! Doctor Who’s K9 Now Has His Own Series!

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image002Shout! Factory has announced the May 7 release of K9: The Complete Series. The 4-DVD set contains all 26 original episodes along with bonus features. Originally created for the 1977 Doctor Who episode The Invisible Enemy by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, K9 has long been an iconic television character. But now K9 stars in his own brand-new adventure series! The set is available for pre-order on Amazon.com and ShoutFactory.com.

Blasting back into action via a space time manipulator, everyone’s favorite robot dog arrives in late 21st-century London, now scarred by alien intrusion and government rule through their cybernetic police force.

With the assistance of teenagers Jorjie, Darius, drifter Starkey and Professor Gryffen, K9 becomes Earth’s front-line defence against dangers threatening from any place – and anytime – in the galaxy! They will have a lot of fun, action, adventure, and some jolts along the way, saving the earth from alien creatures, scary monsters and more than a few nasty humans!

Mixing live action characters with stunning visual-effects, K9 is a children’s sci-fi/adventure series combining comedy, action and suspense. Imagine a mash-up of X Files and Men in Black with a zany dash of Ghostbusters and then add one magnificent metallic mutt, and there you have K9!

DISC 1

REGENERATION
The first adventure teaming Starkey, Jorjie and Professor Gryffen with the new and regenerated robotic dog: K9.

LIBERATION
K9 and the kids break into The Department’s prison to set free every type of alien imaginable!

THE KORVEN
In saving Professor Gryffen from the most dangerous alien in the galaxy, K9 and Starkey find a home.

THE BOUNTY HUNTER
When K9’s past comes looking for him, an alien Bounty Hunter could be the one thing he doesn’t want to remember.

SIRENS OF CERES
K9 and the gang ruin The Department’s experiments with alien technology and mind control in a London school.

FEAR ITSELF
Paranoia erupts throughout London and for K9 and the gang, the boogie-man in the closet seems very, very real.

FALL OF THE HOUSE OF GRYFFEN
The ghosts of Gryffen’s past come back to haunt him and K9 must put two and two together before our gang is lost forever!

DISC 2

JAWS OF ORTHRUS
Can the kids figure out if K9 is really vandalizing London before it’s too late?

DREAM-EATERS
K9 must figure out how to destroy an ancient alien weapon before everyone’s dreams turn into a waking nightmare.

THE CURSE OF ANUBIS
Anubians arrive on Earth and start worshiping K9, but what is their real agenda?

OROBORUS
Time is being stolen from everyone and Starkey is the only one who can stop it, but can he do it in time?

ALIEN AVATAR
When a mysterious poison starts polluting the Thames, K9 and the kids must figure out the source, before it destroys everything in its path.

AEOLIAN
Music is powerful, but could it be strong enough to vibrate the Earth to dust?

DISC 3

THE LAST OAK TREE
The last oak tree in England has been stolen and our gang must go in search of the thief. However, what they find isn’t what they expect.

BLACK HUNGER
The Department lets one of the biggest alien threats yet loose in London, and it’s hungry! 

THE CAMBRIDGE SPY
The K9 unit must go back in time to solve a hundred-year-old crime!

LOST LIBRARY OF UKKO
When The Department steals a whole planet, Starkey finds himself trapped on it with Thorn, and their only chance of survival is an alien Librarian.

MUTANT COPPER
When K9 and the kids go against The Department’s laws, they get more than they bargained for.

THE CUSTODIANS
K9 and Starkey must figure out who is controlling the children of London and turning them all into aliens!
TAPHONY AND THE TIME LOOP
When Gryffen breaks an alien out of VR prison, he may have put everyone in danger.

DISC 4

ROBOT GLADIATORS
K9 and the crew take on and shut down an illegal, underground robot fight club!

MIND SNAP
Just as K9 thinks he can recover his long-term memory, an accident makes him forget everything that has ever happened!

ANGEL OF THE NORTH
Gryffen goes in search of the Fallen Angel and finds out there’s more to the alien ship then even a genius like him knew.

THE LAST PRECINCT
When the Last Precinct takes over the mansion to take a last stand against The Department, not even K9 is ready for everything that happens.

HOUND OF THE KORVEN
The Department finally gets hold of K9’s regeneration chip as K9 decides regenerating his life is not as important as remembering it.

THE ECLIPSE OF THE KORVEN
K9 must fight against The Department’s true intentions, as The Korven begin their invasion of Earth.

BONUS FEATURES:

Interview with K9
The Making Of K9 Documentary

The Award Winning A1 Returns! With a Preview!

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Titan Comics LogoTitan Comics has announced the return of A1, the award-winning anthology series by Dave Elliott! Hitting stores on June 5, 2013, A1 is a new monthly series featuring three fantastic ongoing strips: Weirding Willows, Odyssey and Carpe DIEm.

A1 has a long pedigree in comics. Launched in the late 1980s as an outlet for the creator-owned stories of Dave Elliott and Gary Leach, the award-winning anthology quickly became a place where big-name industry friends could follow their creator-owned desires and publish their own material.

Some of those industry friends included Alan Moore, Barry Windsor-Smith, Eddie Campbell, Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland, Bill Sienkiewicz, Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, Glenn Fabry, Peter Milligan, David Lloyd, Phil Bond, Jamie Hewlett, Dougie Braithwaite, Grant Morrison, Moebius, Alan Martin, D’Israeli, Kelly Jones, Nick Abadzis, Steve Dillon and many, many more.

Elliott is taking A1 back to its roots, with three top-grade tales created by himself and his closest artistic friends, released as part of a co-publishing venture between Titan Comics and Atomeka.

A1 will showcase three brand-new ongoing stories reflecting the variety it has always been known for:

Weirding Willows, by writer Dave Elliott and artists Barnaby Bagenda, Sami Basri, Sakti Yuwono and Jessica Kholinne, sees the worlds of Wonderland, OZ, Neverland, Mars, Pellucidar and Elysium leak through portals into the little English town of Willow Weir, as Alice and her allies defend her world from the things that would come through those portals to destroy them!

Odyssey, by writer Dave Elliott and artists Garrie Gastonny and Sakti Yuwono, follows an immortal military superhero, out of place and time, who finds himself in the middle of an eternal war for mankind between Angels and Demons!

Carpe DIEm, by writer W. H. Rauf and artist/creator Rhoald Marcelius, follows an offbeat group of the world’s seven greatest assassins: one for each day of the week! Their leader is always a Sir Monday… but the rest of the team always hate Mondays! A riot of colour and concepts in a Tank Girl vein.

A1 #1 comes with three main covers to collect: Weirding Willows cover by artist, Stanley ‘Artgerm’ Lau: Odyssey cover by series artists Gastonny and Yuwono; Carpe DIEm cover by series artists, Marcelius. Retailers can order A1 #1 from the February 2013 edition of Diamond PREVIEWS.

A1 #1 will hit comic stores on June 5, 2013. The series will also be available to read day and date on the iPad, iPhone, Web, Android and Kindle Fire, exclusively through the comiXology app and comiXology.com

A1 #1 Carpe DIEm Cover A1 #1 Odyssey Cover A1 #1 Weirding Willows Cover

ShiftyLook Premiers Galaga From Ryan North, Christopher Hastings, & Anthony Clark!

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During one of its recent livestreams, ShiftyLook announced a webcomic adaptation of Galaga, written by a giant cardboard cutout of Ryan North, illustrated by Christopher Hastings and colored by Anthony Clark. Good news everyone! ShiftyLook has since secured the real, live Ryan North and the new Galaga webcomic has just launched today on ShiftyLook.com!

Based on the retro arcade classic from NAMCO BANDAI Games, Galaga delves into the lives of Penelope and Betty as they do what gamers do best: protect the earth from alien invaders! Galaga is the latest in ShiftyLook’s ever-growing line of retro games-turned-webcomics. Ryan, Chris and Anthony join the ranks of the ever-growing line of creative superstars working with ShiftyLook, including Alex Culang and Raynato Castro, Scott Kurtz and many more.

Galaga updates twice a week on Mondays and Fridays, exclusively on ShiftyLook.com!

welcome to Galaga

Review – Killing Geronimo: The Hunt For Bin Laden

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KillingGeronimoLR_page1_image1Killing Geronimo: The Hunt For Bin Laden is a retelling, in graphic novel form, of America’s global search for the most notorious fugitive in modern times. Beginning with the tragedy of September 11, 2001, to the final events in Pakistan, Killing Geronimo recreates the major events in the timeline of the hunt for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

While there’s numerous various narratives as to what happened during the manhunt for Bin Laden this graphic novel claims it is “historically accurate.” I want to start with that as it stood out to me as how likely this claim is made. Like the movie Zero Dark Thirty, the graphic novel depicts torture and says some evidence was gained from it. However, there are reports the CIA mislead that movie, and I wonder if some of that trickled over to this graphic novel. My second issue is the depiction of the helicopters the team moved in with. In the graphic novel, they’re depicted as Chinooks. When it’s been reported, the helicopters were modified Black Hawks. When it comes to some of the facts this Vanity Fair article might be good to compare it to. Ok, that’s my two issues as far as the accuracy part that stood out to me. And when the graphic novel claims that, it factors in to my overall thoughts.

Now, when it comes to the covering of events, the graphic novel is really well done. It starts out right away with the event we all want to see, the death of Bin Laden. With that out of the way, we’re able to circle back to see what lead to that. The graphic novel has a job, to lay out what happened without much commentary and not like there can be tangents with events imagined. The graphic novel does that, using quotes from Bush and Obama throughout. It’s more graphic journalism, than a graphic novel.

I did learn a lot from the graphic novel. It seems to cover the hunt in Afghanistan well, showing our failures and the failures of the leadership at the time. But, the comic isn’t political, placing blame. Instead it leaves the reader to take in the facts and decide for themselves as to what to think.

I liked the art. It matched the story quite well with a gritty style. The lack of color also is a nice change. Each panel or page sticks to one color with a shade. Matched with the art, it’s a great combination.

Overall, Killing Geronimo is a good way to learn about history and what happened. Combined with the linked Vanity Fair article and Zero Dark Thirty, I think we get a good idea what occurred during the greatest manhunt in history.

Story: Darren Davis and Jerome Maida Art: Stefano Cardoselli

Story: 7.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.75 Recommendation: Buy

Bluewater Productions provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Around the Tubes

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Ok, Sandy was coming all day yesterday, which gave me a chance to read and review some comics! Expect a few today and more throughout the week. Here’s some news to keep you busy until then.

Around the Blogs

Bleeding Cool – Sin City 2 Started Shooting Today, Some New Cast And Some Key Roles Still Empty – I’m here to hire!

CBR – Frank Grillo is Crossbones in “Captain America” Sequel – Could be interesting to see where this goes.

Bleeding Cool – The Comic Book Retailer VISA Gift Card Scam – Assholes, that really sucks.

Talking About Games – Digital Comics: The Way To Go? – Definitely for some.

 

Around the Tubes Reviews

CBR – Captain America & Black Widow #638

The Beat – Shadowman #1

Jerry Siegel’s Daughter Speaks Out

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Jerry Siegel’s daughter issued a letter to fans recounting her family’s fight to reclaim a portion of the Superman copyright, and criticizing the tactics used by Warner Bros. and DC Comics in the increasingly bitter legal battle.

In 2008 a federal judge ruled that the Siegel family had succeeded in recapturing a share of the first Superman story in Action Comics #1 through a provision of the U.S. Copyright Act. Some of that is still being fought over in appeal. This put DC in a bind as some of Superman’s defining elements were no longer completely in their hands, such as his secret identity, his origin, his costume and Lois Lane.

DC then sued in 2010, to force Marc Toberoff to resign as the Siegel attorney. They claim he advised the family to walk away from a $3 million deal that would’ve permitted the company to retain control of Superman and stands to gain controlling interest in the property.

DC is also asking a court to block the Shuster estate from reclaiming its stake. They  claim the family relinquished all claims to Superman in 1992 in exchange for “more than $600,000 and other benefits,” including payment of Shuster’s debts following his death earlier that year and a $25,000 annual pension for his sister Jean Peavy.

The battle has been bitter and hard fought as hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.

Preview – Creator Owned Heroes #5

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Creator Owned Heroes #5

Story by: Steve Niles, Jay Russel, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Andrew Ritchie, Jerry Lando, Paul Mounts Art By: Dave Johnson & Andrew Ritchie
Price: $3.99

ALL-NEW STORIES BEGIN!

“KILLSWITCH,” Part One
Part one of a brand new four-part story. Introducing Killswitch, an enigmatic, and devastatingly handsome killer with a fetish for blunt force, a strong code of honor, and more than a few skeletons in his closet. Killswitch is drawn into a game of death with the world’s top assassins to find out who is behind the contract on his head – and why.

“BLACK SPARROW,” Part One
A brand new two-part story begins, as a family living in the old west must reconcile that someone close to them might be a killer, or worse. A dark tale of haunting family dedication and the price we pay for love.

PLUS! An interview with AMANDA CONNER, art galleries, con photos, and original articles all celebrating the creator owned spirit.

NYCC 2012 – New Comic Book Distributor Comic Flea Market Debuts

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The new comic book distribution company Comic Flea Market will be displaying at the New York Comic Con this week at booth #2374.

This will be a strategic move to better position publishers to take advantage of the quickly expanding digital marketplace and new market economic realities in print comic books.  CFM will also be distributing graphic novels, trading cards, posters and e-books.

The new distribution company will be displaying samples, offering show-specific coupons, as well as looking for new partners at the convention.

One of the key differentiators is CFM’s ability to print to order. As a business model, this suits clients in terms of removing the requirements to overprint certain titles and deal with a costly administrative bureaucracy.

Comic Flea Market will also be working with comic book stores in developing a comparable discount to Diamond Distributors.

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