Category: Uncategorized

Joe Hill, who John Scalzi correctly describes as “someone whose writing is a slice of awesome generously slathered with awesome sauce with a sprig of awesome as a garnish”, is running a contest over at his blog in support of local independent bookstores.

Here are the details of March-is-love-your-Indie-Bookstore: The Contest:

How to Play: Go to a local independent bookstore sometime this month. Buy something. Save the receipt. Send a photo or scan of the receipt to this address: indie@joehillfiction.com. Make sure either your e-mail or your receipt includes the name and phone number of the bookstore in question.

Prizes: At the end of March he’ll hold a random drawing, and at least 24 winners will receive a rare or limited edition book (donated by various folks — the full and ever-expanding list is available via various update links on his site).

Very cool.

The 1940s Superman cartoons by the Fleischer Studios are being released in a complete 2-disc DVD set on April 7th.

The set will contain all 17 cartoons from 1941 to 1943, including the latter propaganda pieces like “The Japoteurs.” It will include two special features — a new featurette entitled “The Man, The Myth, Superman,” along with a re-used featurette (from the Superman II disc) entitled “First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series”.

These cartoons are in the public domain, and available all over the place — including for free on the internet. But, I think I’ll be picking this up anyway, simply because this authorized edition is taken from the original master prints. I love the design of these cartoons, bordering between art deco, superhero and pulp.

The black-background emblem is a favorite of mine as well — forming the basis of my favorite interpretation of the character, Alex Ross’ ‘Kingdom Come’ version.

Sci-Fi Channel is rebranding itself as “SyFy.”

Except that they didn’t realize that “syfy” in Polish refers to a venereal disease. John Scalzi opines about this, and re-branding via marketing buzzwords in general, here. Well worth your time.