You’ll probably like LEGO Indiana Jones.

See the trailer here.

Posted by Mark Coale

Minor league baseball teams are always doing wacky stunts or having fun giveaways to try and get people into the ballpark. The Memphis Redbirds are targeting the nerd audience with an upcoming giveaway.

The first 1500 fans through the turnstiles at the August 10 game between Memphis and the Omaha Royals will receive a Marvel comic featuring Spider-Man, the Hulk and Iron Man sharing the cover with the Redbirds’ mascots and outfielder Rick Ankiel.

“Baseball and comic books - the perfect partners; boys and girls, for generations, have spent hours reading comic books and passing countless summer hours playing baseball,” Redbirds President/GM Dave Chase said.

“Today’s children are watching super heroes on movie screens, but the heart and soul of the big screen version is the paper and ink of comic books. Triple-A Baseball would be hard pressed to find a more perfect partner.”

The Redbirds certainly appear to be a popular culture-friendly ballclub. In recent weeks, the club has sponsored both a Harry Potter Night and pro wrestling featuring local icon Jerry “the King” Lawler. And, the night after the comic book giveaway, they are supporing another local legend: Elvis Presley.

Posted by Mark Coale

Life goes on:

My daughter. Born Monday, July 30, 2007, c. 7:00 p.m, Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, USA. 8 lbs., 3 oz. 38-hour labor. 2 hours pushing. Sweetest little thing. Sari my hero.

Name: ??? (We’ll figure it out tomorrow.)

Yes we know the embed stills are particularly unflattering but what you gonna do?
Okay now embed fixed…click on pic or here.

We’re about halfway through our first slam of SD07 reactions, and they are ALL OVER THE BOARD. Many of the things we’ve written here are being flatly contradicted here by people whose opinions you trust. Some people say sales were great; some say Saturday was a bust. Some say the Eisners the most fun ever; others a grueling award show Iditarod. Can all these opinions be correct? Yes, in the blind man and elephant sense. Even more so than in the past, the San Diego Experience can only be comprehended afterwards when you hit your RSS feed.

movies women sapphicmovie poster sawscript movie sellmovies swing sexsexploitation moviesmovies uncensored shakeelamovies panty silkfemale movie single white Map

We’re now safely ensconced at a locale with wifi, coffee and rabbits. Random catch-up blogging throughout the day.

UpDATE: Sorry about all the WP/Firefox/DIVX issues. Click on the above pic or here to see the vid, and thanks to Ford Gilmore for setting it up.

It was big!

San Diego Comic-Con wrapped up on Sunday, after a blow-out success of a show that dwarfed all previous years in attendance, exhibitor expenditures, special events, and media coverage. Three days of the show, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, sold out, the first time the show has sold out any days in its entire 38 year history (see “Interview with David Glanzer”).

We’re off to Disneyland for some recovery today — posting resumes tomorrow, with an array of insightful commentary, penetrating analysis and definitive sarcasm.

A handy dandy one-stop shopping place for your SD linkage.

CBR Index of Stories
Newsarama Index of Stories
IGN Index of Stories
Heidi’s Mortal Enemy

• A podcast with Warren Ellis
• Video interviews with Steve Lieber, Sergio Aragones, Jill Thompson and Rosario Dawson
• Pictures from all the parties
• Snarky Commentary
• Whitney & Heidi — The Final Chapter
• Special investigative report: Clive Owen is Handsome

and…if we remember correctly…MORE. But…when we have time. And minions. More minions. We really need more minions.

PS: Time stamps have been all fucked up the whole time we’ve been here and we don’t remember how to fix it. Apologies.

Mispellings soon to be fixed. Also Firefox isn’t working nicely with these vids — apologies.
click on pic or here for vid.

In a Packed San Diego, Entertainment Worlds Collide:

Much like the Cannes Film Festival — but with more at stake — Comic-Con has also begun to draw entertainment dealmakers, who have been trolling for meetings with comic artists and writers. Hollywood’s Endeavor talent agency, for instance, has at least eight agents attending, along with a large contingent of clients.

More than a few veterans of the event are bemused by its evolution.

“This will be my 14th year,” said James Thompson, who teaches a course in genre film, television and comics for Duke University’s visiting program at the University of Southern California. “My first year, it was in danger of hitting 30,000 people, and everybody said it was really getting too big.”

Mr. Thompson said that the biggest changes he had seen at the convention included an expanding international presence, a growing tendency of movie news to drown out that of the comics industry and an increasing social frenzy. “Now it’s all about the parties, just like we were going to the Oscars,” he said.

Day five already…the day of farewells, the day of the setting sun. Can it be that this wonderful fairyland of opportunity is already fading away? So soon! Only a few times have we consumed the wonderful pretzels of the lobby, for a fleeting moment been to the panel rooms, and only briefly tasted the freedom of the terrace lounge.

Now that our calluses have toughened into battle scars, we’re ready to run the race all over again. So many hellos left unsaid.

*****

As day 5 dawns we enter uncharted waters — traditional Sunday is a quiet day filled with empty halls, but the announcement of a sell-out has everyone whivering in fear.

Much talk of traffic patterns and new ways of doing things among exhibitors and attendees. Sales Preview night and Thursday were great, but everyone says they were disappointing for Friday and Saturday, as thousands of people stood in line to get into Hall H or get bags or just gawk at girls in skimpy costumes.

One idea being floated is breaking up the “Studio City” in the middle of the hall. Indeed, the gauntlet of Star Wars, Disney and the Paramount-Fox Atomic- Warner Bros Bermuda triangle has led to people almost getting trampled, and endless jostlings without remorse or pity.

Artist extraordinaire Scott Morse and The Beat chat about RATATTOUILLE and Morse’s new books. Click on vid or here for interview.

Our Pals at PulpSecret cover Iron Man’s unveiling and other things we were too busy to see ourselves.

For those of you that aren’t in SD, DC Comics is giving you a way to feel like you were there.

For at least the second year in a row, DC has podcasts available from some of the panels. There are shows from Thursday, Friday and Saturday offered.

You can find them at DC’s webpage or on iTunes.

If any other studios or publishers are doing them, let The Beat know and we’ll add them to the list.

Posted by Mark Coale

Click on pic or here for sidesplitting video.

Vote on the best costumes!

Thanks Beat Spy Jonathan.

Neil talks about the Eisner Kiss and other things

CBR on Guice’s Marvel Exclusive

CBR on the WB DVD panel

more soon.

Posted Mark Coale

Only a few mintues before we have to get to our panel. Everyone assumes this is the busy day, but we think every day bas been busy.

We left the Eisners halfway through to go to the Oni party and try to go to the MySpace party (fire marshal problems) and then went back to the Eisners — doding people getting out of the PetCo Park screening of 300 while clutching their Spartan shields — just in time to hear how great it was and how we missed the greatest moments in Eisner history when Jonathan Ross and Neil Gaiman kissed up on stage. Ross is a Brit television presenter and his superior wits and firepower apparently brought the house down with a long discussion of masturbation and so on. Worthy folk like Paul Pope, Gene Yang, Jill Thompson and Ed Brubaker were wandering around with Eisners, so it seems all went well.

Many conversations about how long and grueling the show has become. With all the sell-outs, the population of a good sized city is wandering the hall each day, prowling for goodies. The city needs food, water, rest. Resources are not always available.

More in a bit including our CLIVE OWEN sightings!

If anyone is reading this in their hotel room and has time to go to Ralph’s and bring me a bag of baby carrots to my 10:30 panel I will pay you back and give you some free graphic novels when i get home. Haven’t eaten a vegetable in days.