Don’t really have much to comment about this except, it’s nice to know I wasn’t the only one that thought J.K. Rowling “outing” Dumbledore was completely pointless. Click the image and read cartoonist Berkeley Breathed’s opinion on it. Absolutely hilarious.
The Dark Knight viral web campaign is in full swing and the reveal of the full body shot of Heath Ledger as the Joker at Empire magazine has happened. What’s left. What’s the viral campaign building too.
The first assumption is a trailer. Aside from the few that attended the panel at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, no one has seen any footage from the film. Less that 6 months from release, that’s unbelievable for a release of this magnitude. So a trailer is a given.
What about Harvey Dent. The sites that started all of this months ago (IBelieveInHarveyDent.com and IBeliveInHarveyDentToo.com) are still there, with the content unchanged. The original WhySoSerious.com Pumpkin image decayed into a Two-Face style Jack-O-Lantern. Maybe that’s what we’re building up a too. The reveal of Two-Face. It may be in a trailer or in an image, but I feel like this build-up needs to lead to something new and unexpected. Something more than a trailer. I’d be satisfied with Two-Face.
Something about that drawing just makes me absolutely happy.
Carter’s been drawing a lot lately. He’ll wake up in the morning and go to his table in the bonus room and draw. Jill set him up a table with crayons, markers, scissors, and glue in the back of the bonus room and I dug out a few old art pads for him to use.
He’ll draw something, ask for comments, draw some more. When he’s done, he usually cuts it out of the pad and presents it to Jill or myself for approval.
The picture above was drawn this past weekend at Grandma’s house. He had several pages of pictures he’d drawn and this one just amazed me. I asked him if it was supposed to be Superman and he said “Yep” and kept on going. I think I’ll start archiving some of these for him to see when he gets older.
Bad Internet. Looks like the full image of the Joker from the Empire Magazine Cover has been leaked early. Click the image for a larger version.
Early buzz seems that a lot of people don’t like the image. I personally, think it’s pretty cool. Different from any previous live version we’ve seen, which is what the character needs.
I’ll still be watching the He Is Coming site for the full image without all the cover copy in the way.
Finally, is the first thing that comes to mind.
In February of 2008, Marvel will release the first volume (of 12) collecting all of the entries from the 2004-2007 All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. Details are still sparse and I’m only going on what the advanced solicitation copy says.
The most exciting and comprehensive Marvel handbook is finally here! Beginning a twelve-volume guide to the Marvel Universe with more than 100 huge entries in each tome! This issue – from 1602 to Blackwulf! Spotlighting people (Angel, Annihilus, Ant-Man, Apocalypse, Arachne, Ares, Aurora, Banshee, Baron Zemo, Beast, Beta Ray Bill, Bishop, Black Bolt, Black Knight, Black Panther, Black Widow), places (Atlantis), teams (AIM, Acolytes, Agents of Atlas, Alpha Flight, Avengers), species (Badoon), alternate realities (2020, 2099, the Age of Apocalypse) and more!
The big question I have for this hardcover collection is…does it contain the other “guide books” that use the Marvel Handbook format, but were not branded as such.
For example, will it include the Spider-Man: Back in Black Handbook (April 2007), Mystic Arcana: The Book of Marvel Magic (May 2007), The Mighty Avengers: Most Wanted Files (June 2007), World War Hulk: Gamma Files (August 2007), Marvel Zombies: The Book of Angels, Demons, & Various Monstrosities and the X-Men: Messiah Complex – Mutant Files (December 2007). I would surely hope so. Some of those (Spider-Man and Mighty Avengers) look exactly like an All New OHotMU book, except for the logo.
With the mention of “places (Atlantis)” in the solicitation text, I’m hopeful that the hardcover will also include the data from the late 2007-2008 Marvel Atlas releases.
Best of all, the entries will be in alphabetical order. Since the original releases in 2004 started with spotlights on teams and characters (Avengers, X-Men, Spider-Man), the entries for those books were in alphabetical order for those issues only. It wasn’t until the 2006 update that an entire 12-issue run was alphabetized. Still, many characters and information from the 2004 and 2005 one-shots were omitted from the 2007 release.
All of this means many collectors and readers will likely be buying this content again, but it will be well worth it. Collectors and readers that like the Marvel Handbook will be lining up to buy these versions.