The Covers for Stephen King’s The Stand Comic Book

Here are all the three different covers for the first issue of Stephen King’s The Stand comic book.  (From Lilja’s Library)

Standard Cover

Sketch Cover

Variant Cover

The iPhone 3G Now In Stock At All Apple Retail Stores

If you’ve been wanting an iPhone 3G but haven’t had any lucking finding one in stock, your waiting might be over. According to Apple’s iPhone 3G inventory tracking tool every Apple store in the US has the new iPhone in stock as of today. As expected, the stock levels normalized once the initial rush ebbed. Sadly, AT&T stores are still filling back orders, so trying to buy one from the carrier could be hit or miss. But if you want one now, you know where to go. (From Gizmodo.com)

 

Schick Quattro Titanium Trimmer

The Schick Quattro Titanium Trimmer ($14) offers the grooming trifecta — it shaves, edges and trims. Powered by a single AAA battery (included), the shower safe device features a manual razor with four titanium-coated blades, one precision edging blade, and an adjustable four-level power trimmer for beards and burns. (From Uncrate.com)

 

Watchmen Journal – The Owlship

The 50 Most Famous Cars of All Time

Whether they were notable for their superior performance, or for the superior performers who drove them, RideLust’s list of the 50 Most Famous Cars pays homage to all the truly iconic automobiles of our time (and a few that slipped in under “editorial bias”…) So without further ado, and in no particular order here is the list.

Pay $1,000 For an iPhone App?

Before you’re rich enough to start throwing away your money to medical foundations and third-world countries, consider buying a $1,000 iPhone application that does nothing.

 

An application called “I Am Rich,” makes you wonder whether developer Armin Heinrich is referring to you or himself — after he suckers enough naïve people into purchasing this useless piece of software. The app does nothing but display a red ruby; tapping a miniature i  in the corner will load a secret mantra enabling you to “stay rich, healthy, and successful.”

 

It will indubitably make you question Apple’s criteria for approving applications before they appear in the App Store.

 

Update: It appears the app has been pulled from the App Store.

The Dark Knight Reaches $400M in Record 18 Days

Warner Bros. Pictures’ juggernaut The Dark Knight added yet another record on Monday as it passed up the $400 million in just 18 days. The previous record was held by Shrek 2, which needed 43 days to reach the mark, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which took 45 days.

The Dark Knight earned $6.28 million in 4,266 theaters on Monday, pushing the Christopher Nolan-directed Batman Begins follow-up to $400,038,494. The movie has climbed up to the 8th spot on the all-time domestic blockbuster list and will surpass Spider-Man ($403.7 million) on Tuesday for the 7th spot.

Internationally, the film has already earned $202.5 million while it has yet to open in some major markets. The worldwide total so far is $602.5 million. (From ComingSoon.net)

 

How to Win at Rock Paper Scissors

Just imagine all the shotgun seats and last beers that would be yours if you won every game of rochambeau. Impossible? Not according to Graham Walker, coauthor of The Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide.

 

1. Play paper first. Rookies tend to lead with rock, so paper is the safest opener. (A savvy opponent will try the same, causing a tie.) If you win, claim victory; if not, start the next throw right away, because of course it’s two out of three.

 

2. Exploit copycats. Casual players often switch to the object that just beat them. You can encourage them to do this by shouting, “Paper wins!” when you defeat their rock. Then throw scissors on the next round.

 

3. Watch for doubles. People rarely throw the same hand three times in a row; if they play scissors twice, your next move is paper. Also, keep up the pace so they have less time to think and instead fall into patterns.  (From Wired.com)

Could ‘Hellboy III’ Mean The Death Of Hellboy?

Guillermo del Toro talks about the “Hellboy” movies being a trilogy – what with the first film being about his birth, the second his teenage choices, and the third about becoming an adult and facing the consequences of those choices. “The third one would be facing your destiny, if such a thing exists, and making the ultimate decision,” del Toro says.

Tantalizing, but vague. So we asked “Hellboy” creator Mike Mignola to clarify – what would the final installment be about, besides bouncing Hellboy babies? Turns out, quite a bit.

“The problem is, what del Toro’s talked about to me is that ‘Hellboy III’ would be the end of Hellboy,” Mignola said. “And here’s where we have the big conflict. My version of Hellboy in the comics is a finite story, but it’s going to take me 15 years to get to the ending. If he makes ‘Hellboy III’ and it’s the death of Hellboy, I’m left doing the comic going, ‘But I’m not done yet.’

“My Hellboy is not going to have kids,” Mignola added. “My Hellboy is going to die, but I want to be the one who does that. And if del Toro does my ending, there won’t be a lot of surprise when I get to the end of the comic.”

Now, del Toro hasn’t necessarily said he’s planning to do that particular ending — “We haven’t spent a lot of time talking about what his version of the story would be,” Mignola said, “and I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that one.” But the worry is still there, in the back of Mignola’s mind, despite Hellboy the movie having moved so far a field of Hellboy the comic. “I can’t help but think he’s coming to the conclusion of the story.”

Still, del Toro has “The Hobbit” to deal with first – which means it’ll be at least four years before he turns back to the world of Hellboy. And who knows if the studio wants to wait that long? “There are so many questions about how it might happen,” Mignola said. “And I hear ideas how it might be done, but I have no idea how it would happen. It would be nice to strike while the iron is hot, but I don’t know how that would be done.”

And if it doesn’t turn out the way he wants, if his ending is the more filmic way to go, “that will be between me, del Toro, and my therapist,” Mignola laughed. “I’m still raising Hellboy. I’m not done with the character yet.” (From MTV Splash Page)

Todd McFarlane Weighs in on ‘Venom’ Movie Spin-Off

If the villain Venom ends up starring in his own movie, the artist who defined his look in the comics hopes Hollywood makes him “creepier.”

“When I created him, he was a monster first, then a guy underneath,” said Todd McFarlane, the artist behind Venom’s first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #299. “He should be creepier than what he was in Spider-Man 3.”

On Thursday, news emerged that Sony Pictures, prompted by the success of Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker, is moving forward with development of the film project “Venom,” a Spider-Man spin-off based on the villain.

“I always thought Spider-Man was a skinny runt of a guy, and his villains felt more formidable if they were physically more superior,” McFarlane explained, saying that when he first drew Venom, he didn’t even know there was supposed to be a guy inside the suit. “I didn’t realize until afterward that it was Eddie Brock underneath… which is why the proportions are the way they are [in the comics], with the big jaws and the hunching. I pictured him as a creature, and not a human being in a costume.”

Venom is a thick, black parasite that attaches itself to the outside of a human host, giving the wearer superpowers. The implication of the villain being a vehicle for a movie is that Sony doesn’t have to use the actor who played Venom in Spider-Man 3, Topher Grace, in the lead role of a new film, since the parasite can switch from one host to another. But the idea of another host also makes McFarlane’s request for a scarier Venom possible.

“You don’t want to scare the kids, because the kids love the character,” McFarlane said of Venom, echoing the sentiment of those in Hollywood who maintain superhero movies must be PG or PG-13 to succeed because they need young audiences. “But I think you could add a little bit of a creep factor. I mean, it never bugged me to watch Frankenstein as a kid, so you could have a little bit of it, as long as you have a good story backing it up.”

McFarlane, who was publicizing his role as one of the six artists drawing the upcoming comic Image United, became a comic book superstar in the ’80s because of his artwork on Spider-Man, including his co-creation of the wildly popular Venom with writer David Michelinie. He later founded Image Comics and became an advocate of creator-owned characters, including his ’90s hit series Spawn. The entrepreneur also founded the action figure company McFarlane Toys, and is well known to sports fans as a collector of historically significant baseballs.

But even if the new Venom is “creepier,” the artist questioned the idea of a villain being the center character of a Spider-Man spin-off. “I’m thinking about how they want to make anti-heroes nowadays,” he said, using the Halle Berry Catwoman film as an example. “Those don’t work. The reason they’re so cool as a bad guy is because they’re bad. And as soon as you try to give too much humanity to them, then you go, no! Now they’re not as good as a bad guy because you’re trying to redeem them.”

He said that although “smart people can make things happen in other ways,” he doesn’t think Venom can make an audience care about him if he’s still a villain. McFarlane said that Don Corleone and the Sopranos are examples of characters who were able to entice viewer sympathy despite their villainy, “but they were human. Can you bring that mentality to Venom and make it work? Or do you make him all bad?

“You’re trying to give something to people when they leave. I don’t know if you can have a movie about a guy who goes out there and maims everybody and wins all the time,” he said. “I don’t know what their mindset is and how they can get there other than adding too much niceness to him, but we’ll see.” (From Newsarama.com)