Funk Babblings

Someday I must go to the San Diego Comic-Con. Seems like there's always cool stuff happening there.

It seems that among the things happening there was a string of announcements from J. Michael Straczynski. Let's see, we have Ron Howard slated to direct a movie (Changeling) that JMS wrote. We get a 12-episode SF-comedy radio series for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, The Adventures of Apocalypse Al. We get a new JMS TV series called Borrowed Lives. His excellent Rising Stars comic book series will become a TV series. His Midnight Nation graphic novel may become a film, as may a one-off comic book called Dream Police (hadn't heard of that one). He'll also be doing a new comic book called Bullet Points.

Oh yeah, and some Babylon 5 projects. Sure, a B5 video game is coming, but the big news is Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, a direct-to-DVD collection of 20-minute stories, "stories that I wanted to tell during the B5 series but never had the chance to develop." Unlike the previous B5 spinoff attempts, it will focus on the prominent B5 characters -- at least those played by actors still living. (So no G'Kar or Dr. Franklin, but maybe Delenn and Ivanova!) And it will be released next year.

(Thanks to duriyah for sending the link!)

This weekend we'll be heading to Columbus for Marcon. Every year at Marcon I end up buying a pile of books, usually stuff that's hard to find locally, and often rare or out of print stuff. Last year's take included my first real effort to get into graphic novels beyond Sandman.

( And also Elric... )

( My fictional influences )

Today I learned that all the Babylon 5 scripts written by JMS, along with related memos and memoirs and roads-not-taken, are being sold as a set of fifteen $40 books. (Well, the last one will only be available free to people who buy the other 14.) The first three are available now. www.Babylon5scripts.com has all the info, and TheJoeStore at CafePress has the goodies, along with the usual CafePress swag imprinted with B5 quotes.

You can even get on a mailing list to be alerted when each book becomes available. Volume 4 is coming next month.

I keep intending to write about all the books I've been reading, but it's inching closer to a year's worth of books, and sadly I don't think I could do any of them justice at this point. I may still try (wading through an 845-page book means the read-books-pile isn't growing so quickly), but it's still getting less likely.

But what I can talk about is comics.

( Read more... )

JMS has announced that the Babylon 5 film he's been working on for the past year, The Memory of Shadows, has fallen through. Apparently all the financial pieces couldn't be put together.

At least we'll get The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and Serenity this year.

Up to this point I've sort of half-heartedly been watching occasional episodes of Lost just because nontacitare was watching it. But tonight it hooked me. Why?

Delenn was on! ....Er, I mean "Danielle" (hmm, almost an anagram of Delenn), I mean Mira Furlan.....

As soon as she spoke I was ecstatic. Delenn!

Although it doesn't look like she'll be a regular, it does look like "Danielle" will be a recurring character. Reason enough for me to finally give up on Smallville, which has only been going downhill.