meltblog

I had the distinct pleasure of working for a couple years for Zach Helm (Stranger Than Fiction), one of the most talented storytellers I’ve ever known in person. This year will see the release of his directorial debut: Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium starring Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman.

The first trailer is now online (and, I understand, in theaters in front of Pixar’s Ratatouille). Go watch it!

Due to the holiday, new books will be out next Thursday the 5th rather than Wednesday July 4th. Use the extra day to go see Mel in Transformers.

See you Thursday!

From a recent press release:

“Now, Joss has teamed up with Dark Horse and eBay to offer fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sit down to a private dinner–with Joss himself¬– at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Beginning on July 2nd, fans will have the opportunity to bid on seats at his table, all for a worthwhile cause. The charity auction will run from July 2 to July 12, and also offers “additional rarities, including signed editions of Dark Horse’s upcoming Serenity hardcover. For complete details, visit ebay.com/josswhedon.

Funds raised from the charity auction will benefit Equality Now, an organization founded in 1992 to work for the protection and promotion of the human rights of women around the world. Working with national human rights organizations and individual activists, Equality Now documents violence and discrimination against women and mobilizes international action to support their efforts to stop these human rights abuses. For more information, please visit equalitynow.org.”

Read the full release here.

I had the pleasure of seeing a (slightly) advance screening of Live Free or Die Hard last night. And saw a familiar face.

Apparently Mel wasn’t content appearing in just ONE of this year’s independence day spectaculars and he decided to go for a twosie.

Early in Live Free or Die Hard we witness Matt Farrell (played by Justin Long) at his computer workstation in his apartment. As he gathers his things and John McClane plays with Matt’s Spawn figure, we can see two Mel stickers on a gray metal panel against the wall behind Matt. Go Mel! (I’ll provide some pics as soon as I can get them)

Transformers, Live Free or Die Hard…what will Mel’s next role be?

EDIT: As promised, here are some captures from the movie, showing both the Daniel Clowes and Junko Mizuno versions of Mel:

You can watch 8 minutes of the film, including Mel’s big scene, here.

“After THE IRON GIANT, THE INCREDIBLES and now [RATATOUILLE], I feel it is safe to say that Brad Bird is the closest thing there is to the Miyazaki of America.” -Heidi MacDonald

“5 Red Bulls haven’t worked, and my new Sida Cordifolia tablets smell like cat piss. Today may be the day I die.” -Warren Ellis

“[Warren Ellis] is honestly amazed [that his fisrt novel reached #214 on Amazon] — while I suspect a legion of Goth/Burlesque part-time dommes in Spider Jerusalem glasses snapping the crop across bottoms all across the world, hissing ‘When it buys its thousandth Crooked Little Vein, it gets its treat.’” -John Rogers

“I know people hate on comics retailers all the time, but there’s a part of me that I know is going to miss the raggedy-ass aspects of the first three decades of Direct Market retail, a system for the delivery of an entire art form manned to a significant percentage by the merchant equivalent of the Island of Lost Toys.” -Tom Spurgeon

“The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other ‘good’ kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college. They are part of what we’d call hegemonic society. They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.

MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, ‘burnouts,’ ‘alternative kids,’ ‘art fags,’ punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn’t play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn’t go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. Teens who are really into music or in a band are on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.” -Danah Boyd

This goes out to libraries in Los Angeles and surrounding areas.  Meltdown is offering 5 free back issues of the Comics Journal to any representative (with valid identification) of local libraries.  Just stop by, flash your credentials, and we’ll hook you up with a sampling of the Comics Journal for your shelves.

“Yes, [Whiteout’s] really happening, yes, Kate Beckinsale really looks like that in real life, no, I’m not sure when it’s coming out but I think it’s Summer ‘08 and no, I can’t share pictures and stories from the set as yet or else I risk the ire of Warner Brothers and they will send a combined 87 tons of attorney after me, and let me tell you, brother, that’s a fuck of a lot of attorney right there.” -Greg Rucka

“One of these days someone will be watching when the neighbour’s motion-sensor light catches me smoking naked in the garden at 1am.” -Warren Ellis

“Selma Blair thinks I’m cute, Claire Danes thinks I’m funny, Doug Jones thinks I’m gorgeous, and Guillermo del Toro thinks I should eat more ice cream.” -Maddy Gaiman

“It feels like a big bag of jelly when you hold it in your hand and, I must say, it’s a very strong frog.

“We have been trying to get the frogs turned on.” -Kalyan Varma

“If I’d gotten on that [theme park] ride, my friends would have actually heard me scream. Like a little girl. Like a little girl who just woke up because somebody licked her foot. Like a little girl who just woke up because somebody licked her foot, and then when she turns on the light there’s an evil clown sitting in the middle of her bedroom, eating her pony.

“There’s no comebacks from the clown-pony scream.” -John Rogers

Check out this description of the new Batcycle (called the Batpod):

“[The Batpod is a] a bike so outrageous it’s hard to believe it was even built. It’s not just because it’s tricked out with grappling hooks, cannons and machine guns. The front and rear tires are both a monstrously huge 508 millimeters, and the engines are in the hubs of each wheel. Steering isn’t by hand but by shoulder, since there aren’t handlebars. Instead, there are shields that fit each arm like sleeves and have the ability to rotate around the bike’s frame. The two foot pegs are set 3 1/2 feet apart on either side of the tank, which the rider lies on, belly down.

And you know he will.”

Read the entire article from the LA Times.