Geekanerd tipster (and Whedon fanatic) LibraryTypeGirl let us know that the first act of Joss' new internet series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog went live today. The official page is down as of this writing, but you can rush to your iTunes and download it for $2 (or go ahead and buy all three acts for $4). LibraryTypeGirl says it's great, expect a Geekanerd review soon!
UPDATE: The page seems to be working now, so go on over and watch Act I and Act II, for free!
Gnerd is still recovering from our 4th of July Blowout, sorry for the junior sized Panel Discussion. More interesting stuff was probably going on in the Marvel Universe, but that's not my department. As always, beware of SPOILERS after the jump. -AHR
Achievement in Sound Design - House of Mystery #3
That's a hell of a KA-THOOOM. The "KA" is igniting, the "TH" is made of bricks that are shattering against the inky black "OOO" and the "M" is...well it's just a big chunky red M in sort of Sam Kieth font.
Grant Morrisson's master plan and Slayers on Broadway, after the jump...
Most Underwhelming Payoff - Batman #678
Yeah, so....Grant Morrisson's run on Batman has been referencing "Zur-En-Arrh" since it started over a year ago. Zur En Arrh is the name of a futuristic (circa 1950) planet with it's own super-tech powered Batman (here's the long version). I have to hand it to artist Tony Daniel for making this purple, red and yellow eyesore look even slightly wearable (the torn up coat is a nice touch, evoking a swarm of bats). But Bat-Radia? Molecule Guns? Old School Bat-Mite? I want to trust GM wherever he goes, but future-techspeak and alternate universe crap is my least favorite part of DC, and till now it had stayed safely out of my Bat books.
Broadway Shout-Out - Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 8, #16
Trust a musical theater nerd like Joss Whedon to reference Xanadu, the most cultastic new musical on the boards today. First episode of Doctor Horrible is online July 15th, I'm waiting with baited breath...
I haven't even watched this thing yet, because the computer I'm currently working on is from like 1993 and doesn't want to run Vimeo. But here it is, courtesy of the official fan site, the teaser trailer for Dr. Horrible, Joss Whedon's new musical web series that he wrote with his close friends and relations during the writers strike. Because Joss Whedon CAN'T NOT write. It's like breathing for him.
It's kind of killing me that I can't watch this right now. Anyone want to tell me if the trailer is any good?
Update: Oh wow. I just watched it. It's really good. This might be Neil Patrick Harris' finest work, although I could just be saying that because he's rocking my favorite outfit of labcoat and goggles. Odd that there's no singing, maybe they're concerned about scaring away geeks who think themselves too manly to associate themselves with anything all-singing, all-dancing. Or maybe the mixes just aren't in yet.
Have you noticed all these ads around NYC for TV Networks, a'cept they're not asking you to watch their network, they're telling you that you should advertise with them? This is because it's time for UPFRONTS, when all the advertising suits come to town and get wined and dined by network suits who show them splashy presentations of their amazing new post-strike fall seasons. And while it's hard to get too excited about anything TV-related because the cultural relevance of network/cable boxed television died with the last really good HBO show, one interesting leak did make it online; the very rough looking teaser for Joss Whedon's return to network TV, Dollhouse.
Why you should not expect this trailer to be very good, after the jump...
Keep in mind this is a teaser designed to appeal to advertisers, not audiences. It's very BASE, is what I'm saying. Not FANbase, just base. As in, lots of clumsy exposition, skin, cheesy aftereffects and bad font choices. And it's not like they have a ton of footage to pull from, they've been in production for a month. A month! This is probably why they don't want this kind of thing leaking on the internet. But as a fan of many people involved on this particular project (faithfaithfaith), I can't NOT watch and post it.
Extra points to anyone who can spot the clip from Buffy Season 3, presumably thrown in because they simply haven't shot enough action sequences to fill a two minutes trailer (again, one month of production). Also note that actor Harry Lennix makes an appearance (the skeptical black guy about 1:45 in), who you might remember from one of those awful Matrix sequels, but who you SHOULD remember from Titus, in which he gave a supervillianous performance for the ages.
Anyway, if you Wheadies out there are looking for more of a reason to have (ahem) confidence in this show (see how I avoided a potential pun there?), check out this New York Magazine article in which Joss says he created Dollhouse to save Eliza Dushku from B-Horror Movie Starlet Hell and that she guilt tripped him into not sheving the writing duties off on someone else. How can a series so steeped in personal drama fail!? The stakes are simply too high.
FRIDAY, JULY 13
On July 2 you'll get the chance to bid on an intimate dinner with Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon. Hope you like... STAKE! Oh, and by intimate we mean there will be four other winners. And press, probably. You're guaranteed three hours of his time, and they promise "hilarious anecdotes and dark, personal secrets." Proceeds from the auction go to benefit Equality Now, which protects women's human rights around the world.
Read all about it at eBay.
