Neil Gaiman Reads Green Eggs And Ham For Worldbuilders

Worldbuilders is a campaign organized by author Patrick Rothfuss to get people to donate to his favorite charity, Heifer International. Why that charity? Says Rothfuss:

Heifer International is my favorite charity. It helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation. Heifer promotes education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry all over the world.

They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so families can take care of themselves. They give goats, sheep, and chickens to families so their children have milk to drink, warm clothes to wear, and eggs to eat.

Pretty cool.

In order to celebrate reaching a $500,000 stretch goal recently, Neil Gaiman agreed to read Green Eggs And Ham. Yes. That Green Eggs And Ham, the Dr. Seuss one.

Mr Gaiman reads a mean kids’ book. Damn.

Via The Mary Sue.

Muppets To Live Tweet Sferndy Boom, uh, Super Bowl XLVIII, Shill For Toyota

As I sit here watching the Kitten Halftime Show of the Puppy Bowl, I thought I should pass along that the Muppets will be live tweeting the Super Bowl, or, as the Swedish Chef calls it, the Sferndy Boom. Here, let them explain it while they shill for Toyota in the commercial below:

Via Ad Age.

And, check out the Super Bowl spot for Muppets Most Wanted, after the jump

The Wolf Among Us: Episode 2 – Fables Video Game Trailer

Ok, so, Telltale Games, makers of the award winning video game version of The Walking Dead, have turned their hand to developing a video game from Vertigo’s Fables series. They’re up to Episode 2. I must admit I’m out of the loop on this; I didn’t even know there was an Episode 1! I blame whiskey. Then again, I blame everything on whiskey.

Telltale’s official blog says the release is set for next week but no specific date is given: “We’re super close to the episode’s release now, and will announce dates as soon as we have them confirmed.”

If, like me, you completely missed this the first time around and want to see the trailer for Episode 1: Faith, check it out after the jump.

New Teaser Trailer For Guillermo Del Toro’s The Strain

You may remember this found footage teaser for The Strain, a television program slated for release later this year based on a trilogy of vampire novels by Chuck Hogan.

If you don’t, let me bring you up to speed: the CDC is investigating a viral outbreak that seems suspiciously like vampirism. Newsflash: it is. Fortunately, none of the vampires seem to sparkle or mope. Instead, this 13 episode run will focus on Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) and his medical investigators, as well as a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian (John Hurt!), who knows the real score about what is going down in New York City.

A new teaser for the show has been released. While it doesn’t really give us any more information about the program, it does at least narrow the release down to “Summer”. Thank god. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with myself once Dracula and The Vampire Diaries wrap for the season. Or Hulu shits the bed and I can’t watch reruns of Forever Knight, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, or Angel. Or my DVD player breaks and…well, you get my point. But, hey, it’s Del Toro. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. He must have learned something since Blade 2.

Check out the new teaser, after the jump.

Brain Bleach: Twerking Stormtroopers

There’s not much to say here other than for your viewing pleasure…twerking Stormtroopers.

Horrifying. Mesmerizing. Twerking. Stormtroopers.

Via Geeks Are Sexy.

New Teasers And Clips From Upcoming DC Justice League And Batman Projects

For those of you bummed about the decision to delay the upcoming Superman/Batman sequel until 2016, Warner Brothers has released a new clip today from the upcoming Justice League: War animated film. Bonus – this film has a fully fleshed out Wonder Woman with no weird, forced Kryptonian origins, so that’s nice. Take a moment a be grateful that Zach Snyder and company may be taking this opportunity to actually get their shit together, and enjoy this animated clip.

Via io9.

Kimota! – With A Word, The Value Of Your Back Issues Tumble: Review Of Miracleman #1

This week, Marvel comics began selling reprints of Miracleman. Miracleman #1 includes the eleven page prologue story “The Invaders From The Future”, originally published in 1985, along with “A Dream Of Flying”, parts 1 and 2, which were originally published in 1982 by Warrior magazine. Miracleman creator, Mick Anglo, wrote the prologue. Alan Moore, who chose to have his name stripped from this reprint, wrote “A Dream Of Flying”. Indeed, if you look at the inside cover where the author typically is listed, it instead says “The Original Writer”. It’s like Moore has never heard of Alan Smithee.

I’ve never read any of the Miracleman books before. My only exposure to them was watching Rob one night in a drunken Ebay war to track down the fabled 15th issue, where I gather one of the good guys goes bad and does something truly heinous to the city of London and it’s received more poorly than when Superman and Zod do the same thing in Man Of Steel. However, having read much of Moore’s other work, I can see the appeal the Miracleman story must have had for him: Golden Age hero whose story he re imagines in the early 80s, when the apple cheeked Boy Scout heroes of the 50s could be more thoroughly examined for their dark undersides. It is a theme Moore has visited often since, in Watchmen and as recently as the Image Comics, originally as Awesome Comics, reboot of Supreme.

“All Hail The King” – Watch One Minute Of This Marvel One Shot

Who is Trevor Slattery? If you saw Iron Man 3, you will recognize that name as the supposed real identity of The Mandarin, at least, in the movie. This clip from “All Hail The King”, a one-shot Marvel short that will be included in the Blu-ray/DVD release of Thor: the Dark Work, sets itself up as a documentary that purports to answer the question. My guess? He’s actually The Mandarin. This whole befuddled actor thing is a ruse, a long game. He intended to get caught but, for what purpose? I suppose it will all bear itself out over the course of Marvel’s Phase 2 and 3 movies.

Or maybe he’s a starving actor who just figured this was the easiest way to score three square meals and a roof over his head. Beats the bus stop men’s room, I guess.

The Blu-ray/DVD of Thor: The Dark World hits stores February 25, 2014.

Via The mary Sue.

Have You Seen Star Trek: Derp Edition?

The folks over at Slacktory, who have previously released Derp Editions of trailers for Die Hard and The Avengers using blooper reel footage, uploaded a new trailer for the rebooted Star Trek. Watch as Spock acts uncharacteristically humorous, Kirk is even more of a goof and Bones, well, he still acts like Bones.

It amazes me that even the blooper scenes somehow still manage to have lens flare. J.J. Abrams, what kind of a monster are you?

Awful, Speculative Rumor Regarding Wonder Woman In New Superman/Batman Film

With Gal Gadot on board to play Wonder Woman in the new Man Of Steel sequel, it hasn’t taken long for the rumor mill to crank up about what that role may entail. Someone named Jett from a site called Batman On Film is speculating that Wonder Woman may get a new origin story:

With all that said, I’d bet a year’s pay – in MONOPOLY money, of course – that the “Amazons” of this cinematic DCU will be descendants of those “ancient Kryptonians” who attempted to set up Kryptonian outposts throughout spacedom thousands and thousands of years ago. Furthermore, I say that Wonder Woman will be powered-down, if you will, relative to Superman because these Amazons have evolved and adapted to living on Earth for hundreds of centuries. And since Kryptonians are produced without any “He’n and She’n” – Jor El and Lara excluded – couldn’t this original Kryptonian on Earth have used this reproductive science to create an all-female race? I say yes!

That statement was in response to answering mailbag questions on the site:

Responses to reader’s questions are based on inside information, industry scuttlebutt, and my opinion. Nothing should be taken as confirmed news unless explicitly stated as such.

Well, I’m hoping that Jett’s speculation turns out to be a nonstarter. Given that so far WB has managed to stick, more or less, to canon with the Batman franchises and much (though certainly not all) of the Arrow TV show, there is no reason for a script to toss out Wonder Woman’s origin story beyond complete and total ass-hatted laziness. I’m not interested in a “powered down” Wonder Woman, evolved from Kryptonians. Frankly, I didn’t like the Asguardians as more evolved alien race when Marvel did that for the Thor movies. It’s a cop out.