BitterNews for Thursday, March 18th, 2010

• Legendary singer/songwriter Alex Chilton died last night after complaining of feeling poorly. He was taken to the hospital and died shortly thereafter, apparently of a heart attack. Chilton, who fronted the chart-topping Box-Tops in his teens will probably be best remembered for his time in the seminal Big Star, a cult band that sold few records in their day. Their legend grew throughout the 70’s and 80’s until a full scale reassessment of their work was undertaken in the wake of a handful of reissues on Rykodisc, including an expanded version of their masterpiece “Third” and a collection of founder Chris Bell’s previously unreleased recordings. Chilton’s solo career was viewed with confusion by most critics and fans, but revealed an interest in obscure r&b and soul that was Chilton’s true passion. In 2006 Big Star released a new studio album (their first in 30 years) and played a few dates around the release, but did not undertake a full-scale tour. Big Star was due to play SXSW this weekend. It is not known if the other members of the band will perform a tribute show instead or if the gig is cancelled.
• 3A toys are releasing yet another variant exclusive – this time it’s a Tommy Mission Blood Nails exclusive from BBICN.com.
• IDW is now a Diamond Premier Publisher. This is the first time since Diamond launched the program that a Publisher has been added to the core group of Marvel, DC, Dark Horse & Image. The program allows IDW access to covers of Diamond Previews, front of catalog placement in same and other behind-the-scenes perks that are too boring to discuss here. IDW is currently Diamond’s #4 publisher, ahead of Image but behind Dark Horse. With their varied product line and their new status at Diamond, we expect IDW to surpass Dark Horse quickly.
• The character Rick Grimes from Walking Dead has been added to the lineup of Guardians of the Globe, Image’s new team book. I see a motorcycle getting ready to jump a shark tank and Robert Kirkman is driving it.
• NBC is filming a new reality show about comic book geeks – starting in London, ending at San Diego.
• Genius comedian / provocateur Chris Morris’ new movie trailer, Four Lions is now online. It’s a comedy that tells the story of four Islamic terrorists. The guy has balls the size of Mars.
• There’s going to be a Batman Beyond comic book mini-series.
• The Hobbit starts filming in June, per Gandalf.
• Amazon is ramping up their Kindle push in the face of the forthcoming iTampon. Just this week they offered a free Kindle software download and now they have released Kindle for Mac software. Not only does this appear desperate, it is like fighting a forest fire with a squirtgun. Apple will clearly get all the press and publicity for their products – it will be up to consumers to decide which product they prefer, and they will vote with their dollars. The Kindle campaign is telling about the faith Amazon has in its product vs the perception of the iPad.
• Sandra Bullock: Don’t marry a guy named Jesse James from a show called Monster Garage who has just broken up with a psycho porn star it might go bad. He might end up banging some tattooed dick pincushion who describes herself as an “Evil Cunt” with drawings all over her – just saying.
• It’s not looking good for “FlashForward” as the foreign markets where it is performing well are not coming to rescue the struggling show, and the showrunner just left. The fate of the show probably depends on ratings of the first few post-hiatus episodes.
• MGM final bids are due on Friday – I have some change in my pocket!
• And of course, today is San Diego hotel hell day. Good luck to all.