BitterNews for Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Once again, it’s a snooze fest.

• Fantagraphics is giving comic historian Rick Marschall his own imprint. His first book is “Drawing Power”, which will examine the use of comics in advertising. And that’s our first story of the day. Go back to bed.
• Robert Culp (I Spy) is dead.
• Les Humanoids, the biggest publisher in France is now publishing in the US, in the wake of failed deals with US publishers, including the Devils Due.
• Buck Rogers is now being directed by the only choice as bad as Frank Miller, Paul WS Anderson. Expect Frank to beg DC to print his Batman Jihad comic and to plead with anyone in earshot for Sin City 2.
• Rob Liefeld is bringing back his not-missed 90’s book, Brigade. Considering the lackluster reaction to the Youngblood relaunch, this will be DOA.
• Angela Basset will play Amanda Waller in Green Lantern. Is this a transparent attempt to recreate the Sam Jackson / Nick Fury buzz in DC films? Of course it is.
• CBS.com is prepping it’s website’s program archive to work with the iPad, the first major network to do so.
• EMI has won the battle to keep their lawsuit against Citibank in the US. The lawsuit alleges that Citibank withheld information about other bidders dropping out before Guy Hand’s Terra Firma placed its successful offer for the struggling label.
• The Foo Fighters are recording their new album in Dave Grohl’s garage.
• More sluts and road whores are popping up with evidence of Jessie James DNA all up in their shit. Apparently, James was banging some of these sperm receptacles IN HIS OFFICE WHILE SANDRA BULLOCK WAS AT THE “MONSTER GARAGE”.
• Grant Morrison is writing some endless adaptation of some painfully dull Indian epic, which will no doubt be incomprehensible and will not sell after the third issue. It will be published by Dynamite in conjunction with Liquid (formerly Virgin) Comics. Even Vertigo was smart enough to pass on the deranged baldy this time.
• Mel Brooks is writing music for the Blazing Saddles Broadway show.
• Here are your shit movies for tomorrow: How To Train Your Dragon, Chloe, Greenberg, the Bounty Hunter, and our pick for the week (although we’re not optimistic) Hot Tub Time Machine, which at least has a good cast.

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.

BitterNews for Thursday, March 11th, 2010

• Mattel Fuck Up Of The Day: Matty has decided to move the date of the April sale to April 19th. Hardly a big deal, but why is it so hard for them to figure this shit out in advance? Oh right, because they are idiots.
• Barnes & Noble had the same glitch as Amazon, although fewer titles were affected.
• Tomorrow’s new movies: She’s Out Of My League (“The funniest movie since ‘The Hangover’” – like that’s hard), Remember Me (Starring Robert Gay Vampire – will the tweens show up for this douche in a non-Edward role?), Green Zone (new Matt Damon film with good word of month).
• There’s a Japan-only (for now) Elvis Costello live album from 1978 coming in June. This is the much bootlegged Winterland show that was recorded within days of the just released Live At Hollywood High show.
• Wall Street 2 is on hold.
• The new Twilight trailer is online.
• The next Chipmunks movie will be in 3-D.
• Atari teenage Riot are reuniting. A nation yawns.
• The Amazon gold box deal of the day is the Futurama Bender head box set of DVDs at 50% + off.
• Comics legend Dick Giordano is in the hospital.
• Cougartown is the best prime-time comedy. There were more laughs before the intro last night than there are in the entirety of most half-hour comedies. And we love Community and 30 Rock too. But Cougartown is funnier.

BitterNews for Thursday, February 25th, 2010

• Sooooooo boring.
• Detective #27 (first Batman) graded 8.0 sold for over a million dollars – breaking the record set earlier this week for Action #1. Same guy bought both?
• Top Secret talks happening at Wildstorm HQ in LaJolla with the new DC leaders.
• The Super 7 Stormtrooper Super Shogun starts tomorrow at noon PST. Free shipping for early bird orders, but how’s $299.99 sound? About $125 too expensive, that’s how it sounds.
• We Are All Whores.
• Drew Barrymore’s next movie is called “Everybody Loves Whales” – maybe not such a good title after yesterday’s Killer Whale attack at Sea World.
• The 10 billionth iTunes download was a Johnny Cash tune, bought by a 71-year-old dude in Georgia. He got a call from Steve Jobs, one from Roseanne Cash (Johnny’s daughter) and a $10,000 gift card for the iTunes store that hopefully is transferable as it’ll take a while to download that much music and he’s 71.
• Welcome Racist Robot** to these pages (see pic above)! Racist Robot is not a Racist, inasmuch as he has no prejudices against any particular class, creed or color – but he is inherently a figure of Racism in that his mere existence (thanks Michael Bay!) shows that Racism still runs rampant and is unapologetically exploited for a dollar and a cent. What Racist Robot can’t stand however is bullshit, especially from the companies that manufacture the art and products we love. Therefore, Racist Robot has been programmed to interpret Press Releases, quotes and other garbage passed from Corporations to Fans, and he’ll do it all, exclusively here on BitterGeeks!

** Please note that Racist Robot is an actual mass-produced toy that was sold in stores all over the world – based on a blatantly offensive character from the Transformers films. There was a minor hubub when the film came out, but it blew away. We're surprised no one painted the toy earlier to emphasize what an offensive caricature it is.