Oh, foo.

[sff_corgi_lj]

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Go read this. 'Sirius Black Explains Arithmancy for You' (and if you get the in-joke in that phrasing, you get a virtual Samoa cookie.)


Thanks to zephprolixity:

See MORE here!

Ooo, lookit what I found:  The Internet Theatre Database


And in a more serious vein... Soldier who refused to return to Iraq turns self in as protest

dmp, for one, has a friend serving Over There right now, and apparently the psychological battle is more strenuous than the physical one....


welshwitch said to distribute this freely... hang on, let me commit quotage:

Last week, the National Post ran an article on Joss's taking over Astonishing X-Men. Nice article. Not available online. Hope y'all appreciate the effort, here. *g* Distribute as you wish, just do leave the byline intact, eh?

[disclaimer: all... punctuation and grammar [are] directly transcribed. This is nearly as bad as the Journal. Sheesh.]

The X-Universe's New Master

By Ab. Velasco
avelasco@nationalpost.com

He gave new blood to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and created a spinoff for her fanged lover Angel. He helped flesh out Woody and Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, and he wrote Roseanne some of her best lines. Now, Joss Whedon is setting his eyes on the X-Men.

Marvel Comics has hired the innovative writer with a near-cult following to sink his teeth into Astonishing X-Men, the new flagship title of the X-Universe. The book debuts as part of May's X-Men: Reload, an event that introduces new titles, new creative teams and new directions for existing books.

"X-Men was a huge part of my adolescence," says Whedon on the phone from his production office in Los Angeles. "It was something I truly worshipped."

Whedon and Joe Quesada, Marvel Comics' editor-in-chief, met at last year's San diego Comic-Con convention and began to talk about working together. A slot opened up when New X-Men writer Grant Morrison left. Whedon was slated to take over Morrison's flagship book before Marvel decided to create a new flagship titile.

He says he was apprehensive at first because of the enormity of the X-Universe, one that spans 40 years. "Eventually I realized that I had no choice. They are literally a childhood fantasy."

Storyline secrets are tighter than those of Angel's upcoming series finale. What's known is that Whedon will write two six-issue arcs. The first will be his interpretation of the long-running theme of mutants vs. humans, long viewed as a metaphor for racism and homophobia.

"We're going to see different sides to mutants that we haven't seen before," Whedon says carefully.

As well, the man who has scripted more than 100 vampire slayings on the small screen assures fans he won't bring his campaign against the undead to comic books.

"It is my fondest wish for [Astonishing X-Men] to stay vampire-free," he says with a laugh.

He got first dibs on the characters, and thus assembled a roster of five fan favourites, including Wolverine, Cyclops, Beast and sexy anti-heroine Emma Frost. Kitty Pryde (a.k.a Shadowcat), the mutant who can phase through objects, was Whedon's top choice.

He says Kitty was a big influence for Buffy. "She is probably dearest to my heart.... She went through a lot of things that Buffy did. She faced near-death, a lot of complex moral issues that she wasn't ready for."

Whedon's comic resume is quite slim; previously he worked on eight issues of the mini-series Fray. However, this isn't his first rendezvous with the supermutants: He was hired to rewrite the draft for the first X-Men movie for 20th Century Fox, but they rejected his changes.

The 39-year-old remains diplomatic. "To me, the movie and the comic book have nothing to do with each other. Writing the comic... is the real payoff to the childhood dream."

In an age where the attention of fans grows more fickle by the day, Marvel is already strategizing beyond Reload. Last Friday, it announced the hiring of Bryan Singer, the director of the X-Men movies, to bring his vision to the Ultimate X-Men title this year.

Working with X2 screenwriters Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, Singer will also produce a year's worth of scripts. It's a closely-guarded project that's also creating quite the buzz.

Whedon and Singer's recruitments are not the first time Marvel Comics has pursued Holywood bigwigs. In 2001, director Kevin Smith scripted the relaunch of Daredevil, and he's slated to do the same for The Amazing Spider-Man soon.

Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley says it's about diversity and strategy. "We [also] try to talk to other screenwriters and people who are in science fiction just to bring a different sense of storytelling and provide us with a marketing cachet," says Buckley.

The last time the X-Universe underwent such a dramatic facelift was in the summer of 2001, thanks to writer Grant Morrison. He pushed the envelope with gritty storylines that explored teen mutants with addictions to a power-enhancing drug called Kick, and a telepathic extra-marital affair between Cyclops and Emma Frost.

Morrison's most distinct change were the realistic leather costumes, similar to the heroes' attire in the movies.

In Reload, the X-titles are returning to the spandex costumes that have dominated their history. Wolverine, the popular Canadian X-Man, will once again don his famous yellow spandex costume and mask. For a series that continually pushes the idea of evolution, this seems like a regression.

"The realistic costumes and the leather work really well in the movie medium and TV, because there's much more realism associated with that," says Buckley. "The costumes provide us with more characters popping off the page."

Buckley also says that the tone of the books will change. "I think you are going to find a lot more of an upbeat feel in the books. You are going to find some characters coming back and down the road. You are going to find a villain that you will never suspect."

All parties stress that the changes will only enhance the most enduring franchise in the comic universe. Four of the X-books are consistently in the top 10, and the comics stake out 10 to 15% of the market share.

In the meantime, the gig couldn't have come at a better time for Whedon, whose series Angel was just cancelled. He is well aware that this will require his undivided attention. "The weight of this thing is so huge. This is not my playground. It's not like Buffy and Angel," he says. "It has generations behind it.... I'm just hoping that people will feel the love."

Now a whole NEW group of writers can get jossed!