Monthly Archives: April 2010

MDIAG! Reminder: Free Comic Day Is Tomorrow, May 1

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Free Comic Book day is held annually on the first Saturday of May. Comic shops across the world partake in introducing the wonderful world of comics to fans old and new, by handing out free issues specially created for the event, from all the major publishers.

Each year the selection of comics is geared toward readers of all ages, and this year is no exception. Most participating comic shops also have other events throughout the day, such as raffles, costumed characters to meet and greet with the kids, and special sales. To check for a participating shop in your area, go to the official web site and use the FCBD Store Locator.

Below is a preview of this year’s comics. To see the entire list, go to the FCBD web site:

ARCHIE’S SUMMER SPLASH! #1 FCBD 2010 EDITION [Preview]
Creative Team: (W/A) Dan Parent.
Publisher: ARCHIE COMICS

“Whose BEACH is it Anyway?”: Sun, sand, swimsuits and cool rockin’ tunes — no, it’s not a cinematic “beach party” blast from the past, but a whole new summer splash from Archie and his friends! In this fun-filled free issue, Cheryl and her snooty friends from Pembrooke form an all-girl group to compete head on with the Archies at a summer beach music festival. Will Cheryl’s group be a tuneful treat, or mistaken for bellowing whales?

Doctor Solar/Magnus FCBD 2010 EDITION [Preview]
Creative Team: (W) Jim Shooter (A) Dennis Calero, Various (C) Raymond Swanland.
Publisher: DARK HORSE COMICS

The dawn of a new age of superhero excitement begins on Free Comic Book Day as Dark Horse Comics proudly presents the return of two of the most legendary characters in the annals of comics: Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom and Magnus, Robot Fighter — re-imagined for the 21st century by comics legend, writer Jim Shooter! This FCBD extravaganza offers all-new Solar and Magnus stories, each heralding new series launches in summer 2010, and featuring interior art by fan-favorite Dennis Calero (X-Men Noir) and cover art by Raymond Swanland!

FRACTURED FABLES FCBD 2010 EDITION [Preview]
Creative Team: (W) Bryan Talbot, Doug TenNapel, Alexander Grecian, Derek McCulloch, Ted McKeever (A) Camilla d’Errico, Doug TenNapel, Christian Ward, Anthony Peruzzo, Ted McKeever (C) Mike and Laura Allred
Publisher: IMAGE COMICS

This special FCBD offers a small taste of the new hardcover anthology from Silverline Books due later in the year. An all-star cast of writers and artists have been assembled to turn familiar fairy tales and nursery rhymes on their ear to make kids LAUGH! These humorous interpretations will delight any reader, regardless of their age!

G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO #155½ FCBD 2010 EDITION [Preview]
Creative Team: (W) Larry Hama (A) TBD.
Publisher: IDW Publishing

This is what you really want! Larry Hama continues his original and ground-breaking G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero saga with the VERY NEXT ISSUE (but, you know, 15 years later). G.I. Joe has closed its doors, leaving COBRA to pillage, burn, and plunder!

IRON MAN/THOR FCBD 2010 EDITION [Preview]
Creative Team: (W) Matt Fraction (A/C) John Romita, Jr.
Publisher: MARVEL COMICS

The perfect jumping-on point for any and all readers…and it’s FREE! When rogue mega-billionaires with world-destroying technology threaten the safety of the entire world…and the moon…Thor and Iron Man join forces! In time for the exciting launch of new stories and a bold new direction for Invincible Iron Man and Thor, superstars Matt Fraction and John Romita Jr. team up to bring you two of Marvel’s heaviest hitters like you’ve never seen them before! A major new direction for the Marvel Universe kicks off HERE – on Free Comic Book Day!

MOUSE GUARD/FRAGGLE ROCK FCBD 2010 Edition [Preview]
Creative Team: (W/A) David Petersen, TBD.
Publisher: Archaia Entertainment

Archaia is proud to present two amazing all-new stories in one fantastic flip-book! In the spring of 1153 the Mouse Guard deal with the onset of the spring thaw and the havoc it wreaks on their territories. Meanwhile, it’s time to dance your cares away as Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober and Red return for a brand-new series of hilarious and heartfelt Fraggle Rock adventures written and drawn by some of the most imaginative creators in comics!

KiZOIC Presents: Shrek & The Penguins of Madagascar FCBD 2010 Edition [Preview]
Creative Team: (W/A) Dan Parent.
Publisher: Ape Entertainment

Ape Entertainment proudly offers KiZOIC Presents: Shrek & The Penguins of Madagascar! Featuring four stories by the artists and writers of the up-coming Shrek and Penguins of Madagascar comic books, these stories are guaranteed to tickle your funny bone and leave you begging for more! All-ages fun for everyone!

YOW! The John Stanley Library FCBD 2010 Edition [Preview]
Creative Team: (W/A) John Stanley.
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly

D&Q delivers another wholly original and boisterous FCBD issue that will entertain readers of all ages! YOW! The John Stanley Library spotlights the world’s greatest all-ages cartoonist, John Stanley, in a beautiful package designed by Seth. YOW! features new stories from the John Stanley Library: Melvin Monster, Nancy and 13 Going On 18, plus a story from the legendary one-shot Choo Choo Charlie and a Tubby story!

TOY STORY FCBD 2010 EDITION [Preview]
Creative Team: (W) Jesse Blaze Snider (A/C) Nathan Watson.
Publisher: BOOM! Studios

With Toy Story 3 hitting theaters this summer, don’t miss this opportunity to get kids hooked on comics with a FREE issue from the ongoing Toy Story series from BOOM Kids! More all-new adventures featuring the world’s favorite toys with Woody, Buzz and the gang!

WAR OF THE SUPERMEN #0 FCBD 2010 EDITION [Preview]
Creative Team: (W) James Robinson (A) Eddy Barrows, Ruy José (C) J.G. Jones.
Publisher: DC COMICS

A war is coming, and all that stands between Earth and 100,000 vengeful supermen is one Superman! The conflict between Superman and General Zod erupts into all-out war this summer in a series that will shatter the worlds of Superman, Supergirl and the entire DC Universe — all brought to you by the hit creative team of James Robinson and Eddy Barrows! This special #0 issue featuring all-new material previews the conflicts to come while spotlighting a savage strike on Metropolis and the world — an attack that will shake Superman to his very core. After this, there’s no turning back — the War of the Supermen is here!

Unhappy Meals in Today’s Daily Dad-gest

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A toy in the box has been a staple of American foods since we can remember. How many of us ruthlessly hunted in the battleground of a cereal box until we scored our prey? The Happy Meal is the logical progression of this, except it has burgers and fries instead of Lucky Charms. But the toy remains the same.

Until now. Apparently some angry Santa Clara County supervisors must have had terrible childhood memories because they approved an ordinance to ban toys in fast-food meals.

“Hoping again to be a pioneer in promoting healthier eating, Santa Clara County supervisors on Tuesday approved the nation’s first ordinance that would prevent restaurants from using toys to lure kids to meals high in fat, sugar and calories.

“Under the ordinance, restaurants would not be able to offer toys for kids’ meals that exceed certain nutritional standards — more than 485 total calories, for instance, or more than 600 milligrams of sodium. That means, at Wendy’s, four chicken nuggets, mandarin oranges and low-fat milk would get a toy. But the crispy chicken sandwich, fries and chocolate milk would not.”

Um, we’re sorry to break it to you, but the toys only bring in the adults – it’s the fries that keep the kids coming. Just saying.

The ordinance only applies to a handful of restaurants in certain areas and small pockets of the county; restaurants within city limits are unaffected, and has to go to a final vote on May 11 before it is final.

We feel this is only a publicity stunt. Certainly Santa Clara county is doing this with our children’s best interests in mind, but there are other things they can do instead of taking the toy away, like create a promote a healthy lifestyle, increase after-school activities for kids, and improve the meals in the school lunchroom. All this stunt does is give sites like us something to write about and empowers other ill-informed politicians across the country to waste more taxpayer dollars on similar initiatives.

I think a bigger problem is the possibility we are contaminating an entire alien planet. It’s not enough we ruin the Earth, now we’re starting on Mars in the worst possible way. Researchers from NASA say bacteria from earth could be hitching a ride on our spacecraft, and inadvertently contaminating the Red Planet we all have dreams of visiting once in our lifetimes.

“Even though NASA and other space agencies do sterilize spacecraft in an effort to reduce the chance of contamination to other bodies in our solar system, recent studies have shown that microbial species are likely still hitching a ride. And in what might be a more-harm-than-good scenario, the sterile nature of spacecraft assembly facilities ensures that only the most resilient species survive, including acinetobacter, bacillus, escherichia, staphylococcus and streptococcus. So we’re likely sending the worst of the worst kinds of bacteria, at least by human standards.”

This could result in three possible ways. One: We might contaminate and destroy all existing alien life forms on Mars. Two: As the bacteria interact and evolve on Mars, we might create a life form more deadly than anything we’ve ever seen – something like the face huggers, perhaps. Or three: We might just tick off the aliens which already live there to come to Earth and get some payback. Gee, let’s give aliens one more reason to conquer and colonize our planet. Just have the 3D cameras ready, Hollywood.

Lastly, a study from the NPD group found portable gaming habits in children aged 4 – 14 are up 8% from when the study began in 2005. Now before the Santa Clara superiors try to ban gaming in public too, let’s think about this. The rise in portable gaming could actually be a good thing for kids. Many kids share daily commutes with their parents to and from day care and school due to the increase in dual-income families. With so many entertainment options being made available in the car to kids these days – DVD players, iPods, iPhones – a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP is a logical extension of these devices. What this also means is that kids aren’t wasting time in front of the TV when they should be studying or exercising, they are simply filling the downtime.

The other positive is all games are not destructive; they can be educational or provide other developmental benefits. There are several titles age-appropriate for younger children on the DS, and both Leapfrog and Vtech have portable products filling the “games-as-educational” need. And generally, the simplicity of the technology on the DS is more akin to the games we parents played as kids, where innovation and creativity trumped graphic and gratuitous violence. One can argue the Pokémon games don’t necessarily provide any educational value, but it would be hard to justify why they are bad for you.

Here are the other top stories of the day:

No Jokey: Paul Reubens Joins ‘Smurf’ Film [Deadline.com]

Imax, Warner Bros. pact on 20-film deal [The Hollywood Reporter]

How to Plan the Ultimate Star Wars Girl’s Birthday Party [Parenting Pink]

Iron Man-ia in Today’s Daily Dad-gest

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The internet made things easy on us today. Although Iron Man 2 opens in the US on May 7, it had its L.A. premiere last night ahead of its international releases this week. And in true Tony Stark form, it hogged the limelight.

Scarlett Johansson tells MTV Splash Page the obvious – that there’s no current plans for a Black Widow spin-off, nor is there a roster spot for her in the upcoming Avengers movie. We say, her action-genre resume prior to Iron Man 2 was solely comprised of two stinkers – The Island and The Spirit - so it’s probably good Marvel didn’t lock her in for the full package until after they got to see the finished product. We’re anxiously awaiting to see if she can successfully pull of the role, but we’ll be honest; we don’t have high expectations.

Iron Man 2 is getting an IMAX release day-and-date with the standard theatrical release, but High-Def Digest warns us to beware of imposters when choosing an IMAX theater for the big night. Here’s something we didn’t know – there are more than a few theaters claiming to be IMAX when they’re just souped-up standard screens:

“Teaming with cinema chains including AMC and Regal, they retrofitted existing non-IMAX theatres. Ladies and gentlemen, the birth of “fake IMAX.” Apparently these retrofits were almost called “Digital IMAX” or “IMAX Digital”, but executives were worried the “Digital” moniker would hurt “older” (real) IMAX15/70 screens. And who knows, marketing people are occasionally right about these things. But here’s the truth: the digital IMAX screens are only 28 feet x 58 feet. Sure, that’s still a nice-sized screen, but with a minimum $5-per-ticket surcharge for the IMAX brand, you’re not getting the same spectacle, quality, or size.”

There’s just one problem here. Iron Man 2 was not shot in IMAX, but rather in traditional 35mm format. What does this mean? It means it will be blown up to meet the 70mm standards of IMAX film. This is the equivalent of buying a standard DVD and upconverting it on your 1080p HDTV, but paying a Blu-ray premium price. Our advice? IMAX is cool when it’s used correctly, but here you’ll just be wasting the $5 surcharge for the IMAX theater. Save that money and buy a movie tie-in toy for your kids instead.

But with the Iron Mania approaching ludicrous speed, one question remains with the droves of Marvelites eagerly awaiting May 7 – is it any good? A few outlets are already publishing their reviews. Variety says it “the new pic feels more duty-bound and industrial”, a reversal from the original film’s “boyant and occasionally inspired” tone. The Hollywood Reporter writes, “everything fun and terrific about Iron Man, a mere two years ago, has vanished with its sequel”. Both early reviews make mention of the script’s odd pacing, lack of focus and absence of the character’s apparent motivations.

We think it’s too soon to call it, but consider us worried. Will this end up being the Spider-Man 3 of the young film franchise, albeit one sequel early? By strategically interweaving all of their produced films within the same celluloid universe, did Marvel show their seams of being a relatively green studio hot off a lucky streak?

If Iron Man 2 fails to capture the audience of the first film, there could be major fallout. Thor and Captain America are in production but could definitely use some momentum from Marvel’s tentpole film franchise. Thor is a relatively obscure superhero with an unknown cast in the lead and a story that’s half modern-day, half Clash of the Titans. Captain America went young and booked Chris Evans for the lead role when it could have gone established with popular choices Jon Hamm and Aaron Eckhart. On top of that, Marvel hired director Joe Johnston, fresh off the box office bomb The Wolfman, to helm the film which is being pitched as a WWII period piece.

Then to top it off, there’s the payoff – The Avengers - which we could see not even happening if the next three movies are strikes. If it goes that way we’d bet Marvel would replace fan-favorite Joss Whedon with a more established, explosive marquee director to get the wind back behind the company’s sails. And then you can go ahead and forget about those proposed smaller films like Ant-Man and Doctor Strange, ’cause they ain’t happening.

But we’re getting way ahead of ourselves here. The doomsday scenario we are proposing is enough to start a new crossover event, so let’s just see what happens after opening weekend, okay? Deep breath, deep breath…

MDIAG! Assemble…the other big stories of the day:

Watching R-Rated Films Linked to Early Alcohol Use [/Film]

Dreamworks Making Sequel to How To Train Your Dragon; Will Be In Theaters In 2013 [/Film]

How Game and Movie Ratings Work [Kotaku]

How To Cook For Forty Humans in Today’s Dad-gest

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The last few days we’ve showcased the fast food of geek parenting, but the news of today was the equivalent of a healthy snack. So let’s take a bite out of the stories of the day which taste great and are good for us, too!

Think ID4 was science fiction? Think again. Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking warns humans that when it comes to contacting alien life forms, we should all be careful what we wish for:

“He speculates most extraterrestrial life will be similar to microbes, or small animals — but adds advanced lifeforms may be ‘nomads, looking to conquer and colonize.’”

That quote is both scary as heck and super awesome at the same time. Might want to think twice about encouraging your kids to build a spaceship by showing them Explorers – we could think of better ways to die than to be serenaded by an alien with Little Richard right before it sinks its teeth into you.

Showing that we like to pull up a good book as much as the next blog, we wanted to make special mention of Omnivoracious‘ “End-o’-the Week Kid Lit Roundup” – mainly because it mentions Yo Gabba Gabba, comics and Iron Man! Specifically, what does the School Library Journal think are the best Iron Man books for school-aged children? Or how about what are the 2010 Eisner nominees for “Best Publication for Kids”? And we can’t believe we missed this one on the wires – a new comic from Oni Press based on Yo Gabba Gabba?!? Here’s the skinny from Publishers Weekly:

“The Yo Gabba Gabba books will be 128-page color anthologies featuring art by artists associated with the show as well as published children’s artists such as Matt Loux (Salt Water Taffy) and Vinny Navarette (Dear Dracula).  Oni Press sales and marketing director Cory Casoni said that the anthologies are just the beginning, and that Oni will be working with Yo Gabba Gabba‘s producer, Wildbrain, to develop more comics for young readers.”

Lastly, Variety reports gamers’ rights could be at risk as the Supreme Court will review California’s violent video game band which prohibits the sale or rental of games not just rated ‘M’ for mature, but many ‘T’ for teen-rated games as well. California bill AB1179 was signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in October 2005 and was to come into effect January 2006 but has been held up in the lower courts as unconstitutional. The bill stated retailers would be fined $1,000 if caught selling violent games to minors, and all violent games would have to carry new stickers branding their violent status.

When the Supreme Court reviews the bill in October, it could overrule lower court rulings and enforce the California bill. The risk is this would enable other states to pass and enforce similar bills, and could hurt the video game industry as a whole.

As parents, we believe we bear the responsibility of raising our children in environments conducive to positive emotional and physical development. How many of us had parents who wouldn’t let us spend the night at a friend’s house without first meeting their parents? Or how about not letting us see a movie until they were able to watch it first? Video games should be no different.

The root of this entire problem is that games like Grand Theft Auto were making their way into the hands of minors without parental consent. We’re not saying the parents are completely at fault, and we’re not saying the industry is necessarily at fault either. It’s the retailers, the middlemen peddling the questionable content upon kids who don’t know any better. Now if Little Johnny came home with a copy of Modern Warfare 2, we as responsible parents would explain to him why he shouldn’t be playing it and promptly return it to the store from which he bought it.

Sure, there are bad examples of parents who let their kids watch and play anything. Ultimately those are the ones who should be held accountable. But there are many more responsible parents who do everything they are supposed to do, and yet these things still fall through the cracks.

This bill prevents these situations from happening, and we accept it for what it is trying to accomplish.

The pundits say this is a violation of the First Amendment, effectively restricting free speech. We don’t buy it. This does not mean that the video game industry will stop making Mature or Teen-rated games, it simply means they cannot be sold to a minor. And if this means that video game developers are forced to think creatively about how to make a game which does not focus on killing, in order to continue to allow minors to purchase their games, we think this can only be a good thing for everyone.

We’ll step off of our soapbox to highlight some of the day’s other top stories:

Make Your Own DVR, Movie, and Music Server – HTPC Basics [GeekTonic]

Playing Games on the iPad…With 11 Fingers [Mashable]

VOTD: Vintage 1983 Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear Commercial… Toy Story 3 Viral? [/Film]

Hasbro Studios Developing 25 Productions for ‘The Hub’ [Toonzone]

The Clone Wars HD Comes To PlayStation [TheForce.Net]

Some Monsters Are Better Than Others in Today’s Daily Dad-gest

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Yesterday shortly after press time – which, to be honest, is that sliver of time between putting the kids to bed and being forced into watching the latest HGTV show with the wife – Pixar finally confirmed what everyone already seemed to know, that Monsters Inc. is getting a sequel. Cleverly titled Monsters Inc. 2: Money Never Sleeps (we added that subtitle to spice things up a bit), the follow-up will peek out of the closet on November 16, 2012. Most reports indicate Pete Docter, director of the original film and last year’s Up, will not return to the helm. More important to us is whether Mike and Sully, played by Billy Crystal and John Goodman, respectively; will also return.

We think this is a weird choice. The original Monsters Inc. made a half billion dollars worldwide, but to us there was just something missing with the concept. It’s success confounds us; we think A Bug’s Life is vastly superior in just about every category, yet audiences couldn’t have disagreed more. Perhaps it was because it was Pixar’s first original franchise after Toy Story 2, just when the hype for the company was hitting a fever pitch. If there’s any consistency between our tastes and the box office, it’s that Finding Nemo is our favorite of all the Pixar films and needs a sequel stat.

And in a sign it has become the animation studio of Walt Disney Pictures, a second film from Pixar, Brave, was also announced for a 2012 release date. Yes, that makes two Pixar movies in 2012. Also the year the world ends. How convenient, we all get to perish with happy thoughts.

Brave was originally titled The Bear and The Bow and had been slated for a summer 2011 release before the bump into 2012. /Film calls this film “Pixar’s first fairy tale” and stars Reece Witherspoon as the eponymous title character. Hmmm…could be what the studio needs to fill the void left by Shrek Forever After?

We don’t know if either of these are getting the 3D treatment, but word is out that Avatar: The Last Airbender is going three-dimensional for it’s July 2 release date later this summer. As more and more studios turn to 3D at the 11th hour for fear of leaving serious sums of cash on the table – as well as setting a precedent that all films titled Avatar must be in 3D – there is growing concern with movie-goers these types of movies are nothing more than a cash grab to dupe audiences into buying those tickets priced at a premium. After the hatchet job on Clash of the Titans, we all have reason to worry.

According to Avatar: The Last Airbender producer Frank Marshall, they have been looking at using 3D “for months” and M. Night. Shyamalan will supervise the conversion process. That’s a different story from what Clash director Louis Leterrier experienced, where the movie was effectively pulled from him at the last minute to do a 3D conversion without his consent or assistance.

Mind you, we need to keep things in perspective. Avatar: The Last Airbender is still directed by Shyamalan, and we all know his track record of late. 3D can never make his awkward cameos any easier to swallow, and the only thing that could have saved The Happening would have been a 4D conversion complete with fake gusts of wind inside the theater.

But nothing this week beats the next post – this one comes from the folks behind our kids’ favorite TV show, Yo Gabba Gabba, with a photo journal of DJ Lance and the gang’s appearance at last week’s destination festival Coachella. Wait, you caught us – it’s really our favorite show. Now excuse us while we dancey-dance into the weekend…

Let’s go back and remember what else happened today:

Back To The Future’s Not The Only Movie That Went Back To The Drawing Board – Movies [io9]

More Wacky Rumors: Vanessa Hudgens in Talks to Play Spider-Woman? [/Film]

EXCLUSIVE: CAPTAIN AMERICA WILL MEET THE HOWLING COMMANDOS [CHUD]

Pandora the Explora in Today’s Daily Dad-gest

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We were starting to get worried for a second; it wasn’t going to be this quiet today, was it? Yeah, we know Avatar came out on DVD and Blu-ray today. But it was only in 2D, and that gave you and even more compelling reason to pick up The Smurfs Season 1 and say you were confused and picked up the “other one with blue men” by mistake.

As the rest of the world was celebrating Earth Day on Pandora, late in the day we saw /Film’s review round-up of the Shrek Forever After premiere last night at the Tribeca Film Festival. The verdict? Doesn’t sound too promising. The Hollywood Reporter says it “has lost much of the simple charm, humor and heart that marked its predecessors”. Variety says “word of mouth likely won’t make for a fairy-tale ending”. We say, Blue Guys 1, Green Guys 0.

Elsewhere, the PS3 had a one-two punch of attention-grabbers. First it sent a late-night jab from the left with news of the 3.30 firmware update. Included in the update is the promise that one day, whenever there are 3D compatible games, the PS3 will be ready for them. But maybe not your TV.

Then it threw a roundhouse from the right with the best Father’s Day present a dad could share with his son, two months before Father’s Day. Starting today, a new MLB.TV application is available for download from the Playstation Store. With it you’ll be able to stream every baseball game your heart desires. Just one more reason to camp out on the couch.

“This app allows MLB.TV subscribers to watch every regular season game live in HD (local blackout restrictions do apply), with tons of new interactive features designed exclusively for PSN.”

The bad part? You need to shell out $120 for the season or $25 monthly to enjoy all the features of this app. A small price to pay to bond with your son; but for us, a waste of money for any self-respecting Chicago Cubs fan.

Here’s the rest of today’s news:

Redbox inks deals with Universal, Fox [The Hollywood Reporter]

Hulu Plus subscription service rumored: $9.95 a month for access to older shows [Engadget]

Netflix’s Q1 results show record subscriber growth, little resistance to new release delays [Engadget]

Marvel Planning Smaller Budget Movies For Third Tier Superhero Characters [/Film]

Upfront and Center in Today’s Daily Dad-gest

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Talk about an exciting news week! After Monday’s iPhone 4.0 leak and Tuesday’s MVC3 announcement, any day would be a tough act to follow. It appears Cartoon Network was up for the challenge, God bless them.

The biggest news of the day was the Cartoon Network 2010 Upfront in New York City. Toonzone was there to bring the complete coverage of the network’s new shows. Along with the news of some of our favorites returning for another season – Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Batman: The Brave and The Bold first and foremost in our minds - here are some of the noteworthy additions to the CN lineup:

Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated

Seriously, it’s been 40 years since the Scooby-Doo TV series first premiered, and as timeless as it has become, Casey Casem isn’t getting any younger. Enter Matthew Lillard, who did more than a fine job in the live-action adaptions to provide the voice of Shaggy in the new series. From the press release:

“With the animated Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and their talking dog Scooby-Doo are back, solving mysteries in the spooky town of Crystal Cove, a sleepy coastal village that boasts a long history of ghostly sightings, werewolves and glowing deep sea divers. From Warner Bros. Animation, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated features the voices of Frank Welker (What’s New, Scooby-Doo?) as Fred/Scooby-Doo, Mindy Cohn (The Facts of Life) as Velma, Grey DeLisle (Batman: The Brave and the Bold) as Daphne and Matthew Lillard (the Scooby-Doo films) as Shaggy. Sam Register (Teen Titans, Ben 10, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) is the executive producer. Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone (both credited for Duck Dodgers, Back at the Barnyard, Space Jam) are the supervising producers.”

Any mention of Scooby-Doo in the same sentence as Batman: The Brave and the Bold gets us excited. Too bad CN already aired the pilot episode last week without telling any of us, but Wired’s GeekDad caught it in the wild before it disappeared. You know what would be cool? If this Scooby reboot took on a tone similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sure reads like it could.

The Looney Tunes Show

If there’s one thing that breaks our hearts, it’s that Bugs and the gang just haven’t been able to hold a new generation of fans. The last ongoing series featuring the popular WB characters that folks remember was Tiny Tunes - maybe because that was the last good series – but this new premise sounds interesting:

“A new half-hour animated comedy series starring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. No longer confined to 7-minute shorts, Bugs and Daffy are out of the woods and living in the suburbs among such colorful neighbors as Yosemite Sam, Granny, Tweety and Sylvester. In addition to each episode’s main story, The Looney Tunes Show also features “cartoons within a cartoon.” The Tasmanian Devil, Speedy Gonzales, Marvin the Martian and other classic characters sing original songs in two-minute music videos called Merrie Melodies and the Road Runner and Coyote are featured in 2-1/2 minute CG shorts. This all new series is produced by Warner Bros. Animation. Sam Register (Teen Titans, Ben 10, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) is the executive producer. Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone (both Duck Dodgers, Back at the Barnyard, Space Jam) are the supervising producers.”

With cel-shaded CG nowadays like Handy Manny, we think they can do some cool things with Road Runner, Marvin and Taz. But Bugs in the ‘burbs? If only it were like The ‘burbs, we’d be all over this one.

Young Justice

The JLA meets Runaways in this new take on DC Comics’ popular band of heroes. Robin, Superboy, Kid Flash and Aqualad are joined by Miss Martian and Artemis. We looked, but no sign of Urkel in this one. Sorry.

“In Young Justice, being a teenager means proving yourself over and over—to peers, parents, teachers, mentors and, ultimately, to yourself. But what if you’re not just a normal teenager? What if you’re a teenage super hero? Are you ready to join the ranks of the great heroes and prove you’re worthy of the Justice League? That’s exactly what the members of Young Justice—Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian and Artemis—will found out, whether they have what it takes to be a proven hero. This all-new series is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and based upon characters from DC Comics. Sam Register (Teen Titans, Ben 10, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) is the executive producer. Brandon Vietti (Batman: Under the Red Hood, Superman Doomsday, The Batman) and Greg Weisman (Gargoyles, The Spectacular Spider-Man, W.I.T.C.H.) are the producers.”

It does have Gargoyles pedigree, in addition to the tried-and-true DC animation producers, but we think the make-or-break for this series will be the animation. Give us good action sequences and we’re on board; deliver teen angst exposition from Artemis…uh, yeah.

Firebreather

Firebreather is not a new series, but rather the network’s first CG animated feature premiering next season. The premise sounds like Avatar (The Last Airbender) meets Teen Wolf, and involves a high-schooler who finds out he has a “hot” lineage:

“Cartoon Network’s first original all-CG animation adventure presents Duncan Rosenblatt, a rather typical, awkward high school kid, except that his dad is a fire-breathing monster who tells Duncan that he is destined to protect the earth. Firebreather is created and co-executive-produced by Phil Hester (The Wretch), co-executive-produced by Andy Kuhn (Freedom Ring) and executive-produced by Julia Pistor (Lemony Snicket). Jim Krieg (Ben 10: Alien Force) joins as writer with Peter Chung (Aeon Flux) directing.”

This one would be a footnote if it weren’t for the mention of Peter Chung. A franchise in the making? We’ll see.

Sym-Bionic Titan

Okay, this is the one that has us most excited. “Giant robot battles”? Check. “High school comedy”? Check. Genndy Tartakovsky? HOLY CHECK.

“From creator Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack) comes an exciting hybrid of giant robot battles and high school comedy. Sym-Bionic Titan follows the lives of three alien teenagers who crash-land on Earth and must protect their new home from alien invaders while navigating the perils of high school life. Sym-Bionic Titan is being produced at Cartoon Network Studios and will premiere on Cartoon Network this summer.”

We’ll be glued to our TV sets this summer for this one for certain.

The full press release can be found here. Below are some of the other top stories of the day:

Sam Jackson Weighs In On Joss Whedon Directing ‘Avengers’ And Chris Evans Playing Captain America [MTV Splash Page]

How To Select Fighting Game Characters The MARVEL Way [Kotaku]

LEGO Harry Potter Collector’s Edition Announced [Gameinformer]

Marvel-ous Headlines for Today’s Daily Dad-gest

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The inaugural Daily Dad-gest kicks off in fine form today, as Marvel properties dominate the day’s top news stories.

After a ten year wait, Capcom finally announced the follow-up to its popular line of Versus titles, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. In the same style as last year’s successful Street Fighter IV, MVC3 will apply 3D characters on a 2D fighting plane, mixing next-gen graphics with the genre’s tried-and-true gameplay formula. More than 30 characters will be selectable from popular Marvel and Capcom franchises, of which Kotaku has already identified 16.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is expected to be released in Spring 2011. We can’t wait.

In other Marvel news, CHUD peeled the onion that is the upcoming Spider-Man reboot to determine a possible villain for our favorite web-slinger. True believers, follow your spider sense to this choice hypothesis:

“The big mystery, though, is the question of how faithful will this new movie be? Early Spidey stories featured characters like The Molten Man, step-brother of Peter Parker’s friend Liz Allan – could Molten Man be replaced with, say, Electro and Liz Allan suddenly become Gwen Stacy?”

We loved reboot director Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer, but sending Peter back to high school against some no-names doesn’t leave us feeling very confident. Electro could be cool, but we can’t help but feel disappointed with Sony throwing away the infrastructure that the franchise’s previous director Sam Raimi built up.

Think about it – Lizard and Man-Wolf both had cameos in previous Spider-Man films. Combine that with the rumor Bruce Campbell was to play a major role in Rami’s Spidey 4, confirmation John Malkovich had signed on as the Vulture, and the overall creative control Raimi was promising to make amends for the dreadful third installment, we’d be lying if we said that isn’t a hard act to follow.

Good luck, Marc. We hope you prove us wrong.

Today’s other noteworthy news stories:

Popbox prepares for launch with preorders, SDK [Engadget]

Now on iTunes: The Clone Wars Season Two in HD [StarWars.com]

Sam Mendes to Direct ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ with Star Robert Downey, Jr? [/Film]

G.I. Joe DVD news: Update About G.I. Joe: The Movie on Blu-ray and DVD [TV Shows on DVD.com]

MDIAG! Changes Rolling Out Soon

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Starting this week, we at MDIAG! are going to try a new way to bring the news to our readers on a daily basis.

The Daily Dad-gest will be a daily post focusing on the top stories of the day with commentary from MDIAG! writers on how they relate to raising our children.

In conjunction we’ll be creating more original content – reviews, interviews and other features – in line with the site’s focus. Be on the lookout for that content to start hitting the site on a regular basis in the coming weeks.

You’ll still find us on Twitter at @MDIAG, but we’ll be shifting away from the deluge of content links in favor of engaging our growing audience on parenting tips and topics from a geek’s point of view. If it’s links you want, you can follow our Delicious feed with all of the news we find interesting. You can find our Delicious updates in the new widget on the site sidebar.

We’re excited about these changes as well as the upcoming content we have planned over the next few months (San Diego Comic Con anyone?). We think you will be, too!