Guillermo Del Toro Attending New York Comic Con

Prolific television and movie director and producer, Guillermo Del Toro will be a New York Comic Con this week, at Jacob Javits Center. He will be signing at the Legendary Entertainment booth from 2pm to 3pm on Friday, Oct, 12. Then he will appear on the Legendary Comics Panel, from 5:15pm to 6:15pm in room 1E07, to discuss upcoming projects, with special surprise guests. Del Toro, will also be signing at Dark Horse Comics booth for“The Strain” from 2pm to 3pm.

Guillermo last appeared at New York Comic Con in 2008, to present “Hellboy”. Since the than he has directed Hellboy 2: Golden Army and Pan's Labyrinth. He also been involved in production of many other films, including Splice, Afraid of the Dark, and  His next directorial debut will be the big-budget sci-fi action film Pacific Rim, coming out next summer. No word yet if Guillermo will discuss or present any footage from Pacific Rim. He also just recently secured a deal with FX network, to produce new tv series based on his critically acclaimed novel “The Strain”.

Stay tuned for more New York Comic Con news and information, later today.

Sources:  Legendary Entertainment, Dark Horse Comics

NY Comic Con Selling All Tickets

San Diego Comic Con the mecca of comic cons, starts up this week. But three months from New York Comic Con will be here. While still not quite as huge as SDDC, NYCC sees over 100,000 people.

Single- day tickets for the 2012 show have gone on sale on their website this week. Comic and anime shops also selling single-day, 3-day and 4-day passes. Also professional registration and VIP tickets will go sale, sometime this month.

Professional registration is for people who want to do business at NYCC, like artists, buyers, creators and publishers. VIP passes give attendees perks through the show, at a higher price. Details on these perks, should posted in next week or two.

These are prices for tickets purchased on the website or at retailers:

Friday: $35
Saturday: $50
Sunday: $ 35
3-Day: $65 (Fri,Sat,Sun)
4-Day: $ 85 (Thurs thru Sun)

Prices for tickets will be higher, if bought onsite. But they will probably sell out before then. I strongly advise, that you buy your tickets by early September. As, in past years, NYCC has started selling out online, just about 2-4 weeks, before it begins. Also, NYCC will mail passes to you if you purchase online, by September 7, 2012 (except outside of the US). If you wait longer, you will have to wait on longer lines to pick up your pass at the show.

NYCC has already announced a comic and entertainment guests coming to show. Which runs between October 11-14. Including, Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, from DC comics. Mike Mangolia creater of Hellboy. John Quesada from Marvel, and Sean Astin from the Lord of the Rings and Goonies.  They will be more announcements over the coming months leading up to the show. The programming schedule should be released sometime in September as well.

The Avengers: $207.4 Million Opening Weekend!

The Avengers, the movie that put together marvel superheroes, like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and the Hulk, broke box office records this weekend. The total weekend gross is $207,438,708 domestic(US & Canada). The highest grossing opening weekend for any box office film, domestically. The previous record was held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, at $169,189, 427.

The Avengers made $80,813,985 on Friday, $69,577,990 on Saturday and $57,066,733 on Sunday. Friday's total was the second highest grossing Friday ever. Saturday and Sunday totals where the highest grossing for any box office film, on those days. The film is also fastest film to reach $200 million domestic, in three days. A record previous held by the Dark Knight, in five days.

Internationally, so far it has made $654,838,708 at box office and is on pace to reach $1.0 billion in next few weeks. The film was released in 39 foreign countries a week before the US. Where opening weekend box office records were also broken in counties such Mexico and Brazil.

It's no surprise, The Avengers is doing blockbuster numbers. But the $200 million opening weekend gross, was not expected. One reason is that, the movie pretty much scored very high praise from most critics and audiences. The film received 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and A + from Cinemascore, a market research firm which surveys audiences after the see the films. Many people tweeted about seeing the film 2 or 3 times, just this weekend alone. Another reason is the film saw more money from many 3D sales.


Source: Box Office Mojo, Rotten Tomatoes

Third Tralier for The Dark Knight Rises

Fans around the world. participating in a viral campaign for the film, unlocked a new trailer for the Dark Knight Rises on Monday. Which hits theaters in July  Like the past two trailers this trailer seems to be bit grim and builds alot of tension. However, more action scenes are shown. Including a bridge explosion, a fight between Batman and Bane, and Batman fighting thugs alongside Catwoman! What do you think of the trailer?

Book Review: Maus

When you hear the words "comic book" and "holocaust" used to describe the same piece of literature, your brain must feel quite a shock. The two terms sound impossibly contradictory. In the case of Artie Spiegelman's magnum opus, however, they are brought together in a way unlike any other graphic novel on the scene today.

As much a personal as a professional work, Maus tells the story of Spiegelman's parents and their communities in war-torn Europe under the Nazi regime, their survival through the concentration camps and later, Artie's often difficult relationship with his (for lack of a better term) eccentric and aging father.

Rather than a direct narrative, the time line flip-flops between the chronicle of the Holocaust and Spiegelman's own writing of the story (Spiegelman himself is featured as an active character).

The most distinctive feature of Maus is its powerful visual symbolism. The various ethnic and cultural groups are represented as animals: the Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats, the Poles as pigs and so on. Some might think that this would detract from the powerful emotion present in such a significant topic, but I think, if anything, it greatly increases the impact of a remarkable story of faith and survival.

NYCC 2011: The Avengers Panel

Watch the entire panel for the Avengers movie at New York Comic Con this weekend. Except for the new footage that was shown during the panel. As no one was allowed to record it. Credit goes to BKBN TV for providing this video.  Stay tuned here for more NYCC news this week:

"Marvel's The Avengers" Trailer

The first trailer for the big comic book film coming out next summer "Marvel's the Avengers", was released today online. It's the Marvel superheroes, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and others coming together to fight against evil villans. The Avengers will also be at New York Comic Con on Saturday, Oct 15, at 6:30pm in the IGN theater, to show off "never-before-seen" footage of the film. "Marvel's The Avengers" will hit theaters May 4, 2012.

Comicbook Comeback

Beginning with "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" at the dawn of the new millenium, movies based on popular comic books enjoyed a dramatic surge in popularity. We've often heard the adage that sequels rarely live up to the originals, but despite certain popular and fan-based opinion, many franchises such as "The Incredible Hulk", "Iron Man", and "Fantastic Four", as well as "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" enjoyed sufficient success for major production companies to order at least one follow-up each throughout the first decade of the 21st century.

In the last 2-3 years, however, with the immense development of computer technology and 3-D viewing options, comic book heroes are enjoying a greater and more dramatic presence on the silver screen than ever before. Examples include "Green Lantern", "Captain America: The First Avenger", "Thor", as well as a revival of the "Spider-Man" franchise scheduled for next year. Personally, I think all of this resurgence of comic book franchises is leading up to one thing: the start in 2012 of planned series of films featuring Marvel Comics' mightiest heroes in "The Avengers".