Music
*My local radio station doesn't play enough Pirate Core. [Kevin Hendrickson]
Books
*The Best Dinosaur Books for Kids. [Dinosaur Tracking]
Comics
*Top Shelf has released their publishing schedule for 2011 including June's Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chicken, Book 1: Troublems with Frenemies and August's Dragon Puncher, Book 2: Island. [Top Shelf]
*A great, illustrated list of jungle girl characters. [Adventure!]
*Classic jungle girl Sheena will participate in Moonstone's big crossover this May alongside Captain Action, Honey West, Kolchak, Domino Lady, and The Spider. [First Comics News]
*Marvel's jungle heroes Ka-Zar and Shanna are going to get a challenge to their supremacy in the Savage Land by the Son of Hulk. Writer Rob Williams promises "giant dinosaurs, giant robots, and giant dinosaurs fighting giant robots." [Marvel]
*Related to that, Ben Morse speculates on what it is that's keeping Ka-Zar and Shanna from becoming A-list players in the Marvel Universe. I agree that it's got a lot to do with their close ties to the Savage Land, but disagree with the premise that Ka-Zar and Shanna should be headline characters in the greater Marvel U. My feeling is that they - like Aquaman - have plenty of great stories that can be told on their home turf (or surf) without constantly trying to cross over into their publishers' larger universes. It's the felt need for guest stars and crossovers, not the characters' settings that are holding back storytellers. [The Cool Kids Table]
*Dark Horse's solicits for April include the second issue of dinosaur-riding Axe Cop's new mini-series as well as Volume 9 of Tarzan: The Jesse Marsh Years. [Comic Book Resources]
Movies
*Johnny Depp's up for Pirates of the Caribbean 5, which already has a screenwriter. [/Film]
TV
*Eddie Izzard will be playing Long John Silver and Elijah Wood will be Ben Gunn in a version of Treasure Island for Sky TV. [/Film]
*Though it's produced by Shonda Rhimes, the folks in charge of ABC's new, jungle-hospital drama want you to know that Off the Map is no Grey's Anatomy. It's created by someone else and has a different group of writers. Rhimes and Off the Map's creator Jenna Bans spin that as a good thing, but I watched the premiere Wednesday night and it could've used some of what makes Grey's so good: intriguing, likable characters.
The only person I cared about was Doc Cole, but that's because he's played by Jason George, who's always awesome. And not liking any of the characters, I didn't care about any of the situations they were in either. I'm rooting for it - I want to like it - but the premiere tried too hard to be Dramatic without first giving me a reason to invest. I hope it improves, but right now the characters are all stereotypes.
Hopefully it'll get the chance to improve. Wednesday night's ratings weren't great, but a repeat on Thursday drew almost as many viewers as the premiere when you'd expect those numbers to drop drastically. Of course, the Thursday rerun had the advantage of a Grey's lead-in.
*Steven Spielberg's time-travel/dinosaur show Terra Nova will debut May 23 on Fox [Inside TV, who also has descriptions of a trailer for the show and answers about time paradoxes from producer Brannon Braga]. /Film has some more (still dinosaurless) pictures from the show, including a few cast photos.
Miscellaneous
*William Bendix Sings and Tells Famous Pirate Stories. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]
*Aquaman vs. Mer-Man action figure two-pack. [The Aquaman Shrine]
*Jamaica opens Ian Fleming International Airport. [The Book Bond]
*Triceracopter. [Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs]
*Dino Gum. [Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs]
*Dinosaur cupcakes.[Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs]
*Dinosaur chopsticks. [4 Physics]
