Off to WonderCon!

I've been a busy bee lately. Or rather, a busy bird. Just two weeks ago I was on my way to Chicago for my first C2E2, now I'm off to San Francisco for my first WonderCon!

Unlike Chicago, I have been to San Francisco once and am very much looking forward to being back. No video interviews for Newsarama this time, although I will be doing some light reporting for them while I'm there. This con is more about being a regular ol' fan and catching up with friends.

As always, if you see me scooting around the show floor, feel free to stop me and say hello. Even if you need to shout "Nerdy Bird" to get my attention. :) See you there!

Hey, That's My Cape! SUCKER PUNCH Should Have Been A Comic

Zack Snyder has directed some pretty cool comic book adaptations for the silver screen; 300, Watchmen and (hopefully) Superman. So when the advertisements for his latest film Sucker Punch started popping up, it was easy for the non-comic-reading public (or even some die-hards) to assume it was another translation. Before going to see it this past weekend, my boyfriend said, “So...this was a graphic novel, right?” Wrong.

Really though, can you blame him? Sucker Punch has comic book written all over it. In fact, this was Snyder’s first original work to be released in theaters so it’s really not that far fetched. For his first film, he remade Dawn of the Dead and his last movie before Sucker Punch, Legends of the Guardian: The Owls of Ga’Hoole was based on a series of children’s books.

So just how was Sucker Punch and why do I think it screams comic book? Read my thoughts in this week's Hey, That's My Cape! at Newsarama.

Syfy's BEING HUMAN Cast Gets More Human Than Human

A vampire, werewolf and ghost living together sounds like the makings of a reality show from the future or some sort of alternate universe. In our reality, though, it is one of the Syfy channels newest scripted series, Being Human.

To fans’ delight, it was recently announced that the hit show would be getting a second season on the cable network. Based on the popular BBC television show of the same name, Being Human follows cast members Sam Witwer, Sam Huntington and Meaghan Rath, as they share an house and attempt to pass themselves off as normal humans.

The actors, along with Mark Stern, President of Original Programming at Syfy, made an appearance at New York City’s Paley Center for a preview screening of this week's episode as well as a Q&A with the cast. I spoke with the vampire, werewolf, ghost trio and found out what it’s like to take on those particular roles.

Read the interview at Newsarama!

Blog@ 3/21-3/25

In case you missed them, here are the stories I contributed to Blog@Newsarama last week!

Zack Snyder looks to Batman Begins for his Superman inspiration. - Everyone, from fans to critics, are speculating what Zack Snyder’s take on Superman will be. Well now we have an inkling and also know what it won’t be.

Etsy Made Me Do It: Prints by ambird - Last week I celebrated the Irish by highlighting green comic book characters, this week I’m focusing on prints.

David E. Kelley talks WONDER WOMAN - While many fans are worried how creator David E. Kelley’s new television series about the Amazonian Princess will turn out, it seems no one was more worried than Kelley himself.

Chris Pine and Shia LaBeouf for PREACHER? - It was recently announced that director DJ Caruso would be taking on the task of translating Garth Ennis’ Preacher comic series to the big screen. Now the I Am Number Four director talks a little about what he has in mind.

Several more Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark changes - The troubled Broadway musical based on Marvel’s Spider-Man has gone through not only shake-ups in production but several injuries since performances began just a few months ago. Today, there’s more.

Keep checking Blog@ for other great comic book/pop-culture stories and reviews from my co-workers and myself!

Hey, That's My Cape! – Nice to Meet You, C2E2!

I’ve never been to Chicago, so I decided not too long ago I’d be hitting up the second annual C2E2 there this month to spice up my convention schedule this year. And boy am I glad I did.

My entire basis for what I know about Chicago, Illinois comes from John Hughes movies and other notable Hollywood productions. Did I expect to be hunted by a murderous doll? No. Was I hoping to sing the “Babysitting Blues” at a nightclub and run into Thor while I was there? Yes. Although, I admit, I only managed to bump into the Norse God and hold up his giant hammer. That’s not what it sounded like.

Read my full wrap-up of my first C2E2 (with lots of pictures!) in this week's Hey, That's My Cape! at Newsarama.

Geek vs. Geek

I've been sitting on this one for a while but since my illustrious Executive Producer and CEO of OMFGeek.com, Jeff Koenig, has spilled the beans, I guess that means it's ok for me to talk about it. I'm going to be a judge on a brand-new game show called Geek vs. Geek!

Simple premise. Two teams battle it out in three rounds to see who's the bigger geek. (And we all know that's a major title to have.) The debate rounds are things like Star Trek vs. Star Wars, Mac vs. PC, WoW vs. D&D, you get the picture. Believe me when I tell you, if you aren't a contestant, you'll be shouting at your monitor because you think you know better.

An audience vote partially decides the winner but the best part is I'm one of three judges who will be deciding which contestants are Brainiacs and which need to have their Geek Cards revoked. And yes! There'll be prizes!!

Check out an interview with Jeff as well as the first teaser trailer here! We haven't started filming the series yet so there's still time to become a contestant. Sign up for the mailing list at GeekVsGeekShow.com to be the first to find out when auditions will take place and don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook!

Are you geek enough?

Blog@ 3/14-3/18

In case you missed them, here are the stories I contributed to Blog@Newsarama last week!

New (and hilarious) Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars commercial! - You have to see this. In stores this week!!

Etsy Made Me Do It: Go Green! -This week it’s all about the St. Patrick’s Day spirit! And what better way to celebrate than going green with shamrock shaded comic book characters?

Geoff Johns says the SANDMAN TV series IS happening - Contrary to other reports, DC's Chief Creative Officer says the project is still alive.

Kevin Costner is Pa Kent -It’s official. Kevin Costner is playing Superman’s dad in the Zack Snyder directed film.

Keep checking Blog@ for other great comic book/pop-culture stories and reviews from my co-workers and myself!

Off to C2E2!

Hey everyone! I'm heading out to the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, otherwise known as C2E2!

I'll be at the Newsarama booth/stage most of the time so if you want to come say hi that's your best bet. I'll be doing some video interviews for them as well as live-blogging some panels so make sure to pay attention to Newsarama.com for coverage throughout the weekend.

This is my first time at C2E2, not only that, it's my first time in Chicago too so I'm really looking forward to it! Hope to see you there!

Oh, and definitely keep checking my Twitter stream where I'll likely have behind-the-scenes and after-hours posts as well. I'm also currently running a contest on Twitter for today only. If you're a fan of Syfy's Being Human and live in the New York City area definitely try and win. The cast, Sam Witwer (Aiden), Meaghan Rath (Sally), Sam Huntington (Josh) and Mark Stern, President of Original Programming for Syfy will be at the beautiful Paley Center for a preview screening and Q&A and I've got some tickets to give away so you can attend! Just tweet "#IloveBeingHuman because..." & why you do. I'll pick the winners at random by the end of today!

Hey, That's My Cape! – Nerd Bucket List

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Twitter is awesome. I’ve got friends there to keep me company in just about every time zone in the world, hear breaking news and I get ideas of stuff to write about.

Like right now. I was followed on Twitter recently by someone who runs a Tumblr called “Nerd Bucket List.” I took a minute to go check it out and sure enough, it’s exactly what it sounds like. The blogger is trying to get people to make up their own nerd bucket lists. If you are unfamiliar with what a “bucket list” is, I guess you missed the Rob Reiner comedy starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman wherein “two terminally ill men escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.” Cheery huh?

I’ve hopefully got a long life ahead of me and can think of tons of crazy nerd stuff I’d still like to do. So now, without further ado, I present to you a portion of my Nerd Bucket List in this week's Hey, That's My Cape! at Newsarama.

Being Human U.K. picked up for FOURTH season!

You heard me correctly. Being Human just wrapped up its third season in Britain Sunday night, and is in the midst of airing on BBC America, but it was just announced that the hit show would be getting another season!

Call it the extra press thanks to the U.S. version of the show, call it THIS SHOW IS JUST THAT AWESOME, whatever the case may be, season four, here we come.

Initial reports say the series, written and created by Toby Whithouse, had 1.1 million viewers watching the finale according to the BBC's blog. WARNING: DO NOT CLICK THE LINK if you do not want to be spoiled for the end of season three. Also, if you have seen the finale, please do not post spoilers in the comments out of respect for other fans.

"We were overwhelmed by the response to series three, and so we're absolutely thrilled that the BBC have given us this opportunity to continue our show into a fourth year," said Whithouse. "We've got another intense and epic story lined up for you, with some new faces and old, and even more horror and mayhem and mugs of tea. I can't wait to get started."

Aidan Turner, who plays Mitchell, spoke a few weeks ago about the possible return of the show. At that time, he did not know whether there would be one or if he'd be back for it considering his budding film career thanks to his upcoming role in The Hobbit. "We haven’t talked yet about dates for series four of Being Human. It’s so up in the air and it’s so far away that I can’t really commit to anything." If you do want a definitive answer, read this other BBC blog post. Again, spoilers.

Rob Pursey, Executive Producer of Touchpaper Television, the producers of the show said, "Being Human feels like it's taken on a life of its own now, and we are delighted. I've never known a drama develop such a strong relationship with its audience." Strong relationship is an understatement. The finale had me in tears.

Being Human, starring Turner, Lenora Crichlow and Russell Tovey, continues its third season on BBC America this Saturday.

MDA Muscle Walk 2011 was a huge success!

The 2011 MDA Muscle Walk for NY/NJ was HUGE success and I have all of YOU to thank!

This year, the walk was held at the beautiful new Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. DJ John Paterson kept the tunes going throughout the afternoon while Colin Cosell co-hosted the proceedings along with Justin Louis, the Afternoon Drive host at 92.7 WOBM, who happens to be a personal friend of mine. I've known Justin since my work as a DJ at 94.3 The Point a few years ago and he graciously donated his time to pump up the crowd for the walk. And there were a LOT of people to cheer on this year.

"The Nerdy Birds" arrived in style, as I, their team leader instructed them. This is only part of the team, who like me, think Batman is awesome. And we picked a smart theme this year as, little did I know (this is me lying) Batman would be in attendance once again! With his Batmobile!

The photo opportunities were something out of a dream. I got my very own "prom picture" with my make-believe boyfriend (which I will treasure until the end of time) but this one my dad and fellow teammate Elizabeth-Amber jumped in for. Beth was an amazing contribution to the team this year, using her own fan base to raise money towards a cure for Muscular Dystrophy.

Now, the important part. Last year we raised $142,000. This year...I'm happy to announce, we beat our goal, raising over $190,000!!! Team "The Nerdy Birds" also beat our personal goal and last year's team total, raising very close to $5,000. Thank you so, so much to everyone who contributed some of their time or money this year to help out. You have no idea how much it means to me.

And yes, they had face painting and no, I could not resist the opportunity. Who's not gonna donate next year? Send them my way...I'll teach them to donate...

Blog@ 3/7-3/11

In case you missed them, here are the stories I contributed to Blog@Newsarama last week!

HELLO KITTY'S IDENTITY CRISIS - What happens when you mix DC characters with Sanrio's Hello Kitty? CUTENESS.

SDCC hotel blocks open TOMORROW - Well, they opened last week so you're probably out of luck by now. But people cancel rooms as the con gets closer so there's always hope!

Etsy Made Me Do It: Luigi - This week, I decided Mario's taller, skinnier, John Leguizamo-esque brother Luigi deserved his time in the spotlight.

BREAKING: Amazing Fantasy #15 sells for $1.1 million! - The comic book in which Spider-Man made his first appearance went for an amazing $1.1 million in a transaction last week. That’s gonna buy a lot of web shooters.

Bid on a custom Cliff Chiang/Brian Stringer tattoo! - Up for bid on Ebay, a custom tattoo designed personally for you by comic artist Cliff Chiang and inked by artist Brian Stringer at C2E2. The best part? Proceeds go to the Hero Initiative.

The biggest THOR hammer you'll see today - As if Mjolnir wasn’t big enough, Marvel decided to go extra large with their new Thor movie standee (you know, those giant cardboard things in theater lobbies).

Jeff Smith's RASL to be made into a feature film - Eisner Award winning Jeff Smith of Bone fame has just found himself in a very nice position. His black-and-white comic book RASL has been optioned for a feature film.

Keep checking Blog@ for other great comic book/pop-culture stories and reviews from my co-workers and myself!

Sony Encouraging Female Game Developers Through Scholarship

Women have always played video games, they just haven’t always been recognized for it. Sony Online Entertainment, the creators of the long-awaited but highly successful DC Universe Online, wants to change that.

Together with Scholarship America, a non-profit educational support program, SOE is once again offering their Gamers In Real Life (G.I.R.L.) Scholarship. First rewarded in 2008, they hope to attract more females to the development side of the video game industry.

“I think that it’s perspective and when you have more women working on a development team, they bring a unique female perspective about how they play the game, how they engage with them and what art is appealing to them,” said Laura Naviaux, SOE’S Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing. “What I think is unique about Sony Online Entertainment is that we also have such a broad player base, we have a lot of females that play our games so in turn, we need females on our development teams to be able to deliver content that they’re going to appreciate and want to play.”

Read the full article with the rest of my interview with Naviaux, Julia Brasil, a past winner of the scholarship and Vanessa Reynolds, a hopeful for this year's internship at Newsarama.

BBC Sets Doctor Who Season 6 Air-date!

The Doctor is back! Almost!

The announcement was just made that Doctor Who Season 6 will premiere April 23 (Easter weekend) in the U.K. But wait! BBC America also just revealed their premiere date for the show in the United States...APRIL 23! No waiting!!

And we've got this snazzy new poster with the tagline, "Trust your Doctor" to go along with it. Here's the premiere discription: “The Doctor (Matt Smith), and his companions Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), find themselves on a secret summons that takes them on an adventure from the desert in Utah — right to the Oval Office in 1969.”

You may already know, the show filmed with the cast for the first time in the United States late last year for these very episodes. Part One of the two-part opener written by showrunner Steven Moffat and this season will feature stars Mark Sheppard (Battlestar Galactica) and River Song herself, Alex Kingston according to Entertainment Weekly.

Will the episodes air concurrently for the entire season? I hope so and it's about time. I hate waiting for the Doctor. I guess I'm like Amy Pond in that way.

No Ra’s Al Ghul Resurrection In 'The Dark Knight Rises,' Says Liam Neeson

From the moment Ra’s al Ghul was set as a character in Batman Begins, fans speculated it was only a matter of time before Christopher Nolan decided to play up the resurrection aspect of the villain — a conclusion made easier when the character, played by actor Liam Neeson, apparently died at the end of the film.

Now, with the third, and reportedly last, installment in Nolan’s Batman films The Dark Knight Rises set to start shooting in a few months, fans are wondering when the revelation of Neeson’s return will be announced.

Well, brace yourselves — because the actor says it isn't going to happen.

Read all about it in my latest article at MTV Splash Page.

ONE WEEK until the MDA Muscle Walk!

Ok loyal "Has Boobs, Reads Comics" readers, the crunch is on. There's only one week left until "The Nerdy Birds" take a spin around the Prudential Center in New Jersey to raise money with the Muscular Dystrophy Association Muscle Walk!

If you missed my original post on this year's walk you can check that out here. Otherwise, you know the drill. My goal is to raise as much money as possible before the MDA Muscle Walk coming up THIS SATURDAY!

I know I say this a lot but seriously - Every. Dollar. Counts. Someone told me they were sorry they were only donating ten dollars. Ten dollars is GREAT! Five dollars is GREAT! One dollar is GREAT!! People think if they don't donate $100 then it's not worth it to donate at all, but it is. As of this moment I have 6,855 followers on Twitter. If every one of them gave just $1 I would have blown past my goal weeks ago. See what I mean? It adds up.

Give what you can and spread the word as far and as wide as you can. You can donate to The Nerdy Birds MDA Muscle Walk team here, my own personal goal here or to my lovely teammate Elizabeth-Amber (pictured above with me from the MDA Telethon this past year) here.

Thanks so much to everyone who has been so generous with their time and money so far! I'll be sure to report on how it all turns out soon afterwards. :)

Blog@ 2/28-3/4

In case you missed them, here are the stories I contributed to Blog@Newsarama last week!

It's a good day to be a Doctor Who fan - I showcased some excellent DW shirts that happened to pop up online that day.

Etsy Made Me Do It: Mario - Last week it was all about the man, the myth, the legend…Mario.

BLADE RUNNER reboot in the works - Unfortunately it was only a matter of time.

Robert Kirkman talks THE WALKING DEAD Season 2 - Fans of AMC’s The Walking Dead have been ready for Season 2 since the Season 1 finale aired. How about a few words from Robert Kirkman to get you even more excited? Did somebody say “Hershel’s farm?" (Btw, the DVD of Season 1 is on sale for only $17.99 right now!)

Is ABC ripping off FABLES in ONCE UPON A TIME pilot? - ABC’s new drama pilot sounds kinda familiar if you ask me

Keep checking Blog@ for other great comic book/pop-culture stories and reviews from my co-workers and myself!

Conan the Barbarian Motion Poster

What says epic barbarian more than an epic motion poster? Um, I don't really have an answer. Just look at this. (It takes a second to load)

Conan the Barbarian, with Jason Momoa in the starring role, will hit theaters this summer and it seems Lionsgate is trying some unique promotion. I've never seen something like this before. It's cool, but after staring at it a while I just start to get vertigo. And I needed to turn the sound off after about 20 seconds. It does, however, feature shirtless Jason Momoa so it's A-OK in my book.

The film, also starring Ron Perlman and Rose McGowan, has a new website up as well. What do you think of the Frank Frazetta-inspired 3D poster?

BREAKING: Diane Lane cast as Martha Kent!

Superman's got a MILF. Actress Diane Lane has just been cast as Martha Kent in Zack Snyder's Superman film.

Deadline broke the news just moments ago. Of the casting, the director said, “This was a very important piece of casting for me because Martha Kent is the woman whose values helped shape the man we know as Superman. We are thrilled to have Diane in the role because she can convey the wisdom and the wonder of a woman whose son has powers beyond her imagination.”

Lane's last film was the true-life tale of Secretariat. She joins Snyder's Superman, which stars British actor Henry Cavill as her adoptive son, Clark Kent. Rumors recently stated Warner Bros. was after Kevin Costner to star as her husband Jonathan. Speaking of husbands, this also means she joins the comic book film ranks of which her husband, Josh Brolin, is already a member.

What do you think guys? Hottest Ma Kent ever?

Hey, That's My Cape! – Disciplining YOUNG JUSTICE

Seven episodes in to Cartoon Network’s Young Justice and I’m...not convinced.

I’m always excited to hear another DC animated series is being produced and Young Justice was no exception. The concept was exciting; teen heroes acting as a covert ops team for the Justice League? Very cool. Other than that and knowing the series takes place on Earth-16, I went in pretty fresh to the premiere.

And then there was that pesky premiere.

Read my opinionated thoughts on the series so far in this week's Hey, That's My Cape! at Newsarama.