Check out the pretty, pretty:

I have a geek confession to make, I know very little about Disney's John Carter (of Mars?), I know very little about the original Edgar Rice Burroughs stories, I think I may've once read a comic which featured John Carter...that may be a lie but damn does this trailer look good.

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Wanna hear the one line movie pitch for Bone?

Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Scrooge McDuck in Lord of the Rings.
That sold you? Not sure it would've sold me to be honest but having first dipped into and then devoured the entire 1300+ page complete edition of this I can now see why it's such a favourite amongst comic fans.

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Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTidTMahB0o&feature=player_embedded

And Now for Something Completely Different...

This Daft Punk Tron Legacy tribute video is brought to you by the genius of the guys at ANIBOOM. The animator, Arnaud Faure states that it is a personal project that he made as a fan of Daft Punk and that he is not affiliated with the production of the film in any way...but in my opinion he should've been involved.

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When publishers put out press releases that are just images with no words, there will always be questions and questions can be dangerous things in the wrong hands, like:

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So by now you will have all heard the rumours that Apple are looking to make an investment with their billions in profit and that they are looking at either Sony, Disney or Adobe. So strong is this rumour that it has caused Sony’s share prices to rise by 3% and apparently it’s only speculation that came from this article.

So there’s the reality, now let’s deal in a little fantasy shall we?

If Apple were to buy Disney, lock, stock and barrel that would mean that they would also own all the subsidiaries owned by Disney which of course includes Marvel. What would that mean for Marvel? Would a second buy-out in as many years spell doom and gloom or would they have a ton load of cash and new resources to play with? We’ll probably never know but let’s just suppose...

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When Disney bought Marvel lock, stock and barrel there were a lot of images floating around of Disney execs as Marvel characters or Disney/Marvel amalgams, mostly fan drawn or one-offs for magazine pieces. Now it seems Marvel and Disney have fully embraced this ethos and have Tronified© (Copyright belongs to my good Reach Fwend Matt Pease) a load of Marvel characters and here are the stunning results:

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Link: http://www.deadline.com/2010/06/will-dr-strange-be-marvels-first-superhero-to-fly-under-the-disney-banner/

My prayers have for once been answered, rather than doing a low budget or short Dr Strange movie Marvel have decided to go the whole hog with the franchise and produce a full length feature film. The movie according to Deadline will also be the first Marvel film to come under the Disney banner and will be written by Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer who just wrote the new Conan movie. Is this a good or bad thing? I guess we'll just have to wait and see how the movie turns out.

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Link: http://www.fastcompany.com/pics/disneys-own-superheroes

Most of you out there in comic book land will have already seen these Kirk Manley drawn Disney Execs presented as mock up Marvel covers, but it was too good an opportunity not to be this week's Something Silly. The covers are part of Fast Company's 50 most innovative companies of which Disney are one, supposedly demonstrating the hot shot executives that helped get Disney into this position. My personal favourites (below) are the futurist Steve Jobs, Lost producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof as the Avenging Thor and Hawkeye and Pixar's Filmtastic Four. You can see all the covers in their entirety here.

A bit of a given this week what with the Disney/Marvel buyout and so many talented people out there using this as an opportunity to flex those creative muscles with some good ol' parodies. Please support the artists of these pieces by clicking on the images to see them in their original context.

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Don't worry I'm not trying to fool anybody by the headline I realise I've been conspicuously quiet on the subject of Disney buying up Marvel Entertainment and with good reason. I honestly don't know how I feel about the whole thing and until we know more information it's very difficult to judge whether this is a good thing, a bad thing or just a 'meh' thing. One of the things that has amazed me about this deal is just how quiet they were able to keep the whole thing, I'm sure if you travel in the right circles (that'd be those stupid amounts of cash kind of circles) then you may've heard something but I was truly stunned when I heard the news.

There are a few things we do know:

1) Disney will be honouring all the current contracts that Marvel has with various movie studios with regards to distribution of their upcoming movies: Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers.

2) Current movie franchises that are owned by other studios will stay at thos studios under the terms originally set by Marvel.

3) Some people are gonna make a hell of a lot of money on this deal with some economists saying that Disney have paid far too much for Marvel Entertainment.

I think if you look at those three statements there are two possible conclusions to be made, either Disney are playing the long game not wanting to rock the boat until they really need to at which point Marvel properties will get raped withtin an inch of their lives or they are are genuinely interested in the properties and just see Marvel as an independent subsidary of the Disney family. We can't possibly know Disney's intention so there really is no point in speculating we'll just have to wait and see and focus on what we need to know about the future of both companies.

What I want to know:

1) Will Marvel be getting their hands on the Disney properties currently owned by Boom! Studios? This deal is still in it's infancy but Boom! appear to be doing a great job.

2) How much did John Lasseter (Principal Creative Advisor at Disney and former head of Pixar) have to do with the deal?

3) If John Lasseter did have something to do with the deal does this mean as AICN suggested that there could be a PIXAR/Marvel Team-up? I think I just multiple nerdgasmed!

4) What does the future hold for Universal's Marvel Superhero Island? Surely Disney will want to incorporate some of the 5000 Marvel characters they've acquired into their own theme parks?

5) And finally but probably most importantly how will this change effect the most important part of Marvel's business (as far as I'm concerned); the comic books.

That last one is impossible to answer, at best Marvel will be able to use the financial power of Disney to put out even better material at lower costs. At worst the interference of the corporate overseers will strangle creativity at the House of Ideas destroying everything they've built up. For now I'm keeping an open mind but I sure will be keeping a close eye on any developments at either Marvel or Disney and I recommend you do too.