G.I. Joe Mighty Muggs are now at Target and ON SALE!

Well now I feel like I need to take back everything I said about Target last week. I went to my local Target this past weekend and not only did they have the entire set of G.I. Joe Mighty Muggs Wave 1 figures, but all Mighty Muggs in stock are on sale for $8.99! Not sure how long the sale is going on for, but if you’re missing any Mighty Muggs head to your local Target now. Needless to say, I grabed a complete set which you can see in the photo below: While they had plenty of Duke, Cobra Commander and Storm Shadow figures in stock, there was only one Snake Eyes left. Not sure if there was less of him because he’s the most popular G.I. Joe character or if it’s because his figure will be harder to find, but if you see one on store shelves I recommend grabbing him! Since most Joe fans gush over Snake Eyes, I’ve always gone against the grain and been a bigger Duke fan. But when you compare their Mighty Mugg figures it’s no contest. Snake Eyes might be my favorite Mighty Mugg of all time. First off, his weapons, an Uzi and a long Sword, are probably the best Mighty Muggs accessories released to date. But what makes him so cool is that even though his uniform is all black, Hasbro still did a great job with his details. He has black belts, grenades and knives all over his body, and even with the black on black you can still identify everything. Plus he's rocking the Arashikage ninja clan hexagram on his right shoulder, so really he's got it all. Needless to say this little vinyl figure rocks and I highly recommend picking up one.

Portland State University and Dark Horse Comics Open First Comic Book Archive

This week has turned out to be a pretty cool news week in the world of comic books. The Portland Monthly Magazine is reporting that Portland State University’s Branford P. Millar Library will house the country’s very first comic book archive. Dark Horse Comics, home to Star Wars, Hellboy and Sin City, has “so far donated over 3,000 volumes to the library’s shelves (that’s three copies of every title the company has ever produced), making PSU the first university in the country to keep such an archive.” (link) I think this is wonderful news and it is about time that the comic book industry is given the respect it deserves as both works of literature and art.


For those of you wondering how such a collection ended up at Portland State University, it turns out that Dark Horse, the third largest U.S. publisher of comic books after Marvel and DC, was founded in 1986 by two PSU alumni, Mike Richardson and Neil Hankerson. In the article, librarian Helen H. Spalding is quoted as saying the Dark Horse Comics archive “is an important international research collection, it holds an interest for those studying American pop culture, gender studies, violence in literature—almost anything. We wanted to make the university a hub of comic-book studies.” (link)

If you’re in the Portland area then I highly recommend stopping by the PSU Millar Library and checking out the new Dark Horse section! I’d love to hear what it’s like and will one day hopefully get to see for myself. You can expect to see comics such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Concrete, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, Barb Wire, The Goon, Grendel, Groo, The Mask, Usagi Yojimbo, and Aliens in the newly created comic book archive.

The Nightmare In Jeremyville 8 Inch Dunny

The new Nightmare In Jeremyville 8 inch Dunny really signifies what I love about Kidrobot’s Dunny platform. Not only does this designer vinyl figure feature a very cool, unique design, but it introduces me to an artist I had not heard of before, Jeremy Ville.


The design on the front and back of this crying, pink Dunny actually tells the story of this figure’s horrifying nightmare and includes a comic strip poster detailing the Halloween themed adventure. This is the kind of 8” Dunny I have been patiently waiting for Kidrobot to release, especially after the last 6-9 months of generic characters. This figure returns to Kidrobot’s roots and actually pushes the boundaries of what an artist can do with a Dunny canvas.


The Nightmare In Jeremyville 8” Dunny retails for $50.00 and will be released on October 2, 2008. This limited edition figure also includes a decaying carrot accessory and a 14 x 17 inch comic poster (as shown above).

The Dark Knight Surpasses The $500 Million Mark

The Dark Knight has now officially passed the $500 million plateau in domestic box office grosses, becoming just the second movie in Hollywood history to do so. This is a pretty huge statistic in that no other movie, besides Titanic, has ever brought in this much money in the U.S. It is safe to say that The Dark Knight has no chance at catching Titanic’s $600.8 million domestic gross, but second place isn’t a bad place to be. As of Sunday, The Dark Knight has brought in $502.4 million.


While the numbers for the latest Batman film are staggering, they are also a little misleading. If you factor in ticket price inflation or look strictly at the amount of tickets sold, which in my opinion is the most important statistic of them all, The Dark Knight falls down in the rankings significantly. Regardless, grossing over $500 million in the United States alone is a huge achievement and says a lot about the quality of Christopher Nolan’s Batman opus. What's unfortunate is that Heath Ledger is no longer here to appreciate it. I cannot image the pressure now on Warner Brothers, Nolan and Christian Bale to come up with something even more amazing for their third Batman movie. How can you possibly top The Dark Knight!?!

Marvel Announces Schedule of Future Movie Releases

Multiple sources are reporting that yesterday at its annual stockholders meeting Marvel announced its lineup of future comic book related, super hero movies and when they would be released in theaters. This coincides nicely with The Blot’s Iron Man post yesterday, since Marvel confirmed that Iron Man 2 is going to be produced and would hit theaters April 30, 2010. While “no casting decisions were made at the announcement, Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. has said he’s interested in reprising his role and co-star Gwyneth Paltrow has said she is signed on for two more installments.” (link)

Also in the works is Thor, a movie based on the Norse god and directed by Matthew Vaughn, which is scheduled for released on June 4th, 2010. Following that, “Marvel is planting its feature film stakes for summer 2011 with an Avengers-themed summer – a two-picture project which will debut on May 6, 2011 with The First Avenger: Captain America (working title), followed by The Avengers in July 2011.” (link)


The Avengers movie was hinted at by a Samuel L. Jackson cameo (as Nick Fury), which appeared at the end of Iron Man’s closing credits. If you haven’t already seen Iron Man I strongly urge you to sit through the movie’s closing credits for this bonus scene between Jackson’s Fury and Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. I didn’t wait around and got stuck watching the scene from a blurry YouTube clip, which I can promise you is not the same as watching it in the theater.