Support The Variants Season 3 Kickstarter Project!

The Variants, a web series about life in a comic book shop, is a must watch for comic book fans everywhere. The Blot’s been a huge fan of the series from the beginning, and when I heard the show’s executive producers were starting a Kickstarter project to help a third season I knew I needed to get involved! After two seasons of being an all-volunteer production, the cast and crew of The Variants need your help to move forward with filming of a third season.

The goal for this Kickstarter project is to raise $8,000 to make season three a reality. As Richard Neal, the owner of Zeus Comics, explained on Twitter, by raising these funds they can film all of Season 3 at one time, which will allow them to release the series weekly and add Chris Haley and Curt Franklin of the webcomic Let's Be Friends Again to the cast. Haley and Franklin guest starred in the season finale of Season 2 as potential investors in taking Zeus (the comic book store where The Variants takes place) national.

The Variants Season 3 Kickstarter project is already halfway funded with almost 40 days still to go! By raising the $8,000 through Kickstarter, The Variants can produce six all new episodes. If they are able to raise $10,000, they will produce 8 episodes, and if they make it all the way to $12,000, they’ll produce 10 episodes and additional content for the series. The Blot is a huge proponent of supporting web series and webcomics whose creators give out free content on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, which is why I have already pledged to this exciting project. Hopefully after watching The Variants and finding out more about the great incentives involved with this Kickstarter project, you’ll want to support this fantastic show as well.

The Variants Web Series Season 2

The Variants web series, one of The Blot’s guilty pleasures and a must watch for any true comic book fan, returned last week with the first all new episode of Season 2! For those of you unfamiliar with The Variants, it’s a web comedy series that takes you behind the counter of your favorite comic book store.

The Variants is the brain child of Richard Neal, Joe Cucinotti and Ken Lowery. In early 2009, Richard, owner of the award-winning Zeus Comics, thought all the crazy stuff he saw in his store would make excellent fodder for a comedy series. Seeing the success of web comedies like The Guild, Richard approached Joe and Ken – longtime friends, writers and regulars at the store – to help him develop the series.

While I was originally drawn to the web series because of its locale (Dallas’ Zeus is one of my favorite comic book stores), I stayed with the series because of its outlandish stories and zany cast of characters. Plus, there are some really great cameos by some big name comic creators! But don’t take my word for it, start watching The Variants from the pilot episode, or order you can order The Variants Season 1 on DVD here for just $15.

SDCC 2010 Exclusive Dr. Horrible ELE Edition Custom Vinyl Figure by Jenny Wolf

One of the SDCC exclusives The Blot is looking forward to the most is also one of its most unknown: the Evil League of Evil Edition Dr. Horrible custom vinyl figure by Jenny Wolf! As you all know, The Blot’s a huge fan of Joss Whedon’s web musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and a vinyl figure of Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible is one of the greatest things ever! Not only that, but it also doubles as a How I Met Your Mother Barney Stinson vinyl figure…that’s two toys for the price of one.


This special San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Dr. Horrible colorway features Dr. Horrible in his Evil League of Evil red coat and black accessories (which he wears at the end of the web series), and comes holding a top secret ELE file folder. Each SDCC exclusive 5" Dr. Horrible figure comes signed and numbered by the artist and has a limited edition run of size of 50 figures. These awesome toys will go on sale the Thursday morning of Comic-Con at Dragatomi’s SDCC booth #3848 for $60 each. And for those of us not attending SDCC there is hope, any remaining figures will go on sale at Jenny’s online store sometime after the convention.


And for those of you hoping to get your hands on a Dr. Horrible vinyl figure in his traditional white coat, one is already in production! The OG Dr. Horrible colorway will be sold this fall as part of a three figure set, which will also include Captain Hammer and Penny action figures. Jenny’s Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog vinyl figure set will have an initial run size of 50 sets and will retail for $150 at her online store. Keep your eyes peeled to her online store SpaceMonkeyToys.bigcartel.com for more information!

Barneyism of the Week - How To Keep A Girl From Becoming Your Girlfriend

How do you keep a girl from becoming your girlfriend?
Simple...
The rules for girls are the same as the rules for gremlins.

“Gremlins?” - Ted

Gremlins.

Rule Number 1 - Never Get Them Wet.
In other words don’t let her take a shower at your place.

Number 2 - Keep them away from sunlight,
i.e. don’t ever see them during the day.

And Rule Number 3 - Never feed them after midnight.
Meaning she doesn’t sleep over
and you don’t have breakfast with her.
EVER.

“What about brunch? Is brunch cool?” - Ted

No Ted, brunch is not cool.

- Barney Stinson

"Definitions"

How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother is finally back, and it couldn’t have happened soon enough. Can you believe HIMYM is already into its fifth season!?! All I know is The Blot’s been going through some serious withdraw ever since the end of last season. That Barney/Robin cliffhanger from last season really left me wanting more. And I hoped everyone turned in to watch the great Neil Patrick Harris host the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards.

I can honestly say NPH was the best part of the show, and he definitely made the unbearably long award show watchable. My favorite part by far was the Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog sketch featuring Harris, Castle’s Nathan Fillion (Firefly), The Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg and Felicia Day (The Guild). Not only did we get an all new Dr. Horrible sketch/song, but Dr. Horrible also took home an Emmy! How cool is that? If for some reason you missed last night’s telecast, you can watch the really funny Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog clip below. Do it now or be forever sorry!

Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy - All New Webisodes

If you’re like The Blot then you can’t wait for the premiere of Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Part II on January 16th. Thankfully your wait is over because last Friday, December 12th, the Sci-Fi Channel launched an all new 10 part webisode series, Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy. The first two webisodes have already been posted and another two will be added each week leading up to the start of BSG’s final episodes. Each webisode will be 3-4 minutes long and “will complement the stories played out in on air episodes and give viewers more insight into characters and events from the fourth season” (link)


According to a Sci-Fi press release, Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy “follows the gripping action and suspense inside a stranded Raptor carrying a group of passengers including Lieutenant Felix Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) and a Number 8 Cylon (Grace Park). When passengers suddenly start dying one by one in alarming ways, fear, panic and chaos erupt within the confines of the small ship, as they come to realize there is a killer among them. Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh) and Brad Dryborough (Lieutenant Hoshi) also star."

Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? You can watch the first two webisodes right now here, and catch new episodes at 12 noon/11 am central on the dates listed below.

Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy
Release Schedule
December 12 - Chapter 1
December 15 - Chapter 2
December 17 - Chapter 3
December 22 - Chapter 4
December 24 - Chapter 5
December 29 - Chapter 6
December 31 - Chapter 7
January 05 - Chapter 8
January 07 - Chapter 9
January 12 - Chapter 10

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog DVD Available For Pre-Order On Amazon.Com

The Blot was pretty excited to find out that Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog starring Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion is now available for pre-order as an Amazon.com exclusive. Best of all, it comes with bonus material including a musical commentary track! One interesting tidbit is that Amazon is manufacturing the DVD based on demand using DVD-R recordable media. I guess this is a way to cut down on costs and make Dr. Horrible profitable enough to actually manufacture. One upside to this is that there is no regional encoding, meaning it will play on all DVD players worldwide.


If you pre-order Joss Whedon’s internet sensation right now you can get the DVD for just $9.99 (instead of its listed retail price of $14.99). Plus, if your total order is over $25.00 you will qualify for free shipping making Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog DVD super cheap.

If you’re looking for more stories from the world of Dr. Horrible then check out these great free online comic books courtesy of Dark Horse Comics and MySpace. The first story features Dr. Horrible’s archenemy Captain Hammer. It is entitled Captain Hammer: Be Like Me! and was written by Zack Whedon and drawn by Eric Canete. The second story is a secret origins tale and features Dr. Horrible’s slightly wet sidekick Moist! It’s entitled Moist: Humidity Rising and was written by Zack Whedon and drawn by Farel Dalrymple.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

The Blot had a killer birthday weekend. Not only did I get to finally see The Dark Knight in IMAX, but I got a sweet Joker Variant Dr. Destruction figure and got to watch the ridiculously awesome Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I should have written about Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog before it came out, but for some reason I never knew when it was going to debut until it was much too late.


You see it’s not actually a blog at all, but a three part musical miniseries created by Joss Whedon during the writers strike. Whedon described it as “the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to,” and best of all it stars How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion (Desperate Housewives, Firefly) and Felicia Day. Let me just say it’s awesomeness is indescribable.

While the musical was originally aired for free all of last week, all three Acts were taken down as of midnight last night. I actually didn’t get to watch it until this weekend, because when I tried to watch Act One on Tuesday I learned that the site had gotten so many hits it crashed and fried the servers almost instantly upon release. Talk about the power of the fans of the Whedon-verse! I really don’t want to go into much detail about the show since in total it is under 45 minutes long, but trust me it’s really good and definitely worth a viewing.

If you missed out and would like to see Whedon at his musical best, you can download all three parts here on iTunes for $3.99 or wait for it on DVD, which will have some of “the finest and bravest extras in all the land.” (link) More details about the DVD will be released later in the week at San Diego Comic-Con 2008. Until then enjoy the official trailer of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog: