Something Wicked This Way Comes to Archaia in 'Toil and Trouble'

Archaia, an imprint of award-winning publisher BOOM! Studios, invites readers to look behind the scenes of Shakespeare’s Macbeth to see who wields the real power in the new, original limited series Toil and Trouble. Mairghread Scott (Transformers: Windblade) and debut artists Kelly & Nichole Matthews reinvent the famous tragedy by putting the power in the hands of the three witches as they control the destiny of a king and the fate of Scotland.

“Toil and Trouble takes the coolest parts of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and flips it around to show how these three powerful witches were pulling the strings the whole time,” said BOOM! Studios Editor-in-Chief Matt Gagnon. “Mairghread has crafted a story of three incredible women whose desires will shape a country’s destiny, and Kelly and Nichole infuse that story with beautiful, lush artwork crackling with magic. I think even the Bard himself would co-sign this.”

The three Fates—Riata, Cait, and Smertae—have always been guiding and protecting Scotland unseen, indirectly controlling the line of kings according to the old religion. When there is a disagreement in the sisterhood, Riata and Smertae will use men as pawns, and Smertae will direct Macbeth to a crown he was never meant to have.

“[Toil and Trouble is] a gorgeously drawn story of a battle for ancient Scotland, that is secretly watched over by three feuding witches and their familiars," tweeted writer Gail Simone (Red Sonja, Secret Six), who got to read an advance copy. "Absolutely one of my favorite new books. I can't wait for the next issue, it feels like a TOP-NOTCH fantasy novel, but with adorable art."

Toil and Trouble #1 (of 6) (formerly The Third Witch) arrives in comic shops on September 2nd with a main cover by Kyla Vanderklugt (Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Witches) for the price of $3.99. Also available in a limited quality is a 10 Years incentive cover by Meredith McClaren, and a retailer incentive cover by Haemi Jang (Clive Barker’s Next Testament).

The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Sixth Season & The Originals: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Giveaway

The Vampire Diaries The Complete Sixth Season:

The Vampire Diaries continues its sixth season with more delicious drama to sink your teeth into. In season five, after a passionate summer with Damon, Elena headed to Whitmore College with Caroline, not knowing Bonnie sacrificed her life for Jeremy's. Meanwhile, Stefan and Caroline's friendship deepened as they stood up to the Travelers, a nomadic witch tribe driven to strip Mystic Falls of magic and cast out its supernatural residents. In the shocking season finale, Damon, fearing he would lose his loved ones on the crumbling Other Side, made a huge sacrifice to bring them all back with catastrophic and heartbreaking results. Season six follows the characters' journey back to each other as they explore the duality of good versus evil inside themselves. Matt Davis reprises his role as Alaric Saltzman, recently returned from The Other Side. Plus, the season will make you misty-eyed as the departure of a major character will turn lives upside down and leave us asking what happened to Mystic Falls.

Contains All 22 Episodes From The Sixth Season Plus Two Featurettes, An Audio Commentary, The 2014 Comic-Con Panel, Deleted Scenes, And A Gag Reel

Own The Vampire Diaries The Complete Sixth Season on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD September 1, 2015 .

The Originals The Complete Second Season:

 As Original vampire-werewolf hybrid Klaus Mikaelson returned to the vibrant, supernaturally charged city of New Orleans in season one, he was stunned to learn, along with his siblings Elijah and Rebekah, that Hayley, a werewolf, was pregnant with his child, and his vampire protege, Marcel, whom the Original siblings had thought long dead, was ruling the French Quarter. Soon, a bloody war escalated between vampires and witches, the stakes raised by powerful teenage witch Davina and by Klaus' bond with Cami, a student with a painful past, and a ruthless pack of wolves seized the opportunity to stage a violent coup. Now, in season two, a new status quo must be adjusted to, as the newly empowered werewolves control the city. Klaus struggles with weaknesses as Elijah desperately tries to save Hayley, now a hybrid, from a vicious spiral of self-destruction. Meanwhile, with the re-emergence of several Mikaelsons, "family is power" takes on new meaning.

Contains All 22 Episodes From The Second Season Plus Never-Before-Seen Featurettes And Much More!

Own The Originals The Complete Second Season on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD September 1, 2015

We are giving away one copy of either The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Sixth Season or The Originals: The Complete Second Season on Blu-ray! Contest starts August 30th and ends at 11:59 p.m. on September 13th. Giveaway open to U.S. and Canada.

There are three ways to enter:

- Leave a comment below, e-mail geekhashblog@gmail.com, or tweet @monkeyjedi using the hashtags #TVD and #TheOriginals and let him know your results of the "Are You Fit for Vampire Life?" quiz on the app below. 

- Share a link to this post via social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, etc.) and let us know when you do!

- Download the "Viewing Party Eats" PDF below and let us know what your favorite recipes are!

One winner will be randomly chosen. Once notified, they will then have 24 hours to respond with a mailing address (No PO Boxes) or an alternate winner will be chosen.

*Each household is only eligible to win one (1) The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Sixth Season or The Originals: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray via blog reviews and giveaways. Only one entrant per mailing address per giveaway. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you will not be eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

**Warner Home Entertainment is sponsoring this giveaway and will be shipping the prize to the winner. No PO boxes. Giveaway open to U.S. and Canada residents only.

Unboxing August's Comic Con Box

I decided to finally bite the bullet and sign up for a Comic Con Box after watching some unboxing's on YouTube. The subscription service, from Wizard World, is a premium monthly box "that brings Comic Con to you...THE FANS." With a hefty price tag of $29.99 plus shipping it's quite a bit more than other subscription box services. Where this service differs from others is that some boxes could include premium items such as celebrity autographs, exclusive comics, and Comic Con tickets and discounts. August's theme was "Science" and featured items from Marvel, Funko, and others.

Inside this month's box:

- Professor X Funko POP! Figure

- Exclusive "How To Make Your Alien Shirt"

- Exclusive Marvel Civil War #1 Variant Comic

- "Gods and Titans" Print by Rob Prior

- "Rocket and Stitch" Print by Billy Martin

- Star Trek "Live Long and Prosper" Sticker

- The Amazing Spider-Man "Matters of Life and Death" Graphic Novel

- Speed Runners Steam Download Code

- Portal Keychain

- Universal Fighting System Card Game

"Gods and Titans" Print by Rob Prior

"Rocket and Stitch" Print by Billy Martin

Christopher Sebela and Jonathan Brandon Sawyer Explore Reincarnated Assassins in August's 'Welcome Back'

Main Cover by Jonathan Brandon Sawyer

Jackpot Cover by James Harvey

Award-winning publisher BOOM! Studios is excited to announce their next project with writer Christopher Sebela (Dead Letters, Escape from New York) as he teams with artist Jonathan Brandon Sawyer (Critical Hit) on the suspense-filled reincarnation saga, Welcome Back. The series debuts in comic shops in August.

 

“Reincarnation fiction has always been rich with storytelling possibilities and world-building. When Chris brought us Welcome Back we were incredibly excited with a fresh, innovative take on this genre,” said BOOM! Studios President of Publishing and Marketing Filip Sablik. “Jonathan’s art is just the perfect complement for this story—equal parts gritty, expressive, and detailed. Welcome Back is the complete package.”

 

In Welcome Back, Mali and Tessa have lived hundreds of different lives throughout time, caught up in an eternal cycle as they take part in a war so old that neither side remembers what they’re fighting for anymore. As Mali wakes up in her newest life as the directionless, college-aged daughter of a notorious serial killer, she suddenly starts to question everything, especially why she continues to fight. But elsewhere, the determined Tessa is already on the hunt, leaving a trail of bodies in her wake...

 

Welcome Back #1 (of 4) arrives in comic shops on August 19th with a main cover by series artist Jonathan Brandon Sawyer for the price of $3.99. Also available in a limited quality is a Jackpot Variant cover (1 in 100) by James Harvey (We Are Robin), a 10 Years incentive cover by Rob Guillory (Chew), and a retailer incentive cover by Elsa Charretier (The Infinite Loop).

Custom Funko POP Ant-Man

Over the last couple of months I've really gotten into making my own custom Funko POP figures. I had been purchasing so many from other artists that it was becoming expensive. That's when I decided, "Hey, why not try doing them yourself?" So I started researching methods and products to use on YouTube and toy forums all over the interwebs. I've been working at it for almost three months and have made about thirty customs. They range from repaints to simple head switches.

My most recent are these Ant-Man Unmasked customs. The first version, or "prototype," was made using a Sheldon (Big Bang Theory) POP head and Ant-Man bobblehead. The idea struck when I was taking apart Sheldon because I wanted to repaint him as Hawkeye. I had the head off and an Ant-Man POP was sitting on the table next to me and I thought, "I wonder if I could fit the head inside and make an unmasked version." With that, I proceeded to remove Ant-Man's head and tried to figure out just how I was going to make it happen. Ultimately, it took an exacto knife, a hairdryer, and LOTS and LOTS of patience! I have since been using the Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) head from the 21 Jump Street line instead of Sheldon's as it's significantly smaller and I like the way it fits into the mask a lot better.

Below are the Sheldon "prototype," regular unmasked version, and a "Battle Damaged" glow-in-the-dark Hot Topic Exclusive version.

The Sheldon Prototype

Updated version with Schmidt head

Glow-in-the-dark "Battle Damaged" version

Right side view

Left side view

Back view

Murder In The Dark Creeps Up On The Second Slot of 8 Films To Die For

Courtney Solomon's After Dark Films has announced the next thrilling horror title in its new '8 Films to Die For' line-up. 'Murder in the Dark', written and directed by Dagen Merrill, and produced by Jaime Burke and Chris 'Doc' Wyatt, will be the second of 8 films to be featured in one of horror's most coveted brands.

"Our goal was to create a contemporary horror/thriller that drew life from old-school locked room mystery stories. To do that we needed a truly isolated location, so we shot the film entirely in the ruins of a medieval cliff city in southern Italy," says 'Murder in the Dark' producer Chris "Doc" Wyatt.

The film stars Luke Arnold (Black Sails), Phil Austin (The Final Destination, The Pursuit of Happyness), Yann Bean (Out of the Woods), Samrat Chakrabarti (Extinction), Kiran Deol (Seven Psychopaths), Eme Ikwuakor (The New Republic), Simone Tang (Sorrow and Joy), Mary Kate Wiles (Into the Night), and Murielle Zuker (Ocean's 7-11).

"We're very proud of this addition to our horror slate," says Stephanie Caleb, EVP, Creative Affairs & Acquisitions at After Dark Films, "This beautifully shot and sinister piece was a favorite amongst our team, and we're so glad we could include it in our next horror festival."

'8 Films to Die For' will be released in theaters on October 16th, 2015, with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment handling all ancillary forms of media, including Digital HD, DVD and VOD.

Official Synopsis:

When a group of young people camping in the ruins of a medieval Turkish town play a party game called 'Murder in the Dark', they soon discover that someone is taking the game too far... Produced in an experimental shooting style, this murder-mystery features a cast of actors who were not allowed to see the script. The actors' choices interactively changed the shape of the story. They had to use clues to solve the mystery laid out before them by the filmmakers.

Patrick McHale and Jim Campbell Return for New 'Over the Garden Wall' Comic Series

Main Cover by Jim Campbell

Subscription Cover by Steve Wolfhard

KaBOOM!, an award-winning imprint of BOOM! Studios, and Cartoon Network Enterprises, the licensing and merchandising arm of the network, are pleased to announce that Patrick McHale and Jim Campbell have teamed up once again for a new, four-issue Over the Garden Wall limited comic series. Last November, Cartoon Network debuted McHale’s eerily sweet Over the Garden Wall, its first original animated miniseries, about half-brothers Wirt and Greg trying to find their way home. KaBOOM! published a companion one-shot that was eagerly snapped up by fans, selling out immediately.

“We are incredibly excited to dive back into the unknown with Patrick and Jim,” said BOOM! Studios President of Publishing and Marketing Filip Sablik. “We adored the Over the Garden Wall animated miniseries here at BOOM!, and this new limited series will allow us to explore even more adventures with Wirt, Greg, the Woodsman, and all our favorite characters.”

It’s a new Over the Garden Wall story set between episodes 3 and 4 of the animated series. Wirt and Greg are trying to hitch a ride out of schooltown but end up having to walk. Soon, they come upon two girls playing, and wind up having to keep them entertained so that they don’t wake their giant father!

Headlined by an all-star voice-cast that includes Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings Trilogy), Collin Dean (The War at Home), and Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men), Over the Garden Wall is Cartoon Network’s first-ever miniseries, an animated comedy/fantasy story about two brothers, Wirt and Greg, who are trapped in a mysterious world. In this 10-part production, music plays an important role with a soundtrack full of Americana-influenced original songs. A DVD collecting all of the episodes will be released on September 8. Over the Garden Wall is created by Patrick McHale and produced by Cartoon Network Studios.

Over the Garden Wall #1 (of 4) arrives in comic shops on August 26th with a main cover by series artist Jim Campbell for the price of $3.99. Also available in a limited quantity is a subscription variant by Adventure Time storyboard artist Steve Wolfhard, a 10 Years incentive cover by Jeffrey Brown (Star Wars: Jedi Academy), and a retailer incentive cover by creator Patrick McHale.