Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Ah, China. Always the wild and wooly frontier of copyright infringement.
This time, some industrious souls are selling an eighth Harry Potter book: Harry Potter and the Chinese Empire.
They don’t limit themselves to just Harry, though. It also includes rip-offs from Lord of the Rings and many Chinese characters.
Um, maybe. J.K. Rowling is reportedly taking to the cafes of Edinburgh again, this time penning a crime novel.
Thanks to HollywdLiz for the find!
Gordon Lee, a comic book shop owner in Rome, Georgia is going on trial this week for supposedly distributing lewd images to minors. He gave away free comic books at a Halloween event in 2004 and in the assortment were a few copies of “Alternative Comics #2”, which included an apparently historically accurate story about Pablo Picasso, including the cubist master in the buff. Mr. Lee has apologized numerous times for his mistake, but to no avail.
Fortunately for Mr. Lee, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has picked up the $80,000 his defense has cost so far and will be paying the expected additional $20,000. Remind me to stop by their booth next year at San Diego Comic Con and give them a hug and a donation.
Oh, and WARNING: The first link contains the offending image of Picasso’s wang. Don’t click if you have an issue with historically accurate comic wangs.
Star Wars favorite Tim Zahn (someone we’re admittedly partial to) gave an interview to SciFi Wire in which he talks upcoming books after the fifth book in his Dragonback series Dragon and Judge.
Look for a new installment in his The Quadrail series around October.
Again. This time Stephen King writes for Entertainment Weekly about the impact of Harry Potter, why most reviewers missed the point, and, perhaps most interestingly, the talent of J.K. Rowling.
Maybe it’s the British prose. It’s hard to resist the hypnotism of those calm and sensible voices, especially when they turn to make-believe. Rowling was always part of that straightforward storytelling tradition (Peter Pan, originally a play by the Scot J.M. Barrie, is another case in point). She never loses sight of her main theme
(Warning: LINKS ARE SPOILERS for those who have not finished Deathly Hallows.)
Be sure to click through to see the whole thing.
Moving Forward by Deisi, is a really wonderful image of characters getting on with life after the events in the book. Be sure to check out other recent work in her gallery if you are a fan of red-headed twins. Angst and spoilage ahoy!
Stardust may not be out yet, but it’s certainly getting its share of hype. It’s currently getting a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (from only five reviews, granted) but Neil Gaiman is everywhere.
Really, there ought to be a band
Videos du jour
I think we have a few Naomi Novik fans in the crowd, so I’m sure you’ll be pleased to see a review of the new Temeraire book, Empire of Ivory. (Spoilers look minimal.) The book is due September 25th.
On Novik’s livejournal, we also learn the title of the next book, it’s due date, a pic of her Locus award and some links to Temeraire fan art and meta.