Most of you know that Big Shiny Robot! has a regular weekly column in Salt Lake City’s IN This Week.  It’s dedicated to bringing the word of comics to an audience that wouldn’t usually hear about them all the time.

This week, we introduced readers to Green Lantern.

If you’re in the Greater Salt Lake area, you can pick up a copy on newsstands.  You can read the online version here.

Or you can click to enlarge the version below:

This originally appeared on the Huffington Post, here.

I’ve long extolled the virtues of DC Comics and their Vertigo line of original graphic novels, and they’ve always been challenging the medium to do bigger and better things. I was asked if I would review and present a preview to Huffington Post readers of their latest important graphic novel that would be of interest to an intelligent and politically savvy audience. It’s called Cuba: My Revolution and was written by Cuban expatriate and artist Inverna Lockpez and drawn by Dean Haspiel.

It tells a very different sort of story about Cuba during the revolution and it drips with seemingly first hand accounts.

This book beautifully tells the tale of a Cuba I’d never really read about. The Cuba I think of when it comes to art and literature is the Hemingway’s Cuba. To a lesser extent, even Graham Greene’s Cuba. I’ve not read much fiction during the turmoil that seemed to hit so hard into reality and it was a bit of a wake-up call. I’ve always been very sympathetic to Fidel and Cuba, but this has me thinking a little bit differently and that’s what great art is all about.

It’s very beautifully written and rendered and there are scenes of alternating beauty and brutality that make it feel almost like you’re there. There was a bit of choppiness in some of the sequential storytelling, but it was laid out in such a classic 50s/60s art sort of fashion, it’s impossible to argue with.

The coloring is stark, practically black, white, and red, but manages to intone all the shades of grey of the conflict.

The book comes out next week (you can order it on Amazon here), but you can check out these preview pages in the meantime.

It was only a matter of time. With Captain America: The First Avenger rolling at full steam now, we were bound to get a sneak peak at Steve Rogers in full Cap attire. Well, Daily Mail is the first one to snag some set photos featuring our patriotic hero himself filming a motorcycle chase scene – from Agents of  H.Y.D.R.A.! The report states that that isn’t actually Chris Evans in the costume, but a stunt man, but it’s still pretty cool to see the costume “IRL” – and Zombietron should be thrilled that there are wings painted on his helmet/mask thing!

My first impression was that the costume looks a little cheesy, but sometimes things don’t translate from a basic set photo (Yes, I know that’s ironic coming from me, who just layed in to the set photo released earlier today of January Jones as Emma Frost – but that was more about casting complaints, not the costume . . . and the personal grudge I seem to be holding against FOX). Also, if I remember correctly, the costume stems from something Steve Rogers is forced to wear to support the troops at a USO-type show – which he then modifies into the costume he continues to wear. So maybe this is the former?

In any case, pretty exciting to see! You can check out two of the photos below, and the rest of them along with a set report over at Daily Mail!

Gossip Center (.com) has posted some photos of January Jones in full White Quenn get-up from the set of X-Men Origins: Xavier – er, I mean, X-Men: First Class.

Needless to say, she looks none-too-happy – maybe she saw the script? But I digress. This is how Emma Frost is going to look in the film, and in my opinion, it looks about right since it’s set in the ’60’s. You can check out the rest of the photos – including a flattering one of her eating over at Gossip Center by clicking the picture.

I still maintain this is bad casting, they should have gone with someone who can act.

Again we had a bit of a busy weekend, so I wasn’t able to get to this in a timely fashion, but this is the article from last week’s IN Magazine.

It’s about Brian K. Vaughn and Tony Harris’ Ex Machina.

If you’re in the greater Salt Lake area you can pick up a copy on newstands.  You can read the online version here.  You can read the laid out graphical version below.

Thank you all for your suggestions, entries, and enthusiasm for the Advanced Graphics Star Wars CV Exclusive.  I’ve talked to our friend at Advanced Graphics and we’ll be taking some of the best suggestions here and doing a poll to see what the next Star Wars standee they produce will be.

In the meantime, congratulations to:

TheGingerPrince who suggested that Admiral Ackbar should be the next Star Wars standee.

I’ve sent him an email.  Unless it was a fake email address and he doesn’t get back to me in the next few days, I’ll be shipping him out his CV Exclusive.

Be sure to check back for more information about the poll and the rest of our Star Wars updates.

First off, a big thank you to the handfull of you that joined us in the chatroom! It was great having you join us and a blast interacting with you during the vidcast! Also, thank you to the 60-or-so viewers we had join us on a Friday night!

This Month’s Vidcast Features: (From L-R) Tom “Zombietron”, Jimmy “Mexicus Prime”, Tyson “Arse-Bot”, Kiley “NF Comic Book Guy”, Nick “Proletariatron”, Lucas “Kill-Tacular-Tron”.

Topics: Lots of Marvel movie news among other geek news topics, we run down Apple’s keynote introducing the new iPods and Apple TV, and fail to get a decent conversation about movie reboots rolling! We also try some real life Stay Puft Marshmallows, Jimmy tries not to throw up, and Lucas takes his pants off for $50, despite a better offer of $51 to keep them on.

We will have an audio version of this vidcast available on iTunes and via Mp3 later this week! Thanks for watching/listening! We will see you next month!

Come chat about the Big Shiny Vidcast over in the BSR Forum!

Here is another Dragon*Con report from Scarlett Ro’Botica:

I never thought I would hear the words “anal beads” in a Star Wars panel at Dragon*con, but now I have. I attended the Adult Themes panel last night, and the kinky side of Star Wars fandom made itself known. No one under 18 allowed, and drinking was encouraged.
Questions from the audience included “Do you think something was going on between Wilford Brimley and that furry think in the Ewoks: Battle for Endor movie?” Noa and Teek? What kind of person thinks such a thing? I remember that movie from childhood!
“Do you think Jabba raped Leia while she was chained to him?” The answer from the panelists? Hell yeah! The most notable panelist was author Aaron Allston. Timothy Zahn was supposed to have appeared, but we were told he was not feeling well. Mr. Allston’s great sense of humor and candor mixed nicely with the other panelists, none of
whom minced words when answering questions or sharing perverted ideas.
“Clone Troopers having sex with each other . . . is it considered incest or masturbation?” This question encouraged a lively debate and took into consideration whether or not they were from the same clone vat.

“Yoda . . . did he really go 900 years without getting laid? The Jedi aren’t supposed to have attachments.” The panelists surmised that Yoda and Yaddle likely had sexual relations and that Yoda was solely responsible for all life on Dagobah. This line of thinking, in my opinion, leads to the dark side. Move along, move along.

Back to humans. “Did Luke have sexual thoughts about Leia when he saw her in the metal bikini?” Of course he did. He didn’t know she was his sister at that time. He wasn’t blinded by hibernation sickness. It was only later that he shuddered to himself and tried to erase those carnal desires.

“Pick two women that you would like to see together.” The answers varied from Leia & Mara to Oola and Zam Wesell. Zam, they explained, can change her form at will to add a bit more fun to the bedroom.

Raffle prizes included vibrators and the aforementioned anal beads, and they asked the winners to remain at the front of the room for photos. They had the option of turning down the prizes, though no one in this room appeared to be modest or embarrassed by either the topics or the giveaways.

The audience and panelists had a great time, and we were able to explore a side of the Star Wars universe that normally exists only in the depths of our minds. Where else can you discuss Han Solo being a furry and Chewbacca’s pimp?

“I’d just as soon kiss a Wookiee!”

“I can arrange that!”

And what pimp, they explained, doesn’t sample the merchandise?

The audience roared with laughter, and I suspect most left the panel to go straight to their hotel rooms.