Blain Hefner is a fantastic artist and is getting his own solo show in the Salt Lake City area for the month of October.

He’s won awards for his newspaper designs and did me the service of allowing me to hire him to paint the cover to my last book, Operation: Montauk.

And look at these gorgeous posters her does:

He’s included all the information below. The gallery opens tomorrow and runs all month.

Come to the IJ & Jeanné Wagner Jewish Community Center on October 3 and enjoy an evening with “Monsters, Movies & The Dude” at Blain Hefner’s first solo show in more than a
decade.

The opening reception for the show will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the gallery on the second
floor lobby of the community center. The community center is located at 2 North Medical Drive, Salt Lake City, UT.

The show focuses on Hefner’s love of popular culture in film and television. To celebrate October, there are a large selection of new portrait studies of classic Universal and Hammer Horror monsters and “Young Frankenstein.” There are also several other horror movie inspired pieces, including drawings, paintings and retro movie posters of some of Hefner’s favorite horror films.

There will be a select number of other works as well, featuring the Indiana Jones films, “The Big Lebowski,” “The Avengers,” “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Doctor Who” and “Harry Potter.”

Original drawings Hefner did for this past summer’s JCC Summer Camp guide will also be on display and for sale.

Also on display will be the cover that was painted for local author Bryan Young’s latest novel, “Operation: Montauk.”

The show runs from Oct.1 through Oct. 30.

Born and raised near Wichita Falls, Texas, Blain Hefner has made drawing and designing his lifelong passion. He has a BFA from Midwestern State University, and after 12 years in the newspaper industry, he has racked up an impressive amount of awards and experience in print design and illustration. His creativity is fueled by a deep love of sci-fi, fantasy and superhero movies, pop culture and comics.

His work can be seen on his website, Hefnatron.com, and on the popular art blog Planet-Pulp.com. Blain will be exhibiting his work in several group shows at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles and Ltd. Gallery in Seattle starting this fall.

You might think I’ve been watching nothing but Disney cartoons lately and, on some level, you might be right. But a lot have come out recently and they’re ALWAYS worth a rewatch.

I wasn’t looking forward to rewatching Cinderella as much as the others. It’s really never been my favorite of the Disney Princess movies…which I suppose is weird for a 32 year old man to say. Why should I have a favorite princess film?

I’m not sure I do, but Cinderella wouldn’t be it if I did.

Watching it again, though, I’m betrayed by my childhood feelings. This is a beautifully animated classic with an incredible aesthetic and design. It’s got all of the animation techniques hinted at in Snow White and delivered perfectly.

For my taste, though, it would have had more dragons and stuff, which is why I love Sleeping Beauty so much…. which, now that I think about it, is probably my favorite of the Princess movies.

Despite my personal lukewarm feelings about this movie, it holds up remarkably well. The Blu-ray transfer is very clean and the music is iconic. And the mice, Jaq and Gus, have some good Chip and Dale like bits. Cinderella has all the hallmarks of a current YA novel, though. You’ve got a girl in a horrible situation, living with a surrogate parent, mistreated to all hell but with a heart of gold. Then, when she overcomes, there’s reason to cheer. And I love the themes of rebellion against oppressive and revolution.

Perhaps one of the most compelling reasons to get this disc is the inclusion of the Tangled short that premiered earlier in the year featuring the horse and chameleon from that film. Tangled was great and the short was just as good.

Though I enjoyed the documentary about “The Real Fairy Godmother,” I would have loved to see an making-of documentary, though. Perhaps next time.

There’s also an intro to Cinderella by Diane Disney Miller filmed at the Walt Disney Family museum. It puts the film in context, but it also reminds me to recommend you go to the Walt Disney Family museum. It’s at the Presidio and has one of the most impressive museum installations I’ve ever borne witness to. It was a bit pricey, but worth every penny.

Cinderella is out today and, like all the Disney Blu-rays, is worth picking up. You can snag it from Amazon. If you’re a fan of animation, a fan of Disney, a fan of classics, or a fan of Tangled, there’s compelling reasons to grab it ASAP.

A warning now: this will, indeed, contain spoilers. If you haven’t watched the episode and are clicking on reviews of the episode, my guess is that you’re actively seeking spoilers out.

Well, here they are.

The final episode of Amy and Rory Pond’s tenure as the Doctor’s companions has been a long time coming. We’ve known about it for quite a while, and things on the show this season have clearly been building to that point. At some point during the last episode, “The Slow Invasion,” I almost felt as though it was overkill. We’d been saying goodbye to the Ponds for awhile now and let’s just get to it.

I was an idiot.

The Doctor needed more time to say goodbye. Forget the Doctor, I needed more time to say goodbye.

“The Angels Take Manhattan” is, in my opinion, one of the finest, most heart-wrenching episodes of Doctor Who we’ve ever had. To me, Doctor Who is at its best when it’s being tragic with a dash of whimsy. This episode had all of that in spades. There were some parts left unresolved, particularly the entire Mr. Grayle subplot, but I imagine he was just zapped into the Hotel Quay as well.

This episode was about making hard choices. Amy made a choice to be with her husband that Rose never could. Rose would never leave the Doctor’s side. Amy would never leave Rory’s. I think it was better that way.

The emotional center of this episode is The Doctor’s inability to let things and people go. It’s not something we often see on the show, but when he is forced to say goodbye, we’re given the best episodes of the show.

Wrapped up in a 30s noir, “The Angels Take Manhattan” is a taut pulp story with weeping angels everywhere. The rest doesn’t matter to me. The fact that they force our protagonists into a difficult choice makes them the right antagonist. Kurt Vonnegut said to do horrible things to your characters so we can see what they are made of and we truly see what the Ponds are made of.

Though they’re separated from the Doctor, they still have each other.

As viewers, this separation breaks our collective heart and both of the Doctor’s to boot. He’s crying. We’re crying…

…but left to reflect on the episode, things really ended well. Yes, Amy and Rory will never be able to see the Doctor again, but they have each other. I said it on twitter and it bears repeating: This is the most traumatically depicted “happily ever after” ending that’s ever been put onto the small screen.

It’s a perfect and fitting end for the girl who waited and her Centurion. I’m sad to see them go, but I’m dying to see where the Doctor goes from here.

And now for a bit of a laugh:

Watching this episode with my son, he said, “I’m sad that Amy and Rory won’t be able to see The Doctor anymore. If I were the Doctor, I’d totally take the chance of blowing up New York. It has to happen at some point anyway, right? I mean, how else is there a New New York in Futurama?”

The Doctor returns in his Christmas special in December.

I know the trailer has been out for a while, but it’s hyper-relevant to geeks. Aside from being directed by Superman and Daredevil himself, Ben Affleck, it tells a tale close to the hearts of geeks every where, for Jack Kirby plays a central part in it.

He’s being played by Michael Parks in this film (who you’ll remember as the bad guy in Red State.) You see, when they needed a cover for their movie, they needed a whole bunch of designs and sets drawn up and they turned to the King.

It’s quite a fascinating story and I can’t wait to see what Affleck has done with it.

Spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen the episode, turn back.

Back during Season 3 there was a bit of a row over a shot that was cut by censors at Cartoon Network. You can read the full story about that here, but the long and short of it is this: Asajj Ventress killed a clone on her lightsaber and didn’t drop him until giving him a sensual kiss. It was an incredible, revealing moment in the character of Ventress, but it was cut at the last minute by Cartoon Network.

I just finished watching the season five premiere of The Clone Wars and am wondering if Cartoon Network censors have struck again.

I was at the premiere at Celebration VI and feel like there was another odd omission from the version shown there and the version that aired.

When Savage Opress sustains his major wound at the hands of Obi-wan, there were close up glimpses of the stump of the Zabrak’s arm. Shorn bone and meat were visible. It was a bold move, but not gratuitous in any way. After the show, Dave Filoni and Joel Aron spoke to the crowd about how what we saw was already a severely toned down version of what they’d originally wanted to do.

On the episode I saw this morning, that detail was completely absent. The camera cut anytime we’d get a good look at the stump and the wound was pitch black.

I’m not saying with certainty any censoring occurred. Perhaps I mis-remembered the shots I thought I saw. Perhaps Filoni and crew decided to tone it down preemptively, knowing Cartoon Network wouldn’t like it. Perhaps my TV’s brightness wasn’t up enough.

But I don’t think so.

Between instance like this, the change in time to Saturday morning (which really doesn’t feel right), and the obnoxious lower thirds and commercials, it makes me wonder if Cartoon Network is a good home for The Clone Wars.

Perhaps issues like this wouldn’t bother me so much if there were a pay alternative I could utilize simultaneously. I already don’t get to see the show until 10:30am MST, and as I write this an hour later, the episode still isn’t available for purchase on iTunes. Why can’t we get a premium, pay option, that eliminates the need for censoring, commercials, lower thirds, and terrible SD resolution?

I’d even prefer to see this as a Saturday matinee in a movie theatre. I’d pay for that every week.

Peter Pan is one of my favorite of the Disney movies. Everything about it brings a smile to my face. And every time I hit a Disney park I HAVE to go on the Peter Pan ride. (It’s amazing how much better the ride is at DisneyLand as compared to Disney World.)

You can sign up through Amazon to pre-order the Blu-ray.

This is one I’m definitely picking up.

Universal Studios is in their 22nd year of their Halloween Horror Nights.

This year as part of their haunt, they’re including The Walking Dead.

In this video, Greg Nicotero, Co-Executive Producer and Special Effects Make-up Artist for the show, personally gives viewers a look at some of the most iconic scenes inspired by the post-apocalyptic wasteland that is the center of AMC’s Golden Globe-nominated, Emmy Award-winning television series. Caught in the middle of a high-intensity struggle for survival, guests will fight off hordes of flesh-hungry, “walkers,” or zombies. No place is safe as you make your way through. Will you survive?

This haunted house is one of the horrifying experiences guests can enjoy at Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights 22, which was just named the nation’s best Halloween event for the fifth consecutive year. This year, guests will not be able to escape the horror that awaits them.

This first appeared on Huffington Post.

It’s very easy for people to dismiss The Clone Wars as “just a kids show.” It’s a cartoon, which is often (mis)categorized as a medium just for kids, it’s Star Wars, which some people (mis)categorize as something only kids and misanthropic basement dwellers enjoy, and it’s on Cartoon Network.

I’m here to let you know that it’s okay to enjoy the show. It’s for everyone. Sure, some of the episodes that kicked off the series might have been aimed at a younger audience, the show today bears only a passing resemblance to then. First, the visuals on the show rival our expectations of what we’ve wanted The Clone Wars to be since Alec Guinness mentioned it in 1977. Then, the Lucas animation department is the only one working today I’d match toe-to-toe with Pixar animation, the work, passion, and artistry they’re pouring into the show is unheard of. Third, the writing is expanding the mythology of Star Wars in ways that fill in gaps between the classic films and the prequels, add intriguing shades of gray, and give us wonderful science fiction quandaries on weekly basis.

Don’t believe me?

Check out the new trailer for Season 5 (which starts on Saturday):

This show is simply incredible. If you can buy into the mythology of Star Wars, this show is the best thing going on on television.

I’m a nerd for Star Wars across the board. I spend more time studying and pondering it than most (in fact, I just started a series on the official Star Wars website about the film influences on Star Wars and The Clone Wars). If you’re like me, the next EXCLUSIVE clip from Season 5 is going to make you salivate:

That’s the Jon Favreau voiced Mandalorian Pre Vizsla, the Sam Witwer voiced Darth Maul, and the Clancy Brown voiced Savage Opress, meeting up with the leaders of the criminal organization Black Sun, which made its first appearance in the 1996 Star Wars novel Shadows of the Empire. On Mustafar, which is the planet where Obi-wan and Anakin have their final duel in Revenge of the Sith. This show is just dripping in Star War mythology, but never in a way that gets in the way of enjoyment for anyone in the audience.

Take my word for it. Check out this show. Season 5 starts on Cartoon Network on Saturday 29th. Set it up on your DVR. You owe it to yourself.

Bryan Young is an author, the editor in chief of the geek news and review site Big Shiny Robot!, and an unabashed fan of Star Wars.

This first appeared on The Huffington Post.

This coming Wednesday, DC Comics is launching their first ever series with a brand new character from The New 52. The book is called Talon and it’s spinning out of the pages of Scott Snyder’s monumental run on Batman and his Court of Owls storyline.

Talon is a renegade named Calvin Rose, the only assassin to escape the clutches of the Court of Owls.

This first zero issue sets him on his path and it’s a great read from Scott Snyder, co-writer James T. Tynion IV, and artist Guillem March. It has all the feeling of The Fugitive mixed with a Harry Houdini adventure. And since it’s tied in some small way to the Batman mythos (and Snyder), I’ll certainly be adding it to my comic hold.

The thing I love about the things Snyder is involved in is the literary sensibility he brings every issue he works on. He brings something to the table that isn’t often seen in comics and I’m really glad he’s doing it.

Don’t take my word for it, though, DC has been kind enough to give us a look at the first five pages of Talon #0 and I think it speaks for itself.

Bryan Young is an author and the editor in chief of the geek news and review site Big Shiny Robot!

Talon #0 hits comic book stores on Wednesday.

Star Wars: Uncut is one of my favorite fan projects. It’s an incredible blend of art and fandom that divides the films up into 15 second chunks and calls on filmmakers, artists, and animators of all types to re-imagine those 15 seconds of Star Wars.

It’s later knit together into a full length tapestry that is impossible to stop watching once you’ve started.

You can watch all of A New Hope here, just to get a flavor of what it’s like, but you really need to get in on the action for The Empire Strikes Back.

I did.

That’s right. With the help of artist extraordinaire, Dave Styer (@geekleetist), Chewbacca costumer for the ages, Dartanian Richards, and grips Emily Rose and Autumn Killpack-Havey, we rolled scene 351 in The Empire Strikes Back.

And it’s done.

You can watch our scene here, and then troll around for other so-far completed scenes.

And be sure to claim a scene for yourself. The faster all the scenes are finished, the faster we can all watch the finished product.