by Alex Dueben

Brian K. Vaughan his made his name as one of the best comics writers of the twenty-first century. He created two long running series, the science fiction fable Y–The Last Man and the political superhero tale Ex Machina. Vaughan also created the series Runaways for Marvel and wrote the series’ best issues, wrote the graphic novel Pride of Baghdad based on the true story of lions who escaped from the Baghdad zoo. and wrote a story arc for the Season 9 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for Dark Horse Comics and Joss Whedon that featured Faith.

Outside of comics, he’s been known for joining the writing staff of Lost during the third season. He worked on the show through the fifth season and is currently adapting Stephen King’s novel Under the Dome for Showtime.

His new project is Saga, an ongoing series coming out from Image Comics. Illustrated by Fiona Staples, the book is about a Romeo and Juliet-esque couple from opposite sides of an interstellar war. A blend of fantasy and science fiction elements, there are creatures with wings, horned aliens, ray guns and swords, spaceships and childbirth, bounty hunters, rocketship forests, cats that can tell if you’re lying, and a healthy dose of sex and violence. We reached Vaughan by e-mail.

Read our exclusive interview with Brian K. Vaughan on SuicideGirls.com.

by Blogbot

This Sunday (March 25) on SuicideGirls Radio we’ll be talking nerdy and getting the skinny on the best ways to find love online. Co-hosts Nicole Powers (SG’s Managing Editor) and Darrah de jour (SG’s Red, White and Femme columnist and resident sensuality expert), will be joined in-studio by lifecaster, SG contributor, and computer dating expert Jen Friel and her co-hort Jenn Hoffman, a writer, blogger, entertainer and entrepreneur. The pair can be seen performing together in The Dirty Truth About Nerdy Girls stage show, which chronicles their hilarious adventures while looking for Mr. Right (and Mr. Right Now) on OKCupid.

Tune in to the world’s leading naked radio show for two hours of totally awesome tunes and extreme conversation – and don’t let yo momma listen in!

Listen to SG Radio live Sunday night from 10 PM til Midnight PST on SuicideGirlsRadio.Indie1031.com/

And follow us on Twitter because we like cyberstalkers.

Join Jen Friel, Jenn Hoffman and friends for the Talk Nerdy To Me, Lover live stage show, The Dirty Truth About Nerdy Girls, on Friday, March 23 at 9:30 PM at The Little Modern Theater in Hollywood, CA. For more info visit: talknerdytomelover.com/stage-show/

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by Andrew Shaffer

On February 18, PayPal contacted ebook distributor Smashwords with an ultimatum: Remove certain types of erotic ebooks (featuring underage characters, incest, bestiality, and rape), or face deactivation of their PayPal account. Since PayPal is integrated into the Smashwords website, they had no choice but to remove the “edgy” erotica identified by PayPal as “unlawful.” No U.S. court had ever found any of the ebooks in question illegal, but that was rather beside the point for PayPal, who seemed to be confusing illegal sexual activities with legal depictions of those activities.

What started as a dispute between a payment processor (PayPal) and a handful of ebook stores (including Smashwords) snowballed into a widely circulated petition from the Electronic Freedom Foundation (signed by the Authors Guild, the CBLDF, and the ACLU, among others) asking PayPal to reverse their policy.

“What I find chilling is that the money exchanger, not the merchant, can make such a decision,” commenter L.K. Rigel wrote on a Dear Author blog post, where news of PayPal’s actions was first reported. “PayPal is, after all, basically a bank. So now a bank gets to decide what customers can buy or merchants can sell? The decision is only palatable because they’re cutting off stuff people mostly find abhorrent.”

When PayPal allegedly tried to lay the blame on credit card companies’ terms of service, Visa flipped a finger right back. “Visa takes no position with respect to lawful goods and services bought and sold by the people and the companies who use our payment service,” Visa’s Investor Relations wrote in a letter to BannedWriters.com. “We want to clarify that Visa had no involvement with PayPal’s conclusion on this issue.”

After Visa clarified their position on credit card usage (“anything legal”), PayPal’s excuse (“the credit card companies are making us do this!”) fell apart and they had to admit defeat. On March 13, PayPal announced an updated policy with regards to handling ebook transactions that “will prohibit use of PayPal for the sale of e-books that contain child pornography, or e-books with text and obscene images of rape, bestiality or incest… In addition, the policy will be focused on individual books, not on entire ‘classes’ of books.”

PayPal’s policy change represented a win for online retailers as well as for freedom of expression “This is going to be a major victory for writers, readers and free speech,” said Smashwords’ Mark Coker.

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by A.J. Focht

Welcome to the first extra-long con edition of Ur W33K 1N G33K in 2012. Wonder Con kicked off this year’s convention season this past weekend in Anaheim. News from all corners of nerdom was announced at the event, or in press releases leading up to it. Major players from across the geek world showed off what they have in store. Several first previews of upcoming movies, shows, and comics were revealed, and the creators were very talkative during the panels. For anything not covered here, you can check out ComicBooked’s excellent Wonder Con 2012 wrap up.

The Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb talked about his choices for the upcoming Spider-Man movie at Wonder Con. During The Amazing Spider-Man panel, Emma Stone, who plays Peter Parker’s love interest Gwen Stacy, may have said a too much. Stone started into the tragic comic book death of Gwen Stacy. As the topic started to drift from Gwen’s story in the comic to the movie, Marc Webb interrupted and changed the topic. His abrupt interruption has given rebirth the rumor that Gwen Stacy will die in the film similar to how she died in the comics. Sony has also released a viral marketing video for The Amazing Spider-Man that includes Captain Stacy giving us the run down on what a dangerous menace the Spider-Man can be.

Speaking of superhero rumors, a controversial image has hit the web that claims to be the first poster for the upcoming Wolverine movie. The image’s origins are unconfirmed, but the original posting was taken down at the request of Twentieth Century Fox.

The first teaser image from Arrow, the upcoming Green Arrow show on the CW, has been released. Three time Oscar winning costume designer Colleen Atwood designed the Green Arrow’s suit. The pilot’s director, David Nutter, also talked about his goals in making Arrow darker and edgier than the Smallville pilot, which he also helmed.

Brian K. Vaughn’s new comic Saga premiered last week, and now his comic series Y: The Last Man, is making headway on becoming a movie. Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia have been hired to write the new script. There has been talk of this series becoming a movie for a few years now so let’s hope that this script is good enough to stick.

Everybody’s favorite super villain is coming back for an encore. Despite Joss Whedon’s crazy schedule recently, he has announced plans to work on Dr. Horrible 2 this summer. No more is known about the project at this time.

The newest trailer for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter premiered at Wonder Con. While promoting the undead slaying President, screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith talked about his work on the upcoming Beetlejuice 2 script. The good news is there will be none of this reboot nonsense. It will be a direct sequel with Michael Keaton reprising the title role.

“The thing that Tim and Michael and I all agree on, and is most important for me is, I don’t wanna be the guy that destroys the legacy and the memory of the first film; I would rather die. I would rather just not make it, I’d rather just throw the whole thing away than make something that pays no respect and doesn’t live up even close to the legacy of the first film,” said Grahame-Smith.

While Grahame-Smith is all about treating classic works with respect, the same can’t be said for everyone in Hollywood. Michael Bay has decided to lay his taint on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I don’t normally complain about Bay, unlike so many others. However, Bay has now decided to take it upon himself to change the history of the beloved human size reptiles. He’s dropping the mutant and making them aliens. No one knows what other changes he has in store. Not mutants? Not turtles? But we shouldn’t worry because he assures us that they will be ‘edgy, funny, and completely loveable.’

On a brighter note, the long awaited sequel to the Avatar: The Last Airbender series has received an air date, and it’s just around the corner. The Legend of Korra will start on Saturday April 14th at 11 AM on Nickelodeon.

The Legend of Korra wasn’t the only thing to get a solid release date last week. After a decade long wait, Diablo 3 will be released on May 15. While Diablo is the first in line, Blizzard also plans on launching expansions for the Starcraft and World of Warcraft series this year. They have also recently changed the WoW Scroll of Resurrection service to offer past players a free upgrade to the Cataclysm expansion, a free level 80 character, a free realm transfer, and other perks for coming back to the game.

Finally, female geek icon Felicia Day is set to guest star on an upcoming episode of Supernatural. Besides showing up on every geek show in the verse, Felicia Day has also launched a new YouTube channel with other nerd idols like Wil Wheaton called Geek and Sundry. The channel will feature nerd programming like: The Guild, Flog (Felicia Day’s video blog), Table Top (table top / board gaming with Wil Wheaton), Dark Horse Motion Comics, and so much more. Geek and Sundry launches April 2nd.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

Ondi Timoner is the director of the documentary DiG! This amazing film is about the rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols, and the friendship/rivalry between their respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor.

Read our exclusive interview with Ondi Timoner on SuicideGirls.com.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

Patton Oswalt has expanded his world from comedian to writer to actor and now he’’s producing the movie, The Comedians of Comedy and the Comedy Central show of the same name. This new reality series follows four of the funniest comedians working today, Maria Bamford, Zach Galifianakis, Brian Posehn and Patton Oswalt, on their US tour. Director Michael Blieden has also taped them backstage and preparing before each show.

Read our exclusive interview with Patton Oswalt on SuicideGirls.com.

by Damon Martin

When we last saw our beloved Walking Dead characters, Sherriff Rick Grimes was standing over the body of his best friend Shane who he stabbed, only to watch him turn into one of the undead, and then gets shot by the youngest member of the group, Carl. As Rick and Carl both try to react to the horrifying situation they’ve both just lived through, in the distance we see a hoard of walkers lumbering towards them in the distance. Thus begins the end of The Walking Dead Season 2.

While some may believe that the show focuses on the dead coming back to life and taking over the world, Robert Kirkman’s comic book-turned-television-show is really about the characters and their struggle with living and surviving in an insane world.

As left off at the end of the last episode, the mob of zombies heads towards the farm hell bent on finding some living flesh, and unfortunately for a couple of the members of Herschel’s tribe, they won’t make it to Season 3.

Beth tries to pull Patricia towards the car to make their escape just as a walker leaps out and latches onto her, ripping her apart. Beth can only watch in horror as she finally loses her grasp on Patricia, and runs away to try and save her own life.

Meanwhile, Jimmy rolls Dale’s RV towards the back of the barn where Rick and Carl have set a fire to try and distract the attacking zombies. They leap on top of the mobile home, jumping off the back end to safety. Unfortunately, Jimmy stayed in the RV and the walkers smelled dinner, and busted through the door to have themselves a snack.

Andrea is able to save Carol with some of her signature sharp shooting, but gets cut off from escape. Carol rides off into the sunset on Darryl’s motorcycle, and Andrea is left to fend for herself. Making a run for it in a caravan of two cars and a motorcycle, the group somehow reconvenes and that’s where Rick finally unleashes his bombshell.

At the end of Season 1, the crazy quack Dr. Jenner whispered something into Rick’s ear before they all bolted out, running for their lives. What he revealed was that everybody, all humans, had the infection that caused them to come back to life after death. So whether you die by zombie bites or just die of natural causes, you’re getting back up.

The group rails on Rick for not making this confession earlier, but knowing how insane Jenner seemed, he had no idea if it was the truth or just more crazy lies. It became fact however after he stabbed his best friend Shane, and moments later he was back up, looking to take a bite out of his former comrade.

While zombies simply coming back to life is nothing new when talking about undead mythology, The Walking Dead interjecting a little science with the revelation that everyone is infected was a nice touch. Although quite a few people saw this coming, it was a well timed reveal that confirmed just how hopeless this already hopeless world really was.

Back in the woods, Andrea is still alive but only barely as she continues to run through the woods, firing off rounds from her gun as the hoard of the undead keep close. Just when it looks like we’ve seen the last of Andrea, a sword comes swiping down from above, lopping the zombie’s head off.

Pan up, and you see a katana wielding badass with a hood up over their face, and a chain in hand attached to two zombies currently lacking any arms. As it was revealed later by Walking Dead creator, that is none other than comic book favorite character Michonne, who will be played in Season 3 by former HBO Treme cast member Danai Gurira.

After nearly running out of gas, the group decides to stop for the night and set up camp, but at one point Carol begins to question Rick’s leadership, and the former Sherriff doesn’t take kindly to her remarks. As he lashes out and tells the story of how he had to kill his best friend Shane because it was the only thing he could do, Rick invites anyone in the group to set out on their own and see just how long they survive. No one stands up and in an authoritarian voice, Rick tells the group that if they are staying they have to know one thing: “This isn’t a democracy anymore.”

Ever since his arrival, Rick has been looked at as the de facto leader, despite back biting from Shane and others who question his decision making. In the final episode of Season 2, he let everybody know that if they are going to look towards him as a leader, then he is going to lead and they need to follow. It was a brilliant way to show the humanity of survival with a glimmer of Rick ripping a bit at the seams after such a trying and tragic few hours, during which he lost his best friend, killed his worst enemy (it just so happened to be the same person), and saw more members of his extended family lost forever.

Rick turns to walk away and as the camera pans up, we see a prison off in the distance. Is this the safe salvation the group of weary wanderers has been looking for or just another painful reminder that this world isn’t safe no matter where you hide?

Tune into Season 3 of The Walking Dead to find out…