ARCHIVED NEWS - 24th to 30th MAY 2004

28th May 2004

A new review has been added to our collection! Andrew Smith has taken a look at the Region 2 disc of the Mickey Mouse in Living Colour set from the Walt Disney Treasures collection. You can find the review by clicking on the sleeve image, right, or here.

You'd better get yourself a cup of tea, because we've got a lot of news for you today!

Momentum are releasing Sophia Coppola's exquisite Lost in Translation on June the 28th.

The disc looks identical to the US version: it will have a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, with a choice of DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks.

Bonus features include a behind-the-scenes featurette, Lost on Location (29m); an extended version of Bob's appearance on Matthew's Best Hit TV (5m); Kevin Shields' City Girl music video (3m); A Conversation With Bill Murray and Sophia Coppola (10m) and a selection of extended and deleted scenes (More Aqua Aerobics, Charlotte With Robots, Kelly's Press Conference, Morning After Karaoke and Bob in Hospital Waiting Room, totalling about 10m). The disc has English HoH subtitles. RRP is £19.99. A selection of menu screens from the UK disc are available here.

Gus Van Sant's explosive Palme d'Or-winning high school drama Elephant will be released by Optimum Releasing on July the 26th. The film will be supported by an interview with the director, a featurette comparing Van Sant's Elephant with the Alan Clarke 1989 TV film of the same name, From Elephant to Elephant, and In Class With Elephant, which has Producer Dany Wolf lecturing French students about the film and its themes. It seems that these bonus features are different from the twelve-minute On The Set of Elephant: Rolling Through Time featurette that's on the US disc. RRP for the UK version is £19.99.

Carlton's Escape to Athena and The Eagle Has Landed Special Edition DVDs have been brought forward: they will now be released on June the 7th.

MGM have a varied selection of titles for July, including two recent theatrical releases, a collection of relatively modern Westerns, three "Willie Wyler" titles, and three vintage classics.

Headlining their July offering are two recent theatrical releases: the Sylvia Plath biopic Sylvia, which stars Gwenyth Paltrow and Daniel Craig, and the Robert Downey Jr adaptation of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective.

Sylvia is due on July the 26th. The disc will have 5.1 audio, a behind-the-scenes featurette and trailer. The Region 1 version is bare bones, so this looks like a better bet. RRP is £15.99.

The Singing Detective will be released on July the 19th, with an RRP of £15.99. Bonus features include cast and crew interviews (including Robert Downey Jr, Mel Gibson and Katie Holmes) and theatrical trailers. These interviews aren't on the Region 1 disc, but the UK disc apparently won't include Keith Gordon's Director's commentary track. No technical details were released.

Lars Von Trier's small town America drama Dogville, which stars Nicole Kidman and Paul Bettany, will be released on August the 2nd. The film will have 5.1 audio, a featurette, Confessions Box, including on-set video diaries by the cast and crewmembers, a documentary about the film's reception at Cannes, Von Trier, Kidman & Cannes, and the UK theatrical trailer. The Region 1 disc hasn't been announced yet. RRP is £15.99. No other technical details were made available.

A two-disc box set of the two Thunderbirds movies, Thunderbirds are Go! and Thunderbird Six, will be released to tie in with the new movie (reviewed here). The set will feature the films in digitally-re-mastered transfers, with commentaries by Sylvia Anderson and Director David Lane; six Making of... featurettes (including programmes titled History and Appeal, Factory of Dolls and Rockets, Building Better Puppets and Lady Penelope); stills galleries; stickers and "cool" collector's cards. The discs will also feature Easter Eggs. The press release didn't mention the technical spec's, which is slightly worrying, considering this is the company that issued a full-frame version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Presumably they'll be widescreen, and they'll have anamorphic enhancement. RRP for the set is £19.99.

MGM's Westerns for July are Missouri Breaks, The Scalphunters, Support Your Local Sheriff, Support Your Local Gunfighter, Lawman and Chato's Land. These are all due on July the 5th, and have RRPs of £12.99. No technical specifications were released. Aside from trailers on the two James Garner Support... titles, there's no indication that there'll be any bonus features.

Also due on July the 5th are three classic movies: the charming Cary Grant / Loretta Young fantasy The Bishop's Wife, Frank Capra's soppy 1959 comedy A Hole in the Head and Sidney Poitier's Oscar-winning drama Lilies of the Field. There are also three William Wyler films: his 1939 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, which features Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, the seven-times Academy Award-winning post WWII drama  The Best Years of Our Lives, and his 1961 version of Lillian Hellman's play about a gossip monger in a young ladies' finishing school, The Children's Hour. Amusingly, MGM has sent out sleeves for the 1970 version of Wuthering Heights (the Timothy Dalton version), which is currently unreleased, so either someone's made a huge mistake, or that version is in the pipeline, too!

And now here's a special end-of-the-week update from Ceri, who seems to have spent every waking second since getting his computer back online scouring various sources to bring you all the news that the PR companies haven't got around to releasing yet!

Hi everyone! I’m back and firstly I must say a big "Thank You!" to Martin Foster for sorting out my computer troubles, thankfully everything is all repaired now! Thanks also to Julian for keeping the Incoming and Offers pages in check for me whilst I’ve been away. A lot of titles have gone up in that time, so this is a catch-up of all those titles.

Right then, thanks to those nice people at Choices Direct we now know a load more about what BBC Worldwide’s plans are for the coming months, so let’s start there…

The Sylvester McCoy Doctor Who story, Ghost Light, has found the date of September the 13th.

A box set of BBC 2’s 1967 serial, The Forsyte Saga, is listed for August 23rd. This appears to be duplicating the Region 1 release from a year or so ago, as the BBC Shop are listing the same extras that appeared on that set in this Region 2 version. These include From the Rehearsal Room taken from Late Night Line Up transmitted on the 7th of January 1967; Interviews behind the scenes from Late Night Line Up of the 4th of July 1967; Soames vs Irene again from Late Night Line Up of the 10th of February 1969); The Forsyte Phenomenon from Talkback of the 18th of February 1969; Deleted & Alternate Scenes and Out-takes. The set has an RRP of £69.99, but Sendit have it mispriced at £59.99, and have a pre-order price of £44.99. 

BBC Worldwide’s regular Archive comedy releases for August and September feature some particularly-anticipated titles. August the 30th sees Alas Smith and Jones (based on past form this will probably be the old compilation that appeared on VHS several years back), Best of Not the Nine O'Clock News - Volume 2, Bottom – Series 2 and The Fast Show - Series 3. The first three have an RRP of £15.99 with The Fast Show at £17.99.

The big guns are then rolled out on September the 13th (it's gonna be an expensive day!) with releases of Dad's Army - Series 1 & 2, Hancock’s Half Hour – Volume 1 (so far it’s unknown what episodes will be included) and Steptoe and Son – Series 1. All three have an RRP of £15.99, which makes the Dad’s Army release quite a good one, featuring six episodes from Series 1 and the three surviving episodes from Series 2 (including the two recently-found ones which surfaced as part of the BBC's Treasure Hunt appeal). There's no information yet on whether the black-and-white episodes of Steptoe and Son and Hancock will be restored using the VidFIRE process. It will be a criminal shame if they aren't, because otherwise they're likely to look pretty grim.

There are further comedy releases (of a more recent vintage) during September: Only Fools and Horses – Series 7 is listed for the 20th, and a week later there is Absolutely Fabulous - Series 5. Both have an RRP of £19.99. Two Pints of Lager & A Packet of Crisps - Series 3 & 4 is listed for September the 6th with an £29.99 RRP.

Five Children and It, from the Children’s Classic range, is also lined-up for September the 6th with an RRP of £14.99.

There’s 50 Years of BBC News showing for July the 5th with an RRP of £9.99.

There are some more natural history and history releases as well. There are two David Attenborough programmes: Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives and State of the Planet, both of which have an RRP of £15.99, along with Michael Wood’s In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great with an RRP of £17.99. All three are listed for BBC Worldwide’s big 13th of September date.

There are two archive sports releases in the form of compilations. Match of the Day – 60s, 70s, 80s has an RRP of £24.99 and a date of August the 16th. A week later sees Botham’s Ashes, chronicling England’s triumphant victory of the Ashes series of 1981. It has an RRP of £15.99.

September the 20th sees The Wogan Years, which has an RRP of £15.99. Not much is known about the release yet, but at a guess it may be a compilation from some of Terry Wogan’s chat shows.

Finally, for BBC Worldwide, the box set of Blake’s 7 – Series 2 has been put back to the 4th of October (no doubt due to the re-pressing problems associated with the Series 1 release). For those of you that don’t know, the re-pressing has been released (Amazon is the only retailer known to be actually stock it) and, thanks to Dave, who posted the information on Roobarb’s DVD Forum, we know that BBC DVD Support are now offering to replace the box sets for the new pressing for those of you who experienced the fault. Click here for further information. Thanks also to Richard Gregory for passing on that the BBC Shop have said that the Series 4 box set is scheduled for September 2005, which presumably means that Series 3 will be around February. Of course, that’s on the basis that nothing happens to these releases to slow things down!

Revelation is releasing a ten-disc megaset of the complete Terrahawks on July the 5th with an RRP of £69.99. Included in the set are brand new extras: the U.S. and original U.K. credit sequences; the spoof sketch show Gerryhawks and Interviews with Anne Ridler, Jeremy Hitchen, Ben Stevens and Denise Bryer. It’s also listed listed as being Region 0.

Thanks to Analogueman for letting me know that Network’s releases of Special Branch – Series 4 and The Sweeney – Series 3 are now being listed. The Special Branch release has a date of July the 19th and The Sweeney for July the 26th. Both have an RRP of £39.99.

In addition to those there’s a Soldier Soldier - Series 1 & 2 Collection for June the 14th (the same day as the individual Series 2 release) at £29.99; Series 1 of ITV children’s series Cloppa Castle at £14.99 and Series 2 of Hazell at £39.99, both for July the 19th; Third Rock From The Sun - Complete Season 3 for July the 26th at £29.99; and a Till Death Us Do Part - Series 1 & 2 Collection for the 6th of September (on the basis of the Soldier Soldier Collection presumably Series 2 of Till Death Us Do Part will be out the same day as well) at £31.99.

Of course, don’t be surprised if these dates slip. Talking of which, the Ever Decreasing Circles Complete Box Set is now the 31st of May, Public Eye for June the 28th and the two Charley Says releases (Volume 2 and it’s Limited Edition counterpart) have been pulled off the schedule. Hopefully, this is only a temporary measure and there are issues with the release that Network can resolve.

Right, now on to the films….

Mel Gibson’s controversial film, The Passion of Christ, is now showing for the 30th of August with a £19.99 RRP. This could possibly be from MGM.

There’s actually a whole raft of new titles from MGM appeared…

There are four British films from the 60s listed for August the 2nd: Spike Milligan’s Adolf Hitler – My Part in His Downfall; two Richard Lester films, How I Won the War and The Knack and How to Get it; and Ken Russell’s adaptation of Women In Love. All four of them have an RRP of £12.99.

Species gets re-issued as a Special Edition on the 6th of September. No word on it’s content yet, but it’s RRP is £19.99.

The 1986 film, The Whistle Blower, starring Michael Caine and James Fox is also listed for the 6th of September. It’s RRP is £12.99.

Another Michael Caine film, Pulp (directed by Mike Hodges and also starring Mickey Rooney), is also listed for September the 6th. It’s not known who’s releasing yet, though it could be MGM. It’s RRP is £15.99.

Warner Home Video release Billion Dollar Brain, another film in Caine’s Harry Palmer series, on the August the 30th with an RRP of £12.99.

There were some bonus features for the Monkee's film Head listed by the BBFC, now it's being listed as a Warner Home Video release for July the 26th, with an RRP of £14.99.

Sanctuary are to release the Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn film Charade on June the 7th. Special features include an audio commentary from film historian Ken Barnes (including conversations with Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer); excerpts from Cary Grant's 1931 screen debut and Audrey Hepburn's 1951 debut screen appearance; cast & crew profiles; production background; The JFK Factor featurette; the original theatrical trailer along with trailers for Funny Face and Notorious. It has an RRP of £9.99.

Hepburn’s How to Steal a Million is also getting a release, courteously of Twentieth Century Fox, on July the 12th. It also has an RRP of £9.99.

As a follow-up to their release last year of sixteen British Shorts, Vital Distribution is lining-up 16 European Shorts for release. Cinema 16: European Shorts has a date of June the 14th and includes work from Jean-Luc Godard, Peter Mullan, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Chris Morris and Lars Von Trier. The full list is:

1. Bara Prata Lite (Talk) - Lukas Moodysson (Sweden)

2. Le Batteur Due Bolero - Patrice Leconte

3. Charlotte Et Veronique, Ou Tous Les Garcons S'Appellent Patrick - Jean-Luc Godard (France)

4. Copy Shop - Virgil Widrich (Austria)

5. Epilog - Tom Tykwer (Germany)

6. Fridge - Peter Mullan (Scotland)

7. Il Giorno Della Prima Di Close-Up (The Opening Night Of The Close Up) - Nanni Moretti

8. Gisele Kerozene - Jan Kounen (Holland)

9. Harlig Ar Jorden (World Of Glory) - Roy Andersson

10. L'Homme Sans Tete (The Man Without A Head) - Juan Solanas

11. Koncert Zyczen (Concert Of Wishes) - Krzysztof Kieslowski (Poland)

12. My Wrongs #8245-8249 & 117 - Chris Morris (England)

13. Nocturne - Lars Von Trier (Denmark)

14. El Secdleto De La Tlompeta - Javier Fesser (Spain)

15. Valgaften (Election Night) - Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark)

16. A surprise bonus film!

The films will also include a commentary from their respective directors. The release has an RRP of £19.99.

Jess Franco’s Revenge in the House of Usher is to be released by Arrow Film Distributors on July the 19th with a £9.99 RRP.

Wide Awake, M. Night Shyamalan’s 1988 film, is listed from Buena Vista on August the 2nd. It has an RRP of £15.99.

DD Video have the 1960 film, And The Same To You which starred Brian Rix, William Hartnell, Tommy Cooper and Sid James, lined-up for July the 14th with a £9.99 RRP.

And finally, Orca the Killer Whale is listed (possibly from Momentum) for August the 30th with £12.99 as it’s RRP.

That’s it – full update covering this week’s titles, and changes to the Offers page on Monday as usual. Until then….

26th May 2004

We don't generally feature news about American discs here, but I hear regularly from US label Blue Underground, whose discs have been uniformly impressive. So far they've consistently picked interesting titles to release, and they often supplement them with worthwhile bonus content. There are many labels out there that could learn a thing or two from them. The prospect of the company releasing some Hammer titles soon must thrill fans of the studio.

In the meantime, they have two interesting horror films due on June the 29th: Bob Clark's 1974 adaptation of the classic short story The Monkey's Paw, Deathdream (aka Dead of Night, The Night Walk and The Night Andy Came Home, among others), and William Lustig's Uncle Sam, which is about a zombie Gulf War soldier who goes on the rampage.

Deathdream will be presented in 1.85:1 ratio, with anamorphic enhancement and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. The print, taken from a long-lost negative, carries the title Dead of Night.

The disc features two commentary tracks: one by Co-Producer / Director Bob Clark, and a second by Screenwriter Alan Ormsby, who also provided some of the make-up effects for the film. The film marked make-up maestro Tom Savini's debut, and he is interviewed in a terrific twelve-minute featurette, Tom Savini: The Early Years, which features behind the scenes material from Deranged (we can only pray that Blue Underground manage to get their hands on that gem one day!) The disc also presents an interview with star Richard Backus, Deathdreaming (12m), the alternate Deathdream title sequence, a slightly-extended ending (taken from the best surviving materials), a trailer and stills and poster gallery. 

Uncle Sam, which features Isaac Hayes, Timothy Bottoms and Bo Hopkins, has been re-mastered from the original negative, and is presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 format, with a choice of Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 audio tracks.

The disc will feature two commentary tracks: one by Director William Lustig, writer Larry Cohen and producer George G, Braunstein, and another by Lustig and star Isaac Hayes (which was recorded in 1998). The disc also contains a featurette titled Uncle Sam Fire Stunts (10m), which contains behind-the-scenes home video footage, and commentary by Stunt Coordinator Spiro Razatos. The disc also contains the theatrical trailer and poster and still galleries.

Menu screens from these two discs are available here.

Blue Underground's July's 27th line-up features three films directed by Lucio Fulci: Contraband, Zombie and Conquest.

Zombie (known in Fulci's native Italy as Zombi 2, and here in the UK as Zombie Flesh-Eaters), has been re-mastered from the original camera negative, and will have a re-mastered Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio track. The film will be in 2.35:1 format, with anamorphic enhancement. The disc will feature trailers, radio spots and poster and stills galleries.

Note that a company in the US, Media Blasters, will be releasing a two-disc 25th Anniversary Edition version of Zombie on the same day as the Blue Underground version, apparently because the owners of the film have licensed it to more than one label. The Media Blasters version will have a commentary track (perhaps the one from the existing Anchor Bay disc), and other bonus features.

Conquest, Fulci's outrageous 1983 sword-and-sorcery fantasy film, has been restored from the original vault elements, and is presented uncut, in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen format, with 2.0 audio. The disc will also feature trailers, and stills and poster galleries.

The 1980 smuggling and gang war thriller Contraband has also been fully-restored from the original negative. The film will be presented in 1.85:1 ratio, with mono audio. The disc will feature the film's theatrical trailer.

In August Blue Underground will release a limited-edition five-disc box set, The Alan Clarke Collection, which will contain the original BBC version of Scum, the theatrical remake, Made in Britain, The Firm and Elephant, along with a documentary, Director: Alan Clarke.

Tartan will release a two-disc Special Collector's Edition of the remarkable documentary Capturing the Friedmans on July the 26th. The documentary, about a man (Jesse Friedman) who was accused of molesting school children, will be presented in anamorphic widescreen, with a choice of DTS and Dolby Digital audio.

The disc will feature an exclusive UK interview with the Director, Andrew Jarecki, in addition to the interview on the US disc. The disc will also feature unseen home videos of the Friedman family; a short film on Jesse Friedman's life today; the original film about New York party clowns that led to the discovery of David Friedman's family secret; footage of an altercation with law officers at the film's premiere; a debate between the family and audience members; and documents in a DVD-Rom section. The disc will have an RRP of £19.99.

Tartan are also releasing Diego Lerman's lesbian road movie drama Suddenly (Tan de Repente) on July the 26th. The disc will have a choice of Dolby Digital or DTS audio tracks, and will feature the theatrical trailer, biographies, and a four-page booklet by Selina Robertson. RRP is £19.99.

Optimum Releasing will release a package of 80s horror and exploitation action movies on June the 28th. These are a Basket Case 2 / Basket Case 3 double bill, Frankenhooker, Maniac Cop, Red Scorpion and The Exterminator.

Bill Lustig's Maniac Cop will be presented in an Extended Version that's six minutes longer then the previous releases, from Medusa and Synergy (which carried a version cut by the BBFC by five seconds). The BBFC's database indicates that the new version will be uncut. The Basket Case 2 / Basket Case 3 disc will feature the trailer for Basket Case 2. All the other discs also feature their respective theatrical trailers, except for The Exterminator.  No technical spec's were released. Each disc has an RRP of £5.99.

Finally, here's a look inside the two-disc Easy Rider Special Edition DVD, which is being released by Columbia Tristar on July the 19th. The two-disc set features the existing Special Edition DVD, together with a copy of the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls DVD, a copy of Lee Hill's BFI Modern Classics book on the film, and four postcards.

25th May 2004

Fox are releasing two Chris Carter series in July, Millennium and Harsh Realm.

Harsh Realm, Carter's nine-episode series about a military virtual reality experiment, comes split across three discs, two containing four episodes each, and a third with one episode and the bonus features. The episodes are presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format, with 2.0 audio.

Bonus features include two behind-the-scenes featurettes, Inside Harsh Realm (26m), and Creating the Logo and Title Sequence (9m) and five TV spots. There are two commentary tracks on the Pilot episode, one by Chris Carter, the other by Director Dan Sackheim. The disc also features adverts for Millennium / Harsh Realm, The X-Files and the Alien Versus Predator teaser trailer. The set is released on July 26th, with an RRP of £34.99. You can find a selection of menu screens from the three discs here.

After an agonising wait, while Fox and Carter's company Ten Thirteen Productions concentrated their efforts on getting nine seasons of The X-Files released, Millennium's first season will be released on July the 12th.

The six-disc Millennium set contains all twenty-two episodes of the first season, which starred Lance Henriksen as Frank Black, an ex-FBI criminal profiler with an empathic 'gift' for getting inside the mind of serial killers. The first season set will present the episodes in 4:3 format (the show was protected for widescreen, but the 4:3 format seems to be the preferred ratio), with 2.0 audio. The set will include two Chris Carter commentary tracks (on the Pilot episode and Gehenna), a fifty-three minute documentary, Order in Chaos - Making Millennium Season One, two featurettes, Chasing The Dragon: A Conversation With The Academy Group (23m) and Creating The Logo and Title Sequence (8m), and eight Pilot episode TV spots. The set will also contain two Inside Look featurettes, on I Robot and Alien Versus Predator. The set has an RRP of £39.99.

Fox seem bullish about Millennium's prospects on DVD. There's an advert, above, on the Harsh Realm disc that promises that all three seasons will be released (you can see a larger version here). Although there's a hardcore audience that will certainly buy all three seasons if they're released, each season was quite different, and has its own subset of fans.

Both series will feature English HoH subtitles.

24th May 2004

We kick the week off with a hot-of-the-presses review of the new Thunderbirds movie. To find out what reviewer Lee Medcalf thought of the film click on the picture of Bill Paxton, left, or here.

Now, onto some bits and pieces of DVD news...

VCI will release the second season of the innocuous BBC sitcom My Family on June the 7th. The two-disc set will contain all thirteen episodes, which were originally transmitted in 2001. RRP for the set is £19.99.

VCI will be releasing the second and third seasons of Andrew Davies and Bernadette Davis' BBC sitcom Game On! on August the 23rd. The first season was released on DVD in September 2001, so fans of the series have had a long wait for the rest of the episodes! A box set containing all three series is also going to be available, according to some of the retailers.

Fox are adding five new titles to their £5.99 budget range in June, including two titles that haven't been available on DVD before. The first is the military school drama T*A*P*S, which features Sean Penn, Tom Cruise and Timothy Hutton. The second is For The Boys, Mark Rydell's Academy Award-nominated drama about a double act who performed together through World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The film stars Bette Midler and James Caan. T*A*P*S will be presented in 1.85:1 ratio, with 4.0 audio; For the Boys will be in 1.85:1 ratio with 5.1 audio. Both titles will be anamorphic, and will have English HoH subtitles. The other titles are Courage Under Fire, The Siege and Speed 2.

Here are sleeve images for the two new budget discs, and for the June 21st release Best Laid Plans (which was included in the batch of new titles announced in the News entry for the 19th of May).

Revelation will be releasing the Australian / British co-production children's series Round the Twist next year. The first release, which will contain the complete first series, will be released in February, with an RRP of £12.99.

Revelation will also be releasing the BBC / Alamo time-travel sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart. The company plans to release the first season in March next year, followed by regular releases at two-month intervals.

Revelation will release Bugs - Series 4 in August.

A few notes on today's perfunctory Incoming update. Ceri's computer problems continue, so Incoming and Offers are being updated on an ad hoc basis.

I've checked the titles that were due today against a couple of online retailers, so the information should be accurate. There are one or two marked "doubtful", though. Anchor Bay's much-delayed Jack The Ripper disc has been drifting for some time. Their website says it will be out today, but the retailers say it will be out next week. Neither seems likely, frankly. An Inspector Calls was due from Cinema Club, but it looks like it's been on hold indefinitely.

The big title of the week is, of course, Entertainment in Video's The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King. There are a couple of other gems out this week: Universal's new UK release of Spartacus looks like it closely matches the US version from Criterion, which is very good indeed, although somewhat more bittersweet, following the recent death of star Sir Peter Ustinov.

Other gems include Optimum's American Splendor, and it's stable-mate Crumb, and their two-disc Special Edition of The Last Emperor. We're offering three of these titles as prizes in our competitions this week: The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King, American Splendor and Crumb. Click on the banners above, or here for the Lord of the Rings competition, or here for the American Splendor / Crumb competition. You can also read a review of American Splendor here.