The recent Jem & The Holograms feature film is not what anyone would call successful. With an estimated $5,000,000 budget and a worldwide gross of only $3,000,000 it could be argued that the team behind the film really missed the point. That’s exactly what the all girl YouTube group known as CreatureTubes felt when they released a Jem Reacts video with the original cast reacting to the new feature film.

After a positive response to their video (and likely more viewers than the movie garnered, the group decided to take a step in a positive direction and instead of looking at what didn’t work and focus on creating what they feel should have been the Jem film. But since no studio is going to touch that property for a good decade, the girls are turning towards Kickstarter to make it happen.

X-Files fans know “the truth is out there” and now they can find it themselves. IDW Games announced today the upcoming release of The X-Files board game.

Designed by Kevin Wilson, best known for Arkham Horror and Civilization, The X-Files board game uses material from the first three seasons of the TV show. Players team up in groups of two to five to investigate strange phenomenon and battle the “Monsters of the Week.” They will also fight against another player who controls the Cigarette Smoking Man and the Syndicate. Gallery and comic book artist menton3 provided both art direction and the box art for the game.

“To me, there’s no more exciting title than The X-Files,” Jerry Bennington, IDW Director of New Business, said. “Who wouldn’t want the chance to play as the wise cracking Fox Mulder or the incredibly intelligent Dana Scully?”

The X-Files board game, made in collaboration with Pandasaurus Games, will be available this July at the suggested retail price of $59.99.

Friends, Shakespeareans, gamers, lend me your ears! IDW Games has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a Kill Shakespeare board game, based on the graphic novel series.

With a goal of $25,000, Kill Shakespeare is the first joint venture between IDW Games and Pandasaurus Games. The campaign includes perks such as lithographs, posters, custom dice and of course the game itself, at a deeply discounted rate. Stretch goals are also in place to expand game content to include additional characters and quests.

The game itself is a semi-cooperative board game where players are one of Shakespeare’s heroes battling against his villains while completing quests from the Bard himself.

With Sam Keith recently tapped to relaunch a remastered version of his cult hit The Maxx through IDW, it only makes sense that the publisher would try to bring the famed creator in on another one of their franchises. While licensed titles with most companies fall flat, IDW is one of the few to take them and run to success by staying true to the original content but working well within the confines of comics. It ends up seeming like a natural pairing to put the man who created a purple clad giant with perpetual middle fingers that roamed the outback to take on one of the most comically messed up invasion forces ever.

Mars Attacks: First Born takes place in the aftermath of the failed Martian invasion. With the world devastated, people must begin to rebuild but the Martians have left something behind in a secluded neighborhood. Found by a group of kids, there is a Martian infant left amongst the rubble and the aftermath that follows it. The miniseries was written by Chris Ryall and coplotted by Sam Keith and Ryall with Keith taking sole duties on the covers and artwork.

It is time to face the facts: My Little Pony is a worldwide phenomenon. The My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic from IDW has now sold over 1 million copies in less than one year. The first issue is also the best-selling comic in IDW’s history.

“We have a great relationship with Hasbro, one we’ve always been very proud of, so selling a million copies is a really big deal, but to be able to celebrate the achievement with Hasbro makes it even sweeter, ” said Ted Adams, IDW CEO & Publisher.

In celebration of the milestone, Hasbro and IDW are producing a rare variant cover for issue #12 of the comic, which is due out this month. Only 12 copies of the cover will be available to win through contests and charity auctions.

Everyone knows that Wednesday is new comic book day. While picking up your new issues consider looking at some of the trade paperbacks and hard covers of past issues and story lines. But which ones should you choose?

That’s why every Tuesday, The Flickcast will recommend a collection of comics that are just as good, if not better, than the issues you are currently buying. Books that deserve to be read, and bought the next time you walk into your local comic book store.

The trade paperback you should check out this week is Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by IDW Comics. Locke & Key is one part horror, one part mystery, and ten parts of intrigue. It is a book that immediately after you finish reading it, your first thought will be, “Why haven’t I read this before?”

Locke & Key is the story of the three young Locke children, and what happens to them after their father is murdered. Their uncle invites the kids and their mother to move to Lovecraft, Massachusetts, where the home of the Locke family mansion also known as the Key house resides.

Everything seems to be settling back to normal for the kids until the youngest Locke boy finds a key with a skull on it, and when he inserts it into a certain door, he becomes a ghost. That one single turn of the key leads the three Locke children into a bigger mystery about the true nature of the house, its multiple special keys and doors, and the secret of what exactly is in the well out back.

If you can’t wait until the new season of True Blood starts again on HBO, at least there’s a little something to keep you occupied until then. What is this amazing thing that can entertain you and satisfy your thirst for new True Blood and the exploits of your favorite resident on Bon Temps, LA.

Why it’s a new True Blood comic book series from the folks at IDW. The followup to the already successful first round of True Blood comics, these new books spin a new tale. In them Jessica is exposed to contaminated bottles of Tru Blood, causing the lovely vampire to go berserk.

It’s up to Sookie, Bill and the others to figure out who (or what) is behind the bad Blood. In addition to Jessica, several other Bon Temp residents are making their comic book debut including Hoyt, Terry, Arlene and Steve Newlin.

Click through for the full press release and some art. Look for the new True Blood comic series to debut on February 23rd.

Have no fear fans of HBO’s vampire drama True Blood, the network won’t make you wait for a new season of the show without giving you something to occupy your time. In fact, HBO and our friends at IDW are going to be releasing a True Blood graphic novel to do just that.

The graphic novel, called True Blood, Vol.1: All Together Now, is a hard cover compilation of all six issues from the first comic book series. The graphic novel will feature a new cover and bonus content including sketches and a cover gallery.

In case you’re not familiar with the current comic, it debuted in July and was an instant hit, selling out the first two issues and going into multiple printings. With four issues released (and two more to go)…it has become the best selling title for IDW Publishing in their history. Nice.

The book will be released on February 8, 2011 and retail for $24.99. Be sure to check it out as its a great way to experience the comic without having to try and follow individual issues.

Sure, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Picard, Riker and the rest of the “good guys” have always been the primary focus of Star Trek movies, TV shows and even comic based on the series. But what about the cool bad guys?

Well, at least one of them is finally getting his due in IDW’s just announced comic series based on the hugely popular Star Trek villain Khan. First made popular by the late Ricardo Montalban in the priginal Star Trek series, Khan will now live on and continue his story in comic book form.

According IDW:

“What happened to Khan and his followers on Ceti Alpha V? Star Trek: Khan: Ruling in Hell answers just that, explaining how this once proud warrior-king turns into the grizzled maniac seen in Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan.”

In addition to the comic, IDW will also be offering a plush doll in conjunction with the release, available exclusively at comic dealers or via comicshoplocator.com.

Star Trek: Khan: Ruling in Hell will be written by Scott and David Tipton, with Fabio Mantovani bringing the story to life by doing the art. The first comic will be 32 pages and will be released in October.

Before getting a chance to sit down and talk with Dean Haspiel (American Splendor, The Quitter, Billy Dogma) at the Alternative Press Expo, I met him at the Isotope Comics Lounge on the eve of APE weekend for a pre-APE Isotope in-store bash. Currently, Haspiel is but one artist that is part of a larger collective of storytellers at ACT-I-VATE.

Recently, October saw the recent release of The ACT-I-VATE Primer by IDW Publishing, featuring new and original stories. While at the Isotope, I discovered Haspiel is as gracious and as nice as I could have imagined just sitting and talking with him as he signed and sketched a head shot of Harvey Pekar in my copy of The Quitter.

That night talking generally about the unique positivity that courses through the comic industry, Haspiel signs my Pekar sketch advising me to “never quit.” It’s good advice.

Needless to say, I was excited to sit down and talk with Haspiel again on Sunday as APE was coming to a close.

Joey Pangilinan: How did you come to start working with Harvey?

Dean Haspiel: Here’s a long answer to a simple question. I grew up reading superhero comics. My dream was to become a penciler and draw for Marvel. I didn’t know there were other comics that could be non-superhero or not published by DC and Marvel. I started to expand my horizons and got hungrier for the medium.

In the early ‘80s, I discovered American Splendor, at a place called Soho Zat in lower Manhattan, which had a lot of alternative and underground comics, and I discovered a whole bunch of different types of works.

So, there I am reading the Fantastic Four, and suddenly I come across semi-autobiographical comics and stuff like Yummy Fur by Chester Brown, and it just blew my mind. I started out being a fan, like most people are, of Harvey Pekar, or whoever else they admire.

Welcome to The Pull List Comic Reviews! It was a great week for comics as every issue got a really good score, including a surprising (for me, anyway) Pull of the Week. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

Sugarshock – Dark Horse Comics – $3.50 US
Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: Fábio Moon
Score: 9.5

Being the lead singer and guitarist of a band can require quite the juggling act, but what if one of those tasks involved saving the Earth? Luckily for us Earthlings, Dandelion has it all under control… somewhat. You see, her band, Sugarshock, has been requested in a battle of the bands, except there are no bands, and they’ll be battling to the death with the planet’s future on the line. Will they save the day or fall between the cracks into obscurity, or worse?

This isn’t your ordinary band, however. The drummer goes by Wade, who also happens to be an alien princess who looks human and can’t say “no” to groupies. Her “mystically enhanced bodyguard,” L’lihdra, doubles as the band’s other guitarist and the bassist is Robot Phil, which pretty much says it all. If there ever was a more rag-tag team of misfits, I’ve yet to see it.

I don’t know where to even begin with this issue. Originally appearing on MySpace’s Dark Horse Presents anthology in 2007, the three-part story is collected here along with Fábio Moon’s sketchbook and Editor Scott Allie’s notations, making for a nice, complete package. In other words, this is as close to perfect as I’ve seen since I started writing the Pull List Comic Reviews. Joss Whedon, who has always had a firm grip on female leads, inflects his usual witty banter but ups it to a whole new level. His characters are, in some cases, out of this world, and you can’t help but fall in love with every single one of them.

Man, oh man, there are a lot of great books coming out this week. From DC Comics, we have a slew of “Blackest Night” Batman books if you’re into that kind of thing, which I’m not. Adventure Comics also looks intriguing, but other than that and Green Lantern Corps, I’m not interested in much else from these guys.

From IDW, The ACT-I-VATE Primer comes out and if you like some Indy Comics this book is for you. ACT-I-VATE is a webcomic collective founded by Dean Haspiel (aka Zach Galifianakis’s character on Bored to Death). In this book you will get some high quality indy comics from the likes of Haspiel, Nikki Cook, Joe Infurnari and Michael Fiffe.

My pick of the week is Liberty Comics which features some great previews from new books. All proceeds go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which protects comic book creators’ First Amendment rights, among others. A worthy cause if there ever was one. Most especially in this book, I’m looking at the preview of my good friend Ben McCool’s new book with Ben Templesmith, titled Choker. I can tell you: when this book hits stands sometime early next year, you want it.

From Marvel Comics there is a ton of great stuff. Marvel continues to feed my sick obsession, and empty my wallet with new Deadpool comics. Most importantly, Deadpool #900–I know! How did it get to #900 when the character has only been around since the early 90s? Regardless, that book has a slew of talent telling all kinds of stories.  Like Jason Aaron, Victor Gischler, Charlie Huston, Fred Van Lente and Kyle Baker. The book just looks gorgeous.