 As part of its promotion for the release of
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in 3D, Lucasfilm and Brisk are offering a game app called 'BriskSaber Wars'.
Modeled after the popular game 'Fruit Ninja', you choose to play as the Dark or Light side of the Force, and sweep your lightsaber across the screen to rack up points. You can also go online to compare your ranking against other players, and specially marked jugs of Brisk have codes under the cap, that you can enter to unlock special abilities. The game also has a Facebook page and Twitter account. Brisk Saber is a free download from the App store or Android Market. It may not make the movie any better, but the game is lots of fun.
 Arisia 2012 will be held this weekend, January 13-16, 2012, at the Westin Boston Waterfront. Special guests include artists Phil & Kaja Foglio (Girl Genius). Fan Tables, TONS of Panels and Workshops, and a Masquerade are just some of the features for this popular New England SF convention. Members of the R.I. Science Fiction Club, and Sci Fi Jo For more information, check out their website: www.arisia.org
 When Marvel Studios' film 'Avengers' opens in theaters on Friday, May 4, 2012, it will be shown in 3D, as well as its standard release.
The film opens the day before 'Free Comic Book Day', and features Iron Man, Thor, Capt. America, the Incredible Hulk, and other heroes.
Marvel has also reported that April 4, 2014, and May 16, 2014 as dates for special film releases, but would not give any other details. There have been rumors that a film based on the Marvel character 'Ant Man' is also in the works.
 Source: Locus online
Artist Darrell K. Sweet, 77, died December 5, 2011. Sweet’s first illustrations were for Ballantine Books in 1975, and when the Del Rey imprint was formed in 1977, he produced many of their covers. Since then he has created illustrations for most of the major SF publishers, including Berkeley, Ace, and Tor. He is perhaps now best known for his illustrations of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, but he also produced memorable covers for Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Xanth series by Piers Anthony, and novels by Jack L. Chalker, Terry Brooks, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., and many others.
Sweet was born in 1934 in New Brunswick NJ, and graduated from Syracuse University in 1956 with a degree in fine arts. He already had a reputation as a painter of animals, still lifes, and pastoral scenes when he started illustrating SF. He was nominated for a professional artist Hugo in 1983, and was a Chesley Award finalist many times.
_Source: Locus magazine
SFWA Grand Master Anne McCaffrey, 85, died November 21, 2011 of a massive stroke at home in Ireland.
McCaffrey is best known for her long-running Pern series of SF novels and stories. She was the first woman to win both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards, with “Weyr Search” (1968) and “Dragonrider” (1969) respectively. Pern novel The White Dragon (1978) was the first hardcover SF novel to make the New York Times bestseller list. Many of the later books in the Pern series were written in collaboration with McCaffrey’s son Todd. In all she authored or co-wrote more than 100 titles, beginning with first novel Restoree (1967).
Her other works include the Freedom series, the Doona series (with Jody Lynn Nye), the Dinosaur Planet series (with Jody Lynn Nye and Elizabeth Moon), the Crystal Singer series, the Brain & Brawn Ship series (with Margaret Ball, Mercedes Lackey, S.M. Stirling, and Jody Lynn Nye), the Petaybee series (with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough), the Talent series, the Tower & Hive series, the Acorna series (with Margaret Ball, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, and various other authors), and the Coelura series.
Anne Inez McCaffrey was born April 1, 1926 in Cambridge MA. She attended Radcliffe College, graduating in 1947, and worked as an advertising copywriter while directing and performing in stage productions. She married H. Wright Johnson in 1950, and had three children. She divorced Johnson in 1970, and moved to Ireland, where she opened a stable and began raising horses.
Her many honors include being named a SFWA Grand Master (2005); induction into the SF Hall of Fame (2006); and a Robert A. Heinlein Award (2007).
 Major League Gaming is hosting it's annual video game event, November 18-20, 2011, at the R.I. Convention Center, in Providence, R.I.Gamers from around the world will compete for cash prizes playing Halo Reach, Starcraft II, Call of Duty Black Ops, and League of Legends. There will also be a chance to win free giveaways, and use their open gaming stations. Sci Fi Journal will be there to tape a segment for the show. For more information, go to their website: www.majorleaguegaming.com
 Boston Super Megafest will be held Saturday, November 19, and Sunday, November 20, 2011, at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel, 1697 Worcester Rd., Framingham, MA.Guests include Patrick Stewart ( Star Trek's Capt. Picard) Saturday only; Robert Vaughn (The Man from U.N.C.L.E); Jeremy Bulloch (Star Wars' Boba Fett); lots of comic book artists and supermodels, and oh yes, you can even have your picture taken with the 60's Batmobile and Batbike!Tickets are $22 at the door for adults, children under 12 $6.00. More info atwww.supermegafest.com
IDW Publishing will be bringing Topps' Mars Attacks back as a comic series, just in time to celebrate it's 50th anniversary next year. The original trading card set was developed by Woody Gelman and Len Brown, with paintings by Norm Saunders.
Mars Attacks was also made into a film in the 1990's, and there's a hardcover art book being planned by Abrams Comicarts
Source: Scoop Online Magazine
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