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By: Nick Eskey

Hello again nerds and nerdettes, and welcome to another installment of San Diego Comic-Con Funko releases! You know Funko, the purveyors of the highly popular POP! series of collectible figurines, who also vow to “cover as many beloved licenses and characters as possible to remind every Comic-Con attendee why they fell in love with these stories in the first place. “

We have some exciting announcements this time, including an extremely limited edition POP! figurine. Reminder, this year Funko will not be doing any sort of pre-buying. The only way you can get this beauties is on site, so be sure to visit the booth. If you don’t have tickets to Comic-Con… well there’s always black magic?

Without any further distractions, let’s bring on the toys:

Pop! TV: Doctor Who – Eleventh Doctor holding Cyberman Head

Does the sight of a British police booth cause you to hyperventilate? This eleventh incarnation of Doctor Who holding a Cyberman head then is the right toy for you. Check him out with his chic purple jacket and debonair hair. *Swoon.*

Pop! Disney: Frozen – Barbershop Quartet Olaf

From Pixar’s “Frozen,” perpetuator of a few sickly cute and catchy songs, comes everyone’s favorite silly snowman Olaf. This Barbershop Quartet Olaf comes complete with a hat, cane, and similarly dressed seagull sidekick.

Pop! TV: The Flash – The Flash Unmasked

Fan’s of the series “Flash” should keep their eyes peeled for this POP! The Flash Unmasked. Be careful not to let this one slip by you.

Hikari: Star Wars – Darth Vader Matte Black

Another Star Wars collectible? No, never. Who could have predicted? Despite there already being a thousand other pieces of Star Wars merchandise however, this Darth Vader Matte Black figure by Hikari looks beautiful. It almost looks like if this famous Sith was made of copper. Better find some room on those already crowded shelves for this toy, which is limited to only 1200.

Hikari: Marvel – Frosted Groot

In this batch of announcements, Hikari will be also coming out with this Frosted Groot. Limited to 1000, it looks like this humanoid plant made out with Olaf. Oh the magic of warm hugs.

Dorbz: Batman – Thrillkill Batman

Nothing better strikes fear into the hearts of men more than a caped crusader in a mask. Well, maybe a caped crusader in full grin and an alternate costume. Dorbz’s Thrillkill Batman sports a red and black costume and a smiling face. A cute, yet disturbing addition to any collection.

Pop TV: Hannibal – Bryan Fulle

And rounding off our releases is this highly limited edition POP! It’s unfortunate that the show Hannibal was cancelled, but you can share the hurt with this Brian Fuller figure. Dressed to kill in his Hannibal like attire, the show’s creator also sports a pair of spectacles and a large kitchen knife. This bad boy comes in only 144 units and will be available during his signing at the Funko booth on Friday, July 10th at 2 p.m. The line for the signing won’t begin until 1p.m., so no early campers please. No other Funko items will be sold during this time.

We’re getting closer to Comic-Con, so stay tuned for more Funko exclusives!

• I have never, in all my livelong days, been so proud of an illustrator.  And Mary Engelbreit at that.  For someone as well-established as she is the decision to create and sell a print with all proceeds going to the Michael Brown Jr. Memorial Fund, which supports the family of Michael Brown, the Missouri teenager who was gunned down by police two weeks ago.  Here’s what it looks like:

Next thing you know Ms. Engelbreit is being blasted by haters and trolls for this work.  You can read about the controversy and her measured, intelligent response here.

• While we are on the subject of Ferguson, Phil Nel created a list of links and resources for teachers who are teaching their students about the events.  I was happy to see he included the impressive Storify #KidLitForJustice, that was assembled by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas.

• iNK (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids) that group of thirty authors of nonfiction books for children recently came up with an interesting notion.  Thinking about how to best reach out to teachers and homeschooling parents they’ve come up with  The Nonfiction Minute—a daily posting of  intriguing tidbits of nonfiction designed to stimulate curiosity, with a new one published online every weekday. Say they, “Each Nonfiction Minute website entry will include an audio file of the author reading his or her text, so students can actually hear the author’s voice, making the content accessible to less fluent readers.  The  audio frees us from the constraints of children’s reading vocabulary, which is what makes textbooks and many children’s books designed for the classroom so bland.  We can concentrate on creating a sense of excitement about our subject matter for our young listeners, readers, and future readers.”  Right now they’re in the the early stages of crowdfunding via IndieGoGo so head on over and give them your support if you can.  It’s a neat notion.

• Did you see this, by the way?

• We turn our attention now to The 5 Best Movies Based on Children’s Books.  And boy oh boy talk about a relatively arbitrary list.  The animated Charlotte’s Web?  Really?  Really really?

• I’m not a Dr. Who fan myself but that’s more because I simply haven’t watched the show rather than any particular dislike or anything.  So I was very amused by the theory posed recently that Willie Wonka is the final regeneration of The Doctor.  And they make a mighty strong case.

• Even if you don’t have your library degree, you have to admit that being the librarian at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would be relatively awesome.  Not my line of work but still pretty cool.

• And speaking of cool, I almost missed it but it looks as though 3-D printers are creating three dimensional books for blind children these days.  The classics are getting an all new look.  Fascinating, yes?  Thanks to Stephanie Whelan for the link.

• This is a bit of a downer.  I was always very impressed that Britain had taken the time to establish a funny prize for kids.  Now we learn that the Roald Dahl Funny Prize has been put on hold.  It’ll be back in 2016 but still.  Bummer.

• Daily Image:

You know, I love The Minnesotan State Fair.  I think it’s one of the best State Fairs in the nation.  But even I have to admit that when it comes to butter sculptures, Iowa has Minnesota beat.  The evidence?

Hard to compete with that. Thanks to Lisa S. Funkenspruherin for the link.

• It’s always fun to see what other folks say about our specialty.  I gave great cheers today when Matt informed me that Greg Hatcher had yet another post up about his trips through various thrift stores in search of treasure over at Comics Should Be Good.  In this latest installment he finds a rare Meindert DeJong/Emily McCully title that has a misleading cover.  It says “Journey From Peppermint Street by Meindert DeJong” and then in smaller letters “Winner of the Hans Christian Andersen and Newbery Awards”.  Yeah.  Mr. DeJong won those awards . . . but not for this book.  Actually Peppermint Street did apparently garner a National Book Award, but I suspect that Greg isn’t the only person to think that the “winner” referred to was the book and not the writer.  He also locates some failed Stratemeyer syndicate boy adventure novels (awesome) and a Tarzan for kids.  Them’s good reading.

• Of course reading Greg just made me want to catch up on my Collecting Children’s Books.  Peter’s latest post Brunch for a Snowy Sunday shows a celebrity picture book I’d long since forgotten, a comprehensive list of celebrities that hold children’s books in the READ posters, and it features what may be the worst re-illustrated book jacket in the history of mankind.

• Travis over at 100 Scope Notes covers a cover trend that doesn’t really have a name yet.  Displaced Typography sounds good to me.  Or maybe just Jumbled Typography.

• When I heard they were relaunching The Animorphs series, that made sense to me.  What I find interesting, though, is that the Publishers Weekly article Scholastic to Give Animorphs New Life credits only Katherine Applegate as the author.  True, the books were penned by K.A. Applegate, but I always heard that she co-wrote them with her husband Michael Grant (now best known as the author of the Gone series for teens, as well as The Mighty Twelve for kids).  Any particular reason they don’t mention him, I wonder?  Oh, and anyone else find the covers (which move, so maybe it’s not fair to judge them like this) kinda uber-creepy?  This doesn’t help either.

• How many children’s books were published last year?  That’s the kind of question you wouldn’t expect to receive an answer to.  Yet American Libraries Magazine actually came up with a number, and it’s a doozy.  Ch
  4 Comments on Fusenews: So far, no snow here, last added: 12/15/2010
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  Sarah in Bath UK said, on 12/13/2010 4:57:00 AM
  

  Hi, just found a copy of Journey from Peppermint Steet in the reserve stack at our library in Bath. A hardback bought in 1971. Will have to find time to read it now.

  rockinlibrarian said, on 12/13/2010 12:31:00 PM
  

  I just found a bunch of books the other day that had been erroneously catalogued into our “Newbery” section because they said “Winner of the Newbery Award” under the author’s name (even though some of them actually said “Winner of the Newbery FOR [Title of Book That Actually Won]“)!

  Genevieve said, on 12/14/2010 9:59:00 AM
  

  Love the Seuss Tardis – thanks for the link!

  Lisa Jenn Bigelow said, on 12/15/2010 3:43:00 PM
  

  Thanks for the hot tip on Animorphs! I’ve been surprised at how many kids still request those books, even though I weeded our ratty copies years ago. It’ll be nice to have fresh ones to offer.

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