On Sunday April 17th 2011 from 11am-4pm, The Town of Kensington and the Pauli Bellet Foundation Catalan Library will be holding the International Day of the Book Festival.  The festival takes place on Howard Avenue in Old Town Kensington, Md. Here is their description:

This afternoon street festival celebrates the International Day of the Book with live music, author readings, open mic, activities for children and adults, storytellers, ...and books, books, books! Local authors, bookartists, publishers, booksellers, and literary groups line Howard Ave in Historic Old Town Kensington to show, sell, and discuss their works. All activities are free, rain or shine.

I had a blast at this show last year (and met the amazing Shelena Shorts, author of The Pace.)  So, If you are in the area, come down and say hello.  I'll have copies of all my books for sale, including Sky Girl and World's Beyond (Plus, if the UPS Gods are kind, I may even have a few advance copies of Armed and Fabulous and Great Zombies in History for sale.)

I assumed that the Governator from Stan Lee and Arnold was an April Fools Day prank.    Apparently, it wasn't.  Last week, a trailer for the show was released. 

I guess this rules out any chance for the Presidentator (assuming an Constitutional eligibility change.) 

Wow, just wow.

The EW article describe the show as follows:

The animated TV show and comic book, being co-developed by no less a superhero authority than Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee (pictured, right), won’t be out until next year, but this week EW offers an exclusive early look at Arnold’s cartoon alter-ego. “The Governator is going to be a great superhero, but he’ll also be Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Lee says of the semi-fictional character. “We’re using all the personal elements of Arnold’s life. We’re using his wife [Maria Shriver]. We’re using his kids. We’re using the fact that he used to be governor. Only after he leaves the governor’s office, Arnold decides to become a crime fighter and builds a secret high-tech crime-fighting center under his house in Brentwood.”

I  know I'm late on this, but I was holding out hope that it might be fake.  Some times truth is stranger than fiction, I guess.  I'm a big fan of both Stan and Arnold and wish them success.

I say again: wow, just wow.

Here is the trailer:

I picked up this week's Entertainment Weekly and read all about the new project between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stan Lee.  Called the Governator, Arnold will voice a cartoon character created by Stan Lee.  The article says, in part,


The animated TV show and comic book, being co-developed by no less a superhero authority than Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee (pictured, right), won’t be out until next year, but this week EW offers an exclusive early look at Arnold’s cartoon alter-ego. “The Governator is going to be a great superhero, but he’ll also be Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Lee says of the semi-fictional character. “We’re using all the personal elements of Arnold’s life. We’re using his wife [Maria Shriver]. We’re using his kids. We’re using the fact that he used to be governor. Only after he leaves the governor’s office, Arnold decides to become a crime fighter and builds a secret high-tech crime-fighting center under his house in Brentwood.”

This has got to be an April Fool's Day joke.  (Although after Stripperella, I am not 100% sure).  But, it got me thinking about all the great comic book pranks that got pulled.  In fact, I just read a tweet from letterer extraordinaire Chris Eliopoulus that says:

 @ChrisEliopoulos: Hm. In an effort to reach a more mainstream audience, I've been asked to letter #fearitself in Comic Sans. http://twitpic.com/4fnqd0

Yes, Chris managed to pull off font humor. (As did Google, go try and Google the world Helvitica today).  But, I digress.

Over the years, there have been some great (and some not so great pranks) pulled in the comic world. (Mostly by the now defunct Wizard Magazine.)  Enjoy:

In 2000. Marvel promoted The Sentry limited series as the first appearance of an unknown Stan Lee Silver Age hero; Lee agreed to pretend that he had created the character and forgotten about it. Again Wizard Magazine participated in the hoax, reporting that Marvel had discovered sketches by a forgotten artist named "Artie Rosen" (a reference to letterers Artie Simek and Sam Rosen) of a superhero created by Stan Lee that predated the Fantastic Four.

In 2005, Wizard magazine announced that Geoff Johns was working on a Vertigo Comics version of Captain Carrot And His Amazing Zoo Crew, in which the Crew was disbanded, Little Cheese was murdered by one of his teammates, and a new character called the Bald Eagle had to bring them all back together. Then Johns topped this by actually writing it into an issue of Teen Titans the following year.

In 2010 Top Shelf Productions released a cover for The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen1988 featuring among others Doc Brown and Sergeant Bosco "B.A." Baracus.

Several Years later, Johns topped himself, hot on the heals of Green Lantern: Rebirth and Flash: Rebirth, Johns announced he was working on Vibe: Rebirth with Ethan Van Sciver. At last, one of the most iconic characters in the DC stable is brought back to glory!

In 1999, Marvel announced that Spider-Man would joint the X-Men.

As part of an April Fool's Day gag in Wizard Magazine, issue 104 featured a mock cover and synopsis for a Wonder Twins themed book, titled Wonder Twins: Form of Water. The fake story involved the teen heroes using their powers to stop a drought and save their monkey sidekick Gleek.  The art was done by Alex Ross.  Personally, i have seen stranger things.

 In 1997, a group of comic strip artists swapped comics for the day so Garfield ate a sandwich at Blondie's house and Dilbert left the corporate world for The Family Circus.  I present the Great Comics Switcheroo.

In another April Fool's issue, Wizard swapped out their "Famous Firsts" feature for a "Famous Worsts," in which Kirby's opus was ripped on for never inspiring a series that made it more that 28 issues.

Megan Fox cast as Wonder Woman?  Nope, just a prank.  (But I hate to admit that Fox's costume looks better than the current one).

Of course, this prank caused Fox to bash Wodner Woman in an interview, which pissed off a certain superhero known as Lynda Carter.

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/actress_lynda_carter_tells_megan_BlR5Xjhplg9dBZDG0k1nKI

The trailer for the Live Action Calvin and Hobbes Movie

http://images.gocomics.com/calvin-and-hobbes-movie/

So, there you have it.  Plus this great ad that ran in Wizard.