links for 2010-02-08

In 1934 the MPAA voluntarily passed the Motion Picture Production Code, more generally known as the Hays Code, largely to avoid governmental regulation. The code prohibited certain plotlines and imagery from films and in publicity materials produced by the MPAA. Among others, there was to be no cleavage, no lace underthings, no drugs or drinking, no corpses, and no one shown getting away with a crime.

The Liberty Project was my earliest take on super-crooks redeeming themselves as heroes, inspired by the era of Avengers that featured Captain America and the what-us-villains-that-was-yesterday lineup of Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. The Thunderbolts were the third try.

Homer got an iPhone and starts his Couch Gag App. S21E11

K.W. Jeter's Infernal Devices: A Mad Victorian Fantasy launched the steampunk genre in 1987 (and Jeter also invented the term, in an interview.) Now Harper Collins' Angry Robot imprint's bringing it back into print, along with another Jeter Victorian classic.

First Look Studios and MySpace have debuted the first official trailer for the upcoming thriller Suicide Girls Must Die, which is exactly what it sounds like it would be. A bunch of sexy, mostly naked Suicide Girls retreat to a cabin in the woods for a weekend of photoshoots and jello shots, only to be interrupted by a mysterious rash of murder.