I’m new to the Geeks of Doom team, so I’d like to introduce you, the readers, to one of my favorite geek things: Geek art. Fortunately, I happen to live near the city of Los Angeles, so I’ll get to attend gallery openings like the The Avengers-themed gallery that Gallery 1988 is having on May 3.

Disney is officially commissioning the licensed artwork and best thing of all, it is original. There will be limited screenprints and some even more limited digital prints will all be available to those who attend the gallery opening.

Under a Vampire Moon
An Argeneau Novel
Paperback | Kindle
By Lynsay Sands
Avon
Release date: April 24, 2012

Holy hotstuff! Under a Vampire Moon is the 16th book in the Argeneau and Rogue Hunter series by prolific novelist Lynsay Sands and is like a mini-vacation in book form.

At the behest of her old college girlfriends, Carolyn Connor heads to St. Lucia for a much-needed getaway with the girls. After going through a complicated and contentious two-year divorce ordeal that isn’t quite over yet, the last thing on Carolyn’s mind is meeting anyone new. However, newlyweds Marguerite Arganeau-Notte and Julius Notte have much grander designs for her besides tourist activities and fruity umbrella drinks.

The release last month of the first image of Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in character from next summer’s big-budget western adventure The Lone Ranger didn’t particularly set the world on fire. One of the major question marks surrounding the troubled production was how Depp would look as the Ranger’s faithful Indian companion Tonto. In the months before the release of the first Pirates of the Caribbean, images of Depp in character as Captain Jack Sparrow led skeptics to believe the eclectic actor had gone off the deep end and the movie would be an epic bomb for Disney.

Instead Pirates was a blockbuster smash that finally made Depp a bona fide movie star and spawned a billion-dollar franchise for the Mouse House. It also established the quirky and roguish Captain Jack as the first iconic movie hero of the 21st century. Pretty soon the stylish swashbuckler would become a popular Halloween costume as well. Depp had taken an unusual approach in his ideas for the character’s look, much to the consternation of studio executives already sweating over the movie’s gargantuan (for 2002/3) budget and the nagging uncertainty of a pirate movie, much less one based on one of their famous theme park rides, but the gamble paid off handsomely.

Every day here at Doom HQ we receive tons of tips from our readers about really cool stuff from the world of geek, as well as promotional materials for new films, comic books, collectibles, and much more. While we do our best to bring you as much of it as possible, we don’t always have enough geek manpower available to cover it all on a daily basis. But we hate the idea of all of this really cool stuff wasting away in our inbox. How could we NOT cover it? Hence why we’ve resurrected our long-defunct column Bits Of Doom, now rebranded and revamped as Doom Digest, a collection of easily digestible bits of news, videos, photos, and other goodies.

Today: Disney‘s Orange Bird returns, gay Star Wars film, Marvel Iron Man & X-Men anime, Star Trek Sulu birthday cookies, Sara Pichelli’s Game Of Thrones art, plus some Bits Of Doom.

The Innkeepers
Blu-ray | DVD
Directed by Ti West
Written by Ti West
Starring Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, Kelly McGillis, George Riddle, Brenda Cooney, Alison Bartlett
Dark Sky Films/MPI Media Group
Release Date: April 24, 2012

The Innkeepers
A Ghost Story for the Minimum Wage

The Yankee Pedlar Inn of Torrington, Connecticut, offers 60 individual bathrooms with private baths, each adorned with stenciled walls and period furniture and restored with the most modern of conveniences.

Since 1891, The Yankee Pedlar has been known for gracious hospitality and homegrown warmth. It also has a reputation for being haunted.

From filmmaker Ti West (The House of the Devil) comes The Innkeepers. Believed by many to be one of New England’s “most haunted hotels,” The Yankee Pedlar is about to shut its doors for good. As the Inn’s final days draw near, the remaining employees – Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) – set out to uncover proof of its haunted past.