The Comic Strip Presents
The Complete Collection
DVD | Region 2 DVD
Directed by Peter Richardson, Robbie Coltrane, Keith Allen, and Adrian Edmondson
Starring Dawn French, Robbie Coltrane, Rik Mayall, Jennifer Saunders, and Alexei Sayle
Entertainment One
Release Date: January 31, 2012

The Comic Strip is a British comedy troupe that started out in the early 1980s and gained stature after starring in a short concert film released in 1981 and directed by Julien Temple (The Great Rock and Roll Swindle starring the Sex Pistols, Earth Girls Are Easy). The following year newborn television network Channel 4 signed them for a new series of comedic short films. Premiering on the same night Channel 4 debuted – November 2, 1982 – The Comic Strip Presents brought edgy, alternative, and often controversial humor to living rooms, dorm rooms, and bustling pubs all throughout the U.K. The show has disappeared and reappeared constantly on several different channels in the three decades since its debut but it continues to airs to this day. The Comic Strip also made two feature films, The Supergrass and Eat the Rich, that saw theatrical releases both in the U.K. and the U.S. (sort of).

In 2005 a complete collection of the episodes aired between 1982 and 2000 – with certain exceptions – were released on a nine-disc Region 2 DVD box set with a bonus disc reserved for bonus features. Eat the Rich was not included in the set due to rights issues, and the version of The Supergrass made available was the theatrical cut and not the original cut with eight additional minutes of footage. That set has finally made its way to our shores. Without further adieu I present to you The Comic Strip Presents: The Complete Collection.

The Kids in the Hall
Death Comes to Town
DVD
Directed by Kelly Makin
Starring Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson
A&E Entertainment
Release Date: May 24, 2011

I grew up watching The Kids in the Hall, a half-hour-long sketch comedy series from Canada starring a popular comedy troupe whose core cast of five founding members – Scott Thompson, Dave Foley, Mark McKinney, Bruce McCulloch, and Kevin McDonald – has never changed in their existence. It remains one of the funniest television shows in the histories of both television and things that are funny. The Kids came into my life at a time when I had a very conventional view of what comedy was. Then again I must have been all of ten years old when I first saw The Kids in the Hall arriving on American shores and being resigned to the netherworld of late Friday nights on HBO in the early 1990s. It didn’t have a fraction of the cultural impact of the Beatles coming to the U.S. to play on The Ed Sullivan Show, but it meant a hell of a lot more important to me. The Kids’ unorthodox (to me at least) amalgamation of off-kilter and experimental humor with more broader comedy to appeal to those with a kindergarten student’s comedic sensibility, but it was all done the Kids’ way so that even it when it seemed like they were playing it safe their loyal fans never assumed they were selling out. 

We’ve got a treat for fans of the classic ’80s cartoon Robotech, with the first trailer for the Robotech 2-Movie Collection featuring a re-release of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles and an all-new feature, Robotech: Love Live Alive. The DVD will be released on July 23rd, 2013.

Love Live Alive is partially set after the events of Robotech and follows the adventures of Lance “Lancer” Belmont as he recounts the story of the Third Robotech War and what happens after the end of the war. It’s based on a music video released only in Japan way back in 1985 and originally tied into the “Genesis Climber MOSPEADA” series that was used to create the third part of the original Robotech series. Alive is part of another plan to get Robotech restarted, and will hopefully pave the way for Robotech: Shadow Rising.

Check out the clip below now and let us know if you’re looking forward to more Robotech.

Fat Kid Rules the World
DVD
Directed by Matthew Lillard
Starring Jacob Wysocki, Matt O’Leary, Billy Campbell
Arc Entertainment
Release Date: January 22, 2013

Troy Billings (Jacob Wysocki) is a high school student living with his widowed ex-Marine father (Billy Campbell) and younger brother Dayle (Dylan Arnold) in metropolitan Seattle. He is depressed most of the time because he is grossly overweight, has no friends, and never seems to have the approval of his family. One day Troy decides to end it all and walks in front of an oncoming city bus only to be pushed out of the way at the last minute by Marcus (Matt O’Leary), a strung-out teen about his age. Marcus was expelled from Troy’s school but continues to hang out there and spends most of his time angling to become a punk rock star. But his old band P.O.I. wants nothing more to do with him and his hedonistic antics.

Marcus latches onto the shy and insecure Troy and convinces him to join his new band the Tectonics as the drummer. Troy reluctantly agrees out of fear of losing the only real friend he has had in years and once exposed to the music and punk club scene Marcus inhabits he begins to emerge from his shell and unearth his inner rocker. Troy’s father, who has also bonded somewhat with Marcus, sees his son’s new friend for what he really is: a junkie and an opportunist. Troy isn’t ready to write off Marcus just yet so he conspires to make the Tectonics a real thing and in the process try to save his friend from continuing down the path of self-destruction.

The Howling
Blu-ray (Collector’s Edition) | DVD (Collector’s Edition)
Director: Joe Dante
Screenwriter: John Sayles, Terence H. Winkless
Cast: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Belinda Balaski
Scream Factory
Rated R | 91 Minutes
Release Date: June 18, 2013

Directed by Joe Dante (Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, Gremlins), The Howling is 1981 horror film written by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless and features an original music score composed by Pino Donaggio.

Based on Gary Brandner’s 1977 novel, The Howling arrives on Blu-ray June 18, 2013 with a well-stocked selection of commentaries, interviews, featurettes, and deleted scenes. The film stars Dee Wallace (E.T., Critters, Cujo) as Karen White, a Los Angeles television news anchor who is being stalked by a serial murderer named Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo). In cooperation with the police, she takes part in a scheme to capture Eddie by agreeing to meet him in a sleazy porno shop.