“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” is now available, for free (but ad-supported) at MySpace and on Hulu. Woo hoo!

Which means I can also embed it here, and I think I shall. Enjoy.

Let’s start our wish list now! We know we’ll get all three acts of the show, commentary, and a separate, musical commentary. Most likely we’ll get a Making-Of feature, something on the music, and bloopers. What else would you like to see, to make this the most incredible Horrible DVD ever? Here’s my suggestions:

- An extra Dr. Horrible story, filmed for the DVD

- Promos from the characters; Captain Hammer talking to schools, Penny talking about the homeless shelter, Dr. Horrible doing something court-appointed (”Kids! Don’t do evil!”)

- A karaoke version

- A fan commentary, with notable fans giving their reactions (your assistant has my e-mail, Mr. Whedon)

- Features on the people involved, fan reaction, media reaction

- Video of the Comic-Con panel

- A RiffTrax commentary, already bundled in

- A feature showing the making of the Making Of feature

- A small comic book (a la the Serenity comic that came bundled with the Best Buy version of the Serenity Special Edition DVD) of “Captain Hammer: Be Like Me”

- The original storyboards, possibly in napkin form

- A feature on the already-existing mad science apartment that was used

- The entire run of “Apartment 4B” by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, including the 1st episode

- A feature on the special effects, done with all the gravitas and detail as anything about Gollum on the LoTR DVDs. “Here we had to sync up Nathan leaping off a chair into frame just as the van careened by, so it really looked like he was jumping off the van. Timing was critical for it to really feel right, so we were there, oh god, almost 7 minutes before we were finally happy with it, but that’s the kind of dedication we put into it. Then we had a Snickers.”

And most importantly:

- Previews of the sequel

What do you want to see?

According to TV Week, anyway.

“I’m deeply psyched to be able to offer ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’ on iTunes,” Mr. Whedon said. “It’s a way to reach way more potential viewers than I can personally call and harass into watching it. The idea that people can carry our little opus around on their iPods and iPhones is thrilling.”

I was fortunate enough to do a phone interview with Joss Whedon last Friday on his new Internet musical miniseries “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” UPDATED: my article is up at www.news-journalonline.com/entertainment.htm, along with the audio of the interview. Here’s what was said.

This is Chris Bridges with the Daytona Beach News-Journal, and I’m talking with Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” the show “Firefly,” the movie “Serenity,” the upcoming FOX show “Dollhouse,” and now an original online musical mini-series, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” Thank you for talking to me.

Thanks for having me.

Go ahead and give me the elevator pitch for “Dr. Horrible.”

There’s an elevator pitch?

I hope so.

I’ve never heard that phrase. Basically it’s your typical Internet musical about a super villain who’s trying to make his bones in the super villain community and get some respect, and maybe even work up the nerve to talk to the girl at the Laundromat.

So, like every other Internet serial musical.

Yeah, you know, I mean it’s a tired genre but I thought I could wring a few bucks out of it before it dies.

Read the rest of this entry »

The massive onslaught of Dr. Horrible-related coolness has begun, with this tie-in comic about his arch-nemesis, Captain Hammer called “Captain Hammer: Be Like Me.”

Written by Zack Whedon and illustrated by Eric Canete and Dave Stewart, it’s a civic-minded piece that serves to instruct children in the straight, narrow, and violent.

It’s also free, part of this month’s Dark Horse Comics “MySpace Dark Horse Presents.”

Cool? Free? The new paradigm is working! Joss, where can I send you all of my money?

Teaser from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Joss Whedon likes to create things. He likes to share things. He especially likes to create things that become obsessions with lots of people. And recently, he started thinking about how to create and share things without having to deal with any of the big studios. What he came up with, with the help of his briothers and fiance-in-law, was “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.”

It’s three minisodes, designed to be posted online. It stars Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, and Nathan Fillion. It’s a super-villain musical. And it’s coming online for free starting July 15, with new episodes every couple of days, and then paid downloads and an upcoming massively-packed DVD. All without studio involvement.

What it needs now is attention. They have the website, the MySpace page, the Facebook page, and the Twitter account. They have banners and buttons. They have a Digged page climbing higher in the ranks. They have T-shirts on the way. There will be a Dr. Horrible panel at the San Diego Comic-Con. There will be a comic coming from Dark Horse at their Dark Horse Presents page on MySpace. And they have Joss waxing hilaric about it.

All they need now is for you to tell everyone you know (but not in a stalkery way, unless they’re cool with that). This will be huge, and fun, and gioofy, and a slap in the face to the networks, and none of that is not fun. Spread the word, my people!