That’s right, Gossip Girl star Blake Lively has officially been cast as the female lead, Carol Ferris opposite Ryan Reynolds in the Warner Bros.’ live-action adaptation of the Green Lantern.

Martin Campbell will direct. Production is expected to begin in March with a release date set for June 17, 2011.

Just weeks ago there were rumors that several actresses were in the running for the part – Blake Lively, Jennifer Garner, Diane Kruger, Eva Green and Keri Russell. She’s kind of lucky to get the role. One thing is that she’s quite young for it. Another thing is, she’s against other actress who have better track records than her. Jennifer Garner played Elektra before. She’s is considered a pro (hah!) in comics to live-action adaptation type of movies. Good luck to Ms Lively, I love her in Gossip Girl, I just hope she will perform in Green Lantern.

Green Lantern is based on the DC Comics serial about an ordinary man chosen by an alien to receive an energy ring that can be used to protect the planet. Carol Ferris is the love interest of Hal Jordan and the daughter of an aerospace mogul.

Comic book collecting is a hobby that treats comic books and related items as collectibles or artwork to be sought after and preserved. Though considerably more recent than the collecting of postage stamps (philately) or books (bibliophilia), it has a major following around the world today and is partially responsible for the increased interest in comics after the temporary slump experienced during the 1980s. Among comics fandom, the study of comics as a medium and an artform are sometimes referred to (individually or collectively) as panelology and people who collect comic books are known as pannapictagraphists. More details at wikipedia

Some adults would never grow up. They appear to retain their childlike wonder at the world around them. Like myself, I still read comics. However I am not discussing about adults here. I talking about your kids.

Kids today will more likely prefer to play video games, listen to music, watch movies and the TV. Ask any child about reading and they will tell you that reading is boring.

Children should be encouraged to turn off the TV and sit down with a good book, but asking them to do so might be difficult. This is where a comic book can play the role to introduce you child to reading.

To explain it better I will use the upcoming Iron Man 2 movies and comic titles from Marvel. Iron Man 2 is coming out in May 2010, if you have taken your son to the first one, I am sure he will love (and waiting) for the second installment.

The first thing you need to do is buy him his first comic book. You can start by getting the latest issue of Mighty Avengers or Invincible Iron Man. This is to build his anticipation for the movie and at the same time, his interest into reading. You have a few months to Iron Man 2, enough time to get a few issues for your son.

In between the issues, talk to your son about what he’s reading. Ask him to summarize or retell it to you. If Iron Man is battling another super villain, ask him to explain the details of the super villain super powers and how Iron Man defeated him. The more details he include, the more apparent that he is following the story and engaged in it.

By May 2010, take him to the movie. He will thank you for that and at the same time, you would have taken some time off from his TV and video games schedule to reading. Even if it is only for a comic book, it is a start.

Gradually, introduce him to junior novels. Do this during you next family travel trip where he would need more than just comics to keep his time occupied during the trip. Especially when it involve a long drive or a few hours in the plane.

Get the idea?

Why reading? Reading helps your child acquire knowledge. If English is your second language, reading promotes speech and language development, and helps to improve pronunciation and vocab. Reading calms the mind and this helps your child to relax.

The world is full of interesting things to learn and do. Don’t let your kids merely sit back and watch TV or play video games. Get them interested into reading, and let comics be the first step.

It will also be good for your mind. A hobby might even keep you from going senile in your old age. Hah!

Collecting comics is an expensive hobby. It was about RM3.80 per issue at that time, and that was a lot. I have to keep some of my pocket money for it and decide which issues to buy as I can only afford to buy 1 or 2 a month .. and the ones i missed, my friends and I will talk about it. We didn’t lend or borrow as we wanted to keep our collection in mint quality. I remembered once when I used all my savings for comics. I asked my father for a piece of cheque of the same value so that I could order comics directly from a specialty store. He topped up a bit and I remembered being really happy at that time.

In a way, it taught me how to manage money.

Anyway, how was the movie? I expected more. Apart from great CGI and super villains, and a great final scene, it was boring. I think Venom, being a significant character in the comics, was introduced too late and too short in Spiderman 3. The movie dragged quite a bit with the love story of Peter and MJ. It does however, made Peter Parker more human. At some time, my daughter wasn’t paying attention. I was surprised as she really liked 1 and 2 and has been watching the DVDs repeatedly when she found out no 3 is coming. Nuff said.

Want to see my comics. This is part of my collection, Spawn and Secret Wars. There are more but I can’t take all out as I don’t want my son to see… ha…ha .. comics helped me with my English but those are my collection, I don’t want him to mess with them.

That’s issue number 1 of Secret Wars. The black costume, which eventually became Venom, was originally introduced in Secret Wars 8 (below). I sold that off and made money from it. Should have hold on to it longer but how would I know there will be a movie about Spiderman? The original black costume is much sleeker than the one in the movie. Pure black with a white spider logo.