Scott Pilgrim vs. The World looks like one of the cooler movies that will come out this summer, and Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim will help promote it by airing an animated short drawn in the manga-inspired style of the popular comic book that started it all.

Titled Scott Pilgrim vs. The Animation, the cartoon will be shown at midnight on August 12 to promote the comic’s movie adaptation.

According to SlashFilm, the shorts are based on outtakes from Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Michael Cera and Allison Pill will reprise their roles from the film while Mae Whitman and Jason Schwartzman will voice different characters.

“We were approached by Universal to do something cool around the release of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,” said producer Jason DeMarco. [Digital Spy]

Slashfilm also has some early video of the cartoon, and it looks like it’s back story that’s taken from the second volume of the comic. Yes, I’ve read a couple of the comic books that I’ve taken from nerds along with their lunch money. It’s a pretty cool concept (the metaphor of fighting someone’s emotional baggage taken literally), but it’s not nearly as good as the nerds say it is. The manga art and lack of color makes it hard to tell characters apart, and the cuts between scenes can be hard to follow. In short, the movie’s going to be a lot better. Yay!

Marvel Comics has created a new television development department with a new executive vice president in charge of television. That means one of two things happened: (1) The company saw an opening in the TV superhero market created by “Heroes” and ABC’s “No Ordinary Family” (airing next fall), or (2) Someone realized that re-booting the Spider-Man movies with fresh-faced gaybait maybe isn’t the best long-term business plan.

Anyway, the details are surprisingly awesome:

Earlier today, Marvel announced that Jeph Loeb will be the Executive Vice President in charge of Television, which is a newly created position at Marvel. Loeb’s duties will include overseeing the development of live-action and animated Marvel TV series…

Loeb is primarily known as comic book writer with several titles to his credit… However, Loeb has worked extensively on television series, including “Lost,” “Heroes” and “Smallville.” Additionally, Loeb wrote the films “Commando” and “Teen Wolf” back in the ’80s. [MTV]

The world as I know it makes so much more sense now that I know that Commando was written by a comic book writer. That goes a long way in explaining this:

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Big news in the world of high-minded literature today, as “Gossip Girl” will be made into a Japanese manga comic. I’m going to assume that the story was first broken by the leading trade magazine Tentacle Rape Daily.

Written and illustrated by HyeKyung Baek, “Gossip Girl: For Your Eyes Only” will pull from the same source material as the hit CW television series chronicling the lives of students at an elite private school in New York City, while also offering “an original re-imagination of the girls’ senior year focusing on the lives of Blair and Vanessa.” [MTV]

Waaaaaaaaaaaait a second. Hye-Kyung Baek? That’s a Korean name. Koreans aren’t even half as perverse as the Japanese. I’m sorry, but if this doesn’t feature a hypersexualized cartoon version of Blake Lively getting groped on the subway, I’m just not interested.

Good news and bad news.  The bad news is that Hollywood is going forward with the 800 billionth project about zombies.  The good news is that the comic being adapted for the small screen is the respected The Walking Dead, and it’s being developed into a series by AMC, television’s most reliable channel for making shows that don’t suck.

“Walking Dead,” a monthly black-and-white comic book, has been a hotly sought-after property since it was published in 2003 by Image Comics. Darabont originally developed the project several years ago under his deal at NBC. It landed at AMC after a healthy bidding war.

“Dead” chronicles the months and years following a zombie apocalypse where a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, travel in search of a safe, secure home. The comic explores the challenges of life in a world overrun by zombies that take a toll on the survivors. Over time, they grow willing to do anything to survive, so the interpersonal conflicts sometimes present a greater danger to their continuing survival than the zombies who roam the country. [THR]

I suppose I’m cautiously optimistic.  I haven’t read The Walking Dead, but my trusted nerd sources assure me it’s an excellent read.  And AMC is responsible for “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” as well as the promising-looking “Rubicon” (due next year).  I just hope they cast Crispin Glover as the head zombie.  Think about what they’ll save in makeup!

As the nation continues its day of mourning for Ed McMahon, I’d like to shed light on something that likely won’t make McMahon’s list of credits: he hosted the second (and final) episode of “Legends of the Superheroes,” a 1979 special on NBC designed to be a live-action version of “Super Friends,” the popular cartoon featuring DC Comics’ famed Justice League of America.

McMahon’s purpose here?  Emcee of a roast of the Super Friends (minus Superman and Wonder Woman, who were busy with movie and TV commitments, respectively).  Sounds bad, right?  I haven’t even gotten to the “celebrity” “roaster”: supposed superhero Ghetto Man (Brad Sanders), a casually racist caricature of an inner-city black man in the ’70s.  Yikes.  You’ll notice NBC uses a laugh track here.  It works; I can’t imagine real laughter following these jokes.

(thanks to Mike for the tip)