Mulholland Books has released a slick book trailer for comic book writer and author Warren Ellis‘ new book, Gun Machine.

Author and actor Wil Wheaton narrated the trailer, Jim Batt directed and Ben Templesmith drew the illustrations. Without actors or expensive location shoots, the trailer conveys the surreal scene that inspired the story.

We’ve embedded the trailer above–what do you think?

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After commenters left a series of abusive comments and death threats over negative The Dark Knight Rises reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, the site has shut down comments on the film. Rotten Tomatoes editor-in-chief Matt Atchity wrote a long post about the controversy.

Check it out: “If a critic often goes against the majority, but has well-reasoned arguments, it’s unlikely we’re going to ban them, at least not just for having a different opinion. We’re not looking for groupthink here … We’ll ban you for threats and hate speech — we’re trying to have fun here, so (to quote Wil Wheaton) don’t be a d***. And don’t try and argue about your right to free speech — this is a business, and we have the right to refuse service to anyone we feel like.”

He hinted that the network will move to a Facebook-based commenting system, forcing readers to identify themselves. “You’ll have to stand by your comments, just like a critic does,” he explained in the post. Online threats against reviewers could potentially harm all kinds of criticism. In the spirit of preserving independent criticism, we’ve linked to all the unfavorable reviews of The Dark Knight Rises below…

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To raise money for the Lupus Alliance of America, authors John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton have teamed up with Subterranean Press for a fan fiction contest. To enter, you have to write a 400 to 2,000-word story exploring the mythological event pictured here (after the jump, view a much larger version).

All kinds of stories will be accepted, except slash fiction. The winner will earn 10-cents a word for the story, take home a set of Subterranean Press books, and get published in a special eChapbook with stories by Scalzi, Wheaton, Catherynne Valente and Patrick Rothfuss. Deadline is 11:59 pm EST on June 30, 2010. Read all rules and submit here.

Here’s more about the picture: “[W]hat is Wil Wheaton doing astride a unicorn unicorn pegasus kitten, in the INFAMOUS clown sweater, aiming a spear at an Orc version of me? … neither Wil nor I know how we got to the point where we are in the picture. We are open to theories. Theories in the form of fanfic. That’s right: We’re looking for fan fiction which explains what the holy hell is going on in that picture. Because if ever a work was made for fan fiction exegesis, it is the image above.”

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