Word has been spreading fast among the Silly Creatures that the long-rumored big screen version of Jim Henson’s cult TV series Fraggle Rock is finally a go. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception) is set to produce and star in the feature film version. (Interesting side note: Mr. Gordon-Levitt was the voice of Jim Hawkins in the Disney animated film Treasure Planet.) Here what we got from The Nerdist:

Originally an HBO series which ran from 1983-1987, Fraggle Rock centered around a group of tiny creatures called Fraggles, along with the even smaller Doozers who lived among them. The Fraggles and the Doozers lived in a series of caves called Fraggle Rock, and would only venture outside of it to gather radishes to eat, where they would have to avoid the giant Gorgs.

That and get advice from a matronly trash heap named Marjory, and occasionally interact with the human (and his dog) who lives above them all. Trust us, none of this even begins to capture the magic that went into making this show and the magic that viewers took away from it. This new live-action feature film version is being created by the Jim Henson Company and released by New Regency.  (Hmm, not by Disney, eh?) No word yet on a targeted released date, but you can bet you’ll be hearing more about it soon.

Muppet fans around the world were recently saddened by another loss: Jerry Nelson, who had one of the longest careers of anyone in the world of Jim Henson’s Muppets, passed away on Thursday the 23rd at the age of 78. He was best known by legions of children around the world — including many who are now adults — as the voice and puppeteer of Count von Count, the beloved Sesame Street character who loved to count things as much as he loved to laugh maniacally. He was also the voice of the seldom-seen mammoth-like Mr. Snuffleupagus, Herry Monster, and Robin — Kermit the Frog’s young nephew.  More recently he was the voice and hands behind Floyd Pepper, bass player for The Electric Mayhem on The Muppet Show and subsequent movies. And after that, he brought to life Gobo Fraggle, the leader of the band of colorful characters on Fraggle Rock. So far, there’s no word on how Mr. Nelson’s passing might affect any plans that Jim Henson Productions (or their current owner, the Walt Disney Company) might have for a Fraggle Rock movie. As for Mr. Nelson… as Floyd Pepper might say, Rest in Peace my man.

image c. 2012 Jim Henson Productions

Like last month, this month's best item is a big reprint book from Fantagraphics, this time two years of Pogo. Buy it buy it buy it. The Mickey Mouse hardbacks are impressive too.

The diversity of sources continues. This includes some items from Kids Can Press, a Garfield thing from Papercutz, one from Toon Books, and a couple of Dragon Punchers from Top Shelf that I pass over as overjuvie.

This month makes up for the last two: lots of interesting stuff, and, furry aside, a lot of new publishers showing up. I hope both trends hold up. There are still way too many zombies, though. Like Zombies vs. Cheerleaders #4, 'Easily the greatest 21 letter titled comic in history- that has zombies and cheerleaders!

Quite a lot of material this month in addition to the usual; in particular, two impressive hardbacks from Fantagraphics and a new volume of Dungeon from NBM. Also the zombie glut is worse than ever, and an unusual number of manga series come to an end. Most were short-lived compared to Sgt. Frog's 21 volumes, but Hikaru no Go (non-anthro) ends at 23.