So there’s this blog called Springfield Punx run by a guy named Dean who is apparently an uber-fan of The Simpsons, because he takes the time to regularly draw and post famous people and fictional characters in the singular art style of The Simpsons. He’s posting a new drawing every day this week of characters from Lost.

Monday he posted Hurley, Tuesday he showed us his version of Charlie, and today (Wednesday), he drew Benjamin Linus. No idea who he plans to draw for Thursday or Friday, though it looks like he’s been picking his personal favorites. Personally, I’d love to see him draw the entire cast.

Click on the links for full-sized, full-body images.

A local newspaper in Santa Clarita, California, The Signal, has an interview with teenage actor Sterling Beaumon, who starred two seasons ago as Young Ben Linus in the Season 3 episode, “The Man Behind the Curtain.” Beaumon is returning to Lost this season for a five-episode story arc, starting with the March 15th episode, “Namaste.”

Among other things, Beaumon tells The Signal that since the filming, he now has answers regarding how a nice kid became the manipulative, ruthless Benjamin Linus. “I know what happened on the island, but I can’t tell you,” he says.

Read the entire interview here.

Image: Newscom.

The newest issue of TV Guide (January 5-11, 2009 - “2009 Preview”) contains a quick Q&A with Michael Emerson (Benjamin Linus) about the upcoming Season 5 and the future of his character. A few excerpts:

• When asked about how many of the big answers Ben knows, Emerson responds, “He knows all about the game or battle that he is involved in with Charles Widmore, and I think when the final solution comes at the end of the series, the audience will know as much as Ben does. What are they playing for? World domination? Or perhaps something more abstract.
• Jack found out in the Season 4 finale that some “very bad things” happened on the island after the Oceanic Six left. Emerson’s hint: “Something that Ben did went really wrong.” (My money is on his spinning of the frozen wheel.)

In the “Breaking News” section of the same issue of TVG, there’s a note about Sawyer’s role in the season to come. “I’ve been very busy this season, in a very different way than you’ve seen [Sawyer] before,” says actor Josh Holloway. He goes on to confirm that Sawyer will be taking on more of a “heroic leader” role for those on the island, now that Jack and Kate are both gone, and Locke is no longer part of the group.

Image: Copyright 2006 ©Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Here’s that promised new scene from “Because You Left,” the premier episode of Season 5.

Season 5 begins January 21st with a three-hour premier event. Speculation begins here.

This week’s Dharma Special Access with Lost producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse is a special holiday edition, featuring a new sneak peek scene from the season premier (more on that in a sec) and Team Darlton answering fan questions about the show. Highlights and more after the jump.

Read more

Lyly Ford Blog turned up ten new promotional pictures for Season Five. The pics are individual profile shots that match the cast shots from the Season Five poster (that “Destiny Calls” one you’ve probably seen a dozen times by now), which were obviously Photoshopped together to create the poster. Here’s your chance to see each character image from that poster solo, if that strikes your fancy. Note that these are not official ABC images, but instead appear to be the cut-and-paste (but still very professional looking) concoction of a TV network in Brazil, using the Destiny Calls poster as source material. But they still turn up a few interesting tidbits…

The links and some commentary after the jump. Read more

Lost
Character Profile
Ben Linus
Flash Forwards

These flash forwards are presented in the order that they were viewed on the show. In parenthesis are numbers corresponding to the order that they flash forwards would appear chronologically for Ben’s life off the island.

Episode 4.03: The Economist
(6) Sayid is in a room while Ben looks at his wound. Ben tells Sayid that he was stupid to care for Elsa. “These people don’t deserve your sympathies. Need I remind you what they did the last time you thought with your heart instead of your gun?” Sayid says that Ben used it to recruit him into killing. Ben says, “You want to protect your friends or not, Sayid? I have another name for you.” Read more

During the Lost Season 4 Finale there was an interesting little bit of information revealed about Charlotte’s motives. Miles asks her why she wants to leave the Island, considering she spent so much time trying to find it in the first place. And Charlotte has also said that she’s searching for the place she was born. So perhaps Charlotte was born on the Island?

And if Charlotte was born on the island, could that make her Ben’s lost childhood friend, Annie? That’s what some are speculating. But there are many arguments against this theory, only some of which can be explained!

Arguments against Charlotte being Annie: Read more

The latest edition of Watch with Kristin was meant to clean up some loose ends resulting from the Lost Season Finale. A little bit spoilerish, but certainly no details!

Starting with Jin, the big question was, did he survive the freighter explosion? And the answer is a resounding YES!! “Jin is going to be fine,” Krisin says. She doesn’t know how, but he’s going to be fine. “I suspect that the difference between Michael’s and Jin’s survival is that Michael was trapped inside the hold, whereas Jin being up on the edge of the deck meant he had a chance to be blown clear of the ship.”

Another question revolved around Ben and his funeral parlor appearance. Was this the live Ben or a spirit-version of Ben? Kristin, after reading the comments of the Redux, seems to think that this is the real Ben. After moving the island and landing in the middle of the Tunisian desert, we have seen Ben alive and well and leading Sayid in the quest to kill people. So it seems that he has indeed been exiled from the island, teleported to a future point, and now lives and breathes among the Oceanic 6!

Image used with permission from NewscomSource: E!Online

Thanks to MPmom at the Fuselage for bringing up these connections between John Locke and Ben Linus!!

John

• Mother is Emily L.(Locke)
• Born early (3 months)
• Father issues - dad hates him
• Mother called out “Call him John!” as he was taken from the hospital room after she gave birth
• Meets Horace Goodspeed in a dream, who directs John how to find the cabin
• Kills his father to prove himself to The Others

Ben

• Mother is Emily L. (Linus)
• Born early (2 months
• Father issues, dad hates him
• Mother called out “Call him Benjamin” just before she dies
• Father meets Horace Goodspeed on the road, who later tells him about the island and Dharma
• Kills his father to prove himself to The Others