Believe it or not, no one is up in our house yet, but me. The kids, the wife, the dogs -- everyone is still fast asleep. That's okay though. I'm enjoying the quiet before the storm of Christmas morning. There are so many things I love about Christmas. One of them is when folks make their own Christmas cards. The one at the top of this piece is by the uber-talented Dave Johnson. It's just one of the many posted over at Newsarama.com. Oh, and be sure and check out this really cool one by Rick Burchett and Chris Mills.Oh-oh. Sounds like everyone is starting to wake up. Have a great day!
I recently discovered that Francesco Francavilla was offering a free quick sketch with every sketchbook purchased from his blog. Since I'd been a fan of his work for a while, I decided that the time was right to take advantage of the deal. I checked to make sure that he was down for a Stallone piece [he was] and then Paypalled him some of my hard earned smack-a-toons for a copy of Chiaroscuro Volume I and a Stallone quick sketch. Francesco quickly contacted me to say that he'd received the order and that he'd be sending it out by the end of the week. About midway into the next week a securely wrapped package arrived. [Francesco must have heard about my mail carrier!] I opened it to find the sketchbook and Francesco's take on Sly as Freddy in Cop Land. I sat down and checked out the book which is chock full of sketches -- everything from Batman to Zorro to Sin City to Judge Dredd, the Fantastic Four, Hellboy and so much more!
Talk about a great deal -- the sketchbook and original piece of art for twenty-three bucks including postage! I plan to go back for the second sketchbook, Schermoscuro Volume 1 after the first of the year. Check out Francesco's web site and you may want in on the deal yourself.
PS -- I plan to post Francesco's Cop Land piece this weekend.
Variety has announced that "Stephen Norrington has signed on to write and direct a reinvention of “The Crow,” based on the comic created by James O’Barr." Norrington is best known as the director of "Blade" [which most folks liked and I didn't care for] and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" [which was almost universally panned, and I enjoyed].
Since I'm a fan of the original comic by J. O'Barr, I'm happy to see the character return to the big screen. Let's hope that this "reinvention" is more like "League" than "Blade."
Author James Reasoner really enjoyed the Batman: Vampire compilation. [Of course what's not to love when it's written by Doug Moench with art by Kelly Jones and John Beatty?] Here are a few quotes from the review:This is classic Batman with a horror spin... Doug Moench was one of my favorite comics writers... His scripts on these three Batman stories are excellent, with plenty of action and angst... the artwork in this collection by Kelley Jones reminds me a little of Gulacy’s work, as well as Berni Wrightson’s... I’m glad I was able to catch up to these three stories all in one book, and if you’re a Batman and/or horror fan, I think you’ll enjoy them, too.
Back in October of this year I posted a piece about "Dead Irons" the genre bending mini-series about werewolves, vampires and bounty hunters in the old west. Today Newsarama posted a look at some of cover artist Jae Lee's character sketches and more. I especially liked when "Dead Irons" artist Jason Alexander said:"This is seriously the darkest book I've ever worked on... it's so well thought out, it really feels like a classic Sergio Leone' film, with werewolves and vampires.
You can check out the full post here.
If you're a fan of "Frailty" or "Shaun of the Dead" then you might want to check out the three issue mini-series "Killer of Demons" by Chris Yost [writer] and Scott Wegener [artist]. Yost summarizes the series by saying:Dave Sloan, who wakes up to see that there are actual literal demons from hell among us,” he told CBR, “and a heavenly cherub angel is telling him to kill them all. Which he does, with swords, axes, guns and even a pen. But Dave starts to realize that things aren't necessarily as they seem.
I think the series looks like fun and plan to order it. CBR.com has a preview of the first issue and a brief interview with Yost and Wergner. Check it out and maybe you'll want to give it a chance too.
The Pitch: A hardcase with a secret leads a small group of mercenaries onto an island full of zombies in order to rescue a scientist.The Good: The concept. The Marlow character and his associates. The art by Mathew Reynolds shows a lot of promise with inspired panels/poses. Running some of the original proposal pages [by a different artist] was cool.The Bad: The lack of backgrounds -- at times it works, but as the story progressed I missed them and wanted more than just gray-scale figures, etc. The fact that Marlow almost always has a cigar in his mouth became a bit much.The Ugly: The logo needs to be reworked. The shop owner where I bought Marlow said he had no idea what the title was when he first looked at the cover. The price tag of $4.95 felt a bit high.The Summary: Marlow was created by Aaron Thomas Nelson and Dario Carrassco Jr. The first issue is 46 black and white pages with a color cover, written by Aaron Thomas Nelson art by Mathew Reynolds. I enjoyed the first issue and feel like Nelson and Reynolds could have a hit on their hands if they stick with it. Check out this preview and see what you think.
It's no secret that I love drive-in theaters... and comic books. So does Mike San Giacomo. Mike is a writer who took his passion for drive-ins and comics and created a pretty cool concept for a graphic novel. Mike wrote "26 illustrated stories and six text stories set in a drive-in theater." The stories take place over a 53-year period. Each story had to accomplish three things: - It had to be able to stand alone, make perfect sense even if nothing else was read.
- Each stand-alone story must still advance the overarching storyline of the graphic novel as a whole.
- Each story had to somehow relate to the movie that is playing at the drive-in at the time.
Darwyn Cooke recently talked with CBR.com about his work on the upcoming comic adaptations of Richard Stark's Parker novels. It's great to hear how closely Stark and Cooke are working and how much Cooke loves the project. You can see and hear the interview here.
Here at the ZONE we love a good zombie tale. We are also partial to excellent crime stories. So... you just know we're going to have to check out Dead Goombas by J. Torres and Andy B. [even if it is a comedy]. You can get a preview by clicking here.
It's a special time when Hellboy creator, Mike Mignola, returns to write AND draw his creation. The stars and planets must have lined correctly because this week Mignola returns to do just that in the Hellboy one shot “In the Chapel of Moloch.” You can see some preview art and learn more about it here.
On Wednesday, SlashFilm.com reported that Warner Bros had acquired the rights to a French 3 issue graphic novel series called "Headshot." It's about a hitman and cop who, when their partners are killed, form an uneasy alliance to get revenge on the powers that set them up. You just know this story sounds like something I'd dig. And I the art, by Alexis Nolent, looks to sweeten the deal. I'd love to see an English edition... and plan to keep an eye out on the movie's progress.
I'm not expecting a classic, but "Punisher: War Zone" continues to look better and better. There's a new clip at the official web site. You can get there from here.
I've been following Eric Powell's "The Goon" since his self-publishing days. Although it's been eight years and Eric has moved into the big leagues with Dark Horse publishing "The Goon," it's as good as ever. And I'm not the only one who feels that way. This year Eric picked up two Eisner Awards [Best Painter and Best Humor Writer/Artist].
