Viggo or Leon?

You know I loved Robert B. Parker's novel and am really looking forward to the movie adaptation of "Appaloosa." So when I say that this poster of Viggo from the movie reminds me of Leon Redbone, it's not because I'm trying to dis the movie. Far from it. In fact, I'm trying to talk up the movie by getting you to check out the "Appaloosa" banner at IMPA.com.

RIP: Don LaFontaine

Don LaFontaine died yesterday at the age of 68. You might not know his name, but I'd bet you would recognize Mr. LaFontaine's voice. He was consider the voice-over king, and rightly so. What else would you call the man behind over 5,000 movie trailers, the in-studio announcer for the Academy and SAG awards, and whose voice could be heard on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN, TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network?

I'm going to miss hearing his iconic voice booming, "In a world where..." and I have to tell you movie previews are going to be a little less fun... "In a world where Don LaFontaine no longer resides."

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and fans.

Crossed #0 Review

Crossed #0 [written by Garth Ennis with art by Jacen Burrows] is available now. That's the wraparound cover by Jacen pictured above and it should give you a good idea of what to expect. At first glance, you might think it's another zombie comic, but it's not... at least not exactly.

An event happens which causes a good portion of the population to go crazy. Normal folks in a small town are suddenly surrounded by friends and neighbors killing each other and worse [much worse in some cases]. This introduction by Ennis is smart in that it places us in the middle of things as the insanity spreads. There are enough inspired touches that we understand that this is not a limited event and the world will never be the same. The most frightening scene in my opinion wasn't any of the attacks by the infected, or the bomb blast, or the widespread shots of carnage all around. To me the most creepy shot was of a plane crashing -- we see it strike a clock tower as it hurtles to the ground and then Jacen gives us a close up of the cockpit. In it we see two flight attendants in the background fighting, an infected passenger with an evil grin killing the co-pilot as the infected pilot laughs maniacally as he dives the plane into the ground.

Crossed was definitely good enough that I'll be back for more. Jacen Burrows provides the pencils and inks and this is his best work yet. Greg Waller provides the colors and did a great job in capturing the mood of the book and complimenting Burrows's line work. Garth Ennis's story leaves me wanting more. He knows how to hit all the right notes but be aware that he's not afraid of going over the line when it comes to shocking gore and violence.

Crossed isn't for everyone. However fans of horror and the zombie genre [although the infected aren't zombies... at least traditional zombies] might want to check it out. Issue 0 would be a great place to start. It's only a buck and available now.

Wolverine Roar

Duane Swierczynski posted a link to the full art above. Don't ya just love how the drawing sets up the story. Logan, all alone, walks into a small town wanting nothing more than a cold beer and a place to rest. Instead he learns that a savage creature is on the loose killing everyone in the town... and now that Logan is in town...

It's interesting how Duane got the inspiration for the story and cool that several pages of preview art are available. I pre-ordered my copy last month. If it's something that you think you'd like, be sure to let your local comic shop manager know.

Big Beatty Commissions

My buddy, John Beatty has opened up his commission list. John is best known for his work on Captain America, Secret Wars, Batman, and my personal favorite, The Punisher. John's commission prices are very reasonable, there's something for every budget, and the turnaround time is pretty quick. I'm thinking that it might be time for a new Beatty Stallone piece... although I am partial to his take on Hellboy. You can check out Big John's prices and examples of recent commissions here.

Sketch Society Report

My August Sketch Society Report is now up HERE for those of you interested in that sort of thing.

Roman Thug Life

Evan Bryce is an artist to keep an eye on. His blog should be a regular rest area on your internet travels. Evan's new sketchbook, Roman Thug Life is now available. It contains 54 pages of Evan's work. I'm looking forward to getting a copy. Check it out and you might be too!

Zodiac Killer Unmasked?

If Dennis Kaufman is right, his stepfather was the infamous Zodiac Killer. Kaufman has turned over evidence including handwriting samples, a [potentially blood] stained knife, rolls of undeveloped film, and DNA from his step-father. If Kaufman is correct and his step-father turns out to be the Zodiac, then it may also be true that his mother was one of potentially many victims that were never attributed to the Zodiac. You can read the full story HERE.

[Thanks to Neatorama for the link.]

US Transporter 3 Better

Ten days ago I was pretty sure that I would like the American Transporter 3 poster better than this French one. Now thanks to IMPAwards.com, I'm sure of it.

1-Hit-1-Ders 2

These 1-Hit-1-ders are just too easy. Don't believe me, try this one yourself!

1-Hit-1Ders

I'm on a bit of a roll with a perfect score today. I thought that this quiz of One-Hit-One-Ders was the easiest test yet; which is a bit surprising considering I'm much more into movies than music.

One Shot the One Shot

It's hard to believe it's been a little over three years since my last post about Jason Pearson's Body Bags. I guess if Jason did more issues, I'd talk about them more often. At any rate, he's got a Body Bags one shot aptly titled One Shot coming soon. CBR.com has a preview [not suitable for all ages due to language and comic book violence] that you can see by clicking HERE [if this sort of thing is suitable for you].

Sketch Society Saturday!

Our next Sketch Society get-together is this Saturday. If you like to draw and live within traveling distance to Daytona Beach, Florida, come and join us. Click HERE to learn more about the meeting!

A Scary Start

Ah, finally success. A perfect score in the Scary Beginnings quiz.

5 Years of Walking Dead

It's really hard to believe that The Walking Dead has been around for five years. But it has. And from the very first issue The Walking Dead been one of the best monthly comics published. Longtime ZONErs know that I've been singing it's praises for years.

In October, Image is coming out with the Volume 4 hard cover Walking Dead [which collects issues 37 - 48 of the series] as well as The Walking Dead: The Covers hard cover [which collects the first 50 covers, as well as the various collected edition covers plus sketch book material and commentary].

The Walking Dead is one of the few comics that I like enough to purchase monthly and then again when it comes out in the collected hard cover. The stories are so good that I don't want to wait a year to find out what happens and the price on the hard covers [1, 2, 3] is so inexpensive that trading in my single issues more than pays for the collections!

Mignola's Return to Hellboy

Since we have a lot of Hellboy fans here at the ZONE, I thought I should mention that Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy, will be back in October with the first Hellboy comic that he's drawn in three years! Hellboy: In the Chapel of Moloch is a one shot that finds Hellboy investigatating an ancient chapel where he discovers "an artist compelled by something more sinister than any muse" locked away in order to complete his "life's work."

You can see the entire cover and read more about the issue here.

Unperfect Streak Continues

My unperfect [yeah, I made it up] streak continues with this Opening Lines Quiz. This time I mixed up the opening line to "Shrek" with the opening line to "Sleeping Beauty." Tune in tomorrow and see if my unperfect streak continues!

Babylon AD Director Unhappy

If you've been around the ZONE in the last day or so, you know that I planned to check out "Babylon A.D." this weekend when it premiered. I wasn't going in with high expectations, just the hope that I'd have an enjoyable couple of hours. Now I'm not so sure.

That's Mathieu Kassovitz, "Babylon A.D." director in the photo with Vin Diesel above. Kassovitz says he's very unhappy with the film and that he "never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way [he] wanted it to be." He's especially upset that the film has been cut down to 93 minutes instead of the 108 he was hoping for. Kassovitz doesn't call the film a total waste -- "I like the energy of it and I got some scenes I'm happy with," he says. "But I know what I had -- I had something much better in my hands but I just wasn't allowed to work."

I still may still go see "Babylon A.D." this weekend... but with even lowered expectations. Anyone want to bet that a "director's cut" dvd will be released at some point? You can click here to read the full SciFiScanner.com article.

Beaten by Bela

Arrrgh! Just missed a perfect score again. 8 out of 9. Knocked out of the Gold Medal slot by Bela Lugosi. Here's the link if you want to give it a go.

Diesel is Back, Baby!

Looks like I'm not the only one posting about Vin Diesel today. Slashfilm.com picked up the talk of not one, but two new Riddick movies. JoBlo.com posted the trailer to next summer's "Fast and the Furious" pre-se/quel.

Of course I'd love two Riddick movies twice as much as one... but I'd settle for one done right again [as in Pitch Black right]. I have to admit, the Fast and the Furious trailer had me smiling. I'd be there for the mindless action when it opens.