Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
I’ve been an Entertainment Weekly subscriber since the first issue, so I should find next week’s edition featuring three Walking Dead covers in my mailbox any day.
In case you don’t subscribe, I thought you might like a heads-up on the three Walking Dead covers that are featured. Above is the Rick cover, you can also get an issue featuring Darryl or Carl on the cover.
That’s the Alex Ross poster that will be available at Comic-Con to promote the up-coming season of AMC’s The Walking Dead.
I’m glad that the poster features art, but I’d have rather seen something from Charles Adlard or Tony Moore. If they wanted to go with an artist not associated with The Walking Dead, then how about Steranko or Francesco Francavilla?
John Carpenter’s The Thing is a classic in the horror genre. Most fans consider it Carpenter’s high-water mark.
What many don’t know is that The Thing that was released to theaters was very different from what was originally planned and filmed. When Carpenter saw a rough cut he realized that the movie didn’t work. It lacked tension (can you believe that?), the pace was slow and MacCready (played by Kurt Russell) was just another face in the crowd.
Luckily a six-week break had been built into the shooting schedule. During that time Carpenter…
…restructured the film, wrote what was essentially a new Second Act to conform to the editing he had done (including new death scenes for two characters), adopted MacCready as his spiritual doppelganger, and scrambled to get all of it shot on location in Stewart, B.C. Coming face to face with his own greatest fear – fear of failure – he was able to make THE THING undeniably his…
Stuart Cohen was a co-producer on The Thing. Cohen was on location during filming and in his blog, details the changes that Carpenter brought about to turn a movie that didn’t work into a horror classic.
Posts involving mysteries and unsolved crimes are always popular. Today I present 10 Creepy Mysteries Involving Unidentified People by Robin Warder via Listverse.
Steve Niles was recently interviewed by Kevin Knight at Eat.Geek.Play. (Sadly, that interview is no longer available. But we do have Steve Niles’ Twitter for your viewing pleasure. – Craig, 2021)
Gerardo Moreno is back with his new Wolfman piece. You can see more of his art here at Gerardo’s site. His Wolfman print is also available through Fine Art America.
(This has been a public service announcement — I don’t make a commission on any prints sold. – Craig)
I just learned that Bob Carter passed away yesterday at the age of 83. Mr. Carter was better known to his thousands and thousands of fans as Sammy Terry.
If you grew up in the midwest (especially Indiana) in the 1960’s, odds are you couldn’t wait for each weekend to roll around and for Sammy Terry to present his unique brand of humor coupled with a monster movie or two.
From 1962 until 1989, Sammy Terry hosted Nightmare Theater [later called Shock Theater] and made personal appearances at events throughout the state. Sammy was a big part of many kids’ childhoods, mine included.
Although I’m glad his Sammy Terry character will live on, I’m sad to report the passing of Bob Carter.
A public memorial will be held Friday, July 5, 2013 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Singleton Mortuary, 7602 Madison Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46227.
Like most of you, I’m a fan of (most) zombie movies. Recently The Hollywood Reporter took a look at “Night of the Living Dead” to “World War Z”: The Evolution of Zombie Movies. The title of the article is a little deceptive since the first zombie movie they look at is 1932’s White Zombie that starred Bela Lugosi (which premiered 37 years before Night of the Living Dead).
But I digress, the article shows how zombies in movies have changed over the years. Initially zombies were people put into a trance or raised from the dead. Slowly zombies became anyone who had lost self-control and were influenced by some outside source (black magic, aliens, etc.).
George Romero reinvigorated the zombie genre with his classic Night of the Living Dead. Romero’s zombies were the standard for several years and then folks started to play with the zombie concept. This led to zombies that could learn, zombies that could run, zombie comedies, and even a zombie romance. Yeesh.
Using just the films in The Hollywood Reporter post, here are my top five and a couple of closing comments:
Some final thoughts: I love well-done apocalyptic movies and a zombie film can easily fill the bill. I don’t care if the zombies move fast or slow. A little gore is fine, but I’m not there to see how many ways I can be grossed out. I don’t want zombies that learn, talk or have romantic feelings. That’s just gross. And, as I said, I’m not there to be grossed out.
Sequential Highway recently posted a really good interview with Charles Adlard. In it Adlard talks about taking over the art chores on The Walking Dead from Tony Moore, the fan backlash it caused, the longevity/popularity of The Walking Dead and a whole lot more.
Kudos to Julinda Morrow for posing interesting questions!
The Pitch: “Let’s make a zombie movie [zombies are hot] based on Max Brooks’ World War Z novel [that book is hot] starring Brad Pitt [he’s hot].”
The Overview: A worldwide zombie outbreak is spreading at such an alarming rate that it threatens to wipeout humanity. Brad Pitt plays Gerry Lane, a former UN investigator asked to go with a young scientist and a team of Navy SEALS into a hot zone to see if the scientist can get information to stop the zombie infection. Nothing goes as planned… but does it ever during a zombie outbreak?
The Good:
The Bad:
The Ugly:
The Rating: A
Yesterday I put in my preorder for The Art of Sean Phillips. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Sean Phillips’ art and have been looking forward to his art book for a while. The Art of Sean Phillips is an over-sized 9″ x 12″ hardcover with more than 300 pages!
Here’s how the book description describes it…
The Art of Sean Phillips is a lavish, career-spanning retrospective of the acclaimed artist behind Criminal, Sleeper, Incognito, and Fatale.
Sean has personally selected the very best, most interesting examples of his art for inclusion, from comic strips assembled with childhood friends in his bedroom, through his work for British girls’ comics and 2000AD, to his role as a key artist in the early years of Vertigo, through his superhero work for Marvel, DC, and WildStorm, and finally from his creator-owned series with Ed Brubaker.
Also, the renowned artist has been extensively interviewed, along with many of his key collaborators, for the book’s in-depth commentary on his work and career.
Here’s where you can see some preview pages thanks to Comic Vine.
The Art of Sean Phillips is available for pre-order now.
Image Comics printed blank covers for The Walking Dead #100, and the Hero Initiative commissioned 100 top artists to do an original drawing on each cover to be auctioned for charity. You can see the results here.
Talented artists including folks like Charles Adlard, John Beatty, Chris Ivy, Casey Jones, Karl Kesel, Peter Krause, Jeff Lemire, Shawn McManus, Paolo Rivera, Alex Saviuk as well as so many other turned in awesome art for a great cause.
I posted my favorite of the 100 at the top of this post — it’s by Ken Lashley. Ken’s a new artist to me, but one that I’ll be following.
The Wicked West (written by Todd Livingston & Robert Tinnell, art by Neil Vokes) should be made into a tv series.
Cotton Coleridge is a loner. Quick with a gun and a man with a past. If the town folk don’t kill him the vampires might.
“Cowboys vs Vampires.” ‘Nuff said, right. Well, just in case it’s not…
Cotton Coleridge returns in The Wicked West 2: Abomination and Other Tales (written by Todd Livingston & Robert Tinnell, art by various)
The second volume of Cotton Coleridge tales contains 23 outings of the gunslinger facing supernatural horrors in the wild west.
Who doesn’t love a good western? Who doesn’t love a good monster? Throw ’em together and you’ve got the recipe for a fun tv series.
Victor Gischler and artist Juan Ferreyra have a new series coming from Dark Horse comics called Witch Hunt…
Witch Hunt is the story of Cassian Steele, the boss of the werewolf mafia in New Orleans, who needs to kill an old witch Verona before she exposes a secret that could ruin him. A bounty is put out on Verona’s head, and she is forced to run from werewolf mobsters, vampire maids, voodoo wizards, and zombie ninjas that are out to kill her. What they don’t realize is that Barnabus Black, a demon desperately trying to regain his halo, is her protection.
There’s a short interview at Bloody Disgusting with Victor Gischer that will give you some more intell.
This will definitely be a pre-order for me.
Hey! I almost forgot to mention the cool Dave Johnson cover!
Serial killers sell.
Most people are fascinated with serial killers. This fascination translates to big bucks in movies (The Town that Dreaded Sundown, Saw), television (Dexter, Hannibal), and books (The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon).
We know their names: Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, Hannibal Lector (the only fictionalized serial killer in this group), Son of Sam, The Zodiac Killer, and the list goes on.
Speaking of serial killers and lists, here’s a creepy list of 10 Terrifying Unsolved Serial Murders. Some of those cases are so out there that you’d think they were made up. They’re not. That makes them even scarier than what we see in the movies, on television and in novels.
Which is where we just might see these cases next — in a movie, tv show or book. Because we know that serial killers sell.
Thanks and 911 shoutout to Bill Crider for the link.
