Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Variety announced today that AMC is…
“close to finalizing one of the richest development deals ever with [Frank] Darabont to write and direct a series adaptation of the Image Comics graphic novel series ‘The Walking Dead,’ penned by Robert Kirkman.
As a reader who has been with the series since issue one, and who still reads it immediately after getting home, you’d be right to say I’m thrilled. This has the potential to be really, really good.
If you enjoyed “The Crow” comic book series or movie, or you’re a James O’Barr fan, then you might want to check out this excellent profile posted by the fine folks at CBR.com. Heck, you’ll even learn what O’Barr did with all the money he made from “The Crow” movie… and my guess is you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Chris Moreno worked up this very nice color take on Sly from “Cop Land” for me at a convention last year. My buddy picked it up when I had to leave the show early and I didn’t end up getting it in my possession until just recently.
Man, I really like Chris’ art and my piece is an excellent example of “why.” He’s a talented artist with a huge sense of humor. What a great combination! You can check out more of Chris’ art here.
Tommy Lee Edwards worked as a concept artist on Denzel Washingon’s next film, “The Book of Eli”. Edwards also created this very cool promotional poster to help Warner Bros. promote the film at the San Diego ComicCon.
CBR.com posted a larger version of the piece above along with a mini-interview with Troy Duffy, the man behind “The Boondock Saints.” You may remember that Duffy was a bartender in 1997 who scored a million dollar deal with addtional benefits based on his “Boondock Saints” screenplay. Before the film was completed, Duffy’s rampaging ego alienated his family, friends, and the production company behind his big bucks deal. Ultimately “The Boondocks Saints” was never given a wide theatrical release, Duffy had burned his bridges and gone through the money.
A funny thing happened when “The Boondock Saints” went to dvd and cable. It became a cult hit! Now, tweleve years later, and without any additional films in between, Duffy is coming back with “The Boondock Saints 2.” As a tie-in to the movie, Duffy has teamed with 12 Guage to create a comic that will expand “The Boondock Saints” story. Chris Brunner [an excellent artist] will provide covers to the series with an interior artist to be named later.
The movie and comic are projects to keep an eye on. Let’s hope that Duffy has become a bit of a “Saint” too.
When I was in high school and college I bought a lot of Marvel comics. Then as I got older I found myself bying fewer and fewer Marvels. It even got to the point that I’d go months [years?] without getting anything from the house that Stan and Jack built. Of course I was buying fewer comics in general…
Imagine my surprise to find that my Preview order this month has nine comics and four of them are from Marvel [Punisher Annual #1, Punisher: Frank Castle Max #74, Dominic Fortune #2 and Criminal: Sinners #1]. Of course if Marvel continues to feature art by Dave Johnson, Jason Pearson, Howard Chaykin and Sean Phillips with stories by Rick Remender, Victor Gischler, Howard Chaykin and Ed Brubaker, how can I not buy ’em?
Check out Geoff Boucher’s great LA Times review of Darwyn Cooke’s adaption of Richard Stark’s The Hunter by clicking here. I can’t wait to pick up my copy. When reviews are universally this good, how can you go wrong?
Every so often, when you’re a Paul Gulacy fan like me, you just want to see some of Paul’s great art. The shot of Sabre above should do the trick.
The cover above features the first appearance of a character created by Chris Warner called Black Cross. Dark Horse Presents #1 was an anthology and Black Cross got the cover. The character was also popular enough to spin off into a mini-series, a couple of stand alone short comic stories and a one-shot. At one point, Black Cross was even close to becoming a big screen feature with Howie Long in the title role. At about the same time another Black Cross mini-series was in the works called “My War”. Neither it or the movie ever happened.
Maybe one day Chris Warner will bring back Black Cross.
Hey! Chris Mills recently held a contest in honor of his birthday. How about that? Chris gives presents to readers to celebrate another year on this planet. So… he had a drawing for a two issue mini-series that he wrote back in the day called “Bloodthirst: The Nightfall Conspiracy” and I was the lucky winner.
Chris runs a lot of cool sites including: Atomic Pulp, Femme Noir, Perils on Planet X, Guns in the Gutters, and many others. Chris also wrote one of my all-time favorite crime comics, Gravedigger: The Scavengers and is currently working on a Gravedigger sequel in between running all of his websites and working on other writing projects. Check out his sites. My guess is you’ll find several that will appeal to you.
Howard Chaykin is back in the news again. Newsarama caught him with him and they discussed the return of Dominic Fortune and in a separate interview the return of American Flagg.
It’s been a long day. Went in to work early for three hours [well, for summer anyway when I’m supposed to be off] — then ran some errands, came home and did some major spring [summer cleaning] and worked to get my computer up and running again. Actually, things went pretty well. Then I came across the latest poster for Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” and things got even better. It kind of reminds me of an old Captain America cover. Of course Cap wouldn’t have machine gunned the Nazis.
Hey! I dug into the ZONE vault and found another of my favorite Master of Kung Fu covers from back in the day. That is of course, the great Mike Zeck who did the pencils and inks on this bad boy.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge Howard Chaykin fan. It’s also no secret that Chaykin’s classic American Flagg series is being reprinted in nice hardcover editions. What I didn’t know until reading this interview with Chaykin at Newsarama today, is that Power and Glory, Black Kiss and Midnight Men are going to be collected and reprinted in their own hardcover editions!
CBR.com caught up with Dan Brereton and he gives us the lowdown on the Nocturnals collected editions. I dig the Nocturnals, but would really love to see Dan’s work on The Black Terror reprinted in a nice hardcover.
