Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Yesterday, I said that I usually don’t buy tv series dvds for my collection. Then I talked up one. Any guess what I’m about to do today?
Yep, today I’m recommending the first season dvd of Superman.
If you’re anywhere near my age [46], then George Reeves WAS Superman. And sure, the effects were low budget [ok, no budget], but man, did we love the show.
I can’t wait to get the chance to love it again!
I usually don’t purchase tv series for my dvd collection.I may make an exception though when Lost comes to dvd on September 6th.
Lost was on my “Must See TV” list from its premiere and it continued to gain momentum with each new episode. What was not to like? Great characters. A great mystery. And just enough info to REALLY wonder what the heck is going on.
The dvd extras and price [$38.99] also add to the appeal for making Lost a dvd addition to my collection.
You may remember the sage advice of The Mayor of Carter Country… No, not “Handle it, handle it, Roy.” His words of wisdom were, “Always be kind to your mother.”Mr. T agrees. So Treat Your Mother Right and quit yer jibber-jabberin’.
And don’t give me no backtalk!
It was a running joke in Escape from New
York that almost everyone Snake Plissken ran into thought he was dead. Escape from New York was released in 1981 and although it was a fan favorite, it wasn’t a block buster.
Everyone pretty much thought that was it for Snake… that he was dead.
Then 15 years later, Escape from LA was released. It also developed a cult following, but wasn’t a block buster.
Everyone pretty much thought that was it for Snake… that he was dead.
In 2002 CrossGen published the first two issues of John Carpenter’s Snake Plissken Chronicles. CrossGen then folded… but Snake wasn’t dead. Hurricane Entertainment published the last two issues.
Everyone pretty much thought that was it for Snake… that he was dead.
Alias Comics and Hurricane Entertainment are teaming to bring back John Carpenter’s Snake Plissken Chronicles this November when a collection of the original four-issue miniseries
will be published.
Movie and comic fans will love this news since the original mini-series sold “strong from start to finish.” For most comic art fans, the cover alone will be worth the price of admission since
it’ll be by Drew Struzan [and as an added treat don’t forget that Tone Rodriguez provided the pencils for the series].
Snake Plissken is my favorite John Carpenter character and translates easily to comics. Who knows, maybe if this collection sells well, we’ll see more of Snake’s adventures.
Anyone here think that Snake Plissken is dead?
Last Saturday I started hyping Shelton Drum’s Heroes Con for 2006. I did this partly because Wizard announced their Atlanta Convention would be held the same weekend, but mainly because I love Heroes Con.
This isn’t news to anyone who’s been reading the ZONE for any length of time. What may be news though, is the fact that Wizard has announced that they will not have the Atlanta Show in 2006, and when they do schedule it, it won’t be the same weekend as Heroes.
And if you think that’s great news [and it is — I want to be able to support both shows, but if I have to choose, there is no choice for I will be at Heroes!] then wait till you see the guests who’ve already signed up for Heroes 2006!
Man, I can’t wait!
If you’re still not sold on the idea of attending, then check out these pictures and con report from 2005 [some provided by yours truly].
Hopefully, I’ll see you there!
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Most of you probably remember that I was pretty stoked when it was reported that Zack [Dawn of the Dead] Snyder looked to be taking the director’s spot for the movie adaptaion of Frank Miller’s epic 300. Harry at Ain’t It Cool News reported today that Snyder plans to film it like Robert Rodriguez did with Sin City – a near shot for shot panel recreation of the comic. The film has been budgeted at $60 million with shooting to begin this fall. And I, for one, am still stoked! |
On November 27th of this year, Bruce Lee would have been 65 years old. Amazing isn’t it?
It’s hard to imagine Bruce as ever being older than 32, since that’s how old he was when he died on July 20, 1973. Think about that for a second. Bruce Lee died 32 years ago. Bruce has been dead now for a longer period of time than he lived. And yet, you can say his name to almost anyone of any age and they know who Bruce Lee was.
My guess is that he’s more popular now than he was while alive. I say that because each year a new generation discovers Bruce Lee and his movies [and he only made a handful of kung fu movies before he died].
I’m old enough that my first memory of Bruce was as Kato on The Green Hornet. Man, Kato was cool! Of course, that was because of Bruce‘s charisma.
After The Green Hornet, Bruce‘s next onscreen performance was with James Garner in Marlowe. Bruce had a small role as a martial artist thug.
I also fondly remember my anticipation to see Bruce in the tv movie “Longstreet.” Lee played the part of a martial artist who trains a blind insurance investigator the art of self defense. When the movie spun off into a short lived tv series, Lee was brought back for four of the 23 episodes.
It wasn’t long after that Bruce Lee‘s Fist of Fury aka The Big Boss hit the US. It was quickly followed by The Chinese Connection and Return of the Dragon [with Chuck Norris fighting Bruce to the death]. Bruce Lee fever was growing, but it wasn’t until the release of Enter the Dragon that Bruce Lee mania really soared. Sadly, Bruce Lee died three weeks prior to it’s premiere in the USA.
As you probably know, Enter the Dragon is the classic Bruce Lee movie… it’s still the best kung fu movie ever made… and arguments can be made the best action movie as well.
After Bruce‘s death, producers sought every way possible to continue to make money from Bruce Lee. Green Hornet episodes were combined and released as features with Kato getting top billing! The Game of Death, the movie that Bruce was working on when he died was completed with a look-alike and bad effects and it was released. Several movies were released “based” on the life of Bruce Lee [but made to look like new Bruce Lee movies], equally as bad were the movies starring guys like Bruce Li or Bruce Le trying to pass as the original. The one excellent documentary that should be in every Bruce Lee fan’s collection is
Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey.
Earlier this year Bruce Lee was named “Chinese Film’s Bright Star of the Century.” This November, in honor of Bruce‘s 65th birthday and bigger than life bronze statue of Bruce will be errected in Hong Kong’s Avenue of Stars. You can read the details HERE.
Yeah it’s true that Bruce Lee died 32 years ago… but it’s equally true that Bruce Lee will live forever!
“Marlowe” rates a C+
“Fists of Fury” rates a C
“Chinese Connection” rates a C
“Return of the Dragon” rates a B
“Enter the Dragon” rates an A+
“Game of Death” rates a C
“Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey” rates an A+
As regular ZONErs know, it’s become a Zablo family tradition to attend the annual Heroes Convention in Charlotte. I start talking up the show each year as the date for the convention gets closer and new guests are announced. Usually my hype begins about six months before the show.
This year I’m starting a bit early.
Like NOW.
WizardWorld [a big company that puts on conventions all over the US] has purposely scheduled their convention in Atlanta the
same weekend as Heroes.
Coincidence you say? Nope.
You see, Shelton has made it an annual tradition to announce his next convention date a year in advance [and his show has always been held in mid to late June].
This year, because there were rumors that Wizard was looking at Atlanta, Shelton wrote them to find out the date that they were looking at. Shelton even offered to support their show as long as their schedules didn’t fall on the same weekend.
You can imagine everyone’s surprise when Wizard announced that their Atlanta convention would fall on the same weekend as Heroes. You can read the details here and here.
Well, I’m happy to say that pros and fans have rallied around Shelton‘s show. Casey Jones, Tony Harris, Bryan Hitch, Greg Rucka, Joe Pruett, J. Michael Straczynski, Cliff Chiang, Mark Bagley and Ethan Van Sciver all quickly announced that they’d be at HEROES and NOT the Atlanta convention next year. Additionally, Cully Hamner, Brian Stelfreeze and Karl Story who live in Atlanta have announced that they will be at Heroes as well!
Heroes 2006 may end up being the best Heroes ever. My hope is that the folks running the Wizard show will reconsider and reschedule. They’ve already started a bit of backtracking…
At any rate, if Wizard changes their date or not, I’ll be at Heroes in ’06.
Hopefully you will too!
Last night I watched “Hide and Seek,” a psychological thriller starring Robert DeNiro and Dakota Fannning. The movie was pretty good, but that’s not the point of this post…
In the movie DeNiro keeps waking up at 2:06 AM. The first time that this happens, he discovers his wife has committed suicide. As the movie progresses 2:06 AM becomes a significant plot point and the audience is left wondering [until the resolution] why DeNiro wakes up at 2:06 AM.
It was pretty creepy. Especially late in the movie, as Deniro searches for a killer in the house and suddenly Dakota holds up a child’s clock set to 2:06 AM. Now THAT was very creepy, but it’s still not the creepy moment I’m leading up to.
Overall the movie was a fun way to spend a couple of hours and I really enjoyed how the dvd set up the alternate endings [there were several]. Ah, but I digresss… so on to the REAL creepy moment…
Later that night I woke up feeling the need to go to the restroom. Now most nights, I sleep through until the morning. Occasionally I’m compelled to get up in the middle of the night for a trip to the john, so it’s not totally unusual that this would happen. Last night when I woke to go, I looked to see what time it was… and you guessed it… the digital clock read 2:06 AM.
Now THAT was creepy!
“Hide and Seek” rates a B
Remember when I told you that I thought that Mariah Carey looked like she had painted on her abs for her 4th of July Macey’s performance?
I thought it was just a funny little item and was surprised when it was picked up here and a bunch of other places.
The July 25, 2005 issue of US Weekly even has the story in it’s This Minute You Want to Know About section.
The piece, Did Mariah Fake Her Six-Pack? brings everyone up to speed: “Sure, Mariah Carey‘s back on top of the charts, but who knew her stomach muscles were also making a comeback?” The author then asks a make-up expert and a rep for Mariah Carey to weigh in on the subject.
The make-up artist [Sally Blenkey-Tchasova, owner of one of the places that started the whole “spray-on” craze] was quoted as saying, “It looks like she was helped by make-up or air-brush tanning. Even if a woman is really ripped, abs are generally not that symmetrical.”
You’re probably as surprised as I am [meaning not very], that Mariah’s rep denies that the abs are fake without every really saying their not. “This is ridiculous. She has been eating right and working out for three hours a day. Mariah has never looked or felt better.
The picture to the right was taken about three weeks before the one at the top of this post. So, ZONErs… what do you think?
Steve Niles, Rob Zombie and Nat Jones teamed last year to produce The Nail, which was one wild ride.
Niles and Jones had such a fun time working together that they’re reteaming to bring us Giant Monster, a 2 issue [@ 48 pages each] mini-series from Boom Studios.
Giant Monster is the story of an astronaut who, while in space, is infected with a parasite and upon his return to Earth, uh… runs into a few problems. ; )
Way back in April, I posted an
item about the return of Jason Pearson’s “Body Bags.”
At that time Jason said if the response to the reprints was good enough, we’d see the return of Mack and Panda.
Today it was announced that two new Body Bags projects are in the works.
In November we’ll get Body Bags: 3 The Hard Way, which will include a new 20 page story called “Hit ‘Da Switches,” along with two older short stories that will be re-printed in color for the first time ever. Then in January, Jason will follow up with an all new 48 page Body Bags one-shot.
Ah, life continues to be good!
A few days ago I made the statement, “Sequels are rarely as good as the original.” And yet I, like many of you, love to see sequels.
On the weekend of September 2, I’ll probably be in a theater watching Transporter 2. The original was an unexpected toddy. The Transporter not only did better at theaters than was expected; it also was a hit with the dvd crowd. So much so, that a Transporter Special Edition dvd is in the works.
I thought The Transporter would be an enjoyable way to spend an hour and a half, but was surprised at just how much fun it turned out to be.
Much of that enjoyment was the result of Jason Statham in the lead role and the over the top action. Well, I’m happy to say that both will be back in full force.
My recent trip to Heroes Con 2005 was recounted here, but now that I’ve posted my art pick-ups in my Stallone Gallery, I thought that I should also provide links not only on the SZ [for Stallone fans], but also here in the ZONE for my blog and comic friends.
My first piece posted, by Steve McNiven, was actually one that I got at MegaCon
2005 when Steve was sketching for the ACTOR charity.
Rick Leonardi was the first artist I approached at Heroes 2005. I’m a long-time Leonardi fan and was very pleased that he agreed to draw Rambo for me.
Brian Walker surprised me with this fun sketch of Sly as Lincoln Hawk from Over the Top. As a bonus, Brian even through in [or is that drew in] Bull Hurley!
What a great gift!
Mike Ploog was an artist that drew some of my favorite childhood comics.
I couldn’t pass up a chance at a freebie head sketch from Mr. Ploog and love
his take on Jack Carter.
I loved Nat Jones‘s work with Steve Niles on The Nail. Nat was one of the artists that I really wanted to try and get something from at Heroes. You can imagine how happy I was when he agreed to draw Cobra.
Gary McKee and I have been talking about him doing a piece for my Stallone gallery for a while. I was extremely happy when he agreed to do me a water color piece. I was even happier when I saw the end result.
Let’s cut to the chase. Casey Jones did one of the finest Stallone sketches I have yet to receive. He hit a homerun, raised the bar, use whatever metaphor you’d like… or just click HERE and… see for yourself!
I knew that my sketch from Cliff Chiang was going to be very good. How could it not be, it’s Cliff Chiang! What I didn’t know was that Cliff was going to follow Casey Jones‘ lead and create one of my all-time favorite pieces. Not only did Cliff add Adrian to the mix, but he also captured the essence of their characters. Wow!
If you’ve read this far, you’re a true fan of Stallone, comic art or both. Either way, let me give you a heads-up… yesterday I received a piece of art for my Stallone gallery from an artist whose work I’ve admired for years. I never dreamed that I get something from him, since he rarely goes to conventions or sketches for fans. I’m still in shock. The piece was a gift and is so nice. I’ll add it to my gallery in a day or two after I quit staring at it.
Anyone want to comment on my latest sketches or take a guess as to who the mystery artist might be?
