Steven Grant and the Making of “Two Guns”

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Steven Grant is a writer than I’ve written about many times.

Grant is the co-creator of Damned with Mike Zeck.  Grant is also the writer of the first Punisher mini-series [which took the character from a second-tier guest star to one of the most popular Marvel characters of all-time] as well as the best Punisher stories ever told.

Grant is also the creator [along with artist Mataes Santolouco] of the comic mini-series Two Guns.  As, you’re probably aware, Two Guns is now also a movie starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg.  Grant has written an interesting article that he calls Temporary Madness: Lessons Learned from Watching “Two Guns” Get Made.  You can read part one here and part two here.

Thanks and a front row seat to Two Guns for CBR.com.

 

Stark/Cooke: Parker Will Return in Slayground!

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I seldom run a straight press releases, but IDW’s announcement below is an exception:

San Diego, CA (July 20, 2013) – Darwyn Cooke’s acclaimed Parker series from IDW continues to expand with the classic Slayground. In this newest graphic novel, Parker is put to the test against crooked cops and sleazy gangsters after a heist goes south and he finds himself trapped in an amusement park closed for the winter, and embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse… a game that slowly starts to favor the mouse.

“A boarded up amusement park was an inspired setting for Parker,” said writer/artist Darwyn Cooke, “and Westlake made the most of it. A great story that I’m enjoying the hell out of adapting.”

Based on the influential novels by Richard Stark, AKA, Donald Westlake, Parker is a coldly calculating master criminal, one with a very rigid code. The IDW adaptations by Darwyn Cooke of The Hunter and The Outfit have received multiple Eisner and Harvey awards. The Score, released last year, is nominated for an Eisner Award at this week’s San Diego Comic-Con International. Slayground will be the fourth Parker adaptation in the popular and much lauded series.

Darwyn Cooke’s distinct style has made him a premier writer and artist in the comic book industry. A former animator, Cooke entered mainstream comics in 2000 with his critical hit Batman: Ego for DC Comics.

Donald Westlake, writing as Richard Stark, was the acclaimed author of the Parker series. He was a three-time Edgar Award winner, as well as being named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, that prestigious societies highest honor.

THAT is awesome news.

I knew Cooke was working on Slayground, but I had no idea I could expect it for Christmas.

[Of course, if you’re looking for a great crime comic to read NOW, you can’t do better than theFREE webcomic Gravedigger by Christopher Mills and Rick Burchett.]

 

Simonson Returns to Thor [But It’s Not Your Daddy’s Thor]

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Walt Simonson is returning to a character that he made famous – THOR!  

Hold on there, Kimosabe.  You see it is not the Marvel Comics version of Thor that we’re talking about now.  In fact, as Simonson points out, this take on Thor has to be different than Marvel’s.

And it will.

As Simonson explains…

Thor will be more a wild god of the north. The situation in which he finds himself in “Ragnarök” is quite different from the space the Marvel comic inhabits. It’s a different world and a different time. My Thor is almost a raging god, so it’s quite different from the Marvel character in vastly different circumstances.

 

Do You Plan to Travel “Dead Body Road”

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I’m diggin’ that crime comics are taking off.  Dead Body Road by Justin Jordan and Matteo Scalera premieres in November.

Dead Body Road is a six issue mini-series that tells the story of an ex-cop named Gage who is killing those he feels are responsible for his wife’s death.  According to Jordan it’s a modern-day western, crime thriller, with noir sensibilities.

Can I put in my order now?

Thanks and a quickloader to CBR.com.

[And if you’re looking for a great crime comic to read NOW, you can’t do better than the FREE webcomic Gravedigger by Christopher Mills and Rick Burchett.]

J. O’Barr and “The Crow” Reboot

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Many of you are going to let out a groan or even stop reading when you move to my next sentence; but please read on.

The cult classic film that was Brandon Lee’s last starring role, The Crow, is gearing up for a remake.

I know.  I know.

I agree.  There is no need to remake or reboot The Crow.  Heck, even James O’Barr felt the same way…

I  was 110% against it.  There was no point or need for a reboot.  In my mind, you could throw a $100 million at it, put Johnny Depp in it and had Ridley Scott direct and it wouldn’t top what Alex Proyas and Brandon Lee did.

But after talking with director, Javier Gutierrez O’Barr’s feelings changed and he came on board.  Principal photography starts in October.

The original Crow mini-series was published by Caliber Comics in 1989.  I loved it.  The Crow movie was released in 1994 and I liked it a lot.

Since the release of the first Crow mini-series by O’Barr there have been many attempts to bring back the character or to pass the Crow mantle on to others.  I’ve given each a chance but none has the power of the original.  I have to wonder can lightning in a bottle be caught once again?

Thanks and a wave of a crow’s wing to Shock Till You Drop.

Duane Swierczynski and a Dynamite “Ex-Con”

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Hearing that  Duane Swierczynski is writing an new series called Ex-Con for Dynamite Crime had me smiling enough to star in one of those many “happier than“ Geico commercials.

I’ve been a Duane Swierczynski fan since I first read The Wheelman almost seven years ago.  Since then I’ve read and enjoyed every one of Swierczynski’s crime novels.  Ex-Con sounds like a winner.  Here’s how Swierczynski describes it…

As the name implies, we’re going to be following a jailbird freshly sprung from San Quentin after five brutal years… This is a high-level con artist who thought he could out-think the cops, his marks, his competitors — pretty much everybody — and five years later, he’s still reeling.  To stay alive inside, he had to promise a favor to a convict who’s pretty much a living nightmare in a cage, and now that our man is out, he dreads having to pay up…

With Swierczynski writing and Tim Bradstreet providing the covers, the only thing left to take this series to the top is the right interior artist.  Unfortunately, one hasn’t been chosen yet.

Two artists that came to mind for something like this are Phil Hester and Cully Hamner.  I have no idea if Hester or Hamner would be considered or if they would want to do the series, but from this fan’s perspective, they were the first two artists that I thought of.

Thanks and an early parole to Comicosity and CBR.com for droppin’ a dime.

[And if you’re looking for a great crime comic to read NOW, you can’t do better than the FREE webcomic Gravedigger by Christopher Mills and Rick Burchett.]

“The Black Beetle: Necrologue” is Coming!

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Francesco Francavilla’s Black Beetle is a comic fans love to love.  Part of the reason is that Francesco is such a swell guy.  He gracious, humble and talented.

Francesco has a love — a passion — for comics, monsters, old movies, heroes, and basically all the things that we find cool.  So it was a real joy to discover that his comic mini-series The Black Beetle: No Way Out combined all of those things into a rockin’ story that was a hit with fans and critics alike.

Soon Francesco will be back with The Black Beetle: Necrologue.  You can learn more about it, here thanks to the fine folks at CBR.com.

 

EW Covers The Walking Dead

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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.

Chaykin – The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow

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Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of Moscownians in 1939?

Howard Chaykin.

Or at least he better since Chaykin is the writer and artist of a new miniseries titled The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow.

What’s the story behind The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow, you ask?  Well according to Howard Chaykin…

“My new miniseries, The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow, tells the secret story behind the Shadow’s disappearance in 1949.”

If you’d like to know more, then click over to CBR for their post Howard Chaykin Reunites with the Shadow for Midnight in Moscow.

24 Interesting Tidbits About “I Love Lucy”

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Here are 24 Interesting Tidbits You May Not Have Known About “I Love Lucy.”

Although I knew most, I was surprised by a couple…

10. The first episode of I Love Lucy aired when Lucille Ball was 41.

and

23. I Love Lucy was the first to series to end its run at No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings.

Thanks to Ashley Perez and Buzzfeed.com who have “Some ‘splaining to do.”

 

The New “Walking Dead” Poster

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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?

The 25 Greatest Westerns of All Time

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Recently Hollywood.com posted Christian Blauvelt’s choices for The 25 Greatest Westerns of All Time.

Blauvelt’s list has an interesting mix of classic (“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” – “The Wild Bunch” – etc.), obscure (“The Ruthless Four” – “The Great Silence”), and guilty pleasures (“The Quick and the Dead”). 

My only question is how can ANY list of the 25 Greatest Westerns of All Time not have a spot for “The Outlaw Josey Wales”?