Month: December 2008

Big Beatty’s Bailout

We’ve been hearing a lot of talk about bailouts lately. [Lord knows I could use one. Bet you could too.] Barack Obama is proposing a bailout. So is President Bush. The problem with both of their proposals is that politics gets in the way, slows things down and gums up the works.

That’s why I’m happy to say that the third fellow pictured above is proposing a different kind of bailout. His name is John Beatty and he’s proposing a Christmas Bailout that is guranteed to help those the bailout is for [namely John and his family] PLUS it offers something back to those doing the bailing [Namely a sweet comission at a really decent price AS WELL AS a free sketchbook should your piece be included]. You can read the full details here.

Man, if only our country’s economic woes could be solved so quickly and with everyone coming out a winnah!

Welcome to the Jungle

I don’t know anything about the new A&E show Manhunters: Fugitive Task Force other than I really like the poster promoting it. The poster is better than most created for today’s feature films. In fact, if the show is as good as the poster it’ll be worth viewing. I think I’ll tune in and see. [In other words the poster did it’s job.]

Nazi Zombie Action

Harry over at Ain’t It Cool News posted a link to a trailer for “Dead Snow” — a zombie movie that was screened at the 09 Sundance Film Festival. Knowing how much ZONErs love horror movies, and the zombie genre, I thought a link here would be appropriate… but first a few words… there’s violence [zombies eating, killing and being killed] and strong [subtitled] language — this is not appropriate for younger readers. As I watched the trailer with the Nazi zombies I kept thinking, “Boy, do they need Hellboy to show up!”

With that said, if you’re age appropriate and want to see some Nazi zombie action, then click here.

RIP: Forrest J. Ackerman

Forrest J Ackerman has died at the age of 92. Probably best known as the founding editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, Ackerman made his living as a literary agent, magazine editor and occasional actor.I grew up loving monster movies and of course Famous Monsters of Filmland. Although it was chock full of movie stills, interviews with the folks behind those movies, and more — it wasn’t until I was in my late teens/early twenties that I discovered that nearly all of those things that I enjoyed about the magazine came from Forrest Ackerman. His collection of memorabiliai ncluded many original movie props, autographs, over 50,000 books and much, much more. He kept it all in his house. Fans were often invited in to hear classic anecdotes as they toured. Sadly, in his later years Mr. Ackerman was forced to sell off his collection piece by piece.

Mr. Ackerman is said to have discovered Ray Bradbury and to have coined the term “sci-fi.” And while both of those are “definite claims to fame” — I don’t think that my childhood would have been as fun without Mr. Ackerman’s influence on Famous Monsters of Filmland.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his fans around the world.

Not the Worst

O.J. Simpson was sentenced today to at least 15 years in prison.

All I really have to say about that is, what kind of person must you be if you’re convicted of a dozen felonies, including armed robbery, kidnapping, burglary, conspiracy and assault and those aren’t the worst crimes you’ve ever been charged with?

Z-View – Marlow: Soul of Darkness

 

The Pitch: A hardcase with a secret leads a small group of mercenaries onto an island full of zombies in order to rescue a scientist.The Good: The concept. The Marlow character and his associates. The art by Mathew Reynolds shows a lot of promise with inspired panels/poses. Running some of the original proposal pages [by a different artist] was cool.

The Bad: The lack of backgrounds — at times it works, but as the story progressed I missed them and wanted more than just gray-scale figures, etc. The fact that Marlow almost always has a cigar in his mouth became a bit much.

The Ugly: The logo needs to be reworked. The shop owner where I bought Marlow said he had no idea what the title was when he first looked at the cover. The price tag of $4.95 felt a bit high.

The Summary: Marlow was created by Aaron Thomas Nelson and Dario Carrassco Jr. The first issue is 46 black and white pages with a color cover, written by Aaron Thomas Nelson art by Mathew Reynolds. I enjoyed the first issue and feel like Nelson and Reynolds could have a hit on their hands if they stick with it.

Rating: