Category: Horror

Big Year for Aliens & Predator

Chris Warner has been at Dark Horse Comics since their very first issue over twenty years ago.  His Black Cross character was featured in their premiere title.  Warner went on to work on other Dark Horse properties like The American, Predator, Barb Wire and many others.  Occasionally he would even come up with a new Black Cross story.  [It’s way past time for another Black Cross mini-series!]

Eventually Warner moved into an editorial position where he suggested the first Aliens vs Predator mini-series [years before the movie came about].  Chris Warner is now the editor in charge of both the Alien and Predator properties for Dark Horse and boy, does he have plans for them this year!  He tells Newsarama [and you] all about it [if you click here].

American Scary

Many ZONErs are horror movie fans.  And a good percentage of us are also Horror Host fans.  That’s why every so often you’ll see me post about Sammy Terry.  That’s also why today I’m linking to the first ten minutes of a documentary about Horror Hosts called “American Scary.” If it looks like something that you’d like then check out the American Scary site.

[Thanks and a raised coffin lid to Mark Evanier for the link.]

“The Descent” Rises to the Occassion

The Pitch: “Charlie‘s Angels” [times two without the comedy] meets “The Cave.”

The Overview: Six women friends on an adventurous weekend of deep cave exploration find themselves in a life or death struggle to find a way out after a cave-in.  Unfortunately the cave-in is the least of their worries… the creatures hunting them plan to feast.

The Good: The feeling of claustrophobia.  The creatures.  There some legitimate scares [and some cheap ones as well].  Juno [Natalie Jackson Mendoza] and Sarah [Shauna Macdonald].

The Bad: Trapped over a mile below the surface, with dwindling food and water, few supplies and no sure way out… and that’s not the worst of it!

The Ugly: The creatures.

The Summary: I wasn’t expecting “The Descent” to be as good as it was.  And while it isn’t a classic, it is a solid horror movie that manages to come up with new creatures and situations in a sub-genre of horror that could have been very routine.  “The Descent” is worth a look.

The Apocalypse is Coming!

I’m a big fan of Victor Gischler’s Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse.  Yesterday at his blog Victor announced:

I’m happy to report that producer Brad Wyman — the dude responsible for some pretty cool films — has optioned my novel Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse. Mr. Wyman is eager to make the film version as close to the novel as possible, and I’m thrilled as hell.

Me too, Victor, me too.

“He’s Mine”

I’ve been a fan of Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead comic series since the first issue.  I generally pick up my comics once and month and invariably the first that I look to read is The Walking Dead.  Part of the reason is you never know who is safe or what is going to happen.  This series has had more jaw-dropping-I-can’t-believe-that-just-happened moments than any other series I’ve ever read.

The current issue is no exception.  There is a scene so tough to read [not because it is gory and not as much for what is happening, but more for what is about to happen] that I actually paused to think, “Kirkman wouldn’t really do THAT, would he?”  I honestly didn’t know.  After what he did to the Governor and many of the major cast members, perhaps he would.  [And no I am not going to spoil it for those of you who haven’t read the issue yet.]

Suffice it to say that the panel shown above made me as happy as when Burt Reynolds showed up with his crossbow in “Deliverance.”

Flatulene – Stinky Good Time

If Rev. Dave Johnson aka “The Potentate” draws it, I’m there.  So today we have a link to Rev. Dave’s trailer for “Flatulene.” What is “Flatulene” you ask?  Well, here’s how “The Potentate” describes it:

Farting for fun and profit… About 3 days of work to put this together for Titmouse Studios second annual 5 second animation day… As I worked on it, her story started to write itself… My inspiration was Russ Myers ‘Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill’… I might even try to pitch this to Adult Swim.

So if a smokin’ hot chick with irritable-bowel syndromefast cars and a partner who’s a flesh-eating zombie sounds like something you’d like to check out, then click hereVROOM! VROOM!

The Crow is Reinvented

Variety has announced that “Stephen Norrington has signed on to write and direct a reinvention of “The Crow,” based on the comic created by James O’Barr.” Norrington is best known as the director of “Blade” [which most folks liked and I didn’t care for] and “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” [which was almost universally panned, and I enjoyed].

Since I’m a fan of the original comic by J. O’Barr, I’m happy to see the character return to the big screen. Let’s hope that this “reinvention” is more like “League” than “Blade.”

Reasoner’s Review – Batman Vampire

Author James Reasoner really enjoyed the Batman: Vampire compilation. [Of course what’s not to love when it’s written by Doug Moench with art by Kelly Jones and John Beatty?] Here are a few quotes from the review:

This is classic Batman with a horror spin… Doug Moench was one of my favorite comics writers… His scripts on these three Batman stories are excellent, with plenty of action and angst… the artwork in this collection by Kelley Jones reminds me a little of Gulacy’s work, as well as Berni Wrightson’s… I’m glad I was able to catch up to these three stories all in one book, and if you’re a Batman and/or horror fan, I think you’ll enjoy them, too.

You can check out Reasoner’s full review here and the Batman: Vampire compilation here.

Dead Irons Lives

Back in October of this year I posted a piece about “Dead Irons” the genre bending mini-series about werewolves, vampires and bounty hunters in the old west. Today Newsarama posted a look at some of cover artist Jae Lee’s character sketches and more. I especially liked when “Dead Irons” artist Jason Alexander said:

“This is seriously the darkest book I’ve ever worked on… it’s so well thought out, it really feels like a classic Sergio Leone’ film, with werewolves and vampires.


You can check out the full post here.

"Killer of Demons"

If you’re a fan of “Frailty” or “Shaun of the Dead” then you might want to check out the three issue mini-series “Killer of Demons” by Chris Yost [writer] and Scott Wegener [artist]. Yost summarizes the series by saying:

Dave Sloan, who wakes up to see that there are actual literal demons from hell among us,” he told CBR, “and a heavenly cherub angel is telling him to kill them all. Which he does, with swords, axes, guns and even a pen. But Dave starts to realize that things aren’t necessarily as they seem.

I think the series looks like fun and plan to order it. CBR.com has a preview of the first issue and a brief interview with Yost and Wergner. Check it out and maybe you’ll want to give it a chance too.