Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
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.
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.”
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 syndrome, fast cars and a partner who’s a flesh-eating zombie sounds like something you’d like to check out, then click here. VROOM! VROOM!
Yeah, I know I just talked up Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead the other day. And yeah, I know I talk about the series quite a bit. But the series is THAT good. It’s so good that I’m going to mention that Kirkman has a brief interview at CBR.com today.
The Walking Dead is THE comic that I read first each month. My admiration for the comic is legendary. So you just know I’m going to link to this interview, with Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, at Newsarama.
A new trailer for “Knowing” is now available. You can see it at the 
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Say the name Rod Serling and most folks will come back with “The Twilight Zone.” And rightly so. “The Twilight Zone” was a classic sci-fi series that still holds up fifty years later. Although not as well known, Rod Serling’s “The Night Gallery” was his follow-up series which premiered on NBC five years after the cancellation of “The Twilight Zone.”
The conceit of “The Night Gallery” was that Serling would come out and talk about a painting on display in the “Night Gallery” and the teleplay, either an original story [many by Serling himself] or an adaptation of HP Lovecraft, Richard Matheson or another sci-fi or horror writer would follow. The paintings always related to the story that followed. It was a cool idea and I loved the show when it originally aired. [Keep in mind this was the early 70’s and I would have been 11 or 12.]
I’ve been watching episodes on RTN lately and I hate to say it, but many don’t hold up near as well as older episodes of “The Twilight Zone.” Part of the problem could be that “The Night Gallery” episodes in syndication are often cut or expanded to meet the half hour time slot.
I recently discovered this site dedicated to “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.” It’s chock full of information about the series with everything from episode guides, to misconceptions about the series to a gallery of paintings used in each episode. If you have any interest in Rod Serling or “The Night Gallery” you should check out the site. It’s even more fun than some of the episodes it covers!
DreadCentral.com scored the first look at the poster for George Romero’s latest zombie-fest titled “… of the Dead.” I kind of like the title considering that we’ve had “Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,” “Day of the Dead,” “Land of the Dead,” “Diary of the Dead” and even a return to some of the earlier titles. Yeah, “… Of the Dead” works just fine.
