Author: Craig Zablo

Halloween Fun!

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Man, I love Halloween!

As we get closer to the big night, I find myself drawn to scary books and movies. For some reason even more so than usual this year. Maybe it’s because there are so many good ones available.

I just finished reading Steve Niles’ Dial M for Monster. Dial M is a book of short stories featuring his monster hunter, Cal McDonald. You’ve heard me praise Niles’ work before and this book is no exception. I love everything about the world Niles has created for Cal [and I’m especially glad I can safely visit without fear of vampires, werewolves, fiends or other creatures coming after me!]. I’d suggest that you start with Guns, Drugs and Monsters [the first novel in the series] and then follow it up with Savage Membrane [the second].

If you’d like to get a taste of Niles’ work before commiting to a novel, then by all means check out 30 Days of Night. This award winning comic series [with art by the extremely talented Ben Templesmith] is being developed into a feature film produced by none other than Sam Raimi! Why wait for the film? The graphic novel is available now and well worth every penny!

Changing gears just a bit… on Tuesday, one of my two favorite movies so far this year, becomes available! That’s right 28 Days Later is available Tuesday! Man, I can’t wait!

If you’ve read this far, then you’re probably a real horror fan. You probably already know that a Dawn of the Dead remake starring Ving Rhames is coming out next March. But did you know that the trailer is available now? At first I didn’t think that a re-make of Dawn of the Dead was a good idea since the original trilogy [Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead] by George Romero are considered cult classics. But I did like the remake of Night of the Living Dead ]… plus Ving Rhames is starring… so why not? Plus, it’ll give me one more thing to love about Halloween!

As We Head into Halloween How About These Books, Graphic Novels and Movies

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Man, I love Halloween!

As we get closer to the big night, I find myself drawn to scary books and movies. For some reason even more so this year. Maybe it’s because there are so many good ones available.

I just finished reading Steve Niles‘ Dial M for Monster. Dial M is a book of short stories featuring his monster hunter, Cal McDonald. You’ve heard me praise Niles‘ work before and this book is no exception. I love everything about the world Niles has created for Cal [and I’m especially glad I can safely visit without fear of vampires, werewolves, fiends or other creatures coming after me!]. I’d suggest that you start with Guns, Drugs and Monsters [the first novel in the series] and then follow it up with Savage Membrane [the second].

If you’d like to get a taste of Niles‘ work before commiting to a novel, then by all means check out 30 Days of Night. This award winning comic series [with art by the extremely talented Ben Templesmith] is being developed into a feature film produced by none other than Sam Raimi! Why wait for the film? The graphic novel is available now and well worth every penny!

Changing gears just a bit… on Tuesday, one of my two favorite movies so far this year, becomes available! That’s right 28 Days Later is available Tuesday! Man, I can’t wait!

If you’ve read this far, then you’re probably a real horror fan. You probably already know that a Dawn of the Dead remake starring Ving Rhames is coming out next March. But did you know that the trailer is available now? At first I didn’t think that a re-make of Dawn of the Dead was a good idea since the original trilogy [Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead] by George Romero are considered cult classics. But I did like the remake of Night of the Living Dead ]… and Ving Rhames is starring… so why not?

Plus, it’ll give me one more thing to love about Halloween!

Kill Bill Disappoints

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I’m a huge fan of Quentin Tarintino’s work. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are two of my favorite movies. From Dusk till Dawn is as well. [And yes, I know that Robert Rodriguez directed it!] I loved everything about the original trailer for “Kill Bill.” The look. The music. The stars. How could it miss?
Let me tell you how. [Minor spoilers ahead.]
“Kill Bill” starts off well enough. It begins with a scratchy, cheesy “Now For Our Feature Presentation” intro straight out of the drive-ins that I loved as a kid. There’s also the retro “Presented in Shaw-Scope” title card, the “Revenge is a dish best served cold” Klingon quote, and the Sonny Bono song, “Bang, Bang” playing over the credits. Yeah baby, Quentin was tapping in to everything that we loved about this genre from our childhood.
Then the movie starts with a bang. Literally. Uma Thurman is shot in the head and left for dead. But she’s not really dead… just in a coma for four years. And when she wakes up she must have her revenge. Great set-up.

The action is over-the-top and brutal. The first payback that we see is really well done. It has the right mix of Tarantino heightened reality, humor and action. Then we have a flashback to the hospital and this is where the movie starts to loose me. There are a couple of scenes with a red neck and Buck the orderly that just really push the envelope. And for some reason everything after that seemed truly excessive and redundant.
How many arterial sprays do we need to see? How many limbs chopped off? But before we get to that gore we have to sit through an anime cartoon [which is pretty well done but again, very gory], a boring dialogue about tea, and discussion about why Uma needs a specific man to make her sword.
When I left the theater, I was disappointed. I had been hoping to see a really fun, really exciting revenge film. To make matters even worse, we don’t get to see how everything turns out, since “Kill Bill, Volume 2” doesn’t come out until February. The funny thing is, I didn’t hate the movie. I’m not sure I even disliked it. I was disappointed… but disappointed enough not to see the rest?

I guess we’ll know in February.

“Kill Bill”

Rating:

Underworld

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I saw Underworld today [which fits right in with our monster movie theme of late].Underworld tells the story of a centuries old war between vampires and werewolves. It has tons of action and effects but feels like it could have been shortened a bit. Also, with Underworld, the more you think about it, the more you find to question. It’s fun while it’s going on, but doesn’t hold up under examination. I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, yet if you like this sort of thing, then it’s probably the sort of thing that you’ll like. ; )

On another note, the trailer for the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre played before Underworld. I haven’t seen the orginal in years [and didn’t really care for it when I saw it], but this remake looks interesting… As does Gothica with Halle Berry [both of which also fit our continuing horro theme].
“Underworld” rates a C

House of the Dead

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Well, it seems I’m not alone in my love of horror movies. That being the case, I thought I’d tell you about another monster movie that you may be interested in.It’s called House of the Dead and looks like something that I’d have caught as the second feature back in the day of drive-ins. [Man, how I miss those days!]

House of the Dead has an interesting trailer and a classic plot. A group of young people find themselves stranded on an island with a group of zombies that want to kill / eat them.

If I go to see it, am I expecting a classic? No. An award-winning film? No. A scary good time? Yeah. And what more should you ask from a drive-in movie?

Frankenstein, Wolfman & Dracula: Together Again!

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As most of you know, I love a good horror movie. I’ll watch most any kind of horror film from the giant bug movies of the 50’s to the unstoppable serial killers of recent days. But my favorite type of horror movies are ones with great monsters.
Especially the classic monsters.
Frankenstein.
Dracula.
The Wolfman.

These are the big three. The kings of the hill. The monsters that other monsters aspire to be.

And next summer they’ll all be in the same movie!

Van Helsing stars Hugh Jackman as the famed vampire killer, Dr. Abraham Van Helsing.

In the screenplay, written and directed by Stephen Sommers, Van Helsing goes to Transylvania to hunt down and kill Count Dracula, and finds himself up against the Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s monster as well. How cool does that sound?

Cool enough that even though the movie doesn’t come out until May of next year, they’re already planning a tv series “based” on the idea and leaving the door open for sequels.

And that’s just great news for horror movie fans like me!

I am Spartacus!

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Entertainment Weekly has a “First Look” at USA Networks’ upcoming Spartacus mini-series which stars ER’s Goran Visnjic in the title role. It’s always adanger to remake a classic like Spartacus. There’s no way it can be as good as the original, but I’ll bet that I’ll be watching in April. Will you?

J-Ville Trip Report

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Last Saturday, John Higashi, John Beatty and I drove up to Jacksonville, Florida to attend a benefit for the Tourette Syndrome Association sponsored by Big City Comics. Several comics pros were to be on hand signing autographs and sketching. There were a lot of other activities scheduled and John Higashi had his eye on a couple of pieces in the art auction.

The drive up was great. John H. was at the wheel, Beatty was in the back seat doggin’ John H’s amazing collection, and I got to ride shotgun, laughing at all of the nonsense. We made it up in record time, or maybe time just flew by because we were laughing so much.

When we arrived things were just getting set up. A couple of tables had been set up inside, so we joined Don Perlin (Marvel Comics), Duck Edwing (MAD Magazine), Ed Hall (political cartoonist), and Jason Sobel (Fuzzy Dice Studios). Robert Smith was out in the crowd set up to do caricatures.

John H. wanted to speak to Mr. Perlin about a Star Wars commission, but told me that I should try to commission him up for a Stallone sketch first. Unfortunately for both of us, Mr. Perlin had a line already. But sitting directly in front of me was Ed Hall. I really enjoy his work and so I approached him about doing a Stallone piece. He agreed and the result was really cool. I’ll post it with next weekend’s update. Ed was amazing in that he was able to draw so many caricatures of famous people without any reference.

Seeing that I had popped for a piece, John H. approached Duck for a Spy vs Spy commission. John asked for a panel gag and offered four times the going rate for a sketch. Duck agreed and then to our surprise said, “You know I’m the writer for the strip, not the artist, right?” To John‘s credit, he said, “that’s cool” and went ahead with the commission. Duck drew him a funny seven panel Spy vs Spy strip. John then kicked in an extra $20 toward the charity so Duck came back and drew him a large executioner!

The crowd was constant throughout the day. “Soft Spike” jokes were flying from everyone. Big Beatty did some really nice sketches. He started off with a nice Captain America and Deathlock. He also did cool sketches of Iron Man, Green Goblin, and others!

Jason Sobol was sitting in front of me with his portfolio and a great sense of humor [especially when I called him Josh a couple of times]. At any rate, he didn’t soft spike me [you’d had to have been there] and drew me a cool Sly as a young Judge Dredd. I’ll post that this weekend.

As the show wound down it was time for the auction. John H. had his eye on two pieces, the Kubert “Sgt. Rock” and a Beetle Bailey Sunday page. It came down to the wire between John and another guy for the Kubert piece, but I’m happy to say that John won! Man, the Sgt. Rock is even more impressive in person. It could be the cornerstone of ANY collection! [John also won the Beetle Bailey page!]

I was happy that I had been able to get two new sketches for my Stallone theme, and John H. had won the two pieces in the auction that he was after… but we weren’t done yet. After a short discussion, we approached Mr. Perlin about doing commissions for us. He agreed! So in two weeks John and I plan to drive back up to J-ville and pick up our Don Perlin originals! [We’d go next weekend but John H. will be in Baltimore getting even more art!]

All in all it was a great little event that raised a fair amount of money for a very good cause. I hope that they’re able to put it on again next year. If they do and you live within driving distance, you should plan to attend… you’ll get to meet some really nice people, possibly pick up a sketch or original art and maybe, just maybe, find out what it means to be soft spiked!

“Once Upon a Time in Mexico” / Z-View

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I saw Robert Rodriguez’s “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” today. I’d really been looking forward to it. I first saw “El Mariachi” years ago and became a Rodriguez fan. Then came “Desparado,” and “Dusk Til Dawn” and Rodriguez was on the “A” list. So when Rodriguez decided to create an epic “Mariachi” film, he was able to get Johnny Depp, Mickey Rourke, Reuben Blades, and Willem Dafoe, to join the returning Antonio Bandaras, Salema Hayek, and Danny Trejo.With a cast like that and Rodriguez at the helm, it just had to be good, right? Yeah, but I was really hoping it would be so much better. Bandaras is back as THE Mariachi but this time he’s gonna save Mexico.

Ok, cool. An epic film should have a huge story and what could be bigger than saving your country? [Yeah, Bond would save the world but this isn’t Bond.] So the story idea works.

Next there are a bunch of characters. Johnny Depp steals every scene as a rogue CIA agent. Mickey Rourke has an interesting role as American criminal who has escaped to Mexico and has joined Willem Dafoe’s cartel. Both Rourke and Dafoe are under-used. Dafoe plans to take over Mexico by bankrolling a coup using an evil General. The General killed Bandaras’… hey!

Wake Up!

Yeah, now I see the problem. Although there’s a huge storyline and a lot of interesting characters, the story kind of bottoms out. Still, it was fun and ya gotta love the action… and did I mention that Johnny Depp absolutely rules in this movie?

“Once Upon a Time in Mexico” rates a “C.”

On a side note – there was a preview for a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. Jack Nicholson’s line, “We’re not all doctors, baby” left me laughing out loud. You have to see it, since telling it wouldn’t be as funny, but when you do see it, make sure you’re not drinking anything!

John Ritter, Johnny Cash and The Falling Man

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Remembering three who died:

John Ritter died suddenly last night from a heart attack. He was only 54 years old. Although best known for his role as Jack Tripper on “Three’s Company” and the star of “8 Rules for Dating My Daughter,” I believe his best work was not in either of these sitcoms. It wasn’t even a comedy. I thought his best performance was as Vaughn in Sling Blade. Perhaps I’m in the minority with this opinion, but I know that we all agree that he was loved by his fans and will be missed.

Johnny Cash was known as the Man in Black. I remember as a child singing many of his songs… “A Boy Named Sue”…“Burning Ring of Fire”… “Folsom Prison Blues”… A new generation had discovered the Man in Black and he recently won an award on MTV. MTV! I’m so happy that he lived to see it and that we’ll always have his music.

The Falling Man. I just read a piece from Esquire magazine about the search to discover who was photographed jumping from one of the twin towers on 9-11-01. Tom Junod wrote such a compelling piece. Here are the first few opening lines:

In the picture, he departs from this earth like an arrow. Although he has not chosen his fate, he appears to have, in his last instants of life, embraced it. If he were not falling, he might very well be flying. He appears relaxed, hurtling through the air. He appears comfortable in the grip of unimaginable motion. He does not appear intimidated by gravity’s divine suction or by what awaits him.

I read the article and it stayed with me throughout day. The combination of my memories of that horrific day, combined with the beauty and horror of the photo and the eloquent text by Junod just kept coming back to mind time and time again as the day moved on.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of John Ritter, Johnny Cash, the Falling Man and all of the victims of 9-11.

Bale is Bruce

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Christian Bale has been cast as Bruce Wayne in Warner Bros. Pictures’ upcoming Batman movie, to be directed by Christopher Nolan [“Momento”].

Principal photography is expected to begin in early 2004. The movie is written by David Goyer and Nolan, and will follow the early career of The Dark Knight.

Christopher Nolan is quoted as saying, “What I see in Christian is the ultimate embodiment of Bruce Wayne. He has exactly the balance of darkness and light that we were looking for.”

I totally agree.

New “Must See” TV

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As the new tv season draws near, these are the shows that interest me the most:
MONDAY* Everybody Loves Raymond: Believe it or not, I had never watched an episode until this summer. I found it to be one of the best comedies going and am looking forward to the new season.* Vegas: This is a new show and I may find myself checking it out even though it goes up against Everybody Loves Raymond.

TUESDAY* 24: The third season looks to come back as strong as the first two. 24 was one of my top two favorite shows last year. [Unfortunately The Shield won’t return until January!]WEDNESDAY* The West Wing: Always in my top three “must see tv” shows… but this season could be different with the lose of it’s creator. Still the last season’s finale left me wanting more.* Karen Cisco: Based on the Elmore Leonard’s character [from the book and movie], this is the new show that I’m most looking forward to.

THURSDAY* Survivor: This is a family viewing event each week which makes it a lot of fun.* ER:  Although not as good as it once was [few shows are], it still makes it to the “must see tv” weekly list.

FRIDAY* Boston Public: Moving the show to Friday’s isn’t going to help. I’m just hoping that it hasn’t jumped the shark.

SATURDAY* I usually watch a bad sci-fi movie on, oddly enough, the SciFi channel or maybe even rent a dvd since there’s not much on except Cops and that’s not “must see.”

SUNDAY* Alias: Yeah, I’m coming back for more… who can blame me?* The Lyon’s Den: I saw a preview of this before “28 days later” and was sold!

Well, at least it looks like there’s a little something every night worth checking out. Have I missed anything?

One Day Show at Jacksonville’s Big City Comics is Coming!

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If you live within driving distance of Jacksonville, Florida, you may want to take a trip this coming Saturday. Big City Comics! [10131 San Jose Blvd., Jacksonville, Florida, phone 904-268-9006] is hosting a fundraiser from 11am – 5pm to benefit the Tourette Syndrome Association. Musical entertainment, door prizes, and many other exciting events are planned.

Don Perlin (Marvel Comics and Acclaim Comics, artist), Duck Edwing (MAD Magazine, artist and writer), Ed Hall (political cartoonist), Robert Smith Jr. (cartoonist and caricaturist) are going to be on hand signing autographs and sketching. There’s going to be an auction of rare, original comic art featuring characters such as Superman, Popeye, Beetle Bailey, and many others, all drawn by their respective artists.

It looks to be a fun time. I’m planning to attend. Where else can I get Sylvester Stallone sketches and help out a good cause at the same time?

“Rundown” the Most…

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Over the next two months at least one movie premieres each week that I really want to see. The one I’m most looking forward to is The Rundown.

Yeah, I’m as surprised about that as you.With all of potentially cool movies during this time period, [Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Underworld, Cold Creek Manor, The Human Stain, Out of Time, Kill Bill Volume 1, Mystic River… well you get the idea], I want to see the movie starring The Rock!Actually, The Rock is a talented performer and this movie looks to fit him perfectly. The trailer rocks. [Yeah, I know, bad pun.] There’s action, comedy, and a great supporting cast. This could be a real surprise hit. And speaking of surprises, one of the worst kept secrets is the surprise cameo by… well, if you don’t know I don’t want to ruin it for you. It might make you mad enough to throw an egg at me! ; )

Egging on Arnold!

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Did you happen to see the video of Arnold Schwarzenegger getting hit by a egg? If not, I’ve posted a pic of the incident. At any rate, the egg came flying from the crowd, and hit Arnold splattering his coat with egg and yolk.

Arnold looked down, saw the mess, and as he continued walking, shaking hands and greeting fans, took his jacket off without missing a beat.
There were a lot of ways that he could have handled it. Panic is one. Anger is another. Yet, the way Arnold dealt with the situation was very calm and cool. Impressive even.
I usually don’t deal with politics in my blog, but I felt that this really deserved a mention. I’m not sure how the election will turn out, but win or lose, I’ll bet Arnold doesn’t end up with egg on his face!