Submitted by Chris Delloiacono on Thu, 12/04/2014 - 23:31
I met Richard Roundtree a few years back at a convention. All I could do was shake the man's hand and say thank you. I was completely star struck. Roundtree's powerful presence and commanding demeanor were still evident decades after starring in "Shaft" and it's two sequels. Considering that Sam Jackson also starred as "Shaf,t" it's going to take a talented creative team to bring that type of style and presence to a comic page.
It all starts with David Walker who gets who John Shaft is and what makes him tick. I recently read an interview with Walker and he's basically a historian of the blaxploitation genre and an avid reader of Ernest Tidyman's original "Shaft" books. Damn right! Walker's story is a prequel to the material that's come before. It follows Shaft as a rising boxer. The pugilistic arts have always been a notoriously dirty field and this gritty late '60s version is bleak as can be.
It may or may not have been officially declared as such in Zenescope's GRIMM FAIRY TALES UNIVERSE, but I believe there's a fifth realm (perhaps even more) in Zenescope's multiverse: The Realm of Kipling. That seems to be supported by Zenescope's adventure series based on the Rudyard Kipling novels. Mark L. Miller pens the third miniseries installment of THE JUNGLE BOOK, THE FALL OF THE WILD, where Mowglii (female in this version) lives among talking animals who segregate into species-based factions to war against each other. (It's sort of like LEGENDS OF CHIMA, with blood and revealing outfits.)
THIS CONTEST HAS ENDED. THE THREE RANDOMLY SELECTED WINNERS ARE...
Seong P. of Lucerne Valley, CA
Stephanie M of Milwaukee, WI
Doug B of Plymouth, MN
Congratulations to all our winners!
So, I'm barely getting used to not writing 2013 on my checks, and now 2015 is barreling in on me like that asteroid in ARMAGEDDON.
So, if you're days are numbered already, you may as well enjoy the numbering as much as you can. And what better way than with the gorgeous pin-up art stylings of Jamie Tyndall and his representations of the Grimm Girls of Zenescope Entertainment?
It would be an easy, predictable thing for the folks at Zenescope to make a mythical character like Santa Claus the focus of their holiday issue. Which is probably why they did exactly the opposite, and chose a more obscure holiday-related icon to weave a story around: Krampus!
What's that you say? You've never heard of Krampus? (Why do I feel like an animated Burl Ives should start singing an introduction here?)
You can do your own googling of the puckish little imp who leaves coins in the shoes of good children on Christmas, while shoving the naughty ones into a bag and beating them with a stick. Zenescope, of course, is going to have their own modified take on the legend, beginning with an origin story out of Myst. It's a tale told to the next generation of guardians-in-training, who meet it with their usual cynicism -- but it's one with far too much current relevance to one of our heroes, who must face off with Krampus in the here-and-now.
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. And sometimes, fiction is a lot more fun.
For much of my life, I've heard the strange tales about Area 51, Groom Lake, Nevada and the Roswell, New Mexico UFO story -- always connected, even though the two sites are a 14 hour drive apart. Oh, the theories that were generated about the strange lights in the sky, the rousting of trespassers, the autopsies of aliens and all advanced technology that we simply couldn't have come up with on our own. It was the seed from which the best science fiction stories blossomed.
When unknown actor Michael May gets cast in the lead role of Captain Liberty, he thought it was the beginning of a dream. Instead, it was the first day of a living nightmare. While participating in a full-dress script reading with his co-stars in the "Defenders of Liberty" movie, May finds himself suddenly fighting off a zombie apocalypse alongside the likes of Kevin Could-Be-Hart, Dwayne Might-be-Johnson, Tom Looks-Like-Cruise, Bryan Not-Bad-Cranston, Selena Gotta-Be-Gomez, and Shia Quite-Possibly-Labeouf. God help us all.
There's so much to like in this pop culture parody that marries together elements of ARMY OF DARKNESS with zombie films like ZOMBIELAND and Yard Dog Press's BUBBAS OF THE APOCALYPSE. The script from Ralph Tedesco and Joe Brusha is, in my estimation, screenplay ready for this to be adapted into one of the best science fiction B-movies, if only the right actors could be convinced to take on their roles.
Submitted by S.J. Mitchell on Tue, 10/28/2014 - 16:02
Title: Cinderella: Age of Darkness (1 of 3) Publisher: Xenoscope Creative Team: Joe Brusha and Pat Shand (story), Pat Shand (writer), Ryan Best (artist), Renato Guerra (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer), Nicole Glade (editor)
The latest offering by upstart indie company, Zenescope, is a Cinderella story like you've never heard before. Of course ALL of their fairy tales are unlike any you've heard before; that's kind of the point. In this version of the tale, 'Cindy', has drawn the ire of the Dark Queen for her repeated failures as an assassin. Rather than just kill Cindy herself, the Queen has decided to task her with a suicide mission: Hunt down and kill Hades, the last living God. Armed with her own sword, three 'gifts', and repeated advice to just run away, Cindy is out to prove once and for all that she's not an idiot...
Oh, sure, big deal. Happens in comics all the time. It's even happened in this comic series before. In fact, someone dying is the reason this comic has a protagonist -- Lenore, the "cute little dead girl" who flits through life with her otherworldly friends with all the innocent macabre of a zombie Harveytoon.
Where else can you find living pickle hats? Or see the absurdly logical and lethal extension of the Austin Powers peeing scene for someone who's been asleep for thousands of years instead of just tens? Only in the darkly comic tale of Roman Dirge's Lenore.
Archon 38 continues to be the gift that keeps on giving! Nestled amongst the many vendors set up in the expansive dealers room, I chanced upon a chillingly familiar looking couple: The Joker and Harley Quinn!
But there was no need to scream or fire up the Bat-signal: this was the booth for Michelle Benz, the creative genius behind BatSpats.com, and some intriguing and refreshing takes on familiar comic book characters as well as other pop culture icons and tropes.
A picture, so the expression goes, is worth a thousand words. That being the case, the political cartoon is worth a thousand words and change, the art form being one that conjoins the satirical image with paucity of pithy text. Which brings us to one of the pioneers of the form: the magazine called Puck, the subject of this lavish (and heavy!) compendium from IDW and The Library of American Comics.
When you have someone list three superheroes off the top of their heads, without thinking, they usually recite the holy trinity of heroes by rote: Superman, Batman...and Wonder Woman. They've been on top of the media since they began, not just in comic books, but also in newspaper strips and (later) animated cartoons.
Wonder Woman's newspaper strip didn't have what one could call a lengthy run, but it certainly was an interesting one. William Moulton Marston, inventor of the polygraph and dabbler in polyamory and bondage play, introduced the need for a feminine hero while he sat on the editorial board for DC Comics. Tasked with creating the character, Marston gave the world Wonder Woman -- an Amazon princess with powers from the Greek gods.
"Terrorformer" is the first comic book representation of Doctor Who as portrayed by Peter Capaldi, and, given what I've seen of the current series and the new Doctor's eccentricities, writer Robbie Morrison has accurately captured the essence of this version of the Timelord from Gallifrey.
The Doctor and Clara arrive on Isen VI, chose for Clara's skiing lessons because of it's icebound climate. Only Isen VI isn't so icebound any longer -- it's a lush tropical paradise, thanks to a team of engineers laboring in the employ of a multi-kajillionaire who wants his own planet. And as is to be expected, the technology goes in an unexpected direction.
Lex Luthor in an 80s hair band? Batman baring his feelings of emasculation with Green Lantern? A Starbucks in the headquarters of the Legion of Doom? The real origin of Superboy?
It's your favorite DC heroes and villains as you've never dreamed of them before. Well, okay, maybe once before, because this is, after all, ROBOT CHICKEN DC COMICS SPECIAL 2 (#RCDCS2VIP). Nevertheless, even the first ROBOT CHICKEN DC COMICS SPECIAL wasn't enough to prepare you for the utter ballsiness of the R-rated humor Seth Green and the boys throw at you here with utter irreverent abandon.
When Hugh Murphy's first collection, T-Rex Trying, hit the shelves, I shared it around the office as we all found several of the situations of the "I've got a great big head and little bitty arms" plagued dinosaur to alternate between thought-provoking and hysterical.
T-Rex Trying and Trying is the natural evolution (see what I did there?) of the series, putting our beloved and beleaguered tyrannosaur through even more mundane pitfalls, even as his own life expands to include She-Rex and, inevitably, Wee-Rex. Yes, T-Rex is now the patriarch of a prehistoric family, and they all fall prey to the same... shortcomings.
No, let me amend that. It's a great time to be a DC fan -- especially if you enjoy your comics characters brought to live action. Arrow is entering a third successful season, The Flash is preparing to launch in early October, Gotham is preparing to tell the story of a pre-Batman era James Gordon, and CBS has just announced that it's going into production of Supergirl.
The problem? Arrow and The Flash are on the CW, Gotham is on FOX, and Supergirl -- a one hour drama -- will be on CBS.
Rocketing out of CW's Arrow comes another DC Universe super hero. His name is Barry Allen. He is the fastest man alive.
The CW pilot for The Flash does an exemplary job at setting the stage for all the events to come: telling an origin, providing a reason for the hero, and putting into play the long game (and the even longer game, but that would be spoiling things), all in the space of a one-hour episode. Hints have been dropped in Arrow for some time now about the Central City Particle Accelerator, and Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) has already made his guest appearance in that series. And while it won't be long before fans are finally rewarded with these hints culminating in a much-anticipated spin-off series, one thing is certain upon reviewing this pilot: CW's The Flash can't get here fast enough!
While the Crime Syndicate was busily taking over the Earth, the question was raised: Where was the Justice League?
The heroes of the world had been imprisoned, uniquely, within the Firestorm matrix, each in a world that capitalized on their psychological weaknesses, trapped in scenarios that prevent them from realizing they're in a fiction. Only the Martian Manhunter and Stargirl understand what is happening, as they probe deeper into the prison. But are they in the process of rescuing the heroes, or are they in a prison themselves?
Back in the mid-90s, I was picking up Joseph Michael Linsner's Dawn books. I didn't always get the content, but I certainly appreciated the artwork. In years prior, I also snuck peeks at Vampirella (I was too young to be allowed to get caught reading them), also for reasons of artwork as well as the cutting edge mature storylines.
Two great tastes ought to go great together, right?
Let's start with page zero -- the cover. This is classic Linsner. The color tones, the enigmatic smiles, the Lauren Bacall hair flip, the knowing eyes, the clean lines, the unapologetic breast forms. Frame this sucker somewhere, because it's simply gorgeous.
DC's Justice League books were, perhaps, the most enjoyable ancillary chapters of the Forever Evil event. Not surprisingly, they were written by Geoff Johns, so their content didn't contradict anything happening in the main Forever Evil miniseries, and having Ivan Reis and Dough Mahnke provide the interior artwork made them a thing of beauty.
When I was a fledgling comics reader, one of my favorite genres was the horror anthology. I was too young to have enjoyed EC in its heyday, so my go-to titles were the DC books like House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Ghosts, Tales of the Unexpected and Ghosts. For a brief, bright time during that point in my life, I was also treated to Charlton Comics' Midnight Tales with Arachne and the Midnight Philosopher.
There's a void in the comics industry for this genre today, but Zenescope is taking steps to fill it. Grimm Tales of Terror isn't an anthology, so to speak, as each story takes up the whole issue, but at least the tales are standalone grisly tomes.
