Skinnerbox: Here’s a really clever way to promote a book. Like the writer below, however, I wish the filmmakers had spent some of their budget on better makeup for the villain – or maybe actually hire an actor with a mustache? Regardless, I’m jazzed about the book. How about you?
I’m not generally a fan of promotional trailers for comics and books — most rely on dull montages and even worse music — but this new spot for Seth Grahame-Smith’s upcoming novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is incredibly well done. Well, if you can ignore the really obvious wig and fake mustache on whom I presume is vampire-John Wilkes-Booth.
The novel, Grahame-Smith’s follow-up to the bestselling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, depicts Lincoln as the savior of the Union and lifelong enemy of the undead. The author has a couple of comic-book connections: He was among the genre novelists who contributed to the latest Marvel Zombies miniseries. In May, Del Rey/Villard will release a graphic-novel adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is due March 2 from Grand Central Publishing.
Posted via email from skinnerbox’s posterous
Skinnerbox: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: When and/or if this thing finally makes it to Woodbury, Ga, I’m camping out for a chance to play a zombie.
Humanity beware — the zombie apocalypse has a start date.
According to Bloody Disgusting, the pilot episode of “The Walking Dead,” AMC’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s long-running Image Comics series, is set to begin filming on May 15, 2010. Shooting will commence in Atlanta, Georgia, the setting for the first several issues of the comic book series.
Fans have been salivating for more news ever since the initial announcement that director Frank Darabont was adapting Kirkman’s horror series. Last month, AMC officially ordered a pilot episode, though that’s only one step towards bringing “The Walking Dead” to television. If the final pilot episode isn’t up to the network’s standards, AMC is not required to pick it up for further episodes.
But if an early script review is any indicator, fans of “The Walking Dead” have little to fear regarding the adaptation’s quality.
“‘The Walking Dead’ could even do for horror what the new ‘Battlestar Galactica‘ did for science fiction,” was the reviewer’s final assessment. “Cross your fingers and hope that the show comes together as well as it did on the page.”
When Kirkman spoke with MTV News about the “Walking Dead” adaptation, he said that the series would be very faithful to the comic book — to a point.
“I’ve told Frank flat-out that I do not want him to follow the comic to the detriment of the show,” he said. “I think it will be 100-percent true to the tone of the series, but at the same time it will be an entertaining, secondary way of experiencing ‘The Walking Dead’ in a completely different light, so I’m excited.”
Tell us what you think of the news in the comments section and on Twitter!
Posted via email from skinnerbox’s posterous
from: Splash Page
via AMC Orders Pilot For ‘The Walking Dead’ TV Series.
Gotta tell ya, I’m pretty darn stoked about this one. I’ve shunned TV in the last year or so, but this could pull me back to the tube. Casting is crucial, of course, but the fact that Frank Darabont is writing and directing the pilot is promising.
Now if only I could convince them to shoot the thing in the REAL Woodbury, GA!
I’m up for playing a zombie. Woodbury isn’t too far of a drive for that!
Is there anything more frightening than an undead cannibal with a personal grudge come straight from Hell to devour you, body and soul? Ian Rankin thinks so…and his answer to that question is “Reality TV.” Before you think I’m going to act all smug and superior about how I don’t watch reality TV, a caveat: I am a reformed reality TV junkie. Thankfully, I’ve kicked the habit, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t see the appeal.
If Satre’s hell was other people, Rankin’s is an amended version of this same place – other people watching and participating in reality entertainment. What’s worse: to be stuck in a fabricated environment, chained to a dog-eat-dog competition against a group of celebrity-seeking strangers, or to be glued to the device that delivers this makeshift, ramshackle life-by-proxy straight to your home? If neither choice seems particularly appealing, you might just be willing to accept and gleefully celebrate Ian Rankin’s television-as-Faustian-bargain metaphor, Dark Entries.
Outside of some oblique name recognition, I was almost completely unfamiliar with Ian Rankin before reading Dark Entries. So I was more than a little surprised that this book caught my attention while perusing my local bookstore. Ok, so the grinning, smoking, trenchcoat-wearing skeleton on the cover might have been the catalyst of my regard for the book, but I was equally suprised to see that this was billed as a “John Constantine” novel and that it was published by a new DC Comics imprint called Vertigo Crime.
Those unfamiliar with John Constantine need only know that he’s a paranormal investigator, of a sort, with a shady past and a virtually savant-level skill to irritate anyone and everyone. Oh that – and maybe the fact that he was created by comic book virtuoso Alan Moore as a foil for Swamp Thing and that he most closely resembles Sting (put all thoughts – ALL THOUGHTS – out of your head of Keanu Reeves playing him in the abysmal movie).
This time, Constantine (down on his luck and isolated as noir conventions would have him) is offered the opportunity to investigate a reality television show called Dark Entries that has somehow gone wrong. The premise of the show is a hybrid of Big Brother and Scare Tactics – place a group of beautiful people in an isolated, artificial environment, attempt to scare the living hell out of them, then rake in the money as the television viewers are given their vicarious thrills. The problem that Constantine has to address is why the participants in the show are visibly haunted and terrorized by variables not introduced by the television producers. Is there something truly supernatural happening within the Dark Entries house, or is it just the “normal” psychological terror created by artificial isolation?
What seems cut and dry, from a paranormal perspective at least, turns out to be nothing of the sort, and Constantine must unravel mysteries within mysteries if he is ever able to escape the job he has accepted. To say any more about the plot would give way too much away, so I’ll leave the basic story outline right there and instead evaluate the novel manner in which this work is marketed.
The new Vertigo Crime imprint is unlike most other graphic novels on the market today. In fact, at first I wasn’t sure it even was a graphic novel. The only tell is a small logo in the bottom right-hand corner of the cover that states, “A Graphic Mystery.” Otherwise, it’s published in hardback in a much smaller form factor than traditional comics. It’s an eye-catching throwback to the pulp roots of mystery fiction, and one that DC is already exploiting with a number of other artists and writers. Based on this one work alone it’s hard to tell if it will be a successful venture for the company, but I certainly appreciate the experiment.
It’s also odd that Ian Rankin gets HUGE billing as the author on the cover, while the artist, Werther Dell’edera gets only a third of the font size for his name in spite of his monumental contribution to the work as a whole. Certainly I realize Rankin’s name is more marketable, but downplaying the artist in a work of graphic fiction speaks of disrespect for the content and the creator.
Considering Rankin’s inexperience in the field of conventional comics, he does an admirable job of staying consistent with the Constantine character within this stand-alone story. Likewise, Dell’edera is strongest when depicting Constantine’s menagerie of a British-noir life. Where both writer and artist lose focus is when the supernatural elements become the crux of the plot. Dell’edera is quite good at depicting the mean streets of London, but his Hell is amorphous, at best. Likewise, Rankin’s plot goes off the rails when he twists the story more towards gore than grime.
Vertigo Crime has a long way to go to firmly establish its imprint. Is it primarily crime comics, mystery comics, horror comics, or some unknown hybrid of the three? Still, it’s welcome to see DC trying so many new ways to deliver graphic literature into the hands of those unfamiliar with it, and attracting readers with known writing talent is a good start.
Review cross-posted on GuysLitWire
I always had a certain fascination with scary movies when I was a kid and the Universal monsters were high on my list. Enter the Aurora monster model kits. These were plastic kits that you had to glue together and paint yourself to create dioramas of the Universal monsters. My favorite was Dracula but I also had the Frankenstein monster and the Mummy. Strangely these never made me want to try Satanism…or even Scientology for that matter.
It’s not like Eric Powell’s The Goon is ready for mainstream success…yet! But, the fact that Jones Sodas is…even in a limited way….producing these Goon-themed drinks for Halloween suggests mainstream success for Powell’s character may not be far away.
So, how do you feel about the latest indie darling becoming a star? Let us know.
This one’s not horror-themed, but it’s the Simpsons, and they’re wearing costumes, and it’s Star Wars, so why not? Check out Krusty at the back of the image…
I only saw this one recently, but I dearly love it. The source is Wizard Magazine. It was used as part of a massive prank promoting a (fake) Count Chocula/Boo-Berry/Frankenberry comic book series. The cover art alone had many people convinced it was legit, and I’m not so sure it wouldn’t be a bad idea…
Here’s a quick fact I recently found out from reading the wonderful Back Issue #6…the female on the cover of House of Secrets #92 is actually patterned after Louise Simonson (X-Factor, New Mutants, Superman). Interesting. As big of a Swamp Thing fan as I am, I never knew that.
And in sad Swamp Thing news, Vertigo’s bizarre Un-Men ends with issue 13. Sob…
The Ten Cent Plague by David Hajdu is excellent. Let’s just start off with that. Detailing the period in the 40s and 50s comic era, this informative book provides a well-researched insight into the criticism comics received. Whether it was superhero, romance, crime or horror comics, the media and people of the day were convinced kids would be corrupted by reading their favorite comics. If a kid committed a crime, it must’ve been due to reading crime comics, as the media would have everyone believe. Comic-burnings (shudder) were everywhere. Comics were taken off the comic racks. And to make matters worse, the Hitler-ish Dr. Frederick Wertham wrote a little book entitled Seduction of the Innocent, stirring the pot of controversy towards comics even more. America was becoming a society similar to Nazi Germany by banning and burning books. And the comic business was in jeopardy.
I loved this book. Some books like this are long and boring, to be honest. But this book was for comic lovers (the ones who really care about the rich history, not the average message-board Joe who likes to slam everything that comes out…ahem…anyway…). The Ten Cent Plague is highly recommended for a very enjoyable, enlightening and informative read.
What’s funny about society is that there are actually parents out there that literally try to prevent their kids from reading. Heck, I learned almost every big word I know from reading comics when I was a kid. But…there are a few parents out there that don’t bother to read what their kids are reading and immediately ban them from their children’s lives.
I had a friend in junior high who had highly religious parents. Nothing wrong with that at all. However, I cringed when his Frank Miller Daredevil comics had cut-outs of every panel with Daredevil in them due to he wore a red costume with devil horns. If the parents would have actually read the comic, they would have seen that Matt Murdock seemed to have Christian beliefs at the time. Or at least it was hinted at.
And then there was Dungeons and Dragons. Kids wanted to spend a fun-filled weekend with their friends playing this ingenious game. And instead, parents everywhere were claiming the game was evil. “Hey son, go out and drink and get in fights. Don’t spend a nice weekend at home with your friends having fun and doing no harm.” And Tom Hanks’ “Mazes and Monsters” (is that right?) made-for-tv-movie showed that playing role-playing games will cause one to lose his mind. Okaaayyy…
Oh, and Harry Potter. What nutjob of a parent would tell their kid NOT to read a book? And a good, well-written all-ages book at that??!! Their kids want to read (which is rare these days) and their parents are saying “No”. Hmmmm…
Whether it’s banning comics, D&D, or Harry Potter, we can chalk all this up to one thing…bad parenting.
Growing up, I was always able to read comics, listen to whatever music I wanted (my parents bought me Kiss’ Hotter Than Hell when I was young), play Dungeons and Dragons, and read whatever books I wanted. And you know what…I didn’t get in fights, steal cars, break into houses, do drugs, worship the devil or any other thing these hobbies are said to have caused.
Okay, so maybe they helped me to learn how to stand tall on a soap-box. But hey, I can’t help myself.
Sooo…back to the beginning…read The Ten Cent Plague. It doesn’t preach. It just entertains and informs for anyone who loves comics. And it has a great cover by Charles Burns to top it all off!
