9.27.2007

LINKMANIA

Here are a bevy of links to keep you glued to the internet for the night:

Director Zach Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 300) intros his new in-production comics-to-film adaptation Watchmen here.

Cartoonist Daniel Clowes (David Boring, Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron) makes headlines in Connecticut in ways he probably wishes he never did. Read about the ridiculousness here and here; get Tom Spurgeon's take here.

Kevin points out a highlight reel panel from the latest issue of Frank Miller's and Jim Lee's All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder (Issue #7) right here.

Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying these webcomics? Especially, Andy B's Raising Hell and Cam Stewart's Sin Titulo!

9.21.2007

GOOD READS:Heart-Shaped Box

Just having finished Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box, TT HQ wanted to post about this book - its a helluva read. Fast-paced, intricate, unpredictable, and filled with well-thought out, believable characters, the book is a stunning first novel. Plus it is quite possibly one of the scariest books I have ever read.

And that's saying a lot - and not so much - all at the same time. A lot, because I read a lot of horror - anyone from Brian Lumley to Lovecraft to John Connolly and Richard Matheson. And of course, Stephen King, the master of the genre. But that's also why saying this book is horrifying shouldn't be that surprising. Because Joe Hill is really a pen name for Joseph Hill King - the elder son of the aforementioned master of horror.

Going into this book I knew that Hill was King's son, but the sale of the book to William Morrow preceded the common knowledge that Hill was really a King. Hill stuck to his pen name so that he could make it on his own; even his agent didn't know he was the heir to King when he brought the book to W/M. Having already written an award-winning collection of short stories (Twentieth Century Ghosts), Hill could have taken the easy route and revealed his literary heritage. But instead, he stuck by his guns, and like his father before him (under the pen name Richard Bachman), sold a mean little piece of fiction that is now scorching the best-sellers lists.

Box is the story of Judas Coyne, an aging heavy metal icon/rock star with a none-to-original penchant for dating girls half his age, and a rather unique hobby of collecting macabre pieces of memorabilia - like a noose used to lynch a man and a snuff film of a murder in Tijuana.

So, when Jude has the opportunity to buy a ghost through an internet eBay knock-off, he doesn't think twice about it. And when the suit that is supposedly haunted arrives, the fun (or the terror, depending on if you are a character in the book or a reader!) begins.

The scare-tactics start early in the book and flow through, non-stop, until the very last page. Jude, who starts as a fairly unlikeable character, grows on the reader throughout the book, despite revelations of some of the less than noble things he has done. It's this kind of empathy between character and reader that really allows Box to shine. The reality of Jude's character grounds the book, so that the more fantastic elements of the haunting and the reasons behind it become all that much more terrifying. The antagonists of the book truly shine - the evil inherent in the concept of the ghost story is turned on its ear with the revelations of modern horrors that created the ghosts for this story.

Chilling visual language throughout the book gives the reader a vivid picture of the action and keeps at bay the most frustrating crutch of horror-fiction: the idea that what's happening is so bizarre that not even the characters can describe it. That kind of descriptive cop-out (the "it was a blur of things so terrible, so vicious that my mind shut down" description) often takes the reader out of the moment. Hill, however, manages - in effortless fashion - to not only chronicle all of those fear-inducing moments in the book, but to make all of those descriptions absolutely compelling.

For any fan of the horror genre, this is a must read book. For those who just enjoy a good story, with well written prose and fully developed characterization, I can't recommend this book enough.

9.18.2007

THE NEXT STEP FOR THUNDERHOUSE DESIGN

So, I have added a link on the sidebar to bountee.com where I am now selling some t-shirts. This is just one more place for me to feature some of my design work, and hopefully make a little cashmoney.

If you like, grab one. If you have a suggestion for a design, let me know. Either way, please click on over and at least vote for my tee designs - the more positive I get the closer to a listing on the front page I will get.

Thanks for the support!

9.12.2007

THREE REASONS YOU SHOULD BE READING DC'S METAL MEN BY DUNCAN ROULEAU

#1: The Baloonatic - a sentient balloon terrorizing Metropolis

#2: The Death Metal Men - a villainous counter-team created by Dr. T.O. Morrow which hosts menacing metallic members like Uranium, Strontium and Thorium!

#3: Psuedo science lessons and amazing artwork laid out in pages like this:

9.07.2007

THE 31st CENTURY RETURNS!

News out of DC Comics is that Jim Shooter (former editor of Marvel Comics, Valiant Comics and comic-writing genius) is back on board the title that launched his career (at the young age of 14!) . . . Legion of Super-heroes!

With the 50th Anniversary of the Legion on its way in 2008, it is nice to see that DC is making a commitment to the 1000s of Legion fans out there by really pulling out all the stops for the series and the venerable characters. On board with Shooter is artist Francis Manapual (check out his great ensemble piece below) who looks to be bringing back some of the classic look to the Legion that was most recently rebooted by Mark Waid and Barry Kitson.


Legion fans are a rabid bunch and while Waid/Kitson's run was critically acclaimed (and I personally enjoyed the little I have read of it), fan reaction was mixed at best. With the announcement of Shooter taking over the title from fill-in writer Tony Bedard with issue #37 of the current series, a lot of fans seem to be hoping for a return to the "classic" Legion of old. However, in an interview at Newsarama, Shooter says that he not only isn't comfortable with reboots keyed to new creators entering books, he states that he is also a fan of Waid's run and wants to stick with it while bringing in his own enthusiasm and adventure to the title.

This, I think, bodes well for Shooter's return. Readers can look forward to his great writing without the title turning into a retro-fied run down memory lane. Remember, Shooter first started writing the Legion series in the 1960s when he was only a teenager. He went back to Legion again in the 70s, before his historic and controversial editor-in-chief position at Marvel Comics. So nearly 30 years later, comics, the Legion, and the writer himself, have gone through myriad changes.

Shooter has proved that he is a writer that can evolve with the times, his massive contributions to the 90s being clear evidence of that with the Valiant line of comics. He's since struggled to launch a market-succesful new line of comics, but is always on the cutting edge of the industry - introducing new characters, concepts and universes without ever taking a break.

His return to a mainstream book like Legion, is not just a return to his origins in the industry and a "been there, done that" scenario. It is a different man and a differnet Legion that he returns to. This is the type of situation in the comics medium that garners that magical feeling of anything can happen now. Let's just hope that unlike many of those previous occasions that on this one, the lightning will strike twice.