Comics News Roundup: Al Williamson RIP

Re-looking at The Last Phantom



I'd pretty much dismissed Dynamite's take on The Phantom after seeing the above "costume" and hearing how the new series is essentially a reboot. I like the current Phantom enough that I don't really want to see him rebooted. But then I read this interview with writer Scott Beatty in which he said that he wants to explore a question that's always sort of itched the back of my mind for years: "Is [being the next Phantom] choice or predestined? And can one simply walk away?"

I'm not totally caught up with Moonstone's series, so maybe they've touched on it, but I've never read a Phantom story in which the hero struggled with whether or not he wanted to accept the role. I still hate the new look, but I am interested in seeing Beatty explore this aspect of the character.

Jesse James vs. not-exactly-Machine Gun Kelly



If you've followed this blog for a while, you know that I co-wrote a story in which Jesse James and Machine Gun Kelly meet during the early days of the gangster's career. The fate of that story is still being determined, but my interest in the subject matter means that I automatically love this post by Snell about a different kind of meeting between Jesse and some gangsters.

After the break: the return of Vampirella, the mystery of Captain Marvel, and the passing of Al Williamson.

Jesse James music

Greg Jolly sent me this link a long time ago and it's taken me far too long to get around to listening to it. It's a special Jesse James Edition of the Down Home Radio Show podcast. More variations of the classic "Jesse James" folk song than you can shake a six-gun at.

I had no idea that Woody Guthrie's "Jesus Christ" was based on that song. That's my new thing I learned today.

Happy Headless Jesse Honey Day!

I'll have to think of a better name for it, but today's an important day for me. Most importantly, it's my wife's birthday. So even though you're not reading this: Happy Birthday, Honey!

It's also the anniversary of the day Bob Ford shot Jesse James in the back of the head.



We just watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford again a couple of nights ago and I was reminded of how inappropriate Casey Affleck's Best Supporting Actor nomination was. I understand why for political reasons they went after Supporting, but Best Actor would've been more appropriate. That was his movie.

It also reminded me that I really want to go to Defeat of Jesse James Days in Northfield this Fall.

Finally, it's the anniversary of Washington Irving's birth, which is serendipitous because I just got to the part in my novel where the Headless Horseman comes up. And I didn't even plan it that way.

To celebrate, enjoy some Horseman art by Frank Frazetta and Gil Kane.

Jesse James vs. Machine Gun Kelly

Look what's gonna be solicited in the next issue of Previews!

Jesse James vs Machine Gun Kelly: Dust to Dust

Story: Alex Ness, Michael May
Art: Joel Vollmer
32pgs, b/w tone, $3.50

A MOONSTONE WILD WEST EVENT

Jesse James has survived an assassin’s bullet and the long arm of the law. Now a deranged man of the cloth, people are paying attention to his fervent fire and brimstone!

Born under a bad sign, outlaw Machine Gun Kelly steamrolls into town, a scorched earth in his wake, and he’s ready to slash and burn for kicks.

The incendiary-thermite of two psychopaths in one small town only lights the fuse to an explosive conflagration…and one blazing holy war, where there are no laws, just Old Testament fiery curses. See who’s not roasting when the dust clears!

32pgs of story! NO ADS! NO FILLER!

It's all part of Moonstone's Wild West Month, which will also feature a Wyatt Earp/Cisco Kid crossover, a Western legends graphic novel team-up spectacular, and a collection of some of the best of Moonstone's previous Westerns projects. And maybe one more project that Moonstone hasn't announced yet. I'll post more about that and these other projects over the next few days.

And Jesse vs. Machine Gun. You'll hear a lot more about that.

Jesse James (1939)

This is another Tyrone Power movie, but I like this one a lot better than The Black Swan. Instead of being distracted by unbelievable character development I was distracted by historical inaccuracies, but for reasons I'll get into I was able to forgive those for the sake of dramatic license.

In Jesse James, Power plays the Robin Hood version of Jesse James, which we all know isn't real. That means a lot of stuff -- and not just his motivation -- has to be changed to fit the movie's view of Jesse. In contrast, American Outlaws just threw out history altogether. There was no Northfield bank or Bob Ford; Outlaws is basically an unrelated Western (and not at all a bad one) with some historical names slapped on. Jesse James, on the other hand, tries to include some historical details, but manipulates them. For one example, it makes the traitorous Ford responsible for the Northfield failure. Another is Jesse's death.

I'm not defending the historical Ford's cowardly way of killing Jesse, but I do believe there was a tangible element of fear that contributed to his doing it that way. In Jesse James, Jesse poses absolutely no threat to the Ford brothers, so Bob's act just comes across as mean. And John Carradine plays Ford so sinisterly that they might as well have changed the character's name to Judas Iscariot.

But, inaccuracies aside, Jesse James is really a worthwhile movie. Power hated being stereotyped as a swashbuckler and I can see why now. Playing Jesse gives him a much wider range to play in than I've seen him use as Zorro or any of his pirate roles. Jesse starts off as just a nice, Missourian farmboy, but he quickly has to learn some wiliness in order to survive the persecution the railroad's putting on him. After a while of robbing banks and trains though, he comes to like it and his men and family begin to fear for his sanity. Eventually, a conversation with Frank (played with amazing, quiet power by Henry Fonda) brings Jesse back around and sends him home to his wife whom he hasn't seen in five years and the son he's never met. Power plays amiable, sly, menacing, and repentant equally well.

His talents as an adventure star aren't wasted though. Jesse James isn't a shoot-em-up, but there's still plenty of action and stuntwork, especially during a train robbery and the thrilling escape from Northfield.

I also liked Nancy Kelly's (Tarzan's Desert Mystery) performance as Zee. The script gives Jesse's wife a lot more to do than either American Outlaws or The Assassination of Jesse James and Kelly sells her as a woman torn between her love for Jesse, her fear for his safety, and her frustration at his inability to settle down.

There's some great scenery in Jesse James too. It's a color movie and they made full use of that new technology in the cinematography, especially in the horse chases and some of the James boys' mountain hideouts.

Jesse James may not reflect the real man, but it's a beautiful presentation of a great story about some fictional folks I ended up liking a lot.

Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.

"Hey, lady! You call him Dr. Jones!"

Indy may be getting older, but I still wouldn't screw around with him. Thanks to Comic by Comic for the image.

And speaking of Dr. Jones: "The story is told in the Kebra Negast (Glory of the Kings), Ethiopia's chronicle of its royal line: the Queen of Sheba, one of its first rulers, traveled to Jerusalem to partake of King Solomon's wisdom; on her way home, she bore Solomon's son, Menelik. Later Menelik went to visit his father, and on his return journey was accompanied by the firstborn sons of some Israelite nobles—who, unbeknown to Menelik, stole the ark and carried it with them to Ethiopia. When Menelik learned of the theft, he reasoned that since the ark's frightful powers hadn't destroyed his retinue, it must be God's will that it remain with him."

True story? Smithsonian Magazine's Paul Raffaele tries to find out. It's true, as one commenter to the article put it, that Raffaele is "no Indiana Jones," but it's still a cool story full of mystic locales and secretive guardians. And this one definitely is true.

Never mind.

Yesterday, when I teased about the book questioning Jesse James' DNA test, the reason I didn't write about it then was that I was in a rush and didn't have time to read the whole press release I'd saved. Now that I have, I recognize the book's author as being one of a couple of folks claiming to be descendants of Jesse James. Everything you need to know about her and her case is in the link, but I've heard her story on one of those Jesse specials I mentioned yesterday and I'm skeptical. In spite of the fantasy we pose in Jesse James vs. Machine Gun Kelly, there's no real evidence that leads me to believe that Jesse survived his encounter with Bob Ford's gun.

Solomon Kane Poster

As much as I love Robert E. Howard's Conan stories (and I so do), I've never tracked down his Solomon Kane stories because deep in my heart I don't believe that anyone, not even Howard, could write stories cool enough to do justice to the idea of a wandering, Puritan monster-hunter.

I have to say though that the poster for the movie adaptation looks pretty damn cool. Sort of makes me want to read some Howard stories. (Thanks to Christopher Mills for the link).

Chuck picked up.

I'm pretty sure I watched the pilot episodes of every new show this season. Some shows never got a second viewing; others I dropped after checking out a few additional episodes. Without question, the best new show of the Fall has been NBC's Chuck. It's like they took Jim from The Office, turned him into a reluctant spy, and had the hottest, most butt-kickingest secret agent ever and Jayne from Firefly protect him. It's funny, it's action-packed, and it's got a ton of heart. It's also been picked up for a full season, which -- assuming the WGA strike is resolved and they can actually create new episodes -- is the best news I've heard all week.

Assassination of Jesse James review, etc.

I finally saw The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford a couple of weeks ago, but I keep forgetting to write a review. My brother-in-law Dave and I agreed that it was basically a very pretty, well acted History Channel special. And I should know because I've been watching a lot of Jesse James specials lately on PBS and the History Channel and whatnot.

The Assassination of Jesse James doesn't really add anything to them except that it's got a much larger budget and some fancy movie stars. It's more or less a straightforward, accurate depiction of the last part of Jesse's life, complete with a History Channel-esque narrator. There's nothing particularly revelatory about him unless your previous exposure to him has been limited to American Outlaws.

That's not to say that it's a worthless movie though. It actually plays pretty well if you see it as a movie about Bob Ford. It does a fairly nice job of getting inside poor Bob's head and letting you experience with him the fear and paranoia that being in Jesse's gang must have entailed. At least in the middle half it does.

The first half hour or so has one of the coolest, moodiest train robberies I've even seen in a movie, but other than that it's just a bunch of look-how-crazy-Jesse-is and isn't-Bob-a-socially-retarded-dweeb. Where the movie really picks up is once Jesse starts suspecting that his men are plotting against him. At that point, everyone's on edge, including the audience. Unless you really know your Jesse history, you never can tell when he's going to snap and kill off a pal next. It's makes for some gripping movie-watching.

Unfortunately, the film never really explains why Bob decided to betray Jesse. It implies it, certainly. Living in fear will grind on a fella, and Jesse never really gave Bob the respect Bob felt he deserved. But I missed seeing that one moment where Bob goes, "That's it. I've had enough." Maybe it was there and it was too subtle for me, but I kept thinking and wondering about it for the last half-hour of the movie and it kept me from being able to just enjoy the end as the paranoia got thicker and thicker until something had to crack. The lack of that one, defining moment is the movie's big flaw and the reason I probably won't buy it when it comes out on DVD in January.

Moving on to other Jesse news, Spout.com notices that Warner Brothers has finally decided to pay some attention to Assassination and has started taking out "For Your Consideration" ads for it. They're promoting it for Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay, but I agree with Spout that they're missing an opportunity by not pushing Casey Affleck for Best Supporting Actor. I'd argue that his role in the film should actually put him up for consideration for Best Actor, but Supporting Actor would probably be an easier win for him.

If other Jesse movies are interesting to you, VCI has a boxed collection of them on sale for ten bucks. The Great Jesse James Raid & Outlaws Collection features The Great Jesse James Raid, Renegade Girl, Return of Jesse James, Gunfire, Dalton Gang and I Shot Billy the Kid.

What else?

Bob Ford's gun went up for auction last week. Not the one he shot Jesse with, but still pretty cool.

Jesse may have been Welsh.

And I'll wrap up with a cool story about Jesse versus a moustache-twirling rent-collector. I don't know if it's true, but I like it because Jesse gets to sort of play the hero in it while still remaining in character.

Next week I'll tell you about a book that questions the DNA evidence around Jesse's death. Maybe, as Jesse James vs. Machine Gun Kelley postulates, Bob didn't really kill him as dead as everyone thought.

The Jesse James Blues

There are a couple of big Assassination of Jesse James releases in the next couple of weeks. The digital release of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' soundtrack will be October 23 (with the CD to follow early next year).

Sooner than that though -- next weekend, October 19th, in fact -- is the wide release of the movie. Unfortunately, critics in some of the new cities aren't getting to see it early, which has folks wondering just what the heck Warner Brothers is thinking. Critics in the initial cities have been kind to it, so you'd think that Warner Brothers would want to keep that going. Maybe they're hoping that those first critics will be enough to convince audiences to check it out.

Unrelated to the movie -- or to the historical Jesse James in general (or even Sandra Bullock's husband) -- but absolutely fascinating nonetheless, is screenwriter Josh Olson's (A History of Violence) funny, emotional account of a friend of his who had an online romance with a guy named Jesse James. It's a long read, but a riveting one. Olson's a talented storyteller and I started off skimming the article only to get caught up in the story and have to start over to read more closely. It's got everything: 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, forest fires, cowboys, post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer, suicide by gutshot, and Harlan Ellison. You'll be glad you read it.

Jesse James: Man of God?

In Dust to Dust, as I've said before, Jesse James isn't a nice guy. He's no "Robin Hood of the West" as portrayed in American Outlaws. We've taken the more historically accurate interpretation that he was an abusive bigot and speculated what might have happened if, after his "death," he found religion.

Alex Ness, my co-writer, and I are both Christians, so we're not trying to point fingers at Christianity as it's supposed to be practiced. But we are painfully and embarrassingly aware that a lot of evil is done in the name of religion and we thought it might be interesting to see how much more dangerous Jesse might've been had he thought he had God on his side.

As it turns out, we're still not far from historical fact. At least, not according to Gene Edward Veith, Culture Editor of WORLD Magazine and the Executive Director of the Cranach Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary. Veith paints Jesse as "a Bible-reading choir director who just happened to make his living robbing trains, sticking up banks, and murdering some 17 men. But he was a man of principle, refusing to rob preachers and widows. He would write letters to newspapers about how God will continue to protect him as long as he continues to serve Him." Veith goes on to call Jesse "a study in false piety. He seemed to rationalize his predations with a defeated-confederate loyalty, a modern Democrat's hostility to corporations, and--above all--a sense that the world disrespects him and so deserves every blow he can give it."

Though Veith's post if the most interesting bit of Jesse news to me, the big Jesse story this week is about a Missouri lawyer who recently discovered documents describing a lawsuit against Jesse for stealing a horse during a bank robbery getaway. Jesse never showed up for trial and unsuccessfully tried twice to kill the lawyer bringing the suit. The lawyer, Henry McDougal, went on to become president of the Kansas City and Missouri bar associations.

And that's pretty much it for your Dust to Dust-related news. Except maybe for this interview with Assassination of Jesse James' director Andrew Dominik. I'm off to finish up a couple of last minute things for FallCon.

September theatrical releases

Almost forgot to do this again today. Where's my head?!

Last Week

3:10 to Yuma: Saw this one last night, actually. On the way to the theater I was wondering if the classic Western is so dead so that all neo-Westerns have to have some kind of Point to them like Unforgiven and The Assassination of Jesse James do. Made me wonder what the Point of this one was going to be.

If 3:10 to Yuma has a point, it's that you can still make killer Westerns -- including some standard genre tropes like the railroad coming through and the common man's standing up for himself against tougher, legendary outlaws -- without having to suggest a deeper meaning. Thought-out characters, powerful themes, and non-stop ridin' and shootin' make for a great movie too.

Shoot 'Em Up: As much as Paul Giamatti bugs me in the trailer (I usually like him, but he's the exact opposite of threatening), the thought of seeing Clive Owen shooting bullets and derogatory comments at him makes me want to see this.

Today

Eastern Promises: I love mystery stories and I think Viggo Mortensen is a genius choice to play a crime boss. I'm not a huge Cronenberg fan, but I'll give it a shot.

Silk: (limited release) Keira. Knightley.

December Boys: (limited release) I'm sort of interested in seeing what else Daniel Radcliffe can do, but not enough to just try anything he's in. The trailer to this won me over though.

Dragon Wars: D-War: (limited release) Rumor has it that this is a stinking pile of giant monster poop, but I'm hoping that if I go in with low enough expectations that I'll find something to like in it. I mean, it's giant monsters wailing on each other. How bad can it be? (He asked naïvely.)

September 21

Resident Evil: Extinction: I know I'm not the only one who kinda dug Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Right?

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: (limited release) Are you kidding me? It's all I've been talking about here.

The Jane Austen Book Club: (limited release) I know. I know. Me. Girl. The trailer doesn't even look that interesting. It's those damn Stephanie Barron Jane Austen mysteries I mentioned last month. They make my ears perk up every time I hear "Austen."

September 28th

Lust, Caution: I keep telling myself that I'm interested in this for the espionage angle, but I'm pretty sure it's mostly for Wei Tang.

The Kingdom: The plot for this holds no interest to me, but I really miss Jennifer Garner in Alias. Jamie Foxx and Chris Cooper are also strong reasons to see a movie, but I think I'm still bound to be disappointed.

The Darjeeling Limited: (limited release) I'll see anything with Owen Wilson in it.

Feast of Love: Same goes for Morgan Freeman, but the trailer for this strengthens my wanting to see it. Freeman's voiceover about the gods and the connection between love and laughter totally sold me. I love a well-told love story and it looks like a lot of thought went into this one. Plus: Selma Blair. Plus plus: Greg Kinnear.

The real Jesse James

Your Dust to Dust-related news of the week:

I can't believe I live this close to Northfield and have never been to Defeat of Jesse James Days. It was last weekend though and I needed a break after spending the previous two weekends at the Minnesota State Fair and the Renaissance Festival. At least Rough Draft has the report on DJJD to console me. I'll have to plan better for next year though.

Related to that, Travel & Leisure has a list of other places you can go visit in the footsteps of Jesse James.

A couple of other articles on Jesse went up this week thanks to the movie. Since the movie premiered Brad Pitt's been talking about the link between the events of Jesse's life and the celebrity-worship that still goes on today. The Assassination of Jesse James is mostly about that and how the phenomenon turned deadly for Jesse. The Washington Post covers that part of the story pretty well and also talks about how Jesse's legend -- even during his lifetime -- was exaggerated by the dime novels of the day. Not only was he made famous; his exploits were glamorized to the point that he became known as a Robin Hood figure. I mean, he was played by Roy freakin' Rogers, for crying out loud.

But, as U.S. News and World Report points out, "James himself would have considered this notion a great joke. He more likely would have agreed with a famous bandit of a later generation, Willie Sutton. When someone asked Sutton why he robbed banks, he supposedly replied: 'Because that's where the money is.'"

The article goes on to analyze Jesse's motives in depth and connects them to the Civil War: "These guerrillas were anything but the poor farmers of folklore. Many of them (like James) came from families that were three times more likely to own slaves and possessed twice as much wealth as the average Missouri family. James fought during the war against emancipation and after the war against the Republican Party that freed and enfranchised the slaves. Many of the banks and express companies struck by the James gang were owned by individuals or groups associated with the Republican Party. Like the Ku Klux Klan in former Confederate states, the James gang did its best to undermine the new order ushered in by Northern victory in the Civil War."

That's something that Alex Ness and I latched onto in the backstory for Dust to Dust. Our Jesse is no hero. He's not even an anti-hero. He's a ruthless bigot who's grown more dangerous with age. He may be old, but he's more than a match for poor Machine Gun Kelly (another man whose legend was distorted by the media of his day) who makes the mistake of wandering into Jesse's town to set up a still with a Black man in his gang.

Anyway, Jesse's celebrity is interesting and all, but more than anything else, it's this idea of him as a Southern patriot that I'm most curious to see if the movie portrays.

Warren Ellis scores Jesse James movie

No, not that Warren Ellis. This one. And Nick Cave. The Assassination of Jesse James just got even better.

And in case you don't believe me about the quality -- since I haven't seen it yet and all -- howsabout the opinions of 80% of the Rotten Tomatoes critics? (Okay, only five people have reviewed it so far, but four of 'em liked it!)

Speaking of Jesse James, I'm thinking that the name Jezebel James from FOX's mid-season sitcom The Return of Jezebel James isn't just coincidentally similar. It refers to the childhood imaginary friend of one of the characters, who used to use Jezebel as a scapegoat for her mischief. ''It wasn't me, it was Jezebel James.''

Okay, that's a pretty tenuous connection to this post, but I'm using it because I'm really just excited that Jezebel James is the new show from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino. And that there will be more of "that trademark Gilmore banter."

Yes. I'm a girl.

Jesse James Day

I won't have time to post for real today, but it's Jesse James' birthday and I couldn't let that go without mentioning.

Happy 160th Birthday, you old coot.

Jesse James poster, Dean Koontz Frankenstein comic, and JLA without Bale

Kill All Monsters!-Related

The Giant Monsters Attack! blog has a profile of a new comic called Sleeping Giant. The creator describes it as "Princess Mononoke, Godzilla and Donnie Darko all mixed into one with a comedic twist." Sounds good to me.

A lovely, giant, mechanical octopus shooting lasers from some of its eyes graces the cover of the next issue of Clarkesworld Magazine.

Dust to Dust-Related

The Assassination of Jesse James has an official, new poster that you can see illustrating this post.

War

It was only a matter of time before someone decided to do a live action G.I. Joe movie. I've got slightly more interest in that as I did in a Transformers flick, if only because I think it could be done well as a relatively straightforward combat movie or political thriller. But Stephen Sommers is directing it, so that's probably not what we'll get. (Also interesting in that link is news that G.I. Joe's owner Hasbro is also interested in "possible movies based on such properties as the board games Monopoly and Battleship." I can't imagine a world in which a Monopoly movie would be good, but I may be jonesing hard enough for a big-budget combat movie that I'd go see one about Battleship.)

Horror

There's going to be a comic series based on Dean Koontz's Frankenstein. That makes me very happy in theory. As long as it's executed well.

The X-Files movie script is done and David Duchovny has read it. But he ain't talkin'.

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers has announced the winners of the first annual Scribe Awards. Particularly cool to me is that Jeff Mariotte & Steve Niles have won the "Best Novel - Original" category for 30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead.

Fantasy

This isn't completely fantasy, but I've just discovered the existance of a cool blog called Strange Maps that is exactly what its title suggests. Some of the maps are of real places (only made out of, say, clothing on a bed), but most of them are of fantastic places or places that might-have-been. You could easily waste a day exploring the archives.

Science Fiction

Two artist pals of mine, Katie Cook and Grant Gould have created some Star Wars book covers for all your back-to-school, book-covering needs. I'm not even going back to school, but I'm still trying to figure out what books I can cover in these. My son starts Kindergarten this year though. Hmm.

Wonder Woman

I haven't talked much about the JLA movie here because most of what's out there about it is just rumor. Like that it's being fast-tracked and that it might be all CGI/motion-capture like Polar Express and Beowulf instead of live-action. But here's word straight from the bat's mouth that puts to rest popular speculation over whether it'll star the likes of Christian Bale and Brandon Routh as its main heroes. According to Bale, it won't.

Comic Book Resources readers are offering suggestions of things they'd like to see in Gail Simone's upcoming Wonder Woman run. Top suggestions are the return of Ferdinand the Minotaur, the return of Steve Trevor, and the inclusion of more romance in the book (with Martian Manhunter and any sort of lesbian relationship being specific suggestions).

Hulk

I'd write a detailed post exploring my fondness for the Hulk the same way I did with Wonder Woman, Black Canary, and Rogue, but really my Hulk-love can be explained in two words: Hulk smash. It doesn't go much deeper than that, although I do also love the quiet, simple moments when Hulk tries to fit in with other superheroes. This one in particular made me chuckle loudly in my cube (the lengthy set up to the moment-in-question is informative, but you don't need to read it to appreciate the gag at the bottom of the post).

Jesse James trailer, Jekyll DVD, and Depp as Sweeney Todd

Dust to Dust-Related

The trailer for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford has been released. I wondered before if they were going for a Legends of the Fall vibe with it and that (or Unforgiven maybe) seems to have been accurate.

David Woodbury is looking into books about Jesse's life and reports his preliminary research into which might be the best ones. I'll look forward to his eventual reviews of them.

Horror

Oh, mama!

I know at least one person reading this will be glad to know that the BBC mini-series Jekyll will be available on DVD next month. The rest of you should too though.

Science Fiction

If I'd ever known that George Lucas had once approached David Lynch about directing Return of the Jedi, I'd forgotten it. Man, what if Lynch had said, "Yes?" I'm trying to decide if that would've increased my chances of still liking the movie today.

Comics

Browsing Stupid Comics is a great way to kill a couple of hours. (Found via Tom Spurgeon.)

Artist du Jour

Pascal Campion. Further proof that Charles Raymond (from whom I've discovered three great artists in about as many days) and I have really similar tastes in art.

Giant Robot Warriors, Poe's visitor, and the Treasure of Constantinople

Kill All Monsters!-Related

I got my Amazon confirmation that Monster Attack Network is on its way. Which reminds me that I also need to check out Stuart Moore and Ryan Kelly's GRW: Giant Robot Warriors from AiT/PlanetLar.

Dust to Dust-Related

Northfield, Minnesota is kicking off its Defeat of Jesse James Days. The official festival isn't until September 6-9, but they have Royalty coronations this weekend and there was a hogroast last night to get things started.

Adventure

Delilah Dirk and the Treasure of Constantinople looks and sounds wonderful. (Thanks to Kevin Melrose for the link.)

Jungle

I'm always up for a new Jungle Book movie.

Horror

RKO is probably my favorite movie studio of all time, so I'm really hoping the revitalization effort works for them. A remake of Karloff's Isle of the Dead sounds like a good place to start. It's nostalgic, but offbeat.

I hate that I'm such a slow reader. Otherwise I'd be all caught up on the 30 Days of Night novels. Especially this one about my favorite 3o Days character Dane. Fortunately, Rod Lott is much faster and has the review.

The mysterious visitor to Edgar Allen Poe's grave has been revealed. Anticlimactically, unfortunately.

Fantasy

Frank Beddor's Looking Glass Wars is an exciting, fast-moving alternate take on the Alice in Wonderland story and I loved it. The sequel, Seeing Redd, comes out next week.

Thanks to Charles Raymond for directing me to artist Sarah Mensinga's wonderful work.

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

My son was absolutely freaked out by the scene in Ratatouille where Remy's dad takes him to the gruesome window of a rat-trap shop. We had to leave right after that. Good thing we're not planning a trip to Paris soon, because that shop is real.

I got a very nice email today from First Second about my latest review of one of their books. I didn't ask, but hopefully they won't mind me sharing this nice compliment: "You’re always seeing to the heart of the books we put out, and that’s such a fantastic thing." I love that.

Pirate cologne, Jesse James films reviewed, and illustrators as actors

Kill All Monsters!-Related

I can't see BoingBoing at work, so I'll just have to trust that this link works and that it takes you to some cool giant-monster belt buckles. I'll check it out for myself later at home.

Dust to Dust-Related

I don't understand the connection between Jesse James and Seacoast New Hampshire, but the SeacoastNH site is running a very cool feature called the Dingus Project that looks at as many movies about James as possible and reviews them for historical accuracy.

And speaking of Jesse James movies, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is going to hit both the Toronto International Film Festival and Venice's 75th anniversary film festival. (Also appearing at both festivals is Keira Knightley's new movie Atonement, which should matter greatly to you.)

Pirates

Speaking of Keira reminds me about pirates, which reminds me that soon we'll all be able to smell like Jack Sparrow. As if that's a good thing.

Indiana Jones

One of my biggest disappointments with Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade was the lack of Marion Ravenwood. I really wanted to see that relationship continued from Raiders. Wish granted.

Dark Horse has also announced that with the new movie coming out, they'll be relaunching their line of Indiana Jones comics starting with an omnibus collecting their earlier Indy comics and eventually even reprinting Marvel's take. I gotta start saving some money.

Mystery

I've been enjoying Guy Ritchie and Andy Diggle's Gamekeeper comic from Virgin enough that I quit buying the single issues and decided instead to buy the trade when it comes out. So it's pretty cool that Ritchie's turning it into a movie.

Not really Mystery-related, but it's Crime, so close enough: Boom!'s doing a comic based on the Godfather movies. That's pretty frickin' bold. It'll be interesting to see if they can pull it off, but they say that when they announce the writer "jaws will drop."

Horror

Another comics-film connection: Dreamworks has optioned a Courtney Crumrin movie. No word on if it'll be live action or animated. You have no idea how much I'm hoping for animated, especially if they can pull off Ted Naifeh's style.

And in other Important Horror Movie News: Johnny Depp will play Barnabas Collins in a Dark Shadows movie. It looks like he'll also be one of the producers.

Science Fiction

Jeff Smith has released details about his next project, RASL. It'll be an over-sized scifi comic about "a thief -- an art thief -- who is known to the police as 'RASL,' because that's the tag he leaves whenever he steals a piece of art. He spray paints RASL on the wall in the spot where the art was." According to Smith, RASL has a suit that can "create thermal-magnetic disturbances through space-time and step between dimensions. So if you were a really rich person who wants to collect, say, a Mona Lisa, you could pay RASL, and he'll go to another dimension and steal the Mona Lisa for you!"

The downside is that "what happens when you go through these dimensional barriers -- these light barriers between dimensions and universes -- is that apparently it hurts a lot. I mean, it hurts so badly that it takes him days to recover. The pain is so bad that, for days, he drinks and gambles and smokes and eats rich foods and has whores and all that. But to get back, he has to do the exact opposite. He has to completely clean his body and mind and thoughts and almost reach a zen, centered perfectness to get back through the light. But then he comes back out and is in pain again and it all starts over." Sounds really good. I can't wait for it.

Looks like the bad guy from Heroes is going to play Spock in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie.

And they're releasing the remastered/CGI-touched-up episodes of the original Star Trek series on DVD.

Writing is Hard

I like this quote from Hulk writer Greg Pak about letting artists interpret emotions themselves instead of trying to spell everything out exactly in the script: "For the most part, I'm trying to write for (illustrator) John (Romita, Jr.) using the same kind of language I'd use to direct an actor on a movie set. When working with an actor, I'd never say, 'Be sad.' Because that turns the actor into a puppet who's just trying to make the face you want and the soul of the scene dies. Instead, I'd say, 'Try not to cry.' Then the actor can just inhabit the character and the scene comes to life. Similarly, when writing for John, I try to describe actions rather than expressions. When the Hulk's gazing up at the fake Sentry that Reed's generated, I wrote, 'The Hulk continues stepping toward the light. Gazing upwards. Almost as if he's looking up towards an angel.' I don't describe the expression; instead I describe the circumstance so John can interpret the emotional content and get to the soul of the character on his own. John's a brilliant artist, which means that in the world of comics, he's a brilliant actor."

That's something I tried with Jason Copland on Kill All Monsters! and it resulted in some amazing, touching facial expressions and body language. You gotta have the right artist to pull it off -- one who knows how to make his characters act -- but Jason's totally that guy.

Wonder Woman and Dumas' birthdays, a Green Hornet fan film, and Jesse James: The Musical

Kill All Monsters!-Related

Dude changed his middle name to Megatron.

Dust to Dust-Related

This looks like old news, but apparently Barry Upton and Sam Snape are writing a Jesse James musical.

Swashbuckling

Today would've been Alexandre Dumas' 205th birthday. Happy Musketeer Day!

When I first heard about Dynamite's doing a Zorro comic, I had mixed feelings. A Zorro comic should be cool, but I was never able to get into Topps' attempt at it (though they did have some awesome covers). Of course, Topps didn't have Matt Wagner writing it.

Pulp

If you're having a hard time picturing Seth Rogen as Green Hornet you might like this short, fan film version better. It was made by French guys, but it's in English. (Thanks to Kevin Melrose for the link.)

Science Fiction

Writer Carl Ellsworth and director D.J. Caruso, aka the guys responsible for Disturbia, have been hired to also write and direct the Y: The Last Man movie.

Wonder Woman

Today is also Lynda Carter's birthday. According to Wikipedia, she's 56. Happy Birthday, Wonder Woman!

The Night the Giant Robot Almost Ate Christmas, Wonder Woman's invisible canoe, and a possible Jack Sparrow cartoon

Kill All Monsters!-Related

I found an entire blog devoted to giant monsters: Giant Monsters Attack! It covers comics, movies, video games... the works. Super cool.

The Night the Giant Robot Ate Almost Ate Christmas (from Shane McDermott's Drawing from Life). Best depiction of flying reindeer ever.

Dust to Dust-Related

Download and watch Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter for free! I keep meaning to TiVo that one.

Pirates

Everyone's wondering what Disney's going to do to fill the Pirates of the Caribbean-shaped hole in their line. First there was the 20,000 Leagues speculation; now the rumors are around a PotC cartoon about young Jack Sparrow. I'm up for both.

Mystery

Happy Marlowe Day! Raymond Chandler would've been 119 today.

Wonder Woman

The invention of a see-through canoe probably qualifies more for Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me, but I found it via Daily Boater's comparing it to Wonder Woman's invisible plane, so there you go. I grew up canoeing, so I think this is very cool. I've never priced canoes, but the $1500 price tag doesn't even sound unreasonable to me.

Jericho: Season Two, Simpsons donuts, and how to tell when you're too into your fantasy series.

Kill All Monsters!-Related

Steve Bissette continues his look at giant monsters.

He also talks about DC's GIs-versus-dinosaurs comics that are collected in Showcase Presents: The War that Time Forgot. I started reading them myself, but was disappointed that instead of a continuing storyline about soldiers stranded on an island of dinosaurs, most of the stories are self-contained (except for an occasional one that takes two or three issues to complete) and feature new characters in every tale. It's still a cool idea, but I was hoping to get to know the soldiers better than the format allows.

Chris Sims convinces me to read Marvel MegaMorphs, about Marvel superheroes who pilot giant-robot versions of themselves.

Forget Transformers. How'sabout a life-sized Gundam giant robot figure?

Blogarama has a preview of Josh Cotter's giant-robot-featuring contribution to the Indie Spinner Rack anthology. Cotter's very cool Skyscrapers of the Midwest series frequently features giant robots, so this is no surprise. That doesn't make it any less welcome though.

Dust to Dust-Related

Looks like I missed TiVoing Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda in Jesse James on Fox Movie Channel this morning, but they're rerunning it on August 24th. Now if I can just remember...

Pulp

This is only a rumor as far as I can tell, but everyone else is talking about it so I might as well mention that Knocked Up star Seth Rogen may be writing and starring in a Green Hornet movie.

Mystery

You'll have to click on the link to get the full skinny, but the Sci Fi Channel's got some details about the second season of Jericho. Like how they're going to squeeze 22 planned episodes into the 7 that CBS ordered and how the plot will be intentionally reminiscent of events in Iraq.

In the comments to my post on Erle Stanley Gardner's birthday, Rupert from The Book Garden mentions that he's building a Squidoo list of Perry Mason novels. Quite an undertaking and very useful information considering the huge number of them that Gardner wrote.

Fantasy

Starting tonight, I'm not reading anything online that has either "Harry Potter" or "HP" in the text. Hewlett Packard news will just have to wait until I'm caught up. But before I go dark on the Harry news, I've got to share this press release that a friend forwarded to me. It's from a grief counselor offering "to speak with parents and children, as well as the media, on how to cope with feelings of grief and loss" once the series concludes. "This could have a serious impact on children, millions of whom have grown up reading, watching and profoundly enjoying the characters and storylines of the Harry Potter series." Maybe I'm a heartless bastard, but really?

Science Fiction

This is even more rumor than the Green Hornet story, but the Disney Blog is reporting conversations about Disney's remaking 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, possibly with "a certain captain from the Pirates franchise" as Nemo. That last bit sounds like wishful thinking more than informed speculation to me, but I don't have the contacts that the Disney Blog does, so don't listen to me.

Wonder Woman

That's Fit has links to some cool Wonder Woman gear for women. It's all under item number four in their "five ways to emblazon yourself with a message of strength."

Alpha Flight

Ramon Perez (Butternutsquash) has a fantastic post where he's drawn all the characters from the classic Alpha Flight team. Made me homesick it did.

Writing is Hard

One of the Three Golden Rules of Writing is "show, don't tell," but Writer Unboxed read a review of Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo that made them wonder how strictly the rule should be followed. After all, "does the description of 'a little man with no compassion or concern for others' really hurt him? It helps the reader develop an instantaneous feeling about the character so the story can move forward, after all. Is that always bad? Did (Leven Thumps author Obert) Skye need to develop a sequence showing the character acting like an a-hole?" Good question. I'd be interested in hearing opinions on this one.

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

This post on the Simpsons Movie promotional donuts made me very hungry. I gotta find a 7-11.