The Awesome List: Guardians of the Galaxy, Mr. T, Where the Wild Things Are, the Man with No Name, trailer for Shyamalan's new film, and more

Guardians of the Galaxy



I've never been fond of Marvel's science fiction comics until this whole Annihilation thing. Their scifi stuff has always been too "cosmic" and mystical. Too caught up in exploring the Mysteries of the Universe. Annihilation though is all space opera and robot wars and infiltrating impenetrable fortresses and secret labs hidden in suns. It's awesome.

So, I'm glad that it's going to continue in an ongoing series. And that it's going to include the "new," steampunk Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon. I'd forgotten that the original Guardians of the Galaxy took place in an alternate future, so that doesn't bode well for Yondu's making an appearance in this version, but according to this interview, "during the first arc, we get two extra (and big surprise) additions to the mainstay." And -- just to tease me -- they mention Yondu as a possibility. Of course, they also mention Mr. Rogers and Alf. Can't wait to see who it really is.

What could be better than a new Mr. T comic?

One lettered in Comics Sans, that's what!

Oscar night is almost here

Amaze your pool by having actually seen the nominees for Best Animated Short.

You win some; you lose some

I'm disappointed that Josh Ortega's Necromancer isn't one of the new series to come out of Top Cow's "Pilot Season" event. But I'm very glad that Josh Fialkov's Cyblade is. Josh turned a comic about a Psylocke rip-off into a very cool spy story.

Where the Wild Things Are



Catwoman writer Will Pfeifer's day job is the movie critic for The Rockford Register Star. He's got some concerns about the live-action version of Maurice Sendak's classic Where the Wild Things Are. That picture there makes me feel really good about the movie, so hopefully the rumors causing Pfeifer to worry are untrue.

Man with No Name comics

Dynamite's series based on the classic Clint Eastwood character picks up where The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly left off.

I like reading The Comics Reporter for its thoughtful insights into the comics industry

But sometimes, Tom Spurgeon just makes me laugh.

M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening

I've enjoyed all of Shyamalan's stuff more than the average person, but there's a part of me that's still wanting to recapture the experiences of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. I'd love for this to be it.

The Awesome List: Meet the Jerichos, Josh Ortega's She-Devil, Plan 9 the comic, and Mouse Guard the game.

Meet the Jericho cast

The Los Angeles Comicbook and Science Fiction Convention's being a little secretive about exactly which Jericho castmembers will be appearing at their show on February 17th, but they have some coming, and producers as well. If I knew for sure that Skeet was going to be there, I'd already have my ticket.*

*Not really.**

**But I do love Skeet.

Josh Ortega on Red Sonja

Josh Ortega (Necromancer, Death Dealer) is one of my favorite comics writers, so I think it's very cool that he's writing an issue of Red Sonja. Hopefully it leads to more.

Plan 9 from Outer Space: The Comic

It's so crazy it just might work.

Mouse Guard: The Board Game

I'm so getting this. As long as it has little plastic Mouse Guard characters and David Petersen's illustrating the board.

Jonny Quest movie, Shang Chi versus a shark, and how to write comics the Hitchcock way

Adventure

There's a live-action Jonny Quest movie in the works and it's producers have high -- very high -- hopes for it. They're calling it "our Pirates. Our Transformers." They're also saying, "We always knew we wanted to do an origin movie about how Race and Hadji came to join the Quest family ... As for tone, this isn't going to be some kiddie movie. Our model is Raiders..."

Swashbuckling

Moonstone's adding to their prose anthology library with a Zorro volume.

Pulp

My friend Joe sent me this link to Pulp Fiction Central, an excellent pulp resource site.

Horror

Ooh! More Frazetta comics are coming and they sound really good!

Also, more Necromancer coming! Yay, Josh Ortega!

Fantasy

I wouldn't call him a Fantasy Artist per se, but I've just discovered Dean Yeagle's humorously sexy work and this is the closest category I can think of to put him in.

Super-Heroes

DC is redoing its line of kids' comic and, man, it's looks cool.

Shang Chi versus a shark. (One of these days I'm going to have to get in on this whole Friday Night Fights action.)

Writing is Hard

Here's a really excellent article on building suspense the Hitchcock way. It's written for screenwriters, naturally, but applies equally well to comics writers and possibly even writers of prose.

About a year ago I wrote this post on branding that was inspired by a conversation I'd had with Caleb Monroe, another writer. Caleb's added some thoughts on the subject in his own blog. I'm especially interested in his idea about wearing the same hat to every convention and how that got him recognized. My pal Joe (same one from above) made the same suggestion in the comments of my post, so this got me thinking. Where that thinking eventually led though was to the idea that with my size, my long hair, and my white-red beard, I'm a fairly recognizable figure without any headgear. My appearance is my logo. Now I just have to make sure not to taint the brand with bad stories or boneheaded behavior.

Also in Caleb's post is a link to an article on branding by Warren Ellis in which Ellis doesn't give Neil Gaiman nearly enough credit, but does note that if you're good enough at what you do, your name is logo enough.