He’s an interesting guy, this Grevioux. Creator of the Underworld film franchise the actor/writer/stuntman has also recently written New Warriors for Marvel.
I interviewed him over at Broken Frontier, and he discussed Hollywood protocol, racism and superheroes and his new series at Ape Entertainment, Sista Samurai, which involves supermodels and the Yakuza. What a combo!
The series has some great manga inspired art too. The first issue, of three, hits stands on January 28. It’s worth a look.
Local (to me, anyway) Aussie publisher, Gestalt Comics are having a sale on their original graphic novels. It includes their entire range of unique books. Admittedly its only 3 books but they’re pretty different, and a bargain, as they start at only $10!
The sale has been extended until the end of January, so go here for the list and also previews of the great artwork. Gestalt will be a publisher to keep an eye on, with some interesting stuff in the works for 2009.
I read BOOM!’s new series, Hexed about female magician/thief named Luci recently and really enjoyed it. Delightful art, an interesting Buffy-like protagonist and an engrossing story. It’s a great comic really – for fanboys and newbies alike. BOOM! believe it is too and now you can read the whole issue for free at MySpace. No questions asked. My review of the ish is here if you need further convincing, but trust me – take advantage of this opportunity.
Out now is the final one-shot of the Broken Trinity arc, from Top Cow. This story by Ron Marz and Brian Stelfreeze (it’s awesome to see that name on the cover of a comic again!) focuses on the female Angelus. A few preview pages are below. They look great and that’s just of people standing around talking!
Peter Tomasi was an editor at DC Comics for years until jumping across to the other side of the table as writer on such series as Nightwing and now, The Outsiders, which will be a team without Batman guiding them, now that he’s dead-maybe.
I was blessed to interview him at Broken Frontier where he talks about the new line-up of the Outsiders, the difference between being an editor and a writer, fatherhood and more.
Check it out here.
I’ve just reviewed Radical’s new series, Shrapnel, as well as BOOM!’s new, but delayed, series Hexed over at Extra Sequential. I’ve gotta say it was a wildly different reading experience for both of these debut issues. Shrapnel #1 was disappointing with it’s needlessly complicated sci-fi premise, and muddy artwork. I feel it is going somewhere worthwhile though. Hexed #1 was a lot more fun. Beautifully sunny art with an enchanting tale that follows a young female magician/thief nick-named Lucifer, it’s perfect for new readers, or those looking for a Buffy fix.
On a related note, you might notice I’ve added a new page to this here blog. I came across this nifty, and free, software that allows easy file conversions into viewable on-line mags. Check out the Free Comics Mag! page and you can check out the debut ish of Extra Sequential with all its comic-y goodness right now. Woo hoo!
I picked up That Salty Air from Comic-Con six months ago and finally got around to reading it. It’s a unique book about Hugh a fisherman facing the harsh reality of life, seemingly encapsulated by the ocean. A haunting tale, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I enjoyed it’s quiet pace and profound themes. Considering it’s the debut book from Tim Sievert who wrote, drew and lettered it, it makes it even more impressive.
You can read the whole review here at Extra Sequential.
I know this game has been out for a few months now, but I only just finished it, after purchasing it as an early Christmas present for myself. The first Gears of War, along with the zombie killing spree that was Dead Rising really showed what the fairly new XBOX 360 was capable of. Both of those games raised the bar and when we got Bioshock, Halo 3 and Rainbow Six Vegas the bar stayed there.
I got the Collector’s Edition, which came complete with a neato hardcover art book and DVD. I love all that behind the scenes stuff, which is why I never buy pirate DVDs. That, and because they’re illegal.
Playing as the grizzled Marcus Fenix, as you did in the first one you’re followed by his three squad mates for the most part. Basically, there’s been a huge war going on for 15 years with the Locusts, creatures who erupted from the ground on E-Day to destroy humanity. They pretty much succeeded.
From the outset it was obvious that this sequel was emphasising the war in the title. Cut scenes with more depth, a few new characters, nice weapons like the flamethrower. All these elements give the game a larger scope than the first one, which just followed Delta Squad, but didn’t give any screen time to the bigger events at play. Here, we have meetings with other squads, more cities and civilians and just more of a blockbuster feel. The graphics are the same as the first one, ie, brilliant. The only minor glitch was the annoying error that meant I went unnoticed a few times when crawling on the floor, asking for my teammates to revive me, but thanks to frequent checkpoints it wasn’t as frustrating as it could’ve been.
There’s also a greater variety in level design, especially when you’re riding massive tanks, unstable boats, flying beasts or even a huge Brumak in the last cavernous level. And two levels set inside animal gizzards is just a ghastly plus. I even watched the end credits sequence that surely ran of for at least 10 minutes. That puts Hollywood to shame. There were a lot of people involved in Epic’s most famous game, and now, franchise. I even counted three different languages in the thank-yous from the massive team. After all that, I kind of expected an extra scene. (Iron Man has spoilt me and now I expect post-credit scenes in everything I watch!) Well, there was something extra. Not a scene, but just a voice-over, of Adam Fenix. He’s Marcus Fenix’s long-lost father and doesn’t seem pleased about the humans sinking the city of Jacinto in a desperate attempt to beat the underground Locust horde. A nice seat up for Gears of War 3 to be sure. Trailer below.
I’ve bought every Newsboys live release from the VHS Step Up To The Microphone tour from a decade ago. I don’t buy every new album of theirs. Only delirious holds that honour for me, but Newsboys are a truly great band, and one of Australia’s most successful exports. Probably somewhere up with Hugh Jackman and The Wiggles. Newboys are one of the world’s longest lasting Christian bands. Of course, that label isn’t the best, as labels never are, but that’s the business of “Christian” music for you. Newsboys are a great band. They’re not a worship band, just a band that anyone can tap their toes to, with funky betas and quotable lyrics.
There have been a few line-up changes in the years they’ve been together, most noticeably the recent departures of Jody Davis and New Zealand bassist Phil Joel, to pursue family and mission interests. However, now they have the addition of Paul Colman, from the former band PC3, or the Paul Colman Trio. They managed to do quite well in the US before they split, and it’s great to see Colman on stage again, with his fellow Aussies, drummer Duncan Phillips and lead singer Peter Furler. I saw the Paul Colman Trio live in Perth twice and it’s just awesome to see him strut his stuff once more, with much larger crowds than he was used to. That means the only Yank left is keyboardist Jeff Frankenstein.
Newsboys still have that larrikin nature about them. They’re the funnest and funniest band to watch, and its great to see Peter interact with the huge Houston, Texas audience, making them laugh with his recountings of the band’s humble beginnings, and later cry with his heartfelt testimony. The preacher’s kid has done good.
Frankenstein looks as awkward as ever on stage, but since he’s a Mac user, he gets extra points. Phillips is as madcap as ever, with his cheeky grin, Mohawk and the fantastic return of the spinning drum platform. Colman fits in beautifully and Furler’s voice sounds just like it does on the albums.
The 14 track DVD/CD combo presents the same songs, a mix of old and new, including a few from their recent Go release. Classics like Shine, Entertaining Angels, He Reigns and Breakfast are my faves. The show’s production standards are great, and the fairly young audience really get into it. How could you not? I imagine the fellas must lose a fair amount of weight after each show after the three huge screens, on stage lights and two spotlights must make them sweat like maniacs, especially considering they’re all covered in black. But for them, and us, it’s all worth it. Check out the trailer below.
I’ve come to realise that over the last 18 months, but the last year in particular, I was very busy. In a good way. Going to bed two hours later than my usual time, but being creatively busy, means that I’m surprisingly not tired. Because of my constant writing for Sight, Broken Frontier, this little blog, and now Extra Sequential, I’ve come to realise how much I actually achieved in 2008. An average of a new review every day, and a new interview or article every month. Wow. That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Of course all it costs me is my time at this stage, but it would be great to be a professional blogger type guy one day.
Anyway, to kick off the New Year my favourite line from 2008 would have to be from DC’s Secret Six #4. Batman bad guy Bane is asked what he benchpresses, and he replies, “Costumed detectives mostly.” Classic. Here’s a preview of the ish here.
A couple of great documentaries I’ve seen this week are The King of Kong and The Kid Stays in The Picture. The King of Kong follows two Donkey Kong champions as they try to top one another’s (extremely) high scores. It’s remarkable the passion people can have, and there’s a handful of gamers world wide who have the high levels of focus and manual dexterity to ocnquer these old-school arcade games. The mind games seem exaggerated, but the difficulty of Kong, etc don’t. Games these days seem like a walk in the park. Apart from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, naturally. Despite what the blurbs say, Kong is not hilarious. It’s funny in a quirky way like The Office (UK version) is due to the differing personalities of the two competitors, but also how stereotypical the gaming geeks really are . If you like King of Kong, you’ll love Trekkies, which is an older doco about Star Trek fans. That film makes me laugh till I cry every time I see it.
The Kid follows Robert Evans’ rise to film producing for Paramount in the 1960s and 70s. Discovered at a pool he became a baby faced actor and then a novice producer. His credits speak for himself though, with The Godfather, Rosemary’s Baby, Marathon Man and many 70s classics which all owe their existence to his firm belief. Cocaine and pride played his downfall though and then he went to helping make stellar films, to producing How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. Let that be a lesson about the dangers of drugs, kids.
Both films are gripping in a way only true stories can be, filled with head scratching moments. Trailers for both films, plus the classic Trekkies, are below. Good holiday viewing.
Here’s a sneak peek at the penultimate issue of the World of Warcraft: Ashbringer mini-series from Wildstorm/DC. It’s written by Micky Neilson, with art by Ludo Lullabi (how cool a name is that?!) and Tony Washington. You’d hope, or at least DC would, that many gamers would flock to their LCS to get tie-in comics like this that expand the concept beyond the console. Wildstorm is becoming a good imprint and showcase for DC lately, with franchises that appeal to non-fanboys. They also have comics based on the Gears of War game which is awesome, and the Mirror’s Edge game, which unfortunately didn’t live up to the great parkour concept. They also have the first ish of the PS3 game, Resistance launching next month.
The last 18 months have been great for me from a hobby perspective and I began thinking that the only thing I’m reasonably good at was comic-y stuff. So I thought I’d start a magazine. It was like a bolt from heaven, or perhaps a caffeine induced daydream. Either way it’s exciting. Extra Sequential will be a bi-monthly mag that will be put on-line as a PDF, totally free. Our first ish is now up, though by the time we launch our official site, some tweaking will take place. Go here to view or save the PDF (57 pages, 9.9mb) or here to see it in a great on-line viewer, and please let me know what you think. A few preview pages are below just to give you a taste. Our aim is to make comic books more accessible. The hardcore insider attraction of Wizard is not our model. We’re more inspired by the art heavy mags of street culture, hip-hop mags, with an emphasis on giving a wider audience to the diversity in comics and hopefully creating new readers along the way. Hope you enjoy it.
Compilations like this are a rarity on the comics stands these days. Image has done very well with the concept with the Tori Amos collaboration, Comic Book Tattoo as well as their two volumes of PopGun books and their recent Liquid City book which featured work by Asian writers and artists. Of course, there is always the excellent Flight series too. Those anthologies are all superb ways of introducing new fans into our beloved medium of choice, but if you’re into something more frequent (as in every month) that features some great short stories, then BOOM! Studios has the answer for you. Comparing their Zombie Tales series to the books mentioned above is a stretch, but they all offer bite sized (no pun intended) tales to hook readers into the marvels of sequential art.
Zombie Tales is, as the title suggests, a monthly look at tales featuring everyone’s favourite horror creatures of the moment. Yep, zombies. Having only read a couple of issues of this series, it’s extremely refreshing to be able to jump on board and simply be entertained without having to know why Superhero X is pummelling Superhero Y.
If you’re drawn to films of the undead like flies to the…undead, then this is a series for you. Zombies may not do much, apart from shambling and muttering, but as the slew of films have shown as over the last few years, they can squeeze into any genre. They’re not just bound to horror features anymore. Zombies are no longer being typecast. What an age we live in!
The first tale here is written by John R. Fultz, with art by Aritz Eiguren. It centres on two hitmen presumably working for the Mafia, who take their latest victim out to the woods to complete their given task. For one of the men, it is The Last Hit, as is the title. Despite their killing of the snitch, he digs out of his makeshift grave and attacks Satch in their car. Satch of course turns against his partner Bruno. Now Bruno has two “corpses” to his credit, and when he visits the boss to tell him he’s finished his final job, it looks like Bruno himself may be the third. Suitably bloody art makes this a harsh and violent story, as most zombie tales are.
Summer 2061 is the second tale and is a continuation of a story from the first issue of this series. However, if you didn’t read that tale, you won’t be out of your depth here. Basically, zombies now appear to be the dominant lifeform, taking over a city, with humans as their playthings. A more serious and epic tale, written by Kim Krizan, it is complimented greatly by Jon Reed’s ruggedly realistic art. A motley group of human survivors has had enough and storm the city to free a few more to join their ranks. They are met by the world the way zombies want it – humans in pet stores, human rugs and the huge Summer Games, consisting of humans fighting each other like the Roman days of centuries ago.
The third and final tale, Zombie Come Home is written by Tom Peyer, who is the only familiar name in this issue, due to his stint on many DC titles, including Legion of Super Heroes. Drew Rausch’s pencils combined with Drew Berry’s colours give this tale a look straight from a children’s book. The story is a simple one, with very little dialogue. Basically a boy is keeping a zombie tied to a tree in his backyard as a restrained and mute life size action figure. His parents console him as a government chopper comes to take him away. A fiery crash means the zombie is free and after some wandering, he falls into a river and lands at his keeper’s house again, which gives the child much joy. The naïve child runs to his undead friend and gives him a big hug, but instead of receiving a similar response, he is welcomed with a munch to his noggin. What a glorious ending. If you can’t laugh at this picture, then there’s something wrong with you. It’s a deliciously amusing finale, and if BOOM! doesn’t turn this page into a poster, they’re mad.
There’s something here for every taste. The first two tales are more serious in nature and the final one is anything but. Each of the three differs enough in its approach to story and art and is well worth a look if you’re new to comics, love zombies or just want a few entertaining pages to distract you from your post-Christmas weight gain.
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