Total Recall – Now In Comics

Seeing the cover below in the latest Previews catalogue brought back memories from the classic Arnie film in my youth. Great special effects for its day and witty dialogue like, “You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your afce around here.” Plus, Arnie as a woman, with an exploding head and a robot taxi driver. Oh, and an acrobatic Sharon Stone. Classic! Now Dynamite are continuing the film’s story. I guess they didn’t want the rights to the original Philip K. Dick novel, but that makes sense as the film’s probably more well known. I wonder if any of this will be seen in the upcoming remake, starring Colin Farrell.

Text-free preview pages of the debut issue below, which is out in May but can be ordered now.

CONTINUING WHERE THE MOVIE LEFT OFF, TOTAL RECALL #1 HITS STORES THIS MAY!

Shipping this May, Dynamite Comics, inspired by the hit 1990 science fiction movie TOTAL RECALL starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, presents the story of what happens next in its new comic series: TOTAL RECALL.

The series begins with the death of the Mars mining colony chief, Cohaagen, and the creation of an atmosphere for the planet. Douglas Quaid, the undercover agent known as Hauser, and the man responsible for releasing the colony from the grips of Cohaagen, simply wants to live happily ever after with Melina the woman of his dreams.  But with Mars in chaos, new enemies invading the red planet, and a mysterious stranger in their midst, will Quaid have his happily ever after? Check out issue TOTAL RECALL #1 to find out!

“Being given the opportunity to create a sequel to one of the coolest action films of the 1990s was too great pass up,” says first time comics writer Vincent S. Moore.  “Resonating with one of the themes of the original movie, this is a dream come true and a great benefit for me.  In order to fulfill my dream, I simply had to turn around and make the happy ending for Douglas Quaid on Mars into a new nightmare and show him to be the hero once again.  It was easy and tons of fun.  I threw everything I could think at Quaid, keeping with the flavor of the movie.  I hope all of the readers enjoy the ride. My thanks to the folks at Dynamite for giving me this chance.  And to all those fans of the original film, I hope you like what we came up with enough to give it a shot.  Just remember: get your asses to Mars!”

Total Recall is an original Sci-Fi Carolco Pictures thriller, released in 1990.  The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone and is based on the Philip K. Dick short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.” Directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, Jon Povill, and Gary Goldman, TOTAL RECALL won a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects. The Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack earned the BMI Film Music Award. The rights to publish a TOTAL RECALL comic book series were obtained from StudioCanal S.A. under a licensing agreement negotiated by The Licensing Group Ltd.

The story line is centered on an unsophisticated construction worker, Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger), and the aftermath of his visit to REKALL, a company offering vacations for the mind. The Rekall vacation triggers a mind plant in Quaid’s brain, leading him to discover that he is a freedom fighter from Mars who has been relocated to Earth. Quaid attempts to restore order, and reverse the corrupt influence of commercial powers, despite multiple challenges, not the least of which are his wife’s multiple attempts to kill him, attacks from thugs who want him dead; and his own confusion as to who he really is. Quaid conquers the corrupt hold of the Mars based mining company restoring order to the Mars community.

To find a comic shop near you, call 1-888-comicbook

For art and more information, please visit:

www.dynamite.net

Heaven Forbid! Volume 1 Review

The quality and quantity of Christian comics has been steadily increasing over the last few years, and this little gem can be added to the growing list.

Heaven Forbid Volume 1: Not Getting Religion is a collection of writer/artist Dan Conner’s web comics which poke fun at the day to day adventures of average Christians, and let’s face it, if there’s one thing we don’t do enough of at times, it’s look at ourselves through humorous eyes. Collected from his Crazy Good Comics which Conner updates with new material every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

This volume begins with a guy and girl discussing an upcoming church potluck dinner and although it’s not necessarily a hilarious introduction, it does ease the reader into the narrative flow. The storytelling is very charming and smooth, making the whole volume easy to digest all in one sitting. There are cute asides that reveal what the characters are really thinking, and although in the potluck dinner, we don’t get proper introductions until about a third of the way in, it does work well as a realistic representation of formal gatherings. The dialogue is never mean, but is youthful, sometimes thought provoking, and often humorous.

As one of the men says in perhaps the book’s funniest line, he’s a bachelor who lives by himself, so he “shouldn’t have the same expectations as everybody else.”

At times the dialogue and zany conversations even reminded me of nerdy sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. After the potluck-centered story, the next few pages are filled with mainly shorter multi-page gags that range from Christianity’s hijacking of pop culture for its own ends, as seen in the great Transfarmers: Farmers in Disguise ad for a Bible school, to a discussion of mythical creatures from Scripture to wearing merchandise of Marvel Comics superhero Thor. There’s even a strip that explains the title of this collection, plus a look at the power of forgiving a pet cat, conversations about the phrases, “Ask Jesus into your heart,” and “Jesus is my co-pilot,” the point of nativity scenes, and more. It’s a great reminder to us Christians that we sometimes do exist in our own world, and hopefully amusing reminders like Heaven Forbid, will wake us out of our occasionally insular thinking.

The main group of characters, such as the aforementioned Charles, and Chelsea and the guitar novice Carter (who joins the delightfully named band The Turkish Delights) are the focus of this book, but there are extras, such as one which focuses on Chelsea’s pet cat and mouse, Purby and McDeermid.

Conner’s art is simple, to be sure, but that’s what gives it its charm. Rendered in black and white, the faces are always expressive, and although it’s a dialogue heavy comic, the difficult comedic rhythms of sequential art are splendidly achieved in these pages. It’s real, relatable, and funny.

Seeing as this is Conner’s first solo comic, after working on Pirates vs Ninjas for Antarctic Press and Graphic Horror: Dracula and Graphic Shakespeare: The Tempest, for Abdo Books, he can only improve in his storytelling abilities.

Connor has a unique, and strong, voice and I hope to see more of it in print.

Heaven Forbid is a 112 page collection and is 3available from Lamp Post Publishing and Amazon.

Broken Frontier’s VIP Memberships

Broken Frontier is a comics site that I’ve been writing for for a while and now we’ve just launched a nifty opportunity for readers and fans to support us and get a present from Viper Comics at the same time. Details below.

Broken Frontier Launches VIP Memberships

Comic book news site Broken Frontier today launches its new VIP Membership program. Through the VIP Memberships, fans and readers of the website can show their appreciation for BF’s content… and receive a neat gift in return.

“These VIP Memberships are an excellent opportunity for the comics community to give us two thumbs up,” Broken Frontier Editor-in-Chief Frederik Hautain says. “All funds generated through the program will be used to continue to bring you the best comics coverage we’re capable of, and to upgrade our tech infrastructure. Plus, we want to make sure the comics industry benefits a little bit too, so we’re donating 15% of the value of each membership to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.”

Broken Frontier has created three types of VIP Memberships – Bronze, Silver, and Gold. For the month of March, everyone who signs up will receive a gift card donated by the great people at Viper Comics, which can be used to get some neat Viper comics and merchandise in the Viper Comics online shop located at www.viperbookstore.com.

The following packages will be available through March 31:

Bronze VIP Membership ($29) – $20 Viper Comics gift card

Silver VIP Membership ($49) – $35 Viper Comics gift card

Gold VIP Membership ($99) – $50 Viper Comics gift card

Show your support for Broken Frontier and become a VIP Member now! To sign up and for all the details on the program, go to: http://www.brokenfrontier.com/vip-memberships.

About Broken Frontier

Established in the fall of 2002, Broken Frontier (www.brokenfrontier.com) quickly built a solid reputation for its extensive, unique, and critical coverage of the comic book industry. Coverage includes headline news, interviews, articles, reviews, columns and blogs.
The website covers every corner of the comic book industry, from mainstream to independent publishers, from print and digital publications to film and tv adaptations. Additionally, Broken Frontier is the publisher of the first digital comic book magazine for mobile devices, The Frontiersman.

Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/brokenfrontier
Become a fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/brokenfrontier

 

Extra Sequential Podcast #30-Strange Worlds

70 mins. Good and bad horror flicks, Star Wars and our look at characters travelling to new worlds.

LISTEN TO IT BELOW, DOWNLOAD IT HERE OR ON ITUNES


1:07 NEWS

Frank Miller’s DKR art auction

Diane Lane is Superman’s earthly mother in the reboot film

Floyd Gotfredson’s collected Mickey Mouse

Kabbom’s Peanuts film adaptation

X-Men anime trailer

Aussie Oscar winners

Oni Press Mixtape by nerdcore rapper Adam Warrock

14:05 WHAT WE’VE BEEN READING

Evil Dead II

Killzone 3

The Making of The Empire Strikes Back book by J.W Rinzler

Digested by Bobby N

Brightest Day #21

The work of French artist Caza

The similarities between Image’s Carbon Grey #1 and Resident Evil: Afterlife

The excellent Ryan Reynolds stuck in a coffin film, Buried

37:50 THEME-STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND

We look at some of our fave comics in which characters discover new, and surreal, worlds.

Tintin, and Asterix and The Great Crossing

Air from G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker

Neil Gaiman’s The Books of Magic

Doug TenNapel’s Earthboy Jacobus

Guy Delisle’s Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea

 

Read Hexed #1 For Free

The Hard Cover collection of BOOM! Studios’ wonderful magic centred mini-series, Hexed came out in 2009 (and was the first printed publication to quote this humble blog on the inside cover!) and now you can read the whole first issue for free at Newsarama, which I highly suggest you do. It’s written by Michael Alan Nelson with cheeky visual flair from artist Emma Rio,who has since gone on to draw Strange, Runaways and Osborn at Marvel.

If you like what you see, the TPB (with the cool Paul Pope cover, below) has just been released, collecting the whole original 4 issues for the first time in affordable Soft Cover.

Superman: New Krypton Saga On Sale

At DC’s relatively new digital store you can now purchase all the over 80 issues of New Krypton saga from the Superman series from creators such as Sterling Gates, James Robinson and Pete Woods. With Brainiac, General Zod, Supergirl, the Legion of Super-Heroes and heaps of dramatic action it’s a great entry point to Superman and co. and much more entertaining than the current state of his series.

All the issues are on sale for 99 cents on March 4 and 5, despite what the ad below says.

Blue Dream’s Kids Comics App

Scott Christian Sava is the creator of the immensely, and understandably, popular webcomic The Dreamland Chronicles and now his studio is launching the iKids comics app. Cool beans.

Blue Dream Studios Launches iKids Comics

Within 48 Hours of Launch, iKids Comics Hits #11 on the list of Top Downloaded iPad Book Apps

 

Blue Dream Studios creator Scott Christian Sava announced today the launch of the first all-ages comic app — iKids Comics. The iKids Comics iPad app features the award-winning and critically acclaimed works of Blue Dream Studios including The Dreamland Chronicles, Ed’s Terrestrials, The Luckiest Boy, Pet Robots, Hyperactive, My Grandparents are Secret Agents, Cameron and his Dinosaurs, Gary the Pirate and Magic Carpet. The new iPad app is free and includes the completeEd’s Terrestrials comic, which was named one of the top comics of 2010 according to Graphic Novel Reporter. In addition, the app allows readers to download 11 other exciting titles, and read the first 25 pages for free. Each story can be downloaded in its entirety for only $1.99 per book and $3.99 for each of 300-page Dreamland Chronicles books.

“We’re extremely excited to be the first to bring an app created entirely for kids’ comics to the iPad,” said Scott Christian Sava, creator of the award-winning titles and founder of Blue Dream Studios. “Parents know how much their kids love to play games on the iPad. But there just wasn’t anything for their kids to read. Now, there are 12 new books that will capture the imagination and encourage literacy.”

The iPad, introduced in April 2010 by Apple, is on track to deliver $15 to $20 billion in revenue in its first full year of sales, according to A.M. Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, a leading global investment firm. At this rate, if the iPad were a stand-alone company, it would rank within the top third of the Fortune 500. According to Sava, “With the explosion of portable games and entertainment on handheld devices, it seems children will never be “bored” again. But literacy is still an important part of our children’s needs. As parents, we must find ways to keep our children interested in reading. iKids Comics for the iPad promotes literacy while entertaining both visually and intellectually.”

Found in 2000 by Scott Christian Sava, Blue Dream Studios has brought to life some of the most beloved characters of our time including Casper, Spider-Man, Alien vs. Predator, X-Files and Star Trek.  Formerly an animation studio, Blue Dream Studios now creates award winning characters and stories for print, television, and film. Sava’s ongoing graphic novel series, The Dreamland Chronicles, has not only won Best Graphic Novel Series awards but has also gained 20,000,000 readers worldwide through the website that gives readers a new page each day. His work can be found in local bookstores as well as on Amazon and www.bluedreamstudios.com.

For more information about any of the books, please download the iPad App and check them out! http://itunes.apple.com/app/ikids-comics/id413889668?mt=8

There is more information about them and the author on the Blue Dream Studios web site at www.bluedreamstudios.com. For more information about The Dreamland Chronicles, please visit www.thedreamlandchronicles.com.

Reed Gunther At Image

Now we know what those two mysterious Reed Promo teaser images were for. Details below.

REED GUNTHER LASSOS A NEW HOME

Shane and Chris Houghton Bring Their Grizzly-Riding Cowboy to Image Comics in June

REED GUNTHER, the fun all-ages western adventure created by brothers Shane and Chris Houghton will soon be available in full color for the first time through Image Comics, beginning this June. The creators’ originally self-published five-issue miniseries will then be followed by an all-new series chock full of the same wild antics fans expect from their favorite hapless cowboy.

Whether battling supernatural monsters, tracking down slimy villains, or catching a runaway train, REED GUNTHER has already won many fans over with its good-natured wit and rambunctious style. Comic Book Resources gave an enthusiastic recommendation: “If you truly want to read a comic that is good, clean fun, completely unhinged from continuity, crossovers or company agendas, then do yourself a favor and pick this book up.”

“Chris and I were physically carrying new issues of REED GUNTHER to our local comic shops to be sold,” said writer Shane Houghton of the brothers’ decision to move to Image Comics. “We are incredibly excited to be working with Image, who can help us spread our goofy, wild adventures of cowboys and monsters to a wider audience.”

“Publishing through Image allows us to release our original series in color, something we had always wanted to do,” added illustrator Chris Houghton. “Watching Reed ride Sterling into the sunset is going to be that much more spectacular now in color!”

REED GUNTHER #1, a 32-page full-color all-ages western comedy for $2.99, will come galloping full speed into a comic store near you on June 1, 2011. For more information on Reed Gunther, Sterling, and all their unruly friends and foes, visit www.reedgunther.com.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights Trailer

Arriving just before the live action film in June is this animated anthology, featuring a look at 6 different ring bearers. Of course, Hal Jordan is in there, but curiously Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner and John Stewart aren’t, which is strange, considering most people know the former from the JLU cartoon, and he’ll be appearing in the live action film. It still looks good though, and seems to be adopting the same look across all 6 stories.

Reed Promo 2

This second teaser from Image features actors Clint Eastwood, James Stewart and John Wayne amongst a bunch of real life Wild West figures, and one fictional character. We know now that it’s a fun, all-ages series that’ll be announced soon.

X-Men: First To Last Preview

It’s the old vs the new in this text-free preview.

Your First Look at X-MEN: FIRST TO LAST!

Marvel is pleased to present your first look at X-Men: First To Last, as acclaimed writer Christopher Yost returns to the X-Men with fan favorite artists Paco Medina and Dalibor Talijic. Starting in X-Men Giant-Size #1 and continuing in June’s X-Men #12, discover the staggering consequences when Xavier’s first class arrives in the future to tackle their greatest foe yet! The next shocking X-Men arc starts right here and, when it’s all over; a major new figure will tower over the team’s past and their undecided future.

“X-Men Giant Size has massive ramifications for two – count ‘em, two – generations of X-Men.  That’s right, the original X-Men are back,” said Marvel Editor In Chief, Axel Alonso. “Is the X-Universe big enough for both teams?”

Can the X-Men of yesterday and today tackle their greatest enemy that neither can remember? The Evolutionaries are coming and their rampage through the Marvel Universe will reverberate through the lives of all X-Men past and present, first and last. The mind-bending saga that will rewrite the history books on mutantkind begins this May, in X-Men Giant-Size #1!

Plus, no X-Men fan can miss the all-new X-Force Archangel action figure, available exclusively at Marvel.com. One of the most popular members of the red-hot Uncanny X-Force team, this is the only way for you to get the first figure of Archangel in his all-new, all-deadly uniform. Please visit www.marvel.com/archangel for more details.

X-MEN GIANT-SIZE #1

X-MEN GIANT-SIZE #1 MEDINA VARIANT

Written by CHRISTOPHER YOST

Penciled by PACO MEDINA & DALIBOR TALIJIC

Cover by ED McGUINNESS

Variant Cover by PACO MEDINA

Rated T+ …$4.99

ON-SALE IN MAY!

 

Dark Horse and Archaia FCBD Previews

FCBD (that’s Free Comic Book Day) occurs on the first Saturday of May each year. It’s a great initiative to get newbies to sample the awesomeness of today’s sequential art. Hopefully your LCS is participating. The first 2 publishers to promote their offerings for this year are Dark Horse and Archaia.

First up, the Horse, and this note from editor Scott Allie.

I really pushed to get our horror books in front of people for Free Comic Book Day. While there’s epic changes afoot in Hellboy, we also have big upcoming plans for Mignola’s Baltimore, and the FCBD story is a great intro to that. Niles and Criminal Macabre were away for a while, so we wanted to make this a strong comeback year. Steve’s showing you everything fun about the series in eight pages—monsters, mayhem, humor, and drug abuse. We’ll follow it up with the crossover with Eric Powell’s The Goon, and then another Cal oneshot this summer. We’re taking the character down a few pegs and starting his story fresh, so FCBD is really a perfect place to start. Free. All the new stuff is drawn by Chris Mitten, with amazing painted covers by Fiona Staples. We wanted to give the character a clean start with a really solid new team, so readers don’t have to have read everything that came before. But if you want to … there’s two omnibuses coming later this year, collecting everything that came before.

You can see an extra page from both both Criminal Macabre and Baltimore at Dark Horses’s blog.

And now – Archaia. With writer Brian Holguin (Spawn) and artist Alex Sheikman (Robotika) on the ’80s film based The Dark Crystal story and a peek at the just announced sequel to Return of the Dapper Men, this will be another one to pick up. Covers for the flipbook below.

MOUSE GUARD/THE DARK CRYSTAL Free Comic Book Day Flipbook

Retail Price: Free

Page Count: 32 pages

Format: saddle bound, 8” x 8”, full color

Release Date: May 7, 2011

(W) David Petersen and Brian Holguin

(A) David Petersen and Alex Sheikman

(Cov) The Dark Crystal – Brian Froud; Mouse Guard – David Petersen

Archaia presents two, amazing, all-new stories in one fantastic flipbook—David Petersen’s Eisner Award-winning MOUSE GUARD and Jim Henson’s beloved THE DARK CRYSTAL share the spotlight on Free Comic Book day! On one side of the book, a brand-new tale of the fan-favorite MOUSE GUARD, elite warrior mice tasked with protecting common mice from predators, the elements and other dangers. It’s the perfect introduction to MOUSE GUARD for new fans, and a rewarding treat for existing ones! On the other side of the book, Archaia Entertainment is proud to present an exclusive prelude to its forthcoming series of THE DARK CRYSTAL graphic novels, featuring covers, art direction and concepts by Brian Froud, conceptual designer of the original film! This prelude begins the epic creation story of the world of Thra, and explores the origins of the world of THE DARK CRYSTAL!

As a bonus, the issue will also contain a sneak peek of Jim McCann and Janet Lee’s TIME OF THE DAPPER MEN, a sequel to the critically acclaimed RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN, coming this fall. Additionally, fans of Jim Henson will also get an advance look at TALE OF SAND, an original graphic novel coming in September based on a never-before-seen screenplay written by Henson and Jerry Juhl!

Booming Peanuts

With two simple images released today, rising indie publishers BOOM! Studios have announced that their BOOM! Kids line is now called Kaboom!, and that the first series under that banner is a biggie – Charlie Brown and co. Whether Peanuts will be reprints or what, we don’t know as yet. Great scoop though.

Extra Sequential Podcast #28-Romance

52 mins. It’s our look at romance comics, though we use the term “romance” loosely.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE, LISTEN TO IT BELOW OR ON ITUNES

1:20 NEWS

TV’s new Wonder Woman, Akira film cast, the Spider-Man reboot has a title,  Marvel vs Capcom 3, Shane Black to direct Iron Man 3, The Golden Age film adaptation, Darren Aronofsky’s Noah comic, Michel Gondry to adapt Philip K. Dick’s Ubik novel, a new venture from the stars of King of Kong.

14:05 WHAT WE’VE BEEN READING

The Lethal Weapon films, Art Spiegelman’s Breakdowns, hip hop magazine Find.

22:00  ROMANCE COMICS

Superhero lovers, Love The Way You Love, Blankets, Shortcomings, and Moving Pictures.

38:30 FEATURE REVIEW

Ivy from Sarah Oleksyk and Oni Press.