NEWS FOR THE COMIC BOOK READER . . .

Posted on July 6th, 2010 by ekko

1.  COMICS LEARN FROM TUPAC. It’s good to be dead!  The Top 10 bestselling single comics of the month of 2010, according to Diamond distributors, all had to do with characters who are recently dead, “dead,” or back from the dead:

1. Avengers #1 (Steve Rogers—and Iron Man, if you count being a vegetable as dead)
2.  Siege #4 (Steve and Sentry and a bunch of disposable Asgardians)
3.  and 6. Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1 and 2 (Bruce)
4.  Secret Avengers #1 (Steve—and Moon Knight, but he died back in the late 1970s)
5. and 7.  Brightest Day #1 and 2 (Deadman!  And others.)
8.  Green Lantern #54 (Hal Jordan)
9.  Batman and Robin #12 (this book wouldn’t exist if Bruce weren’t dead)
10.  Uncanny X-Men #524 (Nightcrawler)

Sad to say that The Walking Dead wasn’t one of these . . . D.C. had 60% of the top 10, and they also kicked Marvel’s butt on the trades top sellers, too, owning 40% of that market (due largely to Vertigo), with the latest Ex Machina the bestseller and entries from Sweet Tooth, Scalped, and then the Wednesday Comics hardcover.  Marvel had just three entries: Invincible Iron Man, Kick-Ass (hardcover) and Deadpool Vol. 3.  The rest belonged to these worthy indie books, all of which you should buy right now: Invincible Vol. 12; The Walking Dead Book Five; and Hellsing Vol. 10 (actually, I don’t know anything about Hellsing).

2.  VAMPIRELLA. Dynamite got the rights to reprint the old Vampirella books and mags, which probably doesn’t excite any of you until you remember all the folks who have roots in the title: Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Frank Frazetta (pictured at right), Amanda Conner, Mark Millar, Neal Adams, Richard Corben, Jimmy Palmiotti and Barry Windsor-Smith.  See?  Now you’re interested.

3.  DEADPOOL. A week has gone by, so it’s ime for yet another DP series: “Deadpool Pulp”, by Mike Benson, Adam Glass, and artist Laurence Campbell.  This will be like the Noir series—it takes place in the 1950s, outside of “regular” Marvel lore.

4.  SUPERMAN. J. Michael Straczynski is taking over the title by putting Superman on the ground.  Kal-el will begin walking across America with issue #701.  I’m getting the impression that JMS will be treating Superman like a God during his run on the book.  DC is marketing this with an essay contest for fans to win the chance to have Superman visit their own home town, in the comic.  Is a gimmick needed when you’ve got a writer like JMS attached to your book?  Well, anyway, after his run on Thor, I trust the guy.  I’ll buy the book.  At least, in trade form.  He’s also re-doing Wonder Woman’s origin, which should be very interezzzzzzzz.

5.  OLDER MAN LOGAN. Hailed by many as the greatest Wolverine story ever, Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s Old Man Logan may get a sequel, with the same comic team.

6. BATMAN REFERENCE MANUAL! Check out this Batman Reference Manual. Comprehensive, funny . . . What more can you ask for?

7. Little Orphan Annie has been cancelled!

AND IN MOVIE NEWS . . .

1.  X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. This flick already has a summer 2011 release date and isn’t written or cast yet.  If they can throw this movie together in a year, why do we have to wait so long for all the other movies?  It’s not a Marvel Studios pic, and maybe that’s why.

2.  MARVEL SHORT FILMS. Marvel Studios and Disney floated the idea of small films—10 minute “shorts”—that would appear before their full length flicks, which would feature b-listers like Luke Cage or Black Panther.  They also just hired a guy to write a Dr. Strange movie, but it’s not clear if that will be a feature or a short.  Really?  Out of all the lesser-knowns, they’re gonna go with the Doc?  Seems like a bad choice to me.  I’d go with another Blade movie, or with Luke Cage or Iron Fist . . . Even Power Pack before Strange.

3.  MORE WALKING DEAD UPDATES. Frank Darabont (producer) now says that the show plans to reach the prison story arc at the end of the second sentence, which means one and two will be about Rick Grimes travelling and forming the group.  I’m sad, because I want to see it all, but I’m happy that they aren’t rushing it.  No need to run out of stories here and start creating your own when you’ve got a long-running serialized book that is sheer genius as the source material.

4.  MORE D.C. ANIMATED UPDATES.  The next DVD cartoon flick will be another Superman/Batman, following on the heels of the well-executed, well-received “Public Enemies” DVD.  This one will be “Superman/Batman: Apocalypse,” and will feature the duo against (you guessed it), Darkseid.  Darky is the only real “big bad” in the DCU who is at all interesting or who has gained any real traction over the decades.  Whenever there’s a crisis, Darkseid is there.  It will be based on one of Jeph Loeb’s good works (his stuff is either very good, or horrible), which was the “Superman/Batman: Supergirl” arc.  Ironically, Loeb was just promoted to the head of Marvel Entertainment’s T.V. department.

See you next week, same blog-time, same blog-url!

Tags: Comic books, Deadpool, Filthy Muties, Grant Morrison Sucks, Superheroes, Superman, The Caped Crusader, Vampires, Zombies

TOP 10 DRACULA PORTRAYALS

Posted on January 14th, 2010 by ekko

These days, Vampires are all the rage. And let’s face it, Vampires are cool. But Dracula usually sucks. Pun intended. But seriously, when you know that a movie, TV show or book is about The Count–as opposed to being about a less renown vampire–it’s usually an indicator that something lame this way comes. But such is not always the case. And it certainly wasn’t true in Bram Stoker’s original, classic novel. But where else can we see good versions of Drac–not corny, stupid ones? The answers are below . . . In this list of my favorite depictions of the true Crown Prince of Dracness.

10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer No.s 12-15 (“Wolves at the Gate”). but the Buff comic books are quite good, and in this story arc, which follows the Buffy vs. Dracula TV episode also on this list, the team reunites with Dracula in Japan of all places to fight a new group of super-powered vampires. The terrific story arc by Drew Goddard has all the charm, drama, and humor of the TV series.

9. Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Abbot and Costello versus a legion of monsters including The Wolfman, Mummy and Dracula. Yes, the 1948 film is definitely a little dated, but it’s still a great vision of the comedic possibilities in Bela Lugosi’s classic vision of the character.

8. Uncanny X-Men #159 (“Night Screams!”). Storm is hypnotized by Dracula, who wants her as his nubian princess. It’s a pretty damn cool idea–why wouldn’t Dracula seek to turn a mutant into a vampire? The story was kind of a one-off, outside of the regular X-Men continuity, but it was far better than it should have been. And the cover by Bill (“Moon Knight”) Sienkiewicz is brilliant. Note: The subsequent X-vs.-Drac battle in X-Men Annual #6, wasn’t nearly as good.

7. The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror IV (“Bart Simpson’s Dracula”). The 1993 installment of the animated show’s tribute to Halloween–an annual favorite at my house. In this episode, Dracula is portrayed as Mr. Burns, with images that borrow heavily from the brillant Francis Ford Coppola film (see below). That is, before the episode takes a bizarre turn and into a parody of the Charlie Brown Christmas special). Very Monty Pythonesque.

6.  Salem’s Lot.   Since Vlad doesn’t appear in it, it might not be fair to include this on a “Best of Dracula” list, but I’m doing it because Stephen King has stated repeatedly that his brilliant novel–one of the scariest books ever written–was intended as an update of the Dracula novel–what if Dracula took place in Maine in the modern day?  This is the only novel on this list, which isn’t to say that there aren’t good books about Dracula–it’s just that I haven’t read any.

5.  Dracula.  In Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film, Gary Oldman is the titular vampire.  This is the closest thing to a film version of the novel, but what makes it great is Gary.  Oldman is always great a being an over-the-top villain (see The Fifth Element, The Professional, and True Romance), and this role is no exception.  He’s effeminate, ironic, irritating and evil.  And larger than life.

4.  Buffy vs. Dracula.  In the first episode of the show’s 5th season, Dracula is portrayed as an obnoxious egomaniac by soap opera actor Rudolf Martin.  Yeah, I’m a little Buffycentric putting her twice on this list–but was anyone in the 1990s more important than Buffy for redefining vampires as a genre?  And what’s cool about this episode is that The Count can’t be killed like a normal vamp, which explains why he’s been able to survive for centuries without any slayer ever being able to get to him.  Yet, he doesn’t really have any supremely sinister goals or aspirations–or at least none that he cares all that much about.  He’s kind of like Paris Hilton.

3.  The Tomb of Dracula.  Beginning a six-year run in 1972, this Marvel Comics series featured a gang of vampire hunters who would fight against–and sometimes alongside–Dracula.  This was Marvel’s first superhero monster book–followed by Werewolf By Night (the series in which Moon Knight debuted), Legion of Monsters, and utimately the Blade series.  The book was made possible by a loosening of the comic book code’s ban on all vampires, and was written by legends like Gerry Conway and Archie Goodwin, and drawn by the brilliant, shadowy, sketchy Gene Colan (with covers by Gil Kane).  No, the series wasn’t always brilliant, but it did something for Dracula that I’m pretty sure no one had done before: It made him an action hero.

2.  Dracula.  The 1931 film by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi remains the iconic depiction of the lord of vampires.  It’s not even close to the book version–the Count is far less powerful here than in Stoker’s novel–but all the elements for all the versions to follow are there: Hypnotic sexuality, the eyes, alliances with wolves and wierdos, hot chicks, and Dr. Van Helsing.  For more Bela, don’t miss Martin Landau in Tim Burton’s amazing Ed Wood film.

1.  Nosferatu.  The first film about the bloodsucking king remains the most frightening.  F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film has the creepiest looking depiction of Vlad the Impaler, even if Count Dracula’s name is never used (because Bram Stoker’s estate would not give Murnau the rights).  Max Schreck plays Count Orlok, with a rat face and skinny, boney fingers, and a story that may have been different enough to avoid a lawsuit but definitely is, without a doubt, the first film version of Dracula.

Tags: Buffy, Movies, Television, Vampires