New ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY Trailer Tries To Keep The Science Simple!!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Quint and Bruce Campbell talk about the secret to rebooting EVIL DEAD, fans, tattoos, blood and more

≪ Previous: Terry Malloy Is KILLING THEM SOFTLY On Blu-ray!!

ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY Final Theatrical One Sheet

I caught ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY last year up at the Fantasia International Film Festival, and was a big fan. It later played Fantastic Fest as well to a pretty good reaction, and, as of April 19th, you'll finally be able to catch it in select theatres or on a number of digital platforms with a day-and-date release.

Eron Sheean's feature film directorial debut (he wrote THE DIVIDE) is quite the slow burn, and is quite dense in its genetic biology sci-fi subject material, but it makes for an interesting watch built around Michael Eklund (seen most recently as the villian in THE CALL).

Today IFC Films debuted the latest trailer for the film, and it's definitely worth checking out, as I'd recommend finding ERRORS in a couple of weeks. It was a solid watch for me.

-Billy Donnelly

"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"

BillyTheKidd@aintitcool.com

Follow me on Twitter.

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100% Infamous Certified

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Quint and Bruce Campbell talk about the secret to rebooting EVIL DEAD, fans, tattoos, blood and more

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: This Next Trailer For THE CONJURING Starts To Reveal A Few More Scares!!

≪ Previous: New ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY Trailer Tries To Keep The Science Simple!!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. One of the most constant landmarks of my time at AICN has been Bruce Campbell. Call it coincidence or luck or that Mr. Campbell has excellent taste in geek interviewers, whatever the reason he has been one of the most seen and interviewed actors of my little career.

I was writing for AICN in the late ‘90s, but I didn’t really start becoming a big voice on the site until around 2000 or so. I was a regular, but the occasional review or interview was just the beginning.

On my first big trip to Los Angeles (for a Halloween anniversary cast and crew reunion screening put on by Anchor Bay) I met Bruce and he was exactly as I would have wanted him to be: bigger than life, charming and a huge, huge smart-ass. My write-up of that trip was what propelled me to cover bigger things. Harry liked my voice, the way I’d play with the character of “Quint” and just my general compulsion to lay my geek soul bare.

I followed that up with one of my first big set visits, which just so happened to be Bubba Ho-tep. I spent 2 weeks on that set and wrote a series of articles about it that are kind of embarrassing to read now, but I was all of 20 years old when I did that, so I don’t feel too bad looking back.

That trip had me spending a lot of time with Bruce and getting a fairly unfiltered look at the difficulties of low budget filmmaking. Don wore about 24,000 different hats (he’d work on lighting, props, set dec, whatever needed a hand every spare second of the day) on that show and Bruce had to shoulder so much of the responsibility of the production that things got a little tense quite frequently.

Over the years I’ve probably interviewed Bruce a good 5 or 6 times, but what was great about this one was that instead of dancing around Evil Dead and getting an eye-roll when forcing it into an interview he was actually there to talk about Evil Dead.

The immediate sense I got from Bruce was that he was incredibly proud of Fede Alvarez’s film. There was an excitement in his eye when talking about the Evil Dead universe that I hadn’t seen in all the time I’ve interacted with him. They had just had their big SXSW premiere to an incredibly responsive crowd of 1200+ people, they were a month away from the big theatrical release and had the full support of the studio behind them.

Originally Capone was slated to do this interview while I was going to tackle Fede Alvarez and Jane Levy, but I ended up sniping it out from under his him. Not intentionally. I’m not a bastard, but I happened to be there early and they happened to be early and the publicist said Bruce was ready then and if we wanted the interview it had to be right that second, so I stole Capone’s interview. Sorry, Steve.

We began by discussing my time on the Evil Dead set and how ludicrous it was that what we saw filming was end-of-the-movie/lead-characters-dead-or-dying stuff that made it difficult to write about. But that lead into a discussion of the palpable tone that was set on the stage and how relieved I was that it transferred over to the finished product. Enjoy the chat!

Quint: One thing I loved about the set visit was that the tone was so damn serious. Fede really wanted to make a scary movie, so the tone is more along the lines of the first film, which was one of the first indicators that he was going to do a good job.

Bruce Campbell: The original is not funny and it’s not meant to be funny.

Quint: There’s an absence of really scary horror now. Most horror movies now are content to make you jump with loud noises and the movies that do take themselves seriously take themselves too seriously. They don’t seem to make movies that are aimed to get under your skin much anymore.

Bruce Campbell: I agree, I agree. It’s definitely throwback-ish. I think people are ready for it. I think that the kids who go see this movie… that their fathers would like it because of the style of the effects. It’s a ‘70s style horror movie, in a way, with the beauty of modern day technology.

Quint: I do like the fun and comedy elements to the Evil Dead films…

Bruce Campbell: People were laughin’ last night. I heard several people describe it today as “fun.” I’m like, “perfect.”

Quint: I know there were people who saw the trailer and were big Army of Darkness fans that were like “What is this?”

Bruce Campbell: It all depends on what you like. If you like straight horror then the first one is for you. If you’re an original gorehound, that’s the one for you. You know, raped by vines, that sort of crap. And if you like the weird hybrid of horror, go to Evil Dead 2. And if you like adventure comedy (go to Army of Darkness)… it’s like Ray Harryhausen.

So, I tell people, “If you’re not sure what you like, start at Army of Darkness and then go backwards and stop whenever it gets too horrible.”

Quint: While on the set visit, Rob (Tappert, producer) mentioned that for the longest time you were one of the things that was keeping an Evil Dead remake from happening. What they said was it was Fede coming in and proposing a movie without an Ash character that pushed you over to the “let’s do this” side. Is that right?

Bruce Campbell: Well, it just made it clearer to see and it gave him more latitude of telling a story that doesn’t have to have this character. There aren’t any expectations of what he should be like. I didn’t want to put that burden on some poor actor. “Hey, Campbell was better! You suck!” Why do that? We want him to stand on his own (pointing to Fede doing an interview at another table), we want the actors to stand on their own and by empowering them I think it makes them work harder to create their own character, their own persona.

I can’t wait to see a Jane Levy split tongue tattoo! I’m waiting for my first one. I’ve got a collection! Look at this (Bruce pulls out his phone and scrolls through dozens images of Ash and Evil Dead tattoos). I save tattoos. Just Evil Dead tattoos. What’s the count now? 118 so far.

I’m waiting for people to ink themselves up with the new Evil Dead. I’ve offered to pay for the first Evil Dead remake tattoo (sorry, folks… someone already claimed it… from what I hear mere days after the SXSW premiere, no less).

Quint: Since Army of Darkness you’ve branched out a bit. You still act, but you’ve also directed, you’ve written and you’ve produced. My understanding is that you were a very active producer on Evil Dead, not just “Oh, I was a producer on the original ones, so throw my name on the new one.”

Bruce Campbell: Being one of the producers of the originals we were all partners and we (Sam Raimi, Bruce and Rob Tappert) felt a responsibility to the fans because we knew they would cut our heads off if we just sort of farted this one out. “Just give us your money, here’s the movie.” People know. Audiences, they’re smart. They know when you’re being lazy, they know when you’re bullshitting them. They just secretly know. They know by the amount of effort you put into it and this is still kind of a handmade movie. Fede made it his own and as producers we just tried to help him.

These things take a while to shoot. You can’t just buzz through an Evil Dead movie.

Quint: Especially with Fede being so hellbent on going practical with the gore. It makes a huge difference. We were talking about the audience’s reaction last night. People were squirming in their seats and vocally disgusted by some of these effects. If they had used CG blood and gore it wouldn’t have had that same effect.

Bruce Campbell: Oh no, no, no. CG blood sucks to this day. They just can’t get it right. I’ve tried it two, three, four times in different things and you go, “That’s the best you got? It looks like shit!” They’ll get it, but the point is if you can do it without it… this is why I think teenagers’ fathers will like it because the effects look like they’re from a different era. They are just way more practical.

I think it helps the horror because you go “She’s doing it! She’s just cutting her damn arm off!” You just watch it.

Quint: You can’t see the seam in the effect. It’s a magic trick that you don’t know how they did it. With CG you know how they did it.

Bruce Campbell: It’s just better magic tricks. Sleight of hand.

Quint: Do you think the fans of the original films will accept Fede’s movie as part of the canon?

Bruce Campbell: I heard a comment once. The guy goes (hoity-toity voice): “Aren’t you a little disappointed of how the trilogy has taken a turn?” I was like, “Dude. Stop saying “trilogy.” It was never meant to be a trilogy.” None of the movies have anything to do with each other in tone, in anything. I wouldn’t mind a trilogy out of this, where it’s out of the same guy’s brain and he’s thinking of three movies and now you can tell a cool story.

Quint: Especially with as good a job as Jane does in the movie.

Bruce Campbell: Look, I don’t like the word “luck.” I’m not a fan of it. But I think we got lucky with Fede and I think we got lucky with Jane. If you’re off on one of those… if you got tired of Jane and you’re sick of lookin’ at her or if she couldn’t bring it then it wasn’t going to work.

Quint: Or if she could only play one aspect of her character. If she could only play the vulnerable girl, but not sell the possessed girl…

Bruce Campbell: Or the kick-ass girl. She got to play three parts! That’s actor catnip! She gets to play three parts: the heroine, the evil possessed creature and the junkie. Hopefully Fede will concoct something that will allow her to want to come back happily. But she’s also now seen the end result of all that nightmare.

I don’t have any bad memories of the Evil Dead movies, even though at the time they were all fucking nightmares, every single one in a different way. But I have nothing but good memories of them now because of what we got out of them.

My theory is that movies that are easy to make are hard to watch and vice versa. If the audience knows you put your time in I think they’ll really appreciate it. This is what I think is going to tip our fans into our court. We’re not just schluffing this off. This is the movie that got us into the business. I mean, this has a very special place for us, more dear than any fan’s heart. I can guarantee that. So they don’t need to worry. Hopefully they’ll see that we were not dicking around and we were not lying (in the promo materials). A lot of producers love to tell ya’ “the most amazing, disturbing, scary film ever!” What else we gonna say? “This is a mediocre piece of shit, don’t see it?”

Quint: You have to bring it if you’re going to remake or reboot Evil Dead. Not even living up to the tagline on the poster, but the series has a beloved and well established history of going over the line, be it with the gore, the horror or the humor. You have to be able to deliver that in one of these movies.

Bruce Campbell: They’re a little over the top.

Quint: You can’t do a PG-13 version of Evil Dead.

Bruce Campbell: That would be such a waste.

Quint: Aside from the tone, the thing that impressed me the most on the set visit was going through the practical effects they had laid out and hearing how they pulled off the arm gag. Just seeing that someone gave a shit enough to go through that effort made all the difference in the world.

Bruce Campbell: It’s attention span. Fede has a really good attention span and that’s what it takes. Sam Raimi has a good attention span. They can obsess over something so much that they take the time to do it. Most filmmakers who don’t have that ability… you can tell. If the film doesn’t hold their attention it’s not gonna hold the audience’s attention.

Quint: It’s already announced that you guys are hard at work on a sequel, a month before this one comes out!

Bruce Campbell: It’s pretty bold, huh?

Quint: It is, but I’ve been hearing for a long time how happy the studio has been with the film, so it’s not all that surprising to me.

Bruce Campbell: I’ll put it to you this way: we had one preview with no edits. When the numbers came in, what they did was they went “We’re out of here. You guys have fun. See you at the premiere.” It was basically like that. That’s never happened (to me) before.

Normally, your numbers are low and you go “How do we get them up? Do we do a happy ending? Let’s cut it down by 5 or 10 minutes, like Army of Darkness, to get those numbers up.” That’s a dick’s game, man. You’re rolling the dice. You’re just guessing. With this we had an idea, Fede pulled it off, let’s walk away and just finish the movie.

Quint: Are you going to be as hands on for the sequel?

Bruce Campbell: I doubt it, to be honest. That’s no slight to the series or to anybody, but I’ve seen him in the room with actors. We auditioned these actors together, I know what he says to them. I know how he gets stuff out of them. I went through the sound (process) with him. We sat in the trenches for a month together, duking it out getting the best sound that we could. He’s so on to it, I’m like “You go, Fede.”

Quint: He doesn’t need training wheels.

Bruce Campbell: No. I actually don’t want to hold him back. What do you got? We were there just to make sure it sounded rich, that was our job. We tried to use as much production dialogue as possible. That’s huge to me ‘cause the mixes early on… they were throwing ADR in there a lot and I went, “Go back. Let me hear the production. Nope, make it work.” That way it sounds like a real movie. It’s not a floaty movie where nothing is rooted because it’s all perfect and it’s all perfect because everything has been replaced. Drives me nuts. Like Excalibur. Watch the movie Excalibur. I think the entire movie is looped. I’m not shitting you. It’s the weirdest thing. You watch it and you go, “It’s like I’m watching a foreign movie dubbed in English.”

Quint: Thanks for your time, man.

Bruce Campbell: Thank you, my friend. I appreciate it.

I didn’t quite have the balls to tell him this, but whenever Aaron Sorkin or some super smart political filmmaker gears up and makes a Mitt Romney film for HBO or something, Bruce has to be at the top of the list. He just has to make himself really, really, really dull, but he has the look down.

Anyway, thanks for reading the chat. I had a lot of fun with it and I hope you did, too. Stay tuned for more Evil Dead talk with star Jane Levy and director Fede Alvarez.

-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter

↧

This Next Trailer For THE CONJURING Starts To Reveal A Few More Scares!!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Check out these new Marvel production art pieces from Captain America 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy!

≪ Previous: Quint and Bruce Campbell talk about the secret to rebooting EVIL DEAD, fans, tattoos, blood and more

The Kidd here...

The last time we got a trailer for THE CONJURING, we got a good sense that James Wan's new horror film should be a force to be reckoned with in the summer months. We got enough without getting too much, and between its build and its tone, THE CONJURING cemented itself as one I am quite excited to see once July rolls around.

Today, Warner Bros. has put out a new trailer (via the film's Facebook Page) that reveals a bit more of the film's story structure, not to mention a few more of its scare pieces. There are still a few months to go, and I wish we weren't getting as much as we are this early in the game, because, at this pace, there will be nothing left to frighten the audience once we get to the film's release... but once again, this appears to be an excellent bit of horror waiting for us on the horizon.

Take a look and judge for yourselves.

-Billy Donnelly

"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"

BillyTheKidd@aintitcool.com

Follow me on Twitter.

Like me on Facebook.

100% Infamous Certified

↧

Check out these new Marvel production art pieces from Captain America 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Disney's Planes gets a sneak peek trailer thingy!

≪ Previous: This Next Trailer For THE CONJURING Starts To Reveal A Few More Scares!!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Phase 2 of Marvel’s world domination begins in a few short weeks when Iron Man 3 smashes into cinemas with some bangin’ classic rock guitar and by the time we’re through Phase 2 things are going to get weird.

I love seeing the movie trends swinging back to science fiction and space fantasy once more. It’s pretty clear that’s our lot as our superhero movies turn to the stars and that galaxy far, far away wakes from its slumber once again.

I’m fine with that, personally. Having blazed through the new run of Guardians of the Galaxy fairly recently I’m pretty stoked to see James Gunn’s take on those characters, especially with the production art that popped online today, which has a very Star Wars feel.

Below you’ll find three Guardians of the Galaxy pieces showing off giant spaceships, a crazy sci-fi lookin’ city and the group hanging out at a bar that looks like it’d be quite at home in the dredges of Mos Eisley. Also, for good measure, there’s a concept piece that shows us what poor ol’ Bucky Barnes looks like as Winter Soldier (bionic arm intact, I see).

I first saw these over at Latino-Review.

Once again it seems like Marvel is bravely and boldly leading the way here. Can you imagine how great of a geek world it would be if DC and WB got their shit together and we had both cinematic universes developing like this at the same time?

-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter

↧

Disney's Planes gets a sneak peek trailer thingy!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Jesus "Jess" Franco 1930 - 2013

≪ Previous: Check out these new Marvel production art pieces from Captain America 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I'm trying really hard not to be cynical about Planes. I try to remind myself that at one point Toy Story 2 looked like a bad idea, too. It was going straight to video and then mid-stream they changed their minds and it turned out to be one of my favorite sequels in recent memory.

Then again that was all in house at Pixar and Planes is a spinoff of my least favorite series they developed and it's not even being made by the Pixar team, but rather Disney's Toon Studios.

Visually the below footage looks impressive and definitely doesn't have a direct to video vibe, so at least we know the production value was raised along with its theatrical release status.

I just find it really hard to get invested in this universe. I'm glad it's making Disney a ton of money, but let's just say I'm happy that Bob Peterson and Pete Docter are developing a couple of original films at Pixar.

Here's the sneak peek footage:

-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter

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Jesus "Jess" Franco 1930 - 2013

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: The Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day - On the set of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

≪ Previous: Disney's Planes gets a sneak peek trailer thingy!

"I will be retired the day I die."

Jess Franco, exploitation filmmaker extraordinaire, might've retired today at the age of eighty-three, but I have a hard time buying this dying business. The legendary Spanish filmmaker is credited by the IMDb with directing 199 movies (under a variety of pseudonyms), and Video Watchdog's Tim Lucas believes that this filmography is incomplete if only because an undetermined number of his movies were never released. There's almost certainly more Franco waiting to be discovered. So while Franco has called it quits on the career, his work, which was his life (199 films between 1959 and 2013 leaves room for little else), lives on.

Franco committed himself to cinema after determining he had limited prospects as a jazz trumpeter. Though he had studied music at Real Conservatorio de Madrid, he believed himself to be only an adequate trumpet player. Franco might've improved, but the life of a jazz musician paled in comparison to the robust life of a filmmaker. As he explained to The A.V. Club in 2009, "The life of a moviemaker can be glorious and wonderful. It can put your life in the best of possibilities. I decided to forget music. Not forget, because this is impossible, but to work in cinema, and just to be someone who loves music, and who tries to make music with his films."

This is the key to appreciating Franco's films - which is tricky in and of itself because, if viewed with the surface expectations of a traditional narrative feature, his films could seem like incomprehensible slop from a maniac with a zoom lens. That was my initial impression when, inspired by the criticism of Tim Lucas and Michael Weldon, I began shamefacedly renting quintessential Franco like VAMPYROS LESBOS and SUCCUBUS from my small-town Ohio video store (most Franco titles were not shelved in the horror section). The offbeat editing rhythms, abuse of the zoom lens, and brusquely dubbed dialogue simply did not read for me; if I was just watching this nonsense for the sex, well, my dad had a poorly-hidden softcore stockpile to fill that meager bill.

But I stuck with these movies for one reason: the music. The scores generally had a cool, jazzy, cocktail party vibe that often clashed with the depraved activity onscreen. The disconnect was fascinating and downright funky. This was the kind of jarringly shot-and-staged exploitation you could throw on in the background at a party - which people did all the time during the '90s. After a while, it became passe to encounter VAMPYROS LESBOS at some dude's Williamsburg loft party.

Absorbing Franco's more notable '70s movies in this fashion encouraged me to sit down and attempt to re-engage them as legitimate cinema, and if I haven't become a full-on Francophile, I've at least developed an admiration for his dreamily discordant aesthetic. Franco didn't obsess over shots much - if ever - throughout his career, but he had a great eye for composition and could often get the moment he needed through innate skill. His editing style takes quite a bit of getting used to, but so does free jazz. Franco is usually more structured than that, but he'll still lose me for long stretches, where I'm not sure what's going on, how I'm supposed to feel, or, to be honest, whether I'm watching the same movie. The films often work best as experiences, and the best of those experiences (e.g. VAMPYROS LESBOS, VENUS IN FURS and SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY) are euphoric.

I'm still sorting through my thoughts on the work of Franco - and, given the multitude he left behind, I doubt I'll ever arrive at a definitive conclusion. But it'll be a wild, sexy, revolting trip. With nearly 200 films to his credit, Franco is an exploitation genre unto himself. He lived cinema. And as long as cinema lives, so will Franco.

Faithfully submitted,

Mr. Beaks

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The Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day - On the set of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: AICN COMICS REVIEWS: STORMWATCH! Vaughan’s PRIVATE EYE! JUNGLE BOOK! ZOMBIE OUTLAW! & MORE!

≪ Previous: Jesus "Jess" Franco 1930 - 2013

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s Behind the Scenes Picture.

Today we have more than one pic, a couple of different angles of the filming of the Enterprise in dry dock as featured in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The Jerry Goldsmith cue that kicks in when Kirk and company see the Enterprise for the first time gives me shivers. TMP isn’t my favorite Trek by a longshot, but that moment is filled with such awe and majesty that it by far one of my favorite single Trek moments ever put to film.

You guys also already know how much I love model work, so I’ll spare you that typical rant, but I will say that the practical effects work done on this film is outstanding and these models are incredible in these shots.

Many thanks to Michael Heintzelman and the PEG for these shots. Enjoy!

If you have a behind the scenes shot you’d like to submit to this column, you can email me at quint@aintitcool.com.

Tomorrow’s pic is headed back to the ol’ freezerino.

-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter

I’ve got a lot of maintenance work to do on the previous BTS articles, but you can visit two pages worth of images (beware of some broken links thanks to the last server shift): Click here to visit Page One and Click here to visit Page Two

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AICN COMICS REVIEWS: STORMWATCH! Vaughan’s PRIVATE EYE! JUNGLE BOOK! ZOMBIE OUTLAW! & MORE!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: AICN ON THE MAT: Writing Rambler grapples (verbally) with Women’s Wrestling Champion Trish Stratus!

≪ Previous: The Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day - On the set of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

The Pull List
(Click title to go directly to the review)
Advance Review: STORMWATCH #19
THE GREEN HORNET #1
Indie Jones presents SWORDPLAY Webcomic
THUNDERBOLTS #7
Advance Review: DETECTIVE COMICS #19
FANTASTIC FOUR #5 AU
Indie Jones presents THE PRIVATE EYE #1
Advance Review: KILLOGY #4
POWERS BUREAU #3
Indie Jones presents ZOMBIE OUTLAW #2
AQUAMAN #18
Advance Review: JUNGLE BOOK: LAST OF THE SPECIES #2
Raiders of the Long Box presents X-MEN ARCHIVES FEATURING CAPTAIN BRITAIN #1-7

Advance Review: In stores today!

STORMWATCH #19

Writer: Jim Starlin
Artist: Yvel Guichet
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Optimous Douche

A few weeks ago I threw some pretty strong blows at STORMWATCH, but it wasn’t just me being salty; my words came from a true love of the stories and characters that had once made up THE AUTHORITY.

However, I wasn’t just filled with vitriol; I also offered what I felt were some pretty simple course corrections considering a reboot was already underway under the authority of Mr. Starlin. My advice wasn’t genius in design, merely a reminder of what made this team once work. Sadly, none of my advice was truly imbibed in this aptly titled “Reset” issue (not that I truly expected it to be), and I fear we’ve traded one grab-bag of convoluted storytelling for another. Time may ultimately prove me wrong since this issue really is just a kick-off roll call, but I’m already afraid this roster is too large and the characters that take over the chairs too vanilla to be the baddest motherfuckers to strap on spandex.

OK, try to stay with me. The Shadow Lords, a trio of metal suited…well, Lords…decide to reset time at the Big Bang. Adam One, the old STORMWATCH leader and DC’s Benjamin Button, is wiped from existence (no one tell DEMON KNIGHTS this, please). Thank God he wasn’t a butterfly, because stepping on him only changed the fate of STORMWATCH (no one tell DEMON KNIGHTS, please – do you get that I’m a little miffed about this kontinuity kerfuffle?).

What we get from this new beginning is a rebirth of the infamous Bleed, the space between space; a resurgence of the greatest vessel to ever traverse The Bleed, except this time it has no sentience; and the appearance of some new members with a minor fresh start for others.

Storm King is still the mouthpiece for the Shadow Lords, as he has been for the past 18 issues, while the tactical charge of the team now falls to…uhmmm…some dude with a helmet on. Apparently it’s vital to the Shadow Lords’ mission that this man only known as Storm Control remains a mystery for now, so he’s helmet dude as far as I’m concerned.

Other returns include Angie Spica, The Engineer, who has been unhooked from HQ to now be a chaser. What’s she chasing? An African San man who’s a drug addict and will have some value to STORMWATCH. History tells us that drug addicts are usually Doctors when it comes to STORMWATCH, but I’m not counting on anything yet.

Apollo & Midnighter are back, and here’s a change I can totally get behind. We meet them as Apollo is charging up with a nap on the sun deck of the new ship. Midnighter wakes Apollo with a kiss on the forehead. That’s it. With this one brief moment you know they are a couple and this universal reset has done away with the Ross & Rachel will they/won’t they element that was failing before.

Now for the new additions. Welcome The Weird, an alien that inhabited a corpse and can change density from translucent as a jellyfish to as dense as diamond. Next up is the energy blaster Hellstrike, from STORMWATCH of yore. I’m simply meh on this one as well as his STORMWATCH in training buddy The Force. There’s also an endomorphic thing that lives in a puddle of goo that scans transmissions and acts as intelligence HQ. And last, but certainly not least, we meet Jenny Soul, a maudlin little sad sack who has telepathy and burgeoning telekinesis. No idea what to make of her yet, but replacing with a telepath someone who was the embodiment of the age they live in like Ms. Sparks and Ms. Quantum feels a little milquetoast by comparison.

The issue ends with this rag tag bunch getting their first assignment on a faraway planet. Someone or some group is using temporal and psychic forces that may or may not be a threat to Earth. Who that individual or group is or is not is not clear, although we do meet a certain white skinned bastich who chomps cigars and rides a cosmic motorcycle.

STORMWATCH couldn’t have been in more of a mess than it was before. It just couldn’t. However, I’m not seeing this reset as a fix either. I’ve read a ton of Starlin books in my life, and there’s just something missing here. It feels like there is an editorial stubbornness to keep shoe-horning in the WildStorm STORMWATCH mythos and characters in this book, which only serves ego in my opinion. At this point everyone remembers and wants what THE AUTHORITY delivered. Also, no one is letting this book have time to grow organically. Roll call, roll call, we all fall down has been the cadence until now, and this reset is starting off with the same pattern. I like the idea of the team going intergalactic, but that opens up a whole slew of new questions about the DC Universe, like who’s really in charge of the galaxy, the Shadow Lords or The Guardians (or New Guardians)?

Would it be the worst thing in the world to have STORMWATCH be the police of the multiverse? Am I too simple in my thinking? You could make them an all-knowing entity without them ever messing up any continuity in the New 52. Again, what am I missing with this book? The answers seem so simple there must be some invisible thread the public is not privy to.

Not a bad start, but if things don’t improve this gets one arc and one arc only to win my affection, not 18 issues like last time.

Optimous Douche has successfully blackmailed BottleImp to draw purty pictures for his graphic novel AVERAGE JOE coming out in 2013 from COM.X. When not on Ain’t It Cool, Optimous can be found talking comics and marketing on robpatey.com and just marketing on MaaS360.com.

THE GREEN HORNET #1

Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Daniel Indro
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Reviewer: Masked Man

So master superhero scribe Mark Waid has decided to share some of his awesomeness with Dynamite; I'm sure they're giddy about it. Now, I haven't read everything Dynamite has done with the Green Hornet; just Kevin Smith's movie script run (surprising how much of it was mirrored in the Seth Rogen's film). But it does seem despite all the different series and writers (with control to do whatever they want) Dynamite is managing to keep everything in (roughly) the same continuity. Matt Wagner did the Green Hornet I's origin, Mark Waid is writing his continuing adventures, Kevin Smith wrote Green Hornet II's origin, Phil Hester and Ande Parks did his continuing adventures and Brett Matthews created Green Hornet III. I'm sure it's not quite as seamless as that, but it's pretty cool that things do line up.

With this first issue Mark Waid takes us back to the good old days of the Green Hornet. Back to the 1940's when men were men, women were women, and gangsters ruled the streets. And without getting boring, Waid whips us through the basic origin and set-up of the Green Hornet, making this a great book to jump on with. It's also pretty much a self-contained book, a quick story to show you what type of series this will be. So while it's not an Eisner winning issue, it is a better than average set-up issue.

One of the most interesting things about this first issue, which I assume will continue throughout the series, is the newspaper angle. For newbies, Britt Reid (aka The Green Hornet) runs a big newspaper (The Daily Sentinel), and Waid plays the comic like an old movie about newspapers: steward institutions of high morals, with hard working gumshoed reporters. This is a good angle, since it's one of the things that makes the Green Hornet unique. The other unique angle of the Green Hornet is how he disguises himself as a gangster. Waid spends some time explaining how this works, but I'd really like to see a story that digs deep into this as I have a hard time believing the criminal underworld wound accept the Green Hornet as one of their own--especially when anyone who deals with him goes to jail or, as in this issue, gets an incriminating photograph of them in the Sentinel, taken by Kato no less! I feel the crooks could smell a rat pretty quickly with the Green Hornet, so I hope Waid has plans to really play in that sandbox.

Artist Daniel Indro, formerly on FLASH GORDON: ZEITGEIST, does a fine job on the book. Unlike his work on FLASH GORDON: ZEITGEIST, which was muddied up with grayed pencil lines and over-saturated colors, there is much better looking art here. As always I like to whine about how I prefer a cleaner and slicker looking art in my comic books--guys like Darwyn Cooke, Ivan Reis, Tim Sale or Frank Quitely, rather than Indro's scratchy looking stuff. But just like Aaron Campbell on THE SHADOW, Indro’s stuff is really well drawn and fits well in Dynamite's pulp fiction world. I often complain about cinematic art in comic books, so you might think I wouldn't like all the 'fish eye lens' stuff Indro does here. Well, I have a big issue with cinematic storytelling techniques in comics, as opposed to panels drawn as if they were shot with a special camera lens. True, it's unnecessary, but if an artist can make it look good and not hinder the story, as Indro does here, then it's find by me.

So Mark Waid is off and running on THE GREEN HORNET, and it seems to be everything we hoped it would be, within the constraints of a first issue. As a side note I find it interesting that where DC Comics has dumped all their heroes from the 1940's, Dynamite has embraced them and is doing quite well with them.

Learn more about the Masked Man and feel free check out his comic book CINDY LI: THREE OF A KIND at www.Toonocity.com

SWORDPLAY Webcomic

Writer: Jeff Prezenkowski
Artist: Saint
Publisher: Available on Nook, Kindle, and Apple iBooks
Reviewer: The Dean

There’s something inherently romantic about a sword fight. Even just the sounds of battle are enough to rouse our inner knight-errant as we pine for simpler times when being a drunk was charming, smelling terrible was expected, and everything was settled by the blade! SWORDPLAY, from Jeff Prezenkowski, Saint, and Lauren Nooby, confirmed two things for me about the world we live in today: 1.) that life truly would be better if we still all carried swords, and 2.) that we need more imaginative one-shots like this.

SWORDPLAY is the story of a young businessman by the name of Ryan who’s on a bit of a winning streak lately in a world where everything, everything, is settled by sword fight. So, being on this winning streak and enjoying the blissful ignorance of a brazen ego, Ryan decides it’s finally time to ask out the cute girl at work. Her decision, of course, will be determined by sword fight. SWORDPLAY is the type of creative effort that inspires original thinking and forces you to revisit those ideas in your head you once though absurd, or unpublishable, because you couldn’t figure out how to make a six to twelve issue arc out of it. The writing is clever, the characters are genuine, and the concept is outlandish, but without going overboard or relying too heavily on itself.

Living up to its name, SWORDPLAY features a lot of action, which is handled well by Saint despite almost all of the panels keeping the view relatively close up. The tried and true motion lines of the arm and blade moving through the air are put to good use here, making an otherwise static pose-off come alive in dynamic contest that always looks deliberately chaotic and fun. There’s a vibrant skyline shot here, a dramatic silhouetted charge there, but for the most part this one lets the characters drive the story through facial expressions (the irritated looks from Sandy to Ryan’s advances make for some really funny moments), and apt character designs that accentuate the personalities we’re getting from Prezenkowski’s writing.

SWORDPLAY is a blast, and as much as I’d like more, so much of what’s great here is that the gag ends before it gets old. In just 19 pages, Prezenkowski, Saint, and Nooby created one of my favorite reads of the week, and it’s little comics like these that make me appreciate just how cool it is to be a comic fan these days with so many ways to get your story out there. You can check out SWORDPLAY on Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, and Nook now, and look for it to hit ComiXology soon!

THUNDERBOLTS #7

Writer: Daniel Way
Artist: Phil Noto
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Mighty Mouth

The Thunderbolts embark on a new mission, and after their last one, there is a lot of tension building amongst this motley crew. It seems that General Ross’s elusive manipulations are rubbing the team the wrong way. So what could be a better way to get answers than a good old fashioned mutiny on (or make that under) the high seas? Except…the Red Hulk doesn’t take well to insubordination. Then there’s the lust triangle between the Punisher, Elektra and Deadpool serving to complicate things further.

I won’t lie. Initially I intentionally skipped the first story arc featuring this new line up of Thunderbolts. It’s not that I have anything against the characters; I’m rather fond of Elektra, Deadpool, the Punisher, Red Hulk and Venom. Truthfully, it was the artwork that chased me away like a piece of Kryptonite to a Kryptonian. Now I’m sure there are plenty of Steve Dillion fans out there, but in my eyes he is Rob Liefeld 2.0. I just don’t get it; Dillion seems to break all the rules of comic book storytelling, and not in a good way. His panels are too uninteresting form me. The lack of exciting viewpoints and perspective in his panels just leaves me cold. I could say more, but since he is now off the book I digress (sorry Steve--I enjoyed your work on PREACHER years ago, but what happened?!)

Enter new T-Bolts artist Phil Noto. Noto brings some much-needed energy to this book. His attention to detail, fully rendered backgrounds and panel design makes for a superior visual experience. The coloring provided by Guru eFX adds icing to this cake. The book’s previous coloring was way to spic ‘n span for the violence-prone individuals who make up this team. When I saw this changing of the guard, I realized this was the right break for me to give these THUNDERBOLTS a chance.

Daniel Way’s take on this group of heart-breakers and life-takers works well enough. The book is entertaining, with much of the fun derived from the interactions between the team members themselves. The dysfunctional dynamics of this group reminded me some of the classic JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL stories I enjoyed so much. Bringing together Marvel’s most lethal miscreants as a covert team may look good on paper. But considering the volatile nature of these characters, can it be long before they are at war with one another?

When I take a chance on a new book, I have some requirements to be met if I’m going to continue on. First, the issue must arouse my curiosity. Secondly, I have to enjoy the writer’s take on the characters. Lastly, the art has to be of an acceptable standard. THUNDERBOLTS #7 met all of my expectation and then some, so it looks like I’m on board for the next few issues to see how it all plays out.

With a spiffy new artist and an amusing primer, THUNDERBOLTS #7 serves as a superb jumping on point and appears to be taking the new team to bigger and better things.

Advance Review: In stores today!

DETECTIVE COMICS #19

Writers: John Layman & James Tynion IV
Artists: Jason Fabok, Andy Clarke, Mikel Janin, Henrik Jonsson, Jason Masters
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Optimous Douche

DETECTIVE continues to be the ugly step-child of the Bat-Family, never receiving the same fanfare as its venerable Bat-Brethren, and I’ll tell you it baffles me.

I know I’m part of the problem. I’ve only dipped into DETECTIVE when it’s considered a seminal issue, like this 80 page spectacular, or it stands as “required” reading for large Bat-crossovers. Required was in quotes because while I loved the issue with the “Death of the Family” die-cut cover, it was really a story about the Penguin with one panel of the Joker’s torso.

That seems to be DETECTIVE’S bag: a dark spotlight cast upon the villainy of Gotham. It’s refreshing, fun and fantastic to take a break from the melodrama that has become the Bat-family and just imbibe some good old nefarious wrong-doing told from the perspective of the beasts that go bump in the night.

Five stories await you in this issue. I miss this kind of storytelling to the depths of my dark soul. For anyone who laments the move to trade pacing that seems to suffocate this industry, you too will enjoy the beginnings, middles and ends found inside. The best part is that Layman was able to make all 4 of his stories mesh together more seamlessly than Lindsey Lohan, vodka and a Bentley. All 4 stories view the same event from a slightly skewed angle, giving you a complete picture of a night when Gotham was terrorized, rather than saved, by Bats.

The 900 – I’ve never been a big Man-Bat fan, but Layman has changed all that with this book. For the first time, he’s no longer a silly contrivance of fangs and wings; instead, Layman humanized this character to the nth degree and made him an honest-to-God hero. I don’t know if this is Kirk Langstrom’s first appearance in the New 52, but it certainly could be, as Layman handles the Man-Bat serum exposition and ultimate outbreak masterfully in a very tiny page count.

Basically, the 900 is a block in Gotham where Langstrom’s serum to initially help the deaf outbreaks and infects the whole city. Batman does some sleuthing, and there are some great moments where the Bat-Family tells him to eat guano when he reaches out for help. Across the board, Layman integrates this to current happenings in other Bat-books for true fans, but never belabors things so much that you felt like you missed out if you haven’t read the other books. Here is where you find out why Talia had Man-Bats in BATMAN INC.

Birth of a Family takes off moments after Langstrom flies away into the night after identifying patient zero in the last adventure. We are then whisked backwards in time as his wife recounts their first meeting, how she fell in love with the man trying to give the deaf bat-ears, and the ultimate horrific side effects of Kirk’s good intentions. Not one content to let her betrothed suffer, this vignette closes with the possible birth of Woman-Bat.

War Council – This story of Bane training an army to invade Gotham was good, but didn’t make a lick of sense thematically with the rest of the book. If Bane has been a presence in DETECTIVE up until now, then fine--I guess it works. If not, the inclusion of this story leaves me baffled other than to get people to read TALON.

Mr. Combustible – OK, back to the good stuff. When I dipped in during “Death of the Family” I was treated to a wonderful double-cross of the Penguin by one of his underlings, and thus bore witness to the rise of Emperor Penguin. Little Penguin was used by The Joker and then incarcerated, and there he hath remained until now. Starting with the night the 900 block broke out, we see cheesy 60’s throwback Mr. Combustible, a villain who looks eerily like Mr. Peanut except his head was cobbled together by Thomas Edison. With cane, top hat and light bulb head, Mr. Combustible takes full advantage of the Man-Bat terror across Gotham to do a little five-finger discount shopping. Even though this moved briskly, it never felt rushed. After giving his tithing to Emperor Penguin, Mr. C then goes to help his true master waddle out of the coop. DETECTIVE 20 should bring forward a Penguin slap fight more brutal than being forced to watch a HAPPY FEET marathon.

Through a Blue Lens – I’m a big fan of stories that present heroes through the everyman’s eyes. Blue gives us the story of a GCPD cop who was transformed into a Man-Bat and then saved by Langstrom’s “Colossus” great sacrifice (not a typo--you’ll get it when you read it). This is basically a morality tale on the value of vigilantes, but I’ll take old debates when they are this well humanized. The brothers and sister in arms gather around to regale the night of Bats, Batman’s breaking of the cop’s wing…I mean arm now, and to share a few snuck-past-the-nurses beers and laughs. Layman does a great job not injecting his own morality into his writing; the side that seems right will be judged solely by you.

The art in this thing sings across the board, with each using the light and dark perfectly with the tonality of their given stories. There are also boatloads of fantastic pinups that get better as the book progresses, my favorite pinup being the three-way between Damian, Bruce and Talia.

I’m done shunning DETECTIVE. Epic stories be damned, ret-cons don’t matter, sometimes I just want a good story. DETECTIVE goes one better to deliver a GREAT story.

FANTATIC FOUR #5 AU

Writer: Matt Fraction
Art: Andre Arawo
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Henry Higgins is My Homeboy

HOLY SHIT!

So, yeah, okay. I mean, it’s going to be reversed. If you don’t believe that, you’ve never read a superhero comic before. But AGE OF ULTRON, so far, has been incredibly cool to read. It’s a different crossover, where the regular heroes are either at wits’ end or dead, forcing Moon Knight and Invisible Woman to the forefront. And the best thing about it has been the commitment to a dystopia Marvel. This is Marvel right after the world ends. Bendis and Hitch have done a good job of selling it in the main title, but HOLY SHIT, FANTASTIC FOUR just sold how horrible things are. HOLY SHIT. You get to read, in twenty two pages, how an entire set of characters and plots and settings just DIE. Coupled with consistently impressive art by Andre Arawo, FANTASTIC FOUR just did an even more impressive job selling this new terrible status quo then the main title has.

Any tie-in for this title was going to make a point about this being the end of the world, but Fraction makes it hurt. Medusa’s corpse is found, just in time for the team to sprint to the safe room. Maybe the children survived there, leading the reader to expect to find piles of child corpses. Instead, to Reed’s horror, they never even had time to get to the safe room. It’s a terribly harsh reality, and it gives the reader pause. And that’s always difficult to do in a crossover event where terrible things happen to innocent people. Fraction gives each member of the team a fitting death, a glorious last charge for the team; Johnny dies with a smile on his face, Ben is tricked by his rage for Dr. Doom, Reed stays behind to save Sue…it all makes sense as real deaths for these characters. And as such, it’s painful.

Reed’s final speech to his children (all communicated in white board because “How does a father say goodbye to his children?”) is one of the most effective speeches I’ve ever read in a superhero comic. It sums up everything you need to know about Reed – his sheer belief in science and what’s real, and how he sees a way to use that for good -- and it’s beautiful. And it’s all communicated as a math equation. Because Reed is Reed. It’s wonderful. The artwork constantly helps the story, with a bright colour palate betraying the horrific events taking place within.

It’s a very well constructed, well thought out, and VERY effective tie-in that does more to sell this world and this story than any event book has in recent memory.

THE PRIVATE EYE #1

Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Marcos Martin
Publisher: Panel Syndicate
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee

For a few years now I’ve been waiting for an item like this – an “honor system” piece of digital comic booking – to come along to shake up the digital comics marketplace. It had to happen because for those few years the digital marketplace has essentially been meandering about as a place you can go to get (mostly) the same comics that come out physically on shelves, for no real discount, and with the only real big “revolution” being that around a year and a half ago you could buy them the same day as the “floppies” hit. Oh goody. The prices for digital – at least on the new end – are the same as for print; the “same” meaning probably overpriced as the standard has started shifting to $3.99 for 20 pages of material, sometimes with a voucher for a digital copy as well as “value added” like the DVD/Blu-Ray world has adopted. Just like the physical comic book market probably needs a pricing kick in the pants, the digital world especially does if you’re trying to tell your customers it’s a “good deal” to get a similar product but without it actually being able to be held in your hands (and also now having no collectible/resale value) and all while the publishers and distributors get a greater cut because, well, they don’t have to bother printing a thing anymore. Two of the most renowned creators in the comic book business coming out with a digital product that has a “recommended” price of $.99 might just be that swift kick in the backside this business needs.

Now, that’s not to say I’m going to be talking about this book based off the variable price (which, for disclosure, I decided to drop two dollars on since I trust the creators enough that if they tell me a buck is nice they’ve earned me doubling that amount). This comic book is truly fantastic, and it’s not because it’s a fraction of the cost of other books on the stands/digital marketplace; it’s fantastic because it is fantastic. All this positing, though, goes more in line with the idea that if these two talented creators can create such a good comic, distribute it for a minimal charge of a buck a pop, and have it be a success, then what’s to say we’re not going to be seeing more of this from the, say, Ed Brubakers and Jason Aarons and Matt Fractions of the business? Warren Ellis has essentially been here with FREAKANGELS (different style of distribution, but a reworking of the system nonetheless); if names like he and BKV and Marcos Martin are leading the way, who else will follow?

As for THE PRIVATE EYE itself, I’ll just come out first off and say this comic looks absolutely stunning, and second it is a hell of an interesting world. It takes a little while to get to what this world is (and maybe a little too much exposition, my only real quibble with this opening issue), but where we are is a future where now everyone has almost paranoid induced levels of privacy after an incident where the internet is “cracked” and everyone’s privacy is exposed to the world: personal information, photos, web searches, every little gory detail. And because of this, it’s a world where Patrick Immelman – our lead – can hire himself as a “Private Notary” because really he is paparazzi; he’s a man who will camp out and go through no end of danger and harassment as long as he gets the picture snapshot he’s hired to obtain. In a world where the vast majority is trying to hide who they really are behind masks and holographics, someone who can fish out these profiles is a dangerous person indeed. Just like in your traditional “P.I.” stories, eventually this private eye comes by a case with a seamy side, as well as by the end of this issue a dead body and unkind foreshadowing of Immelman getting in over his head.

What really makes this issue work – obvious, given the talent involved - is the execution. It’s the pacing and how it relates to the world building, from the way the opening of this starts with Immelman getting found out taking some candid shots of a lady hiding her identity in a body suit to his presenting his findings to his client and it beginning to flesh out this society of secrecy, and then really solidifying the messed up world he makes his living in when his latest, soon to be deceased client walks through his door and tells her story. It’s a society where everyone basically hides themselves except for those who do the finding--guys like Immelman and the “Fourth Estate” Pressmen that chase him away from the opening scene. The only hiccup in this layering that BKV and Martin go through (as I alluded to last paragraph) is a scene where Immelman talks down his (apparently somewhat senile) grandfather, who is mad at his old cell phone and the wifi for not working. Basically, this is more the infodump to put that last piece into place and give us the picture of this future that came from a worldwide scathing everyone took when the networks were hacked and everyone was exposed to each other. But all is quickly forgiven when afterwards we get our first fatality and the grim realization that this is also a pretty hardcore noir excitingly sets in.

Excitement is honestly the minimalist of terms that could be thrown at this comic book. Gorgeous, fascinating, and vibrant can be added to all of the others descriptors I’ve used throughout this review as well. It just works on several levels, from being a great take on the classic P.I. tale to being an intriguing post-internet take on our current social media-driven culture, and also being somewhat of a weird commentary on the power of the press and how in this case it’s to call people out on who they are, but in a literal sense of identity, not taking a person to task for their actions and words like the world of journalism has found itself lacking in the present day, even though we are all more or less laid out for the world to see in our online, interconnected worlds. And, getting back to the conceit I laid out in the opening paragraph, it works as an experiment in comic book distribution and I’m really curious to see where the success (or possible shortfall) of this book takes the digital marketplace and how it influences buying habits. For example, personally, I know I’m onboard for all subsequent issues of this series, but I am way more of a physical consumer than digital and am hoping for a nice hardcover print of all this material once it is finished. How this is going to affect my issue to issue purchasing methods I don’t know, but it’s an interesting predicament to have and I think has implications for future projects such as this. And if the implication is for more awesome ass comics like THE PRIVATE EYE here, then I think the digital marketplace is finally due for that takeover thing I’ve always heard was coming but did not really believe until now. Cheers…

Humphrey Lee has been an avid comic book reader going on fifteen years now and a contributor to Ain't It Cool comics for quite a few as well. In fact, reading comics is about all he does in his free time and where all the money from his day job wages goes to - funding his comic book habit so he can talk about them to you, our loyal readers (lucky you). He's a bit of a social networking whore, so you can find him all over the Interwebs on sites like Twitter, The MySpaces, Facebookand a blog where he also mostly talks about comics with his free time because he hasn't the slightest semblance of a life. Sad but true, and he gladly encourages you to add, read, and comment as you will.

Advance Review: In stores 4/24/13!

KILLOGY #4

Writer: Alan Robert
Art: Alan Robert
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Reviewer: Ambush Bug

Playing out like a potty-mouthed version of the TWILIGHT ZONE is KILLOGY which is unique in both premise and execution. Writer/artist (and Life of Agony bassist) Alan Robert has already impressed me with horror classics like WIRE HANGERS and CRAWL TO ME. In his third miniseries, Robert takes a different approach both narratively and artistically.

The story is a ROSHOMON style tale focusing on three sides to a story that turns out to be interconnected. Most comic creators will tell you they have actors in mind when they are writing their stories. It helps visualize the action going on if you base them on real life people. Robert takes this a step further and has already cast KILLOGY with real life actors and draws them as such in the story. The Ramones’ Marky Ramone, THE SOPRANOS Frank Vincent, and HEROES Brea Grant play three people arrested on the same night and trapped in a jail cell during a zombie apocalypse. So while the living dead reach for them through the bars, each of them tell the story as to how they get there. In the last issue, they were able to piece together that they all play a part in a much bigger story. This final issue wraps things up in a narratively satisfying way, plus it offers up some nice scenes of gore and grue.

Art-wise, Robert is trying something new. With WIRE HANGERS and CRAAWL TO ME, Robert used quite a bit of computer graphics and renderings to tell his tale. It made for a unique Dave McKean sort of read. Here, Robert is obviously using photo-referencing, but doing so in a much more dynamic fashion than the photo-refs one might find from Greg Land or Alex Maleev. Robert shows a great sense of style and dynamism in the way he places his panels. Robert also seems to be homaging Richard Corben with his pointalism renderings of the undead. This is some good looking horror in these pages!

If you’re looking for a horror tale that excels in originality in the story and art department, you should look no further than KILLOGY. The trade will be dropping soon, I’m sure, if you can’t find the issues right now. But either in trade or single issue form, Robert is a voice in comic book horror worth paying attention to. Highly recommended.

Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, original @$$Hole/wordslinger/writer of wrongs/reviewer/interviewer/editor of AICN COMICS for over 12 years & AICN HORROR for 3. He has written comics such as VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS THE TINGLERS& WITCHFINDER GENERAL, THE DEATHSPORT GAMES, & NANNY & HANK (soon to be made into a feature film from Uptown 6 Films). He has co-written FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND’s LUNA: ORDER OF THE WEREWOLF (to be released in 2013 as a 100-pg original graphic novel). Mark wrote the critically acclaimed GRIMM FAIRY TALES PRESENTS THE JUNGLE BOOK from Zenescope Entertainment& GRIMM FAIRY TALES #76-81. Look for GRIMM FAIRY TALES PRESENTS THE JUNGLE BOOK: LAST OF THE SPECIES available in February-July 2013 and the new UNLEASHED crossover miniseries GRIMM FAIRY TALES PRESENTS WEREWOLVES: THE HUNGER #1-3 available in May-July 2013! Follow Ambush Bug on the Twitter @Mark_L_Miller.

POWERS BUREAU #3

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Michael Avon Oeming
Publisher: Marvel Icon
Reviewer: Optimous Douche

I’m fighting the flu this week, so I’m rocking my cranky pajama pants full throttle, except this time my vitriol is not going to be spewed at creators--instead I’m aiming it directly at my side of the battle lines, my fellow fangeezers in arms.

POWERS has been plagued by delays in the past, there’s no denying it. Instead of accepting the facts, though, we as a community revel in beating on Bendis harder than a papier-mâché donkey full of beer, weed and porn. Is it that hard to buy a fucking trade? Is it the end of the world to simply put the books aside and read them in a full run when the arc is done at the end of 18 months? These are rhetorical questions; the answer is simply no it’s not.

Look, if it was a book like SPIDER-MAN or AVENGERS I would probably join the fray. Those books have a corporate backing and structure to support them. Bendis draws a salary to deliver those books on time, and he always has. POWERS, though, is a labor of love. Indie comics do well, but not that well. Even after the TV debacle, Bendis stays married to this series and for the first time in many many years he hasn’t missed one frakkin’ month yet.

That’s right--Walker & Pilgrim’s move to the federal government has been delivered with the cyclical accuracy of a tribal menstruation circle. The book, as always, is also stellar in design and delivery. What amazes me beyond all of these fantastical feats, though, is that the characters have moved in more than just jobs but emotionally as well.

2000 – that was the first time we were introduced to the world where super-powers are policed and dampened by that strange green light. Granted, the book didn’t really take off until its move to Icon in 2004, but still…that’s almost ten years of staccato continued storytelling. In a world where series seem as disposable as edible underwear, most never cresting the ten issue mark, this alone is a feat to be heralded, not chided.

Then Bendis took it a step further by layering in eons of history as we learned Walker was an immortal amnesiac and Pilgrim was far more complex than just her gruff mouth and chain smoking. These two characters have truly grown over the years, and along with them the world they inhabit.

There have been down times, and no I don’t mean the monkey fucking arc since I actually liked it--what I mean are the times when the series lampooned more than it originated. When I say “down,” I don’t mean bad. I can’t think of one bad issue of POWERS. IT’s merely I was less enthralled with the issues that focused more on the case than the detectives.

A lot of folks were expecting the move to the FPB to be a “jumping the shark” moment. To that I say poppycock…or go choke on a syphilitic barbed cock (remember: cranky pants). First off, no one read a goddamn issue when they began their shitty soothsaying. Second, they weren’t judging the merit of the work; they were simply lamenting what they thought would be the inevitable delays.

Well, here we are three months in. Walker and Pilgrim are still trying to gain acceptance from the Federal snobs, they are still hot on the trail of the power impregnator and there’s another little surprise (literally) cooking in the oven. This is continuity, folks, this is building and surprising from what came before. No cheap parlor tricks of death to move time forward; simply the human existence reflected through the lens of a world greater than our own.

Speaking of the world, it has moved forward as well. When POWERS was first released, it was a book about witch hunts. Now it seems the world accepts the inevitability of us all ending up literal dust in the wind. It’s an indictment of our own government’s incompetence melded together with our own fears that our great days of exponential growth are slowly drawing to a close.

Like any book, different people will get different things from it. I tend to read too much into things. Many writers have read my reviews and said “holy shit, I never thought of it that way!” But that’s a sign of good writing; the message should never be forced, merely a subtle and soft layer invisibly weaving through the larger events.

Whether you view POWERS as a crime drama, a soap opera, a heroes’ journey, or simply titter at their potty mouths is your choice and your choice alone; just know that if you look hard enough you will see more. If you’ve never read POWERS, you can actually jump in on this issue, though I do recommend reading the trades to get the full impact of event. Finally, if you threw up your hands in frustration at POWERS’ delays, be well aware that Bendis knows your grievances. He has even gone so far as to address this problem in the now-infamous letters columns. This alone should tell folks that Bendis isn’t out to “get us” with the delays. Who runs a goddamn letter column anymore? Creators who care about the fans and are appreciative of the readership – that’s who!

ZOMBIE OUTLAW #2

Writer: Brian J. Apodaca
Illustrator: Benny Jordan
Publisher: Reunion Comics
Reviewer: Mr. Pasty

Welp, now that AMC's WALKING DEAD has officially wrapped season three, expect hordes of fans faithful to the undead genre to be looking for fresh blood anywhere they can get it. Hopefully they don't suffer a headshot by accidentally stumbling into Brad Pitt's upcoming WORLD WAR Z movie, especially when options like ZOMBIE OUTLAW #2 are available. I put issue numero uno under the microscope right here at AICN just over two years ago, and when I didn't hear any breathing in its bloody aftermath, I thought this franchise was dead and buried. Silly little reviewer! You can't keep a good (dead) man down, as evidenced by Brian J. Apodaca's return to the halls of Irvine State University, where magic hats, big breasted sorority sisters and hulking jocks rules the stereotypical roost. It's like REVENGE OF THE NERDS – only Ogre is a giant flesh-eating monster and Booger eats human remains instead of his own, well, you get the idea.

But is it any good? Well, that depends on your taste in zombie books. I know all the cool kids are into the dark, gritty world of the undead, so trying to convert them to the campy, cartoony style of ZOMBIE OUTLAW could prove difficult. Whereas Robert Kirkman is the Morrissey of zombie narratives, all brooding and depressed, Brian J. Apodaca is the David Lee Roth, jumping around and showboating in every panel. But does that make Benny Jordan the Eddie Van Halen – or Stevie Vai? That's for you to decide, but either way, he wins, because the bottom line is, he's a talented performer. I found his illustrations in issue one to be effective, but simplistic. They had a certain amount of boyish charm, but lacked any real depth or scope, almost like an early draft or storyboard-in-progress. If that sounds like it's criticism, it's not; I just didn't realize what he was capable of until I saw Benny Jordan version 2.0, who undergoes a rebirth not unlike that of the ZOMBIE OUTLAW himself, going in a competent fella and coming out a raging ass-kicker. It's really a startling transformation and shows a polished maturity in his work. What a difference two years can make!

As for Apodaca, he's just as good as he was the last time he tackled “Books, boobs and brains,” driving college broskis Will Simers and his resident adviser Matt Naismith deeper into the world of Edward Dransby and how the legend of his magic hat (not the beer) came to be. There's more pop culture references than you can shake a dead stick at – but not so many that it becomes a distraction. I think, overall, that's this book's biggest strength. Not only does it deliver an entertaining zombie tale with sizzling visuals, it does a nice job of striking a balance between camp and cool. I still don't know where ZOMBIE OUTLAW is headed after the bell rings, as the ensuing plague is still a work in progress, but I know I'll be staying after class to find out. Now, if only I could get my hands on a ZOMBIE OUTLAW varsity jacket...

Web heads who can’t get enough of Mr. Pasty’s word vomit are encouraged to watch him operate as Nostradumbass over at MMaMania.com here. Love, hate and Mafia Wars requests should be directed here.

AQUAMAN #18

Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Paul Pelletier
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man

It often seems if anyone is enjoying a DC superhero comic book these days, they have to apologize for its flaws. “Yeah, I know, but it's still pretty good and I like the character.” That is, except for Batman--and Aquaman. It's sometimes hard to figure out why some things work and other things don't, especially when the same creative people are involved. My general mantra has been “let the character be the character”. If a writer or editor tries to 'fix' a character or make them 'more today', well then they are almost always doomed to fail. Poor Denny O' Neil's WONDER WOMAN is probably the best example of this. Looking at most of DC's New 52 superhero line up, it seems to be about making these characters 'better than what they were' (i.e. fixing them). But with Aquaman and Batman, it's been more about letting the characters be who they are and making no apologies for it. Aquaman talks to fish. If you think that's lame, then that's clearly your problem.

I bring this up because here we are post THRONE OF ATLANTIS crossover and JUSTICE LEAGUE is back to a being a mixed bag (at best), while Aquaman continues to be a great comic book--and both are written by Geoff Johns! Going back to my mantra, I can't help feel Johns is trying to fix or improve the Justice League, with Cyborg, the grid, boom tubes, infighting, Superman/Wonder Woman romance, etc. It's like Johns is more interested in telling us about this new Justice League, as opposed to telling stories of the Justice League. Meanwhile here in AQUAMAN, he's just telling stories of Aquaman. Is it really any wonder that AQUAMAN--at least according to the 'Tomato Rating' (if there was one for comic books)--is much better than the JUSTICE LEAGUE? Not that DC really cares, I assume, since just like a Twilight movie, JUSTICE LEAGUE is still pulling in lots of cash despite its 'Tomato Rating'.

That said, superhero fans, how can you not be buying this book? Yes, Ivan Reis has left us, but Paul Pelletier knew he had big shoes to fill and he's been hitting this book hard. It still has moments of what I consider shoddy comic book work where things get flattened out with choppy line work, failing to properly define forms, though I'm starting to think that may be the inker instead of Pelletier. Overall, AQUAMAN is still a really nice looking book--this from a guy who predicted Pelletier wasn't up to the task.

Again, coming off the heels of THRONE OF ATLANTIS, Johns is using that as a good jumping off point for the new storylines, kind of like how he did with SINESTRO CORPS WAR for GREEN LANTERN, but here things aren't quite as predictable as blue rangers, red rangers, yellow rangers, black rangers, white rangers! Aquaman, King again, is now trying to deal with the mess his brother (still soon to be named Ocean Master) and Vulko made. Not everyone in Atlantis is glad he's back--you know Murk is going to cause trouble soon. Johns reintroduces XXXXXXX (spoiler!) as Aquaman's step-sister. The Scavenger returns (one of my fav villains) selling off stolen Atlantian tech. And on top of it all, a really creepy guy has crawled up from the bottom of the Earth looking to kick holy @$$, and has Mera in his sights. This seems like the return of an old storyline Johns started back in BRIGHTEST DAY, which is finally coming back around in the New 52.

So I say again, just let Aquaman be Aquaman. Don't try making him cool with magic hands and beards; we’d much rather watch him kick @$$ with his finny friends.

Advance Review: In stores this week!

GRIMM FAIRY TALES PRESENTS THE JUNGLE BOOK: LAST OF THE SPECIES #2

Writer: Mark L. Miller (main story), Rob Patey III/Mark L. Miller (backup story)
Art: Jorge Mercado & Jason Johnson (main story), Bruce Mapa (backup story) Publisher: Zenescope Entertainment
Reviewer: Lyzard

Well, that peace was short lived. The Isle of Kipling has erupted into war yet again, thanks to the only creatures on this planet that seem capable of a perpetuating cycle of mass destruction: humans. Thanks to the quartet of homo sapiens, the rivers now run red with blood, and unjustly none of it is theirs. While the brutal battle between tiger and elephant leaves corpses everywhere, monkey boy Dewan and Shere Kahn’s “kid” Bomani argue over who gets to take down Mowglii, which neither of them will since Mowglii is MIA since Akili failed to save the wolf-child from taking a dip into the raging waters below last issue.

Any lighthearted nature remaining from THE JUNGLE BOOK: LAST OF THE SPECIES #1 is dampened by the brutality of this book. Though there are moments without carnage, they are bittersweet when one realizes that there are gonna be a ton of orphans by the time this series is over. Bagheera was right in the first series to say that the arrival of these humans was an omen, but for the one war they ended an even greater one they seem to have started.

My annoyance with Mowglii, Dewan, and Bomani is not entirely negative. Being able to have such a strong emotion is dependent on a connection to the story. So maybe I’m not cheering for the main characters, but at least I empathize and root for the supporting cast.

But just when I think that (most of) the humans are the vilest creatures on the island, I read Miller and Robert Patey III’s second installment of TIME IN THE SUN. This short story is a flashback surrounding the demise of Baloo’s long-lost bear tribe. I struggled to find the words that described the imagery before me. It wasn’t gory necessarily, though bloody indeed. Gross just didn’t have a strong enough connotation. Grotesque: that’s it. Seeing a cute, cuddly cub wearing a necklace made out of meerkat heads (not skulls, HEADS!) is a grotesque image that artist Renato Mapa Jr. burned into my brain.

There is no real violence in this story; just the brutal aftermath. Badur’s tribe makes even the late Shere Khan look like a peace-loving hippie when compared to their caves full of half-eaten elephant, meerkat, and tiger corpses. Showing Baloo’s past was meant to have us understand why being the last of his species was such a burden. I think having the image of a little bear cub wearing its kills like jewelry is more of a burden than losing a blood-lustful family.

So we’ve got two stories about two different massacres. One is sad and one is just downright disturbing. One portrays the horror of this jungle conflict; the other just gives us horror. Where LAST OF THE SPECIES has characters I love and love to hate, TIME IN THE SUN mainly features just those I hate. I think the difference between these two is less about the quality of the writing and artistic work, but more about restraint. Where TIME IN THE SUN bombards the reader with its portrayal of carnage, LAST OF THE SPECIES steps away from the violence, breaking up the darker tone and providing more opportunities to connect to the characters.

Lyzard is actually Lyz Reblin, a senior screenwriting major with an English minor at Chapman University. Along with writing for AICN, she has been published twice on the subject of vampire films.

Every comic shop has them… battered long boxes jam-packed with dog-eared titles ranging from forgotten heroes of the 1970s to multiple copies of chromium-covered “collector’s item” comics from the Big Bust of the 1990s. But if you are patient, and dig deep enough, you just may find something special…

X-MEN ARCHIVES FEATURING CAPTAIN BRITAIN #1-7, 1995

Writers: Dave Thorpe and Alan Moore
Artist: Alan Davis
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: BottleImp

Before WATCHMEN, before SWAMP THING and V FOR VENDETTA, even before MIRACLEMAN, legendary comic book writer Alan Moore honed his emerging skills on a series of 5-page (and later 8-page) stories for Marvel Comics’ United Kingdom division, centering on the appropriately-named Captain Britain. These Marvel UK stories were nestled in between black-and-white reprints of Marvel’s American comics under the titles of MARVEL SUPER-HEROES and THE DAREDEVILS. Previously scripted by Dave Thorpe, the strips were drawn by then-newcomer Alan Davis, who of course went on to become a comic book superstar himself. With the melding of Moore’s words and Davis’ artwork, what might have been a throwaway footnote to the Marvel Universe instead blossomed into a piece of rich storytelling that influenced writers for years to follow. In the mid 1990s, when the X-Men and everything even closely related to the X-Men were riding the crest of their popularity, Marvel reprinted these UK comics as a limited series under the banner of X-MEN ARCHIVES.

The plot is fairly standard comic book stuff: Captain Britain is thrown into alternate universes, killed, reborn, devolved into an ape, battles reality-bending mutants, sentient super-computers and unstoppable killer robots. Indeed, the first few chapters of this story arc as penned by Thorpe could probably be dropped into any other superhero’s book with very little adjustment. It is only when Moore comes onto the book that this story of the superhuman champion of England is elevated from the traditional comic book plot and becomes something more special. Essentially a one-note strongman at the start, Captain Britain’s character evolves as Moore develops the character’s psychology, playing with notions of the Captain’s guilt over the deaths of his parents. Also, befitting his name, Captain Britain is made much more a symbol of England under Moore’s guidance, rather than the bland Superman/Captain America type of hero he was previously. These developments, along with Alan Davis’ radical redesign of the Captain Britain costume, would have a lasting impact on the character.

But the real fun in reading this series is seeing the early work of two comic book masters. At this young point in his career Alan Moore still favored a lush writing style, utilizing a third-person omniscient narrator to add weight and color to the story rather than using the thought balloon captions that were the norm for this period. It’s the same style that he later used to great effect on MIRACLEMAN, SWAMP THING and V FOR VENDETTA, before switching up his technique and writing the more visually descriptive and text-light comics such as WATCHMEN and LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. Readers familiar with Moore’s later work will also be able to see seeds of ideas planted here that would blossom full-grown in other comics. The poetic way in which he describes a battle between two godlike super beings presages similar passages in MIRACLEMAN. One chapter of the series, set in a dystopian England where super humans have been outlawed, finds two such individuals running from the law and trading stories about the resistance led by Captain Britain; it’s a sequence that would later be echoed in the fascist England of V FOR VENDETTA. Even the much later postmodern work of LOEG can be traced back to this series; Moore folds some of the UK’s own original comic book characters into one of the alternate Earths that Captain Britain fights to save (in an especially fun bit of foreshadowing, Marvelman—which Moore was developing for WARRIOR at the time—makes a cameo as “Miracleman”). And as with LOEG, Moore dips into classic literature for his cast, introducing the alternate-Earth 744’s “Captain Airstrip,” whose doublespeak dialogue clearly marks his world as that from George Orwell’s “1984.”

Just as interesting is seeing Alan Davis’ growth as an artist and visual storyteller, apparent even in the relatively short span of time that this series was originally published. His early pages are cluttered—in the introduction to the first issue of ARCHIVES Davis admits that his first chapter needed to be cut and reassembled because he had neglected to leave space for the word balloons—and some of his facial expressions and anatomical proportions are just plain wonky. But through it all Davis’ flair for drawing dynamic figures shines through even his more amateurish pages, and by the close of this story arc his strong style begins to emerge. The true “Alan Davis Style” wouldn’t come to fruition until later, but these early strips showcase his ability to create bold page compositions and a sense of fluid motion in depicting action.

These Marvel UK comics were also later collected in trade paperback and hardcover. They’re out of print now, but a search on eBay and amazon.com shows that there are still plenty of copies available on the secondary market. And if you luck out like I did, you can dig through the multiple copies of the “collector’s item” X-MEN #1 in your local comic shop’s bargain box and find a REAL collector’s item in this X-MEN ARCHIVES series: an entertaining look at the fledgling work of two of the medium’s best.

When released from his bottle, the Imp transforms into Stephen Andrade, an artist/illustrator/pirate monkey painter from New England. He's currently hard at work interpreting fellow @$$Hole Optimous Douche's brainwaves and transforming them into pretty pictures on AVERAGE JOE, an original graphic novel to be published by Com.x. You can see some of his artwork here.

Editing, compiling, imaging, coding, logos & cat-wrangling by Ambush Bug
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
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AICN ON THE MAT: Writing Rambler grapples (verbally) with Women’s Wrestling Champion Trish Stratus!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: It's All Legal For One Night In New Trailer For THE PURGE!!

≪ Previous: AICN COMICS REVIEWS: STORMWATCH! Vaughan’s PRIVATE EYE! JUNGLE BOOK! ZOMBIE OUTLAW! & MORE!

Q’s by The Writing Rambler!

@’s by Trish Stratus!!!

Hey all. The Writing Rambler here, ringside for AICN ON THE MAT! When I’m not wasting my time defending my love of books that no one else seems to like, I often find myself going back to one of my first true loves, pro wrestling. Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with seven time Women’s Champion and 2013 Hall of Fame Inductee Trish Stratus about her career and achievements.

WRITING RAMBLER (WR): Hey, Trish--how are you?

TRISH STRATUS (TS): Good, How are you?

WR: Great, Thanks so much for talking with us today.

TS: My pleasure.

WR: Okay, So first off, the2013 Hall of Fame induction. Everyone has been talking about how great this year’s class of Inductees are. Many people have been saying it is the best class that has been put out so far. What was it like to first get that information in January and when the announcement was made?

TS: I think my first reaction was just “Oh my gosh, seriously?” (laughter). It was just an honor, an absolute honor. I keep saying this but it feels like I was just wrestling yesterday so I kind of forget that I have been retired for about seven years now, and I’ve been away from the business for so long. I mean, thankfully I’ve had an active role since then, and maybe that’s why I don’t notice it, but yeah, it’s just been an honor. Then to hear the class I’d be inducted with, there were really two thoughts. One was that it’s super special. I can’t believe the caliber of people going in, and then thinking as a fan who grew up watching and being around wrestling, and then of course wrestling in the industry, I’m still just starstruck. I think it’s going to be an amazing evening. I mean, you just look at that list and you say, “That’s going to be a hell of an evening”. That night is going to be filled with all kinds of stories and magical moments so I’m just thrilled to be a part of it.

WR: Now for me being from New Jersey, this whole NY/NJ area is really on fire right now with WrestleMania being right around the corner. Just thinking about the Hall Of Fame Ceremony taking place in Madison Square Garden this year, there’s this sense of magic to it that makes it an even more special moment. Has that really hit you? That not only are you one of the youngest inductees ever, but that it’s taking place at such a revered place as the Garden?

TS: Yeah, it’s just all this awesome stuff like you mentioned. This class, I’m only the sixth female to go in, and then on top of that, it’s taking place at the Garden. For me, I actually had my last Raw match at the Garden, so to come back there now, for this, it’s like coming full circle. It’s really such an awesome moment, and it’s kind of cool because I think just about everyone has this sort of special connection with New York. You know (Donald) Trump obviously does, you have Mick Foley, a New York boy, and of course Bob Backlund and Bruno (Sanmartino), that’s where they became legends right there in Madison Square Garden. Then Booker T, obviously he has delivered many times in the Garden as well, so it’s kind of cool to see how everyone has the special connection to the Garden.

WR: Being one of the youngest to go in, having started at 24 and having so many accolades and achievements in a relatively short time, do you ever feel like you did leave it all too early? That maybe you could have achieved more?

TS: You know, I feel like I had a robust seven years, if that makes any sense. To be honest, I wouldn’t have retired if I felt like I hadn’t done everything I wanted to do. At that point in my career, I had worked with all of the females I had wanted to work with or that were workers within the company. I got to work with everyone from Ivory to Christy Hemme. Just every girl that came in I got a chance to dabble with or dance with, so I’m really blessed to have had those opportunities. My bucket list, so to speak, was being crossed off by becoming champion and changing the way women’s wrestling was perceived. That was something we set out to do, and I think we accomplished that with the group of women at the time, so I left feeling quite satisfied. I knew I was ready to move on. My mom had been diagnosed with cancer at the time, and sometimes there were moments where I was like “Am I making the right decision?” But when my mom got diagnosed, knowing the types of schedules that we had and that I wouldn’t be able to be by her side for her therapy, I knew this was the universe telling me that it was time to move on at that moment. I mean, the door is always open if I had the opportunity to go back. It was the right time when I left and I felt satisfied with having worked with all of the girls I had worked with at the time. Of course, when I left and then watching, it got me excited again for sure watching Beth (Phoenix) and Natty (Neidhart) do their thing. They came up and were doing some really awesome work. Michelle McCool as well, and this new crop of divas that were doing this awesome stuff in the ring, that’s when I got the itch again for sure and I was not quiet about it. I thought that would be cool to go back there, and thankfully I had the opportunity to go back and work with Beth twice and I had a chance to work with Michelle McCool and Layla as well. So thankfully I got to “scratch my itches“, so to speak. Even at this point I’ll never say I’d close the door because you never know what can happen.

WR: I think a lot of us as fans look forward to that. That whole idea of “when is Trish coming back?” Especially around this time of year for WrestleMania. It’s that time when after a year of buildup you really just celebrate the industry as a whole. So there are definitely a lot of people out there who would love to see you come back and do it again.

Now when you first started, it was kind of a different time. I think you and some of the other divas, but especially you, really raised the bar for women’s wrestling. Wrestling has always been a boys club and there was always yelling and “catcalling” from the crowd, but as you progressed you could see the level of respect grow with the fans. What did that feel like, knowing that you were reaching people in a way that they hadn’t been reached before?

TS: It was definitely something that I was really aware of. I knew that it was something that I wanted to take on. I worked with Fit Finley. He was my mentor, and it was literally something that we set out to do. I remember looking at him and I said “I don’t want go out there and fight like a girl”. You know, the hair pulls and the catfights, I just felt we can do more than that, and I knew physically I could do more than that because I had been training for months doing other stuff. I just knew we could do that but hadn’t had the chance to yet. It was a lot of work; we had to almost reeducate the fans on what to expect from women. Yeah, there was a transition period where you still had the “Puppy” chants and whatnot, but I think the hard work started to pay off, and people started to stand up and take notice and know that we were starting to deliver something that was as good as the men’s action, especially when it was then fueled by storyline and we brought a certain depth of character that made a huge difference. It really changed the dynamic from what the women were doing, and then I think it was just a matter of keeping up the pace. No doubt, it was hard work because you knew that every week you went out there you had to remind them what we were going to do and keep raising the bar. My personal goal was to go out there and do better than I had done the last week. To do something, show a different side of women and present a different side of women’s wrestling, so it was hard work every single week that we went out there, but I’m happy to say I think we accomplished that. I know there was a rise in the female demographic at that point. There were women coming up to us saying “you’re my role model”, and it wasn’t because we were doing this cool thing on TV, it was because we were women making it in a male-dominated world, and to show such a strong role model was really powerful and empowering to women. So it was just great times and I had such a great support system with the other girls at that time. That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to show a different side, and every week that’s what we fought for.

WR: As a father of two daughters I remember during that time being happy if they wanted to watch your matches or cheer for you because there was something really positive and inspiring about it. As someone who has experienced it all, what advice would you have for a young woman looking to start in this business that despite everything is still a very male-dominated industry? Any advice you could give that you think would really help them out?

TS: I would remind them right off the bat that you’re definitely going into a boy’s world. It’s always going to be a boy’s world, so definitely expect that. Know that going in. Going in with a solid training and an understanding of the industry, and when I say the industry, I mean understand the mechanics of a match not only physically but also understand the psychology. It’s super important to go in with that knowledge. For me, people say “how did you learn to wrestle so quickly?”, but I went in as a fan, I studied it, I knew how to do a body slam properly and I understood the psychology of what happens in the ring, why good guys and bad guys do what they do in the ring, and I think that’s what helped with my lessons in the ring. So I say to women, get a really good solid training background, and also, get a backup plan. There’s definitely a shelf life for wrestlers, and especially women’s wrestlers. Physically you just can’t do it forever, you really just can’t. If you have a backup plan then at the end of the day you know you’re okay. Then you can just go in there and be passionate about it. There’s just no way you can do 300 days a year on the road schedule unless you’re passionate about it and you’re willing to sacrifice leaving your family and all that. I’d love to have that little pep talk with each girl that wants to go in there. These are the stories and pep talks that I had, and I was very blessed to have a few people in my life that really gave me those eye-opening words that let me go in and make a difference.

WR: Growing up as a fan, was there one particular woman or match in general that really made you want to do this?

TS: I guess I can’t say that there was really any women, because there really was no role for women for us to watch growing up that made me say “that’s who I want to be when I grow up”. I feel like that’s the kind of work that we did in 2001-2006, I guess. For me it was Macho Man (Randy Savage); I was a huge fan of his as a kid--he was my idol. I was a big tomboy as a kid; I grew up with my cousins and we played wrestling, we went to Maple Leaf Gardens and it was just something that I did, it was part of my upbringing. I was always just amazed by what they did--they were like real life superheroes, that’s what it was. To me, I realized as I got into the industry that there are only a handful of people in this world that can do what we do and to be able to be athletic and to be an entertainer at the same time and combine that, I mean, that’s some real life super hero stuff right there, and that’s something I never thought I’d get into at the time because there was no “that’s what I want to be when I grow up” for wrestlers at that time. I wanted to be a doctor growing up, which is very different, but that dream to be a doctor went away and I became a wrestler instead. It was just real life superheroes that you saw, and to me Macho Man was the man, he was the one that I played as. I cut his promos as a kid. He had the perfect combination of an athlete and a sports entertainer. He made it being a sports entertainer absolutely. He was the one who clearly defined that.

WR: Finally, with everything happening now, as you prepare for the Hall of Fame, is there any one thing that you could point to as your “Moment”? What would it be?

TS: It was a moment that I shared with Mickie James. It was our WrestleMania 22 match in Chicago. It was my last WrestleMania before I retired, and to me it was that match that epitomized what women’s wrestling was finally brought to. That level that we finally brought it to. Everything about that match, the storylines, the character development, the crowd involvement, everything about that match was all of the hard work we had put in over the years. Knowing we had that match, it was like “okay, we did it, kid” and to share that moment with a great friend of mine like Mickie was just really special.

WR: Trish, thanks so much for speaking with us today. I’m sure your fans are really going to enjoy hearing what you had to say. We appreciate it and best of luck with the Hall of Fame; we’ll be cheering for you.

TS: Thanks, I appreciate it.

You can follow The Writing Rambler on his blog here and follow on Twitter @Writing_Rambler !

Editing, compiling, imaging, coding, logos & cat-wrangling by Ambush Bug
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
Check out AICN COMICS on Facebook and Comixpedia.org!

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It's All Legal For One Night In New Trailer For THE PURGE!!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Tim Burton Directing Christoph Waltz And Amy Adams In BIG EYES!!

≪ Previous: AICN ON THE MAT: Writing Rambler grapples (verbally) with Women’s Wrestling Champion Trish Stratus!

The Kidd here...

I'll give THE PURGE credit where credit is due... the idea of letting America run wild for a 12-hour period annually in order clean up our domestic act for the rest of the year is intriguing. Fucked-up, as it allows innocent people to potentially become targets of some unsavory individuals for no reason whatsoever without any chance of justice being done on their behalf... but still intriguing.

But in this new trailer for James DeMonaco's film, it just seems like THE PURGE is borrowing from a whole slew of other home invasion films - PANIC ROOM, STRAW DOGS, THE STRANGERS - in order to make some quick cash at the box office from those who felt terrified by those such movies. I mean, if there are no emergency services and no punishment for your actions during these few hours, then why would anyone need to wear masks, if not because one other movie made them terrifying?

I'm a fan of Ethan Hawke... I'm a fan of Lena Headey... but this one is leaving a lot to be desired.

What do you think?

THE PURGE hits theatres on May 31.

-Billy Donnelly

"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"

BillyTheKidd@aintitcool.com

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Tim Burton Directing Christoph Waltz And Amy Adams In BIG EYES!!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: You KNOW You Want To Laugh At This Trailer For GROWN UPS 2!!

≪ Previous: It's All Legal For One Night In New Trailer For THE PURGE!!

The Kidd here...

A strange thing happened with FRANKENWEENIE last year. Tim Burton showed that when he really cares about a project, he's still got what it takes to deliver a good quality film. Maybe the separation from Johnny Depp for a minute helped, too. But it's strange that one film could turn around your perception of a filmmaker, as I have some renewed interest in what Burton is doing these days, after a long stretch of not feeling the films he's been making. And so when I saw Deadline report that Burton had rounded up Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams to direct the long-in-development BIG EYES, I immediately took notice. Not only had he picked a project with a rather interesting story... he had managed to put together an incredible above the line cast to pull it off.

BIG EYES is set to tell the story of Walter and Margaret Keane who in the 50s and 60s created a series of paintings of big-eyed children (hence the title) that were mass marketed and became a huge art craze. Walter figured out how to tap into the public to sell these works and also wound up becoming the face behind them, appearing on talk shows and becoming somewhat of a celebrity after he took credit for the brush work on each piece. However, it was his wife who was really behind the creative, and, when they split, he slammed her, still claiming to be the one responsible for the artistic work. They eventually wound up in court, which built to a showdown between Walter and Margaret to prove who was really the artist in the family.

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski have penned the script, and, for a bit, were maybe going to direct it after several different filmmakers had come and gone from the project. However, Burton stepped in with interest, and they'll now produce with The Weinstein Company looking to snag the film as their own.

Waltz is coming off his second Oscar for DJANGO UNCHAINED and Adams has been doing amazing work as well, with a nomination of her own for THE MASTER. Put all these talented individuals together, and BIG EYES has to be on your radar now.

-Billy Donnelly

"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"

BillyTheKidd@aintitcool.com

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You KNOW You Want To Laugh At This Trailer For GROWN UPS 2!!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Kimberly Peirce Examines The Aryan Brotherhood's Prison Reign In THE BRAND!!

≪ Previous: Tim Burton Directing Christoph Waltz And Amy Adams In BIG EYES!!

I saw 2010's GROWN UPS and remember next to nothing about it, which I suppose means it neither impressed me or offended me - which seems to be the MO for a majority of Adam Sandler's films. Amiable vapor.

This said, the trailer for its sequel...due in theaters this July...made me laugh quite a bit. And it made The Kidd laugh too. No small accomplishment in either case. I mean...the car wash. Deer piss. That's gold right there.

GROWN UPS 2 - which returns the first film's director (Dennis Dugan - UNIDENTIFIED FLYING ODDBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!) with a script which is again by Sandler and Fred Wolf, who are this timed joined by Tim Herlihy (Sandler's MR. DEEDS, BEDTIME STORIES).

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Glen Oliver

"Merrick"

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Kimberly Peirce Examines The Aryan Brotherhood's Prison Reign In THE BRAND!!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Zoe Saldana Lined Up To Be One Of The GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY!!

≪ Previous: You KNOW You Want To Laugh At This Trailer For GROWN UPS 2!!

The Kidd here...

Fresh off her remake of CARRIE with Chloe Moretz and Julianne Moore, Kimberly Peirce is back to the heavy material that her directorial career has been filled with, set to helm THE BRAND, which examines the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang's reign in spite of its leaders being held in solitary confinement over the years. The film comes from David Grann's 2004 article in The New Yorker on the subject, with Alessandro Camon having penned the script, per Deadline.

The Aryan Brotherhood managed to control drug dealing, prostitution and so much more in maximum security facilities, even as their leaders were seemingly cut off from the rest of the general prison population. This small group was known as "The Brand," and used a series of secret communication codes to maintain their power, all while being pursued by the U.S. Attorney trying to nab them on their in-house practices.

THE BRAND will focus on a young recruit into their system who eventually defects after rising up fairly high in their hierarchy.

-Billy Donnelly

"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"

BillyTheKidd@aintitcool.com

Follow me on Twitter.

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Zoe Saldana Lined Up To Be One Of The GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY!!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Charlize Theron thriller DARK PLACES adds a warm body to its cast!

≪ Previous: Kimberly Peirce Examines The Aryan Brotherhood's Prison Reign In THE BRAND!!

The Kidd here...

As if there wasn't enough Marvel had going for it in Phase Two of its Cinematic Universe, Zoe Saldana being very close to joining the cast of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY is just another feather in their cap.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Saldana would be joining the cosmic crew to play Gamora, the last of the Zen Whoberi species, who became a skilled martial artist and assassin as a result of her training from Thanos. She would later accept Star-Lod's invitation to join the Guardians and protect the universe after several run-ins with Thanos, the Annihilation Wave and the Phalanx.

This isn't Saldana's first rodeo as far as big franchises are concerned. She is a part of the crew of the Enterprise in J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK, appearing again this summer as Uhura in STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, and she is firmly entrenched as the female lead Neytiri for James Cameron's AVATAR sequels.

With Chris Pratt lined up to play Star-Lord and Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer for James Gunn's picture, this leaves Groot and Rocket Raccoon still awaiting their casting.

EXTRA EXTRA:Latino Review reports that, according to their sources, The Controller will function as Thanos' main henchman and ambassador in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. This, of course, feeds into the idea that GOTG will be a direct link to Thanos' greater involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with THE AVENGERS 2. All sorts of theories and ideas have been bouncing all the place as to how, but The Controller just firmed up that there will be some fairly sizable connection between those films.

-Billy Donnelly

"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"

BillyTheKidd@aintitcool.com

Follow me on Twitter.

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100% Infamous Certified

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Charlize Theron thriller DARK PLACES adds a warm body to its cast!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: The meta TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN reboot/sequel/remake thing gets its leading lady!

≪ Previous: Zoe Saldana Lined Up To Be One Of The GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY!!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. It might just be me and my UK friends who think this, but everytime I see news pop up about the Charlize Theron thriller DARK PLACES I can't help but flash on Garth Marenghi's DARKPLACE. If you're unititiated I've embedded the first 8 minutes of episode 1 below.

Long live Dean Learner!

Anyway, barring some miracle that would prove once and for all that I am indeed in control of the Matrix, this Dark Places is not a sequel to Garth Marenghi series set to star Theron and Chloe Moretz. The real world tells me this is based on a Gillian Flynn novel about a woman who is trying to cope with the slaughter of her family.

Nicholas Hoult, most recently seen in the wow-that-was-actually-pretty-good WARM BODIES and who gave us a pretty great turn as the Beast in X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, has joined the cast as Lyle, one of the group that is investigating the murder of Theron's family.

That cast is getting very pretty, I have to say. But all of those attractive people are good actors, so I don't mind.

Thoughts?

-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter

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The meta TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN reboot/sequel/remake thing gets its leading lady!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Kenneth Branagh Narrows CINDERELLA Search Down To Three Actresses! Tired Glass Slipper Analogy!

≪ Previous: Charlize Theron thriller DARK PLACES adds a warm body to its cast!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. The original THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN isn't very well known outside of cinephile and genre nut circles, but it was essentially a proto-slasher. Based on true events, the flick filmed in the same locations where the series of unsolved murders unfolded three decades previous. A cloth sacked faceless killer was depicted years before Jason hid his face with a sack in Friday the 13th Part II.

It's an odd title to remake, but Ryan Murphy is producing it alongside Jason Blum. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon will direct from a script by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.

What's interesting is that they're taking a meta approach to the remake. In the world of this movie the 1976 TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN was made and this film centers on a young girl who survives a copycat attack during the town's annual tribute screening of the 1976 film.

That girl will be played by CALIFORNICATION's Addison Timlin, according to Deadline. She'll be investigating who this copycat is and why he/she/it are recreating the killings. The big question: are they copying the original 1946 Moonlight Murders, the 1976 film's depictions of these murder or a combination of the two?

It's a weird project, but weird doesn't necessarily mean bad. Very curious to see how this one comes out.

-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter

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Kenneth Branagh Narrows CINDERELLA Search Down To Three Actresses! Tired Glass Slipper Analogy!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Liam Hemsworth Is Might Be THE RAVEN!

≪ Previous: The meta TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN reboot/sequel/remake thing gets its leading lady!

Beaks here...

Emma Watson may not want the role, but damn near every other actress her age would kill their spin instructor for the lead in Disney's live-action take on CINDERELLA. After a lengthy search, Deadline claims the competition is down to three hopefuls.

Bella Heathcote, Lily James and Margot Robbie are evidently the finalists in director Kenneth Branagh's glass slipper sweepstakes. Unlike Watson, these young performers have yet to land a breakout role, which suggests that the part of Lady Tremaine (already filled by Cate Blanchett) kinda overshadows the title character. If I were Watson, I wouldn't want to compete against Blanchett's wicked stepmother histrionics either.

The screenplay is by A-listers Aline Brosh McKenna and Chris Weitz, so this isn't some half-hearted rendition on Disney's part. But it is worth noting that Amanda Seyfried was once circling the project as well. That they're going for lesser-known actresses at this point is telling. Whoever gets the part, they'll eventually live happily ever after with Richard "Robb Stark" Madden's Prince Charming.

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Liam Hemsworth Is Might Be THE RAVEN!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Brad Pitt to tank-battle some nazis in David Ayer's FURY!

≪ Previous: Kenneth Branagh Narrows CINDERELLA Search Down To Three Actresses! Tired Glass Slipper Analogy!

Beaks here...

Ricardo de Montreuil made quite a splash in 2010 with the above trailer for a potential sci-fi/superhero feature titled THE RAVEN - which would appear to have nothing in common with Edgar Allan Poe's poem or Henri-Georges Clouzot's LE CORBEAU. It does, however, owe a depressing debt to DISTRICT 9, MINORITY REPORT and countless other modern sci-fi flicks. But reminding people of shit they love seems to work with these calling card videos, and de Montreuil is clearly talented, so good for him, I guess.

In any event, Universal and de Montreuil are moving forward with a feature based on the short, and, according to Deadline, they're currently in talks with Liam Hemsworth to play the lead. The screenplay is by Michael Gilio and Justin Marks (STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI). Production will begin in June. I hope they come up with something that isn't so drab and derivative. I'll be shocked if they stick with that title.

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Brad Pitt to tank-battle some nazis in David Ayer's FURY!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Timothy Olyphant And Ben Schwartz Join Shawn Levy's Great Big THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU Party!

≪ Previous: Liam Hemsworth Is Might Be THE RAVEN!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Deadline's Mike Fleming is reporting that the one and only Brad Pitt is looking to re-enlist with the allies for David Ayer's WWII set action drama FURY.

This project sounds awesome. Set in the final days of the war as Hitler's army is collapsing, the story will follow a US tank crew led by Pitt as they lead the charge against the desperate axis soldiers.

Tanks! If this project sounds as awesome to you as it does to me then you should check out Humphrey Bogart in SAHARA, which is my favorite WW2 tank flick to date.

Ayer is a great and fascinating filmmaker. He made the cop found footage style thing actually work in END OF WATCH, which I never thought I'd dig. But he knows the secret to these kinds of things is building characters an audience wants to sit with for a couple of hours. If that's the focus of this WW2 project and you have someone as cool as Brad Pitt leading the way, then this could be something special. The last time Pitt starred in a WW2 story everything worked out okay, so I'm excited about this!

-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter

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Timothy Olyphant And Ben Schwartz Join Shawn Levy's Great Big THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU Party!

April 3, 2013, 9:56 am

≫ Next: Richard Linklater likely to direct Robert Redford and Nick Nolte in A WALK IN THE WOODS.

≪ Previous: Brad Pitt to tank-battle some nazis in David Ayer's FURY!

Beaks here...

Shawn Levy's big-screen adaptation of Jonathan Tropper's THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU is already loaded with impressive talent: Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman, Rose Byrne, Adam Driver, Corey Stall and Kathryn Hahn. Now, according to Deadline, they're adding the very funny Ben Schwartz and Raylan Givens himself, Timothy Olyphant!

The ensemble comedy is about four siblings who, at the request of their recently deceased father, reunite for a weeklong stay at their childhood home. Olyphant will play Fey's brain-damaged ex-boyfriend, while Schwartz will co-star as a straining-to-be-hip rabbi. Though I've yet to like a Shawn Levy-directed comedy, you'd have to work really hard to fuck up with this cast. The screenplay is by Tropper, though I wonder if Fey will be able to resist doing a pass at some point.

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