James Leary & Mitch Byrd @ IndieGoGo

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Independent,

Mitch Byrd is one of my favorite artists. We worked together for many issues of my comic book, Dinosaurs For Hire and he also illustrated a comic I edited, Planet of the Apes: Sins of the Father, that was written by a friend of mine, Mike Valerio.

Later on, he moved over to DC and worked with Beau Smith on the very manly Green Lantern spin-off, Guy Gardner: Warrior series.

Now, in conjuction with writer and actor James Leary (he played Clem on Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Mitch is working on a new title called James Leary’s House Of Screams.

James and Mitch, along with cover artist Steve Scott, are working through IndieGoGo  to try to raise the necessary money to make it all happen.

Take a look and see if you’d like to help. I love Mitch’s work (I was a fan long before we worked together) and I can’t wait to see his new work in print. So go make it happen.

[Artwork: James Leary's House Of Screams #1, cover pencils by Steve Scott, © Alarm Comics]

Christopher Golden And Jack London

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies,

I met Christopher Golden on the convention circuit back in the go-go 1990s. I was so impressed by our 5-minute-in-the-aisle conversation that, after the con, I wandered over to my local bookstore (you could still do that back in those days) and grabbed a copy of a book of his called Of Saints And Shadows. It was a vampire novel, long before everyone and his institutionalized grandmother starting writing about them.

I took it with me on a camping trip and it proceeded to scare the crap out of me. It was well-written, very scary, had great dialogue and Golden kept the story moving and kept raising the stakes until the breathless end. I was impressed and even more, I was hooked, but never again would I take a horror novel on a camping trip.

Since then, Golden has written quite a number of terrific novels and lots of comic books as well (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Dr. Fate and Baltimore: The Plague Ships).

Now he's got a new book out - the first in a series - called The Secret Journeys of Jack London: Book One: The Wild. Golden co-wrote it with Tim Lebbon and there are illustrations by Greg Ruth. You can read an interview with the guys at Golden's website.

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Brad Meltzer: Decoded

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Television, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics,

Remember when The History Channel was just D-Day Invasions, tank battles and old guys talking about shooting Nazis?

That changed with shows like American Pickers and Pawn Stars.

And it’s going to be a little different tonight (December 2; check local listings). Author and comic book writer Brad Meltzer (DC Comics’ Identity Crisis & Dark Horse’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer) is the host of a new reality TV series called Decoded, about solving some of history's mysteries.

Of course, this is the modern era so it won’t be a bunch of gray-haired white people sitting in leather-bound conservatories holding court and being intercut with archival footage of beachheads and bombing runs.

Nope. Meltzer and his gang of historians have made it a race.

Click to continue reading Brad Meltzer: Decoded

Weekend Reading: Green Lantern, Joss Whedon, Jack Kirby And James Bond

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies, Television, DC Comics,

I spent Thanksgiving outside the US this year so I’m stuffed with stir-fried shrimp and chocolate ice cream, which made for an excellent breakfast of leftovers, because that's just how I roll.

If you’re out and about shopping now for the holidays, here’s the best Holiday Shopping Gift Guide you’re ever going to need for the 2010 credit card season, courtesy of Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter.

Let’s see what else is going on:

Green Lantern: If you’ve been in awe of the new Ryan Reynolds trailer for Green Lantern, there’s at least one person with an alternate view worth reading: Ricky Sprague at Project Child Murdering Robot. “The Green Lantern Corps is their ‘muscle,’ enforcing their rules of righteousness. They take creatures from various parts of the universe and have them fight 'evil.' There are lots of different GLs, made up of different species from different planets. You can see where this is starting to get lame.”

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Green Lantern, Joss Whedon, Jack Kirby And James Bond

Patton Oswalt Writes Firefly One-Shot

Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Dark Horse Comics,

Comedian and comic book enthusiast Patton Oswalt lends his writing talents to Joss Whedon‘s Firefly universe with the upcoming one-shot Float-Out.

The comic, which is set to hit stores on June 2, picks up where Serenity left off. Chronicling the late Wash’s friends, the story marks a new chapter in the Firefly ‘verse. Oswalt talks about continuing this world in comic book form and shares a little about how he felt with Whedon’s ending:

“Post-Serenity’ a bunch of Wash’s friends who we haven’t met on the show, they’re basically buying a new ship and christening it… It’s called a ‘float-out’ when you christen a ship. As they’re christening a new ship, they’re telling stories about Wash, and we’re basically seeing what could be the start of a new adventure… I had always been kind of bothered by Wash’s death.”

A fan of the television series, Oswalt didn’t have to do heavy research to take on the project and was quite inspired to continue the story: “It was very frustrating to see the show get canceled when a world was starting to come together. I just wish Fox had given it some more time, I guess.”

Patric Reynolds provides the interior art and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 artist Jo Chen lends her skills to the cover (seen above).

Read More | Splash Page

Buffy Season 8 Comic Book Gets Web Series

Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Dark Horse Comics,

Buffy the Vampire Slayer gets a second chance! Well, sort of.

Not to be confused at all with the rumored Buffy reboot by the rapacious Kuzuis, it has been reported that Joss Whedon‘s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight comic books will be translated into a motion-comic web series.

No word yet as to whether or not original cast members from the television series will appear, but casting director Jeff Shuter is already looking for voice actors to fill familiar and new roles. If you sound like Sarah Michelle Gellar or D.B. Woodside, this gig may be for you—check out the complete cast list after the jump (they’re looking for non-union).

While this good news comes after Dollhouse‘s cancellation, I have my doubts.

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Read More | Sci Fi Wire

Legend Of The Seeker 2nd Season: Seek It Out!

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Reviews,

Back in the go-go 1990s of television syndication, everybody and his international production company was making hour-long adventure series. My weekend afternoons were filled with two of the best, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. They were fun, action-packed, never took themselves too seriously and both were thoroughly enjoyable. And they had two things in common: Sam Raimi (that’s right, the Evil Dead/Darkman/Spider-Man guy) and Robert Tapert.

But the market shifted and independent programming took a beating for a few years. Then last year, there was a surprise on my widescreen plasma: Legend of the Seeker. And it too had something in common with Hercules and Xena: Raimi and Tapert. They’d returned to New Zealand where their previous shows were filmed, and drew from the Wizard’s First Rule novels of fantasy author Terry Goodkind to craft another terrific action hour with edge-of-the-seat appeal and really nice FX. It fills that gap for me when BBC America isn’t showing Robin Hood.

Now it’s back for season 2, and the first new episode debuts this weekend (either November 7 or November 8, depending on your local listings). For me, it’s KTLA (Channel 5) at Sunday, 3pm. If you’re in NYC (which is where I always dream of being), it’s 4pm Saturday on WPIX. You can find out your own local times and station at the official LOTS website.

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Joss Whedon Only Has Eyes For The Walking Dead

Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Interviews, Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics,

The lovable and very talented comic book geek-turned-television genius known as Joss Whedon has his hands so full with his latest show Dollhouse that he has only enough time to read one comic book series: The Walking Dead.

“That is the only comic I still read—literally. [I] paced myself because it was deep into the trades by then and I only let myself buy one trade a week, for a few weeks before I broke down because it was my favorite soap opera.”

Then again, who can resist a never-ending zombie apocalyptic story? I sure can’t.

So what does the series writer, Robert Kirkman have to say about having Whedon as a fan?

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Read More | Geek Chic Daily

Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos Deliver Buffy Without Buffy

Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Reviews, Dark Horse Comics,

June marked the first month in which Joss Whedon‘s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight took a break from the familiar faces we have fallen in (and out) of love with to introduce the human-vampire co-existence brought upon by Harmony. American Virgin writer Becky Cloonan writes up the parallel story, titled Tales of the Vampires: The Thrill, as Grecian artist Vasilis Lolos (The Pirates of Coney Island) provides Buffyverse readers with a very colorful and crisp world very new to them.

The issue introduces the protagonist of this one-shot, Jacob, a morose teenager (surprise) with Xander’s geek factor and Riley’s desperation. As vampires are now accepted and assimilated in society, Jacob quickly illustrates the long-chronicled allure of vampire lust. Merely “just want[ing] to feel something” (again, very reminiscent of Riley’s arc in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Five), Jacob catapults farther into the world he longs for with the help of a student new to town.

Click to continue reading Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos Deliver Buffy Without Buffy