Gear Live Comic Book News: Articles Tagged Vampires
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Vampire PA: J. C. Vaughn, Brendon & Brian Fraim
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Reviews, Independent,
“I finally had the guts to ask Dee-Dee out, but only after she saw me drive a stake through the heart of a vampire.”
That’s Dean Marklin, vampire hunter in suburban Pittsburgh, the star of Vampire, PA, the new 3-issue mini-series from Moonstone. The series is created and written by J. C. Vaughn and illustrated by Brendon and Brian Fraim. Dean’s found himself in the middle of two warring factions of vampires, and one of the vampires, Jocelyn, may be trying to play him for a sucker. Dean’s already killed her once and he may have to do it again.
This “Fistful of Dollars with vampires” set-up delivers the goods, in large part because of the characters. Dean treats his nighttime vampire hunting as a job – a thing that has to be done to clean up his hometown. He goes about it with precision and good-natured humor, and drags along his friend Scuba Dave and girlfriend Dee-Dee. And, except for the wooden stakes and Super-Soakers filled with holy water, he’s got a normal life – he’d like to get married and re-open the town’s aging movie theater. He’s not some super-human guy either – he’s simply doing the best he can to rid his town of these creatures and is still learning as he goes.
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Little Orphan Annie, Dead at 85
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Movies, Independent,
Little Orphan Annie, the plucky little orphan girl, died today after an extended illness, just a few weeks shy of her 86th birthday. The official cause of death was listed as a broken heart after discovering that she’d been appearing in just 20 newspapers.
Afflicted by a disease that gave her blank eyeballs and kept her perpetually a little girl, Annie began her career in the self-titled comic strip as the ward of the infamous war profiteer Daddy Warbucks, a mouthpiece for conservative politics who launched frequent anti-union tirades. Because of her association with one of the world’s richest men, Annie was often the target of thieves, spies, and villains.
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| Little Orphan Annie
Deep Thoughts: Iron Man and Twilight
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Marvel Comics,
“Hey Cullen! Isabella! Get in the house this instant!”
Did you know that in 2009, according to the folks at Social Security, the most popular names for kids were from vampire fiction? And it’s not Dracula, or Vlad, or Alucard or Vampira. That’s old school thinking. The new popular names are from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, the book-and-movie franchise.
Cullen jumped up 300 spots on the list from the previous year, Jacob is #1 for boys, Isabella (the formalized version of Bella) is #1 for girls and Bella is #58. I think it’s great that the Twilight series of books and movies has spawned an entire generation of children named after the characters. I hope it means that naming your kids Peaches, Apple, Brooklyn and Pilot Inspektor in lockstep with nutty celebrities is on the outs, and the Twilight franchise as name-generator is in.
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Dark Horse Teams Up With Hammer Films
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Movies, Dark Horse Comics,
Comic book publishing house Dark Horse is teaming up with Hammer Films to print a series of comic books and graphic novels in the horror genre (fitting, right?).
First up on their list is a storyline based on Hammer’s upcoming remake of last year’s Swedish film, Let the Right One In (which you must add it to your Netflix queue right now if you haven’t yet). Despite the fact that it has been released in the midst of the current teenage-vampire-lust trend, this tale of a 12 year-old boy and his friendship with a girl who only comes out to play at night is far removed from your typical Twilight fare—trust me!
No word yet as to the novels’ storyline, but the companies claim that it “will incorporate some of the film’s characters and mythology with some fresh themes.”
The American remake, starring Chloe Moretz of current Hit Girl fame and Richard Jenkins, is set to hit theaters on October 1st. Knowing those smart marketers, I’m sure we can expect some of the said comics to be sold in conjunction with the film’s release.
Read More | Reuters
Weekend Reading: Starlog, Christopher Golden, Gerry Conway, Tarzan and Steve Milo
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,
Lots of cool to click on lately, from horror and comic book author Christopher Golden to comic book and television writer Gerry Conway, with a dash of The Simpsons and a blast from the Direct Market past with the ghost of Steve Milo. Check ‘em out:
Christopher Golden: When I first read Golden’s Of Saints And Shadows, I was struck by two things: (1) he’s really good and (2) this book reads like a horror version of X-Men. Novelist Ed Gorman plays Q&A with Golden over at his website.
Gerry Conway: One of my absolute favorite comic book writers (and now a TV writer in the Dick Wolf empire), Mr. Conway is excited about the new Predator reboot, Predators. He tweets: “Not that it matters: Predators seems to have a similar plot device to a movie Roy Thomas & I pitched years ago. Great minds, etc.” He expands on that in subsequent tweets, “I’m not claiming idea theft, ‘cause Roberto Rodriquez would’ve been 14-years-old when Roy & I made our pitch, and somehow I doubt…” Since he curtailed his blogging, his tweets make for fun reading.
Sneak Peek: Vampire, PA From Moonstone Books
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,
When you think of Pennsylvania, do you think of (1) The Pittsburgh Steelers or the Pittsburgh Pirates? (2) Coal-Mining? (3) Vampires?
If you answered “Vampires,” then you know the realities of suburban western Pennsylvania, a target-rich environment for vampire hunters like Dean Marklin. Dean didn’t used to believe in vampires, but then he met a hot one, and a bunch of not-so-hot ones who keep trying to kill him. Life is hard enough in Vampire, PA without having to carry a wooden stake in your pocket all the time.
From The Twilight Saga to Dracula and every point in between, vampires are the new Vin Diesel and my pal J.C. Vaughn has come up with an excellent twist on the genre that’s worth a look. He’s written Zombie-Proof, the adventures of Jack Bauer in 24, some nice Shi comics with Billy Tucci, and a host of other stuff, and now he’s reunited with his Antiques co-horts, Brian Fraim and Brendon Fraim for a 3-part full-color series.
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Happy Thanksgiving: Superman, Retailers, Marvel, DC, and Jack Kirby
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
It’s Thanksgiving, at least here in the US. For those of you outside the 50 states, just know that we are currently gorging on the kinds of food we don’t normally eat at any other time of the year, getting together with family and friends (some of us might be watching football), and reflecting on things we are thankful for. And yeah, it’s usually about friends, family, and good health, but I’m also thankful for comic book stuff too.
Here are five things I’m thankful for, as relates to comic books. Of course, this is just my list. Your mileage may vary..
(1) Comic Book Stores. Seriously, what a great idea. You can argue over smart retailers vs. the other kind, but how great is it to actually have an LCS? I like going to every one I’ve been to; the ones where they know me by name or greet me as I come in, and the ones where the clerk acts like I’ve ruined his plans for the day just by opening the door. I’ve even waded through a pile of Wizards of the Coast players just to grab my comics. I don’t mind. The idea that there’s a place where I can go and get comics is amazing to me. Until you’ve lived in a place that has no convenient comic book store, I think it’s hard to realize what a luxury one truly is. And to any retailer who’s managed to survive this long, my imaginary hat’s off to you!
(2) Marvel and DC. Okay, sure we all have our share of Big Two Disappointments we can point to and their weird reliance on crossovers and events that no one believes in, but overall, it’s great to have them around. They are responsible for the Direct Market and for keeping it alive. It’ll be interesting to see what happens as everything goes digital (and more people read online comics instead of superhero comics) and the generations of print collectors die off, but for now, I’d hate to see the industry that had only Marvel without DC or vice-versa. Besides, I have friends at both companies and don’t want to see anybody unemployed.
Click to continue reading Happy Thanksgiving: Superman, Retailers, Marvel, DC, and Jack Kirby
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
Marvel Comics Review: Captain America #601
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
Rating: ***
With the release of Captain America: Reborn the main ongoing storyline of the death, and now rebirth of Cap will be told there. With issue #601 of the regular monthly title we get a stand alone story by Cap writer Ed Brubaker and veteran comic artist Gene Colan. I’m going to put my neck out and say I didn’t like Mr. Colan’s artwork here. I did a Google search and was checking out some of his previous work on Daredevil, Howard the Duck and Tomb of Dracula and thought his work then was very good, but I just wasn’t digging his work here. The cover of this issue is a good example of what I didn’t like. Cap almost doesn’t seem to have a neck in this illustration and the wings on his mask protrude out too much for my taste.
As for the story, Brubaker tells a nice little stand alone story about Cap and Bucky fighting vampires during World War II. The story is presented as a flashback where we see Bucky as the Winter Soldier talking to Nick Fury relating a story about soldiers turning on their own. The story takes place in Bastogne, Belgium in February of 1945. Bucky and Cap find an American soldier dying in an old house. The soldier tells Cap how much he admires him as Cap tries to comfort him as he dies. But the soldier is not truly dead, he was bitten by a vampire and the “dead” body is resurrected into a vampire. Cap and Bucky battle the vampire soldier and end up killing him.
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