Eli Roth on Stepen King's Cell

Well this is some very scary news, although it's become old news as of late. Eli Roth is slated as the director for Cell, Stephen King's book about a zombie apocalypse. Although I enjoyed Hostel does anyone remember the brain numblingly bad Cabin Fever? How is it that this one hit wonder gets to take a stab at making this movie? I have yet to see Hostel 2, so, maybe he's not a one hit wonder but he's pretty damm close. The book is good and gives a unique twist to the modern zombie, I'm not a big King fan, I like older King stuff alot, and Cell is much more like his older work. The Cell's lead character is a struggling Comic book artist, so I can relate, and it's chock full of zombies, which i love. It's a long story with good character work, NOT Roth's strongsuit, I don't think he has a strongsuit, but i could be wrong and I hope I am, I'd love another great zombie film to add to my collection.

NightBreed: Thoughts on what could be.

One of my favorite movies of all time is the underrated NightBreed, from the mind of Clive Barker. After I seen the movie I then picked up the book it was based on, Cabal, written by good old Clive as well. I read the comics when they came out, I loved it, the mythos involved in the story is so grand and holds so much potential in a number of arenas that it boggle's my mind that nobody is doing anything with this property. It's houses so many characters, and themes, and has already proven to be brought to life in comics, books, and the big screen. I personally have a few ideas for a comic book that I'd love to pitch, I just don't know who to pitch it to, but I'm researching. I also heard that Clive is supposed to be doing a directors cut of the film, IMDB has some info on their site stating that a ton of footage was cut out last minute, gore and character development stuff as well. I personally would buy that the day it hits, but thats just me. How bout a toy line? A video game? Well, Im going to seriously look into how to go about putting together a pitch for a new series, as well as some artwork for it, I'm also going to do some sketches of NightBreed character and put them up here, so check back soon.

Books I've Lettered this week.

Well, only two books I lettered came out this week, Legion of Super-Heroes 39, and Crime Bible 5. Two of my favorite books and two books i really enjoy working on, Crime Bible is now finished so for those of you not familiar with it should pick it up when it comes out in trade, I lettered 4 out of the 5 issues and was really happy with each one. Legion of Super-Heroes is really kicking ass with this latest run, Written by comics legend Jim Shooter, Pencilled by Francis Manapul and Lettered by yours truly. I thought the prior runs on this series were pretty good, but the new arc: Evil Adventus, is a must read and it's gorgeous to boot. I'd love to hear anybody's comments if you've read either of these or not.

Halloween (2007): A Movie Review

After much ambiguity on how I felt about a remake/re-interpretation of Halloween, I had to see it. The first time around, I hated it, thought it was ridiculous and just a waste of time. I watched it again just the other night, after I could watch it with a cool head. I liked, still have a lot of problems with the movie, the biggest of them being Michael's upbringing, which i still think is ridiculous. Part of the charm of the original is that Michael didn't have a bad upbringing, that he just became evil, which is great, in Zombie's version, you totally understand why he becomes a physcopath. I do like how Zombie uses the same actors in his movies like Ken Foree and Bill Mosely, aside from them being solid actors it sort of adds a depth to the film(s) from the perspective of a genre fan, you tend to appreciate it more knowing that movie is being made from another fan. Visually it's great, Meyer's look is intimidating and the mask looks better than ever. I wasn't at all convinced of Meyer's motives for tracking down his sister or how the hell he knew where should would be, or who he foster parents were, I also find it hard to believe he left the sheriffs daughter alive after he showed no mercy to the guard that took care of him while he was locked up. Was it worth seeing? Yes. Is it a great movie? Not at all. I think fans of Rob's other movies will like it as well as fans of the Halloween movies of old, I will say that despite the movies mediocrity, the ending alone is worth the trip, if Zombie knows how to do anything right, it's how to end a movie.

Cain, House of Mystery

Here's a painting I did of a character named Cain, from DC Comics' old horror book: House of Mystery. Which is supposed to be making a come back!

Plaid Zombie Sketch (Dawn of the Dead)

A sketch of one of my favorite zombies from the cult classic Dawn of the Dead

Botch: We Are the Romans

Finally, I've gotten around to doing a music review. Botch, a seriously underrated band that was ahead of their time have re released, We Are the Romans, as a 2 disc edition including Demo and Live versions of the songs on this release. If this band came out today, they would no doubt be lumped in with the many bands that have nothing new to offer, but since they came out about a decade ago, they do not by any means fall into that category, I think a big reason they were so overlooked was due to the popularity of The Dillinger Escape Plan, a similar band coming out around the same time both playing intense music, however TDEP's stage presence and flair for the dramatic may have called attention to them, instead of the more modest Botch, who was also hailing from Seattle WA, and from what I understand didn't take to touring as much as TDEP. Whatever the reason for Botch's short lived career, it does not detract from We Are The Romans, in my opinion one of the best albums in the heavy music arena, and i say that cause it still holds up today, it's just good music, not generic mosh music for the masses. I urge you to pick up this album.

Dark Water: A Movie Review

Well, I figured since I watched this movie recently, that I might warn some of you who haven't seen this wet turd. I'm not going to waste too much of my time, or yours, this movie was a huge disappointment, while it was nicely shot and cast to perfection, Jennifer Connelly was great and looked great too. As the cover quotes state: "From the Author of "The Ring", which I didn't care for to begin with, and "Even Hitchcock could not have done it better" the first may be true, but Hitchcock most certainly on his worst day could have done much better. The story drags from the second you start watching, it's moody, dark, rainy, a visually gorgeous movie, but it just doesn't go anywhere, there's a lot of Dark Water for sure, and a whole lot of nothing, the movie spends a lot of time fleshing out Connelly's character, and you really feel for her, you want her to overcome and are left feeling a sense of bitterness, while I won't spoil it, the outcome is just not very believable, the ghost that inhabits the building comes across as friendly and possibly mischievous, but not evil. There is no evidence that this ghost seeks to kill, but does anyway, in order to push a forced storyline of abandonment to come full circle. If you are looking for a good ghost story, this is not it, if you want to waste your time or put yourself to sleep give it a shot.

Diary of the Dead: A Movie Review

Okay, so, for my birthday me and the misses went out to the cinema to see Diary of the Dead. For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge Romero fan, especially of his dead films, and was eagerly awaiting my chance to see this flick. I was not disappointed. It was inventive and clever, while I was not entirely convinced that the filmmaker in the movie wouldn't of put the camera down more often, I went with it, knowing that the character had to be behind the camera to achieve the documentary style of the movie. All of the actors did a good job, particularly the female lead and the professor. There were some corny parts, as I expected, any true Romero fan expects a fair amount of cheese in his dead films, as was their laughs and jumps, the gore seemed very minimal, but what was shown was awesome and inventive, especially the opening sequence. I enjoyed the satirical elements but found them to be a tad heavy handed. I liked the style of the movie, the use of different types of cameras, from cell phones to security footage, it came across fresh, and was not at all like the Blair Witch Project, which many people were stating, it wasn't too shaky, and held a very cinematic feel the entire time. All in all I loved this movie and recommend you all to go see it now, I hope it makes it to the mainstream market and gives George the opportunity to continue with series, I for one need to know what happens to the characters and can't wait to get the dvd.