Long before Seth Grahame-Smith started mashing the likes of Jane Austen and Abraham Lincoln with vampires and zombies, Empire magazine’s resident horror honcho Kim Newman created his Anno Dracula universe in 1992. In the recently rereleased first novel of the series, appropriately entitled “Anno Dracula”, Newman begins with a wonderfully simple idea. What if, instead of being vanquished by Abraham Van Helsing and his improvised gang of vampire hunters, Vlad Tepes had triumphed and carried out his stated goal of conquering Great Britain?

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Link: http://www.deadline.com/2011/06/showtime-teams-with-david-goyer-for-drama-based-on-comic-book-100-bullets/

The man of many comic book to screen adaptations is back and this time it's vertigo, with the news from Deadline that David Goyer is set to write and executive produce a TV show based on Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso's 100 Bullets.

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Welcome back to another set of reviews of tradepaperbacks I picked up from the local libraries. It’s been an interesting mix of books this week with some random stuff and some more mainstream titles including a classic from one of my favourite writers. I’ll be giving some background on some titles and pointing you in the direction of some other books that are connected to the books reviewed.

First up from America’s Best Comics is Alan and Steve Moore’s “Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales, Book One”. Illustrated by a collection of artists including the legendary Arthur Adams (Uncanny X-men, Fantastic Four, Hulk), Jason Pearson (Starman, Legion of Super Heroes), and Jerry Ordway (Superman, Captain Marvel).

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Link: http://www.comicbookresources.com/

I could go into long winded explanation of what's been going on at DC but the long and short of it is this; Wildstorm is no more and DC Comics is staying in New York whilst DC Entertainment moves to Burbank, California.

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Not too long ago Sidekick favourite Iz McAuliffe invited me to join her as a Rackette on her and Stacey Frost's awesome podcast; Comic Racks. Stacey was unable to make it so basically I got promoted from guest to guest host...and there was booze...a lot of booze...big mistake. It's like a comic book podcast super-team-up on acid. That's my description of Comic Racks episode #55 and I'm sticking to it. However, if you'd prefer a more accurate and eloquent description you need look no further than just below. I've not actually listened to it myself yet so please let me know what you think

Download Here or listen to it through our player on this site.

Late, long and with only one Rack – Iz is joined by a new Rackette - Sidekickcast’s Gavin Jones. We originally intended this episode to be a brief Q&A about Gav’s life, loves and all things X-Men; as well as the usual format of a Racks podcast. Unfortunately because we are very good buddies in ‘real’ life this episode takes on a life of its own, with us waxing lyrical about anything and everything (but we do keep it nerdy...mostly). It should be noted that A LOT of booze was consumed during this epic adventure and boy does it show...we had a great time though!!

After a HUGE ramble about Torchwood, X Men, how lovely Paul Cornell and Mike Carey are, and many many many other nerd topics, we manage a very brief review section where we discuss Crossed Family Values #2 (SPOILERS), and Alan Moore’s Top 10. In keeping with the rest of the episode this section gets a bit de-railed with us nearly coming to blows over Moore, with me sticking the boot into Ellis while I'm at it.

Instead of a News section I invited Gav to bring along the patented Sidekickcast Secrets and Lies - where 5 items of news are presented, one of which is false. I enlist the help of ECBT2000AD co-host (and the other half) Rich to try and suss out the Lie.

A quick and very inebriated Rack Music section rounds off episode 55 - hopefully order will be restored for the next ep when Stacey returns to keep me on track...maybe :/

Link: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/02/03/get-ready-for-watchmen-2/

I'm going to come straight out saying I think this is a bad idea. Bleeding cool have the whole story so please check there for more detail but the short version is now that Paul Levitz is stepping down, Dan DiDio wants to produce prequel, sequel and ongoing comic books using the Watchmen characters, of course opening the door for a sequel/prequel movie.

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Link: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=21769

I was reading an interview on CBR with one of my favourite writers of the moment Rick Remender and how he's planning to finish up one if his creator owned series The End League. He's also going to be finishing off easily one of the best books out there at the moment Fear Agent; something I couldn't be more gutted about. Why this sudden move to conclude his titles? Well he is now a proud employee of Marvel Comics with an exclusive deal which will keep him pretty busy. As I have enjoyed both of these comics enourmously I'm left with something of a quandry, am I happy Remender will be at Marvel writing some of my most beloved characters? or Am I sad to be losing some new and interesting characters and stories so early on in their development?

For most of my comic reading through the years I've been a capes and tights sort of guy, love the big hero stories especially anything from Marvel and to a lesser extent DC. I followed the X-Family books religously and I'd only venture away from the big 2 publishers to pick up some movie tie-in stories like the Alien books from Dark Horse. I never considered that the writers of these books were writing something else before they 'appeared' at Mavel or DC. Of course I knew they must've come from somewhere but I just didn't care, all that mattered was how good they were at writing 'my comics'; the ones I liked to read.

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Link: http://welshbluemeanie.blogspot.com/

Of course what with it being Watchmen month...everywhere, Bluemeanie has provided us with his view on Alan Moore and his hatred of all things Hollywood. I think he'd like it if I pointed out that he actually is a huge Alan Moore fan, this was just too good not to mock. I think he actually brings up an excellent point I'd never considered before, for someone who doesn't like people messing with his characters and creations he's pretty free and easy with other writers work; see The League of Extraordinay Gentlemen and Lost Girls.

Link: http://www.avatarpress.com/

About three years ago I discovered Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon and since then I have been forever changed. Melodramatic? Yes, very much so. Any less true? No way. Preacher started me looking at comics other than those that contained capes and tights, and I've never looked back. I still pick up all my superhero stuff but now I love to search out stories that have nothing to do with all that and simply lose myself in a well crafted genre story, the more messed up, the better. Which brings us back to Garth Ennis and his new offering from Avatar Press; Crossed.

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