Link: http://www.panelborders.com/events

I'm sure I've blogged about this event before but a quick trip through the archives shows nothing, so here we go again for the very first time. Comics and Conflicts is a comprehensive look at the role of comic books in war and war stories starting on Friday 19th August and running through to Saturday 20th August at the Imperial War Museum London.

Read more »

Welcome to a world of blood and violence, this week’s reviews and info sheet are all about the man who has been cleaning up the Marvel universe for over 30 years, yup this week we are looking at Francis Castiglione otherwise known as Frank Castle: The Punisher.

Read more »

Link: http://www.newsarama.com/film/aronofsky-preacher-director-100929.html

I have long been one of those naysayers of the prospect of a movie adaptation of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Preacher, I’ve even blogged about it. I’ve always believed that any Preacher movie just would not and could not do the story and the characters any justice...until now. The latest name to be thrown around for the director’s gig on the flick is none other than Darren Aronofsky according to Newsarama. The guy that brought us Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler and Pi is now supposedly the main man on Preacher. Wow.

Read more »

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.

Read more »

It’s difficult to say you enjoyed Garth Ennis’ Crossed series for Avatar Press, the book was a masterpiece in exposing the extremities of the human condition but the experiences Ennis chose to subject the reader to leave a bitter and possibly rat infested taste in the mouth. Crossed is a survival story in the zombie vein but has more in common with George Romero’s other recently adapted property; The Crazies. The world has been ravaged by a disease which causes the infected to act out the most base and horrific acts of violence and depravity upon their families, themselves and unfortunate enough to wander by. There aren’t many comic books where someone will get raped by a gimp whilst being repeatedly beaten with a severed horse cock.

Read more »

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNRDGjjQwwE&has_verified=1

Y'all remember Garth Ennis' The Pro, drawn by Amanda Conners with Jimmy Palmiotti on inks yeah? If not, it's an amusing little book about a superheroine who's more likely to be turning tricks rather than turning in crooks. It sits proudly on my bookshelf snuggled inbetween all my other Ennis books but now you don't even need to it, you can watch it thanks to this animated short. Thanks Mr Palmiotti. The Video is for Adults only so to watch it please click on the image below or here.

Link: http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/102138-exclusive-joe-carnahan-on-taskmaster-and-preacher

It seems that lately all we do on this blog is talk about movie adaptations of comic books, who's in those movies and how much they're goin to suck/rule/destroy my world view. I do love that comic books are being taken a lot more seriously and it's a pleasure to see some of my favourites up on the big screen in amazing technicolour especially when it's down well. The thing is, I also feel that some things need to be left well alone, some stories need to kept pure without being seen through Hollwood-o-Vision and in my opinion Garth Ennis' Preacher is at the top of that list.

First it was going to be movie directed by Rachel Talalay (Tank Girl), then it switched to a HBO tv show, then back to movie this time with Sam Mendez (American Beauty) but that proved fruitless so now A-Team director Joe Carnahan has thrown his hat into the Preacher ring via an interview with Superherohype:

"And the other thing I'm really keen on or interested in is 'Preacher' because I'm a big Garth Ennis fan and I love that series and that's out there, and that might be something… I really love that. You gotta do the Allfather (D'Aronique) and all that crazy sh*t and I haven't seen a script and I don't know what it is, but yeah, we'll see. Who knows?"

So there you go, not exactly 100% locked in or anything but Carnahan's comments are enough to give us an excuse to talk about Preacher and why I'm some bloody precious about it. To sum up Preacher is very difficult (for you noobs check out ol' faithful, so much happens and we take so many sidetracks that meander through Ennis' fucked up view of the world and that's kind of the point. Preacher is more than the sum of it's parts but to leave bits out which you'd inevitably have to do with a movie adaptation would in my mind b detremental to the story as a whole. Which is also why I think out of all the possible versions that have been bandied about, the TV show was the best and most viable possibilty. Only a TV show could give the story the time and development it deserves, of course it's have to be HBO as there's some pretty messed up stuff in there.

Read more »

Link: http://splashpage.mtv.com/2010/04/19/garth-ennis-crossed-movie-details/

I've stayed pretty quiet about most of the news that came out of last weekend's C2E2 convention, mainly because I want to do a C2E2 con special Secrets and Lies for the next edition of the Sidekickcast. There is however one piece of information that I simply have to comment on, they're making a movie of Crossed! In an interview over at MTV Splash Page Garth Ennis says he's written a screenplay for the production company Kickstart Productions but as of yet that's where his involvement ends.

As with most things Ennis does Crossed is a dark, gruesome, sometimes funny but always thought provoking drama about a group of survivors in a world ravaged by the Crossed; a kind of fucked zombie that represents the worst of humanities baser instincts. We've been following the recently wrapped series quite closely on the Sidekickcast and it got 5 stars from me. I think the series is perfect for the big screen treatment, especially when you consider the success of the zombie genre and films like the recent Romero remake of The Crazies which Crossed is very similar in tone and subsatnce. I do have to wonder whether the general movie going audience are quite ready for Mr Ennis' particular brand of comedic but sometimes truly horrific violence and wit but I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out. The worst thing you could do with Crossed is to soften it, it needs to pack the punch that it does otherwise it's just another zombie/crazy bastards post apocalyptic road movie and we've got enough of those. With Ennis writing I'm sure he won't be pulling any punches but let's hope those Hollywood script doctors don't get their hands on it and we get the PF-13 Crossed that should never be.

Link: http://www.heatvisionblog.com/2009/11/sgt-rock-francis-lawrence-akiva-goldsman-joel-silver.html

Looks like another potential Sgt Rock feature is in the offing. According to the Hollywood Reporter it'll be directed by Francis Lawrence of Constantine and I Am Legend (neither of which I was a big fan of) fame. My exposure to the DC character has been extremely limited, I knew the name but it wasn't until his recent appearance in Wednesday's Comics, where he had his own one page feature each week that I got to know the Sarge. The new film proposes to take Rock from his usual period World War II setting and instead move the story to the distant future. Bad idea. From what I can tell part of the charm of Sgt Rock, created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert in 1958, is that he's a no nonsense hardcore military man of his time, a sort of pulp hero in the same vein as Indiana Jones; if he ain't fighting Nazis then what's the point?

Read more »

Hollywood mining comic books for inspiration is not something new, it's been going on for a hell of a long time all the way back to Flash Gordon and the Saturday morning serials of the 1940's. Lately we've seen a boom in comic book adaptations, superhero chic is in and Hollywood exec's have fully embraced the concept purchasing the rights to every comic book and graphic novel they can get their grubby little hands on. In the last couple of weeks though we've heard there will be a Fear Agent movie, The Walking Dead tv show and now a Criminal Macabre movie looks set to hit the big screen.

What do these books all have in common? They're all very different in their approach but all beautifully executed but the main thing is they're all books I am in love with, you can find each one complete on my shelf perfectly preserved. Surely it must be that Hollywood have started spying on me, either that or they've started listening to the Sidekickcast (very unlikely) and they've thought there's a man that knows what he's talking about.

Of course what is more likely is that having exhausted alot of the mainstream books or publishers keeping hold of their properties for their own movie ventures, studios are now looking elsewhere for their comic book fix. Also they seem to have realised that there are only so many capes and tights stories you can tell before the masses get bored of the genre so they're reaching out to the indy creators and taking the most popular ones first.

I'm not going to keep banging on about Fear Agent (you can read that here) or The Walking Dead (you can read that here) but Criminal Macabre is a fantastic book by Steve Niles which follows the drug hazed exploits of paranormal investigator Cal Macdonald. When I say paranormal investigator I mean drunk private dick of the noir variety who due to a nasty near death experience can now see ghouls, ghosts and things that generally go bump in the night which put's him in a certain exclusive niche form of detective work. Steve Niles is not new to this comic book movie adaptation game as his vampire book 30 Day's of Night was translated into a fairly successful movie starring Josh Hartnett back in 2007. It seems as though he may've been courting this particular adaptation right from the start as he often has his close friend and business partner Thomas Jayne (The Punisher, The Mist) pose as Cal Macdonald for the covers to his books, surely a shoe in for the title role in the film. He would certainly get my vote to play Cal, the part requires a man filled with spit and venom being closer to The Last Boy Scout's Joe Hallenbeck than his film noir roots would suggest.

So let's assume for a second that I do have Hollywood's ear, here are my predictions for the next slew of comic book movie/tv adaptations based on what's on my shelf today:

1) Vertigo's Scalped as a HBO TV series. Jason Aaron's thriller on a native american reservation is a perfect candidate for the adaptation treatment and may already be in the offing.

2) Joe Hill's creepy otherworldly horror Locke and Key should definitely get the movie treatment. Will he follow in his father; Stephen King's footsteps and allow his work to be adapted for the big screen.

Read more »