I was told  to check out this four issue comic book because apparently it’s ‘messed up so I’d like it’. When I heard it was penned by Ben Templesmith, one of the writers/creators of 30 Days of Night, I was interested. But then I read about a mental institute run by werewolves, I was totally sold.

The comic book is only four issues but Variety reported that the film rights have been picked up to develop a movie about it! The story is about a psychiatrist who is forced to team up with a mentally disturbed patient to escape the werewolves who run the institute for the criminally insane… now that IS seriously messed up but deliciously so!

Can’t wait to see how this project develops. The official website is here.

You’ve certainly heard of smaller businesses being acquired and consumed by larger, more profitable businesses but Marvel is no small business. It has been confirmed that the comic book giant has just been acquired by Disney for $4 billion USD. That’s a whole heap of comic books, son!

What will this mean for the current stable of comic book characters (more than 5000 of them). Well-loved characters such as Thor, Iron Man, Spiderman and more will now be at Disney’s whim. However, not all is lost.

The Marvel stable of characters will be “overseen by Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter, who is charged with cherry-picking when and where they’ll show up within Disney’s vast empire, including online and in video games.”

It’s an interesting time we live in…

Thanks to Hollywoodreporter for the news.

Remember Spawn? Well according to various sources, Spawn is being brought back from Hell and Todd McFarlane is rumoured to be involved.

I wasn’t a big fan of the comic book (although Spawn is pretty cool as far as comic book characters go), and the movie was OK. So I’m not too sure what a revival could do for the franchise but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

McFarlane has been quoted as saying:

“The story has been in my head for 7 or 8 years. The movie idea is neither a recap or continuation. It is a standalone story that will be R-rated. Creepy and scary.”

Thanks to GetthebigPic for the update.

It’s Pinocchio like you’ve never seen him before… but don’t worry, he’s still the little wooden boy he just… kinda got an upgrade.

Van Jensen’s Pinocchio the Vampire Slayer has been picked up by Slave Labor Graphics and it looks a little like this:

I dunno about you but I’d love to read it, it looks pretty cool. I couldn’t help but think of another vamp slaying cool person (Buffy, anyone?) when looking at it and if it’s anything like that story, it’s going to do just fine.

Here is Van Jensen’s blog with details all about the graphic novel.

I would definitely call myself a fan of the X-Men movies even though the cartoon series and comics were much better. And I won’t go into detail about how the movie version of the X-Men characters was a little different to the both the cartoon and animated series. So we’ve seen 1, 2 and 3 and now they’re branching off into X-Men Origins with X-Men Origins: Wolverine hitting screens in New Zealand on April the 29th.

I really like Hugh Jackman – as an actor he’s obviously talented and I’ve liked him in every movie I’ve seen of his (I haven’t seen Australia yet… admittedly, I’ve held off on that one). The fact that he’s Australian helps (closer to home and all that) but as Wolverine, Hugh Jackman brings the character to life. Lets hope he’ll do an equally good job in X-Men Origins.

Enjoy the video clip.

Publisher: Marvel Comics Credits: Writer Sherrilyn Kenyon Adaptation Robin Gillespie Artwork Tommy Ohtsuka Released: April 1, 2008

This review may contain spoilers – read at your own risk!

Don’t you just love the digital age? Now, you don’t even have to leave home to read comics anymore. You can subscribe to a service like Marvel’s Digital Comics and receive access to thousands of digital comics online. Or you can do what we do and just read the free stuff

This week’s digital comic review is Lords of Avalon #1. It’s a twist on the legend of King Arthur – and I just dig the Arthurian legends so figured it would be a great first issue to read. Writer Sherrilyn Kenyon has taken the Arthurian legend and flipped it upside down with some interesting results.

For starters, this isn’t a story about Excalibur or Arthur but of a dark knight named Kerrigan and his sword Caliburn that gives a mysterious and evil power to anyone that wields it. Merlin is no longer an aged sorceror but a young, female sorceress and Morgen Le Fey is now Morgen -  Queen of the Fey with Kerrigan at her side, casting a dark shadow over the once glorious Camelot.

And caught up in all of this is the young peasant girl Seren, who is supposedly the future mother of the next Merlin. Lost yet? Well, the story definitely has some nice twists and the character of Kerrigan is deliciously evil. As for Morgen, she’s up to no good and it looks like her grip on Kerrigan might be faltering somewhat. Kerrigan’s attention is now upon Seren, the peasant girl that he captured before she could be saved by knights Gawain and Agravain. But what is Kerrigan up to and how will his plans for Seren sit with Morgen?

There is also the matter of time travel as it seems that the knights Gawain and Agravain have the ability to travel through time. Their pursuit of Seren looks like it might be held up a little by Kerrigan but I am sure we’ll see more of the knights if Merlin has anything to do with it. As for Merlin being a woman, well anything goes these days and I’m warming up to the idea of Merlin being female.

The artwork is nice, with lots of dark colours and bold lines used to accentuate each character. I also liked the shades and hues used – pastels and duller colours, nothing too bright which looked alot smoother on the pages. Overall, I think it’s a pretty nifty little comic and I’d love to read and review more.

If you’re familiar with this comic, feel free to comment below

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