PopFUZE #17

According to Super Hero Hype, Y: The Last Man will hit the silver screen as a trilogy of films. The Y film was first announced last year and I was dumbfounded as to how they could fit the whole saga into one movie. With this now looking like becoming a trilogy, I feel much better about it.

I have just finished reading Vol. 6 of this awesome series and remain convinced that Y: The Last Man is one of the greatest comics of all time. While the movies will never touch the work of Guerra and Vaughn, at least the wider population will be exposed to their brilliance.

Oh, and I can't wait to find out who will play Ampersand!

PopFUZE #16

Late last year my LCS, Alternate Worlds, had a sale and I picked up a number of TPBs. E.V.E Protomecha was one book that I could not pass up. All I could see was the cover, but I was immediately drawn to the design of the main character, E.V.E, as drawn by the awesome Ale Garza. Garza's art throughout, particularly when he is drawing mecha or tech, is absolutely awesome. The story by Aron Lusen and Christian Lichtner clearly references pop culture, particularly Star Wars, but has plenty of timeless themes.

I wasn't expecting much from this book (luckily I bought it for $10), but I really enjoyed it! There was some characterization, cool action and visuals and I loved the story between E.V.E and her father. Oddly, a number of the themes in this book are similar to ones I have been exploring in a fantasy/ mecha story of my own ...

Lastly, the color on this thing is awesome; top marks to Liquid!

PopFUZE #15

Is this a Martian? I am not sure about this - I'd love it to be true, though. The article is from The Sun in the UK, which is hardly a credible source. Click the title of this post to see more pics.

PopFUZE #14

Heath Ledger has been found dead in New York. His passing will add greater weight to his role in the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight. From what I have seen in the trailers, his portrayal of The Joker is truly terrifying. He has already earned the respect of hard to please fanboys, and that is perhaps the greatest accolade he ever won.

DragonFUZE #6

This weekend was really busy with family committments, but I also managed to do a little more work on my action/ horror book. The plot for #1 is done and dusted, but I am still struggling with the leap from #1 to #2. With only two issues to play with, I am trying to leave a gap in the story between #1 and #2 that the readers will learn about only through a few captions and other brief mentions.

I like the idea of the readers not wholly knowing what went on, and it suits because during the gap, one of the characters will spend some time outside of time/ space; so that kind of fits. I won't know if it works until the actual comic is out there, but for now this seems to be the best approach.

A huge shout out to my friend Brant who is working on the logo for the book. He sent me some initial designs over the past few days and I am really happy with where we are going with that. I may even give you a sneak peek once the logo is finalised!

PopFUZE #13

Here's a cool pic of Tony Stark aka Iron Man (ah, actually it's Robert Downey Jnr.) that has been released on the Marvel website. Every image, every word that has been written about this film, the trailer; everything points to this being one of the greatest superhero films ever.

My tip is that Iron Man may even edge out the brilliant Spiderman 2 as my favourite modern super hero movie (nothing will touch Superman II!).

When does this movie come out? I don't know, I mean it would take me less than a minute to find out, but I'll save that for another time. Suffice to say that for right now, this is the superhero movie that I am really looking forward too, even more so than The Dark Knight.

PopFUZE #12

Q: It’s interesting you talking about trilogies and at what point did you decide to go with straight to videos as opposed to theatrical releases. You’ve got Underworld 3 for instance coming out, is that a theatrical release and how do you go about…?

Tom: It’s a theatrical release definitely. I feel great about that. I think it’s the strongest story that we’ve put together of the three. I think it’s really terrific. I think it leads to a 4th. When we did the 1st Underworld, we imagined three--the 1st one, a sequel and then a prequel. The 3rd is a prequel, so the 4th would carry on where Kate and Scott Speedman left off after 2, so I think this is going to be terrific really this one.

So, here's looking at the future of the Underworld movie franchise.



The awesome news is that it looks like we are getting two more Underworld movies; a prequel and a sequel - that's the best of both worlds! Click the title of the post to read the whole interview with Tom Rosenberg, the head of Lakeshore Entertainment.

Get your leather coats, your guns and your breath mints ready; the Deathdealers and the Lycans are back!

PopFUZE #11

Happy Smurfing Brithday to the Smurfs who are celebrating their 50th birthday in 2008! You can read all about their latest adventures if you click on the title of this post.

I would like to send a special shout out to Papa Smurf. Just before I went into hospital for my second operation in 1978 - 79 my Mum bought me a Papa Smurf soft toy. As a 4 or 5 year old being alone in hospital was made easier by having Papa Smurf around!

I still have that Papa Smurf toy and I hope to share him with my kids one day.

SonicFUZE #3

1973; unbelievably that is the year when the seminal album The Dark Side Of The Moon was released. Right here, right now, 35 years later I am listening to this for the first time in my life! Of course, I have listened to Pink Floyd before, I own their best of p.u.l.s.e.. However, this is something different; The Dark Side Of The Moon is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant albums of all time.

I must agree. When you listen to this album, the lush soundscape sounds as if it were created today and not in the mid 1970s! I am sure that there were no computers involved in the creation of this musical masterpiece.

Even though I have never been a mad fan, Pink Floyd have always been a band that has mesmirized me; the lightshows at their concerts, the forward thinking innovation of their craftsmanship, the enduring appeal of thier work; there is so much to admire on the dark side of the moon:

PopFUZE #10

With a little baby, I am finding that we don't have much time for anything, so these days a big night is one where we rent a DVD. Now, my wife and I don't have similar tastes in movies. Last night at the video store I had in my hands: I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry, Live Free Or Die Hard. As much as I wanted to see the Bruce Willis action flick, I knew my wife would hate it.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry didn't disappoint, it was hilarious! I have a lot of respect for Adam Sandler, I think he makes awesome movies and this one was no exception. The premise of two straight guys pretending to be gay is very overdone, but in this movie it was well done. I really appreciated the message of tolerance that came through, even though the movie never preached.

But, for me, one of the real highlights was Jessica Biel. She looked hot in this movie. Her role didn't generate many laughs, but I always enjoyed her being on screen! Big props to Mr Sandler on another awesome movie.

DragonFUZE #5

Well, it's great to be able to update you again on my comics work; the new year has rolled around and I seem to have re-discovered my energy and enthusiasm for writing.

This is a good thing!

I spent a few hours yesterday working on my horror comic. I have finished the plots for #1 and am working on #2. In doing so, I have hit one of those annoying story dead ends; I know what has to happen, I am just not entirely sure about how I can pull that off.

On the plus side, I have discovered a way to include some of my old characters in the book, I am talking about ideas I came up with more than six or seven years ago. When I envisaged these characters, they were really magical powered superheroes, heavily influenced by Image circa 1994. Well, those types of characters don't really fit into this horror/ action comic, so I will re-work them. Still, I find it encouraging that characters which have long been dormant, their future never progressed further than a few brief descriptive lines in a notebook, have their chance to make a comeback and to actually be published.

The publisher emailed me a few days ago to say that his focus is on another project for the near future. That suits me well, I have this problem with the plot in issue #2 to clear up and it's going to take me a while to find the details on those old characters; I think the book is in a file in my cupboard, but at my place you can never be sure ...

DragonFUZE #4

John and I have been tossing some ideas back and forth on the email and it's great to see that we are on the same page when it comes to Blindside #0. Much of my original plot/ script has been retained in John's revision, but we are re-tooling this to better reflect the new story that the #0 issue leads up to; a crossover with John's Sniper & Rook characters.

John's take on the #0 issue is more sinister than my original draft, which makes it just that little bit cooler in my book! From his notes, the story will feature an underlying sense of conspiracy/ paranoia; that makes for an explosive mix when you are dealing with a blind superhero who has a prediliction for using guns!

Still, there was plenty of Deadpool/ Spidey-type banter in my first draft, and some tongue-in-cheek heroics/ stabs at pop culture, I hope we can retain this in the new story. Marat Mychael's pages for this short tale (I own the page pictured above!) are dark and gritty superheroics at their best, but I like our hero cracking jokes as well as skulls.

More news soon, peeps!

PopFUZE #9

If you click on the title of this post, it will take you to extended features and interviews all based around Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the movie comes out in 5 1/2 months! Thanks to Vanity Fair for the awesome coverage!

Reading all these stories and interviews has gotten me really pumped. I love Indy, he's a great character who always just scrapes through his laugh out loud, by the seat of your pants adventures. To borrow an Americanism, Harrison Ford owns Indy, far more then he ever did even Han Solo. Indy is a living, breathing advneturer, you can believe in what he is going through, it's much more credible than being frozen in carbonite.

The other thing I love about Indy is that he takes his knocks. I love heroes who take a beating, either physically or emotionally. I do that to all of my heroes in the stories that I hope you will read soon. I did it to Tiki in Tiki's Phayrie (Future Quake Press); she climbed up a tower, fought with a powerful mage, leapt out of a window, plunged to the ground into a pile of feathers, had a cage land on her head, was attacked by a Phayrie and then she was chased to within inches of death by a dragon; all in the space of 10 pages! So, you can see why I have an affinity with Indy!

I am also an incredibly nostalgic person, hence my continual love for all the stories that shaped my childhood: Star Wars, ET, TRON, The Dark Crystal, Get Smart, Superman, Indiana Jones and, of course, comic books. Just as I was overcome with emotion when I first saw each of the Star Wars prequels and Superman Returns in the cinema, I expect to feel that catch in my throat as the theatre darkens just before the theme song rolls for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I can't wait for this movie, I can't wait to own the inevitable DVD box set that collects all four Indy movies.

I can't wait to be a kid once again!