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Darwyn Cooke to Adapt Parker Novels!

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“When a fresh-faced guy in a Chevy offered him a lift, Parker told him to go to hell.” –The Hunter, Richard Stark opening line

From PW Comics Week on July 26, 2008:

Quote:
Eisner Award-winning artist Darwyn Cooke will adapt the first four Parker novels by Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake, a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America) as graphic novels, IDW announced today. The adaptations will be released at a rate of one every two years, starting in 2009 with The Hunter.

Richard Stark’s antihero stories influenced an entire generation of crime writers and filmmakers including Elmore Leonard, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Price, Brian Bendis, David Laptham, Dennis Lehane, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese.

Stark fans often refer to the Parker adventures as the crack of crime fiction. After reading one book, you’re hooked and before you know it you’ve devoured, like so many boxes of Milanos, some twenty books. The junkie you’ve become begins to sweat and shiver waiting for the next hit!

The perfect artistic choice for these adaptations, Cooke should offer the perfect methadone to tide you over until the latest Stark stuff hits the streets.

Darwyn Cooke to Adapt Parker Novels! was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Darwyn Cooke to Adapt Parker Novels!

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"When a fresh-faced guy in a Chevy offered him a lift, Parker told him to go to hell." —The Hunter, Richard Stark opening line

From PW Comics Week on July 26, 2008:

Quote:
Eisner Award-winning artist Darwyn Cooke will adapt the first four Parker novels by Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake, a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America) as graphic novels, IDW announced today. The adaptations will be released at a rate of one every two years, starting in 2009 with The Hunter.

Richard Stark’s antihero stories influenced an entire generation of crime writers and filmmakers including Elmore Leonard, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Price, Brian Bendis, David Laptham, Dennis Lehane, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese.

Stark fans often refer to the Parker adventures as the crack of crime fiction. After reading one book, you’re hooked and before you know it you’ve devoured, like so many boxes of Milanos, some twenty books. The junkie you’ve become begins to sweat and shiver waiting for the next hit!

The perfect artistic choice for these adaptations, Cooke should offer the perfect methadone to tide you over until the latest Stark stuff hits the streets.

MARVEL BRINGS PHILIP K DICK’S ELECTRIC ANT TO LIFE

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“My universe is lying within my fingers, he realized. If I can just figure out how the damn thing works."– "The Electric Ant,” Philip K. Dick

This is from PhilipKDick.com:

Quote:
The Electric Ant, Philip K. Dick’s seminal science fiction short story, will be adapted by Marvel Comics in the upcoming Electric Ant limited series to be released in 2009, it was announced by Marvel, and Electric Shepherd Productions.

[…]

The creative team behind this existential thriller includes acclaimed writer David Mack (Daredevil, Kabuki) and artist Pascal Alixe (Ultimate X-Men, 1602: Fantastik Four), joined by Consulting Editor Brian Michael Bendis (award-winning author behind Secret Invasion) and renowned artist Paul Pope, who will provide covers to the series.

About time publishers got around to publishing PKD adaptations. I imagine many more are to follow.


Pascal Alixe art

A short film version of the “Electric Ant” titled All Gates Open was produced in 2006.

MARVEL BRINGS PHILIP K DICK’S ELECTRIC ANT TO LIFE was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

MARVEL BRINGS PHILIP K DICK’S ELECTRIC ANT TO LIFE

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"My universe is lying within my fingers, he realized. If I can just figure out how the damn thing works."– "The Electric Ant," Philip K. Dick

This is from PhilipKDick.com:

Quote:
The Electric Ant, Philip K. Dick’s seminal science fiction short story, will be adapted by Marvel Comics in the upcoming Electric Ant limited series to be released in 2009, it was announced by Marvel, and Electric Shepherd Productions.

[…]

The creative team behind this existential thriller includes acclaimed writer David Mack (Daredevil, Kabuki) and artist Pascal Alixe (Ultimate X-Men, 1602: Fantastik Four), joined by Consulting Editor Brian Michael Bendis (award-winning author behind Secret Invasion) and renowned artist Paul Pope, who will provide covers to the series.

About time publishers got around to publishing PKD adaptations. I imagine many more are to follow.


Pascal Alixe art

A short film version of the "Electric Ant" titled All Gates Open was produced in 2006.

Elric in the New York Times

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In the Sunday, July 20 New York Times, Dave Itzkoff latest Across the Universe column features Michael Moorcock’s seminal creation Elric and the recent repackaging Elric: The Stealer of Souls (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné, Volume I).

Quote:
What is stranger still is that the world Elric was born into did not necessarily need him. Moorcock was 21 years old when he introduced the character in the June 1961 issue of a British periodical called Science Fantasy. Ray guns and rocket ships were rapidly overtaking swords and sorcery as the preferred pulp subjects of the day, and many of Moorcock’s lasting science fiction accomplishments — including his novella “Behold the Man”; his radical, satirical Jerry Cornelius novels; and his immensely influential editorship of the sci-fi magazine New Worlds — were several years away.

Three things leaped out at me from the piece.

1) Itzkoff clearly has done some reading about Moorcock and of his work. Knowing that, it’s very shocking that he writes “also C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien — titans of fantasy who seemed to be obvious influences on him.” Moorcock was influenced by the works that originally influenced the two authors as well as the writings of Mervyn Peake and Robert E. Howard.

2) What the hell is that hideous image in the article?

Why would any one choose that objectively inferior piece over John Picacio‘s beautiful cover or incredible interior art? (Picacio is NOT mentioned in the article.)

3) The overall poor quality of Dave Itzkoff’s writing in this piece.

I probably should stop there as both Michael Moorcock and Elric both deserve the attention and respect.

Elric in the New York Times was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Elric in the New York Times

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In the Sunday, July 20 New York Times, Dave Itzkoff latest Across the Universe column features Michael Moorcock’s seminal creation Elric and the recent repackaging Elric: The Stealer of Souls (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné, Volume I).

Quote:
What is stranger still is that the world Elric was born into did not necessarily need him. Moorcock was 21 years old when he introduced the character in the June 1961 issue of a British periodical called Science Fantasy. Ray guns and rocket ships were rapidly overtaking swords and sorcery as the preferred pulp subjects of the day, and many of Moorcock’s lasting science fiction accomplishments — including his novella “Behold the Man”; his radical, satirical Jerry Cornelius novels; and his immensely influential editorship of the sci-fi magazine New Worlds — were several years away.

Three things leaped out at me from the piece.

1) Itzkoff clearly has done some reading about Moorcock and of his work. Knowing that, it’s very shocking that he writes "also C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien — titans of fantasy who seemed to be obvious influences on him." Moorcock was influenced by the works that originally influenced the two authors as well as the writings of Mervyn Peake and Robert E. Howard.

2) What the hell is that hideous image in the article?

Why would any one choose that objectively inferior piece over John Picacio‘s beautiful cover or incredible interior art? (Picacio is NOT mentioned in the article.)

3) The overall poor quality of Dave Itzkoff’s writing in this piece.

I probably should stop there as both Michael Moorcock and Elric both deserve the attention and respect.

Watchmen trailer

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The Watchmen trailer is out and boy is it ugly. Very sterile and everything looks computer generated. Basically, exactly as I feared.

The strength of Watchmen as a comic is that it embraces stereotypical super-hero stories and turns them on its head with some unconventional storytelling and nihilistic elements while retaining the traditional look of the genre. That is why Dave Gibbons was the perfect artistic choice. This trailer offers none of that and much like Wanted looks like your typical lets blow things up, derivative Hollywood movie.

Watchmen trailer was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Watchmen trailer

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The Watchmen trailer is out and boy is it ugly. Very sterile and everything looks computer generated. Basically, exactly as I feared.

The strength of Watchmen as a comic is that it embraces stereotypical super-hero stories and turns them on its head with some unconventional storytelling and nihilistic elements while retaining the traditional look of the genre. That is why Dave Gibbons was the perfect artistic choice. This trailer offers none of that and much like Wanted looks like your typical lets blow things up, derivative Hollywood movie.

Alan Moore interview in Entertainment Weekly!

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There is a lengthy interview with Alan Moore in of all places Entertainment Weekly. Turns out The Wire and South Park are his favorite shows, we agree on the potential of The Watchmen movie, and he reveals the plot of the forthcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen installment.

Quote:
Whereas The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol. III): Century [the third installment of Moore’s Victorian-sleuthing comic, due out in April 2009] certainly stokes the imagination. Why make it span three different eras — 1910, 1968, and the present?
ALAN MOORE: [Artist] Kevin O’Neill and I realized we had two or three powerful stories. It struck us that we might be able to link them together and make a three-part narrative, so that each would stand on it’s own and thus relieve readers from any kind of painful cliffhanger between issues. And yet the three stories would link up into an overarching narrative involving the occult.

How do these three chapters split up?
The first book surrounds the coronation of King George, which was also the time The Threepenny Opera was set, a comet was passing overhead, and there was a general feeling of dread in the air. We’re also focusing on the occult fictions written around the time…[like] Aleister Crowley’s [1917] book, Moonchild, where the protagonists are attempting to create a magically produced child that is going to usher in a new era. [Protagonist] Mina and her associates are trying to stop this from happening. The second book [revolves around] that sort of peculiar 1960s melding of pop-star psychedelic lifestyles, fashionable interest in occultism, and to some degree, at least in London, crime. We’ve got it all centered around a big rock concert at Hyde Park. Running all the way through this is the continuing threat of the production of a magical child who, by this time, we are fairly certain, is the Antichrist. That second book ends very badly. And they’re not having a lot of luck. The third part is set in 2008 when, basically, the League is in pieces — barely exists anymore — and this turns out to be the time at which the Antichrist project finally pays off, and this magical child finally manifests in quite a terrifying form.

WOW! I can’t wait.

Alan Moore interview in Entertainment Weekly!

Posted on by
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There is a lengthy interview with Alan Moore in of all places Entertainment Weekly. Turns out The Wire and South Park are his favorite shows, we agree on the potential of The Watchmen movie, and he reveals the plot of the forthcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen installment.

Quote:
Whereas The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol. III): Century [the third installment of Moore’s Victorian-sleuthing comic, due out in April 2009] certainly stokes the imagination. Why make it span three different eras — 1910, 1968, and the present?
ALAN MOORE: [Artist] Kevin O’Neill and I realized we had two or three powerful stories. It struck us that we might be able to link them together and make a three-part narrative, so that each would stand on it’s own and thus relieve readers from any kind of painful cliffhanger between issues. And yet the three stories would link up into an overarching narrative involving the occult.

How do these three chapters split up?
The first book surrounds the coronation of King George, which was also the time The Threepenny Opera was set, a comet was passing overhead, and there was a general feeling of dread in the air. We’re also focusing on the occult fictions written around the time…[like] Aleister Crowley’s [1917] book, Moonchild, where the protagonists are attempting to create a magically produced child that is going to usher in a new era. [Protagonist] Mina and her associates are trying to stop this from happening. The second book [revolves around] that sort of peculiar 1960s melding of pop-star psychedelic lifestyles, fashionable interest in occultism, and to some degree, at least in London, crime. We’ve got it all centered around a big rock concert at Hyde Park. Running all the way through this is the continuing threat of the production of a magical child who, by this time, we are fairly certain, is the Antichrist. That second book ends very badly. And they’re not having a lot of luck. The third part is set in 2008 when, basically, the League is in pieces — barely exists anymore — and this turns out to be the time at which the Antichrist project finally pays off, and this magical child finally manifests in quite a terrifying form.

WOW! I can’t wait.

Alan Moore interview in Entertainment Weekly! was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon