New Comics Day - Post Comic-Con Edition!

I tell you what, digging out from under the pile of work that was waiting for me post Comic-Con has been rather daunting, to say the least. I walked into my office after having been in San Diego for a week and I swear the tower of papers in my inbox had clouds floating by at the top. The pile also suspiciously resembled the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but sadly it collapsed before I could snap a picture. Three interns were killed.

Anyway, I digress. I will be back to regular postings shortly, but as we all know today is that glorious day known as New Comics Day! If I get out of the office at a decent hour here’s what I will be picking up this week:

ALSO – be sure to pick up the eagerly-awaited BAD PLANET #2 today, from those fine folks at RAW:

BATMAN #667
BLACK ADAM THE DARK AGE #1
COUNTDOWN 38 (I’M STICKING WITH COUNTDOWN… FOR NOW…)
DMZ #22
FABLES #64
GEN 13 #11
GREEN ARROW YEAR ONE #3 (LOVE ME THAT JOCK ART)
GREEN LANTERN #22
JACK OF FABLES #13
JLA CLASSIFIED #41
UN-MEN #1
BAD PLANET #2
CASANOVA #8
CRIMINAL #8
DAREDEVIL
ESSENTIAL DAZZLER (I AM NOT PICKING THIS UP… WTF?!?!)
EXILES #97
NEW AVENGERS #33
OMEGA FLIGHT #5
POWERS #25
X-FACTOR #22
AMERICAN WASTELAND BLOOD & DIESEL #2
BLACK METAL VOL 1

Later

Comic-Con in the Rear View

What a show. It feels as if I have been muttering those words ever since Monday. What a show. Between the set-up for our booth, running the bloody booth, meetings, reunions, seeing old friends, meeting new friends, the parties, the parties, the parties, tear down for said booth, ad infinitum, needless to say it was a week for the ages. Then again, it's Comic-Con.

We had a great time at the show, and also hosted some really fun signings at our booth featuring the likes of Kevin Bacon, Saw director James Wan, Steve Niles, Tim Bradstreet, Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray, Henry Rollins, Ben Templesmith, Futurama voice talent, and more. We captured a number of these signings on video and streamed them live over the Intraweb; if you missed the live stream be sure to check out the archived videos in the player below.

Also, to see more pics from the show check out our Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxatomic/

More next week once my brain returns.

Later

Comic-Con Decompression

We're alive! We just got back from the San Diego Comic-Con, and now it's time to sleep. More to come, but the show was great. If you missed the party be sure to check out the video player below to see a couple of our booth signings, featuring the likes of Kevin Bacon, Saw director James Wan, Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray, Futurama voice talent (listen for Maurice to spout Brain's classic 'YES'), and, of course, me.

Later

Live from Comic-Con!

If you're on the Fox Atomic Comics MySpace page, check out the new window below - Fox Atomic Comics is live at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con! We're uploading pictures of our days and nights from Andre's iPhone, and when we have booth signings we will be broadcasting LIVE! Check the schedule:

Thursday
5:00 – 6:00: The Nightmare Factory / Fox Atomic Comics
- Ben Templesmith, Ted McKeever, Michael Gaydos, Joe Harris, and Stuart Moore

Friday
12:00 – 1:00: The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning / Fox Atomic Comics
- Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray

2:30 – 3:30: The Tripper
- David Arquette, Thomas Jane, Joe Harris

4:00 – 5:00: 28 Days Later: The Aftermath / Fox Atomic Comics
- Steve Niles and Tim Bradstreet

Saturday
12:30 – 1:30: Wrong Turn 2
- Henry Rollins, Joe Lynch, Erika Leerhsen, Daniella Alonso

3:00 – 4:00: Death Sentence
- Kevin Bacon(!), James Wan, and Garrett Hedlund (Note this panel will require tix that will be distributed at the booth on Saturday morning)

Be sure to stop by booth #4429 and say hi if you're at the show!

Later

Fox Atomic at the San Diego Comic-Con

It's almost here - Comic-Con! If you are going to the show, please stop by the Fox Atomic / Fox Atomic Comics booth (#4429) to check out our set-up, pick up our free swag (believe me, we’ll have LOTS of it), meet the gang, and perhaps score an autograph or two.

Keep watching the Fox Atomic Comics MySpace page for a few Comic-Con surprises... I will tease them much more when I can! ;) Just waiting on our tech goblins to work their magicks.

Here’s our signing schedule as well:

Thursday
5:00 – 6:00: The Nightmare Factory / Fox Atomic Comics
- Ben Templesmith, Ted McKeever, Michael Gaydos, Joe Harris, and Stuart Moore

Friday
12:00 – 1:00: The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning / Fox Atomic Comics
- Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray

2:30 – 3:30: The Tripper
- David Arquette, Thomas Jane, Joe Harris

4:00 – 5:00: 28 Days Later: The Aftermath / Fox Atomic Comics
- Steve Niles and Tim Bradstreet

Saturday
12:30 – 1:30: Wrong Turn 2
- Henry Rollins, Joe Lynch, Erika Leerhsen, Daniella Alonso

3:00 – 4:00: Death Sentence
- Kevin Bacon(!), James Wan, and Garrett Hedlund (Note this panel will require tix that will be distributed at the booth on Saturday morning)

Later

Comic-Con!

Heading down to Comic-Con next week? You are? Well, so are we! Wow, what a coincidence. Come here often?

Anyway, I digress, as I am want to do (I know better to post blogs before I head to the bar). Where was I? Oh yes – COMIC-CON! If you are going to the show, please stop by the Fox Atomic / Fox Atomic Comics booth (#4429) to check it out, pick up our free swag (believe me, we’ll have LOTS of it), meet the gang, and perhaps score an autograph or two.

Here’s our signing schedule!

Thursday
5:00 – 6:00: The Nightmare Factory / Fox Atomic Comics
- Ben Templesmith, Ted McKeever, Michael Gaydos, Joe Harris, and Stuart Moore

Friday
12:00 – 1:00: The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning / Fox Atomic Comics
- Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray

2:30 – 3:30: The Tripper
- David Arquette, Thomas Jane, Joe Harris

4:00 – 5:00: 28 Days Later: The Aftermath / Fox Atomic Comics
- Steve Niles and Tim Bradstreet

Saturday
12:30 – 1:30: Wrong Turn 2
- Henry Rollins, Joe Lynch, Erika Leerhsen, Daniella Alonso

3:00 – 4:00: Death Sentence
- Kevin Bacon(!), James Wan, and Garrett Hedlund (Note this panel will require tix that will be distributed at the booth on Saturday morning)

Later

San Diego Atomic-Con 2007

As most of you (should) know, next week is that glorious bacchanal of geekdom known as the San Diego Comic-Con. This week, however, is more akin to HELL WEEK, given the amount of prep that is required before yours truly jets down to San Diego all next week (hence my rather infrequent blog postings… I know). If you are going to the show be sure to stop by our booth (#4429) to say hi, and we’ll also be hosting signings with Steve Niles, Tim Bradstreet, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Ben Templesmith, Michael Gaydos, Ted McKeever, Joe Harris, Stuart Moore, Henry Rollins (!) Kevin Bacon (!!), and more! Check back tomorrow for the full schedule…

In the meantime, those loveable horror-hounds over at DREAD CENTRAL just posted a kick-ass review of the Hills graphic novel! Here's a sampling:

"There is enough blood and body parts littered throughout this book to satisfy any hardcore horror fan while telling a well planned, engrossing story at the same time." NICE!

FULL REVIEW:
"The Hills Have Eyes remake presented a faster, meaner animal living among the vast American wasteland. Luring wayward travelers into what literally became their “"dead end" is just a way of survival for the misshapen refugees of the atomic age. The Carters were one such unlucky family, coming face to deformed face with terrors you never dream possible as we go about our mundane lives. Only 4 would make it out alive, or so it seemed.

Hills 2 initiates a silent war as our military forces spill into the hills to back up scientists running tests on this poisoned patch of land. Unfortunately, the hills are still occupied and before long, army green turns to deep, blood red. Each movie ended in the typical Hollywood horror fashion, leaving plenty of room for a sequel, with the subtlety of a hammer on a bag of kittens, so you know there are more stories to come should the box office hold out. Still, there is even more that can be told. What happened between the first and second film? Better still, how did the residents of these irradiated badlands become those predatory creatures with faces even their momma’s dry heave over? Fox Atomic has the answers in The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning.

The Sawney Bean clan first came to this place along with so many others, dreaming of untold fortunes in gold buried beneath them. When the gold dried out, some left but the Bean clan remained with others who made a home among the acrid landscape. Years pass and the government decides one person’s community is just as good a place as any for the testing of good ole’ American firepower ...namely the Atom Bomb. This is where the fun begins. Honest, hard working folk go head to hear with military forces that don’t take no for an answer and inadvertently pave the way for the birth of generations of human monstrosities. The animals we call man and woman have a miraculous will to survive...one might say is encoded right into our DNA. When faced with adversity, we adapt. In the case of the Sawney Bean clan, you could call it De-volution. Basically, they fucked their way to a brighter tomorrow. Sounds almost cheery, eh?

Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning spins an American tale, much in the way our Grandfathers sit with us when we are small and recall the events of their youth. These are usually happy memories, but America was built on the backs of others who often lay broken and battered for the sake of progress when the job is done. Hills is that sort of tale, only the broken and battered pick up the pieces and become reborn into living nightmares preying on anyone who cross their path. What’s more American that that? It ain’t called the land of opportunity for nothing! Also, keep in mind, it’s not exactly Grandpa in a rocking chair doing the telling. You’ll most likely be eaten when the story is done.

Comics have an excellent track record of taking a story told through film, adapting it to panels on a page with fantastic art, and then, if you’re lucky, continuing that story, answering all the "what ifs" you conjured up when the movie ended. Hills: Beginning is one such golden opportunity to build a history around a fairly simple premise, turning it into a multi generational epic you never expected. Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray construct a tangible world from some pretty visceral architecture, carving out a new blueprint written in the language of revenge, violence and ultimately, survival. Amazing how fleshing out a story can turn insane, pick wielding mutants into a sympathetic family! Art from John Higgins; smacking of work I’ve personally come to love in a little book called Preacher; plays up the raw quality woven throughout the story. On every page, things go from bad to worse with a gritty coating over every face, home and even the landscape rendered. Anyone can flick red splotches onto a page. Not everyone can re-enact carnage like this.

Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning holds nothing back. I can say I was a fan of the remake, but the sequel left me with nothing more than a hope that a further installment might tell a new story instead of parading out the same old trappings. The Beginning goes a long way to fill my wish list! You finish reading, put the book down and immediately get the notion you need to wash your hands. There is enough blood and body parts littered throughout this book to satisfy any hardcore horror fan while telling a well planned, engrossing story at the same time. If only Hollywood could boast the same. It’s time, once more, that I start making my argument to have comic writers pen all movies and television in the future. Seems we’d be a hell of a lot better off. At the end of the day though, this is The Hills Have Eyes. Be prepared for mutant mayhem and mongoloid lovin ... and lots of both. If you want pretty people, go read Witchblade."

Later