These are the articles I wrote to cover the SDCC for Wizard's online mag in 2007. The articles have since been pulled to make room for the '08 coverage, but I'll post the original links and the text from the articles themselves.
Panel with George Romero
http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/005387433.cfm
Romero Reminisces at Comicon
From "Dead's" Dawn to Fiddler's Green and Beyond
With an impassioned introduction by Max Brooks, author of the Zombie Survival Guide, George Romero walked on stage at San Diego Comicon to a standing ovation and thunderous applause. In return, he gave the audience a humble "Thank you." Horror director, and father of the zombie genre, Romero ever is a man of modest demeanor, he nevertheless took the spotlight on Thursday to let his virtual army of fans pick his brain.
Foremost on everyone's mind at Romero's panel was what new zombie goodness we could expect him to produce in the future. Aside from continuing to work with Avatar Press to create the Night of the Living Dead comic series, Romero tantalized the audience with a few tidbits about his next film in the Dead franchise, Diary of the Dead. This is the fifth film to join the Dead cannon, though Romero is quick to point out that it is not a new chapter chronologically, as he believes the story has advanced as far as it can go into the zombie ravaged future. Rather, this new film examines the lives of a group of film students who, during the events of the original Night of the Living Dead, abandon their student films to record the carnage and devastation around them. Staying true to the rest of the series, Diary will be rife with societal context, this time focusing on the corrupting power of media control, and the desensitization the students suffer from days upon days of endless zombie gore. Filmed in first person perspective, Diary of the Dead promises to be an immersive fright fest no zombie fan could live without!*
Diary of the Dead will debut in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Romero and colleague Dario Argento (Dawn of the Dead, Susperia) will be holding conferences. The film has no US distributor or release date attached yet.
The zombies just keep multiplying, and special guest J Michael Stravinsky's plans on spreading their kind from the silver screen and into the land of television! A secret addition to the panel, the Babylon 5 scribe came out to announce two more fantastic zombie projects; firstly, he and Romero may be re-entering talks about adapting Night of the Living Dead into a television series, following a group of survivors from the first zombie attack, all the way to the world wide desolation of Day of the Dead over the course of five years. The second surprise was that Max Brooks's own World War Z novel has just been adapted by Stravinsky's into a screenplay, and talks are proceeding rapidly to green-light the script into a major motion picture!
Fans of Brooks's work will also be happy to hear that the Zombie Survival Guide is currently being adapted into a series of graphic novels with the subtitle, "The Recorded Attacks" chronicling the many 'real' encounters of the book. And while technicalities of contract forbid it for now, expect a World War Z a few years down the line, showing the entire world shattering zombie epidemic.
Somehow, in the midst of all these announcements, Romero did find a few moments to recall his film history, from his greatest inspirations, the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, and the 1951 film The Tales of Hoffman, to his many disenchanting broken contracts with New Line and MGM that have left him puzzling over the state of the film industry.
Despite the legendary mistakes and mistreatment of the Dead franchise by studios over the years, it is beyond evident the impact Romero's films have had and continue to have to this day. Audiences can only guess at what other frights they might receive with the Dead universe growing so quickly, but Romero inures us that all of his projects will serve to educate and entertain.
"Beyond everything else, I've got a pretty [off the wall] idea for a zombie comedy." Due to the fragile nature of the contracts for this project at the moment, a little teaser was all that was given at the panel, but as a great fan of the Shaun of the Dead film that his universe inspired, we can only assume that Romero's got some great material in mind, and that more news might be revealed in Toronto.
*Addendum, 2008: Diary of the Dead: Not that good.
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Spider-man animated sneak preview
http://www.wizarduniverse.com/television/tvother/005394010.cfm
SDCC: Swing Onto the Scene with the WB's Spectacular Spider-man
This Friday in San Diego, convention goers got an exciting first peek at the very secretive Spectacular Spider-man, a new animated series from Sony and Kids WB. Director Victor Cook was joined by creators Greg Weisman, Sean Galloway, Craig Kyle, and Spidey's new voice Josh Keaton to talk about the series and answer the questions of the audience. Leading off with an exclusive, nine minute trailer, spider-fans got an exciting first look at the newest incarnation of their old favorite.
Weisman, a writer/producer and formally a producer for Disney's animated Gargoyles, gave the set-up. "We really wanted to go back to the classic Spidey from the Lee/Ditko and Lee/Romita era." In this rendition, Peter Parker has been Spider-man for only a few short months. He's still mourning the death of Uncle Ben, still very naive about his role as a super-hero, and still very much in high school. The first 13 episode arc will cover the junior year of Peter's high school career, at the young age of 16. "We call the first season 'The Education of Peter Parker'. Both in school and as a super-hero, he has a lot to learn." This hearkens back to the classic story-lines, Peter having to learn to balance his personal life with that of Spider-man, and his responsibility to everyone from Aunt May to Betty Brant.
"Who wants classic web-shooters? You got 'em." Craig Kyle, who has been a part of every recent Marvel animation project, promises a fresh take on Spidey, without diverging from the original material unless totally necessary. "I think there were many aspects of [MTV's] Spider-man that none of this crew liked. Personally, I thought it took the character to places that were a little too dark, and didn't feel like it belonged to Spider-man." When asked to compare this project to the Ultimate Spider-man comics, Kyle promised that while a few of the origins might be updated, there would be no major continuity alterations like the comics have gone through. "If the original material worked, why change it? You take what parts worked and go with them."
One tweak viewers will see to the original story, though, is that all of Spidey's signature characters join him during his high school career. Designs were shown for Harry Osborn, J. Jonah Jameson, Gwen Stacy, and even a young Eddie Brock.
The design that got the most attention from the crowd was Peter Parker. As soon as he was flashed on the screen, there was a round of applause from the theater. Josh Keaton, who won the role from an audition of 2,000 different voice actors, gave a little sample of his voice as Peter, and it struck the crowd as dead-on. Kyle adds, "We wanted to voice to be the one you hear when you're reading Spider-man's adventures in the comics. Its the voice in your head. Josh was as close as we could ever get."
Cook and Galloway, both veterans of the Hellboy animated features, rounded off the discussion by talking about their intricate design and animation process. "We needed the designs to be very fluid."said Cook, "Spider-man is a character that is always in motion, and we need him to be very fast, flexible, and mobile." A few visible alterations on the costume, wider web-lines and larger eyes, seem to have been all it took to find a design that stays true to the original, but allows for eye-popping action. If the trailer is any indication, viewers of the new cartoon will see Spidey move like never before, all with the familiar WB animation look and feel. Though none of the villain designs could be revealed this weekend, viewers were shown teasers for Doc Ock, Vulture, Sandman, Green Goblin, Electro, Lizard, and Venom. All of Spidey's classic rogues will make an appearance. Kyle promises to do his best to use even the most obscure characters, both on the personal and super-heroic front, to give the Spider-man universe depth, and a fleshing out many other animated versions have lacked.
The crowd's spider-senses were set abuzz over all the news. It won't be long before we're treated to the final product. Spectacular Spider-man is slated to release in March of 2008, on the Kids WB!
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Rob Zombie previews Halloween
http://www.wizarduniverse.com/movies/other/005396684.cfm
Panel with Rob Zombie
Bringing the Horror of Halloween back to the silver screen
The scene: a derelict house, walls stained from age and lack of care. Floorboards creek under the weight of heavy footsteps as a massive man lumbers down the hallway. Behind him, he drags the unconscious, possibly dead, body of a considerably older man, Doctor Loomis.
Stifled whimpers can be heard amongst the plodding steps, a girl hides in a crawl space just under the stairs. As she peeks out through the cracked walls, she can barely make out the form of Michael Myers, holding a tremendous bloody knife.
Myers deposits the body at the end of the hall, and returns to the crawl space. In a rage, he tears apart the boards with his bare hands, searching for the girl, as though he can smell her tucked back in the piles of debris, but she has managed to sneak out the space, and further down the hall. So begins a chase through the house, Myers showing an inhuman strength as he breaks through doors and tears at the ceilings with whatever weapons he can find, his hunting instinct keen as any animal's.
You'd almost feel sorry for the girl, if it weren't just so amazingly fun to watch...
This was the exclusive treat that hundreds of comic book fans were given this weekend at the San Diego Comic Con. Director Rob Zombie himself, accompanied by wife Sheri Moon and actors Tyler Mane and Scout Taylor-Compton, introduced the clip, listening proudly to the shrieks of tension and delight as Myers hunted his newest victim.
The film releases everywhere on August 31st, and is still in post-production, but Zombie and company took a day away from their tremendous tasks to give con goers a little insight about the upcoming thriller. "It's more about Michael's Journey." stated Zombie, "I wanted to move away from the other films, show something new, show the how and why of what Michael became. But fans will find familiar beats along the way." This promises to hold true, as the director states that Sheri Moon, playing Myers's mother Deborah, will have nearly 40 minutes of screen-time, a bit of a departure from the two lines the character received in the original Carpenter film. With that much time devoted to the life of Michael Myers as a young man, and in the care of Doctor Loomis at the hospital, fright fans can look forward to a film with a much deeper psychological side.
That is precisely what attracted Tyler Mane, known to many as Sabertooth from 2000's X-men movie, to put on the mask for this film. "It was the moment I heard Rob's vision that I knew I wanted to be in this movie. He's made Michael into more than just another one-dimensional slasher character."
Rob Zombie, who returns to his music career with a tour in October, stated to have no plans for any other remakes or a Halloween sequel at this time. "I don't really have an over-abundance of scripts." So those hoping this movie would re-start the Halloween franchise will just have to hope the cast, Mane and particularly Malcolm McDowell, will be willing to return, as they were an integral part of the film, personally selected by the director. "McDowell's the only reason we went ahead with this film. He was a friend to Donald Pleasence, and the only man who could pull off replacing him as Loomis. Without him there was nothing." Zombie also mentioned a desire to see Werewolf Women of the SS, a mock trailer from Grindhouse, become something more, but could give no definite plans.
The crowd's reaction was overwhelmingly positive. This August, just before the 30th anniversary of John Carpenter's original Halloween film, Zombie's new vision promises to give movie audiences something to scream about!
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Panel with Joss Whedon
http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/005407226.cfm
Straight from San Diego: The 12 clipboards of Joss Whedon
There are few creators in the world of comic books or in television who have as fevered and devoted a fan base as Joss Whedon. Before a crowd of hundreds of cheering admirers, Joss stood alone, enchanting them with his own signature style of wit and wisdom. One insightful fan asked, how do you keep focused with so many projects? According to Whedon, he keeps 12 clipboards at home, each with an individual project. When those are full, he can accept no more projects, he lets everything else stay off of his desk until those twelve have been delivered to the fans.
And what, you may wonder, is on those twelve clip-boards now, all bursting with fan-fullfilling goodness? Those lucky enough to attend this sensational session were treated with a few tid-bits about each. We at WizardWorld are proud to bring you the twelve clipboards of Joss:
1. Astonishing X-men- still running bi-monthly, Joss continues to lead the most exciting team of Marvel’s mutants across the Breakworld. A new creative team is on the horizon, but none can tell what pieces Joss will have left for them to play with after what promises to be an absolutely explosive finale. His final issue is #24, set to ship in November.
2. Runaways- Though his time on X-men ends, Runaways continues to build steam. This small book, creation of Brian K. Vaughn, continues to turn heads amongst Marvel fans and excel amongst sales in the digest format. Joss has the teenage team battling the Kingpin and an army of ninjas while traveling through time, all just in the first arc! More surprises are promised to come!
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Comics- By this point, there’s hardly a fan of Buffy on Earth who doesn’t realize that Darkhorse has been continuing the adventures of Miss Summers in their comic series. Completely in-cannon, fans and creators alike have dubbed the series “Season 8” and are wondering exactly what turns are going to fall to the young slayer and her new students. Joss, who personally supervises the writing, added this weekend “I know that you’re all wondering where it’s going to end up. And I can tell you I know exactly where ‘season 8’ is going to end. But I also know where season 9 begins.” Expect Buffy’s adventures to continue long into the future. According to Whedon, there will always be a story to tell for Buffy and her friends. “I couldn’t possibly find ways to kill them all.” He added with a cryptic tone.
4. Angel Comic-book- Following up the tremendous success of Buffy’s comic, her former-lover and soulful vamp Angel gets his own book this fall, also from Darkhorse. Written by Brian Lynch, who wrote the series Spike’s Asylum, Angel’s book takes a slightly different approach from Buffy, being a twelve issue maxi-series, rather than a full on-going. It was uncertain if the series would be strict cannon in the same vein as Buffy. “It will definitely use season 6’s proposed story’s as inspiration, but its not exactly season 6.” Nevertheless, it’s a perfect taste for Angel fans of what the show’s continued airing might have brought. According to Joss, the lack of budget constraints allows Angel’s world to expand in ways that were never possible.
5. Fray- Back in 2001, Whedon wrote a one-shot comic about Fray, a slayer from the future of the Buffy-verse. With ‘Season 8’ being written, speculation was high about the future of the series, but Joss has assured us that he is currently working on more stories for this project. In all likelihood, more comics will be on the way featuring this surprising extension to the world of the slayers.
6. Serenity DVD extended cut- Releasing August 21st, This special, two disc, version of Serenity has all of the little extras that Brown Coats were clamoring for, and missing from, the original DVD release. Whedon promises loads of goodies, from making of to new cast interviews, and possibly some new and deleted scenes to round out the whole package.
7. Serenity Comic- Of course, that DVD only serves to remind Firefly fans of what they really want, more adventures with their favorite crew. Captain Mal and company continue their space-faring mischief making through Darkhorse comics. So far limited to mini series, the success of Buffy and Angel’s comics may inspire this highly demanded series to become a regular monthly title.
8. Goners- Universal Pictures has given the greenlight to this thriller, written and directed by Joss, which he keeps shrouded in mystery. The only hint he has given thus far is that it’s the adventures of a young lady, there’s some horror, and then some heroics. The filming status is unknown, though it’s still on Universal’s 2008 release board.
9. Ripper- Long thought cancelled by disappointed fans, this project has simply changed forms. The adventures of young Rupert Giles, Buffy’s watcher, may not be slated as a full length series any longer, but Joss claims that the property has been optioned by BBC for a 90 minute TV movie. The project has been received with open arms by BBC, and could begin filming as soon as 2008.
10. Cabin in the Woods- Joss and scribe Drew Goddard of Buffy and Lost have just finished writing the script to Cabin in the Woods. Due to the sensitive nature of film contracts, Whedon could say no more at the panel, but he did promise it would “be the horror film to end all horror films…literally.” The productioin studio is yet unannounced, but the grin on Whedon’s face is assurance enough that the script is already being picked up, helped, no doubt, by Goddard’s spotless writing credentials.
11. Score to “Serving Girl”- So you say you want to see more of the beautiful Summer Glau, who played Serenity’s River? You may get your chance sooner than you think. Whedon is currently putting the finishing touches on composing the score to the short film project “Serving Girl” with Summer in the lead, showing off her ballet skills once again. While lacking the action of many of Joss’s other projects, the chance to see Ms. Glau dance and act again is more than enough of a draw.
12. And the last? The last clipboard of Joss Whedon remains a bit of a mystery. After his unfortunate departure from the Wonder Woman film project, Joss has been able to start thinking of new projects. When asked what he would love to do, first and foremost, he simply replied, “A musical. While I live, I will do another musical. They are so difficult to do, but the attraction is just too strong.” While he would give no hints as to when or where this project would appear, we can be assured that more is on the horizon.
And that’s just a taste of the creative wonders in Joss Whedon’s mind. As each project is completed, another goes up on his wall. Whatever the project his fans are sure to be pleased, as his standing ovation, and the gifts piled up before him on stage can attest.
I've done a few articles for Inquest, a popular hobby mag. These are the transcriptions. There's still one more, my coverage from the 2002(?) Milwaukee Gencon. When I can find it and re-type it, it'll go up here.
From Inquest #80 pg. 28
Mage Knight Mecca
Mini Maniacs Open MK Only Store
The good news is that a store has opened dealing exclusively in all things Mage Knight. The bad news- at least if you’re an American- is that it’s in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Appropriately named “The Mage Knight Store," the shop sells only the mega-popular prepainted minis game from WizKids. It supports the game with tournaments, painting clinics and as a place to hang out and talk about the game.
The store is a celebration of all things Mage Knight, from its walls featuring airbrushed illustrations of characters, to its huge stockpile of new and used miniatures. Currently, it’s hosting four sanctioned events every week, from booster drafts to team events. Richard Kloster, German Mage Knight champion, works there so there’s always professional advice and competition available. “The Chosen One," as he is known in the MK community, currently dominates the German rankings and plays in the store’s tournaments.
The Mage Knight Store offers generous prize support in the form of limited-edition dragons, chariots, and lancer promos to tourney winners. Between rounds, players can help playtest new units being considered for future releases.
According to Robert Simon of Fanpro, the German game distributor, the store is the perfect example of how to “make something of virtually nothing, by taking a very specialized item and letting it sell itself, and become a great success.” For more, check out their web site: www.magestore.de.
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And from Inquest #85 pg 25
Playing It by the Book
Z-man Games Invents New Type of Game
Z-Man games, the company that brought the Shaowfist CCG back from the dead, is releasing a game unlike any you’ve ever seen.
It’s played in a book, passed between two players. Armies are represented by playmarks, a sort of bookmark/gamecard hybrid. The maps within the book represent the terrain upon which the two armies clash.
Players select their army’s abilities and weaknesses. After picking your fighting best, it’s time to march. Combat is fought across the maps pictured in the book. A random number generator on certain pages negates any need for dice or other peripherals. To make it an interactive experience, the battles all reflect events that are chronicled in the book’s fiction section.
“Warchon” is the title of the first book and is planned as a 96-page hardbound tome featuring fiction by Don Perrin and art by Larry Elmore. Each book comes with two armies, and a suggested price around $25. Two premium expansion armies will chase the first book which is planned to hit the streets in early April after launching at the Game Manufacturers trade show in March.
Zev Shlasinger, the man who put the “Z” in Z-Man games, said, “The great thing about the game is that it can be played anywhere. You can be standing in line at a con a play with a friend. If you get interrupted, just close the book, and a few hours later, you can resume.”
It will play equally well in the car to anywhere you have time to game but no handy table space.
Ugh, here's a mixed bag. This company has the distinction of being where my first works where published, as well as my worst works. They were the first company to give me a chance, and the first one to piss me off.
I was going to put all of the articles up here for your reading pleasure, until I realized how little pleasure was there to be had. They're pretty bad. Rainbow hired me, and the magazine was cheesy but I enjoyed it, but soon enough I stopped getting any real editorial direction from them. Then no editing. Then no credit. Then no paycheck. They folded, and to this day, they still owe me $700.
Anyway, here are the issues I contributed to, and the article titles. If you feel the need to read 'em, I do have physical copies of all these magazines saved.
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Extreme Collector's Guide, May 2001
DBZ Spotlight, Goku & Vegeta
The Deckbuilder: Tien, and Unlikely Hero
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Extreme Collector's Guide, July, 2001
DBZ Spotlight, Piccolo and Raditz
Deck Builder, Vegeta's Boast
Jedi Knights, A New Hope for Decipher
TCG Analysis, Gundam MS War
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Extreme Collector's Guide, September 2001
DBZ Spotlight, Trunks and King Cold
Trunks Saga Set Review
Dragonball Z Mastery Over the Masteries
Deck Builder, The Juicer
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Retitled as...
Extreme Gaming, November 2001
DBZ Spotlight, Nail and Frieza
Dragonball Z Power Drain!
One Big Planet
The Dragonball Z Android Saga
Deck Builder Personality Crisis
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Extreme Gaming, July 2002
State of The Union: Console Wars
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XBOX Showcase (supposedly an issue of Extreme Gaming, but with no Issue number or publishing date)
Big City Lights
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Kid's Collectibles Dragonball Z, June 2001
??? I have no idea what I wrote in this one. Only one article is credited to the writer???
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Renamed...
Ultimate Collector's Guide for Kids, September 2001
Top Ten Trunks Saga Common Cards
Dragonball Z, The Common Man part 2, Extreme Beatdown
Deck Doctor: Luke and his Expendable Commandos
Jedi Knights: Form and Function
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Ultimate Collector's Guide for Kids, November 2001
Deck Doctor: The Return of Mr. T
The Dragonball Z Android Saga
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Renamed to...
Ultimate Magazine for Kids, May 2002
Star Wars Coruscant: Desert Politics
