Steve Niles is one of my favorite authors. He made
it to my "Must Read Author" List after I read his novel Guns, Drugs and Monsters. It was that good.

Most of you probably know Steve from his comic work. His 30 Days of Night is already considered a classic
and has helped spawn a rebirth of horror comics.

In late 2005 or early 2006, Niles is coming at us with three new mini-series: "Giant Monster," "In The
Blood" and "Gutwrencher" and all are from a new publisher, Boom Studios.

"Giant Monster" teams Niles with artist Nat Jones [they previously worked together
on "The Nail"] as they bring us a classic giant monster story. It looks and sounds
like fun. Don't believe me? You can see a 21 page preview by following a link I'll provide below.

Josh Medors joins Niles for "In The Blood" which is Steve's take on werewolves. Like, Steve, I've always had a soft spot for werewolves. Steve goes on to say,
"For a while now I've been wanting to do a werewolf story and that's what we've
got here. I'm very excited about this one." Me too Steve, me too.

Finally, Niles is teaming with Keith Giffen for the "Gutwrencher" mini-series.
We'll learn all about it tomorrow.

Until then, here's a link to the interview with Niles where he discusses all of the
above and more... and provides a link to the 21 page preview of "Giant Monster."

This is the picture that started it...

Well, the idea was already there, but after seeing this picture John "Big" Beatty knew that the time was right to shed some weight and get back into shape.

If you're like most of us, then you've probably put on some pounds since high school. If you're like many of us, you try to loose weight and succeed... if only for a while. Sadly many of us gain back more than we've lost... so we try to loose again.

And each time we try again, we think that THIS will be the time that we get it right. That we'll not only loose the weight, but we'll keep it off.

That's why many of us, don't like to talk about dieting. We try a diet or start a health plan and we don't talk it up. We keep our yaps shut, not because we're cutting back on what we eat, but because we don't want to eat crow should the diet fail... as most of them do.

Ah, but I digress.

Anyway, John "Big" Beatty noticed from the picture above that he'd really grown into his name. He decided that he would not only work to get back into shape, but that he'd document his journey.

He's started a blog called "Diary of a Fat Man: The Road to Less." Great title, great idea, and what a motivater... as John says: "So, here I am, putting this out for all of you to help me keep track, inspire me, make fun of me, or whatever else you want."

So head on over and drop him a line... just don't bring any eats!

That's [left to right] Mickey Rourke, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. They were in France last week at the Cannes Film Festival promoting "Sin CIty."

Not only were they talking up "Sin City" but they also announced that a sequel is in the works and that a "Dame to Kill For" would be next Miller yarn to get the silver screen treatment. This would be the best choice since everyone seems interested in coming back and "Dame to Kill For" features Marv, Dwight and other characters from the original. Rodriguez says that filming could begin later this year [please!] for a 2006 release [yeah, baby!].

Buena Vista and Dimension have confirmed that the Sin City DVD will be released on August 16th with a suggested retail price of $29.99. You can pre-order it right now by clicking HERE. If you do, you'll get it for 35% off... but be aware that there will be another "more elaborate" release next year with additional extras. Now normally, I would just wait and get the release with more "stuff" but in this case, I'll buy both versions.

I know, I know... that's pretty silly. But sometimes I'm silly like that.

I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to post her as often as I'd like. So... how about we do a little catching up.

	24, just keeps getting better and better. Each episode ups the stakes, and just when you think that they won't be able to top the last cliffhanger... they do! I'm even happier about the show since I read today that 24 has been renewed for two more seasons!
	Transporter 2 looks to be a blast. It opens on Sept. 2, and I plan to be there the opening weekend. JoBlo.com has posted six new pics and a link to the international trailer . I couldn't get the trailer to work, but maybe you'll have more luck.
	On June 8th, Marvel celebrates the 30th anniversary of Giant Size X-Men #1 with the release of Giant Size X-Men #3, an 80-page special reprinting some classic X-Men tem-up stories, along with a brand new “untold tale” from writer Joss Whedon and artist Neal Adams!
	Jeff "Interman" Parker let it slip today that he's "going to be writing Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four." Now that's pretty cool. His interview HERE is even cooler. But neither tops the fact that he's working on a new Interman story!
	Shelton Drum's Heroes Convention is one of the best comic conventions you'll find anywhere. The guest list keeps growing and with good reason. Heroes is a blast for fans and pros alike. It's not too early to make plans to attend. I have!
	Survivor never fails to entertain. I was really pulling for Tom to win it all. I thought that he had the most class of ANY Survivor to yet play the game. I'm still amazed at how the final challenge turned out. Ian's probably a nice kid, but...
	Now we're down to the final three on American Idol. Any of them could win. Still, my guess is that Vonzell will go home tomorrow. And Carrie will eventually win it all.

About two months ago, Anna Ayala [pictured to the left along with her husband on the far left] claimed she bit down on a 1 1/2-inch finger while eating a bowl of Wendy's chili.

Once word of her claim was released, many people freaked out and a good number even stopped eating at Wendy's despite the fact that police checks could find no one at the store in question [or even when they backtracked to the companies that supplied the ingredients that went into the chili] who had lost a finger!

Last month police said that they believed the story was a hoax. And even though Wendy's had offered up a $100,000 reward, there was still no clue as to where the finger came from.

All of that changed today when police announded that they had traced the missing finger to an associate of Anna Ayala's husband. The unidentified man, who is cooperating with police, lost the finger in an industrial accident.

Anna Ayala has been charged with attempted grand larceny with more charges pending. Wendy's has lost millions in sales and had to lay off dozens of employees in area stores.

If there's any justice, Ms. Ayala will do a bit of time and Wendy's will bounce back quickly and be able to rehire those employees who've been laid off. I think that maybe this weekend, I'll have to get myself a Frosty... if only to help the cause.

Last night the dream ended for Scott Savol and the nightmare began for Paula Abdul.

Despite a performance on Tuesday that Simon called his best ever, Scott was voted off. I was pretty sure that he'd be in the bottom group, but held out the hope that it'd be Anthony who'd get the boot. Still, it's quite an accomplishment that Scott made it as far as he did. Scott certainly isn't what most would consider the proto-type for an American Idol. Still, I wish Scott the best, and hope this leads to good things for him.

The Primetime Special on Paula Abdul's alleged affair turned out to have a lot of evidence pointing to the fact that it happened. I'll admit that before the special aired, I thought there was a possibility that Paula could have paid more attention to one of the contestants, but man, I didn't think that the facts would be so blatently bad against her.

Not only did Corey Clark provide phone records showing Paula repeatedly called him and his parents [with some lasting over an hour], but there were voice mail messages telling him to keep quiet, receipts for clothes she paid bought for him, a cell phone, and even medicine that Paula bought him. She even helped him pick out a Journey song to perform saying that Randy would like it, since he played with the band years ago and sure enough that's what happened.

How will this affect American Idol? My guess is that it won't hurt the show much at all.

The real question is how will it affect Paula? If the producers of the show don't stand behind her, she's done. Although many fans love her positive comments and playful interactions with Simon, the show could go on without her.

And unfortunately, it may have to.

When I was a kid, I used to love to watch reruns of the old black and white Zorro tv series. I'm not sure how they'd hold up today, but back then they sure made me want to swordfight and swashbuckle. : )

I really enjoyed Antonio Bandaras, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Anthony Hopkins in The Mask of Zorro when it first appeared back in 1998. It's hard to believe that it's taken seven years to get Zorro back to the big screen. But from the looks of this trailer, "The Legend of Zorro" will be worth the wait!