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Snake Plissken
Lives!
Sunday, July 31, 2005
9:30 AM
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 It
was a running joke in Escape from New
York that almost everyone Snake Plissken ran
into thought he was dead. Escape
from New York was released in 1981 and although
it was a fan favorite, it wasn't a block buster.
Everyone pretty much thought that was it for Snake...
that he was dead.
Then 15 years later, Escape
from LA was released. It also developed a cult
following,
but wasn't a block buster.
Everyone pretty much thought that was it for Snake...
that he was dead.
 In
2002 CrossGen published the first two issues
of John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles. CrossGen
then folded... but Snake wasn't dead. Hurricane
Entertainment published the last two issues.
Everyone pretty much thought that was it for Snake...
that he was dead.
Alias Comics and Hurricane Entertainment
are teaming
to bring back John Carpenter's Snake Plissken
Chronicles this November when a collection
of the original four-issue miniseries
will be published.
Movie and comic fans will love this news
since
the original mini-series sold "strong from start
to finish." For most comic art fans, the cover
alone will be worth the price of admission since
it'll be by Drew Struzan [and as an added treat don't
forget that Tone Rodriguez provided the pencils for
the series].
Snake Plissken is my favorite John Carpenter
character and translates easily to
comics. Who knows, maybe if this collection sells well,
we'll see more of Snake's adventures.
Anyone here think that Snake Plissken is dead?
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Charlotte Over
Atlanta
Friday, July 29, 2005
9:31 PM
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 Last
Saturday I started hyping Shelton
Drum's Heroes Con for 2006. I did this partly
because Wizard had announced that their Atlanta
Convention would be held the same weekend, but mainly
because I love Heroes Con.
This isn't news to anyone who's been reading the ZONE
for any length of time. What may be news though, is the
fact that Wizard has announced that they
will not have the Atlanta Show in 2006, and when
they do schedule it, it won't be the same weekend as Heroes.
And if you think that's great news [and it is --
I want to be able to support both shows, but if I have to
choose, there is no choice for I will be at Heroes!]
then wait till you see
the guests who've already signed up for Heroes 2006!
Man, I can't wait!
If you're still not sold on the idea of attending, then
check out these pictures
and con report from 2005 [some provided by yours
truly].
Hopefully, I'll see you there!
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300: Sin City Style
Thursday, July 28, 2005 8:13 PM
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Most of you probably remember that
I was pretty
stoked when it was reported that Zack
[Dawn
of the Dead] Snyder looked to be taking
the director's spot for the movie adaptaion
of Frank Miller's epic 300.
Harry at Ain't
It Cool News reported
today that Snyder plans to film it like Robert
Rodriguez did with Sin
City - a near shot for shot panel recreation
of the comic. The film has been budgeted
at $60 million with shooting to begin this
fall.
And I, for one, am still stoked!
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Bruce Lee Lives!
Sunday, July 24, 2005 11:45 AM
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On November 27th of this year, Bruce
Lee would have been 65 years old. Amazing
isn't it?
It's hard to imagine Bruce
as ever being older than 32, since that's how old
he was when he died on July 20, 1973. Think about
that for a second. Bruce
Lee died 32
years ago. Bruce
has been dead now for a longer period of
time than he lived.
And yet, you can say his name to almost anyone of any
age and they know who
Bruce
Lee was.
My guess is that he's more popular now
than he was while alive. I say that because each year
a new generation discovers Bruce
Lee and his movies [and he only
made a handful of kung fu movies before he died].
I'm old enough that my first memory
of Bruce
was as Kato on The Green Hornet.
Man, Kato was cool! Of course, that was because
of Bruce's
charisma.
After The Green Hornet, Bruce's
next onscreen performance was with James
Garner in Marlowe. Bruce
had a small role as a martial artist thug.
I also fondly remember my anticipation to
see Bruce
in the tv movie "Longstreet.
" Lee
played the part of a martial artist who trains
a blind insurance investigator
the art of self defense. When the movie spun off into
a short lived tv series, Lee
was brought back for four of the 23 episodes.
It wasn't long after that Bruce
Lee's Fist
of Fury aka The Big Boss hit the US.
It
was quickly followed by The
Chinese Connection and Return
of the Dragon
[with Chuck Norris fighting Bruce
to the death]. Bruce
Lee fever was growing,
but it wasn't until the release of Enter the Dragon
that Bruce
Lee mania really
soared. Sadly, Bruce
Lee died three weeks prior to it's
premiere in the USA.
As you probably know, Enter
the Dragon is the classic Bruce
Lee movie... it's
still the best kung fu movie ever made... and arguments
can be made the best
action movie as well.
After Bruce's
death, producers sought every way possible
to continue to make
money from Bruce
Lee. Green
Hornet episodes were combined and released
as features with Kato getting top
billing! The
Game of Death, the movie that Bruce
was working on when he died was completed
with a look-alike and bad effects
and it was released. Several movies
were released "based" on the life
of Bruce
Lee [but made to look like new Bruce
Lee movies], equally as bad were the movies
starring guys like Bruce Li or Bruce Le
trying to pass as the original. The one excellent documentary
that should be in every Bruce
Lee fan's collection is
Bruce
Lee: A Warrior's Journey.
Earlier this year Bruce
Lee was named "Chinese Film's Bright Star
of the
Century." This November, in honor of Bruce's
65th birthday and bigger than life bronze statue
of Bruce
will be errected in Hong Kong's Avenue of Stars.
You can
read the details HERE.
Yeah it's true that Bruce
Lee died 32 years ago... but it's equally
true that Bruce
Lee
will live forever!
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Heroes Over Wizards
Saturday, July 23, 2005 1:57 PM
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 As
regular ZONErs know, it's become a Zablo family
tradition to attend the annual Heroes
Convention in Charlotte. I start talking
up the show each year as the date for the convention
gets closer and new guests are announced. Usually
my hype begins about six months before the
show.
This year I'm starting a bit early.
Like NOW.
WizardWorld [a big company that puts on conventions
all over the US] has purposely scheduled
their convention in Atlanta the
same weekend as Heroes.
Coincidence you say? Nope.
You see, Shelton has made it an annual tradition
to announce his next convention
date a year in advance [and his show has always
been held in mid to late June].
This year, because there were rumors that Wizard
was looking at Atlanta, Shelton wrote
them to find out the date that they were looking at.
Shelton even offered to support their show
as long as their schedules didn't fall on the same weekend.
You can imagine everyone's surprise when Wizard
announced that their Atlanta convention would fall
on the same weekend as Heroes. You can read
the details
here
and here.
Well, I'm happy to say that pros and fans
have rallied around Shelton's show.
Casey Jones, Tony Harris, Bryan Hitch, Greg Rucka, Joe Pruett,
J. Michael Straczynski, Cliff Chiang, Mark Bagley
and Ethan Van Sciver all quickly
announced that they'd be at HEROES and NOT
the Atlanta convention next year. Additionally,
Cully Hamner, Brian Stelfreeze and Karl Story
who live in Atlanta
have announced that they will be at Heroes
as well!
Heroes 2006 may end up being the best Heroes
ever. My hope is that the folks
running the Wizard show will reconsider and
reschedule. They've already
started a bit of backtracking...
At any rate, if Wizard changes their date or not,
I'll be at Heroes in '06.
Hopefully you will too!
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A Really Creepy Moment
Thursday, July 21, 2005 6:49 PM
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Last night I watched "Hide
and Seek," a psychological thriller
starring Robert
DeNiro and Dakota Fannning. The movie was pretty
good, but that's not the point
of this post...
In the movie DeNiro keeps waking up at 2:06
AM. The first time that this happens,
he discovers his wife has committed suicide. As the
movie progresses 2:06 AM
becomes a significant plot point and the audience
is left wondering [until the
resolution] why DeNiro wakes up at 2:06 AM.
It was pretty creepy. Especially late in the movie,
as Deniro searches for a killer
in the house and suddenly Dakota holds up a child's
clock set to 2:06 AM. Now
THAT was very creepy, but it's still not the
creepy moment I'm leading up to.
Overall the movie was a fun way to spend a couple of
hours and I really enjoyed
how the dvd set up the alternate endings [there were
several]. Ah, but I digresss...
so on to the REAL creepy moment...
Later that night I woke up feeling the need
to go to the restroom. Now most nights,
I sleep through until the morning. Occasionally I'm compelled
to get up in the middle
of the night for a trip to the john, so it's not totally
unusual that this would happen.
Last night when I woke to go, I looked to see
what time it was... and you guessed
it... the digital clock read 2:06 AM.
Now THAT was creepy!
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Mariahs's Fake Abs - You Make the Call
Sunday, July 17, 2005 10:03 AM
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 Remember
when I told you that I thought that Mariah Carey
looked like she had painted on her abs for her 4th
of July Macey's performance?
I thought it was just a funny little item and was
surprised when it was picked up here,
here,
here, and a
bunch of other places.
The July 25, 2005 issue of US
Weekly even has the story in it's This Minute
You Want to Know About section.
The piece, Did Mariah Fake Her Six-Pack? brings
everyone up to speed: "Sure, Mariah Carey's
back on top of the charts, but who knew her stomach
muscles were also making a comeback?" The author
then asks a make-up expert and a rep for Mariah
Carey to weigh in on the subject.
 The
make-up artist [Sally Blenkey-Tchasova, owner
of one of the places that started the whole "spray-on"
craze] was quoted as saying, "It looks like she
was helped by make-up or air-brush tanning. Even if
a woman is really ripped, abs are generally not that
symmetrical."
You're probably as surprised as I am [meaning not
very], that Mariah's rep denies that the
abs are fake without every really saying their not.
"This is ridiculous. She has been eating right and
working out for three hours a day. Mariah has never
looked or felt better.
The picture to the right was taken about three
weeks before the one at the top of this post. So, ZONErs...
what do you think?
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