In 1986-87 Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created a twelve part comic book series called Watchmen that was released by DC Comics. The series garnered immediate critical praise and sales success. These twelve issues were quickly reprinted together and released as the first graphic novel. Much like the super heroes by which it was inspired, Watchmen slammed through the boundaries of what comic books were thought to be, redefining the form and permanently changing the ambitions of the comic book industry.

After years of starts and stops Watchmen has finally found its way to the big screen. Directed by Zack Snyder (300, Dawn of the Dead remake) and starring Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley, and Patrick Wilson, the film version adheres to the book much more closely than I thought possible. And as crazy as this may sound, I’m not convinced that’s an entirely good thing.

Review by Jason Thorson

Wizard Entertainment Chairman Gareb Shamus has loaned from his personal art collection all 12 original Watchmen covers by artist Dave Gibbons. The covers will be put on display as part of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art’s special exhibit called “The Art of Watchmen.” The exhibit coincides with this Friday’s much-anticipated opening of the Watchmen film, which promises to be one of the biggest movie events of 2009.

“These covers haven’t seen the light of day together in more than 15 years,” said Shamus. “It’s a huge honor to be able to share them all at once with an audience discovering this groundbreaking story for the first time. Everybody in the world is finally learning about Watchmen, and this is a great place to see the exciting roots of this phenomenon.”

Enter a world where the worst kind of monster imaginable is … US!

This hair-raising trade paperback is a “best of” compilation from the acclaimed COLD BLOODED CHILLERS series featuring 8 great scares and 2 chilling extras.

Dave Baxter at BrokenFrontier raves: “Cold Blooded Chillers is perhaps the very best of the independently published anthologies that I’ve read.”

Project FanBoy says: “There’s an edge of Twilight Zone with a twist of Alfred Hitchcock … and the art is stunningly beautiful, reminiscent of the horror art of the past.”

Bone Chiller is now available at DriveThruComics.com.

Moonstone has announced plans to publish several original short story collections featuring radio, film, comic book and television heroes The Green Hornet and Kato. The debut entry is expected to hit the streets by late 2009.

Bold newspaper publisher Britt Reid (the Green Hornet’s alter ego) along with his faithful valet and ally Kato have thrilled audiences with their daring adventures as they “hunt the biggest of all game, public enemies who try to destroy our America” ever since springing from the imaginations of George W. Trendle and Fran Striker in 1936. Fans have longed for the green-masked crime fighter to once again match wits with and bring down the criminal underworld.

Top Cow Productions, Inc. proudly announced today that the company’s flagship title, Witchblade, will reach issue #125 in March 2009, and the publisher will celebrate this landmark event with an oversized issue including a bonus story.

Witchblade #125 brings the series’ critically acclaimed team of writer Ron Marz and artist Stjepan Sejic together to begin the six-part story arc “War of the Witchblades” which the publishers note is the biggest and most ambitious plot they’ve attempted with their flagship character. Following the events of 2007’s First Born, the Witchblade was split into two halves and the responsibilities split between long time bearer Sara Pezzini and newcomer Danielle Baptiste. Up to this point, Sara and Dani have worked together and developed a sisterly relationship, but that will all change beginning in issue #125.

Steve Bennett posted in his Confessions of a Comic Book Guy column It Was Fun While It Lasted and then Michael Churchill of Pulp Nouveau Comix responded with Stop with the Doom and Gloom. Basically Diamond has raised its minimum order level quite a bit and many of the small press/indie comics don’t sell enough […]

DriveThruComics.com and Moonstone are offering Twilight Crusade: Gabriel as a free download!

Twilight Crusade is a battle of Heaven vs Hell right here on our Earth, where the READERS will decide who wins!

In the War between Heaven & Hell, one soldier has been on the front lines of the battleground since the very Beginning.

Twilight Crusade: Gabriel is free for a limited time at DriveThruComics.com.

From the creative folk over at , watch for the new comic Scarlet Veronica coming to a comic book store near you.

Originally set to release just in time for Halloween, the horror comic’s debut was delayed until November 5, 2008. Scarlet Veronica, Issue #2 is schedule to release later this month on November 26th.

Published by Ape Entertainment, Scarlet Veronica has, at its helm, an undead heroine.

When reviewing this graphic novel, I have tried to be as impartial as I can be. But the problem is that I am just a Jim Butcher fan that it is very hard. I have read all of the books, I am play testing the RPG based on it. Yeah, I am a fan. But I did at least attempt to be as partial as I could.

It probably was not very successful.

Welcome to the Jungle was a 4 issue comic release revolving around Jim Butcher’s creation, Harry Dresden. For those of you familiar with the story, it takes place shortly after his first novel, Storm Front.

Review by Stacey Chancellor

Not a Secret Crisis! Not a Final Invasion! On October 15th, it’s Cassie Hack versus Solomon Hitch in the brawl to end it all! Get ready for Hackoween!

Tim Seeley’s Spike TV Scream Award nominated Hack/Slash is teaming up with the cult favourite web comic Halloween Man for a special Halloween crossover!

See! Cassie and Vlad’s rampage through Solar City!

Tremble! As alien sex gods rip the universe in half!

Buy! Into our shameless hyperbole!

And it’s all for free on www.halloweenman.com! The only cost will be your immortal soul!

October is a special month for The Dresden Files. Why you ask? Because Halloween happens to be the birthday of one Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden…i.e. everyone’s favorite magic-wielding, hard-boiled detective, and star of the much beloved Dresden Files series of novels by author Jim Butcher.

In celebration of that, and in recognition of the warm reception to the first Dabel Brothers *Dresden Files* original comic book series written by Butcher, Welcome to the Jungle, we are excited to declare October as Dresden Files month at Dabel Brothers Publishing! We have quite a few Dresden
things happening this month…

Homecoming is an original four issue miniseries by Patricia Briggs and Francis Tsai

Dabel Brothers Publishing is excited to premiere the first eleven pages of the much-anticipated Dabel Brothers project, Mercy Thompson: Homecoming. Artist Francis Tsai beautifully illustrates all the covers and interior pages to this series, with Briggs herself penning the original story. Place your orders today before the first issue ships this November.

Francis Tsai (Marvel Adventures, Impaler) is one of the few artists who can fully paint his interior pages and his style is a perfect fit for the project. As these first eleven pgs show, he’s done an amazing job and will continue to impress as the series goes on. Author and Mercy creator Patricia Briggs has been absolutely thrilled with the results so far.

I’ll start this with a confession. Witchblade Volume 5 is the first example of the Witchblade universe that I’ve had the pleasure of reading. I wasn’t completely ignorant of the series. I wrote a profile of artist Mike Choi a few years ago which required some research, but Witchblade is one title that’s never screamed, “Read me!” Why does this matter? Because this review will split everyone into one of three camps – Those of you who, like me, have never read the series, Witchblade fans curious to read a rookie’s perspective, or Witchblade fans who angrily utter the word, “Duh!” over the next few minutes more times than is ever appropriate. The value you get out of this review will depend squarely on where you decide to camp.

Review by Jason Thorson

To be honest, I’m not really a comic book fan. There are only a couple select comics I’ve ever gotten into. This comic was pitched to me by David as Gilmore Girls meets Call of Cthulhu. He was selling 3 of the comics, issues 1,2 and 5, and an accompanying activity and coloring book for $15. His hook was great, and he grabbed me with the coloring and activity book.

Overall the art is really fitting for the story. It is more aimed for a more mature audience, so the artwork is on the revealing side. It is a cross between the classic American superhero art style and hints of anime thrown in. It is dark and trashy, and utterly fitting.

Review by Crystal Mazur

When manga comic book styles meet a popular author’s work, the results can be either spectacular or disappointing. Christine Feehan’s Dark Hunger is paranormal romance mixed with a highly stylized art form that does what it sets out to do — entertain fans and entice new ones with a bit of passion and lust.

What I liked about this particular manga interpretation, was that this product is the whole package; the cover art shows the two main characters (Riordan and Juliette) as they appear in the book. With cover copy that shows off the “romance” in the work, you know what you’re getting into when you read it.

Top Cow Productions, Inc. announced it will publish the first, complete story arc of William Harms Impaler in a new trade paperback that will debut this October, and then will launch a new series for the property in December.

The first three issues of the series were initially published by Top Cow parent company Image Comics in 2006-2007, but was never completed. The Impaler Vol. 1 trade paperback collects those three issues plus the final, three never-before-seen issues of the initial story arc. Top Cow was so excited by this series that it also greenlighted a new ongoing to follow the collection.

Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden is back and invading the world of comics in a series entitled, Welcome to the Jungle. Don’t know who Harry Dresden is? Well, if you haven’t met Chicago’s favorite wizard yet, this four-part comic series is a good introduction to the world of Harry Dresden and his friends.

In Welcome to the Jungle, Harry Dresden has an unusual innocent to save–a gorilla named “Moe.” Accused of violently murdering a victim in Lincoln Park Zoo, Harry Dresden rushes in to investigate, spurred on by Lieutenant Murphy. Just when he picks up the trail of the “real” killer, things get sticky as our lucky hero gets right into the middle of a death match with supernaturally-charged lions. With a little help from his partner-in-crime, Bob, Dresden tracks down the source of the possessed animals–but is it too late? Will Dresden be able to stop a big evil from taking over Chicago?

Cy is an ordinary guy with a beautiful fiancee — until his uncle’s suicide changes his life forever. Consumed with discovering the motive behind his relative’s sudden and painful death, he finds notes and scribblings about a nonsense word he doesn’t recognize… Cthulhu. Obsessed, he seeks out answers to questions he should have never asked. A horrifying glimpse into a modern day Lovecraftian world filled with nightmares and excursions into Lovecraft’s Dreamlands!

The Fugue collects the first several issues of the Fall of Cthulhu comic book series. This is a modern tale of the Cthulhu Mythos featuring several well-known elements of the setting that have been built up over the years in various novels, anthologies and role playing games. The treatment of Miskatonic University is a great background element throughout the story, for example.

Do you like slasher films? How about the one where this really, gorgeous girl gets chased by a guy in mask? Ever wonder what would happen if the girl fought back?

Enter Cassie Hack, a girl with a violent past. You see, Cassie wasn’t well-liked as a teenager in her school; kids would taunt her, call her a freak. Her mom–in her own, over-protective way–tried to stand up for her daughter by killing those vicious snobs and serving them up to other students as mystery meat. Of course, with an influx of protein into the diets of those kind, innocent kids, someone had to notice. When Mrs. Hack was confronted to pay for her crimes, she committed suicide by sticking her head in a pot of boiling gravy.

Screenwriter Rick Loverd weaves a tale of superheroes, Norse mythology and bone-crushing action.

Top Cow Productions Inc. announced at San Diego Comic-Con they will partner with Milo Ventimiglia and Russ Cundiff of DiVide Pictures to publish Berserker, a new comic book series created by Rick Loverd.

“Berserker is about people discovering they have superhuman ancient Norse powers as they’re pulled into an underground war that’s been raging for a thousand years,” explained Loverd. But the writer pointed out there are bigger themes. “It’s about people dealing with all the curves the world throws, accepting yourself,” he said. “It’s about not feeling helpless in the face of new challenges and, when someone builds a wall in front of you, smashing right through it with your bare hands. And, of course, it’s about bone-popping bloodlust, spine-crushing action, and saving the world from total destruction!”