Category: News

Art: Gene Gonzales

In addition to announcing the relaunch of Gravedigger as a webcomic, Christoper Mills and Gene Gonzales announced that their series, Perils on Planet X will return as a webcomic beginning February 1st.

About Perils on Planet X:
For almost a decade, I’ve been working on a space fantasy called Perils On Planet X. Initially appearing as a weekly webcomic at the long defunct AdventureStrips.com, and drawn by Jon Plante, the project eventually evolved into comic book form, totally redrawn and expanded on by my talented partner-in-comics, Gene Gonzales. Now, it’s a webcomic again… but a print graphic novel edition lies in the near future.

Art: Burchett & Gonzales

Perils On Planet X is a swashbuckling adventure on a lost planet… join Colonel Donovan Hawke of Terra as he travels through time and space to the ancient emerald world of Xylos – home of vicious reptilian predators, ruthless strato-pirates, beautiful princesses, and innumerable fantastic dangers!

Perils On Planet X is high adventure on alien worlds – classic space opera in the Edgar Rice Burroughs and Alex Raymond traditions, revived for a new millennium!

The adventure begins on February 1st, 2013!

Learn more about Perils on Planet X at www.perilsonplanetx.com.

Story/Art: Keith Tucker

Keith Tucker posted an update and sneak peek at his Shell Scott graphic novel in progress at his website.

Tucker writes: My Shell Scott graphic novel continues, I was originally going to do this book with Mark Ellis scripting, but Mark’s busy schedule made it tough for him to get to it. With Mark’s blessing, I jumped ahead to a safe part of the book and began adapting it on my own, Mark has since let me continue on my own, and i greatly appreciate that, lets work on something else later together. So here’s my latest page from chapter 14 of Dead Man’s Walk.

Look for more Shell Scott news at All Pulp as it becomes available.

Most of ComicMix’s readers know that Tim Burton made his live action Frankenweenie short (starring Barret Oliver, Shelley Duvall, and Daniel Stern) while at Disney and was too quirky for the Mouse House so left to carve out a career of his own. The short was visually stylish, creepy, and filled with affection for the horror films of his youth. Since then, he has created his own brand of horror (Edward Sciossorhands, Legend of Sleepy Hollow) and has reinterpreted classic works (Batman, Alice in Wonderland, Dark Shadows, Planet of the Apes) with varying success.

Last fall he finally released a feature-length version of Frankenweenie and while it underperformed at the box office, it is a creatively satisfying effort, and a great family feature. This can now run with The Nightmare Before Christmas as annual Halloween viewing for which I am grateful.

As with most great tales, this is a love story. In this case, it’s about a boy, Victor (Charlie Tahan), and his dog Sparky. When the beloved pet dies in a car accident, Victor uses his scientific genius to bring Sparky back to life. While some see this as a noble thing, Victor’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein (Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara), worry that their son is overly involved with the dog and lacks human friends.

A boy and his dog is classic and Sparky is your typical dog, although he now has trouble keeping all his parts intact, notably his tail.

When the local boys hear about the successful experiment, things begin to go off the rails. Victor may have Sparky back but things have certainly not gone as planned and that’s where the film’s charm and humor shines through in a well-plotted expansion of the original tale. That said, things do drag the further we move on, as if Burton said all he had to say and needed to stretch to get to a proper running time, 87 minutes, for a feature.

Burton stayed true to his vision, retaining the black and white, evoking the great Universal horror films of the past. And like them, this is filled with winning supporting character — Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau), Edgar (Atticus Shaffer) —  enlivening the overall story.

The film is being released by Walt Disney this week in multiple formats including the four-disc combo pack — 3-D, 2-D, DVD, digital — and the Blu-ray comes packed with fun extras starting with  “Captain Sparky vs. The Flying Saucers” (2:30) — a new short with Victor and Sparky watching the title home movie; “Miniatures In Motion: Bringing Frankenweenie To Life” (23:00) minutes), your typical behind-the-scenes featurette;  Frankenweenie Touring Exhibit (4:30) 1/2 minutes); the original Frankenweenie short film (30:00); “Pet Sematary”, a music video from Plain White T’s. The first few featurettes are eye-opening in the effort that goes into making these stop-motion films. Burton, executive producer Don Hahn, producer Allison Abbate, and animation director Trey Thomas exhaustively cover the production, shot at the London-based Three Mills Studio.

This is the most entertaining video release of the week and comes highly recommended.

Art: Rick Burchett

Beginning on February 4th, 2013, Christopher Mills and Rick Burchett’s Gravedigger web comic returns. Visit www.gravediggercomic.com every Monday for a new installment of the critically-acclaimed crime thriller, “The Scavengers,” starring the toughest tough guy since the 70s, “Gravedigger” McCrae.

In the first event in association with Doctor Who‘s fiftieth anniversary, Puffin Books will be releasing eleven e-books in 2013, one a month, each dealing with a different Doctor.  Writer of the Artemis Fowl series Eoin (“Owen”) Colfer has written the first, starring the first Doctor, played on TV by the late William Hartnell. (more…)