LAST CALL goes to the BIG SCREEN

It looks like Universal has bought up the rights to adapt Vasilis Lolos’ Oni Press series The Last Call. Barry Josephson (Enchanted) and Eric Gitter are set to produce, and Evan Spiliotopoulos (”The Box”) will write the screen adaptation.

The Last Call is a series of graphic novels, written and drawn by Lolos, about two young metal head friends who, while on a joyride one night, get picked up by an otherworldly train that serves as a soul carrier. Lost and alone, the boys (Sam and Alec) try to dodge the train’s hulking conductor, who is looking for some tickets, and the rest of the ghoulish passengers only to discover a nefarious series of murders are taking place. The boys must navigate frightening pitfalls and dangerous monsters in order to solve the murder mystery and get home.

Now we don’t want to jinx anything, but an e-mail with Vasilis revealed that we both think one Guillermo Del Toro would be the perfect director for this movie. Like PERFECT.

Anyway, congrats to Vasilis!

RASL #2 Previewed at Boneville

Check it.

The issue drops in stores tomorrow.

Paul Pope’s Toy Chest

Continuing the Paul Pope thread from last week…

Check out the news that Pope and Kid Robot are teaming up to manufacture a THB line of vinyl toys!

The first figure will be the Masked Karimbah (actually a two piece set based on a character on a children’s TV show in the THB universe), set the debut at SDCC.

Pope notes that the dog is the size of an actual Boston Terrier.

AWESOME

[images swiped from Pope’s flickr]

Palmer’s Picks REDUX: THB

Hey Folks!

So after spending a lot of time recently going through some old issues of Wizard I’ve decided to start posting scans of old Palmer’s Picks. For those of you not in the know, Tom Palmer Jr. used to write a monthly feature for Wizard, back in the early to mid double digits, called Palmer’s Picks, where he would spotlight an indie/alternative book. This was pretty much the precursor to Wizard Edge and Secret Stash. Going through these old articles I realized we covered some pretty awesome books back in the day. Like this one on Paul Pope’s THB. This article ran the same year Pope started the book. The second issue wasn’t even out yet!

(I realize you can’t read these right off the screen, but if you click through and magnify the image you’ll be all set)

Enjoy!

MoCCA cafe latte

I actually don’t drink coffee…but MoCCA Art Festival 2008, this past weekend in NYC, was a complete blast!

Sizzling weather conditions didn’t keep away crowds either. A steady flow of comic lovers filled the halls of the Puck Building (at least on Saturday) from open to close. But enough chit chat. Check out some photos!

Here’s Bryan Lee O’Malley and Evan Palmer (Hope Larson had stepped out for a second).

Bryan had sadly sold out of his new Scott Pilgrim post cards by the time I made my way to his table, but Hope had brought copies of her new book Chiggers! I believe Bryan is sporting one of the fancy kerchiefs that Hope had made as a neat promo item. Evan, who if I’m not mistaken is Hope and Bryan’s intern, brought along some of his own mini comics, which were fantastic. You’ll probably be hearing more about him the near future.

Kazimir Strzepek, creator of The Mourning Star, was on hand at the Bodega Distribution booth.

Kaz is hard at work on The Mourning Star Vol. 2, which he hopes will be out in time for SPX later this year. Bodega had made up some nifty Mourning Star temporary tattoos and a mini comic preview for Vol. 2.

Dash Shaw and Jason were both signing at the Fantagraphics table.

Fantagraphics was debuting Jason’s latest collection, Pocket Full of Rain, and Dash was appearing in support of his recent release, The Bottomless Belly Button.

The fantastic Tom Neely was also in attendance at the Sparkplug table.

Tom, as you may know, is the Ignatz award winning creator of The Blot. I picked up two minis he had on hand entitled Henry & Glenn 4-Ever. He described them as a drunken comics jam between him and the rest of the art collective Igloo Tornado, that imagine Glenn Danzig and Henry Rollins living together. Brilliant.

This handsome devil is none other than Jeff Lemire, creator of the Essex County Trilogy!

Jeff had a preview copy of the third chapter in the Essex County saga, The Country Nurse and two special mini-comic mini-chapters, Eddie Elephant Ears and The Essex County Boxing Club. Jeff is also currently working on an upcoming graphic novel for Vertigo called The Nobody.

Winding down our photo parade, here’s Eisner Award nominee Becky Cloonan and Vanessa Satone (seated)!

Becky had some fancy postcards for her PIXU, an upcoming mini-comic featuring her, Vasilis Lolos, Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá. She also brought along Vasilis Lolos’ latest existential outer space masterpiece, Lunar.

For some reason I didn’t snap a photo of my buddy Sean T. Collins, who was in representing at the PARTYKA booth with his new mini, Murder, which collects his web material with Matt Wiegle, Matt Rota and Josiah Leighton. After reading it, the only thing I can say (besides Sean really knows how to creep a dude out in a good way with strips like The Real Killers Are Still Out There and Kitchen Sink) is LONG LIVE DESTRUCTOR!

Interview: Dash Shaw

Please check out my interview with Dash Shaw over at Wizard proper.

Dash just released his massive book, The Bottomless Belly Button through Fantagraphics. We talk about that and his fantastic web comic BodyWorld.

Please take the time to go read this! Dash is a super interesting guy and his work is really top notch.

Etcetera

Hey there muchachos!
Just a quick update: I’ll be at MoCCA this weekend (both days) taking pictures, buying comics, getting Lockjaw sketches and eating hot dogs from street vendors. Check back for that coverage Monday.

I’ll be posting a beefy interview with Dash Shaw in a quick minute. Definitely check that out.

Stay tuned next week for some new reviews of Injury Comics #2, Duostar Racers #1 and everything I buy at MoCCA!

Finally, my “comic strip”, Pancake Lover, can be henceforth found at www.pancake-lover.blogspot.com. Perhaps I’ll post one or two stray strips here, but for the most part I’d like to keep Indie Jones pancake free.
That’s about it. See ya!

REVIEW: The Klassic Komix Klub

Hey folks! For this edition of Indie Jones, please welcome guest reviewer, Alex Kropinak!

The Klassic Komix Klub by Johnny Ryan, Buenaventura Press

If the title of this hardback comic collection didn’t tip you off already, this book is not for the easily offended. In fact, I’d imagine that even the most open-minded reader would still be in awe of Johnny [cartoonist of the highly revered series, Angry Youth Comix] Ryan’s “adaptations” of classic literature that vastly surpass the barriers that publications like MAD Magazine could never cross. For example, one strip features Ryan’s version of “Hamlet,” which stars none other than Marvel superhero Spider-Man. That doesn’t sound too outrageous…until you read on to witness the floating ghost head of Uncle Ben urinating on Spider-Man, who then visits his Aunt May to find that she has married the Vulture, whose genatalia (which has the head of a buzzard) bites her face off and blows a bubble with her face-skin like chewing gum.

And that’s one of the tamer strips.

But this over-the-top ridiculousness is Ryan’s point, of course. After experiencing the utter absurdity of each and every one of his 114 one-page strips, you just have to chuckle. You may be ashamed afterwards, but you gotta hand it to Ryan – this book is a testament to his imaginative and original ideas that he has been giving us since the early ‘90s. If you can stomach the first few strips of this book, then you, my friend, are about to enjoy a collection that doesn’t let you down in the gross-out, jaw-dropping, mind-blowing department.

Interview: JASON

Please take a second of your time and go read my interview with Norwegian cartoonist, Jason!
Over the past few years Jason has seriously become one of my favorite comic creators. I’d say that Hey, Wait…, his first translated release from Fantagraphics, is probably one of my top ten favorite comic books. The rest of his body of work isn’t so bad either (understatement). It holds a certain charm you really won’t find anywhere else. His sense of humor is incredible and his cartooning is truly one of a kind. You’d be doing yourself a favor by plowing through the many U.S. releases he has to offer. For those of you in the New York area, try to make your way down to MoCCA Art Festival this weekend. Jason is making a rare appearance courtesy of Fantagraphics, and MoCCA is still pretty rad otherwise.

This interview was conducted via e-mail this past week while Jason was traveling in Paris.

Enjoy!