Marvel/Orson Scott Card to do ‘Ender’s Game’ and ‘Ender’s Shadow’ comics

Card will supervising the comics-conversion of two of his novels. Though the author is involved, he won’t be writing the books’ scripts: Chris Yost was one of the writers who’s attached to the project.

Pasqual Ferry will be doing art on one book. Another artists, as yet announced, will do the other.

The upcoming movie of Ender’s will be visually based on Marvel’s comics.

Duane Swierczynski goes Marvel Exclusive!

Umm…read above…

NYCC Day 2…and it starts all over again!

Alright folks, day two of the Comic Con in the Big Apple is about begin…we’ve been told Marvel has two Top Secret announcements coming out today, so stay tuned for that, and we know DC has some more up their sleeves as well…so, just to repeat, stay tuned!

Lots of celebs here today too! Between three cast members from “BSG,” including one of my favorites—Michael “Son of a bitch!” Hogan…yep, the cyclopian Colonel Tigh! Also, Frank Miller and Eva Mendes will be here talking “Spirit.”

Anyway, I’ve got work to do…must go…but news…SO MUCH news is coming…so—again—stay tuned!

Marvel Secret Invasion Panel Announcements

New Deadpool ongoing…first three issues will be Secret Invasion tie-ins. Daniel Way’s writin’ it!

New Warriors Secret Invasion tie-ins coming up as well!

Secret Invasion: Spider-Man…Brian Reed’ll be writing it!

And some Nova Secret Invasion tie-ins, not to mention the Abnett and Lanning helmed Guardians of the Galaxy will have Secret Invasion tie-ins as well!

Oh man, Groot…AND Rocket Raccoon…AND a Cap Shield…this new Guardians of the Galaxy might become my favorite comic…ever!

Mondo Marvel announcements/Kirkman and Walker launch ‘Destroyer’

Marvel’s first panel featured Joe Quesada, Peter David, Marc Guggenheim, Greg Pak, Dan Slott and a flurry of new and exciting art.

Among the announcements:

Mark Waid will be joining the Amazing Spider-Man brain-trust.

Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker will be doing a new Destroyer MAX series. Click here for Wizard’s exclusive interview!

Also, a new NYX series is coming up and Runaways Vol. 3, under Terry Moore, is set to launch in September.

New York Comic Con!

Hey Folks! So, the big NYCC has begun!
Make sure to check out our constantly updating news central for all the latest and greatest news from the Con.

While many of you may think working at a comic book convention is all glitz and glamour…well, it’s not…it’s fun, but it’s work…lots and lots of work.

Anyway, I’ll get more posts in soon and make sure to keep checking the site. It’s going to be an avalanche of news!

“Son of Rambow,” and the telling of my trek into New York for its screening in New York

A few weeks back, I got the chance to head down into Nueva York to see a private screening of a little British film called “Son of Rambow.” While I loved the movie and will elaborate a bit more on why I did later, I figure a review or synopsis of the film is only going to tell you something that at least nine other Web sites could tell you. So, because I’m still new enough in this game to have the stars in my eyes after getting to see a “private screening,” I thought an account of my professional movie-going experience might be a little more interesting (other journalists and media folks, feel free to turn and leave the blog now or scroll on to another post—you’ve heard this song or danced this dance before).

“Son of Rambow” is a great film (don’t take my word for it, take the Sundance’s) about two young boys who become unlikely friends when they try to make their own action movie. One boy is from a religious group that forbids TV, and when he tries to help out a bully—who’s shooting footage for a young film makers competition and is being raised by his jerk brother since his parents have all but left the two alone—he watched a bootleg copy of First Blood as his first taste of the movies and becomes obsessed. The bully with the drive to make the film and the camera teams up with the goofy fount of imagination released from this timid kid after he sees Stallone in action and the two form a friendship and go about creating their film. Throw in a crazy French foreign exchange student, he production problems that hit every film managed by 11 year olds and the inevitable humor that comes along with it and you’ve got the supremely enjoyable “Son of Rambow.”

It’s got the laughs, tender moments and serious aspects to make it an extremely diverse film—I partially loved the film because it could access all those emotions—but in the end its a tale about childhood friendship and limitless imagination and a love for movies that we can all draw back to our youth. It was a really fantastic film, and as I first described it afterwards, “If you have a heart, you can’t dislike this film.”

Now, as to how my attendance at this screening went down, here’s how it went:

Entertainment Editor Rickey Purdin got an e-mail asking if he wanted to send anyone to the screening. He asked, I said sure and so I was set for a trip down town.

The day of the screening, I left the office a bit early with staff writer Kevin Mahadeo—who was set to see a screening of Jackie Chan and Jet Li’s “Forbidden Kingdom”—and we headed into urban jungle.

After traffic and a search for parking, we arrived at the Dolby Building on 6th Ave.

We signed in, Kevin headed to a large screening room on the first floor and I head up to the twenty eighth floor where my smaller screening room was located (smaller movie, smaller screen).

Now here’s where it gets pretty cool….

So, i checked in again at the screening and pick up a press packet all about the film. The window in this office looks out on the city, twenty eight stories up and I realized this is the highest altitude I’ve watched a movie from short of an airplane and the occasional trip to Denver (which, sea level-wise is pretty high, though I wasn’t in a twenty eight story building).

After heading the the bathroom—for which I had to use a elementary school-style “bathroom pass” key, and yes, it was a rather bulky reel of film replica painted blue for the men’s room (pink for the ladies!)—I walked through two large doors into a small picture house that looked much like a nice home theater…only nicer…and twenty eight stories high.

I cozied up in one of the cushy armchair seats in the front row and sat amongst the other press scattered throughout the 20 seat room waiting for the film to start.

The film rolled, I enjoyed, I took an elevator down twenty eight floors and went home with a smile on my face after seeing such a pleasant movie.

That’s about it. It’s not the most super glamorous thing in the world but it’s still one of the fun little perks of the fourth estate. Hope that little window into my job was entertaining, and really do make an effort to see “Son of Rambow!” I’m a sucker for little indie films that leave you feeling good, but even if that isn’t your bag, everyone can relate to those childhood years of limitless imagination, friends without questions and the awe that all movies inspired then before we grew up, sat back and decided we’re all critics.

‘Diary’ has returned, get ready for strip #2 shortly!

So, in case you suckas (and by “suckas” I, of course, mean “distinguished readers”) didn’t notice it yet, Rickey Purdin’s Diary comic strip is back in action!

You can head over and view it at Diary.WizardUniverse.com—a new blog to house all the crazy cartooning of Wizard’s entertainment editor—so make sure to check that out!

I just scanned in a new strip and a whole buncha other images for Rickey, so expect that blog to be rockin’ a butt-ton of new stuff in the very near future!

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Ok…literally minutes after my post, Rickey’s new strip went up, so go and check it out and catch a glimpse of The Loudest Monkey (Me!) in Picture Perfect Purdin-Vision!

Huzzah! 10,000 page hits on The Loudest Monkey!

Hey, I know there’s big name blogs out there that would scoff at this achievement, but heck—I’m excited!

Thanks to everybody who continually checked in and helped make this happen! Thanks to folks who linked and blogrolled me as well! It’s just been a bit over a month, so I’m pretty pleased to make a dent like this (small though it may be) on the blogosphere.

Now, I’ll keep up the postin’, you keep up the readin’ and let’s get this sucker up to 20k!

Check out the good work coming from the rad folks at the Mid-Missouri Comics Collective!

I’ve been meaning to blog about my favorite, formerly local comic book related group for a while, and after they mentioned me in a few posts and my busy-ness professionally (which leads to laziness personally and cuts down on my blogging) kept me from getting a post up about them…well, this planned post couldn’t be put off any longer! Plus, they made me feel like a minor celebrity when they posted the press release announcement about my job at Wizard! Making me feel a little bit awesome about myself ALWAYS deserve some blog callout love!

MidMoCoCo, as the comics collective is abbreviated, is comprised of comic creators and enthusiasts who all live in and around the center of the Show Me State and are doodling or discussing their hearts out on all things comics! And with posting fiend Winter keeping the blog updated with news aplenty, this site is not only something you must check out if it’s local for you, but a great place to see some fantastic examples of grassroots comic work (and some not so grassroots, but literally sprouting upwards!) and some damn good blogging.

Back in my ol’ college days, I did an article in the Columbia Missourian about MidMoCoCo after sitting in on one of their Sunday meeting sketch jams. I got to chat comics with Josh Nichols, Scott Ziolko and Zac Crockett as they sketched away. It was a heckuva pleasure to hang out and a blast to put together an article that showed the community that this talented group was right under their noses.

The entire group is doing some great work—which you should check out HERE right now—but I have to give a special callout to Mr. Crockett because I think his art is the bomb—seriously, check out his web comic Opey the Warhead, bad pun fully intended. At the meeting I met him at and afterward via email, I continually tried to get him to do art for some comic ideas I’d been working on. Seeing as Opey just became a featured comic over at DrunkDuck.com, I’m glad my hair-brained ideas didn’t get in the way of his rad work! Go read that thing folks!

Make sure you take a few minutes to go check out MidMoCoCo. I love heading there to get a taste of my old town and see what’s up with the comics scene there, but even if you’ve never even heard of Columbia, MO, head on over and read some great web comics and see what stellar local comics coverage looks like—you won’t be sorry.