Thursday, May 14, 2009

KING CITY


Not sure why, but the solicitation for this new comicbook series appeals to me.

Maybe because I have an affinity to insane storylines?

KING CITY #1, story BRANDON GRAHAM, art & cover BRANDON GRAHAM
Coming AUGUST 19, 32 PAGES, BW, $2.99


Pete falls in love with an alien he’s forced to betray…Anna watches her boyfriend literally turn into the drug he’s addicted to…and Joe has a cat that can become any tool or weapon.

It’s all just another day in King City, where mystery is down every alley…and weirdness is crawling through your window.

From critically acclaimed comics vet BRANDON GRAHAM comes a comic unlike any you have ever read!
**

SHADES OF SOMA?



Today's news story about how pharmacutical giant Pfizer is giving away free Viagra and Lipitor to those who are unemployed sounds like the beginning of a Soma-like society where the masses are kept drugged and happy (ala Huxley's "Brave New World").

Story
HERE

TRENTON, N.J. — Pfizer Inc. says it will provide 70 of its most widely prescribed prescription drugs _ including Lipitor and Viagra _ for free to people who have lost their jobs and health insurance.

The world's biggest drugmaker said Thursday it will give away the medicines for up to a year to Americans who lost jobs since Jan. 1 and have been on the Pfizer drug for three months or more.

The announcement comes amid massive job losses caused by the recession and a campaign in Washington to rein in health care costs and extend coverage. The move could earn Pfizer some goodwill in that debate after long being a target of critics of drug industry prices and sales practices.

The program also likely will help keep those patients loyal to Pfizer brands.

*FULL STORY IN LINK ABOVE

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

"THE ROAD" Release Date - Oct. 16th



One of the most powerful and elegantly written novels I've ever read in my life was Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". If you haven't read this book, you must go out and do so as soon as you possibly can. It is poignant, lyrical and poetic in its language and heartbreaking and stunning in its prose.

The film has been in development and post-production for quite a while now. There was some fear that the story wouldn't translate well to the big screen and that movie audiences would balk at the bleak subject matter (the end of the world) and the long, empty scenes where no one talks and silence suffocates the two survivors (a father and his young son).

Finally, the film has a release date (Oct. 16th) and an early review by Esquire magazine calls it "the most important film of the year".

The film stars Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn from LOTR to most) and was filmed primarily in locations of ruin and along abandoned freeways and in actual ghost towns to provide a stronger sense of realism and destruction.

I've been looking forward to this film even before I had read the novel.

Here's the blurb on the Esquire review:
Esquire magazine calls The Road, the post-apocalyptic movie based on Cormac McCarthy's best-selling SF novel, "the most important movie of the year."

"Go see it because it's two small people set against the ugly backdrop of the world undone," writes reviewer Tom Chiarella. "A story without guarantees. In every moment—even the last one—you'll want to know what happens next, even if you can hardly stand to look. Because The Road is a story about the persistence of love between a father and a son, and in that way it's more like a remake of The Godfather than some echo of I Am Legend. Only this one is different: You won't want to see this one twice."

PKD's "Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said" Film in Development

I read this press release (below) and had to jump for joy. One of my favorite all-time PKD books is now being made into a feature film. Yes!

PRESS RELEASE
Halcyon Co. co-founders and co-chief executives Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson, who picked up first-look rights to SF author Philip K. Dick's estate in 2007, have selected his 1974 novel Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said as the first of his works they will adapt for the screen, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Set in a futuristic, dystopian world, Tears is the tale of a celebrity who wakes up after an assassination attempt to find no one has ever heard of him.

Isa Dick Hackett and Laura Leslie, co-founders of Electric Shepherd Productions, the production arm of the Dick estate, will develop the work alongside Kubicek and Anderson. Dale Rosenbloom and John Alan Simon also will produce.

Dick's works have served as the basis for such movies as Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly, which together have grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

WELCOME CBR READERS

Apparently I won the cover challenge at PERMANENT DAMAGE and my blog was linked from there.

So, if you're joining me from CBR, welcome.

I actually used to write for CBR about seven or eight years ago doing mostly interviews with guys like Jim Steranko, Stan Lee, Brian Bendis, David Mack, and Paul Pope (among others).

These days I only dabble in comic and sci-fi stuff and if there's anything worth sharing along those lines it will end up here.

I also blog over at www.KeithGiles.com and that's mainly my focus these days along with my 3rd book project.

On the sci-fi front I'm currently just cracking open Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" and so far it's great stuff. I'll post a full review here when I'm done.

I'm also reading ARKHAM ASYLUM for the first time and I've just finished PKD's book of philosophical writings which was fascinating.

More to come, I promise...