Popular bittorrent tracker and social network Z-Cult FM has issued a letter to its members announcing their intent to close down.  ”Z-Cult FM will be slowly closed down and the server put offline resulting in the death of Z-Cult FM as we know it,” said webmaster Serj in the statement.

The site has existed since 2004, but has seen a marked decrease in traffic and a contentious relationship with fans, creators and publishers since late 2007, when Marvel’s and DC’s books were removed from the site under threat of lawsuit. Serj addressed this in his statement with a few snarky remarks about these and other critics of the site.

The question of whether the domain name would return eventually as a message board or social networking community remains unanswered, with the statement saying only that “The future for Z-Cult FM is currently a sad quiet death and a think about it’s [sic] future.”

A full transcript of the statement can be read here.

It’s raining and I’m going to bed early to be refreshed for tomorrow at MoCCA and what’s sure to be an epic evening, so I have links for you.

Because it’s Scalped week, and because I have relocated away from my beloved Brave New Worlds comics in Philly and my friend there with whom I chat each week about how amazing that book is, I suggest you read Jason Aaron’s Scalped Secrets over at Standard Attrition. You will like them. And if you don’t, it’s probably because you have not taken my advice to read Scalped yet, and thus there is no hope for you.

Speaking of Standard Attrition, Joshua Dysart is the newest member of the coolest club on the ‘net. Go tell him hello and tell him you’re enjoying Unknown Soldier. (What, you’re not reading THAT, either? Do you people never listen to me?)

Via Kieron Gillen, a bit of meta news: the comic that’s sort of like a fanzine has its own fanzine. That’s right, Phonogram vs. The Fans will be out for San Diego Comic Con. Someone pick me up a copy, will you? The cover art is by Phonogram‘s own Jamie McKelvie, and it’s gorgeous.

Molly Crabapple is in Inked magazine, talking comics, art and tattoos, and looking fabulous.

Comics Worth Reading reviews You Have Killed Me, by Jamie S. Rich and Joelle Jones, and makes me want to read it. (Though she hurts the film noir fan in me a little bit by snarking on the plot of The Big Sleep, one of the true classics of the genre…but y’all don’t want to hear me go off on Bogie ‘n’ Bacall, do you?)

Splash Page has more previews of 9, an animated film that looks breathtaking.

All right, my pretties, it’s time for me to curl up with the dog and watch some Angel. Enjoy!

At least, that’s what the arbiters of hotness at Rolling Stone think. In the magazine’s annual “The Hot List” issue, the magazine names Scott Pilgrim as the “Hot Graphic Novel” for 2009, thanks to the upcoming big screen adaptation starring Michael Cera. Pick up the mag for more information. You can’t miss it; it features a very Nancy Spungen-looking Lady Gaga and a hot pink background. Seriously. You can take a look at it after the jump.

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So, this week mainly I had to work on Powergirl, Jonah Hex and a number of other things, but the real big pain in my arm was a spider bite I got on Sunday that blew up to a weird golf ball sized bump Monday and by Tuesday am was a fun filled doctor appointment for antibiotics that would last all week. You know when you hear those commercials about the side effects of medicines on TV…and they say an estimated 5% of the people taking the drug may have dizziness, diarrhea and some other weird shit? Well, I found out I am part of the lucky 5%. The good news is the bump is going down daily and I have one more day of pill abuse to deal with. I really like spiders, find them fascinating and am glad they are around to capture and eat mosquitoes, but this week, any that get in my way will die an untimely death.

The other thing that drove me nuts was playing that Monsters vs. Aliens game for the ps3. It’s for kids it says, so I played it and hit a wall…took an hour to figure out something, then hit another wall, then…I took the game out of my console and the actual game disc hit my living room wall. To the crew that worked on that game, I hope you all get stuck in traffic each and every day for the next month on the way to your video game job. Shit like that drives me crazy. I actually paid good money for that abuse…and I soooo loved the movie. On to the odds and ends…

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It was kind of weird reading through my stack of new comics yesterday afternoon and not reading an issue of Trinity, DC’s third consecutive weekly series. Having read an issue of it every Wednesday for the previous year (well, I guess a few shipped on Thursdays due to holidays), I actually kind of missed it.

It was rarely the best comic I’d read on a particular Wednesday, but it was always pretty good—an easily accessible, extremely reliable comic book equivalent of comfort food.

Now that it’s over and I’ve had a week or so to think about it, I don’t think it was as good as 52, despite having a more consistent narrative point-of-view and stronger interior art on average than 52 did, although it was far, far better than Countdown, which I don’t think I ever managed to read past the sixth issue or so.

I think it’s also quite an accomplishment, and I congratulate the writers and artists involved for getting it out on-time every week for a year, and for never looking rushed in doing so (I think the final issue was the only time any of the artists seemed to be in a hurry, judging by the work itself).

After the jump, I’ll list some of what I liked and some of what I didn’t, starting with the negative so we can end on a positive note.

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I think it’s safe to say that Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely have knocked yet another one out of the proverbial ballpark. That’s not too surprising, since the pair have built up an amazing body of work together; All-Star Superman alone cemented their position as the best writer and artist team in the biz. Hell, if I were to make a list of the top 5 writer/artist duos of all time, Morrison and Quitely would rank somewhere behind Stan Lee/Jack Kirby and Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons.

Isn’t it mind-blowingly awesome when you read a comic book you had high expectations for, and not only does it meet your expectations, but it blows right past them like the Roadrunner tearing ass down the highway, leaving a cloud of dust in Wile E. Coyote’s face? In fact, isn’t that one of the reasons you love to read comic books? I don’t want to oversell the quality of Batman and Robin #1, because it’s not like it’s as important as Fantastic Four #1 or as good as Morrison and Quitely’s own New X-Men #1. But after the crashing disappointment of the awful, unnecessary Battle For the Cowl and the anti-climactic Batman R.I.P., aren’t you excited to get a new, nigh-perfect example of what a Batman comic should be?

Thus, I present to you the top 5 things I loved about Batman and Robin #1. If I thought hard enough about it, I could probably come up with several more, but I have to get ready for work soon and I’m simultaneously watching the Today Show/crushing on Anne Curry as I write this.

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According to artist John Cassaday, the final issue of DC/WildStorm’s popular and much-delayed series Planetary, #27, will finally ship in October. Cassaday told The Comic News Insider podcast the news on their live, 200th podcast, and details have been picked up by Rich Johnston’s new Bleeding Cool site.

The 26th issue of the series hit stores in 2006, and the first volume of the Absolute Edition is long out of print, so it may not be the most accessible series ever to new readers–but a new Absolute Edition is planned to come along eventually collecting the second half of the story, and a special edition of the first issue was recently released as part of DC’s $1 “After Watchmen, What’s Next?” promotion.

My wife regularly watches General Hospital.  Go ahead and crack a joke, but we all know that there’s a pretty marked similarity between the soap-opera viewing/serial-comic buying patterns.  Anyway, she was watching an episode the other night and I caught some dialogue that made my inner (hell, outer) comic fan crack up.  A recently added character was referred to as hailing from “Opal City”.  The reading faithful know that Opal is the home of DC’s Starmen. 

Now, that in itself could be a coincidence, but not on a show where the young brooding billionaire has a butler named Alfred and the local FBI agent happens to be “Agent Rayner”.  Of course, any discussion of these will inevitably lead to the novels of Brad Meltzer, which are shot through with comic in-jokes and character names.

SO . . . my question to you, long-time readers: in other media, what are your favorite comics easter eggs?

My timing on moving to New York couldn’t be better: this week is the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival. I hit MoCCA last year and was overwhelmed with the amount of fabulous indie talent that I’d never heard of. Of course, there were also some recognizable names there, and according to this year’s roster, there will be plenty of cool people this time around as well.

Check out the program and the exhibitor list and order your tickets if you’re in the area–or keep an eye out here for some blogging from the fest.

If you like what you’ve read so far (c’mon, how can you not?) totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

David Carradine, best known for his work in Kung Fu and Kill Bill, was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room today. He was 72.

Initial reports from Fox News state have stated that Carradine was found hanging in his hotel room using cords from the curtains.

According to his agent, Carradine was staying at the hotel since Tuesday, but failed to attend a dinner with the cast and crew on Wednesday. Police reports from around 10 a.m. this morning state that Carradine had been dead for at least 12 hours.

Carradine was a jack-of-all-trades in the Hollywood set, working not just as an Academy Award-nominated actor (as Woody Guthrie in Bound for Glory), but as a writer (Kung Fu: The Legend Continues), composer (Kill Bill: Vol. 2), editor (Americana), voice actor (for the video game Saints Row), and even directed a few episodes of Lizzie McGuire.

For those who don’t know him, here’s a nice little clip from Kill Bill, Vol. 2, in which Carradine played the titular Bill, in which he, perhaps fittingly for this site, discusses comic book dualities:

Yesterday Ultimate Spider-Man #133, the very last issue of the nine-year-old ongoing series, shipped. I don’t think I could have been more disappointed and unhappy with the way it ended if I turned to the last page and Brian Michael Bendis himself somersaulted out of the book, punched me in the stomach, and then magically disappeared with my wallet.

I wasn’t disappointed because the work in the comic itself was sub-par, and this piece isn’t really a review anyway (though it sure is long; if I were you I’d skip it entirely), and I wasn’t all that terribly disappointed that the series had come to an end, although I’ve greatly enjoyed reading it over the last almost-a-decade, and have long considered it one of the best super-comics being produced regularly.

Rather I was disappointed because of the way that it ended, as it seemed antithetical to the way it began and the way it was for most of its long existence, and the available evidence seems to point towards the next incarnation of a Bendis-written Spider-Man with the word “Ultimate” in the title remaining antithetical to the Ultimate Spider-Man that was.

When the book launched in 2000, and the Ultimate line with it, the concept sounded simple enough, even if it was perceived as risky from Marvel’s perspective (and the perspective of plenty of industry watchers).

As good as any Marvel comic book might be, as naturally interested as any potential reader might be in reading a Marvel comic, they’re going to have to contend with decades worth of continuity, spread across thousands and thousands of pages of comics collected in hundreds of trades. Even if the books are made as accessible as possible, and are perfectly new-reader friendly, their age and the perception of impenetrability, of having missed the boat, will keep new readers away.

So instead of ignoring these potential new readers, who are going to have their interest in Marvel comics primed by the Hollywood movies that were then just about to enter their boom period, why not create a whole new line for them? Why not reboot the Marvel Universe, keeping everything about the characters and scenarios that was more or less timeless, but updating them so they were of the 21st rather than the mid-20th century, and applying modern creative sensibilities?

Looking at the numbers available to those of us who don’t work for Marvel, I don’t know how well it worked. Perhaps not as well as Marvel might have hoped (That is, it’s not like one-in-three people who saw the Spider-Man movies bought a subscription to Ultimate Spider-Man or anything). But anecdotally, I know from personal experience it worked. Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men were my gateway comics into the Marvel Universe and the Marvel line, as I know they were for others, and, for a couple years at least, I associated the Ultimate brand-name with good comics I could confidently read without worrying I’d feel like I walked in on the middle of the movie.
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Josh Friedman, producer of the recently-canceled Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, has updated his blog following the end of his series, giving a humorous, scathing, yet altogether educational perspective of life in television and Hollywood:

I had this little scary robot show and for whatever reason couldn’t convince enough people that it was a) scary enough b) robot enough or c) in English. Add that dim sum combo of factors to a red bean paste of non-monetizable early adopters dvring the show like motherf**kers and now I’m unemployed.

Everyone says having your show cancelled is like a death but I’ve been dead before and at least when you’re dead you don’t get thrown off the Warner Bros. lot for haunting your old parking space. They probably mean it’s like the death of a friend or a family member but that shit only hurts when it’s YOUR friend or family member and even then it’s mitigated by age, lifestyle and whether that person was a Hollywood friend or a real one and whether that family member left you money.

There is a ton of swearing in this post, BTW, but if you’re curious to hear his perspective — especially when the writing was on the wall — you should totally check it out. If you want a shorthand perspective on Sarah Connor’s hair-splitting loss to Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, just click here.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Robert Knepper has been cast as the new lead villain in Heroes.

Knepper, best known as “T-Bag” on Prison Break, will play Samuel, a dark but charismatic villain who bounces through the cast’s lives. In the series breakdown, his character was also known as “Carnival Barker.”

Heroes will come back in the fall with an all-new Monday at 8 p.m. time slot.

Michael Madsen, best known for his work in films like Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, and Free Willy, lent an ear to Warner Home Video about his upcoming role as Kilowog in Green Lantern: First Flight. In the interview below, the genre favorite talked about voice acting, sibling rivalry with his sister Virginia, and the true meaning of the word “poozer.” The animated feature is due out July 28, 2009.

QUESTION: What did you see in Kilowog and how did you try to portray those characteristics?

MICHAEL MADSEN: I liked the idea that Kilowog was forceful, yet has a gentle nature. I’m often thought of as playing villainous characters in movies. Everyone forgets that I was the father in Free Willy – they only like to remember that I cut off a policeman’s ear in Reservoir Dogs. There’s me in the middle somewhere and I think that’s kind of like Kilowog, He’s dangerous, yet he has a heart. That’s what attracted me to the part.

Also, I was quite humbled by being asked to play Kilowog in the first place. I don’t often get asked to voice animated characters, and I’ve always wanted to do something like that – it’s great fun for me.

QUESTION: Do you have a real-life human character that you possibly inspired your portrayal of Kilowog?

MICHAEL MADSEN: I guess, perhaps, I thought of my father. My father a very forceful man, a bit of a brute, and stubborn. Yet I remember when my first son was born and my father met me at the airport, and I let him hold the boy. I saw a little tear come down from his eye. It was one of the only times I ever saw him break emotionally – and I knew there was something in there.

QUESTION: Kilowog uses the word “poozer” frequently in describing other individuals in a variety of situations. Can you define that word by Kilowog’s standards?

MICHAEL MADSEN: I’ve heard that it’s closely associated with somewhat of a bungler or a misfit or someone who’s annoying … to put it mildly (laughs).

QUESTION: Was there anything particularly special or enticing about playing Kilowog?

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Lainey Gossip has posted up the first three photos of Josh Brolin as that baddest of the bad ex-Confederate gunslinger, Jonah Hex:

Pretty cool, right? if you click the link above, there are two more images. We’ve already seen some photos of Megan Fox in costume, for this adaptation of the Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray-penned comic. John Malkovich and Will Arnett are also in the film.

Jonah Hex is due out later in 2010.

…That’s right, a brand-new Ghostbusters web site.

With a new video game in the works, as well as some strong hopes to a third film in the making, it’s perhaps no surprise that the Dan Aykroyd-led franchise is getting itself a facelift.

The new site has message boards, photos, as well as resources for the upcoming video game.

Sporadic Sequential has posted some rather sad news regarding Nexus, the sci-fi comic being put out by Steve Rude, a criminally underrated artist if I do say so myself.

With Diamond Comic Distributors rules being tighter than ever, Rude and his company Rude Dude Productions has been hit especially hard, as seen by this e-mail:

Steve is then turning his focus to gallery paintings. Steve is a brilliant artist and we’ve been living hand to mouth for the past 3 years. Losing over $5,000 in the last 2 printings we have been unable to pay our mortgage have have no desire to lose our house.

Steve does plan to continue in comics putting out a book direct to trade every few years and using gallery painting as a means to finance his comic endeavors.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us by ordering commissions or purchasing artwork.

Sporadic Sequential has their own good thoughts on all this, as well as a link to Rude’s online store. It’s always a shame when true talent gets strangled in this economy, but the worst thing we can do it is take it in silence.

Variety has reported that Columbia Pictures has enlisted Kurt Wimmer to write a remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi flick Total Recall.

Wimmer worked on the Angelina Jolie film “Salt,” as well as “Law Abiding Citizen,” with Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. This film, based on Philip K. Dick’s “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,” was a gritty action film that explored the class warfare going on between mutants and well-off humans on the alien landscape of Mars.

Yet, I think Total Recall’s most enduring legacy — besides being only the first of two Total Recalls in which Arnold proved victorious — is that of Kuato, which led this surprisingly hypnotic mashup:

Now discuss.

Ain’t It Cool News’ Pitdoc checked out the Licensing Show in Las Vegas this week, and came back with some nice comic book movie posters, including this one of the Michael Cera action-comedy Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, due out in 2010:

If you click on the above link, you can see that Scott Pilgrim isn’t the only poster they have, however: there are also some teaser posters for Marvel’s lineup of superhero films in 2010 through 2012, such as Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and the Avengers.