The Goon is well known for fighting all sorts of ghastly creatures – zombies, hags, giant squid – but one enemy has finally stopped him in his tracks. Sparkly vampires.

Now being sold at Hot Topic, Eric Powell’s beloved character from Dark Horse has made the jump to apparel in this limited edition t-shirt. Part of their “Dark Horse does vampires right!” campaign, something tells me Goon’s shock won’t last long and he’ll put those Twilight vampires to work.

I have no doubt who’d win that fight but can The Goon beat the Twilight vamps at the box office? The TBA release is completely computer animated with the voices of Clancy Brown as The Goon and Paul Giamatti as Franky. Powell is writing the script, David Fincher is producing and  Jeff Fowler and Tim Miller will direct.

Okay, technically, it’s 11 days in so I apologize for my tardiness.  You might recall Neill Cameron’s Santa Sketch Fest for last year, and believe me, there were some pretty funny/disturbing stuff going on. Though yesterday’s post put my Christmas mood into overdrive.

Kirby Santa, requested by Chris Sims.

Mr. Cameron has been taking requests this year as he did last year, but to qualify for something like this you have to buy one of his comics (which you can do here). If your request goes up, you get the comic as well as the original art of your suggestion. Sounds like a win-win.

I think that there is no reason why a Kirby-esque Santa shouldn’t have his own limited series. You can follow Neill on his blog and watch the Santas march on.

Tis the season.

Over on Ron Marz’s blog, he mentions that he usually gives to Toys For Tots every year. This year, he’s doing something a bit different. He is selling copies of Top Cow’s latest hit, Artifacts #1, signing, and if you want personalized, and every cent will go to Toys For Tots. Each issue with be $13: $10 for the comic and $3 for shipping. If you want more copies, the price of the comic stays the same, but the shipping goes up $1, ie, 1 is $13, 2 is $24, 3 is $35 and so forth.

Marz gave a few words to Blog@ about his feelings towards charities such as these and why he’s doing something like this. “I feel very fortunate to be able to do what I do for a living. So this is a way I can take what I do and benefit others in some small way, thanks to the generosity of the fans. I think the vast majority of comics fans are a giving, loyal bunch. This is just more proof of that. The response has been great thus far, so I hope it keeps up and we can put toys in the hands of as many kids as possible.”

Marz also mentions that the easiest way to pay is through paypal, which can be paid at: kmarz@nycap.rr.com.

Well, now you have the chance to help.

It wouldn’t be the first time that one of best-selling author and contemporary legend Neil Gaiman’s stories have been turned into a movie. Both “Coraline” and “Mirror Mask” were critically-praised, the former even garnered and Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. However, both of those had big studio backing, independent film-maker Christopher Salmon has a different idea. Utlizing the popular site, Kickstarter, Salmon has pitched the idea to make one of Gaiman’s short stories, “The Price”, into an animated short.

Newsarama recently spoke with Salmon about his artistic talents, the animation process of the short, and what it was like to recieve Neil’s approval.

Newsarama: Okay, Christopher, tell us a bit about yourself

Christopher Salmon: Where to start? I’m Canadian & grew up in the stunning Okanagan valley in BC.. I’ve always wanted to make movies an spent my youth and, well, pretty much my whole life trying to develop the talents and skill set to do just that taught myself to draw, write, and sculpt (so I could make rubber monster masks and then foam-latex creatures & stop-motion puppets) Took enough piano so I could generate a simplistic John Carpenter-esque score to go along with my cheesy horror films I made in High School TV class, which usually plotted around some cool new special effect I’d figured out, like my own version of the chest-burster scene from Alien so, totally high-class stuff

I thought I might get my break into film through special effects make-up, but I wound up in the video game industry for many years, just from reading stuff (Fangoria, Cinefex) and trying things out. I blew my chest off once trying out a home-made squib (not so funny) my Mom took one look at the blackened mess on my chest and ordered me to surrender my can of re-filling gunpowder on the spot not too bright either … (me, not my Mom — she rocks)

Nrama: So big horror fan, I take it?

Salmon: I love monsters, so yeah, I’ve watched a lot of horror flicks, but the whole blood/torture/dark-evil thing isn’t what draws me … I just dig the monsters, you know?

But I love Sci-Fi, fantasy, anything really mostly, I love movies. That’s what I love about this story of Neil’s; even with the cool monster stuff, the overall feeling is hopeful, positive, and a little melancholy.

Nrama: Out of all of Gaiman’s stories, what drew you to the Price that made you want to make something like this?

Salmon: The theme of redemption. A chance to design some really cool monsters. I like cats too, so really it was win-win-win! Also, I was looking for something on a small scale that I could handle the bulk of the work for. In the animatic, I didn’t feature any of the secondary characters at all (you could see their feet or profile in shadow) … by being able to keep the focus on the Narrator/Neil, The Black Cat, and the monsters, I could manage costs and put the funds towards these central characters. So it was all of these things, but primarily the theme & feeling I got while reading The Price.

Plus, if I can see it immediately in my mind, I know my chances of recreating successfully are very high and once it’s in there, the only way to ever get it out … is to make the film!

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Tubular senses tingling!

Artist Dean Fraser, most notably known for his blog of characters drawn in Simpsons style (Springfield Punx) has something cool cooking up. While not his own creation, the idea was too good not to talk about. “A young artist named Gerardo recently sent me a neat drawing of his (The American Turtle) based on a story that he and a friend are working on,” Dean explains. “They call it “Marvel Mirage”; a mash-up of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Marvel characters.” He continues with, “[Gerardo] gave me descriptions of the other characters and asked me if I would do up some SP style images for them. I don’t always do this, but I remembered the fun I had at 14 with this kind of thing, so I was more than happy to play around with it myself and throw something together.”

Okay, now who didn’t do something like this growing up. Especially like me, a progeny of the early 80′s. From left to right we have the Iron Turtle (makes sense since Donatello was the brains of the operation), the American Turtle (Leo was always the leader), Shellowine (Raph was the hothead and sometimes the jerk), and Shellpool (perfect fit with Mike being the wisecrack). A better and bigger image of the brothers can be found here.

Though the mash-up doesn’t stop there. Dean posted a follow-up with another creation: Shredneto, and yes, that is exactly who you think it is.

So, I can’t help but wonder who Splinter or April or even Kang could be paired and mixed with. Though if Baxter Stockman would be paired with the Lizard, you could have “Dragonfly”.

See what I did there?

Be sure to also check out Dean’s blog for tons of cool Simponsque art.

Over on Ron Salas’ (Popgun, Mice Templar) twitter, he had posted a really interesting Daredevil piece. The fact that it’s a square (6 x 6 no less) makes it all the more interesting, I don’t know that many individuals who do those sort of things, but they are out there. Similar to Chris Samnee, who is known for using negative space in his artwork, Salas here has shown ole Hornhead deflecting shurikens left and right, with his patented radar going off.

If you’re not familiar with Salas’ stuff, you better get on it. In addition to this fine piece, he also has done one of my favorite Westley Dodds sketches ever. Head on over to his blog to see more.

In the 1950’s, French film critics like Andre Bazin and Francois Truffaut came up with an idea called the “auteur theory” of film. Auteur theory basically says that film, an undeniably collaborative medium, should be evaluated and analyzed in terms of strong individual creators or “auteurs”. Anyone whose creative presence is so strong it dominates the making of a film can be an auteur. Auteur theory is important because it helped legitimize film criticism. At the same time, even the theory’s strongest proponents knew it was kind of a hustle. No movie is really the product of just one person, no matter how talented they are. Auteur Theory was a means to an end, an extremely helpful fallacy. The theory took hold and crossed over into mainstream criticism where it thrived because it indulged a very popular idea: The idea that nothing of artistic worth can ever be created by committee, and that only focused, singular visionaries can produce good art.

So, what does all this have to do with comics? Comics are now deep in an era where the concept of the celebrity creator has entrenched the idea of auteurism very deeply into the medium. Characters that were once infinitely bigger than any one writer or artist often find their popularity (and sales) dependent on the comings and goings of hyped talent. (more…)

If they ever assembled a Justice League: North Pole, the founding members would be pretty obvious. There’s Rudolph and Charlie Brown, Ebenezer scrooge, and Frosty would be on the roster, the Grinch… but the superpower of warm fuzzy holiday sentiment isn’t limited to just the big guns. There’s a whole universe of audiovisual Christmas cheer out there waiting to be found. Pick your favorite TV show or cartoon, and there’s probably a very special Christmas episode for you to enjoy. Even Pac-Man had a Christmas special for crying out loud. The Grinch and Frosty will always be at the top of the holiday heap, but there are still a lot of lesser known Christmas specials that have more to offer than simple kitsch value. Consider these suggestions as a sort of JLA North Pole reserve. The Captain Marvel to Rudolph’s Superman, the Guy Gardner to Charlie Brown’s green lantern. (more…)

Three great, A-list actors with nerd street cred are all celebrating birthdays today. So let’s all join in and wish happy birthdays to:

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