Comics of 2008

I have posted my thoughts on the best and worst comics of 2008 on the AvengersAssemble! board:

http://vplexico.proboards60.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=jarvis08&thread=2245

25 Favorite Movies

I haven't done this in a while, so here we go:

Van's Top 25 Movies - Updated December 2008

1. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
2. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
3. Star Wars
4. Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World
5. Iron Man
6. Casablanca
7. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
8. The 13th Warrior
9. Serenity
10. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
11. V for Vendetta
12. Babe
13. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
14. The Crow
15. Die Hard
16. Gladiator
17. Dead Again
18. Ocean's 11 (2001)
19. Payback
20. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
21. LA Confidential
22. Return of the Jedi
23. The Empire Strikes Back
24. Henry V
25. Highlander

Recently pushed off Top 25 List:

Pulp Fiction
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Chocolat
X-Men 2
Goodfellas
Captain Blood

Secret New Project Coming...! (3 of 3)

Aaaaaannnnd finally-- picture #3.

Who is Raven?? What's this all about??

More to come...

Secret New Project Coming...! (2 of 3)

Another mystery figure... novels coming in 2009...!

Secret New Project Coming...! (1 of 3)

Who is this??

More coming tomorrow...

Kull and Solomon Kane

As much as I like the character of Solomon Kane-- the Puritan crusader who wanders the Earth, rapier and pistol at the ready -- better than any of R E Howard's other creations, I haven't enjoyed the Dark Horse comic as much as I'd hoped. It's seemed a bit muddled to me, and the pacing has been off. The art is close enough to what I'd want for the property, but it's not always clear enough as to what's going on.

Meanwhile, I've never cared much at all about Kull, the barbarian who stole a kingdom (and who mainly served as an early template for Conan's later career)...

But I picked up KULL #1 this week and found I really enjoyed it. It's a lot more in the style of what I expected the new/relaunched Howard properties from DH to be like. The writing is crisp and fast-paced and the art is perfectly suited to the character and the world.

If you like the classic Howard properties, give this one a try. Meanwhile, I hope SOLOMON KANE improves soon.

SENTINELS: ALTERNATE VISIONS

Here's a thumbnail of the preliminary cover for SENTINELS: ALTERNATE VISIONS.

The cover art is by Danny Wall (who was book designer for ASSEMBLED!), doing a riff (at my request) off of Don Heck's classic Avengers #45 cover.

This will be a regular-sized trade paperback that will contain all the short stories that have previously only appeared in the big Widescreen hardcover... plus two new Sentinels-related stories by Adrian Watts and David Wright... and two new Sentinels stories by me (Van) that bridge the gap between Sentinels volumes three and four.

That means you get stories by Ian Watson, Ron Fortier, Bobby Nash, Wayne Skiver, and more-- plus some of the great artwork that also appeared in the hardcover.

This book is tentatively scheduled for early 2009! More info as it becomes available, posted here and at the Sentinels site: http://www.whiterocketbooks.com/sentinels