The Buzzard and Billy the Kid's Old-Timey Oddities!

I wish I could I could say that I was a reader of Eric Powell's The Goon, but I'm not....I AM, however, a fan of his artwork and especially his mini series Billy the Kid's Old-Timey Oddities, a BIG fan. So imagine my surprise when I heard that not only is there a new Weird West comic coming (actually it came out last week June 9th) called The Buzzard, but also a back-up story featuring the new adventures of Billy the Kid and the Traveling Freakshow he got caught up with.

Very excited is a good way to explain it!

I wish I knew more about The Buzzard, but here's the official word on the series:

The mysterious man known as Buzzard is lost, wondering what manner of creature he is, following his brutal showdown with the loathsome Zombie Priest in Eric Powell's celebrated Goon Year.

Buzzard leaves home, wandering into the shadowy spirit realm of the forest. A dark path leads to a village living in fear of a bestial race of savages. More animal than man, these creatures hunt the villagers and drag them from their slumber in the depth of night



As for Billy The Kid, which Powell did with Co-Creator Kyle Hotz, Comic Book Resource explains the original series like this:

The original "Billy the Kid" series ran for four issues in 2005, with the outlaw having faked his death and joined a traveling carnival. Though none would count him a friend, Billy embarks with this unusual crew on a quest to steal a mystical artifact from the castle of Victor Frankenstein. Things go poorly, on the whole

The new series pics up where the original left off, with Billy and his crew in some obscure part of Europe - "It's actually a nice little creepy story about what happens to them along their way on an errand to help a friend of the Oddities in England" says Powell.

If you get a chance to pick the original you should, its great...The artwork, while deceptively simple and "sloppy" is actually very sophisticated and tight. And the story is fantastic. When I was reading it, I couldn't put it down...and then it was over. Very fun read.

I can't imagine this new one will be any less enjoyable. I'll let you know my thoughts after Ive picked it up.

Jonah Hex returns to animation!

Jonah Hex is building quite a collection of animated appearances. Its no surprise, he's a great character that deserves more exposure then he's gotten in the past.

At the end of July DC Premier is releasing their new animated movie Batman: Under The Red Hood, and as a bonus feature there will be a short film starring none other than Hex himself; for obvious reasons I'm very excited.

Well imagine my surprise when I went to the Newsarama comic site and found that 3 new images have been released from the short! While I'm not surprised by the decidedly dark tone of the images, I was still...a little surprised....and certainly delighted.

Here's what Newsarama has to say about the short:

Scripted by renowned author Joe Lansdale and starring the voices of Thomas Jane (Hung), Linda Hamilton (The Terminator), Michelle Trachtenberg (Mercy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Michael Rooker (Days of Thunder), the DC Showcase short is based on the award winning comic series. The short is rated PG-13.

In the DC Showcase story, the tough-as-nails bounty hunter Jonah Hex always gets his man - until someone else gets to him first - in this case a murderous madam who wants to steal more than just her bounty from Jonah Hex.

Sounds like a great cast! My only wish is that it were feature length. Maybe next time. You can find the images HERE and Batman: Under The Red Hood will be released on July 27, 2010.

The Haunted Old West of Lee Winters

Written by Lon Williams, Lee Winters was a Weird Western pulp character who's stories were published in Real Western Stories pulp magazine between 1951 and 1959. Lee was basically a cowardly deputy marshal, from the town of Forlorn Gap, who was thrown into all sorts of supernatural situations ranging from Ghosts to demons, and Greek gods to the Three Fates. From what I can gather, Lee's only regular co-star int he series was Doc Bogannan, the Saloon Keeper from Forlorn Gap who tries to warn Lee away from making the stupid decisions that get him into trouble in the first place.

He sounds like an interesting character, personally I'd love to see Joe R. Lansdale take a crack at him. But like a lot of pulp characters from the past, his stories tend to be a bit...formulaic? Pulpfan from Live Journal has done a nice article about the formulaic nature of Lee Winter's stories. There are also links to some of the stories.

There isn't a lot about Lee online, he seems to be a pretty obscure character mostly forgotten by everyone except for those who seek him out. But I was able to dig around and find a page of his stories HERE which, paired with the links from Pulpfan's site, should give you quite a bit a Lee Winters Weird West goodness to read this weekend.

More New Jonah Hex character posters and Trailer!

Ive been trying to keep up on the Jonah news of late and one of the things Ive noticed is that, despite the movie not looking all that great they are putting a LOT of work behind the promotional material.

Last week, 4 new character posters were released and they look top notch

And just this morning a newer, better film trailer was released. Im starting to warm up to the idea of this Jonah Hex not being the character from the comics and trying to let the movie speak for itself. Of course that isnt going to excuse a bad script....but we'll see about that.

Until then check out the new trailer, I think its a bit better....What do you think?

Jonah Hex at IGN.com

That cool Cowboys and Aliens pic, Actor revealed!

So I gotta say, I like this picture a lot. Like all good cowboy pictures should, it has great silhouette. The picture was released last week by Jon Favreau on his Twitter. Its a picture of one of the actors in the movie and at the time, Favreau was very hush hush as to the actors identity (not wanting to reveal such big news on Twitter). Personally I thought it was Sam Rockwell, since it looks a little thin and not beefy (ie Manly) enough to be Harrison Ford. Well it turns out that its Daniel Craig! It looks great....I just hope his costume design gets more interesting as they progress.

Also, speaking of Harrison Ford, I still can't believe how cool it is that hes in this. From an official synopsis that released last week, it sounds like he is going to be, if not a villain, at least an antagonist. An antagonist who has to team up with Daniel Craig and Co to fight a common enemy.....as long as he has a substantial part and doesn't die in the first five minutes I'm on board!

Who am I fooling, I'm on-board anyway...I cant wait to see what they do, its starting to look better all the time!

Heres the Official Synopsis that was released last week:

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It’s a town that lives in fear.

But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.

Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents—townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors—all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

Yowza it sounds like fun! :Fingers crossed:

New Jonah Hex Poster and Trailer!!

I was going to wait and post about the new Jonah Hex trailer tomorrow, but with the poster coming out earlier this week I figured what the hell I'll just combine them and do one big super post of awesomeness! Except, and I hate to say it, I'm a little disappointed with the trailer. Its not really the trailer's fault though, I just had my expectations too high....

Being a huge fan of Jonah Hex in the comics I'm obviously coming from a different place than people who might not know him very well, or at all. Not unlike Constantine, Jonah Hex looks like its for the people who don't know who the character is. I know that the point of some movies is too make a fun exciting experience...and since this is a summer film they've added the bang bang and the boom boom and the Victorian super gadgets. People who have seen it have described it as The Outlaw Josey Wales meets The Wild Wild West....That doesn't bother me, in fact that is one of the things that makes me want to see this. I'm a fan of Wild Wild West, even though I have no illusions that its a good movie, (Its definitely better than some other Weird Westerns out there).....Of course Van Helsing looked good too...and then I saw that and....yikes...

Josh Brolin looks great, my only complaint is I wish he had a contact lens or something in his ruined eye....but I love his line delivery and he seems like he might be fun too watch as Jonah. Megan Fox looks serviceabley hot, as usual, although she might want to tone down the "Hot girl" roles if she wants to be taken as a serious actress (like she seems to want)

There's a giant metal ship with a cannon device (or is it the USS Monitor?) and some dynamite flinging crossbows that could be interesting (That's actually a pretty dang good idea). We'll see, I'm definitely going to go see it, I might even start getting excited as I process the fact that its not the comic, but its own version of Jonah. I DO like that it has supernatural elements.

As for the Poster, I LOVE it! I think the image looks good, well lit, its exciting...I like that they've obscured Jonah's scar (but still kept a hint of it). He's using that Dynamite crossbow AND a Gatling gun....also, there is some good character shots, bottom line, its a well put together poster. You can click on the picture above for a better look.

Anyway, the time has arrived to make your own judgments on the new Trailer, don't let your expectations get too high and you wont be let down....eh, who knows, this may be one of my favorite films this year!

Jonah Hex Motion Comics!

This could turn into Jonah Hex week, with the debut of the trailer tomorrow (Which Ill post on Friday), the new Poster revealed (Which Ill blog about tomorrow), and today's post, a brand new Jonah Hex Motion Comic, it seems like full Jonah goodness all around.

I know I'm in the minority, but I LOVE the DC/Vertigo comics version of Jonah Hex. They were a gritty, nasty, mature version of the character. Also they introduced me to Joe R. Lansdale and Tim Truman, AND of course (Although at the time, I didn't make the distinction) they were a Weird West version of the character...a genre which I think he really works in (another minority view I'm sure)

The first one, Two Gun Mojo, is the best and had a truly shocking moment of horror at the end.....The second Riders of the Worm and Such started off great and also had a couple moments of brutality that shocked me the first time I read it, but then sort of devolved into silliness.....and the third Shadows West, (I hate to say) kinda sucked and felt rushed and uninspired.......

They get less good with each mini unfortunately, BUT, Warner Premiere Digital has just announced the release of a new 7 part Jonah Hex Motion Comic based on the first one Two Gun Mojo, and two short stories from his original series, The Gunfighter and The Hangin' Woman.

And the best part about these, the first episode is out TODAY! The idea is that they will be released weekly up too the premier of the new film.

The official word from the Newsarama comic book site is this:

Jonah Hex Motion Comics will debut Wednesday, April 28th on iTunes, Amazon Video on Demand, Xbox Live / Zune Market Place and the PlayStation Network for 99 cents per episode or $5.99 for a season pass.

There's a lot of good Jonah stuff coming up in the next few months including an original graphic novel and a Warner Brothers animated short, so anyone unfamiliar with the character has plenty to choose from to acquaint themselves with...

...Starting with Two Gun Mojo, available today. I'm about to buy it, and maybe Ill even do a review....although I'm terribly bad at those things...so here's the official trailer for now: