The year is 2020 and it’s hell on Earth. Ching Dai has declared himself ruler of all. Jack Burton is alone in a tiny corner of Florida with only his broken radio to talk to, until one day it picks up a message. Someone is out there.
After thirty years a sequel to Big Trouble in Little China sounds like a pretty good thing to John Carpenter and Kurt Russell fans. That sequel is coming your way later this year, not as a movie, but as part of BOOM! Studios ongoing comic book chronicles of Jack Burton and the Pork-Chop Express. This good news is Big Trouble in Little China director John Carpenter is penning the story himself, along with comic book writer Anthony Burch and artist Jorge Corona.
Taking a tip from the Marvel Comics playbook and its Old Man Logan stories of an elder Wolverine, the Big Trouble sequel series will feature the end-of-the-line story of Kurt Russell’s truck driver. Titled Old Man Jack, the series is practically begging for every publisher to begin featuring the older side of its heroes. This story is also timely in that we have just seen a good look at grey-haired Kurt Russell as Starlord’s father in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Even though Russell is not in this new story, we know exactly what “Old Man” Jack Burton looks like.
The series will include at least four covers, a standard cover featuring Jack in Florida by artist Stephane Roux, a variant featuring Lo-Pan by Sam Bosma, a retro action figure variant by Michael Adams and Marco D’Alfonso, and other variants by artists Will Robson and Paul Pope.
We thought we’d share some of the best exclusives and other offerings scheduled to be available at San Diego Comic-Con International this weekend for those of you who just can’t decide what to spend your money on. There’s too much to be able to see everything at the big Con, so we’ve listed booth numbers so you can make sure you don’t miss out on those toys, posters, and comic books that you simply must have.
But first, how about some early SDCC reveals, like this image of Roy Harper’s new Arsenal costume from CW’s Arrow:
and this great new SDCC 2014 exclusive poster for the final installment of The Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies:
And what’s better than news of a new comic book series tie-in from IDW Publishing for Orphan Black?
Now on to the exclusives:
From the Weta Workshop (Booth #3613) you can get this Smaug scales T-shirt inspired by The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies:
and a pre-release copy of the new book The Art of Film Magic, signed edition:
From Alex Ross Art (Booth #2419) pick up original comic book art or limited prints, or this great 10-print edition portfolio of some of Alex Ross’s Marvel Comics work:
BOOM! Studios (Booth #2229) will be selling several exclusive cover variant comic books, including RoboCop #1:
One independent comic book publisher drew our attention this week more than the others. BOOM! Comics has two new comic issues out tomorrow for sequel stories to classic films–Big Trouble in Little China and RoboCop–and it made an announcement about a new series coming our way based on the television show Sleepy Hollow. We’ve got previews of Big Trouble and RoboCop after the break and first images from Sleepy Hollow.
John Carpenter and BOOM! Comics’ Big Trouble in Little China monthly is so much fun you’ve got to be adding it to your pull list at your local comic book store. Following the adventures of Jack Burton after the events of the original 1980s film, it’s a sequel that might as well be titled “The Sequel” with the same spirit, humor, and visuals as the original. Big Trouble is co-written by the great John Carpenter with Eric Powell and art by Brian Churilla of (the awesome) The Secret History of D.B. Cooper fame.
The other sequel-that-might-as-well-just-be-called-a-sequel is BOOM!’s new RoboCop series. Written by Joshua Williamson with art by Carlos Magno, the new series is far different from other recent RoboCop monthlies including Frank Miller’s version, and will be a welcome relief for fans of the classic movie who couldn’t or wouldn’t check out the reboot. That means look for plenty of the ugliest view of Detroit you’ve ever seen, lots of violence, crime, and over-the-top bullets flying. Too bad all the big baddies were killed in the original movie as they’d feel right at home here.
In his very best storytelling in the world of Mouse Guard so far, David Petersen takes us through his unique style of beautiful words and illustration on an epic adventure in Mouse Guard: The Black Axe, as noble mouse Celanawe (pronounced khel-en-awe) searches for a legendary symbol and talisman. That’s saying a lot considering this third hardcover edition of Mouse Guard continues Petersen’s already brilliant 2008 Eisner Award-winning Mouse Guard : Fall 1152 and Mouse Guard: Winter 1152.
Despite his great earlier work this new legendary tale manages to convey even more emotion, more fear, empathy, and excitement for these little warriors in their elaborate world within our own world. Taking place years earlier than the past tales in 1115, three unlikely individuals are brought together as a reluctant Celanawe learns about a destiny shared by himself and another mouse, the older and wiser matriarch Em, shared relative of an ancient bloodline, whom Celanawe is directed to protect by his own matriarch, Bronwyn.
Two weekends ago, I helped my good friend Rick move to Oakland. Yes, I was sweaty. Yes, I ached. But, it was good sweat and good aches because I knew I was helping a friend. Plus, I got to drive a truck, a big ol’ moving truck doing 70 down the highway in a bouncy seat. The other bonus is that I got to listen to four hours of The Thrilling Adventure Hour as I drove over the Grapevine pass and out into the vast farmland of the Central Valley. The air conditioning was on “arctic” as Rick described it when he stepped into the cab to talk at one point, and it was just me and Frank and Sadie Doyle, Sparks Nevada and Croach the Tracker, Gummy and Banjo Bindlestuff, Amelia Earhart fighting dirty krauts and Captain Laserbeam and the Adventurekateers. I couldn’t have asked for a better drive. (Plus, Rick treated me to In N’ Out which is such a delicious meal after a bit of the lift and sweat, if you know what I mean. Oh heck, moving is what I mean.)
This morning, another good friend, C.J., sent me a link to a preview of Thrilling Adventure Hour graphic novel from Archaia/BOOM! Studios, available in comic book stores today. I jumped at the chance to read it and compare it to my time shared with the show on the road and at Largo at the Coronet.
The first two things I encountered were the prefaces by Patton Oswalt and Ed Brubaker, two more artists that I enjoy immensely. In Brubaker’s writing, he mentioned all of the distractions that are in the city of Los Angeles and how this show based on old-time radio scripts sells out every week. It got me to thinking of all the glorious things that can distract on a monthly or weekly basis here that interest me. There’s Harmontown at Meltdown on a weekly basis. There are movies at the Arclight. There are shows at the UCB, including the Dead Authors hosted by H.G. Wells (Paul F. Tompkins, aka Frank Doyle). There are concerts all over the place. There are hikes into the mountains and walks along the beach. There are bike rides in Griffith Park. There’s improv shows at the IO West. There’s golf at the Los Feliz Par 3 and Penmar Golf Course. There’s baseball at Dodger Stadium, Angels Stadium and many more Single-A stadiums in the California League South. There are restaurants to try, board games to play, bars to have a whiskey or beer and books and graphic novels to read. I may have only seen the Thrilling Adventure Hour live twice, but I have to give others a chance, don’t I? I have to explore all that this great town has to offer.
If you happened to watch this week’s episode of TNT’s hit TV series Leverage, you’ll have seen one of the best constructed episodes of the series so far. The “Brains” Nathan Ford, played by Timothy Hutton, brings his team to track down his father, who broke into the federal patent and trademark office. Soon we learn everyone has been set up, and a small town’s worth of SWAT and local law enforcement surround the building. In strategizing the Leverage team’s way out, “Hitter” Eliot, played by Christian Kane, poses as a police officer to communicate with a cop outside the building–a cop played by Michael Paré (The Philadelphia Experiment, Greatest American Hero, Eddie and the Cruisers) already getting brow beaten by the local head of Homeland Security who has taken over the investigation of the break-in. As with most episodes of Leverage we get an ample dose of great pop culture references (“Hacker” Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge) sports a tie and mimics Doctor Who saying “bow ties are cool”). Here Eliot maintains all his dialogue in the voice and drawl of Die Hard’s John McClane, just as Bruce Willis did, in order to get through his walk of the gauntlet in the original Die Hard movie. Die Hard interest is alive and well, after four movies in the franchise since 1988.
This winter Twentieth Century Fox announced that Bruce Willis will be returning as John McClane in 2013 with the fifth film in the franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard. Fox indicated Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Captain Picard) as a possible villain, to play a disgraced Russian general plotting to assassinate the visiting president. John Moore is scheduled to direct a script by Skip Woods (X-Men Legends: Wolverine, The A-Team). Bruce Willis has stated he wants to bring back Bonnie Bedelia as his wife from the first two films. Shooting is scheduled to begin this month in Budapest, Hungary.
A Good Day to Die Hard is to follow John McClane as he goes to Moscow to convince the government of Russia to let his son John McClane, Jr. out of prison. Somehow his son gets caught up in a global terrorist plot, and the inevitable McClane getting-in-over-his-head story will emerge. It sounds like the story is in initial stages, but since the first and third movies were pretty good, maybe the curse of the even-numbered movie sequels here will get us back to the Willis we love to watch. Casting for McClane Junior has included auditions by D.J. Cotrona, who will play Flint opposite Willis in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and Liam Hemsworth (Hunger Games).
But while we’re waiting until the scheduled release date of Valentine’s Day 2013, you can get a good dose of John McClane in comic legend Howard Chaykin’s graphic novel Die Hard: Year One. Here was BOOM! Comics’s blurb for the comic series spanning eight issues through April 2010:
BOOM! Studios is proud to present America’s greatest action hero translated into the sequential art form for the first time! Every great action hero got started somewhere: Batman Began. Bond had his Casino Royale. And for John McClane, more than a decade before the first DIE HARD movie, he’s just another rookie cop, an East Coast guy working on earning his badge in New York City during 1976′s Bicentennial celebration. Too bad for John McClane, nothing’s ever that easy. Join legendary industry creator Howard Chaykin on a thrill ride that’s rung up over $1 billion in box office worldwide and become the gold standard for classic action! Yippee Ki Yay!
Hype aside, as with nearly everything Howard Chaykin touches, Die Hard: Year One is pure gold. Twelve years before the Nakatomi building siege in Die Hard, Willis is a beat cop in Manhattan. He is working with a loud-mouthed training officer that might as well be played by Dennis Franz. The art by Stephen Thompson is well done, and McClane is drawn to resemble a young Bruce Willis, enough that you never doubt it with McClane’s trademark dialogue style.
In Volume 1, it is the Fourth of July, 1976. Writer Chaykin describes New York of 1976 almost as if he is there right now. But he does not sugar coat NYC of 1976. He describes an ugly place with ugly people, locals trying to rip off every tourist–locals trying to one up each other every chance they get. Here, a new immigrant to the Big Apple from Indiana witnesses two cops killing another man, they spot her and chase her down. McClane happens to get a detail as security on one of the tall boats in the bay, readying for the fireworks celebration, babysitting the wife of the third richest man in the world. All hell breaks loose as an odd jumble of locals, including the two bad cops, led by a local hippy terrorist, try to blow up the rich man’s yacht and escape in a mini-sub with all the money onboard. Plain clothes McClane hides below decks with the girl from Indiana, and McClane’s first big problem as police officer is underway.
Chaykin clearly knows the people of the 1970s and the streets of New York. His descriptions feel real and his storytelling is superb. We quickly get to know McClane, someone we already think we know, and the setting helps illustrate the put-upon cop we will later see on the big screen. I remember the look and feel of July 4, 1976, vividly, and Thompson here captures the sites, fashions, and images incredibly well.
, as noble mouse Celanawe (pronounced khel-en-awe) searches for a legendary symbol and talisman. That’s saying a lot considering this third hardcover edition of Mouse Guard continues Petersen’s already brilliant 2008 Eisner Award-winning 
and 
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is pure gold. Twelve years before the Nakatomi building siege in Die Hard, Willis is a beat cop in Manhattan. He is working with a loud-mouthed training officer that might as well be played by Dennis Franz. The art by Stephen Thompson is well done, and McClane is drawn to resemble a young Bruce Willis, enough that you never doubt it with McClane’s trademark dialogue style.
comprises Issues #4-8.
