io9: chopper zombie

This Week's Comics Are All Choppers And Blogging Hookers

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:00:18 PDT

Even though the entire industry spent the last week sunning themselves (and by "sunning themselves," I mean, "slowly roasting themselves in large windowless rooms talking to nerds like me"), your local comic book store will still find itself with a full selection of brand new books tomorrow as regular as clockwork. But, considering that one of those comics is about a bunch of bloggers saving the world, maybe quality control slipped a little bit...

Actually, it's really a relatively quiet book outside of the major publishers, with Chopper Zombie - which we've previously written about here - the only new indie book of interest coming out. The Chopper in question was on show at San Diego, freaking small children out while simultaneously getting gearheads excited:

If your tastes run towards the less gory and more whimsical, then perhaps you should check out Dark Horse's Robots & Donuts, a collection of fantasy artist Eric Joyner's paintings of toy robots from the early 20th century in unexpected settings. Equally whimsical is Marvel's Skrulls Vs. Power Pack, which brings Marvel's second-favorite family of superheroes face to face with everyone's favorite Secret Invaders.

Skipping over to DC for a moment, they have a couple of big books this week: Justice Society of America Annual has Geoff Johns exploring the multiverse by returning Power Girl to Earth-2 finally, while Keith Giffen explores the afterlife in the first issue of Reign In Hell. Maybe more appropriately for the io9 audience, Wildstorm's new dystopic reality begins in the first issue of the re-re-relaunched Wildcats; no Grant Morrison or Jim Lee this time around, but there is a completely-fucked world for our heroes to deal with.

Image sidesteps any notion of continuity with their second Popgun anthology by an amazing selection of creators including James Kochalka, Dan Hipp and Paul Pope, and it's probably the pick of the week. Nonetheless, Marvel has two more books that I must mention: Fantastic Four: True Story sees Doctor Who writer and io9 favorite Paul Cornell take on Marvel's first-family of superheroes (admit it; you thought I'd leave you hanging on that one), while True Believers may be the ideal io9 comic book: A team of superpowered bloggers on a mission to expose the seedy underbelly of the Marvel Universe in a first issue that features a superpowered all-female fight club watched over by old men dressed up as the Hulk, Spider-Man and other familiar faces? With one of our heroes undercover as a hooker who complains that she won't give a john a "crusty bunker"? Who could resist? It's not perfect, of course - Paul Gulacy draws it, for one thing - but it's the kind of zeitgeist-shagging over-written schlock that we don't see enough of these days, and therefore highly recommended.

By now you know the drill: You can find the whole list of this week's releases here, and look for your local comic book store here. Just ask them for the one about the crusty bunkers.

New Batch Of Zombie Movies Point To An Undead Midlife Crisis

Meredith Woerner — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:46:00 PDT

The latest batch of zombie movie pitches are making me feel like the zombies are having a massive midlife crisis. First they get an expensive motorcycle to feel young again, then they start dumping their retirement funds into long cruises with other zombies, looking for a good time but not wanting to leave the comfort of their cabin (maybe even experimenting with a little zombie swinging, to bring the spark back). At least, two new undead movie pitches, Dead at Sea and Chopper Zombie, combine to tell us one thing: don't be surprised if your zombie comes home with an earring. Click through for details on both movies.

Reality television producer Thom Beers is pitching Chopper Zombie, as a comic and later a movie. The idea is this genius inventor develops a special new kind of fuel. When he won't sell the formula to big brother, they drown him in his own recipe. He of course comes back as a zombie and seeks revenge.

Dead At Sea is a zombie script that has kicked around for years, focusing on what would happen if the undead ran rampant over a cruise liner. It hasn't been picked up yet, but it surely can't be any worse than Ghost Ship. Hopefully the new comic Dead Ahead (which follows the same story line) will inspire this wacky story to be told on screen. Dead Ahead follows two fishermen stranded at sea that can't return to their infected dry land. Unfortunately for them they stumble upon cruise ship jam-packed with zombies. The comic comes out this September, and I expect will be made into a movie by end of Christmas.

[Variety and Shock Till You Drop]

Monster Garage Creator Brings You Zombie Biker

Graeme McMillan — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:20:00 PDT

It's the same old story: Mechanic invents super-fuel, Mechanic refuses to sell super-fuel formula to corporation, Corporation drowns mechanic in super-fuel, Mechanic rises from the dead to take revenge on corporation. How many times have we read that old chestnut? Soon we'll have another chance when Chopper Zombie, a new graphic novel from the creator of Discovery Channel's Monster Garage, hits the stands.

Chopper Zombie springs fully-formed from the brain of Thom Beers, the man responsible for Discovery shows like Deadliest Catch, Verminators and Monster Garage. Well, actually, from the brain of his son:

We've been doing series like Biker Build-Off and Monster Garage because I just love choppers. My son Max, who's ten, loves zombies. He told me that choppers and zombies go together... So, we gotta do it! Choppers and zombies. And wait until you see this chopper. Awesome.

Currently running as an online comic, the completed 144-page graphic novel, to published by Devil's Due, will make its debut at the end of this month at San Diego Comic-Con.

[Chopper Zombie]