Kickstarter for The Chair Film Announced

COMICS-INDUSTRY-NEWS
Release from Peter Simeti via Alterna Comics:
So the day has finally come.
The kickstarter for THE CHAIR film is underway!
We’ve raised over $1K in the first 14 hours but we still have a LONG way to go. $299,000 worth of a long way!
So if you can help in any way, please please do so.
If you can contribute – then AWESOME!
If you can share it on facebook/twitter/etc. – GREAT!

Everything helps and everything is appreciated 🙂

We’ve assembled an amazing cast and crew and now we need your help to bring this film to life.

Brian Thompson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Bill Oberst Jr. (Children of Sorrow)
Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight)
Naomi Grossman (American Horror Story: Asylum)
Zach Galligan (Gremlins)
Noah Hathaway (Neverending Story)
Ezra Buzzington (The Hills Have Eyes)
Susan Eisenberg (Justice League animated series)
Kin Shriner (General Hospital)
Derrick Damions (One Life to Live)
Tim Muskatell (Someone’s Knocking at the Door)
Jacob Banser (Dig a Hole and Die)
Kyle Hester (The Book of Daniel)
Travis Love (The Walking Dead)
Tomas Boykin (Lazarus Rising)

Director Chad Ferrin (Someone’s Knocking at the Door)
Stunt Coordinator Paul Lacovara (Avengers, Thor, Godzilla)
Production Designer Tim Eckel (CSI, Hellraiser 3)
Production Supervisor Jill Maxcy (American Horror Story)
Gaffer David DeFino (Someone’s Knocking at the Door)
Hair Stylist Lisa Meyers (Without a Trace, Freaks & Geeks)
Key Grip Anthony Ragonese (Desperate Housewives)
Composer Charles Bernstein (Nightmare on Elm Street)
are among the notables on the production team.

thanks everyone!

Peter Simeti

Writer/Creator of THE CHAIR
www.paintedheroes.com / Facebook / Twitter
www.alternacomics.com / Facebook / Twitter

Review: The Golem #1 – Goldstein and Timpano

Review: The Golem #1One of the things that has amazed me in the months that The Comics Herald has been running, is the level of quality in independent and smaller company comics. My colleague Sean reviewed Hoodlum #1 from Hilary Goldstein back in March, and he’s back with a very different title this time. The Golem #1 is also from Alterna Comics and is a 4-part mini-series launching tomorrow on Comixology.

The story is set in a future Paris and centres around a mother (Danya Ben-El’azar) and her son Jonah. The mother just happens to be a highly trained former covert military type, and her young son works alongside her to form the team know as The Golem. Danya’s a good-hearted vigilante who’s willing to shed some blood where needed, and once her back-story is revealed you can see why she’s in that position.

The back-story itself is efficiently told and holds interest throughout. The overall story arc is interesting and I’m definitely keen to see what happens after the first issue’s cliffhanger. The backdrop of Paris is also well written in and provides some great ambience to the story, plus it’s great to see a story like this set outside of the United States or a fictional city. The dialogue is crisp and moves the story along nicely. I’m actually caring about Danya and her son and I like that their lives are painted starkly, reflecting the ambiguous situation they are in.

Art-wise, I love Giovanni Timpano’s work here – it’s a perfect fit for the story and he does a brilliant job of defining key locations with colour (the purples for the safety of home being the more obvious one). It’s just plain nice to look at throughout and Garry Brown’s cover is worth hanging on a wall.

The Golem is off to a cracking start and I’m hanging out for #2 before #1 even hits Comixology. I also regret I was unaware of the Kickstarter campaign that got this book made – I would have more than happily kicked in for a TPB of this. So do check it out on Comixology tomorrow – it’s a very engaging read indeed.

Review: Wolves of Summer #1 – Tony Keaton & Andrew Herbst

Wolves of Summer #1When I was a kid I always imagined being a soldier. Many times I’d live out exciting Star Wars fantasies as I fought in my own imaginary battles in a galaxy far, far away. Now being older and wiser I know that war isn’t being a hero and getting the girl – it’s a much more dark and dangerous event.

But what if you were a child, what if you did get thrown into a war that you did not fully understand? Wolves of Summer, a new mini series courtesy of Tony Keaton and Andrew Herbst, deals with this idea of children and war, It follows John, the sole survivor of his “Werwolf” squadron of Hitler Youth and the first issue sets up a strong introduction, as we begin to find out what really happened that last summer in World War II.

Issue #1 follows John as he tries to live his adult life, haunted by the events that occured during the war. John is depressed, and following a failed attempt at suicide, wants to simply die. The action often flashes back to the events during the war, as the group of boys escapes into the forest following the death of their commanding officer Heinrich Aust. These are children who have little grasp of the events beyond the knowledge that their commander is dead, and Keaton manages to show that.

Aside from a few child-like interactions between the boys that feel somewhat clunky, Keaton has a firm grasp on how little the boys know of what is actually happening, hanging onto the words of the propoganda of their losing side. They treat this escape into the forest as little more than a camping trip, with the boys laughing and joking as they set up camp and traps as the Allied forces move onto their position. It’s effective dialouge, as this naïveté only further heightens the sadness of the impending annihilation of many members of the squad.

Herbst’s art also serves the story excellently. While at times the faces appear to lack detail to truly be expressive, he manages to slip in visual cues that add layers of depth to John’s story. Repeated motifs of wolves and panel layouts give the sense that John has done this all before, drawing parallels between his dark life now, and the life he had in the Hitler Youth. There is also a brilliant page where Josef Goebbels addresses the Werewolf, only to turn into one himself as he belts out propaganda to his men, giving him a more fantastical feel. The boys view Goebbel and the Reich as more than men, playing up the notion that these boys are in above their heads and don’t fully know who or what they are fighting for.

Wolves of Summer #1 is a fantastic first issue for tale of the doomed Werewolf squadron. With its intelligent visual storytelling, and  grasp of child-like naïveté, I cannot wait to see what is going to happen next.

 Score: 8.5/10

Review: Myth #1 – Loniewski / Lauer / Dollman

myth-issue1I love a good win-win situation. The comics industry has a long history of releasing issues to raise money for good causes- sometimes the quality of those comics can suffer due to the subject content, but a lot of people buy them anyway to help out. Then there are the comics that address the issue of concern whilst also maintaining great quality and standing on its merits as a comic book. Issue 1 of Myth is such a comic.

Published by Alterna Comics, Myth is an engaging tale of a small boy living in a badly run children’s home, who regularly goes AWOL and on one such escape comes across a silent giant who helps him out of a difficult situation. From there, the real adventure begins.

Written by Mike Loniewski, with Dan Lauer on art duties and lettering by E.T. Dollman, this is a simple but absorbing story. Lauer does some great work in black and white here and the story and art, although not stylistically similar, screamed the innocence and expansiveness of Bone. It subtly looks at issues of child neglect without bogging the story down in turgid introspection from its lead character. This is a quest story pure and simple, and it’s delivered extremely well.

All proceeds (the comic is initially free as a preview) from the comic go toward Childhelp.org, with whom the creators have partnered. It’s a 3-issue mini-series, with issues 2 and 3 slated for May and July. The comic has a Twitter account if you want to keep up on progress.

Here’s a teaser video of what you get in issue #1:

So there you have it: do some good and get a great story to read to boot.

You can get Myth #1 from Comixology for free on March 13th. And i think like me you’ll be interested in coming back for issues 2 and 3.

Score: 8.5/10