Famous Monsters. So tell me about I, VAMPIRE. Do think this is the first time DC has ever so prominently featured horror characters in its major titles?

Joshua Hale Fialkov. Well, there’s a rich history of horror at DC, back to the House of Mystery and House of Secrets stuff, which are some of my favorite comics ever published. They’re so wonderful and so much fun. Although wonderful might be a weird word for it.

FM. Hey, wonderful works!

JHF. And then, obviously, all the great Vertigo stuff. So there’s a history of it. And the original I, VAMPIRE—when JM DeMatteis did it—takes place sort of in the DC universe. Andrew Bennett met Batman at one point. I think what’s most exciting about the New 52 is that the comics don’t have to be one genre. Even superheroes can branch out. So having this hard horror book that rubs up against the rest of the DC universe is exciting, and a lot of fun because that’s the stuff that always excited me in pre-“Crisis” DC. It’s great to see it come back around.

FM. I agree about the New 52. A lot of the titles are even ressurecting obscure older characters.

JHF. And even just tonally, the tones of all the books are so wide. You really buy all the stuff exsiting simultanously. Everything is so widespread that it makes it makes more sense and feels more cohesive.

FM. Is this the first DC thing you’ve worked on? After doing ECHOES [Image], TUMOR [Archaia]…

JHF. I did a three issue run of SUPERMAN/BATMAN right at the end, before the relaunch… which I think technically I wrote after I had written I, VAMPIRE. But this is my first big DC thing. I’ve done shotgun shorts for Vertigo, and I’ve worked over at Marvel a bunch.

FM. And Batman made an appearance in I, VAMPIRE recently?

JHF. Yes, we had Batman in Issues 5 and 6. And he sticks around just in time for the Justice League Dark to show up. So we’ll have our first proper crossover between JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK and I, VAMPIRE. At the last of each month will be both parts.

FM. Can you tease us for it?

JHF. I can! At the end of Issue 6, Andrew did not come out so well. He didn’t come out of the book quite so… alive. So in the course of the crossover we get to see what it means to not have the one “good” vampire in the world still around. Which mostly involves a giant, evil, ancient vampire coming back to fight everybody. It actually takes the entire team—both the Justice League Dark and the rest of Andrew Bennett’s team, including his nemesis, Mary—to actually fight this giant monster and not get massacred. It’s pretty brutal.

FM. That sounds awesome. I’m very excited about the whole vampires being actual vampires in the DC universe.

JHF. Yeah, I mean, it’s for a couple reasons. One is that you’ve got [Scott] Snyder doing AMERICAN VAMPIRE, which is a very singular way to deal with one class of vampires. You’ve got 30 DAYS OF NIGHT that Steve Niles is doing over at IDW, which is also a very specific kind of vampire. You have the BUFFY vampires. Out of all the books that are doing vampires, nobody’s actually doing the classic Bram Stoker vampire. I didn’t change too much from what happened in the original series, so we’re pretty close in terms of their power sets and everything. And in DRACULA, Stoker really built a perfect set of powers. They’re really powerful, but they have their limits. It was the best way to make them competitive in the DC universe—for them to be able to fight off the various humans and villains that they go up against.

FM. Sometimes it’s best to go back to the archetype.

JHF. Yeah. They have to be strong enough to be a legitimate threat. And I think they are. Not even John Constantine can handle it.

FM. Love Constantine. He’s so much fun.

JHF. Writing Constantine is going to be great! I was sort of anxious about it, because I started writing the Constantine issues the same time I started writing DOCTOR WHO for IDW.

FM. All right!

JHF. And so I was like, I am writing a lot of British people. This is a lot of Britishness. But the two sort of fed into each other, so it worked out, I think. [laughs] Nobody says “blimey” at all, although there are a bunch of “oy”s. I did what I could to keep it as real as possible. As real as a magic user called the Hellblazer can possibly be.

FM. Obviously. So no sparkling vampires, here.

JHF. Well, they’re pretty.

FM. Vampires have always been pretty.

JHF. That’s the thing people forget. The TWILIGHT backlash made people forget that DRACULA is a love story. DRACULA is about a guy who makes himself handsome because he’s in love with some other dude’s wife! That’s what DRACULA is actually about. A gothic horror story is really about love. That’s what I wanted to focus on in the book—how the relationship between Mary and Andrew is sort of the lynchpin, not just with vampires but with mankind’s relationship to them. I tried to do something that’s a little bit bigger, that has wider implications than just, they’re alone in highschool and they’re in love but they can’t sleep together. Which is cool, I mean. That’s Issue 14! Oh man. “Josh, you’re fired.”

FM. I forgot you were writing DOCTOR WHO! The story arc is a retro one, right?

JHF. Yes. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory decide to go on a vacation. A nice seaside trip. All the classic Doctor Who stories start with them trying to take a vacation.

FM. I’ve noticed. [laughs]

JHF. They decide to go to the tip of Africa, because what nicer place is there in the springtime? Except they end up in the wrong year. It’s 1941, the Nazis are marching in, and there’s a giant epic romance that just happens to be taking place in the background as the Doctor faces off against the Silurians. What’s fun about the Doctor Who comics is that they’re structured like the old show, which I’m a huge fan of, but they feature the new Doctor, who I’m also a huge fan of. Getting to write Doctor Who is like getting to write the best of both worlds. It feels like getting to write one of the classic serial stories, while at the same time I get the awesome, modern, crazy Doctor. Matt Smith is so much fun to write. He’s such a great character.

FM. I love Matt Smith. And I’ve talked to people about how Doctor Who is such a great platform, because you can pretty much do anything.

JHF. Yeah. It’s really wide open. Mine is a four-issue story, and the third part came out this week. Then I wrap up the book next month, and then they relaunch the series. So, much like Superman/Batman, I got to put the nail in the coffin.

FM. [laughs] Is that a good feeling or a bad feeling?

JHF. With Doctor Who it’s a good feeling, because I know I’ll get to do more stuff with them down the road. Andy Diggle is taking over the book, which they announced a couple days ago, and it’s going to be great. I’ve heard about what they’ll be doing, and it’s super, super cool. And they’re doing a STAR TREK crossover! Why don’t I get to write that?

FM. Yes! I heard about that. The Next Generation meets the Doctor! Which cracks me up because at the Doctor Who panel at Comic-Con last year, didn’t Karen [Gillan] say she wanted a Star Trek crossover?

JHF. Yep.

FM. They made it happen! Anything else you have coming that you’d like to talk about?

JHF. Can I talk about LAST OF THE GREATS?

FM. Sure!

JHF. The trade paperback is coming out next week. It’s a superhero story about the last of a family of superbeings who come to Earth, give us everything we want, and then we massacre them all. Just in time for an alien invasion… that they actually came here to protect us from. So we have to go back and beg this hateful, resentful, scornful, ten-foot-tall god to please bail our asses out. And it does not go well for anyone involved.

FM. That’s a little bit true to life, except with aliens.

JHF. Yeah, it works. That’s the first series coming out, with Image. Hopefully we’ll get to do more.

FM. I will definitely check it out.

Famous Monsters. I’d first like to talk about your writing style in general. What I’ve noticed in some comic books is that the prose is forgotten as a sort of afterthought, like it’s only there to drive the action. When reading yours, it’s not like that. You very much pay attention to the actual vocabulary and the words you’re using, and the poetry… I know that you got your first comic book gig from writing a prose short story, and I was wondering what your background was in actual prose writing.

Scott Snyder. Well, my background really is in prose. I actually wanted to be a comic book artist when I was younger, all the way through high school. When I applied to college I had a portfolio with comic book art in it. I had drawings of Batman that I used to post on the internet. But in college I fell more into writing. I majored in writing in college, and then I went to graduate school for it at Columbia. So I graduated from there, and then worked pretty strictly in prose. I love prose.

FM. That explains a lot.

SS. I wrote a short story collection that came out in 2006 called VOODOO HEART, and that’s when I started… I wrote a couple of short stories that had superheroes in them, and it caught the attention of Marvel and DC. They approached me and asked if I liked comics, and I said I did, and I was incredibly excited to get a chance to pitch for tiny little things. Little one-shots and eight-pagers. And I worked my way up from there. But your question is great in the way that one of the things I was worried about missing was the poetry and the prose, as weird as that sounds. Because I spent so many hours, when I did prose, going from sentence to sentence.

FM. Yeah, I feel that in your comics.

SS. Well, thanks. And when you’re doing a character’s voice and narration, there is room for that. I think I was worried that fans wouldn’t respond to it, or think it was nerdy or whatever. But I’ve realized that they respond well because they want the writing to be layered or rich, and it’s been so enthralling and exciting. It’s made comics so creatively fulfilling. It really is important to me to be able to bring a prosaic quality to how I do my storytelling. I appreciate you picking that up.

FM. That’s fantastic. So, are you sick of talking about BATMAN?

SS. No, I’m really not. I’m not there yet. Maybe on Sunday [of WonderCon] I’ll be like, Batman, ugh, no. But right now I’m not.

FM. Well, as far as Batman goes… the crazy layouts that were in Issue 5… I’m sure you’ve talked a lot about that, but I just wanted to touch really quickly on how much of that is your input.

SS. Well, that was Greg [Capullo]’s idea. He’s such an awesome guy to work with in that he’s someone who’s so established, and yet when you work with him, he brings all this passion and fire to it. I brought him the script, and the script really said—in this area, Bruce is so disoriented that if you want, you can make the panels seem shattered, or strange, or upside down. And he came up with the idea of just turning the whole book like that. I thought it was amazing. I was like, let’s do it! DC fought it a little bit. They were really nice, but they did hesitate, because they were like, everyone’s going thing it’s a misprint!

FM. That’s what I thought, at first. [laughs]

SS. I know! And we were like, no they’re not! That’s ridiculous. And then we got our PDF of the file, and it looked great, because when you read a PDF you read it vertically, so you don’t have to actually turn the book from right to left. And then our comps came, and I saw it and went, oh my god, there’s a misprint. Then I saw it wasn’t, and I went on Twitter and was like, “Just so you guys know, everything in Batman #5 is on purpose!” Greg called me up and was like, “Why are you telling them that? If they don’t get it, too bad!” So I deleted the tweet. And about five minutes later, Greg called and was like, “I just got them and there’s a misprint!”

FM. [laughing]

SS. It’s because when we saw it, it was even more radical than we had anticipated, but I think it’s all the better for that. I’m so proud of him for bringing those kinds of ideas to the table. He’s just a powerhouse. I love him.

FM. Definitely. That’s awesome. Are we allowed to talk about SEVERED?

SS. Sure! Anything you want.

FM. That’s a cowrite for Image, right?

SS. Yes.

FM. I loved it, by the way. A seven issue mini-series. How did the genesis of that come about?

SS. Well, the guy I wrote it with [Scott Tuft] is actually wandering around here, somewhere. He’s my oldest and dearest friend from when I was thirteen years old. We’ve been friends since freshman year of high school, when he had blue hair and I was a comic geek. One of the things we bonded over was our love of horror movies. We would rent horror movies, and the two things we really liked were horror and American history. We went on a couple of road trips together, and we used to go to the South all the time. We were fascinated by the idea that all of these things were changing all of a sudden at a particular time period in the early twentieth century. Not only was music evolving, but all these roads were bringing people together who had never met, and you could change your identity, and it was such a fascinating time for all of the exciting and wonderful things that were happening and all the things that were frightening and terrifying to people who were older—electrical lights, highways, cars…

We were actually on a road trip—I remember talking about it at a buffet, a Chinese buffet in some town in Arkansas. We were like, we need to tell a story that takes place in that time period with one character who’s all about the optimism and excitement of the time and one character who represents the scariest stuff ever about the time, and to make it unconventional. So we started writing it then, as a screenplay first. And once I got into comics I said, I think it would make a much better comic. He thought so too. I’m so proud of it. It’s a different sort of book, but…

FM. It’s gorgeous. How’d you hook up with [SEVERED artist] Attila Futaki?

SS. Jeff Lemire!

FM. Oh yeah?

SS. Yeah, [DC author] Jeff Lemire was like, I think this guy’s style might be good. He knew him from some Artist Alley stuff, and he hooked us up with him.

FM. His painting is so intense, and dark.

SS. He’s terrific. I know he’s now looking at stuff with the Big Two. I really think the sky’s the limit for him. He’s great.

FM. He’s awesome. Let’s see… we can talk about SWAMP THING, which is amazing.

SS. Oh, thanks!

FM. It’s also interesting because I feel like in the New 52, DC brought a lot of Vertigo characters over to the main line. Do you feel like that makes you write in a different style for the New 52 than you would for DC before the reboot, when you were doing Detective Comics, for example?

SS. That’s a really good question… I’ve thought about that, because I’ve wondered if I do write differently. But almost all the stuff that I do is like a Vertigo book. I mean, my favorite stories are ones where the characters and the heroes are brought to face their inner demons and worst nightmares. That’s why the Joker is my favourite Batman villain, because to me he represents the darkest reflection of Bruce. So I think that lends itself to the same kind of horror and Vertigo style where characters are facing really dark and serious problems in every storyline. I think I am telling them all in the same way.

FM. Well, the Batman book is so dark, it almost could be a Vertigo book. Swamp Thing, too.

SS. It kind of is horror. It’s like, secretly like a horror story. And it’s wonderful to see people respond, because you worry if it’s too dark. But at the end of the day, we’re not doing anything to make it dark or scary so much as we’re trying to make the stories matter to the characters. If something is scary, it’s because it’s scary to Alec Holland, not because it’s just a big monster, you know? It’s deeply scary to him as a person.

FM. Any Vertigo character that you want to write that you haven’t gotten to write yet?

SS. There are a ton!

FM. Who’s at the top of your list?

SS. Well, I just got to write Animal Man for the first time, because we’re doing that crossover, and he was at the top of my list. I just wrote my first Buddy Baker lines. I’m really thrilled.

FM. Excellent. Oh, we haven’t talked about AMERICAN VAMPIRE! How do you feel about tackling a subject that so many people think is tired?

SS. I feel like vampires have endured this long because deep down, they have the potential to be really scary. I don’t think they endure because they can be heartthrobs or romantic heroes. The reason they’re still around is because when you look at the concept of someone that you love turned into a bloodthirsty thing, back from the grave, trying to turn you into one of them… that’s what’s so scary about zombies, werewolves, and all that stuff. So my approach was to say, let’s do something where you return vampires to those roots, but do a new spin on it where they’re American icons. Things you know in a familiar way, like a cowboy, or a starlet, or a boxer, or a jazz musician… but now we’re turning them into these monsters that are haunting and hunting the American landscape. That was the emphasis for it. I’m very proud of that series, and I’m so happy to be doing it with Rafael [Albuquerque].

FM. The Americana… you mentioned that again. It seems to be a common thread. Where did you grow up?

SS. I grew up in New York City, but I was very close to my grandmother who passed away a couple years ago. We spent a lot of time with her, and she was a very die-hard antiquer. When I was a little kid… she had stuff around her house, and she’d be like, this thing is from 18-whenever, let’s make up a story about it and how it got here. We did that a lot, and I still have a lot of those things from her house. Not to make my house sound super-creepy, with all these weird antiques.

FM. No, it sounds amazing!

SS. And maybe it’s there… I don’t really know where it comes from, except that maybe I’ve always loved the idea of stories that touch on the secret history of everything, from objects that are important to someone to locations and characters. I’ve always loved those elements—the secret stories buried in the history of things.

FM. Are you gonna go see ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER?

SS. Yes! Anything that does something different with vampires, whether it’s my take on it or a TWILIGHT kind of take on it, I’ll always line up just to see someone do something new that seems exciting.

FM. Yeah. This was great. Is there anything else you wanted to say?

SS. Just thanks to you, and to everyone listening to and reading this for picking up the books.

FM. And thanks to you for all your awesome work!

The painfully mediocre title will be one of six books that DC is canceling to make room for a ‘new wave’ of comics added to their New 52 roster. The other sacrifices are O.M.A.C, BLACKHAWKS, MISTER TERRIFIC, STATIC SHOCK, and MEN OF WAR. Fortunately, none of these are the wonderful worlds of monstrous mayhem praised in our previous article. Jeff Lemire even plans to bring his Frankenstein character into the eighth and final issue of MEN OF WAR, giving monster kids an extra reason to buy it.

On another bright side, one of the replacements in store at DC will be DIAL H, helmed by China Miéville (KRAKEN, IRONSIDE, THE CITY & THE CITY)—one of the best science fiction/fantasy writers working today—in his comics debut, with art by Mateus Santoluoco. It should be fascinating to watch how Miéville’s Lovecraftian ‘weird fiction’ sensibilities affect the world of superpowers.

The planned cover for DIAL H #1 by Brian Bolland. Creeped out yet?

The other new titles? BATMAN INCORPORATED (which should make a bunch of Grant Morrison fans happy), EARTH 2, WORLD’S FINEST, G.I. COMBAT, and THE RAVAGERS.

For more details on DC’s ‘New Wave’, visit their blog.

In horror comics news, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT creator Steve Niles will have a few new projects to announce on Monday, one of which may involve artist Menton3, who is currently blowing our minds with IDW’s MONOCYTE. That should be a combo to wait for.

STITCHED
Garth Ennis & Mike Wolfer, writers
Mike Wolfer, artist
Avatar

It may not be overwhelmingly intellectual, but the supernatural war story that Garth Ennis began in a short film and continued in comics has me rather rapt. It’s rough and debased and ready to shock, like all his best stories. Avatar press is never afraid to go there. And the thought of a deadly demon summoned by an aluminum can attacking you while you relieve yourself in the desert is… well. Mommy?

SWAMP THING
Scott Snyder, writer
Yanick Paquette & Marco Rudy, artists
DC

Regular people think kids are cute. Horror gurus know better. Kids are creepy. Just ask THE OMEN, THE SIXTH SENSE, THE EXORCIST, THE BAD SEED… or any other number of iconic horror stories. And since SWAMP THING is the kind of story in which the protagonist is a giant green plant monster, you know the villains are going to be seriously messed up. Sure enough, Issue 3 brings a horrifying child-thing into the mix—one who wears a creepy-looking oxygen mask and makes people’s cavities explode into alien-like tumors when they give him the wrong milkshake flavor. Yikes.

MONOCYTE
menton3 and Kasra Ghanbari, writers
menton3, artist
IDW

What I like best about MONOCYTE is that, despite the truly bizarre and terrible subject matter, it’s not afraid to be poetic. And that, in this day of “Get to the action as soon as possible!”, is something to be admired. The olignostics are truly creatures of your worst nightmares, the art is breathtaking, and the words are still important. Doubt me? Read it. If the preview of Issue 2 is any indication, this mysterious and almost gothic ride doesn’t show signs of lessening its impact.

SEVERED
Scott Snyder and Scott Tuft, writers
Attila Futaki, artist
Image

There’s a scene in SEVERED #5 during which an old man swings a delighted child around like an airplane. A common occurrence—not usually associated with terror, to be sure. But because of context, and because readers know about the old man’s true nature (shark teeth—yikes), the moment appears exaggerated and slightly horrifying. SEVERED is full of moments like this. It’s subtle and visceral and, while not always scary in the traditional sense, offers plenty of plot twists and turns that catch you off guard at all the right times.

SUICIDE SQUAD
Adam Glass, writer
Federico Dallocchio, artist
DC

Okay, so Harley Quinn’s kinda cool. Deadshot? Sure. Suicidal missions involving zombie plagues and a pregnant squid creature? Even better. But, monster fans, allow me to introduce you to King Shark: A half-man, half-shark thing with a wicked appetite who walks around in a codpiece, eats people and chickens with equal gusto, and contributes most readily to conversations by chanting “MEAT! MEAT!” If that’s not iconic monsterdom, I don’t know what is. (Heads up: SUICIDE SQUAD is also being penned by Adam Glass, who has a little bit to do with that show they call SUPERNATURAL.)

FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E.
Jeff Lemire, writer
Alberto Ponticelli, artist
DC

If you’re looking for a new twist on a classic character, this is your stop. If you’re looking for legions of sharp-toothed demons attacking innocent people, pick up this comic. If you’re looking for… hell. Just read it. Jeff Lemire (also currently penning ANIMAL MAN, another firecracker) has managed to turn Frankenstein into a swashbuckling secret agent of the DC Universe—as well as bring a wolf man, a vampire, a mummy, a lagoon “creature”, and the Bride of Frankenstein along for the crazy ride. It’s like hallucinating while having a Universal Monsters movie marathon. And trust me—you’re going to need popcorn.

CRIMINAL MACABRE
Steve Niles, writer
Christopher Mitten, (current) artist
Dark Horse

Although there has been a recent trend of monster-mash mystery comics (Are you listening, LEGION OF MONSTERS?), nobody solves supernatural cases with more hardcore, drug-induced gusto than Cal McDonald. CRIMINAL MACABRE, currently being published in segments in DARK HORSE PRESENTS, has been following Cal’s monstrous adventures for years, and the guy’s exploits are still entertaining—whether they involve ghouls, werewolves, Nosferatu, demon babies, vampire sex, mud-Yetis, or flying brains. Here’s hoping for a drunken face off against Cthulhu in the future.

HAPPY HORRORDAYS! Be good and hope Krampus doesn’t come for you.

The article mentioned that the prologue will only screen at 70mm IMAX screens, not smaller or low-res digital IMAX screens.

Do you think the prologue is going to play in front of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE? Are you interested in seeing MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL or will you go see it just for the chance to get a taste of RISES?

Kotobukiya’s DC Comics x Bishoujo Statue Series
honored by Warner Bros.

Kotobukiya is proud to announce that we have been awarded Best Hardlines (Retail Product) Licensee by Warner Bros. Consumer Products for our DC Comics x Bishoujo Statue Series.
Kotobukiya’s long time partnership with Warner Bros. led to the development of the DC Comics x Bishoujo Statue Series, which has been highly praised for its uniquely Japanese interpretation of popular DC superheroes under the artistic direction of Shunya Yamashita.

These annual Warner Bros. Awards are bestowed to a select number of companies (from over 60 countries) that Warner Bros. Consumer Products have partnered up with. There are 5 main categories for the awards, and it is given to the most outstanding licensees or projects. Companies are evaluated on criteria ranging from “contract scale”, “media value”, “enhancement of property value”, and “strategic significance”.

Under the international category this year, 3 out of 5 awards were given to Japanese companies with remarkable accomplishments; amongst them were Toyota, UNIQLO and Kotobukiya. The results for the 2010 awards were first announced this past June in Los Angeles at the main office of Warner Bros. Consumer Products. For the Japanese companies, the awards reception was held at The Ritz Carlton in Tokyo on December 8th.

For more information about Kotobukiya please visit:
http://www.kotous.com/

About Kotobukiya:
With over 50 years experience in the toy industry, Kotobukiya has grown into Japan’s number one collector toy company, with a peerless reputation for quality and craftsmanship. Many international fans first learned of Kotobukiya from the famous line of Final Fantasy merchandise, and more recently, collectors have been thrilled by Kotobukiya’s high end line of Star Wars and Batman ARTFX Statues. Kotobukiya is always striving to further improve the material, detail, and design of all products. Kotobukiya continues to attract the attention of not only top artistic talents, but also the favor of publishers and licensors who wish to work with only the best the toy and collectibles industry has to offer.

The evening opened with Human Target, a new series from Fox starring Mark Valley as Christopher Chance. Based on the popular DC Comics comic book and graphic novel, Human Target is about a brave, selfless man who makes himself a “human target” in order to save the lives of people in danger. Valley’s character got big laughs from the crowd, despite the distraction of the action drama’s thrilling plot. Human Target will premiere on Fox January 17, 2010.

Next up was V, a television series remake of the cult ’80s favorite also revolving around “The Visitors,” which is the name given to the alien race who disguise themselves as humans on earth. The screening’s audience members were obviously drawn to the technological advancement of the new V, in comparison to the original. It is executive produced by the 4400 creator Scott Peters, Jason Hall, Steve Pearlman and Jeffrey Bell and is based on the science-fiction franchise created by Kenneth Johnson. The pilot covers the basic idea of the series – the world awakens to find spaceships hovering over all major cities. This visually appealing scene is followed by aliens who look human and claim to come in peace. However, some, including agent Erica Evans, are skeptical. FM doesn’t want to spoil the pilot for you, so check it out on ABC in 2010.

The final pilot at this year’s Comic-Con International Preview Night included the exclusive screening of The Vampire Diaries which is scheduled to air on The CW Thursday nights at 8 p.m. starting September 10. The show will be sure to grab the attention of Twilight fans, due to a very similar premise and an eye-catching cast. Like Twilight, The Vampire Diaries is also based on a series of young adult novels. Even after sitting through two full pilots, viewers had their eyes glued to the screen for The Vampire Diaries until to the very end. Cheers and applause prove that many seemed to be pleased with the show that will take the former spot of Smallville this Fall.

Comic-Con fans got lucky this year- each pilot was better than the next.

Warner Bros. first announced the movie adaptation in 2007 with plans set for a December 17, 2010 release date. Filming is scheduled to begin in Australia in mid-September.

Created in 1940 for the All-American Comics #16 by writer Bill Finger and the late artist Martin Nodell, the Green Lantern possesses a power ring that gives the user great control over the physical world as long as the wielder has sufficient willpower and strength to wield it.

Along with DC Comics’ Jonah Hex, The Green Lantern has been classified as a hot, hot title.

Malkovich will play Turnbull, a wealthy Southern plantation owner whose son is killed by Union soldiers during the Civil War. He blames Hex, a former confederate soldier-turned-hardened bounty hunter and gunslinger.

Legendary Pictures will now help co-finance the project to be directed by Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears a Who) from a screenplay by Crank scribes Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.

Shooting will begin in April 2009. Stay tuned for more updates!

In an interview with writer/director David Goyer IESB.net reports that Warner Bothers has put all of their upcoming DC Comic productions on hold for the time being while they apparently do some restructuring.

In the interview Goyer says,

“A lot of the DC movies at Warner Brothers are all on hold while they figure out, they’re going to come up with some new plan, methodology, things like that so everything has just been pressed pause on at the moment. It was the double header of both Iron Man and The Dark Knight coming out, so more than ever I think they’ve realized, I think DC was responsible for 15% of Warner Brothers’ revenue this year, something crazy like that, so they realized that comic books, it’s become a new genre, one of the most successful genres.”

All I can say is it’s about time. Comic book films are like the westerns and sci-fi films of the past and I think I can speak for most of us when I say I can’t wait for what’s to come.

Check out Darkhorizons and IESB for more details.