I’ve read the first book from Dean Koontz in the Odd Thomas series, but nothing more. It was pretty good as I recall, but I’ve not found the time to read the next three books that are already available.

The basic outline of the character Odd Thomas is that he can see dead people, he can talk to them, but they cannot return the action. He starts off seeing the ghost of Elvis Presley, who is by his side a lot of the time.

The ghosts try to communicate silently to him, either by mouthing words or other gestures.

Well, I was pretty surprised to find out that just a week ago, Del Rey published a graphic novel called In Odd We Trust, which is a prequel to the existing four books. It was co-written by Koontz himself and Queenie Chan, who also did the illustrations.

The reviews on Amazon were mixed, so I have no idea what to expect from this one. On one hand, I think long-time, die hard Koontz fans will be shocked at the idea of a comic book. On the other (which is mine) I think the idea is pretty sweet.

Are there any Koontz or Odd Thomas fans out there? What do you think of the graphic novel idea?

IGN.com has begun a big series of articles entitled the Ultimate Reader’s Guide that aims to help inform you about everything under the sun about comic books, whether you are a newbie or a returning fan.

Their first volume is all about DC Comics and it also explains the basics of comics, plus all the titles out there from the DC universe that you should read.

I like this little section below explaining how comic books make it from their “flimsy” form to a trade paperback/graphic novel. I’ve gotten a few friends asking me what the heck the difference is, but this is a great way to describe it:

In the last decade the trend has become for publishers to collect storylines (or arcs) in longer books, often called trade paperbacks. The standard practice for most mainstream books is for each storyline to be broken up into five or six individual issues, which are then collected in a trade. Many times, multiple trades will then be collected in larger, deluxe hardcovers.

Ultimate Spider-Man is a perfect example of this practice. Each arc tends to be about six issues long. These issues are collected in a trade paperback. Two trade paperbacks are then combined to form a hardcover. Sometimes a publisher will take things a step further, as when Marvel combined the first three Ultimate Spider-Man hardcovers into a larger hardcover.

Occasionally a comic will skip the monthly format altogether and be released as a trade. These books are often referred to as original graphic novels, or OGNs. OGNs are increasingly rare as they are generally less profitable for publishers.

Check out the rest of it, I think it’s worth a read if you are looking to get into this arena of pop culture. If you are ALREADY a comic book expert, I’m curious what you think of what IGN has to say and also the choices of comics they give us from the DC world.

Also, today (Friday) they should also come out with their guide to the Marvel Universe, so take a peek at that too.

Evan Spiliotopoulos, who most recently wrote the screenplay The Box for Fox, is adapting the series for the screen.

“The Last Call” was first published in 2007 and is written and illustrated by Vasilis Lolos. The horror-adventure graphic novel series is basically about two teens who are out on a joy ride and get hit by a train. The train isn’t a normal train, however, it’s a “ghost train” which is carrying souls from this dimension to another. The two teens wake up on the train with no tickets and a conductor who is coming for them. The teens must solve the mystery of the train so they can return to their regular lives.

“The Last Call” is the fourth Oni Press work that Universal is developing. “Scott Pilgrim” is being prepped for production later this year with Edgar Wright directing and Michael Cera starring. Universal is also developing “Leading Man” and “Resurrection.”

A 38 page preview of “The Last Call” is available for preview at the Oni Press website.

Below is a couple of pages from graphic novel.

Back in February my journey wtih graphic novels took off with Y: The Last Man, and you can read the review I wrote for the first volume in the 10-part series.

I’ve read a bunch of others in the meantime, but just recently I got back into this story of Yorick Brown and the fact that he’s the last man on Earth. I’m finally finished with Book 5, which is the halfway point in the series, and felt I should write a review at this juncture.

Brian K. Vaughan has written a great tale here, one with tons of action, love, comedy, relationships and politics. It’s amazing the world he has created where men no longer exists. What becomes of women? How will they run the world? How will they treat each other?

And the story is an epic one, as the first five chapters take place over at least two years.

I definitely believe this is one of the best graphic novels I’ve read so far, and the plot has really sucked me in. Why is he still alive? What caused him to be immune to what killed all other men? Why his is monkey the only male mammal in the world who survived as well? Is there a connection?

This most assuredly an adult series, so don’t leave it laying around the house for the kiddies to find. There is plenty of swearing, sex and nudity scattered throughout the books I’ve read so far. Heck, Volume 5 is called “Girl on Girl.”

But it’s fun, action-packed and definitely an adventure worthy of getting into. The first volume can be had on Amazon to get you started.

Then there are the celebrities from other backgrounds.

Thanks to Richard Branson’s deep pockets, Virgin Comics has allowed “writers” like Nick Cage, John Woo, Guy Ritchie, and Jenna Jameson to foist their vanity projects on an unsuspecting world. These are not good. Celebrities are not born with special gifts of creation. That’s true whether they’re freakish comic devotees like Cage – who named his own son Kal-El – or comic book newbies like Scottsdale’s stripper queen Jameson. Being able to act, write movies, direct, or moan on cue does not always translate to the needs of a 22-page, multi-panel script.

Virgin’s not the only offender out there, of course. Every publisher wants to bask in the aura of a big star from outside the world of comics, it seems. Quality often doesn’t matter. I’m pretty sure if Britney Spears wanted to write a run of Batman, Grant Morrison would have competition in the racks. If nothing else, it would sell.

This is all a long-winded way of saying, there are a lot of very bad comics out there and celebrity “writers” are some of the worst offenders.

So when it was first announced that My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way was coming out with a book of his own, it was ignored by the comics cognoscenti. Just another rock star (literally) wanking off (not literally). It would get published, his screaming fans would buy it, and it would get tossed in the bin a few days later to be forgotten forever.

Then Free Comic Book Day 2007 rolled around. Highlighting the Dark Horse offering last year was a stand-alone story from Way, drawn by Gabriel Bá, colored by Dave Stewart, and featuring a gorgeous James Jean cover. The Umbrella Academy was a breath of fresh air.

In July, Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite will be published, collecting “the first six-issue series, as well as out-of-print short stories, and an expanded sketchbook section featuring work by Bá, Jean, and Way.”

I’m impatient, and I have all the floppies, so lemme tell you about this book.

First off, Way created the first original superhero I’ve seen in years. Rumor is a girl whose power is lying. Every lie she tells becomes the truth, no matter how small or large. Teamed up with her adopted super-powered siblings – Spaceboy, The Seance, The Horror, and The Kraken – the Umbrella Academy fights everyone from The Murder Magician to Zombie-Robot Gustave Eiffel. These kids are everywhere.

That’s right, kids.

In the FCBD book, we met the Umbrella Academy as adults, but when book one came out last fall we finally got their origin story. Around the world, 43 children were born simultaneously, to women who had previously shown no signs of pregnancy. Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a.k.a. The Monocle, tracked down and adopted as many of the survivors as he could. He found seven.

Five had powers, one disappeared into the future, and one just plays the violin. Poorly in Hargreeves’ opinion.

This is a different comic than many of you are used to. I’m pretty sure my mention of Zombie-Robot Gustave Eiffel is enough to make that clear. It’s unusual, quirky, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s a very difficult tightrope to walk in superhero comics. If you want to tell a story about people with superpowers, battling monsters and madmen, you can’t be too serious. Do a Google search for “women in refrigerators” or “sue dibny” if you want to see the perils of trying to be too serious. But not taking the characters and situations seriously has its own set of problems. See for example, Schumacher, Joel. Gerard Way walks that tightrope like one of the Flying Wallendas.

I could say so much more about it, but if this picture of Spaceboy doesn’t draw you in, this book’s just not your cup of tea…

Yes. You’ve guessed right. Spaceboy suffered a tragic accident and Hargreeve’s needed to perform highly experimental surgery to save his life. He’s got an ape’s body. And lives on the moon.

R.A.’s rating: 8 out of 10

R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

If you don’t know much about the movie, it’s based on the groundbreaking graphic novel frrom 1985 about a group of superheroes that you’ve never heard of before. It traces their origins back to the early Depression days and how there were just men (and women) who decided to fight crime vigilante-style.

The story focuses mainly on the second generation of these superheroes, some of which have actually evolved some super powers.

But the photo we have from the film is the group shot of the original heroes, or Minutemen, from the 1940s.

This movie is looking good, although word is that it could clock in around THREE HOURS and have an extended, DVD version at four hours.

Here is the photo below.

Serenity: Better Days #3 is the conclusion to the latest story from Firefly creator Joss Whedon, along with writer Brett Matthews.

In the previous two chapters, the crew made off with a big chunk of cash, more than they’d seen in a very, very long time. They had so much coin that the fantasies of “what would you do with a million dollars” started floating around in their heads.

But Mal gets captured and things go haywire, even in a story called Better Days. Even when the crew has good times, it just can’t last.

And that’s the ‘verse when it comes to the characters on the ship Serenity.

This final chapter was good, but felt a bit choppy for me. I had to read it through twice to make sure I hadn’t missed anything because it was slightly confusing. There is an interesting continuation of the Inara storyline from the episode Ariel, from what I’ve read, as something is medically wrong with her but we have no idea what that is yet.

It definitely could have been another great episode though, and I still wish I could see these kinds of stories on television instead of a comic book.

The trade paperback goes on sale October 29th, 2008 and you can preorder it now if you want.

Overall, it was a nice little story, and now I’m looking forward to The Shepherd’s Tale, the next chapter in the saga.

Mike’s Rating: 7 out of 10 (overall: 7.5 out of 10)

One of the first graphic novels I read and reviewed was The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, which had some epic scenes between the two superheroes, who are so vastly different in nature.

Yet loyal friends. At least, for awhile.

I was getting my stereo moved into my Jeep on Saturday night, so we stopped in a Barnes & Noble to wait it out. I of course made a beeline for the graphic novel section and saw quite a few featured ones that looked cool.

Somehow, I grabbed Superman/Batman Volume 1: Public Enemies without realizing it was the first volume in a series. I think “Public Enemies” rang a bell, one of you guys might have mentioned it before, so that could have been it.

But either way, I’m glad I chose the first one to read, because now I can continue reading the series all the way through without having to backtrack.

I don’t know what it is about superheroes joining up to work together that is so fascinating for me, but it just is. Just like in Civil War, the concept of all these characters we’ve known in comics suddenly coming together for a common cause is highly appealing.

In Public Enemies (written by Jeph Loeb, the first writer in the series), the book quickly revisits the origins of the two characters and introduces a sort of dual-narrator technique, which has two different colors of thought-boxes to represent Batman and Superman.

This facet of the novel was brilliant. At any given time, during any given action sequence or plot device, the thoughts of both superheroes helps pace the story and give insights into each moment.

The main plot of Public Enemies deals with President Lex Luthor and an asteroid chunk from the planet Krypton that is hurtling towards Earth, the size of Brazil.

Unless it can be stopped, it will pretty much wipe out mankind. Luthor blames Superman for the asteroid, saying he drew it towards them, and offers a $1 billion bounty for his capture.

This sends good and bad superheroes after him. Except Batman, who of course puts aside his own search for the murderer of his parents, and helps Superman try to get to Lex.

The story starts off with a great confrontation of Superman/Batman versus Metallo, and that started it off on the right foot for me. I was hooked.

This was a great first volume I thought, with a ton of action, lots of insights, and of course, a battle between Superman and Lex Luthor. Awesome.

Looking forward to the next one.

Mike’s Rating: 8 out of 10

One of the reasons was that I’d heard from one of our readers, R.A. Porter, than he was worried about how different the movie would be compared to the original story.

And now that I’ve read it, I have to agree. First off, not even counting what you read online about it, there is no way this graphic novel could be made into a movie these days. Not with the utter evil and carnage that engulfs Wanted.

Not without changing it big time.

Wanted basically takes your old superhero story and flips it head over heels. You get the evil side of things, and not just some bad guys, but a bad universe, over multiple dimensions, where all the superheroes have been basically wiped out.

Evil reigns free. Men, women and children are killed for fun.

And the story is very adult, obviously. Sex, blood, death, and character names that contain curse words. Like Sh*thead and F*ckwit. The first guy is named for feces because that’s what he is: A blob of poo. And he kills someone by locking them in a car and flooding it with crap.

Gross.

The main plot of Wanted revolves around Wesley Gibson, who is like Mr. Anderson from The Matrix. A wimp, stuck in a white-collar job and with no hope of becoming a man anytime soon. His girlfriend is sleeping with his best friend, and he’s too much of a bum to even do anything about it.

When his father is murdered though, Westley discovers that he himself possesses abilities to basically kill with powers he never knew he had. Skills that allow him to destroy even OTHER superheroes and villains with relative ease.

He joins the Fraternity and discovers that basically in 1986, all of the super villains decided to get together and completely destroy all the superheroes, and rewrite reality as we know it. Superheroes become a thing of fiction or legend, and the evil heroes run the show from behind the scenes.

And they control everything. You can kill a crowd of people, and the cops can do nothing because they know who is behind it.

So with that synopsis, you can kind of get how this movie might not have a chance to be interpreted as written originally by Mark Millar.

In the movie, supposedly Wesley will join a group of powerful assassins that are justice enforcers, not evil killers.

The novel itself was interesting and a very unique read for me. Most every comic I’ve taken up so far usually has a good guy or hero that is fighting against evil, and they usually prevail. Not in Wanted.

The end is pretty good too, and there are some fun twists along the way. Not one of my favorites of all-time, mostly because I tend to not align on the evil side of things, even if it’s just in a story, but it was still something worth reading.

Mike’s Rating: 7 out of 10

Written by Frank Miller, Hard Boiled was released in three issues back in 1990, and then compiled for a 128-page graphic novel/trade paperback in 1993.

The story is about Carl Seitz, an insurance investigator, discovers he is also a homicidal cyborg tax collector who happens to be the last hope of an enslaved robot race.

Interesting. Add it to the list I need to read!

According to MTV’s exclusive report, Miller is in talks to try to direct the big screen adaptation of the story:

We’re talking about [it], Miller declared to us at NY Comic Con. I’ve got a really unusual way I want to do it.

But that’s not all. after co-directing Sin City and single-handedly helming the upcoming adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit, Miller has decided that the only person he’d want directing a Hard Boiled movie is himself.

I’m in love with directing, he gushed. I’ve found a way to expand my career. Comics and directing are really two sides of the same coin. That’s what Robert Rodriguez taught me good drama is good drama.

Miller has written some of the best graphic novels around, like Daredevil, Robocop, Elektra, Wolverine, Batman: The Dark Knight and Sin City.