Gregg Hurwitz has a series of terrific books featuring deputy U.S. marshal Tim Rackley and they are now being developed for TNT network as a on going show. Hurwitz will executive produce along with Shawn Ryan for Sony Pictures TV.

Ryan has a history of working on some damn good shows and his style should be a great fit for this series.  There are four books in the series, and if you have not read them you should, right this minute!

HBO has released a new trailer, dubbed The More You Love, for season two of GAME OF THRONES. The series is based on the novels of George R. Martin and returns on April 1st.

Astro City: Life in the Big City- A retro review

“Astro City” is one of the most celebrated comic book series in the past thirty years and I finally got around to reading it. All I could come up with was, what took me so long?

For those that don’t know, it’s all about the lives of heroes and people in a wonderful world where men can fly and women can lift trucks over their heads. Astro City is Gotham, Metropolis, and New York all in one. Heroes and villains fight and wage war daily and the people watch in awe and have for decades. They love their shining beacons of light and absorb every ounce of activity they can. And that’s what the book focuses on. The people. The normal person walking down the street, riding the bus, or next door neighbor and their reaction to the supers. The second issue is the highlight of showcasing this, as an aging newspaper man tells his experience witnessing the biggest story a normal person could hope to view and how it affected his life both personally and professionally.

“Astro City” works so beautifully because the cynical edge is gone. These people love their champions. It’s a wonderful breath of fresh air after reading so many books where things are dark and gritty. The people that live in Astro City want to be there and enjoy their lives. Kurt Busiek’s took his love of silver age comic books and applied it to modern day story-telling. There is no wonder why this book has won so many awards. The words flow perfectly from the page to your mind and you feel for every character that is introduced. Kurt Busiek is the Normal Rockwell of comic books. He takes the everyday slice of life and points out the excitement in it.
It’s not only about the people though. It’s a city and world littered with super-powered individuals. Each has their own story and history. It’s rich and vibrant. The bookend issues deal with Samaritan, that world’s Superman. But in two issues of “Astro City” Samaritan has more depth that Superman has had in decades.

Samaritan is always working, whether is his simple secret identity or the speeding from disaster to crisis he is always on the go. Every character, even the background ones, have a story that is waiting to be told. I firmly believe, having only read the first volume in this series that started in 1995, they get to all of them. They have to. Busiek drops little hints and one-offs everywhere though the book. There is so much though that went/goes into “Astro City” it shows and sets off the future of the series. “Astro City” is a gem of the comic book world, precious, rare, and very desirable.

Warner Home Video
Release date: February 28, 2012
MSRP: $24.98
Starring the voices of Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, Susan Eisenberg, Nathan Fillion, Carl Lumbly, Michael Rosenbaum
Written by Dwayne McDuffie
Directed by Lauren Montgomery

In the latest DC Universe direct-to-video animated movie, the immortal Vandal Savage hires several supervillains to eliminate their enemies–Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Martian Manhunter–twisting plans originally conceived by Batman in case any of the heroes went rogue.

For me, a key ingredient to any superhero story is the level of threat faced by the hero(es). Part of the fun of JUSTICE LEAGUE: DOOM is watching the villains pull off Batman’s plans and pose a serious threat to the League. The movie also highlights what’s at stake by bringing back the most popular superhero voice actors from Warner Bros.’ SUPERMAN, BATMAN, and JUSTICE LEAGUE cartoons and animated features. Though the premise is inspired by DC Comics’ JLA: Tower of Babel and Justice, the plans used are unique to the movie. This is a credit to the late Dwayne McDuffie, who also wrote the similarly climactic three-part final episode of JUSTICE LEAGUE, “Starcrossed”.

The Blu-ray’s best features, in my opinion, are a tribute to Dwayne McDuffie and a feature-length audio commentary with DC Comics execs Geoff Johns and Mike Carlin. There’s also a featurette on Batman’s guarded relationship to the JLA, one about Cyborg–who is a member of the League in the recently rebooted comics and plays a key role in the movie, a two-part episode of JUSTICE LEAGUE, a preview of the next DC Universe animated feature–SUPERMAN VS. THE ELITE–and a JLA: Tower of Babel digital comic.

Highly recommended.

–Gerald So

Magnolia Pictures has released a U.S. trailer for Jo Nesbøs Hodejegerne (aka Jo Nesbø’s HEADHUNTERS), the acclaimed Norweigan film based on the novel of the same name.

HEADHUNTERS stars the talented Aksel Hennie (Max Manus) as Roger, a charming scoundrel and Norway’s most accomplished headhunter. Roger is living a life of luxury well beyond his means, and stealing art to subsidize his expensive lifestyle. When his beautiful gallery owner wife introduces him to a former mercenary in the possession of an extremely valuable painting, he decides to risk it all to get his hands on it, and in doing so discovers something which makes him a hunted man.

HEADHUNTERS will open in NYC and L.A. on April 27th, then expand into other markets. Here are the dates and locations:
4/27/2012
West Los Angeles, CA: The Landmark 12
New York, NY: Sunshine Cinema 5
New York, NY: Empire 25 Theaters

5/4/2012
Berkeley, CA: Shattuck Cinemas 10
Washington, DC: E Street Cinema
Cambridge, MA: Kendall Square Cinema 9
Philadelphia, PA: Ritz 5 Movies
Dallas, TX: Angelika Film Center and Cafe

5/11/2012
Portland, OR: Cinema 21 Theatre
Seattle, WA: Varsity Theatre

5/18/2012
Orinda, CA: Orinda Theater
Denver, CO: Chez Artiste
Atlanta, GA: Midtown Art Cinemas 8
Indianapolis, IN: Keystone Art Cinema 7
Royal Oak, MI: Main Art Theatre
University City, MO: Tivoli Theatre

Summit Entertainment has hired Sacha Gervasi ( ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL) to adapt the novel for a planned U.S. film. There has been talk of Mark Wahlberg starring.

Titan Books
Pub date: Feb 14, 2012

Friends, it’s confession time. I know we just met and all, but I feel confident that I can tell you this. ::clears throat::
I love pulp. Give me Doc Savage. The Shadow. Not in the mood for heroes? Fast forward a bit and I’m game for the two-fisted tales of Mike Hammer. Prefer the supernatural tales? Let’s go back to the stories of Lovecraft? Feeling ambitious? How about a little WORLD DOMINATION? How about…
FU-MANCHU?

So you can imagine my joy when I discovered a delivery at the front door from Titan Books. Turns out the good folks at Titan are rereleasing the entire Fu-Manchu catalogue in beautiful editions for the current generation. And they are beautiful. With stylized cover and spine art, these books look fantastic on the shelf. As a bonus, also included is a very interesting essay entitled “Appreciating Dr. Fu-Manchu” by Leslie S. Klinger. And it’s this essay that many readers will need to understand the times the stories were written in, and shed some light on “The Yellow Peril” of the era.

But is the current generation ready for Fu-Manchu?

The tales contained within this volume, and “Mystery” does indeed read like a short story collection, chronicle the adventures of Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie as they attempt to stop the incursion of Fu-Manchu into England. These are fast moving, exciting tales. Originally published in Collier’s in 1913, they are told in the vein of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Dr. Petrie is our narrator as the duo try again and again to solve the riddle of Fu-Manchu, as the evil genius attempts to solidify a beachhead in England for the Chinese empire.

This brings us back to my question from a moment ago: Is the current generation ready for Fu-Manchu?

While skillfully told, the crux of these stories revolve around the Yellow Peril. Please remember, friends, these stories were written in 1913. They are rife with racial stereotypes. They are products of their time. Fu-Manchu is “the Devil Doctor.” He has “feline eyes” and “a face like Satan.” He is the embodiment of the West’s fear and distrust of the East. Obviously, some of the turns of phrase can be shocking. But taken as a sample of the times they were written, that “fear of the Yellow Peril” is what drives the action of the stories.

From filthy opium dens to mysterious locked room mysteries, Smith and Petrie seem to always be a step behind as they do all they can to pierce the Doctor’s evil network. Using his matchless knowledge of “Eastern Science,” Fu-Manchu is bent on eliminating all who pose a threat to his plans of domination. The Doctor has many tools to accomplish his mission: everything from strange and deadly insects that are unknown to the West, his network of savage assassins who can infiltrate any English domicile, to a matchless knowledge of science that borders on dark magic. Can he even raise the dead?!
These stories are an important window into the times and attitude they were written in. With that being said, they are fun, fast moving tales that still read well today. An important addition to the library of any pulp fan.

Vertigo has announced a new dedicated app featuring all Vertigo digital titles. The new app, available on the App Store, is free to download and features popular VERTIGO series THE SANDMAN, FABLES, Y: THE LAST MAN, PREACHER, 100 BULLETS, HELLBLAZER, AMERICAN VAMPIRE, THE UNWRITTEN, DMZ, THE INVISIBLES, TRANSMETROPOLITAN, and SWEET TOOTH, among others.

As an added bonus, readers who download the new VERTIGO app will have exclusive access to a three-day in-app sale that offers all SANDMAN digital comics for $.99 per issue. Written by #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, THE SANDMAN is one of the most acclaimed titles in the history of comics. Norman Mailer described the series as “a comic strip for intellectuals.” With a rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, the series is considered to be one of the most original and artistically ambitious comic books of the modern age.

The launch of the app is timed to the release of four new VERTIGO series debuting each week this month, beginning with today’s publication of FAIREST by New York Times best-selling and award-winning writer Bill Willingham. A spin-off of FABLES, the series stars some of the fairest in the land and balances horror, humor and adventure. Each FAIREST storyline will explore the secret histories of one character, from Sleeping Beauty to Rapunzel to Cinderella to Thumbelina to Snow White and more. The first six issue arc drawn by Phil Jimenez (WONDER WOMAN, THE INVISIBLES) follows the misadventures of Briar Rose along with Ali Baba and the Snow Queen.

Also available same day digitally this month are the following new Vertigo series:

• SAUCER COUNTRY (VERTIGO / ongoing series / 32pg. / Color / $2.99), a dark thriller that blends UFO lore and alien abduction with political intrigue, all set in the hauntingly beautiful Southwest written by Paul Cornell (DEMON KNIGHTS, Doctor Who) with art by Ryan Kelly (NEW YORK FIVE).
• DOMINIQUE LAVEAU: VOODOO CHILD (VERTIGO / ongoing series / 32pg. / Color / $2.99), a high octane story set in New Orleans that blends the mortal and supernatural worlds, written by former editor-in-chief of The Source magazine, award-winning author, journalist and TV producer Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, with art by Milestone Media co-founder Denys Cowan (THE QUESTION) and John Floyd with covers by Rafael Grampá.
• THE NEW DEADWARDIANS (VERTIGO / mini-series / 32pg. / Color / $2.99), a murder mystery set among the world of the undead in post-Victorian era London, brought to vivid life by writer Dan Abnett (RESURRECTION MAN) with art by newcomer I. N. J. Culbard (At The Mountains of Madness).

Click here  to visit the App Store and download the new VERTIGO App.

Previews of all four new series are available for viewing here:www.vertigocomics.com/2012/02/08/graphic-connection-vertigo-preview-2012

Paramount Home Entertainment
Release date: Jan 24, 2012
MSRP: $49.99

Originally airing in fall of 1972 Season 6 of Mannix opens with a bang, literally as a cop is killed in front of Joe Mannix. The shooter wants a deal in return for helping find a missing Judge, but Joe ain’t buying it! This opening episode is a perfect example of the show and why it is so good. It’s hard boiled PI set in LA in the 70s and was one of the truly classic PIs of television. And the late 60s and early 70s saw a lot of good crime television. PIs and cops were everywhere. And while a lot of the shows were good Mannix stands out among them as one of the best, right along side Rockford Files. Magnum PI was great in its day, but honestly, Mannix holds up better over time. And you can see how mannix influenced Magnum and other shows.

Throughout the season we see cases ranging from murder to theft and all manner of clients. Secretary Peggy (played by the wonderful Gail Fisher) even goes undercover. A Puzzle for one was a real favorite as Mannix is looking for a killer who took out a fellow PI and in the process takes on his last case.

What really makes this show work is the incredible Mike Connors who is perfect as a 1970’s PI and tough as he needs to be and smarter than the folks he’s up against. The production of values are damn good for the time and the direction is great. The action scenes pop and the dramatic scenes work great. What I like about the show is that Mannix never acts like he knows everything and as a result we get to see him really work the case. It is no stretch to buy into Mike Conners as a working man Private Investigator. You want to trust him and if you need a PI this is the guy you want. Mannix is the draw here, a character that you want to watch, regardless of how the show evolves from season to season.

This six disc set comes in at a little over 20 hours and the quality of transfer and sound is every bit as good as previous season.

Jon Jordan

ARCHIE: THE MARRIED LIFE
Archie Comics
Oct 4th, 2011

Written by Michael Uslan and Paul Luperberg with pencils by Norm Breyfogle
Archie: The Married Life collects the first of this post marriage story arc that started back with Life with Archie #600.

Now I have always been a comics fan and while I do read mostly superhero books and the more adult books I have always had a soft spot for Archie going back to my youth when I read the comics while at the barber shop. Archie for me has always been a consistently fun comic that hearkens to a better world where troubles are not life threatening and people are happy.

By no stretch of the imagination did I turn the first pages of this book expecting The Watchmen, but this is far from the silly humor books I read as a kid. ARCHIE: THE MARRIED LIFE has two concurrent story lines set with in the Archie Multi-verse, both what if tales. In one Archie is married to Veronica living in Riverdale and working for Mr. Lodge. The story has conspiracies and problems that people are facing every day like corruption and greed and problems with the economy. The second arc has Archie and Betty married and living in New York, struggling to pay rent and eat as they discover their dreams may not end up a reality. Both stories alternate chapters and by the end of this first collection we have some wrap up, but also set up for more. There is a death, weddings, Jughead is actually responsible, Reggie seems to be grown up and Riverdale is changing. There is also a mysterious stranger lurking about who seems to be traveling between both these possible realities which brings in a nice sci fi twist.

The writing is nicely done, kids can enjoy it, but this really feels like a book for adults.Seeing Archie dealing with disappointment is really something and it’s handled well.Norm Breyfogle on art was great. I remember his art from Batman, and while he is working within the look of Archie comics he still gives his own signature look.

I really enjoyed this and found myself caught up in the tale. I can’t wait for Volume 2!

Jon

Deadline has reported that Entertainment One, in conjunction with Piller/Segan/Shepherd, has optioned Karin Slaughter‘s best-selling Grant County books for television.

The series features Sara Linton, a pediatrician that also acts as the coroner, as well as her ex-husband police chief Jeffrey Tolliver. The characters have appeared in six novels including BLINDSIGHTED, Karin’s 2001 debut.

E1 and P/S/S have already worked together with SyFy’s HAVEN, a series that is based on the work of Stephen King.

A Separation
Written and Directed by Asghar Farhadi
Starring Peyman Noadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini, Sarina Farhadi

A Separation just won the Oscar for the best foreign language film. It may have also been the best movie I saw from the 2011 nominees in any category.

PLOT: Set in contemporary Iran, A Separation is easily the most psychologically complex and harrowing movie I have seen in a long time. Iranian religion, law, government, their family structure all manage to place impediments on the journey toward a better life for this upper-middle class family.

A husband and wife separate. She (Hatami) wants to leave Iran with her husband and daughter—hoping her daughter, a very bright six-grader, will have a better life abroad, He (Moadi) refuses to leave his senile father behind. His wife goes home to her parents and the father hires a woman (Bayat) to care for his father, a duty his wife formerly performed. Traveling from a distant part of Tehran, she brings her small child along with her

The hired woman finds caring for his father difficult. He is unable to care for himself at all and leaves the apartment if the opportunity presents itself. She has issues of her own, which I will not divulge. When it appears that she has stolen some money and left the father alone, the husband fires her. When she asks for her money and tries to explain herself, he pushes her out the door.

This quick action begins a long string of events, which lead to a court case. That’s all you need to know because the less you know going into this film, the better. This is a film where everyone has good motives but things still turn out badly. Everyone has a heroic moment and everyone lies at some point. Some lies are self-serving, but many seem like the lesser of evils.

The portrait of Iran here is of a society that values education but had antiquated notions of justice. This is a film that should be seen by students of conflict resolution. It perfectly captures just how hard such a thing can be when real people are involved.

A perfect movie if you are willing to dig in. Highly recommended.

Patti
Be sure to stop by www.pattinase.blogspot.com/ to check out Forgotten Books every Friday as well as other thoughts, comments and reviews.

In conjunction with the Friday Reads facebook page (www.facebook.com/FridayReads) we are giving away copies of  LIVING PROOF by Kira Piefoff from our good friends at Tor

To be entered in the drawing shoot an email over to
Jon?@crimespreemag.com (remove the question mark)
And put CONTEST in the subject line.
Also your address in the body of the email
We will pick the winners on March 16th

When we do the drawing we will be sending an extra something for one lucky winner to be picked from the comments section of the Friday Reads face book page,so after you enter, go leave a comment!

www.facebook.com/FridayReads

Why I Wrote Living Proof
By Kira Peikoff

When I was 12 years old, I decided that I would become a novelist. My hero was Agatha Christie, so one day I began to plot out a murder mystery set in a lab rife with conniving scientists, romantic entanglements, and poisonous chemicals. I never got past the first chapter—the story’s outrageousness quickly doomed it—but throughout my adolescence, my desire to write a book persisted.

By college, this yearning had morphed into a certainty as sure as any fact. I never doubted that I would commit to it one day, but finding the right time was tricky. I needed to graduate from NYU, get my first job, and establish myself in a real writing career like journalism before I could do something superfluous like fiction. I figured maybe I’d get started around age 30. Looking back, it’s sad to see how often maturity squashes childhood dreams, deeming them second-class citizens to  practicality and convention.

Luckily the storyteller in me didn’t take the conformist that seriously. I hunted for a good idea so I could get started as soon as possible—not officially, of course, so there was no pressure. In June 2006, I moved to Washington, D.C. for a summer reporting internship with The Orange County Register. Several times a week, I would go to Capitol Hill to interview Congressmen or cover a hearing. On weekends I tried to write fiction, but the muse stubbornly resisted my overtures.

It was during this creatively frustrated period that I went to the White House to cover President Bush’s first veto—rejecting Congress’s bid to lift federal restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. As I watched him nod and smile like a saint, proclaiming that morality and human decency required his rejection of the bill, my face burned with anger. An adoring group of pro-life advocates sat at his feet, along with “snowflake” children, kids who had been born to non-biological parents using the leftover embryos of couples who had undergone in vitro fertilization. I interviewed two of these families on the lawn afterward while their young children played together nearby. One of the couples had donated their embryos to the other couple, and this day was the first time they—and their children—had ever met. The kids, all biological siblings, had no clue they were related, and their parents vowed not to tell them anytime soon. The adoptive parents gushed to me that they would not have a family if the other couple had allowed their embryos to be discarded—and that doing so would have been tantamount to the murder of these pre-existing souls.

It took all my trained journalistic objectivity to return to my office and write a fair, balanced piece for the newspaper. But when I went home, I was livid. I thought of all the ill and injured people who could be helped by embryonic stem cell research, and how backwards it was for the government’s religious-infused politics to put a stop to it. The way I saw it, the field was being thwarted in its infancy (excuse the pun). How much time was being lost, I wondered—and how many lives that might have been saved?

It was deeply personal wishful thinking. When I was 15, my best friend Caroline was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. It was hellish, surreal: visiting the hospital every weekend for months, watching her heave into plastic basins and shed her long blonde hair in chunks. Astonishingly, she joked with the nurses in the ICU and even apologized for causing me sorrow. She died on May 17, 2002 at seventeen. Numbness enveloped me. Almost a decade later, it’s still a sensitive subject. Many of my current friends do not even know she existed. I believe that Caroline’s tragic death laid the groundwork for my fascination with biomedical research, and my fury at its obstruction.

After Bush’s veto, I started to imagine a character. She was a dreadfully sick woman, one who desperately needed embryonic stem cell research to save her life. But what if she lived in a society that had gone just one step further than our own, taking conservative views to their logical conclusion by declaring the destruction of any embryos illegal? How far would she go to get around this law if she was courageous and desperate enough? And what would happen if someone in the government started to suspect her—then simultaneously fall in love with her?

Finally, I had an idea I loved. As my senior year in college went by, I wrote every weekend for months. When graduation neared, my dad, a professional writer, offered me a deal: Take one year off to write a book full-time, with my support. Why wait? You’ll never have the same freedom in life. You should do what you love, and this way you can take some time to figure out if writing is it.Most people would have accepted such generosity on the spot, but I hesitated. I had so many concerns: What about delaying my “real” career? Could I get a job after a gap year on my resume? Still have self-esteem if I lived off my parents? Such a set-up sounded lazy and spoiled, even though the job would prove far harder than entry-level employment . And what if I couldn’t see the project through? But in the end I accepted.
It was just too good a chance to pass up.

I graduated in May 2007, right around my 22nd birthday, and started writing full time in June. My first two weeks were a disaster. The complexity of the task ahead daunted me. I grappled with self-doubt and a sense of utter foolishness before finally calling my dad to admit my failure. As ironic as it sounds in an age when many post-grads call their parents to move back home, I begged him to just call off the deal and let me get a real job. Bu