Reviewing "The Untamed", Stunning New Fantasy from Stranger Comics

Meeting "The Untamed".

When I had the chance to read "The Untamed" I jumped at the opportunity. This new comic, released by Stranger Comics, is out on Dec 2nd 2009 and is well worth checking out. "The Untamed" is written by Sebastian A. Jones and opens with a hauntingly black and white scene of a shrouded ferryman taking a figure through flooded vaulted caves to...Oasis. The story follows a man who returns to his old town with seven days to reap seven souls and thus free himself from hell. But when he meets a girl who reminds him of his murdered daughter his mission becomes blurred and choices have to be made.

"The Untamed" is beautifully drawn by Peter Berting, who has worked on films such as "Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows". The artwork is arresting (the colour progression in the first few pages is a treat in itself) and the marriage of the words and pictures works perfectly. The story unfolds quickly, but is not hurried. Rather, it feels like measured footsteps taking you towards an unknown doom.

There is an animated preview to whet your appetite:

Haunting, isn't it?

High Praise from Hollywood

There have already been some rave reviews from the great and the good:

"THE UNTAMED promises to be an epic tale, conceived and crafted not only with a great love of comics, but also a profound understanding of the power of visionary storytelling.”

Clive Barker (Hellraiser, Candyman)

“What’s not to love about Jones and Bertging’s THE UNTAMED: it’s a Sergio Leone, Frank Frazetta, William Blake fever dream mash-up. And that’s just where it begins.”

Lloyd Levin (Watchmen, Hellboy, Boogie Nights)

When was the last time you read a comic?

As a kid I looked forward to Saturday for two reasons. One: no school and good TV in the morning (TISWAS FTW!). Two: Comics! They were delivered with the Saturday paper and it was always a rush to get to the door first when they were put through the slot. At first it was Whizzer and Chips, Monster Fun and Battle Picture Weekly (my younger brother, mine and older brother's respectively). After Monster Fun tragically merged up with Buster I looked around for a replacement and then along came 2000 AD. Oh. My. Word.

For Tharg's Sake

The post-apocalyptic landscape of 2000 AD was mind-expanding. I knew that in the future (2000 was so far away!) that we would all be living on Moonbase Alpha and having eyebrow issues, but 2000 AD was a completely different type of future. Gritty, unforgiving and....exciting. Of course, that was many, many moons ago and the last comic I read was actually "Serenity: Better Days". I absolutely loved it on many levels and it did pique my interest in comics again.

"The Untamed" looks like is going to be a wonderful new series, and is hopefully the start of a many more stories in the Asunda world.

You can find out more here: StrangerComics.com, on Facebook and on Twitter

A give-away this week!

As a special post-Thanksgiving, Pre-Christmas treat, I will have a copy of "The Untamed" to give away later this week. Stay tuned!

Sean Becker Interview out! Plus questioning Kim Evey...

The truth is out there...
Yes, Sean Becker, the Emmy Award-winning Director of Seasons 2 and 3 of The Guild, gives us the low-down on The Guild, Film School and so much more...!

• Thrill as you hear how Kim Evey and Greg Benson drew the impressionable young film-school hopeful into the seedy world of web videos
• Gasp at Sean's description of his drunken exploits at Comic Con 2009 with Con-Quest
• Pass-out as Sean tells how he begged Felicia to tone down the scenes between Zaboo and Riley

For more details head over to PinkRaygun.com for video descriptions for all three parts of this stunning tell-all expose* of The Guild and all things Sean!

And don't forget - Episode 12 of Season 3 is out tomorrow - it's going to be a heart-stopping finale!

...and speaking of Kim Evey - your questions please!

The wonderful Kim Evey has agreed to do an email interview so I'm taking questions now! Have you ever wondered how she managed to get all those wonderful guests on Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show, or how many times Felicia has turned up on set swearing and violent? If you have any burning question please add a comment here and I'll send as many as I can off to Ms Evey.

* When I say expose, I mean you'll learn a lot more about The Guild and Sean Becker, not that there will be any other sort of....exposing.

The Guild S3 Ep11 and Interview news

Only 1 more Episode to go!

I've done a review of Ep 11 on PinkRaygun.com. So much has happened in Season 3 that it's worth looking back on how far each of the characters have. Next week is set to be an explosive end to the season!

Sean Becker bares all!

In an in depth interview last week, I had the pleasure of of probing Sean deeply about his work with The Guild and beyond. I'm putting the finishing touches to the edits but the videos will be available shortly and are well worth a look.

Thanks to Sean for a good laugh :)

More Interviews!!!

And that's not all. Exciting news as upcoming interviews delightful people from The Guild will now include:

• Kim Evey (Producer)
• Robin Thorsen (who plays Clara)
• Michele Boyd (who plays Riley)

If you have any questions please let me know!

And my interview with the lovely Jenni Powell will be out next week!

The Guild S3 Ep10 PLUS Sean Becker under the spotlight! Questions please....

Awesome upon Awesome!

So, we're now on Episode 10 of Season 3 and.....*faints* Well I don't know about you, but this Season is taking so many twists and turns that I never know what's going to happen next! I've reviewed Ep 10 over on PinkRaygun.com and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Felicia has said this is her favourite episode and she has written about Ep 9 & 10 plus her recent actoring over on her blog.

Excitement abounds!

And the awesome continues because tomorrow I'm going to be video interviewing Director/Editor Mr Sean Becker from a totally secret location! You will remember Sean from such blog posts as 'Who is Sean Becker?' , 'Sean Becker Speaks out...' and 'Felicia Day: Evil Warder or Trouble Genius?' and so I'm sure you will have lots of questions for him. As have I! So if you want to me to ask your question please comment below and I'll try to get through as many as possible. I can't wait...

Who watches The Guild? A new poll - it's scientifical!!!!*

Blogger has Polls!

(Vork is amazed at the crassness of this poll, too. Sorry.)

And what better way than to celebrate than to start a poll about who watches The Guild? I bet, like me, you've often wondered** about the demographics for The Guild so here's your chance to take part in this totally scientific survey.

Thank you for your participation!

* By science, I mean social science. I think you know what I mean by that.

**I have actually often wondered about this. If you think that that makes me sad then...you're probably right! But please do the poll anyway :)

The week in review: The Guild, Halloween, Legend of Neil, Dr Horrible...

(Clara shows her sweeter side in The Guild Halloween Special...Photo by Brian Kameoka, courtesy of Knights of Good)

Yeah, technically this covers more than a week...!
Did you ever notice how, as soon as you decide to do one thing, 3 gazillion other things pop up and demand your attention? So, in the spirit of getting things done, here are all the blog posts I would have done in the last few days if I had had the time. You're welcome! :)

So, in reverse chronological order:

The Guild Halloween Special
Released on 27th October this is a wonderfully playful romp with The Guild cast as they quest for loot IRL. Written by Kim Evey and directed by Greg Benson, it's great to see the gang reunit'd-ish.

The Dr Horrible and Guild Second Annual Halloween Screening
Whedonopolis once again hosted a sing-along screening of Dr Horrible and this year showed Season 2 of The Guild. It was a star-studded event with fun galore and money being raised for Kids Need to Read.

Here's some highlights from watchtheguild's YouTube:



Felicia Day uses Halloween as a way to traumatise my daughter
Felicia has a tradition of shopping for her Halloween outfits in kid's clothing section at 4:00 on Halloween (it must be true - she tweeted it!). As you digest how many things are wrong with that, feast your eyes on this year's abomination:



The Horror!!!

My little girl was not at all amused by Ms Day's antics, as you can see:

The Guild S3 Ep9: Wit's End
Season 3 is ratcheting up the tension with MOAR TRAUMA as The Guild self-destructs. I reviewed it on PinkRaygun.com and people are of the opinion that things may have reached turning point. So.Much.Goodness!



Director Sean Becker agrees, and he commented on Facebook "...I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of the final 3 eps, they are a lot of fun!" I can't wait!

The Guild on Amazon.com's DVD recommended list
The Guild DVD makes #68 on the list, only 2 behind Nathan Fillion's 'Castle'! This is an amazing feat for a webseries - well done everyone!

Legend of Neil Needs You!
We love this webseries, right? LoN is a guilty pleasure (NSFW but soooo funny) and we need to make sure that they make a Season 3. So help Sandeep and Tony out and read how you can help - it only takes a minute!

Knights of The Guild Live Broadcast
I totally missed this because of hockey-mum duties, but KOTG had their first live broadcast last night and despite a few technical hiccups it went really well. Kenny has blogged about it and I can't wait to see it!

NaNoWriMo
I am so far behind at this stage it's a bit scary, but there are good reasons why (including being sick, kids being sick and - YAY! - more interest in my non-fiction project). To all those Nano-ers who are struggling keep in mind that you can make up the ground. I've got a long way to go but there is time to catch up - wish us all luck!

NaNoWri - Wut? It's that time again, writerly folks!

NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month

Yesterday heralded the holt-anticipated start of NaNoWriMo - where otherwise level-headed folk attempt to do the impossible task of writing a novel in a month. Yes, that's right - in the space of 30 days thousands of people will be pounding their keyboards and scribbling in notebooks in order to reach the goal of 50, 000 words. And that is a short novel. In a month.

WHY?

Because! On the NaNo site there is a list of FAQs and this is near the top. I love the answers they give - because the deadline makes you do it, because so many people are striving together to achieve the same thing, because it lets you stamp down that internal critic that insists you make it perfect before you write it...

Are you NaNoWriMoing?

If you are let me know and we can be writing buddies. You can find my NaNo page here, and I'm hoping to work out how to get the word count widget to work so you can check out my awesome progress. So many things are happening with my writing at the moment it's a really exciting time - now I'd better get back and do some more!