Promotional image for the anime adaptation

Deadline describes the series as:

The worldwide search by a young doctor for the most evil sociopath that has ever lived. He is a 12-year-old boy, and the doctor’s decision to save his life has unwittingly unleashed a Pandora’s Box that leaves the doc battling to stop a plot of mass genocide.

It is unknown at this point whether the series will differ from the manga in some regards, such as the protagonist being Japanese or the post Cold-War German setting. Del Toro has been courting creator Urasawa on the idea for some time. A previous attempt to adapt the series was made by New Line, who found the content to be too expansive to be condensed into films.

The manga was previously adapted as a critically acclaimed anime series by Madhouse. Both the manga and the anime are currently licensed and available through Viz Media for an English release.

Richard "Hawk" Hawkins, Guillermo del Toro to Adapt Naoki Urasawa’s “Monster” for HBO

• It’s off to Jotunheim, the land of the Frost Giants as Bruce Banner and his lab team embark on an all-new secret mission for S.H.I.E.L.D! Caught trespassing by the local natives, they’re going to need the help of the mighty Avenger, Thor!

Waid is excited to get Simonson on the book and having the legendary artist draw Thor again. While Thor will be showing up, the question should be which Thor is showing up? Waid makes an interesting  statement about the Thor we’ll be seeing:

Why on Earth would you have the amazing Walt Simonson aboard and NOT ask him to draw Thor? The teasing question is–which Thor will we be seeing? Banner and his team of assistants build a portal to Jotunheim, land of the Frost Giants, in order to obtain a rare metal there–but in doing so, they may have accomplished something totally unforeseen!

While we’ll have to wait and see exactly what Waid means, Simonson touched on revisiting the world of Thor and how he goes about tackling the Hulk:

It’s been interesting drawing Thor and not writing him. (laughs) I like what Mark’s been asking me to draw a lot, and he has kindly allowed me to kibitz a little. My earliest work on Thor was done pretty much the same way when I did layouts for Len Wein to write on the Thor title in the 70s. I also got to draw Thor in some of the Brian Bendis Avengers recently. I’ve found it’s been a lot of fun for me to go back and revisit the old boy again.

Regarding the drawing the Hulk and Thor, there’s an essential difference in their natures I try to reflect in the figure work.
I’ve approached drawing the Hulk with a certain ‘wildness’, since he is essentially a ‘monster’ who is the unfettered version of a mortal. The shapes that make up his figure as well as the actual lines used to define those shapes can be far less restrained that they might otherwise be for a more ordinary character. In other words, the drawing technique itself is meant to suggest the limitless quality of the Hulk’s fury and power. And because of his ‘monstrous’ nature, the Hulk’s figure and face don’t require the kind of symmetry that a character like Thor needs in order to be handsome within the context of the comic. I’m also inspired by the earliest versions of the Hulk by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko where there seems to me to have been a nod to the Karloff Frankenstein monster of the early Universal horror films. All of which means I can pack a lot into my drawings to try to capture some reflection of the Hulk’s wild nature.

If you want to check out the full interview with Waid and Simonson click here. It will be exciting to see Simonson taking on Thor again. The artist did some incredibly work with the thunder god back in the day, so having him return to draw again mixed in with it being a Hulk book makes this a must get. What do you think about Simonson’s return? From what Mark Waid said do you think we’ll get a big twist with the Thor story?

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Waid And Simonson Talk Indestructible Hulk

 
Day 10 for 31 in 31 has brought me to one of my favorite comedies of all time, but it is something that is also extremely worthy of being a Halloween movie, Young Frankenstein directed by the legendary Mel Brooks and written by Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks with a credit going to Mary Shelly, the writer of the original Frankenstein novel and creator of Frankensteins monster.

Released in 1974 this has been one of my all time favorites passed down from my mothers love of Mel Brooks to me, introducing me to Mel Brooks and solidifying him as one of my favorite directors of all time.

Young Frankenstein‘s synopsis is that Dr. Frankenstein’s grandson reluctantly, and then not so reluctantly, takes over his grandfathers work, but in the hilarious style that only the duo of Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks could create. Watch, enjoy, nd repeat numerous times.

Michael Worthan, 31 in 31: Day 10 “Young Frankenstein”

Cover via Amazon

Day 4 of 31 in 31 brings us the movie, Monster Squad. It’s fun and as the film’s title implies, there’s monsters involved. The film was written by Shane Black and Fred Dekker. Dekker also directed. Now, I’m not one to throw the term “cheesy” out there to describe a movie nor am I one to think that a movie is “so-bad-that-it’s-good”. If it’s good, it’s good. If it’s bad, it’s bad. But it’s OK to like a bad movie. This, however, is not a bad movie, just know what you’re getting into since it was made in 1987.

The film centers around Sean and Patrick as well as their rag-tag team of friends, Horace aka “Fat Kid” and Rudy, the older cool kid, who started a monster club in their treehouse. It turns out all the monsters they read about are real. Dracula, Wolfman, The Mummy, The Creature (of Black Lagoon fame), and of course, Frankenstein’s monster. Through a turn of events, Dracula is looking for an amulet in order to take over the world and it just so happens to be in this Smalltowne, USA. (yeah, I know it sounds bad, but it was the 80s. What did you expect?). Sean and friends catch wind to what is going on and decide to try and stop the monsters with a help of the ‘Scary German Guy’.

Again, this is just a fun movie that showcases monsters. You can’t hide how 1980s the movie is especially with the nice montage song. Besides, what other movie can give you the line, “Whoa! Wolfman’s not nards!”?

JordanGhastly, 31 in 31: Day 4 “Monster Squad”