BusyGamer.com catches up with Tom Jane this past weekend at Dallas Comic Con.

You may know actor Thomas Jane from his recent hits THE MIST and THE PUNISHER, but you may not know he is a huge Sci Fi and horror fan, and now, a comic book publisher. While meeting up with Thomas Jane at Dallas Comic Con, he took the time out to answer some questions by Timothy Danger…

BUSYGAMER: So What brings you out to this Con?

Thomas Jane: Good looking women, pre code horror comic books, and my friends… Tim Bradstreet, James Daly, Todd Farmer, Bernie Wrightson, Bill Stout, Joe Jusko, Howard Chaykin, these are my pals, and they are all here, we have some good times together.

BUSYGAMER: Yeah I see that, looks like you are all working on a big project together, is that right?

Thomas Jane: Yeah, I mean we all work on stuff, we like to group up as much as we can.

BUSYGAMER: That’s right, you know a lot of people in mainstream America, they see you in the movies and stuff, they don’t know you actually are a big comic book guy.

Thomas Jane: That’s right I am, and now I’ve become a publisher and we’ve put out two titles, BAD PLANET and ALIEN PIG FARM, and we’re putting out a third this year called THE LYCAN. A band of werewolf hunters in the 17th century and we are having a blast. We put out a book called SHOCK FESTIVAL with IDW. It’s got great reviews, we’re putting out a couple of graphic novels. We are having a lot of fun, I get to work with some pretty terrific guys.

BUSYGAMER: Yeah… so you are the publisher then?

Thomas Jane: Yeah, I’m the publisher, and I wrote BAD PLANET, also helped conceive ALIEN PIG FARM, Todd Farmer wrote the script.

BUSYGAMER: How long have you been into comics?

Thomas Jane: When I was like 8 years old, I think I bought a copy of MAD MAGAZINE, and my dad said “you know that used to be a comic book, when I was a kid it was MAD COMICS??? I was like, no way. That led to comic book shops. I never got into superheroes, I think they are soap operas, I’m not really into guys in tights, I’ve never been into it. I never got into soap operas.

But I love stories, I love westerns, I love science fiction, crime comics, horror comics, war comics, so many more you know? I love the comics that comprise the other 3 percent of comic books OK? Charles Burns, Will Eisner, Art Speigelman, these guys are artists, and the art of comics and the art of graphic storytelling is absolutely fantastic. I’m happy for the superheroes, I guess it keeps the industry afloat. I think in a strange way it also hobbles the industry by keeping in a world of daytime Fucking soap opera. So FUCK YOU Superman alright? You’re time has come and gone.
(more…)

T. Danger takes Jigsaw to the woodchipper

Timothy Danger does…

The first thing die hard comic book fans notice when they sit down to see the new PUNISHER WAR ZONE movie is the nifty “Marvel Knights??? logo that replaces the standard “Marvel??? logo you see when you watch the typical Marvel movies like SPIDERMAN or IRON MAN. For the uninitiated, Marvel Knights is a sort of mini universe in the Marvel continuity that deals with more mature themes than the typical Marvel comics. It isn’t meant for children and if you go see this movie with an “R??? rating, you’ll know just what they mean.

I like movies with a bang. This one has it and then some. If you haven’t seen the trailers yet, check them out and count the head explosions… then go see the movie and multiply that by ten. The thing we like about the movie is that it really does capture the Frank Castle the hardcore Punisher fans have loved. It really seems to have leapt off the pages of the Max series or Garth Ennis’s stories. The imagery from the movie posters looks straight out of a Bradstreet comic book cover.

For awhile, everything looks great. It’s violent and gory like a Hong Kong horror movie…

And then, the villain comes out. The villain is Punisher comic villain “Jigsaw???. While we are glad to actually see a comic villain make an appearance in the movie, he seems like he stepped out of a 90’s movie. Which really sucks because Jigsaw is a wonderfully broken character… it could have been a really dark and twisted character. I mean we are talking Joker crazy. But instead, we have a stereotypical guy in bad makeup playing the stereotypical Italian gangster.

The villain is complete with a stereotypical gang. You got the scared kid, the older wiseguy, and yes, you have the “crazy??? one who gets busted out of an insane asylum. Didn’t we learn anything from the Bullseye wreck of DAREDEVIL? Obviously not, because this guy reminds me of him in spades.

So what do we have? A movie that stops short of being great. The Punisher is spot on, great violence, leave the kids at home. But when it comes to the villains, Lionsgate is still acting like there are kids in the audience.

Great for:
Gun battles
Head explosions
Stereotypical gangsters (fuhgeddaboutit)

Not good for:
Deep Thought
A Villain to root for

-T. Danger