Panel Vision - Green Hornet (2011)

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Edited by Robert Beach

One of the more bizarre powerhouse talents in Hollywood today is Seth Rogen. Rogen’s a relatively recent star, but he’s been around for a while, making his way through smaller roles before joining forces with Judd Apatow for Knocked Up and parlaying that success into a more substantive career. 

He didn’t really break big as a face of comedy till 2014 with Neighbors, though he took a big step forward with the 2013 comedy This is the End. Still, 2014 was the year Rogen became a name film journalists and bloggers starting talking about, first with the narrative of his R-rated comedy Neighbors beating the PG-13 tentpole of Amazing Spider-Man 2 and then with the “controversy” surrounding he and James Franco’s comedy The Interview. 

In the wake of all that attention, Rogen has only grown bigger and recently used that clout to launch an adaptation of the Vertigo Comic Preacher on AMC. Apparently, Rogen is a big comic book geek, which is why he did Preacher. Now that Preacher is a hit; he will probably produce that The Boys show he’s been teasing (Editor’s Note: Superheroes who fight meteors with their genitals). In honor of Rogen’s rise, I thought I’d look back on his own entry in the superhero genre. The other failed 2011Green superhero film: Green Hornet.  

Cover Story - Top 12 Preacher Covers

So, AMC’s Preacher show premieres tomorrow.  It’s a pretty big deal, the first major comic adaptation by AMC after their phenomenally successful adaptation of Walking Dead.  Additionally, it represents the first time Seth Rogen has thrown his considerable weight behind a television series, no less an adaptation of one of the goriest and edgiest comic books to come out of DC Comics mature reader’s imprint Vertigo. 

Finally, this is the 2^nd time someone has attempted to adapt a Verigo Comic to the small screen after the abysmal failure of last year’s Constantine, making this a second shot at success for the vast amount of properties at Vertigo.  Given all that, and that it’s another comic book show for me to leach hash tags off of, of course I’m going to celebrate it and what better to do that then with a look at the comics the show is based on.  So, let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on Preacher’s 12 best covers.

Cover Story - Top 16 Walking Dead Covers

What can you say about The Walking Dead?  Well, I can say that another season of the hit AMC comic book show has come to a close, which is the entire reason this article is getting written.  More than that, though, I can say that it is pretty impressive how much AMC’s The Walking Dead has managed to elevate the place of independent comics in terms of their marketability.  Previously, indie comics hadn’t really been a major force outside the comic market since the speculator bubble burst in the ‘90s. 

Back then, names like Youngblood, Spawn, and Savage Dragon were all big names and even though we had Hellboy in the mid-2000s the idea of adapting creator owned indie books to the small screen was more or less written off till Walking Dead got big.  So even though I haven’t read the comic in forever and really don’t like it or the show very much I certainly acknowledge that good things came out of this multimedia phenomena.  So, with that said let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on the top 16 Walking Dead covers.

AMC's Preacher Premiere Trailer

Preacher was a Vertigo Comic by acclaimed author Garth Ennis and equally beloved artist Steve Dilon.  Lasting for a total 75 issues it’s considered a major hallmark for comics and is one of the universal counters to the claim that comics sucked in the ‘90s as the series lasted from 1995 to 2000.  Recently, rising star comedian Seth Rogan has set-up about bringing the show to AMC in what, I assume, was an attempt to recreate the monster success the network enjoyed with The Walking Dead.  Against pretty much everyone’s better judgment that adaptation is going forward with a confirmed 10 episodes set for a premiere next year and Dominic Cooper set to play the lead character of Jesse Custer.  Cooper is actually a bit of a get for the series as he’s most well known for playing Howard Stark in Captain America: The First Avenger and Agent Carter making him one of the many Marvel actors crossing the floor to a DC project.  Now, the first full trailer has premiered for the show and surprise; it’s garbage.