Comic Books

Just in time for Halloween, Zenescope has launched perhaps its most chilling comic yet. "The Chronicles of Dr. Herbert West" is a six-issue miniseries that adapts the classic H.P. Lovecraft story "Herbert West: Reanimator. " It complements the Fort Washington-based publisher's other dark titles. Zenescope president Joe Brusha was such a fan of the source material that he decided to co-write the title with Ralph Tedesco, Zenescope VP and editor-in-chief. The results are impressive.

Basing movies on video games is like basing the world economy on adjustable rate mortgages. Yeah, there's a quick payoff, and the smart guys probably get their money out the first week, but in the long run, isn't the whole process bound to be exposed as a fraud? "Super Mario Brothers?" "Doom?" "Resident Evil" has yielded an entire trilogy, each entry worse than the last. When will folks realize they've been had? Not until next week, hope the makers of "Max Payne," another laughably bad movie based on a popular video-game title.

"The Dark Knight" stands poised to dominate the box office this weekend, for reasons that it's hard to feel completely good about. The movie has its built-in comic-book audience, of course, but also a joker in the hole: a TMZ culture fixated on train-wreck celebrity, anticipating Heath Ledger's Joker as some kind of suicide note. Will we see evidence of the bleary, reckless spiral that claimed his life? Is he Hollywood's Van Gogh, a mad genius appreciated now in death?

With the Hulk poised to smash the competition at cineplexes this weekend, it would seem the ideal time for him to do the same in the industry that gave him birth. However, while Marvel's comics division undoubtedly would like to capitalize on the film's release, there really has not been one Hulk ongoing title - except the character's "Marvel Adventures," which is aimed at very young kids - that have had the Hulk everyone knows as the star. His longtime ongoing "Incredible Hulk" series has been taken over by Hercules and his new "Hulk" series has starred a red Hulk and focused on a murder mystery; it is totally unlike what people will see onscreen.

What happens when the ultimate killing machine faces off against someone virtually impossible to kill? That question isn't merely philosophical, it's a storyline being played out on printed comics pages as one of the baddest girls on the block, Painkiller Jane, faces off against the meanest machine of them all, the Terminator, in a 4-part crossover that starts in the just-released "Painkiller Jane" No. 4. The crossover will then continue in...

The comic-book character created by Al Wiesner has the superhero M.O. He can fly, wears a leotard over bulging muscles, and can save the world on his lunch break. But when the plot requires a feat of derring-do, this superhero emerges from his secret identity at the sound of a distinctive call to action: "Oi-Vay. " Within seconds, it's Shaloman to the rescue. Wiesner, of Warminster, is the artist behind what he calls a pioneering "Kosher Crusader. " Shaloman wears a yarmulke, and the insignia on his chest is a Hebrew letter.

IT'S COMIC-CON WEEK in San Diego, so today's Tattle will address the inner geek. "Watchmen," created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, and one of the most lauded limited-series graphic novels in comics history, finally has a cast. The Hollywood Reporter says Patrick Wilson (as the Nite-Owl), Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach), Matthew Goode (Ozymandias), Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (the Comedian) and Malin Akerman (the Silk Spectre) have signed on for Zack Snyder ("300")

The Vindiola Brothers swaggered into the Convention Center yesterday after tying on cloth masks and draping pastel capes over their T-shirts and shorts. People gawked, smiled, and snapped pictures of the duo. But one onlooker had the audacity to shout: "Who are you supposed to be?" A more elaborate Spider Man and two Ewoks who had walked by earlier were a lot easier to recognize. The real-life brothers, Rigo, 25, and Brennan, 14, of Drexel Hill, didn't miss a beat. "We're the Vindiola Brothers - Neighborhood Super-Heroes," came the reply.

Peter Parker's on top of the world, Ma. The kid's sailing through college. His girlfriend can't stop goo-goo-eyeing him - and she's not only beautiful, she's making her Broadway singing debut. And after a rocky start, the town he lives in - New York - has come to welcome Parker's web-slinging, crime-fighting alter ego. A headline from one of the tabs: "Why NY Spidey. " At least, that's how things are in the opening minutes of Spider-Man 3, before an asteroid deposits evil black goop on Parker's motor scooter; before an escaped convict walks into a particle-physics gizmo; before a hotshot photographer tries to muscle in on Parker's newspaper job; before a rich kid with a mind for revenge starts hover-boarding around town lobbing IEDs; before a beautiful blond coed falls from 62 stories and Spidey catches her, and before Spidey's girl gets jealous.