What’s the only thing that can make the once-a-year event where fans, geeks, and celebs join to celebrate all things nerdy? The only thing left to add…zombies! That’s exactly what BOOM! Studios has planned with what looks to be one of the coolest show exclusives for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con 2011: a one-shot issue of the book Fanboys Vs. Zombies.

Originally conceived by The Office producer Ben Silverman, the book takes some regular guys and throws them in the most horrifying of situations, in which the dead run wild at Comic-Con! Here’s the official synopsis.

They’ve been called geeks, nerds, and social outcasts, but when a group of fanboys take their annual trip to Comic-Con International they’ll find one of their greatest nightmares turned reality as San Diego becomes zombie ground zero. Armed only with the undead know-how they’ve gained from comic books, video games and horror movies, it’s up to one group of friends to navigate the Comic-Con feeding frenzy, and make it out alive!

But will the zombie hordes be deadlier than they ever imagined? Can they save their friends along the way, and still make it out with some Comic-Con exclusives? Find out when the dead rise at Comic-Con International in the chilling and side-splitting epic, FANBOYS VS. ZOMBIES!

Jabs at Hall H? Jokes about the crowds and high-priced bottled water? A Joss Whedon dig? You can expect all of these things and more in the one-shot, which can be obtained by anyone heading to the show this year — just make your way over to the BOOM! Studios booth at #2743.

Take a look at the full cover after the jump.

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As comic book legends go, Stan ‘The Man” Lee is probably the most famous. His amazing creations and co-creations like The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, The Hulk and Iron Man have captivated audiences worldwide for decades and given rise to an entertainment empire that endures to this day.

So, when Stan Lee decides to create another comic book, we pay attention, This new one, known as The Traveler, teams Lee with writer Mark Waid and tells the story of a mysterious new superhero with time-traveling powers who battles the Split-Second Men, super-powered assassins from the future.

To commemorate this event we’ve got a bunch of pages from the comic to share with you today. Plus, a few covers as well. So, click through to check them out.

The Traveler issue #1, published by Boom Studios, hits comic store shelves in November.

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Originally a cartoon, Darkwing Duck ran from 1991 to 1995 and again from 1996 to 1997. A darker, cooler version of the Duck Tales universe, Darkwing gave Disney its very own super hero character who wasn’t a total boy scout like Gizmo Duck.

Recently, Boom launched the Darkwing Duck miniseries which was quickly indefinitely extended to an ongoing series. Take a peek below at our interview with James Silvani, the current artist on the book, as he discusses with us his work on the project, the character, and the tremendous fan support the title has received.

The Flickcast: Recently Boom has been having a lot of success with their licensed products, especially with the Disney series. How did you get approached about working on the Darkwing Duck series?

James Silvani: Actually, I started off doing The Muppets and was working on a few Muppet ideas and the editors had asked, “Hey do you mind throwing in a Darkwing Duck cover? It’s something of a pet project of ours”. Once we had the approval, we went ahead with it and it became a nice little fluke.

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POW! Entertainment and BOOM! Studios announced at a press conference today at San Diego Comic-Con that they will be introducing three new characters from Stan Lee who will all be getting their very own comic book series.

Beginning this fall, look forward to the following titles:

October
Soldier Zero, written by Paul Cornell (Doctor Who) and illustrated by Javier Pina (Superman). The story will revolve around an astronomy teacher in a wheelchair who bonds with an alien weapon of war via a freak accident.

November
The Traveler written by Mark Waid with art by Chad Hardin (The Amazing Spider Man). This story will have a hero with time-traveling powers.

December
Starborn, written by Chris Roberson with art by Khary Randoph (The X-Men). A regular man finds out he is inheriting an intergalactic empire, forcing him to be front and center in a war between alien races.

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In place of my usual witty wordage, I’ve done an interview on Marvel, DC, Image, and Boom! (among others) comic book artist Dan Panosian in beautiful, living color. His artwork encompasses Captain America, The Flash, Spider-Man, X-Men, Prophet, Wolverine, Green Lantern, Irredeemable, and a couple issues of the fondly remembered Marvel Swimsuit Special, so you can be sure there was a lot to talk about.

His current book, X-Factor Forever is on shelves now. If the interview just wasn’t enough for you, check out his website at DanPanosian.com and his bountiful blog, the Urban Barbarian. If you’re in the LA area, you can see him and a smattering of other artists boozin’ and sketchin’ during a clandestine meeting of the infamous Drink N’ Draw Social Club held every Thursday night at Casey’s in Downtown LA.

But for now, press play on the video after the jump and be profoundly amused by his words of wisdom.

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More and more actors seem to be getting into writing comics these days and the versatile Samuel L. Jackson is no exception. Re-teeming with his Afro Samurai pals, Jackson and Boom! Studios are set to release a new comic called Cold Space, written by Jackson and Eric Calderon with interior art by Jeremy Rock.

Want to know more? Of course you do. Fortunately, we’ve got all the details for you, courtesy of this official press release. We’ve also got some cool cover art so be sure and check that out too after the break.

This April, BOOM! Studios teams up with legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson and Emmy nominated writer/producer Eric Calderon — the folks that brought you the Emmy award-winning AFRO SAMURAI — to deliver their next original comic book series, COLD SPACE. A hard-boiled sci-fi action-adventure with covers by Eisner Award-winner Dave Johnson and IRREDEEMABLE cover artist Jeffrey Spokes, COLD SPACE is sure to be the most talked-about comic of the spring.

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Kill Audio #1 – Boom! Studios – $3.99

Score: 8.5

Back at San Diego Comic-Con, I had the pleasure of sitting down to talk to Claudio Sanchez, lead singer of Coheed and Cambria and writer of the Amory Wars about his upcoming comic release from Boom! Studios entitled Kill Audio. Check out the interview here (Part 1 and Part 2).  This week, Kill Audio hit shelves and delivered upon what we were expecting from my talk with Claudio and brought a whole lot more to the table as well.

In addition to the knives that through knives, the angry and unstable lead character who cannot die and is constantly haunted by the Fix-ler who is always trying to kill him and of course the jive talking, blow snorting chicken that Claudio had talked to us about, Kill Audio also brings to life a plethora of new and outrageous characters in a complete insane fantasy world that felt like a mix of the land of Brutal Legend and Oz (from both the classic Judy Garland film and the HBO jail series scarily enough).

The issue starts off with the title character Kill Audio running from knives that throw knives before he is pulled “out of harm’s way” by the Fix-ler. After failing yet again to off Kill Audio, they have a brief conversation that sets Kill Audio off on his Wizard of Oz-like journey to search for his higher purpose. Along the way, he encounters Chi-co, the above mentioned constantly hallucinating coke addicted poultry, in his efforts to reach the Watchtower. Also on the way, the duo is joined by the Beav, who looks like a drunken prodigal son of Death, and his little pillow companion DJ.

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Pull of the Week:

Green Lantern #46 – DC – $2.99
Score: 7.5

As Blackest Night continues, as does the rest of the saga of Hal Jordan and the other Lantern Corps. This issue picks up immediately following the Indigo Lantern teleporting Hal away from the Flash in Blackest Night #3, Hal finds himself in the middle of the Star Sapphires battle with the Sinestro Corps as well as the Black Lanterns.

In the process of the attack from the Black Lanterns, the Star Sapphires must also worry about the threat of the Predator being released. Sharing the secret of how to destroy the Black Lanterns with Star Sapphire, Indigo-1 quickly transports away Hal, Sinestro and Star Sapphire as they try to gather bearers of the various lights. But to unite the various Corps, the split within the Sinestro Corps must be mended and only have one leader. Hal, Sinestro and Star Sapphire quickly realize that the Indigo Lantern has transported them to face off against Mongul, the Yellow Lantern who has tried usurping Sinestro’s power.

Green Lantern #46 is a great addition to the “Blackest Night” story. In many ways, it has a touch of the epic galactic storytelling that made War of Kings such a good story as well. The encounters of this book don’t just affect those on planet earth. This story is one that feels like it has the potential behind it to change everything. But even as this monstrously large storyline takes place, Geoff Johns makes sure to include some quality character building on top of the story. There are tons of callbacks to Sinestro’s past, especially focusing on Abin Sur, the Green Lantern who passed his ring on to Hal Jordan and had always spoke openly of the prophecies surrounding the Blackest Night.

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Check out the first half of our interview with Kill Audio writer and creator Claudio Sanchez as he talks about the creation of this very unique character originally based of a designer vinyl toy concept that he and his fiance came up with.

The Flickcast: To digress just a little bit, we also cover TV, movies and video games ant our site and your band Coheed and Cambira was featured in the first Rock Band and as downloadable content. Do you have anything you’d like to talk about being involved in the video game process?

Claudio Sanchez: I’m a gamer. When I have the free time certainly. The last game I played was the Ghostbusters game, which again, going back to being on the road, if I have a game that I really want to play it’s like okay, I’ve got a week because I’m getting out there and I’m not going to bring my XBox. It’s going to get destroyed. I’ve been through like six of them already.

FC: Because you broke them or the red ring of death?

CS: The wheel of death. It’s not me. It’s definitely that ring. So anyway, I beat it. It was definitely satisfying. I’m a big fan of Ghostbusters and I thought they did a fantastic job. Usually when they license a property like that to a game, the game is always a disappointment. And that one I think went above and beyond and I was certainly satisfied. I love video games.

I would love to do a video game based on some of the materials, some of the concepts behind Coheed and Cambria. But we’ll see. It’s nice to be a part of something like Rock Band and to be well received through it. It’s fun, certainly for my brother who gets to play it. That’s a lot of fun.

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At San Diego Comic-Con, we got the chance to sit down and speak with Claudio Sanchez, lead singer of the band Coheed and Cambria and creator of the Amory Wars, about his involvement in the upcoming project Kill Audio from Boom! Studios. Those who have seen the pages available on Kill Audio’s Myspace are probably wondering what’s going on inside Claudio’s head to come up with the out of this world character like Kill Audio and that’s what we sought to find out when we got the chance to talk with him.

The Flickcast: You’re going to be working on a comic book with Boom! Studios. Would you like to tell us about that?

Claudio Sanchez: The comic is called Kill Audio. It’s a bit of a fantasy comedy. This main character, Kill Audio, kinda wakes up, well not so much wakes up but finds himself kind of confused and unsure of what his purpose is in this world called Sight and Sound. His main enemy actually gives him some kind of insight.

He finds out his purpose in this world of Sight and Sound is he is a part of this team called the Void, which is like void of creativity, and music has spiraled out of control in his absence. In trying to put all the pieces back together and get everything kind of in order, he figures that it’s not so much that creativity has naturally spiraled and evolved, it’s actually somebody motivating it so that becomes the mystery.

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Pull of the Week:

Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter #3 – Marvel – $3.99

Score: 8.0

I want more Beta Ray Bill. There, I said it. As long as Kieron Gillen writes it, I will be picking up anything that has the horse-headed version of Thor in it. Either that or more stories of Galactus and his heralds written by Kieron works too. This issue concludes the miniseries in fantastic style as the much made fun of hero Beta Ray Bill nears completion of his quest to eliminate Galactus. The issue opens with a scene the likes of which had only been witnessed with Galactus’s imprisonment to Annihillus during the Annihilation Wave (which is also shown during the issue) as the fading World Eater discusses the current state of affairs with his two heralds, Stardust and the Silver Surfer.

The opposing forces of the Silver Surfer and Beta Ray Bill play greatly in this issue as both are the sole survivors of their respective races at Galactus’s hands and seeing how they respond to that in different ways leads to some great moments between the two in this issue. Now, in addition to being hunted by Beta Ray Bill, Galactus must deal with the survivors of the I’Than race who now seek vengeance upon Galactus and Stardust. Beta Ray Bill finds the Surfer on a desolate, unpopulated planet where he looks to battle his old friend.

Silver Surfer halts Beta Ray Bill’s attack, now without the power of his Stormbringer hammer after the heinous actions Bill did in the previous issue to get them to leave their planet. Instead of fighting, Surfer explains to Bill the consequences of what could happen if Galactus were to be killed, knowing full well that in the god’s weakened state, Bill could have the power to finish Galactus off. They also know that the I’Than are on their way as well.

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Obviously, this week’s big release is Blackest Night #1. To say the least, I’ve been pumped and ready for this series since the end of the Sinestro Corps War. I think you probably got a pretty accurate gage of what it will be like in the pages of last week’s Green Lantern #43, and this new series is likely to be a doozy.

Although, as much as I’m looking forward to Blackest Night, what I’m really massively recommending this week is a personal favorite of mine: Peter Tomasi’s The Light Brigade.  Getting a re-printing, this beautiful book drawn by Peter Snejberg has it all: Angels, Demons, Nazis and a couple of regular Joes protecting the Sword of God.

My other recommendation is the regular Doctor Who series premiering this week. Originally, it was the comics of this TV series that got me into the show. This was before the Sy-Fy channel that would repeat old episodes. Now that Doctor Who its coming back on a regular monthly basis,  I’ll be hopping all over this book.

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