When I began the task of playing catch-up on pop culture, one of the names I was determined to investigate deeper was none other than Alan Moore; legendary comic scribe, self-proclaimed wizard and all around “don’t get too close to him” guy. I’ve read most of his more popular stories numerous times over the years (Watchmen, Batman: The Killing Joke and the classic “For the Man Who Has Everything…” story in Superman Annual 11, to name a few); but now it was time for something new. Well…new to me, at least.

My first choice was pretty simple actually, for when I was a wide-eyed 9 year old I had somehow gotten my hands on a couple of his Saga of the Swamp Thing issues. I remember absolutely nothing about the story, probably because at that age his style of writing may as well have been written in Arabic to a child. I only remember the images of grotesque beings prancing around in a horrifying setting.

Apparently that was enough for me, as I didn’t continue on with the series at that time. Almost thirty years later I’m pretty sure I can handle whatever Mr. Moore can throw at me, so I added the recent hardcover collections of his run to my library, waiting for the day when I could jump back into it.

Y: The Last Man is one of the great comic book stories of the early 21st century. It details the adventures of Yorick Brown, the last man in a world where all of the males in every species were wiped out all in one terrifying moment.

What made Brian K. Vaughan’s masterwork so good was his characters. The women in this post-man world were complex, well-rounded and often expertly crafted. Everyone had a motivation and they all felt natural for this hyper-real situation they found themselves.

The story has been floating around Hollywood for quite some time, but can never seem to find the proper traction to move forward. So leave it to the internet to fill a void while the studios twiddle their thumbs.

Y: The Last Man Rising is a fan made film that sets up, loosely, the world of Y. It acts almost as a pilot, setting up several aspects of the larger story as opposed to telling a single Y tale. The production is rather impressive for a fan project, and most of the cast seems to channel their characters extremely well.

Check out the full fan film after the jump.

At least with this rather surprising news it’s not a case of another creative team making a prequel to a classic graphic novel. Before Watchmen, we’re looking at you.

This time at least the guy who started it all is back and ready to tell another part of the story. To what story am I referring? Well, as you might have heard, celebrated author Neil Gaiman has decided to return to the world he made famous and tell a new part of The Sandman story.

That’s right, Gaiman will collaborate with artist J.H. Williams III on a new limited series based on his classic graphic novel The Sandman for Vertigo. Gaiman made the announcement via video during the Vertigo panel at Comic-Con on Thursday.

In the video address, Gaiman said “there was one tale still untold” for The Sandman and with Sandman‘s 25th anniversary coming up, he felt the time was right to revisit it and tell this new story.

The title of the series will be announced later, but look for it to debut sometime in 2013 and be available da-and-date digitally.

There are few long form comic book stories that really feel like a single cohesive whole. It is just hard to maintain total continuity in style and storytelling over more than a half a decade’s worth of single issues.

Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra were able to accomplish that difficult feat with their epic series Y: The Last Man. A tale told over several years and 60 total issues, that details the last male on earth, and his pet monkey. The comic series is one of the great achievements in comic book storytelling, and is ripe for an adaptation.

The problem is that such an large tale needs more than two hours to tell, and that has slowed the adaptation process down considerably. New Line has been reluctant to sign off on a trilogy of films, but they are still very eager to move forward with a single Y: The Last Man film.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that New Line has brought in two new writers to take a new stab at the adaptation:

Writing duo Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia are in final negotiations to write New Line Cinema’s adaptation of the acclaimed Vertigo comic book… The duo is somewhat new to the feature world but are hot out of the gate – Y is the second studio job in five months after booking Sony’s untitled Zorro origin project — but they have plenty of genre TV credits. Federman and Scaia were writer-producers on Charlie’s Angels, Human Target, Warehouse 13 and Jericho.

Everyone knows that Wednesday is new comic book day. While picking up your new issues consider looking at some of the trade paperbacks and hard covers of past issues and story lines. But which ones should you choose?

That’s why every Tuesday, The Flickcast will recommend a collection of comics that are just as good, if not better, than the issues you are currently buying. Books that deserve to be read, and bought the next time you walk into your local comic book store.

Preacher is The Godfather of comics. Its brazen, over-bearing, and loud tone leave a distinct aftertaste when you finish reading. The characters are mean and hateful. The locations are gritty and gross. Preacher is the sum total of all the dark corners of America combined into a tale of the problems of religion. It is a series that is not for everyone, and will turn some people off of comics forever. However, if someone asked me what my favorite comic book series of all time was, I would be hard pressed to not choose Preacher.

Preacher was a mature and violent comic book series published by Vertigo in 1995. It lasted sixty-six issues as the main characters blasted and hunted their way through America on their quest to find God. Oh, by the way, their quest was not metaphorical; it was literal.

News from the personal Twitter account of D.J. Caruso that he will be directing a big screen adaptation of the Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon comic series Preacher will probably be taken as both good and bad by the more hard core fans. On the one hand, its nice to see that perhaps Preacher will finally be making its way to the big screen after many stilled attempts at adaptation as a movie or a TV series.

The cynics out there will probably have a problem with Caruso as the choice to take on the project. Sure, his track record might not install confidence that he’s the right man for the job. However, if you’ve ever seen his first film Salton Sea, you will know he has talent and therefore, I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt here.

To be honest, I’m more concerned how screenwriter John August is going to fit all of Preacher into one two and a half hour movie. My guess is he won’t even try and will probably just use the first major story arc as the basis for the film. Whatever he does end up doing, I’m also a fan of August so I’ll be very interested in how he pulls it off.

No word on if this deal is completely done or pretty much anything else. Still, when we see things like this we feel compelled to bring them to you. So, we did. Now, what do we think of this and if it does go forward, who shall we pick to play the important roles?

Remember the early 90’s, before “emo” was a lifestyle and kids were just dressing up like Neil Gaiman’s Death or Dream and rock out to The Cure? Well, it looks like Warner Bros. TV is a little more nostalgic, as they’re in the planning stages of turning Gaiman’s classic fantasy comic into a new dramatic series.

It may be 15 years after the initial book stopped getting published, but the executives at WB feel that fans of a new, vampire-loving generation will take a liking to this dark and dreary world. Heat Vision spells it out.

Warner Bros. TV is in the midst of acquiring television rights from sister company DC Entertainment and in talks with several writer-producers about adapting the 1990s comic. At the top of the list is Eric Kripke, creator of the CW’s horror-tinged “Supernatural.”

“Sandman” told the tale of Morpheus, the Lord of the Dreaming, a deity who personifies dreams. The book began in the horror realm but quickly made its mark in fantasy and mythology as Gaiman introduced the Endless, a group of powerful brothers and sisters named Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire and Delirium (as well as Dream).

All week long, we’ve been bringing you clips from DC and Warner’s newest comic-to-film adaptation, The Losers, which hits theaters everywhere today. In most of the clips, there has been some stellar action sequences, from what seems to be a pretty action-packed film. Nothing, however, can compare to today’s clips.

We won’t give too much away, but there are the following elements in both clips: a rocket launcher, a sniper, bad guys, a motorcycle, and a jet. Of course, the believability in certain parts of the film can be chalked up to science fiction, but that’s the beauty of calling a film a “comic book movie”, there are no limits.

The film, based on the Vertigo series by Andy Diggle, stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, Chris Evans, and Zoe Saldana, and will be kicking off what looks to be a military-themed summer blockbuster season.

Check out the two new clips after the jump, and be sure to check out The Losers in theaters everywhere today. Plus, look for our review of the film coming up later today.

While we’d like you to believe that there is some pretty good story behind Andy Diggle’s original Losers comic, so far we’ve only been showing you some of the shooting, exploding, and punching sequences, so it’s a difficult point to make.

The original story is about a group of special ops CIA agents who are betrayed by their handler and go rogue. In their first mission (which is what the film mostly covers), they go to take down their nefarious ex-handler (played by Jason Patric) and the company he works for. You can understand where the explosions and gunfights fit into there, so our point is proven.

Check out another new scene from the flick after the jump, in which the now sheild-wielding Chris Evans plays his regular smart-ass character, which he’s best known for. The film also stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, and Zoe Saldana. The Losers hits theaters everywhere Friday.

Things are picking up as we draw closer to the national theatrical release of Warner Bros. newest DC/Vertigo comic adaptation, The Losers. We’ve had a new clip for you every day this week, and things get a bit more touching this week, as Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Rogue (Idris Elba) make up after a fight.

There are many doubts on how Losers will do, considering that it’s only one of a handful of similar films getting released this summer. The A-Team, MacGruber, The Expendables, and even Tom Cruise’s Day and Knight all seem pretty similar in one way or another. Warners, however, seems to believe the film will kick off the blockbuster season with a bang. Hey, they could be right.

Check out the newest clip after the jump, and be sure to catch Dean Morgan, Elba, Chris Evans, and Zoe Saldana in The Losers everywhere this Friday.