AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE TV SERIES COMING TO DISNEY+

I'm really GEEKED about this announcement as I'm a big fan of the horror stories published by Archie Comics! “Afterlife with Archie,” the bestselling comic book series from Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) and Francesco Francavilla (“The Black Beetle”), has been greenlit for a TV series adaptation on Disney+, arriving just in time for Halloween 2027.

From Warner Bros. Television, Aguirre-Sacasa and Greg Berlanti (“You, The Flash,” “The Flight Attendant”) will serve as executive producers, bringing their signature blend of heart, humor, and high stakes to a story that turns the all-American town of Riverdale into a zombie-overrun apocalypse — where the only thing scarier than the undead is trying to survive your teenage years. When a supernatural spell from a certain teen witch backfires, unleashing an army of the possessed dead upon Riverdale, Archie and his friends must fight to stay alive, testing the friendships, romances, and loyalties.

SCOOBY DOO RETURN TO ZOMBIE ISLAND

Warner Bros Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD reviewed in this blog post. 

Opinions I share are my own

The Halloween season is here and this geek daddy had some spooky fun by having a Scooby-Doo family movie night.  We baked up some Scooby Snacks with Pillsbury sugar cookies that feature the zany Great Dane on them and popped the all new original animated film SCOOBY-DOO! RETURN TO ZOMBIE ISLAND in the dvd player. Zoinks! This movie had my kids laughing through out it at the hijinks the Mystery Inc gang of Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby get caught up in a brand new adventure.

Shaggy and Scooby believe they are going on a relaxing, all expenses paid vacation to a tropical island. Fred, Daphne and Velma promise this vacation will be mystery free with all their attention being on having fun in the sun. When they arrive at their destination it looks strangely familiar?

The Mystery Inc gang soon discover their free trip to paradise has a price to it when zombies attack their hotel. They've unknowingly returned to Zombie Island! Now they have to finish solving a mystery that they encountered in an earlier adventure.

Will Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Inc gang finally solve the mystery behind Zombie Island? Or will the become permanent inhabitants of the island becoming zombies themselves? Sorry this dad blogger isn't going to tell you. You'll have to pick up SCOOBY-DOO! RETURN TO ZOMBIE ISLAND from Best Buy yourself to find out. Note that buying the movie through a link in this post will be supporting this blog as ageekdaddy.com receives a small commission from these affiliate links at no additional expense to you.



Available on DVD and Digital from Warner Bros Home Entertainment, SCOOBY-DOO! RETURN TO ZOMBIE ISLAND has a vocal cast that includes Frank Welker who has voiced Fred Jones in all the animated versions of Scooby Doo for 50 years as well as contributes the voice of Scooby in this animated film. The cast also includes Grey Griffin (Daphne Blake), Matthew Lillard (Shaggy Rogers), and Kate Micucci (Velma Dinkley).  It has a run time of 1 hour 20 minutes. This movie has not been rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.

Zombies are in fad right now but you most likely aren't going to be letting children watch The Walking Dead or World War Z so SCOOBY-DOO! RETURN TO ZOMBIE ISLAND is a flick in this genre that you can feel comfortable letting your kids see.  It is full of the goofy hijinks and gags that Scooby-Doo is known for that had my kids laughing throughout the movie. My fifth grade twins really enjoyed this movie despite not having seen the original Zombie Island Scooby-Doo adventure this is a sequel to.

Parents should be aware though that this movie isn't like the classic Scooby-Doo cartoons. Unlike those cartoons where the spooky creatures are always unmasked as people pretending to be specters and ghouls in this movie the monsters are portrayed as being real. There may be scenes that are too intense and scary for very young viewers so parents may want to be wary of preschoolers and kindergarteners seeing this animated flick. From my own family's experience though SCOOBY-DOO! RETURN TO ZOMBIE ISLAND gets a geek daddy nod of approval for providing a spooky fun movie night elementary school, tween and teen aged kids are sure to enjoy.

For more Scooby-Doo fun go to stage.wbkidsgo.com/en-gb/scoobydoo for activities, video clips, and games that will have kids going jeepers.

Dead New World

While I suffered through the flu over the holiday break, I passed some time reading the book DEAD NEW WORLD by Ryan Hill.  It is can become somewhat surreal reading a book about a zombie apocalypse caused by a viral pandemic while you are shaking and aching from the flu and the author did a nice job of bringing his story to life for its readers.  DEAD NEW WORLD really cemented for me that the zombie genre for the time being has allowed Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead to define the standard elements of any story - a crisis was created by a viral outbreak, a zombie bite will transform the person bitten into a zombie, a person's soul, identity, personality die when they transform into a zombie, and you have to destroy a zombie's brain to kill it although they don't act by thinking but rather through instinct, the world as we know it is gone and people are struggling to survive on a post-modern planet.  Though Hill sticks with these standardized elements in his story, he does branch off in some new ways to make this his own apocalyptic zombie tale.

In a Dead New World, the United States has been overrun by millions of infected people turned into zombies with a blood lust, but unlike the world of The Walking Dead the U.S. government was able to stay intact and operational stemming the tide of the infestation.  There are cities where people live in security and pockets of civilization spread out across the country.  The population is a small fraction of what it once was now though and the army is on constant patrol through the "wilderness" in an effort to keep zombie herds in check.  If it was just the zombies they had to deal with the tide may be turning back in humanity's favor but the army also is under assault from a dangerous cult of fanatics that worships the zombies and wants to take control of the world.  Led by a man known as The Reverend, this cult has the power to command the zombies and is quickly overrunning U.S. military bases and civilian settlements across the east coast of the country with an eye on destroying Washington D.C.

You see the Reverend was bitten by a zombie during the initial stage of the infection that enveloped the world but he didn't "turn" but rather just had some of his skin become discolored and mutilated.  Another side effect of his surviving the transformation was that he also now had the power to control the zombies around him.  He believes that those people who don't transform into zombies after becoming infected are meant to be a new hybrid race to rule a Dead New World.  The Reverend's zealous human followers volunteer to be exposed to the virus believing that it is God's plan for people to either become elevated to a higher level or to become zombie servants.   He has created a human/zombie army that may be unstoppable.

Young draftees Ambrose and Holt while on a routine patrol face their squad being wiped out by the Reverend's Army.  Can two sixteen year old grunts take on a cult, save Washington D.C. and prevent the world from becoming a place where humanity is obsolete and ruled by a maniac who believes that he will create a new hybrid race to rule over a world of zombie servants?  The focus of this book really is from the perspective of Ambrose and Holt and has just as much of a military stylized approach to telling the story as a horror or Sci-Fi tact to it. 

Ryan Hill

Dead New World receives A GEEK DADDY nod of approval because I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book from cover to cover.  Ryan Hill did a nice job of making this story an interesting and entertaining read that kept my interest and curiosity peeked throughout it.  If you are looking for some mindless zombie adventures that actually spin into a well thought out story arc this is a nice pick up.  Looking for a story to read at the beach, on a plane ride, or maybe while sick in bed with the flu...grab DEAD NEW WORLD published by Curiosity Quills. 

Dead New World is available on Amazon.com either for Kindle or in paperback. 




DISCLAIMER:  A Geek Daddy Blog received a free digital edition of this book to review.  The opinions expressed are my own.

Stop by the local Comic Book Store as part of your Trick or Treat Plans

On Saturday, October 25, 2014 local comic book stores across the United States and Canada will be giving away FREE comic books for the industry's HALLOWEEN COMICFEST.  Participating retailers will be handing out 12 full size comics and 7 mini-comics to kids, and adults, who stop by and say "trick or treat" while supplies last.  CLICK HERE to see if there is a participating location near you.

The full size comic books are aimed more for teens and adults with titles such as AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE, BATMAN-LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT HALLOWEEN SPECIAL, MAX BROOKS' EXTINCTION PARADE, GRIMM FAIRY TALES HALLOWEEN SPECIAL, RACHEL RISING and RESIDENT EVIL.

There are though a few of the full sized comic books with a kids focus such as HERO CATS, MY LITTLE PONY, and SCOOBY-DOO TEAMS UP WITH BATMAN.

The mini-comics are much more aimed for younger audiences with a compilation by Boom! Studios that includes stories featuring Adventure Time, Peanuts and Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock plus other comics featuring Angry Birds, Little Battlers and Vamplets: the Undead Pet Society.

Don't miss out on the fun! Make sure you swing by a participating comic book store on Saturday, October 25th.  They'll probably be out of the freebies by the end of the day so don't wait until later in the week to try and pick these up or try to actually trick or treat on Halloween at these stores.

For more information, visit www.HalloweenComicFest.com