Dan Goldman is a smart man.

Smart enough to condense an entire presidential election into a graphic novel, smart enough to be one of creative forces behind the webcomic and graphic novel Shooting War, and more than smart enough to be deserving of a special Watchtower Extra.

When we originally spoke with Dan, we had to edit down our conversation in order to fit it into the show. Well, now we proudly present our full, unedited interview with Dan Goldman, warts, swears, pickups and all.

It’s a really great chat, but be warned! There may be a word or two not suitable for the kiddies.

This week on The Watchtower we get dark, and no I don’t mean our rapier-like wit.

With the release of the final part of Grant Morrisson’s Batman RIP storyline, we feel the need to attempt to look into the future and speculate about what it might hold for the Dark Knight. Or will there even be one when Morrisson is done? And if there is, who will it be?

Also, as broken here on The Watchtower website last week, Marvel’s Dark Avengers have been teased! We take a look at just who’s on this team, and more importantly, why might they be on the team in the first place.

All this and the Forecast, Donnie Does Trinity and other fine examples of us talking!

This week on The Watchtower, we do our best to cram 78 minutes of programming into 30 minutes of airtime!

First, the February solicitations for both Marvel and DC have been released and there is some great stuff on tap, as well as some terrible, terrible stuff on tap. But which is which? Find out within!

Then, we speak with Dan Goldman, artist on Shooting War and the upcoming ‘08 graphic novels. Dan’s approach to politics and storytelling through comics is very unique, and our full conversation with him went over 35 minutes! Hear an edited version now, and be sure and check back later in the week for a full, un-edited version of our interview.

Finally, The Forecast and Donnie Does Trinity round out the show. It’s too jam-packed for words!

This week on The Watchtower things get dark and mysterious!

Not to fear though, we have Fred Van Lente, writer of the upcoming X Men Noir to shed some light on things! Fred tells us all about what’s in store for Marvel’s Merry Mutants in his upcoming series, as well as some tidbits on his Marvel Zombies and Marvel Adventures work.

(He also threatens to kill us, but I’ll leave that for you to discover.)

Also, plenty of Comic New-ggets (which is News + Nuggets) dropped this week, and from Beyonce to DC vs MK, we take them all on! Plus Donnie Does Trinity, The Forecast, and Donnie wears a beret!!

If you took all the news, rumors, and reviews that have come out of the comic book world in the last week, put them in a blender and hit “frappe,” you might get this week’s episode of The Watchtower.

-Who’d make the best Marvel U President?

-Major firings on the set of Heroes!

-Dave Gibbons in Toronto!

-Who is the Iron Patriot?

-The Forecast!

-Donnie Does Trinity!

All this, and more! What else can you ask for? It’s The Watchtower!

Oh, and be sure and let us know who you think The Iron Patriot is!

This week on The Watchtower, we have two huge books to tear to pieces!

Both Final Crisis and Secret Invasion gave us new installments, and we have more than a few thoughts on both.

A couple weeks ago, I hit up an event called 24 Hour Comics Day with our buddies Sohmer and Lar. Through the magic of digital audio tape, we cram in all 24 hours in a remarkable study of what happens to comic creators deprived of sleep.

Finally, we’d never let a week go by without The Forecast and a Green-Lantern-Robot-Packed edition of Donnie Does Trinity!!

This week on The Watchtower, we are invaded by female comic fans!

Our much-talked about Female Comic Fan Panel (or Fem-Com-Fan-Pan) discuss comics from the female point of view, talking about strong characters, stereotypes, and uncomfortable silences in comic book stores. The Panel is:

Jessica Fry of HardcoreNerdity.com

Stephanie LaLonde, Teacher and Professional Cosplayer

Liana K of Ed and Red’s Comic Strip

There’s some surprising revelations in our chat, and along with The Forecast, this is one episode no comic fan wants to miss!

It’s a day late, but never a dollar short as the newest episode of The Watchtower hits the streets!

Have you noticed how many real-life celebs are appearing in comics today? Donnie did, and shockingly, he doesn’t like it!

Plus we’ll have a chat with the man they call Sohmer about the upcoming 24 Hour Comic Day coming to a shop near you.

And you know it wouldn’t be The Watchtower without The Forecast, and the 19th installment of Donnie Does Trinity!

This week on The Watchtower it’s all about the movies!

We have a first hand account from the Toronto set of Kick-Ass, the adaptation of the Mark Millar/John Romita Jr. book, as well as tidbits on the sequel to The Dark Knight, the forthcoming Green Lantern movie, and the beginnings of a prequel to the epic 300.

But the fun doesn’t stop there! Director Zach Snyder and Artist Dave Gibbons have been showing 25 minutes of the upcoming Watchmen movie to press this week, and thanks to the magic of Internet Piracy we have some exclusive tape of one of their QA sessions!

All this and of course we jam a few cheeseburgers into the Weather Submarine and strike out on another edition of The Forecast.

This week on The Watchtower, we both do something we’re not used to: admit we’re wrong.

Ultimates 3 has been a much-favoured whipping boy of this program, but with the release of issue 5 this past week everything came together. The story became a much better one that we thought, but what does this mean for the fast-approaching Ultimatum? or Ultimate Origins? Find out, as we have all some of the answers theories!

That, and I had a chance to talk with best-selling author and Identity Crisis scribe Brad Meltzer. He has recently championed a bid to save the childhood home of Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman. He’ll fill us in on how it all came about.

And as if that wasn’t enough, we’ll of course have The Forecast, complete with another installment of Donnie Does Trinity. What else can you ask for? Pie maybe… but nothing else comes to mind!

It’s the Diamond Episode of The Watchtower!

Since it’s such a bling’ed out edition, we felt it necessary to find someone to join us who’s got his own abundant supply of The Freshness. He’s drawn Spider-Man for Marvel, Clerks for Kevin Smith, as well as his own Stupid Comics, Felt, and his newest joint: Kick Drum Comics.

He’s Jim Mahfood (AKA Food One) and he’s our guest on The Watchtower!

We talk comics, hip-hop, live art performance, and so much more on our way to everyone’s favourite ten minutes: The Forecast.

The Watchtower, bringing the Freshness to the guest list!

This is the Broken Sidewalk Edition of The Watchtower, in that all the stuff we lined up seemed to fall through the cracks at the last minute.

Never ones to be kept down though, we hit the net and came up with some suitable topics. We break down some upcoming Marvel and DC solicitations, and take on the question that is ripping up message boards everywhere: Could a black man (in this case Will Smith) play Captain America?

Plus, the Forecast keeps you abreast of the latest and greatest, as well as everyone’s favourite two minutes of the week, Donnie Does Trinity.

It’s The Watchtower, now with more sass than a 13 year old girl and an episode of House combined!

There’s a lot to get to in this week’s episode of The Watchtower.

First off, this is a pretty slow period in movieland, unless of course you deal in rumors! We have all the newest, uh, news, and even one tidbit that would make Eartha Kitt spin in her grave! Assuming of course she’s dead. If she isn’t, we apologize.

Also, Marvel this week announced a few details on the new Marvel Noir line, Dark Reign, and Ultimate Avengers. We have all the details, just a click away!

It’s the Watchtower where nobody turns into a robot. Yet.

This week on The Watchtower, we touch base with a man who’s becoming a good friend of the program, Terry Moore.

Terry joins us from Texas to talk about the first issue of his Runaways run, as well as answering that age-old question: If you were to die at the hands of a super-villian, who would it be?

We also take a look at what might happen if the DCU existed as a comic book in the Marvel Universe, and vice versa. Who would read what? My money’s on Batman being a huge Franklin Richards fan.

All this, and of course our weekly installment of Donnie Does Trinity in The Forecast. People turning into robots isn’t as big a deal as it once was apparently.

It’s the Watchtower, and don’t worry, it’s cool. We got this.

This week The Watchtower comes to you Live(ish) from the Toronto Convention Center, and Fan Expo!

We took a few moments and talked with some lovely Suicide Girls, Gaming Fans, and Friend of the program Richard Crouse, all from Table A49 in the Artist Alley.

Then, using our magical Slideways Technology, we whisked ourselves back to the comfort of The Weather Submarine to give you guys the lowdown on the good, the bad, and the ugly in this week’s Forecast!

Thank you so much to any and all of you who came by the table to talk comics with us! It’s incredible to know you guys are out there diggin’ what we’re puttin’ down. We’ll keep at it as long as you promise to spread the word, and we’ll see you at Fan Expo 2009!

... and we ain’t gonna take it anymore!!

On this week’s Watchtower, we ask some tough questions of our comics.

Ultimate Origins: What’s your deal?

Kick-Ass: Where ya been?

Spider-Man: Brand New Day was 7 months ago. When are ya gettin’ good?

All this, plus we give you the total Fan Expo rundown for The Watchtower and No Reason Comics. We’ll be there all weekend at table A49, rocking out Skrull shirts and copies of No Reason #0, so come on by and say hello! Plus some special events, the details of which are contained within!

It’s The Watchtower, we never rest so we must be wicked!

This week on The Watchtower, we kick things off with talk of this year’s Fan expo, as well as how dumb Iron Man is.

Also, this is probably the first time “initiative” and “The Watchtower” have been in the same sentence. We talk with Jim McLauchlin, President of The Hero Initiative, the only not-for-profit organization aimed at comic book writers, artists, and creators.

All this, plus thinly veiled references to Donnie’s dating life in The Forecast.

It’s The Watchtower, sealed, and in mint condition!

With the San Diego Comic Con firmly in our rear-view mirrors, the world of Comics has entered into a bit of a post-con lull. We here at The Watchtower however, are just ramping up!

This week we dig deep and come up with some movie news and rumors, as well as ask some hard questions about comic book Annuals. Are they a crucial part of telling a larger story? Or just another excuse for publishers to offer lackluster content and reprints? Be sure to weigh in with your view!

All this, and an extended version of The Forecast, during which you have the chance to win some of my stuff! Also, will the Cosmic Egg show up when Donnie Does Trinity? Only one way to find out, dear hearts!!

This week on The Watchtower we take a look at some of the bigger announcements made during last weeks San Diego International Comic Con. There were a lot of stories to come out of the con, and shockingly we haven an opinion on just about all of ‘em.

Then we attempt to up our cool factor by touching base with the good folks at New Era Caps. They have a great new line of exclusive comic book hats, and we were at the launch party for their Dark Knight line.

All this, and of course, The Forecast (featuring more news of The Cosmic Egg!). It’s The Watchtower, high in fiber, low in cholesterol!

This week is a very special edition of The Watchtower as we dig deep into one of our favourite “guilty pleasure” books of all time.

August 6th, 2008 sees the return of everyone’s favourite redhead as Marvel Comics launches the lastest volume of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. Wanting to know more, we decided to go straight to the source.

We are extremely fotunate to have Artist Craig Rousseau (Impulse, The Perhapnauts), and Writer Terry Moore (Strangers In Paradise, Echo) join us to let us in on their plans for MJ, Gewn, Peter and all the gang.

All that, and The Forecast! It’s The Watchtower, more catchy than a Katy Perry song!

Our good friends at Toronto @ Noon with Dave Trafford on Newstalk 1010 CFRB asked me to join them on the air today to review The Dark Knight. I thought it was a fun couple of minutes that you guys would enjoy hearing. Because, y’know, I haven’t talked about The Dark Knight enough in the past week.

What we really want to hear though is that YOU think! Now that The Dark Knight is out for everyone to see, we want to know what you think of the biggest comic book movie to hit the screen this year! Comment, E-Mail, Forums, however, just get in touch!

Yes, it’s a long title, but it applies for a couple of reasons.

First, because I saw The Dark Knight, and provide a full review right off the top. Also, becuase this episode contains one of my biggest technical screwups ever. You gotta hear it to believe it, and trust me: this is a collectors edition episode, because it will never happen again.

We have all that, as well as an Extra-Sized in depth interview with Shuster Award Winning JSA Penciller, Dale Eaglesham!

I tell ya, on The Watchtower, even when it’s the worst of times, it’s still the best of times!!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending an IMAX press screening of The Dark Knight. I don’t know if words can do justice to the Awesomeness of this movie, but I will do my best to get across every jaw-dropping, eye-bugging, mind-blowing aspect of the flick.

In other words, I liked it. A lot.

When Batman Begins came out, my review stated “This is everything a Batman movie should be.” With The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan has made me eat those words, and say “This is everything a Batman movie should be.”

The Dark Knight kicks into high gear right off the bat. I know we have all seen the “leaked” footage of the bank heist online, so there’s no real need to say spoiler warning when I tell you that it’s the opening of the flick. On the big screen, it looks even more stunning. The ride from there, just gets better.

All your favourite characters are back, Gary Oldman’s Jim Gordon is spot-on again, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman provide their seasoned, veteran charm, and even Maggie Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Rachel Dawes (a throwaway character in Katie Holmes’ hands) is given great treatment, and more importantly, a great role in the story. She has an actual reason for being there this time, and it brings her character up to the level of the rest of the cast.

Heath Ledger’s twisted version of The Joker is every bit as incredible as the hype has made it out to be. If he did not receive a posthumous Oscar nomination for it, I would be shocked. The voice he puts on alone makes it worth my while, and he makes Jack Nicholson’s Joker look like Cesar Romero. To echo a statement, this is how The Joker should be. Twisted, devoid of all trace of sanity, and very, very scary.

Also worth mentioning is Aaron Eckhart’s transformation as Harvey Dent. A character previously given horrible treatment by Billy Dee Williams, and Tommy Lee Jones. The special effects here are definitely worth a shudder or two, because they are just plain creepy.

And what of Christian Bale’s second turn beneath the Cowl? Brilliant. He takes the dark, gritty Batman from Batman Begins to even deeper levels as he begins to question his quest, and his motives.

All that, and then we have the plot. Fans of Loeb & Sale’s work, will be pleased to see that the story continues to borrow from the comics, with nods to Frank Miller’s work, and other Batman comic scribes over the years as well. The story moves as quickly as a Batman fight scene, and the viewer is hooked all the way through. The Dark Knight clocks in at just over 2 and a Half hours, but it dose not feel like it, and there are more than enough “OH MAN!!!” moments to keep you wanting more after the credits start to roll.

I think that the ending of the movie is going to be somewhat controversial amongst the comic and movie faithful. It sets the stage to take Batman in a somewhat different direction that we are used to seeing him. For the record, I love it. It’s breaking fresh ground without straying to far from the source material. But we can talk about all that after the movie is released.

The Dark Knight is so great that even after saying all that, I’ve barely scratched the surface of it’s awesomeness. It is one of those rare sequels that not only lives up to it’s predecessor, but easily surpasses it. This is the movie of the summer, possibly the year.

Iron Who? The Incredible What? Wanted? What’s wanted? Tickets to see The Dark Knight? Yes, you’ll want some. Now.

Tie those ties, and polish up them cufflinks!

This week on The Watchtower, we attempt to bring some class into our affair by speaking with Andrew Bolton, Curator of Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy. An Exhibition currently showing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

We also take a look at the new class of creators on Astonishing X-Men, Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi. Do they manage to pick up where graduates Whedon and Cassaday left off?

All this, and much more as we Talk, Shout, and Forecast our way into your ears and hearts!

Here’s the thing: we all need to stop judging new movies on the trailers that come out. Remember seeing the trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie? It was rad. Then the movie blew because aliens were in it, uh spoiler alert. Do you remember seeing the trailer for Forgetting Sarah Marshall? It was the one of the best rom-coms ever (oh yeah I said rom-com.) So the trailer for Wanted comes out and we’re all like “oh my god what have they done to this comic?!” Newsflash: the movie is pretty awesome.

The actors all do pretty decent jobs in their roles. Morgan Freeman is the talking guy who everyone listens to, Angelina Jolie is hot-slash-dangerous with a great naked butt, and Common is there too. James McAvoy, who plays the lead of Wesley Gibson, does really well and there is something about him that makes you want Shia LeBeouf to show up just in time to get one of those neat-o Celtic looking bullets in his fragile little baby face.

Wanted has a great bleak middle class vs. mediocrity kind of Fight Club vibe that makes a lot of the gratuitous violence seem spot on. There are a couple lines here and there that are terrible and there are a couple scenes that scream “Doritooooooos! Do the Dew to the extreme!” a little too much but as far as action movies go, especially comic book action movies, Wanted is pretty well done.

The costumes are gone, but there is no way that the movie would work with them so fan boys that are going to complain about that are stupid and will likely forget about that after they remember that they finally got to see Lara Croft’s butt.

Wanted is not as good as Iron Man, better than The Incredible Hulk, probably Hancock too, but it’s a shame that after Hellboy II and Dark Knight come out you probably won’t remember it.

-Questy.

It’s The Canada Day Long Weekend here in the frozen north, and thus a holiday for all who call her home!

So we thought this would be an excellent time to toot our own horns, and revisit some of our favourite moments from the past 62 episodes. I know what you are thinking: isn’t the big clip show supposed to come at episode 100? Well, it’s just one of the many ways we cut against the grain!

We look back at licenced comics, the best DC and Marvel heroes of all time, defend ourselves from a sexist attack, and finally rock out some Spider-Man trivia!

Enjoy, and remember: the news and reviews will keep on coming here at The Watchtower, and next week we’ll be back with a brand new episode!

Unfortunately it’s with great sadness that I must inform everyone that Michael Turner tragically passed away last night, June 27th at approximately 10:42 pm in Santa Monica, Ca. Turner had been dealing with recent health complications arisen in the past few weeks. More details concerning Turner’s passing, and services, will be given shortly.

Anyone wishing to send their condolences to Michael Turner’s family is encouraged to send to:

Aspen MLT, Inc. C/O Michael Turner 5855 Green Valley Circle, Suite 111 Culver City, CA, 90230

As we piled into the theatre, it was painfully obvious that getting there an hour before show time was a very, very good idea. This particular theatre had been the site of an Iron Man screening that saw fistfights erupt when people where turned away. Things seemed to go smoother this time however, and we settled in for what promised to be a terrific smashfest.

First off, we were treated to two previews I had not seen before. The first was a trailer for Hellboy II: The Golden Army that looked absolutely fantastic. Next up, a new installment in The Mummy franchise, this time set in China. It looked OK, I was kind of stoked as a fan of The Mummy Movies, but overall, this one wasn’t as well received as Hellboy was.

One of the best things about seeing these advanced screenings is that we don’t have to sit through ten minutes of commercials, so up next we got right into the movie.

Two slight Spoilers: it was rumored that Captain America or Steve Rogers was going to be in this movie. Sadly, this doesn’t happen. However, the much-publicized Tony Stark cameo more than make sup for it. Also, you don’t have to stick around after the credits. Unless they do some re-editing in the general release, there isn’t an Easter egg scene like in Iron Man.

Now onto The Incredible Hulk. This movie was fantastic!! It has everything that you could ever want from a Hulk flick. It’s full of suspense and great dialouge, the characterization is spot-on, and there is more action than you can shake a gamma-irradiated stick at.

Breaking with convention, they chose jump right into the story as opposed to taking time to re-tell the origin story. This was a pretty good move, as it got the audience into the movie right off the bat. The movie the chugs ahead, smashing in all the right places, with never a dull moment. This led to my only real complaint with the flick. There were a couple of scenes that seemed a bit glossed over that were real pivotal points in the movie. But it wasn’t anything that left me wondering about a plot point or character, and is more just me being nit-picky.

The final fight scene is nothing short of, well, Incredible. What made it ever cooler for me was I was sitting in a theatre on the very corner that they filmed most of it! It’s an amazing slugfest that is intense, but in no way gratuitous. It’s exciting, and makes for an awesome climax to a great movie.

To sum up, The Incredible Hulk is to Ang Lee’s Hulk what Batman Begins is to Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin. It totally reinvigorates the franchise, and for those fans watching closely, a sequel is teased, so I am sure this is far from the last Hulk movie we’ll see. Marvel taking over the production duties on their movies was a big gamble but has paid off in spades two in a row.

This past weekend in Toronto, the ceremony for the 4th Annual Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards was held, and yours truly had a front row seat. In truth, it was a 3rd row seat, but you get the idea.

Named after Superman’s Canadian Co-Creator, The Shusters look to honour all that is good in Canadian Comic Books. Like the Eisner’s and the Harvey’s, winning a Shuster is a pretty big honour, and this year there were some familiar names on the ballot.

For example, friends of The Watchtower Ryan Sohmer and Lar DeSousa, the creative team behind webcomics Least I Could Do and Looking For Group. They were nominated in the Outstanding Canadian Webcomics Creator/Creative Team category, along with VG Cat’s Scott Ramsoomair, and other webcomic creators Micheal Cho and Scott Hepburn, Karl Kerschl, Ramon Perez, Gisele Lagace, and Cameron Stewart.

Well, I am happy to report, the big winners were Ryan Sohmer and Lar DeSousa! This is a well-deserved award for both, so we say Congratulations!

Other noteable Shusters went to:

OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK WRITER Cecil Castellucci for The P.L.A.I.N. Janes (DC/Minx)

OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK ARTIST Dale Eaglesham for Justice Society of America #2-4, 6-7, 9-11 (DC Comics)

OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CARTOONIST (WRITER/ARTIST) Jeff Lemire for Essex County Vol. 1: Tales From The Farm, Essex County Vol. 2: Ghost Stories (Top Shelf)

OUTSTANDING COVER BY A CANADIAN COMIC BOOK ARTIST Steve Skroce for Doc Frankenstein #6 (Burleyman)

OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK COLOURIST Dave McCaig for Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E. #12, New Avengers #27-35, Fallen Son – The Death of Captain America #1: Wolverine, Marvel Comics Presents #1-4, Wolverine #50, Avengers Classic #7 (Marvel Comics) DC Infinite Halloween Special #1 (DC Comics), The Other Side #4-5 (DC/Vertigo) Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jensen #1 (ONI Press)

OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK &/OR GRAPHIC NOVEL PUBLISHER Drawn & Quarterly

CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES: Stan Berneche John Byrne Pierre Fournier Edwin R. “Ted” McCall

FAVOURITE CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR – ENGLISH LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS Faith Erin Hicks – Zombies Calling

FAVOURITE CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR – FRENCH LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS Philippe Girard aka phlppgrrd – Danger Public

FAVOURITE INTERNATIONAL (NON-CANADIAN) COMIC BOOK CREATOR Ed Brubaker – Captain America, Criminal, Immortal Iron Fist, Uncanny X-Men

HARRY KREMER OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK RETAILER Big B Comics – Hamilton, Ontario

It was a great evening, and a lot of fun was had by all. This year’s Awards were designed by Tom Grummett who was also in attendance.