* Thank you to everyone for your well-wishes. It means a lot to us.

* Jeez, I have a lot of catching up to do!

* World War Z author Max Brooks tells Fangoria that the screenplay for the WWZ adaptation is now being written by Matthew Carnahan, best known for chin-scratching political thrillers (okay, “thrillers”) like The Kingdom, State of Play, and Lions for Lambs. Amazing Spider-Man writer/NorGwen StaceBorn shipper J. Michael Straczynski previously took a shot at the script. It’s worth nothing, however, that in Hollywood these days JMS is better known as the writer of Angelina Jolie’s Oscar-baiting Changeling than as a nerd guy, and obviously Carnahan plays to a tonier crowd as well. That’s great news as far as I’m concerned. The beauty of World War Z was that you could envision it being made into a Ken Burns documentary, and I’d really love to see a zombie movie with all of Hollywood’s resources behind it take a High Drama approach to the genre.

* Robin Hardy’s semi-sequel to The Wicker Man is a go again! Previously called Cowboys for Christ and shuttered for lack of funding, it’s now called The Wicker Tree and is currently filming in Edinburgh, Scotland.

* Because I was too busy having a heart attack when I linked to CBR’s coverage of the great Grant Morrison/Clive Barker mind-meld, I neglected to point out that Morrison apparently said he intends to write a Wonder Woman project, with the intent of ironing out some of the characters problematic aspects in terms of gender and sexuality. However, Dan DiDio doesn’t seem to be aware of those intentions–or if he is, he’s not talking.

* Happy Fifth Blogiversaries to two of my favorite cats on the comics internet, Joe “Jog” McCulloch and Matt Maxwell.

* John Harrison’s film adaptation of Clive Barker’s Book of Blood will have a one-time-only theatrical screening during Comic Con on Friday night. Last year I think I blew off a similar screening of Midnight Meat Train to watch Jane Wiedlin make a Snakes on a Plane joke at the Eisners.

* Speaking of Harrison, he’ll be adapting Stephen King’s Cell as a TV miniseries, meaning that Eli Roth’s film version is dunzo, I guess.

* Here’s a terrific interview with Paper Rad’s Ben Jones that all the kids are talking about. Money quote:

Paper Rad isn’t a sexy story either. I’d like to be able to talk about it like a young New Yorker might talk about dance parties or graphitti or doing drugs, but when you ask me about Paper Rad I am going to have to tell you about how it was and is just a desperate vital exercise in finding meaning in life. The day to day was about trying not going crazy, about not giving up, it was about being happy. I am sure thats not what people want to hear. They want me to talk about neon jamz, cardboard robots, inflatable bears covering Boston songs, wearing 2 pairs of sunglasses, Volvo’s full of trolls, nintendo mind-melts, or the Doo-Man Group, but again, as someone who was creating the content that fueled the expression and celebration that surrounded Paper Rad, for me the experience isn’t summed up in a 3rd generation Dan Deconesque youtube video, or any superficial reduction or interpretation, the experience was an attempt at an honest and clear artistic expression. But I guess we package that expression in a candy coated outershell so its fair to react to the shell. But I insist that there is a deeper meaning beyond the clutter and noise and color on the outside. And that deeper meaning was “don’t worry, be happy”. Also don’t forget about the 20 foot Bart Simpson mural at Pace Wildenstien. I don’t know, I guess I am sad this week cause I lost my cat.

I feel you, BJ. (Via Dan Nadel.)

* Go see RiffTrax live! (Via Topless Robot.)

* Jason Adams posts three teaser posters for Let Me In, Matt Reeves’s dopily titled Hollywood remake of Let the Right One In. Trajan font, ho! (The nice thing about the Internet is that a blog like this can produce a Swedish-speaking commenter to debunk the studio’s suggestion that this is a more accurate translation of the title.) Jason also writes about the movies and the novel for The Film Experience. Still pretty conflicted about this.

* Jason also reminds us that Children of Men was a gorgeous film and puts together the screencap gallery to prove it.

* Tim O’Neil explains why decompressed superhero team books don’t work.

* I love Stephen King’s short story “The Raft.” When I was a kid my grandparents had a cabin near a lake, and there was a raft anchored out in the lake a ways just like there is in the story. It was a ton of fun to swim out there and jump off and such, but it was also a bit on the creepy side–fish would swim underneath and nibble at you, seaweed grew up the anchor lines, and of course if you jumped or dove in too deep you’d end up in the morass of vegetation on the lake floor, which was indescribably gross. So the setting for this story was instantly recognizable to me, and the horror of it instantly understandable. The story also features one of my favorite of King’s trademark “we’re probably going to be eaten by monsters soon, so why don’t we have some illicit sex to blow off some steam” scenes–quite a climax, too! Anyway, I bring all this up because there’s a miles-long blob of apparently organic mystery Arctic goo floating down the Alaskan shoreline, and at least one report of a seagull stripped to the bone by it. Maybe this is why Sarah Palin resigned? (Via Ryan Penagos.)

* Finally, boys and girls, action, na-na-na-na-eeeee…

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