'Hollywood is Dead' - Kickstarter Project Now Live

I'm still idly holding out hope for a newly published zombie book to come along and do it for me like they used to back in the good old days. I'm not holding out a lot of hope to be honest but, in the meantime, this tickled me a little bit so I thought I'd share :o)

Artist Matt Busch has just released a crowd-funding campaign for the long-awaited Hollywood is Dead coffee table art book. Clocking in at 192 pages, the hardcover book will feature the giant collection of zombified parody movie posters that Busch has illustrated over the past five years, dozens of which have never been seen. The tome will also take a look behind-the-scenes at how the posters are created and feature a gallery of his other zombie-related works for properties like Night of the Living Dead and The Walking Dead.

The Hollywood is Dead project began as a series of Star Wars movie poster images at the request of Lucasfilm, only to be repainted by Busch into a twisted undead universe. With fandom hits like Zombie Wars: The Living Dead Strike Back, it was clear that the artist was destined to move beyond Star Wars and into the rest of the iconic cinema classics. The project soon gained attention on G4TV's Attack of the Show and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as Busch unveiled one new zombified poster after another. Fan favorites include Breakfast at Tiffany's (Breakfast is Tiffany), Edward Scissorhands (Deadward Scissorhands) and Toy Story (Toy Gory).

Details on how the book will be available outside the campaign are not ironed out yet, but Busch assures that pledgers will get the book well before anyone else, and at a better price. The Kickstarter also features exclusive reward packages, like signed / sketched books, and art prints not available anywhere else. The campaign for the Hollywood is Dead art book (only 4 weeks, which is shorter than most) is now live, and will expire on November 29th.

The direct link to the Kickstarter page and video is here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattbusch/hollywood-is-dead-coffee-table-art-book

 

What's not to love about zombified movie covers? Especially ones like this,

 

 

 And this,

I'd maybe wait for those 'Details on how the book will be available outside the campaign...' to be ironed out before chipping in but 'Hollywood is Dead' looks like it could be a book worth supporting (just for the novelty value of having a book like that on your coffee table). What do you think?

 

‘The Iron Wolves’ – Andy Remic (Angry Robot)

Sometimes I don’t want a book that makes me think. There, I said it.
Sometimes all I want in a book is the equivalent of a Hollywood blockbuster with gaping plot holes covered in spectacle and characters that will reach out from the page and grab you by the throat. I want a book that will wake me up in the morning when I haven’t had my coffee; a book that will drown out a horrible day with the sounds of swords clashing and evil dying a bloody death in the penultimate chapter. Whenever I want a book like that I will inevitably turn to whatever Andy Remic has written most recently; he is the guy who ticks all of those boxes, doing so with some style with his ‘Clockwork Vampire’ trilogy.
When ‘The Iron Wolves’ arrived on the doorstep I immediately saw it as the book to get me through a rough opening few days in my new job. I was right, oh how I was right. While there are flaws and shortcomings, I still tore through ‘The Iron Wolves’ and can see myself doing exactly the same thing with ‘The White Towers’ when that is published. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun with a book.

Have some blurb to be going on with,

Thirty years ago, the Iron Wolves held back mud-orc hordes at the Pass of Splintered Bones, and led a brutal charge that saw the sorcerer Morkagoth slain. This ended the War of Zakora, and made the Iron Wolves heroes.

Now, a new terror stalks the realm. In hushed whispers, it is claimed the Horse Lady, Orlana the Changer, has escaped from the Chaos Halls and is building an army, twisting horses, lions and bears into terrible, bloody hunters, summoning mud-orcs from then slime and heading north to Vagandrak where, it said, the noble King Yoon has gone insane...

After hearing a prophecy from a blind seer, aged General Dalgoran searches to reunite the heroes of old for what he believes will be the final battle. But as mud-orcs and twisted beasts tear through the land, Dalgoran discovers the Iron Wolves are no longer heroes of legend... Narnok is a violent whoremaster, Kiki a honey-leaf drug peddler, and Prince Zastarte a drinker, a gambler, amoral and decadent: now he likes to hear people scream as they burn...

United in hate, the Iron Wolves travel to the Pass of Splintered Bones; and as half a million mud-orcs gather, General Dalgoran realises his grave error. Together, the Iron Wolves hold a terrible secret which has tortured them for three decades. Now, they only wish to be human again...

‘The Iron Wolves’ is a book that sacrifices much to deliver on its promise of action and bucket loads of gore. You can tell that Remic writes a story like he’s watching it unfold on the big screen; everything is larger than life and full of vitality but take a little step back for a bit and you’ll find yourself thinking ‘hang on a minute…’
The narrative jumps forwards and backwards in time and that’s fair enough; that kind of thing happens all the time in books. It’s when you realise that this approach is purely to have people in the right place, without all the boring journeys in between, that it starts to feel a little contrived.
And imprisoning a major character only to have him break free, with no explanations as to how, so he can deliver the cliffhanger is, well… contrived again and doesn’t ring true at all.
You can tell that the story is really important to Remic (more on that in a bit) but he’s writing it like it’s a film and that doesn’t work when you’re dealing with words instead of moving pictures. You don’t see all the journeying in a film but a book has to at least mention it otherwise your reader is thinking, ‘how the hell did she suddenly turn up there?’ Films positively thrive on the bad guy suddenly appearing with no explanation, and throwing everything into chaos, but the book has to at least say who undid all the knots otherwise… Things just don’t fit together and there were a few too many of these moments in this book. And don’t get me started on the guy who suddenly pieces it all together so he can tell a lead character just in the nick of time. Just don’t…

You know what though? I totally forgive Andy Remic his little foibles, as I couldn’t put ‘The Iron Wolves’ down (except for those awkward moments where I had to do more than one thing at the same time). ‘The Iron Wolves’ is just wall to wall (or should I say cover to cover) action covered in liberal doses of blood, brains and other assorted viscera. I love that, there is always something happening and Remic ramps the stakes up to unbelievable heights. It may feel like a Saturday morning cartoon but it works; I had to keep reading to find out what happened (even though I had a rough idea that was proved right) and I came away feeling like I’d fought in some of those battles myself.

It’s not just the spectacle either, Remic fills each moment full of flawed anti-heroes that you can’t help but root for once you find out a little more about what is really going on for them. You’d be forgiven for wondering whether there is any room for good in Remic’s world but, in the best traditions of David Gemmell himself, Remic shows us that there is room for redemption in even the bitterest heart. He makes us wait on that though and I loved that little move of his. What a way to bait the hook, a bunch of cynical who really don’t want to be around for the final battle and won’t be given half a chance.

I’ve said before that Remic is the only writer I know who can coin the phrase ‘mud orc’ and get away with it. He is also the only writer I know who can introduce an element of Power Rangers to a ‘Gemmellesque’ final battle and get away with that too. Nothing is too outlandish for Andy Remic and that’s why I’ll continue to read his fantasy books at least.
‘The Iron Wolves’ may be flawed but it’s glorious all at the same time. Keep an eye out for this book in January and thank me later.

‘Slaine: The Book of Scars’ – Various (Rebellion)

The more I think about it the more I realise that I was completely wrong in saying that one book started me off on a decades long love of genre fiction. How could that possibly be when I was reading loads of genre books? They all did their bit in gently ushering me down a path that I haven’t ever wanted to step off in all these years. Loads of bits from loads of books, all shaping what I’m into now. Slaine the Beserker was one of those elements. I knew about Slaine way before I ever got round to picking up a Conan book. Conan may have the better stories but Slaine is a character that looms on the page in exactly the same way. I read what I could of Slaine, when I could, and it was all awesome. Well, maybe not all of ‘Slaine the King’ but enough of it for me to be happy.

All of this quite possibly makes me the wrong person to be reviewing ‘The Book of Scars’ then; being the fan that I am I probably won’t be all that objective. Or will I? Lets have a go and see what happens shall we?

The thing to be aware of with ‘The Book of Scars’ is that the actual story, that gives the book its name, barely takes up half of the book itself. The rest of the book (the bulk in fact) is given over to a retrospective dealing with thirty years of absolutely gorgeous Slaine artwork (thirty years, I feel very old). That’s brilliant if you’re a fan like me, more on that in a bit, but probably not so good if you’re not and want a book with lots of story. You might just want to bear that in mind.

If you are a fan though, you’re in for a bit of a treat.

The ‘Thirty of Years of Slaine Covers’ is a dream come true for fans of Slaine and, it has to be said, fans of barbarians that either look brooding or just like to fight whatever is in front of them. Great stuff.
It’s not just artwork though, it would get boring really quickly if there was only the art (yeah, I’m looking at you Black Library with your ‘The Emperor’s Might’…) What we get here is a little insight into each piece from the creator themselves. I for one find this approach really interesting as it offers a completely different perspective on things. Slaine may well be fighting his way out of a dragon’s jaws but why? Some of the answers will make you look at the covers in a whole new way.

The ‘Book of Scars’ story feels a little lightweight (in terms of length, there isn’t much to it) although there is plenty going on with Slaine revisiting past triumphs and fighting to keep history moving forward on the right path. Again, this is probably more one for fans who will undoubtedly get more out of seeing pivotal moments in Slaine’s history twisted into new threats to the Land of the Young. I certainly did, especially watching Ukko have to rewrite Slaine’s fight with Slough Feg (which made me laugh).
What I really got into though was the stunning artwork that once again really captures Celtic influences, the wildness of Slaine’s world and all the blood and brains that seem to be following in the path of Slaine’s axe. It’s stirring stuff although sometimes the influences can be a little too strong (Elfric anyone?).
What was also interesting to see was Clint Langley taking on art duties for ‘The Bride of Crom’ but carrying them out in the style of Massimo Belardinelli (the artist for the original story). Langley pulls it off in such a way that it is faithful to Belardinelli’s work while still showing what Langley is all about. I loved it.

I think it’s fair to say then that ‘The Book of Scars’ is one for the fans but then who else but a fan would buy an ‘Anniversary Edition’ book anyway? Fans will love what they find in these pages though, I did. Here’s to another thirty (which would put me at sixty eight, I’m game…)

‘The New Girl’ – S.L. Grey

It didn’t take S.L . Grey long to become a writer that I will stop reading everything else for. Both ‘The Mall’ and ‘The Ward’ were deeply unsettling reads that I couldn’t put down, either if I’d wanted to. Good horror fiction (weird or otherwise) still feels like it’s hard to come by so I will always make time to read the good stuff.
I’m still a little bit behind with what’s being published, and when, so the release of ‘The New Girl’ came as a little bit of a surprise to me. No matter though, the second I realised the book was out I made damn sure I had a copy to read. That was a couple of weeks ago though and I’ve only just got round to writing my thoughts down, so what happened?
It’s been hard to collect my thoughts around this book; everything was there that made the last two books so gripping but I came away from the experience feeling a little bit, I don’t know… emptier than before. It took me a little while to work out just why and here I am now, ready to say. Let’s go shall we?

The blurb has been copied and pasted because it’s one of those days today :o)

Ryan Devlin, a predator with a past, has been forced to take a job as a handyman at an exclusive private school, Crossley College. He's losing his battle to suppress his growing fascination with a new girl who seems to have a strange effect on the children around her.
Tara Marais fills her empty days by volunteering at Crossley's library. Tara is desperate, but unable, to have a baby of her own, so she makes Reborns - eerily lifelike newborn dolls. She's delighted when she receives a commission from the mysterious 'Vader Batiss', but horrified when she sees the photograph of the baby she's been asked to create. Still, she agrees to Batiss's strange contract, unaware of the consequences if she fails to deliver the doll on time.

Sometimes, even if you have all the same ingredients it’s the execution that can really make or break things. I’m talking from experience here having made the saltiest buttermilk pancakes ever (long story)… That’s where I think ‘The New Girl’ went slightly awry for me. Everything was there that made ‘The Mall’ and ‘The Ward’ essential reading; the focus has shifted though and ‘The New Girl’ isn’t the same for it.

That’s not to say that ‘The New Girl’ doesn’t have cool stuff going for it. While the book wasn’t one that I couldn’t put down, it was still a book that posed interesting questions where I had to find out the answers. There is a lot of stuff going on that affects the lives of Ryan and Tara in some deliciously unsettling ways and it’s these moments that power the plot forward in just the right ways (even if jumps in perspective force the reader to go back and repeat stuff from a different viewpoint). ‘The New Girl’ is an incredibly easy book to settle into in that respect; it flows very smoothly and takes you along with it. Ryan Devlin is also an interesting character to have centre stage. While his abusive past is hinted at enough for us to see him for what he is, Grey really opens up Ryan’s thoughts and shows us motives that, while twisted, force us to consider Ryan in a new light. The ‘morality’ of Grey’s setting means that Ryan will eventually be punished for his crimes but you can’t help but wonder if it’s a happy ending for all concerned.

It did feel like things went astray though. With two previous books already having established the ‘weirdness’ of Downside, and how this can be horrifying when faced for the first time, it was perhaps inevitable that this setting would lose some of its punch by the third book. That ‘punch’ is lessened further though by the new direction this book takes. Instead of having ‘Downside’ discovered by us, Grey has the denizens of Downside actively seeking to make contact with ‘Upside’ in order to further their own agenda. Admittedly, this agenda results in some horrifying imagery but Grey’s writing strength lay in holding ‘Downside’ up as a mirror and forcing us to confront what’s inherently odd about our own society; it doesn’t work the other way round. We already know that ‘Downside’ is twisted’ so using our world as a mirror to highlight that is kind of pointless really and the end result feels strangely muted (although the ‘New Girl’ herself does come across as completely out of place when compared to her classmates). This feeling carries through to the rest of the book where , despite all the other good stuff, things feel a little bit directionless. This may be resolved in future books, where the direction becomes more clear, but for now it’s an infuriating thing to deal with when it feels like Grey was a lot clearer on this in the previous two books.

‘The New Girl’ is an odd one to call then. Like I said, all the ingredients are there but they’ve been used differently and the end result feels like ‘The New Girl’ isn’t the book that it could have been. Maybe this new direction will make a bit more sense in future books; I’m still a fan of the setting so will be around to see where things go next.

Comics I've been reading...

I’m reading stuff on my phone more and more these days; while there are books that aren’t suited to the small screen (and I’m talking the big fat epics here) I find that short stories and novellas are just right. Is this an open invitation for short, self-published pieces? Maybe, let me think about that one (the reading pile is large enough as it is).
I’m also reading a lot of comics. While it’s not the same as having the actual thing in your hands, reading off the phone still lets me get lost in the artwork… Until the battery runs out that is :o)

I’m reading a lot of stuff from Dark Horse at the moment as the range on offer really lets me broaden my horizons beyond one shared setting. This means that the quality can vary but I’m happy to take that risk.
Here’s some quick thoughts on what I’ve read over the last couple of days (stuff that will hit the shelves next week, I think)

‘X’ #7 – Swierczynksi/Nguyen

This issue continues the ‘Dogs of War’ storyline, from #6, and is very much a bridging piece between all the mad stuff that happened previously and a promised spectacular finale. Unfortunately what this means is that not a lot actually happens, just a bunch of cops realising that they have been set up by their superiors. There’s some nice character work by Swierczynksi and while I like Nguyen’s art the Dogs of War look a little too canine compared to the more ordinary police officers. I didn’t like that contrast although I am hoping that it will bring out some of the more paranormal elements of Arcadia. Here’s hoping, I will be around to see how things pan out in the next issue (as #7 ends with a decent cliff-hanger)

‘Star Wars’ #11 – Wood/D’Anda

I go on about how Star Wars is losing its charm for me but I can’t help but keep going back for more (little kid at heart and all that). This time it paid off as Wood and D’Anda combine to give us a little piece of what Star Wars is really all about – space battles, double crossing and Darth Vader making an appearance. I loved D’Anda’s representations of Leia and Han while Wood really kept me guessing (which in turn kept me reading). It was all brilliant and I had a great time reading, I’ll give this comic another couple of issues to see if the momentum keeps up.

‘Clown Fatale’ #1 of 4 – Gischler/Rosenzweig

‘Clown Fatale’ is only running for four issues so I’ll probably see it through to the end but I’m not a hundred percent convinced by what I’ve seen. Rosensweig’s art, complemented by Dinisio’s colours, grabs the eye immediately but I’m not sure about how Gischler has set things up. I like the concept but I would have also liked to know a little more about what was happening. Given this is a mini-series it just feels like Gischler has left himself an awful lot to do in later issues. Unless everyone is just going to shoot loads of guns at each other that is (and I can see that happening). I’ll let you know how it goes…





I'm always open to comic book recommendations by the way, what are you reading at the moment?

Books In The Post - The 'Poor Tired Graeme' Edition!

What a week... After fifteen months of unemployment I'm back in the world of work and it's a transition that has required a lot of adjustment on my part, very much like being in a car that goes from nought to sixty in less than a second... It's all good though but I am hoping that things start to feel a little easier this week ;o)

Anyway, the last week has been full of books waiting for me when I got home and this is the post where I show you what those books were. Not all of them will be reviewed, reading time is at a premium and will be even more so in about five weeks when our next child arrives... :o) I want to use that time then on books that I'll either enjoy or will get me thinking, either's good. The other books still deserve a mention though so here we go,

My Fantasy Masterworks collection is starting to look pretty special now although there's a way to go yet before it's complete (especially now they are bringing out the new books). This little lot came courtesy of Amazon ('The Riddle Master's Game' and 'The Well of the Unicorn') and my good friend James who popped 'The Dragon Waiting' through the door last weekend. The plan is to lay my hands on more of these at Christmas, what's here should keep me going in the meantime though :o)

I'm not going to go on loads about 'Zombo' as that is what the post below was all about. I had a lot of fun reading it, yesterday, though and there will be a review sometime this week. If I can work out what most of it was about that is... The 'Slaine' book is as gorgeous as it looks but strangely lightweight at the same time. More on that this week as well.

And the rest... I'll definitely be dipping in and out of 'End of the Road', Jonathan Oliver has got form for editing amazing collections so I'm looking forward to seeing what this one is like. It will probably happen one story at a time though (and I know which ones I want to start off with). 'The Wisdom of the Shire'? I don't think so, I had no interest in the hardback review copy I got last year and I've realised that my feelings haven't changed in the slightest. If anyone has read this book and wants to comment then feel free :o)
I'm quite interested in reading 'Fiddlehead' and 'The Art of Hunting' but they're both parts of series and that's putting me off a little bit. I know there's only one book preceding 'The Art of Hunting' but how standalone is 'Fiddlehead'? Does anyone know?
And 'The Waking that Kills'... The blurb is quite interesting but there are a lot of other books that I want to read first so don't expect to hear much about this book (here) any time soon. Here's that blurb for those interested...

The ghosts that haunt us are not always strangers.

When his elderly father suffers a stroke, Christopher Beale returns to england. He has no home, no otherfamily. adrift, he answers an advert for a live-in tutor for a teenage boy. the boy is lawrence lundy, who possesses the spirit of his father, a military pilot – missing, presumed dead. unable to accept that his father is gone, lawrence keeps his presence alive, in the big old house, in the overgrown garden.

His mother, Juliet lundy, a fey, scatty widow living on her nerves, keeps the boy at home, away from other children,away from the world. and in the suffocating heat of a long summer, she too is infected by the madness of her son. Christopher Beale becomes entangled in the strange household... enmeshed in the oddness of the boy and his fragile mother. only by forcing the boy to release the spirit of his father can there be any escape from the haunting.a dark novel of possession.

And, it has to be said, the cover looks lovely. You can see that over Here.

That's that for today I think :o) I'm going to settle down somewhere comfortable and read either Remic's 'The Iron Wolves' or Wagner's 'Conan: the Road of Kings'. I'm totally undecided so it will probably be a little bit of both :o)
Have a good weekend!

Because sometimes the title says everything that you need to know...

Pretty much says it all doesn't it? :o)

What, you want blurb as well? Oh go on then...

When the Government's latest crime deterrent, Obmoz goes completely off the rails and starts to destroy everything from the underfunded super team Planetronix to the president himself, who ya gonna call? Not Zombo, because he s dead and not in a zombie-type of dead way, but in a brain-melted-by-laser kinda way! Now the only thing standing between mankind and total annihilation is a male stripper and a well padded pair of underpants! I don't think we're going to make it...


I think my weekend reading just sorted itself out. I'll let you know if 'You smell of Crime' is as irreverent as 'Can I eat you please? sometime next week. My money is on 'yes, yes it is...' :o)