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Zombie Cockroaches was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

In celebration of the venerable magazine’s 85th anniversary, the editors of Weird Tales are compiling a list of the 85 weirdest storytellers of the past 85 years and they need your help. And they are looking far afield from the magazine.

Time to get crackin’.

Weird Tales Seeks the Weirdest Storytellers was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Cool ]
[  Currently: Eating Breakfast – Poppy Seed Bagel with butter and a cup of Lover’ ]
So last night I went to sleep and you’all appeared in my dreams.

No, I am not making this up.

Sneezy was there first. He was in Ottawa for work and looked me up. Then somehow, we were both at a RevSF con and Joe and Shane and KD and SuperDave and the rest were there.

Except Dharma.

Don’t know why he would come.

Party pooper.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Drinking a nice blend of OJ and Grapefruit Juice ]
Minon by L.A. Banks was my latest reading to tackle.

And it became one on a short list of books that I abandoned.

Minon tells the tale of Damali Richards is a spoken word poet who is also a vampire slayer. She is surrounded by her musicians, who also happen to be her back-up fighters and trainers.

Clearly a Hip Hop Buffy, I found it poorly written and a chore to get through. I gave up.

Meh.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Getting ready for bed. ]
This book, while not genre, was amazing.

In order to pass his civics class, Ian has to do forty volunteer hours. He signs up to help at a soup kitchen where he meets Sarge, a former Canadian soldiers who is now homeless.

Through Sarge, Ian learns about the Rwandan genocide and even more about the world in general. He finds a purpose beyond his shallow, self-centered existance.

This is not a preachy book, but it had me in tears. It also made me grateful for the life I have. I plan to buy this book and use it in my classroom.

[ Mood: Happy ]
There have been rumors for decades of the existence of a “lost” Lee-Kirby Fantastic Four. Apparently Kirby had finished the pencils for #103, 102 being his last issue. Marvel is finally publishing the lost issue in February.

Click on image to enlarge

The biggest shocker to me is the price. Marvel could have easily raked us over the coals on this one, but for once common sense won over greed. I’ll gladly fork over my $4.99.

Click on image to enlarge

Newsarama had a very informative interview back in August with Marvel editor Tom Brevoort about the genesis of this project.

And I was very pleased to learn this from the interview:

Click on images to enlarge

FANTASTIC FOUR: THE LOST ADVENTURE was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Cool ]
[  Currently: Watching Coronation Street ]
Kim Harrison has been writing the Rachel Morgan supernatural mysteries for quite some time now. Her fifth book in the series, For a Few Demons More is the latest to be read by me. And I have to say, wow!

Harrison has done an amazing job of world building. Her Cincinnati is a ghost of city, with a quarter of the world’s population killed by a mutated virus that came from genetically modified tomatoes. With the outbreak of the plague, the Interlanders (witches, vampires, werewolves and pixies) revealed themselves to the humans.

This book countinues that world building. There’s a serial killer stalking the Hollows. Their target? Humans who are mysteriously turned into werewolves. Rachel, a witch and sort of private eye, wakes up to find a demon has desanctified the church she lives in and is looking for something. So Rachel sets about to solve the serial killer case and get her church resanctified so that every bad guy isn’t tromping through her house. It is a rapid and fun filled ride.

Harrison, unlike some other Vampire Mystery writers, has no qualms moving plots along and killing off major characters. Sex does occur in the books, but it is not the main reason for writing them.

Good read. Go get this.

Scott Dunbier, former Wildstorm editor, recounts on his blog one of my favorite Michael Moorcock stories. In the mid-50s, Mike worked for Tarzan Adventures, who had acquired the plates of the Burne Hogarth-illustrated Tarzan stories. Problem was that the plates were in Spanish.

I’ve heard Mike relate this story many times and I’m glad to see it in print. The only piece missing from Dunbier’s report is that Moorcock was actually 15 at the time!

Original text (Click on image to enlarge)

Text re-written by Michael Moorcock (Click on image to enlarge)

Moorcock on Tarzan was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

In order to present a more balanced assessment of the recently released Ratatouille DVD, panned by our very own Alan J. Porter, I present an excerpt from my SF Site review.

Course, unlike Alan, I liked the movie, as expressed in my RevSF review earlier this year.

Since Alan and I are obviously at odds, I suggest you watch the DVD, and make up your own mind. We’ll both be curious to hear what you think.

The Ratatouille DVD: My Take was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Angry ]
"Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest."
– Lady Bird Johnson

So budget time has rolled around in my city. A new mayor was elected last year on a promise of a 0% tax increase, and the citizens fell for it.

After Mike Harris and Stephen Harper, you think they’d know what that really meant.

So to keep his promise, the proposal has the city shutting ten library branches. That’s right, ten. 1 followed by a 0.

One of these branches is my local branch. It sits in a typical inner city Ottawa neighbourhood. To afford to own a house in this area, you have to be firmly in the middle class. Mixed in with these lovely single family dwellings and condos are lots and lots of rental property. Those are the people I am worried about. Many of them are my students.

Within easy walking distance of this branch are two schools with huge lower income and welfare class populations. Many of them are recent immigrants. They don’t have the money for extras like books. The library is for them a lifeline. Every time I am in there, I see a student reading, working on homework or using a computer. They walk over after school on a regular basis.

Will it affect me? Yes, but I am middle class. I have a car and can drive to another branch. Many of my students, however, are not. Their parents are not going drive them to the next branch. And our bus system is set up to take people in and out of the downtown, not across town.

And that doesn’t take into account the fact that another proposal of the budget is to raise the transit fares.

One of the interesting things about our mayor is that he is a millionaire business man. Another millionaire business man, Andrew Carnegie, spent the latter part of his life building libraries. It seems our mayor is going to spend his golden years closing them down.

Somewhere, angels are weeping.

"The only true equalisers in the world are books; the only treasure-house open to all comers is a library; the only wealth which will not decay is knowledge; the only jewel which you can carry beyond the grave is wisdom."
– J. A. Langford