Although another light geek month, a few items of interest crop up. Recent movies Gnomeo and Juliet and Limitless make their Netflix premieres. If you aren’t getting enough of it on WGN, How I Met Your Mother is now available. As evident by previous months, many quality films and TV selections will appear that weren’t previously announced.

* denotes streaming for the first time via Netflix.
* denotes streaminng in HD
* denotes close captioning is available

Premiering November 1:
*Aeon Flux
Babes in Toyland (1986)
*The Car (1977)
Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001)
*The Dark Hours
*Death Becomes Her
*Gnomeo and Juliet
*Hardware
*Out for a Kill
Supernova

Premiering November 3:
*The Shrine (2010)

Premiering November 4:
*Double Dragon

Premiering November 8:
*Naruto the Movie 2

Premiering November 10:
*Seed of Chucky

Premiering November 11:
**Camelot (2011)

Premiering November 15:
*John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up: Season 2

Premiering November 16:
Jet Li’s Fearless
*Limitless My review
*Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything

Premiering November 18:
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Though not listed, I’m betting the rest of the trilogy will be avaible as well.

Premiering November 20:
The Game (1997)

Premiering November 25:
Final Destination 2

Premiering November 26:
*How I Met Your Mother Seasons 1-6

Premiering November 29:
*I Sell the Dead
*Vampires (2009)
*What the #$*! Do We Know!?

Info courtesy of

Impending Geekgasm on Netflix Instant Watch – Nov edition was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

The Zombies that ate the World – Book 1: Bring me back my Head!
Written by Jerry Frissen
Art by Guy Davis

Promo copy:

In Los Angeles in the year 2064, the dead have risen and corpses live again, cohabiting among us…well, somewhat. As a zombie apocalypse engulfs America, we follow a group of friends on a their journey to start a little business of their own: zombie catchers! Written by Jerry Frissen (Lucha Libre, The Tikitis), and illustrated by Guy Davis (B.P.R.D., The Marquis: Inferno), the two creators collaborate here to pay homage to the zombie genre, giving us a hilarious black comedy that will want you starved for more! Collects the first 4 issues of the DDP/Humanoids comics and features a whole new sketchbook section.

The Man Who Grew His Beard
by Olivier Schrauwen

Promo copy:

The Man Who Grew His Beard is Belgian cartoonist Olivier Schrauwen’s first American book after having staked a reputation over the last decade as one of Europe’s most talented storytellers. It collects seven short stories, each a head-spinning display of craft and storytelling that mixes early twentieth-century comics influences like Winsor McCay with a thoroughly contemporary voice that provokes and entertains with subversively surreal humor and subtle criticism of twentieth-century tropes and images. The stories themselves, though each stands alone, are intertwined thematically, offering peeks into the minds of semi-autistic, achingly isolated men and their feverish inner worlds and how they interact and contrast with their real environment. Though Schrauwen taps “surrealist” or “absurdist” impulses in his work, you will not read a more careful and precise collection of stories this year.

The stories included are: “Hair Types,” a hilarious piece that on the surface explores the pseudoscientific classification of personality as a function of hair but becomes something more akin to a fable about self-fulfilling prophecy; “Chromo Congo,” a silent story about two men on safari who meet a corpulent and obnoxious hunter; as well as “The Task,” “The Man Who Grew His Beard,” “The Lock,” “The Cave,” and “The Imaginist.”

Though this is Schrauwen’s first U.S. edition of comics, he has wowed American fans with his appearances in the anthology MOME over the last few years, and one of his MOME stories was one of three comics selected for the 2009 edition of Dave Eggers’s influential Best American Nonrequired Reading.

Antares: Episode 1
by Leo

Promo copy:

After the failure of the Betelgeuse colonisation mission, Kim is back on Earth, where she is an increasingly popular figure. Meanwhile, advance scouts on planet Antares have witnessed some distressingly strange events. Worried about the future of this new mission, the sponsors of the Antares project call upon Kim to accompany the first colonists, offering legal amnesty for Alexa and Mark in exchange. It’s the beginning of a new adventure for the young woman and her friends.

Dear Creature
by Jonathan Case

Promo copy:

Deep beneath the waves, a creature named Grue broods. He no longer wants to eat lusty beachgoers, no matter how their hormones call to him. A chorus of crabs urges him to reconsider. After all, people are delicious! But this monster has changed. Grue found Shakespeare’s plays in cola bottles and, through them, a new heart. Now he yearns to join the world above.

When his first attempt ends… poorly, Grue searches for the person who cast the plays into the sea. What he finds is love in the arms of Giulietta—a woman trapped in her own world. When she and Grue meet, Giulietta believes her prayers are answered. But people have gone missing and Giulietta’s nephew is the prime suspect. With his past catching up to him, Grue must decide if becoming a new man means ignoring the monster he was.

Rising from a brine of drive-in pulp and gentle poetry, Jonathan Case’s debut graphic novel Dear Creature is the love story you never imagined!

Graphic novels received 10/28/11 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Fenrir
by M. D. Lachlan
Cover by Paul Young

Promo copy:

The Vikings are laying siege to Paris. They want the Count’s sister, in return they will spare the rest of the city. As houses on the banks of the Seine burn, a debate rages in the Cathedral on the walled island of the city proper. Can the Count really have ambitions to be Emperor of the Franks if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his people? Can he call himself a man if he doesn t do everything he can to save his sister? His conscience demands one thing, the state demands another. The Count and the church are relying on the living saint, the blind and crippled Jehan of St. Germain, to enlist the aid of God and resolve the situation for them. But the Vikings have their own gods, and outside their camp, a terrifying brother and sister, priests of Odin, have their own agenda. An agenda of darkness and madness. And in the shadows a wolfman lurks. M. D. Lachlan’s stunning epic of mad Gods, Vikings, and the myth of Fenrir, the wolf destined to kill Odin at Ragnarok, is a compelling mix of bloody horror, unlikely heroism, dangerous religion, and breathtaking action.

Mastiff: The Legend of Beka Cooper #3
by Tamora Pierce

Promo copy:

The Legend of Beka Cooper gives Tamora Pierce’s fans exactly what they want—a smart and savvy heroine making a name for herself on the mean streets of Tortall’s Lower City—while offering plenty of appeal for new readers as well.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan
by Drew Karpyshyn
Cover by ATTIK

Promo copy:

There’s something out there:
a juggernaut of evil bearing down to crush the Republic—
unless one lone Jedi, shunned and reviled, can stop it.

Revan: hero, traitor, conqueror, villain, savior. A Jedi who left Coruscant to defeat Mandalorians—and returned a disciple of the dark side, bent on destroying the Republic. The Jedi Council gave Revan his life back, but the price of redemption was high. His memories have been erased. All that’s left are nightmares—and deep, abiding fear.

What exactly happened beyond the Outer Rim? Revan can’t quite remember, yet can’t entirely forget. Somehow he stumbled across a terrible secret that threatens the very existence of the Republic. With no idea what it is, or how to stop it, Revan may very well fail, for he’s never faced a more powerful and diabolic enemy. But only death can stop him from trying.

Pathfinder Tales: Death’s Heretic
by James L. Sutter
Cover by Kekai Kotaki

Promo copy:

Nobody cheats death. A warrior haunted by his past, Salim Ghadafar serves as a problem-solver for a church he hates, bound by the goddess of death to hunt down those who would rob her of her due. Such is the case in the desert nation of Thuvia, where a powerful merchant on the verge of achieving eternal youth via a magical elixir is mysteriously murdered, his soul kidnapped somewhere along its path to the afterlife. The only clue is a magical ransom note, offering to trade the merchant’s successful resurrection for his dose of the fabled potion. But who would have the power to steal a soul from the boneyard of Death herself? Enter Salim, whose keen mind and contacts throughout the multiverse should make solving this mystery a cinch. There”s only one problem: The investigation is being financed by Neila Anvanory, the dead merchant’s stubborn and aristocratic daughter. And she wants to go with him. Along with his uninvited passenger, Salim must unravel a web of intrigue that will lead them far from the blistering sands of Thuvia on a grand tour of the Outer Planes, where devils and angels rub shoulders with fey lords and mechanical men, and nothing is as it seems…

Books received 10/28/11 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Shouldn’t surprise anyone that when a cartoon pops up on Netflix Instant Watch that I’m unfamiliar, I’m curious. Toss in the Netflix description and Ugly Americans becomes a must watch.

Using 2D animation in a crude style reminiscent of EC Comics, creator Devin Clark stocks his monster-infused alternate New York with fascinating characters.

Mark’s roommate Randall became a zombie in an attempt to win over a cute girl with a zombie fixation. Sadly for him, she already redirected her affections to warlocks.

Callie Maggotbone, Mark’s on-again/off-again girlfriend and immediate superior, alternately berates and desires him. Not terribly shocking considering her father is a demon and her mother human.

500 year old wizard Leonard Powers works with Mark at New York’s Department of Integration. At least when he’s sober enough to do his job.

The demonic mid-level bureaucratic head of the Department of Integration, Twayne Boneraper despises Social Services. He reduces the department, leaving Mark and Leonard as the two case workers.

Clark with the aid of former Simpsons scribe David M. Stern, who helped develop the show from its original incarnation as the web series 5 On with Alan Whiter, delivers more than a monster of the week. Each episode concentrates on real world socio-political issues such as government downsizing, homosexuality, immigration, education, unemployment, war, and unwanted children and the far more personal including roommates, intimacy, jealousy, elitism, and trust. The series creatively mergers our actual history within the tableaux of this made up world. The Vietnam War is re-envisioned as the Human-Zombie Civil Wars and the legendary 19th century New York gang fights changes into a conflict between vampires and the Irish.

Two seasons (the first of 14 episodes and the second with 10) have appeared on Comedy Central. The entire first season is now streaming via Netflix. Sadly, no sign of Season Two, either streaming or on DVD.

Halloween Surprise: Ugly Americans was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Burton & Swinburne in Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon
by Mark Hodder
Cover by Jon Sullivan

Promo copy:

It is 1863, but not the one it should be. Time has veered wildly off course, and now the first moves are being made that will lead to a devastating world war and the fall of the British Empire.

The prime minister, Lord Palmerston, believes that by using the three Eyes of Naga—black diamonds possessing unique properties—he’ll be able to manipulate events and avoid the war. He already has two of the stones, but the third is hidden somewhere in the Mountains of the Moon, the fabled source of the Nile.

Palmerston sends Sir Richard Francis Burton to recover it. For the king’s agent, it’s a chance to redeem himself after his previous failed attempt to find the source of the great river. That occasion had led to betrayal by his partner, John Hanning Speke. Now Speke is leading a rival expedition on behalf of the Germans, and it seems that the battle between the former friends may ignite the very war that Palmerston is trying to avoid!

Caught in a tangled web of cause, effect, and inevitability, little does Burton realize that the stakes are far higher than even he suspects.

A final confrontation comes in the mist-shrouded Mountains of the Moon, in war- torn Africa of 1914, and in Green Park, London, where, in the year 1840, Burton must face the man responsible for altering time: Spring Heeled Jack!

Burton and Swinburne’s third adventure is filled with eccentric steam-driven technology, grotesque characters, and bizarre events, completing the three-volume story arc begun in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man.

Boneyards
by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Cover by Dave Seeley

When multiple Hugo Award winner Kristine Kathryn Rusch decided to put her stamp on classic space opera, readers wanted more. Now Rusch’s popular character Boss returns in a whole new adventure, one that takes her far outside her comfort zone, to a sector of space she’s never seen before.

Searching for ancient technology to help her friends find answers to the mystery of their own past, Boss ventures into a place filled with evidence of an ancient space battle, one the Dignity Vessels lost.

Meanwhile, the Enterran Empire keeps accidentally killing its scientists in a quest for ancient stealth tech. Boss’s most difficult friend, Squishy, has had enough. She sneaks into the Empire and destroys its primary stealth tech research base. But an old lover thwarts her escape, and now Squishy needs Boss’s help.

Boss, who is a fugitive in the Empire. Boss, who knows how to make a Dignity Vessel work. Boss, who knows that Dignity Vessels house the very technology that the Empire is searching for.

Should Boss take a Dignity Vessel to rescue Squishy and risk losing everything to the Empire? Or should Boss continue on her mission for her other friends and let Squishy suffer her own fate?

Filled with battles old and new, scientific dilemmas, and questions about the ethics of friendship, Boneyards looks at the influence of our past on our present and the risks we all take when we meddle in other people’s lives.

Boneyards is space opera the way it was meant to be: exciting, fast moving, and filled with passion.

Mirror Maze
by Michaele Jordan
Cover by Cynthia Sheppard

Promo copy:

Jacob Aldridge is still utterly devastated by the death of his fiance, when he suddenly encounters her doppelganger. Livia Aram’s uncanny resemblance to the late Rhoda Carothers so transcends coincidence that Jacob becomes obsessed with her. The intensity of his passion terrifies her until her compassion is roused by his desperate plight. A demon is stalking him, a succubus-like entity that feeds on human pain and desire. With the help of Jacob’s sister, Cecily, and Livia’s guardian, the mysterious Dr. Chang, they overcome the demon. Or so it appears…

Jacob, Livia, and Cecily are all victims of a single curse, a curse that entrapped and destroyed their parents before them. Now fate has drawn the unsuspecting descendants together, and the curse is playing out again. Nothing can help them, until Cecily’s husband returns from abroad. Colonel Beckford has been missing for years; he has seen strange things and acquired strange powers in his absence. Now he will do whatever it takes to free his wife and end the demon and its curse once and for all.

Books received 10/20/11 Pyr edition was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec Volume 2: The Mad Scientist/Mummies on Parade
by Jacques Tardi

Promo copy:

After establishing the world of the prickly heroine with the first two episodes of this classic series (combined in Fantagraphics’ The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, Volume 1), Jacques Tardi plunges us back into Belle-Époque Paris for another double dosage of heroic derring-do, evil and crazy malefac- tors, mad actresses (yes, Clara Benhardt makes a return appearance) and monsters!

In “The Mad Scientist,” the science that brought us revived dinosaurs now results in a pithecanthrope stalking the streets of the City of Light, climaxing in an amazing car chase involving a foe from the previous volume. Will the perpetually inept Inspector Caponi just make things worse? Probably. Then in the second episode, “A Dusting of Mummies,” the mummy glimpsed in Adèle’s apartment in previous episodes comes alive! The volume concludes with the sudden startling (and delightful) incursion of some characters familiar to Tardi fans, and a shocking climax that leaves the future of both Adèle and this series in doubt as World War I erupts. (It’s the only story in the entire series not to feature an “in our next episode” teaser.)

The Extraordinary Adventure of Adele Blanc-Sec, Volume 2, is the lucky seventh book in Fantagraphics’ acclaimed series of Tardi reprints, showcasing the rich variety of graphic novels from one of France’s greatest living cartoonists.

Early this year I devoted a entire Nexus Graphica column to the genius of Tardi.

Definitely expect to hear more about Ms. Blanc-Sec in the near future.

The Super Hero Squad Show: The Infinity Gauntlet Vol. 2

Promo copy:

The universe is in big trouble if the supervillain Thanos is able to collect all the gems necessary to complete the all-powerful Infinity Gauntlet! Can our lovable heroes, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Wolverine, Falcon and Scarlet Witch, stop him in time? And what about the malevolent devourer Galactus?! Experience the action and laughs with this second volume of The Super Hero Squad Show’s hilariously wild second season!

Featuring the special guest voice talents of Michael Dorn (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) and George Takei (Star Trek)!

The Zombie Survival Guide Journal
Art by Ibraim Roberson

Promo copy:

Watch out as a mob of ravenous, flesh-eating undead comes to life. This lenticular journal cover sets in motion images of slithering, shuffling zombies from the bestselling graphic novel The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks. Filled with lined pages, this all-purpose journal is perfect for jotting down notes, making to-do lists, plotting your own survival strategy, and is just the creepy thing for zombie fans everywhere.

This will make a fine gift for my 12 year old nephew who recently completed his first short story “Zombies vs Aliens.”

Stuff received 10/20/11 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Ran across this fascinating bit at Bleeding Cool:

As longtime GC readers know, I’m a huge Kirby fan and was excited to see this.

Bleeding Cool has more of the art on display. Definitely worth checking out.

New Kirby art unearthed! was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Using the heading of “9 indie pics with enough buzz to become next year’s sleeper hits,” I reviewed some essential science fiction/fantasy/horror films from Fantastic Fest.

If you’ve been reading the blog over the past two weeks, none of it should surprise. But check it out anyway. The Blastr article includes trailers for the nine films.

Since I was limited to only s/f/h movies, I sadly couldn’t include the excellent crime films The Yellow Sea and Headhunters nor the crude hilarity of Clown.

My Blastr piece on Fantastic Fest was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters: Season One

Promo copy:

Scary doesn’t get any sillier than Season 1 of the hit Nickelodeon show Aaahh!!! Real Monsters! These monsters-in-training make fright a hoot as they try to learn the tricks of the scary monster trade. Check out Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm and their herculean efforts to master The Gromble’s class on proper scare techniques. So pull up a seat in the Monster Academy, the scariest (NOT!) place under the city dump, and get ready for lessons so bizarre, they’re scary!

Beautiful Boy

Promo copy:

Beautiful Boy is an unconventional love story that explores the journey of a married couple on the verge of separation, who must live with unimaginable heartbreak, and find healing through the darkest days of their lives.

Bill (Michael Sheen) and Kate (Maria Bello) hopelessly try to find some hint of an explanation after finding out that their only son committed a mass shooting at his university before taking his own life. They struggle numbly through the funeral, the media onslaught, and the awkward pity from relatives and friends. Their already strained marriage is tested as they realize all they have left with each other is their shared grief and confusion–and the unfortunate legacy of their son. This life-altering event forces Bill and Kate to face their feelings of guilt, rage, blame, self-discovery –and ultimately hope–so that they can finally see each other and their chance for happiness again with clear eyes.

DVDs received 10/6/11 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

The Sacred Band: Book Three of the Acacia Trilogy
by David Anthony Durham
Cover by Torstein Nordstrand

Promo copy:

With the first two books in the Acacia Trilogy, Acacia and The Other Lands, David Anthony Durham has created a vast and engrossing canvas of a world in turmoil, where the surviving children of a royal dynasty are on a quest to realize their fates—and perhaps right ancient wrongs once and for all. As The Sacred Band begins, one of them, Queen Corinn, bestrides the world as a result of her mastery of spells found in the ancient Book of Elenet. Her younger brother, Dariel, has been sent on a perilous mis­sion to the Other Lands, while her sister, Mena, travels to the far north to confront an invasion of the feared race of the Auldek. Their separate trajectories will converge in a series of world-shaping, earth-shattering battles, all ren­dered with vividly imagined detail and in heroic scale.

David Anthony Durham concludes his tale of kingdoms in collision in an exciting fashion. His fictional world is at once realistic and fantastic, informed with an eloquent and dis­tinctively Shakespearean sensibility.

I interviewed Durham for the release of the first volume Acacia.

The Rift Walker (Vampire Empire, Book 2)
by Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith
Cover by Chris McGrath

Promo copy:

Princess Adele struggles with a life of marriage and obligation as her Equatorian Empire and their American Republic allies stand on the brink of war against the vampire clans of the north. However, the alliance’s horrific strategy for total victory drives Adele to abandon her duty and embark on a desperate quest to keep her nation from staining its hands with genocide. Reunited with her great love, the mysterious adventurer known to the world as the Greyfriar, Adele is pursued by her own people as well as her vengeful husband, senator Clark. With the human alliance in disarrray, Prince Cesare, lord of the British vampire clan, seizes the initiative and strikes at the very heart of Equatoria.

As Adele labors to bring order to her world, she learns more about the strange powers she exhibited in the north. Her teacher, Mamoru, leads a secret cabal of geomancers who believe Adele is the one who can touch the vast power of the Earth that surges through ley lines and wells up at the rifts where the lines meet. These energies are the key to defeating the enemy of mankind, and if Princess Adele could ever bring this power under her command, she could be death to vampires. But such a victory will also cost the life of Adele’s beloved Greyfriar.

The Rift Walker is the second book in a trilogy of high adventure and alternative history. Combining rousing pulp action with steampunk style, the Vampire Empire series brings epic politcal themes to life within a story of heartbreaking romance, sacrifice, and heroism.

The Traitor’s Daughter
by Paula Brandon

Promo copy:

Here’s the beginning of a lush, epic, wholly original new trilogy that shines with magic, mystery, and captivating drama.

On the Veiled Isles, ominous signs are apparent to those with the talent to read them. The polarity of magic is wavering at its source, heralding a vast upheaval poised to alter the very balance of nature. Blissfully unaware of the cataclysmic events to come, Jianna Belandor, the beautiful, privileged daughter of a powerful Faerlonnish overlord, has only one concern: the journey to meet her prospective husband. But revolution is stirring as her own conquered people rise up against their oppressors, and Jianna is kidnapped and held captive at a rebel stronghold, insurance against what are perceived as her father’s crimes.

The resistance movement opens Jianna’s eyes―and her heart. Despite her belief in her father’s innocence, she is fascinated by the bold and charming nomadic physician and rebel sympathizer, Falaste Rione—who offers Jianna her only sanctuary in a cold and calculating web of intrigue. As plague and chaos grip the land, Jianna is pushed to the limits of her courage and resourcefulness, while virulent enemies discover that alliance is their only hope to save the human race.

The Cold Commands
by Richard K. Morgan
Cover by Jon Sullivan

Promo copy:

With The Steel Remains, award-winning science fiction writer Richard K. Morgan turned his talents to sword and sorcery. The result: a genre-busting masterwork hailed as a milestone in contemporary epic fantasy. Now Morgan continues the riveting saga of Ringil Eskiath—Gil, for short—a peerless warrior whose love for other men has made him an outcast and pariah.

Only a select few have earned the right to call Gil friend. One is Egar, the Dragonbane, a fierce Majak fighter who comes to respect a heart as savage and loyal as his own. Another is Archeth, the last remaining daughter of an otherworldly race called the Kiriath, who once used their advanced technology to save the world from the dark magic of the Aldrain—only to depart for reasons as mysterious as their arrival. Yet even Egar and Archeth have learned to fear the doom that clings to their friend like a grim shadow … or the curse of a bitter god.

Now one of the Kiriath’s uncanny machine intelligences has fallen from orbit—with a message that humanity faces a grave new danger (or, rather, an ancient one): a creature called the Illwrack Changeling, a boy raised to manhood in the ghostly between-world realm of the Grey Places, home to the Aldrain. A human raised as one of them—and, some say, the lover of one of their greatest warriors—until, in a time lost to legend, he was vanquished. Wrapped in sorcerous slumber, hidden away on an island that drifts between this world and the Grey Places, the Illwrack Changeling is stirring. And when he wakes, the Aldrain will rally to him and return in force—this time without the Kiriath to stop them.

An expedition is outfitted for the long and arduous sea journey to find the lost island of the Illwrack Changeling. Aboard are Gil, Egar, and Archeth: each fleeing from ghosts of the past, each seeking redemption in whatever lies ahead. But redemption doesn’t come cheap these days. Nor, for that matter, does survival. Not even for Ringil Eskiath. Or anyone—god or mortal—who would seek to use him as a pawn.

Part II

Books received 10/6/11 Part I was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon