Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world, starts here in Austin in just 4 days.

As a lead up, I’m previewing the movies that I’m planning on attending and blogging about over the course of the week long festival.

Sunday, September 25th

THE CORRIDOR
Evan Kelly 2010 | AMD Next Wave, Feature, Guest in attendance, Horror, Sci-Fi | 100 min.

Director Evan Kelly live in person!

When Tyler’s mom Pauline OD’s, something snaps in his head. His friends arrive to find Pauline face down in the hallway and Tyler jumps out of the closet, sputtering nonsense. He cuts one friend’s face and stabs another in the hand before being restrained.

Several years later, Tyler’s getting out of the institution and his four best friends are meeting him to give Pauline a final farewell and scatter her ashes. They head out to the small cabin she kept deep in the woods, but the years have changed them. They’ve grown apart. Old wounds open and none of them are sure how to treat Tyler. While the meds he’s taking seem to be working, there’s a latent fear that they can’t acknowledge or ignore.

Tyler takes a walk late on the first night and discovers a strange hallway, some kind of supernatural corridor in the woods. While he wonders if his mind is playing tricks on him, he convinces his best friend to go with him the next morning and check it out. The other three follow them and they can all see and experience the corridor, allowing Tyler to breathe a sigh of relief at not being crazy. But the corridor has strange, supernatural properties and its effects will change the five friends in ways they could never expect.

First time feature director Evan Kelly delivers exactly what we are looking for in an AMD Next Wave film: a vibrant, fresh supernatural concept with unexpected turns and deeply developed characters. Look out for what Kelly does next. (Luke Mullen)

HEADHUNTERS
Morten Tyldum 2011 | Feature, Romance, Thriller | 100 min.

screens with…
THE CANDIDATE | David Karlak 2010

Based on Jo Nesbo’s bestselling book of the same name, Morten Tyldum’s HEADHUNTERS follows Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie of MAX MANUS), Norway’s most successful headhunter. He’s also secretly Norway’s top con artist, using his job to slyly recruit people he plans on stealing from. He’s charming but suffers from what’s called "Little Man Syndrome." His wife Diana (an impressive first performance from Synnøve Macody Lund) is tall and beautiful. To make up for those lost inches, he steals from people and buys her things he can’t afford, putting himself deeper in debt than even M.C. Hammer could imagine. So, Roger goes for one final hit – the one that will cure all of his financial woes. That last job is a painting worth millions, and it’s in the hands of Clas Greve (Nikolaj Cster-Waldau of "A Game of Thrones"), a former mercenary with excellent hunting skills.

HEADHUNTERS eventually turns into a brutally satisfying game of cat and mouse. Throughout the chase, our characters discover the meanings of love, deceit, faith and revenge. There are virtually no truly likable characters in HEADHUNTERS, and that’s what really makes it work – you find yourself rooting for the bad guy, but he’s the good guy by comparison.(Chase Whale)

CARRE BLANC
Jean-Baptiste Léonetti 2011 | Feature, Guest in attendance, Sci-Fi | 77 min.

Director Jean-Baptiste Léonetti, Producer Benjamin Mamou, and Executive Producer Camille Havard Bourdon in attendance

After his mother leaps to her death from their high-rise apartment balcony, Phillipe attempts his own suicide only to be thwarted by his classmate Marie. Phillipe is sent to a school run by the government where he is molded into a fit member of society via physically and psychologically tormenting techniques. Years later, Phillipe (Sami Bouajila) is now a disciplined and successful business man putting applicants through strange, sometimes painful tests and is estranged from Marie (Julie Gayet) to whom he is now married. Marie, however, is determined to prove correct her inkling that there is still love in their relationship and that it is mutual.

Writer/director Jean-Baptiste Léonetti takes an aggressively economical approach to his first feature. The visual palette and sound design perfectly match the gaunt view of a future where capitalistic society has reached an extreme and is on the verge of endgame. Instead, he focuses on what matters, Phillipe and Marie’s relationship, leaving the viewer to fill in the blanks about the details of life in this future using clues mostly revealed via clever editing.

As the film progresses, audiences will become more and more familiar with their surroundings as they navigate through a world only barely familiar, one full of odd touches like a mysterious voice over a loudspeaker that constantly announces seemingly random numbers, body bags that share the same logo as packaged meat, and what seems to be a cultural obsession with croquet. It’s a tribute to Léonetti’s enormous talent that it never becomes overbearing, the initially surreal elements make sense and there’s a dark vein of wit that runs through it all. At times it would almost be funny if it didn’t feel so damn prophetic. In the end, it’s a small character story painted in strokes of big sci-fi ideas. (Brian Kelley)

Preview Day 3

Preview Day 5

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

MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus
by Art Spiegelman

Visually and emotionally rich, MetaMaus is as groundbreaking as the masterpiece whose creation it reveals.

In the pages of MetaMaus, Art Spiegelman re-enters the Pulitzer prize–winning Maus, the modern classic that has altered how we see literature, comics, and the Holocaust ever since it was first published twenty-five years ago.

He probes the questions that Maus most often evokes—Why the Holocaust? Why mice? Why comics?—and gives us a new and essential work about the creative process.

MetaMaus includes a bonus DVD that provides a digitized reference copy of The Complete Maus linked to a deep archive of audio interviews with his survivor father, historical documents, and a wealth of Spiegelman’s private notebooks and sketches.

Compelling and intimate, MetaMaus is poised to become a classic in its own right.

WOW!

Master of the World

Promo copy:

Elements of the Jules Verne novels Master of the World and Robur, The Conqueror are combined in this marvelous science-fiction thriller. Vincent Price stars as Captain Robur, a 19th-century scientist who builds a gigantic airship and sets out to eliminate the world’s weapons in an effort to abolish war. With Charles Bronson, Henry Hull, Mary Webster. 99 min.

Let’s see: Vincent Price, Charles Bronson, Henry Hull, screenplay by Richard Matheson, and airships. What could be bad?

Habibi
by Craig Thompson

Promo copy:

From the internationally acclaimed author of Blankets (“A triumph for the genre.”—Library Journal), a highly anticipated new graphic novel.

Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, Habibi tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them. We follow them as their lives unfold together and apart; as they struggle to make a place for themselves in a world (not unlike our own) fueled by fear, lust, and greed; and as they discover the extraordinary depth—and frailty—of their connection.

At once contemporary and timeless, Habibi gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling.

I reviewed Habibi in the current "Nexus Graphica."

Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world, starts here in Austin in just 5 days.

As a lead up, I’m previewing the movies that I’m planning on attending and blogging about over the course of the week long festival.

Saturday, September 24th

DRAWN AND QUARTERED: Animated Shorts
various | Feature, Short | 91 min.

screens with…
PATH OF BLOOD: DEMON AT THE CROSSROADS OF DESTINY | Eric Power 2011
A lone samurai sets his course towards the path of blood where unknown dangers and terrors await.

TWO FRIENDS | 2010
Albert and his best friend Jonas are orphans. They live in the future in a harsh dystopia where the women and children are all dead and the men have begun to change.

BEDTIME FOR TIMMY | Thomas Nicol 2010
Night falls, shadows creep out, and the time has come for little Timmy to go to bed. But can he brave the ominous gaze of his closet door?

SK8RZ | Robin Todd 2011
Set in a world where love exists as forward momentum, sk8rz carry each other over precarious obstacles until they crash in bitter disagreement.

THE LAST NORWEGIAN TROLL | Pjotr Sapegin 2010
Three young goats decide to get rid of an old Troll who lives under a bridge. Little do they know that he is the last survivor of his species, the very last Troll of Norway…

THE HOLY CHICKEN OF LIFE AND MUSIC | NOMINT 2010
The magnificent Holy Chicken is worshiped and exploited in this tale of love and regret, art and science, life and music.

LADY CRUSH | Hanna Sköld 2011
An unhappy couple long to be other than they are in this absurd, associative tale about love, role-playing and the longing to be seen.

BLACK DOLL | Sofia Carrillo 2011
Two sisters share their life imprisoned in a strange place. The mundane routine, along with their curiosity, will cause them to break their boundaries.

CREATE | Dan MacKenzie 2011
A young mad scientist sets out to create a pet monster within the parallel worlds of an imaginary laboratory and the reality of the boy’s bedroom.

YUICHI : THE BEGINNING OF THE END | Aaron D. Guadamuz 2011
After the planet is decimated, Yuichi and his dog venture into the charred landscape of cult film artifacts in search of a television tube.

THE LADY PARANORMA | Vincent Marcone 2011
Estranged from the rest of the townsfolk, an eccentric lady is haunted by ghostly whispers and follows an eerie call to an unusual happily-ever-after.

INNERCITY | Alain Fournier 2011
In a lonely city, a young boy has only pigeons for company. When he spies a pretty neighbor, he tries all manner of inventions to catch her eye.

LAZAROV | NIETOV 2010
Refusing to accept the decline of the USSR, a handful of Russian scientists work secretly to resurrect the Soviet power.

DICKFACE | Thomas Seeberg Torjussen, Eric Vogel 2011
Portrait of the artist as a young man…if he had no hands and a dick for a nose.

CALIBRE 9
Jean-Christian Tassy 2011 | Action, AMD Next Wave, Bizarre, Fantasy, Feature, Guest in attendance | 84 min.

screens with…
SHIFTER | Ben Parker 2011

Director Jean-Christian Tassy & Producer Axel Guyot live in person!

Sarah is a down-on-her-luck hooker. She’s been trying to get out of the life and has one last client scheduled, a big spender whose money will allow her to move on. But while he’s getting ready in the next room, her pimp Frank drops in. A fight breaks out and Sarah manages to stab him, get his gun and kill him. Sarah is badly hurt but before she dies, her client returns to the scene. He happens to be from Senegal and was paying Sarah to be a participant in a supernatural ritual. He decides to do a favor for her.

Yann is a pretty typical guy. He goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, checks on his mom, goes to bed, gets up and does it all again. He works as a city planner in the mayor’s office. Unfortunately the mayor is an asshole, and the entire city government is corrupt, Yann included. Bribes and intimidation are standard tactics. While delivering falsified construction authorizations to a job site, a threatening note is discovered in the paperwork. When Yann is confronted about it, he hears voices from his briefcase. He opens it to find a gun that jumps into his hand and fires on its own, killing the rich land developer and his bodyguards. When the mercenaries hired by the land developer show up to avenge him, all hell breaks loose.

Director Jean-Christian Tassy defines what we are seeking in our AMD Next Wave showcase: fresh young debut director with an alarmingly original story up his sleeve. CALIBRE 9, the action-packed story about a gun possessed by the soul of a dead hooker is sleazy, bloody and more than somewhat crazy. What more do you need?(Luke Mullen)

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON
John Landis 1981 | Comedy, Fantasy, Feature, Guest in attendance, Horror, Repertory | 97 min.

Let’s be blunt… John Landis directed one of the most important movies ever made. Prove it? Ok! Lots of people credit this as being the movie that ushered in the horror comedy genre and its "star" is widely considered to be Rick Baker’s special effects. In fact, the effects were so mind blowing that the Oscars created an awards category to recognize their importance. The King of Pop himself liked this movie so much that he called Landis to make a video for one of his songs that was slipping in the pop charts. This video became the most influential music video of all time. AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON is a lot of things to a lot of people and like a stone being tossed into a stagnant lake, the ripples it created are still being felt in Hollywood 30 years later. (Justin Ishmael)

KNUCKLE
Ian Palmer 2010 | Documentary, Feature, Guest in attendance | 93 min.

When videographer Ian Palmer was hired to film a Quinn family wedding, he unexpectedly stumbled upon a documentary subject that would occupy him for over a decade. KNUCKLE centers around a feud between the Quinns and a neighboring clan, the Joyces. Both are part of a large group of ethnic Irish known as Travellers. Travellers are generally poor, travel from place to place in search of lodging and work and are often the victims of discrimination in Ireland.

In addition to sharing a Traveller heritage, the Quinns and Joyces are united by mutual hatred. Instead of resolving their issues in court or killing each other, the menfolk engage in bare-knuckle fights for honor and cash. One would think that a couple of fights would be enough to end a feud. However, the two families hated each other so much that they have continued to beat each other up for over 12 years.

Director Ian Palmer followed the Quinns and Joyces for years to document the arc of their long-running dispute. He captures numerous fights, most of which are brief and brutal, as well as the daily routines of various participants. The individual incidents that lead to the fights seem petty and slight, giving the impression that the family dispute has more to do with adrenaline and testosterone than family honor. However, a serious grudge borne of a real tragedy fuels the flurry of smashed faces. KNUCKLE isn’t just about fighting; it’s about a group of outsiders trying to survive in a world that is hostile to their way of life. (Rodney)

KNUCKLE will also be the theme of our signature festival event: Fantastic Debates. At the Fantastic Debates, press, filmmakers & film professionals enter the arena for a formal debate followed by two rounds of boxing. In the ring, the great issues facing the fan community are solved once and for all, first by words, then by fisticuffs. Four debates are scheduled, culminating in the main event, a bout featuring KNUCKLE star and undefeated bare-knuckle brawler James Quinn McDonagh versus Fantastic Fest Co-Founder Tim League. (Rodney Perkins)

Preview Day 2

Preview Day 4

Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world, starts here in Austin in just 6 days.

As a lead up, I’m previewing the movies I’m planning on attending and blogging about over the course of the week long festival.

Friday, September 23rd

THE YELLOW SEA
Hong-jin Na 2011 | Action, Crime, Drama, Feature | 157 min.

At Fantastic Fest 2008 Na Hong-jin blew audiences away with his incredibly assured debut feature THE CHASER. For his sophomore film THE YELLOW SEA, Na has reassembled his two leads from THE CHASER and crafted a hyper-violent, border crossing crime epic sure to become another audience favorite.

Gu-nam (Ha Jung-woo) is a cab driver in Yanji City, a Chinese region between North Korea and Russia dominated mostly by Joseonjok, Chinese citizens of Korean ancestry. After going into extreme debt with shady types who smuggle his wife into Korea to work, Gu-nam fears his wife has left him in Yanji for good when he hasn’t heard from her for six months. The opportunity for him to pay off all liabilities comes in the form of an offer from Myung-ga (Kim Yun-seok), a powerful crime boss to whom Gu-nam owes many mahjong gambling losses. Myung-ga offers to smuggle Gu-nam into Korea where he will kill someone for him. Gu-nam accepts but gets far more than he bargained for when his plans go off the rails. He must then struggle to maintain balance in an increasingly chaotic series of events and find the time to track down his wife.

THE YELLOW SEA unravels organically, Na taking time to follow Gu-nam in his confusion as he loses track of shifting loyalties. The world he finds himself caught up in, though, is extremely volatile and he soon finds himself on the giving and receiving end of many sharp objects. Featuring enough chaotic knife antics, stress-inducing hatchet acrobatics, extended chases and car crashes to fill 5 movies, THE YELLOW SEA is a the kind of dark, violent crime epic we have come to expect from Korea and a film that firmly establishes Na Hong-jin as a major force in Korean cinema. (Brian Kelley)

INVASION OF ALIEN BIKINI
Oh Young-doo 2011 | Action, Comedy, Feature, Sci-Fi | 75 min.

screens with…
BRUTAL RELAX
David Muñoz, Rafa Dengrá, Adrián Cardona 2010

This micro-budget movie from Korean filmmaker Oh Young-doo (THE NEIGHBOR ZOMBIE) is a brilliant journey into the bizarre. A martial arts romp, the film’s got everything we look for in an Asian cinema: beautiful girls in states of undress, aliens, sweet ‘70s-style mustaches, killer body parts, sperm demands, etc.

The whole film, shot with a budget under $5,000, has all of the excitement and freshness and young passion of a film like THE EVIL DEAD; it was made by a bunch of kids who clearly spent their youth perfecting elaborate martial art stunts, in much the same way that people like Raimi grew up concocting fake blood recipes. Every frame of this film is steeped in the kind of deep love of genre film that can only come from fanaticism. These kids are good and they know their stuff.

The budgetary limitations are often played as camp, as is the case with the hero’s vigilante disguise; he wears a cheap, totally artificial mustache that is constantly peeling off. This only helps Oh Young-doo and Co. in their reverent send-up of genre; from the imperfections and self-referential moments come a very clear message that these filmmakers are having fun, a quality that all too few films are able (and are brave enough) to portray. In that same spirit of play, they manipulate the images, fool with the editing, and do all sorts of other mischievous filmmaking tricks to keep it moving and light.

INVASION OF ALIEN BIKINI also features what is undoubtedly the first ever romance scene to take place over a game of Jenga. If you’ve ever been turned on by your partner slipping out the middle block with a seductive index finger, you’ll completely understand this movie’s most tender and yet most uncomfortable moment. (Daniel Metz)

EXTRATERRESTRIAL
Nacho Vigalondo 2011 | Comedy, Feature, Guest in attendance, Romance, Sci-Fi, Thriller | 90 min.

screens with…
WE, TIME MACHINES
Raul Navarro 2010

Director Nacho Vigalondo and Producer Nahikari Ipiña live in person!

Julio wakes up with one hell of a hangover. As he gradually takes in his surroundings, it’s obvious he’s not in his own bed. He introduces himself to Julia, his apparent hookup from the night before, and they go through the typically awkward conversation. Julia is clearly trying to get him out of her apartment as soon as possible. But as he gathers his belongings they realize that things are much too quiet, even for a Sunday. A quick trip to the balcony reveals absolutely no one on the street. They gaze off into the distance and see a huge spaceship looming on the horizon. While they struggle to understand what they’re seeing, Julia’s neighbor Angel stops by. Angel brings news of the alien invasion, and it becomes apparent that he’s obsessed with Julia and maybe even spying on the apartment. When Julia’s live-in boyfriend Carlos comes home, things become even more complicated. The four acquaintances must try to find a way to survive threats from both outside and within, and maybe make some sense of their situation.

Fantastic Fest favorite Nacho Vigalondo is back with his second feature film. EXTRATERRESTRIAL showcases Nacho’s sure-handed direction and tight pacing, bringing the audience in and then keeping things moving steadily towards the conclusion. The acting is top-notch, bringing to life a witty, sharply-written script. Engaging and funny, EXTRATERRESTRIAL is a worthy follow up to 2007’s wildly successful TIMECRIMES. (Luke Mullen)

Preview Day 1

Preview Day 3

Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world, starts here in Austin in just one week.

Over the next seven days, I’m previewing the movies I’m planning on seeing and blogging about over the course of the week long festival.

Thursday, September 22nd

LET THE BULLETS FLY
Wen Jang 2010 | Action, Comedy, Feature | 132 min.

Notorious bandit Pocky Zhang is the Robin Hood of 1920s China. He and his gang steal from the wealthy and have genuine concern for the poor. When they try to rob a train, they discover that the Governor traveling inside is a fraud. He conned his way into his position and is now preying on small villages and collecting illegal taxes from those who have never seen the real official. Zhang decides to team up with this conman and try the clever scam in a the next town down the line. Once they arrive, however, they must battle the equally Machiavellian Master Huang, the local godfather who has beaten them to the punch and already holds the town in his tyrannical grip.

The powerhouse acting trio of Chow Yun Fat (The Killer, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and about a 1000 other films) is joined by director/actor Jiang Wen (Red Sorghum, The Lost Bladesman) and arthouse mainstay Ge You (Farewell My Concubine, To Live) to deliver a crackling dense script full of twists, turns and genuine belly laughs. By their actions, the trio of characters are all fairly loathsome, morally bankrupt individuals, but they follow their broken moral compass with such genuine charisma, you can’t help but fall under their spell.

From the meticulous décor to the non stop barrage of guns blazing action (the title is most definitely not a red herring), LET THE BULLETS FLY is a classic martial arts comedy romp that gleefully harkens back to both the Leone Spaghetti Westerns but also the golden age of Hong Kong action, where a movie ticket was almost always a gateway to perfect, gleeful escapism.(Luke Mullen)

KILL ME PLEASE
Olias Barco 2010 | Black Comedy, Feature, Guest in attendance | 96 min.

Director Olias Barco live in person!

KILL ME PLEASE is the heart-warming story of one of the world’s foremost euthanasia clinics. Dr. Krueger and his well-trained staff have created the optimal environment for the terminally ill, the hopelessly depressed, and those with a generally abysmal quality of life to quietly and peacefully drift off the mortal coil. As one would predict given the controversial nature of his work, not everyone is a fan of Dr. Krueger and his clinic. As the ire of the local villagers rises to the boiling point, Dr. Krueger must contend with forces both within and outside his own facility that seek to bring ruin to his reputation…as well as to his clientele.

If there is anything funnier than euthanasia, I haven’t seen it. Kill Me Please does require some patience; not because it is poorly paced, but because it plays its motives close to the vest for the first half hour. Its true colors are playfully obscured in black-and-white and it’s flush with the trappings of French new wave. It flirts with melodrama as well as early ‘90s indie films and generally feels at odds with traditional Fantastic Fest fare. But stick with it, because as it gets rolling, its qualifications for this festival become remarkably clear.

It slowly transforms from contrived drama to something in the neighborhood of violent thriller and finally bursts out as an absurd black comedy. The overall experience of KILL ME PLEASE is spectacularly unique and provides an interesting balance of deeply introspective character moments and farcical humor. By the time the fat lady sings, you may not know exactly what to make of KILL ME PLEASE, but you will be grateful for the ride on which it has taken you. (Brian Salisbury)

POLVORA NEGRA
Kapel Furman 2011 | Action, Feature, Guest in attendance, Thriller | 89 min.

When Carlos hunts down his mistress who has run away, he brutally murders her and shoots her brother in the head leaving him for dead. Years later, the brother returns, minus an eye, but somehow miraculously alive.

He now goes by the name Castilho and has been hired as a hitman to help deal with an inheritance squabble caused by the death of Carlos. Carlos was a bit of a crime kingpin in the small Brazilian town of Piedade. Now his son Merino runs things, but a new judge will soon give a ruling on the estate Carlos left behind and the illegitimate daughter he had with his former mistress may cause problems. Everyone in the town seems to bear a subtly different grudge against someone else, all connected by blood or money. In the end, however, there is far more blood than money on the streets of Piedade.

Although shot on a budget in rural Brazil, first-time director Kapel Furman creates a rich landscape of gritty bars, sweaty cafes and dusty plazas. The scenery matches well to the screenplay, inspired no doubt by the criss-cross revenge plots of classic Spaghetti Westerns. Also akin to the Spaghettis, the world of POLVORA NEGRA is peppered with eccentric supporting characters who lend both depth as well as a welcome dash of comic relief. Beef punching cooks, obsessive-compulsive restaurant owners, and fruit-fancying mercenaries all circle the main action in the periphery, adding small doses of humor in between the mayhem.

Furman’s leg up on this indie production is his long history in stunts and special effects. The production team from Polvora Negra seemingly smash up every cart, van, window and stick of furniture in the town and load up enough squibs to make Sam Peckinpah proud. (Luke Mullen)

Preview Day 2

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

Blackdog
by K. V. Johansen
Cover by Raymond Swanland

Promo copy:

Long ago, in the days of the first kings in the north, there were seven devils…

And long ago, in the days of the first kings in the north, the seven devils, who had deceived and possessed seven of the greatest wizards of the world, were defeated and bound with the help of the Old Great Gods…

And perhaps some of the devils are free in the world, and perhaps some are working to free themselves still…

In a land where gods walk on the hills and goddesses rise from river, lake, and spring, the caravan-guard Holla-Sayan, escaping the bloody conquest of a lakeside town, stops to help an abandoned child and a dying dog. The girl, though, is the incarnation of Attalissa, goddess of Lissavakail, and the dog a shape-changing guardian spirit whose origins have been forgotten. Possessed and nearly driven mad by the Blackdog, Holla-Sayan flees to the desert road, taking the powerless avatar with him.

Necromancy, treachery, massacres, rebellions, and gods dead or lost or mad, follow hard on the their heels. But it is Attalissa herself who may be the Blackdog’s—and Holla-Sayan’s—doom.

Hearts of Smoke and Steam (Society of Steam, Book Two)
by Andrew P. Mayer
Cover by Justin Gerard

Promo copy:

Sir Dennis Darby has been murdered, the Automaton has been destroyed, and Sarah Stanton has turned her back on a life of privilege and comfort to try and find her way in the unforgiving streets of New York. But Lord Eschaton, the villain behind all these events, isn’t finished with her yet. His plans to bring his apocalyptic vision of the future to the world are moving forward, but to complete his scheme he needs the clockwork heart that Sarah still holds.
But she has her own plans for the Automaton’s clockwork heart—Sarah is trying rebuild her mechanical friend, and when she is attacked by The Children of Eschaton, the man comes to her rescue may be the one to make her dreams come true. Emelio Armando is a genius inventor who had hoped to leave his troubles behind when he and his sister left Italy for a life of anonymity in the New World. Now he finds himself falling in love with the fallen society girl, but he is rapidly discovering just how powerful the forces of villainy aligned against her are, and that fulfilling her desires means opening the door to a world of danger that could destroy everything he has built.

THE SOCIETY OF STEAM takes place in a Victorian New York powered by the discovery of Fortified Steam, a substance that allows ordinary men to wield extraordinary abilities, and grant powers that can corrupt gentlemen of great moral strength. The secret behind this amazing substance is something that wicked brutes will gladly kill for, and one that Sarah must try and protect, no matter what the cost.

Lightbringer
by K.D. McEntire
Cover by Sam Weber

Promo copy:

Wendy has the ability to see souls that have not moved on—but she does not seek them out. They seek her. They yearn for her . . . or what she can do for them. Without Wendy’s powers, the Lost, the souls that have died unnaturally young, are doomed to wander in the never forever, and Wendy knows she is the only one who can set them free by sending them into the light.

Each soul costs Wendy, delivering too many souls would be deadly, and yet she is driven to patrol, dropping everyone in her life but her best friend, Eddie—who wants to be more than friends—until she meets Piotr.

Piotr, the first Rider and guardian of the Lost, whose memory of his decades in the never, a world that the living never see, has faded away. With his old-fashioned charms, and haunted kindness, he understands Wendy in ways no one living ever could, yet Wendy is hiding that she can do more than exist in the never. Wendy is falling for a boy who she may have to send into the light.

But there are darker forces looking for the Lost. Trying to regain the youth and power that the Lost possess, the dark ones feed on the Lost and only Wendy and Piotr can save them—but at what cost?

Lightbringer is a YA urban fantasy/romance set in a world a breath away from our own. Similar in tone to Tithe and Unleashed, Lightbringer tiptoes down the line between love and horror as Wendy discovers herself and the darkest parts of the afterlife.

The Doctor and the Kid: A Weird West Tale
by Mike Resnick
Cover by J. Seamus Gallagher

Promo copy:

This is the rip-roaring steampunk sequel to popular The Buntline Special, filled with adventure, excitement, and more than a little gun-slinging action! The time is 1882. With the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral behind him, the consumptive Doc Holliday makes his way to Deadwood, Colorado, where he plans to spend the rest of his short life. But one night he gets a little too drunk and loses everything at the gaming table. He realizes that he needs to replenish his bankroll, and quick, so that he can live out his days in comfort. He considers his options and hits upon the one most likely to produce income in a hurry: he’ll use his shooting skills to turn bounty hunter. The biggest reward is for the death of the young desperado known as Billy the Kid. It’s clear from the odds the Kid has faced and beaten, that he is protected by some powerful magic. Doc enlists the aid of both magic (Geronimo) and science (Thomas Edison), and goes out after his quarry. But as he soon finds out, nothing is as easy as it looks.

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

Too Much Coffee Man Omnibus
by Shannon Wheeler

Promo copy:

Shannon Wheeler is an ambitious cartoonist who turned a minicomic character into a long-running newspaper strip, Eisner-winning comic book series, Converse shoe commercial, one of the first webcomics, and an opera. His dedication includes hand-stapling 20,000+ mini-comics and shooting 3,000+ comics with a .22 rifle. It’s been a 20+ year adventure with Too Much Coffee Man.

The semi-autobiographical, hyper-intellectual, high-concept comic appeals to both inside and outside the comic book world. Even Henry Rollins says Too Much Coffee Man is “the only comic I would really pay attention to, because I like the idea. Too Much Coffee Man has a lot to say. He’s a great apocalyptic philosopher for our very troubled times.” Holy crap. That’s Henry Rollins.

The Too Much Coffee Man Omnibus, at over 500 pages, was a pain in the ass to put together. It was solicited and cancelled multiple times – becoming one of the most anticipated books around. Many editors were fired and a few of them went insane. Wheeler said “I stopped going to conventions and slept in my closet because too many people asked me about the Too Much Coffee Man Omnibus.” Wheeler is once again making public appearances. The book is real, it is in stores, weighs as much as a small child, and it’s getting attention.

Too Much Coffee Man Omnibus collects five books previously published by Dark Horse:
– Too Much Coffee Man: Parade of Tirade
– Too Much Coffee Man: Guide for the Perplexed
– Too Much Coffee Man: Amusing Musings
– Too Much Coffee Man: How to Be Happy
– Screw Heaven, When I Die I’m Going To Mars
– as well as a number of unpublished brand new Too Much Coffee Man stories!

I revealed the events surrounding the first appearance of TMCM in a Nexus Graphica column.

Watch RevolutionSF for a contest to win a copy of the Too Much Coffee Man Omnibus.

Hellboy: The Fury #2
Written and cover art by Mike Mignola
Art by Duncan Fegredo

Promo copy:

While Hellboy makes one last stand against the Queen of Blood the war between the forces of good and evil rages on the battlefield with heaps of dead monsters and knights!

Star Wars: Invasion—Revelations #1
Written by Tom Taylor
Art by Colin Wilson
Cover art by Chris Scalf

Promo copy:

As the invading Yuuzhan Vong penetrate deeper into the galaxy, the Jedi fight back!

But one Jedi in training has taken a different path: Finn Galfridian, under the guidance of the mysterious Master Dray, infiltrates Coruscant and discovers revelations about the leaders of the New Republic that could lead to disaster!

Conan: The Frazetta Cover Series #8
Written by Timothy Truman
Art by Tom Giorello
Cover art by Frank Frazetta

Promo copy:

Running from the army of Turan, Conan and fellow fugitive Olivia hide out on a small island in the Vilayet Sea, but they soon find themselves stalked by a huge, unseen terror in the jungles and threatened by a group of pirates! These may be the least of their concerns, though, because the ruins of a lost civilization stir when a full moon rises over the isle–and even deadlier creatures awaken!

A modern adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s beloved "Iron Shadows in the Moon" tale.

More in Part II

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

Citizen Rex
by Mario & Gilbert Hernandez

Promo copy:

A bizarre, sexy look into the future from comics legends Mario & Gilbert Hernandez!

When gossip blogger Sergio Bauntin investigates the illusive robot celebrity CTZ-RX-1, he provokes the city’s shady power players, who don’t want the story to get out! It’s a surreal sci-fi adventure as only Los Bros. Hernandez can do it!

This handsome hardcover collection also features new cover art by Gilbert, an extensive sketchbook section with behind-the-scenes material from Mario, and a special pin-up from third Hernandez brother Jaime (Locas, The Education of Hopey Glass)!

Solomon Kane: Red Shadows #4
Story by Robert E. Howard
Written by Bruce Jones
Art by Rahsan Ekedal
Cover art by Guy Davis

Promo copy:

Solomon Kane faces two of his greatest foes in Africa, as Bruce Jones (Conan, The Incredible Hulk) brings his thrilling "Red Shadows" adaptation to a close! Seeking to avenge the horrible murder of a young girl, Solomon Kane chases the feared swordsman Le Loup across the globe, where he finds the villain in league with Songa, the powerful leader of a deceived jungle tribe. Kane finds an ally in the frail, ancient form of magic man N’Longa–but will the old, deposed witch doctor really be able to challenge Songa and save Solomon’s life? Rising stars Rahsan Ekedal (Creepy, The Cleaners) and Dan Jackson (Kull, Star Wars) illustrate this thrilling adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s classic tale!

Star Wars: Jedi—The Dark Side #3
Written by Scott Allie
Art by Mahmud Asrar
Cover art by Stéphane Roux

Promo copy:

On Telos IV, a priestess has been assassinated, and the planet is on the verge of civil war. Only Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan Xanatos can protect the planet’s leader-who just happens to be Xanatos’s father-and stop the insurgents. But Xanatos is succumbing to his own long-buried resentments and may soon be more of a hindrance than a help.

Twenty years before his fateful meeting with Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn had his first encounter with the dark side…

Dollhouse: Epitaphs #1
Story by Andrew Chambliss, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jed Whedon
Written by Andrew Chambliss
Art by Cliff Richards and Andy Owens
Cover art by Fiona Staples

Promo copy:

The fight for free will starts now!

Alpha was the perfect product of Rossum Corporation’s mind-altering technology, until he snapped, burdened by the dozens of personalities they’d downloaded into his brain. Now the technology has gone viral, turning the entire population into murderous automatons, and it’s up to the psychotic Alpha and a small group of survivors to save mankind.

* Straight from the Dollhouse one-shot written by show writers Tancharoen and Whedon, this new series continues the tale of survivors taking up arms against Rossum.

* Fellow Dollhouse show writer Andrew Chambliss (CW’s The Vampire Diaries) makes his comics debut, joining Tancharoen and Whedon

* Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse continues only in comics!

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth–Monsters #1
Written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
Art by Tyler Crook
Cover art by Francesco Francavilla

Promo copy:

While the Bureau’s off fighting giant bat-eared beasts in Texas, Liz Sherman is kicking hillbilly ass in a trailer park!

More in Part I

Back in late July, Blastr ran my interview with Attack the Block‘s writer/director Joe Cornish and star John Boyega. As is common with interviews, roughly half of what was said ended up on the cutting room floor. Since I’m a huge fan of the film and several interesting bits didn’t make the final interview, I deliever the remainder for your edification.

RK: Why the night shoot?

JC: I realized that a lot of my favorite films are all at night or in the dark: The Warriors, Evil Dead, Blade Runner, and Alien. It occurred to me that they’re all strong looking films because you can never just what for the sun to come out and put a balance board down and shoot. You have to light and think about lighting in every single shot. It forces you to design everything and it forces you to think about lighting and atmospherics. Plus I personally just like almost real time, contained narratives like The Warriors, Assault on Precinct 13, and Evil Dead. They take place over one night. It’s more claustrophobic and moment-to-moment action so you never have moments when characters tell you what happened yesterday or what’s gonna happen today or about something that happened in their childhood that you know is going to be repeated at the end of the day.

Since this was your first film, major or minor, where did you lack confidence?

JB: Thinking back it just felt like "Oh, I really wanted to learn." I’m not sure about the lacking confidence. We were a young cast and we all had that vibrant energy. We were very enthusiastic to do it. Everybody had big talking. The production team really showed—I don’t know if they were putting it on—us that they knew what they were doing and we totally trusted them.[Executive producer] Jenny [Borgars] was so passionate about what the story was about and how we were gonna to do it. We felt cool let’s do it. I’m a teenager so I’m naive. Whatever, let’s do it. Have some fun.

JC: It was nothing but nerves and fear. I was experienced in TV but I always wanted to make a film. I’d been waiting 20-25 years to do this. So yeah, I had a huge amount of trepidation, ambition, and expectation. But it was fun. And working with these guys ’cause they were knew as well, it was an adventure for all of us. Plus it was just fun. It was aliens and chases, so it was nothing too heavy. It was kinda like play. Though if both us knew that movie would come to the States, get distributed in the States, and we’d be sitting here talking to you. If we had know that then, we’d probably would have been a whole lot more self conscious. We were in our own little bubble. We thought we going ot be premiered in a supermarket on one of those little TV screens above the dishwasher aisle.

What confidence during the casting stage?

JB: I’ve been working as an actor before Attack the Block as a stage actor. [Lack of confidence centered mostly around the first audition when I saw people] that looked like me [but] more better, more muscular. Sitting there with cups of water [gargling sounds]. Blah.. blah.. blah.. doing their vocal exercises and I’m just there with my Marvel t-shirt. But when you went in there, the environment was cool and the [garbled] was very supportive. I had a great time and just went for it.

Have either one of you lived in the blocks?

JB: I live in the blocks now. Joe lives like 15 minutes away from me.

JC: We filmed [in the blocks]. We call them estates in the UK, housing estates. Here you call it public housing or projects. It’s much more mixed in the UK. Because London was heavily bombed after the Second World War, the places where it was bombed were replaced by these big public housing projects. The interesting thing about London is that it’s very mixed. You’ll get a millionaire living next to someone on housing support. They’ll shop in the same shops and walk the same streets. That’s what Attack the Block is about. Now that there is a recession and jobs are harder to find, you get even more of a kind of mix. That’s the inspiration. In this block, there all these different types of people, all these backgrounds, all these socio-economic positions. They are separated by these kind of fake barriers. I was interested in using an alien invasion to bring those different characters together to point their commonalities between people rather than the differences.

JB: I watched The Wire (Season 4) as research for Moses. It’s amazing how much it’s similar. Not in terms of the area but in terms in the kind of attitude, the way they see the world. The way Moses is closed of to everyone else and believes everyone’s against him. That kind of thing. It is very similar so I sometimes find it surprising when people say “Aren’t they so different?” The thing is that they aren’t really that different. It’s crazy how much the characters in Attack the Block shared that same kind of energy with The Wire. But it’s just that we have aliens.

Is there a Hollywood remake in the works?

JC: [No serious discussions] I wouldn’t mind that. I’d kind of dig it. One thing I can never do is watch Attack the Block like a movie ’cause I made it. There would be something kind of exciting. I’d like to see someone else’s take on the story. I wish they would. Hurry up and pay me.

The interview actually started with this exchange after the duo commented on someone’s t-shirt.

Are there Attack the Block t-shirts?

JC: I still haven’t seen an ‘Attack the Block’ t-shirt.

JC & JB (together): It’s gotta happen.

What about action figures?

JC: Don’t talk about action figures.

JB (excited): I’m really up for that.

JC: [The aliens] would make some really cool plush toys. We really wanted that.

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

Petrograd
Written by Philip Gelatt
Art by Tyler Crook

Promo copy:

Introducing the untold tale of the international conspiracy behind the murder of Gregorii Rasputin! Set during the height of the first World War, the tale follows a reluctant British spy stationed in the heart of the Russian empire as he is handed the most difficult assignment of his career: orchestrate the death of the mad monk, the Tsarina’s most trusted adviser and the surrogate ruler of the nation. The mission will take our hero from the slums of the working class into the opulent houses of the super rich… he’ll have to negotiate dangerous ties with the secret police, navigate the halls of power, and come to terms with own revolutionary leanings, all while simply trying to survive! Based on historical documents and research, Petrograd is a tense, edge-of-your seat spy thriller, taking the reader on a journey through the background of one of history’s most infamous assassinations, set against the backdrop of one of the most tumultuous moments in 20th century history.

Beautiful book on a fascinating subject. More on this later.

The Third Section
by Jasper Kent
Cover by Paul Young

Promo copy:

The third novel in Jasper Kent’s enthralling, chilling and acclaimed historical vampire sequence — The Danilov Quintet.

Russia 1855. After forty years of peace in Europe, war rages. In the Crimea, the city of Sevastopol is besieged. In the north, Saint Petersburg is blockaded. But in Moscow there is one who needs only to sit and wait — wait for the death of an aging tsar, and for the curse upon his blood to be passed to a new generation.

As their country grows weaker, a brother and sister — each unaware of the other’s existence — must come to terms with the legacy left them by their father. In Moscow, Tamara Valentinovna Lavrova uncovers a brutal murder and discovers that it is not the first in a sequence of similar crimes, merely the latest, carried out by a killer who has stalked the city since 1812.

And in Sevastopol, Dmitry Alekseevich Danilov faces not only the guns of the combined armies of Britain and France, but must also make a stand against creatures that his father had thought buried beneath the earth, thirty years before.

I thoroughly enjoyed the creative first installment Twelve and the second volume Thirteen Years Later currently sits on my must-read pile.

C
by Tom McCarthy

Promo copy:

Opening in England at the turn of the twentieth century, C is the story of Serge Carrefax, whose father experiments with wireless communication while running a school for deaf children. Serge grows up amid the noise and silence with his brilliant but troubled older sister, Sophie: an intense sibling relationship that haunts him as he heads off into an equally troubled larger world. As Serge goes from a Bohemian spa to the skies of World War I, and from a German prison camp into the tombs of Egypt, we follow his life through the tumultuous course of the nascent modern era. Tom McCarthy—acclaimed author of Remainder—has created a truly singular character, and a world that sparkles with historical breadth and postmodern originality.

Ravensoul (Legends of the Raven, Book 4)
by James Barclay
Cover by Raymond Swanland

Promo copy:

What would you do if a stranger came to your door claiming to be your best friend. A best friend who you saw die ten years before? The Unknown Warrior has spent the last ten years mourning the dead of the legendary mecernary band The Raven. Reluctant ruler of Balaia he has also resided over the gradual recovery of the land after the devastation of the Demonstorm. The one other surviving member of The Raven, Denser has spent the years rebuilding Xetesk to be the dominant college of magic. But something is very wrong. There are rumours of the dead coming back to life. And the Elves are fleeing their homeland. Something unutterably awful is happening. Something that has spread across all the dimensions. Something that threatens the very essence of the world, that has terrified the spirits of the dead. Brought them back to Balaia. And amongst them The Raven. Desperate, facing a fight that cannot be won.

Half Empty
by David Rakoff
Cover by Mark Matcho

Promo copy:

In this deeply smart and sneakily poignant collection of essays, the bestselling author of Fraud and Don’t Get Too Comfortable makes an inspired case for always assuming the worst—because then you’ll never be disappointed. Whether he’s taking on pop culture phenomena with Oscar Wilde-worthy wit or dealing with personal tragedy, Rakoff’s sharp observations and humorist’s flair for the absurd will have you positively reveling in the untapped power of negativity.