Previously in KandyLand:

After being submerged in a vat of boiling lemon juice and left for dead, Mike & Ike bag boy John Pierre Stanley is reborn as LemonHead.

Story by Rick Klaw Art by Newt Manwich

Click on image to enlarge

Before I even started in on this series, I mapped out the different identities and jobs for a wide variety of candies. Among my favorites that never made it into print were the Cadbury Boys, twin British gangster (a la The Krays) and the dominatrix Twizzler. Perhaps someday.

Last Week’s Strip

Next Week’s Strip

My review of Jeff VanderMeer’s latest novel Finch appeared in today’s San Antonio Current.

Check out my Baker’s Dozen interview with Jeff Vandermeer and the remainder of this review.

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

Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box by Jacques Boyreau

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It’s like having your very own drive-in… at home! Portable Grindhouse reprints some of the most louche, decadent, minimo-pervo artwork to ever grace a VHS box, featuring such movies as From Beyond, Cop Killers, and Cocaine Wars. A feast for exploitation cognoscenti, Portable Grindhouse is a portable grindhouse. Readers will be agog at the plethora of supertrash movie titles, and then move on to rediscover the anarchic box designs. Throughout, editor and cultural historian Jacques Boyreau succinctly narrates the household-piercing story of VHS: "VHS box-art ‘became’ the iconic equivalent of the movie." Portable Grindhouse is published in a VHS "format," slyly packaged inside a facsimile VHS box, and contains almost a hundred reproductions of VHS art with commentary.

Scary how many of these movies I’ve actually seen.

Starfist: Double Jeopardy by David Sherman and Dan Cragg

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The thrilling pace of the Starfist space epic quickens as the explosive series rockets to dazzling new heights, packed with the hell-for-leather action only two battle-hardened and decorated combat vets like David Sherman and Dan Cragg can provide.

The Confederation has finally disclosed the existence of Skinks, fierce aliens bent on wiping out humankind, and announced its plan to find and destroy their home world. While the rest of the universe grapples with the news, the Skink-savvy Marines of the Confederation’s Thirty-fourth Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST) have their own take on the situation.

Though they’re no longer in danger of being exiled to a ghastly netherworld for spilling the beans about the deadly aliens, the men still can’t transfer out of the unit where they’ve been confined since they first laid eyes on the Skinks. The reason is obvious: Who else but the legendary Thirty-fourth FIST has the skills and experience to spearhead the invasion of the Skinks’ home world?

Morale isn’t improved by a report of Skinks on the uncolonized world of Ishtar near a mercenary force engaged in slave-driven mining operations there—which means that FIST must turn around and head right back into the jaws of hell with no downtime. But none of that matters to Lieutenant Charlie Bass and the third platoon of Company L. They’re Marines, they’re the best, and they’ve got a job to do.

The Marines will find a planet ripped apart by all-out war, with enemies on all sides. The only certainty is that the fighting will rage red-hot and relentless, and Charlie Bass and his men will be right in the thick of the action.

Nightchild (Chronicles of the Raven) by James Barclay

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It begins with a tidal wave. There is a new power coming. It will sweep aside the four colleges of magic. It is the power of the land, and it has manifested itself in Lyanna, a five year old girl. Unknowingly, she could destroy Balaia. Desperate to maintain their power, the colleges will do anything to control the child. If that fails, they will kill her. Terrified, Lyanna’s mother, Erienne the mage, takes her into hiding. But they can’t hide forever. As the hunt goes on, Lyanna starts to test her powers and nature itself begins to turn on Balaia. Her father, Denser of The Raven, is also desperate to find her. But can even The Raven find Erienne and her child when they do not want to be found? And if they do find them, what then should they do? Lyanna is ripping the world apart. Thousands are dying. Can The Raven afford to let her live?

More in Part II

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

Blackout by Connie Willis

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Blackout is the opening movement of a vast, absorbing two-volume novel that may well prove to be Connie Willis’s masterpiece. Like her multi-award winning The Doomsday Book, this marvelous new work marries the intricate mechanics of time travel to the gritty – and dangerous – realities of actual human history.

The narrative opens in Oxford, England in 2060, where a trio of time traveling scholars prepares to depart for various corners of the Second World War. Their mission: to observe, from a “safe” vantage point, the day-to-day nature of life during a critical historical moment, As the action ranges from the evacuation of Dunkirk to the manor houses of rural England to the quotidian horrors of London during the Blitz, the objective nature of their roles gradually changes. Cut off from the safety net of the future and caught up in the “chaotic system” that is history, they are forced to participate, in unexpected ways, in the defining events of the era.

Blackout is an ingeniously constructed time travel novel and a grand entertainment. More than that, it is a moving, exquisitely detailed portrait of a world under siege, a world dominated by chaos, uncertainty, and the threat of imminent extinction. It is the rare sort of book that transcends the limits of genre, offering pleasure, insight, and illumination on virtually every page.

Diving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

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Boss loves to dive historical ships, derelict spacecraft found adrift in the blackness between the stars. Sometimes she salvages for money, but mostly she’s an active historian. She wants to know about the past–to experience it firsthand. Once she’s dived the ship, she’ll either leave it for others to find or file a claim so that she can bring tourists to dive it as well. It’s a good life for a tough loner, with more interest in artifacts than people.

Then one day, Boss finds the claim of a lifetime: an enormous spacecraft, incredibly old, and apparently Earth-made. It’s impossible for something so old, built in the days before Faster Than Light travel, to have journeyed this far from Earth. It shouldn’t be here. It can’t be here. And yet, it is. Boss’s curiosity is up, and she’s determined to investigate. She hires a group of divers to explore the wreck with her, the best team she can assemble. But some secrets are best kept hidden, and the past won t give up its treasures without exacting a price in blood.

What Boss finds could rewrite history, cost lives, and start an intergalactic war.

The Ruling Sea by Robert V. S. Redick

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THE RULING SEA begins where THE RED WOLF CONSPIRACY ended; Thasha’s wedding is hours away. It is a wedding that will both fulfil the promise of a mad god’s return and see her murdered. Pazel has thwarted the sorcerer who would bring back the god but both sides now face deadlock. Can Thasha be saved? Can the war between two Empires be stopped? THE RULING SEA is, once again, focused on the giant ancient ship, the CHATHRAND, but now she must brave the terrors of the uncharted seas; the massive storms and the ship swallowing whirlpools and explore lands forgotten by the Northern world, all the time involved in a vicious running battle with a ship half her size but nearly her match. Robert Redick’s new novel takes the reader further into the labyrinthine plots and betrayals that have underscored the trilogy from the beginning. We learn more about the Ixchel as they fight for survival against the Chathrand’s rats, discover more about the true motives of conspirators, live with Thasha and Pazel as they face death and deceit, and as the Chathrand sails into the infamous Ruling Sea. Robert Redick’s sequel to the acclaimed THE RED WOLF CONSPIRACY is a masterpiece of plotting and adventure. As each page turns the reader shares with the characters the dawning realisation that nothing is at it seems.

More in Part I

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

Trotsky: A Graphic Biography by Rick Geary

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Trotsky was a hero to some, a ruthless demon to others. To Stalin, he was such a threat that he warranted murder by pickax. This polarizing figure set up a world conflict that lasted through the twentieth century, and in Trotsky: A Graphic Biography, the renowned comic artist Rick Geary uses his distinct style to depict the stark reality of the man and his times. Trotsky’s life becomes a guide to the creation of the Soviet Union, the horrors of World War I, and the establishment of international communism as he, Lenin, and their fellow Bolsheviks rise from persecution and a life underground to the height of political power. Ranging from his boyhood in the Ukraine to his fallout with Stalin and his moonlight romance with Frida Kahlo, Trotsky is a stunning look at one of the twentieth century’s most important thinkers and the far-reaching political trends that he launched.

Trotsky has long been one of my favorite historical figures. I’m looking forward to this one.

The Troublemakers by Gilbert Hernandez

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Low-life drug dealer Dewey Booth has $200,000 that even-lower-lifes want. Wes is a rock and roll loser that only wants to buy a club where nobody can tell him he can’t sing or perform. He’s known Dewey for years, but that isn’t enough to get his dough. Wes needs help. Nala is an uber-stacked bombshell whose pleasure in life is to seduce and then humiliate men dumb enough to fall for her. For half the dough, she agrees to help Wes get Dewey’s ill-gotten goods. Things don’t go so well when a wily grifter from Wes’s past shows up to complicate things. Vincenze is another troublemaker who enjoys wrecking people’s plans and wants the Dewey dough, too. In the end, deadly fires ignite, heads literally roll, eyes are shot out and-all Wes wants to do is sing in a rock and roll club. The Troublemakers is Gilbert Hernandez’s second, original graphic novel for Fantagraphics, following 2007’s Chance In Hell. This hard-boiled, pulp graphic novel will delight longtime Hernandez fans as well as provide a perfect introduction to newcomers to Hernandez’s work.

Nothing Like the Holidays

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John Leguizamo (Ice Age, Moulin Rouge!), Freddy Rodriguez (“Six Feet Under,” Bobby), Debra Messing (“Will & Grace,” “The Starter Wife”), and Alfred Molina (The Pink Panther 2) lead a hilarious ensemble cast in this humorous and heartwarming holiday story that is “laugh-out-loud-funny and downright touching." (MoviePictureFilm.com) It’s Christmastime in Chicago, and the far-flung members of the Rodriguez family are converging at their parents’ home to celebrate the season. During the course of this eventful week, traditions will be celebrated, secrets revealed, old resentments forgotten, familial bonds re-affirmed and the healing power of laughter will work its magic. Nothing Like The Holidays is a “heartfelt,” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) gift for the whole family.

What?!?! No mention of John Leguizamo’s work in Spawn or Alfred Molina in Spider-Man 2.

Luna Park Written by Kevin Baker Art by Danijel Zezelj

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Alik is a former Soviet soldier who has relocated to Coney Island only to become a gangland enforcer. He’s haunted by memories of his past, and the only thing that soothes his angst is booze, heroin and his lover, the prostitute Marina. But as much as Alik encourages her to break away from the ganglord who owns her, Marina can’t because of her daughter, who never leads the ganglord’s side. So Alik comes up with a desperate plan to save all three of them, and in doing so, he’ll find he’s destined to repeat the past over and over again, including a past or two he might not even be aware he has, in a story that flashes from present- day run down Coney Island to the Russia of 10 years ago during the Second Chechen War to turn of the 20th century Coney Island, when the area was at its peak amusement park glory and wonder.

In one of my more difficult assignments, I’m interviewing Joe R. Lansdale at the Texas Book Festival on Saturday, October 31 @ 3:30 in Capitol Extension Room E2.016 of the Texas State Capitol. That’s right, I’m having a sit down with one of the top 20 horror writers of all time on Halloween day!

As many of you know (and if you don’t, you should), Joe is one chatty fella so I wouldn’t expect to hear a lot out of me once he gets going.

If you’re at the Festival, be sure and drop by. You won’t regret it. I fully expect this to be the kind of happening you won’t wanna miss.

Joe engaging in two of his favorite past times: chattin’ & signin’

Previously in KandyLand:

While making a run for the Mike & Ike gang, the kid-who-would-become-LemonHead was knocked unconscious and subjected to tortures by the diabolical Mr. Smarty Pink. After being submerged in a vat of boiling lemon juice, the kid is left for dead.

Story by Rick Klaw Art by Newt Manwich

Click on image to enlarge

I had this idea for LemonHead’s origin from the moment I conceived of the character. Newt did a masterful job in this strip bringing the climatic moment to life.

Since we are both film buffs and fans of Sam Raimi, it should be of no surprise that we used a Dark Passage/Darkman riff in the fourth panel.

Last Week’s Strip

Next Week’s Strip

Newt Manwich, the nome de plume of Troy Gonzales, has been a frequent subject around this blog with the weekly reprinting of our KandyLand strips. As Newt, Troy’s works appeared in my anthologies Weird Business (he penciled my story), The Wild West Show, and The Big Bigfoot Show. Together, we produced a story for JAB #6 (1995) and the Zombie Boy mini-comic "Dead Plains Drifter" (1994). The latter is very rare with perhaps 50 copies produced.

A creation of Mark Stokes (who illustrated my LemonHead tale in JAB #5), Zombie Boy, as the name implies, relates the comedic adventures of an undead kid. If memory serves, Stokes was looking for back up tales by other creators to include in a new Zombie Boy series. For whatever reason, the series never happened, so Troy and I decided to produce this mini. The back cover of the comic features a kick-ass Kid Corpse pin-up by Stokes and the inside front cover advertises a series of mini-comics illustrated by Gonzales and written/published by "Dr. Joe Guy Pan."

In celebration of Newt Manwich’s birthday, I’m reprinting the entirety of Zombie Boy in "Dead Plains Drifter."

Click on images to enlarge

Last week, I wrote about my issues with the minimum requirements for Windows 7. Today over at Ubuntu Geek they discuss the requirements for Ubuntu 9.04 that help to illustrate my point.

And for comparison purposes, Windows 7:

Ubuntu 9.10 is due out this week, but requirements should be very similar.

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

Grandville by Bryan Talbot

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Two hundred years ago, Britain lost the Napoleonic War and fell under the thumb of French domination. Gaining independence after decades of civil disobedience and anarchist bombings, the Socialist Republic of Britain is now a small, unimportant backwater connected by a railway bridge, steam-powered dirigible, and mutual suspicion to France. When a British diplomat is murdered to look like suicide, ferocious Detective-Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard stalks a ruthless murder squad through the heart of a Belle Epoque Paris, the center of the greatest empire in a world of steam-driven hansom cabs, automatons, and flying machines. LeBrock’s relentless quest can lead only to death, truth… or war.

The Chronicles Of Conan Volume 18: Isle of the Dead and Other Stories Written by Bruce Jones and Steven Grant Art by John Buscema, Ernie Chan, Marc Silvestri, Alfredo Alcala, and Val Mayerik

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Taking over writing duties on Conan the Barbarian in the early 1980s, Bruce Jones brought his humor and horror sensibilities – as well as his knack for telling great short stories – to the title, invigorating John Buscema, who returned to work on the series with Conan #136. In Chronicles of Conan: Isle of the Dead and Other Stories, these two comic-book titans lead Conan on a thrilling tour of Hyboria – from the monster-infested Bossonian Marshes to the hideous slave markets of Belthem – as Conan encounters strange, supernatural foes, beguiling women, and overconfident rulers.

Turok, Son of Stone Archives Volume 2 by Paul S. Newman and various artists

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Earth’s prehistoric past flourishes in a lost valley where two young Native Americans, Turok and Andar, have become trapped. While they struggle to survive among the honkers (dinosaurs) and prehistoric human residents, they hold on to the hope that one day they will discover a way out of the valley and be reunited with their tribe. This volume collects six classic issues of the comic book from the early 1960s.

Tarzan Archives: The Jesse Marsh Years Volume 4 Art by Jesse Marsh Written by Gaylord DuBois

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In the late 1940s, Dell Publishing assembled a new comics team that would leave an indelible impression on millions of young readers. For the next nineteen years, Jesse Marsh – an "artist’s artist" – and Gaylord DuBois created an absorbing jungle world for Edgar Rice Burroughs’s most famous character. The realism and consistent quality in their collaboration remain influential to countless comics artists today.

The Savage Sword Of Conan Volume 6 Written by Roy Thomas, Michael Fleisher, and Bruce Jones Art by John Buscema, Ernie Chan, Gil Kane, Ernoe Colon and others

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With writers Roy Thomas, Michael Fleisher, and Bruce Jones contributing to The Savage Sword of Conan in the early 1980s, the action-filled comics magazine continued its long, successful run exploring the lush and dangerous world of Conan’s Hyboria. This volume reprints most of the black-and-white Conan tales from 1981, with the artistic talents of John Buscema, Gil Kane, Ernie Chan, Ernie Colon, Alfredo Alcala, and others adding to the uncensored excitement! The Savage Sword creative teams presented in this latest tome deliver timeless adventures featuring Robert E. Howard’s beloved barbarian, and such classics as the "Temple of the Tiger," "Dwellers in the Depths," and "Moat of Blood" are reprinted here for the first time ever! Collecting selections from The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian issues #61 through #71, this volume also includes the frontispieces and pinups from each issue, drawn by Alex Toth, Joe Chiodo, Ernie Chan, Carl Potts, Tony de Zuniga, and others!