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

Barjo

At long lost, I acquired the French film version of Philip K. Dick’s Confessions of a Crap Artist. The critically acclaimed film has long been out of print in the US. Thanks to Rodger Turner of SF Site for filling that gap in my PKD collection.

The Queen’s Bastard (The Inheritors’ Cycle, Book 1) by C.E. Murphy

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In a world where religion has ripped apart the old order, Belinda Primrose is the queen’s secret weapon. The unacknowledged daughter of Lorraine, the first queen to sit on the Aulunian throne, Belinda has been trained as a spy since the age of twelve by her father, Lorraine’s lover and spymaster.

Cunning and alluring, fluent in languages and able to take on any persona, Belinda can infiltrate the glittering courts of Echon where her mother’s enemies conspire. She can seduce at will and kill if she must. But Belinda’s spying takes a new twist when her witchlight appears.

Now Belinda’s powers are unlike anything Lorraine could have imagined. They can turn an obedient daughter into a rival who understands that anything can be hers, including the wickedly sensual Javier, whose throne Lorraine both covets and fears. But Javier is also witchbreed, a man whose ability rivals Belinda’s own . . . and can be just as dangerous.

Amid court intrigue and magic, loyalty and love can lead to more daring passions, as Belinda discovers that power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Shadow Magic by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett

World’s End (Age of Misrule Book One) by Mark Chadbourn

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When Jack Churchill and Ruth Gallagher encounter a terrifying, misshapen giant beneath a London bridge they are plunged into a mystery which portends the end of the world as we know it. All over the country, the ancient gods of Celtic myth are returning to the land from which they were banished millennia ago. Following in their footsteps are creatures of folklore: fabulous bests, wonders and dark terrors As technology starts to fail, Jack and Ruth are forced to embark on a desperate quest for four magical items – the last chance for humanity in the face of powers barely comprehended

This one looks interesting PLUS it’s got a pretty John Picacio cover!

More in Part Two.

My latest Nexus Graphica, where I discuss Blazing Combat and Jack Kirby’s The Losers, is now available for your reading pleasure.

I also review Jan’s Atomic Heart, Chicken with Plums, and Showcase Presents Ambush Bug.

Awakening, I nervously eyed the precarious stack of books on my bedside table. The pile, arranged all akimbo, teetered above my head.

A recent acquisition, Showcase Presents: Ambush Bug proudly sat atop the stack. This b&w collection features all of Ambush Bug’s hilarious appearances prior to the most recent mini-series Ambush Bug: Year None. I had previously owned much of this book, but hadn’t read them in years. They are even funnier now than when they first appeared some 20 years ago.

Directly under the nearly 500 page trade paperback, the mass market of Laurie R. King’s third Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes novel A Letter of Mary lead to much of the precarious nature of the stack. Like the first two novels, A Letter of Mary intelligently and skillfully relates the adventures of the elderly Holmes and his young wife Russell. These novels are among some of the finest Holmes pastiches and come highly recommended.

Another recent acquisition, Chicken With Plums is the latest from Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi. Brandy read this and insists I read it. She called Chicken With Plums "sad and beautiful." Brandy really "enjoyed the way she told the story."

Although I had previously read all of the stories in Sanctified and Chicken-Fried: The Portable Lansdale, I am reviewing select tales for a forthcoming hush-hush project. More details later…

Sitting under the Lansdale, Fantagraphic’s Blazing Combat collects all four issues of the groundbreaking Warren comic. I discuss this volume (and a few others) in the upcoming May 1 Nexus Graphica.

Digging even deeper unearths Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold – The Batman Team-Ups, Vol. 1 These often strange Bob Haney-scripted self-contained tales make for some enjoyable bedtime reading.

At the base of the stack, A People’s History of Sports in the United States is a compendium of Dave Zirin’s sportwritings. In an alternate vein similar to Howard Zinn’s classic study The People’s History of the United States, Zirin examines US history though sports. Read about 1/3 of the book, which offers some fascinating insights into American culture.

After realizing the pile wasn’t going anywhere, I took the books down, re-stacked them, and started my day.

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

Dames, Dolls, And Gun Molls: The Art of Robert A. Maguire by Jim Silke

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In the course of his long and illustrious career, renowned illustrator/painter Robert A. Maguire created gorgeous cover images for more than a thousand books and worked for virtually every mainstream publisher in the U.S. Best known for his incomparably sexy "femme fatale" images for pulp paperbacks in the 1950s and 1960s, Maguire built a long and legendary career showcasing character portraits that were iconic and beautiful, painting subjects that felt simultaneously real and sensually compelling. Now, art historian and living pin-up legend Jim Silke casts his curatorial eye toward Maguire’s long and fascinating career in his first art collection/artist biography, Dames, Dolls, and Gun Molls. With a keen eye for criticism and his trademark style and wit, Silke explores the legacy of an artist whose work is known by millions the world over.

This book is ever bit as beautiful as one might expect.

The Pretender’s Crown (The Inheritors’ Cycle, Book 2) by C. E. Murphy

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Fiercely intelligent, beautiful, and ready to claim her birthright, she navigates a dangerous world torn between war and witchpower.

Seduction and stealth are Belinda Primrose’s skills–weapons befitting the queen’s bastard daughter, a pawn of espionage conceived by Lorraine, ruler of Aulun, and her lover and spymaster, Belinda’s father. Now an accomplished assassin, Belinda uncovers the true game her father never intended her to play. For Belinda has found her witchpower, a legacy born from something not of this earth. In a treacherous world where religion and rebellion rule, Lorraine is now in a position to sweep over the countries of Echon and to back her chosen successor to the throne: Belinda.

But Belinda is no longer anyone’s pawn. Lured by the sensual dark magic of Dmitri, envoy to a neighboring throne, yet still drawn to the witchlord embrace of her former lover, Javier, Belinda knows that she has entered a realm where power and control go to those who can master and manipulate their fiercest desires. For the witchpower depends on the skill its wielder holds.

The Sheriff of Yrnameer by Michael Rubens

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Hailed by Stephen Colbert as "a science fiction book your grandmother will love–if she’s a lustful, violent lady," this mordant, fast-paced, witty tour of a delightfully improba­ble science fiction world combines The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with The Magnificent Seven.

Our hero, Cole, is having a bad day. His sidekick has run off with his girlfriend. His ride has been disintegrated by an officious traffic robot. And the spaceship he’s stolen to escape from a tentacled alien bounty hunter turns out to be filled with freeze-dried orphans. Reluctantly compelled to deliver the de­fenseless, fluid-less children to safety, Cole recruits a support team of humans, aliens, and one friendly–if cognitively challenged–computer. Their destination: the mysterious Yrnameer, thought to be the last untrammeled planet in the galaxy. Imagine their consternation, then, when they arrive to find it threatened by Cole’s archenemy, the most infamous outlaw in the cosmos.

Will Cole and his band of men and assorted oth­ers be able to defeat the vicious Runk? Will Yrnameer remain unspoiled and unsponsored (and unpronounceable)? Will the orphans be rehydrated? Get all the answers right here, in a rollicking first out­ing from a new comedic talent.

The Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker

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Appealing to boys and girls alike, this beguiling adventure explores classic fantasy themes from a unique young heroine’s perspective. Nine-year-old Emma loses everything she has in a fearsome storm and finds herself alone in the wilderness of the Dunes—an area desolate since the mysterious disappearance of a resort known as the Grand Wenlocke. Finding a friend in Winston, the ghostly bellboy who wanders the Dunes, Emma learns that it has been more than 100 years since the hotel with an unsavory reputation vanished; but, unbeknownst to either of them, the long slumbering resort has just begun to stir. Allying herself with a motley crew of companions—the ghost bellboy, a kindhearted cook, a pirate with a heart of gold, and the imperious young heir to the Wenlocke fortune—Emma soon learns that things are not always as lost as they seem, especially if you have a brave heart and good friends.

More in Part Two.

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

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth Written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou Art by Alecos Papadatos

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An innovative, dramatic graphic novel about the treacherous pursuit of the foundations of mathematics.

This exceptional graphic novel recounts the spiritual odyssey of philosopher Bertrand Russell. In his agonized search for absolute truth, Russell crosses paths with legendary thinkers like Gottlob Frege, David Hilbert, and Kurt Gödel, and finds a passionate student in the great Ludwig Wittgenstein. But his most ambitious goal—to establish unshakable logical foundations of mathematics—continues to loom before him. Through love and hate, peace and war, Russell persists in the dogged mission that threatens to claim both his career and his personal happiness, finally driving him to the brink of insanity.

This story is at the same time a historical novel and an accessible explication of some of the biggest ideas of mathematics and modern philosophy. With rich characterizations and expressive, atmospheric artwork, the book spins the pursuit of these ideas into a highly satisfying tale.

Probing and ingeniously layered, the book throws light on Russell’s inner struggles while setting them in the context of the timeless questions he spent his life trying to answer. At its heart, Logicomix is a story about the conflict between an ideal rationality and the unchanging, flawed fabric of reality.

The City & The City by China Miéville

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New York Times bestselling author China Miéville delivers his most accomplished novel yet, an existential thriller set in a city unlike any other–real or imagined.

When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.

Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives.

What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.

Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.

Blood of Ambrose by James Enge

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Behind the King’s life stands the menacing Protector, and beyond him lies the Protector’s Shadow…

Centuries after the death of Uthar the Great, the throne of the Ontilian Empire lies vacant. The late Emperor’s brother-in-law and murderer, Lord Urdhven, appoints himself Protector to his nephew, young King Lathmar VII and sets out to kill anyone who stands between himself and mastery of the Empire, including (if he can manage it) the King himself and his ancient but still formidable ancestress, Ambrosia Viviana.

When Ambrosia is accused of witchcraft and put to trial by combat, she is forced to play her trump card and call on her brother, Morlock Ambrosius–stateless person, master of all magical makers, deadly swordsman, and hopeless drunk.

As ministers of the king, they carry on the battle, magical and mundane, against the Protector and his shadowy patron. But all their struggles will be wasted unless the young king finds the strength to rule in his own right and his own name.

Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi

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Acclaimed graphic artist Marjane Satrapi brings what has become her signature humor and insight, her keen eye and ear, to the heartrending story of a celebrated Iranian musician who gives up his life for music and love.

When Nasser Ali Khan, the author’s great-uncle, discovers that his beloved instrument is irreparably damaged, he takes to his bed, renouncing the world and all its pleasures. Over the course of the week that follows, we are treated to vivid scenes of his encounters with family and friends, flashbacks to his childhood, and flash-forwards to his children’s future. And as the pieces of his story fall into place, we begin to understand the breadth of his decision to let go of life.

The poignant story of one man, it is also stunningly universal—a luminous tale of life and death, and the courage and passion both require of us.

Part One.

In the spring, 2006, The Austin Chronicle ran two articles–"The Notorious Irving Klaw" (March 10, 2006) and "Little Underground Worlds" (April 21, 2006)–centered around my interview with The Notorious Bettie Page director, Mary Harron. As often happens with these type of things, pieces of the interview end up on the cutting room floor. In celebration of Bettie Page‘s 86th birthday, here are some unexpurgated Harron comments about the world’s most famous pin up.

On Bettie’s endearing popularity:

On the appeal of Bettie to young feminists:

Sadly, Bettie Page passed away late last year. She is missed.

I loathe the idea that the Cartoon Network has moved into the live action arena. It was bad enough when they started showing live action movies and even crappy variety-style shows but now they’re moving into the Sci-Fi (oops..meant Scy-Fy) Channel arena of terrible original movie concepts.

Does the world really need yet another bad re-imagination of the King Arthur myth? I doubt it.

Are the ratings that much better for live action? I realize live action is cheaper and faster to produce than animation but a zillion channels already do shoddy sf/f live action. What about the shoddy original animated films? They need love, too.

I really like the idea of a network that shows nothing but cartoons.

What’s next? Comedy Central to air Sopranos?

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

Science Is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé

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The mesmerizing, utterly unclassifiable science films of Jean Painlevé (1902-89) have to be seen to be believed: delightful, surrealist-influenced dream works that are also serious science. The French filmmaker-scientist-inventor had a decades-spanning career in which he created hundreds of short films on subjects ranging from astronomy to pigeons to, most famously, such marine-life marvels as the sea horse and the sea urchin. This definitive three-disc collection brings together the best of these, and also includes the French television series Jean Painlevé Through His Films, rock band Yo La Tengo’s eight-film score The Sounds of Science, and an essay by film scholar Scott MacDonald.

More on this later…

Last Chance Harvey

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Set in London, this romantic comedy stars Dustin Hoffman as Harvey Shine, a divorced and haggard jingle-writer quickly aging out of his career and workaholic ways. With a warning from his boss (Richard Schiff) to not bother rushing back, Harvey goes to London, begrudgingly, for his daughter’s wedding, fielding that work calls the whole time he’s there. When Harvey greets his estranged daughter, Susie (Liane Balaban), it becomes clear just how far away he’s grown from his family. The film never spells out in exactly what ways Harvey was a bad father, but it is clear he missed the boat when Susie asks her stepfather (James Brolin) to give her away. As Harvey leaves his heartbreak at the ceremony for an emergency work call, he misses his flight and gets fired. While nursing a whiskey at the airport bar, Harvey bumps into Kate (Emma Thompson), an airport employee escaping her own bad day with a glass of wine and a book. Suddenly taken by Kate’s British charm, a tipsy Harvey bombards her with tales of his trouble. This unlikely trading of sob stories leads to lunch, a walk around London, and a day of unexpected romance.

Look

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With LOOK, accomplished screenwriter and director Adam Rifkin (THE DARK BACKWARD, DETROIT ROCK CITY) takes the modern world’s infatuation with surveillance technology to a disarming new level. After opening the film with a jarring title card that explains just how many surveillance cameras exist in our society, Rifkin then goes on to prove it by using surveillance camera footage exclusively to tell his multifaceted story (artificially constructed, of course, but convincing nonetheless). What follows is an acerbic commentary on America in which a wide spectrum of citizens are captured in a series of unsettling, uncomfortable, sometimes hilarious, and ultimately dramatic situations. They include two cop killers on the lam, two bored convenience store clerks, a philandering husband, a sex-addicted clothing store manager, a high school teacher and the student who is out to seduce him, a nerdy office worker who is constantly harassed by his coworkers, a devastated mother whose daughter is abducted, and the mysterious abductor himself. Rifkin ingeniously uses his conceit as a way to comment on how depraved our society has become, yet he also uses humor to keep things from becoming too bleak and dour. As hidden camera after hidden camera captures the glaring foibles of these intersecting lives, we become further embroiled in the dramas at hand. The result is an unsettling portrait of a world at its nastiest, where good intentions become bad ones, and in which happy endings occur, albeit with crushingly ironic twists.

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

The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V. S. Redick

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Scant years after a terrible war that shook empires, a six-hundred-year-old ship sets sail for enemy lands in an attempt to forge an enduring peace between the world’s two greatest monarchies. A vast city afloat, the ancient vessel bears a royal bride-to-be; a stowaway tribe of foothigh warriors; an honest young tarboy with a heritage of treason; a rat with a magical secret; and a dark conspiracy centered around the Red Wolf, a legendary and dangerous artifact.

When the conspiracy is uncovered, the voyage takes a turn into perilous waters, and the sword-wielding young bride and her quick-witted tarboy companion must face deadly assassins, treacherous mermaids, and monstrous slavers to uncover secrets at the highest levels of power—secrets that will send heroes and traitors alike careening towards a mysterious destination that could destroy both empires at a stroke.

A publishing sensation in England, The Red Wolf Conspiracy marks the debut of a remarkably gifted young writer.

Goats: Infinite Typewriters by Jonathan Rosenberg

The first-ever book collection of the wildly popular webcomic Goats—a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for the Internet Age

With webcomics like Penny Arcade and Megatokyo being published successfully in book format, the webcomics scene is fast becoming the red-hot incubator of comics talent. The Goats site (www.Goats.com) has one of the most devoted followings on the web, and has more than 1.5 million hits a month.

Goats’ wicked, weird, and deliciously geeky sense of humor places it in the tradition of such cult favorites as Futurama and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—it’s a major sci-fi parody epic. In Infinite Typewriters, two lowly techies are tasked with saving the universe from utter destruction. Along the way, they’ll encounter cyborg goldfish, omnisexual aliens, satanic chickens, random celebrities, Mayan death gods, and the other strange and wonderful denizens of the Goats universe.

The first of three Goats collections from Del Rey, Goats: Infinite Typewriters will also include some book only bonus features: an introduction by Penny Arcade cocreator Jerry Holkins’s alter ego, Tycho, and newly created material intended to welcome readers to the saga.

The Island by Tim Lebbon

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The worst has come and one man must rise to lead the fight against it. . . .

He thought he’d seen the worst . . .

No one knew about the Strangers from beyond Noreela, and it was the Core’s job to make sure it stayed that way. Kel Boon was once an agent of the land’s most secret organization, tracking, observing, and eliminating the Strangers as part of an elite Core team. But then one horrifying encounter left his superior officer—and lover—dead, along with many innocents. And Kel has been running ever since.

But the worst was still to come. . . .

Forsaking magic, living as a simple wood-carver, Kel came to the fishing village of Pavmouth Breaks to hide. But when a mysterious island appears out to sea during a cataclysmic storm, sending tidal waves to smash the village, his Core training tells him to expect the worst. How can he warn the surviving villagers—especially the beautiful young witch Namior—that the visitors sailing in from the island may not be the peace-loving pilgrims they claim to be? That this might be the invasion the Core has feared all along . . . and that he, Kel Boon, may be Noreela’s last chance?

The Patriot Witch (Traitor to the Crown) by C. C. Finlay

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The year is 1775. On the surface, Proctor Brown appears to be an ordinary young man working the family farm in New England. He is a minuteman, a member of the local militia, determined to defend the rights of the colonies. Yet Proctor is so much more. Magic is in his blood, a dark secret passed down from generation to generation. But Proctor’s mother has taught him to hide his talents, lest he be labeled a witch and find himself dangling at the end of a rope.

A chance encounter with an arrogant British officer bearing magic of his own catapults Proctor out of his comfortable existence and into the adventure of a lifetime, as resistance sparks rebellion and rebellion becomes revolution. Now, even as he fights alongside his fellow patriots from Lexington to Bunker Hill, Proctor finds himself enmeshed in a war of a different sort–a secret war of magic against magic, witch against witch, with the stakes not only the independence of a young nation but the future of humanity itself.

While "researching" a recent Nexus Graphica, I had reason to look through my collection of Comics Of Unusual Size. This set of the big and small and odd of comicdom offers many gems. Deciding that I really should share some of these largely forgotten and sometime rare pieces, I’m taking you through a tour of the more interesting selections.

Click on images for full sized versions.

Angry Comics #1 (1991) Art by Shane Simmons

Heading north of the border this time with Shane Simmons and his Eyestrain Productions. The prolific Simmons has worked on several TV and film productions and published numerous comics most notably the groundbreaking, minimalist Longshot Comics comedies: The Long and Unlearned Life of Roland Gethers and The Failed Promise of Bradley Gethers. In 1991, Simmons started his run on Angry Comics.

Angry Comics #2-5 (1991-92) Art by Shane Simmons

Angry Comics #6-9 (1992-93) Art by Shane Simmons

As with most cartoonists, Simmons used the form as a sounding board for societal and political ills, combined of course with some often perverse humor.

"Curiosity" by Shane Simmons (Angry Comics #1, 1991)

Issue three featured perhaps the first appearance of Simmons’ "talking dots" style.

Longshot Comics "A Little Romance" by Shane Simmons (Angry Comics #3, 1991)

Throughout the run, Simmons prided himself on the disturbing offerings. Among the best of those, "Cooking With Jeffrey Dahmer" a Food Network-styled show starring the cannibalistic serial killer, premiered in #5.

"Cooking With Jeffrey Dahmer" p. 1 by Shane Simmons (Angry Comics #5, 1992)

Simmons toyed with some unusual literary adaptations under the Classics Butchered banner.

Classics Butchered #4 "Jane Eyre" by Shane Simmons (Angry Comics #7, July 1992)

Following the ninth issue, Simmons changed the format from the 8-16 page 25 cent mini-comic to a 16-20 page two dollar digest with color covers. The series continued until issue #13.