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

Heaveworld by Cullen Bunn

Promo copy:

Welcome to Heaveworld!

We hope you brought a bucket.

Cullen Bunn entered the World Horror Convention’s Gross-Out Contest four times, and won first place with each. And here they are, collected for the first time in print, uncut and sure to get your bile rising.

But that’s not all…

The Midway County Testicle Festival is underway!

In Cullen’s vomit-inducing novella, Blue has reason to be superstitious of the event’s thirteenth year.

The morning kicks off with a dead body in the field, and the issues escalate from there.

As a new recipe for barbeque testicles is introduced with horrifying results, Blue realizes that there is more afoot than mere food poisoning. With an ancient evil rising from the nearby woods and chaos all around him, will he have the balls to save not only the festival, but the entire world?

A few years back, I interviewed Cullen Bunn (along with artist Brian Hurtt) about The Damned.

Flight into Darkness by Sarah Ash

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As an impulsive young man, Rieuk Mordiern accidentally freed Azilis, a guardian spirit charged with keeping the balance between the kingdoms of the living and the dead. Now Rieuk’s sole purpose is to bring Azilis back—only she doesn’t want to return. Instead she has attached herself to a very talented mortal, the renowned singer Celestine—becoming, as Celestine believes, her personal guardian.

Celestine has never needed a guardian more. Her desire for revenge against the people who consigned her magician father to the flames is leading her down a dangerous path. And chaos is growing. Seven daemons from another realm are now threatening to lay siege to the mortal world. Now both Rieuk and Celestine must discover what it means to truly be a hero.

Star Wars: Crosscurrent by Paul S. Kemp

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An ancient Sith ship hurtles into the future carrying a lethal cargo that could forever destroy Luke Skywalker’s hopes for peace.

The Civil War is almost over when Jedi Knight Jaden Korr experiences a Force vision so intense he must act. Enlisting two salvage jocks and their ship, Jaden sets out into space. Someone—or something—appears to be in distress.

But what Jaden and his crew find confounds them. A five-thousand-year-old dreadnaught—bringing with it a full force of Sith and one lone Jedi—has inadvertently catapulted eons from the past into the present. The ship’s weapons may not be cutting-edge, but its cargo, a special ore that makes those who use the dark side nearly invincible, is unsurpassed. The ancient Jedi on board is determined to destroy the Sith. But for Jaden, even more is at stake: for his vision has led him to uncover a potentially indestructible threat to everything the Jedi Order stands for.

Blackout by Connie Willis

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In her first novel since 2002, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author Connie Willis returns with a stunning, enormously entertaining novel of time travel, war, and the deeds—great and small—of ordinary people who shape history. In the hands of this acclaimed storyteller, the past and future collide—and the result is at once intriguing, elusive, and frightening.

Oxford in 2060 is a chaotic place. Scores of time-traveling historians are being sent into the past, to destinations including the American Civil War and the attack on the World Trade Center. Michael Davies is prepping to go to Pearl Harbor. Merope Ward is coping with a bunch of bratty 1940 evacuees and trying to talk her thesis adviser, Mr. Dunworthy, into letting her go to VE Day. Polly Churchill’s next assignment will be as a shopgirl in the middle of London’s Blitz. And seventeen-year-old Colin Templer, who has a major crush on Polly, is determined to go to the Crusades so that he can “catch up” to her in age.

But now the time-travel lab is suddenly canceling assignments for no apparent reason and switching around everyone’s schedules. And when Michael, Merope, and Polly finally get to World War II, things just get worse. For there they face air raids, blackouts, unexploded bombs, dive-bombing Stukas, rationing, shrapnel, V-1s, and two of the most incorrigible children in all of history—to say nothing of a growing feeling that not only their assignments but the war and history itself are spiraling out of control. Because suddenly the once-reliable mechanisms of time travel are showing significant glitches, and our heroes are beginning to question their most firmly held belief: that no historian can possibly change the past.

From the people sheltering in the tube stations of London to the retired sailors who set off across the Channel to rescue the stranded British Army from Dunkirk, from shopgirls to ambulance drivers, from spies to hospital nurses to Shakespearean actors, Blackout reveals a side of World War II seldom seen before: a dangerous, desperate world in which there are no civilians and in which everybody—from the Queen down to the lowliest barmaid—is determined to do their bit to help a beleaguered nation survive.

The penultimate KandyLand strip.

Story by Rick Klaw Art by Newt Manwich

Click on image to enlarge

At the time I wrote this (1996 or thereabouts), AirHeads candy wrappers sported tongue twisters. I loved the idea of tall, blonde female assassins twirling tongue twisters. Sadly, I didn’t have enough time/space to fully explore the concept.

Last Week’s Strip

Next Week’s Strip

Back in November, I lauded the forthcoming Norman Partridge short story collection Lesser Demons. At the time, the cover image was undecided, but no longer.

Over at Shocklines, Partridge revealed the Vincent Chong cover.

Click on image to enlarge

A longtime Norman Partridge fan, I interviewed him in ’07 for the paperback release of his latest novel Dark Harvest (which I reviewed in its hardback iteration).

I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, a new Norman Partridge collection is always a cause for celebration!

Last night I dreamt I was attending a science conference. The presenting scientist had a pet wookie (don’t ask), who took a liking to me. The wookie sat on my lap, making it difficult for me to breathe. I kept trying to get him off but he kept snuggling in closer.

My dream struggles finally woke me up, returning me to reality, where I found my 18 lb cat Kali contently sleeping on my chest!

Kali

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

ALEC: The Years Have Pants (A Life-Size Omnibus) by Eddie Campbell

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For the first time ever, the pioneering autobiographical comics of master cartoonist Eddie Campbell (From Hell) are collected in a single volume!

Brilliantly observed and profoundly expressed, the Alec stories present a version of Campbell’s own life, filtered through the alter ego of "Alec MacGarry." Over many years, we witness Alec’s (and Eddie’s) progression "from beer to wine" – wild nights at the pub, existential despair, the hunt for love, the quest for art, becoming a responsible breadwinner, feeling lost at his own movie premiere, and much more! Eddie’s outlandish fantasies and metafictional tricks convert life into art, while staying fully grounded in his own absurdity. At every point, the author’s uncanny eye for irony and wry self-awareness make even the smallest occasion into an opportunity for wit and wisdom. Quite simply, ALEC is a masterpiece of visual autobiography.

This Life-Size Omnibus edition of ALEC includes collects the previous Alec books The King Canute Crowd, Graffiti Kitchen, How to Be an Artist, Little Italy, The Dead Muse, The Dance of Lifey Death, and After the Snooter, as well as an all-new 35 page book, The Years Have Pants, and some other short stories rarely or never before seen.

Almost Silent by Jason

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A deluxe, hardcover collection of four Jason classics: Meow Baby, Tell Me Something, You Can’t Get There From Here, and The Living and the Dead. Almost Silent packages four original Jason graphic novels—three of them out of print since mid-2008—into one compact, hardcover omnibus collection. (As the title indicates, this volume favors Jason’s pantomime works.)

You Can’t Get There From Here, the longest story of the book (and the only one to be printed in color—well, a color), tells the tale of a love triangle involving Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s Monster, and The Monster’s Bride: Jason cleverly alternates between totally silent sequences involving the three characters and scenes in which Frankenstein’s hunchbacked assistant discusses the day’s events with a fellow hunchbacked assistant to another mad scientist. (You didn’t know they had a union?) Tell Me Something is a brisk (271 panels), near-totally-silent (just a few intertitles) graphic novelette about love lost and found again, told with a tricky mixture of forward- and back-flashing narrative. Meow, Baby! is a collection of Jason’s short stories and gags, and finally, The Living and the Dead is a hilariously deadpan (and gory) take on the traditional Romero-style zombie thriller.

All of these yarns star Jason’s patented cast of tight-lipped (or -beaked) bird-, dog-, cat- and wolf-people, and show off his compassion and wry wit. Almost Silent is a perfect starting point for a new reader wanting to know what the fuss is all about, and a handsome, handy, inexpensive collection for the committed Jason fan. 72 pages in two-color, 228 pages in b&w.

Original Sin by Allison Brennan

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Haunted by chilling memories of demonic possession and murder, Moira O’Donnell has spent seven years hunting down her mother, Fiona, whose command of black magic has granted her unprecedented control of the underworld. Now Moira’s global search has led her to a small California town that’s about to become hell on earth.

Tormented by his own terrifying past and driven by powers he can’t explain, ex-seminarian Rafe Cooper joins Moira’s dangerous quest. But Fiona is one devilish step ahead. Hungry for greater power, eternal youth, and stunning beauty, the sorceress is unleashing upon the mortal world the living incarnations of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Together with a demonologist, a tough female sheriff, and a pair of star-crossed teenagers, Moira and Rafe are humanity’s last chance to snatch salvation from the howling jaws of damnation.

Pandorum

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In Pandorum, Dennis Quaid (Vantage Point, The Express) and Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma, Alpha Dog) join Cam Gigandet (Never Back Down, Twilight), Cung Le (Tekken, Fighting), newcomer Antje Traue, and director Christian Alvart (Antibodies) to tell the terrifying story of two crew members stranded on a spacecraft who quickly – and horrifically – realize they are not alone. Two astronauts awaken in a hyper-sleep chamber aboard a seemingly abandoned spacecraft. It’s pitch black, they are disoriented, and the only sound is a low rumble and creak from the belly of the ship. They can’t remember anything: Who are they? What is their mission? With Lt. Payton (Quaid) staying behind to guide him via radio transmitter, Cpl. Bower (Foster) ventures deep into the ship and begins to uncover a terrifying reality. Slowly the spacecraft’s shocking, deadly secrets are revealed…and the astronauts find their own survival is more important than they could ever have imagined.

The Great Anti-War Cartoons edited by Craig Yoe

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For centuries, cartoonists have used their pens to fight a war against war, translating images of violent conflict into symbols of protest. Noted comics historian Craig Yoe brings the greatest of these artists together in one place, presenting the ultimate collection of anti-war cartoons ever assembled. Together, these cartoons provide a powerful testament to the old adage, "The pen is mightier than the sword," and remind us that so often in the 20th century, it was the editorial cartoonist who could say the things his fellow newspapermen and women only dreamed of, enlightening and rallying a nation against unjust aggression. Readers of The Great Anti-War Cartoons will find stunning artwork from the pens of Francisco Goya to Art Young, from Robert Minor to Ron Cobb, and from Honore Daumier to Robert Crumb.

Story by Rick Klaw Art by Newt Manwich

Click on image to enlarge

From the moment I introduced her in "Of Bottlecaps and Babes," Godiva became my favorite supporting character and this storyline was originally crafted to showcase chocolate diva. As you’ll discover in a few weeks, the truncated story didn’t really afford me that opportunity. If I ever return to Kandyland, relating her tale will be one of my first priorities.

Last Week’s Strip

Next Week’s Strip

As part of the San Antonio Current‘s decade recap, I provided an overview of the 21st century’s first new literary movement, New Weird.

Check it all out in the current San Antonio Current.

Book People honcho Steve Bercu’s comments to the New York Times regarding book theft are eerily reminiscent to something I wrote shortly after being laid off by Book People, where Bercu was my immediate supervisor.

From the December 16, 2009 NYT piece:

And from my 2002 "Geeks with Books" essay "The Five Finger Discount" (later reprinted in my 2003 book Geek Confidential):

(I added the emphasis.)

Perhaps this is just a coincidence. Bercu could have read my piece when I wrote it and the phrasing stuck in his subconscious. I know while I was working there, Bercu was a regular reader of my column. I have no idea if he continued the practice after I left.

Thus begins the final four week installment of the KandyLand strip.

Story by Rick Klaw Art by Newt Manwich

Click on image to enlarge

Check out the KandyLand/LemonHead story from the beginning.

Next Week’s Strip

I’m no expert, but I’d think that Photobucket offering merchandise using Steve Ditko’s Shade, the Changing Man #1 cover would be illegal. Pretty sure it’s owned by DC.

Ditko’s cover

Merchandise advertised on Photobucket

Does anyone out there know something about this that I don’t?