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International Small Press Review & Independent Newsletter |
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written and edited by Spindoc published by PIGASUS Press |
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RATINGS: monster = 10 rocks = 9
boss = 8 cool = 7 mutant = 6 proto = 5 kipple = 4 anorak = 3 fudge = 2 sucks = 1 zombie = 0 |
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Spring 2003 - INTRO... with this edition of dragon's breath, Spindoc takes over writing
and editing duties for db, inheriting a great wealth of unreviewed material from predecessor,
Zine Kat, that's required much sorting... Lots of wonderful books, magazines and curious oddments to
get through here - so, without further ado... ALBEDO ONE - £3 2 Post Rd, Lusk, Co. Dublin, Ireland website Irish genre mag covers the SF, fantasy & horror fields with fiction, interviews (here, we hear from Kim Stanley Robinson), a comic-strip and a book review section of reasonable size. Now over 10 years old, this award-winning zine offers small payment to contributors (so no big name writers featured), but the quality of genre stories maintains fairly high standard throughout... Boss ATOMIC BOMB CINEMA by Jerome F. Shapiro - £16.99 Routledge, 11 New Fetter Lane, London, EC4P 4EE website Although the author, Jerome F. Shapiro (a lecturer at Hiroshima University), approaches this somewhat controversial subgenre of "apocalyptic imagination" with occasionally pedantic reference to an unusually wide range of subjects - from Biblical allusions (quoting chapter and verse), Japanese social history and imperial traditions, aspects of both recent American and modern Japanese cultures, to Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis, and varied or polarised narrative concerns that distinguish Hollywood from Toho - the decontruction and casual demolition of previous texts on the subject (including Kim Newman's excellent Millennium Movies) doesn't always convince us that he knows what he's talking about. The cultivated professorial air irks, just as much as it informs and enlightens. In particular, Shapiro's haughtily dismissive attitude to antiwar protests (Vietnam, etc) and the actions of CND (as irrelevant!), is frankly risible. An intriguing thesis, but not quite as groundbreaking or profound as its author wanted it to be... Mutant THE BIOLOGY OF HORROR: Gothic Literature and Film by Jack Morgan - £38.95 (h/b), £19.50 (p/b) The Eurospan Group, 3 Henrietta St, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 8LU Eurospan are UK distributors of numerous academic texts and university press books. This is a fairly typical example of their genre-related fare, published by Southern Illinois Univserity. Jack Morgan teaches English at U of Missouri-Rolla. Biology of Horror has chapters on macabre aesthetics, the muse of horror, dark epiphanies, the "esoterics of celebration," the "anxiety of organism," and "sinister loci" (bad places). Besides re-exploring the familiar duality of comedy and terror, and re-charting the "body launguage of horror," Morgan astutely observes and characterises the fusion of gothic traditions (primarily European) and the postmodern affect (Americanised?) that constitutes many old and recent screen productions. Thankfully, he does not find the need to coin any of those annoying buzzwords so beloved of academic writers so, although this is still heavy-going at times, at least it's accessible to the average reader... Mutant BLOOD FOLLOWS by Steven Erikson - £8 / $14 PS Publishing, Hamilton House, 4 Park Ave, Harrogate, HG2 9BQ website Paperback novella from Peter Crowther's enterprising British small press, which specialises in these smartly presented chapbooks which tend to be anthologised later in nifty hardback from Gollancz. I don't much care for the peculiar sort of fantasy-mystery here (a variation of the author's Malazan books), but with about two dozen other titles available, PS is boldly catering for a wide range of genre tastes, so it's a venture worthy of your support... Proto BRAQUEMARD edited by David Allenby - £2.50 48 Clifton St, Hull, HU2 9AP website Forever relegated to small press activity, mainstream poetry by non-celebs remains alive in UK thanks to the wholly selfless efforts of editors like David Allenby. Braquemard (title means..?) #9 claims to have a vague canine theme, while #10 (June 2003) has no noticeable focus except variety. Both issues are decorated in b/w with line drawings and clip-art, and I think (as with many other such verse mags) it's not advisable to read the whole thing at once. Great for dipping into, though, at teabreak time. The editor declares he's no longer accepting prose fiction in future, only poems... Cool CARREG LAS & OTHER WORK by John Jones - £6.50 / $12 Collective Press, c/o Penlanlas Farm, Llantilio Pertholey, Y-Fenni, Gwent, NP7 7HN website Collection of hill farmer's poetry supported by Arts Council bursary, strives to be evocative - in often gritty Black Mountains manner - but archly arty-Lit content and purposely-wonky typesetting presentation may prove off-putting to the uninitiated. Despite striking cover, sparse layouts make this a bit of a struggle, really... Kipple CHALLENGING DESTINY edited by David M. Switzer - $6 Crystalline Sphere Publishing, R.R. #6 St Marys, Ontario, N4X 1C8, Canada website Illustrated digest-sized mag, delivering new SF & fantasy stories in an attractive format, twice a year. Issues #13 (November 2001), #14 (June 2002), and #15 (December 2002) have glossy full-colour artwork on the covers, and excellent b/w interior art with impressive mix of styles. What I like most about CD is the winning sense of humour in at least some of the genre fiction. Far too much science/spectulative fiction published nowadays is grimly serious. Christopher East's Skullier Than The Average Bod in #13 is a great example of how SF can be intriguing, yet fun, too. There's also genuinely interesting nonfiction, such as James Schellenberg's overview of Alice in Wonderland which covers Lewis Carroll's books, plus movie versions and spinoff tales. #14 includes an interview with Alison Sinclair, but the highlight is probably Hugh Cook's The Trial Of Edgar Allan Poe, an amusing but poignant yarn successfully veiling its plot construction with easy nonchalance. In #15 there's The Beauty in the Beast by K.G. McAbee, in which the repayment of a debt proves not a simple affair. There's also Schellenberg's reviews of the Alien quartet of films, and part two of the editor's survey of genre art, with commentary by the artists. This is a nice idea, but would be better suited to an A4-size mag, and it's a shame none of the paintings are in colour... Boss CINEASTE - $6 PO Box 2242, New York, NY 10009-8917, USA website "America's leading magazine on the art and politics of the cinema," published quarterly. I have six editions of this, and in spite of my limited interest in the screen world, I found something of interest in every issue. The range of material is eclectic and frequently in-depth, often closer in tone to media-related academic journals and Britain's own Sight and Sound than mainstream movie zines. The mix of interviews, critical essays, festival reports and lengthy reviews is largely impeccable. Read... Linda Williams on "Cinema and the Sex Act", director Guillermo del Toro interview, an article on war films Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers, a retro of High Noon, interview with Asian filmmaker Hou Hsino-hsien, Mike Leigh on All Or Nothing, a profile of Akira Kurosawa, an interview with Costa-Gavras (his name's definitely not Henri!), Joe Bob Briggs on "Shaft and the Blaxploitation genre," plus a fascinating piece on Eminem's debut in 8 Mile. The incisive DVD and book reviews are uniformly great, so I can recommend this to all serious film fans... Mutant THE CINEMA OF KATHRYN BIGELOW: Hollywood Transgressor edited by Deborah Jermyn & Sean Redmond - £13.99 Wallflower Press, 5 Pond St, London, NW1 2PN website First ever collection of articles regarding the work and career of the artist turned filmmaker who led a revolution in the status of women directors in the mainstream American market. Genre pictures like vampire western Near Dark (1987), gave way to action movies such as Blue Steel (1990), the underrated Point Break (1991), and the quasi sci-fi cult thriller Strange Days (1995), and even if her most recent offerings The Weight of Water (2000) and K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), have proved lacklustre, Bigelow remains a notable and interesting figure in the industry. Her sometimes-feminist viewpoint, visual wit, and laudable awareness of genre lore and breakable conventions are explored here in detail, and the book includes a great interview with Bigelow by Gavin Smith. The occasionally turgid academic writing styles are often frustrating, and restricts the appeal of this otherwise invaluable critique of Bigelow's cinema to waffle-world circles, but SF fans may find the essays on unfortunate box office failure Strange Days worthwhile... Cool COMMON ECTOIDS OF ARIZONA by Stepan Chapman - $5 / $8 [o/seas] Four-Sep Publications, PO Box 12434, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53212, USA website A charmingly daft "ecto-zoological guide" featuring unstill life studies of the wickedly monstrous and whimsically absurd creatures that (allegedly) inhabit the twilight zones of the above named US state. Written and drawn by the quietly barmy Stepan Chapman, who claims to be a doctor of "etheric zoology", this damning evidence of the author and artist's lunacy is impossible to dislike. That marvellous unseen oddities exist is surely beyond doubt (I'm particularly fond of the frivolous rodeo spectre, the "Tar Buffalo"). Question is, what is this guy 'on'? ... Cool CREATURES OF CLAY and Other Stories of the Macabre by Stephen Sennitt - £7.99 / $12.99 Diagonal Books, Headpress, PO Box 26, Manchester, M26 1PQ website "And I continued to dream..." Collection of horror fiction and prose in the Lovecraft mould with nightmarish imagery and glimpses into creepy realms and rooms full of traditional genre icons. A bleak and suffocating literary montage of lore reanimated from small press obscurity and paperbacked in two-column magazine style layout, Creatures of Clay is a return to pulp territory - welcome, but (as with much poetic material) best saved to dip into, not read all at once... Cool THE DARKEST PART OF THE WOODS by Ramsey Campbell - £35 / $55 PS Publishing [see above] While over-hyped mystery flicks like The Blair Witch Project fascinate movie-goers, British authors such as Ramsey Campbell explore the collision of supernatural forces and contemporary beliefs with greater depth, challenging our preconceptions about what's scary and what's merely amusing. To call this book chilling is a gross injustice. A dread secret from the past tears a family apart, but it's the lurking presence of something inhumanly Other (in these pages) that sets the unsuspecting reader's imagination on fire. The devil, as they say, is in the details, and Campbell's meticulous and individualistic writing style explores a wealth of eerie moods and terrifying moments with consummate skill. Enjoy it, if you dare, but beware - you may never want to visit the countryside again... Rocks A DAY IN THE LIFE: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to 24 by Keith Topping - £9.99 / $17.95 Telos Publishing, 61 Elgar Ave, Tolworth, Surbiton, Surrey, KT5 9JP website Jack Bauer (earnestly underplayed by Kiefer Sutherland) is a Federal anti-terrorist cop in Los Angeles who uncovers a plot to assassinate black Presidential candidate David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert). However, before our super-heroic Jack can prevent a murder, he must deal with the bad guys who have kidnapped his rebellious daughter Kim (Elisa Cuthbert), and unmask the double-agent who betrays him to the killers... 24 is a TV phenomenon, created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, which enacts its mix of action, drama, crisis and mystery within a single day. Each of the 24 episodes in Season One takes up an hour's viewing (including commercial breaks) and plays out its thrilling suspense narrative in real time, using split screen composition and tightly-scripted storytelling. Unabashed fanboy Keith Topping accurately defines every aspect of this show's unique appeal, revelling in the knee-deep trivia, spotting continuity errors, sampling crucial dialogue, explaining backstory riffs, chronicling the show's development and exploring its wholly addictive quality. What Topping's book lacks in terms of photos (there are none) and access to publicity materials, it more than makes up for in the enthusiastic approach to criticism, and examination of all the counter-espionage tropes (gadgets, gunplay, questions of identity), government office politics, and "dysfunctional family values" that ensured 24 became a cult TV hit... Boss DEAD CATS BOUNCING edited by Gerard Houarner & Gak - $13.95 Bedlam Press, PO Box 540298, Orlando, FL 32854-0298, USA website Illustrated anthology from David Barnett's Necro Publications inspired by Gerard Houarner's stylised tale Dead Cat Bounce, "A Fable to Horrify the Inner Child" about a mummified zombie feline. This book reprints that original piece, and adds 14 more stories (including another one by Houarner) to detail further misadventures of the unbandaged, undead, furry critter. Yvonne Navarro's Dead Cat Does Chicago and Dead Cat on a Hot Tin Eternity by Charlee Jacob are, I think, the best sequels - or perhaps A Whisperer of Dead Whiskers by Tom Piccirilli is better still? Certainly, Terry McGarry's Too Many Hells is the most fun. The b/w artwork throughout by Gak mixes spiky cartoon style with symbolic imagery, and makes me wonder why the publisher didn't simply commission a proper comicstrip variation... Cool THE DINOSAUR FILMOGRAPHY by Mark F. Berry - £42.95 McFarland & Co, PO Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640, USA website UK distributor - Eurospan Group [see above] A winningly comprehensive A-Z volume, this timely reference work digs deeper into monster movie subculture than any previous comparable guidebook, uncovering a whole strata of unambitious yet amusing B-movies, in addition to well-known CGI landmarks like Jurassic Park (1993), comedy milestone The Flintstones (1994), cartoon series The Land Before Time, and recent versions of Arthur Conan Doyle's archetypal The Lost World. A typical entry has basic credits, plot synopsis, review, production background, and notes on special effects. Of course, there are entries regarding diverse offerings such as scientifically dubious Loch Ness movies, prehistoric survivals (like The Valley of Gwangi, 1969), and assorted caveman adventures (yes, including Trog, 1970). Appendices list unfinished projects, films with dino cameo roles, and related material like Japan's Godzilla series. While accepting that digital animation has produced more realistic images, Mark Berry maintains an appreciation for stop motion artistry, and his agreeable enthusiasm and commendably thorough research ensure this is an outstanding text. The Dinosaur Filmography includes a wealth of b/w photos, 16 pages of colour posters, and many rare or previously unseen behind-the-scenes pictures, too. Despite the cost, this large hardback is so good that only one rating is appropriate... Monster DOCTOR WHO Novellas: CITADEL OF DREAMS by Dave Stone, NIGHTDREAMERS by Tom Arden, RIP TIDE by Louise Cooper - £25 each Telos [see above] Three titles from the superbly presented series of spinoff books, showcasing original stories based on the Time Lords lore of that once-popular BBC TV show. Telos began their range with Kim Newman's Time and Relative, and later published Ghost Ship by Keith Topping. Stone's enjoyably bizarre Citadel of Dreams and Arden's overly fantastical Nightdreamers appeared in the interim, while the latest issue is an admirably more down-to-earth mystery, Rip Tide by Louise Cooper. The books are available in two editions, the standard hardbacks have a foil-stamped logo and title, for £10 each, while the signed and numbered deluxe versions include exclusive full-colour artwork (by the likes of Lee Sullivan, Martin McKenna, Fred Gambino). There's quite a lot of Who collectors' items out there, but these lavishly designed offerings are in a league of their own... Cool DRAGONHENGE by Bob Eggleton & John Grant - £20 / $29.95 Paper Tiger, Chrysalis Books, 64 Brewery Rd, London, N7 9NY website A strange and unusual artbook, Dragonhenge posits a kind of archaeological text about dragon civilisation, a mythology with wings on. Fictional pieces by John Grant are complemented by the many vividly imagined pictures. Bob Eggleton's contributions are rarely just illustrative, often striking and/or moody, sometimes impressionistic. With bright pastels, pencil portraits, boldly colourful paintings presented in a variety of sizes and formats (some with wraparound text), this cleverly designed book is almost a graphic novel... Cool DUET FOR THE DEVIL by T. Winter-Damon & Randy Chandler - $15.95 Necro [see above] Serial killer fiction often slips into hard horror mode. Here, the respected T. Winter-Damon colludes with the lesser-known Randy Chandler to provoke disbelief and extreme gross out reactions with this truly horrific novel about a mass murderer called the Zodiac Killer. This villain aims to create hell on earth, by performing every outrageous act of depraved violence imaginable, breaking every civilised taboo and summoning the ultimate evil. Formidably gruesome stuff this is, admittedly, but its mostly corrosive, frequently absurd levels of sexual violence lack the diabolical restraint of similarly themed Joe R. Lansdale stories, or even Dean Koontz material. Excess for its own sake rarely succeeds on its own vulgar merits. An orgy of blood and gore has no intrinsic literary value. Prepare to be shocked, but don't expect to be well entertained. I'm not saying this book actually 'goes too far' (I love genre horror, and don't accept that going too far is doable), but in the absence of genuinely imaginative storytelling means to support all this well sustained mayhem, the thing being stretched here is not the boundaries of taste and decency, or what's permitted in genre publishing - it is only trying the reader's patience... Mutant EATEN ALIVE AT A CHAINSAW MASSACRE: The Films of Tobe Hooper by John Kenneth Muir - £34.95 McFarland / Eurospan [see above] Overlooked and undervalued as a genre auteur, Tobe Hooper enjoyed a splashy directorial debut with infamous horror flick The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), made the acclaimed TV miniseries Salem's Lot (1979), cult slasher movie The Funhouse (1981), the Spielberg-produced Poltergeist (1982), and the entertaining remake Invaders From Mars (1986), before slipping into obscurity with limp TV stuff like the pilot for Dark Skies (1996). This 30-year career overview and in-depth critical study of the director's film and TV work champions Hooper's neglected genius and compares him favourably to better known and generally more successful filmmakers John Carpenter and Wes Craven. Hopefully, with the release of the well-received monster B-movie Crocodile (2000), Hooper may be due for a comeback, and this worthwhile retro may (in some small way) help that happen... Boss EUROSHIMA MON AMOUR by Andy Darlington - £3.99 / $8 [cheque/PO - S. Sneyd] Hilltop Press, 4 Nowell Place, Almondbury, Huddersfield, West Yorks, HD5 8PB Collection of "Poems from the Inner Mind to the Outer Limits", this millennial chapbook brings together a best of 25 years of poetry to demonstrate Andrew Darlington's talent for eulogising pulp-SF tropes, and re-mixing such pop culture material with British urbanism and the postmodern literary affect. If the fact that this collection is issued by Steve Sneyd's uniquely qualified Hilltop Press, and opens with the unstinting praise of K.V. Bailey's foreword (pointing out the poet's creativity and versatility), doesn't convince you of the value and inspiring quality of his work, perhaps the info that many of the poems collected here have been printed and reprinted several times will, as this points to the enduring appeal of Darlington's verse to successive editors and readers down the years, through decades, across the Atlantic and back home again. Cross-genre content is exemplary and recurring themes surface in an appealing diversity of forms. Observed cityscape folds into poetic mindscape with startling yet enjoyable regularity. All told, there are 32 poems here ranging from haiku brevity to super-condensed novel scope, but the length hardly matters as Darlington's eloquence (sharply matter-of-fact, and never arty-farty) refines bulky compound concepts to their vivid essence... Rocks EVILUTION by Shaun Jeffrey - $14.95 Invisible College Press, PO Box 209, Woodridge, VA 22194-0209, USA website First novel from a notable talent of Britain's genre small press mags, this mystery-horror is about the travails of heroine Chase Black (winner of a cottage) in an atmospheric fogbound village where the oddball inhabitants lure unsuspecting outsiders to their doom... Somewhat crudely written, with one or two horribly clunky passages of dialogue, Evilution is saved primarily by the no-nonsense literary style of its author. Shaun Jeffrey has a knack for adding clever twists to common genre clichés (isolating fog, the vanishing friend, strangers telling lies, an unlikely pregnancy). Here, the story's aura of normality is only disturbed when tiny particulars of wrongness have gathered sufficient force to disturb us, and the lurking weirdness erupts into daylight. Jeffrey lacks finesse with narrative and characterisation, but writes imaginative situations and good scary payoffs - just not always in the same chapter or sequence... Mutant FANTASY ART MASTERS: The Best in Fantasy and SF Art Worldwide by Dick Jude - £17.99 Collins, 77-85 Fulham Palace Rd, Hammersmith, London, W6 8JB website OK, not small press, but still of interest to genre fans - this sequel book to Fantasy Art of the New Millennium is a lavish hardback showcasing work by 10 talented artists (perhaps "masters" is an exaggeration in some cases here?), who discuss their influences and techniques, interviewed by Dick Jude. Keith Parkinson's swords 'n' sorcery action is traditional fare, yet his lifelike figures are superior to others' work. Judith Clute does weird surreal cutups where sparse composition draws attention to bizarre details. John Harris evinces tremendous skill with scale and form to create vast landscapes, buildings and space hardware. Ian Miller's darker, moodier pictures are full of nightmarish tensions while J.K. Potter uses photos altered (grossly or subtly) with low-tech darkroom ingenuity. Dave Seeley prefers to go the photo-digital route, combining and enhancing disparate elements into a cohesive whole. My favourite here is Darrel Anderson's curious bony metallic 'sculptures' (produced on computer), which boast impressive depth of field and exquisite interplay of light and shadow. A terrific addition to your artbook collection... Boss FILM FATALES: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973 by Tom Lisanti & Louis Paul - £28.50 McFarland / Eurospan [see above] Hollywood starlets, international sex symbols, beautiful actresses, and fantasy females of the spy game - this hardback profiles over 100 leading ladies, supporting players, glamorous sidekicks, evil women, action heroines, and bed fodder. Charting the careers of a decade's worth of screen babes (good girls and bad ones, whether blondes, brunettes, or redheads) who graced the subgenre of Bond style movies and shows produced in the wake of Dr No (1962), this book surveys and celebrates the era's most famous and cultworthy espionage films and TV. Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder was the original model, back in that first 007 adventure, but Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in The Avengers was arguably the best feminist variation, despite many distinctive character types, from wholesome Barbara Bain in Mission: Impossible, and virginal Doris Day in Caprice (1967), to the "alluring and dangerous" Monica Vitti in Modesty Blaise (1966), and kick-ass chicks like Tura Satana in The Doll Squad (1973). As star of Fathom (1967), Raquel Welch was not a box office success but she established a perfect tongue-in-cheek tone for the heroine, while on British TV, Nyree Dawn Porter played a wealthy sophisticate in The Protectors (1971), helping to prove there was a market for an elegant adventuress... Cool
For up-to-date writings on a similar theme, see Jeff Young's
Girls & Guns site
THE FIX
- £2.50 / $5TTA Press, 5 Martins Lane, Witcham, Ely, Cambs, CB6 2LB website After the demise of Zene, a writers' market guide specialising in genre material, Andy Cox's TTA Press transformed that mag into this title, which reviews short fiction of all stripes and hues. #1 covers new and recent magazines and anthologies, though still it seems focusing on those with genre content, and includes an interview with Gordon Van Gelder, the editor of Fantasy & Science Fiction, plus a top 10 short stories listing by Steve Rasnic Tem. #2 is most recent issue received, and continues the format covering some of the same mag titles. It also features an interview with Cemetery Dance editor Richard Chizmar, and a top 10 crime stories by Martin Edwards. The reviews are often opinionated and usually well informed yet, while the layouts are crisp, the black text on grey backgrounds causes eyestrain... Mutant THE FRANKENSTEIN ARCHIVE: Essays on the Monsters, the Myth, the Movies, and More by Donald F. Glut - £22.50 McFarland / Eurospan [see above] Illustrated paperback (with some rare b/w photos and comics' art) collection of articles on various printed and screen incarnations of the famous manmade-monster story. Super-fan Donald Glut assembles the results of his heavily-researched (borderline obsession?) subject, combined with writings on his own spinoff novels and details of his amateur film productions. Despite an unfortunate tendency to wallow in abstract and concrete trivia, Glut's intriguing and engaging book maintains a compelling level of sincere enthusiasm for Frankenstein stuff that's wholly admirable in this era of dull academic preaching and mass-marketable corporate-approved subgenre texts. Although I think Glut (and others) continue to overstate the importance of Mel Brooks' parodic Young Frankenstein (1974) in the lore, his views on obscure Mexican wrestling/monster flicks (with cheapo Halloween-masked 'creatures') are particularly fascinating, as is the commentary on Frankenstein's appearances in the world of comics... Cool GNAWING MEDUSA'S FLESH: The Science Fiction Poetry of Robert Calvert by Steve Sneyd & David Jones - £2.99 / $7 Hilltop Press [see above] Critical text about the poetical values - and their regrettable estrangement from most 'official' definitions of same, of sundry works by the lyricist of cult space-rock band Hawkwind... Robert Calvert's noble ambition to become a "true space age oral poet" is, according to Steve Sneyd and David Jones, fully realised in his challenging sci-fi themed songs, despite the persistent lack of such material's acceptance by the smugly snobby literati, or even the SF poetry canon. In addition to their commentary on and astute evaluation of Calvert's verse, Sneyd & Jones have pieced together supplementary texts (relevant interview fragments and excerpted reportage by Hawkwind in- and outsiders) to bolster their - already coherent - argument. There's also a discography, and numerous interesting quotes from Calvert's interviews... Rocks THE GOSSAMER EYE by Mark McLaughlin, Rain Graves, David Niall Wilson - $14 Meisha Merlin Publishing, PO Box 7, Decatur, GA 30031, USA website Bumper hodgepodge package of poetry, prose and fiction by three American writers of small press distinction, The Gossamer Eye is a deluge of dry wit and disquietingly fertile imagination. Breezing through cross-genre phantom zones without any respect for plain wordsmith rules of literary etiquette, these two robber barons (and one baroness) steal fantasy thunder and comedy lightning to power a storm of wordage in their own unique styles. Remixing wacky SF, dark fantasy and macabre tropes into a sometimes chilling, frequently wondrous, post-millennial brand of the fantastique, this is funny, poignant, frightening, absurdist, and occasionally even visionary stuff from a triple act worth catching in an essential showcase of verse and stories - to collect and peruse at your leisure... Rocks HANDSHAKE edited by John F. Haines - free for SAE / IRC Dunnock Press, 5 Cross Farm, Station Rd, Padgate, Warrington, Cheshire, WA2 0QG Photocopied double-sided poetry "Newsletter of the Eight Hand Gang" combines cut 'n' paste info and adverts with somewhat raggedly assembled samples of genre poetry. The contributors are the usual suspects (Steve Sneyd, John Light, Andrew Darlington, Geoff Stevens, Richard Lung, Giovanni Malito), a cadre of small press stalwarts who are - presumably - members of the above named 'gang'. More like a salute to the world of genre verse rather than a clique's bulletin board, the free-sheet Handshake expanded to six A4 pages for its recent 50th issue, offering a bumper crop of enjoyable material. Although there appears to be no proper SF poetry magazine published in UK, this is a worthy attempt... Mutant HORROR, THE FILM READER edited by Mark Jancovich - £13.99 Routledge [see above] Latest in the publisher's series of In Focus titles (primarily for film students), this paperback collection of essays includes contributions from notable critics like Robin Wood (on 1970s' horror), Barbara Creed (on the "monstrous-feminine"), while other writers (Linda Williams, Brigid Cherry, Peter Hutchings) tackle issues of gender and sexuality, Frankenstein, British horror, and the symbiotic relationship between US trash video and European art cinema. Certainly, an invaluable resource of critical and explanatory texts, but it's not without all the usual failings of humourless academic literature, and (unaccountably) lacks any pictures or film stills at all... Mutant IN CAMERA - unpriced Kodak House, PO Box 66, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, P1 1JU website Cinematography trade magazine from corporate Kodak, published quarterly, with industry news, camera crew interviews and profiles, feature articles on the making of various movies, coverage of film festivals, tech info reports and details of awards. Six issues received, looking at distinctions between parallel universes in Jet Li vehicle The One, shooting Coens' b/w The Man Who Wasn't There in colour, TV series 24 with handheld cameras, restoring To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), reality cinema of Space Station in Imax 3D, creating a mysterious darkness for The Others, freestyle framing on 8 Mile, Japanese animator Mamoru Oshii shooting live-action Avalon in Poland, visual effects of Soderbergh's Solaris remake, and there's an obituary for Conrad Hall. Apart from logistics of location filming around the world, most interesting stuff here is on-going debate over CGI versus film, and the fact that many tech innovations are accomplished by makers of TV adverts. If you know what "bleach bypass on negative stocks" means, this mag is for you... Mutant INTERSTICES by Joshua Auerbach - $4 1-5828 Durocher Ave, Montreal, Qc H2V 3Y4, Canada Poetry chapbook of collected works by Canadian with environmentalist concerns, but a generally wider perspective than most protest verse. Published by Blue Phoenix Press, in association with Vallum: Contemporary Poetry... Mutant IOTA: Poetry Quarterly edited by David Holliday - £2.50 [cheque/PO - D. Holliday] 67 Hady Crescent, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S41 0EB - from 2003 new editors/publishers - Bob Mee & Janet Murch, 1 Lodge Farm, Snitterfield, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 0LR Another UK magazine for mainstream poems, contributors include Lee Ballentine, Andrew Detheridge, Mike Hoy, David Duncombe, R.G. Gregory, Janet Cunliffe-Jones, Gerald England, Peter Wyton, Alun Rees, Ann Keith, Tony Lucas, and great many others. I have three issues here - #56, #57, #58 (the retiring editor's farewell), and each includes pages of reviews covering new and recent poetry collections and zines, plus a listing of other titles received... Cool ISAAC ASIMOV: It's Been a Good Life edited by Janet Jeppson Asimov - $25 Prometheus Books, 59 John Glenn Drive, Amherst, New York, NY 14228-2197, USA website Marking the 10th anniversary of Isaac Asimov's death (in April 1992) this single-volume autobiography condenses three previous books, combining key texts with excerpts from the author's letters to his wife, Janet (the insightful editor here). Though still arranged in chronological chapters, It's Been a Good Life focuses on important themes, especially writing science fiction and scientific nonfiction, in the good doctor's life and work, recounting his many professional achievements and explaining his personal beliefs and opinions with always impressive candour and a sense of humour. There are eight pages of b/w photos (including one of Ben Bova and Harlan Ellison at Asimov's memorial service). Janet's epilogue reveals the contributing factor of AIDS to her husband's death (he caught HIV from a blood transfusion in 1983) - a terrible shock back then, but publicised since. There's also Asimov's 400th essay, and a reprint of the author's The Last Question, his own favourite story. Telling the inside story, this is an excellent companion book to Michael White's posthumous biography Asimov: The Unauthorized Life (1994)... Boss I WAS ELVIS PRESLEY'S BASTARD LOVE-CHILD & Other Stories of Rock 'n' Roll Excess by Andrew Darlington - £13.99 / $19.95 Critical Vision, Headpress [see above] Superbly designed paperback collection of 18 interviews with rock legends (some long forgotten, admittedly), culled from 20 years of music journalism. This fabulous retro text includes Dave Davies (Ray's brother) of the Kinks, Gene Clark of the Byrds, Peter Green from the original Fleetwood Mac, Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane, Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin, punk priestess Siouxsie Sioux, plus a whole bunch more that may be your favourites - but not mine. Revised into new versions for reprinting here, the interviews make lively and intelligent reading. There's even room for a chat with Radio One's Annie Nightingale. Only one rating possible... Rocks KEEP OUT THE NIGHT edited by Stephen Jones - £45 / $65 PS Publishing [see above] Brave attempt to revive the Not at Night series of genre anthologies (from the 1920s & 1930s), which reprinted selected fiction published in American magazines like Weird Tales. Offering a heady mix of old fashioned creepy yarns and even stranger modern pieces, this hardback edition features a dozen stories starting with a reprint of Hugh B. Cave's eerie 1937 novella, Invasion From Inferno, and ending with the supremely chilling Needing Ghosts (1990) by the awarding-winning Ramsey Campbell. In between these you will find yet more frightening mysteries and grim scares by the likes of Brian Lumley, Poppy Z. Brite, Tim Lebbon, Kim Newman, Basil Copper, and others. I particularly enjoyed the atmospheric Spindleshanks by Caitlin R. Kiernan, the gruesome Feeders and Eaters by Neil Gaiman, and Michael Marshall Smith's affectingly detailed Dear Alison. This is an expensive package but if you prefer terror over horror, and fiction that gives you shivers after midnight rather than inducing a need to vomit, this is worth getting hold of... Mutant THE LAST THING BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE by Peter G. Mackie - £1 Tetrahedron Books, 30 Birch Crescent, Blairgowrie, Perthshire, PH10 6TS Presumably self-published collection of prose (by author of The Madhouse of Love), this slim chapbook includes the short story, Faust Returns to the Fatherland, a rather self-indulgent tragedy about a young squatter in 1980s' Berlin... Anorak LEGEND: Worlds of Possibility edited by Trevor Denyer - £4 / $8 Immediate Direction, 7 Mountview, Church Lane West, Aldershot, Hants, GU11 3LN website British magazine of mythic fantasy and sub-genre SF, Legend has a standard two-column A4 sized format containing illustrated fiction (including episodic serial), interviews, comic strips, poetry, and articles on relevant genre themes. Production values are impressive for this non-paying market (contributors' copy only), with square-bound 60-page issues and card covers. However, except for Mark McLaughlin's Thousandskins (in #4, Autumn/Winter 2001), and Moments by Lauren Halkon (#5, Spring/Summer 2002), many of the tales are merely above average, and the b/w artwork (often full-page title pieces), is generally superior in quality to the stories it complements. Still, the mag appears to be growing in stature and respectability - as if the editor is getting more discerning, and the layouts are certainly improving, looking less cramped than before. Aiming for the premier UK fantasy magazine slot, Legend undoubtedly has what it takes to succeed where earlier attempts have failed, if it can find a sufficient readership... Mutant THE MANITOU by Graham Masterton - £9.99 Telos [see above] This reprinting of the famed horror author's first novel (adapted for the screen by cult moviemaker William Girdler), about the rebirth of an Amerindian medicine man called Misquamacus in modern day New York, features both the revised spectacular climax, familiar from the mass-market editions, and the original low-key ending, as favoured by Masterton, from the US hardback. This paperback, marking the 25th anniversary of the novel, also has several good illustrations in the form of b/w production storyboards from the 1978 film, not seen or published before. As with many first novels, what The Manitou lacks is skilled characterisation and authentic sounding dialogues, it makes up for in sheer imagination and fascinating ideas. This welcome collector's edition should please horror fans interested in stories of the occult... Boss MATRIX edited by Gary Wilkinson - £2.25 BSFA, 1 Long Row Close, Everdon, Daventry, NN11 3BE website Bi-monthly news magazine of the British Science Fiction Association, with change of editor as Gary Wilkinson replaces Andrew Seaman from #152 (Nov/Dec 2001). Most recent issue received is #154 (Mar/Apr 2002), which features items on Philip Pullman, J.K. Rowling, The Fellowship of the Ring, Nosferatu, Hawkwind, Farscape, and Steve Green's roundup of fandom events and happenings. As you'd expect from an organisation like B.S.F.A. this is a neatly designed fanzine of superior quality, but they could do with better cover art... Cool MEDUSAS by Lee Ballentine - £1.65 / $3 [cheque/PO to S. Sneyd] Hilltop [see above] Poetry being the ultimate form and face of literature, especially for repeat-readings, it's not unusual to find a sleek booklet (of 12 x A5) such as this, showcasing only a couple of poems, with intros far longer than the main works. Lee Ballentine's precisely controlled Medusas is here twinned with an equally terse piece by 9th century European monk Notker Balbulus, presented in English translation and its original Latin, as an example of free verse and proto-SF poetry. Probably best suited to adepts only... Anorak MONAS HIEROGLYPHICA edited by Jamie W. Spracklen - £1.50 58 Seymour Rd, Hadleigh, Benfleet, Essex, SS7 2HL website A neat but plainly designed genre fanzine of stories, poetry, nonfiction (including some reviews) and b/w artwork that combines gothic fantasy material with more weirdly offbeat New Age stuff. The factual texts are generally more interesting than the fiction pieces. #13 (April 2002) includes an intro to henge sites, plus articles on Tarot cards, alchemy, ley lines, and an interview with crime writer Joolz Denby. A poetry section looks odd in a mag where poems appear throughout anyway. The haphazard bundle of themes here is entirely in keeping with time-honoured grassroots fanzine traditions, and with 40 x A4 pages, this is at least reasonably priced... Mutant MONSTERS, MUSHROOM CLOUDS AND THE COLD WAR: American Science Fiction and the Roots of Postmodernism, 1946-1964 by M. Keith Booker - £46.95 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Rd W, Westport, CT 06881, USA website UK distributor - Eurospan Group [see above] The central thesis of this intriguing academic text is a clear-sighted analysis of prevalent genre themes during a postwar, but pre-flower power era, which the author calls "the long 1950s." He tackles political themes in popular and cultworthy SF novels (such as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, 1959), and addresses science fiction as social criticism. Other chapters offer a survey of various post-holocaust films and novels from the period in question (keenly highlighting Bernard Wolfe's sometimes overlooked Limbo, 1952); examine numerous space travel and alien invasion films in terms of their disaster movie tropes, and considers monster movies as obvious metaphors of Cold War anxieties... Mutant MOODSWING edited by Steve urwin - £1 Talking Pen, 12 Derby Crescent, Moorside, Consett, Co. Durham, DH8 8DZ Mainstream poetry and prose in double-sided A3 broadsheet, nifty pocket-sized foldout from A6 card cover. #3 (Spring 2002) includes work by Jay Woodman, Giovanni Malito, Ian Robinson and others... Proto MOVIE BLOCKBUSTERS edited by Julian Stringer - £15.99 Routledge [see above] Looking at a cinematic phenomenon resulting from hugely inflated production budgets and expensive media advertising campaigns, this collection of critical essays charts the rise to prominence of the 'event movie' in terms of Hollywood screen adventures (where gross spectacle tends to defeat genuine movie aesthetics or even narrative), and attendant saturation marketing (not quality of storytelling or visual imagination) is the key to box office success. However, the variety of thought-provoking original texts here endeavour to prove there's a definite upside to the consequences of such moneymaking strategies, proposing that blockbuster movies are not always big products of small minds. Challenging many assumptions about what defines a typical blockbuster (Jaws, and other 1970s' hits, may not be the prototypes, after all), Movie Blockbusters follows the money trail back to postwar Hollywood and cites 1950s' studio product as the primary source of this format, though without finding a true consensus, even among this books' contributors, and acknowledging the roles played by brand-name auteurs (principally Steven Spielberg and James Cameron - it's significant that both men are producers and directors), genre franchising, and the hegemony of multiplex culture, in the current American blockbuster model. Finally, there are shorter chapters on foreign language blockbuster movies from China, Korea, and Bollywood... Cool NO SPACE IN TIME by John Light - £4 / $11 Photon Press, 37 The Meadows, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, TD15 1NY Ambitious but flawed short novel combining elements of fantasy and SF, space opera with mythic resonance as, on a lost planet at the end of the cosmos, a miracle child (a baby princess given to an empire's rulers) appears heralding the end of everything. This cross-genre work is published by the author. Although it contains some clever ideas it fails to properly explore the rich potential of its themes... Proto ORIENTAL FILM REVIEW edited by James Marshall - £3.95 PO Box 145, Bristol, BS16 4PD website Lively British fanzine with news and review of Asian cinema, partly an offshoot from editor James Marshall's video and DVD distribution business (70-page catalogue, £2.50). The format is busy with loads of small b/w photos, well reproduced on slick paper, under colour covers. #1 (Feb/Mar 2002) has a set report and preview of Highbinders, The Avenging Fist, Tuxedo, Bangkok Dangerous, and an interview with Lu Chan, the writer and director of Looking For My Gun. Three further issues have since been published; #4 appeared in January 2003... Mutant PARTNERS IN CHYME by Edward Lee & Ryan Harding - $9.95 Necro [see above] First in a new line of genre fiction chapbooks, this sampler features two supposedly hard horror stories: Damaged Goods by Ryan Harding (about necrophilia and much else besides), and The Dritiphilist by Edward Lee. The odd thing about much of this literature is that it's not the least bit scary - just noisily gross, and wholly unimaginative in a peculiarly timid way. Yes, Edward Lee's dritiphilist (phlegm-eating) investment banker is a (slightly) amusing protagonist, though not a very interesting one. I'm not saying this material should remain unpublished or that it has nothing to offer fans of horror, but even in small doses like this the allegedly 'extreme' content soon becomes tiresome. Extreme horror is not simply an excuse for straightforward bad taste. This kind of stuff trivialises a vigorous genre... Kipple THE PENNINE TRIANGLE by Steve Sneyd, J.C Hartley, J.F. Haines - £2.50 / $7 [cheques/PO - J.C. Hartley] Othername Press, 14 Rosebank, Rawtenstall, Rossendale, BB4 7RD Prose and poetry collection showcase for works by trio of northern writers, venture out beyond mainstream for sneak attack on fringes of rural sensibility tropes skinning verse forms with sharper knives of imagination and wit. Some minor gems in this 40 x A5 chapbook... Proto PERCEPTUALISTICS by Jael - £20 / $29.95 Paper Tiger [see above] First collection of illustrations and paintings by American artist Jael, this hardback has biographical info and interview material by John Grant, and a goodly selection of pieces commissioned for genre book jackets, etc - but the main part of this book showcases 70-odd examples of Jael's vaguely abstract artwork. Her use of rich colours and fluid style of organic textures is breathtaking, like dreamscapes from ancient yearning hindbrain memories of past lifetimes in the oceans. Closer to an active celebration of beauty beyond words than any passive contemplation of visual spaces or inner dimensions, though, and the ambiguity of macro and micro scales in these pictures makes me think of cosmic cobwebs, with hints of vast mysterious nebulae glimmering through an elegant froth of blood cells and veils of strange mist... Cool THE PRISONER: THE VILLAGE FILES by Tim Palgut - £19.99 / $29.95 Titan Books, 144 Southwark St, London, SE1 OUP Rather belated to say the least, this hardback artbook jumps on the bandwagon of recent revival of interest [other books] in Patrick McGoohan's cult TV series, The Prisoner. Canadian artist Tim Palgut's first published work is a lavish fanboy's collection of simplified blueprints, floor plans and production designs, schematic cutaways and scale drawings of props, gadgets, and computer graphics ("trust, but verify") based on items of hardware from the show. There's also sufficient background info about No.6 to whet fans' appetite for amusing trivia without actually revealing anything important. I'm not convinced by the (often repeated) assertion that Illuminati are secret power brokers behind the Village's all-seeing scanners, though. I... eye... aye... Mutant QUIGGINS AT THE CONFERENCE: The Simulacrum and Other Poems by Colin Robinson - £4.50 / $9 New Hope International, 20 Werneth Ave, Gee Cross, Hyde, Cheshire, SK14 5NL website Wryly amusing and belly-laugh-grade rhyming verse is hard to do, but Colin Robinson's first collection fits the bill, perfectly. Philosophical musings intersect, productively, with jaundiced and insightful or observational wraparound themes. Reflecting dolefully on life's many imponderables and hollow-worldview concerns, Robinson's uncommonly smart verse is accessible but always impressive, slickly critical without being glib ("I went outside and the sun slipped behind clouds/ As if to avoid me..." - Quiggins), a modest treasure house of poetic delights... Cool RAMSEY CAMPBELL, PROBABLY: on Horror and Sundry Fantasies edited by S.T. Joshi - £30 / $45 PS Publishing [see above] Not many authors warrant or deserve a collection of their nonfiction, and horror novelist Ramsey Campbell may seem an unlikely choice for such high regard. However, his standing within the field as commentator and genre critic is enough to make this an intriguing prospect, especially if (like me) you missed his regular columns (for magazines like Necrofile) before. This 440-page paperback features mini-profiles of notable writers, reviews of movies and books (including several by rival authors) and intros for Campbell's own story collections and anthologies he's edited, alongside reconsiderations of his own work with a sometimes brutal honesty. Offering definitions of horror fiction, and episodes from Campbell's ongoing, publicly-performed, warts-and-all autobiography, this volume of 30 years of essays and articles is full of revealing details about the man behind the personality, behind the author. Despite the inclusion of some finer points about genre matters (that are of questionable significance to anyone except trivia buffs), the book's lamentably bland presentation overall and somewhat clumsy formatting (where new paragraph indentation is too great - often needless at the beginning of chapters, and fiction excerpts are simply merged into the main text when they ought to have been typeset in a block-quote layout), this is at once a fascinating read, and an ad-hoc history of the British horror scene... Mutant THE ROADKILL OF MIDDLE EARTH by John Carnell - $12.95 / £7.99 iBooks, 24 West 35th St, New York, NY 10010, USA website UK distributor - Simon & Schuster, Africa House, 64-78 Kingsway, London, WC2B 6AH Fantasy parody is a notoriously difficult art form, so it's always a good idea if such texts are heavily illustrated in case the literary sarcasm lacks merit. With dozens of full-page watercolours by comics' artist Tom Sutton, here's a crossover realm where monster trucks stand-in for fiery dragons, and the highway is black tongue of evil stretching from the lost horizon. Although I liked the overfed and eagerly carnivorous biker trolls, not many of this slick chapbook's other substitute characterisations are quite as effective, or as funny... Proto ROADWORKS: SLOW BURN edited by Trevor Denyer - £5 / $10 Immediate Direction [see above] The 15th issue (Winter/Spring 2003) of this magazine subtitled "Tales from the Hard Road," has novellas by notable small press fellows Gary Couzens and Jason Gould, six short stories (including John Paul Catton's endearingly perverse God's Kitchen), some poems, b/w artwork, an interview with novelist Robert Rankin, and the appreciative retro profile (by Allen Ashley) of 'forgotten' writer "J.D. Weatherwater" (a clever joke that almost outstays its welcome). With its 124-page square-bound format and eclectic range of genre material, Roadworks is undoubtedly one of the more intriguing and packed little zines on the UK market... Cool ROBIN HOOD AND THE MINSTREL - $5.95 Moonstone Books, 582 Torrence Ave, Calumet City, IL 60409, USA website Paul D. Storrie's comicbook story about the legendary outlaw hero of Sherwood Forest has colour art by Rich Gulick (pencils) and Steve Bird (inks), but is an old-fashioned yarn of do-good adventuring without any hint of moral ambiguity, greenwoods' mystique or fantasy elements. Presumably this is aimed at the pre-teen market, yet it seems rather bland even for that undiscriminating age group... Anorak SCARECROW CRIMES by John Lindley - £4.50 / $9 N.H.I. [see above] Wide-ranging mainstream poetry collection with offbeat and commonplace themes, showing a dash of grit, some rough urban magic and rural charm, and a healthy dose of colourful humour. Includes the darkly amusing Elmer McCurdy poems, detailing the fictionalised misfortunes of the eponymous failed and mummified Wild West outlaw, a bizarre fate based on a (allegedly) true story... Mutant SCIENCE FRICTION edited by Paul Rance - £9.99 / $20 Peace & Freedom Press, 17 Farrow Rd, Whaplode Drove, Spalding, Lincs, PE12 0TS website Square bound chapbook of "sci-fi poetry, prose and art" includes fiction by Glenise Lee, Barbara Klempka, a novel extract from Ice Age by Andrew Savage, and factoids about Star Trek, Doctor Who, and The Prisoner. Despite one or two passable contributions from the likes of Steve Sneyd and Andrew Darlington, this haphazard mix of frivolous trivia, insipid verse and awful sketches is a pretty dismal fanzine collection that's overpriced, too... Sucks SCREEN PLAY: cinema / videogames / interfaces edited by Geoff King & Tanya Krzywinska - £14.99 Wallflower Press, 5 Pond St, London, NW1 2PN website This collection of academic grade essays looks at the differences, similarities, and varied levels of interplay (technical, franchised, subjective, aesthetic) between movies and videogames (console and PC). It examines the disparities between cinematic sources and character, narrative, and performance in first-person shooter games. Particularly interesting are the chapters on David Cronenberg's eXistenZ (1999), where the player/spectator boundary is blurred via the film's VR backstory, a screen SF trope that dates back at least to Disney's Tron (1982), and comparisons between heroine Ripley in Aliens (1986), and avatar Lara in Tomb Raider (1996). ScreenPlay delves into an intriguing subject, but I wish these writers could break the bad habit of putting jargon in every statement... Proto SECOND CONTACT by Gary Couzens - £8 Elastic Press, 85 Gertrude Rd, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 4SG website Author's first collection of short stories has an emphasis on 'slipstream' - that weakly mystifying fusion of SF/fantasy and contemporary urban narratives - which, though never dull, is rather too sober of spirit and often mistakes backstory for character sketches, with irksome postmodern and 'creative writing' affects standing in for new (or even good) ideas or genuine originality. Frankly, I don't think blending genre and mainstream into one is defying convention, it's more like making a plain old soup of soap opera leftovers and rejected speculative tropes or 'unknown' ingredients. That said, title story Second Contact is a nifty piece of mood fiction set in Cornwall during the 1999 solar eclipse and, overall, what Gary Couzens lacks in sheer strength of imagination he makes up for with a satisfyingly understated literary style, balancing a sharply observant sense of place and time, and a keen ear for natural dialogue... Mutant SEX DRUGS & POWER TOOLS by Edward Lee - £45 Necro [see above] This book collects a fascinatingly perverse, insanely comic trio of unsubtly twisted hardcore horror novellas from the absurdly feral imagination of Edward Lee. Previously published works Header (1995), and The Pig (1997), are joined by an even longer, all-new piece of shockingly vivid unpleasantness titled The Horn-Cranker. With comparatively restrained b/w interior art by Eric Wilson, this smartly presented hardback explores the fetid worlds of ultra-violence, serial killings, misogyny, bestiality, and illicit underground movies of every unspeakable variety. The only redeeming value of Lee's work in this instance is that (in cinematic terms) his style is closer to the delirium of Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Peter Jackson's gory Braindead than moral dramas such as Henry, or Requiem For A Dream... Mutant THE SMALL PRESS GUIDE 2002: The Complete Guide to Poetry & Small Press Magazines - £9.99 / $18 Writers' Bookshop, Remus House, Coltsfoot Drive, Woodston, Peterborough, PE2 9JX 7th edition of the invaluable paperback reference with A-Z with nearly 350 entries, each title featured has contact info, and brief description of publication's format, aims, rates of payment (if any) and requirements from contributors. An excellent annual resource of details and general advice concerning the British independent publishing scene, that's of special interest to budding poets and the literary minded... Boss SMOKE - 70p Windows Project, Liver House, 96 Bold St, Liverpool, L1 4HY website #51 of this mainstream poetry and prose zine has spiky inked art by Keren E. Lawless, and some enjoyably quirky items, some quite poignant, others warmly amusing. Hardly wondrous, but still worthwhile... Proto SPACE 1999: ALIEN SEED by E.C. Tubb - $5.99 Eagle One Media, 50281 Paradise Court, Macomb, MI 48044, USA website Reprint of the author's original 1978 novel based on characters from the Gerry Anderson sci-fi TV show, here's a story of ultimate danger for the lost in space people of Moonbase Alpha, as plague (lethal, incurable), asteroid (on collision course), and psychic alien girl cause untold havoc. As ever with spinoff books from popular small screen SF, the techno and generic ideas are more coherent and (generally) scientifically accurate, when written by a proper science fiction novelist like E.C. Tubb... Proto TANGY BONANZA by Doc Solammen - $12.95 Bedlam [see above] Under striking cover art by Chris Trammell, here's a pair of delightfully wacky novellas by new writer Doc Solammen. Tangy Bonanza, in which a talking dog is the protagonist's companion on a seemingly acid-fuelled road trip, and Tryptophan, another wildly satirical jamboree of fairly berserk absurdist dementia with sarcastically poetic asides. Two smart-aleck examples of scatological surrealism and episodic subcultural obsessions, American style... Cool THRILLER UK - £3.95 [cheques/PO - T. Fountain] 1A, 15 Wilbury Rd, Brighton, BN3 3JJ website No.8 (October 2001) of this genre magazine, focused on pulp thrillers and traditional horror, includes a profile of Dennis Wheatley, a reprint 'Penny Dreadful' classic Varney the Vampire, plus short stories by Daniel Harr, and John L. French, and part 2 of a Springheeled Jack western adventure serial. Smartly presented 60 x A5 pages offers plenty to interest and intrigue fans of macabre and weird crime fiction... Cool THE 3RD ALTERNATIVE edited by Andy Cox - £3.75 / $6 TTA Press [see above] #29 (April 2002) of Andy Cox's lavishly produced magazine of fiction, film and artwork has interviews with critically acclaimed writers M. John Harrison and Steve Aylett, an excellent article on the sometimes animated, always interesting films of the Brothers Quay, regular columns by Christopher Fowler and Allen Ashley, six pages of reviews, and several occasionally brilliant short stories of the weird and offbeat by Leslie What, Tim Lees, Charlie Williams, and others. This is simply (well, famously, really!) the best-looking genre magazine available in UK today, despite the editorial agenda of striving to avoid SF/fantasy pigeonholing, it has successfully carved a niche on the fringes of that increasingly formulaic literary market... Rocks THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells - £7.99 / $12.95 House of Stratus, Thirsk Industrial Park, York Rd, Thirsk, N Yorks, Y07 3BX website Slim paperback reprint of the classic 1895 novel about the adventures of a nameless Victorian scientist and inventor, this book is one of the key texts of early science fiction, and inspired a whole subgenre of stories, films and TV shows. This edition is part of a range of H.G. Wells' books from the publisher, which include other SF originals The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr Moreau, and The War of the Worlds... Boss TRASHFILM ROADSHOWS by Johannes Schönherr - £14.99 / $19.95 Critical Vision [see above] Part hitchhiker's travelogue, part cine-cultural expo, Trashfilm Roadshows is a livewire paperback collection of articles and reportage (illustrated with snapshots, posters, stills, and adverts) by German film programmer ("the ultimate renegade exhibitor" - according to Jack Stevenson's foreword) Johannes Schönherr, who roamed Europe and America (with journeys to Japan, Russia and North Korea), promoting everything from Nick Zedd's transgressive flicks and underground maven Richard Kern's Super-8mm 'death trips', to communist propaganda. Rejecting both avant-garde experimentalism and glossy mainstream results in a cinema that's not always such a pretty sight, but Schönherr's wholly engaging passion for lowbrow extremes guarantees an interesting read... Cool TWIN VISIONS Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell - £20 Paper Tiger [see above] This hardback collects over 120 paintings is by the renowned husband and wife artists, with captions and commentary text by Nigel Suckling. Eroticised barbarians (of both sexes), fantastic creatures (including male & female varieties) and mythological beasts abound. Few of today's commercial illustrators can match the impressive range of iconic genre imagery presented here - from colourful drama, character portraits and spoof humour, to exciting action scenes and enchanted settings. It's also good to see fine examples of the dynamic duo's landscapes and SF hardware in addition to their more familiar sexy figures, monsters, and comic book superheroes... Cool VALLUM: Contemporary Poetry - $7 Blue Phoenix Press, PO Box 48003, Montreal, Quebec, H2V 4S8, Canada website 2nd issue of beautifully designed and printed Canadian magazine of poems, prose, colour art, essays and reviews. This impressive booklet features some excellent writing by an international range of contributors, including John Grey, B.Z. Niditch, Jennifer Footman, Russell Thornton, Adrienne Ho, Rhoda Janzen, and many others... Cool WALLACE & GROMIT: Catch of the Day by Jimmy Hansen & Ian Rimmer - £8.99 Titan Books [see above] Comicbook spinoff from the animated short films created by Nick Park at Aardman, this hardback edition (Nov 2002) casts the eponymous inventor and his long-suffering dog sidekick into an underwater adventure investigating (by means of Wallace's homemade submarine) a cheating angler at the local fishing competition. If you enjoyed A Grand Day Out and The Wrong Trousers on TV, you will fall hook, line and sinker for this odd little eccentric spoof of pulp Jules Verne and Thunderbirds' gadgetry, which children of 7 to 70 will surely love... Mutant WHISKEY ISLAND - $6 Dept of English, C.S.U, Cleveland, OH 44115, USA website Non-profit literary mag of 30 years standing published by students of Cleveland State University, #45 is a 115-page trade paperback format teeming with graphic design styles presenting a great variety of original poetry, fiction and artwork. Of particular interest here is an interview with Alison Luterman. I also liked Louis Phillips' clever periodic chart How Time Was Measured in the 20th Century - which features silent, sound, widescreen and television eras, subdivided into epochs such as Meliesozoic, MGM, Foxian, Cinemascope, 3-D, CBS, Networkary, HBO, VCR Rescene... Cool A YEAR IN THE LINEAR CITY by Paul Di Filippo - £8 / $14 PS Publishing [see above] Brightly imaginative novella that's slow to get started but tremendous fun once it builds up a head of steam. From his native Gritsavage to the distant borough of Palmerdale, struggling writer Deigo becomes an unlikely cultural ambassador on a voyage along the endless urban route of the title. In addition to conjuring up significant appeal in the form of an unearthly realm occupying a weirdly sinister reality that remains uncannily familiar in minor aspects to postwar America, A Year In The Linear City also comments implicitly (with the lucid enthusiasm of a lifelong fan) on the definition and inspiring nature of SF/fantasy via the protagonist's career as a creator of "cosmogonic" fiction, envisioning 'alternative' worlds - some, amusingly, very like our own. With stylish and mischievously witty prose Paul Di Filippo unpacks the scale of this mysterious burg-bound landscape with compelling romantic adventure that leaves you wanting more... Boss PUBLISHING NEWS SUBSCRIPTION RENEWAL SPINDOC THANKS |
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