By day, the men and women of Blue Sky Studios animate blockbuster movies like ICE AGE, ROBOTS and HORTON HEARS A WHO! But the stories they tell in those films aren’t their own; those they have saved for OUT OF PICTURE: ART FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN — VOLUME 1.

This oversized, themeless, anything-goes anthology is a unique project that straddles the genres of “art book” and “graphic novel,” allowing its 11 contributors to exercise — and perhaps exorcise — their personal creative demons that their day job of animating a character to be voiced by John Leguizamo just doesn’t offer.

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Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!

THE 5TH WITCH is a ho-hum witch-meets-gangster thriller by Graham Masterton. Bizarre killings are occurring in the City of Angels, and what looks like a mob war is overshadowed by the presence of four of the aforementioned witches. Fortunately, there’s a neighborhood white witch available to investigate and uncover the real reasons behind the grisly deaths. Masterton is a prolific writer, but this isn’t one of his better works; perhaps Lifetime may come calling. There’s nothing very unique in this cross-blending of subject matter, but he does manage to make the concept work the first few pages. Still, it ultimately fails more in conception than execution. A quick, easily forgettable read — kinda like a literary Smarties. —Matt Adder

Medical thrillers aren’t as in vogue as in the past, despite — or perhaps because of — their scenarios becoming ever too close for comfort. Robin Cook had this genre practically to himself, but now that he’s on autopilot, some newbies are taking up the slack, like Michael Palmer and Joshua Spanogle. Add to that list Daniel Kalla, who delivers his latest with COLD PLAGUE. His all-too-real virus tales peg him as fiction’s answer to Richard Preston – a rep worth strengthening with this number about a mad-cow-like disease that rages the systems of animals and humans. It’s just a tad too lengthy, but its science feels legit, which of course, makes it frightening if you let it get to you — something any med-thriller should aspire to achieve.

I may have graduated from college 15 years ago, but I can still remember how entirely terrifying it seemed to join the real world. For artist Kate T. Williamson, she chose to postpone life by staying in her parents’ house for a couple of months to work on a book. That time stretched into more than a year, all chronicled in the autobiographical ink-and-watercolor graphic novel AT A CROSSROADS: BETWEEN A ROCK AND MY PARENTS’ PLACE. It’s not a conventional narrative, but admirably brave and real, full of both joy and depression as Williamson wonders if she isn’t letting life pass her by. She draws with a style that reminds me of Roz Chast, but tidier, and the emotions are as genuine as they come (loves laying in bed at night and hearing the sounds of the train — me, too!). Transitionary spreads depicting the changing of the seasons are gorgeous. She’s an amazing talent.

In the laboratory, sometimes you cure a disease, and sometimes the experiment just blows up in your face. It’s the latter that neuroscientist Simon LeVay explores in WHEN SCIENCE GOES WRONG: TWELVE TALES FROM THE DARK SIDE OF THE DISCOVERY. To me, the well-intentioned failures are always the most interesting than the eventual successful, so LeVay’s nonfiction collection of essays is fascinating. They play out like mini-mysteries, and I was particularly disturbed by the account of a Parkinson’s-stricken jogger who underwent highly experimental fetal transplants; not only did they not work, but an autopsy found hair growing in his brain from it. Other chapters of note involve explorers who stupidly descended into an active volcano and a rape case where CSI-style methods fingered the wrong guy. Because LeVay went out of his way to interview the actual people we read about (at least those who agreed to talk), this book has the benefit of being that much more credible. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

Sometime in the 1960s — 1968, to be exact, DC Comics had the bright idea* to strip Wonder Woman of her dumb-ass costume** and give her a mod makeover that’s equal parts Emma Peel and James Bond. The groovy results are now collected in DIANA PRINCE: WONDER WOMAN – VOLUME ONE, you dig?

So here’s how it all goes down: Diana’s boy toy Steve Trevor is convicted of a murder he didn’t commit and makes a run for it. Meanwhile, she’s lost her powers temporarily***, so the star-spangled shorts get kicked to the curb in favor of high-fashion duds straight from the pages of MS.

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PAPER CITIES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF URBAN FANTASY is what you’d expect to find on Tori Amos’ bookshelf. Editor Ekaterina Sedia’s put together an anthology of cityscapes, where the locations are often at the world’s end. Writers are sometimes the main characters, with pretentious titles like “dreamcatcher” or “storyteller” (try claiming that to the IRS and see how quick you catch an audit!). Instead of meeting tomorrow, characters meet “in the morn.” These tales often span innocent, mystical times … and remind me of the reasons why I never liked Shakespeare or Doug Henning.

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Jim Butcher’s DRESDEN FILES is a series I want to love, yet so far like to varying degrees. SMALL FAVOR, the 10th and latest adventure featuring freelance P.I./wizard Harry Dresden, falls short of the level of fun sustained by the past few installments, yet ironically, has delivered the franchise’s biggest commercial punch in its list-topping debut.

With Chicago under heavy snow that builds to blizzard conditions, the novel begins with Dresden under attack by “weregoats” – not a bad way to grab a reader’s attention. Emerging unscathed, he soon is “hired” by Mab, the faerie-queen villainess of Winter Court for a job he doesn’t want, but as the title has it, he owes her.

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This is nothing against Del Rey, but certainly there had to be a better title for THE DEL REY BOOK OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY: SIXTEEN ORIGINAL WORKS BY SPECULATIVE FICTION’S FINEST VOICES. That wordy, generic moniker suggests the Ellen Datlow-edited anthology is generic and assembly-line, when quite the opposite is true: This is a standout collection deserving of a more standout title.

Its subtitle contains the most telling phrase – SPECULATIVE FICTION – as, admirably, the stories within don’t fall neatly into either the standard sci-fi or fantasy genres. In other words, don’t go looking for spaceships or elves. Instead, expect the unexpected.

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Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!

When I was in junior high school back in the mid-’80s, lots of fellow students read the fantasy novels of Terry Brooks, starting with THE SWORD OF SHANNARA. If I were there today, I suspect those same kids would instead have a copy of the new DARK WRAITH OF SHANNARA in their hands – Brooks’ first graphic novel, adapted by Robert Place Napton with art by Edwin David. Set after the events of WISHSONG OF SHANNARA, it follows Jair Ohmsford, the boy whose notes can turn him invisible; an ancient text of evil; and a witch behind it all. There’s plenty of swords, sorcery, clawed creatures and the usual fantasy tropes – imaginative in story and well-done in shades and tones, although probably better served if it were in color. As a newcomer to the SHANNARA world, I was more pleased to see the “making of” features in the back that demonstrated how the book came to be, and who contributed what.

Not long after a Planned Parenthood clinic is bombed, one of its teen clients is found dead in a Dumpster, in L.J. Sellers’ politically charged mystery THE SEX CLUB. Investigating separately are Oregon homicide detective Det. Wade Jackson and understandably shaken youth outreach clinic nurse Kera Kollmorgan. It’s the latter’s discoveries that drive this procedural. Her findings? These kids of today like to get freaky! (Hey, it’s right there in the title.) The prurient nature of the plot makes this CLUB worth a trial membership; it may not break new ground, but is brave in its telling. Clearly Sellers has an agenda here, so if it doesn’t match yours, don’t even start. If it does, you’ll rally behind it.

Military science fiction remains elusive to my tastes. I get caught and confused by all the lingo, nicknames, abbreviations, rank and descriptions of weapons. I had higher hopes for ORPHAN’S JOURNEY by Robert Buettner, based on its appealing cover and its Orbit Books parentage, but registered as another SNAFU with me. Its star is Jason Wander; on the plus side, the futuristic hero fights giant slugs and sea monsters, but over in the minus column, I got lost not long after that. Part of the problem may be that this is the third of a sci-fi series, so Wander’s world may seem like shorthand to fresh enlistees. With so many adventures under Buettner’s belt, I’m sure the ORPHAN series has its loyal soldiers, but I’ll have to respectfully go AWOL.

Not quite an episode guide, tie-in novel or encyclopedia, THE SUPERNATURAL BOOK OF MONSTERS, SPIRITS, DEMONS, AND GHOULS is designed to be a narrative from the himbo-brother duo of The CW’s X-FILES-esque shriek series SUPERNATURAL, only it’s written by Alex Irvine. He apes their smart-aleck tone well as they dish facts and folklore on zombies, poltergeists and creatures of urban legends, most of whom have merited considerable face time on their own episodes. If monsters are your thing, this book is actually fun and can stand alone from the show, so no advance knowledge is needed. With cool illustrations from Dan Panosian, the BOOK is well-designed (save for an ugly font used for journal excerpts) and offers stories within stories. It even made me want to watch the show, which had to be the intent all along. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

Quick takes and capsule reviews from the dark suspense master himself, Ed Gorman!

Haffner Press’ THE WORLDS OF JACK WILLIAMSON is a massive, handsomely made book that is a centennial tribute to the writer Arthur C. Clarke put on a level with both Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. The book is also a tribute to science fiction and fantasy as well, because by the time he passed away at age 98 in 2006, Williamson’s history was the field’s history.

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Frank Cho may not be involved, but the jiggling jungle girl he resurrected returns in Marvel Comics’ SHANNA, THE SHE-DEVIL: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, written by the JONAH HEX team of Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, and drawn by Khari Evans.

The four-issue story begins when jewel thieves steal a load of diamonds from a luxurious cruise ship – one which then is attacked by a leviathan and swarmed by its sharp-toothed babies. Our modern-day pirates escape on a boat that crash-lands on Monster Island. No sooner have they stepped foot on sand than they’re staring face to face with hungry velociraptors.

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Once you’ve polished off THE NEW WEIRD, editors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer have another genre-defining anthology for you in STEAMPUNK. With such talents as Michael Chabon, Joe R. Lansdale and Michael Moorcock, the collection aims to present a snapshot of a speculative-fiction movement that marries the Victorian era with modern technology.

The merry, married VanderMeers talked to BOOKGASM about what steampunk – and STEAMPUNK, the book – is and is not (one thing it is: nicely discounted and autographed, if you preorder by May 15), and their very busy future.

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Return to a time of transistor radios, Bazooka Joe comics and afternoon airings of MOTHRA in THE SHADOW YEAR. But being a novel from fantasist Jeffrey Ford, that more innocent time comes infused with much malfeasance, mischief and murder.

Built upon “the shifting mirage” of Ford’s recollection, this eerily autobiographical work has one of the strongest starts in recent memory. Our narrator is the middle child in a poor family, headed by a father who works several jobs and a mother who drinks until she passes out. The kids retain their sanity by exploring their neighborhood, which isn’t so quiet anymore when reports of a prowler surface.

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Richard Matheson’s BUTTON, BUTTON: UNCANNY STORIES may only exist because the title story soon will be a movie titled THE BOX – starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden – but that’s okay. Any excuse for a Matheson release is a good one.

You’d best revisit 1970’s “Button, Button” beforehand, anyway. Its premise is classic: If a box appeared that would give you money for pushing its button, yet take away the life of a stranger, would you be tempted? It’s a chilling idea – one well-executed by the author, even if the last line merits a ba-dum-dum to drive home what is essentially a joke.

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Alright, these books are about as scary as something on COUNT FLOYD’S MONSTER CHILLER HORROR THEATER, but they do feature monsters in their own way – be it the fantastical kind or the evil genius types who pour out of pulps. Ooh, scary!

CODE NAME: WEREWOLF by Nick Carter – Yes, folks long before he was making a career out of the Russian police force, Martin Cruz Smith ghostwrote four Nick Carter books, including this 1973 entry. Guess you have to start somewhere to pay the bills. What is really funny is the cover blurb that proclaims it’s as chilling as THE DAY OF THE JACKAL. There is a real simple reason for that: Smith pretty much steals the entire plot of it.

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Sometimes I wonder where else horror can go, get depressed, and think the genre is tapped. Then something comes down the pipe that gives me hope and spins everything around. The book in question is Brian Keene’s DARK HOLLOW.

The cover blurb promises he’s the new Stephen King, but since King isn’t dead, I’ll withhold judgment. 

But I can promise that DARK HOLLOW provides not only an interesting new form of evil, but a shocker of an ending, and maybe the greatest opening line I’ve read this year: ”It was on the first day of spring that Big Steve and I saw Shelly Carpenter giving head to the hairy man.” 

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Another day, another demon for the men and women of Torchwood Institute, that secret, underground organization dedicated to protecting the United Kingdom against alien crime. In TORCHWOOD: BORDER PRINCES – the second original novel based upon the BBC’s popular TORCHWOOD series – Captain Jack Harkness and company find themselves battling “the Amok.”

It’s a geometrically symmetrical object that causes “cerebral flooding.” But that’s just a fancy way of saying its signal turns the nearby populace into George A. Romero zombies.

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Truth in advertising: THE NEW WEIRD, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Believe me, when they say it’s weird, they mean it.

This so-called “New Weird” subgenre is an extension of ye old “weird tale,” but with a higher literary level and a heavy hand of the grotesque and grueling. And least that’s what I gathered from Mr. VanderMeer’s intro.

Personally, I view New Weird like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart did hardcore pornography: “I know it when I see it.” And I see it all over the pages of this unique, twisted, unpredictable and oddly rewarding anthology.

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Mike Mignola’s HELLBOY is one of the great comic book/graphic novel creations of the past two decades. Christopher Golden has written several exceptionally fine novels in the HELLBOY world and he’s now joined by Tom Piccirilli, whose HELLBOY: EMERALD HELL is a delightfully dark take on the mystical and mythical South of Manly Wade Wellman and Robert E. Howard.

Here’s what the publisher has to say: “Hellboy comes to the crossroads in Enigma, Georgia, a small town beset by strange occurrences. Sent to keep an eye on Sarah Nail, a young girl hiding from the curse of her family, Hellboy becomes entangled in the blood debt of evil mystical preacher, Brother Jester. Stuck between human malice and the mysteries of the occult, Hellboy comes up against an intrigue of ghosts, demon trees, talking bullfrogs, and a race of lost mutant children.”

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A quick lesson: FLIGHT is the name for a series of loosely themed comic anthologies for older readers. The new FLIGHT EXPLORER: VOLUME 1, however, is a loosely themed comic anthology by the same creators, only for middle-school students. I happened to love it. As in, a lot. Does that make me 12 again? If so, I’ll take it – but this time, without the angst, please.

My only exposure to FLIGHT thus far (about to change, however) was from a sampler given away a few Free Comic Book Days ago. You need no introduction for FLIGHT EXPLORER; just open it, dive in and get lost.

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Like many a youth of the ’80s, my introduction to H.P. Lovecraft and most things weird was through a late-night Skinemax viewing of that unheralded classic FROM BEYOND. I beat a path to the library to find more, only to be completely disappointed. Where was the S&M? The twisted body morphing? And where was the horny and sexually depraved Barbara Crampton character?  It took me a couple of years to come back to the fold and gain my appreciation. 

Elder Signs Press’ HORRORS BEYOND 2, edited by William Jones, reminded me a lot of that early experience.  The best encapsulated description I can come up with for this anthology of stories is the use of uncanny technologies beyond the control of humanity.
 
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Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!

Robert Louis Stevenson’s TREASURE ISLAND gets a retelling, but through its villain’s point of view, in SILVER: MY OWN TALE AS WRITTEN BY ME WITH A GOODLY AMOUNT OF MURDER. Its framing device has the nefarious Long John Silver held captive on a ship and en route to his own hanging; via his journals, this formerly illiterate pirate tells his life story, from a thieving orphan to scourge of the high seas. Much of it involves cracking codes and ciphers to find quite the booty, but there is typical swashbuckling adventure as well. As if the title weren’t already an indicator, debuting novelist Edward Chupack writes with a good amount of dark humor (”Do not become too fond of him, for I kill him forthwith”); particularly strong are the acidic exchanges between Silver and the stupid boy who brings him food. SILVER could stand a little pruning, as one of ISLAND’s strengths is its brevity, but those into old-school pirate fiction should find it rewarding.

What if you could not only see – but sense – other people’s dreams? It’s an intriguing premise explored by Lisa McMann in her debut novel WAKE, via her protagonist: a poor high school student named Janie. The girl doesn’t like it – not one bit – especially when those dreams become nightmares with awfully high stakes. Maybe it’s me, but I found it hard to identify with a teenage girl who shops at Goodwill and has *NSYNC posters on her wall. McMann’s prose is a little too simple, with many abrupt, one-sentence paragraphs (although that does make for lickety-split reading). In its defense, it’s written for young adults – not for males in their mid-30s.

Aside from “Obama or Clinton?,” the other important continuing debate in America is whether to serve beer or wine – a point taken to extremes in brewer Sam Calagione and sommelier Marnie Old’s HE SAID BEER, SHE SAID WINE. Both present the dish on their beverage of choice – ingredients, styles, tasting tips – before squaring off on which goes best in helping what food go down. Cases are presented for various pairings, with distinct ranking systems that shows real thought went into this. Closing out the book are a number of recipes for entreés, and their suggested liquid counterparts, of course. It’s a book that made me hungry and thirsty. And indecisive – why can’t we have both?

I’m not big on anthropomorphic animals headlining fantasy tales, but it’s easy to cut MOUSE GUARD: FALL 1152 some slack. David Peterson’s six-part graphic novel – now with value-added bonus material in the back, including maps, pin-ups and character profiles – concerns a few good mice who don sword and saber to protect their kingdom and fellow rodents from other animal threats, be it snake, crab or weasel. Peterson shows much imagination in his detailed art, and the story is treated seriously rather than cutesy, much to my relief. It’s an adventure that will have all-ages appeal; I only wish the lettering weren’t so assembly-line-looking. It’s about the only drawback to this beautiful book.

Elizabeth Peters is well-known for her string of Amelia Peabody mysteries, all set in Egypt, so it’s no wonder that the author – real name Barbara Mertz – has a natural fascination with the ancient land. Okay, it’s safe to say she’s an expert on the subject, and RED LAND, BLACK LAND: DAILY LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT is one of two nonfiction books she’s written that stand as proof. Originally published in 1966, this revised hardcover edition contains what reads like insider info on the time where mummies dare tread. Those interested in the era’s burial procedures, sexual politics and tomb construction are going to find this as gripping as fiction. A section of full-color photos and sporadic illustrations shed further insight on a riveting subject.

There are tons of books that tell you how to write a novel, but the main problem is that you can’t teach creativity. To my knowledge, Howard Mittlemark and Sandra Newman are the only ones who had the bright idea to tell you how not to do it, in HOW NOT TO WRITE A NOVEL: 200 CLASSIC MISTAKES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM – A MISSTEP-BY-MISSTEP GUIDE. Eschewing rules, the authors ask you to think of the work as a GPS system when you’re left wondering “How the fuck did I end up here?” They use pretty funny excerpts to illustrate where so many would-be writers go way wrong, from cheat endings and vocabulary flaunting to overwrought sex scenes. Even if you’re not working on the Great American Novel – or some Passable Paperback to Pay the Rent – you’re likely to be amused. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.