Our end-o’-week roundup of what you missed while working for The Man!
Considering the Bacchanalian depths (heights?) of the BOOKGASM Halloween Party, it’s amazing that we posted any content at all this week, but I, at least, am still standing. For those of you who missed it, here are the highlights:
• Despite our pledge to all dress up like characters from THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL, only Rod went through with it, shaving his head into a killer widow’s peak and pulling a GOLDFINGER to arrive as an awesome Doc Savage (as envisioned by James Bama). His pecs, unfortunately, let him down early and often.
• Ken Davis learned that the “Sexy Cop” look isn’t just for the ladies.
• Bruce Grossman and Louis Fowler succumbed to their costumes, and a deadly game of cat and mouse between Grossman’s Remo Williams and Fowler’s Fu Manchu played out on the dance floor. The subsequent hospital stays were mercifully short, however.
• Chris Sharpe and Mark Rose both came dressed as their favorite character from NBC’s HEROES. As a side note, costume store clerks should be reminded that not everyone should be allowed to buy cheerleader outfits.
• My Cthulhu getup, representing a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline – but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers; a scaly, rubbery-looking body; prodigious claws on hind and fore feet; and long, narrow wings behind – drove both Allan Mott and Doug Bentin into depths of insanity so great that only Jell-O shots could revive them.
Enough bragging – let’s hit the books.
MONDAY >> 10.30.06
If there’s one thing I love about Rod Lott, it’s that he’s so subtle. In his review of “John Lange’s” GRAVE DESCEND, not only did he write a great, nuanced review of a thriller from perennial favorite Hard Case Crime, but he shows the reader, rather than telling him, that John Lange is indeed, über-jerk Michael Crichton. I’ve got nothing but respect for him. Rod, I mean.
Richard Laymon is known for being a master of grueling horror — the precursor to the modern darlings of splatterpunk. The quality control on his work has plummeted since his death, but we’ve always got the classics, and THE CELLAR is definitely one of those, even if it might make you vomit. This is no exercise in “psychological horror” or some twisted dream that impedes upon reality. This is visceral, blood-and-guts hardcore terror writing, and much like Bob Woodward’s new one, it’ll scare the crap out of anyone who has the guts to read it.
The sight of Louis Fowler’s disembodied head can mean a couple of things, but lately it’s the harbinger of LOUIS’ SERIOUS ISSUES, and this week Louis raised the horrible specter of a Kevin Costner/Bruce Campbell team-up comic, which I think would be awesome. Louis also saw little redeemable in the new Ant-Man book, praised Evan Dorkin’s awesome DORK, ordered DC to keep making with the AMERICAN SPLENDOR, and got as lost on the ROAD TO HELL, as everyone is.
TUESDAY >> 10.31.06
In this month’s installment of FUN WITH BOOKGASM, we learned that “Tricia Helfer nude” is the latest search term to bring new readers to BOOKGASM’s shores. There are worse things to be associated with, right? Am I right?
The winners of our HISTORIAN contest were announced Tuesday, and while I applaud the winners for their skill in winning the more-difficult-than-we-thought movie matchup (the middle teeth totally give away the ‘SALEM’S LOT dude), I wish there had been room for some hipster vampires from my favorite Hammer Dracula flick: DRACULA 1972 A.D. Rod assures me the books are in the mail, but that Canadian guy is going to be waiting a couple of weeks, as Rod’s too cheap to spring for air mail.
Bruce Grossman got into the holiday spirit Tuesday with his BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS column, but sadly none of the books he picked lived up to the horror promised on the back cover. He also totally ripped Anne Rice, and I second that emotion.
The books keep piling up in the BOOKGASM collective inbox, necessitating another QUICKGASM of short reviews to bring us some temporary relief. Let’s see, we’ve got some Simon Clark Frankenstein action, some Steve Niles/Batman derring-do and a straight-up adaptation of DAWN OF THE DEAD. Rod also took a gander at a book about Monopoly (which my Aunt Kay played in a treehouse for two weeks once, achieving a record for playing said game in said dwelling), a David G. Hartwell-edited SF anthology and a praiseworthy DRACULA spin-off, Tim Lucas’ THE BOOK OF RENFIELD.
WEDNESDAY >> 11.1.06
The ever-masterful Mark Rose got his read on last week, going after some hardcore literary cred with his review of THE SENSE OF PAPER, a book that a lowbrow such as myself wouldn’t touch with a 6-foot-pole made out of pirates (THE SIXTH SENSE OF PAPER, however, would be another story). Sadly, Rose’s quest for intellectual satisfaction is foiled by subpar writing, and if the writing in one of these books isn’t any good, you’ve really got nothing left.
Now “major crime squad in Vermont” might be oxymoronic, but it hasn’t stopped Archer Mayor from writing a successful series of books revolving around it. While it isn’t exactly the hardcore mystery Bruce Grossman expected, he found Archer’s depiction of small-scale police work in THE SECOND MOUSE intriguing. My suggestion for Archer’s next book? CAT IN TREE.
Ken Davis has managed to read yet another book, and MURDER IN ROOM 103 from Court TV is perfect for him. Since he exists in the gray world between crime and justice himself, Davis is the perfect person to judge such true-crime tales, and he was unsettled by the lack of resolution. While this probably stems from the fact that Davis’ sleuthing skills rival those found among the USA Network’s quirky cast of detectives, I can’t say I’m rushing out to buy the book.
THURSDAY >> 11.2.06
If you were put off by the fact that it jumps to a second page, Allan Mott’s FRAMES O’ REFERENCE is really hitting its stride. This week he took on Jewel Shepard’s IF I’M SO FAMOUS, HOW COME NOBODY’S EVER HEARD OF ME? And this is really the kind of book that BOOKGASM was born to review in lurid detail. As a B-movie boob supplier, Shepard tells of how she pulled herself up by her bra straps, turning a really awful life of crime and abuse into an awesome life of being naked on camera. These kind of books, done right, can be awesome human portraits, and Mott give this one the thumbs (among other things) up.
I live in Chicago, and everywhere I go, it seems that there’s some Trixie in a Burberry overcoat talking on a cellphone about how many margaritas she drank last night and carrying a copy of Erik Larson’s DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY. I refuse to read the book for that reason, but I might pick up Larson’s newest one, THUNDERSTRUCK, if only because Rod thinks this true-life story is more compelling than true life usually is. Well, his life, at least.
FRIDAY >> 11.3.06
Ed Gorman’s contribution to BOOKGASM is as essential as it is ridiculously cool. In his WHAT ED READ column, he illuminated another handful of small-press gems that immediately grabbed my attention, like a reprint of William Hjortsberg’s FALLING ANGEL, Christopher Fahy’s MATINEE AT THE FLAME and the Richard Matheson collection BLOODLINES. He also delved into GRAVE DESCEND, and perfectly crystallizes the pros and cons of Michael Crichton. Also, isn’t his picture spooky? I feel like Ed’s about grab me by the throat every time I see it.
Rod wrapped up another great week with AN ANTHOLOGY OF GRAPHIC FICTION, CARTOONS, & TRUE STORIES, and it appears to be an awesome book. True, quality comics anthologies can sometimes be hit-and-miss affairs, especially when an academic is preparing them, but Rod loved it, which means you should, too.
That’s all for this week. Hopefully I’ll be able to find the clasp for this tentacular mask some time today, or my boss is really going to be pissed when my eldritch visage drives him insane. I guess I should bring some Jell-O shots. –Ryun Patterson
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- WEEKEND REGASM >> 10.22.06
- WEEKEND REGASM >> 10.15.06
- WEEKEND REGASM >> 9.24.06
- WEEKEND REGASM >> 10.1.06
- WEEKEND REGASM >> 9.10.06
