Category: Books

Ace Atkins Talks Crossroad Blues and a Lot More!

Posted on by

Ace Atkins is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated novelist who has written 23 novels.  Perhaps best known for being selected to carry on Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series, Atkins has series characters of his own (Nick Travers and Quinn Colson).  If you dig his Spenser yarns, then you ought to give Travers and Colson a go.

Crossroad Blues is Atkins first Nick Travers novel.

The disappearance of a college professor investigating rumors of previously unknown recordings by renowned blues musician Robert Johnson, murdered more than fifty years earlier, leads football player-turned-blues historian Nick Travers along a dangerous trail as he seeks to unravel the dark truths behind an old mystery.

Crossroad Blues has been adapted into a graphic novel by Atkins along with artist Marco Finnegan.

Lawrence Block’s Eight Million Ways to Die Adapted & Illustrated by John K. Snyder III

Posted on by

John K. Snyder III has adapted Lawrence Block’s Eight Million Ways to Die into a graphic novel and it is looking great!  There have been 17 novels about Block’s unlicensed detective, Matthew Scudder, and Eight Million Ways to Die is a great place to start.  Here’s the skinny…

In crime-ravaged 1980s New York, a troubled ex-cop turned unlicensed detective takes on his most dangerous case, hunting down a serial killer-hitman, and ultimately coming face-to-face with his deadliest enemy…

Matthew Scudder is dying, one bottle at a time. A young prostitute named Kim Dakkinen is dying too, her life measured out in tricks. She wanted out, had asked for Scudder’s help, but suddenly she wasn’t dying anymore, she was just dead. The former cop turned P.I. promised to protect her, but he failed. Now his atonement is to find her killer. But the secrets in the dead hooker’s past are dirtier than her living, and searching for a killer in a city where everyone’s a victim is a good way to make the role permanent.

 I’m a huge Lawrence Block fan and his Scudder novels are my favorite Block yarns.  I’m looking forward to Snyder’s adaptation.  If you’re still on the fence, check out this interview with Snyder where he talks about bringing the novel to life!

Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Thomas & Mignola Gets the Hardcover Treatment!

Posted on by

IDW is reprinting Roy Thomas and Mike Mignola’s adaption of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula in a 136 page hardcover edition.  This was Mignola’s last work before directing his attention to his Hellboy creation.  Mignola is happy to have Bram Stoker’s Dracula back in print…

“I cannot tell you what a relief it is to have this book back in print… People have been asking about this one for ages—More than any other book of mine—and I honestly didn’t think it was ever going to be possible to see an edition, but here it is. Thank you Scott Dunbier and IDW… One of the very few older jobs I’m still pretty proud of.”

Source: Bleeding Cool.

Miller & Wheeler’s “Cursed” Picked Up by Netflix!

Posted on by

 

About a week ago it was announced that Frank Miller will provide the art and team with writer Thomas Wheeler for Cursed, a young adult novel that…

…tells the story of King Arthur from the point of view of Nimue, the 16-year-old girl who first wielded Excalibur and ultimately became the Lady of the Lake.

Although the book won’t be out until 2019, Netflix has decided to pick it up as a series!  For full details check out Netflix Orders TV Series ‘Cursed’ From Frank Miller & Tom Wheeler Based On Book Reimagining King Arthur Legend at Deadline.com.

Kelley Jones on Swamp Thing, Completing Wrightson’s Frankenstein

Posted on by

Bermie Wrightson is a legend.  If you’re reading this, you probably know that.  If not, Google Wrightson and then come back.

Wrightson is mostly remembered for his work in the horror genre, specifically Frankenstein. Wrightson’s final project was Frankenstein Alive, Alive! with writer Steve Niles.  When Wrightson realized he couldn’t finish the project, he asked artist Kelley Jones to finish it.

Jones’ interview with Alex Dueben at Comic Book Resources is one of the most moving, touching and emotional interviews I can ever remember:  Kelley Jones on Swamp Thing, Completing Wrightson’s Frankenstein

Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ Got the Cinephilia and Beyond Treatment!

Posted on by

Stanley Kubric / The Shining / Horror fans are going to love it that Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ Got the Cinephilia and Beyond Treatment!

Click on the link and you’ll find…

  • Kubrick’s Original Treatment for The Shinning
  • A rare interview with Kubrick
  • Rare Behind the Scenes Footage
  • Another rare Kubrick Interview
  • The Visions of Stanley Kubrick Video
  • View from The Overlook Video
  • Kubrick Talks About The Shining Video Interview
  • and much more!

Frank Miller Has 6 Projects in the Works!

Posted on by

 

Frank Miller will provide the art and team with writer Thomas Wheeler for Cursed, a young adult novel that…

…tells the story of King Arthur from the point of view of Nimue, the 16-year-old girl who first wielded Excalibur and ultimately became the Lady of the Lake.

We can expect the release of Cursed in the fall of 2019.

It was also announced today that Frank Miller has signed a five-project deal with DC Comics.  The first two projects are:

  • Superman: Year One: Miller will write and John Romita Jr. will provide the art.

  • A graphic novel focusing on  Carrie Kelley, Robin from Miller’s classic Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.  Again, Miller will serve as writer and Ben Caldwell will take on the art chores.

  • Miller is also set to write three undisclosed projects to complete the five-project deal.

Boy, I sure wish a new Miller Sin City yarn was in the works.

 

Sources: SYFY Wire and Comicosity.

Deep Silence: A Joe Ledger Novel by Jonathan Maberry is Coming!

Posted on by

The next Joe Ledger novel, Deep Silence, is set to drop on October 30, 2018.

The twelfth Joe Ledger novel in the New York Times bestselling series.

Terrorists-for-hire have created a weapon that can induce earthquakes and cause dormant volcanoes to erupt. One terrifying side-effect of the weapon is that prior to the devastation, the vibrations drive ordinary people to suicide and violence. A wave of madness begins sweeping the country beginning with a mass shooting in Congress. Joe Ledger and his team go on a wild hunt to stop the terrorists and uncover the global super-power secretly funding them. At every step the stakes increase as it becomes clear that the end-game of this campaign of terror is igniting the Yellowstone caldera, the super-volcano that could destroy America.

I’ve read all of the Joe Ledger novels and there’s not a misfire in the batch.  Of course that’s no surprise because every Jonathan Maberry short story or novel (Yeah, he writes other things besides Joe Ledger) has been a winner.  Let me put my pre-order in now.

CROSSROAD BLUES: A NICK TRAVERS GRAPHIC NOVEL

Posted on by

CROSSROAD BLUES: A NICK TRAVERS GRAPHIC NOVEL by Ace Atkins and Marco Finnegan is set to drop May 1st and I can’t wait.

After a New Orleans college professor goes missing while searching for the rumored lost recordings of bluesman Robert Johnson—who, as legend has it, sold his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads—Nick Travers is sent to find him. Clues point to everyone from an eccentric albino named Cracker to a hitman who believes he is the second coming of Elvis Presley.

I first discovered Atkins writing when he was tapped to continue the Robert B. Parker Spenser novels.  I was so impressed I searched out more of Atkins work and this led me to his other novels as well as the first Nick Travers graphic novel, Last Fair Deal Gone Down.  Needless to say, I was hooked.

Source: Comicosity.

11 Dizzying Facts About “Vertigo”

Posted on by

Tara Aquino and Mental Floss present 11 Dizzying Facts About Vertigo.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. ALFRED HITCHCOCK BLAMED JIMMY STEWART FOR VERTIGO’S FAILURE.
Marred by mixed reviews, the $2.5 million Vertigo did comparatively less than Hitchcock’s previous movies, and was widely recognized as a failure. Frustrated with its reception, Hitchcock partly blamed star Jimmy Stewart’s aging appearance. At the time of filming, Stewart—who had starred in Hitchcock’s three previous films—was 50 years old which, according to the director, was too old to convincingly play then-25-year-old Kim Novak’s love interest.

5. AN UNCREDITED CAMERAMAN CAME UP WITH THE FAMOUS “VERTIGO EFFECT.”
According to associate producer Herbert Coleman, it wasn’t Hitchcock who came up with the film’s famous camera technique (which essentially involves zooming forward while pulling the camera backward); rather, it was an uncredited second unit cameraman, Irwin Roberts. “He didn’t get screen credit on Vertigo because they gave the screen credit to another close friend of ours [Wallace Kelley] who did all the process work on the stage,” Coleman said.

9. ALFRED HITCHCOCK CHANGED THE SETTING FROM PARIS TO SAN FRANCISCO.
The French source novel, D’entre les Morts, was set in Paris, but Hitchcock believed that San Francisco was more interesting. As noted by Auiler, with the city’s vertiginous streets and hilly landscape, the location perfectly matched the film’s themes. In a city where there were such extreme physical highs and lows, awful for anyone with acrophobia, Scottie’s vertigo became a character in and of itself.

New Mike Hammer Series Coming From Hard Case Crime and Titan Comics

Posted on by

That’s just one of the first issue covers to Hard Case Crime / Titan Comics new Mike Hammer comic series.  Based on an unproduced Mike Hammer screenplay written by Spillane, “The Night I Died,” will be adapted by Max Allan Collins with art by Marcelo Salaza and colorist Marcio Freire.

For a look at other covers and some interior art click over to FlickeringMyth.