Category: Books

24 Meets Dawn of the Dead

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If you’re not a fan of Jonathan Maberry, it just means you haven’t read his action/horror novel Patient Zero.  It’s been described as 24 meets Dawn of the Dead and it actually lives up to that hype on both counts. [Yes, it’s that good.]

Dark Recesses magazine has a very informative interview with Jonathan Maberry right here.  My guess is if you’re already a Maberry fan, you’ll really enjoy it.  If you’re not a fan, there’s a good chance that once you read the interview, you will be.

Everyone Needs A Bullet to the Head

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That’s the partial cover to Bullet in the Head #2 published by Dynamite.  I’d actually meant to post about the series sooner, but it’s still not to late to get on board — the first issue won’t be out until June.  Bullet in the Head was first published in France back in 2004.  It went on to win “Best Story” at the Prix Saint-Michel comics awards.  In 2009 the film rights were optioned by Warner Bros.

So, what’s Bullet in the Head about you ask?  [And I’m glad you did.]  Bullet in the Head is a crime noir about a pair of buddy cops, a pair of buddy hitmen, some femme fatales and a ever-increasing body count.  Written by Matz, with art by Colin Wilson, the series is geared toward mature audiences.

You can read more about the series and see the first two covers here.

Re-Imagined Marvel Covers

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Re-imagined covers and posters are popular.  Recently we checked out Laz Marquez’s cool redesigns of classic Hitchcock movie posters.  Marquez followed that up with some re-imagined Stephen King book covers.   Turner Classic Movies offered up some re-imagined classic/iconic movie posters that were also very popular.

Designer, Steven Finch recently posted five re-imagined Marvel comic series that he recreated as dime store paperback covers.  It’s a cool idea and he promises more are coming.

Thanks to io9.com for the original link.

The Big Bang by Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins

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The Big Bang: The Lost Mike Hammer Sixties Novel.

If you’re a Spillane fan, then we probably thought the same thing as we read the line above:  I want it now.  Although we’re going to have to wait a bit longer, at least we know the broad strokes:

Drawing on an unpublished partial Spillane manuscript dating from the ’60s, [Max Allan] Collins resurrects Spillane’s randy, two-fisted New York City PI, Mike Hammer…

From Max Allan Collins’ website:

In midtown Manhattan, Mike Hammer, recovering from a near-fatal mix-up with the Mob, runs into drug dealers assaulting a young hospital messenger. He saves the kid, but the muggers are not so lucky. Hammer considers the rescue a one-off, but someone has different ideas, as indicated by a street-corner knife attack.

With himself for a client, Hammer — and his beautiful, deadly partner Velda — take on the narcotics racket in New York just as the streets have dried up and rumors run rampant of a massive heroin shipment due any day. In a New York of flashy discotheques, swanky bachelor pads, and the occasional dark alley, Hammer deals with doctors and drug addicts, hippie chicks and hit men, meeting changing times with his timeless brand of violent vengeance.

The Big Bang is available for pre-order now.

Elmore Leonard Feels Justified

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TVGuide.com just posted a piece titled Elmore Leonard: Justified Gets It Just Right.  I’m happy that Elmore Leonard, who wrote the novella that the series is based on, is as happy with the show as the rest of us [on the night it premiered it ranked No. 1 on cable in overall viewers and in its time slot beat the broadcast networks among men 18-to-49].  I was was even happier to learn that…

…Leonard has begun work on a new Raylan Givens story which he hopes might inspire plots for the show’s second season, if FX renews the series… And if they don’t, Leonard says he will pen a couple more Raylan stories and publish a collection.

Darwyn Cooke & The Man with the Getaway Face

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Richard Stark fan?   Check.

Darwyn Cooke fan?   Check.

Crime stories fan?   Check.

Comic Book fan?   Check.

Loved Darwyn Cooke’s adaptation of Richard Stark’s Hunter?  Check.

Okay.  If that’s the case, and you have two bucks and are going to attend WonderCon next week, then you may be one of the lucky folks who can pick up an…

…exclusive prelude to The Outfit, the second of Richard Stark’s Parker novels that Cooke is adapting… This 8″x12″ preview book offers one entire chapter of The Outfit and will be included in the finished graphic novel, coming in October.

What’s that?  You won’t be able to attend WonderCon?  Well, don’t fret because…

…the preview will be available in comic stores everywhere in July at the same low price and large size.

Be sure and let your local comic shop manager know that you’re going to want a copy.   Check.

Win a Copy of The Deputy

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You’ve heard me singing the praises of Victor Gischler many times before.  It’s no secret that I’m really looking forward to his soon-to-be-released crime/noir novel, The Deputy.

If you’re feelin’ lucky [said in my best Clint Eastwood voice], then you might want to enter a contest that Keith Rawson is running over at his Bloody Knuckles, Callused Fingers site.  If you win you’ll get an advanced reading copy of, you guessed it, Gischler’s The Deputy.

Of course you can also order The Deputy from the publisher and use the promo code “twitter” to  get three bucks off and free shipping!  And if you prefer Amazon, here’s a link for that as well.  The cool thing about ordering the book is that you’re a guaranteed winner!

A Lawman by Another Name is Justified

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Last August I posted about a tv show called Lawman that would premiere in 2010.  At that time I said that it looked interesting enough to make me want to tune in.  Well, tomorrow night that will happen.  Although the title of the show has been changed, my feelings about it haven’t.

The series is now called Justified and is based on an Elmore Leonard novella called Fire in the Hole.   So at 10pm, I’ll tune in to FX hoping that my feelings are, uh, justified.

Crime/Noir: “The Deputy”

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I’m a big Victor Gischler fan.  I’ve enjoyed everything that I’ve read by him and am really looking forward to his latest novel, The Deputy.  Fans of crime/noir can look forward to a worthy read.  I know I do.  Here’s part of the publisher’s summary…

Toby doesn’t have a lot going for him. Twenty-five, a couple of years of junior college, married to a girl he got pregnant and living in a trailer on the edge of town. He’s working part time for the police department, hoping the budget comes through and they can put him on full time, so he can get health benefits. His wife is a waitress at a little crap diner near the railroad tracks. When he gets the call about the dead body, he pins his tin star to his Weezer t-shirt, slips into a pair of sweatpants and grabs his revolver…

As you can imagine, it’s all downhill from there.

If you order The Deputy from the publisher and use the promo code “twitter” you’ll get three bucks off and free shipping!  Prefer Amazon?  Here’s a link for that as well.

Zombies, Nazis, Monsters & Mutations

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You’ve heard me sing the praises [well, write ’em anyway] of Jonathan Maberry before.  If you read his first Joe Ledger novel, Patient Zero, then you’re a fan of his work.  [If you haven’t read it, you should.  Yeah, it’s that good great.]

Maberry’s second Ledger novel, The Dragon Factory, is now available.  [Yes, I’ve already got my copy!] Maberry talks about Joe Ledger, and more in a great little interview over at StaticEchoes.com.  Here’s a bit of what Maberry has to say:

I always loved the thinking hero, so Joe Ledger grew out of that; and I dug the concept of villains who were smart and devious, and who sometimes used the appearance of the supernatural as a smokescreen. In a lot of ways my villains owe more to the pulps than they do to, say, James Bond.

…the second Joe Ledger novel.. deals with geneticists using transgenic science for ethnic cleansing and to complete the Nazi Master Race program. Lots of monsters and mutations…

The Dragon Factory also has about twice the action –and Patient Zero had a lot—but I dial things way up in the second book.

You can [and should] read the entire interview by clicking here.

Steranko’s Chandler Returns

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This month’s Previews featured a full page ad for a new printing of Steranko’s classic Chandler: Red Tide.  Originally published in 1976, Chandler: Red Tide is sometimes referred to as the first graphic novel.  At the time it was published, Steranko called it an illustrated novel.  I think a more accurate description is the one used by Dark Horse in the press release:

After emerging as Marvel Comics most controversial superstar, Jim Steranko tackled his greatest artistic challenge: creating an entirely new medium, the visual novel -not an illustrated novel or novel-length comic book, but a seamless fusion of interdependent graphic and prose narratives forming a powerful and original new method of telling stories.

But why stop there?  Let’s go on… Chandler: Red Tide is an…

… artistic tour-de-force, Red Tide is hard-boiled detective fiction in the bare-knuckle tradition of Hammett, Cain, and Chandler, as well as the dark, atmospheric milieu of film noir.

Although I own an original printing that’s been in my collection since it was first published, I will be picking up the Dark Horse edition since it…

has been remastered with state-of-the-art digital colors by Eisner Award-winner Dave Stewart, in a collector’s quality hardcover edition.

How can I resist? How could anyone?