Category: Authors

“The Raven” (1935) starring Boris Karloff & Bela Lugosi / Z-View

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The Raven (1935)

Director:  Lew Landers aka Louis Friedlander

Screenplay: David Boehm based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe

Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lester Matthews, Irene Ware, Samuel S. Hinds, Spencer Charters and Ian Wolfe

Tagline: While this mad surgical genius chanted “The Raven,” horrible screams rose up from his torture chamber below!

The Plot…

Dr. Richard Vollin (Lugosi), who is obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe, is called out of retirement to perform a life-saving operation on Jean Thatcher (Ware).  The operation is a success.  Jean and Dr. Vollin become friends.  As the friendship grows, Vollin becomes obsessed with Jean.

When escaped killer Edmond Bateman (Karloff) shows up at Dr. Vollin’s mansion asking for a facelift, Vollin comes up with a sick plan.  He performs the operation, but turns Bateman into a hideous looking monster.  Vollin says he will fix Bateman’s face if Bateman will help him kill Jean’s fiance and father.  Vollin plans to murder them using methods based on Edgar Allan Poe stories.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Although Bela Lugosi had the leading role in The Raven, Boris Karloff got top billing.  In addition Karloff earned $10,000 to Lugosi’s $5,000.  Lugosi was reportedly unhappy to learn this news.

The idea of disfiguring an escaped murderer to make him do your bidding is an interesting take.  Credit to the writers to wrap that idea around an obsession with Edgar Allan Poe.   I wish the end result was as good as the ideas.

The Raven earns 2 of 5 stars.

“Interview with the Vampire” Season 1 (2022) starring Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, Eric Bogosian, and Bailey Bass / Z-View

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Interview with the Vampire Season 1 (2022)

Directors:  Alan Taylor (episodes 1-2); Keith Powell (episodes 3-4); Levan Akin (episodes 5-6); Alexis Ostrander (episode 7)

Teleplay: Rolin Jones (episode 1); Jonathan Ceniceroz & Dave Harris (episode 2); Rolin Jones & Hannah Moscovitch (episode 3); Eleanor Burgess (episode 4); Hannah Moscovitch (episode 5); Coline Abert (episode 6); Rolin Jones & Ben Philippe (episode 7)

Stars: Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, Eric Bogosian, Assad Zaman, Bailey Bass, Rae Dawn Chong and Dana Gourrier

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

Interview with a Vampire is an adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel, Interview with a Vampire.

In 1910, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Anderson) is a successful black business man.  He owns several brothels and rubs shoulders with many of the city’s civic leaders.  Louis meets and befriends  Lestat de Lioncourt (Reid).  Lestat is handsome, charismatic and somewhat mysterious.  He’s also a vampire! As Louis and Lestat spend time together, their friendship grows.  Ultimately, Lestat turns Louis into a vampire.

Louis is shocked and sickened by what he’s become.  He vows to never see Lestat again… but that doesn’t last.  Lestat teaches Louis how to hunt, the things that will kill a vampire, and how to blend in among humans.  Louis makes Lestat agree to some concessions.  They will prey only on the worst humans.  Lestat agrees, but he’s a remorseless killer.  The promise is a sham. There is more that Lestat keeps secret.

When a fire breaks out in a poor part of town, Louis pulls Claudia (Bass), a young girl, from a burning building.  Claudia is on the verge of death.  Louis saves Claudia by turning her.  Louis and Lestat become her “uncles” and the three vampires live together.

Over time Claudia sees the differences between Louis and Lestat. Louis is compassionate and caring.  Lestat is self-centered and heartless.  A rift forms.  Louis and Lestat are already having issues with their toxic relationship.  Problems increase with Claudia’s need for independence. Plus rumors are growing about strange goings on in Louis and Lestat’s mansion…

All of this is relayed in flashbacks as Louis is interviewed by Daniel Malloy (Bogosian), a cynical writer planning a book on Louis’ life.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Interview with the Vampire Season 1 is a tour de force.  Well written with extremely well cast actors joined by top notch direction results in a wonderful viewing experience.

Jacob Anderson (Louis) and Sam Reid (Lestat) have chemistry.  I knew Anderson from his impressive role on Game of Thrones.  I had seen Reid a decade ago in the mini-series Hatfields & McCoys, but didn’t remember him until looking up his credits.  Reid makes an impact here! Baily Bass as Claudia is an actress to watch.  I’d never seen her before, but imagine she’ll be a household name soon.  She’s that talented.  Eric Bogosian is great as the cynical writer.  I’ve never been a big fan of Bogosian’s but he’s perfect here.

Interview with a Vampire isn’t your typical vampire tale.  These vampires have more desires than just drinking blood. It’s interesting how different aspects of a vampire’s life are explored.  First there’s the loneliness. A vampire is a rare creature that if discovered by humans would be killed.  All of a vampire’s relationships change.  Family and friends know something is different.  Vampires never age.  They are rarely seen during the day.  How  to get rid of the bodies they feed on?  How long before missing people are linked to the vampire?

Interview with a Vampire Season 1, like Anne Rice’s novel, doesn’t shy away from the homosexual aspects of Louis and Lestat’s relationship.  Nothing graphic is shown.  Louis was a closeted homosexual in 1910.  Lestat was uninhibited and took whatever he desired whether it was a woman or a man.  Who’d think that a toxic vampire relationship would make great television.

I loved every episode of Interview with a Vampire Season 1.  There’s a lot of ground to cover between 1910 and 2022.  While many questions were an answered even more were not.  I look forward to Season 2.

Interview with the Vampire Season 1 earns 5 of 5 stars.

RIP: Mike Hodges

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Mike Hodges, the British writer, director and producer died on December 17, 2022.  Mr. Hodges was 90.

Mike Hodges began his career as a teleprompter operator for British television.  In his down time, Mr. Hodges began writing scripts. His writing was good enough to get him noticed. Mike Hodges directing career began with episodes of British television shows.  He continued writing screenplays.

Suspect (1969) and Rumour (1970) were two scripts that he wrote and directed for Thames Television.  The strength of his work on those two films led to him getting to adapt Ted Lewis’ novel Jack’s Return Home.  Mr. Hodges directed his adaptation which was retitled, Get Carter.  If he never made another film, Mike Hodges would be remembered for this crime classic.

Mike Hodges continued directing, but he also branched out to write stage plays, radio plays and novellas.

Some of Mr. Hodges’ feature films include: Get Carter; The Terminal Man; Damien: The Omen II; Flash Gordon; A Prayer for the Dying; Croupier and I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mike Hodges’ family, friends and fans.

“All Quiet on the Western Front” (2022) / Z-View

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All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

Director:  Edward Berger

Screenplay: Ian Stokell, Lesley Paterson, Edward Berger based on the novel  All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Stars: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

Paul Bäumer (Krammerer) is about to graduate high school when he and his classmates hear a rousing patriotic speech about joining the service.  Paul and his friends enlist thinking that the war will be over soon and they’ll come back heroes.  They will learn how wrong they are… if they survive.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

All Quiet on the Western Front is based on Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel of the same name.  Written in 1929, it was banned when the Nazis took over Germany.  All Quiet on the Western Front has been adapted three times.  Twice for feature films and once for television.  It’s a timeless story about the harsh realities of war.

This 2022 adaptation is excellent.  It won National Review awards as one of the Top Five Foreign Language Films and for Best Adapted Screenplay.  It won for Best Makeup and Hairstyling as well as Best Visual Effects in the European Film Awards.

All Quiet on the Western Front contains powerful, tense scenes of war that are heightened by quiet moments before and after the carnage.  There are scenes that will stay with you.  For me, one of the most telling is when the new recruits are unknowingly given uniforms taken off dead soldiers.  The bullet holes having been sewn together by scores of women at sewing machines.

It’s also a sad comment when young soldiers on both sides are in the elements with little to eat, fighting the weather as well as each other. Meanwhile diplomats and high ranking soldiers are getting the best food and amenities as they argue the terms of surrender.  Then when an agreement to end the war at 11:00 is reached, one power-hungry commander orders his soldiers to make a last minute attack that will cost many, many lives but have no positive outcome to the war.

If I was to nitpick, I might say that All Quiet on the Western Front was a bit long, but not long enough to kill my enjoyment of it.

All Quiet on the Western Front earns 4 of 5 stars.

EERIE ARCHIVES VOLUME 2 is Coming!

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Eerie Archives Volume 2 is available for pre-order now.  Here’s the lowdown…

A gruesome gold mine of horror, suspense, and the supernatural, Eerie magazine (and its partner in crime, Creepy), set the bar for gripping tales of terror in the comics medium.

Collecting the groundbreaking series, Eerie Archives is now available in a value-priced paperback edition. Under a jaw-dropping cover painting by Frank Frazetta lies a collection of chilling tales written by comics legend Archie Goodwin and illustrated by a murderer’s row of top talents including Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, Neal Adams, Gray Morrow, Johnny Craig, Dan Adkins, and more.

Collects Eerie magazine #6–#10.

  Deal me in.  Pre-Orders are available now.

Eerie Archives Volume 2

EERIE ARCHIVES VOLUME 1 is Coming!

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Hey!  If you were excited to learn that Dark Horse is republishing Creepy magazine in a trade paperback format, you’re going to love to know that Eerie is also getting the same treatment!

Now available in an affordable paperback format, Eerie Archives Volume 1 features some of the most acclaimed works of horror, murder, and the macabre in the history of graphic fiction.

Eerie, like its killer kin Creepy, features work from many of the grandmasters of comics storytelling, including Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Gray Morrow, Alex Toth, Steve Ditko, and others and stories by the legendary Archie Goodwin.

Features the ultra-rare Eerie #1, for which only 200 “ashcan” copies were originally printed!

Collects Eerie magazine #1–#5.

  Deal me in.  Pre-Orders are available now.

Eerie Archives Volume 1

CREEPY ARCHIVES VOLUME 2 is Coming!

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Yesterday I posted about Creepy Archives Volume One.  That got me to thinking that maybe Volume Two has been announced.  Guess what…

The second bone-chilling volume of Creepy Archives is now available in a value-priced paperback edition, showcasing some of most harrowing stories of horror, murder, and supernatural mayhem in comics history!

Created by a who’s-who of comics legends, including Archie Goodwin, Frank Frazetta, Alex Toth, Gray Morrow, Reed Crandall, John Severin, and more. Of special interest are Goodwin and Crandall’s superb adaptations of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Body Snatcher” by gothic horror master Edgar Allan Poe.

Collects Creepy magazine issues #6–#10 and includes original letters pages, text features, and ads.

  Deal me in.  Pre-Orders are available now.

Creepy Archives Volume 2

CREEPY ARCHIVES VOLUME 1 is Coming!

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When I was a kid I’d sometimes get to read a Creepy magazine.  Creepy contained, well, let’s just go to the synopsis…

Gather your wooden stakes, silver bullets, and the skeletons in your closet, and prepare for a descent into horror and science-fiction history with Creepy Archives Volume 1!

Reanimated in all its gruesome glory in a value-priced paperback format, and in its original magazine size, this terrifying tome presents some of the finest work by comics legends Archie Goodwin, Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Reed Crandall, Alex Toth, Joe Orlando, Gray Morrow, and more. Collects Creepy magazine issues #1–#5 and includes original letters pages, text features, and ads.

I love that the reprint will contain the original ads, letters pages, etc.  It goes without saying when you have artists like Frazetta, Toth and Williamson that they are worth the price of admission.  I think I’m gonna have to get this.  Pre-Orders are available now.

Creepy Archives Volume 1

IT DIES WITH YOU by Scott Blackburn – For You or Someone You Love!

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I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about It Dies With You by Scott Blackburn.  Here’s the synopsis…

Scott Blackburn’s searing literary debut explores the dangerous world of secrets threatening to upend a rural Southern town, perfect for fans of David Joy and Brian Panowich.

For nearly a decade, twenty-nine-year-old Hudson Miller has made his living in the boxing ring, but a post-fight brawl threatens to derail his career. Desperate for money, Hudson takes a gig as a bouncer at a dive bar. That’s when life delivers him another hook to the jaw: his estranged father, Leland, has been murdered in what appears to be a robbery-gone-bad at his salvage yard, Miller’s Pull-a-Part.

Soon after his father’s funeral, Hudson learns he’s inherited the salvage yard, and he returns to his Bible-belt hometown of Flint Creek, North Carolina, to run the business. But the business is far more than junk cars and scrap metal. It was the site of an illegal gun-running ring. And the secrets don’t end there; a grisly discovery is made at the yard that thrusts Hudson into the fight of his life.

Reeling for answers, Hudson joins forces with his father’s former employee, 71-year-old, beer-guzzling Vietnam vet Charlie Shoaf, and a feisty teenage girl, Lucy Reyes, who’s fiercely seeking justice for her own family tragedy. With a murderer on the loose and no answers from the local cops, the trio of outcasts launch an investigation. The shocking truth they uncover will shake Flint Creek to its very core.

The It Dies With You lowdown has all of my Spidey-senses tingling so much that it made my Christmas Wish List. (I have it on good authority, I won’t be disappointed.)  If It Dies With You sounds like something you or someone you love would like,  it is available now.

It Dies With You Hardcover

It Dies With You Kindle

“The Pale Blue Eye” starring Christian Bale – The Full Trailer is Here!

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The teaser for The Pale Blue Eye had me in.  Today we get the trailer.  I’m still in.

West Point, 1830. A world-weary detective is hired to discreetly investigate the gruesome murder of a cadet. Stymied by the cadets’ code of silence, he enlists one of their own to help unravel the case — a young man the world would come to know as Edgar Allan Poe.

The Pale Blue Eye on Netflix, January 6.

EVERY MAN A KING by Walter Mosley is Coming!

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Walter Mosley’s Every Man a King drops on February 21, 2023.  It’s the second in Mosley’s King Oliver series.  Here’s the synopsis…

In this highly anticipated sequel to the Edgar award winner Down the River Unto the Sea, Joe King Oliver is entangled in a dangerous case when he’s asked to investigate whether a white nationalist is being unjustly set up.

When friend of the family and multi-billionaire Roger Ferris comes to Joe with an assignment, he’s got no choice but to accept, even if the case is a tough one to stomach. White nationalist Alfred Xavier Quiller has been accused of murder and the sale of sensitive information to the Russians. Ferris has reason to believe Quiller’s been set up and he needs King to see if the charges hold.

This linear assignment becomes a winding quest to uncover the extent of Quiller’s dealings, to understand Ferris’ skin in the game, and to get to the bottom of who is working for whom. Even with the help of bodyguard and mercenary Oliya Ruez—no regular girl Friday—the machine King’s up against proves relentless and unsparing. As King gets closer to exposing the truth, he and his loved ones barrel towards grave danger.

Mosley once again proves himself a “master of craft and narrative” (National Book Foundation) in this carefully plotted mystery that is at once a classic caper, a family saga and an examination of fealty, pride and how deep debt can go.

Pre-orders are available now.
Every Man a King Hardcover
Every Man a King Kindle

AMOK: A Dox Thriller by Barry Eisler is Coming!

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Barry Eisler has a new novel coming out on December 6, 2022.  It features Dox, a supporting character from earlier adventures, getting center stage.  Amok will be available as a hardcover, a paperback, on Kindle and as an audiobook on the same day!  Here’s the scoop…

When the government offers a twenty-six-year-old former Marine a five-figure payday, there’s only one question: Who does he have to kill?

1991. A restless young man called Dox is back home in Texas. His friends have missed him, and his mother and sisters need him. But after four years as a Marine and another two as a CIA contractor fighting the Soviet Union alongside the Afghan mujahideen, small-town life in Abilene is a suffocating dead end.

Another secret war, this one in Southeast Asia, offers a big payday and the solution to his family’s troubles. But secret wars are never what they’re billed to be, and Dox is about to get the education of his young life. Among the lessons―the only thing more dangerous than war is falling in love with your enemy.

Pre-orders are available now.
Amok Hardcover
Amok Paperback
Amok Kindle

THE BULLET GARDEN: An Earl Swagger Novel by Stephen Hunter is Coming!

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On January 24, 2023, fans of Stephen Hunter’s Earl Swagger can get their mitts on his latest adventure, The Bullet Garden.  Here’s the 411…

The long-anticipated origin story of legendary Marine, fan favorite, and father of literary icon Bob Lee takes us to the battlefields of World War II as Earl Swagger embarks on a top secret and deadly mission—from Pulitzer Prize­–winning and New York Times bestselling Stephen Hunter, “one of the best thriller novelists around” (The Washington Post).

July, 1944: The lush, rolling hills of Normandy are dotted with a new feature—German snipers. From their vantage points, they pick off hundreds of Allied soldiers every day, bringing the D-Day invasion to its knees. It’s clear that someone is tipping off these snipers with the locations of American GIs, but who? And how?

General Eisenhower demands his intelligence service to find the best shot in the Allied military to counter this deadly SS operation. Enter Pacific hero Earl Swagger, assigned this crucial and bloody mission. With crosshairs on his back, Swagger can’t trust anyone as he infiltrates the shadowy corners of London and France for answers.

From “a true master at the pinnacle of his craft” (Jack Carr, author of the Terminal List series), The Bullet Garden is an electrifying historical thriller that is sure to become a classic.

If this is something you’d like, pre-orders are available now.

The Bullet Garden   Hardcover

The Bullet Garden  Kindle

TROOPER DOWN! by Anthony Neil Smith is Coming!

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Anthony Neil Smith recently shared the cover of his next novel, Trooper Down!  It’s described as a…

Psychological thriller in the Hitchcock tradition told in first person by a South Dakota State Trooper who is shot in the head and tries to redeem himself.

Trooper Down! isn’t available for pre-order yet.  Once it is, I’ll let you know… right after I put in my order.

TOO MANY BULLETS: A Nathan Heller Case by Max Allan Collins is Coming!

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It’s no secret. I’m a huge fan of Max Allan Collins’ Nathan Heller series.  In it, detective Nathan Heller gets involved with famous cases throughout history.  Max Collins does an exhaustive amount of research for each book and provides a solution to each case, that is sometimes at odds with history.  As the series progresses, Heller ages in real time.

Hard Case Crime has announced that a new Heller book will be out in the Fall of 2023.  Titled Too Many Bullets, it will have Heller investigating Robert Kennedy’s assassination.  That’s the cover above, and it’s a beauty painted by Paul Mann.

If you’re a fan of alternative history or detective stories, heck, if you’re a fan of well written books, then you owe it to yourself to check out the Nathan Heller tales by Max Allan Collins.