Ed Gorman's Blog, page 163
April 18, 2012
Henry Kuttner: Thunder In The Void
My favorite pulp writer in a beautifully made collection
Ed here: Haffner Press scores again. This is not an exaggeration. As soon as I got this book I opened it at random and was so quickly drawn into the story that I sat down and read the whole thing on the spot. This is a must-have book for pulp fans and collectors alike. And I should mention the fine introduction by the great Mike Resnick, too.
Go here for the website: http://www.haffnerpress.com/Thunder in the VoidHenry Kuttner
Introduction by Mike Resnick
Cover Art by Norman Saunders
ISBN-13 9781893887534
600+ pp. Hardcover$40.00
Prior to his marriage to fellow science-fantasy writer Catherine L. Moore in 1940, Henry Kuttner wrote stories of Lovecraftian horror, weird-menace “shudder” tales, and thrilling adventure stories. But he also wrote blood-n-thunder Space Opera stories in the vein of Edmond Hamilton (one of young Kuttner’s favorite authors) told with a rough-edge style similar to Kuttner’s protege Leigh Brackett.THUNDER IN THE VOID is a massive collection of 16 vintage Space Opera stories selected from classic pulp magazines such as Weird Tales, Marvel Science Stories, Astonishing Stories, Super Science Stories, Super-Detective, and of course, Planet Stories. Most of the these are appearing in book form for the first time. An added bonus, Haffner Press is pleased to include anunpublished story by Kuttner, “The Interplanetary Limited.”Award-winning author (and the only writer to stage a live performance of a Kuttner Space Opera story) Mike Resnick contributes an introduction reflecting on his admiration for stories by Kuttner (and Moore).
TABLE of Contents
Raider of the Spaceways (Weird Tales, Jul ’37)Avengers of Space (Marvel Science Stories, Aug ’38)The Time-Trap (Marvel Science Stories, Nov ’38)
*The Lifestone (Astonishing Stories, Feb ’40)
*Monsters of the Atom (Super-Detective, Apr ’41)
*Red Gem of Mercury (Super Science Stories, Nov ’41)
*The Crystal Circe (Astonishing Stories, Jun ’42)
*War-Gods of the Void (Planet Stories, Fll ’42)
*Thunder in the Void (Astonishing Stories, Oct ’42)
We Guard the Black Planet (Super Science Stories, Nov ’42)
*Soldiers of Space (Astonishing Stories, Feb ’43)
*Crypt-City of the Deathless One (Planet Stories, Win ’43)
The Eyes of Thar (Planet Stories, Fll ”43)
What Hath Me (Planet Stories, Spr ’46)
*Carry Me Home (Planet Stories, ’50)
The Interplanetary Limited (first time in print)oduction by Mike Resnick
*Raider of the Spaceways (Weird Tales, Jul ’37)
Avengers of Space (Marvel Science Stories, Aug ’38)
The Time-Trap (Marvel Science Stories, Nov ’38)
*The Lifestone (Astonishing Stories, Feb ’40)
*Monsters of the Atom (Super-Detective, Apr ’41)
*Red Gem of Mercury (Super Science Stories, Nov ’41)
*The Crystal Circe (Astonishing Stories, Jun ’42)
*War-Gods of the Void (Planet Stories, Fll ’42)
*Thunder in the Void (Astonishing Stories, Oct ’42)
We Guard the Black Planet (Super Science Stories, Nov ’42)
*Soldiers of Space (Astonishing Stories, Feb ’43)
*Crypt-City of the Deathless One (Planet Stories, Win ’43)
The Eyes of Thar (Planet Stories, Fll ”43)
What Hath Me (Planet Stories, Spr ’46)
*Carry Me Home (Planet Stories, ’50)
The Interplanetary Limited (first time in print)
Perry Mason DVD; New York Times
Article Tools Sponsored By
By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: December 31, 2006
IN memory the old “Perry Mason” was campy and obvious. At the end of each hour Raymond Burr would rise commandingly from his courtroom chair and, with just a question or two and perhaps a peeved glare, elicit a detailed and tearful confession from a witness with more aptitude for murder than for perjury.
Those Perry Mason moments are as awkward and unrewarding today as they were in 1957, when CBS began broadcasting the series. But almost everything else about the show is splendid, and the 39 episodes from the first season recently released on DVD are a box of L.A. noir chocolates, well constructed and satisfyingly dark.
They start with that swaggering theme music, by Fred Steiner, and some irresistible episode titles (“The Case of the Cautious Coquette,” “The Case of the Restless Redhead,” “The Case of the Vagabond Vixen,” “The Case of the Lazy Lover”). The setups are brisk and racy, usually involving an attractive young woman, the suggestion of ill-considered intimacy and, in short order, a corpse.
Beautifully filmed in black and white, the shows have become period dramas over time, stuffed with relentless smoking, skinny ties, hard-to-get divorces, propeller planes and the threat of the gas chamber. All this was just scenery at the time, but it has now imbued the show with a real sense of place, of a California draped in shadows and suffused with gaudy ambition and sexual jealousy.
“Perry Mason” was also, week in and week out, a well-made television show, the work of professionals. It moves a little slowly for modern tastes, but it was precisely constructed, sophisticated and intricate enough to reward careful attention.
For the rest of the article log on here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/art...
Ed here:
Owing to various hospital stays over the past five years, I've logged a lot of hours watching the Perry Masons referred to here. This Litvak review is excellent. And I certainly agree with it. Most of the hokum comes at the end when the light bulb appears above Perry's head and sometimes in the somewhat strained dialogue between Perry and Della and Paul Drake, which sometimes sounds like three people on morning TV making chirping sounds at each other.
What struck me most about the shows was how adult and seedy they are. A lot of the seediness is between the lines but boy is it there. As I mentioned here last week writing about the early Mason novels (those still influenced by Black Mask), the stories are packed with sex and the villains are frequently business men. You could be forgiven for thinking you're reading Upton Sinclair or Sinclair Lewis in sections of the early Masons. He sure didn't trust trust big business and he he had an almost socialistic scorn for the greed success inspires (I watched Treasure of Sierra Madre earlier today--a pure straight shot of B. Traven's rage was something Gardner would likely have understood).
Litvak's best point is that the early Mason TVs have become historical dramas. They are one of the most accurate depicitions of the Fifties I've ever seen. Lordy the fetishes we made of our clothes, cars, home furnishings. And the way we looked at poor people--rarely to be trusted, rarely able to speak with any clarity, lost in booze or self-pity or just plain despicable laziness. The Lonely crowd, The Man in The Grey Flannel Suit, The Status Seekers--some of the observations in the Masons are as acute as these bestsellers of the Fifties. There's a whole book waiting to be read on the sopciology of the first three or four Mason years--not that I'd read it, you understand. But it's mildly interesting to think about up there on my Unread shelf.
posted by Ed Gorman @ 7:45 PM 0 comments links to this post
April 12, 2012
Forgotten Books: The Deer Park Norman Mailer
Ed here: I was fifteen when I first read The Deer Park by Norman Mailer. I've never forgotten the experience because of the sheer narcotic power of the writing and because it introduced me to a style of contemporary writing I'd never encountered before. I became a Mailer fan, even when he was at his most assholic and clownish, for life.
The book arrived in 1955 with a great deal of advance publicity. Rinehart, its original publisher, refuse to put it out because they suddenly judged it obscene. Putnam picked it up and Mailer was seized upon by every hack reviewer and dimwit moralizer in the land.
The Deer Park is a tale told by a former Air Force man who decides to become a novelist and is thus drawn to the writers, directors and actors of Desert D`Or.
Here we meet the leftist movie director who maybe have to cooperate with the McCarthyites to save his career; the beautiful young actress whom I imagine looks like Tuesday Weld but has the same death wish as James Dean; and a pimp Mailer succeeds in making sympathetic. (I'm getting this from a 1955 Times review which was one of the few mostly favorable ones Mailer could claim.) In fact by rereading it a few months ago I was was surprised to find how much the narrator (and Mailer) sympathizes with people who in popular fiction are considered trash of a kind. The story evolves from the personal crises that these three people face.
For its time the book is remarkably sexual and remarkably violent--there is a scene in here that would make the Faulkner of Sanctuary queasy--and speaks in an American leftist voice that is hip without being pretentious.
In all there is madness and sadness in Desert D'or and any Hollywood novel that came after has to be measured against it. It is not a masterpiece but it is a fine brave novel about an America that most Americans despised. And, in fact, still do.
April 11, 2012
Shemp vs. Curly
A Word to Lonely People from Mark EvanierIf you ever want to get a lot of e-mail and you don't care how angry some of its senders are at you, tell the world that you like Shemp more than Curly.Ed here: Mark Evanier is a writer and producer of so many TV shows, animated series and books my arm would go numb cititing them here. He has a great show biz sometimes political blog called News From Me, well worth checking out.I've had the same experience Mark has. Prepare to run when you tell certain people that you prefer Shemp to Curly. (Maybe the United Nations could get involved.) It's not that I don't appreciate Curly and his antics, I do. But Shemp's face shows the pain and humiliation that the Stooges endure.Shemp, to quote my friend Max Collins, is the only one of the Stooges who seems dimly aware that life shouldn't be like this and thus is the most interesting character. Also to me the second most dimly aware is poor Larry. He seems to understand that Moe's solutions to their problems are almost always crazy. But he's goes along out of fear. Now I suppose I'LLL get letters. :)posted by Ed Gorman @ 12:48 PM
April 10, 2012
New Reasoner Western Collection Now Available: Texas Rangers
Ed here: I've not only read a lot of James' westerns I've bought more than a few of his short stories. There's nobody better at the form. Order it now.
I have a new collection available as an e-book from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. TEXAS RANGERS brings together seven short stories and novelettes that have appeared in various anthologies during the past 25 years. Three of them feature Cobb, a tough, enigmatic, lone wolf Ranger who always seems to find himself in bizarre, dangerous situations. The other four stories are centered around Captain John S. "Rip" Ford and the Old Company, who patrol the perilous frontier of South Texas during the 1850s. A number of the incidents in the Rip Ford stories are drawn from incidents described by Ford in his memoirs, and I've tried to make them fairly accurate historically. There's plenty of action, as you might expect, and I think they're pretty good yarns. Check 'em out!Posted by James Reasoner at 11:00 AM 2 comments
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At the Movies- The 25th Hour
The film takes place in the final 24 hours before he goes to prison. Ed Norton as the dealer, Phillip Seymour Hoffman as his hapless friend, Rosario Dawson as Norton's lover and Anna Paquin as the teenage student Hoffman is fixated on form a crushing ensemble. The acting is flawless.
The final twenty minutes, in the scene with Norton's father and the scene with Norton and Hoffman and another friend, are as good as anything I've seen in the last fifteen years.
I am a lonely voice recommending this movie but I think it will eventually get its due.
April 9, 2012
Triple Play by Max Allan Collins
Publication Date: April 17, 2012 | Series: Nathan HellerSince his introduction in 1983's True Detective, Chicago-based private eye Nathan Heller has handily earned his spot alongside American crime-fiction greats Phillip Marlowe, Archie Goodwin, and Mike Hammer. Now the classic gumshoe is back in this collection of three novellas, all based on real cases of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. InDying in the Post-War World, Heller returns from combat to find his marriage a shambles and himself square in the middle of the notorious Lipstick Killer case of 1946.Kisses of Death follows the PI into the 1950s, when he is hired to guard Marilyn Monroe. The famous starlet's intellectual pursuits eventually take Heller to Greenwich Village and a grisly murder. And in Strike Zone, Heller is hired by zany baseball boss Bill Veeck to investigate the 1961 murder of a famous pinch hitter, whose private life will suck Nate into a dangerous new world of little people and big sins. With Triple Play, New York Times-bestselling author Max Allan Collins has pried back the lid of history to reveal the ugly, entertaining truth behind three of the twentieth century's most shocking crimes.Ed here: I have to say that Max Collins' Nathan Heller novels are among the finest historical crime novels ever written. For one thing they are spellbinding STORIES, something too many historical novelists (even some of the biggies) fail to create. And for another they chart with wily and deserved cynicism The Great American Century as the last one liked to call itself.
If you have somehow never made acquaintance with Mr. Heller I suggest this is a fine introduction. His take on Marilyn Monroe captures the star in a way that numerous ponderous biographies never have for me--Heller identifies her as a girl-woman which she most certainly was. Collins is always particularly vivid when he writes about Old Hollywood and even in the shorter form both the mystery and the industry-run town are unforgettable. His take on Greenwich Village is masterful.
Bill Veeck was one of those living legends who had as many doubters as believers. He wouldn't have fit into the corporate kind of game baseball has become mainly because, like action heroes, he liked to live large, though for many reasons a good deal of that large living had to be kept quiet. Enter Nathan Heller who not only recreates Veeck but also that era of baseball, a more innocent time (or at least that's how we've agreed to view it). Clever mystery and clever story.
As a long time admirer (and occasionally copier) of Collins' work I would say that the long story here--really a short novel as a magazine would call it--is one of the most cunning, shocking and powerful things Max has ever written. For anybody who wants to write this should be mandatory reading; Dying In The Post-War World is how to plot a story.
All three of these cases are based on real Chicago crimes but the Lipstick Killer of Dying is by far the most unsettling. The characters are complex and vivid and the the story a minefield of twists and surprises. There is also moving backstory on the difficulties that men faced coming home from the big war, lending even more reality to the historical aspects of the short novel.
This is a major addition to the Nathan Heller body of work. Snap it up right away.
BTW The lovely woman on the book cover is Max's gorgeous wife Barb (who is also his collaborator on their antiques mysteries).
"ANCHORMAN'S" NEW RELEVANCE
MONDAY, APR 9, 2012 12:25 PM CDT"Anchorman's" new relevanceThe movie's director discusses the long-awaited sequel and how news anchors are growing ever more like Ron BurgundyBY DAVID SIROTA
TOPICS:INTERVIEWS, MOVIESLate last month, Ron Burgundy appeared on the Conan O'Brien show to make a major announcement that the moviegoing audience had been waiting for: In overdramatic Ron Burgundy fashion, he told the world that "Anchorman 2" will finally be made. A few days later, I talked to Ferrell's writing partner, Adam McKay, who co-wrote and directed "Anchorman" and who will do the same for the sequel.
McKay is one of the kings of the American comedy world, not merely producing blockbuster films, but also helping shape TV franchises like "Eastbound and Down" and creating the website Funny or Die. His career has been defined by his work on projects that weave comedy together with social and political themes.
My interview with McKay will air in full this Tuesday on my weekday AM760 morning radio show. You can click here to stream the full interview live when it airs on Tuesday, or find it archived on the show's podcast page after it airs. Here is an edited transcript of our discussion, which includes a look at the role of politics in comedy and some specific hints from McKay about what Ron Burgundy may end up doing in the "Anchorman" sequel.
Why has it taken Ron Burgundy nine years to come back to the American stage?
Well, first off, we went and did some other movies; that was the initial delay. By the time we heard from enough fans and heard enough of the demand for a sequel, it had been a few years. We went to the studio and they kind of weren't into it initially. They said the original one made pretty good money, but for what it made we'll give you this and this, and it was a very low budget. We would have all been working for free to do it.
For the next couple of years we'd check in with them every now and then and go, are you sure you don't want to do it? And finally they had said basically no three times and we had given up and thought all right, let's go do another movie. We were playing with the idea of doing "Stepbrothers 2″ or another original movie. And just at the last second I said, go check in with them again and see if it's just 100 percent dead. And, crazy luck, a movie had fallen through for them, their view on it had kind of changed and that was it.
Do you think Ron Burgundy has become even more relevant than he was back in 2004?
It's crazy — "Anchorman" is a movie that certainly fit the time when it came out and every year it gets more and more relevant. Part of what inspired the movie was just how ridiculous the news had become. It was all ratings driven. The people were getting better and better looking. The weather women were getting outrageously beautiful. It was all about the voice and the hair.
Since we made the movie it's gone even more so in that direction. We talk about all these anchormen on the air now and they're all kind of Ron Burgundy-esque guys. So yes, sadly, the character has gotten more and more relevant as the news has gotten to be nothing more than a ratings-driven profit machine that is never going to examine any of the real power in this country. The ridiculousness of "Anchorman" got less and less observed.
Can you give us a hint about what you're thinking of having Ron Burgundy do in "Anchorman 2"?
I don't want to give away too much, but I'll just give a couple pieces of ideas that we've kicked around. Keep in mind we're still writing the story, but I'll say one phrase for you: custody battle. I'll give you that. I'll give you one other one: bowling for dollars.
At the same time you have been working on an "Anchorman" sequel, you and Will Ferrell have been branching out. For instance, you guys got involved with an idea to do a Spanish-only movie called "Casa de Mi Padre." How did that happen?
It basically came out of Ferrell was up for doing a low-budget, kind of crazy movie. The original idea was we were just going to do a really bad movie and make it very poorly and have a lot of the joke be how badly the movie was made. At one point Ferrell said, "I want to do an all-Spanish movie." We all kind of laughed and kept kicking around ideas. But Ferrell kept coming back to this idea.
No big studio was interested, because once again it's an all-Spanish movie. So we got this company NALA, who was incredible; they financed it and it's made a nice bundle of money. It's gotten some good reactions. It opens in Mexico in a few weeks and our goal is No. 1 in Mexico. I just think that would be awesome.
There seems to be a trend in Hollywood where the same things are done over and over again. And yet, you and Will Ferrell keep doing different things. How have you resisted the pressure to just do the same stuff?
A lot of it's Will, because he's such a unique star in the sense that a lot of guys who do well in movies, a lot of actors and actresses get successful and they desperately want to stay on top, so they repeat those formulas.
From a distance, if you squint your eyes, I'm sure a lot of listeners are like, what do you mean? It's Will Ferrell, he does Will Ferrell movies. But if you really look at it he tries to do something different with each one, whether it's an action cop movie like "The Other Guys" or doing "Talladega Nights" going into red state America or "Casa de Mi Padre" or "Stranger Than Fiction," which is more of a drama. He's really amazing with that, he's driven by it, and so am I; we want to be challenged and excited. We actually feel like it's harder to do the same formula over and over again, because people pick up on it and you get blasted. Whereas if you're always doing something surprising or interesting or challenging people dig it, audiences want to see it.
As the creator of the website Funny or Die, how do you think the Internet is changing the kind of content we're seeing on movies and television?
It's amazing. I'm 43 and I'll certainly look at a lot of stuff on the computer, having a website, but my daughter doesn't watch TV. All she does is see stuff off of the computer, and all her friends are the same way. They don't watch television; they'll watch TV shows replayed on the computer, so there is a massive shift going on right now.
What that means is more and more movies and TV shows being done for a lower budget. Movies like "Paranormal Activity" that are made for a very low price because the production value and technology has gotten so good; most of the time that's not what leads movies or TV choices. I mean, when you get to giant spectacles like "Avatar" and "The Avengers," yes, it's going to be led by special effects. But 80 percent of the content is about the ideas, the actors, the writing and the ideas you're expressing. So, I think there's actually a good thing happening because of that.
You and Will Ferrell may be working on a movie about how difficult it is to get into college. You're also a producer on an upcoming movie called "The Campaign" where Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis play candidates running against each other. Is this a deliberate effort to work on more politically themed films?
Here's the thing: I don't view politics as politics. I view them as choices that we're making as a group, and when those choices get crazy you gotta comment on them and make fun. I have no political ax to grind, I just find it absurd that huge billion-dollar corporations can take over elections. I just find it insane that, for instance, we give tax breaks to people like myself making millions of dollars, while there're no tax breaks for working people. That, to me, is not a political issue, that's a life issue. And Will and I just don't discern between the two.
If something's crazy we want to comment on it. We know it's funny, we know it can be tragic. But most of all we know it's interesting and relevant. First and foremost when you're doing comedy, you gotta be relevant and applicable to the times that you're living in. When you try and just do comedy about who is dating who and lifestyle jokes, it gets tiring after a while. It's hard to be funny in that realm.
Do you think there's been a shift in the country that has made the sometimes risk-averse entertainment world a little more accepting of controversial political topics as fodder for comedy?
Yeah, I think there's no question about it. Look, we lost our minds in the '80s and '90s; we really as a society just felt that everyone could only care about themselves. There was no responsibility to discuss what's going on in your town, your state, your nation. And it was a blast, it was really fun, but it doesn't work.
Today's debates over unionization, community planning, civil rights and all these other successes that made our country great — these successes gave us the cushion to party and all become selfish morons in the '80s and '90s. So now we're returning to those debates and we're discussing things that used to be discussed.
In the '80s and '90s, when you had dinner with your family or people you met, you didn't talk about the factory closing down the street or the pollution. But now, we are talking about these really important issues and I think it's a really good thing. I don't think it's right-wing or left-wing, I think it's just discussing what's going on — and it's good that we can now do that.
Close
David Sirota is a best-selling author of the new book "Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now." He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com. More David Sirota
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April 7, 2012
Pre-Order Bill Crider; Dave Zeltserman
Sheriff Dan Rhodes is called to The Beauty Shack, where the young and pretty Lynn Ashton has been found dead, bashed over the head with a hairdryer. The owner said she'd gone to the salon late to meet a client, but no one seems to know who that client was.
Lynn was a party girl and it's possible an angry wife or girlfriend, or jilted lover, had something to do with her death. Or maybe the killer is a client who confided a secret to Lynn.
While he investigates the murder, Rhodes must also deal with the theft of copper and car batteries, not to mention a pregnant nanny goat that is terrorizing the town.
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Available August 2nd from Overlook Press. Pre-order your copy today! The supernatural, unmissable new novel by the ALA Best Horror award nominee. In nineteenth-century Germany, one young man counts down the days until he can marry his beloved . . . until she is found brutally murdered, and the young man is accused of the crime. Broken on the wheel and left for dead, he awakens on a lab table, transformed into an abomination. Friedrich must go far to take his revenge --only to find his tormentor, Victor Frankenstein, in league with the Marquis de Sade, creating something much more sinister deep in the mountains. Paranormal and gripping in the tradition of the best work of Stephen King and Justin Cronin, Monster is a gruesome parable of control and vengeance, and an ingenious tribute to one of literature's greatest.
Victor Frankenstein. Marquis de Sade. Witch burnings. Vampyres. Devil worshipers. Depraved London sex clubs. Street gangs. Vengeance. Obsession. Damnation.
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