Villainology: Fabulous Lives of the Big, the Bad, and the Wicked

by Arthur Slade, Derek Mah (Illustrator)

Villainology is a veritable who’s who of characters from the underworld. Be they fictitious or all-too-genuine baddies, they are bound together by their infamous deeds. Author Arthur Slade takes a lighthearted view, nonetheless, and provides personal stats, their likes and dislikes, their high-school memories and an amazing array of cool facts along with up close and personal “interviews.” Readers will not only come away amused, they will come away with an enlarged store of general knowledge. Among the fourteen notable villains included The Wicked Witch of the West, Attila the Hun, The Wolf, Billy the Kid, The Headless Horseman, Morgan le Fay, Quin Hui, The Invisible Man, Scarface Capone, and a lineup of Shakespeare’s most memorable villains. Never-before-seen portraits of each by artist Derek Mah, make for a deliciously delectable rogue’s gallery.

Genres: Canada, Nonfiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 9, 2007

About the author

Arthur Slade was raised in the Cypress Hills of southwest Saskatchewan and began writing at an early age. He is the author of the bestselling The Hunchback Assignments series of books, Dust (which won the Governor General's award), Tribes and Jolted. He lives in Saskatoon, Canada (which really is a real place). Join his creative & somewhat clever newsletter at: what a zany newsletter!

Reviews

[Gena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and occasionally informative

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book and its companion volume Monsterology: Fabulous Lives of the Creepy, the Revolting, and the Undead go side by side like a two pieces of toast. They are wonderful to read. After reading them through the first time, I pick them up and randomly flip through and read different profiles. Wonderfully illustrated with portraits of each villain and small embellishments through the book by Derek Mah, this book is fun and frivolous and just plain fantastic.

In this volume there are profiles of 15 villains are:
The Wicked Witch of The West
Atilla the Hun
The Wolf
Billy the Kid
The Headless Horseman
Morhan le Fay
Qin Hui
Shakespearian Cillians
The Invisible Monster
Emperor Nero
The Queen (from Little Snow White)
Scarface Capone
Scrooge
The Phantom of the Opera (Not the Webbrowser.)
MephistophelesArthur Slade, in a very cheeky fashion, presents a short biography of each of these characters. He tells their story with a mix of the story they come from - myth, legends, and his own twisted take on their life and times. Each profile is an attempt to elicit a response and will probably cause many young readers to pursue some of the classics that they are drawn from. This book is very well done and was a great pleasure to read, and I am sure I will reread it again and again. Bravo.

Read the review on my blog Book Reviews and More and reviews of other books by arthur Slade. As well as an author profile and interview with Arthur