You Tell Me Where The Real Ends And The Pulp Begins

He felt something explode off the back of his head, and he sank to his hands and knees, bolts of pain radiating through his body like the energy waves broadcasting from the RKO Studios’ theatrical emblem.
- The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, p. 281-282
I really am pretty mad at myself for waiting so long to read [...]

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Comic Book Odds And Ends

I haven’t intended for this blog to become a look at only comic books and movies, I swear it. Prose coverage is, as always, in the works as well, and meant to be the bulk of what is done here. Nonetheless, I must share with you a cool new cover, and the greatest team-up of [...]

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You Are A Traitor To Your Country And Your Class!

Phew, ok, so it’s been awhile since I last worked on my gargantuan undertaking to cover (most of) the breadth of the Zorro mythos, but I guess that’s kinda fitting considering that I’m also skipping ahead nearly fifty years from the last part that I covered.
But first of all, for those who have no idea [...]

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The Last Fantastic Four Story

When I first saw an ad in one of my normal comics for a one-shot called The Last Fantastic Four Story I must say my first thought was “didn’t they already do a Fantastic Four: The End?”
For those who don’t know, Marvel’s “The End” comics are mini-series chronicling a non-canon “ending” for this or that [...]

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Thank You, God!

One of my favorite films of all time is finally going to come out on DVD. As a child I damn near wore out the VHS copy, and when I say that there is pretty much no film that I’ve been as desperately awaiting, (at least, not since Adventures of Robin Hood came to DVD) [...]

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Purity Of Blood

And worst of all is the person who acts as exegete of The Word–whether it be from the Talmud, the Bible, the Koran, or any other book already written or yet to come. I am not fond of giving advice–no one can pound opinions into another’s head–but here is a piece that costs you nothing: [...]

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Questions For Book Bloggers (Assuming Anyone Cares About My Answers)

I caught this over at Hidden Side of a Leaf, and figured what the hell. After all, I do love talking about myself, and right now I really need a break from trying to edit my own novel into a workable third draft.
(Editing, for those unaware, is where an author gets to forget all that [...]

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Starring Who…?

I came across the strangest movie the other day. Apparently, in 1954, Alan Ladd made an Arthurian swashbuckler called The Black Knight. Who knew?
The first thing that strikes one about such a film, is how ridiculously misplaced Ladd is in the lead. For those who don’t know, Alan Ladd is mostly known for stalking about [...]

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Daybreak, Atlantic City. Secret Life, On A Honeymoon. Life Apart.

Don’t let the psuedo-Marilyn Monroe bombshell on the cover fool you, Fright is not any kind of particularly simmering or sexual story. I’m not sure I’d even go so far as to classify it as the same kind of noirish, hardboiled stuff that Hard Case Crime normally puts out. It is, however, a gripping, if [...]

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Look! We’re Now Helpless!

The fine folks over at Bookgasm have just recently made me aware of the MOST INCREDIBLE BOOK EVER.
Every new tidbit learned about the strange works of Fletcher Hanks does nothing but get me more excited about reading I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets. Just look at some of the examples given in the above [...]

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To Know One’s Self For Fortune’s Fool

Phew, sorry about being gone so long, everybody. I still don’t have internet in my new home, but at least the personal distractions that kept me from doing any reading have slowed down, if not stopped entirely. I did a good deal of catching up the other night, and most importantly finished a book whose [...]

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