2016 YEAR IN REVIEW - "BOOKS IN REVIEW"

BOOKS IN REVIEW

I’d like to first say that even though it’s now February, I’m still thinking about what a great year 2016 was and all the amazing films, live events, and books I read that helped make the year better than 2015.  At the beginning of 2016 I told myself I was going to read more books than in 2015 because as a writer I should be reading more fiction and non-fiction to be able to craft more well-rounded and compelling stories.  Although I didn’t fulfill my overall goal of the year, I did manage to read a good amount of non-fiction books which in my opinion is always a good thing.

Of the fiction books I read I managed to finish “The Meowmorphosis” from Franz Kafka and Coleridge Cook which is a mash-up take of the Kafka classic except the main character morphs into a giant cute kitten instead of a cockroach.  Being a huge fan of Kafka’s story I enjoyed the novelty of the book but to me giant cute kittens are just as terrifying as cockroaches.  I also managed to read my first Elmore Leonard novel with “Raylan”, which is a sequel to the show Justified (based on Leonard’s series of novels).  I loved this novel so much that I plan on going back to read more Leonard novels because he has a great style as an author.  I was completely disappointed with John Shirley’s novelization of “Resident Evil: Retribution.”  I’ve read all the books based on the films and this is the worst of the lot; it took me a while to get through the book because of the style of writing which wasn’t on par with any of the previous novelizations.  I’m hoping that the novelization of “The Final Chapter” is much better.

I will say that a majority of the non-fiction books I read this year were film related.  I started the year off with another book on director David Cronenberg (if you remember I read two in 2015); “Cronenberg on Cronenberg” which is edited by Chris Rodley was an excellent book on the insight of the infamous director of Scanners, The Brood, The Fly, Dead Ringers, and countless others and getting into his process of crafting these films was key to the books success.  Now this isn’t a new book but because the process of crafting these films isn’t going to change reading this book was instrumental into getting into his head.  I would love to read an updated version of the book where the director discusses his more current films.  Along these same lines is “Lucio Fulci: Poetry & Cruelty in the Movies” by Antonio Bruschini & Antonion Tentori.  Not the best book on the infamous director as it spends more time on synopsis of the films rather than on any meaningful discussion of the films themselves but it works for those with a cursory knowledge of the director and his films.  Not really for those of us who have read many of the other books dedicated to the director.  Another film related book that I managed to finish was actor Gunnar Hansen’s “Chainsaw Confidential: How We Made the World’s Most Notorious Horror Movie” which details the making of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre for the perspective of the man that played Leatherface.  This was another great book as it really got into the heart of what it felt like to be on the set of this infamous film from beginning to end.  Hansen has a clear and concise way of presenting his story that is engaging and entertaining at the same time.  It is said to say that this was his final book before passing away in 2015.  Life Books also put out the excellent “Life: Science Fiction: 100 Years of Great Movies” which every film fan should make sure to pick up in order to put together their own list of “must see” films.

A couple random books that I finished reading this year include Inazo Nitobe’s “Code of the Samurai: Bushido: The Soul of Japan” which is more of a coffee table book about everything as it relates to Bushido and “30-Second Religion” edited by Russell Re Manning.  I’ve been reading several of the books in the “30-Second” series and they are a quick and informative reference guide to all sorts of useful and helpful subjects.  I’m currently reading one of Ancient Egypt and well tell you how it is next year.

Imagine Publishing updated it’s “100 All-Time Greatest Comics (Third Edition)” which for comic fans is a must read.  I learned a lot a great many comics that are now on my “must read” for 2017.  As you know I read a lot of graphic novels but even this list had tons of titles I wasn’t even familiar with.

On the supernatural side of things, I read “An American Haunting: The Bell Witch” edited by Brent Monahan and based on the true story of the Bell Witch incident (which was recently made into the film An American Haunting).  This was the entire story of the legend and even those who have watched the film will be able to know all the real details of what allegedly happened.

Ending my 2016 reading list will be several books in the Rue Morgue

Magazine Library series.  A couple years ago Rue Morgue started putting out books in there Library series on many different topics geared towards horror fans and fans of the magazine.  I managed to get through five of them last year – “Blood in Four Colors: A Graphic History of Horror Comics”, “Cryptic Collectibles: A Concise Compendium of Creepy Keepsakes”, “Horror Movie Heroes”, “Horrorwood North: The Extraordinary History & Art of Canadian Genre Cinema”, and “Weird Stats & Morbid Facts.”  I could go into detail about each of these books but suffice it to say that these are an excellent series of books from all different aspects of the horror genre.  All of them are well written and put together and informative.  These are some great additions to any horror fans book shelf and since they each contain hundreds of photos they are great to look at as well.

Now that I look forward to 2017, I still need to get off my ass and read more fiction books and read more variety of non-fiction books (because I read too many books on film) but that’s something I’ll have to work on.  I’ll let you know next year how it goes.

"Rants & Ravings About Horror" - Week 23: “Horror Magazines”

Week 23: “Horror Magazines”

Horror magazines are part of our culture (us horror fans that is).  Despite all the ready-made websites out there, there is no better place to get the most up to date information on everything horror past or present than a good magazine and I (luckily) still read many of them despite also finding time to visit many horror websites.  

One of the oldest and most successful is Fangoria (www.fangoria.com).  This magazine holds a special place for me as it was the first horror magazine I read growing up.  I remember the cover had the creature from Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers (1992) and that was the whole reason I picked up the magazine.  Fangoria always had fantastic covers that drew you in.  All the rest of the articles were just icing on the cake and the magazine had some of the best written articles I had ever read (which wasn’t saying much since that was the first magazine of its kind that I’d ever read at the time).  I became an instant collector right then and there and never missed an issue since.  Now the magazine has had its ups and downs over the years especially in the years when there were very few quality mainstream and indie horror films but right now it is back in good form focusing on new retrospectives on classic films and influential filmmakers especially in this time when there are fewer and fewer genre specific directors emerging.

My favorite magazine right now is Horror Hound (www.horrorhound.com).  It’s not as old as some of the others that will be mentioned here but they do some of the most thorough articles of all the magazines that I read.  This is a magazine that really focuses on articles for the horror fan and never seems like its repetitive or been done before.  Unfortunately, whereas a lot of other magazines have articles on the exact same subject within the same couple months, this magazine never seems like it follows that trend.  It’s long running series on films stuck in VHS purgatory is of particular interest for horror fans as are there extended retrospectives on entire film series (no other magazine comes close to the quality of these articles).  If you don’t currently read any horror magazines this would be the one to start off with.

Rue Morgue (www.rue-morgue.com) is another one of the longest running horror magazines.  I love the fact that this magazine delves into all facets of the horror genre from movies to books to music to video games.  For someone just wanting to read a little more about everything then this is definitely for you.  My only problem is the fact that the articles are shorter, on the average, but when they do an article with extended coverage that is when it is really worth it.  They also do articles on horror artists including tattoo artists which most magazines never even bother with.  

Famous Monsters of Filmland (www.famousmonsters.com) is a magazine that many of you might remember as being started by Forrest J. Ackerman.  It was cancelled at one point and resurrected and still goes strong to this day.  It works as a magazine in the PG area as it was designed for small children as they grew up into monster lovers.  It covers a lot of older television horror and does a great job in their extensive articles on specific personalities and talent.  The biggest draw for this magazine is the fact that there articles are so thorough and the fact that they highlight current television shows when other magazines do not.  My only problem with the magazine is that many times I don’t really care for the television show they focus on for any given issue and unfortunately that focus can take up more than half of the issue (recent issues that I didn’t care about focused on The Munsters and Supernatural, which I don’t care for).  This is a minor problem (as you can see) as I still remain with the magazine because the quality is still high.

On the more extreme spectrum is the resurrection of Gorezone (www.facebook.com/gorezonemagazine) which is for the hardcore horror fan as it delves into extreme horror films such as The Faces of Death franchise, Cannibal Holocaust, and many more.  It can only be purchased through the Fangoria website and it has a hefty price tag but the quality of the articles is just like that of the parent magazine so it is well worth the price.  There are articles here that you can’t find in the parent magazine nor the website.

Another magazine like this (but not nearly as extreme) is the UK’s Scream (www.screamhorrormag.com) magazine which you can purchase a physical or digital copy of.  The quality of the articles is good but there is too much of a scattered-brained collage of articles in each issue.  They just kind of through a little bit of everything in each issue so you never know what you’re going to get and there are few regular columns in this magazine unlike in Fangoria and Rue Morgue and Horror Hound.  What this magazine has are some of the best collection of photos from the films it highlights. 

Another one of my favorite magazines is Diabolique (www.diaboliquemagazine.com) (which has some of the best articles written among any of the magazines discussed.  Their articles are heavily researched and thorough and very informative and the articles can vary in subject matter (because a lot of the articles are queried based on a particular issue’s topic).  This is probably one of the best designed and put together of the magazines as each issue is topic driven and each article contributes to the whole of the issue.  I’ve never been disappointed by an issue but my biggest issue is the long wait between issues and the fact that not all bookstores and newsstands carry the magazine on a consistent basis.

The last magazine I’m going to mention is the specialized Delirium (www.deliriummagazine.com) magazine which is put out by Full Moon Entertainment and focuses on many of their own films and films they’ve distributed.  Not really a magazine designed for the casual horror fan especially if you don’t like the majority of Full Moon’s films but if you do then this magazine gives you more coverage than any other magazine ever has.  Each issue does highlight a classic horror film (previous issues highlight Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Shockwaves) but for the most part this one stays away from modern horror films.

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Now there are plenty more horror magazines that I don’t read such as Screem (www.screemag.com), Scary Monsters (www.scarymonstersmagazine.com), etc. but there is only so many magazines that I can read on a consistent basis. 

I’m a hard core horror fan and even though I now read the digital version of a couple of these magazines nothing will ever replace the feeling of sitting down with a physical copy of Fangoria or Rue Morgue or Horror Hound and letting myself be immersed in a different world…just one filled with monsters and bloodshed.