Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Guest post by the wonderful author Seamus Cooper

The most amazing Seamus Cooper tweeted me the other day and told me he'd write a post for me. After emailing him, he emailed this to me yesterday. I think it's fantastic. I hope to bring him back in the future for an up date, So let me shut up and let his post start. And seriously, go buy his book.


Hey, blogosphere! It’s your pal Seamus Cooper, author of the Mall of Cthulhu, and, more importantly in this case, guy who does not have finals this week! (The last time I had finals was, I believe, late in the Polk administration.)

So: no time for a horror movie this week? (Maybe you have finals or something). Why not pick up a horror comic instead? Here are some suggestions:

Atomic Robo: The Shadow From Beyond Time. (Red 5 Comics). Though Atomic Robo is a really fun and lighthearted adventure comic, this particular volume has Robo fighting a Lovecraftian horror from beyond time and space through many decades. Ol’ H.P. Lovecraft Not scary, but tons of fun. himself (as gibbering madman) makes an appearance in issue 1!

We Kill Monsters (Red 5 Comics). So what if two brothers who ran a garage ran into some kind of homicidal demon that they killed, but in killing it, one of them wound up with a big, green, muscular demon arm with big, scary claws? And then they had a whole bunch more monsters to kill? Sometimes with shovels? You’d have a kickass comic, that’s what.

North 40 (Wildstorm). This one is actually scary. We’re only 2 issues in, but so far, hoo boy this is a winner. Something very awful happens in a small desert town one night. When everyone wakes up, most of them have been horribly transformed and their town is literally hell on earth. Lots of great, creepy images.

Creepy (Dark Horse). The next issue isn’t coming out until October, but you can still find issue 1 around. If you’re not familiar with Creepy, it was a black-and-white horror anthology comic book in the 60’s and 70’s featuring nasty little stories with a twist in the Tales from the Crypt vein. Dark Horse has collected many of the originals in big, beautiful, and pricey hardcover editions (they should run you about 50 bucks a pop). But even more exciting and, more importantly, affordable, they’ve brought back Creepy as a new comic book drawn and written by all kinds of talented people. It’s in black and white and features nasty little stories with a twist. And it is excellent.

If trade paperbacks are more your style, the Marvel Essentials series has lots of great stuff to choose from. I’m currently working my way through Essential Man-Thing, which features a shambling swamp creature and completely nutty (but in a good way) writing that features lots of trans-dimensional demon fighting and nearly endless repetition of the sentence “Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch!” (There are collections of all Marvel’s horror comics from the 70’s, so if werewolves or vampires are more your style, you can get those too.)

Finally, if you are not yet reading The Walking Dead, go buy volume 1 right now. It’s a familiar story of survivors after a zombie apocalypse, but it’s got much more emotional realism and power than pretty much anything else set in this universe. It’s an incredible tour de force full of characters who feel like real people, and, as in all the best zombie stories, the real horror is in the way the survivors interact with each other. Well, that and the awesome zombie killing.

That’s it for me. Back to your regularly scheduled blog entries as soon as finals are over. If you enjoy my smartass, irreverent take on horror, please consider buying my book, The Mall of Cthulhu.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Surprise, surprise

The Wolfman trailer debuted yesterday and took the horror community by storm. As I said on my twitter page it pretty much raped me. I was so intensely watching it I jumped. Twice. Not something I do often anymore.
I could give two shits about the CGI transformation to be honest. I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've ever be in favor of CGI in a horror film. Probably because I wasn't watching it to rip it apart, I watched it out of curiosity.  Not too long ago I verbally stated that I refuse to see it, but now I'm having second thoughts. Maybe all the set backs were worth it, and they saved the movie.

The whole point of this post was to state that someone is writing a guest post. I have no idea who, or what about, but I'm lazy, next week is finals I'm about to fail a class, and I have a portfolio presentation. So next week it too stressful to think about posts, and plus my best friend is saving me tomorrow and taking me to the AI tour so I can make fun of Adam Gaybert. 

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Awwwe Sheeeeeet

Sunday I moved into a new dorm. In the new dorm I have no internet. I'm currently working on that. I should have internet shortly if my mother doesn't go bat shit crazy again.

So that means a huge shortage of posts. BUT I'm in the works of trying to convince a friend too write something up for me, so hopefully that'll get done soon. 

When I get back online there will be PLENTY of posts....hopfully.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

True Blood...?

Why does it seem like I'm the only one NOT on this True Blood bandwagon?

Oh... that's because I pretty much AM the only one not on it.

Reasons:
1) I don't have a tv. not having a tv means not having cable.
2)Even if I HAD cable, I wouldn't have HBO anyways. College kids don't have money. Period. Any money I do have is going towards this. Since my batshit crazy mother thinks if I go to New York alone I'm going to get raped a murdered. Seriously.
3) I read the books they were based off of. Need I say more?

But I ask this question. If I have HBO at home, and I go home often, why don't I watch at home, borrow the first season from someone... and so on.

Sometimes I amaze myself.


If you've ever wondered how awesome I REALLY am, go visit the lovely BJ-C at DotW and check out this post she did featuring a disgusting video of crazy twatlighters I randomly came across today. ;)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Say wha?

What the hell is this?

Say what? Of course you can't hold any sort of hope for anything written by Entertainment Weekly... Vampire list anyone?

The fact that Hostel 2 was on it in the first place killed me, that was probably the worst sequel to a movie I've ever seen. Speaking of sequels Alien 3? 28 WEEKS later?

oh oh oh DARKMAN? Mr. Raimi I love you, but I do not love Darkman.

Congrats for The Descent, and Shaun of the Dead, [even though I haven't watched you. I refuse too. Not the point] for making it onto the list. Also, including Ringu and NOT it's american counterpart. I'm proud of them.

The newest movie on their list is of course the ever-so-wonderful Drag Me to Hell which my friends and I enjoyed very much. I'd like to say it's the movie that kicked off a good string of horror movies. [excluding The Collector].

The number 1 was an Asian horror film. Sorry but my foreign film knowledge doesn't stream that far over, and honestly I've never heard of it, not even from the grapevine. Which is interesting.

I think they throw a bunch of idiots in a room and tell them to make a list. Throw myself, a horror virgin, a raccoon, a monkey in a room together with a case of beer, and we could come up with a better list.


Ridiculous.