A man with dark wavy hair wakes up in an iron-framed bed in the middle of a windowless room. He leaps out from under the white sheets and stares intently at a corner of the white ceiling. Suddenly, gracefully, he spins to defeat an invisible opponent in four swift motions, finally falling to his knees [...]
Production Designer Ray Cusick has died. Cusick is most famous for creating Doctor Who’s nemeses, The Daleks, but he also worked on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple (1985 & 1987), Cold Comfort Farm (1968) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1975). The BBC reports on his death and the creation of the Daleks here and here.
Monster Island Resort Podcast celebrates Women In Horror Month with a reading of horror forerunner, Romantic and Gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe’s “The Supernatural in Poetry.” Terror vs. Horror. Gore vs. No Gore. Realism vs. Atmosphere. It’s all discussed.
Listen to BBC Radio 4′s production of Chester Himes’ crime classic, Cotton Comes to Harlem. Only available for a short time. (Thanks, Andrew Nette)
At Pulp Curry, novelist and journalist Andrew Nette muses on crime fiction set in Asia, in particular China and Cambodia. “What does it mean for the story and characters when your crime fiction is set in a country where corruption and extreme violence are regular features of everyday life and the term ‘criminal’ is often [...]
The Best of S.J. Perelman including, “Somewhere a Roscoe…,” Perelman’s paeon to Spicy Detective Magazine‘s Dan Turner, is online at the Internet Archive. Perelman proclaims his love in the pages of The New Yorker: “Yes, I know— call it a school-boy crush, puppy love, the senseless infatuation of a callow youth for a middle-aged, worldly-wise [...]
Author Donald Sobol has died. NPR has an obituary. At All Things Considered, crime novelist Jonathan Hayes remembers Sobol’s famous character, Encyclopedia Brown. “I loved these stories because they were about a kid like me, a kid who solved mysteries with logic and common sense, often exposing the hypocrisy of foolishly dismissive adults. I loved [...]
Actor and comedian Andy Griffith has died. Boston.com has an overview of his career. The Hollywood Reporter has memorials from Jim Nabors and Ron Howard. And here is a Griffith stand-up bit from 1953 with images drawn by George Woodbridge.
Summer’s come early this year, with the hum of air conditioners and fans in the air and the grass peacefully brown beneath my feet, the fireflies rising into the trees and all around the internet, Summer Top Ten lists are in bloom, from the Top Ten YA Summer Reads to the Top Ten Summer Eggplant Recipes [...]
Recently, I’ve been thinking about danger. Specifically, the kind of danger that runs through a certain subsection of Romance, often called ‘romantic suspense’. These are the stories that drop the hero and heroine into physical jeopardy in addition to exposing them to all the emotional risks of falling in love. When done well, they share [...]
Spectactularoptical interviews the gentlemen of the Canadian genre film making collective, Astron-6, and includes a retrospective–with video!
Tim Callahan is re-reading and writing about all of Alan Moore’s major comics. From Hell, Moore’s collaboration with Eddie Campbell, is the 26th installment.
Writers Joe Lansdale and Andrew Vachss have a conversation about their books Edge of Dark Water and That’s How I Roll, the power of books, the importance of libraries and librarians, publishing as a fixed fight and a helluva lot more. Part one and part two.
Kyla Ward looks back on the work of writer and horror icon, as author of “The Lottery” and The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson, in an issue of Tabula Rasa from 1995. “To say Shirley Jackson is a psychological novelist, and that the horror in her stories comes from the increasingly skewed perceptions of [...]
From the personal blog of John H. Watson comes the Case of the Geek Interpreter.
Monika Bartyzel writes about “softening and sexualizing Lisbeth Salander” in David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the pre-release posters and Stieg Larsson and his novel. “There seems to be a relief that Mara’s Salander is a more relatable person, that classic ‘female’ tropes like softness and vulnerability are visible. It speaks [...]
Ned Kelly, age 14, reviews, The Dead Kid Detective Agency, by Gutter Guest Star (and interviewee), Evan Munday. Also, Kirkus reviews it, but Kirkus isn’t 14 years old.
In honor of Steve Ditko’s birthday, The Belated Nerd has posted Steve Ditko and Stan Lee’s “The Creature in the Black Bog” from Tales of Suspense #23
The Internet Archive has a collection of the old time radio show, Inner Sanctum Mysteries, sure to spookify any All Hallow’s Eve.
Science studies whether spoilers spoil. Strangely enough, they might not. Even more strangely, they might make the spoiled story more enjoyable.
keep looking »
