Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Last August I posted about a tv show called Lawman that would premiere in 2010. At that time I said that it looked interesting enough to make me want to tune in. Well, tomorrow night that will happen. Although the title of the show has been changed, my feelings about it haven’t.
The series is now called Justified and is based on an Elmore Leonard novella called Fire in the Hole. So at 10pm, I’ll tune in to FX hoping that my feelings are, uh, justified.
I’m a big Victor Gischler fan. I’ve enjoyed everything that I’ve read by him and am really looking forward to his latest novel, The Deputy. Fans of crime/noir can look forward to a worthy read. I know I do. Here’s part of the publisher’s summary…
Toby doesn’t have a lot going for him. Twenty-five, a couple of years of junior college, married to a girl he got pregnant and living in a trailer on the edge of town. He’s working part time for the police department, hoping the budget comes through and they can put him on full time, so he can get health benefits. His wife is a waitress at a little crap diner near the railroad tracks. When he gets the call about the dead body, he pins his tin star to his Weezer t-shirt, slips into a pair of sweatpants and grabs his revolver…
As you can imagine, it’s all downhill from there.
If you order The Deputy from the publisher and use the promo code “twitter” you’ll get three bucks off and free shipping! Prefer Amazon? Here’s a link for that as well.
You’ve heard me sing the praises [well, write ’em anyway] of Jonathan Maberry before. If you read his first Joe Ledger novel, Patient Zero, then you’re a fan of his work. [If you haven’t read it, you should. Yeah, it’s that good great.]
Maberry’s second Ledger novel, The Dragon Factory, is now available. [Yes, I’ve already got my copy!] Maberry talks about Joe Ledger, and more in a great little interview over at StaticEchoes.com. Here’s a bit of what Maberry has to say:
I always loved the thinking hero, so Joe Ledger grew out of that; and I dug the concept of villains who were smart and devious, and who sometimes used the appearance of the supernatural as a smokescreen. In a lot of ways my villains owe more to the pulps than they do to, say, James Bond.
…the second Joe Ledger novel.. deals with geneticists using transgenic science for ethnic cleansing and to complete the Nazi Master Race program. Lots of monsters and mutations…
The Dragon Factory also has about twice the action –and Patient Zero had a lot—but I dial things way up in the second book.
You can [and should] read the entire interview by clicking here.
If you can’t wait for The Expendables to premiere in theaters later this year, then perhaps an Expendables comic prequel will help hold you over. CBR.com has an interview with Chuck Dixon, the writer of the project. Here’s a bit of what Dixon had to say:
“This is a movie that Sylvester Stallone has been trying to get together for years; an action movie packed with as many well-known action stars as possible…
“Sly’s not re-inventing the wheel here. He’s just built a really bad-ass, killer wheel of awesomeness…
“My job is to tell a story that takes place before the events of the movie without revealing anything that’s to come in the movie’s story…
To read the full interview as well as see some preliminary art for the comic, simply click here.
This month’s Previews featured a full page ad for a new printing of Steranko’s classic Chandler: Red Tide. Originally published in 1976, Chandler: Red Tide is sometimes referred to as the first graphic novel. At the time it was published, Steranko called it an illustrated novel. I think a more accurate description is the one used by Dark Horse in the press release:
After emerging as Marvel Comics most controversial superstar, Jim Steranko tackled his greatest artistic challenge: creating an entirely new medium, the visual novel -not an illustrated novel or novel-length comic book, but a seamless fusion of interdependent graphic and prose narratives forming a powerful and original new method of telling stories.
But why stop there? Let’s go on… Chandler: Red Tide is an…
… artistic tour-de-force, Red Tide is hard-boiled detective fiction in the bare-knuckle tradition of Hammett, Cain, and Chandler, as well as the dark, atmospheric milieu of film noir.
Although I own an original printing that’s been in my collection since it was first published, I will be picking up the Dark Horse edition since it…
has been remastered with state-of-the-art digital colors by Eisner Award-winner Dave Stewart, in a collector’s quality hardcover edition.
Jonathan Maberry has a nice interview with bestselling author F. Paul Wilson that sadly is no longer online. Wilson writes about a character called Repairman Jack that Wilson describes as…
…an urban mercenary in Manhattan, a self-made outcast who lives in the interstices of modern society. A ghost in our machine: no official identity, no social security number, pays no taxes. He has a violent streak he sometimes finds hard to control. He hires out for cash to “fix” situations that have no legal remedy.
If this sounds like something you’d like then you can learn more about Repairman Jack and F. Paul Wilson here.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly eight years since we posted that Jim Thompson’s classic novel The Killer Inside Me was set to become a major motion picture. Of course a lot has changed since then. Dominic “Swordfish” Sena was set to direct and no stars had been named. The reality is that Michael Winterbottom ended up helming the feature with Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Simon Baker and Bill Pulman co-starring.
A Killer Inside Me is my favorite Thompson book and I hope that everything comes together to make it a good film. Unfortunately, there’s already been a lot of controversy coming from it’s screening at Sundance. I guess we’ll know how good it is soon enough… once the distributor decides on a release date.
There’s a nice little interview with Rambo creator, David Morrell over at Jonathan Maberry’s blog. Here are a couple of quotes:
First Blood has been constantly in print for 38 years.
It’s an odd experience to be associated with one of the five most identifiable characters in the world, along with Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, James Bond, and Harry Potter.
It’s pretty cool that Sly is associated with one of the five most identifiable characters in the world.
Today it was announced that Sony Pictures has picked up movie rights to the Avery Cates series. Congrats to Jeff Sumers [who should take a day to celebrate and then get back to work on the next Avery Cates adventure]!
I was shocked to read the news this morning that Robert B. Parker had passed away yesterday. Although Parker was 77, his death was unexpected. He seemed to be in good health and as prolific as ever, writing as many as three books a year. The cause of death has been determined to have been a heart attack. Parker died at his desk working on his next novel.
My grandfather was a prolific reader and I can remember the evening that he told me about this new author, Robert B. Parker, and this wise-cracking detective that Parker had created. Grandpa thought that I’d enjoy the novel and passed me The Godwulf Manuscript. I was hooked. And I wasn’t the only one. Parker’s detective, Spenser, would return in 36 other novels as well as a television series and made for tv movies. Parker is said to have influenced a new generation of writers. Perhaps best-selling novelist Harlon Coben said it best: “When it comes to detective novels, 90 percent of us admit he’s an influence, and the rest of us lie about it.”
Parker eventually branched out to write other series characters [Jessie Stone – a small town sheriff; Sunny Randall – a female detective; a Western trilogy featuring a couple of gunfighters that many called wild west versions of Spenser and Hawk] as well as some stand alone novels. But it was always the new Spenser novel that I wanted to read as soon as it became available. I’ve written many times on my blog that each new Spenser novel is like meeting up with an old friend. I’m going to miss meeting up with Spenser.
I already miss Robert B. Parker.
My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and fans.
It’s not often that the same day I discover a new author that I’ll order up a new hardback of his work. But that’s what did today after hearing about Lou Berney’s novel Gutshot Straight. My interest was raised when I saw a tweet from Bookgasm.com. So I headed over to the site and saw this trailer for the novel.
I liked the trailer, so I found Berney’s site. I read a bit about Berney and an excerpt from Gutshot Straight and was sold. So I headed over to Amazon.com and pre-ordered a copy. If Gutshot Straight sounds like something you’d like, go ahead and order one too! Consider it an early Christmas present to yourself.
If you’re a Darwyn Cooke fan, and you should be if you read comics, then you’ll probably want to check out this interview at CBR.com. Darwyn talks about his work on an upcoming issue of Jonah Hex as well as his sequel to his critically acclaimed adaptation of Richard Stark’s The Hunter.
I really hope that the movie adaptation of The Road lives up to Cormac McCarthy’s novel. If it even comes close we’re in for a great time. I like the poster and hope that the praise on it is warranted. If you’d like to see a map-sized version of the poster from IMPAwards.com, then click here.
“The Black Terror: Seduction of Deceit” Week [written by Beau Smith & Chuck Dixon with art by Dan Brereton]: Day 7 @ the ZONE. Today is the last day of our tribute to Smith, Dixon & Brereton’s Black Terror story so I thought it fitting that our last piece of art be the final page of the mini-series.
If you’ve enjoyed this week’s posts, then tell a friend or seven. If enough people [re]discover The Black Terror: Seduction of Deceit, perhaps we’ll someday get a trade edition, it so richly deserves.
“The Black Terror: Seduction of Deceit” Week [written by Beau Smith & Chuck Dixon with art by Dan Brereton]: Day 6 @ the ZONE. Today’s art is from issue 2 [art by Dan Brereton].
All week long I’ve been yappin’ about what a great series this was. Hopefully, from the quotes and teaser art, you’re interest has been piqued enough to either pull out your copies and re-read the dang thing, or if you’d never heard of it until this week, to round up a set for yourself.
If you’re already a fan, then why not drop Beau Smith, Chuck Dixon and Dan Brereton a line and let them know. Better yet, why not e-mail Todd McFarlane [who holds the rights to the comic] at Spawn.com Publishing and suggest they give the series the reprint it deserves!