Where fiction collides.
If you’re more interested in ringing in the next trilogy of Halo than the new year, consider reading my interview with Halo 4 Senior Art Director Kenneth Scott and Halo: The Art of Building Worlds author Martin Robinson. Both had some great things to say about Halo: past, present, and future.
My review of The Art of Hammer: Posters from the Archives of Hammer Films from Titan Books is now online at Mookychick.co.uk. The book is full of silly slogans on campy posters and best of all, lots and lots of horror.
Calling all film junkies! New from Titan Books, The Art of Drew Struzan makes a wonderful fixture for your bookshelf or coffee table. You can read my full-length review at OneMetal.
Among the many stars and attractions of Hollywood quietly sits Drew Struzan, artisan and connoisseur. His fame belongs to the golden days that fewer people remember but many revere: the artistry of film posters. His diligently rendered paintings sell as collector’s items and hang in centerpiece frames, evocative of emotion and passion for classic films directed by household names like Spielberg, Lucas, and Guillermo del Toro.
The Art of Drew Struzan, a new coffee table-type hardcover from Titan Books, is dedicated to commemorating Struzan’s work over the last thirty-some years. Filmmakers David J. Schow (The Crow) and Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) introduce the book, 300+ pieces (both full color posters and compositions) sandwiched between crisp pages.
Need a book recommendation? … This probably isn’t it. But for kicks, you can check out my review of the Terminator Salvation: Trial by Fire novel over at OneMetal.
Terminators: They’re the machines that keep on going, despite apocalypses, despite a hailstorm of bullets, despite Skynet and box office Armageddon. They can lose mechanical limbs, survival time warps, and outmaneuver even the smartest Resistance soldiers. Much like these metal exterminators, Terminator Salvation refuses to let humanity win … and by that I mean give humanity a break already.
Last year, director McG restarted the film series with Terminator Salvation, a movie starring Christian Bale and Sam Worthington. In yet another act of overkill, author Timothy Zahn expands on the movie’s events with his spin-off novel, Trial by Fire.
The movie Tank Girl grabbed my attention, showed it a good time, and then debased it (and my morals) while skipping around singing musical numbers and making out with kangaroo men. The new Titan Books trade Skidmarks pretty much pulls the same trick, only I’m wise to its act—or at least indifferent.
Read the full review at OneMetal, or hey, hunt down the book and see for yourself: Bollocks.
Conceived from the British minds of Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett, the punk rock female powerhouse known to indie comics readers as Tank Girl struck infamous gold for its brash dialogue and dramatic, almost psychedelic visuals (Hewlett would later animate the band Gorillaz). The title even inspired a film that bombed the box office despite rocketing ambition. Previously, Titan Books introduced audiences to a compilation book called The Cream of Tank Girl. Now Skidmarks ranks as the publisher’s latest, first appearing as a twelve-part series in Judge Dredd Magazine.
With her reckless friend Barney needing expensive medical care, Tank Girl enters the no-rules Watermelon Race at a chance at snatching the first place, multi-billion dollar cup prize. Rufus Dayglo, whose talent has decorated Tank Girl comic pages before with The Gifting and Visions of Balooga, illustrates Rebecca and her pals as they squash rival cars and speed toward the finish line, her beloved Balooga co-manning the tank. Of course, their hopeful clean victory hits a few bumps along the road, including a technical snag, a dangerous shortcut, and a lead-footed new competitor.
Vampires and ghosts, and ghost vampires, and vampire ghosts and séances for vampire ghost … things? That’s just about what you can expect with The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Séance for a Vampire from Titan Books. Check out my review at OneMetal for more information.
A good mystery always remedies boredom, and adding a deerstalker hat, cape, and pipe makes a good detective story even better. Sherlock Holmes’ wit and talent situated alongside his investigative partner, John H. Watson, makes for a cannon of juicy stories, which span from the late nineteenth century to early twentieth. The uncouth often worm its way between logic and sensibility, but the elementary duo manage to decode the most befuddling whodunits, murders, and nefarious schemes known to Europe … in most instances, anyway.
Whedon fans enjoy a good venture into the Black once and awhile, and so does Titan Books, which has published a new companion book called Firefly: Still Flying. Here’s a preview of my OneMetal review:
Browncoats, gather ’round for more of your favorite Big Damn Heroes. Titan Books celebrates the legacy of Joss Whedon’s sci-fi runaway hit Firefly, revisiting every corner of the Black and charting new territories that the series’ dedicated, active fanbase helped build. Still Flying records the most influential moments in the beloved television show’s history, which extends far beyond its Fox shelf-life.
There’s a lot of shiny treasure to discover within this collection’s pages. Spilling with storyboards, production art, rare exclusives, and previously unreleased photographs, Still Flying takes apart the acclaimed show and reconstructs it piece by piece for the reader. Key members of Firefly family remember the short-lived drama by infusing otherwise humdrum explanations of the writing process, costuming, location scouting, prop and “boat” designing, and stunt coordinating with personality and anecdotes. The book spotlights the actors, meshing together fragments of interviews, and recollects the crew’s behind-the-scenes, episode-to-episode efforts. The vibrant web that results sleekly embodies Firefly’s overall spirit and intelligence.
Read the rest here.
Two thumbs up for movies! Who doesn’t love ‘em? Well, I guess old school reading elitists, and people who despise Hollywood idiocy … okay, I’m not making a very convincing defense of movies, but I do adore them, generally speaking. And so does Vern, Ain’t It Cool News writer and long-time moviegoer. Recently he put together and shipped off to Titan Books a new paperback that collects over eighty film reviews and essays.
Moviegoers, hold that popcorn; cinema lovers, be kind and pause; amateur and professional film critics, move over because the Seattle familiar and internet scribe popularly known as “Vern” has once again entered the literary arena, widening the scope of film studies with his intense and utterly entertaining new book.
Two years after publicizing Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal, Vern returns to Titan Books to channel his energy into another instant hit: “Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer!”: Writings on Bruce Willis, Badass Cinema, and Other Important Topics. The frequent Ain’t It Cool News website contributor packages more than a love for ’80s action movie icons like Bruce Willis and Clint Eastwood into his roughly 400-page monster, a lovechild of his movie career that spans film generations and traces genre and actor legacies. Always insightful, Vern groups his eighty-plus reviews into thematic sections, dedicated to such topics as the warrior code and masculinity, society, the near pornographic (or downright disturbing), summer blockbusters, and various other oddball trends. Sifting through little known or foreign gems (several of them still only available on VHS) and then grazing more mainstream classics, Vern’s collection offers a well-rounded film education: He focuses his attention on such titles as Enter the Ninja, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Knightriders, Brokeback Mountain, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Zoo, The Gingerdead Man, and Yojimbo, to name a handful.
Read the full review at OneMetal.
