My short review/feature on a history of the Iron Man comic. That, along with the previous Steampunk article, apparently helped the Amazon book blog have the most traffic today of any day this year. Good to know people are reading this stuff!
Starring Willem Defoe as one weird obsessive-compulsive detective, Anamorph almost gets it right. A serial killer who deals in setting up scenes of forced perspective may or may not be the same killer Defoe’s character thought he’d helped kill a few years back. Each new staged murder is more horrific and artful than the last. Defoe is quite good as the detective. The cinematography is outstanding. The tension keeps building. And then, and then…
UPDATE: Actually, it goes live tomorrow, so you have plenty of time to speculate…In fact, as I say in the comments: “Well, remember, it’s someone primarily known as an artist. Since we’ve got until tomorrow the person who guesses right will get an advance copy of Life Sucks, the new graphic novel from First Second. Two guesses each, resetting from now, and the contest ends the minute the io9 column posts, whenever that is.”
Our io9 feature on artist X? goes live soon, and will include an excerpt of this trippy, really imaginative “script trailer” based on a novel X? has been working on.
Who is X? ? Check back later and I’ll have updated this post with the reveal. In the meantime, feel free to speculate. Note: Those who google the text below to cheatingly figure it out will be pilloried, tarred, jarred, and feathered.
Bonus points to those who know where the title of our column “Jewels of Aptor” comes from.
Somehow I’ve survived to post number 1,001 on the new blog. Thanks to everyone for reading. I really appreciate it. Sometimes your comments have kept me sane.
Thanks also to Luis Rodrigues for creating this site and for enhancing it from time to time. Thanks to all the guest bloggers. Especially, thanks to Ann.
Here’s a look back at just a few “highlights,” mostly funny…
Jeff
The Steampunk book offer was just picked up by Brass Goggles, and as a courtesy to their readers we’re extending the deadline by one day, to midnight Friday, EST, with potential amnesty for stragglers from other time zones.
BTW–other than the copies being sent to us to sign to cover orders, the book is completely sold out. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t find it in bookstores. Just that no books remain in the warehouse. Please DO pick up a copy in the bookstore if you’re so inclined. It’s going back to reprint immediately.
Although in my previous post I said it was unlikely I’d ever write anything YA, children’s fiction is another story. Thus, I share with you a few pages of my long-lost children’s book, Henry and the Frog, originally written for Erin. (I also have a series idea.) If I knew anything about the children’s fiction market, I might actually try to get it published, but, alas, I’m clueless on that subject. One thing’s for sure: my tarded illos would need to be replaced by real art…
We rented this movie through cable on-demand because we wanted something fun on in the background while we signed and personalized copies of our Steampunk anthology. However, the first few scenes were too arresting, so we turned it off and went back to it when we had time to actually watch the film with our full attention. We’re glad we did. The Great Yokai War tells the fascinating story of an evil sorcerer (?) who is fashioning a kind of world-conquering machine that feeds off of the essence of various traditional Japanese spirits and mythological creatures. A boy finds himself in the unlikely role of hero in trying to help stop this wholesale torture/slaughter, and in the process tries to save the world.
Many of the special effects involving blue screens have a cheesy feel to them, but the director’s choice to put most of the monsters and spirits in actual physical costumes helps ground the movie in some imaginative, grotesque, and beautiful images. Yes, the plot is a little bit wonky, but when you see all of the weird spirit-things marching on Tokyo…it’s kinda breath-taking.
Agent Colleen Lindsay asks “Where are all the book proposals for adult fiction?”, while SF Signal does a mind-meld on YA recommendations, of which my favorite comments come from Sharyn November–especially in terms of differentiating between YA books that adults are likely to enjoy and YA books they are not likely to enjoy. Just as there are children’s books adults will like and others that will bore them stupid. This makes more sense to me than anything I’ve read in recent weeks about the YA category. Although I don’t read widely in YA, I don’t at ALL doubt that there is great reading there for adults as well–I know there is, because I have been entranced and delighted by things like the early Harry Potter books, the Dark Materials books, and many others. And I’m thankful for a list, as given in the SF Signal piece, that allows me to seek out more good reading. (Another great list comes from Gwenda Bond, through my interview with her on Amazon’s book blog–she mentioned Margo Lanagan’s new novel, which looks amazing!)
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