Phantasm/The Tall Man/Watercolor Sketch

Here's a Watercolor Sketch of The Tall Man from the Phantasm films, not a great likeness by any means but I've been wanting to do a piece of him for some time and decided to just do it. I'm pretty happy with the result.

Damaged: a series of short writings/AR Project

I'm extremely proud to announce a new Apparatus Revolution product, and a very personal one at that, Damaged: a series of short writing by yours truly and long time friend, r.s.h. At 25 pages, with a nifty 6" x 9" size, this saddle-stitched paperback is slim and ready to go just about anywhere. I urge you to give it a chance, pick it up, read it and let us know what you think. It's available at: http://www.lulu.com/content/1900708 You can also find a preview of the book at that very link.

I am Legend: Book Review, a fancy-ass review

I Am Legend, written by Richard Matheson, was first published in 1954. With three film adaptations of the book it was difficult delving into the novel without any pre-conceived notions of the character, Robert Neville, and his story. The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, is one of my favorite movies, horror or otherwise and I found this movie in particular constantly coming to mind as I read the novel, even till the end as I approached the last few pages, I could not help but picture a world of black and white helmed by Mr. Price himself. Regardless of the effects the films had on me, the novel stood firmly on the ground with legs all its own, I could see why this short but masterful work of fiction has gone on to inspire three movies and countless writers and storytellers to this day. It inspired George A. Romero to make his master piece, Night of the Living Dead, another favorite of mine. An effect I think might have to do with Matheson’s vivid portrayal of a shattered man on the brink of madness, a man who hunted monsters, only to be viewed in the end as a monster himself, a legend. One thing that stuck out while reading the book were the strong sexual overtones, an element never played up in the film adaptations, but certainly an essential element in the novel, probably a sign of the times, the fifties has gone down in history as being one of the most sexually repressed decades in America. Certainly the bloodthirsty ghouls which would attack his suburban fortress every night were inspired by how individuality was frowned upon, and still is, perhaps a satirical element in response to the birth of consumerism? I like to think so. If I had to choose a prevalent theme in the book, I would have to go with fear, and in Neville’s case, it comes full circle, or at least close to it. His fear of the ghouls causes him to act, to kill countless times, eventually doing so as a chore, so many times that the very creatures he once feared, fear him. Do I have to say that I recommend this book? Cause if you couldn’t tell by my fancy-ass review, you must be a lost cause.

Fear Agent: Volume One: Re-Ignition

Fear Agent: Volume One: Re-Ignition by Rick Remender and Tony Moore. Tony Moore won me over as a fan of his work years ago, Rick Remender may have just done so with this volume of Fear Agent. It's a non-stop sci-fi thrill ride that left me on the edge of my seat. It took me to far away lands, introduced me to some cool aliens and well-developed characters. I love the retro spaceman look, the colors are crisp and the writing to the point. It's fun and leaves you wanting more, I'll be checking out volume two just as soon as I can.

Lost Zombie/ Cool Website for Zombie Lovers

For all you Zombie lovers out there, I'd thought you'd like to know that there's a really neat website called Lost Zombie, where they are trying to gather a community of folks to add content to the sites "Documentary" on Zombies, I just created my profile and look forward to getting into the mayhem. Here's my profile: http://lostzombies.ning.com/profile/swands so join up and friend me.

Fear Itself: Skin and Bones: Episode Review

Directed by Larry Fessenden, created by Mick Garris, written by Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan. To date this may be my favorite Fear Itself episode, not that it's anything spectacular, but it was a solid straightforward story that held my interest for the hour, it was a bit on the boring side but I felt it had some solid characters and a creepy vibe. If it weren't for Doug Jones I might feel differently about Skin and Bones, he pretty much carried the episode, and did so very eerily. The series as a whole has been largely disappointing but there's potential, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for more episodes and for more of them to be good, but we'll see how that goes.

Podcast of Note: The Midnight Horror Show

A few posts ago I did a “Podcasts of Note” entry, where I mentioned Dread Media, Horror etc, and The Midnight Horror Show. The Midnight horror show wasn’t really a review, being that they are pretty new to horror podcasting, so, I stated I would give them more time so I could give the show an honest evaluation. Well, time’s up! The bottom line is these cats are funny, despite the shows loose structure, I find the show very entertaining, and that’s really all I’m looking for, good, free entertainment that has horror somewhere in there. And The Midnight Horror Show provides that. There are certainly more well-versed horror elitists out there and there are certainly better sounding podcasts out there but in the end I’m just looking for some laughs and horror talk and yes, these guys bring it. Unless they radically change their show, I will stay subscribed and stay tuned.

Bug: Movie Review

What can I say about Bug when I'm not even sure if I liked the movie? Well, I can say that it was original, it was quirky, it had a lot of atmosphere and pretty good cinematography. The acting was solid on all fronts, the show stealer for me was by Micheal Shannon who delivers some brilliant dialogue. The film starts off pretty slow, almost too slow, it then picks up pace and the plot thickens, some very weird things start to happen, or don't happen at all, and the two main characters develop a very strange relationship while descending into an inescapable paranoia. The idea is creative, it's execution, however, isn't. In contrast to the start of the film, the end develops way too quickly and becomes unbelievable, which is where I lost interest in the movie. If you see or have seen the film, the scene in which they reveal the room to be covered in tin foil, seals this movies fate to me. It ruins everything that came before it, mostly due to how quickly the main characters go over the edge, the dialogue becomes an insane rant at breakneck speeds and is just painful to listen to. I can't recommend this movie, if you're into very weird movies you might find this enjoyable, and there are certainly things to enjoy in this flick, however the movie as a whole just isn't good.

Interesting View of Central Park

Here's a few pictures I took nearing dusk at Central Park, one is just a complete mess, the other looks like that might be a zombie stumbling around and the other I thought just looked neat.

Zombie Tales: Comic Book Review

Volume One of the collected edition of Zombie Tales caught my eye a while back at the comic shop. Its cover and interesting size got me right away. After a quick glance I decided I'd give it a shot. I'm glad I did, it's an anthology of short Zombie Tales, with a variety that rivals any oatmeal box on the shelf. With names like Cosby, Giffen and Waid attached, and a nice cover by Johnson I had some good feelings going into this. It's a solid read, and when I say solid, I also mean that this collection is loaded to the gills! Plenty of stories, a wide range of artists, some good, some not so good, but this was worth the read and worth the $14.99. There are so many "zombie" things out there right now, that it's almost impossible to sift through the shit, this collection has one or two stinkers but overall it's a fun ride. In no way does it come close to The Walking Dead, but it'll keep my zombie fix sedated in the meantime, if you have the extra bucks and you're in the mood for some Zombie Tales, you could certainly do worse than this.