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Lurid paperback covers from the French master of espionage
11.04.2013
11:11 am
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SAS
 
Last week, the prolific French author of spy thrillers, Gérard de Villiers, passed away of cancer. According to the New York Times obit, de Villiers was something like the Ian Fleming of France. He invented a hero who, just as James Bond goes by his official designation 007, is identified primarily by the sobriquet Son Altesse Sérénissime (His Serene Highness), or SAS. De Villiers himself called his novels, of which he wrote two hundred (!), “fairy tales for adults,” but they apparently had a second distinguishing feature—they frequently displayed an uncanny knowledge of actual high-stakes geopolitical affairs. Many actual events occurred in fictional guise in his novels, and his high-powered friends were often delighted to see themselves appear in his pages under different names. On a couple of occasions, actual events were closely prefigured in his novels, such as the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat. The books may be pure escapism, but they seem to be a trifle more true to life than Fleming.

The Times also mentioned that “generations of readers have become familiar with the lurid covers of his SAS books—always a scantily clad woman clutching a gun—at supermarkets and railway stations across France.” That description intrigued me, so I decided to hunt down a few for your perusal. They’re pretty silly, but my interest is primarily sociological—it’s fun to see an authentic part of everyday French life in this way. I’ve never read any of de Villiers’ books, but I do enjoy spy fiction, especially John Le Carré, but it seems that very few of his books have been translated into English. Amazon offers only Malko versus the CIA—used copies of which start at $199. I’m not willing to pay that, but maybe a library somewhere can help me out.
 
SAS
 
SAS
 
SAS
 
SAS
 

Posted by Martin Schneider
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11.04.2013
11:11 am
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Handwritten Wes Anderson thank you note is charming and irritating in equal measure
11.01.2013
03:05 pm
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Wes Anderson letter
 
In addition to being one of the key minds who brought you Taxi, The Simpsons, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show and assisting Jack Nicholson win a couple of Oscars, the legendary TV and movie writer/director James L. Brooks can add to his lengthy list of accomplishments more or less singlehandedly giving Wes Anderson a movie career. According to Pamela Colloff’s May 1998 account in Texas Monthly, “Brooks ... loved Bottle Rocket and, in a generous leap of faith, offered the roommates a deal: He would not only give them $5 million to turn it into a feature but also give them access to a cinematographer, editors, a crew—all the tools they needed for bringing their ideas to the big screen.” You have to hand it to Brooks—he does have an eye for talent.

Brooks generously provided an introduction to the published version of Wes Anderson’s 1998 indie masterpiece Rushmore, written by Anderson and Owen Wilson. Anderson graciously wrote Brooks a handwritten thank-you note, and if you didn’t know who had written it, you would immediately suspect that it might be the director of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Composed entirely in carefully written and self-consciously childlike block letters and featuring a great many copyediting emendations, it somehow manages to be charming and irritating all at the same time.

Below is the text of the letter once the imaginary “associate editor” has incorporated all of Anderson’s proofing corrections.
 

16.Jan.99

Dear Jim,

Thank you very, very much for going to all the trouble on that terrific screenplay introduction number. I personally guarantee that it’s going to be one of the best intros they’ve every published at Faber & Faber; and from me, that really means something (because I’ve read all those movie books). Also, I want you to know how pleased I was by your reaction to my Pauline Kael piece. It was great to hear such good feedback, and I took your advice and sent it to the N.Y. Times, and they’re running it in the Sunday Arts & Leisure in a couple of weeks. (or maybe it’s next Sunday.) Thanks again for writing such a nice piece for us. I’m really very proud of Owen’s & my whole experience with you, and I’m very happy & grateful we’ve had and have your help & friendship.

Love, Wes.

 
If you haven’t seen Saturday Night Live‘s recent trailer for a horror movie as directed by Anderson, complete with spot-on Owen Wilson impression by Edward Norton, you really ought to:

 
via Cinephilia and Beyond

Posted by Martin Schneider
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11.01.2013
03:05 pm
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Xerox Ferox and the Lost Art of the Horror Film Fanzine
10.26.2013
11:20 am
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Guest post by David Kerekes, co-author of Killing For Culture and See No Evil, and author of Mezzogiorno

In the introduction to a new book on the subject of horror film fanzines and the culture they spawned, author John Szpunar deliberates on the place of the zine next to mainstream media. There is a difference, he says, in that the zines had nothing to lose.

I can think of no better example to illustrate this point than a Myra Hindley cut out doll. It’s a pen and ink drawing gracing the back cover of Subhuman #4 (January 1987), which shows one half of the Moors Murderers wearing nothing but her fearsome peroxide bouffant and black panties. A change of dress includes a Nazi uniform along with a bloodstained kitchen knife as accessory.
 

 
Art: Jason Knight
 
The Myra doll isn’t trying to sell anything. It doesn’t relate to a film, nor bear any relation to the content of the zine in question. Its simple purpose is to glower with gentle contempt. In the town I once lived, a short bus ride from the moors of the Moors Murderers, this sort of jape could get you lynched. Who in their right mind would conjure up something as disturbing, disposable and quite as brilliant as a Myra Hindley cut out doll? Disposable is a clue, in deference to the type of horror fanzine one might find in John Szpunar’s book.

To paraphrase the jacket blurb, Xerox Ferox: The Wild World of the Horror Film Fanzine is a book that covers a scene that has influenced generations of writers, filmmakers and fans (myself included; I published it). Fanzines with lurid titles like Gore Gazette, Violent Leisure, Sleazoid Express and Subhuman expressed a sense of freak camaraderie at a time when technology was yet to arrive for its wholesale delivery of freak. Theirs was a literary DIY ethos, not dissimilar to that of punk rock a decade or so earlier (which incidentally often borrowed from film, particularly cult and horror film).
 

 
Psychoholic Slag. Issue 5 (USA). Argento! Argento? Editor: Dave Kosanke.
 
One zine usually opened the door to other zines. Writes John Szpunar of his own education in this respect:

Before long, I was a part of a network of zine and tape traders, and the goods kept rolling in […] I was coming of age with the help of a new generation, and I was having the time of my life.

Avoiding reference to literary content for the moment (irreverent… informed… typo laden), the thing most striking about the horror film zines is, of course, the visual aesthetic. Although some were designed to a comparatively high standard—i.e., pro-zines like CineFan, Little Shoppe of Horrors and Bizarre —many more were low key efforts of short runs that were perhaps given away for the price of postage. The layouts were urgent and witty, overloaded with elements seemingly vying for space before the page ran out. And defining these products was the photocopier, the Xerox of Xerox Ferox, creating an arresting visual dynamic of harsh black and white contrasts that robbed any image of superfluous detail.

It is reassuring to discover that, in the age of the Internet, a small place still exists for the zine practitioner and the horror film culture of the printed page. Examples are out there, being transmitted through the postal network in a matter of days to defy the blogosphere (a term so abhorrent we are destined to use it). For now, however, a random collection of horror fanzine covers rescued from the mailboxes of old and made suitable for framing…

Get a special hardback edition of the remarkable Xerox Ferox here. 800 fully illustrated pages, about $72 plus a couple more to post. Pre-release paperback available here.
 

 
Killer Kung Fu Enema Nurses On Crack Issue 3 (NZ). A genuine Garbage Pail Kids sticker adorns the cover. Image depicts a police raid on the New Zealand home of editor/publisher Peter Hassall, confiscating books, zines and porn.
 

 
Subhuman Issue 5, March/April 1987 (USA). Design: Dawn Doyle. Editor: Cecil Doyle.
 

 
Trash Compactor Volume 2 Issue 4, Winter 1990 (CAN). Design: The Trash Compactor.

Posted by Thomas McGrath
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10.26.2013
11:20 am
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‘Stephen King without a conscience’: The only known TV interview with horror writer Richard Laymon
10.26.2013
12:52 am
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Ah, but doesn’t it always seem to be the quiet one who turns out to be the serial killer? You know, the quiet one with dead bodies in the attic, or with children chopped-up and archived in bubble-wrap under the floorboards? On the six o’clock news there’s the interview with the concerned neighbor who tells the world how the killer was, “Quiet and polite, always said ‘Good morning,’ and kept his yard neat.”  Yes, it’s those quiet ones—they’re the ones to watch.

Richard Laymon certainly was a quiet one, it was only his books that gave a clue to the mayhem going on in his mind. Laymon was a writer of horror fiction, specifically that genre known as “Splatterpunk”: brutal, disturbing, sadistic and violent tales of murder, sex and sadism.

Laymon was born in Chicago in 1947, and died of a heart attack on Valentine’s Day, 2001. He was the author of around 40 novels (one of which The Traveling Vampire Show won the Bram Stoker Award), and over 50 short stories, an output that saw him described as:

”Stephen King without a conscience.”

Laymon is certainly not to everyone’s taste. His books have been described as “sick,” “depraved,” “perverted,” “poorly written” and “disgusting.” All fair comment, but Laymon was an author of visceral horror, and one doesn’t get on a roller coaster to enjoy the scenery.

King was originally critical of Laymon’s work, and wrote in his book Danse Macabre:

There are haunted-house stories beyond numbering, most of them not very good (The Cellar, by Richard Laymon, is one example of the less successful breed).

King later changed his opinion, and became a “fan”:

“If you’ve missed Laymon, you’ve missed a treat.”

I’m not sure if “treat” is the right word, but America did miss out on Laymon during his lifetime, as few of his books were published in his homeland, and sales were almost non-existent. Laymon blamed this on a re-edit of his second book The Woods Are Dark, which saw the publisher cut 50-pages from the text. It basically finished his career in the States. But America’s lack of interest was in stark contrast to Europe, in particular the UK, where all of Laymon’s books were published, sold well, and received generally good reviews.

“In Laymon’s book, blood doesn’t so much drip drip as explode, splatter and coagulate. Its dynamic is described in salivating detail.” - The Independent (UK).

“A brilliant writer.” - Sunday Express (UK).

“This author knows how to sock it to the reader” - The Times (UK).

I can recall popping into bookshops in Glasgow and London during the 1990s and being able to find Laymon’s grisly tales displayed as prominently as King and Koontz. It may have helped that Laymon had a last name alphabetically close to the other two.

I started reading Laymon around the time of his death and devoured all of his books within a couple of months. They were compelling pulp horrors, but at the same time troubling because of Laymon’s often sleazy use of sex and torture as a device to create horror. Laymon argued he was reflecting the world as he saw it, and claimed:

”Horror writers are specialists in worst case scenarios.”

Laymon’s books are filled with such scenarios, which you could argue are little more than reflections of the writer’s own fear at being powerless to stop such terrors happening to himself or his family.

I can tie my own love of horror film and fiction to being scared shitless at a carnival when I was about five-years-old. I had dared to enter the “Ghost Tunnel,” which was basically an enclosed metal walkway consisting of a long, dark corridor, mirror-walled, with sliding panels, from inside of which two teenagers, dressed in rubber skeleton masks and gloves, attacked and pummeled anyone foolhardy enough to enter this nightmarish sideshow. I was terrified and (almost) loved every moment of it.

If this was the spark, then watching The Blob a few months later on TV, provided the fuel. The film’s all-consuming gelatinous goo (“Indestructible, indescribable, nothing can stop it alien!”) was responsible for recurring nightmares—one could argue this was some subconscious fear of my troll of a father’s attempts to destroy my nascent personality.

Horror fiction by its nature tends towards the conservative, the conformist, where the alien, the strange, and the abnormal are to be feared and ultimately defeated. This may explain why Laymon’s work is often denounced as “sick” and “depraved” because in his books the typical hero and heroine don’t win, but usually end up victims of the killer, the monster, or the sex mad beast in the cellar.

Around 2000, Richard Laymon was interviewed for Dark Dreamers, which seems to be the only interview he gave to TV. Laymon comes across as a quiet, rather mundane (if slightly creepy) high school teacher, but from his words you know there’s something dark and unsavory going on in his mind.
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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10.26.2013
12:52 am
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‘In Search of Ancient Astronauts’: The Outer Space Connection
10.21.2013
07:00 pm
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In Search of Ancient Astronauts is a 1973 TV movie that’s an edited down and re-dubbed (by Rod Serling) version of a 1970 German documentary titled Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (“Chariots of the Gods”). The film explores Swiss author Erich von Däniken “paleo-contact” and “ancient astronauts” theories that space aliens landed on Earth in prehistoric times and were responsible for many of mankind’s oldest mysteries and religious myths, including Stonehenge, the Egyptian pyramids, the Nazca lines and the Moai of Easter Island.

Erich von Däniken’s books were absolutely huge best sellers throughout the 1970s, but his work has always been shunned by establishment archaeologists, historians and religious scholars. Carl Sagan referred to his work as “object lessons in sloppy thinking.”

What was not widely-known about him then is that at the time of his first book’s success, von Däniken was in prison on fraud and embezzlement charges. Over a period of twelve years von Däniken had falsified records and credit references of his employer, the Hotel Rosenhügel in Davos, Switzerland, in order to take out loans totaling $130,000 to pay for his book’s research expenses, which included world travel to exotic places. His second book, Gods from Outer Space, was written while he was in prison and with the money earned from publishing—his books sold in the millions—-he was able to pay restitution on his crimes and get out early.

And although he apparently went legit—and seems to believe what he espouses—many feel that this hotel manager cum “expert on the ancient world” is still on the make and accuse him of lying and falsifying evidence. Erich von Däniken’s theories have been debunked conclusively over and over and over again, but never mind that, von Däniken is still being taken semi-seriously to this day on TV shows like History Channel’s Ancient Aliens series.

This is what really set off the whole Erich von Däniken craze of the 1970s. In Search of Ancient Astronauts was the blueprint for producer Alan Landsburg’s long-running In Search Of… TV series narrated by Leonard Nimoy.

“This may be the most startling and controversial film you’ll ever see…”

At least it’s campy fun.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.21.2013
07:00 pm
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Cat Scratch Jesus Lizard: David Yow channels his inner B. Kliban
10.18.2013
11:48 am
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Last week, when we spoke to David Yow about his forthcoming Jesus Lizard: Book, he completely neglected to mention to us that he had a second book in the works. A book of cat drawings, and just about all of them groaner puns. Through his publisher, Akashik Books, Yow said:

I love cats. Always have. The only time I didn’t have a cat was a brief hell in Chicago where I lived in an apartment whose landlord didn’t allow them. At that place, I had a life-sized cardboard cutout of a cat which I named Toody. I also love wordplay. I’m the only adult I hang out with who still gets a kick out of puns. I make up palindromes. I used to write songs and poems (these days, I leave that for the songwriters and poets); in this book of cat-pun drawings, I have made a concerted effort to come up with ideas that range from really funny to really amusing. The entire litter of animals in this book are line drawings that are ‘coloured in’ with photographic textures, and each cat is dropped into a photographic setting. Yep, that’s the truth.

 
yowcatatonic
Catatonic
 
yowcatburglar
Cat Burglar
 
yowcatnip
Cat Nip
 
yowcatoninetails
Cat-O-Nine Tails
 
Et cetera. There are many more of these to be seen at Yow’s web site. And that’s the only place you’ll be able to see them for awhile. The book won’t actually be out until next summer.

It’s charming that he thinks people will like pictures of cats, but frankly, I’m skeptical. Who the hell buys cat stuff?

Below, fan-made video for Scratch Acid’s “Cannibal” (NSFW)

 
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Posted by Ron Kretsch
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10.18.2013
11:48 am
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Comedian Peter Serafinowicz sings the first page from Morrissey’s new book
10.17.2013
11:29 am
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For those of you haven’t had a chance to read or get your paws on Penguin Classics’ Morrissey’s Autobiography yet, here’s Peter Serafinowicz singing the first page for you.

Now if we can only get Peter to sing the whole damned book. You know, kinda like a rock opera meets “books on tape” type of thing.

Posted by Tara McGinley
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10.17.2013
11:29 am
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A book by its covers: Alternative designs for Morrissey’s ‘Autobiography’
10.16.2013
05:56 pm
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Big Mouth’s autobiography is published tomorrow by (can you believe it?) Penguin Classics. This even before a word of it has been read or considered worthy of inclusion amongst such writers as Aristotle, Virgil, Plutarch, Jane Austen, Christopher Marlowe, Charles Dickens, etc, etc. Admittedly Penguin Classics also include Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Carson McCullers and Ross McDonald—but at least these authors had already been published, and earned their place to be included in the list by being “read by generation after generation.” I wonder if Morrissey’s Autobiography will be read by anyone ten years from now, let alone a hundred?

The Guardian newspaper recently asked readers to send in their alternative designs for the cover to Morrissey’s Autobiography, here are a selection of their favorites. View more here.
 
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Via The Guardian.

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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10.16.2013
05:56 pm
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‘The Big Book of Online Trolling’ and other books you REALLY wished were real
10.14.2013
05:04 pm
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Rainbow Brown just might be my new favorite author. I can think of dozens of folks who could benefit greatly from this fine literature. Lemme say that again, dozens.

LiarTownUSA is my daily go-to website for a laff. Just like Internet K-Hole (NSFW-ish), it’s highly addictive.
 

 

 
More after the jump, plus a special little-known volume by Ann Coulter…
 

READ ON
Posted by Tara McGinley
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10.14.2013
05:04 pm
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Cover versions of Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’
10.13.2013
03:29 pm
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Whether you are a professional designer, illustrator, a Nabokov nut—or even none of the above—there is much to like about Lolita - The Story of a Cover Girl, a fascinating new book edited by John Bertram and Yuri Leving. At the center of their project is the problem Vladimir Nabokov’s notorious 1955 novel of sexual obsession, pedophilia and quasi-incest has posed for over half a century of book jacket designers.

First consider the creative brief as laid out by Nabokov himself, a man who liked to be in firm control of how his work, and his own public image, were represented:

“I want pure colors, melting clouds, accurately drawn details, a sunburst above a receding road with the light reflected in furrows and ruts, after rain. And no girls.”

You hear that? Let me turn it up a little bit louder for you:

“Who would be capable of creating a romantic, delicately drawn, non-Freudian and non-juvenile, picture for LOLITA (a dissolving remoteness, a soft American landscape, a nostalgic highway—that sort of thing)? There is one subject which I am emphatically opposed to: any kind of representation of a little girl.”

The image most closely associated with the novel today, of course, is the misleadingly “sexy” image of Sue Lyon, who played “Lolita” in Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation, wearing the heart-shaped sunglasses and lasciviously licking a lollipop. This is not even a still from the film, it was a publicity photograph taken by Burt Stern. [In Kubrick’s film, Lyon, who was fourteen when it was shot, is meant to be sixteen to soften the situation for movie audiences (and censorship boards). I found it fascinating to learn that Nabokov would later remark that Catherine Demongeot, who played the title character in Louis Malle’s 1960 film Zazie dans le métro, was in fact closer to his own image of young Delores Haze!]

How do you solve a creative conundrum like Lolita? Not only is the subject matter uniquely problematic, you have its author, a towering genius of 20th century literature, telling you emphatically: “NO GIRLS.”

The genesis of the book began in 2009 when Bertram discovered Dieter Zimmer’s Covering Lolita, an online collection of nearly 200 Lolita covers from around the world and decided to sponsor a book cover competition for a new cover for Lolita. There were 155 entries from 34 countries. After the contest, Bertram was approached by Yuri Leving, the editor of the Nabokov Online Journal about writing an essay on the results. When his paper was published there, Bertram sensed there was more to say on the subject and the result is Lolita - The Story of a Cover Girl, which he co-edited with Leving.

Several of the entries are seen in the book. You can see them online, too, at Bertram’s Venus febriculosa website, where he has also held a contest for “cover versions” of Brian Eno’s decidedly minimalist Music for Films album art.

Today in Los Angeles at Skylight Books in Los Feliz at 5pm, Bertram will lead a discussion regarding the art and design of Nabokov’s novel over the decades. On the panel will be Johanna Drucker, Leland De La Durantaye and Mary Gaitskill.


First prize winner by Lyuba Haleva


Design by Rachel Berger (I especially liked this one. Subtle, but powerful)


Design by Derek McCalla


Design by Aleksander Bak


Design by Barbara Bloom

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.13.2013
03:29 pm
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