My birthday loot

3 books:
The Evil in Pemberley House by Philip José Farmer and Win Scott Eckert
And the Hippos were Boiled in Their Tanks by William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac
The Adventures of Conan Doyle: A Biography by Russell Miller

$45 in cash, spent at Chicago Comics on the following:
The All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Hardcover Vol. 10
The Marvel Mystery Handbook 70th Anniversary Special
The Shadow Annual #1 (back issue; discovered it was a lead in to a six-parter only after I bought it, sadly)
Men of Mystery #76
Astro City: Astra Special #1

and finally 2 Amazon.com gift cards totaling $70, which was spent on:
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, directed by the brilliant Russ Meyer
Strange Relations, also by Phil Farmer
10,000 Ways to Die: A Director's Take on the Spaghetti Western by THE Alex Cox
To Battle Beyond by C.J. Henderson

Everything else concerning my b-day went pretty well, too.

Tales of the Shadowmen: The Vampires of Paris

Since I'm trying to help my good buddy Win Eckert raise awareness of Tales of the Shadowmen, the anthology series to which he is a regular contributor, here's a review I wrote of the most recent entry in the series. Win asked me to write one, and was kind enough to call the final product "awesome". :)

Tales of the Shadowmen: The Vampires of Paris

My favorite films

Some of you guys know my taste in films pretty well, but others I'm not sure about. So, from the alternately really cool and really frustrating site Flixster, here's a list of my fave-raves.

Philip José Farmer (1918-2009)

From The Official Philip José Farmer website:

"February 25th:

Philip José Farmer passed away peacefully in his sleep this morning.

He will be missed greatly by his wife Bette, his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends and countless fans around the world.

January 26, 1918 - February 25, 2009. R.I.P.

We love you Phil. "

I am stunned by this news. Phil was one of my favorite authors, and his Wold Newton Family concept (tying together a number of literary heroes into a common family tree) has been an obsession of mine for six years now. I like to think he's in his Riverworld now.

Rest in peace.

Going to New York tomorrow

I'm going there to visit my aunt and uncle and staying 'till Saturday. Looking forward to the journey tremendously.

My latest read

I finished reading The Eldritch New Adventures of Becky Sharp by Micah Harris today. It's certainly a unique concept: the villainess of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847 novel Vanity Fair serving as an agent of the Great Race of Yith from the works of the great H.P. Lovecraft. Obviously, this concept is a little oddball, but Micah makes it work to great effect, and Becky is a delightfully amoral protagonist. Plus, there are plenty of other crossovers appearances and references: Jules Verne's Professor Lidenbrock and Captain Nemo, Herman Melville's Queequeg and Ishmael, King Kong, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar (plus Lord Eugenides, a Tarzan analog), Russell Thorndike's Captain Clegg, etc. Definitely recommended for fans of Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Family writings or Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels.

Welcome to my blog

Hello, sentients. In my posts here, I will be reviewing movies and books, discussing news that interests me, drawing attention to sites I find worthwhile, and occasionally posting Wold Newton theories. If you wish to offer feedback on my posts, then by all means. I welcome it, whether I agree with it or not. See you in the funny pages, as they say.