Showtime is Wednesday May 16, 2012 at 7:30 pm at the Alamo Drafthouse Westlakes (1255 SW Loop 410, San [Read it all...]]]> Tonight is Doctor Who Appreciation Night at the Alamo Drafthouse Westlake. By popular demand the the feature is The Wedding of River Song along with the latest Christmas Special, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.

Showtime is Wednesday May 16, 2012 at 7:30 pm at the Alamo Drafthouse Westlakes (1255 SW Loop 410, San Antonio, TX, 78227, 210.677.8500).

Admission is FREE, but you will need to get a ticket from box office to secure your spot in the theater.

Dragon’s Lair will be back this month with a huge variety of Doctor Who merchandise.

Doctor Who Appreciation Night is sponsored by Doctor Who Fans Unite.

This is the 65th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

The summer of 1969 saw THE GREEN SLIME try to come into my life, but I was not having it. The film had been released in Japan in late 1968 but had yet to cross over [Read it all...]]]> Forgotten Films: The Green Slime (1968)

This is the 65th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

The summer of 1969 saw THE GREEN SLIME try to come into my life, but I was not having it. The film had been released in Japan in late 1968 but had yet to cross over to America. But at 17, I knew a turkey when I saw one. Remember in 1968, just a year earlier we had seen the original PLANET OF THE APES and 2001: A SPACE ODDYSSEY. From the poster on TV previews, I could tell that THE GREEN SLIME was not going to be a rival of those films.

So, I waited another 42 years before I saw it. It showed on Turner classic the other day and I DVR’d it to watch at my convenience. And, I have to say, I may have rushed that viewing a bit.

The premise is not too bad. An asteroid is on a collision course with Earth and one man and his team have to encounter it and blow it up. I can remember one summer where there two films with that premise. Add to that the idea that the crew may encounter some alien like and bring it back on board where it becomes damn near invincible. I recall 4 films with ALIEN in the title that fit that bill (as well as the forthcoming PROMETHEUS).

What makes this film into the turkey is that unlike those films, this one has no production standards. The monsters and the sets seem to have been produced for $50 or so (there may have been some change to the producers). The script lacked the qualities of that produced by Rod Serling (POTA); Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick (2001) or Dan O’Bannon (Alien). THE GREEN SLIME had a screenplay from Tom Rowe, Charles Sinclair and William (Bill) Finger. Comics and Batman fans should recognize that last name as probably the second most important figure in the development of Batman (after Bob Kane).

The cast tries to give it a go. Robert Horton (WAGON TRAIN) stars as Commander Jack Rankin, hero to millions of women everywhere and all around prick. He is assisted by Richard Jaekel (THE DIRTY DOZEN) as Commander Vince Elliott. These two were once great friends until a woman came between them and Elliott made a decision that Rankin found inexcusable. Of course, the woman Dr. Lisa Benson (Luciana Paluzzi, the luscious red headed villain in Thunderball) is on Space Station Gamma from which the asteroid destruction launch plan team will. Dr. Benson rarely wears medical clothing but is quite fine in her miniskirts which appear to be within the space station dress code.

The monsters are one eyed, multi-armed fugitives from YO GABBA HEY which feed off of power and are therefore virtually indestructible. And the plot holes and errors abound. As in QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE, spaceships are spacious and have no airlocks. Decontamination take as about 10 minutes (even though it was to be run multiple times) and does not notice the alien slime. An asteroid with no atmosphere has water on it. Rockets leave smoke trails in space. The biologist Dr. Halvorsen (Ted Gunther) ignores all protocols to try and bring back an alien life form. And more.

So, a decent idea is ruined with a bad script, bad direction and no production values. I could have waited another 42 years and been ahead. Though I did love watching Luciana. Always a good thing to do.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

This is the 76th in my series of Forgotten Books.

Robert Holdstock died a few years ago and while I never met him in person I have wonderful memories of the worlds he created. Chief among them is Mythago Wood, which he used for several books. This [Read it all...]]]> FORGOTTEN BOOK: MYTHAGO WOOD by Robert Holdstock, 1984

This is the 76th in my series of Forgotten Books.

Robert Holdstock died a few years ago and while I never met him in person I have wonderful memories of the worlds he created. Chief among them is Mythago Wood, which he used for several books. This is the first of those books and it justly won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in Tucson in 1985 (in a tie with BRIDGE OF BIRDS by Barry Hughart, another wonderful book). The novella version, covering the first third of the book, had also been nominated in 1982 but missed that award.

In MYTHAGO WOOD, soldier Steven Huxley is recovering from World War II in France when he is summoned home in 1946 when he is notified of his father’s death by his brother Christian. His father had been strangely distant and distracted when Steven had been home and had not noticed much when he went off to war. Steven returns home to Oak Lodge in Herefordshire. Oak Lodge lies on the edge of a three square mile wood that backs right up to the house.

While going through the house, Christian and Steven discover much about their father’s life and the attraction the wood had on him. His notebooks indicate that it is something beyond what they expect. Deep within the woods lie all of Man’s gods and legends. There are things there that call into the night and occasionally spill over. Their father travelled that land constantly, noting maps and unusual occurrences within his notebooks.

Mythagos, the earliest forms of legends, live and are created within these woods. They called to their father and now they call to both Christian and Steven. Each will succumb to them in their own time and way. First Christian and then Steven.

And there is the girl Gwuiwenneth who comes from within the wood. Both Christian and Steven love her, each in their own way and each wants her so much they would die. She comes and goes, she stays and learns and listens and laughs. Then she is taken away and must be found.

There are many wonderful aspects of this book. The legends told describing the various mythagos are among them. I have no doubt that doctoral dissertations are waiting within those wooded areas. Sometimes you can almost recognize the root basis for the old legends. The wood is no respecter of ages, vast periods of time mix chaotically within its confines. And the wood is Tardis-like, bigger on the inside than outside. It protects itself from intruders making them walk in circles of unknown disorientation.

The prose is sparkling; the action (when it occurs) is vivid. There is much internalization as Steven must discover who the wood is and how to work with it and through it. This is a beautiful book full of the poetry of the English language. Wonderful and rewarding, it is nearly perfect. And you should read it.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

This is the 64th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

I was in Dallas recently visiting with my friend Dwight when I tried to get him to watch INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS, the only film I ever walked out of twice in the same showing. [Read it all...]]]> Forgotten Films: The Wasp Woman (1959)

This is the 64th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

I was in Dallas recently visiting with my friend Dwight when I tried to get him to watch INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS, the only film I ever walked out of twice in the same showing. But that is not the film before us today. It is a short leap from bee girls to a wasp woman and this one was on TCM the other morning and I thought that it might be another fun forgotten film.

Cosmetics queen Janice Starlin’s (Susan Cabot) company is suffering. No one wants to admit it at first but the truth comes out. Janice has been the face of the company and she is aging. (My god, she’s 40!) A new model does not have the same effect and company sales have dropped roughly 20% (by my guess) from previous levels. They need a miracle to survive.

Enter Mr. Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark) who claims to be able to reverse the aging process. She shows her tests made on rats and a cat which reverse the aging process. Anxious to see what happens, Starlin hires Zinthrop, much to the dismay of her chiefs of staff. They have no idea what he is working on and think he is charlatan. It is a short jump to using the serum he has devised on Starlin. The product derives from the royal jelly produced by wasp queens within their colonies.

Then the bad things begin to happen. Zinthrop is attacked by the cat he has regressed and soon finds himself hit by a car as he wanders in a daze. Janice begins self medicating at higher dosages than prescribed. Mr. Cooper (William Roerick), a chemist with the firm (I think) begins investigating along with Bill Lane and Mary Dennison (a PR guy and a secretary played by Anthony Eisley and Barboura Morris, respectively). Mary is able to secure a letter from Zinthrop to Janice describing his process. Cooper is killed by a woman with wasp-like qualities, though she bites him vampire style. Everyone watching knows who this mystery woman is. Eventually there is a confrontation with Mary placed in danger and the loss of formula, boss and company.

Typical Roger Corman fare, innovative, yet made for a dime (with spare change). He produced and directed this one from a script by Hollywood heavy Leo Gordon, whose wife Lynn Cartwright provided some great comic relief in the film as Maureen a wisecracking nail filing secretary.

All in all, it was fun and worth the little more than an hour I put into it. Maybe someday soon I will get around to discussing INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS, written by Nicholas Meyer who gave us THE SEVEN PERCENT SOULTION novel and who directed STAR TREK: THE WRATH OF KHAN.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

San Antonio-based author/critic Damien Broderick and his fellow author/critic Paul DiFilippo recently took on the daunting task of deciding on the best science fiction novels released from 1985 to 2010. The resulting book, Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010, will [Read it all...]]]>

Broderick and DiFilippo's new book catalogs the best SF novels of recent years.

San Antonio-based author/critic Damien Broderick and his fellow author/critic Paul DiFilippo recently took on the daunting task of deciding on the best science fiction novels released from 1985 to 2010. The resulting book, Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010, will be released May 18 by NonStop Press.

Some of the novels selected by the pair likely will come as no surprise (China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, for example). Others, however, may be unknown to all but the most voracious genre readers (Pamela Sargent’s The Shore of Women and Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief) Others still, such as Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-winning The Road, walk the narrow line between SF and literary or mainstream fiction.

We asked Broderick and DiFilippo to justify their choices — both the surprising and unsurprising ones — and tell us how they managed to narrow down the avalanche of SF released between 1985 and 2010 to a list of just 101 choices.

There’s no shortage of lists proclaiming to catalog the best and most important works of any number of genres. What sets this book apart? 

DAMIEN: We kicked off from the 1985 classic, David Pringle’s Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, An English-Language Selection, 1949-1984. His subtitle was a sly reference to George Orwell’s great dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which was published in 1949. Was Orwell writing science fiction or literature? Both, arguably. Other books in Pringle’s list were far more recognizably “generic”: Asimov’s The End of Eternity, Bester’s The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination, Clarke’s Childhood’s End and The City and the Stars. (To my amazement and delight, one of my own novels was included.) But Pringle didn’t stop with Orwell in noting the crossover between SF and mainstream writing: there’s Burroughs’ Nova Express, and Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and Kingsley Amis’s The Alteration and Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker. We decided to cast our net equally wide, snaring great representative novels written in English in the period following David’s closing year of 1984 when Gibson’s Neuromancer came out, and marked the emergence of a new kind of SF, cyberpunk.

Why do the years 1985-2010 bear exploring? How does that period stack up against other eras of SF in terms on the ambition and quality of work produced?

DAMIEN: In those 26 years, it’s arguable that more mature science fiction was published than in all the preceding century. It isn’t as utterly groundbreaking as the work of the 1940s and 1950s, when most of the iconography of SF as a form of imaginative creation gelled, but the skill and depth of the genre are now so enriched that almost every new writer starts at a higher level of competence than was ever achieved by most of the classic Golden Age writers. Even though fat fantasy trilogies and sparkly vampires and shambling zombies have overwhelmed the market, this last quarter century is still the true Golden Age of SF.

There’s been much debate about what science fiction is and isn’t. Margaret Atwood, for example, maintains that The Handmaid’s Tale — one of your choices for this list – is not an SF novel. What’s more, a handful of novels on your list have more often been categorized as fantasy than SF. How did you determine where to draw the line when it came to what is and isn’t an SF novel?

DAMIEN: We’ve chosen novels that in a 101 different ways are as wily and inventive as the best speculative writing and as well-wrought and insightful into the nature of human consciousness and society as anything by, well, Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing or Philip Roth or Margaret Atwood or Michael Chabon or Cormac McCarthy—some of whom, marvelously, are here as well, with their own distinctive contributions to the canon of recent speculative fiction. As we say in the Introduction, “What we can promise you is that the novels we discuss are among the most significant works of science fiction from the last quarter century, books that reward careful reading while providing pleasure, amusement, novelty, wonderment.” As for Atwood, we note: “it’s no accident that, as well as being shortlisted for the mainstream Booker Prize, [The Handmaid’s Tale] won the Arthur C. Clarke, Locus, and James Tiptree, Jr. Awards for best SF novel, while selling more than a million copies to readers who always supposed they disliked SF.”

As you examined SF novels of this era, what themes emerged? Why do you think these themes have been so prevalent? 

PAUL: In a way, as Damien alluded to earlier, these novels of the past two-point-six decades have used pre-established tropes and tools that the great SF pioneers created to deal with recent technological and cultural changes that were both more and less dramatic and deracinating than what came in the first half of the twentieth century. Many social commentators have remarked that the advances from 1900-1960 were so radical—air travel, global highway systems, antibiotics, radio, television, etc—that they put the advances of 1960-2010—computers, internet, nascent genetic engineering—in the shade. Consequently, the SF of our period—dealing as good SF does with the zeitgeist—was less widescreen baroque, to use Aldiss’s term, than what came before it. Late-period Gibson is more low-key than Bester, that’s for sure! On the other hand, the bubbling-under revolutions (all the stuff trending toward the Singularity) as well as some truly unprecedented social-media technology, do presage enormous changes in what it means to be human. So, long story short, I’d say the dominant theme of much of this SF is “What does it mean to be human?” Now, this has been a longstanding concern of SF since the genre began. But I find it dominant above many other motifs at the moment.

Looking over the list, I see books by a Japanese-born author (Kazuo Ishiguro), a Russian-born author (Ekaterina Sedia), a Finnish author (Hannu Rajaniemi) and a South African writer (Lauren Beukes). Is one of the most notable things about the ’85-’10 era of SF its more global nature? 

PAUL: It truly is a smallish, more interconnected world these days than ever before. Butterfly Twitter flutterings in one part of the globe almost instantly translate to hurricanes in the ideosphere at the antipodes. Therefore, any reader with his or her radar turned on is currently realizing that voices from around the planet must funnel into the speculative conversation. I think this attitude derives in large part from cyberpunk’s avowed mission to channel a multinational perspective on the future. In my opinion, cyberpunk has never been given quite enough credit for nurturing that shift in the parochial stance of SF. Of course, what’s interesting is not for the American/Anglo SF voice to be precisely replicated, but for it to be mutated and then fed back into the “mainstream” of SF to enhance our visions. We should also note the presence of savvy expatriates, such as Richard Calder, who spent many years in Southeast Asia and came away with some unique stylings and insights. SF has always benefitted from such explorers, such as Cordwainer Smith and James Tiptree.

Are there some works on this list that are relatively obscure but deserve more attention? What are they and why should readers seek them out?

PAUL: I think that our more “mainstream” selections, such as Michel Faber’s Under the Skin or Liz Jensen’s My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time, are too little known by genre readers, who would really appreciate them and get a kick from their handling of unique speculative elements. Maybe this book will help promote that kind of détente. Within our genre selections, we definitely have a few titles that have not received their due accolades. Carol Emshwiller, for instance, should have her SFWA Grandmaster Award by now. Maybe at the back of our minds in composing this book was the rule that if we faced a choice between, say, a great John Scalzi novel and an equally great Carol Emshwiller novel, we’d go with the Emshwiller because Scalzi had had his share of the spotlight already.

What’s likely to be the most controversial choice on the list? Why? 

DAMIEN: Some readers might doubt that Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is really SF; after all, there’s no explanation for his global catastrophe. Others might quibble at J. G. Ballard’s Super-Cannes or Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. But we have our reasons, and we’re happy to entertain controversy.

PAUL: The most controversial choice on the list is going to be whatever book any random reader considers the weakest, and yet which managed to edge out his or her own favorite!

As you compiled your list, were there works beloved by fans and critics that simply didn’t stand the test of time? 

PAUL: That stage of triage occurred so far back in the process, I’ve kinda forgotten how it worked! But basically, we started with such a massive list of super-great books that we had to mercilessly winnow down, that we never even brought up the second-tier stuff.

During the collaboration, did the two of you have any major differences on work that should or shouldn’t have been included? How did you iron those out? 

DAMIEN: Even with 101 choices, there’s such a tremendous amount of great stuff available that we had no trouble at all reaching a consensus, even though our tastes are inevitably somewhat different. And that adds flavor and richness to the stew!

PAUL: I did have to talk Damien out of making the book be 100% Aussie authors, but aside from that—!

DAMIEN: You do know he’s kidding, right? Obvious it couldn’t be more than 74% Aussie…

Based on the evolution in SF we saw during this era, what do you see as the probable trends in SF writing over the next 26 years?

DAMIEN: It might merge into the great ocean of story, as seems to be happening with the movies. It never ceases to astonish me that so many people who scoffed at SF for years contentedly watch SF films and TV shows without even noticing the genre cooties. On the other hand, mass media SF (or “sci fi”) is almost always watered down. It takes devotion to get the best out of complex SF novels, which have built their special vernacular during the last century or more. Still, people are absorbing those narrative moves just because the future we move through is literally an SF landscape. Even as the unexpected dimensions of this real future reshape and enrich the stories we tell about the futures yet to come…

PAUL: I don’t think SF can ever afford to feature a predominance of novels such as The Quantum Thief. Great as that book is—as attested to by our inclusion of it, ha!—it is a work that requires an intense familiarity with 75 years of past SF and the multiplex parsing protocols of the genre in order to be fully appreciated. We need to feature SF that walks the tightrope between simplicity and multiplexity, between newness and canon-referentiality, between adventure and deep thinking. It’s a hard row to hoe, to write something that will please both newbies and old pros, and which also advances the genre, but I think it can and must be done, if SF is to survive and even broaden its appeal.

As always, Star Babe Invasion Comics salutes those gorgeous galactic girls from the groovy movies and TV shows of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s! In this issue, 3-D Pete takes a look at [Read it all...]]]> Goofa Man Productions sets the Star Trek record straight in the third and latest issue of “3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Comics!”

As always, Star Babe Invasion Comics salutes those gorgeous galactic girls from the groovy movies and TV shows of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s! In this issue, 3-D Pete takes a look at the retro classic, Queen of Outer Space (recently profiled by Scot Cupp as part of our Forgotten Film series), starring Zsa Zsa Gabor! Plus, you’ll find the usual assortment of cool comics and illustrations featuring retro people such as Raquel Welch, Marc Singer and Joi Lansing!

But this third issue of Star Babe Invasion Comics is oh-so-extra-special, it is the savage “prehistoric” issue that focuses on retro Cave Babes! There is a special 3-D Pete commentary on When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), starring Playboy Playmate of the Year for 1968, Victoria Vetri! The curvaceous playmate appeared in several films and had guest appearances in many TV shows such as Mission: Impossible, Land of the Giants and Batman.

In addition, they have an exclusive interview with Vetri in which she unequivocally sets the record straight about her involvement in the original Star Trek series. Countless web sites report that Vetri had an uncredited role in the episode “Assignment: Earth.” The sites report that she played the human form of Isis, the feline companion of Gary Seven. This beautiful cat-woman is seen for just a few seconds at the end of that episode.

Vetri, currently serving 9 years in a California prison for attempted voluntary manslaughter, emphatically states through a written interview with Goofa Man Productions that she never appeared in any episode of Star Trek.

Sure, some investigative journalists expose graft and corruption at city hall. Others crusade to keep our most vulnerable citizens free from neglect and abuse. Star Babe Invasion Comics just wants people to quit saying that Victoria Vetri played the cat-woman in the “Assignment: Earth” episode of the original Star Trek series.

You’ll find this Star Trek investigative journalism excellence only in Star Babe Invasion Comics, issue three!

“3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Comics!“ is a product of Goofa Man Productions, the one-man animation and graphics studio of Mike Fisher. Mike has created cartoons and illustrations for Animation Magazine, USATODAY, Starlog magazine and many others. The studio also produces award-winning short videos. Most recently, Mike’s documentary, Craft of Unknown Origin, won first place in the short video category at the 2012 International UFO Congress Film Festival.

“3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Comics!“ is a 24-page digest-sized self-published production with a color cover and b&w interior except for a fabulous full-color center spread. To get a copy of issue 3 of Star Babe Invasion Comics, just send $5 to:

Mike Fisher
SB Comics
510 Enchanted Way
San Antonio, Texas, 78260

If you would like to get the collector’s edition first issue (featuring Devil Girl from Mars), plus the awesome second issue (featuring Barbarella) AND the third issue, just send $25 for all three to the above address. Please make checks out to Mike Fisher.

You can see more of Fisher’s work at the Goofa Man Productions web site or on his YouTube Channel.

This is the 63rd in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

This last week I was out of town from Sunday through Friday so it was only by chance that I got to see this film. I had gone to Tulsa for the funeral of my dear friend [Read it all...]]]> Forgotten Films: Déjà Vu (2006)

This is the 63rd in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

This last week I was out of town from Sunday through Friday so it was only by chance that I got to see this film. I had gone to Tulsa for the funeral of my dear friend and big sister K. D. (Kathy) Wentworth who died from pneumonia as the result of cervical cancer at age 61. The news, which I was expecting, still nearly brought me to my knees. I attended the graveside service (thankfully very short) and then gave the eulogy, which I was honored to do and which made me not sleep at night, worrying that I might not say the right thing or say something wrong.

Anyway, I returned to Dallas and stayed with my friend Dwight because Sandi and I were originally going to be in Dallas on Thursday anyway because we were going to see the Beach Boys on their 50th anniversary tour. I saw the Beach Boys for the first time in 1969 and several times in between, but this time they had Brian Wilson touring with them. So I was in. It was a good show.

So, since Dwight and I had nothing going, he asked if I had ever seen DÉJÀ VU with Denzel Washington. The answer was No and I am not sure why. I do not recall when this movie was out, though according to IMDB it made a fair bit of money.

This is a decent time travel movie, mixing in terrorism as a part of the plot. A ferry boat in New Orleans is targeted on a holiday weekend and 500+ people are dead. Agent Doug Carlin (emphasis on the second syllable) is an ATF agent in New Orleans and he is reviewing the bombing scene where he impresses the FBI leads Paul Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer) and Jack McCready (Bruce Greenwood)). He is able to view a scene and weed out the unnecessary details to get to the pertinent data. Among the information he is concerned with is the body of a young woman found just before the blast who is suffering all the symptoms of having died there. Knowing she was dead before the blast, he is able to find the clues that show she was abducted and murdered. He visits her apartment and is puzzled by the note “U CAN SAVE HER” spelled out on her refrigerator. When he relates his findings he is invited to a secret facility where FBI agents and scientists are able to view exactly 4 days and 6 hours into the past. They have a narrow focus on where they can look but they can peer through walls and see odd things. They cannot go back further and if they miss a view, it is gone forever.

It is an odd enough premise and through their viewings he finds himself falling in love with the dead girl. He wants to save her and the people on the ferry. But, this cannot be done, or so the scientists tell him. He does not believe and wants to make things happen. He wants to send a note to himself to check on things that might prevent the disaster.

I am not going to spoil all the plot devices here. There are some time paradox discussions and some plot holes you could drive the ferry through. But for the most part, the film is good, fun and reasonably suspenseful. Jim Caviezel is good as the bomber and Paula Patton does well as the dead girl.

Not the greatest film I have ever seen but I enjoyed it well enough to recommend it to you if you have not seen it.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

This is the 96th in my series of Forgotten Books.

I came to the art of Roy Krenkel rather late. I had seen the covers he did for Ace Books for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ titles but I did not equate them to any one artist. [Read it all...]]]> FORGOTTEN BOOK: RGK: THE ART OF ROY G. KRENKEL, 2005

This is the 96th in my series of Forgotten Books.

I came to the art of Roy Krenkel rather late. I had seen the covers he did for Ace Books for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ titles but I did not equate them to any one artist. It was only when Donald M. Grant did his massive book THE SOWERS OF THE THUNDER and my friend Bill Wallace pre-ordered one that I saw what RGK was about. That volume of 4 Robert E. Howard stories was amazing with huge full color paintings and spot illustrations throughout the text. The pre-orders all came signed by Krenkel and I lusted after that book. I eventually got a copy from Grant (unsigned) and read it and loved it and stroked it and called it mine. It got away from me when I needed desperately to repair my car. I later acquired another copy which went away in the big book sale of 2007. I do not currently own a copy. I hope to change that someday.

This book contains numerous pictures, color and black and white as well as studies, cover roughs, and influences on RGK’s work. And it has essays. Essays from contemporaries/co-workers like Al Williamson (talking about the EC comic days when RGK helped out Williamson along with Frazetta and Angelo Torres). Richard Lupoff discusses RGK’s work for him at Canaveral Press doing illustrations for Burroughs again and about RGK providing some art for his fanzine XERO. Don Grant discussed THE SOWERS OF THE THUNDER and THE ROAD TO AZRAEL which also featured RGK illustrations. Angelo Torres writes about RGK and the EC days also. William Stout examines RGK and Burroughs. Frank Frazetta discusses how RGK got into paperback cover art and got so much work he brought his friend Frank in to assist. Up to that point Frank had never really thought of paperback cover art. We are all glad he did and RGK is to blame.

But what you want is the pictures and there are lots of them. The book is printed on high quality slick paper and every page has one or more illustrations. The text is good, but, my, the art!

Copies are available online. When I went to check them out this morning, my eyes bugged out. Copies of this title on eBay were more than $200. There were 4 copies at ABE – ranging from $40 (for a remaindered copy) to over $300. One limited hardcover was $500. One regular hardcover at eBay was only $100. Go figure. The book was $25 new in 2005, but apparently RGK is not as forgotten as I though.

Check out the book or, better yet, find his work and bask in it.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.