Posted at 1:30 p.m. - Wednesday, January 7

The 'internets' are just chock full of free content from aspiring writers and artists trying to get themselves noticed.  Most are talented folk who have yet to catch that 'big break' to make it into publishing.  And others are established professionals who just have a project that they're passionate about and want to share it in any way they can.

This is one of those 'others.'

Dan Jolley is an established professional writer who has worked for just about every major comic book company and is currently making a name for himself in the YA market.  He's written Batman, Superman, characters from the X-Men universe and numerous others, but today he brings us something...different.

REDEEMER'S LAW is, as Dan puts it, 'a contemporary pulp action sci-fi horror superhero story.'  That's a mouthfull indeed!  And better yet, you get to read Mr. Jolley's entire novel, chapter by chapter, for free and even get to comment on how the narrative is progressing!

That's an opportunity that doesn't present itself every day, y'know.

So I encourage all you superhero/sc-fi/horror/pulp fiction fans to check out Redeemer's Law...

And tell Mr. Jolley that you heard about it on the Geek To Me Blog!

CHECK IT OUT!

Posted at 10:35 p.m. - Tuesday, November 25

Robert Kurztman has been working in the horror movie genre since his college days, starting off as an effects artist on Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series before going on to building an impressive resume on a number of different genre features, including The Rage, a movie he directed and co-wrote with John Bisson.  The Rage will be shown as part of the MonstersHD Thanksgiving Day of the Dead Marathon.  Kurtzman spoke with me about the marathon, his experiences in film and what it’s like to work in Bollywood.

Geek To Me: Where did the idea of having a monster movie marathon on Thanksgiving come up?

Robert Kurtzman: I would guess,[it's like] when I was growing up there was the ‘monster movie weekend,’ you had the late night horror host on Friday night, Saturday horror host – afternoon super host – and then your afternoon movie which was always a genre movie.  Most of the time King Kong played on the holiday weekend, y’know on Thanksgiving.   So when I was a kid I was looking forward every year as I got to watch King Kong.

So I would suppose that they [Monsters HD producers] had a similar thing when they were growing up, so they’re thinking ‘hey, Thanksgiving weekend marathon! Plus, it’s a zombie marathon and you eat a lot!’

G2M: What are some of the projects you’ve worked on that you look back on with the most fondness?

RK: Probably working on the Evil Dead movies, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.  I’m most fond of the ‘hey day’ movies when creature effects was kind of the burgeoning industry, y’know in the eighties, that’s when I got into it.  Movies like that, Bride of Re-Animator and films like that, I really enjoyed working on.

Army of Darkness is probably the best time I’ve ever had working on a film.  You’re a big kid out there, you get to play with skeleton puppets, and guys on horseback with swordplay.  That’s great.

The second one (Evil Dead 2) was a blast to work on too.  We were kids, I was probably about twenty, and they stuck us in this ‘Texas Chainsaw’ type house, the effects guys were all in this house out in the country, a scary barn with the pillars out front.  We all stayed in the house while making a movie, being shot in an abandoned middle school, which is were they built all the stuff for Evil Dead, all the cabin sets and interiors.  It was three months in North Carolina, with Sam Raimi who’s a big kid, having a blast with a bunch of rubber monsters.

G2M: And beating the crap out of Bruce Campbell.

RK: Yeah, that’s the other thing.  Sam’s whole thing is ‘the innocent must suffer.’  Which is great because that’s the great things about the Die Hard films too, John McClane gets his ass kicked.

Then there’s other movies like Dances With Wolves and Misery, films like that, more main stream, aren’t so much genre movies, but I enjoyed them as well.

G2M: What is it about zombies that you think really strike a chord with people?

RK: Probably just the primal fear of having your flesh eaten by another human being and being eaten alive.  And the taboo of eating human flesh, it all plays into the thing, the phobia.  [It] continues to resonate over the years, as do vampires and werewolves for various reasons.

G2M: There are those that say that the zombie genre is played out, that there's nothing new you can do with them.  What are some of the challenges that you find as a creator to make these types of archetypes, like zombies, effective and resonate with people?

RK: There are two kinds of [approaches]: the very realistic approach to them, [recreating] what they would really look like decaying which is what you always try to make using the technology and make-up effects, creature effects and advances and that. You just try to make them more realistic and more anatomically correct.

And then you have the fantasy element, which [are] the goofier movies that are [created] really to be more fun than anything. 

The genre is never dead because someone eventually puts a twist on it and revives it somehow and comes up with a new idea.  Same with vampires and whatever, they get into that rut where it kind of overused and everything’s kind of similar, and then, you know, it dies out for a few years, and then – bam – somebody comes up with something real interesting.

I don’t think it ever truly dead.

G2M: Have you seen any of the current work in comic books being done with Zombies, like Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead or Garth Ennis’ Crossed?

RK: I don’t really follow [them].  I’d been dabbling with the comics with The Rage release, but I really don’t collect them anymore.  Stopped doing that when I was in my teens, unfortunately.  Couldn’t afford it.

G2M : Speaking about The Rage, what do you felt worked best about that project?

RK: We set out to make a really fun kind of b-movie, roller coaster ride.  It has a lot of things, elements from films I grew up on, everything from Re-Animator to the old 40’s and 50’s (Bela) Legosi movies; mad doctor films and mix it in with some mutant animals, some living dead mutants; kind of a mix of everything where we just have fun with it.

It’s totally kind of a fun throwback movie.  We made it on a shoestring budget.  We kind of did it to experiment.  Me and John [Bisson] kind of wanted to experience the process that they did on Evil Dead when they went out and raised money and shot a movie outside the system kind of on their own in the back yard.  So we put a film crew together, in our home town, on my studio and everything and we made the movie.  Even though we’d made other films over the years, we went ‘hey, let’s go back and make a movie like we were making our first film.’  We basically did everything ourselves.  I was the DP (Director of Photography), John was production designer, and he was also writing and storyboarding the film.  We were doing a little of everything, built our own sets and it was that kind of guerilla movie.

G2M: Do you think you would want to re-visit The Rage like Sam Raimi did the Evil Dead movies?

RK: If there’s an opportunity, we already have ideas for spinning it off. It just depends on what’s going on at the time, what the market is and raising the financing again.

G2M: What do you think is going to be the next thing in horror that is going to strike a chord with fans of the genre?

RK: I think it’s going to be somebody coming up with an original concept that doesn’t use any of those creatures like vampires, werewolves and things.  They have been so overused. I think coming up with a new mythology for something, or experimenting with other cultures’ mythology. I just finished a film called ‘Hiss’ which is an Indian production, its all wrapped around their Snake Woman legend.  So there’s things that we’re not familiar with over here that might be a new inspiration for films over here like a golem-type film.

[‘Hiss’] is an all Hindi movie which definitely a different thing, working with an Indian crew and translators was an experience.  It was really cool.

G2M: Do scary movies go over in India?

RK: Yeah, they actually have a lot of horror films that come out, even our [American] films come out.  They had their 'Hammer Films' period over there too.  They made fifty of these snake movies, but they never had any with real transformations and snakes or special make-up.  They’ve been making these types of movies for a long time: supernatural movies and movies with witches.

G2M: Robert, thanks so much for taking this time to speak with me.

RK: Thank you.

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Visit MonstersHD.com for more info on their Thanksgiving Day of the Dead!

Posted at 9:45 p.m. - Wednesday, November 19

A couple weeks ago, I spent an afternoon on the set of WCIU's Svengoolie show to research a feature for the REDYE.  I interviewed Rich Koz aka 'Sven' took some video and even administered the GNAT to Koz.

While the feature won't see print for another week or two, the folks over at WCIU have posted a video documenting my visit.

CHECK IT OUT!

Posted at 12:5o p.m. - Wednesday, October 29

With All Hallow's Eve approaching, local film maker Joe Avella sent me a link to his 'horror movie trailer'...

I must say, it's a take on werewolves that I have never seen before, and it simply sent chills down my spine!  Move over John Carpenter!  There's a new horror movie sheriff in town!

Posted at 3:25 p.m. - Friday, September 12

Cassie Hack is like any other girl you may know, provided they made it a pastime to hunt down the serial killers & monsters of different horror movie genres.  Oh yeah, and let's not forget hanging out with a large, lumbering behemoth named Vlad (who could be one of those horror movie monsters himself if he weren't such an innocent soul.)  You'll get to know Cassie and Vlad a-plenty when you read Hack/Slash, the horror/action/comedy comic book from Chicago-based comic-book company Devil's Due Publishing (DDP).

First published in 2004, Hack/Slash quickly developed a loyal fan base that has made the book one of the company's top sellers and has earned the title 'flagship' status.  The characters themselves were created by local comic book artist/writer Tim Seeley and will soon be seeing their debut on the silver screen as a film adaptation by Rogue Pictures.

"Because of the loyal readers of Hack/Slash, we've become the little book that could," said Tim Seeley via e-mail. "We're still here, and we're giving more and more readers their monthly dose of twisted horror and laughs."

DDP has recently released a Hack/Slash Omnibus that collects most of the current run.  The trade has been reported as sold out by the publisher, and the Hack/Slash Annual, which contains the Suicide Girls web comic, is also in high demand.

Now comes word that the book has been nominated for a Spike TV Scream Award.  Fans of the book are being encouraged to vote for the book.  The book faces some stiff competition though, as its up against Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, Brian K. Vaughan's Y: The Last Man, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead, Gerard Way's Umbrella Academy and Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier.  Whew!  That may be Cassie's toughest battle yet!

I've been reading the book myself since it first debuted, and I think its a terrific, highly enjoyable romp through horror movies with a style of writing that has fun with the trappings of the genre.  With thrills, chills and a few laughs, HACK/SLASH entertains with earnest.  It's wry, self-awareness will charm readers, especially if they're fans of other similar titles like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the like.  (Unlike BTVS, H/S ventures into some controversial territories that a more main-stream character would never dare, like say, dealing with pedophile priests.)  The heroine, Cassie Hack, is tough, no-nonsense and a welcome addition to the growing pantheon of kick-ass female protagonists.

The book is intended for mature readers (the Annual especially since the Suicide Girls story contains some nudity), but is a good, smart read nonetheless.  Ask for it at your local comic shop!