Comic Book Resources: Darwyn Cooke, the award-winning writer, artist and animator known for such celebrated works as "DC: The New Frontier," "Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter" and "Catwoman," passed away overnight. He was 53. Earlier Friday, his wife Marsha Cooke announced he was receiving palliative care following an aggressive bout with cancer.
Update: You won't find a better send-off than this one.
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Torn and Frayed -- David Cranmer
Torn and Frayed is a novella in the "Drifter Detective" series. David Cranmer is the originator of the series idea, but this installment (#7) is the first one he's written himself. Jack Laramie is the drifter. He drives around in an old DeSoto and pulls a horse trailer where he can sleep if he doesn't find a motel. This story finds him near the little Texas town of Clyde (I've been there), where he goes to work for a rancher named Othmer. Othmer has a daughter who's working for an old enemy, and she's not doing what Othmer thinks. There's more, too, and the past that's never past shows up. As is often the case in this series, nobody get out of things clean. There aren't any good guys or bad guys, just people who happen to be both. This is a solid addition to an entertaining series.
There's also a bonus story, "Missing," narrated by Gideon Miles. It features Jack Laramie's grandfather, Cash Laramie. Both these men have their own series, and the story is a good introduction to them.
1930s matchbooks advertised naughty nightclub fun
1930s matchbooks advertised naughty nightclub fun
And provided important clues for private-eyes, too.
And provided important clues for private-eyes, too.
Freedom from the Freeway - The Reburial of Liver-Eating Johnson
Freedom from the Freeway: Have you heard the tale about the teacher who inspired a seventh-grade class to dig up an 1800s Montana fur trapper buried by a California freeway and rebury him back in the heart of the Old West?
Friday, May 13, 2016
First It Was the Thin Mint Melee
Boulder Daily Camera: The altercation in Gunbarrel that left one man shot in the buttocks Thursday and another man facing attempted-murder charges grew out of an argument about the shooting suspect's habit of feeding peanuts to area squirrels, according to Boulder County sheriff's investigators.
Link via Boing Boing.
Link via Boing Boing.
Tumultuous Literature set in the American South.
AbeBooks: Southern Discomfort: Tumultuous Literature set in the American South.: The American South offers famous food, memorable music and honest hospitality, but why do so many authors dwell on the dark side of this region? Books like Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora N. Hurston, Alex Haley’s Roots and The Color Purple by Alice Walker are acclaimed, but harrowing. Discrimination of all kinds, voodoo and other black arts, violence and murder, incest and rape – you will find them all prominently featured in Southern-themed literature.
Mark Lane,R. I. P.
The New York Times: Mark Lane, the defense lawyer, social activist and author who concluded in a blockbuster book in the mid-1960s that Lee Harvey Oswald could not have acted alone in killing President John F. Kennedy, a thesis supported in part by the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1979, died on Tuesday at his home in Charlottesville, Va. He was 89.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
FFB: The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession -- Charlie Lovett
The Bookman's Tale hit home with me for a lot of reasons, one of which is that it's about book collecting and restoring old books and book forgery, all of which I find fascinating. It's also about the search for the Holy Grail of book collecting, an original Shakespeare manuscript.The subtitle refers to more than book collecting, however. The protagonist, an American named Peter Byerley, since the death of his wife, has lived an isolated life in England. One day he finds a portrait of a woman who looks exactly like her stuck in a book in a small English bookshop. He becomes obsessed with finding out who the woman was, and this is what leads him to his other search.
The sections about Byerley alternate with sections set in Shakespeare's time and afterwards, and in those we learn about the manuscript and its various owners through the years. These sections don't slow down the narrative, or not for me. They added a good bit of interest.
Throw in murder, secret passages, tombs, and a bit of romance, and you have a winner. I quite enjoyed this one.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Katherine Dunn, R. I. P.
Willamette Week: Katherine Dunn, whose best-selling novel Geek Love was a National Book Award finalist in 1989 and became a cult classic, died at age 70 in her Portland home on May 11.
Hat tip to Todd Mason.
Hat tip to Todd Mason.
Uh-Oh
I should never have looked out the window when I was closing the shutters this evening. Something must have been hiding in the culvert in the ditch for a couple of days. This is not working out as Keanu and I had planned.
Keanu Update
Six or eight months before Judy died, we lost our last cat, Sam. He was black as Midnight (only you old folks will even have a chance at guessing why the's a capital "M") and totally crazy, but we loved him. For the first time in 30 years or so, we were without a cat in the house. Because of Judy's condition, we decided that it would be best not to get another one, and after she died, I didn't feel like getting a pet. I probably never would have, because I figured sooner or later, when the time was right, one would appear. That's how it's always worked before. Of all the cats we've had, only one was a deliberate choice. So I wasn't too surprised when Keanu showed up the other day. What a cutie. He hasn't filled up the hole in my heart, but he's moved in and taken up residence in a little part of it.
I Found a Penny in the Walmart Parking Lot
The remains of a 200,000 year old advanced civilization found in Africa: The incredible discovery was made in South Africa, around 150 km west of port Maputo. There, we find the remains of a huge metropolis that measures, according to tests, around 1500 square kilometers. This ancient city is, according to researchers, part of an even larger community with about 10,000 square kilometers and is believed to have been constructed 160,000 to 200,000 years before Christ.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Paris Hilton Update
Paris Hilton Is Producing an 'Unflinching' Documentary About Herself
And we can hardly wait to see it, am I right?
Hat tip to Deb.
And we can hardly wait to see it, am I right?
Hat tip to Deb.
First It Was the Thin Mint Melee
The Smoking Gun: Incensed that her husband got her “the wrong flowers and candy” for Mother’s Day, a Florida woman allegedly pummeled her spouse, according to cops who arrested her for domestic battery.
Better Dead -- Max Allan Collins
Nate Heller is back in another solidly entertaining historical p.i. novel (really, two connected novellas), set this time during the McCarthy era. In book 1 it's 1953, and after seeing Dashiell Hammett testify before congress, Heller gets invited to lunch by the author, who wants to hire him on behalf of a group wanting to find evidence to clear Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, sentenced to die for passing atomic secrets to the dirty Reds. Hammett's group can't pay much, so Heller visits Joe McCarthy and Drew Pearson, who agree to pay him, too, if he'll pass them information. Heller doesn't like them much, and he particularly dislikes McCarthy's henchman, Roy Cohn, but he likes their money. Naturally there are people on all sides who'd prefer that Heller not find any evidence, so there's plenty of action, and some sex, too. Heller does turn up evidence, but he can't save the Rosenbergs. Not that Julius is entirely innocent.Book 2 finds Heller involved with someone else who wants his help, someone much more attractive than Joe McCarthy -- Bettie Page. To help her out, however, Heller has to get McCarthy to use his influence, and while McCarthy agrees, he also hires Heller to find out what information the CIA has gathered on him. Sounds simple enough, but it's not, and Heller gets tangled up with the CIA and some terrible experiements with LSD-25.
One of the things that's so enjoyable about the Heller novels is the way Collins presents the historical characters. Collins's portraits of them are so convincing that it's like watching a documentary. McCarthy, Cohn, Estes Kefauver, Bettie Page, the Rosenbergs, and many others come alive on the page, where their goodness (or nastiness) is revealed though their talk and their actions. Speaking of which, there's no shortage of action, and there's no shortage of Heller telling people what he thinks of them or dishing out what they deserve in satisfying fashion.
Another thing that's always amazing is how well Collins can make real history fit into the story he's telling. His research is deep and impeccable, and even when Heller is speculating (particularly in the concluding pages), I want to believe. I have a feeling you will, too.
First-class entertainment, as always, and highly recommended.
How the Rolling Stones Found “Satisfaction”
The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” was not inevitable.: “It did not have to happen. If it had not been written and recorded when it was, who knows? It prevented us from being just another good band with a nice run.”
First It Was the Thin Mint Melee
Man Threatened Boys With Gun Over Bounce House: — A 59-year-old Nowthen man is facing charges after threatening two juveniles who had incorrectly delivered a bounce house to his address, according to charges filed in Anoka County Court.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Meet Keanu
When I returned from my morning constitutional, I saw a towel lying in the grass by the drainage ditch across the street from my house. When I went over to check it out, I discovered a tiny kitten crouched beside it. It didn't want me to pick it up, but I did. I looked around for others, but didn't find any. So meet Keanu, the new member of the household.
First It Was the Thin Mint Melee
Family brawl breaks out in Peter Piper Pizza in Texas
There must not be a Chuck E. Cheese in town.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
There must not be a Chuck E. Cheese in town.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Our Tax Dollars at Work
Feds pay researcher to have bee sting his penis: Taxpayers also fund studies of drunk birds songs, femininity of Democrats in Congress
Sylvia Kauders, R. I. P.
The New York Times: Many of her bit parts in movies and television series described her only as “old Jewish lady” — the kind of role casting directors were apt to give such a late-blooming professional actress as Sylvia Kauders.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Overlooked Movies -- Norwood
Someone who must have thought that it was the hot combo of Glen Campbell and Kim Darby that made the original version of True Grit such a big hit had the great idea of putting them into another movie based on a book by Charles Portis, the author of True Grit. And someone who was even more clever thought of the one thing that would make the pairing even better: add Joe Namath to the mix. And this time, let Glen sing a bunch of songs. What could possibly go wrong?Well, it would depend on your mood. If you're feeling uncritical (as I usually am), you can have a little fun. The supporting cast, including Leigh French, Carol Lynley, Pat Hingle, and Dom DeLuise, is great, and there are some amusing scenes. The chicken from the book is included, for example, and so is The World's Smallest Perfect Man. Even some of the stuff that's not from the book is amusing, like Namath and The World's Smallest Perfect Man tossing the old pigskin around. Namath isn't much of an actor, and neither is Campbell, but they both have nice screen presences, and Campbell's songs are okay. (In the novel, Norwood talks about being a singer but doesn't sing; in the movie he sings a lot.) The plot, such as it is, borrows from the book, which also doesn't have much of a plot, but departs from it considerably.
I suggest reading the novel. Then you can watch the movie for free on YouTube some day when you have nothing better to do.
I like the poster above, which makes the movie look like a bromance between Campbell and Namath. Very misleading, since Namath is in the movie hardly at all, just at the beginning and near the end.
Monday, May 09, 2016
William Schallert, R. I. P.
The New York Times: William Schallert, a familiar presence on prime-time television for decades, notably as the long-suffering father and uncle to the “identical cousins” played by Patty Duke on the hit 1960s sitcom “The Patty Duke Show,” died on Sunday in Pacific Palisades, Calif. He was 93.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time for Today Only
The Shallows - Kindle edition by Nigel Bird. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. Lieutenant Bradley Heap has gone AWOL and taken along his wife and son. They’re managing to cope until a chance encounter with a gang of drug dealers turns their world upside down. 
Sunday, May 08, 2016
PaperBack
Alfred Hitchcock Introduces A Crime for Mothers and Others: Stores by Henry Slesar, Arrow Books, 1963
Happy Mother's Day!
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