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Post by bushwick on Jul 25, 2009 12:50:28 GMT
Definitely Mad Max 2 as well, but the crazy OTT nature of many of the books is more reminiscent of all the Italian knock-offs that followed. Round the same time, things like 'The New Barbarians' and '2019: After The Fall Of New York' were flying out of video shops, probably rented by the same powerful modern day warriors that read the books.
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Post by bushwick on Jul 25, 2009 10:22:56 GMT
Good work feller!
With a lot of these series, the later numbers were coming out round about the time of Perestroika, but Reds were still the menace in the books. Did the end of the Cold War spell the end of these books? (Obviously not, in the case of Deathlands) Or did readers enjoy the reassuring retro-Commie-hating, just like the old days?
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Post by bushwick on Jul 23, 2009 18:16:50 GMT
I've got two copies of this - one has just 'Snowdrop' written on the spine, sans-"Satan's", but the rest of the cover's just the same.
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Post by bushwick on Jul 20, 2009 19:20:22 GMT
I read just about everything on here, or at least skim it. Sometimes I have periods of relative silence but am always about. Everything that's put up here in the way of reviews, cover scans etc is well worth it from an archiving point of view even if it doesn't generate much response, I reckon.
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Post by bushwick on Jul 13, 2009 14:23:12 GMT
Thanks steve, that's gotta be it. I'll put it on my list.
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Post by bushwick on Jul 13, 2009 9:11:02 GMT
I remember getting a Helen Hoke anthology out from the library when I was a kid. There was a story in there that really scared me. I believe it was called It? It actually came with an editorial warning due to its scariness, I seem to remember. Any ideas Johnny? It described this indescribable being that was 'never born', seemed quite freaky to a young mind...would like to read it again.
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Post by bushwick on Jul 9, 2009 9:08:39 GMT
Either end of this month or middle of August is best for me cash-wise...but if someone wants to name a day i'll commit innit.
two suggestions:
25th July or 15th August?
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Post by bushwick on Jul 7, 2009 11:23:01 GMT
'The Smack Man' ('Jack Cannon' Grafton edition) turned up today. Might read this next (tossup between that and the second Casca book I found the other day).
Andy, interesting comment about reviving this genre in a modern 'gangsta' context. It's a really good idea, and surely saleable? I read Victor Headley's 'Excess', the sequel to 'Yardie', not too long back and remember being disappointed with the wasted potential. It was quite tame in terms of crime, violence and badness, quite slow, with many plot threads that never get properly developed. An unsatisfying climax. It did remind me of later Richard Allen in some ways - not enough action and a bit of a swiz. The best sections of the book are the more soap-opera type parts dealing with Jamaican culture and families, and the long section that describes a dancehall soundclash in great detail. The crime and depravity is weak in comparison.
These were written in the early 90s, and as we all know, things on the street have got a lot worse since. Maybe it's a good time for a completely exploitative, socially irresponsible modern tough-guy crime novel. Fill it full of the following current affairs hot tickets - knife crime, kid gangs, religious and ethnic tensions, human trafficking, bloody rivalries on the music scene etc - in reasonably priced, short novels cynically aimed at the very youth market it exploits, a la 'Skinhead'. Try and orchestrate some shocked-and-appalled publicity by getting quotes from shocked MPs and fascistic Daily Express writers. This could revive the pulp industry! People still read, don't they? Let's encourage the youth to read books - if there was enough negative publicity and the content packed a punch, it'd take off. Kids need something for when they outgrow Harry Potter...
Set in the UK, lead character either a cop, failed/ex-cop, or just a civilian with a grudge (and probably Falklands/Gulf experience) who's been pushed too far down the vigilante route. Maybe a lapsed liberal whose opinions regarding crime and offenders change drastically when THE GANGS START MESSING WITH HIS FAMILY. Something like that.
I'm serious. Who wants to tag-team write this with me?
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Post by bushwick on Jul 4, 2009 13:57:56 GMT
Well recommended, this is a tasty publication. The ludicrous number of Men's Adventure series out there means you could probably do a few of these.
The Executioner stuff was very interesting, the series that started the whole thing, a reaction to liberal artsy-fartsy hippiedom - post-Nam tough stories for the regular short-haired workin' man. This stuff was absolute anathema to 'liberals' and back in the humourless 80s will have been viewed as social evil to a lot of people. Interestingly, Don Pendleton's warrior philosophy makes it all seem more noble and easier to stomach. Also, many of the later associated series like 'Able Team' and 'Phoenix Force' feature multi-ethnic groups of heroes - the inference being, it's OK to be black or Chinese or even God forbid, RUSSIAN, as long as you love America and are not a) a commie, b) a terrorist or c), Mafia.
As Justin points out, Mack Bolan is like the friggin' Dalai Lama compared to some of these guys. After reading this, I amazoned one of the De Mille 'Ryker' novels, which hasn't come yet, and 'Gannon 2: Blood Fix' which has, and is absolutely straight out of the gutter. If I do an article called 'The Most Masculine Pulp Fiction of All Time', Gannon would be in there. The prose style is fascinating, pure hepcat slang, clipped as hell, reads really fast. The polar opposite of the Revenger book I read by Terry Harknett (OK, but Terry's wordier, slightly more old-fashioned style really works for Edge but not so much for an Executioner clone).
Reading the Gannon book, the brutality, audacity and brevity of the prose and the almost parodic levels of misogyny and violence - it really reminded me of that Brannigan Western by Tom Ryan that I bought recently and keep going on about. Wonder if they're by the same guy?
Anyway, digressing, this is great mag. Are you going to do a post-apocalypse one Justin? There's lots of material there. Despite my limited knowledge, I would be happy to research my arse off and maybe write something about Doomsday Warrior or the Phoenix series?
STUPID EDIT: I wrote 'research my a s s off' (US spelling) and the bloody filter thing wrote 'research I disagree off'. Ludicrous! No such problem with superior UK spelling of 'arse'.
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Post by bushwick on Jul 2, 2009 23:23:38 GMT
I'm up for it. Late July or August maybe? I could get my arse down for then.
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Post by bushwick on Jun 30, 2009 16:20:04 GMT
Don't think HoH was ever a kid's mag as such. Some of the strips were quite grim and violent (remember a scary one drawn by the great Brian Lewis, about a guy haunted by nightmares).
I guess it was that 'grey area' you used to get in UK mags and comics...not specifically 'mature' but not really kid's stuff either (in my eyes early 2000AD fits this bill too).
The short lived HoH relaunch was really good, when Skinn brought it out alongside Warrior. Great mags.
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Post by bushwick on Jun 29, 2009 9:02:44 GMT
I realise I have to back that last statement up. Here's a trailer and a scene: Someone's put the whole film up there now too.
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Post by bushwick on Jun 29, 2009 8:10:09 GMT
Yor! haha! have the soundtrack to that here by Guido and Maurizo D'angelis...cracking Italo-disco stuff.
Best Italo sword-and-sorcery film I've seen by a country mile is The Barbarians by Ruggero Deodato, featuring two big bodybuilding twins. Do whatever you can to seek it out, it will stay with you forever!
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Post by bushwick on Jun 28, 2009 10:13:28 GMT
Perhaps the last successful attempt at an exploitation film holding to the old values was the late Bruno Mattei's ZOMBIES: THE BEGINNING (2007?). Though not quite up there with his 80s classics ZOMBIE CREEPING FLESH (aka VIRUS/HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD/etc), STRIKE COMMANDO and RATS:NIGHT OF TERROR. On the other hand I watched Mattei's SS GIRLS and found it woefully dull. Not a patch on ILSA SHE-WOLF. Mark S. haha, a man after my own heart! was fascinated when I discovered a few years ago that Mattei was still directing, mainly in the Phillipines in the years before he died. I've seen most of his later films, some of which are OK (Snuff Trap), some of which aren't (Land Of Death...cross between Predator and Cannibal Holocaust!). But Zombies: The Beginning, like you say, is great! Stupid dialogue, gooey effects, good zombies, plot is stolen from Aliens, and I'm sure some of the score is half-inched too? Mattei was a don, true unashamed hack. The amount of stock footage in Zombie Creeping Flesh is shocking. And Strike Commando contains some hilarious scenes courtesy of good ol' Reb Brown! loads of exploitation guys no longer around...Fulci, Mattei, D'Amato, Don Edmonds, Don Dohler...Lenzi and Deodato haven't made owt for years (although the Can Holocaust remake is still rumoured). As for the Nazisploitation...it's a hit-and-miss subject! The Beast In Heat is priceless, some of them are a bit dull. I've seen most of the Italian ones but I forget which ones were really good. Deported Women of the SS Special Section? think that one was. Or for a more Japanese flavour on the same subject, the Man Behind The Sun films (which are meant to be very disturbing, they are a bit but I found 'em campy). Vaughan: very much agreed re: modern exploitation. It's either far too tongue in cheek and 'knowing', like an attempt to CREATE a cult film (which aren't created...they just happen), or it's blacker-than-black unrelenting sadism with no charm. Or sometimes a cross between the two. Sometimes it works ('enjoyed' Gutterballs by Ryan Nicholson, modern take on dumb 80s slasher, ridiculously violent and sick. And for 'bleak', the British movie 'Broken' is great) but a lot of the time it doesn't (August Underground and its ilk can piss off). I was very impressed by Gator Bait, which I saw the other day. Early 70s swampsploitation, hard-edged and mean but with bits of incongruous humour. You just couldn't make a film like that nowadays without putting ironic inverted commas round everything, if you follow me. Probably one of the overall best recent exploiters I've seen (and British) is Eden Lake. Well acted and directed, deals with topical 'social problem' but is really pretty prurient, very bleak but it works. (Sorry, massive derailment, I love these kinda chats though!)
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Post by bushwick on Jun 27, 2009 14:59:09 GMT
Sound Craig, I'll do that.
It would be good to organise a meet actually. I'd be up for going down to London sometime or summat. Maybe someone should start a thread?
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