Stuff that excited you in 2008

[dem bones]

Time for the usual Vault end of year wake. Best/ worst books you read (they don't have to have been published in '08), best & worst publishers, magazines, events, sites/ boards/ blogs, TV and film, etc, etc. Your top finds, personal highlights - in short, everything that was any good or dead awful about 2008! You show me yours first and i'll show you mine.

[Craig Herbertson]

Wrestling with short term memory.

It would have to be in in no order of merit

Third Black Book of Horror Charles Black
The Right Hand of Doom R E Howard
The Dying Earth Omnibus Jack Vance

Just about everything else I read was a reread

Worst;
1. Some nameless crap that an educated friend lent me as a good modern novel (non genre) and I got through about 16 pages on a plane before questioning the sanity of the world. Someone once called them middle class fuck books - ie someone meets someone else, there is a conflict - in the end someone gets gets fucked - it turns out happy or sad.

Call me weird but my mind, used to more colourful stuff, expunged the name from its gloomy halls and thankfully the plot and the characters were also assassinated.

[H_P_Saucecraft]

Good:

The Pilo Family Circus - Will Elliot

Not horror, but certainly has horror elements & also in hillarious bad taste. A circus in a parallel dimension, run by a werewolf whose latest obssesion is christianity & his angry midget brother (who are constantly trying to kill each other).

Add a troupe of psychopathic clowns who use special clown dust to give them their clown personas & an unwilling volunteer who nicks said clown dust & so ends up in the circus & you have a thoroughly entertaining book.

All the Guy N. Smith books I've read this year (Deathbell, Demons, The Slime Beast & Return of The Werewolf)

Wordsworth horror books, I've only bought 2 so far, but it's great to see a publisher giving time to efforts that would otherwise be forgotten.

Ramsey Campbell - The Grin Of The Dark
Mr. Campbell proves he has still got it, quite unsettling in places.

Love on the Farm & Kowlongo Plaything - Alan Temperly. These certainly pack a punch. Suitably sick ;D

Worst:
For that I would have to include the depressing state of most bookshops & libraries, seems like horror has gone pretentious again, apart from some notable exceptions (wordsworth, robinson's horror comics/zombie comics etc. It's still out there, you just have to do some looking). I think we're due a return to pulp soon.

[dem bones]

Kowlongo Plaything got so many mentions - pro and against - on here, it's a strong contender for story of the year and Ramsey Campbell's Grin In The Dark has to be one of his most popular novels to date.

I'm sure to think of more the moment i post this, but some great books I read for the first time in 2008:

Pierce Nace - Eat Them Alive!
Gerald Suster - The Handyman
Simon Ian Childer - Worm
Hugh C. Rae - Skinner
John Probert - Coffin Nails
Peter Haining (ed.) - Mammoth Book Of True Hauntings
Mark Valentine (ed.) - The Werewolf Pack
Chris Priestly - Uncle Montague's Tales Of Terror

Pulp Magazine of the Year: Paperback Fanatic #8!

Fiction magazines: One-Eyed Grey, The Thinking Mans Crumpet and Filthy Creations

Event of the Year: Basil Copper A Life In Books launch in February (Another contender would have been the BFS nominations do in the summer but it was all a blur to me even while it was taking place).

Publishers of the Year: Wordsworth Editions

Favourite series: The Black Book Of Horror. A trad horror alternative to Stephen Jones' often 'experimental' Years Best Horrors.

Special thanks to Sam & Georgie at Robinson for all the horror and even some erotica!

Favourite sites: the usual suspects - Trash Fiction, Bear Alley, Beyond The Groovy Age Of Horror, Tartarus, Pulpgen, Locus .....

Those we have loved: Bettie Page, Reg Varney, Oliver Postgate, Forrest J. Ackerman, Vampira ....

Least welcome 'improvements': Libraries being replaced with those god-awful Idea's stores that reek of coffee and sweaty aerobics monsters and contain everything .... except books.

Charity shops getting above themselves and seemingly refusing to stock any book published before 2000.

Or*nge: where do you start ....

[killercrab]

Favourite books - The Venemous Serpent , The Death of Grass , Werewolf by Moonlight , The Complete Chronicles of Conan.

Favourite Hardback - Barry Windsor Smith Opus 2.

Bubbling under - The Furies , Darkening Island , The Space Vampires.

Favourite comic trades - Essential Conan , HELLBOY Darkness Calls

Favourite vintage tv shows - Blakes 7 , The Saint ( in colour) , Smuggler .

Favourite new tv - Crooked House , Dead Set , Survivors.

Favourite new writer ( to me) - John Christopher.

[justin]

Best event was undoubtedly the BFS Awards (don't tell the wife it wasn't our wedding day!) Demonik holding court in a corner of a dingy pub as some Fagin like figure recruiting for his gang of n'er do-wells. Good to meet Ryan, Charles, Johnny, Andy to name but a few.

Best contemporary paperback- Lost Echoes by Joe Lansdale. Not his best but original, dark and acerbic.

Best modern-day pulpster- Edward Lee. Slither, Infernal Gothic and The Messenger all contained gratuitous amounts of sex, violence and rock and roll. Don't believe the hype but just go in as treating them like NEL on steroids and viagra.

Best graphic novel- Savage by Pat Mills and Charlie Adlard. Remember Bill Savage the psychotic cockney lorry driver from the early days of 2000 AD? Well he's back to fight the Volgan invasion of Britian. The most subversive strip I've read in years, it truly made me think about the Western occupation of Iraq. Whilst still delivering double-barrelled shotgun action through Adlard's photo-realistic art. If ever they adapt Get Carter to comic, Adlard is the ideal artist. Runners-up are the ongoing 100 Bullets collections from Vertigo.

Best pulp re-discovery- the Malko men's adventure books. A Rough Guide to the world, with the emphasis on rough.

Worst news of the year- more second-hand book stores closing, abebooks postage rates, the Vault teetering on the edge of self-destruction.

[andydecker]

I have read so much new stuff this year, mostly for work and not for pleasure.

Great fun was a book by David Devereux HUNTER´S MOON. A sort of Sabat for the new millenium. An agent of her majesty killing devil´s worshipper and demons. This had all, from sexual perversions, poisened dildos as an assasins weapon - I kid you not - to heavy s/m and mindcontrol. And the occasional bullet in the head.

Also a truly great horror novel was Nicholas Pekearos THE WOLFMAN. This was the first and only novel of the writer, a New York cop, who was killed in the line of duty. It is a werewolf novel. Normally I find werewolf novels utterly boring, but this one was written so well. Imagine a cross of James M. Cain, Nancy Collins and Dexter, only Dexter as a werewolf once a month. Told in first person the hero, a vietnam veteran - the novels is set 30 years ago - is a drifter, working one lousy job after the other, always getting into bar-fights in the hope somebody kills him. He tries to force the wolf only to kill bad guys. Then he crosses paths with a serial killer with an appetite for young girls.

Fun also were a lot of paperbacks I bought after reading about them either here or in the PF. David Gurney, Brian Ball, James Shackleford, James Darke Even when they were bad they were often more fun than todays bloated thriller.

Truly disappointing: Shaun Hutson´s UNMARKED GRAVE.

On the movie and tv front: tv was better than movies. Dexter is fun, Spooks is scary, I still love Suchet´s Poirot. Really disappointing was Blood Ties, what a wasted opportunity. this one should have been so much better.

Sad fact: comics getting too expensive for their own good.

[carolinec]

Best bits for me:

- my interviews. I love doing these. I was particularly chuffed that I managed to do another couple in person this year. They're always more nerve-wracking than the email ones (as I'm a shrinking violet in real life, honest I am! ), but it feels so good afterwards!

- seeing Tull in concert twice - especially seeing their original drummer, Clive Bunker, do a guest slot at the second show. Amazing!

- getting involved in editorial work, both with Coral on TTMC and helping Troo out (along with several other Pantechies) with some of the editing side of things when she had a lot on her plate. I've discovered I really enjoy the editing side of things, and I'd like to get more involved in this I reckon. Editing a book would be wonderful ...

- events - the Fantastic Films Weekend and AltFiction were great (along with a couple of nice Doctor Who conventions! ). Biggest disappointment was missing FantasyCon through illness though

- books - I echo what people have said above. The Black Books are great - lovely to see a return to the "good old days" of the horror anthology. Nice also to see Ramsey Campbell proving he can still beat the young 'uns at their own game and produce a real treat like "Grin of the Dark". I also particularly enjoyed Des' "Cone Zero" and "Zencore"

- film - I'd have to go for everything I saw at the Fantastic Films Weekend! It was particularly memorable to sit with director Peter Duffell and his wife during the screening of "The House That Dripped Blood" ;D

- TV - not a lot on TV to interest me this year, but it was nice to see a return to the "old fashioned" style of spooky TV stories again with Mark Gatiss' "Crooked House"

Here's to 2009 bringing more great events, books, and interesting things to get involved in!

[bushwick]

This year I read more books than ever, too many to remember, and nothing past the early Nineties if I recall correctly. Ones that stick out include:

PC Westerns...read tons of these. Enjoyed Caleb Thorn: Brotherly Death, various Hernes, particularly Geronimo!, Death School, Silver Threads, Shadow of The Vulture and Apache Squaw...Claw 5...all the Edge meets Steeles...various Edges - Sullivan's Law, Killers Breed, Vengeance Is Black, The Final Shot...Breed books...Sloane...tons more. I've bombarded my brain with these so they all tend to blur into one big orgy of violence, misery and wisecracks, which is no bad thing!

many Guy N Smiths...Black Fedora, Thirst, Deathbell...Bamboo Guerillas taking the crown

Savage - Paul Boorstin

Slugs - Shaun Hutson

Boot Boys (second reading after about 18 years)

Let's Go Play At The Adams - Mendahl Johnson

...lots more that I can't recall right now.

Loads of good films I saw this year:

Zombies: The Beginning, Combat Shock, Kung-Fu Panda, Spookies, The Burning, 300, Apocalypto...

and much good music. Clockcleaner (incredibly mean-spirited low-down rock'n'roll...think Birthday Party/Big Black/Stooges etc), Pissed Jeans (similar but a bit more absurd...early Butthole Surfers/Flipper vibe). Lots of 80s hardcore like Attitude Adjustment, Amebix, Anti-Cimex, Crucifucks. Top place goes to Brainbombs, who actually split in 2007 but I discovered 'em about two weeks ago! Grinding, groovy, horrible noise-rock from Sweden with lyrics by Peter Sutcliffe and the Marquis de Sade...I do not say it lightly, this is probably the most offensive band I've heard...makes GG Allin look like Blink 182...

Has also been good to get some writing, music and drawing done. 2009 is about getting things finished and out there(ahem:my new band Normal Man's demo out soon:ahem)

[pulphack]

well, as dem knows i had a pretty crap year as there was the loss of a loved one that overshadowed all else. but despite that, life goes on and there were some good things...

meeting up with other vault people is always a pleasure, and to see justin get PF out of the clutches of idiots who meant well was very good indeed. strength to strength next year, i hope.

book wise, rediscovering arthur machen and john creasey was a pleasure (the latter thanks to vault threads earlier this year). i don't think i read anyone new this year, but then again i don't read new genre fiction, to be honest. the really interesting stuff slips between the cracks and gets published as general these days, as genres are so bloody rigid. mostly i was reading non-fiction, as my attention span for fiction was poor this last 12. it's mostly When Saturday Comes, Classic Rock (now excellent, with the great Geoff Barton on board) and lots of film history stuff - Matthew Sweet's 'Shepperton Babylon' and Stanley Long's 'X-Rated' were highlights.

tv - didn't watch much this year, but caught up with Ashes To Ashes on dvd, which is almost better than Life On Mars! Kudos make great drama, as Spooks is also consistently good. Not sure about the new Marple, as i do love the old Joan Hickson stuff, but maybe Julia MacKenzie will be better than the too-arch Geraldine McEwan (she's supposed to be an old spinster who blends in, woman, not a bloody eccentric!).

best film of the year - Chemical Wedding. yes, i know it's bloody Bruce Dickinson, but forget that. it's sharp, funny, and a tip of that hat to the likes of Tigon. and Simon Callow rolls his eyes on every sentence as the reincarnated Crowley. and has the best line: 'now you must free yourself of those restrictive knickers...' fair rolls off the tongue, eh?

(er, also was surprised at how much i liked Sex And The City when mrs ph made me watch it with her, but we shouldn't mention that, right?)

music - heard so much stuff new to me this year - ancient and modern - thanks to the wonders of the internet and friends who like to download. but at the end of the day, best things were live: Radio Stars 30th anniversary gig in March (even though it was actually 32 years!), which was excellent. Andy Ellison still has a washboard stomach and climbs amps at 60, while Martin Gordon has a touch of the Dorian Gray. And Nik Turner's Space Ritual. gogo dancer, lasers, dry ice - all crammed into the 100 Club - and a set that ran seamlessly for two hours, moving from a jazzy Brian Auger plays Hawks beginning to a thundering space rock climax. proper hawkwind. two nights before i saw Ween also do two hours, and the difference was that, while Ween are a great band, the set was all over the place and they lost the pace in the middle third. Turner planned it right.

oh, and Orient went back to being crap, which was a shame after the first half of last season, but somehow seemed much more in tune with the natural order of things.

so hopefully the next 12 will bring more of the same, and a bit of a brighter time personally.

[allthingshorror]

My life this last year has pretty much been dominated by the Pan Horrors which sadly took a small setback today, as I found out that Conrad Hill no longer lives where he was living and has for want of a better phrase, vanished into the ether. Anyhoo - the book is nearly finished and you'll know more as and when.

Best Book - It has to be Karl Wagner's In a Lonely Place - which has to be the best singluar collection I've ever read in my life so far. Many thanks to the person who had the good sense to give it to me as a wedding present!

2nd place goes to Charlies 3rd Black Book which continues in my mind to lead the way in how the horror anthology continues to be your best bang for your buck. Cannot wait for the 4th and the VERY SPECIAL 5th volume.

Best film - there are a few, but the one that blew all others out of the park was the German The Lives of Others. Never in my life have I been so transfixed to the screen. As soon as it was finished, I stuck it back on, just so I picked up what I had missed the first time. If you've not watched it yet - go find it tomorrow. You will not be dissapointed.

Best Interview - Mary Danby. Having tracked her down after being away from the whole horror shebang for so long - it was amazing that little ole me managed to get her to talk about the Fontana days. Should have met her at Xmas - sadly didn't happen - but we're going to meet up hopefully in Febuary.

2nd place has to be Jack Hamilton Teed. After being told by a few people that he wouldn't reply and that if I sent The Blood of Dracula for him to sign - I would never see it back - I did it anyway, and got two lovely letters - all typed out - and the book back. Saying that though, he hasn't replied to the last two letters I've sent.....

Best Song - Tranquilize by The Killers. Not a fan of them to be honest, but this song just touched me in my special place.

Best meeting - Well, the BFS nominations was a blast, meeting Charlie, Dem, Justin (PF is truly a magazine of immense beauty!!!) , Franklin - an aloof Christopher Fowler who really didn't give a shit about the book I was doing . Then of course, meeting John Probert at the Zardoz book fair.

And for the Pan Horror dudes - Basil Copper, Roger Clarke, Nicholas Royle, Christopher Fowler, Tony Richards.

Hopefully John Burke and Harry E Turner in Spring '09!

Last but not least - without this place - I wouldn't have met some people I will take to the grave with me... And the books...so many books..... - and long may it continue!! - and Dem - if there is ever a knighthood for services to mouldy books - you're first on the list.

All the best for '09 everyone!

Johnny

[bushwick]

Dec 30, 2008 21:36:14 GMT pulphack said:

two nights before i saw Ween also do two hours, and the difference was that, while Ween are a great band, the set was all over the place and they lost the pace in the middle third.

good call mate, didn't know you liked Ween. My mate went to one of these nights, they did two in a row apparently? bloody love Ween

and Johnny...totally forgot about The Secret Lives Of Others. lovely film, had wet eyes at the end.