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Post by dem bones on Aug 20, 2012 9:45:55 GMT
Kim Newman - The Original Dr Shade and Other Stories (Pocket UK, May 1994) Neil Gaiman - Introduction: About Kim Newman, with notes on the creation and eventual dissolution of the Peace and Love Corporation
The Original Dr. Shade Dreamers Mother Hen Patricia’s Profession The Man Who Collected Barker Pamela’s Pursuit The Next-But-One Man Twitch Technicolor D-And-D Gargantuabots Versus the Nice Mice Week Woman SQPR Mrs Vail The McCarthy Witch Hunt Organ DonorsBlurb: IN THE 1930s AND THROUGH THE WAR YEARS, THE DR SHADE NEWSPAPER STRIP THRILLED THE NATION. NOW THE CHARACTER HAS BEEN REVIVED, AND THREATENS TO EXTEND HIS SINISTER VIGILANTE INFLUENCE TO THE REAL WORLD...
In this startingly original collection, Kim Newman brings together stories of science fiction, fantasy and horror, revisiting the worlds and characters of such novels as The Night Mayor and The Quorum, featuring monsters from pulp fiction, Victorian ghosts, strangely familiar byways of the 20th Century, the evils of colorisation, cruel sports of the future, London nightmares and a private detective who specialises in the unbelievable. Shards from the splintered mind of the critically-acclaimed best-selling author of Anno Dracula, Jago and Bad Dreams, and proof that Kim Newman is one of the most stimulating and inventive young British writers in the business.
With a foreword by Neil GaimanFound this on the back-of-the-van man's stall yesterday along with copies of Greenberg & Co's The Dean R. Koontz Companion (figured i needed it) and Jules Michelet's Satanism And Witchcraft (Tandem 1965). But for the terrific title novella, The Man Who Collected Barker and Week Woman, all the rest are new to me which came as an unexpected bonus. Mrs. Vail: (Brian Stableford, (ed.), The Dedalus Book of Femme Fatales, 1992). Martin Vail believes he has murdered his wife and thrown her weighted corpse into the Serpentine. Vail, it seems, chose the unnamable above other suitors because she is/ was as mute as she is/ was pleasing on the eye, except, once the Wedding ceremony was over, he could hear her voice nagging incessantly in his brain. Yet here is the lovely lady, dispensing tea, scones and beautific smiles to Vial's pompous guest (our narrator). But no, protests her husband: that plate is hovering unaided in mid-air. An item in the newspaper some days later reveals the truth. "This was written to be read aloud, at Lisa Tuttle's Halloween party." Patricia’s Profession: ( Interzone, 1985). Mr. Newman provides an afterword to each of the stories. In this instance he reveals that the original title, Killograms, was rejected as "too obvious", which gives you some indication as to Patricia's particular area of expertise. Ian Dearborn, a twenty-one-year old executive is the lucky birthday boy. Everyone, living or ex-living, enjoys the jolly jape.
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Post by andydecker on Aug 21, 2012 8:12:23 GMT
Some great stories here.
I love Dr.Shade. Especially if you are in comics history this is a great tale. the politics are quite dated, though. It is truly a child of its time.
Also liked McCarthy´s Witch Hunt. Terrible obvious in hindsight, but very well written.
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Post by adrianmarley on Sept 19, 2012 20:46:46 GMT
Newman is one of my favourite writers and there are a few doozies here in his first collection.
The title novella alone is well worth the price of admission.
Also worth read are:
Dreamers (which formed the basis of his novel The Night Mayor
Mother Hen - a nice riff on The Maltese Falcon featuring Sally Rhodes who appears in several short stories and, if I'm not mistaken, an appearance by Derek Leech, Newman's Rupert Murdoch-like character (who also reappears in several stores and in the novel The Quorum.
Patricia's Profession is great fun and The Man Who Collected Barker is nicely macabre.
Also worthwhile is The Next But One Man, a nastly little tale about a man who is never first in the queue.
All in all this is an excellent collection and a great introduction to the diversity of Newman's stories. (Can you tell I'm something of a fan?) Enough gushing for now...
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Post by jamesdoig on Sept 19, 2012 21:10:19 GMT
Newman is one of my favourite writers and there are a few doozies here in his first collection. Talking of Kim Newman, I picked this up at St Vinnies the other day for $3: In the novella, Further Developments in the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, we learn that there was no potion that turned the mild Doc into Mr Hyde, but in fact a real Mr Hyde, gay passion, and lots of drug-taking.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 20, 2012 6:09:36 GMT
Hi Adrian
A Newman collection i really like is Famous Monsters. Only read it the once, loaned from local library, but the nightmarish 'Sapper', uh, "tribute" Pitbull Brittan has stayed with me, and i loved his Where The Bodies Are Buried series, 'specially the one with the 'monster nurse' whose motive for committing her hideous crimes was to become a page 3 girl.
Will take your recommendations on board when i get back to The Original Dr. Shade.
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Post by adrianmarley on Sept 20, 2012 10:06:39 GMT
Yeah, Famous Monsters is also great fun. I totally agree with you about Pitbull Britain - a great piece of satire. In fact, a lot of Newman's work (especially some of his short stories) are very satirical. His Back in the USSA sequence (co-authored by Eugene Byrne) is a blast.
Also agree with you on the Where the Bodies Are Buried stories. They are great fun and represent Newman's response to the video nasties debacle in the '80s
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Post by dem bones on Oct 31, 2012 19:58:01 GMT
Also worthwhile is The Next But One Man, a nastly little tale about a man who is never first in the queue. It's not exactly subtle, is it? The Next-But-One Man: True to form, Trevor, a racist, Leftie-hating, Tory-voting vibrator salesman, pushes in front of a customer at the local branch of the Midland Bank. The man in the white hat doesn't take to such rudeness, and Trevor momentarily fears physical confrontation, but the injured party merely looks him in the eye, quietly informs him "You've lost your place in the queue." From that day, Trevor's life falls to pieces as he's inexplicably overlooked in shops and at work and generally treated as though he were already a ghost. He fast degenerates into a dog-eating tramp until it's almost a mercy when the Grim Reaper pays him a visit ....
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Post by stuyoung on Jul 14, 2013 9:51:10 GMT
Really liked Famous Monsters -- my favourite story is 'The Big Fish' -- but I can't find Dr Shade except at really silly prices.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 5, 2014 7:42:11 GMT
Five Derek Leech/ Sally Rhodes related stories from the original The Original Dr. Shade - the title novella, Organ Donors, Mother Hen, The Man Who Collected Barker and Gargantuabots Versus the Nice Mice - are included in the recent Titan reprint of Newman's 1994 novel, along with the scary/ hilarious/ prophetic Going To Series from the Stephen Jones & David A Sutton co-edited Dark Terrors 5. Kim Newman - The Quorum (Titan, 2013; Pocket, 1994) Amazing15 Images/ Dreamstime Blurb: In the polluted River Thames, a monster is born. Formed of filth and grime, Derek Leech emerges from the murky depths, destined to found a global media empire.
In 1978, three school friends with high aspirations—Michael, Mark and Mickey—are offered a deal by the mysterious magnate. If they agree, their future wealth will be ensured, but they must offer Leech a sacrifice in return, a conspiracy of lifelong pain against their absent friend, Neil. Accepting the terms, the men prosper over the next fifteen years. But as the era of excess comes to an end, the trio must pay the price for their success, and they soon discover that fame and fortune is a fate worse than death.
A brand-new edition of the critically acclaimed novel, featuring five short stories by the award-winning author.
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Post by stuyoung on Jan 10, 2014 18:33:21 GMT
Cheers for that. I read The Quorum years ago but don't own a copy so may get this new edition seeing as it includes some of the Dr Shade stories.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 21, 2015 18:56:26 GMT
Kim Newman - Famous Monsters (Pocket, 1995) Trevor Scobie Paul J. McAuley - Foreword: The Author on the Autopsy Table or Here Comes Everyone at the Cross-Genre Jaunters’ Ball.
Famous Monsters ( Interzone #23, 1988) The Terminus ( Fantasy Tales #15, 1986) The Big Fish A Quarter to Three ( Fear!, Sept./Oct. 1988) Pitbull Brittan [as by Jack Yeovil] (Neil Gaiman & Alex Stewart [eds.], Temps: Volume 1 , 1991) The Snow Sculptures of Xanadu ( Million #5, 1991) Three on a Match (Peter Crowther [ed.], Narrow Houses, 1992) Ratting (Maxim Jakubowski [ed.], Constable New Crimes 2, 1993) The Pierce Arrow Stalled, And... Übermensch! (David S. Garnett [ed.], New Worlds 1, 1991) The Blitz Spirit (Maria Lexton [ed.], The Time Out Book of London Short Stories, 1993) Where the Bodies Are Buried (David Sutton & Stephen Jones [eds.], Dark Voices 5, 1993) Where the Bodies Are Buried II: Sequel Hook (David Sutton & Stephen Jones [eds.], Dark Voices 5, 1994) The Pale Spirit People ( Interzone Jan. 1994) Out of the Night, When the Full Moon is Bright... (Stephen Jones [ed], The Mammoth Book of Werewolves, 1994). Blurb IN A BRILLIANT AND INVENTIVE WEAVE OF SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY AND HORROR, THE MOST STARTLING AND SINISTER CREATIONS EVOLVE IN THESE STORIES. SOME HAVE THE POWER TO TAKE US INTO A NIGHTMARE WORLD - OTHERS ARE PAYING A PRICE FOR BEING SOCIALLY ABERRANT ...
From the infamous Hills of Hollywood to underground London, Kim Newman finds a monster lurking on every street corner, in every profession and in every race and class. This is life both as we know it and as we don't know it; monsters that are both unimaginably strange and yet which have their genesis in the very recognisable ills of contemporary society.
Following on from The Original Dr. Shade and Other Stories, Kim Newman brings together his second outrageously entertaining collection of stories.Had this on loan from local library shortly after publication, not seen hide or hair of a copy since - until today! My first taste of Kim Newman was perhaps my favourite and am particularly looking forward to a reunion with the funny/ downright scary Pitbull Brittan.
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Post by mcannon on Oct 23, 2015 2:48:41 GMT
Kim Newman - Famous Monsters (Pocket, 1995) Trevor Scobie Paul J. McAuley - Foreword: The Author on the Autopsy Table or Here Comes Everyone at the Cross-Genre Jaunters’ Ball.
Famous Monsters ( Interzone #23, 1988) The Terminus ( Fantasy Tales #15, 1986) The Big Fish A Quarter to Three ( Fear!, Sept./Oct. 1988) Pitbull Brittan [as by Jack Yeovil] (Neil Gaiman & Alex Stewart [eds.], Temps: Volume 1 , 1991) The Snow Sculptures of Xanadu ( Million #5, 1991) Three on a Match (Peter Crowther [ed.], Narrow Houses, 1992) Ratting (Maxim Jakubowski [ed.], Constable New Crimes 2, 1993) The Pierce Arrow Stalled, And... Übermensch! (David S. Garnett [ed.], New Worlds 1, 1991) The Blitz Spirit (Maria Lexton [ed.], The Time Out Book of London Short Stories, 1993) Where the Bodies Are Buried (David Sutton & Stephen Jones [eds.], Dark Voices 5, 1993) Where the Bodies Are Buried II: Sequel Hook (David Sutton & Stephen Jones [eds.], Dark Voices 5, 1994) The Pale Spirit People ( Interzone Jan. 1994) Out of the Night, When the Full Moon is Bright... (Stephen Jones [ed], The Mammoth Book of Werewolves, 1994). Blurb IN A BRILLIANT AND INVENTIVE WEAVE OF SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY AND HORROR, THE MOST STARTLING AND SINISTER CREATIONS EVOLVE IN THESE STORIES. SOME HAVE THE POWER TO TAKE US INTO A NIGHTMARE WORLD - OTHERS ARE PAYING A PRICE FOR BEING SOCIALLY ABERRANT ...
From the infamous Hills of Hollywood to underground London, Kim Newman finds a monster lurking on every street corner, in every profession and in every race and class. This is life both as we know it and as we don't know it; monsters that are both unimaginably strange and yet which have their genesis in the very recognisable ills of contemporary society.
Following on from The Original Dr. Shade and Other Stories, Kim Newman brings together his second outrageously entertaining collection of stories.Had this on loan from local library shortly after publication, not seen hide or hair of a copy since - until today! My first taste of Kim Newman was perhaps my favourite and am particularly looking forward to a reunion with the funny/ downright scary Pitbull Brittan. Both "Famous Monsters" and Newman's earlier collection "The Original Dr Shade", seemed to vanish almost as soon as they were published - you certainly don't see many copies around. By coincidence he has a new novel out this week, "the Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School", which sounds rather fun: titanbooks.com/the-secrets-of-drearcliff-grange-school-6824/ . I've just received my copy, but haven't started it yet; it's been placed atop my tottering "Must read soon" pile.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 23, 2015 13:59:55 GMT
Both "Famous Monsters" and Newman's earlier collection "The Original Dr Shade", seemed to vanish almost as soon as they were published - you certainly don't see many copies around. I can only think Pocket underestimated his audience, though that doesn't explain why there have been no hardback editions of either collection as I'm sure he's one of the big hitters in terms of sales. I read/ revisited three of the stories last night including the 80-plus pages of Sapper gone insane that is Pitbull Brittan, wilder and funnier than I remember it, if not quite as dark.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 23, 2015 19:38:32 GMT
This is a very nice collection. I like Newman's early stories.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 24, 2015 19:42:29 GMT
Pitbull Brittan: "Hang it all by the bollocks from Nelson's Column." England, early 'eighties, the trade unions are bolshie and Lieutenant Richard Lionheart "Pitbull" Brittan, decorated Falklands war hero and darling of the Right Wing Press ("Big Dick sticks it to the Argies" The Sun), is bored out of his patriotic skull. He needs ACTION! Luckily the miner's strike is in full swing, and that evil hunchbacked bastard, Scraggle of the NUM, has abducted the lovely Phyllis Whemple, daughter of a top ACAS delegate. Pitbull and his Black Hat Gang - Jock McLochness, Sewell Head, and Basil Mapledurham - head to the sinister mining community of Thornley village to strike a blow for Queen, Country and Margaret Thatcher (God rest her soul). Ultra-violence, bad sex - he's not called Dick for nothing!- and manliness ensue! Marvellous support performances from Slobotham the family retainer, and Annabelle Kranzen, Sloanie turned Patty Hearst style revolutionary. Newman's afterword is a cracker, too.
A Quarter To Three: Mild drama at Cap'n Cod's 24 Hour Diner, Innsmouth, as a heavily pregnant teen wonders if her boyfriend is going to show. Here he comes now ...
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