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Post by dem on Mar 17, 2008 15:40:51 GMT
Martin H. Greenberg (ed.) - The Further Adventures of Batman (Bantam, 1989)  Kyle Baker
Henry Slesar - Bats
Joe R. Lansdale - Subway Jack
Max Allen Collins - The Sound Of One Hand Clapping
Mike Resnick - Neutral Ground
Karen Haber & Robert Silverberg - Batman In Night-town
Stuart M. Kaminsky - The Batman Memos
Edward Wellen - Wise Men Of Gotham
Isaac Asimov - Northwestward
William F. Nolan - Daddy's Girl
Howard Goldsmith - Command performance
Edward D. Hoch - The Pirate Of Millionaires' Cove
George Alec Effinger - The Origin Of The Polarizer
Ed Gorman - IdolBlurb: "Criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot, so I must wear a disguise that will strike terror into their hearts! I must be a creature of the night, like a ... a ... a bat!" — Bruce Wayne
It began with those words fifty years ago, a crusade that would grow into a legend. Orphaned as a child, his parents murdered before his eyes, millionaire Bruce Wayne* dedicated his life to avenging their deaths, becoming in the dark of night the costume-garbed protector of Gotham City. BATMAN.
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his creation, fifteen of today's greatest writers of fantastic fiction have joined together to take you inside his world of shadows and fear in all-new tales of mystery, humor, horror, and the supernatural. Another 'side-lined for a reread' job. I don't remember much about it, but one story that's stuck in my mind is - inevitably - the excellent Joe R. Lansdale's dark and bloody Subway Jack which pits the caped crusader against a serial killer who may or may not be (a) a vampire and/or (b) Jack the Ripper. George Alec Effinger (see Michel Parry's Superheroes) is back again, but this story is The Origins Of The Polarizer, so he obviously enjoys writing about Polarizers, whatever they are.
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Post by dem on Oct 12, 2010 17:15:33 GMT
Joe R. Lansdale - Subway Jack: Been AGES since i first read and was hugely entertained by this pitch dark comic and i forgot that the action takes a turn for The Gatecrasher toward the close. Jack Barrett, researching a paper on criminology, chances upon a copy of David Webb's Followers Of The Razor, a book published shortly after the Ripper murders in which the author traces the history of a God from another dimension who can pass to this one when certain mathematical symbols are drawn up. According to Webb, the Whitechapel monster was just the latest in the long line of non-entities to be possessed by this savage being. Using the book as his guide, Barrett exhumes a grave in Old Gotham cemetery and finds a razor, the key, if we must take Webb's absurd mumbo jumbo the least seriously, which allows this supposed god entrance to our world. Barrett nicks his finger on the blade and so begin a series of brutal murders of bag-ladies, the butcher leaving his signature in blood on the subway wall after each slaying. With the police commissioner under increasing pressure to apprehend the murderer, he turns to Batman for help.
Perhaps not quite as essential as the Lansdale, but good fun. Mike Resnick - Neutral Ground: Old Mr. Kittlemeier's nondescript little shop in the run down part of town is popular with superheroes and master criminals alike. Mr. Kittlemeier's the guy who designs and repairs their all-important snazzy costumes.
Ed Gorman - Idol: He's been a Batman fanatic from childhood, and loves nothing more than pulling on his caped crusader outfit. Lately he's come to understand that he's the real deal and Batman is a lowdown fink impostor! Time to assassinate the phony.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 13, 2010 10:02:29 GMT
Perhaps not quite as essential as the Lansdale, but good fun. Mike Resnick - Neutral Ground: Old Mr. Kittlemeier's nondescript little shop in the run down part of town is popular with superheroes and master criminals alike. Mr. Kittlemeier's the guy who designs and repairs their all-important snazzy costumes. I have also read this ages ago, and funnily this is the only story which kind of stuck. Strange. Such an obvious idea  which I think was done several times in the comics since then. Ever read Landsdale´s Batman novel Captured by the Engines? I think it was pretty good, but I have to confess that I don´t remember much about it. Back then I was a Lansdale fan, but somehow he lost me with his backwoods crime novels. Normaly I am not much for Comic novelisations. Mostly they don´t work very well. |
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Post by dem on Oct 13, 2010 17:25:22 GMT
Normaly I am not much for Comic novelisations. Mostly they don´t work very well. i don't know, i've a soft spot for the Ron Goulart Vampirella novels myself ... the only Lansdale novel i've read is The Drive-In. think i was still a bit obsessed with the undead when i made the first post, because whatever the entity from the fourth dimension is, he's not a vampire, although his bloodthirsty razor certainly is. |
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Post by andydecker on Oct 14, 2010 10:21:41 GMT
Normaly I am not much for Comic novelisations. Mostly they don´t work very well. i don't know, i've a soft spot for the Ron Goulart Vampirella novels myself ... I should have said superhero comics, to be exact. Horror is kind of different. I have a dozen or so Marvel novelisations by writers I knew from other genres. People like Christopher Golden, Diane Duane, Nancy Collins, Peter David and so on. Mostly of the Byron Preiss era of marvel novels. And most of them didn´t worked for me. There is something about Capes which doesn´t translate well. I remember the Collins´ one was particulary disappointing. The Fantastic Four, of all heroes |
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Post by stuyoung on Jun 13, 2011 11:05:11 GMT
Picked this up yesterday. I read the companion volume, The Further Adventures of the Joker, years ago but have never read this one.
Also picked up Captured by the Engines at WHC last month so I've got plenty of Lansdale/Batman reading lined up.
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which I think was done several times in the comics since then.