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Ernie Chan (1940-2012): A Legend Passes

Ernie Chan (1940-2012): A Legend Passes

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savagae-sword-of-conan-erniechanEarlier this evening I heard the sad news that one of comics’ great legends, Ernie Chan, has passed away. Ernie was set to appear at the BigWow Comicfest in San Jose this weekend, so his death comes as a real surprise to those of us who expected to see him there.

I wanted to post a tribute in the form of my favorite Chan images. You can see that tribute right here. Some of these he painted, some he penciled and inked, and some he only inked — but Ernie’s inks were some of the most powerful in the world of comics.

When I was a kid I couldn’t get enough of Conan the Barbarian and its black-and-white companion magazine The Savage Sword of Conan. But I was incredibly picky about the art in my comics — if the art didn’t blow me away, I wouldn’t buy the comic. Plus, I had the seriously limited budget of a child, so I had to be impressed by the art or I left the book sitting on the rack.

Whenever I found a Conan book that was drawn (or inked) by Ernie Chan, my money hit the counter immediately.

Rest in peace, Ernie. You will be missed…

Blogging Austin Briggs’ Flash Gordon, Part Two – “Freeland”

Blogging Austin Briggs’ Flash Gordon, Part Two – “Freeland”

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9665211flash-gordon-volume-2“Freeland” was the second installment of Austin Briggs’ Flash Gordon daily comic strip serial for King Features Syndicate. Originally published between February 24 and August 21, 1941, “Freeland” was the second story in the daily companion to Alex Raymond’s celebrated Sunday strip. It is the second of two Briggs strips available in a reprint collection from Kitchen Sink Press.

“Freeland” gets underway with the ship bearing our motley crew making its way toward the Promised Land free from Ming. Flash and Dale set out in a rocketship to scout for a safe harbor and encounter a hostile tribe of what appear to be Native Americans.

Once more, Austin Briggs demonstrates his version of Mongo is more attuned to contemporary American experience or American history than the prehistoric or Medieval Europe model chosen by Alex Raymond. Briggs may also be borrowing a page from Edgar Rice Burroughs (one of Raymond’s primary inspirations) in transplanting Native Americans to another world.

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Goth Chick News: Pass Me a Prom Dress and Some Pig Blood

Goth Chick News: Pass Me a Prom Dress and Some Pig Blood

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image0022There’s just no point in continuing to harp on this whole remake / reboot craze that Hollywood seems to be suffering from the last few years.

True that the lack of innovation is depressing and the originals are almost always better, but you can probably think of at least one movie that you’d be interested to see in the light of a new generation of special effects.

So with that firmly in mind, let’s dust off the formalwear, order some carnations, drop by that slaughter house on the outskirts of town and once again, take Carrie White to the prom.

If you recall, the original Carrie of 1976 had Sissy Spacek in the waif-like, telekinetic, bullying-victim lead role, while Piper Laurie played her nutso, religious fanatic Mommy-dearest, Margaret.

Margaret White is, in many ways, the center of the horror classic and undoubtedly one of the most disturbing characters ever seen on screen. Associating sex and puberty with shame and sin, Mrs. White turned her tortured daughter’s home into another place of torment instead of a sanctuary.

Spitting out lines like, “They’re all gonna’ laugh at you,” and “I can see your dirty pillows,” Laurie created a psycho movie mom that would make you want to spend the holidays with Joan Crawford.

Now four-time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore will attempt to top Laurie’s Oscar-nominated performance; she has signed on to play Margaret White in the upcoming Carrie remake.

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Art of the Genre: The Art of Pokémon

Art of the Genre: The Art of Pokémon

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Pokemon Study Hall by Hinoraito, and boy there are a bunch of characters in it!
Pokemon Study Hall by Hinoraito, and boy there are a bunch of characters in it!
I never wanted to watch Pokémon. It’s a phenomena that came WAY after I was too old for it, and in essence was driven by collectable card games ala Magic the Gathering which I stayed well away from at all costs.

Sure, I knew Pikachu as it’s pretty hard to be alive in this world without knowing the electric-type mouse Pokémon as well as his constant companion of Ash Ketchum. But truly, that’s as far as it went.

Then came 2006 when my son was born and I named him Ashur, which of course would get shortened to Ash at convenience as he grew. Did that name have anything to do with Pokémon? Nope, although there was a bit of Evil Dead in there to be honest, but for the most part it just fit. Three days before my Ash arrived, his cousin Iris was born. Again, nothing odd about that occurrence at the time, and yet these days I think about the event as I watch Pokémon: Black and White and scratch my head because the two main characters of that version… Ash and Iris.

Yes, I watch Pokémon with my son. It can be rather addicting, as any quest cartoon can, each adventure building on the next as Ash continues on his journey to be a Pokémon Master. My son loves it, collects plush Pokémon, and studies his Pokémon: Black and White handbook like it’s the gospel.

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Goth Chick Crypt Notes: First Official Clip from Prometheus Dropped Today

Goth Chick Crypt Notes: First Official Clip from Prometheus Dropped Today

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Prometheus has landed.

Or at least the first official clip has.

Today Fox unleashed a never-before-seen bit of the upcoming Aliens prequel and we here at Goth Chick News are so excited we very nearly opened a Facebook account.

Well, not really. But you get the idea.

In the minute-long sequence featuring Idris Elba landing his impressive looking spaceship on a planet that definitely is not Earth, we’re treated to a few hints as to the origins of our species.

Less than 3 weeks to go… Can you stand the wait?

Black Gate Goes to the Summer Movies: Dark Shadows

Black Gate Goes to the Summer Movies: Dark Shadows

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dark-shadows-posterDark Shadows is the first victim of The Avengers. Next up is Battleship.

Contrary to the horrified reactions to the trailer, the state of Tim Burton’s creative career, and Warner Bros. willful promotional ignorance of the movie, Dark Shadows is not a massive disaster. It’s merely a dull flick that suffers from the most standard of bad-movie flaws: an uninteresting story. A few flashes of something better appear — although it is hard to determine what that something was — but this latest attempt to revive the 1966–71 Gothic daytime soap opera seems to drift in clouds of weed, lazily resorting to some broad yet humorless gags while forgetting that it has multiple plot strands that require attention. The film’s slogan really should’ve been: “We were going to make a compelling story for Dark Shadows, but instead we got high.”

Dark Shadows also isn’t much of a comedy; the reviled trailer sells the film as outrageous culture-clash humor, but these kind of jokes make up only about a third of the film. The rest of it consists of stilted scenes of characters sitting down and talking about what isn’t happening in the rest of the movie.

At least there’s a great soundtrack, a surprisingly smooth meld of one of Danny Elfman’s better scores in recent memory with pleasing early ‘70s pop and rock. Another plus is a production design that feels more natural and sensuously subdued than what Tim Burton usually produces. If Burton was consciously experimenting with an understated Gothic décor and a more realistic vision of the 1970s than people expect of him, I applaud him for it. It works, and it’s one of the few aspects of Dark Shadows that does.

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Burial Day Books releases Gothic Blue Book, The Haunted Edition

Burial Day Books releases Gothic Blue Book, The Haunted Edition

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gothicbluebook2Okay. Technically this was released back in October. But I just found out about it, so I’m going to pretend it came out this week so I don’t look out of touch.

Ahem. Burial Day Books, a boutique publisher of supernatural horror, has just released its first short story collection. You heard it here first.

The Gothic Blue Book, The Haunted Edition is a collection of short stories and poems that resurrect the spirit of the Gothic Blue Book. Gothic Blue Books were short fictions popular in the 18th and 19th century. They were descendants of the chap book trade. The Gothic Blue Book, The Haunted Edition is a collection of twelve short stories and two poems written by established and emerging horror authors that honor the Gothic story. Misery, fear, despair, regret and dread are highlighted in this collection, stirring old ghosts, witches, and awakening death. The authors in this collection weave together brilliant tales of terror celebrating the history of the Gothic story with a new twist.

I’ve never heard of Gothic Blue Books. Man, I’m more out of touch than I thought. Anyway. 18th Century chap books honoring the Gothic tradition of misery, fear, despair, regret and dread? Sounds pretty good to me. It’s not too late to make up for lost time.

The Gothic Blue Book, The Haunted Edition includes fiction from John Everson, M. N. Hanson, Ben McElroy, Greg Mollin, and many others. It is 114 pages and is available in print ($7) and Kindle editions ($0.99) through Amazon.com.

Apex Magazine #36

Apex Magazine #36

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apexmag05-12May’s Apex Magazine features  ”Decomposition” by Rachel Swirsky  (who is interviewed by Maggie Slater),  ”Tomorrow’s Dictator” by Rahul Kanakia and “The Chaos Magician’s Mega Chemistry Set”  by Nnedi Okorafor.

Naoto Hattori provides the cover art. Nonfiction by Tim Akers  and editor Lynne M. Thomas round out the issue.

Apex is published on the first Tuesday of every month.  While each issue is available free on-line from the magazine’s website, it can also be downloaded to your e-reader from there for $2.99.  Individual issues are also available at  Amazon and Weightless. A version for the Nook will also be available in the near future.  Twelve issue (one year) subscription can be ordered at Apex and Weightless for $19.95; Kindle subscriptions are available for $1.99 a month.

The Best of Modern Arabian Fantasy, Part III: Kai Meyer and The Stormkings

The Best of Modern Arabian Fantasy, Part III: Kai Meyer and The Stormkings

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img_2632While I was looking for more authors of modern Arabian fantasy, Kai Meyer found me, after reading part of my series here on Black Gate. Already a bestselling author in English (his book, The Water Mirror, went into three printings before its release date), he’s written 51 novels in his native German, including the Middle Eastern influenced, The Stormkings, a trilogy which has not been translated into English… yet. After hearing the description, I’m hoping it will be. The film rights have already been acquired by Oliver Scholl, who has worked on movies such as Independence Day and Jumper.

It’s interesting to note that the Arabian trend isn’t confined to English language fantasy, and it’s very interesting to hear the direction Kai took the genre when he created a Middle Eastern milieu.

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Blogging Austin Briggs’ Flash Gordon, Part One – “Princess Lita”

Blogging Austin Briggs’ Flash Gordon, Part One – “Princess Lita”

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61dtd4z0g4l_sl500_aa300_966525“Princess Lita” was the first installment of Austin Briggs’ Flash Gordon daily comic strip serial for King Features Syndicate. Originally published between May 27, 1940 and February 22, 1941, “Princess Lita” was the story that launched the daily companion to Alex Raymond’s celebrated Sunday strip. It is one of two Briggs strips available in a reprint collection from Kitchen Sink Press. We shall examine the second strip in next week’s column.

The most rewarding part of delving into Austin Briggs’ first two Flash Gordon storylines has been the discovery that the sloppiness of the first few Austin Briggs’ Sunday strips printed a few years after the daily debuted were likely more the result of the artist being overworked than they were an adequate representation of Briggs’ work on the property. “Princess Lita” shows the artist in full command of the material drawing the characters as well as their creator, albeit without the benefit of the Sunday page to showcase the exotic flora and fauna of Mongo to full advantage. The transition from Sunday continuities to a daily strip is jarring at first and the smoothness of Don Moore’s scripting and Alex Raymond’s plotting is sorely missed, but Briggs does an admirable job of staying true to the source material.

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