Return of the Penny Dreadful

Way back in the 19th Century, even before the rise of the pulps, another form of cheap amusement haunted the eyes of the reading. Short, lurid, quickly written and dismissed as so much trash, it nonetheless was the most popular form of written entertainment of its time, cranked out by the thousands and sold on the street like so many apples and oranges. In America there was the Dime Novel...cheap, virtually mass produced stories that focused on the sensational and lurid. Cowboys and Indians, urban crime stories and so on, spread out across multiple volumes and editions, with series running on for years on end. In England they had the Penny Dreadful, serial short stories of lurid (there's that word again) nature in appearing in magazines and booklets. Both were targeted at audiences of young boys and men, part of the growing numbers of the literate public spawned by the Industrial Revolution. The rise of the pulps would eventually kill them off (as they in turn were killed off by the Second World War and the rise of the paperback.) But today, with the rise of the ebook, we may see a return of this old format, at least in part.

One of the big advantages of digital publishing is the low cost of production. No paper, to printer, in the end it's all nothing more than electrons, 1's and 0's and what time you choose to put in in terms of arranging them. Publication in instantaneous, as is purchase. Which, if one thinks about it, is perfect for a model similar to that of the old dimes and dreadful's. Quickly written, short, sensational in content and lurid in presentation...and serialized. Instead of laboring for years on end, writing, editing and re-writing thousand word doorstoppers, a writer (or team of writers - see Fantomas by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre...) with a knack for publicity and a talent for compelling plots could do well for himself (or themselves) cranking out serialized stories released weekly. People often complain about the 99 cent price point as being economical. Maybe it is...for full length novels. But an old-fashioned (so old it's new) serialized story, released electronically over dozens of installments.

Now that could be something....

Fall is here...

Fall is here. I know this because like clockwork I;ve caught by annual changing of the seasons cold. Oh joy...

Return of Beauty and the Beast

Interesting side note...GRRM was a producer and writer for this show way back in the Eighties, before he went onto bigger and better things. Which begs the question: is he getting a piece of this action as well?

Also..seem's interesting, and of course Kristin Kreuk would improve a reading of the phone book by her mere presense. But the original series had three things going for it: Ron Perlman in lion make-up, Linda Hamilton in big shoulder pads. And an Eighties sound track, with accompanying hair. Lots and lots of hair...

Almost done!

Book Two of the NINE SUNS is one chaopter away from completion! Now I just have to figure out a title...

Heavy Metal Fantasy covers

From an article by the now-defunct Cimmerian:

Like a wizard and his staff, or a dragon and its gleaming horde, heavy metal/hard rock music and fantasy literature are an inseparable pair. I haven’t seen any statistics published on the subject, but fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard just seem more inclined to listen to heavy metal than any other genre of music.

Man-o-war knew this from the beginning...maybe a little to well:
Bvr>
On the other hand, DIO always gets a pass (may he rest in peace...)

Then some bands just get the right level of awesomeness:

This is all just my opnion, BTW. and no licard people were harmed writing this post...anyway, here's a list that runs the gamut from cool to riduculous to why-the-hell-didn't-I-think-of-that?