2015 Reading Challenge Book 027 Extinction Parade by Max Brooks

TITLE-The Extinction Parade
AUTHOR-Max Brooks
FORMAT-Trade Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-Yes
COST-$16.99

I was given this as a gift right before X-mas. Someone had found it at Walmart. Some quick info. This trade was published by Avatar. Who is known for their extremely violent and gory comics. With some of the stuff they publish being NC-17 levels of gore. So we were both surprised to not only find something like this at Walmart.where the only comics I see are manga,Walking Dead trades and the rare trade based on a Marvel movie. But that it was also racked with the kids books. So there was a book full of extreme gore sitting right next to Captain Underpants and Diary of a WImpy kid.I assume Walmart was carrying this because of Max Brooks.

The trade reprints the first 5 issues of this series. Set in a world where vampires and zombie exist. Our main characters are vampires. And over the first 4 issues we get the history of vampires in this world. And lots of double page spread of blood and violence. Then near the end of issue 4 one of the vampires realizes that the zombies almost outnumber the humans. And what is going to happen when all the humans are dead. So a small group of vampires start doing all they can to protect the humans.

While the idea behind this trade is interesting. It isn't executed that well. These 5 issues with some decent editing could have been 2 issues. There is way too many double page spreads that do nothing to help the story along. The art is good. But I have noticed that most stuff from Avatar has a similar look. Kind of like how in the early days most Valiant comics had a similar look. I am betting if anyone else had approached Avatar with this idea they would have been turned down. But now thanks to World War Z being a hit as a book and film Max Brooks is a big enough name that anything written by him has a good chance of selling well. If you can find this trade for $5 or less it is worth it. But at basically 17 bucks I feel like I didn't get my money's worth. Hell it took me about 15 minutes to read this. Not good,not good at all.

The Extinction Parade gets a 1.95 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 026 After the Golden Age

BOOK TITLE-After the Golden Age
AUTHOR-Carrie Vaughn
FORMAT-Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-Yes
COST-$2

We have 4 or 5 Dollar General stores in my town. At least 3 times a week I stop at one for a drink or a snack. And I always check their spinner rack of paperback books. Most of the time it is packed with lots of romance novels. But earlier this month I was at one of the DGs I am rarely in. I saw a copy of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter,grabbed it and this book was behind it.

I had never heard of this book or the author before. But the cover looked interesting. And the synopsis on the back caught my attention.

Our main character is the daughter of the two most well known superheroes in the world. Her father is a Superman analogue. And her Mom comes off as a mixture of Wonder Woman and Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four. The daughter has no powers. And over her childhood and early teens she keeps getting kidnapped by her parent's super villains.

The novel starts and she is in her mid 20s. Hasn't talked to her parents in a long time. We find out that in her late teens she rebelled by joining up with her parents most hated villain. Since she was under 18 and it got ruled she was temporarily insane,her doing this betrayal is covered up. Now she is working for an accounting firm and is helping build a case against the same villain she teamed up with years ago.

But during the court case the public finds out about her turning evil years ago and this causes her life to goto shit.

I really enjoyed how the focus of the book was on how it would be to grow up with both your parents being world famous heroes. You get the feeling that our lead sometimes feels like a caveman surrounded by Gods who walk the Earth.

Doing a bit of research,IE looking up the author on Amazon,I have found out she has written another novel set in the same world. And it also seems to deal with ordinary humans dealing with living in a world with superheroes.

After the Golden Age gets a 3.45 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 025 Life after Death by Damien Echols

BOOK TITLE-Life after Death
AUTHOR-Damien Echols
FORMAT-Hardcover
FIRST TIME READING-Yes
COST-$5.87

While looking around Walmart about a week ago I saw a nice sight. A few times a year they put out a huge bin of hardcover books. Which are marked way down.I have almost always lucked out and found great biographies. The cover caught my eye. Then I saw who the author was. And with it being $6 pretty much I grabbed it.

It was sometime in 96ish that I first heard about the West Memphis 3 case. Since then I had somewhat kept up on what was happening. When this book came out a few years back I had wanted to read it. But never thought to ILL it from the library. 

The book is half the story of Damien's childhood and teen years,half prison journal. The childhood and teen years turned out to be the most interesting.Even after close to 20 years of me reading stuff about Damien and the other 2 guys,there was still lots of stuff in this part that was new to me.

The prison journal stuff is decent. But got a little repetitive.Damien's thoughts on religion ,while very different from mine, were so well explained that I could totally see his point of view. He practices a mixture of Buddhism and Christianity. Taking the parts of each that are similar and merging it all into a way for him to deal with the hell that is his life.

I have no idea how interesting this will be to someone that doesn't at least know the basic stuff about the WM3 case. But if you have seen one of the many documentaries about the case,this book is a good source of more information.

Life after Death by Damien Echols gets a 3.95 outta 5.

Return to Vendor's Emporium Feb 02 2015

It has been months since I went to Vendor's.Mostly because my last 3 trips they had nothing I wanted. So after having lunch in town,which cost me much less than I expected,I wanted to stop by. Hoping that maybe there would be something that I am looking for.

I got to the booth up front that always has a mixture of toys and books.

I have never seen this before. It is around 2 foot tall. Pretty sure one arm moves.The price was only 15 bucks. So I figured if I didn't find anything else I wanted I would grab it. I try to limit myself to 20 bucks or under total on my trips here. If I didn't set a limit I would spend way too much. Below my wrist you can sorta see a Spongebob Book. It was on top of a huge stack of comics,magazines and books.

Found this I am assuming early 70s Marvel romance comic. To my eye the cover art looks like Romita. And $5 isn't a bad price. But I doubt I would have read it. Still it is a neat find. Most comics I find around here are mid 90s glut.

This is a guide book to the original Beauty and the Beast tv show. It is in really really good shape. And would be an interesting read.But the 18 buck price made me say no. While that isn't a bad price,it is about 8 bucks more than I am willing to pay.

 I found these hanging on the left side of the booth. Made by a model company the style reminded me of Big Daddy Roth's Rat Fink stuff. For $2.50 I get a pack of 5 trading cards and the well painted and highly detailed figure with a base.

I found this one behind a rack of Waterworld toys. IIRC the Weird-ohs were what Rat Fink was part of.Like the above this has a pack of 5 cards and the figure.

Looked through the one booth that is packed with books. Nothing that I wanted.Well that isn't true found one book I wanted. But it was a hardback and my shelves for hardcovers are already overflowing.

Finally I got to the back corner booth that usually has comics. The box had a sign saying they were all now $1 each or if you bought at least 10 then they became 50 cents each. I started digging down into the box. Hoping to find 10 comics I wanted.

D.P.7 issue 2
Another book closer to my full run of the New Universe stuff.I have owned this issue at least 3 times. But keep losing my copies in moves.This comic always felt like a more realistic take on the X-men. Mark Grunwald wrote most of if not all of this series.

Justice issue 2 and Kickers INC issue 2
Two of the New Universe titles I never read much of. Plus another 2 books closer to my full run.Justice from my almost 30 year ago memory was an alien cop or something. He could create an energy sword with one hand and the other created a shield. He was stuck on Earth. IIRC he had amnesia.

Kickers Inc was a super powered football team. I think they were also bounty hunters. The quarterback of the team got a feature role in the Pitt,Draft and War mini series or one shots.This was the title from the original 8 that caught the most crap.

The Weird issue 2
By Starlin and Wrightson,I have wanted to read this mini series for a bit. I didn't notice until I got home that the price sticker was on the book instead of the bag. Meh it was 50 cents.

Airboy issue 5
This gorgeous Dave Stevens' cover is what caught my eye. For 50 cents,which is also the original cover price,I will buy any comic with Stevens art. And Airboy is another title I have slowly been collecting a full run of.

The Badger issue 10 and 12
I miss read the issue numbers. Already got both of these issues in trade paperbacks.

I heard so much about Elflord back when I was first going to comic shops. This is the final issue of the black and white run.

Well I needed to more comics to make it 10. So much of the box was early Image stuff. Lots of Cyberforce and Youngblood. Then I found the next book.

Stark Future issue 2
Seems to be a science fiction series. Published by Aircel,back before they got bought up by Malibu.

Needing one more comic I found the next one at the very bottom of the box.I have never heard of the comic,the company or anyone that worked on it.

 Kyra issue 3
The art on the front cover isn't bad.Flipped it over and...

Kind of a ripoff Boris Vallejo or Julie Bell look. Then I noticed something strange about this comic. It isn't the normal comic book dimensions.It is a bit taller and bit wider than the average comic.

 I placed a regular sized comic on top of the front and back cover to show how much bigger it is.

So I had 10 comics that will be $5 total. The three figures that are $2.50 each. So that is $7.50. Before taxes that is 12.50. I got to the register. The lady starts ringing me up. Now maybe the booth with the figures had a sale,but she told me my total was $9.35. I know she rang the comics up right. Because the other lady told her the comics were ten for $5.

Overall not a bad trip to Vendor's.The three figures are great. Might have to do a posting on them soon. Haven't read any of the comics yet,but the over sized one has my interest.

Library Book Sale Haul Feb 2015

As normal I hit the local library book sale today. Most months with in the first few days of the month I go see what all they have gotten in recently.

Horror Films by Rhoda Nottridge
Cost-10 cents

This was in the kid's section. I grabbed it mostly cause the cover looks nice and it was 10 cents. It wasn't until I got to the car I noticed who published it,Crestwood House. When I was in elementary school my favorite books to check out of the school library was the 5 or 6 Crestwood House books on horror movies.I had no idea they had kept on making new volumes as late as 92.Each chapter is 2 pages and have lots of great pictures.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer:The Gatekeeper Trilogy Book Three Sons of Entropy by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder
Cost-10 cents

So two months in a row I have found a Buffy book at the sale. I got about 5 or 6 of these sitting in my unread book pile.Now I gotta find the first 2 books in this series cheap.

Wizard at Large by Jim Butcher
Cost-25 cents

I had heard of these hardcover collections of Dresden Files novels.The first few Dresden books started out as paperbacks.Then the Science Fiction Book club got the rights to publish them as hardcovers.I already got the last 4 or so books in hardcover,so really have been wanting these collections.This one reprints Blood Rites and Dead Beat.Sure the dust jacket is beat up. I don't care I am 1 book closer to having the complete Dresden series in hardcover.

A Simple Plan by Scott Smith
Cost-25 cents

I have seen the Sam Rami film based on this novel a few years back. It was really good. I hope the novel is as good if not better. Still gotta get the library stickers off it.But for the price I took a chance.

I was walking around with all the above in my arms when the ladies that run the sale told me they had 10 boxes of books they  were recycling. I could have as many as I wanted out of there for free. Never one to turn down free books,I started digging through them.Got 2 books total.

Super Mario World Secrets by Rusel DeMaria and Zach Meston
Cost-Free

Found out there is people collecting these old video game guide books. No idea if this is one that goes for a decent amount of money or not. But it was free.

M*A*S*H The Exclusive,inside story of TV's most popular show by David S. Reiss
Cost-Free

I have been watching Mash as far back as I can remember. This book seems to be a guide to the complete series. And is in great shape. No idea why this was in the free box. But it looks like a decent read.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 024 The Bachman Books by Stephen King

BOOK TITLE-The Bachman Books
AUTHOR-RIchard Bachman AKA Stephen King
FORMAT-Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-No
COST-$2

This was one of the first 5 Stephen King books I read.What drew me to it at first was not only did it contain 4 complete novels,it also had The Running Man. I had recently seen the movie. So wanted to read the novel.

I am sure people reading this know why King wrote books under the Bachman pen name. And why he revealed this secret.The four novels this collection reprints were pretty hard to find before it was known King was Bachman. Once that piece of knowledge got out they became super hard to find. So this collection was published to not only give the fans a way to read these stories. But there was so much demand the publishing company knew they would make a nice profit.

Well onto the stories in the collection. Gonna do them from worst to best.

Roadwork-A already slightly deranged man finds out his house is being demolished to make way for a road. And we get to see his mental state goto shit. As he plans out a way to prevent this road. What makes this the worst novel in the collection to me is that it is way to long. The idea is decent. But it would work much better as a short story.

The Running Man-Set in a dsytopic future. We get the story of a man who is trying to keep his family living. His son is deathly ill.Mostly because of all the pollution in the air. He ends up on The Running Man gameshow. Where he hopes to make enough money to provide for his family's well being. As you can see already the story is very different from the film. The film just takes a few ideas from this story and changes so much. There is no arena in the book. Instead our hero is hiding in the cities and countryside. I enjoy the film. With it being one of the few Arnold action films I can still watch and enjoy. The book though is so much better. I would love to see a proper adaptation of the book. But I doubt that will happen.

Rage-This story is the reason why this collection is now out of print. And according to Mr King this story will never be reprinted. Thankfully it is really easy to find this collection in used bookstores for cheap. The store I got it from usually has at least 5 copies on the shelf. This is a tale of a high school student. He has some emotional issues. And is about to be kicked out of school. So he shows up to school with a pistol. And takes his morning class hostage. I know of at least two incidents where someone who had read this story tried to take a high school class hostage. Because of that and various school shootings Mr King asked that this collection be taken out of print. I understand why he felt he should do this.

The Long Walk-It is somewhat uncommon for King to write science fiction. This story set in the near future is one of my favorite non-Dark Tower books from King. Every year 100 young men start on the long walk. You have to walk a non-stop. And keep up at least a minimum speed. If you break any of the rules you get a warning. Three warnings and you are killed. The walk keeps going until there is only one person left.I am really surprised that so far this hasn't been adapted into a film or an episode of a TV show.

Even the worst novel in this collection is worth and read. With the best two being 2 of my favorite Stephen King books.

The Bachman Books gets a 4.15 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 023 Castaways by Brian Keene

BOOK TITLE-Castaways
AUTHOR-Brian Keene
FORMAT-Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-No
COST-75 cents

This was the third novel from Brian Keene I read. Having read Ghoul and Ghost Walk previously. Liked both of those but found that both had kind of crappy endings. So I was wondering if Keene suffered from the same affliction that Stephen King has since 1995ish. You know how the book will be good then in the last 10 pages either goes total shit or the ending is just BLAH.Thankfully this novel had a great ending.

What made me choose this out of the 10 or so Brian Keene novels I own is that he mentioned in an interview this was his tribute to Richard Laymon. Having already read and loved a stack of Laymon novels I was interested in seeing Keene's version of Laymon's sleazy 80s B Horror vibe.

We got a group of contestants on a Survivor like reality show. A nasty storm is headed for the island. There is no time to get the cast and crew out. They all bunker down in the crappy huts that the contestants built. But there is something deadlier than the storm. This island is home to a family of mutant genetic throwbacks. Supposedly the original draft of this story explained how these monsters are where the Beasts of Laymon's Beast series of novels come from.

Keene does a good job of capturing the feel of the Laymon novels I have read. Castaways is much sleazier than any other Keene novel. The gore factor is upped. And the novel has a much faster pace than most Keene novels.

If you enjoy either Keene or Laymon this is worth reading. Might just be my area but I see copies in used bookstores and Dollar Generals/Family Dollars all the time. I got the Leisure Fiction printing. Which like most other books from Leisure is out of print. Good thing Leisure overprinted most of their books.

Castaways gets a 3.95 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 022 Whacked! Skewed Views of Horror Movies that simply refuse to die

BOOK TITLE-Whacked! Skewed Views of Horror Movies that simply refuse to die
AUTHOR-Glen Coburn
FORMAT-Ebook
FIRST TIME READING-Yes
COST-No clue

I have no idea where I got this ebook. As I have stated before I love books of movie reviews. So that is more than likely why I got this book.

While the book does have reviews of a handful of films I never see reviewed in other books,the style of the reviews made it an almost painful reading experience.

The author writes each review like a 5th rate rip off of Joe Bob Briggs. Constant mentions of his dumb drug addicted son. Overly cute and innocent daughter,and finally his long suffering wife. It isn't hard to copy Briggs style. What is hard is copying it and making it funny. The author fell way short of making these reviews funny.

Once I finish typing up this review I am gonna delete the file. I know I will never read this again. And whatever I paid for it,if I paid anything,is way too much. Avoid this book like a $3 NOLA hooker.

Whacked!Skewed views of horror films gets a 0.25 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 021 The Walking Dead:The Fall of the Governor part one

BOOK TITLE-The Walking Dead:The Fall of the Governor Part 1
AUTHOR-Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga
FORMAT-Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-Yes
COST-$5.50

Took a few days off from reading books to blow through a stack of comics. When I was ready to dive into another novel I saw this book in my stack. I bought it sometime last year IIRC.Had sat it on my read next pile. Then let it be buried under other books.

Starting up not that long after the Road to Woodbury book ended. Our female lead Lilly is living on Woodbury and seems to feel somewhat safe.We get to see how the Governor is slowly losing his mind. With him keeping his daughter ,who is a zombie,chained up in his apartment. But it is his collection of zombie heads in fish tanks that was the creepiest.

More of the residents of Woodbury are introduced. Which is nice for people who have just seen the tv show. In the comic we got to see a bit more of life in Woodbury. Lilly ends up falling for a guy and starts believing that they will be safe.

Then Rick,Glen and Michonne show up in Woodbury and everything goes to hell. Rick gets one of his hands chopped off. Michonne is chained up in a room and assaulted daily by the Governor.With most of what happens to Glen never being told.If you have read the comic,this is basically the Governor's view on what happened when Rick and the two others go off to look for the crashed chopper.

The last 4 or so chapters as really fast paced. Rick and the two other members of the prison group start to escape. Helped out my Martinez and the Doctor and nurse of Woodbury. Of course Rick has no idea Martinez was told to do this by the Governor. After they all  get over the wall surrounding Woodbury,Michonne heads back to get her revenge on the Governor.And we get a way more graphic version of this encounter than what we saw in the comic.

After the lackluster and kind of dull second book,this third of so far 4 Walking Dead novels was pretty good. I didn't expect to get as much detail on the Governor and Michonne stuff as I got. It felt like for a few pages Edward Lee or Richard Laymon took over the writing job.

The Walking Dead:The Fall of the Governor part 1 gets a 3.85 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 020 Bat Boy the complete Peter Bagge collection

BOOK TITLE-Bat Boy The Complete Weekly World News Comic Strips
AUTHOR-Peter Bagge
FORMAT-Strip style Hardcover
FIRST TIME READING-No
COST-$3.25

I first found out about the Batboy comic strip when Danielle Corsetto mentioned on a forum she was taking it over. Looked around and saw that Peter Bagge had been doing it for over a year. Having had become a fan of Weekly World News back in the mid 80s. I had a Great Aunt that bought WWN and pretty much ever other tabloid you could find on the US newstands. So  I remember all the various Batboy stories.

Sometime a year or so ago I found out that IDW had published a hardcover of all the Bagge written and drawn strips. I wanted it,but the price was a bit too high. I have found that with IDW the cost of their trades and hardcovers is a bit higher than most other indy companies. Which is why I have learned to wait and try to grab their stuff on sale at cons.

Skip ahead to December of 2013,got send a Amazon giftcard from a friend. I took a glance at my "shit  I want but don't want to spend money on"wishlist. Kick ass there are used copies of BatBoy for $3.25 plus 2 bucks shipping. I order it. And get it in right after X-mas Day. Opened the package,got a huge smile on my face. Grabbed a cold gatorade out of the fridge. A bag of sea salt and cracked pepper chips. And kicked back in my chair to read this collection.

Bagge used the Batboy strip to satirized whatever was going on in the political or pop culture world. The pacing and just generally stream of conscious feel of the strip reminds me of what little I have read of Thimble Theater with Popeye. Bagge's art is it's normal great frenetic and energetic stuff. And I really enjoyed the Batboy as President chooses his first lady storyline.

It seems like this must of bombed cause I keep seeing obvious bookstore closeout copies of this going for really cheap prices. The copy I own had 3 or 4 clearance stickers from Barnes and Noble on its cover.Took me some time but managed to get them all off without damaging the cover.

If you like BatBoy and/or Peter Bagge and can find this for $5 or less grab it. It is not worth the cover price.But Amazon is flooded with cheap copies most of the time.

Bat Boy The Complete Weekly World News Comic Strips By Peter Bagge gets a 3.65 outta 5.