Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

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Black Dahlia by James Ellroy is the first of Ellroy’s L.A. Quartet (including The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidentialand White Jazz). While L.A. Confidential is, by far, Ellroy’s best book, Black Dahlia is the one that first felt like a James Ellroy book. This is the first Ellroy book that you can pick up and as soon as you read the first page, you know you’re in a James Ellroy book. And as it’s based on a true story, we get to see Ellroy finally master the mixture of reality and make-believe that are notable in his future books.

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The City on the Edge of Forever by Harlan Ellison

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The City on the Edge of Forever by Harlan Ellison is Ellison’s big wet raspberry to Gene Roddenberry. Harlan Ellison has many traits that have won him awards and enemies. And one of his biggest traits is a thirst for revenge when he feel he has been wronged. After waiting and fuming for 30+ years with Gene Roddenberry saying his script was almost unfilmable and over-budget and had crew members doing drugs, Ellison waited until Roddenberry died and then published his side of the story.

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Watch The First Previews Of The Cape

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Watch The First Previews Of The Cape on www.capesite.net. The Cape is a new super hero show starring Dave Lyons and science fiction favorite Summer Glau. NBC has picked it up for next season, but don’t expect to see it until the spring, since it’s a mid-season replacement show.

Go to the link and see a few scenes from the pilot that will get you in the mood to wait 8 months until you can watch it on TV. Hopefully as it gets closer to airing, we’ll get some more information and scenes.

The Big Book of Barry Ween, Boy Genius by Judd Winick

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The Big Book of Barry Ween, Boy Genius by Judd Winick is a collection of all three Barry Ween mini-series (12 issues in all) and is truly laugh out loud funny. It’s what a Nickelodeon show would be like if they allowed violence, sex talk and cussing. And it’s directly responsible for Winick getting work in the comics mainstream (whether you consider that good or bad would be a different discussion). Read on to find out what’s so funny about a 10 year old with a 350 IQ and his best (and horniest) friend.

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Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede by Bradley Denton

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Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede was Bradley Denton’s second novel and touches on many of the same themes as Wrack and Roll(review), including the power of music to make a difference in the world. The book is out of print now, but expect it to be back in print soon when the movie (starring Jon Heder from Napoleon Dynamite) comes out (title simply Alive and Well). It’s a road trip through the musical past and a brings us along on the fun journey.

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Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

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Ship Breaker is the new novel from Paolo Bacigalupi. Unlike his previous effort (The Windup Girl), Ship Breaker is a Young Adult novel. As an aside, I understand financially why author’s write YA books, since they pay better, but it sucks that authors have to do it. To have a brilliant new author like Bacigalupi and know that his new book is aimed at a YA audience makes me sad and wonder how much better it would be if it was aimed at the adult market. But besides being aimed at a YA audience, Ship Breaker is a worthy followup to The Windup Girl and moves Bacigalupi into the top tier of science fiction authors after just two books (and one story collection).

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DVDs You Should Own – Samurai Jack

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Samurai Jack is proof that Genndy Tartakovsky is an animation god. While Pixar and Dreamworks are upping the ante on computer animation with more and more realistic drawings and effects, Genndy Tartakovsky works with simple, hand-drawn animations that are more expressive than any computer animation has ever been able to do. And with news coming out a couple months ago about Tartakovsky’s newest series coming to Cartoon Network, I thought we should take a look back at Samauri Jack.

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The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

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The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett was Hammett’s last novel and probably his second most popular (after The Maltese Falcon). It was also the starting point for the Nick and Nora Charles movies (starring William Powell and Myrna Loy). They movie and the book are completely different types of stories, but both are well worth their time.

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The Cowboy Wally Show by Kyle Baker

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The Cowboy Wally Show by Kyle Baker was an instant classic when it was printed in 1988. It then fell out of print for a the better part of a decade before re-appearing for those of us who missed it the first time around. The book features broad humor starring a fat comedian and is utterly hilarious. Unfortunately it has fallen out of print again, but you should track it down and get ready to laugh.

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