• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Bradley James Weber

Startling Stories for All Ages

  • Books
  • Stories
  • 24-Hr Comics
  • Blog
  • Art
  • About

JMS Labs

THAT ONE SPOOKY NIGHT – an interview/review with Grace Weber

September 10, 2012 By Bradley Weber

Welcome back, everyone! It’s been too long — and I’ve missed you all too much for words.

But enough about me and you. Let’s talk about books.

David Huyck was just one of the creators I got to talk with this summer at the first-ever Chicago Alterative Comics Expo (CAKE). (It doesn’t spell out, I know. Just go with it.) One project he was excited about was his upcoming children’s book, THAT ONE SPOOKY NIGHT. There were no galleys of it available, but he was able to score me an advance copy. NICE!

After I read it, young Kidzilla, (A.K.A., “Grace”) got her eyeprints all over the pages. When she was done, I put her on the record and asked her what she thought:

Brad: You ready? Because I’m really recording now.

Grace: Yeah.

Brad: You want to say anything first?

Grace: No.

Brad: You want to get right into it?

Grace: Yeah.

Brad: OK. We’re talking about THAT ONE SPOOKY NIGHT, a new Halloween book for young readers written by Dan Bar-el and Illustrated by David Huyck. Grace, did you like the book?

Grace: Yeah.

Brad: Did you ‘like’ it, did you ‘like-like’ it, or did you ‘love’ it?

Grace: I ‘like-liked’ it.

Brad: What made it better than just a ‘like’ book?

Grace: How it’s written . . . and the pictures.

Brad:  So the story and the art. The first time we were recording this — and that didn’t work — you said that of the three stories, you liked one better than the others and you didn’t like one as much as the rest. Which one didn’t you like?

Grace: The first one.

Brad: The story about the little girl who mixes-up her costume broom with a witch’s real, flying broom. Why didn’t you like it?

Grace: I just didn’t like it.

Brad: Was it not an exciting story?

Grace: Yeah.

Brad: Would you say it was the weakest story of the three?

Grace: Yes.

Brad: Which one did you like the most?

Grace: The last one.

Brad: The one about the four human girls who meet the four vampire girls. Why?

Grace:  Because one of the human girls and one of the vampire girls got to be friends. And they didn’t like blood.

Brad: Would you give this book to your friends to read? And why?

Grace: Yes. Because it’s funny and scary at the same time.

Brad: Is there anything you would tell them about it? Anything about the story or the art?

Grace: No. I would let them be surprised.

Brad: What did you think about the art?

Grace: I think it was excellent.

Brad: What about the writing?

Grace: The writing was pretty good.

Brad: So you think the art is really the strong point in this book.

Grace: Yeah. Can we be done now?

Brad: Ah . . . sure.

And there you have it.

Since there were no comments for THAT ONE SPOOKY NIGHT up on Amazon, I was prompted to post my thoughts in my first Amazon review. Short but sweet. Check it out here — then order yourself a copy!

 

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Comics, JMS Labs

Portriat of No One

February 20, 2012 By Bradley Weber

Filed Under: Art, JMS Labs

Hide Me Among The Graves (Book Review)

February 16, 2012 By Bradley Weber

Support your local independent bookstore

I’m a Tim Powers fan. Most of his books are my go-to reading when I’m in a funk or otherwise needing a jolt of industrial magic realism. I’ve given away more copies of Last Call and On Stranger Tides than I can remember, never expecting to get them back.

His books are a gold standard: the earlier ones (Skies Discrowned, The Drawing of the Dark, The Anubis Gates, On Stranger Tides) being full-on adventures, usually historical, involving secret histories that play with the facts for their own supernatural ends; the later ones (Last Call, Declare) continue to work with secret histories, though with more intricate plots and greater focus on the historical details.

Hide Me Among the Graves is no less intricately plotted or historically bent — or supernatural, for that matter — though this one fails to catch the same light.

Graves is somewhat of a sequel to The Stress of Her Regard, Powers’ 1989 novel involving a hapless London doctor, John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and the nephilim  — that race of giants from the Bible,  angel sired and of woman born — who, in this case somehow turned to stony creatures and now live off the blood of humans. In Powers’ version, nephilim are the basis of the vampire legend, but instead of killing the humans to whom they are married or are in other ways part of the family, the nephilim give them longer life and the ability to write great poetry. (There is a big difference between being family and being food and the nephilim are jealous creatures; anyone attached to their beloved either has her chest crushed or is drained and can come back as a vampire himself.) Naturally, the whole thing is a little more complicated than that, but you get the idea. All this takes place in Italy in the early 1800’s.

One of the lesser players in Stress was John Polidori, physician to Lord Byron and runner-up in the Villa Diodati Ghost Story Contest — his tale, “The Vampyre” coming in second to Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Because of his employer’s notorious and scandalous reputation, Polidori was paid to keep a diary during their travels together, which he did, and which was later edited by his nephew, William Rossetti.

Polidori was a sub-minor character in Stress, portrayed as a dope and a wannabe, his literary aspirations leading him to seek a vampire and eventually becoming one — too bad for him since the nephilim were defeated by the end of the book and all the vampires turned to lifeless stone. The vampire Polidori was trapped a small, pointy black rock. Then, in 1845, he was able to regain himself thanks to a bit of exceptionally poor parenting by William Rossetti’s father, Gabriel, who gave the cursed stone to his fourteen-year old daughter, Christina.

Getting beyond the fact that an elderly father adores his daughter so much that he gives her the stone heart of a vampire along with explicit instructions on how to revive it , the daughter doesn’t seem to be the main character in this book, nor is anyone in the Rossetti family. Powers’ seems to want the main characters to be the son of the doctor from the first book, a woman with whom he had a one-night stand, and their own young daughter who is being pursued through London by Polidori. The Rossetti’s history is the backdrop and the family members are characters of varying importance in a story that ranges over forty years, roughly. And I do mean roughly.

There are moments — parts of chapters when the action picks up, where the stakes are evident or the emotion is tight — but they are too infrequent for the jacket copy to justifiably claim the story  is, “an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride,” or for Booklist to say it’s a “nail-biter” with “breakneck pace.” I will, however, agree it has a “labyrinthine plot [pulling] us through history, mythology, mystery, and horror with [Powers’] signature creative verve.”

Indeed. But for a novel about vampires, doomed souls, and the need to save one’s most-loved, Hide Me Among the Graves lacks an overall urgency or even a sustained tension. And in spite of the risks around them, the main(ish) characters never seemed to be in any serious danger. This could also be due to their being fairly standard Types in Powers’ world and, therefore, harboring no surprises. The supporting character who stole the show was Edward Trelawny — a surly old writer and adventurer, and a friend of Lord Byron’s who was, in his younger days, in thrall to the nephilim. Trelawny is a man who deserves his own book with the full Powers treatment.

As far as Hide Me Among the Graves goes, its lack of propulsion, sputtering narrative, and wandering focus are the same problems to be found in The Stress of Her Regard — a novel that, after several failed attempts to read over the years, I finally finished in anticipation of the new book. Reading them back-to-back seemed to reflect their flaws and refract their qualities, though qualities there still are.

Powers is a secret historian of the highest order, invoking the supernatural and fantastic to reveal the true engines of the world. His research and keen eye for the effects of wildly disparate — yet intimately twined — events is unsurpassed.

In Hide Me Among the Graves, Powers’ trademark play with the facts seems to have gotten slow & tight while trying to connect too many historical dots.

 

Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers goes on sale March 13, 2012.

Support your local independent bookstore.

 

Filed Under: Book Reviews, JMS Labs

Rum Diary Soundtrack Outclasses Film

November 12, 2011 By Bradley Weber

I’m having the strangest feeling of deja vu

Ninety percent of Christopher Young’s swinging soundtrack has been on high rotation in both my car and the writing cave — very impressive considering the track list is twenty-four songs long.

First, a little explanation for anyone who doesn’t regularly listen to movie soundtracks: the background music, the strings or guitars or horns or whatever providing an emotional bed and/or reinforcement to whatever is happening on the screen is written specifically for those several seconds or minutes of film, then taking cues from what happens next, the composer will truncate a melody or execute an abrupt change in tone. Listening to soundtracks by even the best movie composers (Elfman, Zimmer, Shore, Steiner, Howard, Korngold, Stalling, etc.) can be a disjointed and jarring experience.

Young (Preist, The Fly, Rounders, Spider-Man 2) on the other hand, expanded The Rum Diary‘s themes, beats, and incidental music into complete songs. Each one is fully realized  with a wonderful feel for the era’s music. Put them up against Ultralounge’s Bossa Novaville or Mambo Fever and you’ll see just how close Young gets.

Of the twenty-four tracks, a mere three fail to reach my ears:

1) “Volare” by Dean Martin — the only oldie on the list and a song which sets up a false expectation as it opens the film. It doesn’t come off as ironic, which I’m willing to bet was the point. Another one of Young’s fantastic tracks would have been better.

3) “Suckfish and Snake” — this is, in and of itself, really a fine track. Lots of great rhythms, heavy on sax and Hammond B3 . . . I just can’t stand scat singing. I get it, as a style and technique, but I can’t listen to it.

I hate scat singing. There, I said it. Burn me in effigy.

24) “The Mermaid Song” — there are two versions on the soundtrack:  an instrumental and one that is sung. The instrumental version has a wonderful music box air to it and is really something sweet and special. And and while Patti Smith’s vocals are fine, the lyrics are nothing much to sing about.

Like the O, Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, Young’s Rum Diary music should develop the following it deserves.  If this soundtrack doesn’t get airplay on jazz stations, there is something seriously wrong with the way it’s being marketed.

And when you hear some of these songs in commercials and trailers for other movies in a few months, don’t be surprised.

MP3s are available for download at most online outlets. The physical CD looks to be available sometime just before x-mas.

Filed Under: Fear & Loathing, JMS Labs, Movies, Music Tagged With: Christopher Young, Hunter Thompson, Johnny Depp, Rum Diary movie, Rum Diary soundtrack, Ultra Lounge

Soul Train Host Was Former Chicago Cop

November 1, 2011 By Bradley Weber

Would you ever peg this man as having been on the Chicago P.D. ?

Me neither.

Here’s the story from IMDB:

Discovered by WVON Radio personality Ed Cobb. In the mid-1960s, Cobb while driving ran a traffic violation and was pulled over by Chicago Police officer Don Cornelius. While officer Cornelius was asking him the typical traffic stop questions, Cobb noticed his unique speaking voice and told him that he was in the wrong profession. Cobb suggested that Cornelius come down to the radio station and make a demo tape. Don took him up on it and was hired as an announcer.

And some comments on it from the Don himself:

No, no. Never happened. How I knew Roy, for the record, was that I grew up in a three-story building on St. Lawrence Avenue next to a three-story building he lived in for a time.

But he doesn’t deny being a Chicago cop . . . .

Goes to show you never can tell.

Filed Under: Fear & Loathing, JMS Labs, Weridness

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 16
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

View Book

Recent Posts

  • Famous Feztonians: Francois Anatole
  • Fez Fest!
  • Complex Partial: A Poem About Seizures
  • Book Review: Lemons
  • Shipwrecked (A Poem About Being Shipwrecked)

Archives

Categories

24-Hour Comics Apparel Art Audio Books Book Reviews Book Reviews Coloring Books Comics Drinking Editorials Fear & Loathing Fez Fest Food Gadgets and Toys General History Humor JMS Labs Kid's Menus Kid's Stuff Language Movies Music News Poetry Random Random Art Science! Shakespeare In Comics Stories Tools and Weapons Uncategorized Web sites Weridness Work For Hire Writing Zombies

Categories

  • 24-Hour Comics
  • Apparel
  • Art
  • Audio Books
  • Book Reviews
  • Book Reviews
  • Coloring Books
  • Comics
  • Drinking
  • Editorials
  • Fear & Loathing
  • Fez Fest
  • Food
  • Gadgets and Toys
  • General
  • History
  • Humor
  • JMS Labs
  • Kid's Menus
  • Kid's Stuff
  • Language
  • Movies
  • Music
  • News
  • Poetry
  • Random
  • Random Art
  • Science!
  • Shakespeare In Comics
  • Stories
  • Tools and Weapons
  • Uncategorized
  • Web sites
  • Weridness
  • Work For Hire
  • Writing
  • Zombies

Recent Comments

  • Glenn E. Smith on The Continental Shelf
  • bjw on Is this Bat Country?
  • Nick Sizer on Is this Bat Country?
  • deg on Soul Train Host Was Former Chicago Cop
  • Agent Joe on Book Review: The Big Book Of Adventure Stories

Copyright © 2025 · Bradley James Weber