Aaron Dembski-Bowden is back!
Continue readingBack to the Future…with a Warhammer – Aaron Dembski-Bowden Guest Blog
Aaron Dembski-Bowden is back!
Continue readingSandman Meditations – The Wake
Matthew Cheney is reaching the end in these collected essays on Neil Gaiman’s epic Sandman run with The Wake.
Continue readingPlayin’ with Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Eddard Stark Chapter 33
She’s new, she’s the re-re-reader. She’s the newbie, she’s the spoilery vet. Together they’re rereading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting their POV on. Today they react to Chapter 33: Stupid Ned …
Continue readingThe Love (stories) of our Lives?
Synergy is back! This is the second installment of the monthly feature. The basic gist is that one of our contributors offers a single question for our other contributors to give answer to mixed in with …
Continue readingEscaping into Fiction – Sharon Shinn Guest Blog
When I was having an interesting time of it in college, I was seized with the notion that I was reading an incredibly long and detailed story about a woman named Sharon Shinn, and at …
Continue readingGareth Edwards Interview | Monsters
This guy directed Star Wars Rogue One!
Continue readingDeadpool – Badass of the Week
Ben Thompson chronicles the crazy badass history and highlights of the Merc
Continue readingThe Goonies – Troy’s Bucket (and Why I Ain’t Riding Up It)
If you’re anything like me, you’re broke. Not quite selling-your-plasma-for-lunch-money broke. But definitely dodging-bill-collectors-and-praying-to-a-God-you-don’t-believe-in-that-your-car-won’t-break-down-again broke.
Continue readingDC: THE NEW FRONTIER… Stripp’d
0. Looking Back in order to Move Forward One of the more interesting developments in superhero comics has been the growing popularity of comics that take familiar characters and transplant them into unfamiliar historical contexts. …
Continue readingWhat is Style? – Notes From New Sodom
Big question. Hal Duncan has (long) answers.
Continue readingGuy Gavriel Kay Interview – Ysabel
This week our featured author is critically acclaimed, award-winning writer Guy Gavriel Kay, author of the soon-to-be released novel Ysabel, and many other historical fantasies including The Last Light of the Sun and Tigana. A …
Continue reading12 Time-Twisted Crime Films
It’s time to spring forward, as the saying goes. What daylight savings actually saves is beyond me. Just another way of making me wake up earlier than sunrise. Twisting time has worked a whole lot …
Continue readingBlindsight by Peter Watts Review
One of the things I find interesting about “hard” science fiction — by way of introducing Peter Watts’s Hugo-nominated novel Blindsight, the best example of the type that I have read in years — is …
Continue readingZoran Živković Interview + Seven Touches of Music + Steps Through the Mist Review
This week our guest is World Fantasy Award winning author Dr. Zoran Živković. Publishers in the UK and USA have snapped up Živković’s stories, written in his native Serbian, in English translation at an ever-increasing …
Continue readingTakin’ ‘er Easy for All Us Sinners: The World According to Jeffrey Lebowski
The Big Lebowski enjoys what is probably the largest cult following of all the cult-attracting films of Joel and Ethan Coen, and has pretty much since its release over a decade ago. And “cult” has …
Continue readingChew… Stripp’d
Food is the archetypal First World problem. While some parts of the world starve and other parts are turned inside out by our demand for low-cost and low-fuss supplies of exotic and increasingly refined foodstuffs, …
Continue readingReview – The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
“Are you okay?” That is the question asked, in one form or another, in nearly all of the stories that comprise Christopher Barzak’s new mosaic novel The Love We Share Without Knowing. It is a …
Continue readingTop 10 Science Fiction Movies of the Decade 2000-2009
All the end-of-year/decade lists going up right now inspired me to hit one up of my own. And all the hype about James Cameron’s Avatar, which is being trumpeted as some sort of monumental science fiction …
Continue readingStranger Things Happen by Kelly Link Review
I can safely say that I’ve never met a Kelly Link story that I didn’t like, and, after re-reading her alchemical debut collection “Stranger Things Happen”, I’m just about ready to tell you why. First, …
Continue readingPlayin’ With Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Jon Snow Chapter 19
She’s new, I’m the re-reader. She’s the newbie, I’m the spoilery vet. Together She’s g-mashin’ George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting here POV on. Today she moves on to Chapter 19, a …
Continue readingPlayin’ With Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Catelyn Stark Chapter 18
She’s new, I’m the re-reader. She’s the newbie, I’m the spoilery vet. Together She’s g-mashin’ George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting here POV on. Today she moves on to Chapter 18, a …
Continue readingIn the Forest of Forgetting by Theodora Goss Review
“The Rose in Twelve Petals” begins Theodora Goss’s newly-in-paperback collection In the Forest of Forgetting, and the story makes an ideal introduction to the the author’s work. A retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty story, …
Continue readingSongs of Hate, Part Two: The Visual Instead Of The Verbal
We left off last column with a run-down on the first of actress/singer Meiko Kaji’s Female Prisoner Scorpion series and a hint that things were about to get pretty weird. Well, the phantasmagoria goes full bore in the …
Continue readingForget It, Eddie, It’s Toontown – The Crime Fiction Roots Of Roger Rabbit
My friend’s dad took us to see Willow one sunny summer’s day in 1988. It was a good movie and all, but honestly I was extremely distracted throughout the whole thing. All I could think …
Continue readingAaron Dembski-Bowden Interview – Warhammer 40K
Aaron Dembski-Bowden is a new author for The Black Library, Games Workshop’s publishing arm. Though only three novels into his Black Library writing career, he has fast developed a devoted following of both die-hard Warhammer …
Continue readingGetting to Know You by David Marusek Review
Getting to Know You is only David Marusek’s second book, but he is already a veteran of the science fiction wars. Marusek’s 2005 novel Counting Heads was the subject of the debut speculative fiction column …
Continue readingMichael Cisco Interview
First off, I’d like to thank Michael Cisco for agreeing to this interview and welcome him as our guest at Boomtron. Michael Terry Cisco is an American writer and teacher. He currently resides in New …
Continue readingDaytripper – The Deaths We Die Every Day
Daytripper, the ten issue maxi series comic by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon, is an almost-surreal life study of one man, Brás de Oliva Domingos, and how he has lived his life. Each issue is …
Continue readingG.I. Joe Rawhides – 30 Years Later, the G.I. Joe Animated Movie
Back in 1987 fans of G.I. Joe got an animated film that has gone on to become a pretty divisive movie during a time which was probably the height of or toward the end of …
Continue readingThe Ten Greatest Henchmen In Movie History
Say you’re putting together a syndicate. One of the first things that you are going to need is somebody to take care of your light work for you when words have run out. As a …
Continue readingSailing to Sarantium + Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay Review
I have a set of bright memories associated with various of Guy Gavriel Kay’s novels: Sitting, aged 13, grief-stricken and sobbing in a cold bath having finished “The Darkest Road”, the final weft in his …
Continue readingJoe Abercrombie Interview
Joe Abercrombie is the author of the First Law trilogy and Best Served Cold. I have been a fan since the first book in the First Law found me in a bookstore, so I was …
Continue readingThe Rose in Twelve Petals and Other Stories by Theodora Goss Review
Theodora Goss only began publishing her short fiction and poetry in 2002 but already her work has appeared in some of the genre’s most respected publications (including “Realms of Fantasy”, “Strange Horizons”, “Polyphony” and “Lady …
Continue readingThe Millennium Falcon or Serenity? | Point/Counterpoint
If there’s one thing nerds like to do, it’s debate. And if there’s one thing nerds like to debate about, it’s useless trivia from TV shows and movies. Thus, we humbly submit for your reading …
Continue reading7 Toughest Comebacks in Crime Film
Crime heroes and villains got it rough. They’re usually up to the gills in trouble and their genre, unlike horror, doesn’t smile on its bad-asses soaking up too many bullets. A fortunate – or unfortunate, …
Continue readingBatman or Rorschach? – Point/Counterpoint
o, who would you rather have operating just outside the law to protect your city? Batman or Rorschach? Discuss!
Continue readingSailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay Review
I have a set of bright memories associated with various of Guy Gavriel Kay’s novels: Sitting, aged 13, grief-stricken and sobbing in a cold bath having finished “The Darkest Road”, the final weft in his …
Continue readingMultiReal by David Louis Edelman Review
The labels “science fiction” and “speculative fiction” have long been entwined, with speculative fiction variously considered synonymous with science fiction or an umbrella that contains science fiction. And indeed most science fiction is speculative, either …
Continue readingShai-Hulud from DUNE or Falkor the Luck Dragon from THE NEVERENDING STORY? – Point/Counterpoint
The question on everyone’s lips, which we humbly seek to answer today, “Which is the better ridiculous mode of transportation, Shai-Hulud from Frank Herbert’s Dune series, or Falkor the Luck Dragon from The Neverending Story?
Continue readingThe 5 Worst TV Crime Show Finales
You’d think it would be easy to wrap up a crime TV series. Punish the bad guys, save the day and solve the mystery. The audience can turn off the set with their belief in …
Continue reading6 Most Twisted Pranks in Crime Film
A perfect crime always has a bit of a prank to it. When you’re breaking the law, you’re duping society, after all. You play a joke on old Lady Justice. The punchline just happens to …
Continue readingFrom Russia With Love and Dr. No – The James Bond Zapiska
Ah, the Cold War. Growing up as I did in the Eighties, there was no greater Bad Guy in film or print as evil or subversive or insidious as the Russians. They were the eternal enemy, lurking …
Continue readingPatrick Rothfuss Interview – Kingkilling It
Patrick Rothfuss is a new author who has generated lots of buzz in the last couple of months, and now he’s on Boomtron. His debut novel, The Name of the Wind, is the first installment …
Continue readingThe better sci-fi/fantasy pet? Spot from Star Trek: TNG, or Oy from Stephen King’s Dark Tower | Point/Counterpoint
This week we seek to answer that most pressing of questions: Which is the better sci-fi/fantasy pet? Spot from Star Trek: The Next Generation, or Oy from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series?
Continue reading5 Terrifying Crime Films That Actually Happened
There are plenty of crime films that straddle some scary territory: Serial killer suspense stories, “realistic” horror and a couple gangster-style stories with eerie elements. But even though Hollywood gets accused of slathering on the …
Continue readingSongs of Hate: Meiko Kaji and Female Prisoner Scorpion (Part One)
She sold over a million albums, her films inspired much of Kill Bill, and when she didn’t want to do what she was asked of by executives, she said uh-uh and split for greener pastures. Her name is …
Continue readingIt’s Not The Quantity, It’s The Quality: Sion Sono’s COLD FISH
Back in my days teaching English in Japan, I raised the topic of murders and why they were so frequently extreme in Japan. One student actually said in reply, “It’s not the quantity, it’s the …
Continue readingTop 10 Restaurants In Crime Film
Crime films often make me hungry. Often the restaurant scenes are among the best remembered in crime flicks. The coffee shops and Italian kitchens and juke joints where criminal characters go to grab a bite …
Continue readingBack Matter Matters – A Study In Commitment
It is a story in words and pictures; that’s comic, kids. That’s what the companies sell, that’s what we buy. But I always want more, and I don’t think I’m asking for too much. There …
Continue readingAdventures in Unhistory by Avram Davidson Review
Imagine if you will that, when you were younger, you had an older relative — a grandfather or great-aunt — who was something of an armchair historian regarding mythology. Every now and then, when you …
Continue readingThe Entertainers: 5 Essential Movies of Scam Cinema
Hollywood: it’s all a scam, isn’t it? For all of our lives, the movies have promised us big, big things. Action and adventure are just out there waiting for us. Good always triumphs over evil. A …
Continue readingMark Charan Newton Interview – The Legends of the Red Sun
Mark Charan Newton is an urban fantasy author who’s currently two novels into his writing career and, judging by the sheer tonnage of critical acclaim which now includes a place in Library Journal’s top 5 …
Continue readingThe Chimpanzee Complex… Stripp’d
There is consolation in conspiracy. Whenever something terrible happens, humans look for answers and they don’t stop looking even when they have found them: It wasn’t Oswald who killed Kennedy, it was the mob or …
Continue readingMemories of Wing Commander
There aren’t many things from my youth that I truly miss, but one of the members of that elite group is the space combat flight simulator game. Once quite common, they are all but unknown …
Continue readingDan Abnett Interview -In the Black Library
For me this is the interview to end all interviews. It’s not often one gets to interview a personal hero; I suspect this is mostly because heroes don’t enjoy mopping up fanboy drool, and frankly, …
Continue readingIn and Out of The Big House: DOING TIME and 9 SOULS
By his own admission, noted Mangaka (pro comics creator) Kazuichi Hanawa had long been interested in themes of confinement. An early, unfinished experiment was a manga concerning a masked man locked up in a basement. It’s oddly …
Continue readingThree Days to Never by Tim Powers Review
Tim Powers’s novels are so unlike anything else that I think John Shirley said it best over at Emerald City “Tim Powers is his own genre”. Or maybe he is the most unpredictable predictable writer …
Continue readingMore Evil, the Borg or the Aliens? | Point/Counterpoint
In our never-ending quest to reduce the absurd, we offer the following Point/Counterpoint discussion: Who is the better evil insidious race, the Borg, or the Aliens?
Continue readingIkigami: The Ultimate Limit… Stripp’d
Some would say that beautiful lives bloom only in the shadow cast by death. But while this may very well be true, how could we ever know for sure? Statements like this one and Plato’s …
Continue readingRPGs I didn’t get to play: The 8-bit years
I had the bad timing to become a console RPG fan at the dawn of the 1990s. This was originally due to a promotional gimmick run by Nintendo Power magazine in which they gave away …
Continue readingWhitechapel Squad: The Detective Comics of Warren Ellis
I’ve long believed Warren Ellis is a crime-fiction writer at heart. The first series of Wolfskin was a clear example of sword-and-sorcery comics, but had that distinct Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars feel, a dyed-in-the-wool crook playing both sides. Comics like Aetheric …
Continue readingBlack Crime Fiction: An Introduction
I. Introduction II. The Holy Trinity – Chester Himes, Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines III. Gone, Forgotten and Waiting for Discovery – Robert Deane Pharr & Clarence Cooper Jr. IV. The Best of the Rest …
Continue readingArrivederci, Eltingville
Comic book nerds are easy targets. Fish in a barrel and on crutches, to boot. Not to put too fine a point on it, but going to down to comics conventions and making fun of …
Continue readingEmpire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky Review
Empire in Black and Gold is the debut of British author Adrian Tchaikovsky and the first installment in a trilogy titled Shadows of the Apt. In his debut Tchaikovsky gives us a heroic narrative where …
Continue readingBest Fantasy Movies of the Decade: 2000-2009
When I was asked to write a companion piece to my Best Science Fiction Movies of the Decade list, I thought it would be equally as easy. I was wrong. There were a lot of …
Continue readingCharlie Adlard Interview – Portrait of the Artist as a Walking Dead Man
Back in the nineties, I had the pleasure of working with Charlie Adlard on Topp’s The X-Files comic. Ages later, the man who draws The Walking Dead was kind enough to spend some time catching …
Continue readingThe Scott Pilgrim Girlfriend Test
So you’ve finally met a girl who seems cool. Outlook: positive…except that you can’t figure out how to suss out her level of nerdery without offending her or seeming even geekier than you are by …
Continue readingPhonogram… Stripp’d
One could argue that the enduring popularity of genre motifs is a direct result of the death of God. Prior to the Enlightenment, the people of the ancient and medieval worlds knew their place. They …
Continue readingScam Artist Hall Of Fame: M. Sgt. E.G. Bilko
Welcome, dear friends and other suckers, to a new regular feature here at the Criminal Complex. Yes, the Scam Artist Hall Of Fame, as demanded by none of you, will highlight those great men and …
Continue readingThe Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia A. McKillip Review
The award winning Patricia A. McKillip is one of the prominent authors within fantasy fiction, but whereas notable masters of the genre like J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin work on an epic scale, McKillip’s …
Continue readingEscapement by Jay Lake Review
Escapement is the sequel to Jay Lake’s critically acclaimed novel Mainspring, wherein he maps out an alternate Earth anno 1900. Lake has quite cleverly constructed a world that for the most part resembles ours yet …
Continue readingKushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey Review
Kushiel’s Dart is Jacqueline Carey’s highly successful debut and the first instalment of a trilogy that chronicles the exploits of Phèdre nó Delaunay – exquisite courtesan, talented spy and god-touched masochist. The book received the …
Continue readingBefore Youtube, Ninjak Debuts with a Bloodshot Problem in VALIANT Comics
… ahhh classic VALIANT.
Continue readingJudging Jorah Mormont as Daenerys Targaryen’s Champion
A lot things happened in last week’s episode that people want to talk about a lot more — and oddly I think that particular one was one of the better shot, edited, and acted scenes in a …
Continue reading8 Things About House Tyrell and Highgarden
Like the rest of these I’ve done, zero spoilers for fans of the Game of Thrones experience on HBO, and nothing that a readers of the books doesn’t already know. This week: House Tyrell of …
Continue readingTen Things About House Targaryen for Game of Thrones Fans
Back to Game of Thrones as a lot of people read my Ten Things about Dorne and House Martell and a similar post about House Stark so I thought it might be worthwhile to go …
Continue reading7 Things About Game of Thrones’ House Baratheon and the Stormlands
… because HBO watchers sleep on Bobby Baratheon.
Continue readingTen Things About House Targaryen for Game of Thrones Fans
Back to Game of Thrones as a lot of people read my Ten Things about Dorne and House Martell and a similar post about House Stark so I thought it might be worthwhile to go …
Continue reading10 Things About House Martell and Dorne in HBO’s Game of Thrones
A new episode of Game of Thrones is coming at us Sunday but we were briefly introduced to Dorne last week. Dorne’s a bit of a new flavor from what we have seen of Westeros …
Continue readingTen Things About House Stark of Game of Thrones
Back to some Game of Thrones . A lot of people read my 10 Things about Dorne and House Martell so I thought it might be worthwhile to go back to Westeros and do something similar …
Continue readingThe Order of the Blue Flower by Hal Duncan – Notes from New Sodom
Science Fiction and Fantasy broken down and put back together by Hal Duncan on the quest forthe Blue Flower.
Continue readingThe Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum Review
Imagine Borges and Dali hanging out at Pee Wee Herman’s playhouse, and you have a brief inkling of what Rosenbaum’s fiction is like. The Ant King and Other Stories is Rosenbaum’s debut collection of short fiction, which …
Continue readingJessica Bendinger Interview – Bringing It On
A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking with Jessica Bendinger, screen writer, director, and now author. Her best-known work, at least in my age demographic, is writing Bring It On. Jessica also wrote …
Continue readingThe Evolution of the Serial Killer
America has always been crazy about serial killers. They’re our homegrown werewolves. They click with the fast-food car culture that roars in the country’s busy, busy heart. They fit neatly with our cult-of-celebrity-style national mythology. …
Continue readingCult Film Cult Crimes – Rob Zombie and THE LORDS OF SALEM
Somewhere on the fringe of mainstream film, there’s a frenzied community of artists who illustrate an elemental aspect of crime. They don’t bother with the ticky-tack trivia of the procedural. They don’t focus on the …
Continue readingMae Catt – She Likes To Watch Monsters And Men
On the occasion of the Emmys’ passing, let’s take a step outside the spotlight. I want to lead you to the fringes for a moment. You need to meet an artist who has yet to …
Continue readingThe Innocence Of Morons – Sam Bacile & Cranked-Out Propaganda
If you find yourself with fifteen minutes to kill this evening, you can go to YouTube and pull up the video that is currently causing murder and mayhem and destruction in the Middle East this …
Continue readingTo Ride Or Not To Ride – SAMCRO & Formulas For The Perfect Crime Story
Much like most of the civilized world, I knew what yesterday meant: The premiere of Sons of Anarchy, Season 5. I was pretty jazzed. I would DVR that bad bastard and catch it when convenience …
Continue readingMy Name Is Markham – The TV Sensibilities of NEAR DEATH
Near Death is one of the spate of high-quality comic books Image has been cranking out over the past couple of years, and I finally did myself the favor of reading it. Of course, now …
Continue readingHow My Load Got Shot – Jedidiah Ayres Guest Blog
I just read a review of the film F*ckload of Scotch Tape that ended with this paragraph: “In the end, F*ckload of Scotch Tape is the cinematic equivalent of a repeated kick to the nuts …
Continue readingUp Jumped The New World Order – The New Rules of Satanism In Pop Music
Before we get too far into this, I want everybody to remember that there was a time when the members of Mötley Crüe were presumed to be dangerous servants of the Devil. I should also …
Continue reading