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Flipping through the Back to the Future Official Book of the Complete Trilogy

Posted in Back to the Future, books, movies, pop culture with tags Back to the Future, books, movies, pop culture, Time Travelogues on June 30, 2010 by Paxton

Back to the Future turns 25 years old this week. It was released on July 3, 1985. This week on the Cavalcade of Awesome we are celebrating this anniversary with several Back to the Future related articles. On Monday I discussed the Back to the Future Official Souvenir Magazine. Today we are looking at the Back to the Future Official Book of the Complete Trilogy.

The cover for the official book of the trilogy is above. It was published in 1990 to coincide with the release of Back to the Future Part III (which celebrated its 20th anniversary this past May). As far as I know, Part II and Part III did not receive an official souvenir magazine like the original Back to the Future. The closest we got would probably be the Back to the Future Fan Club newsletter which I discussed back in May. So, with the release of the final movie in the trilogy, Universal compiled this “souvenir book” and had it cover all three Back to the Future movies. The articles and pictures in this book are what you would normally find in a souvenir magazine, but here it’s on a nicer paper stock and bound in hardback.

The book is chock full of on-set pictures and details about the making of one of the greatest trilogies of all time. The book has a lot of the photos from the Back to the Future souvenir magazine but it also includes lots of pictures from the other movies. One of the cooler articles in the book is a two page spread on the Mattel Hoverboard (click the image to make it bigger and easier to read).

This page is a great resource for one of the trilogies most memorable, and controversial, props. The text describes how they filmed the famed hoverboard chase in downtown Hill Valley 2015. The chase was filmed in at least five different ways and no two consecutive takes were done the same way. Some takes were done with the actors suspended from wires with the board attached to their feet, other takes required the actor to stand on a board that was suspended from wires. Still other takes required a crane rig with a steering wheel to be piloted by a crew member while the actors were suspended from a harness. This last one was used to execute turns and spins while on the hoverboard. It’s amazing the amount of work that went into this one sequence. The page even makes a mention of the infamous Zemekis interview in which he stated that hoverboards were real and the only reason we didn’t have them was because parent groups were blocking their distribution. This, of course, resulted in kids all over the world to lose their damn minds over the idea that parents were actually keeping something as awesome as a hoverboard from becoming a reality. For years afterwards kids wondered, “Why? Why, if my parents loved me, would they not want me to be happy. Because clearly, I won’t be happy until I have a f’n HOVERBOARD!!!” Zemekis eventually had to crush all the kids’ hopes and dreams of a happy life by telling them that he was, in fact, lying and hoverboards are not real. And neither is the Easter Bunny. Or Santa. Now get a job.

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The 10 Strangest and Most AWESOME Choose Your Own Adventure books

Posted in books, pop culture with tags books, Choose Your Own Adventure, pop culture on March 31, 2010 by Paxton

At the end of last week I talked about the genesis of the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Doing that research I stumbled across a bunch of my old books as well as a bunch of other books from Demian’s Gamebook Website that were, to say the least, wacky. I had forgotten some of the books even existed. It is amazing all of the different zany and offbeat stories and book covers you can find in all of these books.

Today, let’s take a look at 10 of the strangest and most awesome Choose Your Own Adventure books.

(via Demian’s Gamebooks)
#63 Mystery of the Secret Room (1986) – Could they have come up with a more boring or generic name? How about Secret of the Mystery Room? Room of the Mystery Secret? And is it just me or does this cover look familiar? Maybe JK Rowling borrowed this title for her second Potter book and the artwork for her third Potter book. Generic mystery/secret + noun titles abound in this series. Check out #141 The Secret of Mystery Hill.

#155 Ninja Cyborg (1995) – Yes, AWESOME! I don’t see how the story could live up to the bad ass title and cover but I give Jay Leibold credit for totally going there. A cyborg that is also a ninja. This exists and it is bad ass. Question: Am I the ninja cyborg or am I fighting the ninja cyborg? Points taken away if I’m fighting the ninja cyborg, but points given back if I’m also a bad ass ninja master. Who’s the dude in the blue tights in the background?

(via Demian’s Gamebooks)
#41 Search for Mountain Gorillas (1985) – When I’m grabbing a book for a choose your own adventure, the last thing I want to read about is the majestic mountain gorilla. Unless, of course, said gorilla is a super strong mutant gorilla that has gone insane and started murdering a bunch of campers and/or scientists. THAT is a gorilla I want to read about. Unfortunately, this is not the case here. This is, essentially, the novelization to the movie Gorillas in the Mist starring Sigourney Weaver. And I cannot fathom ever wanting to read that. EVER.

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The Origin of the Choose Your Own Adventure books

Posted in books, nostalgia, pop culture with tags books, Choose Your Own Adventure, nostalgia, pop culture, reviews on March 25, 2010 by Paxton

(via Something Awful)

I grew up loving Choose Your Own Adventure books. All of the different series were fun; Find Your Fate, Time Machine, Which Way. They all had interesting stories, some of them completely insane, and were fun to read. Shawn over at Branded in the ’80s has been reviewing a bunch of his off the wall, zany Find Your Fate books and it got me excited to finish this article I started over a year ago. Let’s take a look at how the whole “Choose Your Own Adventure” genre started. And, surprisingly, it started with one man, Edward Packard.

While telling stories to his kids, author Edward Packard came up with the idea of writing a book that the reader chooses how the story progresses. In 1969 he would take this idea and write Sugarcane Island. Packard, at first, could not find a publisher who would print the book. However, in 1976, Vermont Crossroads Press bought it and printed the book which is now considered one of the first gamebooks ever published.

(via Demian’s Gamebook Page)

For the first printing, Sugarcane Island was released under the banner, The Adventures of You (on left). Its plot has you, the reader, aboard a ship that is wrecked by a huge wave and you must survive on an isolated and very dangerous island. After being published in the Adventures of You series, Sugarcane Island was published under the Which Way banner (middle) in 1982. Then, in 1986, it would finally come under the popular Choose Your Own Adventure banner (right), which was created by Packard.

After Sugarcane Island, Packard published two more stand-alone gamebooks called Third Planet From Altair and Deadwood City. The first was a Sci-Fi adventure giving the reader the task of determining the origin of extraterrestrial messages. The second was a western casting the reader as a drifter into the town of Deadwood City looking for a job and finding adventure. Neither of these stand alone gamebooks were as popular as Sugarcane Island. Even though these two books were stand-alone, they both contain the phrase “choose your own adventure” on their covers and are considered the “unofficial” beginning of Packard’s Choose Your Own Adventure series. Both Deadwood City and Third Planet from Altair would be reprinted under the Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) banner years later.

(via Demian’s Gamebook Page)

A separate writer, RA Montgomery, wrote a second book in the Adventures of You series called A Journey Under the Sea in 1977. Subsequently, this was to be the last book in the series, however it would also be reprinted under the CYOA banner.

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Abraham Lincoln is going to stake some undead asses and other historical thrillers

Posted in books, pop culture, vampires with tags books, pop culture, vampires on March 3, 2010 by Paxton

Well, here’s some pretty awesome news. Seth Grahame-Smith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has released his next book. And it’s another fusing of old and AWESOME. It’s called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

The story surrounds a newly found “journal of Abraham Lincoln” that has never before been seen by anyone. In it, we discover that Lincoln’s mother was killed by a vampire over one of his father’s debts. When the truth became known to the young Abraham Lincoln, he wrote in his journal: “henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become learned in all things—a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose.”

Using the newly found journal as his guide, Grahame-Smith tells the unknown history of one of our greatest presidents and his quest to kill every undead demon he comes across.

I’ll admit, vamps have become a little played out the last few years (thank you, Twilight). However, this idea is cool and I’m 98% sure these vamps won’t sparkle in the f***ing sun.

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15 murder mystery books with absurdly specific subjects

Posted in books, humor, pop culture with tags Book Report, books, humor, pop culture on February 12, 2010 by Paxton

I love books and I love to read. I spend a lot of my time trolling through bookstores and used paperback shops just browsing. Sometimes after browsing for 2 hours I’ll buy a stack of like six books and sometimes I’ll buy nothing, to the ever increasing frustration of my wife. She can go into a bookstore, look for 10 minutes and be done. However, get her in a fabric store and time loses all meaning. But a bookstore, that’s my domain.

One of the things I love to read is the murder mystery genre. It’s one of the most popular genres of books including such classic authors as Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Recently I’ve noticed a trend with murder mysteries wherein the author tailors the murder story around a specific hobby or lifestyle. I guess it’s to make the story more relatable to the reader. As this practice has become more and more popular, the subjects for these murder mystery books has become so intensely specific that it has become a bit ludicrous. Here are ten of the most ridiculously specific murder mystery books I could find. And there may be even more odd ball ones out there. You can click the book covers to read more about the titles on Barnes & Noble.com.

Sudoku, the OCD numbers puzzle that has become quite the rage the last few years. Now, there’s a murder mystery series featuring them. The story in this series involves a Sudoku creator for the Oregon Daily participating in a Sudoku tournament where a competitor turns up dead. She must solve the mystery and then win the Sudoku tournament (of course she does) if she is to be crowned King Sudoku and become one of the 8 Deadly Immortals and protect the Earth from the attacking Demonicle hordes…..okay, I made the last part up, but I was getting a little bored and had to think of something a little more awesome than winning a Sudoku tournament. Other titles in this series include Murder by Numbers and Sinister Sudoku.

Crossword puzzles. They are like Sudoku for old people. People obsess over these things. There are books and dictionaries created specifically to help people solve crossword puzzles. My father, my mother-in-law and my aunt are obsessed with these things. My dad told me that he’ll start a crossword puzzle during breakfast and the next time he looks up it’s 5pm, time for dinner and he hasn’t moved…or showered. Great, my dad is becoming Howard Hughes. What’s an 8 letter word for shut in? (FYI…it’s “puzzlers”) Other titles in this series include Puzzled to Death and And a Puzzle to Die On. Stay tuned for mysteries involving Yahtzee, Bunko and Parcheesi. Okay, Dad, you can shower now.

These two books belong in the “so boring I may have just passed out” category. On the left you see the first book in a mystery series about a tea shop. A.TEA. SHOP. Yes, little old ladies in red hats drinking tea and eating scones off lace doilies solving murders. It’s like a less interesting Murder, She Wrote (if that’s possible). Each title in the book has the name of a tea in the title as a pun. For instance, Gunpowder Green and Shades of Earl Gray. It’s like the author is actively trying to get me NOT read her books. On the right you can see the first book in the “coffeehouse mysteries” set in a trendy “mom and pop” coffee shop. I guess a coffeehouse is as good a place as any for a murder scene because every time I go there with my wife there are several douchebags I want to actually murder. Other coffeehouse titles include Decaffeinated Corpse and Roast Mortem. And since writing those “tea shop mysteries” most certainly drove the author insane, she also writes a mystery series about scrapbooking.