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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Posted in books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, reviews, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Book Report, books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, vampires on October 12, 2011 by Paxton

We’ve made it to Hump Day of vampire book week. Click the banner above to see all of the other books and comics I’ve looked at these past two weeks of AWESOME-tober-fest 2011.

Today I’ll be looking at Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Seth Grahame-Smith wrote the seminal Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (P&P&Z). The success of that book launched a niche publishing empire. Classic lit/horror mashups are still being released in droves. Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter. The Undead Land of Oz. Android Karenina. Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters. There was even a prequel to the original P&P&Z called Dawn of the Dreadfuls. I haven’t read any of those other books, but I read the original P&P&Z. It’s a surprisingly subtle book considering the title. Grahame-Smith deftly weaves his more outlandish story into the original Austen story with much success. There is a reason the book became a sensation, it’s well written. Grahame-Smith’s followup stuck to the same genre. It was to be today’s book; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and was released in Spring 2010.

In March 2010, I looked at the trailer for this book. Here’s that trailer:

Judging just from the cover and that trailer, you expect this book to be completely over the top. Like a Zack Snyder fever dream while tripping on acid. However, Grahame-Smith pulls a similar feat with this book that he did with P&P&Z, deftly combining a history of Abraham Lincoln and subtly revealing the secret existence of vampires in early America. The book is based on the assumption that it is revealing the contents of several of Lincoln’s “hidden” journals. All of which reveal the vampire secrets and his efforts to kill all the vampires.

The book begins with a chapter in how Grahame-Smith came into possession of Lincoln’s hidden journals. They were ostensibly given to him one day by a very mysterious person. Unfortunately, Grahame-Smith doesn’t ever go back to that introduction, but the story that follows is fascinating. It really does start off like you are reading a biography of our 16th President. Even after we meet the first vampire, it never completely takes off into Buffy the Vampire Slayer territory. It always stays true to the Abe Lincoln story, while occasionally detouring into vampires. And the way Grahame-Smith deftly integrates vampires into the secret history of the Civil War and slavery is just fascinating.

This book was surprising. I expected a ridiculous sendup of vampire movies/books. Something more along the lines of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel but with Abe Lincoln. However Grahame-Smith has crafted a very good vampire hunter story that cleverly uses famous events in Lincoln’s life and turns them on their ear and somehow manages to make them, in some way, connect to this hidden vampire conspiracy. I was surprised, but pleasantly so. I definitely recommend this book and say be prepared for a story that is better written than this subject has any right to be.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

Posted in books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Book Report, books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, reviews, vampires on October 11, 2011 by Paxton

Day 2 of AWESOME-tober-fest 2011’s Dracula/vampire book week. Today I’m looking at another series of books that don’t star Dracula, but have vampires as the main character. I’m talking about The Strain books by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan.

Director Guillermo Del Toro conceived of this story while trying to develop a vampire television show. When he couldn’t get the show made he contacted Chuck Hogan about writing the story as a trilogy of novels. Del Toro picked crime writer Hogan because he wanted the books to have a basis in science like CSI. The first book in the Strain trilogy, The Strain (official website), was released in Summer 2009. The second book, The Fall, was released in Fall 2010. I got my copy of the first book off paperbackswap.com in Oct 2010 right after The Fall was released in hardback. I really wanted to read it due to Del Toro’s involvement, but Chuck Hogan had also written the book Prince of Thieves from which the movie The Town was based, so I was also excited about that. But, in the back of my mind, I was thinking that vampires have become tired the last few years (Thank you, Mrs Meyer). Could this book actually be any good?

The short answer so far is YES. Suddenly vampires are horrifying again. Del Toro and Hogan have crafted a masterful vampire tale that brings vampires back into the realm of truly terrifying. To date I’ve read Book 1 (The Strain) and Book 2 (The Fall) in the trilogy. Book 3 (The Night Eternal) is being released on Oct 25 (in 2 weeks!).

The first book starts off with a bang. A 747 lands at JFK airport and goes completely dark. No communication, no running lights, no cabin lights. A first response CDC team is called in led by Dr Ephraim Goodweather (Eph). Eph and his team discover a deadly virus strain that takes over the human body and transforms the host into what can only be described as a “vampire”. The first book is all about the discovery of the virus and the initial infection of New York. We also begin to learn the history of the virus with the introduction of Professor Abraham, a holocaust survivor. Abraham has committed his life to destroying vampires and recruits Eph and his team to his cause. Professor Abraham has encountered vampires before, even meeting one of the “Ancients”, one of the first 7 vampires. It is actually one of these Ancients that has “gone rogue” and set this infection into motion to further his own agenda.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Review of Darren Shan’s Cirque Du Freak series

Here we are, Week 2 of AWESOME-tober-fest 2011. Last week was comic book week. This week is book week. We’ll start this week’s entries off with a book series I started a few years ago and I’ve talked about on the blog a few times. It’s not about Dracula specifically, but it features a nice twist on vampires and vampire lore. I’m talking about Darren Shan’s Cirque Du Freak series.

I started Shan’s series back in October 2009. I reviewed the first three books here. The first five books even made it into my year end “best of” book report in 2009. And as of April of this year, I finally finished the 12 book series. I was able to finally acquire the last two books with some help from my buddy Rondal Scott over at Strange Kids Club. So thanks for that, Rondal! Anyway, I thought since I’d talked about this series earlier, and I’ve mentioned it since, that I would wrap things up with a final review of the series.

This series has been very good. The world Shan creates is fascinating. His version of vampires is slightly different but it works. In Shan’s world, vampires are not mindless killers. They do drink human blood, but they are able to exhale a “knockout gas” from their mouth to render a human unconscious and then cut a small scratch into their shoulder or arm from which they drink. They only drink what they need then leave the human to resume his life. However, vampires have a more violent cousin called Vampaneze. They are the vicious “drink until humans are dead” monsters that one normally associates with vampires. Both of these factions are at war with each other in what is called The War of the Scars. The main character is Darren Shan, a boy who is blooded by Larten Crepsley, a former Vampire General. Darren becomes a half vampire, then is whisked away into many different adventures with his mentor, Mr Crepsley, and eventually passes the Vampire Trials, becomes a Vampire Prince and takes part in the War of the Scars as one of the chosen warriors who must defeat the rumored Vampaneze Lord.

One of the fascinating things about this book is the social setup of the vampire nation. Much of the higher order vampires live in Vampire Mountain. Vampire Mountain is ruled by the Vampire Princes, who essentially make all the important decisions for the vampire community. There are also Vampire Generals, who are higher level vampires. And when you come of age, like I mentioned earlier, you have to pass the deadly Trials before you are accepted as a full vampire. The world is just deep and endlessly interesting. Some of the most fun and interesting books took place entirely in Vampire Mountain and had nothing to do with the War of the Scars.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: A Story of Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein book and record set (1975)

Posted in Dracula, Frankenstein, monsters, nostalgia, pop culture, vampires, werewolf, werewolves, Wolf Man with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Dracula, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, werewolf, Wolf Man on October 3, 2011 by Paxton

Welcome to AWESOME-tober-fest 2011. For those that don’t know, this is my yearly Halloween celebration. I do it in conjunction with the Countdown to Halloween Blogathon. Each week I’ll be looking at comics, movies, TV shows and books that feature monsters. This year’s theme is Dracula/vampires, so the stuff will all feature Dracula or vampires.

Anyway, we begin the celebrations with comic book week. This week I’ll look at a bunch of comic books and comic book stories that featured the character of Dracula. Today, I’ll start with a different type of comic book. A Power Records book and record set. This is the book and record set of A Story of Dracula, The Wolfman and Frankenstein. It was released in 1975 and features awesome artwork by Neal Adams. Somewhat of a long and awkward title, isn’t it? I thought this book would be appropriate to look at today because it features the monsters in reverse order of how they appeared in the last three years of AWESOME-tober-fest.

AWESOME-tober-fest 2011 – Dracula/vampires (NOW)
AWESOME-tober-fest 2010 – Wolf Man/werewolves
AWESOME-tober-fest 2009 – Frankenstein’s monster

The book contained one long story incorporating all three monsters.

The story starts as a man and woman are discovered in the woods by a blonde Dracula with a Ted Nugent mustache. The guy is revealed to be Vincent, the nephew of Baron von Frankenstein and the girl his fiance, Ericka. He survived the murder of his uncle by villagers (saving the knowledge of his uncle’s work) and is being chased by those very same villagers. Dracula offers his castle as refuge. But as soon as the couple settle into the castle, Dracula takes Ericka hostage and forces Frankenstein to create a slave using his uncle’s lab equipment. Frankenstein builds the monster and imbues it with life. However the monster goes apesh*t and tosses the fiance out the window (I’m not kidding). Frankenstein begs Dracula to save her and so he calls The Werewolf.

The werewolf attacks Ericka, then takes her to a gypsy camp run by Maleva and her son Bela (the two gypsies from the original Universal Wolf Man movie). Ericka discovers a pentagram on her hand and remembers a werewolf poem, “Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by night may be become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the moon is shining bright”. Yes, apparently Ericka has been turned to a werewolf. Of course, at that moment, the full moon comes out from behind some clouds and Ericka turns into a wolf and engages in a battle with another giant werewolf. Bela shoots the other giant wolf and it turns back into Maleva. As a wolf, Ericka flees and somehow finds her way back to the Castle Dracula.

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Prelude to AWESOME-tober-fest 2011

Posted in Halloween, holiday, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Halloween, holiday, pop culture on September 16, 2011 by Paxton

So, AWESOME-tober-fest begins in like 2 weeks and I’m completely and totally unprepared. I’ve been seriously scrambling to set up articles for my daily celebration of Halloween next month. This is going to be a complete debacle. FYI, for the new readers, complete and utter chaos due to unpreparedness on my part is just business as usual here on the Cavalcade of Awesome. That guy knows what I’m talking about, don’t you?

So, not only is it going to be AWESOME-tober-fest, I’ll also be participating in the Countdown to Halloween blogathon all month.

The Countdown is run by John Rozum and Shawn Robare. I’ve been doing it since like 2008 or 2009. Hundreds of other blogs are a part of this enormous celebration of Halloween so check out the Countdown website for a ton of blogs contributing awesomely scary content. And it all begins on October 1st.

Anyway, I was shopping at my local Halloween store and found a bunch of cool Halloween props and costumes already. So, as a prequel to the coming Halloween festivities, I thought I’d throw up a few choice items that I’ve found in my hunt for Halloween goodness.

First of all, there’s a company out there called The Chop Shop. They are making some of the most gruesome Halloween props I’ve ever seen.

These two items are the eyeball bucket and a meat tray of human parts. And it’s wrapped up just like meat at your local supermarket. I have to say, I love the attention to detail in the packaging for the meat parts. It’s gross, but it’s clever.

Also by Chop Shop, here’s half of a skinned man that you can hang from the ceiling and a mutilated severed head. Take a look at that sumbitch. It is gruesome. I have to say I’m impressed with how gory and gross Chop Shop is going with this stuff.

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