Dork Hero: Vincent Price

    Since my earliest days, Vincent Price has been an important person in my life.  As a wee lad, I would watch him introduce Mystery on PBS, and appear in The Muppet Show and others.  As I grew older, I began to enjoy his work with Roger Corman and the like, as well as some of his late life screen appearances (Edward Scissorhands being a favorite).  More recently, in the years since he passed, I’ve discovered his sometimes more serious work in early films, as well as his love of art and cooking.  He remains one of my all time favorite actors, and one of the only celebrities I ever felt genuinely, deeply sad upon hearing of his death.  I think the thing that always stuck with me was his attitude.  He always seemed to be having fun.  Today (May 27) marks the 103rd anniversary of his birth.  I think I might raid the DVD wrack tonight for one of his films.

Five Favorite Vincent Price Films:
5.  Laura
4.  The Masque of the Red Death
3.  More Dead than Alive
2.  House on Haunted Hill
1.  The Abominable Dr. Phibes

-Matt

Book Review: Annihilation

    Who the heck is Jeff VanderMeer, and where the heck did he come from?!  Well, turns out, he’s been around for a while, working frequently as an anthologist, and penning a few stories as well.  And he’s been garnering some acclaim for that.  But, due to my general disappointment with the state of science fiction today (I’ll go out and wave my cane at whippersnappers later) I’d never heard of the guy.  Now I have, and I won’t soon forget.

    Did you like Lost?  Do you like weird, challenging stories that hint at much bigger things?  Do you enjoy that unsettling feeling created in the best horror (not the jump-scare/gore horror that is so common, but the real, intellectually terrifying stuff)?  I do, and this delivers.  Alienness and the slow, creeping madness it instills in people gives the book a terrible menace that builds and builds.  What could possibly be worse or more shattering than the previous discovery?  Try the next one.

    The book unfolds like a puzzle.  It’s the journal of a biologist, recording her part in an expedition into a corrupted landscape called Area X.  What is it?  Who made it?  How long has it been there?  Why?  So many questions and too few answers.  But it is the questions that linger.  And who is this biologist, anyway?  Is she a reliable narrator?  Why did she sign up?  Who are these other women on the expedition?

    Annihilation is the first part of the Southern Reach trilogy, which will be completely published before the end of the year (no waiting years on end for the next part of the story).  It should appeal to fans of Lovecraft and his disciples, fans of Lost and Fringe, and fans of mysterious adventure.  I was frequently reminded of the strange science fiction that trickled out in the late 60s and 70s, and of the works of Robert Charles Wilson.  I’ve heard good things about the second book, Authority, which has recently been published.  And I understand that it is stylistically quite different, giving more indication as to why this was split into three books.  The final book, Acceptance, is due out in September.

Annihilation
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
ISBN: 978-0-374-10409-2

-Matthew J. Constantine

Vincent Price: American Icon

    Growing up, one of my very favorite people to see on the TV was Vincent Price.  Be it an old Poe-themed horror movie on The Great Money Movie or hosting Mystery on PBS, he was a familiar old storyteller who gleefully delighted my childhood hunger for the gently subversive, sinister, and macabre.  As I watched more and more movies, exploring his body of work and read about the him, I found a man of great talent, charm, and class.  His movies, his cook books, his art collection; he was a Renaissance man and yes, and American icon.

    There is now a petition to put Price’s face on a US postage stamp.  A piece of history, an indelible piece of America.  So, go over * here * and sign the petition to get his image on a stamp.  It’s just a little thing, just a token hat nod to someone who gave me and so many others so much joy.

-Matt

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/honor-great-american-horror-movie-star-vincent-price-stamp/f9sxZ4ZX

Comic Review: Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft

    I’ve been hearing about this book for years, and it’s circled around my head as one of those, ‘yeah, I’ll get to it’ titles.  Well, thanks to the graphic novel discussion group I belong to, my hand was forced and I’m glad of it.  This is the first volume of at least five, and though I have every intention of doing so, I have yet to read further.  Welcome to Lovecraft sets up a lot, hints at a lot, and reveals some interesting, but mysterious ‘facts.’  By the end of the volume, I was darned curious about a lot.  One question that plagues my mind is whether or not I read too much into the dark haired woman in the well.  With the Lovecraft reference, I ascribed a Nyarlathotep-type background to her, a bringer of chaos, and one of the only Old Ones to purposefully turn its gaze upon humans, to our lasting horror.  She (it?) fits that mold in this first volume, but again, I think I may be reading too much, or too much of the wrong thing, into it.  Time will tell.  Whatever the case, Hill has set up a great many dominos and shaken the table.  I need to read on, to find out how everything falls.

    One thing is a touch off-putting for this reader; the art.  Now, obviously, art is very subjective.  What I like, and what the next Dork likes will never be exactly the same (talk to my co-Dork Brad about the art in Hawkeye and then talk to me…Or don’t).  And it’s not that Gabriel Rodriguez’s work isn’t technically well done.  (Though it’s not my cup of tea, with the big eyes and kind of cartoony look).  It’s more that the art doesn’t feel quite right with the writing.  Maybe it’s intentional, but things look too nice or happy or…well, cartoon-like.  The subject feels more like something that should be in black & white, or in some old Eerie or Tales from the Crypt style of art.  That said, there are some panels I absolutely love.  The look on young Bode’s face when he’s ‘dead.’  Priceless.  And that shot where the woman in the well climbs out…I actually had a cinematic ‘jump’ when I looked at that panel, something that’s never happened to me in a comic before.  It was startling, and shows that I was engaged with the book.

    Personal artistic taste aside, the book is excellent.  I add my voice to all those others that have probably already told you to read Locke & Key.  And someday in the near future I’ll be listening to my own inner voice and I’ll read the next few volumes.  If you like Neil Gaiman or Clive Barker, especially their more ‘urban fantasy’ work, you should get right on Locke & Key.

Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft
Author: Joe Hill
Artist: Gabriel Rodriguez
Publisher: IDW
ISBN: 978-160010237-0

-Matt

Crime Week!

    This week, in addition to our regular postings, we here at In the Mouth of Dorkness will be shining our spotlights on crime.  From novels to films to comic books and beyond, crime fascinates us.  Is it the allure of forbidden fruit or conscience free living?  The thrill of solving a riddle or of creating one?  I’m sure scholars far more versed in psychology and pop culture could debate it endlessly.  So I won’t. 

    Instead Brad and myself, along with guest columnist Dan from My Year in Crime, will be discussing a few things we like or that interest us, in relation to crime.  I’ll be discussing classic crime film, as well as some of its more modern descendants.  While Brad will enlighten us about a character he’s especially fond of.  And what Dan will write about still remains a mystery to me. 

    So, enjoy our little walk on the darker side of the street. 

-Matt