Commode Art: All My Friends Are Dinosaurs!

2010-03-09T22:39:00.000-08:00

Artist: Unknown
Location: Men's Restroom, LAX, Terminal 7
Date Taken: April 11, 2009

Commode Art: Squid Whip

2010-03-03T10:37:00.000-08:00

Artist: Unknown
Location: Men's Restroom, Bar Figueroa, Los Angeles, CA
Date Taken: Feb 20, 2010

Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Dawn of the Dreadfuls

2010-03-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

I have an admission to make. My first real exposure to the work of Jane Austen (besides watching Clueless multiple times) began with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the literary mashup that integrated new flesh-eating zombie text by Seth Grahame-Smith with Austen's original classic, released last year. Needless to say, I'm an Austen dum-dum. Somehow I was able to dodge her books while in high school and college. Not that I was actively avoiding her, she just never got assigned. In general, I consider myself a fairly well-read human. If I haven't actually read a book in question I can usually feign knowledge during a discussion or deduce my way through a literature category on Jeopardy. I like to buy books at a much faster rate than I can digest them. This leads to the inevitable shelves and shelves of taunting, unread books in my "office", many of them classics, a situation echoed in the Modest Mouse song "Education":

"Hardly education
All them books I didn't read
They just sat there on my shelf
Looking smarter than me"

But I digress.

My entrance into the Austen universe (albeit a bastardized version of it) began with the extremely entertaining PPZ and continues with the forthcoming prequel, Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith (out March 23). And Dawn doesn't disappoint. In fact, it delivers the undead goods even more. Gone is the co-author credit by Austen and the somewhat challenging 1813 prose. Hockensmith modernizes the writing quite a bit, but it still stays true to the world created by Austen. His text captures the wit and verve of Austen, but never imitates. It complements her work quite nicely.

Dawn takes place four years before PPZ, during the Bennet girls' formative years learning the "deadly arts". Lydia and Kitty, the youngest, are the same mischievous scamps found in PPZ; Mary, the thoughtful middle sister; Jane, the oldest and object of Mrs. Bennet's marrying-off ways; and Elizabeth, second-oldest and cheeky heroine of the book. Mr. Darcy isn't to be found anywhere, but once again, Jane and Lizzy both have multiple suitors to contend with, much to the delight of Mrs. Bennet. Lt. Tindall, sent to protect the surrounding English countryside from the blighted, and Lord Lumpley, a pudgy yet murderous scoundrel, vie for Jane's affections. While the absentminded Dr. Keckilpenny, a scientist trying to capture and study a real "live" zombie, and the mysterious Master Hawksworth, sent by "The Order" to train the Bennet girls, pine for Elizabeth's hand. Even Mrs. Bennet finds the time to be courted by a former flame, the now completely limbless Captain Cannon. Mr. Bennet has a much meatier role this time around as the girls learn of his younger warrior days in "The Order" during the first zombie plague known as "The Troubles". Oscar Bennet isn't the worn down husband and father we find in PPZ. Dawn presents him as a man of action.

Now to the meat of the book: training, wooing, zombie mayhem, repeat.

But it works. And it leads to an effective Night of the Living Dead inspired climax at Lord Lumpley's manor.

If the original Pride and Prejudice and Zombies had Austen rolling over in her grave, as I'm sure som critics proclaimed, Dawn of the Dreadfuls should see her clawing at the inside of her coffin, chomping at her wormeaten bit, eager to join the zombie fray.

Let's hope the inevitable film adaptations don't disappoint. Natalie Portman is attached to produce and star in PPZ, but I wouldn't mind seeing Dawn in cinemas first. It might lend itself more to the big screen.

Quirk Classics, the publisher, seems to have created a nice, successful little sub-genre with these public domain mashups. Besides the PPZ books, Quirk has Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters in stores now and Android Karenina hitting the shelves in June.

Seth Grahame-Smith, co-author of PPZ, saw his piece of alternative history, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, land in stores yesterday (also optioned for the silver screen, this time by producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov). What's next? Moby Dick and Pornstars?

Now for the prizes! Click on the link below and post that you read about PPZ:DOD at Barnyard Fiasco. You could win one of fify Quirk Classics prize packs worth 100 bucks each.
http://quirkclassics.com/index.php?q=QuirkClassicsContest_DOD_Reviews

Thanks to Tiffany at Quirk!

For more info on PPZ:DOD, go here:
http://quirkclassics.com/index.php?q=dawnofthedreadfuls

- MW

Testing Testing Mic Check

2010-03-02T17:22:00.000-08:00