Lon of 1000 Faces

Description

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Customer Reviews

Should be called A LON CHANEY PHOTO ALBUM!
This book was first published sometime in the 80's (?) and now brought to serious LON CHANEY fans again (thankfully!) by the James A. Rock Publishing Co./Sense Of Wonder Press in a completely revised format, with rescanned and cleaned up images from the first edition's plates (or lack of plates, that is, which was put out by another company).
This book is pretty amazing. In other Lon Chaney books we are treated to an in-depth look at the man's life via extensive text, here, we are treated to an in-depth VISUAL accounting of his films courtesy of the legendary film stills collection of Forrest J Ackerman. If you've picked up the Chaney books by Michael Blake featured elsewhere on Amazon, you'll likely want to pick this up to round out those works. Here, Ackerman takes us film by film, utilizing old newspaper clippings, stills, film frames etc and gives us an insightful *LOOK* into the man's work. There are a number of articles/commentaries by notables such as Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, and Kenneth Strickfadden (amongst many others) that are testimonials to the man's genious. There is a section on Lon candids, newspaper clippings etc., etc., and it all just seems to go on and on.
If I were to have a beef, and I'm stretching myself here, I guess it would be that the halftones on all of the pictures could have been a bit tighter/darker and not as apparent. But as I'd said, I'm stretching myself considering the wealth of visuals contained within this book makes it all worthwhile. Not to mention, the fact that Sense Of Wonder Press should be thanked for putting this book back into circulation after so long!
Overall, this ranks up there with Phillip Riley/MagicImage's treatment of Lon's films (find those elsewhere on Amazon!), and I'm definitely quite pleased to have this in the collection here.

2003-10-17 | somuch2buy (Oakland, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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Micro-Man

Description

This title has fewer than 24 printed text pages. Micro-Man is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Forrest J. Ackerman is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Forrest J. Ackerman then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.

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Sci-Fi Womanthology

Description

April 15, 2003 Lightning Source, 1246 Heil Quaker Blvd. La Vergne, TN 37086 615-213-5815 Attn: Olivia Tackett Rock Publishing Co., Jim/Lynne Rock 12403 Saint James Road, Rockville, MD 20850 301-294-2582 Voice 301-294-1683 FAX jarrock@sprintmail.com larrock@earthlink.net Submitting: SCI-FI WOMANTHOLOGY Total Page Count: 372 (12 pages FRONT, 360 text pages) Filenames: 0918736331_Cover.pdf Cover/4-color 0918736331txt_001.pdf FRONT MATTER (12 pages) 0918736331txt_002.pdf page 001 thru page 353 0918736331txt_003.pdf page 354 thru page 360 (BACK MATTER) FRONT MATTER: 12 pages, NO folios. Pages 1, 2 and 10 are blank. OTHER: Page 11 begins with arabic numeral 1 and numbering continues through page 353. Pages 354 through 360 have no folios. Page 360 is blank. Many thanks, Jim

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Forrest J Ackerman's The Anthology of the Living Dead

Description

Fans of Uncle Forry, zombies, and everything horror rejoice! Nicholas Grabowsky's Black Bed Sheet Books is proud to present FORREST J ACKERMAN'S THE ANTHOLOGY OF THE LIVING DEAD. This represents one of Forry's very last literary outings with blessings from the Ackerman estate. Contributors include Uncle Forry himself (forward), Del Howison, Joe Moe, Cassandra Lee, Eric Enck, Axelle Carolyn, Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton (introduction) and many more! Edited by J. Travis Grundon & L.B. Goddard, this is a must-have read and an extraordinary achievement for zombie lore!

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Customer Reviews

A Few of Forry's Final Favorites
The Anthology of the Living Dead offers the discerning consumer of zombie fiction two unique flavors served up by no other collection. First, as stated above the title, this is the brainchild of none other than the late, great Forrest J Ackerman, who, short of actually returning from the beyond has done us the final favor of at least leaving us with a presentation of choice cuts from fifteen staggeringly-good writers, each of whom attacks the genre from a different direction...some taking fresh bites and others chewing over the familiar remains of classic zombie tales. All are tasty though few are tasteful. The second notable inclusion in the Anthology is a story by Uncle Forry's favorite fanboy and number-one protégé, Joe Moe, whose "A Hiccup. A Remedy" is such an incredibly inventive short story that I will not even attempt to find a bad zombie pun to describe it...all I can do is recommend that you start reading the book on page 143, because there's always that chance that you'll die before getting to it, and as zombies aren't known to be avid readers, you'd be doing your own undead self a disservice in the delay.

2009-11-16 (California) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Imaginative Creepiness!
Forrest J Ackerman's Anthology of the Living Dead is an exquisite, rotten confection for horror fans everywhere! Genre heavyweights and newcomers alike unite to deliver some of the most innovative spins on Zombie-lore you could ever imagine. You'll have your favorites, but there's no disputing that wading through ALL of the stories is quite rewarding if you put a premium on imaginative creepiness! With Forry Ackerman's endorsement, it's gotta be good. Double-bolt the front door, board up all the windows and make sure to sleep with a tire iron under your pillow. Yeah, right! As if you'll be able to sleep...

2009-10-16 | I can see forever! (Los Angeles, CA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Martianthology

Description

Years ago, when these stories were composed, life on Barsoom resided solely in the imaginations of certain special inhabitants of Jasoom (E.R. Burroughs-speak for Mars and Earth). This anthology captures the spirit of that "exploration"—long before a rocket from Earth had actually visited the fourth planet and shown it to be a sandy red surface pockmarked by meteor impacts and with no life-sustaining atmosphere.

These writers gave us romantic "canals," mono-manned solo flyers, six-legged riding thoats, Mars men who could remove their heads and protect them under their arms, along with heroes and villains, adventure and mis-adventure, conquest and redemption. Volume I of Martianthology offers something for all readers of "scientifiction" (as it was called during the early years of pulp writing). From Cecil B. White’s "Return of the Martians," first published in Amazing Stories, 1928, through the relatively recent Charles Tanner’s "A Chorus for Dejah Thoris" published in Fantastic, 1968, these writers maintain energy, imagination and a "sense of wonder." You’ll find a rousing "space opera" adventure (along with an excellent "hero" and great villains) in Ross Rocklynne’s novella "Water for Mars." Prepare for chills up and down your spine with A. E. van Vogt’s "Enchanted Village," along with an eerie tale of terror from Martin Jordan (1955), "A Present From Mars." From the extremely prolific John Russell Fearn we offer "Martian Miniature" (1942), the tale of an experiment which unexpectedly "mis-fired" along with another high-flying adventure, "In Martian Depths," written by Hendrik Dahl Juve back in 1932. A highly moral tale is told by Stanton A. Coblentz in "Manna From Mars," (1934). A quietly contemplative story comes from Gene Hunter in "Martian Interlude," (1955). And from Ed Earl Repp, who debuted to a splendid success in Science Wonder Stories in the late 1920s and enjoyed a long and successful writing career, we have "Martian Terror"—everything you might want: plenty of white hats, black hats, and hidden royalty about to be "discovered" to save the day (and get the girl). Two "shorties" are included here by our anthologist, Mr. Sci-Fi, Forrest J Ackerman.

This volume is dedicated to the memory of Edgar Rice Burroughs and, although we have no works by ERB, we do include two highly enjoyable ERB parodies: "A Chorus for Dejah Thoris" by Charles R. Tanner and "Mars Falls Sunward" by E. V. Knox, parodist and later editor of Punch. Finally, our editor, Anne Hardin, has included an excellent novella which she read as a child, "The Magic Ball From Mars" by Carl L. Biemiller.

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Worlds of Tomorrow: The Amazing Universe of Science Fiction Art

Description

From deep in the heart of imagination, where galaxies grow, robots rule, and Martians cause mayhem, comes WORLDS OF TOMORROW: THE AMAZING UNIVERSE OF SCIENCE FICTION ART. Teeming with gigantic insects, spaceships, and scantily clad heroines, the science fiction pulp and paperback covers of the 1920s to 1960s represented a generation’s vision of the future. Wartime technology and increased information about space travel fueled the minds of artists and writers. Predictions of planetary doom stood side by side with visions of Utopia on bookshelves and magazine racks worldwide. In WORLDS OF TOMORROW, more than 300 beautifully displayed science fiction covers come back to life in text and chapters grouped by theme. Explore the creative geniuses that molded our vision of the great unknown into what it is today.

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Customer Reviews

Terrible
I ordered this product and it was nothing like the description on Amazon.com. It took forever to get to my house and when I emailed the company to ask if I could return it they never emailed me back.

2009-04-21 (Santa Rosa, CA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 1

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Welcome to the World of ...
TOMORROW! Forrest J. Ackerman and Brad Linaweaver take us on a tour of tomorrow from the book covers and science fiction art of yesteryear. Giant bug, ugly aliens, lovely heroines, flashy spaceships and well armed heros fill the pages of this book. It is so much fun, they talk about everything from rockets to Mystery Science Theater 3000.

2008-02-04 (Alexandria, VA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Magnificant Collection of Photographs
Back more years ago than I want to admit when I was first getting interested in science fiction the main source was a series of magazines and paperback (or as wee called them at the time pocketbooks) with fantastic covers designed to attract the eye to the contents.

Modern book covers just don't seem to convey the same feeling. They are more modern, they realize that bug eyed monsters, sleek space ships (that all look surprisingly like the German V-2), cities on the moon, rainy jungles on Venus don't and even can't exist. The new covers certainly don't have the same feel as the old ones.

This book brings back the images from the past. And these were the books/magazines where the first of many of the classic writers Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, H. G. Wells, Robert Heinlein and more. Here is the first illustration of Ae van Vogt's 'The Weapon Shops of Isher.'

It's a fascinating book to look through, over and over. Oh yes, there's some text here too, but frankly I haven't read it. I've tried, but I get so distracted by the pictures that I'm soon just looking. I'll read it one day.

2006-05-21 | Gunny (Winnemucca, NV) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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The Best Image is the Cover
It's an interesting book with some rather humorous comments and great sources of information. Has a good collection of comic/pulp art. While it is still going to be kept in my collection, I was hoping for a lot better book. It does offer some interesting artwork, but the work doesn't have a great variety of artistic styles. I have this as well as a couple other pulp on my coffee table at home and in my office for people to see. Everyone that has picked up the book says it looks interesting but "the pictures all look kinda the same" is the typical response to it. The best image out of the entire book is the cover art (which does make sense...but), and that was the one that seemed to be the most unique. They did discuss some of the artists, but the authors develed greatly into L. Ron Hubbard for a handful of pages and discuss his work rather fervently. Which didn't seem to be the case with other author/artist from previous eras. These consisted of blurbs here and there of other talented artists. The way this portion sort of popped up 3/4 way through the book started to make me kinda wonder if one or both of the authors are followers of Scientology. It's a good average book. I don't see it winning any awards.

2006-01-31 (Rochester NY) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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DAZZLING ART FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCI-FI
"Worlds of Tomorrow" is a truly wonderful and nostalgic look back at science fiction art of the golden age of pulp magazines and science fiction books. Written by Mr. Sci-Fi himself, Forrest Ackerman, along with Brad Linaweaver this is a dazzling look into the past at the wonderful art of the 20's through the 50's that graced the covers of those early sci-fi books and pulps such as Amazing Stories, Startling Stories, Astounding Stories, Galaxy, and many more. No one knows Sci-Fi like Uncle Forry and many credit him with coining that term in the first place. It was the very first issue of Amazing Stories that inspired Ackerman's life-long love of the genre and set him on his pace to accrue one of the most fabulous collections of memorabilia ever assembled.

The book reprints hundreds of these classic pulp and book covers along with running anecdotes from both Ackerman and Linaweaver. We look back at these great covers and discover just how visionary the artists were sixty plus years ago. Their works had a perhaps over-spectacular flair to them, but they foreshadowed much of the technology we use today like computers, cell phones, atomic power, spacecraft, and robots. Frank R. Paul was the first star of pulp art as his work graced many covers of Hugo Gernsback's amazing stories and now sells for thousands of dollars today.

Each chapter takes on a different subject such as chapter two's look at space travel with all manner of fantastic rockets, and ships and saucers. It's interesting to see how designs changed from the earliest pulps of the 20's to the 1950's when actual space programs were able to provide inspiration to the artists. One can even see our present day space shuttles in the works of these early talents.

Chapter three covers robots and again these covers don't disappoint as they imagine robot designs both functional and sublime. There are humanoid robots, insectoid robots, even robots that look incredibly like the Transformer robots so popular today. One great cover to Galaxy from September 1954, shows a scientist working on a female android who looks entirely human, but with her skin peeled away over one arm and shoulder showing her internal circuitry, inspiring views of The Terminator, some thirty years before that film came out.

It is then interesting to see how when we move to the 1950's, aliens become the one of the main subjects for covers. With no limits but their own imaginations we are treated to a veritable treasure trove of scaly, hairy, slithering beasts and it's clear that many of the "B" filmmakers of the 1950's used the pulps as their inspiration in creating their latex monsters.

It's truly a magnificent book and I was especially captivated by the covers of the old Sci-Fi novels as you so rarely encounter them these days. A must have for Sci-fi collectors and fans! And as a side note, this book, like all of the Collector's Press books are well made using thick, coated stock, heavy covers and bound beautifully with the collector in mind.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

2005-07-07 (Michigan) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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