Monthly Archives: May 2011

Remembering artist Jeffrey Catherine Jones

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I’ve been busy lately, so forgive me for being a little late with this.

On May 19, 2011, the fantasy painter and illustrator Jeffrey Catherine Jones died, leaving the world a poorer place. Jones brought an etherial approach and fine-art techniques to book covers and comics, prompting Frank Frazetta to call her “the greatest living painter.”

Jones’ work graced numerous book and magazine covers in the ’70s and ’80s, including those by fantasy luminaries Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber. Indeed, it was her space-suited alien riding the back of a sea monster that convinced me to buy my first Leiber book (The Swords of Lankhmar) — and for that I’m forever grateful.

If you’re looking for more information on Jones’ fascinating life and groundbreaking work, take a look at the documentary Better Things: The Life and Choices of Jeffrey Catherine Jones. (This sentence was added later, since the documentary wasn’t available at the time of Jones’ death. — Sanford)

 

 

Who knew tofu, rice noodles and tamarind were so evil?

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This has to be the best piece of wacky YouTubery I’ve seen in quite a while: Vegan Black Metal Chef.

He wears chainmail and corpse paint, he talks as if possessed by Beelzebub himself, he cuts his food with a cruel blade… and he devours no animal products because, darn it, he’s just not down with cruelty.

It really is worth the 14-minute investment. And the recipe looks pretty good too.

They’re gonna put me in the movies

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Morpheus Tales #11

My short story “Bramblevines” is heading from page to screen.

Filmmaker Jaime Chavez is making a short animated film based on my story of a sociopathic kid and his good buddy, a blood-drinking tree. Storyboards are supposed to be done early next year and the animation some time after.

Jaime, an old Texas friend now living in San Francisco, wants to enter the animation in a variety of festivals, and I’d certainly like to see that happen as well. He’s already shared a script, a shot planner and composition studies — all of which look great.

I’ll keep you posted here as the project unfolds.

Incidentally, “Bramblevines” first appeared in Morpheus Tales #11 with wonderful art by Ian Welsh.

Gabbing at Gothic.net

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Nothing like a long black veil to goth things up.

Though my black nail polish days are well behind me, I’m proud to say I have joined the Panel of Experts at the relaunched dark literature/dark lifestyle site Gothic.net.

That means I’ll periodically be weighing in alongside super-cool writers like John Shirley, Lisa Morton and Harry Shannon on questions about horror movies, horror stories and all sorts of other things dark and dreary.

The feature recently kicked off by asking the panelists which 2010 horror releases (books or movie) we found most memorable. Ever the short story whore, I put in my vote for Laird Barron’s “Occultation” collection.

World Horror 2011: Well run and lotsa fun

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Hats off to everyone that made Austin’s World Horror 2011 such a fun, friendly and downright productive con.

It was my first World Horror, and certainly not my last. I can only hope future organizers follow the lead of Lee Thomas and Nate Southard, who managed to bring in a collection of great panelists (Joe Hill was especially insightful, even if I didn’t care all that much for “Heart Shaped Box”) and kept things running smoothly. Even the busload of braindead frat boys who showed up at the hotel couldn’t ruin the mood.

Rhodi Hawk did a commendable job putting together the pitch sessions. She did her best to take the fear and apprehension out of the process and managed to match up publishers, agents and authors with a minimum of muss and fuss. I’m happy to say I had some degree of interest in the novel I’m shopping. We’ll see if any of those three-chapters-and-a-summary requests actually bear fruit. Stay tuned.

As usual, it was great to catch up with the usual Texas con folk like Joe R. Lansdale and family, Stina Leicht, Mikal Trimm, John Picacio, Vincent Villafranca, Joe McKinney and John DeNardo of the spectacular SF Signal blog. Hell, I even think my buddy Thomas McAuley (who I dragged along even though he’s more of a fantasy writer than a horror guy) found it worthwhile.

And, yeah, yeah, I know it’s been more than a week since the con, but cut me some slack for this late post. As soon as I got back from the con I had to dig myself out of an end-of-semester grading Hell.