INCOMING

• Judy Alter, Mattie.  Western.
• Loren L. Coleman, Legends of Kern, Volume I: Blood of Wolves.  Franchise (Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures) tie-in novel.
• Wes Craven, Fountain Society.  Horror.
• Janet Morgan, Agatha Christie.  Biography.
• David Morell, The Protector.  Thriller.
• Jack Pearl, The Space Eagle:  Operation Star Voyage.  Children's SF.
• Les Roberts, The Cleveland Local.  A Milan Jacovich Mystery.
• Dan Schmidt. Silent Scream.  Horror.
• David L. Schow, The Kill Rift.  Horror.
• Lisa Scottoline, Look Again.  Thriller.
• Thomas E. Sniegnoski, The Fallen 1.  Fantasy omnibus containing The Fallen and Leviathan.
• Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey.  YA adventure, the third in the series.
• Whitley Strieber, Unholy Fire.  Horror.
• Harry Turtledove, The Great War:  Breakthroughs.  Alternate history SF.

HYMN TIME

Here's a couple of cowboy hymns from Gene -- along with a few bonus songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoKp4t6KRco&list=PLSVjjVvlItlAJEnCnKHZ6tMsZ_mLF1p9U

HEIGH YO, SILVER!

A Sunday newspaper comic strip adventure with some guy in a mask and his Indian buddy in the days before he wore the whole bird on his head:

http://archive.org/stream/LoneRangerSundayNewspaperComics/LoneRangerS020-s021-manhunt-deathsHead#page/n0/mode/2up

INDEPENDENCE DAY

One of my favorite holidays, but one that I approach with open eyes.  Our history has been a checkered one, marred at times by greed, bigotry, ignorance, and stupidity.  It's also a glorious history lived by many decent people who have tried to make the promise of our country a reality.  As we relax and celebrate with family and friends today, let us all be grateful for the beauty and bounty that surround us and remember that freedom -- freedom from oppression, freedom from poverty, freedom from fear, freedom from discrimination, freedom to make the world a far better place for our children -- is a hard-fought cause.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXZmfNDYsuk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Och9_UPTzlw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHqOl7v4Axg

http://archive.org/details/dn2003-0704_vid

Have a blessed, safe, and joyous day, one and all!

BAD JOKE WEDNESDAY (PLETHORA EDITION)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/jokes-only-nerds-will-understand

OVERLOOKED MOVIE: MURDERS IN THE ZOO

In a comment on my post yesterday, Patti Abbott wrote, "I wonder if anyone remembers Philip Wylie."  Some of his fiction is currently in print from University Press Bison Books, one mystery is available from Fender Tucker's Ramble House, and Bill Pronzini recently collected five mystery novellas for Crippen & Landru -- all worthwhile endeavors, but none with the publishing numbers Wylie enjoyed in his heyday.

Wylie (1902-1971) was an extremely popular writer and social critic whose influence can be seen in much of the Twentieth Century's popular culture.  His 1942 essay collection Generation of Vipers popularized the term "Momism," a perceived American obsession with motherhood.

In a situation much like that of Cleve Cartmill, John W. Campbell, and Astounding Science Fiction, Wylie was investigate by federal authorities for a story that posited the use of Uranium-235 in the building of an atomic bomb -- months before the first a-bomb test; but unlike Cartmill, et al., Wylie was placed under house arrest.  (Wylie later acted as an advisor to the chairman of The Joint Congressional Committee for Atomic Energy.)

Wylie's 1931 book The Murderer Invisible formed half the basis of James Whale's 1933 film The Invisible Man.  Wylie's contribution was uncredited; the other guy's (some Britisher named H. G. Wells) was not.

Wylie's 1930 novel Gladiator was a major inspiration for Superman.

His 1933 novel, co-written with Edwin Balmer, When Worlds Collide was the inspiration for Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon.

An avid deep-sea fisherman, Wylie wrote 37  stories about charter boat captain Crunch Adams and his mate Des Smith for (mainly) The Saturday Evening Post.  The stories were collected in at least five books and inspired the 1955 television series Crunch and Des, starring Forrest Tucker and Sandy Kenyon.  The Crunch and Des stories are thought to be an inspiration for John D. McDonald's Travis McGee.  (Just as Wylie's 1932 novel The Savage Gentleman is thought to be an inspiration for Doc Savage.)

An article Wylie wrote for SEP popularized the hobby of orchid-raising.  (Yes, Nero Wolfe was there long before this, but Wylie helped bring the hobby to the general public, not just those who had a greenhouse on the roof of a brownstone.)

A well-publicized episode of television's The Name of the Game titled LA:  2017, had Wylie envisioning a dystopian government following a world-wide environment disaster.  (I didn't think much of that episode (too strained and predictable), but the image of a geriatric audience rocking to a geriatric band in a secret (read forbidden) underground club still sticks with me -- more so lately, when I attend a concert.)  Wylie later novelized that episode as Los Angeles:  A.D. 2017.

IMDB lists 22 titles credited to Wylie, from 1932's Island of Lost Souls to a new version of When Worlds Collide currently in development.  Add to this his (at least) 39 books and hundreds of stories and articles, you have an author, dated perhaps, but who should not be overlooked.

Speaking of dated...

Starring Charlie Ruggles, Lionel Atwell, Gail Patrick, and Randolph Scott, from 1933, here's Murders in the Zoo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU_hX8U7rQk

For more of this week's Overlooked Films and Television, visit Todd Mason's blog Sweet Freedom.

INCOMING

• Catherine Aird, Parting Breath.  A C. D. Sloan mystery.
• Marvin H. Albert, The V.I.P.s.  Movie tie-in novel.
• W.T. Ballard, Murder Las Vegas Style.  Crime novel.
• Pierre Bayard, Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong.  Non-fiction.
• "John Boyd" (Boyd Upchurch), The Girl with the Jade Green Eyes.  SF.
• "Carter Brown" (Alan G. Yates), The Iron Maiden, Night Wheeler, and The Seven Sirens.  Mystery novels featuring Larry Baker, Al Wheeler, and Randy Roberts, respectively.
• Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign and The Vor Game.  SF novels in the Vorkosigan series.  And The Spirit Ring, a fantasy.
• "Jonathan Burke" (John Burke), Goodbye, Gillian.  Romantic mystery originally published as The Weekend Girls.
• Alan Caillou, Terror in Rio.  Men's adventure novel, second in The Private Army of Colonel Tobin series.
• Jeffrey Caine, The Constant Gardener:  The Shooting Script.  Based on the John le Carre novel.
• Scott Ciencin, Tantras.  Gaming (Forgotten Realms) tie-in novel.  Book II in the Avatar series.
• Greg Cox, 52 and Final Crisis.  Comic book tie-in novels.
• John Creasey, Alibi and The Toff at Buntlin's.  Mysteries, the first with Roger West and the second with the Toff.
• Chet Cunningham, The Specialists:  Deadly Strike.  Men's action adventure, third in the series.
• Elaine Cunningham, Daughter of the Drow.  Gaming (Forgotten Realms) tie-in novel.  Book 1 in the Starlight & Shadows series.
• Lionel Davidson, The Sun Chemist.  Thriller.
• Carol Davis & Esther D. Reese,   Quantum Leap:  Mirror's Edge.  Television tie-in novel.
• Erik Scott de Bie, Depths of Madness.  Gaming (Forgotten Realms) tie-in novel in The Dungeons series.
• Peter Dickinson, The Ropemaker.  YA fantasy.
• "Robert Doherty" (Robert Mayer), Area 51.  Thriller.
• Paul W. Fairman, The Partridge Family #4:  The Ghost of Graveyard Hill. Television tie-in novel.
• Julius Fast, The League of Grey-Eyed Women.  SF.
• Alan Dean Foster, The Metrognome & Other Stories.  SF/fantasy collection with fifteen stories.
• Esther Friesner, New York by Knight.  Fantasy.
• Roger Fuller, Ordeal.  Television (The Defenders) tie-in novel.
• Neil Gaiman, American Gods.  Fantasy.
• Christopher Golden, The Borderkind.  Fantasy, the second book of the Veil.
• James Gunn, Kampus. SF.
• Carolyn Haines, Revenant.  Horror.
• Donald Hamilton, The Intimidators.  Spy guy.  Matt Helm #15.
• "Leonard Holton" (Leonard Wibberly), A Pact with Satan.  A Father Bredder mystery.
• Michael Jahn, Murder on the Waterfront.  A Bill Donovan mystery.
• Richard Jessup, A Quiet Voyage Home.  Novel.
• Langdon Jones & Michael Moorcock, editors, The New Nature of the Catastrophe. SF collection of Jerry Cornelius stories by Moorcock and Others.  Twenty-eight stories, a fourteen-part comic story, and some odds and ends.
• Melanie Kent, Quantum Leap:  Heat Wave.  Television tie-in novel.
• "Paul Kenyon" (Donald Moffitt), The Baroness:  Death Is a Ruby Light.  Spy girl.  Number three in the series.
• Hideyki Kikuchi, Vampire Hunter D:  The Stuff of Dreams.  Horor.
• Elmore Leonard, Three-Ten to Yuma.  Western collection culled from The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard.  Seven stories.
• Jeff Lindsay, Dexter Is Delicious.  Crime novel with everyone's favorite serial killer.
• Edgar Lustgarten, One More Unfortunate.  Mystery; number 28 in the Dell Great Mystery Library.
• Giles A. Lutz, The Hardy Breed.  Western.
• Jonathan Maberry, Bad Moon Rising.  Horror.
• Ken MacLeod, Newton's Wake.  SF.
• Cynthia Manson & Charles Ardai, editors, High Adventure.  Mystery/SF anthology with twenty-seven stories, mainly from the Davis magazines:  EQMM, AHMM, Asimov's, and Analog.
• Lee McKeone, Ghoster.  SF.
• John Mortimer, "selector," Famous Trials.  Nonfiction.  Nine selections from the Famous Trials series edited by Harry Hodge & James H. Hodge
• "P. T. Olemy," The Clones.  SF.  An obvious pseudonym, but for whom?
• Edith Pargeter, The Eighth Champion of Christiandom.  WWII novel.
• "Simon Quinn" (Martin Cruz Smith) - The Human Factor.  Movie tie-in novel.
• "Spencer Quinn" (Peter Abrahams), Dog On It.  Mystery, the first in the Chet and Bernie series.
• Anne Rice, Called Out of Darkness:  A Spiritual Confession.  Autobiography about how she found her way back to Christ.  Written before she quit Christianity and became a secular humanist.
• Stephen Robinett, Projections.  SF collection with nine stories.  An Analog book.
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Paloma.  SF novel in the Retrieval Artist series.
• Fred Saberhagen, The Golden People.  SF novel, a major expansion of the 1964 edition.
• R. A. Salvatore, Exile.  Gaming (Forgotten Realms) tie-in novel.  Book two of the Dark Elf trilogy.
• Gordon F. Sander, Serling:  The Rise and Twilight of Television's Last Angry Man.  Biography.
• John Saul, House of Reckoning.  Horror.
• "Sandy Schofield" (Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch), Quantum Leap:  Loch Ness Leap.  Television tie-in novel.
• Sharon Shinn, The Shape-Changer's Wife.  Fantasy.
• Chris Stratton, Emergency!  Television tie-in novel.
• "V. A. Stuart" (Vivian Stuart) - Hazard's Command.  Historical/nautical/war novel, third in the series.
• Louis Untermeyer, editor, A Treasury of Ribaldry, Volume 1.  antology with many poems, snippets, stories, and aphorisms.
• Jack Vance, Lyonesse:  Suldrum's Garden.  Fantasy.
• William D. Westervelt, Hawaiian Legends of Ghosts and Ghost-Gods.  Folklore.
• Kaye Wilhelm, Sleight of Hand.  A Barbara Holloway mystery.
• Connie Willis, editor, Nebula Awards 33.  SF anthology with eighteen stories, poems, articles, and excepts.
• David Wilson, McCloud #4:  The Corpse Maker.  Television tie-in novel.
• Marv Wolfman, Crisis on Infinite Earths.  Comic book tie-in novel.
• T. M. Wright, The Eyes of the Carp.  Horror, number 15 in the Cemetery Dance Novella Series.
• Philip Wylie, The Smuggled Atom Bomb.  Thriller.