Rico Slade Will Fucking Kill You

Rico Slade is an action hero. Rico Slade always has something witty to say after saving the world. Rico Slade eats meat, smokes cigars, kicks ass, and bangs hot chicks. If you’re a bad guy, Rico Slade will fucking punch you in the fucking face a bunch of fucking times.

Rico Slade is having a bad day. After Rico Slade’s asshole director tells Rico Slade not to rip the throat out of an annoying elderly woman (nor should Rico Slade karate-chop her in the vagina), he stomps off-set and destroys his cell phone. After a bad experience at an electronics store, Rico Slade decides a rampage is in order, especially when Rico Slade gets a phone call from Baron Mayhem who threatens to drop a bomb on the world.

Rico Slade demands you read the book to find out what happens. Rico Slade’s book is only 95 pages, so even the most attention-deficient among you can finish it. If you don’t, Rico Slade may show up at your home, bludgeon you with his giant penis, and then punch you in the fucking face a bunch of fucking times.

Related posts:

1. Thrasher’s Book Club – July 2009 selection
2. Thrasher’s Book Club – June 2009 selection
3. Thrasher’s Book Club – September 2009 selection

Related posts:

1. Sounds like an experience I had living in the ‘Pit….
2. Now, aren’t you all glad I didn’t think of this while living in the ‘Pit?
3. Would the real Wolverine please stand up

Original Author, later Edition

Yes, its Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car (1964), by IAN FLEMMING (1908-1964) of James Bond novel fame (most editions contain illustrations by John Burningham). It is a children’s book, but there is a considerable dark thread to the novelization that just wouldn’t fly with Dick Van Dyke playing the lead. Ian Flemming was a newspaper editor prior to his explosion on to the world stage with Casino Royale(1953). The book is really a fun read and the plot is far more twisting than the movie (though the movie is probably the best example of Dick Van Dyke’s acid-trip-like gloriously technicolor movies). I bought this book along with Ian Flemming’s two non-fiction works (The Diamond Smugglers (1957) and Thrilling Cities (1963)) after I had read the entire Bond series twice. It was a nice summer-time departure for me (I first read them in July of 2002).

It is interesting in that it reads a lot like Moonraker (1955), and not like the other works he wrote after his first heart attack in 1961. Also interesting is that other than his non-fiction works it is the only Flemming novel to contain illustrations (though Goldfinger (1959) contained a fictional map of Fort Knox, illustrator unknown to MPM). The novel also seems to serve a bit as a reflection of places Flemming encountered while as a spy and special forces operative during World War II. The original primary inspiration was as Wikipedia suggests:

“Fleming took his inspiration for the car from a series of aero-engined racing cars built by Count Louis Zborowski in the early 1920s at Higham Park, christened “Chitty Bang Bang”. Fleming had known Higham Park as a guest of its later owner, Walter Wigham, chairman of Robert Fleming & Co.”

Other interesting bits about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang:

• The film adaptation was written by Roald Dahl, screenwriter, consultant, or co-writer of several James Bond film adaptations. Dahl also wrote several children’s books with similar tone and style to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, among them: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach and George’s Marvellous Medicine Most of which later became film adapted themselves, though usually not by Dahl.
• The film adaptation was co-produced by Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, long time co-producer and producer of the James Bond film series.
• The film adaptation featured Gert Fröbe as Baron Bomburst. Fröbe played the titular lead in the film adaptation of Goldfinger (film: 1964)as well.

Related posts:

1. MPM’s book of the random time period
2. Book of the <insert time period>
3. MPM’s Metal Legacy of the <insert time period>

Pamela Anderson loves big penises

Is this really a surprise to anyone?

Hat tip to The Superficial

No related posts.

The War Hound and the World's Pain

Possibly one of Michael Moorcock’s* best novels, The War Hound and the World’s Pain tells the story of the lone warrior Von Bek forced to make a pact with Satan to save both his own soul and that of his lover’s. All he has to do is find the Cure for the World’s Pain. No pressure at all, right?

Moorcock’s novel contains superb descriptions of both the landscape and the characters, including one of the more unique descriptions of the Prince of Darkness I’ve read. If you can track down this hard-to-find novel, you’ll find it a great read and quite epic in scale for being just over 200 pages.

* Insert Matt doing his best Beavis impression and repetition of “Moorcock.”

Related posts:

1. Thrasher’s Book Club – October 2009 selection
2. Thrasher’s Book Club – August 2009 selection
3. Thrasher’s Book Club – September 2009 selection

Midnight Blue: The Sonja Blue Collection

There’s been a lot of romanticism of the vampire mythos in recent years, but I say, “Screw that!” Instead, turn to this late ’80s/early ’90s trio of novels from Nancy A. Collins. The lead character, Sonja Blue, doesn’t wear crushed velvet dresses and ponder the malaise of living too long, thus being unable to find love. No, Sonja has short-cropped black hair, wears a leather jacket, and listens to Iggy Pop and the Stooges.

That’s right, Sonja is a punked-out vampire who hunts vampires and the other things that go bump in the night. She’s no-nonsense, tough as nails, and doesn’t even consider long-term ramifications to her actions.

Now, you take vampire stories that are actually interesting and combine them with Nancy Collins’s easy to read prose, and you’ve got yourself a winner. If you can’t find Midnight Blue anywhere, check out the individual novels (Sunglasses After Dark, In The Blood, and Paint It Black) instead.

Related posts:

1. Thrasher’s Book Club – November 2009 selection
2. Thrasher’s Book Club – September 2009 selection
3. Thrasher’s Book Club – August 2009 selection

The Adventures Of Luther Arkwright

The Adventures Of Luther Arkwright by Bryan Talbot is probably one of the most thought-provoking graphic novels you’ll ever read if you’re into hard science fiction. Combining telepathic and psychokinetic powers with time/space continuum-hopping, we follow the… Adventures Of Luther Arkwright as he seeks to prevent the Disruptors from unleashing a doomsday weapon.

While the sequel, Heart Of Empire, is probably a better “story” as a whole (not to mention it’s in color), Luther Arkwright is definitely one you will read many times over just to catch every nuance Talbot has inserted into the page.

Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen, has even acknowledged that Talbot is a big influence of his, and with Michael Moorcock doing the forward, you know it has to be good stuff.

Related posts:

1. Thrasher’s Book Club – November 2009 selection
2. Thrasher’s Book Club – October 2009 selection
3. Thrasher’s Book Club – June 2009 selection

It's so short, he makes it seem easy!

The DVD that usually comes with it is awesome. It has a sort of junior high filmstrip quality to its production, but, the whole story is just totally awesome. I have spent the better part of 25 years doing real wilderness survival, camping, backpacking, canoeing, etc. and I still learn something every time I pick this up.

I will post some things on Tom Brown’s Field Guides later, but for now, I think this is a salute all to itself.

Related posts:

1. MPM’s book of the random time period
2. Book of the <insert time period>
3. MPM’s Metal Legacy of the <insert time period>

The Executioner #1: War Against the Mafia

This is where it all began: Don Pendleton’s The Executioner #1: War Against the Mafia is the first in a 600+ novel series providing the archetype for the modern-day action/revenge fantasy.

He was arguably the inspiration for Marvel Comics’s The Punisher and DC’s Vigilante, as well as several feature films.

While the quality of the series as a whole is questionable, the novels penned by Pendleton (1–15, 17–38) are all good reading, if a bit dated forty years later. Still, if you can get your hands on any of these, by all means, do so.

Related posts:

1. Thrasher’s Book Club – November 2009 selection
2. Thrasher’s Book Club – October 2009 selection
3. Thrasher’s Book Club – September 2009 selection

The Alphabet Of Manliness

The Alphabet Of Manliness is your essential guide to being a man. Written by Maddox (of The Best Page in the Universe fame), it chronicles everything you need to know from Ass-kicking to Zombies.

All that said, if you are a man, and you don’t own this book, then chances are you’re either in the closet or French (not that there’s much difference).

The revised edition is coming out in August, so you’ll probably want to pre-order that one, too. You can’t own too many copies of this book.

Related posts:

1. Thrasher’s Book Club – June 2009 selection
2. Thrasher’s Book Club – September 2009 selection
3. Thrasher’s Book Club – November 2009 selection