Mark Deniz (of Morrigan Press) and Beyond Fiction, following on from their hugely successful Ghost Awareness Month, have instituted Monster Awareness Month — and it’s been going for a few days now. Focusing on monsters from film and literature, with authors and bloggers contributing various posts, including film reviews, interviews, articles, book reviews, etc., Monster Awareness Month will see new articles, on-line films and reviews posted every day of February.

You can read about the mechanics of it all here, set yourself up to download the films (or view them online), and scan daily news and articles here. There’s also a Facebook page where you can keep abreast of the stomping and rampaging.

So far, I admit that the Backbrain (otherwise known as Robert Hood) has been overly prominent on the site, having contributed:

• An Introduction, Where Monsters Dwell (basically an account of my life with monsters)
• Frankenstein: Man and Monster (an article on how Mary Shelley’s monstrous creation has entered our cultural zeitgeist and has been translated to film)
• The First Giant Monsters Part 1: The Real Giant Monsters (an article about dinosaurs as monsters)
• The First Giant Monsters Part 2: Out of Time, Out of Place (how dinosaur and man can interact, according to the cinema)

The First Giant Monsters Part 3: Giant Monster vs Giant Monster (how the tradition of monsters fighting each other originated) will follow tomorrow.

But you can also read a great article on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1933) by literary agent and editor: Sharon Ring, more on the making of the 1931 Frankenstein from publisher, writer and reviewer, Aaron Polson, and from artist and editor Mikko Sovijärvi a nostalgic reminiscence about Spawn of the Slithis (don’t know what the hell that is? Go find out!)

For monster fans (and we’re NOT just talking giant monsters here) this is a not-to-be-missed event. See you there.

The trailer to the Asylum’s gargantuan epic, Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (US-2009; dir. Jack Perez), has proven to be an internet phenomenon, commented upon and discussed (even, yes, derided) thoughout the blogsphere ever since Undead Backbrain uploaded it to YouTube on 11 May. Currently, it’s running at 938,709 views, with 3,282 comments. That’s in two weeks! YouTube has awarded the Undead Backbrain YouTube site a #2 Most Viewed status because of the trailer. Not bad for something that doesn’t involve a cute chick talking into the camera. It’s a great indication of giant-monster popularity. I’m hoping the trailer will go well over the million-views mark, so if you haven’t seen it, watch it — and if you have… well, watch it again!

Actually, the frenzy began earlier than 11 May. When I posted the exclusive screenshot of the mega shark eating the Golden Gate Bridge, everyone in creation snaffled it and embedded it on their site, mostly with proper attribution given to Undead Backbrain. As a result, this site’s traffic skyrocketed, only exceeded by the mileage we got out of practically every post I ever did on Cleavagefield (US-2009; dir. Jim Wynorski). So there it is, folks. Giant critters fighting, and soft-porn giant monster parodies based around breasts — that’s what brings the crowds.

Now, to address some of the (usually negative) issues brought up by commenters on the Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus trailer:

1. It’s a perfect title, for god’s sake. It explains the film and its main hook right upfront. Monster battles have been a key element of the giant monster subgenre ever since King Kong took on the T-Rex, and Godzilla went up against Mothra and a menagerie of other mega beasts. In the Japanese daikaiju eiga tradition putting the names of the two opponents right there in the title became de rigueur. Good to see this film following the tradition.
2. No, a mega shark big enough to take a major bite out of the Golden Gate Bridge probably couldn’t leap up high enough to snaffle a plane out of the sky. But… wait! Sharks that big never have and probably can’t exist. Their existence violates several basic laws of the physical universe, just as Godzilla’s does (even though living in the water gives it a better chance of survival, as the water ameliorates the negative effects of gravity — which is why the largest creatures even known to exist lived in the sea). So the existence of the mega shark and the giant octopus are in all likelihood impossible… which is, I would think, why we enjoy these films so much. Because they are impossible and when the impossible happens we get a big thrill from the awe it evokes. It’s amazing how many people got a big kick out of that plane sequence.
3. The SFX may not be of Lord of the Rings or Hellboy 2 or Incredible Hulk standard, but come on! This is relatively low budget, without the dollars and the people-hours available to refine the special effects into a seamless visual extravaganza. But given that, they look pretty good to me. Remember how much entertainment we used to get out of back-projected rubber creatures and flying saucers wobbling about on strings? These films are better than that, even relatively, though they represent the same sort of aesthetic. It’s all fake, folks, even Ironman. Use your imagination … or what there is left of it.
4. Some of the acting and the drama is melodramatic and overwrought? Really? Maybe that’s because this film knows what it is as well as what it isn’t — and what it isn’t is Citizen Kane or Casablanca. It’s a giant monster movie and an exploitation B-flick at that. You’re not meant to take it all that seriously. If it plays for laughs at times, that’s a good thing. It can do that and still be a good movie. It’s not a parody, but it clearly has a wry smile on its face.
5. Yes, it is straight-to-DVD. Big surprise! That’s what The Asylum does. It makes exploitative B-flicks and releases them straight to DVD. That’s the perfect business model for a company that is making conceptually large-scale films on a meagre budget. Hey, these days even Paramount and the rest have trouble meeting their bottomline without the financial back-up of post-theatrical DVD sales. It costs as much as the average production budget to get movies effectively into the cinema. So when you haven’t got much money to start with, why bother?
6. You think it’s shit? You hate this sort of f**king crap? Fine, so why exactly did you watch the trailer at all?

Oh, why am I trying to argue with these people? I know this film won’t be as classic as Gojira and King Kong (1933), or as visually effective as Jackson’s King Kong (or even Roland Emmerich’s abortive US Godzilla remake). But I don’t care. It looks like heaps of fun and I’ll be watching it as soon as I can get a copy — and a legit copy, not the illegal upload that appeared on YouTube. (Come on! If you’re interested enough in the film to want to watch it in the first place, have the decency not to try to undercut the filmmaker’s main source of income.)

End of rant.

This excellent piece of atmospheric artwork — either a promotional banner or an undead memorial (“Here shambles Robert Hood, hacking into your backbrain from beyond the grave”) — turned up unheralded in cyberspace this morning. It was created by Nyssa Pascoe of Awritergoesonajourney.com fame. It’s one of a set that includes a banner for my partner Cat Sparks and good friend and surrogate offspring, Sean Williams. Go check them out — along with the rest of Nyssa’s beautifully gothic design work — on her deviantART gallery.

Thanks, Nyssa. It’s superb.

Below is the “corrected” version of the banner, with the name of the blog correct. I’ve left the other one up because it seems oddly appropriate. Initially I thought the “mistake” was deliberate, until Nyssa confessed otherwise. I guess you should use this version for any linking to Undead Backbrain.

Thanks again, Nyssa.

• Source of the “zombie pin-up” (by Johnny Sputnik)

I’m hoping I can cajole Kaiju Search-Robot Avery into actually posting to this site because, frankly, he finds so many news items — particularly relating to obscure and independent productions — that I can’t keep up!

I have no idea if this is a good idea or not, but take a look at the site and decide if it’s something you want to connect to.

You can get the idea by going there now to find out the latest news on Jeffery Lau’s giant robot film, Robot.

Feel free to let me know what you think.

Her win was well deserved and comes on the heels of an intense and determined year of writing. Keep an ear/eye out for great things from Cat. She’s on an upward track. Way to go, Cat!

Here is me blathering on:

and here’s Cat, all aglow with her awards (still neatly packaged):

If you want to see lots more pictures, go here.

Here‘s some more, taken by Mil Clayton.

And for a full list of winners, go here.

This is the story: we are due to fly straight to London after WFC, but Cat notices that Duran Duran are in NYC for a series of concerts. After consultation we change our flight to allow us an extra day or two so that she can see her fav band perform. I’m no Duran Duran fan, only really knowing their work via hits such as “Girls on Film” and “Hungry Like the Wolf” — and listening to the albums echo through the house when Cat plays them at bath time. But Cat is a big fan and has never seen them live. So I have no objection to going; a rock concert on Broadway sounds fine. Alisa Krasnostein, who is travelling with us, knows even less about the Durans (I’m not sure she was even born when they started out), but says “Why not? Might be fun.”

So we pay the rather large amount for the tickets and in due course enter the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway with the excited crowd. The Barrymore is a beautiful, lush, old-style theatre — relatively small and intimate — but the stage has been re-configured with equipment, rock-style lighting arrays and screens that can be raised and moved about. The fans look like they’re attending a Broadway musical rather that a rock concert, which is sort of nice. But the crowd isn’t just made up of 30/40-something ex-girl-screamers; there’s plenty of blokes, too, and an age-range that doesn’t get too long-in-the-tooth (I’m probably the upper limit) or down to the teenyboppers, but it does have a wider range than I expected. Nevertheless, there’s a definite air of aging 1980s fandom.

So it begins.

The first set is the new album played in full. It’s hard to judge how good it is as an album without further listenings, but I reckon the boys played well and the songs are Duran Duran-ish, one or two offering definite hit possibility, but with a few less pop-oriented ones that I find both lyrically and musically more interesting. Simon no longer sports the svelte figure of his youth and can’t do the “moves” as well as he used to, but his voice is fine. They don’t embarrass themselves, I reckon — apart from those updated faux-80s uniforms (see pic above) and Simon’s initiating comment “We’re grown up now” … followed by songs sporting the usual pop-inane lyrics (though, as I say, there are exceptions). I’ve seen a few old rock outfits performing of late — The Manfreds (sans Manfred Mann), Yes, Queensryche, The Who; of these, Pete Townsend was the best at being in his 50s yet still leaping around as energetically as ever. The rest were more sedate to start with, but in the 2000s they didn’t feel compelled to try and recreate their once youthful demeanour. But their musicianship was as good or better than ever. The Durans, on the other hand, look a little like they’re trying too hard, though the effect is entertaining enough, even for a non-fan like me. Of course, Alisa tells a different story. Despite the noise and excited crowd, she falls asleep! Afterwards she reckons they were cheesy and boring. This is one extreme. The other is that it was an awesome concert. The truth lies somewhere between — and in the eye of the beholder, I guess. Here is Cat’s take. As I say, I’m not a fan, but I thought it was a good concert. Not faultless, but professional and, at its best, full of energy.

Whether right or wrong my impression is that the first set — the new album — had been thoroughly planned and organised by some clueless if enthusiastic marketing/PR dude functioning under the delusion that it’s a good idea for new albums by old rockers to be presented in so glitzy a fashion that the fans’ critical facilities will be blindsided. Each song was choreographed, with different lighting effects, images flashing on different arrangements of screens, big and small, and slightly pretentious patter from Simon. It’s not really necessary. The band members play well, and all the scripting seems merely to restrain them. This was followed by a very odd Kraftwerk-inspired rendition of a couple of their songs — rather tongue-in-cheek, it seems to me. Or not. Whatever. It’s when they get into their old stuff that the Durans suddenly come fully alive — focused and in-the-moment. The crowd ramps up a 100%, too, with audience reaction at a peak. And why not? The Durans must be totally familiar with these songs and can relax into the music itself. They do an intelligent mix of pop hits such as “Planet Earth” and “Girls on Film” and other less well-known, more “serious” songs from later in their career. Cat is ecstatic as these latter are the ones she loves best, even if they are not typical fan favourites. During this final set I look out over the crowd and, apart from one or two indifferent hubbies (and Alisa), everyone is into it, clapping, singing along, unselfconsciously doing a somewhat more mature impersonation of the “screaming fan” than they did 20 years ago.

Meanwhile Cat’s excitement goes on. Tomorrow the album comes out in Australia. I have, of course, put the deluxe CD/DVD edition on pre-order for her.

Here are some pictures of the Backbrain with various luminaries at the 2007 World Fantasy Convention (and afterwards). The pictures were (mostly) taken by Cat Sparks, of course.

The Aussie Panel — which was on the topic “Ghosts and Revenants Down Under: Is There an Australian Aesthetic?” — featured (from left) Robert Hood, Deb Biancotti, Jack Dann, Kaaron Warren and Garth Nix.

With Peter Straub in the bar…

Moments after Cat took the previous pic with Peter Straub, Kim Newman innocently wandered by so I grabbed him and made him have his picture taken. Before I could talk to him much, however, a crowd of other vultures descended and whisked him away.

With Jay Lake. I talked to Jay in various places over the weekend, but this pic was taken at the “Aussie authors and friends” reception that took place at the Australian Consulate in NYC before the Con began.

With Aussie publisher Alisa Krasnostein and US fantasy author David Coe. I first got to know David when he and his family were living a few suburbs north of us on the sunny Illawarra coast in Australia. It was great to be able to catch up with him again, on his home soil this time.

Discussing giant monsters with Nick Kaufman at the Orbit party.

Stephen Jones. OK, so I’m not in this one. But it was the first time I’d met Stephen. I was sitting with Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois during the mass signing, my name card dutifully unrecognised in front of me, when Stephen came up and introduced himself. He had published one of my stories once (“Nasty Little Habits” in Dark Voices 3, 1991) and remembered. A nice surprise.

With Kaaron Warren (whose excellent new collection The Glass Woman first made its appearance at the con), Alisa and Cat Sparks, editor and writer extraordinaire.

We next pinned Kim Newman down at the Award Banquet. Again, however, his attention was soon taken by others. It wasn’t until we serendipitously stumbled upon him buying DVDs in the Virgin Megastore in Times Square that we got to talk… brought together by a mutual obsession.

Me and New York: a shot taken from not-quite-at-the-top of the Empire State Building. It confirmed one thing: NYC is VERY BIG.

After WFC, in London now, we had lunch with Pat Cadigan and her husband Chris. After that, our encounters became a lot more familial. Then we flew home.

Once again, members of the Australian Horror Writers Association will be reading their creepiest work on The Writing Show in the days leading up to Halloween. Readings take place via podcast and are followed by a chat between host Paula Berinstein and each author. The 2007 Halloween Special begins October 23rd.

Participating authors in the 9 Days of Halloween Special 2007 include:

•Tuesday, October 23rd: Chuck McKenzie, reading “Retail Therapy”
•Wednesday, October 24th: Jason Nahrung, reading “Kadimakara and Curlew” (from Daikaiju! 2: Revenge of the Giant Monsters)
•Thursday, October 25th: Rick Kennett, reading “Chinese Whispers”
•Friday, October 26th: Kaaron Warren, reading “Dead Sea Fruit”
•Saturday, October 27th: David Schembri, reading “The Tuning of Hex”
•Sunday, October 28th: Martin Livings, reading “The Art of Suffering”
•Monday, October 29th: Robert Hood, reading “Last Remains”
•Tuesday, October 3oth: David Conyers, reading “As Above, So Below”
•Wednesday, October 31st: Stephen Studach, reading “Eyes Closed in a Dark Room”