Daikaiju Limerick Comp Shortlist

It’s hard not to put the lot! But I’ve narrowed it down to the following, based on quirky rationales of my own. Cat Sparks will pick the final winners.

THE SHORTLIST

When interviewing Biolante:
He started to get a bit ranty.
What he said made me shiver —
“I ate Rodan’s liver,
With beans, and a pleasant chianti.”
Martin Livings

There once was a kraken named Shirley.
Some people said she was surly.
But that’s not quite true:
There’s ship-sinking to do,
And she had to get up rather early.
Jason Fischer

Sean Williams wrote up a storm —
Monsters great, ferocious and forlorn.
He gazed into the abyss
And it gave him a kiss —
He demolished Tokyo yesterday morn.
Alicia Smith

“All our names sound the same,” declared Baragon.
“What nonsense, you moron,” scoffed Megalon.
“No, he’s right,” said King Ghidorah,
playing pool with Desghidorah,
“That’s a crock!” yelled their good friend, Mechani-Kong.
Martin Livings

Did you hear the latest ’bout Rodan?
He went down to the Monsterland Hoedown.
He got drunk at a fountain
That was spewin’ Blue Mountain
And he smushed the Abominable Snowman.
Mark Rainey

She cried, “Look out there. I see Mothra!”
From the bed he sighed, “I can be bothred.
With monsters gargantuan,
from King Ghidorah to Rodan,
this city is perpetually smothred.”
Sean Williams

I blame Bowie for what happened to Gamera.
Makeup? Glitter? A name change to “Glamera”?
I could handle the androgyny
And the glam kaiju progeny
But I won’t listen to “Mott the Ghidorah.”
Jess Nevins

Ghidrah the Three headed Beast
Was last seen flying out of the East.
With his rampaging trill
Monster Zero could kill —
He should have his own franchise at least.
T. Reed

King Kong left a great hairy mound,
When he tumbled and fell to the ground.
It took some good shootin’
To prove ala Newton
He’s aerodynamically sound.
Jason Fischer

I can’t get a date with Gojira!
He’s seeing a Goth grrl called Vera.
Her pop culture cred
Means she’s light years ahead
Guess I’ll settle instead for Chimera.
Kate Eltham

In the circus I had a great calling:
Cleaning up what from elephants kept falling.
Next time Godzilla walks by
You will know who am I —
I’m the guy with the broom, sitting, bawling.
Lee Battersby

There once was Giant Behemoth
Spoke kinda old-fashioned, it seemeth.
It ran wild on the loose
And squashed a caboose
And the rivers with bloody gore teemeth.
Leigh Blackmore

There once was a giant crustacean
Who moaned in extreme frustration
See Gojira and Kong
Have fan-clubs so strong
Yet a mega-crab feels no such elation.
Tony Owens

There was a young lady of Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger;
They returned from the ride
With those two inside
the insatiable belly of Jiger.
Ian Mackereth

Godzilla was minding his young
When a skyscraper eclipsed the sun.
Urbanly it sprawled
T’wards his nest towering tall —
The buildings’ revenge had begun!
Nigel Stone

I think any decent young fellar
would see all the problems and tell her
— wedding giant crustaceans
is frought with frustrations
— you wouldn’t undress her, you’d shell her.
Chompy

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Competition Announcement

Due to certain impatient and rowdy elements among the Daikaiju Limerick Competition entrants, I will make up my mind on the winners over the weekend. An announcement will appear here on the Undead Backbrain at exactly 7 pm, Wollongong time, on Sunday 26th of August 2007. Be there!

Late news: As the standard of entries was so high and I can’t narrow down my shortlist, I’ve decided to call in the services of a guest judge. Not Pazuzu the cat, but the inimitable and glamorous Cat Sparks, chief editor of Agog! Press (who has, of course, denied all responsibility for the Daikaiju! anthologies). She doesn’t like limericks much, she says, and therefore reckons they’ll have to be “bloody good” to get her attention.

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Making zombie roaches

Oh, man… now this is definitely the stuff of horror stories — a tale of the wasp bokor and its zombie slaves.

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Do the Daikaiju Stomp!

Check this out: I recently came across this rare daikaiju soundtrack album in a box of dusty cassettes hidden under a table in a shed out the back of Taped To Death — a seedy secondhand music store in the centre of Sydney (unfortunately destroyed under odd circumstances during the filming of the New York sequences for Godzilla: Final Wars in 2004).

Big G cassette

The music was reputedly intended for the soundtrack of a film that Toho had planned for release after 1975’s Mekagojira no gyakushu [Terror of Mechagodzilla]. Honda had agreed to direct, it is said, but pulled out when he heard the proposed title track. Unfortunately, the fuss that ensued resulted in the franchise going into hiatus until 1984. It is believed that the band itself were vaporised in 1979 by a blast of supersonic feedback channeled through their amplifiers during one of Rodan’s periodic attacks on Tokyo.

I haven’t heard the album because my cassette player is no longer functional. Hopefully someone will release it digitally one day.

If you’re interested, you might be able to pick up a copy for yourself here.

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Zombisaurus?

What sort of apocalypse really killed off the dinosaurs?

The answer has been revealed in the comicstrip “Beaver and Steve” by James Turner.

Zombie dinosaurs

The first part is here

and the second part is here. Check it out!

My thanks to Sean Williams for drawing this to my attention — and James Turner for drawing it in the first place. It explains a lot.

Posted in Comics, Curiosity, Zombies | 2 Comments

Review: Shades of Darkness

TV Series, UK, 1983/1986

Shades of Darkness is the title of an anthology series comprised of nine famous ghost stories filmed for television by Granada TV in the 1980s. Seven were aired in 1983, and two more appeared in 1986. Six of them are currently available on DVD. The episodes are:

    The Lady’s Maid’s Bell (27/05/1983)*
    The Intercessor (03/06/1983)*
    Feet Foremost (10/06/1983)
    Afterward (17/06/1983)*
    The Maze (24/06/1983)*
    Seaton’s Aunt (01/07/1983)
    Bewitched (08/07/1983)*
    The Demon Lover (21/06/1986)*
    Agatha Christie’s The Last Seance (27/09/1986)

Those marked with an asterick are included on a DVD released by Koch Entertainment.

As I watch them (or at least those on the DVD), I will post reviews. The first review, which is of “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell”, is now on my website here.

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Future Past?

The first review of the Doctor Who Short Trips anthology Destination Prague has appeared on Sci-Fi Online. The reviewer only mentions my story as an example of his observation that “the majority of the stories” take place in the future, despite the city’s rich history. In the case of “Gold and Black Ooze”, however, this is only sort-of true. While the story does take place in the future, it is also set in Prague’s historic past. An intriguing contradiction? What are you waiting for? Go buy the book and check it out!

Posted in Books, News, Review | 2 Comments

Australian Spec Fic Spotlight 2007

I was recently interviewed by Tansy Rayner Roberts for the ambitious 2007 Australian Speculative Fiction Spotlight project. The result can be read here.

The Spotlight was begun by Ben Peek in 2005 and this year is being coordinated via the ASif site, where you’ll find a list of various luminaries of the current Australian speculative fiction scene as they are interviewed.

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Cleaning Up this Town

A friend came across this Ultraman-inspired Japanese ad from 1971, in which a heroic mum (or sister?) takes on a dirt-producing giant monster. There seems to be several versions in one, getting progressively longer:

Japanese Vacuum Cleaner Commercial

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There once was a monster named….

    There once was a monster named Rumsmag
    Who was known as an evil yet glum dag.
    He would wear waist-high pants
    And keep people like ants
    On the muck in the back of his bumbag.

To celebrate the imminent appearance on Amazon.com of Daikaiju! 2: Revenge of the Giant Monsters (edited by Robert Hood and Robin Pen and published by Agog! Press), I’ve decided to run a Giant Monstrous Limerick Competition.

Simply write the best and/or most ridiculous limerick about a giant monster that you can and post it as a comment to this Undead Backbrain blogpost.

Prize

A copy of the exclusive limited-run edition of Daikaiju! 2: Revenge of the Giant Monsters will be awarded to the two best limericks. For the uninitiated, here is the cover:

Daikaiju! 2 cover

and you can find out more about the anthology here.

Rules and Conditions

  • Any limerick entered in the Giant Monstrous Limerick Competition must conform to the rules of the limerick sub-genre, as interpreted by the Undead Backbrain.
  • The limerick must feature a giant monster of some kind. Decisions as to exactly how big a monster must be in order to be considered a giant monster will be left to the discretion of the Backbrain.
  • If a limerick is judged by the Backbrain to be too obscene, it shall be deleted at his discretion.
  • Multiple entries are acceptable.
  • The Backbrain’s decision on all matters shall be final and very little correspondence shall be entered into…. etc.
  • The Giant Monstrous Limerick Competition shall end when the Backbrain has had enough of it.
  • The Giant Monstrous Limerick Competition is open to anyone worldwide, of any age, nationality, religious persuasion or species — though if the best entries are by myself (unlikely, given the above example), Robin Pen or Cat Sparks, such entries won’t be awarded the prize, which will be made available to the Next Best Entry.
  • It would be helpful if all entries were in English. more or less.
  • The Backbrain reserves the right to put any of the limericks in a gallery on his website, along with the names or nom de plumes of the authors of said limericks, though of course the authors otherwise retain their own copyright and can do with their limericks whatever they want.
  • In case of dispute, the final Arbitrator shall be Pazuzu the Cat.
  • That’s it! I can’t think of any more rules. I hereby declare the Giant Monstrous Limerick Competition open.

    Please feel free to tell everyone you know about it.

    And have fun!

    Posted in Books, Competition, Daikaiju | 106 Comments