Posts Tagged BOOM!
Daryl Gregory on Raising Stony Mayhall
Posted by admin in Literature on July 13, 2011
Raising Stony Mayhall
Article first published as Interview: Novelist Daryl Gregory on Raising Stony Mayhall on Blogcritics.
Writer Daryl Gregory always provides enlightening and entertaining discussion, that’s why this marks the third time I have interviewed him about his work. Last month saw the release of his newest novel, Raising Stony Mayhall, described by publisher Del Ray as “In 1968, after the first zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage mother during a snowstorm. Wrapped in the woman’s arms is a baby, stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda—and he begins to move. The family hides the child—whom they name Stony—rather than turn him over to authorities that would destroy him. Against all scientific reason, the undead boy begins to grow. For years his adoptive mother and sisters manage to keep his existence a secret—until one terrifying night when Stony is forced to run and he learns that he is not the only living dead boy left in the world.”
In addition to chatting about his newest novel, Gregory also explained how his previous novel, Pandemonium, came to be translated into Hebrew, as well as what else is on the creative horizon for him.
Tim O’Shea: In terms of this novel’s timeline, the first zombie outbreak happened in the late 1960s. What was your thinking in terms of the timeframe of when Stony was born?
Daryl Gregory: It’s a nod to Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, which came out in 1968. In the world of the novel, a guy who also happens to be named Romero films the outbreak a documentary. We go on from there, and the book spans Stony’s entire “life,” from when he was discovered as an undead baby beside the highway in ’68, to his eventual second death in his forties in 2010.
Adam Rifkin on Shmobots
Recently BOOM! Studios released Shmobots, a graphic novel by writer Adam Rifkin and artist Les Toil. I recently was able to conduct an email interview with Rifkin. Before getting to the questions, here’s BOOM!’s official breakdown of the creators and the project: “SMALL SOLDIERS and MOUSEHUNT screenwriter and DETROIT ROCK CITY director, Adam Rifkin, pairs with pin-up artist supreme Les Toil to create Shmobots! In an world where man needs robots to do menial labor, a city decides to contract with the lowest bidder in order to create its army workforce. But the whole thing backfires and the robots end up being lazy and stupid — with attitude. So what do you call these slacker robots? They’re a bunch of Shmobots! A darkly funny tale of passion, romance, and sexy-time! Once you go chrome, you never go home!” Honestly I had to interview the writer after I read the 128-page trade paperback and it had such absurd scenes like “The Diary of Anne Frankenstein”. It appealed to my odd sense of humor. BOOM! is uploading pages from the book for free, on a daily basis, here. My thanks to Rifkin for his time and for BOOM!’s Chip Mosher for his assistance.
Tim O’Shea: The Diary of Anne Frankenstein AND a Stan Lee endorsement? Rarely can a book pull off both–how did you score the Lee endorsement?
Adam Rifkin: Getting a thumbs up from Stan Lee was a real dream come true. The man has been such a hero of mine for so many years that I really can’t put into words how much that endorsement means to me. I actually had met Stan a number of years ago when I was shooting episodes of a television series that ultimately never aired called WELCOME TO HOLLYWOOD. It was a show based on a movie I had made of the same name. Stan played himself in one of the episodes and as a result he and I had become friendly. He truly is one of the nicest guys I’ve come across in this business. Anyway, after SHMOBOTS was complete I sent Stan a copy just to get his feedback. Not only did he dig it, but he gave us that fantastic quote to use with his blessings. WOW!
Twitter RSS- talkingwithtim: @BenJMorse @Remender That gem is not on sale yet is it? @gabrielhardman could draw 24 pages of heroes drinking coffee & I would love it.
- talkingwithtim: @j_bacardi @macabfilms Yeah, it's been that way for awhile. This is the second spam DM in several weeks I have received.
- talkingwithtim: Cannot believe #steveDitko is doing one of the #beforeWatchmen books #heh #iAmKidding
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- talkingwithtim: @highway_62 I would not object
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