December is suddenly upon us (surely it was only January yesterday???) Over the next few days IMPACT will be looking at various items that should be on your Christmas radar - and even moreso under your yuletide tree. We get the ball rolling today by tooting our own trumpet a little with several MAI books and some additional titles created by our own contributors...
The Cutting Edge is a prestige edition of the Impact title, running to over 130 glossy pages behind a soft-backed cover. The magazine always had a remit to cover all types of action, but time and time again it returned, just like cinema, to the art of the sword. This book looks at cinematic swordplay in the movies and television including interviews and articles with the likes of Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Antonio Banderas, Bob Anderson, Peter Diamond, F Braun McAsh, Gillian Horvath, Donna Lettow, Valentine Pelka, Stephen Moyer and more. There's reports from the set of the Highlander movies, Prince Valiant and more and also conversatiosns with those who provided the actual weapons for the screen...
Penned by Impact editor John Mosby it is an invaluable look at not only how various projects came together, but also the way that the bladed weapon continues to be the focus of many multimedia action concepts. In a world full of buttons, long-distance targets and generic weapons, there remains something up-close and even romantic about the age of chivalry.
Bruce Lee: The Man and the Legend was written by Will Johnston and Andrew Staton to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of his passing and is full of images and information about the legendary star and martial arts icon from his early days until his untimely death. Much has been written about his life, but two of his most passionate fans look closely and some of the finer details. There’s over a hundred pages within its covers and remains one of the best mainstream studies of Bruce Lee on the market
Jeet Kune Do is a specialist guide to the JKD philosophy steered by Bruce Lee. Dave Carnell looks at the training methods used, the way that lee employed them through his career and also talks to Lee’s students about the way he influenced them and how JKD has evolved since that point. The book includes many photographs, breaking down the elements of the style with tips and details of specific training methods.
You can purchase these books and others, direct from MAI Publications HERE...
Previous and current Impact columnists also have their own books out…
Andrez Bergen’s book Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa? is a nice twist on the superhero genre, giving it a ‘noir’ twist’ with nods to the style of Marvel’s style of comic-books between the 1940s-1960s. Heropa is a vast, homogenised city patrolled by heroes and populated by adoring masses. A pulp fiction fortress of solitude for crime-fighting team the Equalizers, led by new recruit Southern Cross - a lifetime away from the rain-drenched, dystopic metropolis of Melbourne. Who, then, is killing the great Capes of Heropa?
It is available through Amazon US HERE , Amazon UK HERE and also through the Book Depository HERE...
Impact editor John Mosby’s Gods, Monsters & Mutants was launched in September and looks at the rise of the superhero movie since the year 2000. Bryan Singer’s X-Men marked a tonal shift in both story-telling and special-effects and within the 300+ pages of the book, John collects together many of his interviews and meetings with some of the key players of the genre. As well as Singer, there are conversations with Sir Patrick Stewart, Nicolas Cage, Zack Snyder and many more. There are also two extra, extensive interviews with Mark Millar and Alan Moore, two men with very different approaches to the twenty-first style of story-telling, but both opinionated about the state of the industry and the way that Hollywood has been seen to impact the experience.
Gods, Monsters & Mutants can be found at Amazon US HERE and Amazon UK HERE...
Impact book reviewer J M McDole also has her debut novella available. Etta Etc. The Fall tells the story of the title character has she helps form a community in the American Midwest after the country is hit by a massive plague. The result is a mass of the ‘undead’ in outlying territories, but though the book deals with the dangerous encounters that Etta faces, it is more about her experiences with a disperate and desperate set of other survivors who bond together to face an uncertain future that has its other dangers and risks and civilization starts to break down.
The novella is available through Amazon US HERE and Amazon UK HERE:
Tony Earnshaw pens the regular 'Shooting from the Hip' column for this site, but he's busy as a reviewer and author for a variety of projects. His latest book looks back to the sinister and spooky tales of M R James. Between 1971 and 1978, during the Christmas holiday period, the BBC broadcast a series of dramas under the umbrella title of A Ghost Story for Christmas, most based on stories by James and all directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. Spectral Press has just published The Christmas Ghost Stories of Lawrence Gordon Clark which Tony has edited and who introduces the collection. It also features a Foreword by none other than Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen, Sherlock, First Men in the Moon, the forthcoming The Tractate Middoth); plus all the M. R. James tales from which the dramas were adapted, each prefaced with a new introduction by Clark himself. There is also contained within its pages a reprint of an unfilmed “Count Magnus” script by Basil Copper, as well as other material including unpublished behind-the-scenes photographs. The book will be launched at Derby QUAD on December 19 with a screening of A Warning to the Curious and an on-stage Q&A with Clark himself. There's more information on the event HERE.
You can find full ordering details for the book HERE...
Other books by Tony such as Studies in the Film: Salem's LOT is available HERE and a monograph of Peter Cushing can be found HERE...
