Category Archives: Anthology

Meanwhile, Down in Australia…

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As we circle our wagons and prepare for an assault on the news coverage of the Aussie horror genre industry, below is a quick update of all that’s been happening here over the past month or so. Sure, it’s a long post, but that only means there’s been a lot going on that hasn’t been covered. So, to ensure this doesn’t happen again, SEND US YOUR DEAD – er, NEWS! We want to hear from you if you have some news to share, or if you’ve heard of a horror-related opportunity or event.

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The Australian Horror Writers Association had their AGM on October 6, and welcomed in a new committee lead by new president Mark Smith-Briggs. They’ve kicked off their reign in a controversial way by placing their showcase magazine, Midnight Echo, on hold while they review its future. However, they have clearly stated that ME is not being shut down, only postponed. Look out for big things from the committee in the coming months.

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More on the AHWA: in October, the AHWA published the Australian Horror Writers Sampler 2013 (Kindle edition only), which provides a taste of the works of seven Australian horror/dark fiction writers (Shane Jiraiya Cummings, David Conyers, David Kernot, Troy Barnes, Matthew Tait, Kim Faulks, and Jay Caselberg), with the talented Greg Chapman designing the cover. The sampler also contains links to the various author’s works, plus interviews and further information on the work. It’s available from Amazon for $0.99.

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Greg Chapman released the novella, ‘The Last Night of October,’ a refreshing Halloween tale published by Bad Moon Books, on October 31, featuring illustrations by the author himself and an introduction by the Queen of Halloween, Lisa Morton. The novella is picking up great reviews and is well worth a read. It’s available as a trade paperback from Bad Moon Books for $15.95 and in digital copy from Amazon for $2.99.

“A soon to be classic of Halloween literature that further cements Greg’s place as one of the greats working in dark literature today (…) Greg has delivered a story that you will want to read again and again as you get ready for our favorite time of the year. Nothing gets me in the mood for the Halloween season more than a good Halloween story, this isn’t a good Halloween story, this is a great Halloween story” –Peter Schowtzer, Literary Mayhem

THE LAST NIGHT OF OCTOBER

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Marty Young’s debut novel, 809 Jacob Street, was also published on October 31 by Black Beacon Books. The monster house calls to them all, but what will they find when they open it’s door?

“Marty Young’s 809 Jacob Street dragged me through the gutter, and had me enthralled with every page. The story explores so thoroughly a nightmare of tortured emotions and madness that it’s hard to believe it isn’t autobiographical. The characters, especially Joey Blue, are that convincing. This is a writer cutting his own way through horror, and I can’t wait to see where his journey takes him. I, for one, will be watching from here on out, because he made me a fan with this book.” Joe McKinney, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Flesh Eaters and Dead City

809 Jacob Street is available in paperback from Black Beacon Books for $18.95 (includes worldwide postage), and in digital format from Amazon for $3.99. There’s also a gritty blues song performed by David Schembri to go with it.

809 Jacob Street

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Former AHWA President and author of Hammered, Geoff Brown, has started a new publishing venture called Cohesion Press. Their first publication was an ebook reprint collection by the brilliant Kaaron Warren, called ‘The Gate Theory.’ Cohesion is also working on ‘SNAFU: An Anthology of Military Horror’ featuring five of the big names of the genre: Jonathan Maberry, Weston Ochse, James A Moore, Greig Beck, and Joseph Nassise. Apart from these solicited authors, they are open to submissions for the anthology. See the website for more details. Cohesion is accepting pre-orders for the book too, with special limited editions of all formats available.

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Furthermore, Cohesion has also just announced its next title, the novella ‘Ronnie and Rita,’ by Deborah Sheldon. The title will be available soon in all eBook formats.

“Sheldon perfectly portrays the resignation to mediocrity that permeates many of the working/middle class neighbourhoods … and the desperate things they’ll sometimes do to break away.” Addam Duke, Crime Factory Magazine

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David Conyers co-edited (with Brian M. Sammons) the mass market anthology ‘Undead and Unbound: Unexpected Tales from Beyond the Grave’ (Chaosium Inc.) back in August. The anthology features stories by Cody Goodfellow, Gary McMahon, William Mieke, our own David Schembri, and more.

‘Undead & Unbound celebrates those who have returned from the grave — in all their glory and in whatever form they take. You will find the famous blood-drinkers and flesh eaters here, but also ghosts, patched-together reanimates, fiends of myth and folklore, and some not-so-easily-identifiable creatures from beyond the grave.’

The anthology is available from Chaosium Inc. for $17.95 and from Amazon.

Undead & Unbound

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The Canberra Times newspaper published an article in time for Halloween listing ‘ten books guaranteed to scare you witless’. The list, which was compiled with input from Australian horror writers, was dominated by Stephen King (The Shining, It, Pet Sematary, and Salem’s Lot), along with a number of classics (Dracula, The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Frankenstein, The Exorcist, and The Turn of the Screw), and the mind-bending House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.

Also mentioned in the article were a number of books by AHWA members, including The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott, The Dead Path by Stephen M. Irwin, and Living with the Dead by Martin Livings.

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ScaryMinds is back up and running again on a new server after a long hiatus. ‘ScaryMinds is dedicated to exploring home brewed movies and literature from Australia and New Zealand. If you like movies such as Australia or The Year My Voice Broke then you are at the wrong site. If you dig Mad Max, Undead, or Wolf Creek then dive on in like a wild thing. Don’t believe us? Check back regularly as we continue our mission of digging under every rock to discover what’s happening, whose doing what, and what the state of play is in horrorland Down Under.’

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Continuing his brilliant work on exposing long lost and forgotten Australian colonial horror/gothic fiction, James Doig will be releasing the neglected Aussie horror classic, Twisted Clay, written by Frank Walford (first published in 1933). The UK author/editor/publisher, Johnny Mains is bringing it under his Noose & Gibbet imprint, complete with a restoration of the original cover. Twisted Clay is about a teenage, lesbian Jill-the-Ripper. Look for this in late 2013/early 2014, and in the meantime, you can read about this book here, or check out what Doig has to say about it here (spoiler alert!).

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Matthew Tait’s short story collection ‘Ghosts In A Desert World’ has been released for the first time in paperback. Under the auspices of HodgePodge Press, this second edition is revised and expanded, and also includes a previously unpublished novelette called ‘Mutability of the Flesh.’ It is available from Amazon in both print and digital formats.

“The depth is there, the atmosphere is there, making this one of the best examples of this genre I’ve had the pleasure to read. This collection not only shows that the writer has the chops to go places, but that he should be there already.” Daniel I Russell, author of Shadow Award nominated CRITIQUE

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Award-winning NZ writer Paul Mannering has released a revised edition of his novel, Tankbread, through Permuted Press. Tankbread is available from Amazon in print and digital formats.

“Paul Mannering’s TANKBREAD is a guts and glory joyride into very dark territory. Very nasty and lots of fun!” Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of DEAD OF NIGHT and DUST & DECAY

Mannering also recently won 1st and 3rd place in SpecFicNZ’s 2013 Halloween drabble writing competition.

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Alan Baxter has just signed a three book deal with HarperVoyager for a new urban grim dark series, to be published between July and December next year. Keep an eye out for more details as this will be a series well worth reading.

Baxter’s new weird western ghost story has also just been published in the Halloween issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies magazine #133.

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Jason Fischer‘s zombie/post-apocalypse based collection called ‘Everything is a Graveyard’ will be published through Ticonderoga Publications on November 11, 2013. Pre-orders can be made here.

“He flicked the coin onto the table and it spun lazily, resting on tails. An eagle, squatting on a cactus, snake held aloft in its beak. Cinco pesos, the worn script read . . . ” Within these covers, you will find murderous dropbears, zombie kangaroos and undead camels. Poignant endings to the world mash-up with muscle car battles, featuring feral killers that make Mad Max look like the Disney channel. Everything is a Graveyard delves into the fantastic, the horrifying, the sad and the just plain weird.

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Jason’s also had some deep thoughts about zombies, the Apollonian-Dionysian dichotomy, and how Romero’s “Land of the Dead” finally makes sense to him.

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Australia’s own Halloween expert, Gillian Polack, was interviewed on the history of Halloween on ABC Sydney (by Dominic Knight). The interview fittingly ran on October 31, but unfortunately isn’t available online. If we find a podcast of the interview, we’ll post it.

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Australian writer/director Stuart Simpson has entered his 3 minute short film called M is for Mutant! into the ABC of Death 2; The Search for the 26th Director competition. The short is available online. Voting ends on November the 14th, with the top 12 entries announced on the 15th.

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Do you run/own a horror-related business based in Australia? If so, let us know and we’ll post in on Horror Net Australia, your one stop online Yellow Pages of all that’s horribly good! It’s THE place to go to be seen.

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And finally, don’t forget to check out Sinister Reads to see all the latest releases by members of the AHWA. It’s the place to go to find your next book.

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Have we missed anything? More than likely. If so, let us know.

A Killer Among Demons – review by Martin Livings

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A-Killer-Among-DemonsA Killer Among Demons

Edited by Craig Bezant

Published by Dark Prints Press 2013

Review by Martin Livings

In his introduction to A Killer Among Demons, editor Craig Bezant states that two of his greatest passions in fiction are crime and horror. Dark Prints Press has previously published well-received anthologies dealing in both of these genres – crime fiction in The One That Got Away and horror in the Australian Shadows Award-winning Surviving the End – but this is his first foray into combining the two, and personally I hope it’s not the last. A Killer Among Demons collects the work of a variety of authors, both local and international, all writing tales of supernatural crimes, ranging from the most personal and human – revenge, murder, obsession – all the way to the apocalypse itself, and even beyond.

The quality of stories in A Killer Among Demons is uniformly high. One fantastic element of every single story in the collection is the sheer invisibility of the writing, which is a staple of fine crime fiction especially. The reader is simply absorbed into the stories, swallowed whole, without being aware of the act of reading. As the much-missed Elmore Leonard once sagely advised, “if it sounds like writing, rewrite it”. This is a rule all ten writers in this collection clearly followed. Different readers will find different favourites – I personally lean away from the more standard gumshoe-style stories towards other more unique viewpoints and plots – but I can’t imagine any fans of crime or horror fiction being disappointed here.

Some of my personal favourites were “Cuckoo” by Angela Slatter, about a justice-meting body-swapping demon which finds itself up against something even worse than itself, Alan Baxter’s nigh-on Lovecraftian “The Beat of a Pale Wing”, which blends dark magical rituals with urban mobsters, and “Angel’s Town” by Madhvi Ramani, a bloodily violent tale of revenge from beyond the grave taken to its logical conclusion. The absolute highlight for me though was Stephen M. Irwin’s “24/7”, the longest – and closing – story in the anthology, which was a damn near perfect horror crime tale in my mind. Again, revenge takes a front seat (literally!) in this story of a man driven (again, literally!) to extremes by jealousy and rage. From mysterious beginning to inevitable but surprising end, “24/7” is a great piece of storytelling, and a fine end to the book.

With only ten stories nestled in its pages, and consisting of a mere 224 pages, this collection is short, sharp and deadly effective, like a bullet with a crucifix carved into it. This book is a must-read for fans of horror, crime and all things in between, and Bezant deserves great credit for gathering the work together and shaping it into a very unique and absorbing anthology.

(A brief disclaimer – Craig Bezant and Dark Prints Press are also the publishers of my collection Living With the Dead. But don’t hold that against them!)

- review by Martin Livings

Perth-based writer Martin Livings has had over sixty short stories in a variety of magazines and anthologies. His short works have been listed in the Recommended Reading list in Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and have appeared in both The Year’s Best Australian SF & Fantasy, Volumes Two and Five, and Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2006 and 2008 editions. His first novel, Carnies, was published by Hachette Livre in 2006, and was nominated for both the Aurealis and Ditmar awards. His collection, Living With The Dead, is available now. Find him at www.martinlivings.com/‎

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Bloodstones, edited by Amanda Pillar – Review

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Bloodstones
Edited by Amanda Pillar
Publisher: Ticonderoga Publications
Paperback: 295 pages
ISBN: 978-1-9218-5727-6

Inside these covers are 17 stories of unusual creatures, myths and legends, in dark, urban fantasy settings.

Bloodstones is being touted by Ticonderoga Publications as the first volume in an annual anthology of dark fantasy. We haven’t had one of those in Australia for a while, and I’d love for something like it to succeed. I know Ticonderoga have the chops to achieve such a feat, and Amanda Pillar is an accomplished editor.

The focus of Bloodstones is on non-traditional dark urban fantasy, which is to say: no vampires, no werewolves, no zombies. Authors were encouraged to submit tales of more unusual creatures from myth, to delve into cultures and legends that have not been repeated ad nauseum over the years.

Before I even get to the stories, and how they might (or might not) fit this brief, I was sort of held up by the cover. It seems unrelated to the anthology’s theme and that didn’t work to entice me into the book’s pages as a good cover should. Mainly, I would have liked to have seen a cover more immediately indicative of the anthology’s contents.

But, don’t judge a book by its cover! It’s the words inside that count. So read I did, and the stories are indeed an exploration into the unknown. Diverse are the monsters, and quite a few of them I’d never heard of before and hope I never have to meet in the future. There are also plenty of familiar but less utilised creatures from myth on display too. The trick is in how the stories use this grab-bag of monstrosities to tell an effective tale, and in that aspect Bloodstones is something of an uneven success.

The anthology kicks of strongly with ‘The Bull in Winter’ by Dirk Flinthart, a tale of old gods, myths and legends struggling to find relevance in a modern world where film, tv and viral YouTube videos are the vectors for the creation of new myths and monsters. Well written and full of great ideas, ‘The Bull in Winter’ really dragged me in, kept me reading and left me eager to delve deeper into Bloodstones.

Nicole Murphy’s ‘Eurydale’ continues the theme of monsters of legend adapting to the modernity of suburbia. Clash of the Titans meets Desperate Housewives is how I’d describe ‘Eurydale’, and I mean that in a good way because the story works on many more levels than that, even touching on the the issue of immigrants trying to maintain their cultures in a new world.

‘A Small Bad Thing’ by Penelope Love introduces us to the Malaysian Toyol, a malevolent child-like goblin created by black magicians to steal money and jewellery, the small things. Delving deep into how the ‘small things’ can also affect a relationship, Penelope Love leaves us no doubt by the end as to who the real monsters are.

Jenny Blackford’s ‘A Moveable Feast’ is delicious with description, combining the dark and fertile imagination of children with the myth of the Faerie Queen. Pete Kempshall tackles the issue of misusing government welfare (specifically the ‘Baby Bonus’) in dark and gruesome ways in ‘Dead Inside’, and ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’ by MLD Curelas brings us a banshee battling the waning power of belief.

‘Sanaa’s Army’ by Joanne Anderton is a powerful tale of art and decay, and how things new and beautiful (and sometimes dangerous) can be created from death. Richard Harland’s ‘A Mother’s Love’ brings the dark-side of Santiera from Cuba to the Western Suburbs of Sydney, and Christine Morgan reawakens ancient Egypt into the modern day in ‘Ferreau’s Curse’.

Thoraiya Dyer’s prose in ‘Surviving Film’ is, as usual, both beautiful and unsettling. Her merging of cinematic history and ancient myth is short, but also possibly the most fully realised and complete of the stories in the anthology. Like Flinthart’s ‘The Bull in Winter’, it stands high above the other tales in the collection.

That’s not to say other stories mentioned, or those yet to come, aren’t good. Indeed, ‘And the Dead Shall Be Raised’ by Kat Otis is ripe with new and unnerving ideas, imagining tours of the world’s most famous cemetery as conducted by the dead themselves… but don’t stray off the path and don’t stay after dark. Karen Maric weaves a bittersweet tale of love and loss set amongst the clash of old in new in the fast moving world of modern China in ‘Embracing the Invisible’, and Dan Rabart’s ‘The Bone Plate’ is a dark, modern-take on the ancient myth of deriving power from those you slay.

In ‘Cephalopoda Obsessia’ Alan Baxter shows us — with about 1/50th the words it took China Mieville — why we should definitely still fear the awakening of the Kraken. Both Erin Underwood’s ‘The Foam Born’ and Vivian Cathe’s ‘Skin’ stay with Baxter’s nautical theme, but in very different and effective ways: ‘The Foam Born’ updates the myth of Aphrodite’s birth into something much more sinister, and ‘Skin’ re-examines the myth of the Selkie from a new and disturbing perspective.

Stephanie Gunn’s ‘The Skin of the World’ takes us deeper yet, away from the suburbs and those who’d ply their coastal fringes, peeling away the layers to reveal a darker world beneath. ‘The Skin of the World’ was, for me, a perfect end to Bloodstones. Like the places revealed, the story has a depth had that me wanting more, feeling there was more going on in this world than a single story could reveal. Very pleasing then to read in the author’s introduction, that ‘The Skin of the World’ is only a small part of a much larger series of stories and novels, of which I’m certainly keen to read more.

As I said, overall I found Bloodstones to be something of an uneven collection. There certainly aren’t any bad stories, just a few that I felt didn’t quite meet the brief, as outlined in the blurb and in Seanan McGuire’s Introduction. Some stories worked for me more than others, and a lot of that just comes down to personal preference. Others readers are sure to get different mileage, and on the strength of just a few stories alone (Dirk Flinthart’s, Thoraiya Dyer’s and Stephanie Gunn’s especially) I would certainly recommend Bloodstones for readers looking for more in their horror fiction than just sparkly vampires and overripe zombies.

Shivers VII edited by Richard Chizmar – Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

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shivers7Shivers VII edited by Richard Chizmar –
Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

Publisher: Cemetery Dance 2013
Trade Paperback, 512 pages

The eagerly awaited seventh installment in the highly regarded, award-winning anthology series from Cemetery Dance is now finally here and well worth the wait.

Bookended by two prestigious reprints by Clive Barker (a fantasy tale previously published as “Hermione and the Moon”, now re-titled “The Departed”) and by Stephen King ( “Weeds”, firstly appeared in Cavalier and Nugget magazines in the ‘70s), the hefty volume collects twenty-four other stories, mostly original and mostly of excellent quality. Some are indeed outstanding and I will start by mentioning those.

“Red Rover, Red Rover” by Norman Partridge is a superb piece of supernatural horror revolving around a drowned little girl’s dog and raising the question whether live persons can be scarier than ghosts.

The astonishing, surrealistic ”Born Dead” by Lisa Tuttle reveals the incredible secret in a successful businesswoman’s life, while the riveting , dark “The Baby Store” by Ed Gorman ( a cross between SF and crime) addresses the accidental death of a little kid.

In the strong and gripping “Memory Lake” by Robert Morrish , small town old , dirty secrets and crimes are literally unearthed, and in the nasty, graphic “Beholder” by Graham Masterton, the statement that Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is pushed to the extreme consequences.

Having presented my own favorite tales, I must proceed by pointing out a group of remarkably good stories which contribute to make Shivers VII possibly even better than the previous, terrific six volumes.

Bill Pronzini’s “Breakbone” is the disquieting report of the nightmarish meeting with a loser who will finally reveal his true nature, while Bev Vincent’s “Severance Package” is an ingenuous mix of horror and crime, only slightly spoiled by a rather moralistic ending.

Time-honored subjects are effectively revisited with accomplished, original takes: zombies (Tim Waggoner’s “Zombie Dreams”), doppelgangers (Don D’Ammassa’s “Echoes”), on the road “car duels” (Rick Hautala’s “GPS”).

Brian James Freeman contributes “As She Lay There Dying”, the perceptive portrait of a college professor struck by “runner’s block” after two close encounters with sudden death, and Kaaron Warren offers “Sleeping with the Bower Birds”, a dreamlike, atmospheric story where strange birds fly around, new clothes shine and an odd family goes on with life.

In addition, the book features stories by Norman Prentiss, Al Sarrantonio, Darren Speegle, Scott Nicholson, Travis Heermann, Greg F Gifune, Kevin Quigley, Del James, Joel Arnold, Roberta Lannes, Rio Youers.

Many, many reasons for securing immediately a copy….

 – Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

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Submission Call: Award-Winning Australian Writing

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Have you written a story of no more than 6,000 words or a poem of no more than 200 lines that won first place in an Australian competition between 30 June 2011 and 30 June 2012? If so, Melbourne Books wants you to submit it for consideration for the Award Winning Australian Writing 2012 edition.

Full details and submission guidelines here. Submissions close 20 August, so hurry up!

Bloodstones ToC announced

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Ticonderoga Publications has teamed up with award-winning editor, Amanda Pillar, to produce an anthology of myth inspired dark urban fantasy called Bloodstones.  The anthology is loaded with seventeen fantastic tales of monsters, gods, magic and so much more.

Bloodstones will be published in October 2012, in time for Halloween, and will be available in trade paperback and ebook formats.

Ticonderoga today released the full Table of Contents. The 17 stories are:

  • Joanne Anderton, “Sanaa’s Army”
  • Alan Baxter, “Cephalopoda Obsessia”
  • Jenny Blackford, “A Moveable Feast”
  • Vivian Caethe, “Skin”
  • MD Curelas, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”
  • Thoraiya Dyer, “Surviving Film”
  • Dirk Flinthart, “The Bull in Winter”
  • Stephanie Gunn, “The Skin of the World”
  • Richard Harland, “A Mother’s Love”
  • Pete Kempshall, “Dead Inside”
  • Penny Love, “A Small Bad Thing”
  • Karen Maric, “Embracing the Invisible”
  • Christine Morgan, “Ferreau’s Curse”
  • Nicole Murphy, “Euryale”
  • Jessica Otis, “And the Dead Shall be Raised Incorruptible”
  • Dan Rabarts, “The Bone Plate”
  • Erin Underwood, “The Foam Born”

 

Corrupts Absolutely? edited by Lincoln Crisler – review by Greg Chapman

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Corrupts Absolutely?
Editor: Lincoln Crisler
Publisher: Damnation Books
ISBN: 978-1-61572614–1 (eBook)
Published: 13th April, 2012
Words: 83,780

Description:
Corrupts Absolutely? collects twenty brand-new stories from veteran authors and newcomers, each with a unique perspective on what it might really be like to be superhuman in today’s day and age. In the center of such a roiling mass of uncertainty and excitement lies one important truth: the fight against good or evil is never as important as the fight for or against oneself.

Given I was raised on comic book superheroes like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, the X-Men, The Teen Titans and others, the meta-human fiction anthology Corrupts Absolutely? was always going to have instant appeal for me.

Edited by dark fiction author Lincoln Crisler, Corrupts Absolutely? Sets out to take comic book heroes beyond the confining rectangular borders of comic pages into a prose format and, when taken as a whole, the stories pack as much punch as The Incredible Hulk on a bad day.

Borrowing from some of the more adult comics and graphic novels of the 1980’s, like Watchmen and V for Vendetta, the heroes (and villains) in these 20 tales are as human as the rest of us, with troubled pasts, crises of conscience and revenge on the mind. The theme of the anthology centres on how power can corrupt and each story rides that theme like a speeding bullet into catastrophe (ok enough of the metaphors).

From the very first tale – Tim Marquitz’s “Retribution” about a nuclear-powered man who exacts explosive revenge on a Middle Eastern village on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks – you know immediately that the interpretation of what is a “hero” in this volume, will ride a very thin grey line indeed.

In my view, the strongest tales are in the first half of the book. Bram Stoker Award-winning author Weston Ochse’s piece “Hollywood Villains”, about a young man who can make anyone do anything not only forces you to sympathise with the villain as he psychically torments some of Hollywood’s more unsavoury characters, but makes you feel that his victims deserved it.

Jeff Strand’s “The Origin of Slashy” focuses on the victim of a rape who decides to become a vigilante and kill men with sex on their mind. The matter-of-factness of Strand’s writing adds considerable impact and there’s certainly no hero in sight in his story.

Edward M. Erdelac’s “Conviction” is a fantastic gangsta style tale about a young man trying to distance himself from the wrong people, only to be pulled back in. Erdelac captures the language and character of Abassi exceptionally well and provides imagery that lasts well after the final sentence.

Other standouts included the darkly atmospheric “Mental Man” by William Todd Rose, Joe McKinney’s “Hero”, “Crooked” by Lee Mather, “Acquainted with the Night” by Cat Rambo and “Max and Rose” by Andrew Bourelle. “Gone Rogue” by Wayne Helge, a humorous tale that reminded me of the film Mystery Men was a welcome addition to break up all the angst.

The only downside to the anthology was that there were possibly a few too many stories that reminded me of a certain rich billionaire with a mechanised suit.

All in all, Corrupts Absolutely? was a great escape, providing very interesting pastiches of heroes and villains. Hopefully Mr Crisler might consider putting together a second volume in the not too distant future?

- review by Greg Chapman