One reason that film uses as much of Beagle's actual prose as it does is Christopher Lee. He arrived with passages from the novel highlighted that he wanted put back in. He's a huge (or at least towering) fantasy fan who was friends with Tolkien and Bradbury. It grieves him that he couldn't play Gandalf and was never…

It's a different definition of Not Aimed at Kids, but for animated nightmare fuel, check out FELIDAE on YouTube. It's like ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN crossed with SE7EN, only with a giant Gregor Mendel manipulating an army of cat corpses by using their veins and tendons as marionette strings.

None of which means it was meant to be as adult as FELIDAE, of course.

"Have a taco" is from the book, where Captain Cully mistakes Schmendrick for the collector of the Childe ballads. The magician later menaces his attackers with "secret judo holds."

Pre-release articles in both trade publications like Variety and the Hollwood Reporter and in genre magazines like Starlog, Cinefantastigue and Twilight Zone made a point of stressing that it was not a children's film, and of comparing it to WATERSHIP DOWN.

I'm not talking about quality so much as marketing labels and respectability. By 1968, secondary-world fantasy was on its way to genre "ghettoization," something which can be seen in the unauthorized Ace editions of Tolkien with the Jack Gaughan covers, but the process wasn't complete yet. Various scholars and…

True, but complaints about her are more specific than vague claims that she's difficult. Kevin Smith is a smug asshole who makes inept films, but when he talks about how hard it was to get audible and understandable line readings out of her and how he wishes he'd cast Garofolo instead, he comes across as pretty…

And here's Mommy Fortuna's song, which really should be covered by Tom Waits:

Here's a lullabye a mother bluejay sings to her fledgling at the beginning of an early chapter:

I'm not sure how much of a children's film, whatever that phrase may mean, this was ever intended to be. The novel was originally published by Viking in 1968 in a hardcover edition aimed at the market for adult mainstream or non-genre fantasy, much as John Gardner's Grendel or Goldman's The Princess Bride initially…

Went to the live podcast for the Squirrel Girl launch at Geeksboro. It was adorable how Erica's eyes lit up when she talked about drawing Kraven's butt.

WW2 paper shortages did not kill the pulp magazines, although they had a significant impact. The big die-off didn't start until 1949 and continued through 1954. WEIRD TALES published until 1954 and stayed in the pulp format the whole time. AMAZING STORIES switched from pulp to digest format in 1953.

Although sometimes called "the postwar pulps," these were not in the pulp format, but were larger, thinner and on slick paper. Some, like ARGOSY, began as pulps, but become much less respectable in the 50s. No "Men's Adventure" writers enjoyed the success and respectability of Hammet, Chandler, Harold Lamb, C. S.…

The Spider was a lot crazier than the Shadow, and wracked up a much higher body count. While the covers depicted him as a handsome mystery man in a domino mask, he adopted a gruesome fanged hunchback disquise. Besides his pistols, he used a special strangling rope. His stories were apocalyptic, with armies of…

This simply isn't true, as the term "pulp magazine" covers a wide range. The Big Four, ARGOSY, ADVENTURE, BLUE BOOK and SHORT STORIES, not only sold well at over a million copies a week, but were quite respectable (although ARGOSY and ADVENTURE became much less so when they transformed into slick "Men's Adventure"…

The "momma's boy" diagnosis put forward by de Camp is a bit simplistic and outdated. More recent biographies have argued that Howard was chronically depressed and finally killed himself not so much because he was despondent over his mother's death as because he no longer had to worry about the effect his suicide…

DESTINATION MOON is pretty dull and PROJECT MOONBASE is hilariously bad, but I don't see anything in them to justify literal or metaphorical nausea. Which "works" that one might be "watching" did you have in mind? If you find the books, which are more typically experienced by being read than being watched, so awful…

It's not just Kyle's lies that annoy me, but the boasting. I prefer the attitude of someone like Alvin York, David Niven or Christopher Lee.

Went to see artist Erica Henderson take part in a launch party, signing, and podcast for Marvel's UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL. She was funny, awesome and adorbs, particularly when she talked about how much she enjoyed drawing Kraven's butt. I won a limited edition (as in only two were printed) poster she did for…

A lot of Heinlein's work is tinged with solipsism. At this point in his career, he was still terrified that he might be the only real thing in the universe. He later embraced the suspicion.