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By Joshua Jabcuga

January 5, 2006

Stir of Echoes: Double J. is back with guns blazing to offer his take on some books that may have slipped under your radar in 2005, including EARTHBOY JACOBUS, PROFOUNDLY EROTIC, and RICHARD MATHESON’s COLLECTED STORIES VOL.3.

At last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, I spoke briefly with on-the-rise one-man-army comics storyteller Doug Tennapel, he of EARTHWORM JIM and CREATURE TECH fame. The conversation started on an awkward note: Mr. Tennapel saw my press badge and commented, with a bit of a smirk, “One of your guys at The Shoot gave my book a poor review.” He tossed me a copy and said, “Here, maybe you’ll have a different opinion.” We spoke for probably under five minutes, discussing various film projects of his that were being developed, and that was that. The book in question, EARTHBOY JACOBUS, sat in my pile of screeners and review copies for several months. I wasn’t sure what review at the site he was referring to, but it didn’t matter, since I didn’t want anything to taint my own opinion. In hindsight, I’m not sure any of that would have mattered.

EARTHBOY JACOBUS by Doug Tennapel (Image Comics, $17.95, www.Tennapel.com) is a captivating, poignant, highly charged piece of comics art. A cross between THE IRON GIANT, a touch of MAD MAX, and a dose of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, had it been directed by Peter Jackson, and you’d get about as close as possible to describing this coming-of-age tale of an alien boy learning love and patriotism from a retired police chief who serves as the boy’s old-fashioned, old school father-figure. There’s a deeper political subtext here that is both courageous and even a bit risky, given how popular Liberalism has grown in the wake of President Bush. Tennapel doesn’t back down one bit, and instead of treading softly and carrying a big stick, he simply forges ahead and asks his readers to follow along with him for the course of the book’s journey which can be enjoyed on many levels.

Tennapel’s cartoony style stands alone as one of the few that manages to capture real depth and emotion in an industry that seems to put top-heavy women and out-of-proportion supermen front and center. The book is comical, tenderhearted, and above all else, imaginative. Whether or not you agree with what the author is saying in the book, you should pick it up based on the fact that it’s a highly entertaining, often out-of-the-world story (literally and figuratively) that will at the very least, give you several hours of pure enjoyment, and at best, open up a line of dialogue between you and your friends. A piece of work that is both entertaining and thought provoking: Isn’t that what art is all about? Agree to disagree if necessary, but dive into the book.

PROFOUNDLY EROTIC: SEXY MOVIES THAT CHANGED HISTORY by Joe Bob Briggs ($24.95 US, Universe Publishing, an imprint of Rizzoli New York, 2005.) is a follow-up of sorts to PROFOUNDLY DISTURBING. PROFOUNDLY DISTURBING comes highly recommended to film geeks who want historical context with their movie reviews, but without the jump-to-conclusions, choose-a-side mob mentality of sites like AINTITCOOLNEWS.Com. The latest, PROFOUNDLY EROTIC, comes from the same mold, and is more than a sloppy one-night stand of the ol’ in-and-out.

Like its predecessor, PROFOUNDLY EROTIC allows Briggs room to breathe. The author provides readers with an orgy of rich detail, deep research, and insightful commentary. Many of cinema’s erotic milestones are here: IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1938), LOLITA (1962), and SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE (1989).

Joe Bob Briggs started JOE BOB’S DRIVE-IN THEATER, the highest-rated show on The Movie Channel, exactly twenty years ago, for which he probably gained his most notoriety. The show ran for ten years, and much like the films covered in the author’s books, it garnered a cult-like following. As a film critic, Joe Bob Briggs brings a very accessible, highly seasoned voice to the table. It’s a bit of a shame that most people think of him as “that guy from Monstervision,” because as a writer, he’s so much more. As an audience, we may be able to identify with his passion for film, but many of us could stand to learn a thing or two from his opinions on the movies we love. This book, paired with PROFOUNDLY DISTURBING, is as important as any film book that’s been printed in the last decade. Anyone that scoffs at that notion or wants to glance down with his or her nose in the air is probably trapped in the celluloid closet, playing a game of “find the loose change in my pocket” with the MPAA.

Richard Matheson is one of the last living links to the old school of storytelling. He’s truly a national treasure. Ask most any working genre writer today, and without skipping a beat, they’ll refer to Richard Matheson as “Mr. Matheson.” The man behind many of THE TWILIGHT ZONE’s most original scripts, along with such timeless works as DUEL, I AM LEGEND, and STIR OF ECHOES, is a boundless talent that any up-and-coming writer/artist needs to be familiar with. Fortunately, Edge Books, an imprint of Gauntlet Press (the lead publisher of Richard Matheson books, who take great pride in the products they package), has just released the third and final collection of Matheson’s shorter works, titled RICHARD MATHESON: COLLECTED STORIES VOLUME THREE (www.gauntletpress.com).

The stories, long out of print since last seeing the light of day in Dream/Press’s 1989 limited edition release RICHARD MATHESON: COLLECTED STORIES, is priced at an insanely reasonable $16.95 and comes with the highest recommendation of almost any book reviewed in this column’s history. This volume includes a new introduction by Matheson (dated 2003), along with the original Dream/Press introduction from 1989. This book includes such classics as “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” “Duel,” and others far too numerous to mention. Edited by Stanley Wiater, besides tributes served up by some of literature’s finest authors, including Stephen King and Harlan Ellison, each story includes insight from the icon himself, Mr. Matheson. If you want to see for yourself the stories that would eventually serve as templates for many of today’s takes on horror and sci-fi, this book is a must-own. It is to literature what KING KONG is to film, what Will Eisner is to comics, and what Miles Davis and Elvis Presley are to music. Lofty praise indeed, but the truth nonetheless.

Praise for the writing of Josh Jabcuga, who pens Squib Central with ink made from his own blood, published most Thursdays, exclusively at www.moviepoopshoot.com:

"You’re a bad influence on them, I’ll tell you right now." -Max Cavalera, lead singer of Soulfly, former lead singer of Brazilian death metal icons Sepultura.

I read your article and you my dear are a true ASSHOLE!!! Wonder how you landed your job, desperation???"-Angie (last name unknown; article mentioned...unknown).

“Josh Jabcuga can take the 26 measly letters of our crude alphabet and capture the bi-polar soul of all that is classically yet disturbingly American. Then, when his typewriter is left to cool, he can turn right around…completely ready to trounce any drunk punk that’s got me backed into a corner.” –The Colonel J.D. Wilkes of The Legendary Shack*Shakers.

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