As the sixth installment in George Romero’s zombie film series, Survival of the Dead offers a new storyline and (of course) more zombies. Debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in mid-September, the film’s announcement has been met with mixed results. Some zombie lovers are groaning at the thought of another film in the series; others are interested in the story about a group of survivors who leave their island to find a cure and save humanity.

There are a number of stills from the movie that have recently been released through the TIFF website.

Official Survival of the Dead Movie Premiere at TIFF.net

In addition to the stills, you can also get more into the gore at the Official MySpace page for Romero’s Survival of the Dead.

BTS George Romero Sneak Peek

H.P. Lovecraft is known as the father of modern horror. His short fiction has inspired well-known writers like Stephen King to game designers like Pagan Publishing and Chaosium.

In the spirit of Cthulhu and the Necronomicon, we’d like to provide you with a few, haunting places to visit and learn more about the writer who had a profound and significant impact on the horror genre.

H.P. Lovecraft Websites

• H.P. Lovecraft Archive: From the life of Lovecraft to an extensive bibliography, this award-winning site is a destination.
• H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society Features props for the live action game Call of Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian fan regalia.
• Visit H.P. Lovecraft’s Grave in Rhode Island Want to attend H.P. Lovecraft’s memorial service next year? In Quahog, you certainly can and see some of the physical locations that inspired Lovecraft’s stories.
• Unfilmable: H.P. Lovecraft-inspired Films A “Lovecraft Mythos” site, Unfilmable is dedicated to promoting and providing content for Lovecraftian films.
• H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulhucon A Lovecraftian event taking place early October in Oregon.

Steampunk has grown as a genre over the last few years and some very cool stuff has hit the shelves recently. Everyone has their favorites and we have compiled a list of the seven “must have” Steampunk books and games for fans to check out.

Steampunk

Replete with whimsical mechanical wonders and charmingly anachronistic settings, this pioneering anthology gathers a brilliant blend of fantastical stories. Steampunk originates in the romantic elegance of the Victorian era and blends in modern scientific advances—synthesizing imaginative technologies such as steam-driven robots, analog supercomputers, and ultramodern dirigibles. The elegant allure of this popular new genre is represented in this rich collection by distinctively talented authors, including Neal Stephenson, Michael Chabon, James Blaylock, Michael Moorcock, and Joe R. Lansdale.

Steampunk is available at Amazon.com.

Steamworks

Ever wish you could just toss a grenade into a room full of orcs? Or wish you had an automaton to scout out a booby trapped hallway? Or that you could let your fantasy characters explore the ruins of an ancient, technologically advanced civilization? If you’ve ever wanted to introduce a little bit of steampunk into your fantasy campaign, then you want Steamworks!

Steamworks is your ultimate guide to adding steampunk-style inventions, gadgets, gizmos, machines, and devices into your fantasy setting. This 165 page guide offers new classes, new skills and feats, new magic, new creatures, and of course new technology!

Steamworks is available at RPGNow.com.

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer

In Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson took science fiction to dazzling new levels.

Now, in The Diamond Age, he delivers another stunning tale. Set in twenty-first century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens when a state-of-the-art interactive device falls in the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life—and the entire future of humanity—is about to be decoded and reprogrammed…

The Diamond Age is available at Amazon.com.

Steampunk Musha

Steampunk Musha is an alternative setting for Iron Gauntlets that features a Victoriental feudal land, torn between honoring the old traditions and embracing new technologies. It includes all new and original player races, such as clockwork ronin, the half-demon jinteki-oni, keshou (goblin cousins), and the juunishi-p’o (human-spiritual hybrids of the zodiac animals); new gimmicks, backgrounds, and vocations; two new forms of magic; new dueling, melee, and ranged weapons including firearms; and a bestiary that includes dangerous creatures, spirits, and oni.

Steampunk Musha is available at RPGNow.com.

Against the Day

The inimitable Thomas Pynchon has done it again. Hailed as “a major work of art” by The Wall Street Journal, his first novel in almost ten years spans the era between the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I and moves among locations across the globe (and to a few places not strictly speaking on the map at all). With a phantasmagoria of characters and a kaleidoscopic plot, Against the Day confronts a world of impending disaster, unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places and still manages to be hilarious, moving, profound, and so much more.

Against the Day is available at Amazon.com.

RunePunk: Steam and Shadow

Dark steampunk fantasy like no other. RunePunk is a complete Plot Point campaign setting officially licensed for Savage Worlds and requires the Savage Worlds roleplaying game to play. Inspired by the works of Mieville and Moorcock among others, RunePunk is a gaming experience like no other. Running 192 pages, RunePunk: Steam & Shadow is a beautifully illustrated, full color hardback book detailing everything you need to bring the dystopian city of ScatterPoint to life.

RunePunk: Steam and Shadow is available at RPGNow.com.

The Steampunk Trilogy

Steampunk is the twisted offspring of science fiction and postmodernism, a sassy, unpredictable tongue-in-cheek style of which the incomparable Paul Di Filippo is master. The three short novels in The Steampunk Trilogy are all set in a very alternative nineteenth century, and feature a mixture of historical and imaginary figures. In “Victoria,” a young and lissome Queen Victoria disappears from her throne and is replaced by a sexy human/newt clone. The race is on to find the original Victoria and to hide the terrible secret from the nation. In “Hottentots,” Massachusetts is threatened by monsters from the deep; in “Walt and Emily,” Emily Dickinson hooks up with a robust and lusty Walt Whitman, loses her virginity, and travels to a dimension beyond time where she meets the future Allen Ginsberg.

The Steampunk Trilogy is available at Amazon.com.

So many more…

This is just a small collection of cool Steampunk products to explore. So many more are available. Ranging from Anime like Steamboy to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic collection. Someone even built at Steampunk Laptop. How cool is that?

What is your favorite Steampunk?

The Mist

The storm rolled across Long Lake in Maine with a fury, leaving David Drayton and his family with fallen trees, downed power lines, and no electricity. At his wife’s request, David heads to the local supermarket to stock up on supplies, taking his young son and neighbor along for the ride. But the strange white mist that lingered on the lake has followed them to town, stranding them all in the store. Because something in the fog is taking people-and you can hear their screams…

Look for The Mist and other titles by Stephen King in electronic format at DriveThruHorror.com.

Bards and Sages releases Lives of Necromancers. In 1834, William Godwin published Lives of Necromancers, an overview of legendary and historic figures associated with the occult. Godwin’s work was more than a who’s who of known magicians and sorcerers, however, but also a critical examination of what he called the “credulity of the human mind.” Godwin was intrigued not only by the human mind’s capacity to conjure up such supernatural fantasies, but to also accept such supernatural ideas as fact.

This reprint brings you the original text without editorial comment and footnotes. We have made some formatting changes in the interest of readability, and culled a variety of public domain sources to add relevant illustrations to highlight the work. Readers interested in the history of occultism and its impact on culture will find this work a fascinating read that offers an interesting perspective on such figures as Dr. John Dee, Faustus, Merlin, Medea, The Witch of Endor, and dozens of others.

Lives of Necromancers is available at RPGNow.com

Freelance author, reviewer and game designer, Monica Valentinelli, has launched a new website called Words on the Water.

Monica’s published work includes Aletheia from Abstract Nova, Worlds of the Dead from Eden Studios, Colonial Gothic from Rogue Games, Prey at Pseudopod.org and more.

She also has Obsidian: the Age of Judgement and Conspiracy of Shadows fiction, as well as many Horror & Dark Fantasy reviews here on Flames Rising.

Drop by www.mlvwrites.com to catch up on the latest news and updates related to Monica’s writing projects, freelance work and interesting events in Madison.

DriveThruFiction is one of the Web’s premiere places to acquire digital copies of your favorite best-selling fiction titles. There’s so much, it can’t all be contained in just one place! Please follow the links below to browse your preferred genre.

DriveThruHorror.com – If you enjoy a sense of creeping terror and shaking on the edge of your seat, DriveThruHorror may have something which suits your palate.

DriveThruFantasy.com – From Terry Pratchett to Jacqueline Carey, from World of Warcraft fiction to Marion Zimmer Bradley, DriveThruFantasy fulfills all your desires for the fantastical.

DriveThruSciFi.com – Arching dystopian vistas, faster-than-light starships or hidden parallel universes, the boggling infinity of it all can be found at DriveThruSciFi.

Xenagia is a brand-new genre web site, specializing in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.

Visit the Xenagia Book Index. This Xenagia book index currently contains 2577 books and 1069 authors. The Xenagia Forums feature discussions on Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror fiction, movies and more. You can also get updates on your favorite authors, including Neil Gaiman, Caitlin R. Kiernan and George R.R. Martin.

www.xenagia.net

Created by Jeff Tidball (Lord of the Rings RPG) and Will Hindmarch (Vampire: the Requiem), Gameplaywright is a blog about writing, designing and playing games.

Not aimed at professionals, and not a “how-to” for beginners…this blog lies somewhere in the middle.

There are plenty of great topics from two very talented game designers that range from video games to tabletop RPGs and shopping at Borders. They share personal experience and offer up a few theories on the elements of creating and enjoying games. All-in-all, plenty of great material.

So, go read it:

http://gameplaywright.net

You may recall that we recently posted a call for suggestions to review horror webcomics. Well, I’m happy to report we’re digging deep into all things gory and illustrated to provide you with a list of the best places to visit on the web. One work of horror comedy art turned up in a place so unusual we just had to let you know about it — your sewer.

Dubbed “Chewie,” this urban artist brings a Tim Burton feel to your local neighborhood by incorporating his “Skelewag” characters into the environment. Taking inspiration from pebbles, grass, water stains, and anything else he can find, Chewie lends us his imagination in those dark and dank places. The image here at left is of a piece that adds a touch of gritty humor by utilizing the background to add artistic elements like a horizon and light coming from a streetlamp. While the style may be something becoming almost cliche, after a fashion, taking pieces like plants and other environmental factors to tell a story is not only inventive, it’s a great way of turning the world around us into something interesting. Some pieces, like these featured on Ektopia with firefighting and miner Skelewags utilize color and cracks in the wall to tell a story.

One thing that makes these pieces really strong, is the contrast between organic details in an urban environment that are absolutely unique and often have fine features, with black-and-white characters that enhance the scene. You’ll notice that he adds only a slight bit of shading to add perspective to the characters and a sense of where the lighting is coming from.

To follow Chewie’s project, you can check out more of his pieces at this ConceptArt.org forum post by Chewie about his work or designer Baekdal’s review of Skelewags. Unfortunately, the Skelewags website has been down every time we’ve checked it; we’re hoping Chewie will get the chance to update it.

So whether you’re calling Skelewags urban art or sewer graffiti, in our opinion it’s a skeletal thumbs “way up.”

Ok, I’m getting excited about the upcoming Battlestar Galactica Season Four. I’ve watched the Teasers and I’ve got the Razor DVD.

What I don’t have is the Life Size Cylon.

“Each Cylon is hand-made using only the finest materials and overseen by the ‘Robot Man’ himself, Fred Barton.”

Can you imagine that thing sitting here in the Flames Rising office staring at us as we write reviews?

Sometimes the best in horror comes from the most unlikely of places; some of you might remember Franklin W. Cain’s Lego® Cthulu. While building horror images with Legos® can be a lot of fun (my favorites are the Darth Maul Lego® Sculpture Kit and the Viking Fortress against Fafnir Dragon) Brick Films knows that Legos® can also be used to animate your fear or (in this case) a horror comedy.

You can submit your own mini-Lego® film to Brickfilm or you can review the ones that other people submitted. This particular film is the award-winner from this past Halloween, but there are a ton of other short films on YouTube!

I also really enjoy artist Eric Harshbarger’s Lego® Sculptures, check out his Emily Strange Lego® Sculpture.

What are some of your favorite horror or dark fantasy Lego® sculptures and animated shorts? Post them here!

Happy howling!

The Saw movies have been pretty popular with horror fans for the last several years. Popular enough for a fourth movie to hit the shelves recently (and don’t forget the special edition of the first three movies that came out in October).

There are plenty of tie-products as well, including hats and t-shirts of course. I think my favorite though is the SAW Plush Doll from Sideshow Collectibles.

In the films Saw, Saw 2, and Saw 3, audiences were horrified as the villain crafted elaborate puzzles and ‘games’ for his victims. To communicate with his victims, the jigsaw killer would often communicate through a very eerie puppet, with dark eyes and vivid red markings on its pale white face. The Saw Puppet is now available in ‘cute’ plush form, perfect for the Saw fan in your life, or to add to your collection!

I think it is great when tie-in products go beyond posters and t-shirts. Fans like to have something fun and interesting from their favorite movies and tv-shows. Novelizations and Video Games are cool, but they also have their own “entertainment value” for the reader/gamer on their own. I’ve known plenty of folks who collect Action Figures and Plush like crazy. Hell I’ve got a couple different versions of Cthulhu creeping around the office and Monica has an epic battle between Spike and Thor going on by the bookcase. Sometimes its fun just to have something. Even “adults” get to enjoy their toys now-n-then.

So, what about you?

What is your favorite movie tie-in product?

Derek C. F. Pegritz really enjoyed the new Cloverfield movie from J. J. Abrams. The movie has done really well in theaters and is getting some pretty good feedback on various forums. Instead of writing up a review, Derek gives us:

Modern Monsters and Modern Humanity

This is a great look at monster movies over the years and Derek tells us his thoughts on why Cloverfield is so much fun. Whether you enjoyed the movie or not, Derek’s essay is worth reading.