ReviewI was sitting at my desk minding my own business on Monday morning figuring out how I would structure the day, read I was procrastinating about doing anything remotely like fixing the software problem I was tasked with, when a whole new bunch of email arrived. In amongst the flotsam and jetsam was a missive from Brimstone press with attachment. Opening the attachment I was delighted to find a new e-zine in pdf format that turned out to be the first edition of Eye of Fire. Excellent stuff, an early Xmas present and another distraction from making two columns of figures have the same total. Naturally I had to immediately print a hard copy and check out what Brimstone had presented me with. Hold onto your linen folks, we're going in!First up the e-zine is only twenty pages long, but since it's free who cares any length is value for money at that price. The second thing to notice is the excellent artwork through out the magazine, someone has gone to considerable length to put this little beauty together. It's bright, it's colourful, and most importantly it's easy to read. Besides the obvious promotion content for Brimstone, kept to a minimum, there's some excellent content that will have you glued to the page. Let's break that down and see if it fits. On page 2 we get a statement from Editor-In-Chief Angela Challis about the future of Black Magazine. Black: Australian Dark Culture ceased publication after issue three, just in time for yours truly to have got all excited over the final edition and looking forward to future releases. Naturally I wasn't in the loop on the demise of the magazine, hey ScaryMinds up with events once again, and I was saddened to finally get the news that the magazine was no more due to distribution costs. The good news, and I was as giddy as a school girl catching that latest sparkling vampire epic over it, is that Brimstone are committed to resurrecting the magazine once again in a direct sale model if Eye of Fire is heavily subscribed. Folks it's up to us to main the barricades, cry down the nay sayers, and .. well okay subscribe to Eye of Fire via firing an email to eye_of_fire@brimstonepress.com.au. Come on it's free, it's informative, and it's my precious. Thank you for some light at the end of that dark black tunnel Angela Challis. Doing the happy dance over here, it's not pretty folks. Having given us some good news the e-zine next locks and loads with an interview with Charlaine Harris. For those who don't know, Charlaine is the author behind the Sookie Stackhouse novels that the HBO series True Blood is based on. In one of those twists of fate, having a few of those this week, I've just finished our episode guide of Mataku and am embarking on one for Sookie and friends. Naturally I was more than pleased to hunker on down and read Ms Harris's thoughts. Excellent interview, well worth hitting the e-zine for that alone. And before anyone writes in complaining about ScaryMinds leaping off the straight and narrow, True Blood has a couple of Down Under leads ergo it's in our remit. Reminder to self to put The Last Days of Kali Yuga on my shopping list, really looking forward to this one later in the year. See that would be your Brimstone promotion in Eye of Fire right there. Chuck McKenzie informs the middle pages of the e-zine with a lengthy essay on the zombie invasion of mainstream literature titled The Dead Walk! … Into a Bookshop Near You. I'll high five Chuck with his knowledge of horror literature, the dude is all over trends, what's selling and what's not, and the essay is certainly worth a read for anyone who is serious about their dark genre knowledge, but I'm not quite as optimistic about zombie cinema as Chuck seems to be. Sure there's a lot of zombie flicks being made but the vast majority are decidably second rate trash that aren't worth the stock they are filmed on. Notable exceptions are the upcoming World War Z and Zack Snyder's as yet unnamed project that promises to lift the roof on what you can do with the sub genre. Question for Chuck, when was the last time a zombie flick entered Australian cinemas? Still as stated the essay is a bloody good read, pun intended, and only Chuck McKenzie could get away with asking the question "Zombie romance: Necrophilia or the next inevitable trend?". Only if they sparkle Chuck, only if they sparkle. Actually in another one of those twists of fate I'm currently listening to Alice Cooper's "Cold Ethel" as I type this. Turning the page the reader gets Virgin In the Mist, a flash piece by Shane Jiraiya Cummings. I first ran across this story in Cummings definitive statement on the shorter fiction form Shards, and have a different take on what it all means every time I read the piece. This time round I decided the woman in the mirror was demonic, here to help with the damnation of the narrator. I'll probably have another theory next time I read Virgin In the Mist, stay tuned folks. Andrew J. McKiernan's excellent illustration of the central motif is also included, so there's an unexpected bonus. Keeping up the breadth of coverage we next get three short and sharp reviews. The movie Machine Girl is covered along with the novels Hater by David Moody and Succubus in the City by Nina Harper. Is Succubus a biography of Paris Hilton? And in case you think editor Angela Challis is asleep at the controls there are sections dedicated to publishing news and general news of interest to the horror community. Really running out of space here, so lets crank it up to warp factor nine. A second interview, this time with Aussie author Richard Harland who has just signed a major deal with a U.S publisher. Pulp Horror! Australia's Lurid Literary Past James Doig's foray into the history of horror publishing through the 1960s that had a couple of gems of information I didn't know. Ohhh and a whole bunch of great prizes you can win, might drop an entry there myself. The e-zine closes out with a business directory tailor made for us fans, and a couple of pages of advertisements. Hey the sharp eyed are going to notice a certain site being quoted in there. Overall then Eye of Fire is an excellent read with rock solid content and excellent art work. Once again Brimstone exceed our expectations and I for one am going to subscribe right here right now. Hey you can't complain about the price kids! Regardless if you are Down Under or OS Eye of Fire is freaking worth a moment of your time to check out folks, if you haven't already then drop a line on eye_of_fire@brimstonepress.com.au and scream out "Hell yeah Angela I'm joining the Brimstone army"!. You could of course just subscribe but where's the fun in that. Please note neither ScaryMinds nor MovieHeretic have an association with Eye of Fire, Brimstone Press, or any satanic forces masquerading as the Liberal party in Australia. The review of the first issue of Eye of Fire has been published as a service to readers from the wider horror community world wide. |
