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Media Tie-In: The Right Hand of Doom Limited Edition Beer

I was going through old emails and look what I found. It arrived in my mailbox on my birthday (I will not reveal exactly what day in February that is). How cool is this? Better than birthday cake, in my opinion.  Unfortunately, it is already sold out.

Now THIS is a media tie-in. Librarians, take note. I’m sure there’s a nearby pub that would love to host your graphic novel discussion group.

 

 

 

For Immediate Release:

Introducing the RIGHT HAND OF DOOM beer

inspired by Mike Mignola’s bestselling HELLBOY graphic novels

 

Portland, OR– To celebrate the 21st anniversary of Mike Mignola’s legendary Hellboy character, Dark Horse Comics and Rogue Ales have collaborated to create the RIGHT HAND OF DOOM, a limited edition beer that will be available online beginning February 22, 2015 at www.rogue.com.

 

“When Dark Horse Comics published the first Hellboy story 21 years ago, I never thought there’d be a Hellboy beer,” said Mignola. “But I really can’t imagine a better time for Rogue to introduce the Right Hand of Doom beer. If Hellboy was real I guess he’d finally be able to buy me a beer.”

 

“Hellboy has appeared in graphic novels and comic books, prose novels, two animated features, two live action films, toy lines and all manner of merchandise,,” said Mike Richardson, President of Dark Horse. “Rogue Ales approached us with the idea of creating a heavy-handed, supernatural red ale and we loved the idea of two independent, Portland based companies coming together to create something new that would be both fun for fans and worthy of the Mike Mignola’s creative legacy.”

 

“This beer is dedicated to the B.P.R.D,” said Brett Joyce, President of Rogue Ales. “RIGHT HAND OF DOOM is brewed with all the same passion and intensity that Mike Mignola and Dark Horse have brought to Hellboy for the past 21 years.”

 

The RIGHT HAND OF DOOM label features a Hellboy drawing by Mignola. The beer will be available for the first time publicly at an event at Things From Another World Comics store in Portland on Friday, February 20 at a signing with Mignola and fellow comic book superstars Matt Kindt (MIND MGMT), Eric Powell (THE GOON) and Brian Wood (REBELS). The event begins at 4 PM, with Mignola’s signing scheduled for 6 PM. The beer will be available nationally via http://buy.rogue.com/Rogue-Hellboy-Right-Hand-of-Doom-Red-Ale; pre-orders are now available.

 

 

 

 

Women in Horror Month: WiHM LibGuide at the Wichita State University Library

When I talk about promoting horror at the library, THIS is what I’m talking about.

Lizzy Walker is the Metadata and Digital Initiatives Librarian at Wichita State University Libraries. She has a background in public services and metadata. She also has a strong interest in medieval studies, horror studies, and English literature studies. And check out what she did.

While other libraries and librarians are creating exhibits themed around Valentine’s Day, Black History Month, President’s Day, and other themes common to February library displays (and I’m not discounting the importance of any of these), Lizzy came up with this:
And she has created a Women in Horror Month LibGuide to go with it. How cool is that?
WiHM LibGuideHere’s what Lizzy had to say about her guide:

I created a Women in Horror Month (WiHM) LibGuide after researching materials we have in at the Wichita State University Ablah Library, as well as materials that we ordered just for the display. I quickly realized that not all of the materials would physically fit in the case. I didn’t want all of this research to go to waste, so I decided a subject guide would be the best place to keep all of this information. Here, users may browse the materials I included in the Movies, TV Series, Gothic Novels, Modern Fiction, Literary Criticism, and Film Studies tabs. It’s a work in progress—I plan on continuing to populate it with materials as I find them, as well as when we purchase materials that fit the criteria.
 

Lizzy included some really cool stuff in her guide, but it’s clearly just a beginning. It will be really interesting to see how this resource develops!

Unmasking The Phantom of the Opera @ Your Library

        

      

(Can you find the phantoms pictured above mentioned below?)

When I was in high school, the frenzy over the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera was in full sway, at least for the theater geeks. In the days before there were places to share fanfiction online, my friend Mindy filled legal pads with stories that put her in the role of Christine Daae. I cannot ever begin to tell you how many times I listened to the music, forwarding and rewinding to the best parts (yay for audiotapes)!  I saved money for six months to go on the drama club field trip to New York where we stayed in a ratty hotel near Times Square and saw Broadway shows every night, of course including Phantom of the Opera. That show, in what I remember as an enormous, elegant theater, pulled us in to become a part of it. I’ll never forget the giant crystal chandelier over the audience crashing down onto the stage (not over me, because I was in one of the cheap balcony seats high up in the back– but what a view)! That show, along with The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which I also saw on that trip, slammed home to me the power of live performance. I loved musicals before, but I’ve been an opera fiend ever since.

But I am a reader. And having learned that the musical was based on a book, I tracked down my own copy of the novel by Gaston Leroux and read it cover to cover, including the introductory notes. I must have a shorter attention span these days, or maybe it’s trying to read it while also putting the kids to bed that made it difficult to get through the first pages, but as with Frankenstein, it’s worth it. You can get lost in Leroux’s Paris Opera House, where the novel is set.  It’s not difficult to see how the superstitious could come  to believe their theater was haunted.  Lloyd Webber couldn’t replicate the details of Leroux’s book, but in a theater, suggestion is a powerful element in establishing setting. I looked forward to seeing how the musical would translate to film. And it didn’t, really. Trying to include the minute details that work so well in the book onto the screen just didn’t have the power of either the story or the musical, and it failed them both. The sad truth is that, as much as book lovers often say that the adaptation failed because it wasn’t true to the book, sometimes the adaptation fails because it tries too hard.

The classic horror film is a totally different creature. I have to admit I have never seen it all the way through. I have seen the unmasking scene, though. There is something about black and white that strips a story down to its basics, and Lon Chaney, Sr. is terrifying, with makeup, lighting, and camera shots combining to make some very scary moments. I was introduced to this short video of the unmasking scene that shows two different versions of the unmasking scene, the original and the one most of us are familiar with, and in the original, it appears that he is looking straight out at us as his disfigured face emerges from the shadows in a very menacing way.

Since I haven’t seen the entire thing I can’t say for sure how it compares to Leroux’s novel, but I can say this, just from watching these two versions of the same scene– it doesn’t take much to alter the look, meaning, and feel of  a story or character. Small changes make a big difference.

It’s kind of astonishing, the ways the Phantom of the Opera has morphed through our culture, taking its place in the pantheon of iconic monsters we learn about even from picture books and poetry (like Adam Rex’s Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich). There are references and appearances everywhere, from video games to music, romance novels to children’s series books(the Bailey School Kids strike again!), comics to television cartoons. While sometimes he’s still presented as a frightening monster, he’s not threatening to most people today in the way he once was.  The Phantom doesn’t get the kind of press the major monsters do, so librarians take note: tis the season to find those variations and give them the spotlight. There’s something there for everyone, from Twilight-loving teens and tweens, to horror fans, to seven year old monster lovers (I’m not going to list them here, but Amazon shows at least a dozen adaptations for children at varying reading levels).

Whether he’s presented as a disfigured monster, a romantic antihero, or a rooster who dreams of singing opera, though, the masked Phantom can awaken imagination, and, I hope, draw them in to his world, opening eyes to the many forms of the music of the night.