Books & Nachos

Psycho. The word evokes common images, all black and white from the classic Alfred Hitchcock film. The film is such an acclaimed success that for many it obscures the fact that before Norman Bates was on the big screen he was first on the page, in Robert Bloch's original novel Psycho. Now Stuart, Arnie, and Brock are reviewing all the Psycho movies as part of Now Playing's limited-availability Fall 2013 Gold Donation Series, but here, unlimited, you can hear Stuart's thoughts on the original book! Take a listen, then go to Now Playing Podcast before October 31, 2013 to hear the thoughts on the film!

This week the movie World War Z arrives in theaters starring Brad Pitt as an investigator traveling the world during a massive zombie outbreak. The film shares the title with the best selling book by Max Brooks, but fans of the book claim the movie has little resemblance to their beloved story. The movie will be reviewed at Now Playing Podcast but first Stuart has read and now reviews the source material!

After you listen to his review, head to NowPlayingPodcast.com and find out how to hear their World War Z movie review, only available until June 30, 2013!

Return of the Living Dead is best known for being a 1985 horror-comedy film that is both a sequel to and a spoof of George Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead. However, few know of the messy history behind the film, and that it originally started off as a novel written by Night of the Living Dead co-writer John Russo and released in 1977. A straight follow-up to Romero's original film, Russo's novel bears little resemblance to the film that would follow 8 years later. But now as part of Now Playing's Return of the Living Dead bonus retrospective series Stuart in LA reads and reviews the original novel and tells how this book became the 1985 cult classic!

After you listen to his review, head to NowPlayingPodcast.com and find out how to hear their Return of the Living Dead movie review series, only available until June 30, 2013!

Continuing the look at the new series of Marvel Comics prose novels that adapt popular comic arcs into novel form Arnie is back this week to review New Avengers: Breakout by Alisa Kwitney. The original story was told by Brian Michael Bendis in the 2005 New Avengers comics. This novel changes the story considerably making two characters not in Bendis' comics-- Hawkeye and the Black Widow -- the main characters. Listen to Arnie's review to find out if these reviews are for better or for worse.

Next Tuesday the fourth book in Marvel Comics new prose novel series is being released--Iron Man: Extremis by Marie Javins. This wraps up the four novel series announced by Marvel back in 2012. To commemorate the conclusion of this book series, Arnie is back to continue his reviews of these Marvel Comics novelizations of successful comic arcs. This week Arnie is reviewing Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, written by longtime Marvel Comics scribe Peter David, based on the comic series by Joss Whedon.

Even if you don't know the name Bruce Campbell the odds are you've seen him in television shows and movies. Currently a star of Burn Notice, Campbell has been featured in the Hercules and Xena television shows, as well as films like Maniac Cop, Escape from L.A., The Hudsucker Proxy, The Majestic, and all three Spider-Man films. But for all his work, Campbell is perhaps best known for his role of Ash in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films. As today the remake of Evil Dead is being released, Arnie takes this opportunity to revisit Campbell's 2001 autobiography for the insights it gives on the actor and his films.

Last year Marvel Comics started a new prose novel line adapting popular comic book story arcs to long fiction form. Now Arnie is reviewing all four of these novelized comic book stories, starting with the first book -- Civil War. The Civil War comic books of 2006 and 2007 was a best-selling event, spanning over 100 comics and topping sales charts. Now author Stuart Moore is taking this expansive story and compressing it into a 350 page book. Join Arnie as he contrasts the novel with its comic book counterpart, and find out if Civil War is worth a read!

After reviewing the Keanu Reeves film Constantine, based on DC's Hellblazer comics, hosts Arnie and Jakob turn to the source material on which the movie was based. In their second podcast looking at John Constantine in comics, they discuss Original Sins, Garth Ennis' first American comic book writing and one of the most acclaimed Hellblazer storylines.

Jakob and Arnie have returned to Books & Nachos to review more DC comics graphic novels. On Tuesday they reviewed the Keanu Reeves film Constantine, based on DC's Hellblazer comics. Now they turn to the source material, reading and reviewing Original Sins, a graphic novel compiling Hellblazer issues 1 through 9.

The original Die Hard movie was based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. But as Thorp's novel had no sequel, 20th Century Fox had no road map for where to take John McClane in the sequel Die Hard 2. Instead, the studio and screenwriters took Walter Wager's 1987 novel 58 Minutes about an NYPD officer who has to fight off terrorists at JFK airport. What other changes are there between the book and the film, and is the book worth your time? Spend 14 minutes listening to Stuart's review to find out!