Canister X – A.P. Fuchs: Zombie and Superhero Novelist, Blogger, Superhero and Horror Movie Reviews

Smallville Season Six (2006-2007)
Review by A.P. Fuchs

4 out of 5

This season had me seeing green. Green arrows, that is.

Justin Hartley joins the regular Smallville cast as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, billionaire business tycoon by day, daring Robin Hood do-gooder by night.

At first I wasn’t sure what to think when I heard Green Arrow was going to have a place in Smallville’s continuity. Of course, I was, like, “Hey, cool, another superhero joins the show and this one actually wears his costume!” Whereas the other part of me was, like, “What does Green Arrow have to do with Superman growing up, again?” All I can say without giving anything away is having Green Arrow join the show was a brilliant move. Not only does he demonstrate a good example for Clark, but his past and present conflicts with Lex Luthor also add a nice twist to the storyline.

Of particular note this season was the episode, “Noir,” where everything was in black and white and took place in the ’30s. Reminded me a bit of the Lois and Clark episode that did the same thing, but Smallville’s was much better written and not as cheesy.

The over-arcing storyline of the phantoms that escaped from the Phantom Zone was cool and gave Smallville its trademarked horror-esque twist, but without continually going into Twilight Zone territory like it usually did.

I should add there was one more green element to this season: Martian Manhunter, played by Phil Morris. The only downside, though, was no alien visage but rather his shape-shifted human form instead. Oh well. The budget can only go so far, I suppose. Still, would have been cool if Martian Manhunter had more screen time, but this isn’t his series.

The only thing that I didn’t like about this season was Lex and Lana getting together. It really bothered me and didn’t make much sense when looking back over the first five seasons. This is the reason I give it 4 instead of 5 stars.

Recommended.

Look what I got the other day. Excuse my voice. I was still sick with a cold when this came in.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxsroiDOOMY]

Axiom-man: Of Magic and Men is now available on Amazon Kindle. The comic was written by me and illustrated by Sean Simmans.

Please click the thumbnail below to be taken to the book.

Synopsis:

For a time, people were going missing, without a sign or trace as to their whereabouts.

Then, for a time, they resurfaced, mutilated and broken, some with bizarre attachments surgically grafted onto their severed limbs.

One name has surfaced as to the architect of these twisted acts of violence: the Magic Man.

Axiom-man takes it upon himself to bring the Magic Man to justice, and uses the only bait he has to draw out this deadly maniac: himself.

Welcome to the underground.

Comic Book Trailer:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jhNH56pgVM]

One of my wife’s favorite shows in Style by Jury. I admit, I don’t mind it either and usually watch it with her.

For those who don’t know what the show is about, in short, a person with poor fashion/hair/makeup sense comes on and is interviewed by the host in front of a one-way mirror. Behind that mirror is a “jury” that openly speaks their first impressions about the person being interviewed. The statements are always negative. The person is then shown what the jury said and the host offers to give them a makeover over the course of the week. Once done, the interviewee comes back on in front of a new jury for first impressions and instead receives positive comments.

Okay. So last night a woman who was near 50 came on. Tight red pants, bright pink shirt, a cowboy hat and poofy blonde hair and too much makeup. Fine. As the show progressed and during the process of her makeover, we learned that 15 years back she was striving to be a professional country singer but had put the dream on hold for marriage, family, etc. She still clung to her dream and the past when she was at her peek, but found it got in the way of her living in the present. She was assigned a therapist by the show who basically said she needed to give it up and move on. She was even taken to see an American Idol judge and was told the same thing, in short, that her style of singing represented a bygone era in country.

Obviously, as a viewer, I only got to see what they showed so who knows what other segments were filmed that made it to the cutting room floor, but I was really upset when she was told to shelve her dream.

There was no call for that.

I can understand if one has an issue in the past that’s screwing up their future. I get that. I struggle with that sometimes. Fair enough.

But to tell someone they’ll never make it and to give up? That’s cruel.

They should have offered to help and encourage her to make her goal as a country music singer a reality. Tell her who to contact, what to do, voice lessons, etc.

Look, if you got a dream go and make it happen. Who cares what anyone else says!

But did you notice the catch in what I said? You have to “go and make it happen.” What I’ve been finding in the artist community (regardless of craft) is that it’s chock full of dreamers, even dreamers with talent. It’s all dreaming. There’s no doing, and then there’s frustration. Well, you can’t be frustrated about something you barely attempt, now, right? In my mind there is no excuse to not striving to make your dreams a reality. Family, friends, jobs, even handicaps shouldn’t stop you. I have a friend who’s a blind and disabled writer. She’s getting it done! Her name is Shirley Cheng. Go to her site and see what she’s doing.

I know people who have given up their dream because other things “got in the way” like family or a job, and now are still not happy.

Listen, I have a family and there was a time I was working THREE jobs (Coscom Entertainment being one of them) to take care of my family. But you know what? I still fought and worked on making Coscom Entertainment a reality and a functioning business so I could write and publish fulltime. And I am.

Just this morning an old co-worker from a job I had some six or seven years ago wrote me and asked me how to get going on their writing. My answer? Get it done! Just do it.

So many artists talk about their dreams, their crafts, but out of the millions of us who are artistically-inclined, a small percentage actually give it their all and make it a reality.

Last night Style by Jury really upset me. If you got a dream–go and do it.

Life’s too short to waste dreaming, but it is long enough to get doing.

Get it done.

M E D I A R E L E A S E

CONTACT: Coscom Entertainment
E-mail: coscomentertainment@gmail.com
Web: www.coscomentertainment.com

For Immediate Release

Monster and Superhero Press Signs with New York Agency for Representation

Winnipeg, Manitoba—Founded 2004, Coscom Entertainment steps up its game to a new level by signing with a New York literary agency to sell titles abroad.

Coscom Entertainment publisher and author A.P. Fuchs has now taken his company out of the small press and into the big leagues by signing an agreement with the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency of New York. The mission: reprint the Coscom Entertainment catalog domestically and internationally and get movies made of its titles.

Originally content to sticking to the small press, Fuchs knew he had to change his game plan when producers and foreign publishers came knocking on his door asking about some of Coscom Entertainment’s titles.

“I’ve been at this publishing and writing game for a long time,” says Fuchs, an unashamed self-publisher who started Coscom Entertainment as a means to release his own material. “It’s nice to see that despite some of the cold shoulders over the years, self-publishing does indeed have its place and can be used as a launching pad for a small press and solid opportunities.”

All the hard work, thousands of hours invested, the ups and downs—it has paid off. Fuchs and his team of authors are ready to show the mainstream publishing world that there’s plenty of fresh material out there in the monster and superhero genres, two areas of interest that Fuchs made Coscom Entertainment’s focus in 2008.

“Some people say monsters and superheroes are a kind of weird combination for a press’s niche,” Fuchs says. “Then I remind them the Incredible Hulk combines those niches perfectly, and while we don’t have big green monsters running amok over here, we got plenty of zombie, werewolf, vampire and superhero fiction to satisfy a reader looking for a fun read and wanting to be entertained.”

Some of Coscom Entertainment’s latest releases are: Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers by Paul A. Freeman, Blood of the Dead by A.P. Fuchs, The Lifeless by Lorne Dixon, Alice in Zombieland by Lewis Carroll and Nickolas Cook, Don of the Dead by Nick Cato, Emma and the Werewolves by Jane Austen and Adam Rann, and Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes: Zany Zombie Poetry for the Undead Head edited by A.P. Fuchs.

For more on Coscom Entertainment, please visit www.coscomentertainment.com
Coscom Entertainment Twitter: www.twitter.com/mrcoscom

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This book is hardcore. It’s 99.9% horror movies start to finish, with a few of those “other” movies (read: non-horror) peppered throughout.

Tim Gross is a guy who loves horror and his love for the genre oozes on every page with every review. And there’s loads of ‘em here. Tons. I mean, really, out of all of the movies he reviewed, I only maybe knew of, what, 40 of them? The rest were horror flicks ranging from the ’80s to the present, stuff made not just by the mainstream but all those cool underground movies as well. In other words, my DVD rent and shopping list just exploded.

This book is dense and totally horror info-loaded.

If you dig movies and want to hear somebody’s thoughts–and genuine fan’s thoughts and not just a mainstream reviewer’s whose job it is to “review stuff”–then Gross Movie Reviews Vol. 1 is a must-have hands done.

Grab a copy. You’ll have a blast.

Hound: The Curse of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lorne Dixon is now available at the following on-line retailers:

Paperback:

Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Amazon.co.uk
Barnesandnoble.com
Other On-line Retailers

eBook:

Amazon Kindle
Fictionwise.com
Drivethruhorror.com
Mobipocket.com

Synopsis:

Doctor Watson is dispatched to gloomy Dartmoor to investigate the savage murder of Sir Charles Baskerville–but even the great detective Sherlock Holmes could not anticipate the dark secrets they will uncover. A monster haunts the dark countryside that surrounds the Baskerville estate, a creature whose existence will challenge the rational beliefs at Holmes’s core.

The last Coscom Entertainment release: R.I.P.

For our full list of books, please see: www.coscomentertainment.com

Okay, so enough beating around the bush.

Here the big news, uncensored, so far as I’m allowed to talk about it.

Ready?

You sure?

Okay.

I’m pleased to announce Coscom Entertainment has signed on with the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency of New York in an effort to expand the company’s reach into the literary marketplace, both domestically and abroad. Likewise, this would also include efforts to secure sales to film houses and other subsidiary companies.

This is massive. This takes Coscom Entertainment (both my work and others) to a whole new level of distribution, recognition and growth.

I love the small press. I really do. I’m even more in love with self-publishing and doing your own thing. What makes the above so ideal is Coscom Entertainment is the baseline for all this. My publishing house creates the material and the product then has the opportunity to reach out on a grand scale. This is sheer awesomeness and myself and those in the know over here are very excited to see what the future will bring.

As more things develop, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Exciting and an amazing blessing!

I want to publicly thank the Lord for blessing me and my authors with this. This has been a long, long road for me. Those who are in my personal circle know the nitty gritty on some things, the sacrifices made, etc. I’ve even begun constructing a memoir on my writing journey, the goal with it to eventually post here as an encouragement to other writers and artists to keep fighting and keep pushing.

Exciting times ahead. Here we go.

Smallville Season Five (2005-2006)
Review by A.P. Fuchs

5 out of 5

Leading up to this season, Smallville was more “earthbound,” in that it really was about a teenager with developing superpowers with only mere glimpses into his true heritage.

Season Five changed the tone of the series forever.

I always viewed this season as the mythology turning point for the series. Huge things happen and we’re suddenly thrust from those Twilight Zone-oriented episodes into the DC Comics universe; things shifted from a “superboy” to Superman.

Significant events go down this season, including the emergence of a certain location and the death of a certain loved one. We’re also introduced to a couple more characters from DC Comics continuity.

For me, this was the season where the show grew up and strolled down the Superman road with purpose instead of by happenstance. (Those who’ve seen the show know what I mean.)

The only thing that irked me about this season and going into the next was the whole Clark and Lana thing was getting played out and it seemed the romantic subplot of the show was going in circles instead of officially stating, “Let’s get these guys together for real and keep it that way.” But, as per usual TV show fashion, something always has to happen to drive the couple apart. Though romantic tension is good up to a point, Smallville set the bar high in terms of driving the audience nuts–even to the point of bad-TV frustration–with the Clark and Lana relationship. Sometimes we as viewers just want to see things work out, you know?

Other than that, good times to be had in Season Five of Smallville.

Recommended.

It seems that all I’ve been posting here lately aside from reviews is teasers about upcoming works.

Well, I hate to do it again, but I’ve had a crazy whirlwind of a day.

I got a rad email earlier this week, which then blossomed into rad phone calls and other emails, and today another rad email hit my inbox and while I was doing a certain something with that rad email, yet another rad email came in.

In short, I got some really awesome-rad-wicked-cool news to share soon.

Watch this space.