Adorable

Eric Peretti of Alsace, France introduces daughter Caitlin to the worlds of books and cinema.

Best Two Christmas Presents Ever!

Jason Pichonsky writes: "At the initial release of MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, you were soliciting photos of readers with the 'Black Bible of Bava.' I'm not sure if you still are, but, a year later, I just wanted to add my photo to the mix.

"While I received your book later, the much-coveted biography was a Christmas gift from my wife. I had first heard of ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK in early 2000 -- the same time I discovered Mario Bava's films. I had picked up a rental of BLACK SUNDAY and immediately fell in love with the Maestro. Tim's commentary revealed my connection to Bava's work. Being both a cinematographer and director, something I have shared with Mario (though on a minor scale), created an instant bond to his work. Since then, I have managed to track down a majority of his films and eagerly awaited the release Mr. Lucas's biography. I can only say that it is not just the best biography of a genre director, it may also be the finest chronicle of a filmmaker to have ever been published.

"A year later, my son Jameson was born on Christmas Day, knocking ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK to Number Two on my list of best Christmas presents ever. With the biography being slightly heavier than my son, it makes for awkward bedtime reading.

"I just wanted to thank Tim for all the years of perseverance it took to assemble ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK and to thank you both for making 2008 a year to remember."

Sincerely,
Jason Pichonsky

Tim replies: Thank you for the heartwarming photo and your kind and generous words, Jason. Certainly, we are still interested in receiving pictures of proud and satisfied fans with their Bava books. I didn't do any promotional traveling for the book -- it's hard enough to travel with the book! -- and this way, we can get some idea of personal impact it's had.

Search the Bava Book

During the past year, we've fielded some inquiries about when my mammoth tome MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK might be available through Amazon.com. Well, it's available there now -- just in time for the holidays -- and here's the link to the sales page.

It may interest you to know that the Amazon listing offers a nifty "Look Inside!" feature that allows you to search for specific words or names inside and also to peruse a limited amount of interior pages. I'm sure there are some interested people out there who haven't bought the book because they've never seen a copy in person and haven't had the opportunity to page through it to prove to themselves that it's worth the investment. This "Search the Book" feature will help those people to spend a little time with this 12-pound monster and find out why it became the most celebrated film book of 2007-2008, winning the International Horror Guild Award, the Independent Publishers Award, the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Film Award and the Saturn Award for Special Achievement.

In case you're wondering if it will do us, the publisher, more good if you buy the book directly from us, or through the Amazon seller... the answer is Yes, we'll see more profit from the sale if you buy the book from us directly, and we pride ourselves on the efficiency of our mail order department -- but we're fine with whichever way makes you feel most comfortable. By all means, though, make use of the "Look Inside" feature and take a gander at Mario Bava's life... and a big chunk of mine and Donna's, too.

Bava Book Wins International Horror Guild Award!

The International Horror Guild Awards for works from 2007 were announced Friday, October 31. PETER STRAUB, named earlier as the year's LIVING LEGEND, was honored in an essay by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz (http://horroraward.org/peter_straub.html or download as a document: http://horroraward.org/peter_straub.doc.)

The INTERNATIONAL HORROR GUILD AWARDS for WORKS from 2007

NOVEL
The Terror. Dan Simmons (Little, Brown & Company)

FICTION COLLECTION
Dagger Key and Other Stories. Lucius Shepard (PS Publishing)

LONG FICTION
Softspoken. Lucius Shepard (Night Shade Books)

MID-LENGTH FICTION
"Closet Dreams". Lisa Tuttle (Postscripts 10: PS Publishing)

SHORT FICTION
"Honey in the Wound". Nancy Etchemendy (The Restless Dead: Candlewick Press)

ANTHOLOGY
Inferno. Ellen Datlow, editor (Tor)

NON-FICTION
Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark. Tim Lucas (Video Watchdog)

PERIODICAL
Postscripts. Peter Crowther & Nick Gevers, editors (PS Publishing)

ILLUSTRATED NARRATIVE
The Nightmare Factory. Thomas Ligotti (creator/writer), Joe Harris & Stuart Moore (writers), Ben Templesmith, Michael Gaydos, Colleen Doran & Ted McKeever

ART
Elizabeth McGrath for "The Incurable Disorder", Billy Shire Fine Arts, December 2007

About The IHG Awards
The International Horror Guild Awards recognized outstanding achievements in the field of Horror and Dark Fantasy. Nominations are derived from recommendations made by the public and the judges knowledge of the field.

The IHG Living Legend Award is determined solely by the judges. Living Legends are individuals who have made meritorious and notable contributions and/or have substantially influenced the field of horror/ dark fantasy. Previous recipients are Ramsey Campbell, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Gahan Wilson, Stephen King, Richard Bleiler, Charles L. Grant, William F. Nolan, Alice Cooper, Ray Bradbury, Clive Barker, Hugh B. Cave, Edward W. Bryant, Richard Matheson, and Harlan Ellison.

Edward Bryant, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Ann Kennedy Vandermeer, and Hank Wagner adjudicated for the final award year of 2007. William Sheehan and Fiona Webster have also served as judges. Paula Guran administered the award beginning in 1996. The awards were overseen by a non-profit corporation, The Mirabundus Project, Inc.

For additional information on the International Horror Guild, please contact info@horroraward.org.
_______________


Donna and I are honored and delighted by this wonderful news! We extend our heartfelt thanks to the IHG judges and membership, and our congratulations to all the other recipients and nominees!

Princess Asa Signs In

Paul Zdanowicz writes:

"I recently had the privilege to have my copy of MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THEN DARK signed by none other than Barbara Steele. I met her yesterday at Chiller Theater in NJ. She was in love with the book and, from my impression, she has never seen it before. I wanted her to sign the cover under the gold mask to which she replied, 'I will absolutely not! It's too beautiful! I'll sign the inside.'"

Paul thoughtfully snapped this photo of the historic moment. We've heard of people talking about the book with Barbara, but this is the first account we've heard of her actually seeing it or signing a copy. So Paul may well have the first copy to claim this distinction. Alas, we don't have a current address for Barbara and so haven't been able to send her a copy of the book, but Donna and I are happy to know she's enthusiastic about it. And I'm sure that Charlie Largent, who designed the gold mask adorning the hard cover, will be especially flattered by the praise of she who wore the original.

More Proud Customers!

A fellow who goes by the singular name of Brett (who also moderates the RUE MORGUE message boards under the moniker "KISS Fan") was one of numerous friendly folks who visited with Donna and me at Lamberto Bava's table at Cinema Wasteland a couple of weekends ago. On the RUE MORGUE boards, and also on his MySpace page, Brett has posted a lot of great pictures commemorating his numerous meetings and trophies from the convention -- including this enviable multi-signed title page from his copy of MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK! Here you see my signature along with those of Lamberto Bava, John Saxon and Brett Halsey, which raises the question... "Is there anyone out there who's managed to collect even more signatures of Bava alumni in their copy?"

If so, let us see them!

The next couple of photos accompanied a recent e-mail arrival:

"This is Paul Styles from England! I finally got around to sending you my pictures of me with the Bava Book, and also a shot of how it looks next to my WATCHDOG collection -- of which I'm very proud! As always, good luck for the future and I look forward to reading your VIDEODROME book!"

Donna and I are very proud to have our works occupy such a conspicuous shelf in your library, Paul. Many thanks for the privileged peek into your private domain! And, as much as I like our VW binders, I must say the numbered spines of all those back issues project a very neat appearance!

La ragazza nella impermeabile giallo

"The Girl in the Yellow Mackintosh" would make an arresting title for a new giallo movie, and -- as you can see -- actress Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni is already dressing the part. It was a tremendous treat for Donna and I to meet this icon of contemporary Italian horror (Dario Argento's OPERA, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and THE MOTHER OF TEARS, Lamberto Bava's DEMONS 2: THE NIGHTMARE CONTINUES and GHOST SON), at Cinema Wasteland in Strongsville, Ohio this past weekend.

But what is inside that box held ever so tightly in her evil clutch?

Well, Donna and I were so moved by Coralina's deeply emotional response to her first look at MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK -- and we were so charmed by her personally -- that we decided to present her with her own personally inscribed copy. Those of you who have received the book will recognize our tailor-made, custom-fitting book container.

Coralina was lucky enough to receive her copy at Cinema Wasteland, where Donna's and my signatures could be joined by those of fellow Cinema Wasteland guests of honor Brett Halsey (FOUR TIMES THAT NIGHT, ROY COLT & WINCHESTER JACK), John Saxon (THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, EVIL EYE) and none other than...

... Maestro Lamberto Bava, whom Donna and I finally met this past weekend after 28 years of contact by telephone and personal correspondence! That's right, as incredible as it seems, I have finally made contact with the Bava family in the flesh! It was an emotional couple of days, as you can imagine, and there will be more pictures and details coming soon to Video WatchBlog!

Italy's greatest giallo directors like to kill Coralina, but we much prefer hugging her and talking with her over a table piled high with good wine and good food. She returns home today with a 12-pound book cradled in her arms, but we came home yesterday much richer, feeling that we had found many new friends -- and a new sister.

One Year Ago Today

The tired publisher.

The proud author.

Buon' compleanno to MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK!

Bava Book Receives Rondo Award for Best Book

"Nurse Moan-eek" (Linda Wylie) and David Colton present Tim Lucas with the Rondo Award at Wonderfest 2008. Photo by Eileen Colton.

Can it already be one week ago that the 6th annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Film Awards were held at Wonderfest in Louisville, Kentucky?

I am grateful to have won two Rondos this year, one for Best Book (MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK) and another for Best Writer. In my acceptance speech for the Bava book, I naturally thanked Donna for her selfless contribution to the project, and also everyone who pre-ordered the book and helped to make it a reality. I sincerely believe that, despite all the warning signs, we are not witnessing the end of printed matter -- just the elimination of extraneous printed matter, of which the desktop publishing movement of the late '80s and early '90s brought us in quantity too great to collect over so long a period of time. The success of MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK proves that there is still an audience out there that is interested in reading about interesting pop cultural and historical topics in depth, not merely glancing at factoids as they scroll past. And that audience is prepared to not only support but enable publication, if they have to.

One thing I meant to say while accepting the Best Book award is that my feelings about it differ from the way I feel about all the other Rondos we've been fortunate enough to acquire over the past six years. The others represent work done in a single year, but this one represents to Donna and me the work of a lifetime shared together. My thanks to David Colton for making this award, and its attendant recognitions, possible -- and my congratulations to the publishers and editorial staff of RUE MORGUE, who won the Best Magazine award this year, breaking VIDEO WATCHDOG's five-year winning streak.

Bava Book at Wonderfest

Donna and I recently returned from Wonderfest in Louisville, Kentucky -- which has become such a favorite getaway for us and a close group of friends that we've taken to reuniting twice more each year just to share good company, food and laughter. It's taken me awhile to post these images, which actually date back to last year. This first picture shows Randy Fox of Nashville, Tennessee, whose world was clearly rocked by his first gander at the Bava book -- at the first Wonderfest Reunion last November. Thanks to Jeffrey Nelson for taking the photo.

"Hey! My copy wasn't signed by Donna!" complained Old Dark Club House host (and past VW contributor) Gary L. Prange. The book's designer promptly stepped forward with a silver signing pen to grant Gary's wish.

And here are Donna and me posing with Wonderfest's wonderful talent coordinator "Admiral" Donnie Waddell of Louisville, KY, who received a copy of the Bava book as a gift from friend Joe Busam. A nice friend to have, that Joe!

Bava Book Nominated for IHG Award

Since returning home from the Saturn Awards, Donna and I thought we had seen the last of the award nominations for MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK -- so imagine our surprise when we learned today that the Bava book has been nominated in the Non-fiction category for the 2007 International Horror Guild Awards!

This is wonderful news, very exciting -- and we get to share our elation with cherished VW contributor Ramsey Campbell, who has been nominated in two important categories!

Here is the complete list of nominations (with VW-related nominees bolded) as found on the IHG website.

INTERNATIONAL HORROR GUILD AWARD NOMINATIONS for WORKS from 2007

LIVING LEGEND AWARD
Peter Straub

NOVEL
Grin of the Dark. Ramsey Campbell (PS Publishing)
Generation Loss. Elizabeth Hand (Small Beer Press)
The Missing. Sarah Langan (HarperCollins)
Season of the Witch. Natasha Mostert (Dutton)
The Terror. Dan Simmons (Little, Brown & Company)

FICTION COLLECTION
The Imago Sequence and Other Stories. Laird Barron (Night Shade Books)
Plots and Misadventures. Stephen Gallagher (Subterranean Press)
Shadows Kith and Kin. Joe R. Lansdale (Subterranean Press)
Masques of Satan. Reggie Oliver (Ash Tree Press)
Dagger Key and Other Stories. Lucius Shepard (PS Publishing)

LONG FICTION
Procession of the Black Sloth. Laird Barron (The Imago Sequence: Night Shade Books)
The Man in the Picture: A Ghost Story. Susan Hill (Profile)
Softspoken. Lucius Shepard (Night Shade Books)
The Scalding Rooms. Conrad Williams (PS Publishing)

MID-LENGTH FICTION
"The Janus Tree". Glen Hirshberg (Inferno: Tor)
"Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed". Steven Duffy (At Ease with the Dead: Ash Tree Press)
"The Bone Man". Fredric S. Durbin (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 2007)
"Closet Dreams". Lisa Tuttle (Postscripts 10: PS Publishing)

SHORT FICTION
"Digging Deep". Ramsey Campbell (Phobic: Comma Press)
"Honey in the Wound". Nancy Etchemendy (The Restless Dead: Candlewick Press)
"The Tank". Paul Finch (At Ease with the Dead: Ash Tree Press)
"Splitfoot". Paul Walther (New Genre 5, Spring 2007)
"The Great White Bed". Don Webb (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 2007)

ANTHOLOGY
Inferno. Ellen Datlow, editor (Tor)
Summer Chills. Stephen Jones, editor (Carroll & Graf)
American Supernatural Tales. S.T. Joshi, editor (Penguin)
Strange Tales Volume II. Rosalie Parker, editor (Tartarus Press)
At Ease with the Dead. Barbara and Christopher Roden, editors (Ash Tree Press)

NON-FICTION
Frankenstein: A Cultural History. Susan Tyler Hitchcock (W.W. Norton & Company)
Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark. Tim Lucas (Video Watchdog)
Warnings to the Curious: A Sheaf of Criticism on M.R. James. Rosemary Pardoe & S.T. Joshi, eds. (Hippocampus Press)
Sides. Peter Straub (Borderlands Press)
The Science of Stephen King. Bob Weinberg & Lois M. Gresh (John Wiley)

PERIODICAL
Black Static
Dead Reckonings
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
Postscripts
Weird Tales

ILLUSTRATED NARRATIVE
Scalped: Indian Country. Jason Aaron (writer) R.M. Gu�ra (artist) (Vertigo/DC Comics)
The Nightmare Factory. Thomas Ligotti (creator/writer), Joe Harris & Stuart Moore (writers), Ben Templesmith, Michael Gaydos, Colleen Doran & Ted McKeever (illustrators) (Fox Atomic/Harper Paperbacks)
The Blot. Tom Neely (I Will Destroy You)
The Arrival. Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine Books)
Wormwood Gentleman Corpse: Birds, Bees, Blood & Beer. Ben Templesmith (IDW)

ART
Didier Cottier for Exhibit at Utopiales, Nantes, France, November 2007
David Ho for his body of work
Elizabeth McGrath for "The Incurable Disorder", Billy Shire Fine Arts, December 2007
Chris Mars for "New Salem", Jonathan Levine Gallery, October 2007
Mike Mignola for cover & illustrations: Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire (Bantam Spectra)

My congratulations to Mr. Straub and ALL the 2007 IWGA nominees!

Tim & Donna at the Saturn Awards

It's taken us awhile to figure out how to present it, but here is some original camcorder footage of the Bava book segment of the 34th Annual Saturn Awards, beginning with host Jeffrey Ross' introduction of John Saxon, Mr. Saxon's generous introduction of Donna and me, and our joint acceptance speech.

The footage runs 12 minutes or so (overrunning by a couple of minutes the length capabilities at YouTube) and was shot off one of the onstage videoscreens at an angle. I hope you will enjoy it.

Our thanks, once again, to Robert Holguin and the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films for making possible one of the most memorable evenings of our life together.

Bava Book in MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #25

When it comes to classic monster magazines, Jim Clatterbaugh's MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT is in a league unto itself. Published twice a year, MFTV is in many ways the magazine that FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND should have matured into. Its exclusive focus is classic horror cinema (from the silents through the 1960s) and it manages to address a popular readership while at the same time presenting intelligent, well-written articles on such interesting arcana as Bela Lugosi's controversial performance as the Frankenstein Monster in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN, memoirs of various stage productions starring the greats of classic horror, and the cinematography of Golden Age monsterfests. Many of VIDEO WATCHDOG's favorite guest contributors also appear regularly in MFTV: among them Tom Weaver, Greg Mank, Gary D. Rhodes, Gary L. Prange and the unsinkable Bob Burns. Every issue is also impeccably designed, with a glossy black-and-white interior and a typically breathtaking cover that brings the FM style of monster cover into the 21st century.

MFTV's current issue, #25, features articles on WEREWOLF OF LONDON star Henry Hull, written by his descendant Cortlandt Hull (also the subject of Daniel Horne's wonderful cover painting), Greg Mank's production history of Val Lewton's CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (containing many photos not seen in VW's recent Ann Carter coverage), an interview with actor David Hedison about his work on Irwin Allen's remake of THE LOST WORLD, and a riveting Gary Rhodes article about 1930s screenwriter Manley P. Hall and his treatment for an unfilmed sequel to Universal's DRACULA.

Also included in MFTV #25 -- and the reason prompting our appreciation -- is a staggeringly complimentary, three-page review of MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK by Mark A. Miller, author of CHRISTOPHER LEE AND PETER CUSHING AND HORROR CINEMA: A FILMOGRAPHY and co-author of THE CHRISTOPHER LEE FILMOGRAPHY. Miller calls ATCOTD "without a doubt, the most well-researched and and detailed study of any filmmaker ever written" and "a unique masterwork of of film scholarship that will probably never be equaled."

I encourage you to visit the MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT website for ordering information, and collect their back issues while they are still available.

Bava Book at the Saturn Awards

Last Tuesday, June 24, Donna and I were in Los Angeles to attend the 34th Annual Saturn Awards and to accept the Saturn Award for Special Achievement for our work on MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK. The award was presented to us by John Saxon, the star of Bava's seminal giallo LA RAGAZZA CHE SAPEVA TROPPO, aka THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1963), aka EVIL EYE. John's speech was exceptional and both it and our acceptance speech was recorded. We'll be posting it, or a link to it, here in the days ahead.

It was a mind-blowing evening: after making our acceptance speech, we were whisked backstage to be photographed and interviewed and, as we made our way toward the press area, we passed Ray Wise who was waiting to present one of the other awards. I only had time to shake his hand, stammer "You are one of my favorites," and move on. The star of one of the greatest horror films of the last twenty years -- TWIN PEAKS FIRE WALK WITH ME -- and I had to keep moving.

But it got still more surreal. When Guillermo del Toro (winner of this year's George Pal Memorial Award) showed up at the after-party, he gave me a big hug the moment he saw my face and kept numerous interviewers and other people waiting for a moment of his time as he talked to Donna, Charlie Largent and me about how important he believes the Bava book to be.

I didn't have a tape recorder running, but he said something very like: "To my mind, the two greatest film books of all are HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT and yours, ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK. These books are incredible not only for the way they discuss movies, but for the way they convey the sheer love of movies. When I read your book -- and I have two copies, one to read and one to keep -- it makes me want to get off my ass and get out there and shoot a fucking movie!" And now there's an online audio interview with Guillermo by Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere, in which he says something similar at 27:28-47. Thanks to correspondent William D'Annucci for letting me know about it.

Guillermo and I are a mutual admiration society. In an age when all films are relentlessly stylized and visual, his films stand almost alone in earning the right to tell stories in those terms. He has a command of visual magic of the sort that drew me to Bava's work, moreso than any other filmmaker working today; if Bava has any true disciple among contemporary filmmakers, it's Guillermo del Toro. Donna and I saw a trailer for HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles and were dazzled by its ingeniously designed monsters and miraculous images. We can't wait to see it.

I'm also happy to note that Anchor Bay Entertainment's THE MARIO BAVA COLLECTION, VOLUMES 1 and 2 won in the Best DVD Collection category. Producer Alfredo Leone accepted the award, and it was a pleasure to hug him after the ceremony in acknowledgement of our mutual success at making Mario Bava one of the most prominent figures in the past year of fantastic cinema -- almost 30 years after his untimely death.

Four Our German-Speaking Visitors

Here is a link to an article about Mario Bava by Hans Schmid (the author of FENSTER SUM TOD: DER RAUM IM HORRORFILM -- a book about outer space in horror cinema), featured in today's edition of the German media/culture online publication Telepolis. The article will be continued tomorrow in an installment focusing on the current German ban on IM BLUTRAUSCH DES SATANS, the German version of BAY OF BLOOD, which will either be renewed or dropped in about six weeks from now, on the 25th anniversary of its instatement. But this first installment, which runs several interesting pages, mentions MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK and its author quite a bit; indeed, Hans writes that it calls the ATCOTD "THE best film book of 2007 and one of the most beautiful film books of all time."

I'm most appreciative.