In ancient Japan, a witch named Hannya seeks to use the warrior-monk Ningen's enlightened body and spirit to resurrect the demon-samurai Atsumori and unleash an era of chaos! After leaving the safety of his temple to protect defenseless commoners, Ningen soon finds that several colorful bounty hunters are on his trail! * Revisiting the world of 365 Samurai and a Few Bowls of Rice! * His last book was nominated for a teens award by YALSA. New standalone adventure!
Covering genres from adventure and fantasy to horror, science fiction, and superheroes, this guide maps the vast terrain of graphic novels, describing and organizing titles to help librarians balance their graphic novel collections and direct patrons to read-alikes. New subgenres, new authors, new artists, and new titles appear daily in the comic book and manga world, joining thousands of existing titles—some of which are very popular and well-known to the enthusiastic readers of books in this genre. How do you determine which graphic novels to purchase, and which to recommend to teen and adult readers? This updated guide is intended to help you start, update, or maintain a graphic novel collection and advise readers about the genre. Containing mostly new information as compared to the previous edition, the book covers iconic super-hero comics and other classic and contemporary crime fighter-based comics; action and adventure comics, including prehistoric, heroic, explorer, and Far East adventure as well as Western adventure; science fiction titles that encompass space opera/fantasy, aliens, post-apocalyptic themes, and comics with storylines revolving around computers, robots, and artificial intelligence. There are also chapters dedicated to fantasy titles; horror titles, such as comics about vampires, werewolves, monsters, ghosts, and the occult; crime and mystery titles regarding detectives, police officers, junior sleuths, and true crime; comics on contemporary life, covering romance, coming-of-age stories, sports, and social and political issues; humorous titles; and various nonfiction graphic novels.
Since the end of the Second World War—and particularly over the last decade—Japanese science fiction has strongly influenced global popular culture. Unlike American and British science fiction, its most popular examples have been visual—from Gojira (Godzilla) and Astro Boy in the 1950s and 1960s to the anime masterpieces Akira and Ghost in the Shell of the 1980s and 1990s—while little attention has been paid to a vibrant tradition of prose science fiction in Japan. Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams remedies this neglect with a rich exploration of the genre that connects prose science fiction to contemporary anime. Bringing together Western scholars and leading Japanese critics, this groundbreaking work traces the beginnings, evolution, and future direction of science fiction in Japan, its major schools and authors, cultural origins and relationship to its Western counterparts, the role of the genre in the formation of Japan’s national and political identity, and its unique fan culture. Covering a remarkable range of texts—from the 1930s fantastic detective fiction of Yumeno Kyûsaku to the cross-culturally produced and marketed film and video game franchise Final Fantasy—this book firmly establishes Japanese science fiction as a vital and exciting genre. Contributors: Hiroki Azuma; Hiroko Chiba, DePauw U; Naoki Chiba; William O. Gardner, Swarthmore College; Mari Kotani; Livia Monnet, U of Montreal; Miri Nakamura, Stanford U; Susan Napier, Tufts U; Sharalyn Orbaugh, U of British Columbia; Tamaki Saitô; Thomas Schnellbächer, Berlin Free U. Christopher Bolton is assistant professor of Japanese at Williams College. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. is professor of English at DePauw University. Takayuki Tatsumi is professor of English at Keio University.
Join Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro for an intimate exploration of his darkly electrifying psychological thriller Nightmare Alley. Comprehensive and insightful, Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley: The Rise and Fall of Stanton Carlisle, is the ultimate companion to the master director’s latest work. • DISCOVER A RIVETING STORY: Inspired by William Lindsay Gresham’s cult 1947 novel, Nightmare Alley stars Bradley Cooper as Stanton “Stan” Carlisle, a talented but troubled drifter who takes up with a traveling carnival. Ingratiating himself with its troupe of misfits, Stan swindles his way to fortune and fame, but when he meets psychiatrist Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), his greed and duplicity will put him on the path to self-destruction. Also starring Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, and Rooney Mara, Nightmare Alley is del Toro’s most ambitious film to date, an engrossing yet disturbing journey into the psyche of a tragic swindler whose own nature seals his fate. • EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS: This deluxe volume delves into the creation of all aspects of the film through extensive interviews with del Toro and his cast and crew, including writer Kim Morgan, with whom he collaborated closely on the script. • NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN CONCEPT ART AND PHOTOS: This incisive commentary is illustrated with a broad range of striking visuals from the production—including concept art and unit photography—that illuminate the film’s two distinct worlds: the ramshackle life of the traveling carnival and the sophisticated art deco trappings of 1940s Buffalo, New York. • INSIGHTS FROM DEL TORO HIMSELF: Tracing the arc of a production that faced multiple challenges, not least of all the onset of a pandemic that threatened to derail shooting, del Toro and his team give deep insights into the complex psychology of the film’s protagonists and the process of bringing them to life on set.
The first work of its kind, this encyclopedia provides 360 brief biographies of African American film and television acPER010000tresses from the silent era to 2009. It includes entries on well-known and nearly forgotten actresses, running the gamut from Academy Award and NAACP Image Award winners to B-film and blaxpoitation era stars. Each entry has a complete filmography of the actress's film, TV, music video or short film credits. The work also features more than 170 photographs, some of them rare images from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
With more than 250 images, new information on international cinema—especially Polish, Chinese, Russian, Canadian, and Iranian filmmakers—an expanded section on African-American filmmakers, updated discussions of new works by major American directors, and a new section on the rise of comic book movies and computer generated special effects, this is the most up to date resource for film history courses in the twenty-first century.
This guide to the Nightmares of Netherworld contains advice on how to beat the most common species of Nightmares and includes their strengths and weaknesses, fun facts, and pro tips.
Contains over two thousand entries, arranged alphabetically within four volumes, that provide information about significant films, actors and actresses, directors, and writers and production artists in North American, British, and West European cinematic history. Includes photographs and indexes.
