Written by Jon Williams
On October 8, 2003, The
Walking Dead issue #1 hit comic shops everywhere. Coming right on the heels
of the acclaimed movie 28 Days Later, it helped start a
snowball effect to begin the zombie craze that is still building to this day.
Now, The Walking Dead is still going
strong as a comic series, with issue #184 coming out earlier this week, and creator
Robert Kirkman saying the end is still “far away off.” In conjunction with the
fifteenth anniversary of the first issue’s release, October 13 has been
designated as Walking Dead Day. To help your library celebrate with your
patrons, here’s a look at the pop culture phenomenon that The Walking Dead has become.
The namesake television series The Walking Dead premiered,
fittingly enough, on Halloween, October 31, 2010. Like the comic, it centered
on Rick Grimes ( Andrew
Lincoln), a small-town sheriff who awakes from a coma to find the hospital
he is in, as well as the world outside, overrun by zombies. His life becomes a
fight for survival as he struggles to figure out what’s going on and search for
other survivors, particularly his family. The show has been a sensation,
breaking viewership records for a cable series, and has gone on through its
various seasons to explore the threat posed by other human survivors,
personified by such memorable villains as the Governor ( David
Morrissey) and Negan ( Jeffrey
Dean Morgan), as well as the ever-present zombie menace. This Sunday,
October 7, the ninth season debuts, with this being notable as Andrew Lincoln’s
last, as the show will shift its focus to Daryl ( Norman
Reedus) and Maggie ( Lauren
Cohan) as they attempt to lead the survivors.
With the show’s success, it’s no surprise that it has
spawned a spinoff of its own. Unlike The
Walking Dead, which began more or less with the zombie apocalypse already
underway, Fear
the Walking Dead explores what it was like to experience the world descending
into chaos. Debuting in August of 2015, it follows Madison ( Kim
Dickens) and Travis ( Cliff
Curtis) as they try desperately to keep their family alive and together.
The fourth season, which just concluded on September 30, brought the two shows
together with the introduction of Morgan, a character originated by Lennie
James in the first season of The
Walking Dead and brought back in season 5. Fear the Walking Dead has been picked up for its own fifth season,
as it and the original show seem poised to continue far into the future.
The Walking Dead
began its life in the comic format, but it has expanded into other areas of
publishing as well. In 2011, the novel Rise
of the Governor brought the backstory of that intriguing villain to
life, and it was followed by The
Road to Woodbury and The
Fall of the Governor Parts 1 and 2
to round out the story arc. Series creator Robert Kirkman teamed up with writer
Jay Bonansinga to tell the Governor’s story, and then Bonansinga continued on
with four more novels: Descent,
Invasion,
Search
and Destroy, and Return
to Woodbury. Fans of the comic series and the show won’t want to miss
these stories that delve into the niches of beloved characters and settings.
With so much content available, and plenty more on the way,
fans of The Walking Dead are
everywhere, and they’ll be looking for ways to celebrate on October 13. Make
sure you have plenty of zombie-related media on your shelves for them to check
out. And for those who just can’t wait, point them toward hoopla, where they
can find Jay
Bonansinga’s audiobooks, as well as the entire comic
series, available with no holds and no waiting.
Written by Jon Williams
Paul McCartney’s latest album, Egypt Station, came out on September
7. It was his first release of new material since 2013’s NEW. As hard as it may be to
believe, based on his iconic career, Egypt
Station was Sir Paul’s first solo release to debut at #1 on Billboard’s
album chart, and the first to attain that position at all in 36 years, since
1982’s Tug of War got there more than a month after its release.
Although this is his first new album in five years, he has
been anything but idle in the meantime. In that span he released remastered
editions of his classic albums Venus and Mars and Wings’ At the Speed of Sound (2014), Pipes of Peace and the
aforementioned Tug of War (2015), and
Flowers in the Dirt (2017), as well
as putting together the post-Beatles career-spanning hits collection Pure McCartney. All of this on top
of his constant tour schedule, and it’s hard to believe this man is 76 years
old.
Another project McCartney had a hand in is the upcoming 50 th
anniversary re-release of the Beatles’ seminal self-titled ninth album,
familiarly known as “The White Album” due to its plain white album cover with
just the band’s name embossed on it. Originally released as a double album on
November 22, 1968, the new edition will be available on November 9 in two
configurations. A 3-disc
set will include the original album plus the “Esher Demos,” a set of 27
songs recorded acoustically at George Harrison’s home (some of which were
included on Anthology
3). The 6-disc
deluxe edition includes all of that as well as outtakes and demos from the
album’s recording sessions, plus a Blu-ray featuring the original mono mix of
the album, the new stereo mix, and a 5.1 surround-sound mix. This comes on the
heels of last year’s similar anniversary release of Sgt.
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
And that’s not all that’s on the horizon for fans of the
Beatles and their solo careers. Coming next week, in celebration of what would
have been his 78 th birthday on October 9, are new Ultimate Editions
of John Lennon’s classic 1971 album Imagine.
On the strength of its title track, it has proved to be his most popular solo
album. The reissue will include a remastered standard
edition, a 2-disc
edition that includes B-sides and outtakes, and a Super
Deluxe version that explores the evolution of each song through four CDs
and bonus Blu-ray content. In addition, the films Imagine and Gimme Some Truth
have been restored and are being re-released on DVD
and Blu-ray
at the same time. The project was overseen by Yoko Ono, Lennon’s widow and
creative partner.
The Beatles’ popularity continues unabated more than 48
years after they broke up, and their music, both as a band and from their
individual solo careers, truly is a gift that keeps on giving. Your patrons
will be clamouring for the new album from Paul McCartney, as well as these
explorations of the Beatles’ and John Lennon’s classic albums. You can get them
from the links above, and you can SmartBrowse on our website for more timeless
music from these artists (and don’t forget George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who
also have plenty of celebrated solo work).
Written by Jon Williams
Fall begins this weekend. As we close the book on summer and
inch closer to October and the spooky season, it’s entirely fitting that the
new season of American Horror Story
is now in full swing. Subtitled Apocalypse,
the acclaimed show’s eighth season began with a widespread nuclear attack
wiping out much of the world’s population, and then focused in on a small group
of survivors brought together by a mysterious “Cooperative.”
Praise for American
Horror Story began in 2011 with its first season. Murder
House dealt with a troubled family trying to make a new start by moving
to the West Coast; unfortunately, the house they bought for a steal had a
troubled history of its own, with its victims (both old and new) being quite a
bit livelier than you might expect. The star-studded cast featured Dylan
McDermott, Connie
Britton, and Kate
Mara, as well as Jessica
Lange, Taissa
Farmiga, Evan
Peters, Frances
Conroy, Alexandra
Breckenridge, Zachary
Quinto, Sarah
Paulson, Denis
O’Hare, and Lily
Rabe.
Although each season tells its own self-contained story,
many of these stars (and others) would become familiar faces in different roles
as the show progressed. The second season, Asylum,
added Chloe
Sevigny into the mix, and also featured James
Cromwell (who won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor) and Joseph
Fiennes. The third season, Coven,
added Kathy
Bates, Angela
Bassett, and Emma
Roberts to the rotation of regulars, and starred Gabourey
Sidibe as well, as it detailed the exploits surrounding a school for young
witches. Freak
Show took on a circus sideshow act, adding Finn
Wittrock and John
Carroll Lynch (in a memorable role as Twisty the Clown), as well as Michael
Chiklis. Then came Hotel,
about a group of vampires living in a haunted hotel, led by Lady
Gaga’s Countess, and starring Wes
Bentley, Alexandra
Daddario, and Cheyenne
Jackson. The sixth season, Roanoke,
tells of a reality show and documentary taking place on the site of a famous
mass disappearance, and adds Andre
Holland and Cuba
Gooding Jr. to the cast. Then last season, Cult,
took on the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with Alison
Pill joining the fray.
With Apocalpyse, American Horror Story creators Ryan
Murphy and Brad Falchuk are in the midst of their eighth season of acclaimed,
award-winning television, and the show has already been renewed to run at least
through its tenth season. Even outside of this show, they are no stranger to
good, popular television. Murphy created the show Nip/Tuck
in 2003, and met Falchuk while working on it. When it ended, they joined forces
to create the musical sensation Glee,
which ran for six seasons. They created the two-season series Scream
Queens, and they also serve as executive producers for another
anthology series, American
Crime Story, whose first season focused on the O.J. Simpson trial and
whose second season, The Assassination of
Gianni Versace, took home five trophies at this week’s Emmy Awards. They
also created the series 9-1-1
focusing on first responders, currently in its second season.
Television lovers are always looking for good new shows to
binge-watch, and with Halloween right around the corner, American Horror Story is a can’t-miss. The varied storylines and
incredible performances are sure to keep viewers coming back for more. Find all
previous
seasons on our website so your patrons can get caught up with all the
horrific happenings that have led into this season as well as whatever the show
has in store for the future.
Written by Jon Williams
On August 31, the entire eight-episode first season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan became available
for streaming. This new iteration brings the character to life for the first
time since 2014, and to the small screen for the first time ever. Positive
critical and viewer reactions are already rolling in, and the series has
already been renewed for a second season.
This time around Ryan is played by John
Krasinski, as the series focuses on the early days of the burgeoning CIA
agent’s career. Krasinski has been in the pop culture spotlight lately as the
star, director, and co-writer of the hit horror flick A
Quiet Place, which came out earlier this year. He is probably even
better known for his breakout role as Jim Halpert on The
Office, which he played for the entirety of the comedy series’
nine-season run. The rest of Jack Ryan’s
main cast is rounded out by Wendell
Pierce, Abbie
Cornish, Ali
Suliman, and Dina
Shihabi.
The show may be new, but the character of Jack Ryan is
anything but. He originally came to be in Tom Clancy’s 1984 The
Hunt for Red October. The novel tells how Jack Ryan, at this point a
young CIA analyst, helps to ensure the defection of a grizzled Soviet navy
captain with a devastating new submarine. The book became a bestseller
following huge critical reaction, including an endorsement from U.S. President
Ronald Reagan. Ryan has since featured in more than twenty novels, including such
titles as Clear
and Present Danger, Executive
Orders, Command
Authority, the recently released Line
of Sight, and the forthcoming Oath
of Office. Sadly, author Tom
Clancy passed away in 2013, but the mantle of writing the Ryan character
has been taken on by fellow authors Mark
Greaney, Mike
Maden, and Marc
Cameron.
And that’s where Jack Ryan’s screen presence left off, until
the new streaming series debuted two weeks ago. As more and more people
discover the show, Tom Clancy’s audiobooks and the past movies are sure to be
in demand. Use the links above to find the materials, or SmartBrowse ‘Jack Ryan’
on our website for a full list of audiobooks we carry in the series.
Written by Jon Williams
The music world lost a legend last week with the passing of
the Queen of Soul, Aretha
Franklin. She was 76.
While Aretha’s mother passed at a young age, her father was
a well-known minister, giving her exposure to influential gospel singers of the
time, including Mahalia
Jackson and Clara
Ward, both of whom served as role models. Aretha began touring and
performing with her father when she was just 12, and her first single was
released when she was 14. She stuck with gospel until she was 18, at which time
she moved to New York with hopes of breaking into the pop music world. Her
first secular album, Aretha: With the Ray
Bryant Combo, was released early in 1961, just before her 20 th
birthday.
The rest, as they say, is history. She went on to have one
of the great careers of all time, recording such iconic, instantly recognizable
hits as “Respect,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and “I Say a
Little Prayer,” among so many others. In 2008, music authority Rolling Stone named her the greatest
singer of all time. With a career that spanned more than five decades, her
influence is legendary, inspiring generations of singers and musicians with her
talent and powerful performances. Some of these notable names include Whitney
Houston, Beyonce,
and Jennifer
Hudson, who Franklin herself chose to play her in an upcoming biopic.
We join the music and pop culture worlds in mourning the
monumental loss of Aretha Franklin. SmartBrowse her name on our website to find
a number of collections of her music, as well as a few related audiobooks and
films (including her incredible performance in the classic comedy The
Blues Brothers). Patrons can also check out her wonderful music,
including a broad collection of original albums, on hoopla
digital.
Written by Jon Williams
In an age of reboots and revivals, it takes a piece of
seriously big news to command the attention of the pop culture landscape.
That’s exactly what happened recently when first rumours started to swirl and
then actual confirmation happened that Patrick Stewart would return to the role
of Jean-Luc Picard in a new Star Trek
series being developed. The series will explore the further adventures and
later life of the beloved man who once commanded the bridge of the iconic
starship Enterprise.
Although he had already been acting for many years, many
people, especially in the United States, had their first exposure to Stewart
when Star Trek: The Next Generation
debuted in 1987. That show breathed new life into a popular franchise that,
nevertheless, had been off television for nearly twenty years. It worked; the
show ran for seven
seasons and then, like the original series before it, spawned several big-screen
adventures, with Stewart continuing to lead the cast from the show. All in
all, he ended up portraying Jean-Luc Picard for fifteen years. It’s been
sixteen years since the last time, in the 2002 movie Star Trek: Nemesis, and fans are
eager to see what has become of the intrepid captain in the meantime—just as Stewart
is himself, calling the opportunity to return “…an unexpected but
delightful surprise.” Although he was initially skeptical of performing in a
sci-fi television show, he eventually came to appreciate the reach the show had
and the impact it had on fans’ lives.
Seeming to confirm his initial skepticism, though, for a
time the popularity of Star Trek: The Next Generation hindered him from landing
other roles, as filmmakers felt that having “Captain Picard” show up in their
project would distract the audience. Stewart finally got around this by jumping
into a similar part in another sci-fi franchise. In 2000’s X-Men,
he portrayed for the first time Professor Charles Xavier, who runs a school to
teach youngsters with freakish abilities (called “mutants”) how to control and
use them responsibly. As with Star Trek,
the role lingered, with Stewart playing Professor Xavier in a total of seven
movies, most recently (and for the final time) in 2017’s critically acclaimed Logan.
Despite the typecasting, Stewart’s talent has won out,
allowing him to carve out quite a nice and well-rounded acting career for
himself. Prior to Star Trek he had roles in such films as Hennessy,
his 1975 film debut, Excalibur,
and Dune.
He showed off his comedic side as King Richard in the 1993 spoof Robin
Hood: Men in Tights, just before his Star Trek role jumped to the big screen in Generations.
On television, he has brought a number of literary and theatrical classics to
life, including I,
Claudius, Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Hamlet,
and Macbeth,
to name just a few. And with his deep, distinctive voice, it’s no surprise that
he’s also done quite a bit of voice acting. He recently had a memorable role in
The
Emoji Movie, and has also lent his voice to such favourites as The
Prince of Egypt, Chicken
Little, and Gnomeo
& Juliet. He maintains a recurring role on the long-running
animated series American
Dad!, and his association with creator Seth MacFarlane led to him
serving as the narrator for both Ted
and Ted
2. He also narrated the Tim Burton classic The
Nightmare Before Christmas.
Patrick Stewart is an actor whose performances are always
incredible, and the news that he’s returning to Star Trek is sure to put his work in the spotlight as never before.
Make sure you have The Next Generation
shows and movies on your shelves for patrons to discover or relive, and
SmartBrowse his name on our website to see a full list of what we have to offer
from his impressive career. And for more Star
Trek, be sure to pre-order the first season of Discovery,
available in November, before the second season premieres in early 2019.
Written by Jon Williams
The calendar may have just flipped over to August, but as
far as we’re concerned, it’s never too early to start thinking about Halloween.
You can look forward to plenty of Halloween media ideas from us between now and
October, and what better way to kick it off than with a master of the creepy
tale, a man whose work has been the basis for countless pleasant shivers in the
dead of night? After an early career writing humour aimed at kids, R.L. Stine
eventually came to the conclusion that he’d rather frighten them. His first
kids’ horror novel, Blind Date, was
published in 1986, and the rest is history. According to his website, he’s
written well over 300 books in the intervening 32 years, including a number of
wildly popular series.
By far his most well-known series is Goosebumps. Begun in
1992 with Welcome
to Dead House, the classic series ran through 1997 and comprised a
total of 62 books. Goosebumps has taken on a life of its own with a number of
spinoff and companion series, some of which continue to this day. One of those
is called SlappyWorld,
featuring Slappy, a ventriloquist’s dummy come to life with scary stories of
his own to tell. Slappy made his first appearance very early on, in 1993’s Night
of the Living Dummy, and became a primary antagonist in the 1995
follow-up. From there he took on a life of his own, so to speak, appearing
in several
HorrorLand books (yet another Goosebumps-adjacent series) before spawning
his own series in 2017’s Slappy
Birthday to You. There are currently five books in the series, with Escape
from Shudder Mansion just releasing late in July, and more to come.
Of course, popular as it was and still is, Goosebumps was
not Stine’s first book series. That honour goes to Fear Street, which started in
1989 with The New Girl. Recent titles
in this series include Party
Games and Don’t
Stay Up Late. Also released in late July, You
May Now Kill the Bride is the first book in a new Return to Fear Street
series. And Fear Street fans can look forward to renewed interest in the
series, with Fox recently announcing plans for three theatrical films to be
based on stories from the books.
And although Stine has made his name in the world of
publishing, he is certainly no stranger to the screen. As his writing career
was gaining traction in the early 1990s, he helped create and wrote for the
children’s TV series Eureeka’s Castle.
Shortly thereafter, Goosebumps
was turned into an anthology TV series that ran for four seasons. In 2007, the
movie The
Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It was made, loosely adapted from a
book of Stine’s short stories, and that too was spun off into a
successful anthology series, winning a number of Daytime Emmys among other
awards. And in 2015, Goosebumps
became a feature film starring Jack Black as R.L. Stine himself. A sequel, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, is due
in theatres in October.
R.L. Stine has been giving young readers the creeps for more
than thirty years now, and in so doing, has inspired generations of kids to
develop a love of reading that has carried them into adulthood (and adults who
grew up reading him as kids should check out Red
Rain, his grown-up horror novel written in tribute to longtime fans).
As his popularity expands with each new book and movie, continue to share his
work with eager young readers and listeners. You can search his name on our
website for all his works we carry in audiobook
and Playaway,
and point your patrons to hoopla, where they can find a wide selection of his
books in both audio
and eBook.
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