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This week: Monster Mashups - Horror Humor Edited by: Ben Langhinrichs  
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Has there ever been a work of literature that couldn't be improved by adding zombies?
~ Lev Grossman, TIME magazine
Greetings! I am a guest editor this week for the Comedy Newsletter, and while I am not a regular editor, I do feel that I am becoming a bit of a regular irregular. This is, after all, my sixth stint as guest editor, and they still haven't figured out how to ban me.
~ Ben Langhinrichs
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Jane Austen isn't for everyone. Neither are zombies. But combine the two and the only question is, Why didn't anyone think of this before? The judicious addition of flesh-eating undead to this otherwise faithful reworking is just what Austen's gem needed.
~ WIRED
Monster Mashups
Anybody who has watched advertisements for horror films, even if not the films themselves, must recognize that there is a fine line between horror and humor. Like the knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail who keeps getting his limbs chopped off without losing a bit of nerve, there is often a strong urge to laugh while the blood spurts.
But lately, there have been a series of intentionally comedic horror/humor mashups in novels, where the humor has to be more than visual. The most well known may be Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. Some are other classic novels mashed together, like Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters, while others are weird takes on historical characters, such as another of Seth Grahame-Smith's books, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
An author I know slightly went a bit further. He published a book titled Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers - A Canterbury Tale by Paul A. Freeman. The reason I emphasize this book is not because I know the author and want brownie points and a blurb in case I every publish a novel, no sirree. Instead, I want to point out that this book is written in the original Chaucerian iambic pentameter, with gripping verses such as:
with chomping jaws and ravaged face
Its arms extended, hoping to embrace
Guy's greedy spouse to feed upon her meat.
Before the shambling figure could deplete
Her tender flesh, I swung my trusty sword
And where a head once sat, a geyser poured
Into the air and dyed the chamber red.
Another author I know (also not touted due to his blurb potential, not at all) is Timothy Long, who put out a wonderful horror/humor book called The Zombie-Wilson Diaries, which is a hysterical pastiche of Robinson Crusoe, the Perfect Storm movie and a zomebie girlfriend. This book may not have sold millions of copies, but it is being considered for a movie deal. Wow!
Another author I know (I wouldn't take a blurb from my good buddy, Eric, if he offered it on a silver platter) is The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies by H.G. Wells and Eric S. Brown, which started out with Coscom, but has been picked up by Simon and Schuster. Not too shabby!
But why am I telling all you good writers this? Because the sky is the limit. You could be the author of Twilight of the Living Dead or Batman and Robin and Bigfoot or Winston Churchill: Man of Mayhem. Have at it--do the Monster Mash!
To be fair to the authors, here are links to their books so you can see them for yourselves (and check my truthfulness, I imagine.)
[Order Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Deluxe Heirloom Edition (Pride and Prej. and Zombies) from Amazon.Com]
[Order Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters from Amazon.Com]
[Order Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter from Amazon.Com]
[Order Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers - A Canterbury Tale from Amazon.Com]
[Order The Zombie-Wilson Diaries from Amazon.Com]
[Order The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies from Amazon.Com]
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Clever Comments from You
Responses to "Getting to the Point Quickly" by Ben Langhinrichs
Storm Machine Thanks for highlighting the 55 Word Contest! I loved your little one-sentence story.
Coolhand  Hey Ben,I dug your fifty-five word story in one sentence,and I love the name Rupert.
faithjourneyThanks for featuring "Nobody's Listening" in the 2/17 Comedy Newsletter! I'm glad somebody found the humor in it (a few reviews said I scared them?).
Radler Zpheitor Here is a fifty-five word comedic misunderstanding. Or is it a misdirection. She did something, I think. I need to stop rambling, but I can't because Ben hid the shinny on me. Oh look....
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Comedy: May 12, 2010 Issue [#3733]
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