A horror fan shares his love of the genre in this superb work.
Cinephile and film director Irvin presents a compilation of his 1970s fanzine interviews of horror-film legends, paired with a memoir.
Among other works, the author directed the comedy-horror film Elvira’s Haunted Hills (2001), and actor Cassandra Peterson—Elvira herself—provides this book’s foreword. It begins with an account of how Irvin, a North Carolina native, fell in love with horror films at an early age via the 1960s Saturday-afternoon TV show Shock Theater. He had access to other free films, as well, since his father and grandfather were both in the movie-theater business. In 1971, 15-year-old Irvin started his own fanzine, Pit, which, after two issues, he relaunched as Bizarre. The latter’s sophomore issue was a turning point, with director Peter Sasdy and actors Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Ingrid Pitt all responding to his questionnaires. In 1974, he visited London and conducted in-person interviews with Lee, Pitt, and other luminaries, many of whom worked on movies from British studio Hammer Film Productions. This book includes every Bizarre interview in the fanzine’s brief four-issue run; they’re unabridged, and feature occasional cheeky or offensive remarks, as when film composer Malcolm Williamson calls actor Veronica Carlson an “oversized dumb broad.” Irvin adds his own notes to clarify such things as a movie’s title change or to express embarrassment over an awkward question (“Cringe!”). This colorful, oversized book shines a light on Irvin’s personal life, too, primarily focusing on the 1960s and '70s, when, as a closeted gay person, he was afraid of discussing such topics as a movie’s gay subtext. The interviews contain fun tidbits, including unfiltered opinions of cast or crew members, such as actor Donald Pleasence’s amusing criticism of his feline co-stars in You Only Live Twice (1967). Irvin has stories of his own, as well, from his welcome encounters with horror icon Vincent Price to his difficulties securing an in-person interview with Cushing. Personal and on-set photos enliven the book, as does Gallagher’s full-page, cartoon-style artwork featuring orange-haired Irvin who, at one point, is portrayed as literally starry-eyed.
A horror fan shares his love of the genre in this superb work.Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2022
ISBN: 9798353545842
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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