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Doc Armstrong: Suburb at the Edge of Never
What is at the heart of a vast conspiracy that involves very round hedges, something that gobbles, a strange macaroon-headed man, a mysterious parchment and men in horribly striped ties? It's up to Doc Armstrong, the world's most renowned meteographer, the man who took down The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, to get to the bottom of it, along with his loyal 1950s housewife wife Betty, alien friends Kro-Bar and Lattis, and Ranger Brad's town brother City Brad, formerly Jungle Brad but he's in the city now. Together they face overwhelming odds as powerful forces seek to change the world we know into the world we don't know, in this absurdist mash-up of pulp adventure, B-movies and surrealism. Presenting the first of the further adventures of the beloved characters of the cult classic films, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and The Lost Skeleton Returns Again, written by their creator, writer-director Larry Blamire, who also played Dr. Paul Armstrong in the movies, but for the book will leave it to just words.
- GenresFiction
252 pages, Paperback
Published September 27, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 7, 2019
I imagine the majority of readers for this book are already familiar with Larry Blamire's movies (THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA, THE LOST SKELETON RETURNS AGAIN, A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT, THE TRAIL OF THE SCREAMING FOREHEAD) but those who aren't might think they were getting a satire of old pulp novels - and they'd be a little right, but mostly wrong.
Because what this is is an actual translation of Blamire's films to the printed page. And while the plot of this book can be seen (in broad strokes) as something like a pulp novel (mind controlled thralls, interdimensional monsters, a giant robot, aliens), the book is not written as a deliberate satire of the style of the pulps. Instead, Blamire does a masterful job recreating his skewed, benign world view and circuitous, comically redundant and self-negating dialogue in story form. So, if you never have, I'd suggest watching a Blamire film before endeavoring this book- but then, once, you have, you'll probably want to watch everything else and might forget that the book exists, which would be a shame!
And so, Doc Armstrong - meteographer and all around science guy, Betty - his perfectly domestic wife, displaced fish-out-of-order alien friends Lattis and Kro-Bar, and Jungle Brad (now renamed City Brad after moving away from the jungle) attempt to protect their suburban dream town from a slowly encroaching mystery involving perfectly round hedges, gobbling mystery creatures, and a man with a cookie head. And it works! It's interesting to see the things Blamire can add to his normal "bargain basement 60s B-Movie" formula when the parameters of a book allow for an unlimited budget (like a fight with a giant robot, a trek through an overgrown, monster-infested neighborhood which plays like a Blamire version of King's "The Mist", and Lattis' sonic "yap" attack!). One of the things I really appreciate about Blamire's work is the gentleness of the humor, a kind of benign absurdism with occasional lashings of suburban surrealism (and the book does build towards a truly thrilling and surrealistically striking image as "An enormous face was making sense of the sky!"), and he retains that here as well.
My only criticism is very minor - written Blamire seems to work at his humor like P.G. Wodehouse did, making sure that when possible almost every line, if it doesn't contain a joke, is at least humorous. And he succeeds mostly. But there's a bit of relentlessness to it at first, which goes away as the book opens up and the plot really starts cooking and time must be spent on other details than recursive dialogue, funny product names and deliberate redundancy. For example, I really liked the chapter from Lattis' POV that went into her frustration with aspects of suburban Earth life (as you Earth People call it), or the chapter that detailed Kro-Bar's organizing of the lookouts in the house. Both of these chapters seem to offer a nice change of pace from the standard humor, while still retaining the tone. I wish City Brad got more to do, but I did appreciate his quick transition to Throwback Brad!
Another thing I thought interesting was that the book, from a reference at the end, is seemingly set in 1961, and yet it becomes obvious that the Blamire Cinematic Universe (as you Earth People might call it) is something like a parallel world to our own - very similar in many way, but all the TV shows and snack foods have strange names! I also appreciated that while the book is a fun and funny adventure, there was still a valid threat AND Doc actually had to (to some degree) wrestle with a rather large and important idea by the end - "just what responsibility comes with pursuing all this Science stuff."
An extremely enjoyable read!
Because what this is is an actual translation of Blamire's films to the printed page. And while the plot of this book can be seen (in broad strokes) as something like a pulp novel (mind controlled thralls, interdimensional monsters, a giant robot, aliens), the book is not written as a deliberate satire of the style of the pulps. Instead, Blamire does a masterful job recreating his skewed, benign world view and circuitous, comically redundant and self-negating dialogue in story form. So, if you never have, I'd suggest watching a Blamire film before endeavoring this book- but then, once, you have, you'll probably want to watch everything else and might forget that the book exists, which would be a shame!
And so, Doc Armstrong - meteographer and all around science guy, Betty - his perfectly domestic wife, displaced fish-out-of-order alien friends Lattis and Kro-Bar, and Jungle Brad (now renamed City Brad after moving away from the jungle) attempt to protect their suburban dream town from a slowly encroaching mystery involving perfectly round hedges, gobbling mystery creatures, and a man with a cookie head. And it works! It's interesting to see the things Blamire can add to his normal "bargain basement 60s B-Movie" formula when the parameters of a book allow for an unlimited budget (like a fight with a giant robot, a trek through an overgrown, monster-infested neighborhood which plays like a Blamire version of King's "The Mist", and Lattis' sonic "yap" attack!). One of the things I really appreciate about Blamire's work is the gentleness of the humor, a kind of benign absurdism with occasional lashings of suburban surrealism (and the book does build towards a truly thrilling and surrealistically striking image as "An enormous face was making sense of the sky!"), and he retains that here as well.
My only criticism is very minor - written Blamire seems to work at his humor like P.G. Wodehouse did, making sure that when possible almost every line, if it doesn't contain a joke, is at least humorous. And he succeeds mostly. But there's a bit of relentlessness to it at first, which goes away as the book opens up and the plot really starts cooking and time must be spent on other details than recursive dialogue, funny product names and deliberate redundancy. For example, I really liked the chapter from Lattis' POV that went into her frustration with aspects of suburban Earth life (as you Earth People call it), or the chapter that detailed Kro-Bar's organizing of the lookouts in the house. Both of these chapters seem to offer a nice change of pace from the standard humor, while still retaining the tone. I wish City Brad got more to do, but I did appreciate his quick transition to Throwback Brad!
Another thing I thought interesting was that the book, from a reference at the end, is seemingly set in 1961, and yet it becomes obvious that the Blamire Cinematic Universe (as you Earth People might call it) is something like a parallel world to our own - very similar in many way, but all the TV shows and snack foods have strange names! I also appreciated that while the book is a fun and funny adventure, there was still a valid threat AND Doc actually had to (to some degree) wrestle with a rather large and important idea by the end - "just what responsibility comes with pursuing all this Science stuff."
An extremely enjoyable read!
December 14, 2016
I love Larry Blamire movies. The hilarious wordplay is memorable and fun, the loving satire of genre films plays so very well. The characters from The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra make it to book form in what Blamire hopes to turn into a series of novels. The Science Institute for Science is a typical line that fans will love as Doc does science for the purpose of science to advance the field of science. Lots of humor and weird scenes, but there is so much going on in every sentence, that what plays well in a movie, is dense for a book. So strangely, this humor book is not really light reading. Still, fans should give it a read. Do it for Science.
August 27, 2021
This tale of action scientist Paul Armstrong, his wife Betty, and their friends will not disappoint. In fact it will definitely appoint. With funny English language joke humor and an utterly unique science adventure--the most utter I've ever read--this book delivers, leaving no livers anywhere at all. A little Alfred Jarry in places, but laughs on every page. I loved it! A sequel to the two Lost Skeleton films. Highly recommended, with at least two or three highs.
January 11, 2018
This was a pretty delightful book. I loved "Lost Skeleton" and "Dark & Stormy Night," so this was a lot of fun to read. I also very much enjoyed Kro-Bar's adventures with the delightful chair. I started into this book thinking it was basically just gonna be a non-stop ride of hilarity and gags, but Blamire actually spins a really decent story in addition to the humor. I hope Doc Armstrong has more adventures in making actual advances in the field of Science and that Betty continues to whip up snacks. Did anyone else think this would make a really great movie?
I didn't give it that last star because it dragged at times and went on a little long, but that's okay. Right? RIGHT?!?!?
I didn't give it that last star because it dragged at times and went on a little long, but that's okay. Right? RIGHT?!?!?
March 7, 2017
We love Larry's films, and it's fun to reunite with the amazing scientist Dr Paul Armstrong and his plucky wife Betty. Also their alien neighbors Kro-Bar and Lattis, who struggle to understand the subtext of suburban life.
Kro-Bar is puzzled when Betty says 'What a delightful chair' and spends a whole day sitting in it to see what could be delightful about it.
Of course, there is also the matter of saving the world from aggressive shrubberies.
Kro-Bar is puzzled when Betty says 'What a delightful chair' and spends a whole day sitting in it to see what could be delightful about it.
Of course, there is also the matter of saving the world from aggressive shrubberies.
January 26, 2019
If you like wordplay and nonsense that actually somehow makes sense, this is a great read. I haven't laughed out loud this much while reading in a long time.
November 29, 2018
To start with, I'm a huge fan of Larry Blamire's film, including the two Lost Skeleton masterpieces and Dark and Stormy Night. Part of what makes them so wonderful is their pitch-perfect rendition of the dialogue of the cult-classic films their parody. Blamire truly knows his genre and does an incredible job of sending it up.
I had expected this book to read a pastiche of a similar genre, the pulp novel. In particular, the title and cover clearly pointed at the classic Doc Savage, whose plain-spoken style was ripe for parody.
Instead, what I found was the same stale joke told over and over. Not just in dialogue, but in the body of the narration, we get the repetitious repeating of repetitive statements, in which the statement is first made, and then made again in a manner which repeats, thereby underscoring the inherent repetition when it it is repeated a third time, and so on, ad nauseum, ad infinitum.
This is not the style of pulp fiction. I would expect a very direct narrative style, with occasional overblown descriptive passages, hero worship of the protagonist, and frequent deus ex machina. We find none of that here.
I will continue to watch and love Blamire's films, but they just don't translate directly to prose.
I had expected this book to read a pastiche of a similar genre, the pulp novel. In particular, the title and cover clearly pointed at the classic Doc Savage, whose plain-spoken style was ripe for parody.
Instead, what I found was the same stale joke told over and over. Not just in dialogue, but in the body of the narration, we get the repetitious repeating of repetitive statements, in which the statement is first made, and then made again in a manner which repeats, thereby underscoring the inherent repetition when it it is repeated a third time, and so on, ad nauseum, ad infinitum.
This is not the style of pulp fiction. I would expect a very direct narrative style, with occasional overblown descriptive passages, hero worship of the protagonist, and frequent deus ex machina. We find none of that here.
I will continue to watch and love Blamire's films, but they just don't translate directly to prose.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews