Dead Cats Bouncing

Rating:
Summary: Dead Cat Bounce with Star Studded Cast of Writers
Review: As a lover of both felines and horror books, I simply had to have this book. Especially considering the star studded cast of writers who have participated in its making.

Jack Ketchum, Edward Lee, Gerard Houarner, Charlee Jacob, Tom Piccirilli, and more. Plus the gleeful discovery that the book is autographed by each and every author! The book starts out with an introduction called "Dead Cat Pimping" by Dead Cat himself.

Each chapter beyond that is a separate journey starring Dead Cat, as he finds himself defending a battered woman, meeting a lovely female feline in Chicago, fighting a futuristic battle in Slide, meets and greets a famous kitty named "Socks" and does shady things with it, gets mistaken for a cosmetics test animal, crashes a stuffy cat show, survives an encounter with Frankenpup, misses a dinner of young birds because he had indulged in dead catnip, falls back into hell with Dr. Booty, discovers more hells than his own, teams up with a dead human who was killed by a hooker, chases a dead rat named Jake, and flees from a lovestruck mouse.

Dead Cat is full of adventure in this collection of stories, but I found the prose somewhat stifled by the fact that the requirement for writing a story in the book was to use choppy and unstructured sentences. While adorable and entertaining for a moment, this writing style does tend to get in the way of the Author's real talents. I believe I would have enjoyed the book more if the choppy, staccato sounding dialogue had been restricted to Dead Cat's thoughts, rather than the entire body of the story.

The illustrations by GAK are wonderful (though too few in my opinion), and besides, his name sounds like a cat hacking up a hairball. GAK.

If you like this book, make sure to pick up the sequel to it, called "Dead Cat: Bigger Than Jesus". Though a much smaller chapbook, it actually utilizes the structure much better and has new stories that are worthwhile additions to Dead Cat's adventures. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Dead Cat Bounce with Star Studded Cast of Writers
Review: As a lover of both felines and horror books, I simply had to have this book. Especially considering the star studded cast of writers who have participated in its making.

Jack Ketchum, Edward Lee, Gerard Houarner, Charlee Jacob, Tom Piccirilli, and more. Plus the gleeful discovery that the book is autographed by each and every author! The book starts out with an introduction called "Dead Cat Pimping" by Dead Cat himself.

Each chapter beyond that is a separate journey starring Dead Cat, as he finds himself defending a battered woman, meeting a lovely female feline in Chicago, fighting a futuristic battle in Slide, meets and greets a famous kitty named "Socks" and does shady things with it, gets mistaken for a cosmetics test animal, crashes a stuffy cat show, survives an encounter with Frankenpup, misses a dinner of young birds because he had indulged in dead catnip, falls back into hell with Dr. Booty, discovers more hells than his own, teams up with a dead human who was killed by a hooker, chases a dead rat named Jake, and flees from a lovestruck mouse.

Dead Cat is full of adventure in this collection of stories, but I found the prose somewhat stifled by the fact that the requirement for writing a story in the book was to use choppy and unstructured sentences. While adorable and entertaining for a moment, this writing style does tend to get in the way of the Author's real talents. I believe I would have enjoyed the book more if the choppy, staccato sounding dialogue had been restricted to Dead Cat's thoughts, rather than the entire body of the story.

The illustrations by GAK are wonderful (though too few in my opinion), and besides, his name sounds like a cat hacking up a hairball. GAK.

If you like this book, make sure to pick up the sequel to it, called "Dead Cat: Bigger Than Jesus". Though a much smaller chapbook, it actually utilizes the structure much better and has new stories that are worthwhile additions to Dead Cat's adventures. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: "Daddy, I want a Dead Cat toy!"
Review: In 2000 Gerard Houarner and artist GAK published a small chapbook called Dead Cat Bounce. It was the story of, well, a dead cat. It went on to become a finalist for Bram Stoker award.

Two years later, out comes this book, Dead Cats Bouncing, from Bedlam Press, an anthology edited by the creators, Gerard Houarner and GAK.

With a contents pages that reads like a who's who of the small press horror scene, we're treated to 15 new Dead Cat stories, plus the original, by authors like Jack Ketchum, Ed Lee, Charlee Jacob, Yvonne Navarro, and Brian Keene. The styles of the stories range wildly from the original short-burst sentence style of the first Dead Cat, to more traditional flowing prose, all the way to sing-songy rhythms like John Skipp's contribution "Soul Maggot Jamboree".

And accompanying the great stories are the pencilled drawings of GAK, an artist with a definite Gahan Wilson influence, with a terrific eye for the smaller details--and he draws a hell of a dead cat.

Dead Cats Bouncing is one surprise after another. For example, I did something I don't normally do when reading an Ed Lee story: I laughed.

Or there's the entertaining way Paul Di Filippo wrote his story, "Mehitabel in Hell".

This is a book for the kid in every adult, for the person who's seen what else is on the shelves and just wants something unexpected.

Call it a book of bedtime stories for the already-damaged child.

Call it whatever you want, just grab it quick before Gerard and GAK do it again with another Dead Cat book, or better yet, Dead Cat the Animated Series. And then it'll be Dead Cat stuffed toys for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: "Daddy, I want a Dead Cat toy!"
Review: In 2000 Gerard Houarner and artist GAK published a small chapbook called Dead Cat Bounce. It was the story of, well, a dead cat. It went on to become a finalist for Bram Stoker award.

Two years later, out comes this book, Dead Cats Bouncing, from Bedlam Press, an anthology edited by the creators, Gerard Houarner and GAK.

With a contents pages that reads like a who's who of the small press horror scene, we're treated to 15 new Dead Cat stories, plus the original, by authors like Jack Ketchum, Ed Lee, Charlee Jacob, Yvonne Navarro, and Brian Keene. The styles of the stories range wildly from the original short-burst sentence style of the first Dead Cat, to more traditional flowing prose, all the way to sing-songy rhythms like John Skipp's contribution "Soul Maggot Jamboree".

And accompanying the great stories are the pencilled drawings of GAK, an artist with a definite Gahan Wilson influence, with a terrific eye for the smaller details--and he draws a hell of a dead cat.

Dead Cats Bouncing is one surprise after another. For example, I did something I don't normally do when reading an Ed Lee story: I laughed.

Or there's the entertaining way Paul Di Filippo wrote his story, "Mehitabel in Hell".

This is a book for the kid in every adult, for the person who's seen what else is on the shelves and just wants something unexpected.

Call it a book of bedtime stories for the already-damaged child.

Call it whatever you want, just grab it quick before Gerard and GAK do it again with another Dead Cat book, or better yet, Dead Cat the Animated Series. And then it'll be Dead Cat stuffed toys for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Eat Sand, and Other Dead Cat Sensations
Review: When I purchased Dead Cats Bouncing, I wasn't sure what to expect from the onslaught of talented, if somewhat depraved, mentalities communing inside this work. I somewhat expected a book of horrific tale exclaiming the high points of depravity, reflecting what I had tasted before from the likes of Edward Lee and Jack Ketchum in the past. So, it came as quite a surprise to find that this weren't horror stories at all but were instead demented children's tales about a cat that had returned to the land of the living with a belly full of love/or hate-depending on whose recount of the experience you read. Better yet, all of these are numbered and signed by all the contributing authors, something I missed out on when reading the books description, including the likes of: Gerard Houarner, Charlee Jacob, Jack Ketchum, Edward Lee, Tom Piccirilli, Linda Addison, John Skipp, Yvonne Navarro, Terry McGarry, Paul Di Filippo, Charlee Jacob, David Niall Wilson, Gene O'Neil, Brain Keene, Mick Farren, and Gak.

The premise of these tale, forged by Gak and Houarner as they sought and almost captured a Stoker Award, focuses on the exploits of Dead Cat, who was a sacrifice to the goddess Bastet and finds that being in the land of the dead is quite boring. There are no happy hunting grounds filled with birds or mice, no naps and dreams of bliss, or any of the other things that a cat needs to enjoy themselves when finding oneself outside the land of the livelihood. In fact, all Bastet tells him to do is, "eat sand." So, what's a cat to do when confronted with a dilemma like this? Why, return to the land of the living without becoming alive, of course! Most of these portraits of the Dead Cat's "life" are written in choppy sentences, focusing themselves from the thoughts of Dead Cat himself and not in the narration aspect of storytelling, with a few of the writers deviating from that course. At first I found this practice somewhat questionable, but I soon overcame this initial hesitation and found the style enjoyable and, in many instances, funny. This came as quite a surprise, too, because I never thought of many of these writers in the comedic sense before reading DCB.

This isn't to say that the book is a challenging read, because that is far from the case. I found myself finishing it within an hour, covering the two-hundred plus pages of large print in what amounted to no time at all and longing for more. Still, the captivating prospects of a cat that evades death for no other reason than boredom is something worthwhile and deserving of a look, especially if you want to see writers in a different light. Recommended for the oddities, young and old (with attention paid to the profane, of course)!