Short stories and comics of the cinema

A few weeks ago I posted a selection of paintings of cinemas (here), and to follow-up I thought that this week we would have some short stories and comics freely available from the World Wide Web.

E. Phillips Oppenheim was a prodigious English writer, and even made the cover of Time Magazine on 12 September 1927. Many of his novels and stories were adapted for the cinema, mostly between 1917 and 1924. You can find his imdb page here, which lists 43 different titles adapted from his work. His short story ‘The Cinema Murder’ published in 1917 and filmed in 1919, can be accessed here.

The winner of this years International Cinema Short Story Contest at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Huesca was Álvaro Vázquez de la Torre, with EL VIEJO INDIO QUE SONRÍE.

The competition has been running since 2002, and the other winners are:

• 2002: Miguel Ángel Ortega – CARTA EXTRAIDA DEL BOLSO DE LA MUJER ENCONTRADA SIN VIDA EN EL PONT DE LA CONCORDE
• 2003: Pedro Mari Santos – MIS PROBLEMAS CON EL RACCORD
• 2004: Julio Irles Jiménez – ASCENSOR PARA EL CALDALSO
• 2005: Miguel Paz Cabanas – SECUNDARIO
• 2006: Rosa Ribas – COMPARSAS
• 2007: Amparo López Pascual – VOCES
• 2008: Hugo Sanz – FIN DE RODAJE
• 2009: Paula Álvarez Carnero – HISTORIA SIN ACABAR (lema: Aloe Variegata)
• 2010: Juana Cortés Amunárriz – LA ÚLTIMA HORA DE HORACIO SILK

Obviously, these are all in Spanish.

Multiplex is a twice weekly comic from Gordon McAlpin, and has just celebrated its sixth birthday. It is set in a Chicago movie theatre and focuses on the staff and patrons, but the website also includes movie reviews, trailers, and other stuff.

Another comic to check is Joe Loves Crappy Movies, by Joseph Dunn, which has also been going for several years. Each strip focusses on a movie presenting one man’s commitment to watching bad films (which we all probably really like too), and if you scroll down you below the comic you find reviews, comments on the DVD, and other stuff too.

John W. Townsend is the author of some apparently very strange books and a poet too. He is also the author ‘The Phoenix Cinema,’ a short story in which the name of the cinema is most apt.

Theater Hopper is a webcomic by Tom Brazelton about movies ‘written from the fan’s perspective,’ and has been going since 2002! As you can see below it has some truly terrifying ideas.

Finally, you can visit Joe R. Lansdale’s website here. Lansdale is the author The Drive-in’ series of comic horror novels that chart the strange occurrences at a Texan drive-in theatre and its aftermath. He is also the author of the short stories ‘Drive-in Date,’ which combines a love of cinema with necrophilia, and ‘Godzilla’s Twelve-Step Program,’ the title of which is self-explanatory (no, really), both of which can be found in Writer of the Purple Rage. Joe’s website has information on all his books, but also features a free short story of the week.