Stephen (ed.) - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 18

Over April and May, South Pasadena’s Freemont Centre Theatre presented a limited engagement of Ray Bradbury’s The Machineries of Joy . Directed by Alan Neal Hubbs and presented by Ray Bradbury’s Pandemonium Theatre Company, the production featured stage versions of “I Will Arise and Go Now”, “The Machineries of Joy”, “The Finnegan” and “The Parrot Who Met Papa”, the latter three being world premieres.

The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion hosted the world premiere in May of the LAOpera’s production of Grendel , directed by Julie Taylor. A darkly comic exploration of the Beowulf legend told from the monster’s point of view, the production ran for just seven performances and used projections, puppetry and masks to tell the epic tale.

Presented by the Improbable theatre company and the National Theatre of Scotland, The Wolves in the Walls: A Musical Pandemonium , based on the illustrated children’s book by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, enjoyed limited runs in Glasgow and London in April.

The Children’s Society’s 125th Anniversary was celebrated at London’s Royal Albert Hall on October 22nd with two fundraising performances of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical Into the Woods , featuring Anita Dobson, Vinnie Jones and many others stars of stage and screen.

For the first time ever, Jeff Wayne performed his Musical Version of War of the Worlds with a live orchestra across the UK in April. The shows also included special guest Justin Hayward and the long-dead Richard Burton in both sight and sound as “The Journalist”.

Jonathan Kent’s Glyndebourne on Tour’s production of The Turn of the Screw updated Benjamin Britten’s opera to the 1950s and introduced a suggestion of paedophilia to the classic ghost story.

Nintendo’s Wii console was the new must-have gadget of 2006, especially after Sony delayed the European launch of its new PlayStation 3 until the following spring. The Wii controller, shaped like a television remote, interacted with a sensor bar placed in front of the TV that translated the player’s motion into movement on the screen.

Meanwhile, Johnny Depp voiced the disappointing Pirates of the Caribbean: Legend of Jack Sparrow spin-off video game, and Monster House was based on the animated film and obviously aimed at younger children.

At least Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse allowed the player to actually become a zombie and turn the inhabitants of a small American town into an army of the walking dead.

Although the film was not due for release until 2007, Gentle Giant offered six-inch busts of “Harry Potter”, “Draco Malfoy” and “Cho Chang”, based on the characters in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix .

The third “Now Playing” series included a seven-inch figure of the Werewolf from Dog Soldiers , while Shaun (from Shaun of the Dead ), Chucky (from Child’s Play ) and Sebastian “The King” Haff (from Bubba Ho-Tep ) were all part of the fourth “Cult Classics” series.

NECA’s “The Cult Classics Hall of Fame” included limited edition figures of The Crow, Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees and the ever-popular Pinhead.

McFarlane Toys acquired the licensing rights to the 1992 movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula and issued a two-pack of deluxe action figures depicting Dracula in his incarnations as a bat and a wolf as part of the “Movie Maniacs” series.

From Factory X, the replica of Rupert Giles’ Vampyr Book from Buffy the Vampire Slayer opened up to reveal a hidden storage area. The six-inch tall Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Übervamp Bust was sculpted by Gabriel Marquez and limited to 2,000 hand-numbered pieces.

“Black Widow” and “Bonejangles” statues from Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride were each available with certificates of authenticity.

Fantastik Plastiks’ Mad Monster Party Vinyl Figures depicted Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, Werewolf and the Zombie Bellhop from the 1966 Rankin/Bass animated puppet movie. Each figure, based on the original design by Jack Harris, was packaged in a colourful tube and limited to 1,500 pieces each.

“Herman Munster” and “Grandpa Munster” were caricatured in Electric Tiki’s Tooned-Up Television Series , based on original designs by Tracy Mark Lee. The eleven-inch high polystone maquettes came with hand-numbered certificates of authenticity.

Hawthorne Village offered The Munsters Halloween Village with sculptures of “1313 Mockingbird Lane” (with a free Herman Munster figurine), “Lily’s Inn” and “Grandpa’s Touch of Transylvania Hotel”.

Artbox’s set of 72 Frankenstein Cards featured images from the 1931 Universal movie. “Monster Sketch” cards, depicting Frankenstein’s creation through the eyes of various artists, and “Monster-Glo” cards were randomly inserted into packs.

Comic Images’ Godzilla King of the Monsters Cards were released to celebrate the Big G’s 50th anniversary, and included randomly inserted sketch cards illustrated by Bob Eggleton, Matt Harris and others.

Fay Wray, in a classic pose from King Kong , was one of four famous “Canadians in Hollywood” (the others being Mary Pickford, Lorne Greene and John Candy) who were immortalised on a stamp by Canada Post.

San Francisco was the popular location for World Horror Convention 2006, held over May llth-14th. Despite an impressive line-up of guests that included international authors Kim Newman and Koji Suzuki, publisher John Pelan, artist Brom, actor Bill Moseley and Toastmaster Peter Straub, mismanagement led to some problems after the event. Ray Garton was announced as the somewhat premature recipient of the Grand Master Award.

The 19th annual Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Awards were presented at a banquet at an airport hotel in Newark, New Jersey, on June 17th.

The Novel award was a tie between David Morrell’s Creepers and Charlee Jacob’s Dread of the Beast . First Novel went to Weston Ochse’s Scarecrow Gods , Short Fiction was awarded to Gary A. Braunbeck’s “We Now Pause for Station Identification”, and Joe Hill’s “Best New Horror” was awarded Long Fiction. Del Howison and Jeff Gelb’s Dark Delicacies won the anthology award, and Hill made it a popular double when he also received the Collection award for 20th Century Ghosts. Horror: Another 100 Best Books edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman won in the Non-Fiction category, and Michael A. Arnzen’s Freakcidents and Charlee Jacob’s Sineater tied for the Poetry award. The HWA Life Achievement Award went to Peter Straub, Necessary Evil Press was the recipient of the Specialty Press Award, and the Richard Laymon President’s Award went to Lisa Morton for her services to the HWA.

British FantasyCon XXX was held in Nottingham over September 22nd-24th. The impressive line-up of Guests of Honour included Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, Neil Gaiman, Raymond E. Feist and Juliet E. McKenna, while David J. Howe was Master of Ceremonies.

The August Derleth Award for Best Novel went to Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys . Best Novella was Stuart Young’s “The Mask Behind the Face”, and Joe Hill’s “Best New Horror” repeated its Stoker success, collecting the award for Best Short Fiction. The author also continued his winning streak by picking up the Best Collection award for 20th Century Ghosts. The Elastic Book of Numbers edited by Allan Ashley won for Best Anthology, Peter Crowther’s PS Publishing picked up the Best Small Press award, and Les Edwards was once again voted Best Artist. Clive Barker presented The Karl Edward Wagner Award for Special Achievement to Stephen Jones, and all the winners were present to accept their statuettes. A Special BFS Committee Founders Award was given to Keith Walker, Rosemary Pardoe, Phil Spencer and David A. Sutton.