Wednesday News: Chris Harrison’s romance novel, alleged new Shakespeare portrait, Marvel v. DC fan film, and a skull fashioned from vinyl records

JanetPublishing NewsArt / Comic books / DC-Comics / Marvel / Nicholas Sparks / romantic fiction / sculpture / Shakespeare2 Comments

Chris Harrison Was Inspired by “the Godfather” of Romance Novels For His Book – So for all of you Bachelor/Bachelorette fans out there, host Chris Harrison has written what he refers to as a Romance novel, set to release the same day as the new season of The Bachelorette (I’m guessing this is why the show premiered on Tuesday rather than its usual Monday). Harrison’s novel, The Perfect Letter, was inspired by – wait for it – Nicholas Sparks, who has, according to Harrison, written the “Bible of Romance novels.” Actually, I’m glad he’s marketing himself as another Sparks- let Sparks’s fans get that endless blast of marketing.

PS: What inspired you to write a romance novel?

CH: I love to write and it kind of spawned out of an encounter I had with Nicholas Sparks about five years ago at an event, and I’m a huge fan of his. We became friendly and talked about his job and my job, and we have a lot of the same fans and a lot of the same notions of what drives his books and my show; it was very interesting. So out of that spawned this dream that I would do the same and write a book. I actually emailed him not too long ago and said, “You know that meeting we had? Something came of it.” So he congratulated me and said good luck, and it meant a lot to me. –Pop Sugar

‘True face of Shakespeare’ appears in botany book – So according to Mark Griffiths, a historian and botanist, one of the four engravings on the cover of the 16th century work, The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, by John Gerard is a true representation of a 33-year-old William Shakespeare. You can check out the video accompanying the story for various opinions on this discovery, and my favorite assertion about the image comes from Griffiths: “The Fourth Man is not cartoonish or stylised. It may be monochrome, in fancy dress, and just 3.5 inches tall, but this is something that has been sought for centuries.” As to the other three images,

They are the author Gerard, Rembert Dodoens, a renowned Flemish botanist, and Queen Elizabeth’s Lord Treasurer, Lord Burghley.

The fourth man holds a fritillary and an ear of sweetcorn – plants which Griffiths says point to Shakespeare’s poem Venus and Adonis and his play Titus Andronicus.

Below the bearded fourth man – who wears a laurel wreath – was “an ingenious cipher of the kind loved by the Elizabethan aristocracy” which, when decoded, confirmed his identity as “William Shakespeare”. –BBC News

Watch The Most Insane Marvel VS DC Animated Fan Film – I am the furthest thing from an aficionado when it comes to classic comic book characters and the Marvel v. DC competition (but have you seen these cool chess pieces?), but this is a really cool video.

There’s a whole cottage industry that does nothing but Marvel/DC crossover videos on the Internet, but mostly they’re brief, often using found footage, and when not, many of them look pretty cheap.

YouTuber Saruhan Saral has posted a new, 10-minute-long animated video, tohugh, and it’s pretty cool, as long as you’re there more for the cool action beats than for characters acting like themselves. –ComicBook.com

Dead Media 3: Skull Made from Vinyl Records – Given the story on the resurgence of vinyl I posted last week, I think this image of a skull, fashioned from vinyl records, is relevant (and incredibly beautiful and evocative). You can view more of Noah Scalin’s work on his site (note: it’s provocative and some may find it disturbing). His artistic philosophy is described this way:

Noah Scalin’s work explores the theme of transience – specifically the temporary nature of our individual lives and tenuous nature of  human existence on the planet. Rooted in the medieval concept of memento mori, a reflection on mortality meant to spur a greater reverence for life and reevaluation of priorities, Scalin’s work asks us to take notice of everyday moments.

The Taoist concept of balance – the idea that dark is required to understand light; that destruction is what makes creation valuable – is an ever-present theme in Scalin’s work. Images of death and violence are contrasted with objects and subjects that represent the greatest intellectual and technological achievements of humankind. Thus, Scalin underscores the grey area that lies between innovation and devastation. –NOAH SCALIN

Janet

isn't sure if she's an average Romance reader, or even an average reader, but a reader she is, enjoying everything from literary fiction to philosophy to history to poetry. Historical Romance was her first love within the genre, but she's fickle and easily seduced by the promise of a good read. She approaches every book with the same hope: that she will be filled from the inside out with something awesome that she didnʼt know, didnʼt think about, or didnʼt feel until that moment. And she's always looking for the next mind-blowing read, so feel free to share any suggestions!

→ Janet