Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon
Noir, crime, and mystery short stories, scholarship, and so much more
ARTICLE PREVIEW: “If there is a lesson to be learned from noir stories, be they in print or filmed, it is that the past never stays in the past for long, and the inevitably ill-fated future closes in faster than expected…..”
Read More Preview: “from Build My Gallows High to Out of the Past” by Jeremy CarrBOOK REVIEW: “Jakubowski in the end absolutely triumphs with his rhapsodic prose….”
Read More “Vivid Evocations and Deadly Revelations: Manhattan Death Ballad” by WIlliam BlickBOOK REVIEW: “A return to these origins is refreshing as compared to many of the contributions to the current state of the crime novel….”
Read More “Keeping the Flame Alive: Dan Bronson’s Shout at the Devil” by WIlliam BlickREVIEW ESSAY: “Often described as ‘psychological westerns,’ these films eschewed the conventional heroes of the old west for more complicated protagonists, flawed and motivated by darker impulses….”
Read More “Shadows in the Sunlight: On the Noir Western” by Anees ArefGRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: “David and his collaborators deserve credit for taking some detours and tangents that make their book distinctive…. But those pieces aren’t enough to overcome some fatal flaws….”
Read More “Some Mismanaged Business: Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business” by Brian GreeneBOOK REVIEW: “Chock full of beautiful, at times frightening and enchanting, and always iconoclastic tales, featuring heavy-hitting genre authors at the top of their games….”
Read More “Murder, Mayhem, and Music: 120 Murders” by William BlickREVIEW ESSAY: “Guilt, betrayal, disillusionment, war – the themes in these films are crafted with the precision of, indeed, a cuckoo clock.”
Read More “The Postwar Noirs of Carol Reed” by Anees ArefBOOK REVIEW: “A candid and insightful look into Ferrara’s creative process….”
Read More “An Auteur’s High Points –The Greatest Gangster Movie You’ve Never Seen: Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral” by William BlickBOOK REVIEW: “Fenwick’s work is unlikely to shock audiences like sensation fiction had done to the Victorians, but the domestic realism and colorful characters are likely to engage the avid mystery aficionado.”
Read More “A New Sensation: Elizabeth Fenwick’s Disturbance on Berry Hill/A Night Run” by William BlickBOOK REVIEW: “A comprehensive catalogue of NYC-centric crime movies from the 1970s….”
Read More “The City as a Character: Andrew J. Rausch’s The Taking of New York City” by Brian Greene
Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon 