Toby Barlow Interview

Mother Jones magazine has an interview with Toby Barlow, author of the fantastic free-verse werewolf novel Sharp Teeth (I’m halfway through my copy, and I strongly recommend it). The interview focuses pretty heavily on the dynamic of human / animal interaction and the potential benefits of a wolf-pack structure in human society.

I think human beings have all these tools for social connection, which should bring us together but instead causes all sorts of confusion and discombobulation. With dogs, they’re either fighting or they’re falling asleep on one another’s necks. It’s a much simpler form of community that they’ve come up with. I agree, people are oftentimes very self-congratulatory about the civilization we’ve built around us, when in fact lying at our feet are much simpler and more satisfied societies.

Read the entire interview here.

Apr. 16th 2008

Sad Werewolves on the Wii

Nibris, a game studio based in Cracow, Poland, is getting ready to release a game titled Sadness for the Nintendo Wii. Set in Europe during the 1910s and presented entirely in atmospheric black and white, Sadness is a psychological horror game for adults. According to concept art and comments made by the game developers, many of the creatures in the game are inspired by Slavic mythology. And what does that mean? Why, that means werewolves, of course!

Sadness Werewolf Concept Art

According to Gaming Today, the werewolves in Sadness “will not have a whole lot in common with the more traditional aspect of werewolves. In the game, the werewolf is born human and when mature they will change during the full moon and will not regenerate after death.”

Not much else is known about Sadness at the moment. Game news sites like GameSpot and IGN are maintaining game overview pages that have been largely stagnant since 2006, but yesterday’s announcement by Emergent Game Technologies (who are providing the development platform for Sadness) has stirred up interest and some new information.

Players will need to confront their greatest fears and protect themselves in hopes of not getting trapped inside the main character’s nightmare. The game has eight different extreme endings each with their own premise, which are assigned to a player based on specific factors during the game. To compliment the intense gameplay, the Wii-mote and Wii Nunchuk control the main character’s hands so players feel as though they are in the psychological thriller.

Watch the game’s official site, sadness-wii.com, for further press releases about what sounds like a groundbreaking game.

Apr. 16th 2008

Yoshihisa Hashimoto Talks About Werewolf Sonic

The latest issue of the Official Nintendo Magazine has an interview with Yoshihisa Hashimoto, lead designer of Sonic Unleashed. Hashimoto confirms the presence of a “Were-Sonic” mode, which offers gamers a slower but more physical method of playing through the levels. From the interview:

[Were-Sonic is] a slightly slower and yet more agile beast. Where Sonic dodges past obstacles, Were-Sonic manhandles them out of the way and can toss enemies around like nobody’s business.

You can read the full interview in Official Nintendo Magazine issue 29, which went on sale last Friday. If I can find scans of the whole article, I’ll post ’em here.

Apr. 15th 2008

The Complete Underworld

Blogcritics Magazine writer Richard Marcus has posted a review of The Complete Underworld, a graphic novel collection that illustrates and expands upon the setting, story and characters of the Underworld films. There’s also a prequel story (today’s the day for Underworld prequels, isn’t it?) called Red In Tooth And Claw, which Marcus says is “quite a good, inspired, piece of story telling that manages to recreate the world of the vampires and werewolves in another environment.”

The Complete Underworld is published by IDW Publishing, the same company that’s releasing Ben Templesmith’s new werewolf series Welcome to Hoxford, which Werewolf News mentioned earlier this week.

Apr. 12th 2008

Fangoria Reports on Underworld Prequel

Fangoria has a report about Rise of the Lycans, the latest installment in the Underworld film franchise.

Producer Richard Wright says that despite a budget lower than those of its predecessors, Rise of the Lycans will be “even more ambitious than the second,” and Tatopoulos Studios technician Guy Himber adds, “We’re not as makeup-heavy on this show as on the previous ones. It’s really all about the werewolves.”

Rise of the Lycans finished shooting in March and is currently in post-production. A release date has not been announced. Take your time with those werewolf effects, guys.

Apr. 12th 2008

Sonic Unleashed: Teaser Trailer

Gametrailers.com has just posted a teaser trailer for Sonic Unleashed. I think we can consider the werewolf rumours confirmed.

Apr. 8th 2008

Sharp Teeth – A Werewolf Novel in Verse Form

Author Toby Barlow is creating quite a stir with his first novel, a werewolf story called Sharp Teeth. Written as a way to pass the time during a year-long stay in a Chicago hotel, Sharp Teeth combines free verse imagery with humour, sorrow and violence in what critics are calling a “gut-wrenching, sexy debut, a horror thriller in verse.” (more…)

Apr. 8th 2008

Ben Templesmith to Create Comic Series About Werewolves

IESB.net and the Horror Fiction News Network are both reporting that Australian artist Ben Templesmith has signed an exclusive deal with IDW Publishing, and among his forthcoming projects is Welcome to Hoxford, a new comic book series about werewolves. (more…)

Apr. 6th 2008

Sonic Unleashed Officially Announced – with Werewolf Sonic?

A week or two after screenshots of the forthcoming Sonic the Hedgehog game were leaked to the web, Sega finally quit issuing cease-and-desist orders and announced that they are indeed making a new Sonic game called Sonic Unleashed, due out for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii before Christmas 2008. (more…)

Apr. 3rd 2008

19th Century Lycanthrope Research Case

This isn’t exactly news, considering it’s from last year, but it’s worth sharing because it’s quite impressive, and because this has been a slow week for news. (more…)

Apr. 3rd 2008