FAB Press' long awaited book on Spaghetti Westerns arrived at home yesterday. I grabbed a few quick pics of the book and as you can see it looks like another excellent FAB production. When you get passed John Coulthart's gorgeous front cover artwork, the book is packed with a bewildering amount of rare, international posters, stills and ad mats (where do they get them from?) and beautifully laid out text. I started reading the book last night, getting in only a few pages of the Introduction but author Kevin Grant's writing is intelligent, thoughtful and accessible. Overall
Any Gun Can Play looks like an essential purchase for fans of the genre...
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| Inside page autographed by author Kevin Grant and Django himself Franco Nero!. This is limited to the first 500 copies |
Looks excellent Wes, I must pick this up. I had completely forgotten about it having been really excited about it when I first heard it was happening. Do you have any other SW books?
ReplyDeleteI have just one other SW book Mart, called Once Upon A Time In the Italian West, which is pretty good I must say. It's a companion piece to the same author's From Stagecoach to Tombstone, which looks at American Westerns. I definitely don't know Italian Westerns like I do Italian Horror so I'm looking forward to finding some new films...
ReplyDeleteWhat are yr favourite Spaghetti's ? Aside from the Leone's, I love Keoma, and Django Kill...
Looks like Any Gun Can Play lives up to the high standard Fab Press has set for genre film books. I'll be picking this up soon, hopefully. I'd love to have Franco Nero's autograph.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely grab a copy Anthony, I'm only on the first few pages of the book but already it looks like it will be the definitive study of the genre. I've put the Morricone/Leone soundtracks on the mp3 player as a musical accompaniment whilst I'm reading, so all I'm short now is a poncho and a coffin...
ReplyDeleteNice! I do love FAB Press.
ReplyDeleteFrom one Morricone fan to another - you should check out this damn fine blog: http://enniomorricone-ilmaestro.blogspot.com/
There's a wealth of stuff to download - I've been working my way through his gialli scores... Beautiful stuff - and amongst some of his most underrated work. :)
Many thanks James - that's an incredible archive !
ReplyDeleteVery jealous! If I wasn't in the worst financial situation I've ever been in, i would pick this up in a heartbeat! Plus a Franco Nero signature! Looks excellently designed too. I have a couple of books by FAB press and they're true labors of love.
ReplyDeleteI'd highly recommend Alex Cox's 10,000 ways to die Wes, I thoroughly enjoyed that read, and any of Sir Christopher Frayling's Leone books. As for the films themselves, I love most of Corbucci's entries Django and The Big/Great silence especially. Keoma is great fun, Django Kill is fucking fantastic and I'm really overdue a revisit of that one, maybe this weekend in fact!
ReplyDeleteThanks to James for the Morricone link, I've been hammering the OUATITW soundtrack since watching the blu ray.
Forgot to mention, I've ordered the book albeit the paupers paperback edition!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, The Big Silence, incredible !
ReplyDeleteYeah, I should have got the 10,000 Ways to Die book Mart but I kept on putting it off for no good reason really as I'm a big Alex Cox fan - I used to love Moviedrome on BBC2.
The paperback is just as good. I only got the expensive hardback because I have a terminal FAB fetish...
Finally ordered a copy of this today. Excited for it. Now comes the three week wait for it to get here from Fab. I swear they ship via camel or something. But to their credit, they pack books with extreme amounts of care to make the trip across the pond.
ReplyDeleteI share your FAB fixation, sir.
Absolutely Wil, when the book gets to Louisiana you know it's not gonna be beaten up in the post. Getting books from say Amazon, it's always a 50/50 chance... At least you have 3 weeks to catch on some Westerns in preparation...
ReplyDeleteI would love to have this book - I've been delighted the last few years that some affordably priced editions of spaghetti western stuff has been coming out in the proper aspect ratio - I pick them up whenever I can. Sadly, among all my family and friends - I am the only one to like Westerns (not counting my dad who lives 1000 miles from me) so no one likes to watch them with me.
ReplyDeleteCraig, I would highly recommend you spend the extra dollars and cents on this excellent book - it's that good. And like you said - a lot of these Italian Westerns are emerging on DVD and Blu in definitive editions, so finally we get to see them... Howard Hughes' study Once Upon a Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers' Guide to Spaghetti Westerns is also recommended as an excellent, cheaper alternative, but it doesn't quite have the epic sweep of Any Gun Can Play...
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