For those of you who don't know, Paul Blaisdell designed and built some of the most memorable movie monsters of the late fifties operating under incredible time constraints and a budget laughable even for American International Pictures. Remember the carrot creature from It Conquered the World? How about the pulpish titular antagonists from Invasion of the Saucer Men or the anatomically correct She Creature? While other special effects men of the time, such as Ray Harryhausen, went on to acclaim and respect in the Hollywood establishment Blaisdell was ignominiously fired upon asking for a little respect in an industry that treats its unknowns even worse than its shining stars. The only information available on the man has been from an old article in Cinefantastique magazine and in the reminiscences of his friend and champion, Bob Burns. This well researched biography can be seen as a celebration of a forgotten special effects man and as another cautionary tale of the Hollywood fringe (a great companion piece to the Ed Wood biography, The Nightmare of Ectasy). Some of his notable creations may be so for the wrong reasons but they had more heart than a good majority of the slick and forgettable monsters made these days. Mr. Palmer's book is a wonderful addition to the bookshelf of any fan of fantastic films and their creators.

Gives a great insight into Paul's work, in some cases you'd think you were there with him. The conditions that Paul worked under was amazing and his commitment and materials used.
His wicked sense of humour and support from his friends in this
then under exposed art of effects and monster making. Still think Technicians behind the scenes should get more support and recognition - grin. This book tops up your enthusiasm to do more

Randy Palmer eloquently invokes the fun-loving spirit of Paul and his funky, renegade creations. Paul certainly was a rare breed; capable of creating fiercely original monsters under less than thankless conditions. Paul's monsters are as endearing as they are memorable, imbued with a soulfulness that few possess. Technique can be learned - imagination can't! Like most gifted artists Paul possessed this and met a tragic end. Randy Palmer sets the record straight and Paul is finally given his due. Randy's book is a MUST own for monster lovers/makers everywhere! A big "Beulah" thank you to Randy...and of course Paul.

Godfather of Gore is an absolute must read for fans of H.G. Lewis and his crazy, crazy world of eploitaion films. Author Randy Palmer lovingly accounts, in great detail, the behind-the-scenes-on-goings of Lewis' 3 dozen (plus) films.

Palmer pens his cinematic guide from an iron-clad film scholars' angle. However, the author, cleverly allows his subject, H.G. Lewis, to soften the subject matter and provide the books' many pages of good humor. The book is entertaining, informative, comprehensive and most of all essential.

My only complaint is that Randy and I just met. We should've met years ago and collaborated on what would've been the ultimate guide/book to the films of our beloved Herschell Gordon Lewis. Sadly, my book, A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis remains incomplete without the input of Randy's Godfather of Gore. Cheers, Randy.

Take a good look at the title "A NATURAL History of Rape"; just ask is Rape natural behavior for man or human? Do you need scientific statistics historically (?)to know it is unnatural inhuman behavior! So what is the book trying to advance in scientific and social circles? That it is natural and there are biological bases for it; and what does it matter whether the reason behind rape is need for power or need for sexual gratification or both?

Is one reason more acceptable than another? If man or woman does it for sex it is OK, it is in the biology or genes!

Perhaps this book legitimizes and gives greater social-scientific acceptance of something we would not normally accept, in the same way society is made to accepts or dilute its resistance to violence, pornography, wanton-sex, pornography, propaganda of all kinds in the politics, media, science, and the marketplace!

The quality of human life is eroded everyday through rape of our minds (by implanting memes or mind-viruses like this). Our Natural Human Self, which has a cosmic/divine electromagnetic connection with our physical-animal-instinctual-impulsive self is being eroded everyday through the pollution of food chain, air, water, oceans and our bodies ridden by foreign elements in the name of vaccine-public health drugs (thinktwice.com)and our minds numbed by dumb TV and media,solicitations of all kind.

Human are the only species given free will (and we have been equated with animals precisely to put a blinder on that) and how each of us use our free will to advance or regress ourselves evolution wise says a lot of who we chose to be.

Only truth will set you free from all falsehood and enslavement. The funding and proponents for this kind of "Scientific" work comes from special interest (a few who rules the mass through our herd mentality). We have to remember there is much secret-cultish, prejudicial, superstitious and coercive behavior within mainstream science and technology. Not everything that comes under the name of science, advance it. It is actually intended to do the opposite: Thy shall not think for or by thyself!

Thornhill and Palmer (TP) review tons of evidence on the nature of rape. The plusses of the book are (1) they show that rape is a sexual act directed at obtaining pleasure rather than being an expression of male power; (2) they show that as predicted by evolutionary theory, males are evolutionarily adapted to rape, whereas females are not. These are terribly important facts, and they go against the accepted wisdom in contemporary sociology and some brands of feminism; but the accepted wisdom has no empirical basis whatever, in the authors opinion and mine as well. The minuses of the book will appear trivial to those who believe in the accepted wisdom and are shattered by its demise. But they are important nonetheless. Most important, TP view males as touting up the costs of raping (pleasure, possible reproduction) against the costs (getting caught and punished). If the benefits exceed the costs, the male rapes. This ignores all forms of interpersonal interaction except the brute physical. For instance, the 'cost' of causing harm to an innocent victim, the 'cost' of seeing a victim helpless and miserable because of your actions, the 'cost' of having the self-image as a sexual predator, and the like, are simply not part of their model of human motivation. Yet there is overwhelming evidence that people are self-interested in the way depicted by TP. Males who use TP's cost/benefit analysis are better described as psychopaths or sociopaths rather than normal humans. This is because in the course of our evolution, humans have picked up fundamental prosocial traits. When these are absent in a person, the person is an abnormal, pathological case. In short, an alternative to TP's characterization of rape is that rapists are males who have abnormal personalities (including but not limited to psychopathy) the allow them to act out on urges that all males have but in most are countermanded by basic human sympathies. TP do a disservice to evolutionary theory, which they use to portray humans as a sorry lot of selfish brutes. The fact is that evolution produces morality and beauty, sensitivity and love, just as much as rape, murder, and indifference.

A technical book intended for those conversant with modern ideas in biology (sexual selection, evoltionarily stable strategies, genetic linkage, etc). The scientific background is not explained, because this is not a book for the general reader.