20 - Friday, October 23. 19S9 - North Shore News Katharine Hamer News Reporter katharinc@nsnews.com SHAVEN-headed, black-clad, and quick-witted, Christopher Brookmyre is exactly as you would expect him to be if you’d read his breakneck comic thrillers. Brookanyre, mn town for the Vancouver Enternational Writer's Festival, has been compared to both Raymond Chandler and Carl Hiassen. He prefers Hiassen, himself) and rolls his eves when reminded that some critics refer to his work as “tartaat noir.” He insists that such a thing is “chromatically impossible,” aside from being “a stupid expression.” “My style isn’t remotely noirish,” he protests. “1 mean, there’s a lot of black humour and all that bur it’s not that sort of dark, depressing stut. Ir tends to be kind of wacky and optimistic and generally corny.” Brookmiyre’s current titie is called One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night. It’s about a school reunion that not only takes place on a converted oil rig in the North Sea, bur is attended by bungling terrorists. The kebab shop mentality of British tourists epitomized in the novel won't go above the heads of readers here, says Brookmyre: “Pre talked to a lot of people about that, and they’ say that they're almost as bad, and the Americans are certainly as bad.You look at places like Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, where ‘Taco Bell is the only piece of Mexicana that’s left.” From Girls to Grrriz by Trinz Robbins, Chronicle Books, 142 pages,$26.95. In December 1941, Archie, Jughead and Betty made their first, appearance on the comic stands, Four issues later, Betty’s rival, Veronica, showed up and completed their eternal love triangle. The first comic for girls had arrived. As the genre grew, Archie’s success prompted spin-offs and imi- tators galore. Trina Robbins takes a fond look at the growth of comics written for girls. She takes us from the beginning he through to the present, of ering her. very informed insight on the evolution of the medium. Robbins has been writing and drawing comics since 1966. As comic publishers looked for new markets the romance comic was born. In the early fifties a broad sclec- tion of comics ali covered the same ground, Hees Romance; Tourge Career Girl Romances were typical of the titles used. With the creation of underground comics in the sixties, the door was opened for a new type of girls comic. Independent female heroines: ° needed their own vehicle and they got it but it was just the beginning. In 1972 female sexuality received ie’ 's comic voice when Tits,’n’ Clisibegan its fiftéen year stint Today, comics are avail- able for every taste but find- ing them is not always casy. The comicbook industry is struggling, and enlightening books like Fran: Girls to Grrriz. can only help its cause. | wees —— Terry Peters mic ranter d Grigitl Ganda Sais Bond ‘ e New higher interest Canada Premium Bond _¢ No fee RRSP and RRIF options « New bond series on salé each month for 6 months e Start investing with as little as $100 e No ‘fees, ever ees *This rate also applies. to Canada Savings Bonds Series 50 and Series 54, issued November 1, 1995 and Each of the characters in the navel is, in some was, represen - tative of a classmate we've all once known and sceretiy loved — or hated. “TL think everybody had most of those archerypes,” Brookmyre muses. “Everybody had some psychopath they were ternfied of: the beaurifil girls, the class smart-arse. Vhere are always psychos who turn out to be tortured and sensitive. Actually that’s a very Scottish archetype — you've got Jimmy Boyle, Hugh Collins and a whole toad of these Scottish guys: wanestery and psvehopaths who went to prison and discovered their artistic side and renounced all their previous ways.” Born ina small town near Glasgow, Brookimyre spent four years working as a writer for film bible Seren Diternasional before turning his hand to fiction. He churned out four books before hiuing the big time with Quite Unly One Morning, the first of pwo novels starring hard- drinking investigative journalist Jack Parlabane — which he wrote in seven weeks and for which he won the intriguingiv-tided First Blood Award for best crime novel. He followed those up with Not The End of The World, 3 book about “Christian fundamentalists in Los Angeles trying to cash in on 1999.” He thinks his image as a protessional ranter is, in some ways, fir, particularly about his first couple of books. esi’t write ‘tartan in “There is alot of ranting.” he concedes. “Phe characters are jot a vehicle for a sustained invective. It all spews out in my writ ing -— in jact, the fint evo books that were published were prob- ably the result of 18 years of frustration with the Conservative government — m particular, the way Scotland had fared out of thowe yearn.” During the Thatcher years especially, savs Brookmyre, Scotland was perceived by publishers as “a northern wasteland.” Post Irvine Welsh, that’s no longer the case, though the histori- cal Mip in which ail things Celtic were trendy has passed. “There definitely was a Scottish phase though,” Brookmyre says, “mn the same way that in che “SOs Latin American fiction was trendy, aad in the carly 90s it was Chinese fiction, Like his compatriat Lain Banks, Brookmyre tends to bash out copy ata feverish pace. “I've just finished another one,” he says, “and [wrote the majority of that in about pve months as well.” He insists, though, that he writes Soflice hours. Pm not really one for the inidnight of. TP need my sleep.” Brookmyre has been working on a screenplay of an unpub- lished navel — The Sin Garden —- tor the past two years with Scottish actor John Hannah (best known to North American audiences for his reading of W.H. Auden in Four Weddings and a Funeral.) ‘The new novel, due out new year, will be called Boiliig a Frag, though there are no frogs in it. Brookmyre says impishly that he’s had to putin an author’s note, “to explain that this is a metaphor, not a recipe.” NEW HIGHER RATES Effective October 22, 1998S ADA PREMIUM GON “ pores 5.00% 540% 5.80% YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 Seties 9. Acunal compound rate of 5.29% for C-bend if beld for 3 years. Series 60 and 9 are available enti November 1, 1999. With New Canada Savings Bonds you always know where you stand. And there’s never been a better time to buy them than right now. 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