The Toy Collector
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The Toy Collector
''The Toy Collector'' is a novel written by James Gunn, published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2000. It is the story of a hospital orderly who steals drugs from the hospital which he sells to help keep his toy collection habit alive. Although the work is fictional, the name of the protagonist is James Gunn. Content The novel flashes back and forth between the character Gunn's drug-addled, sexually abusive adult life, and his life among his childhood friends. Furthermore, we see the lives of Gunn's childhood toys—from Rom, Spaceknight to the Fisher-Price Little People, who seem to have lives and thoughts of their own outside Gunn's world. Reception A positive review in ''The Austin Chronicle'' states that ''The Toy Collector'' "satirizes both Seventies melodrama and Nineties cynicism as Gunn barrels through life looking for beauty and love. But every page in this novel has something to laugh at and something sad to remember, and it's better than anything you'll see on TV." ...
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James Gunn
James Francis Gunn Jr. (born August 5, 1966) is an American filmmaker and executive. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with ''Tromeo and Juliet'' (1997). He then began working as a director, starting with the horror-comedy film '' Slither'' (2006), and moving to the superhero genre with ''Super'' (2010), ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' (2014), ''Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'' (2017), '' The Suicide Squad'' (2021), and '' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'' (2023). In 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery hired Gunn to become co-chairman and co-CEO of DC Studios. He also wrote and directed the web series ''James Gunn's PG Porn'' (2008–2009), the HBO Max original series ''Peacemaker'' (2022–present), and the Disney+ original special ''The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special'' (2022). Other projects he is known for is writing for the 2004 remake of George A. Romero's '' Dawn of the Dead'' (1978), writing the live-action adaptation ...
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Bloomsbury Publishing
Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in New York City, an India publishing office in New Delhi, an Australia sales office in Sydney CBD and other publishing offices in the UK including in Oxford. The company's growth over the past two decades is primarily attributable to the ''Harry Potter'' series by J. K. Rowling and, from 2008, to the development of its academic and professional publishing division. The Bloomsbury Academic & Professional division won the Bookseller Industry Award for Academic, Educational & Professional Publisher of the Year in both 2013 and 2014. Divisions Bloomsbury Publishing group has two separate publishing divisions—the Consumer division and the Non-Consumer division—supported by group functions, namely Sales and Mar ...
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Rom (comics)
Rom the Space Knight is a superhero, originally a toy and then a magazine lead. Rom was created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan L. McCoy for Parker Brothers and is now a Hasbro asset. After the toy was licensed to Marvel Comics, Rom became a character that debuted in Marvel in the eponymous American comic book ''Rom: Spaceknight'' (December 1979 – February 1986), by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema. In July 2015, IDW Publishing began publishing a new ''Rom'' comic book series. That December, a live-action film version of Rom was in development by Allspark Pictures and Paramount. Toy "Rom" was a toy co-created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan L. McCoy (US Patent #4,267,551). It was sold to Parker Brothers and was the inspiration for the comic book series ''Rom: Spaceknight''. The toy was originally named COBOL, after the programming language, but was later changed to ''Rom'', after ROM (read-only memory), by Parker Brothers executives. The toy set a prec ...
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Fisher-Price
Fisher-Price is an American company that produces educational toys for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, headquartered in East Aurora, New York, East Aurora, New York (state), New York. The company was founded in 1930 during the Great Depression by Herman Fisher, Irving Price, Helen Schelle, and Margaret Evans-Price. Fisher-Price has been a subsidiary, wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel since 1993. History Founded in 1930 during the Great Depression by Herman Fisher, Irving Price, Price's illustrator-artist wife Margaret Evans Price, and Helen Schelle, the name Fisher-Price was established by combining two of the three names. Fisher worked previously in manufacturing, selling and advertising games for a company in Churchville, New York. Price had retired from a major variety chain store, and Helen Schelle previously operated Penny Walker Toy Shop in Binghamton, New York. Fisher-Price's fundamental toy-making principles centered on intrinsic play value, ingenuity, strong constr ...
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Little People (toys)
Little People is a :Toy companies, toy brand for children ages 6–36 months and to ages 3 and up, originally produced by Fisher-Price, Inc. in the 1960s as the Play Family People. The current product line consists of playsets, mini-sets and accessories, books, CDs, and DVDs focusing on various configurations of 5 characters named Eddie, Tessa, Mia, Koby, and Sofie. Mattel reports that since the brand's launch, over 2-billion Little People figures have been sold in over 60 countries. In 2016, Little People was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. The "Little People" name, registered and trademarked by Mattel and Fisher-Price in 1985, came from Mattel following the lead of consumers who referred to the early Play Family playsets as "those little people". By 2019, more than two billion Little People figures had been sold in more than 60 countries. History Original Little People Little People started in 1950 with the "Looky Fire Truck" and three round-headed fire men ( ...
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The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic. The newspaper reported a weekly readership of 545,500. It is part of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and it emulates the typical publications of the 1960s counterculture movement. History The ''Chronicle'' was co-founded in 1981 by Nick Barbaro and Louis Black, with assistance from others who largely met through the graduate film studies program at the University of Texas at Austin. Barbaro and Black are also co-founders of the South by Southwest Festival, although the festival operates as a separate company. The paper initially was published bi-weekly, and later weekly. Its precursor in style and format was the ''Austin Sun'', a bi-weekly that had ceased operations in 1978, after four years of publication.
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Dawn Of The Dead (2004 Film)
''Dawn of the Dead'' is a 2004 American action horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his feature directorial debut, with a screenplay by James Gunn. A remake of George A. Romero's 1978 horror film of the same name, it stars an ensemble cast that includes Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer. Scott Reiniger, Tom Savini, and Ken Foree from the original film also make cameo appearances. Set in Milwaukee, the film follows a group of survivors who take refuge in an upscale suburban shopping mall during a zombie apocalypse. Producers Eric Newman and Marc Abraham developed the film rather as a "re-envisioning" of the original ''Dawn of the Dead'', aiming to reinvigorate the zombie genre for modern audiences. Newman and Abraham bought the rights from co-producer Richard P. Rubinstein (who produced the original), and hired Gunn to write the script, which adopted the original's basic premise but is oriented around the action genre. Intent on making the remake a ...
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Slither (2006 Film)
''Slither'' is a 2006 science fiction black comedy horror film written and directed by James Gunn in his directorial debut. Produced by Paul Brooks and Eric Newman, the film stars Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Tania Saulnier, Gregg Henry, and Michael Rooker. The film is set in a small town in South Carolina that becomes invaded by a malevolent alien parasite. ''Slither'' was theatrically released in the United States on March 31, 2006, by Universal Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who deemed it as "funny" and "creepy", while praising its premise, B-movie conventions, Gunn's direction, script and the performances of the cast, and has since become a cult film. However, it was a box office failure, grossing only $12 million worldwide against a $15 million budget. Plot A meteorite brings a malevolent, sentient extraterrestrial parasite to Earth. The parasite enters the town of Wheelsy, South Carolina, where it infects wealthy resident Grant ...
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Guardians Of The Galaxy (film)
''Guardians of the Galaxy'' (retroactively referred to as ''Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1'') is a 2014 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 10th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Directed by James Gunn, who wrote the screenplay with Nicole Perlman, it features an ensemble cast including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper as the titular Guardians, along with Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, and Benicio del Toro. In the film, Peter Quill and a group of extraterrestrial criminals go on the run after stealing a powerful artifact. Perlman began working on the screenplay in 2009. Producer Kevin Feige first publicly mentioned ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' as a potential film in 2010 and Marvel Studios announced it was in active development at ...
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Bloomsbury Publishing Books
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest museum in the United Kingdom, and several educational institutions, including University College London and a number of other colleges and institutes of the University of London as well as its central headquarters, the New College of the Humanities, the University of Law, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the British Medical Association and many others. Bloomsbury is an intellectual and literary hub for London, as home of world-known Bloomsbury Publishing, publishers of the ''Harry Potter'' series, and namesake of the Bloomsbury Set, a group of British intellectuals which included author Virginia Woolf, biographer Lytton Strachey, and economist John Maynard Keynes. Bloomsbury began to be developed in the 17th century under the Earls of South ...
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Works By James Gunn
Works may refer to: People * Caddy Works (1896–1982), American college sports coach * Samuel Works (c. 1781–1868), New York politician Albums * '' ''Works'' (Pink Floyd album)'', a Pink Floyd album from 1983 * ''Works'', a Gary Burton album from 1972 * ''Works'', a Status Quo album from 1983 * ''Works'', a John Abercrombie album from 1991 * ''Works'', a Pat Metheny album from 1994 * ''Works'', an Alan Parson Project album from 2002 * ''Works Volume 1'', a 1977 Emerson, Lake & Palmer album * ''Works Volume 2'', a 1977 Emerson, Lake & Palmer album * '' The Works'', a 1984 Queen album Other uses * Microsoft Works, a collection of office productivity programs created by Microsoft * IBM Works, an office suite for the IBM OS/2 operating system * Mount Works, Victoria Land, Antarctica See also * The Works (other) * Work (other) Work may refer to: * Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community ** ...
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