In 1987, when Count Draculon lead his armies from hell against the earth in an all out war that devastated the planet, one half-man/half-machine rose from the ashes after a ten year slumber to save mankind. MANBORG!
If you are in the dark, Manborg is a 2011 "green screen" feature from the rambunctious group of Canadian filmmakers known as Astron-6, who are responsible for other features as Psycho Goreman, Father's Day, The Editor and The Void.
The movie is a feast for your eyes and never slows down long enough for you to think that most of it was shot in Steven Kostanski's garage. The book adopts the same pedal to the metal mentality while embracing the analog future and filling in some of the characters and motivations along the way. Characters sport names such as Dr. Scorpius, Number One Man, Justice and Shadow Mega. There are Killborgs. There is a Terroropticon, an area where warriors battle to the death. There is also a rom-com subplot between ghastly leader The Baron and Mina, one of the human freedom fighters.
Bret Nelson adapts the screenplay by Steven Kastanski and Jeremy Gillespie. The film is only seventy minutes, and that's with the Bio-Cop trailer tacked on the end and Nelson's book is just as quick and focused. It comes in at 111 pages and includes the lyrics to the absolutely hysterically funny Bio-Cop theme song.
As far as entertainment value, you cannot ask for more than what Nelson delivers. It is a perfect entertainment that will not take long to devour. (Much like the movie it adapts.) It is a treat for anyone looking for some retro 80's vid store thrills in paperback.
This is another in the line of novelizations from Encyclopocalypse. It is offered in two paperback versions, the trade paperback, which I read (and pictured above), and the mass market traditional paperback size for those nostalgic for those days of picking up paperback novelizations from drug store spinner racks and Walden Books.
Mass Market Paperback