Tagged: Editor

Shell Scott Takes On The Death Gods

  • News
  • October 12, 2011

Linda Pendleton has released the following information regarding Richard S. Prather’s “The Death Gods,” his final book of the Shell Scott Mystery Series.

The long-awaited The Death Gods, by Richard S. Prather—the final book in his long-running and best-selling Shell Scott Private Eye Series is now available on Kindle and will be in print at Amazon in two weeks or so, then at Smashwords very soon. Cover by Judy Bullard http://customebookcovers.com/

You can purchase The Death Gods on Kindle for $7.29 at http://www.amazon.com/Death-Shell-Scott-Mystery-ebook/dp/B005UNKR0A/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318455390&sr=1-1

About The Death Gods:

In “The Death Gods,” happy-go-lucky, Los Angeles Private Eye, Shell Scott, bulldozes his way thru thugs, often with light-hearted humor, and with a beauty or two along the way, in this final novel of the long-running Shell Scott Series by Richard S. Prather, published for the first time.

Shell Scott is hired to locate a lost dog belonging to a local physician, Henry Hernandez, M.D. But Scott soon discovers the needs of Dr. Hernandez go far beyond his missing dog. There has been an attempt on the doctor’s life and Dr. Hernandez believes it is due to his knowing too much about a deadly virus that appears to be taking hold in the country. Dr. Hernandez sets out to not only prove to Shell Scott, but to the world, that the IFAI virus and the vaccine being developed by a well-known local medical researcher and his wealthy business partner, is a complete fraud. Shell Scott finds himself in deep and getting deeper by the hour in this battle of good against evil, life against death, and medical “quackery” against allopathic medicine. Can Scott convince a beautiful female medical author that the medical researcher she admires may not be all he claims to be? And what about Scott’s client, Dr. Henry Hernandez: is he a nut-case, a quack, as some claim? Shell Scott finds he is in the battle of his life and chances are he may not come out alive.

More than 40 million copies of Richard S. Prather’s hard-boiled Shell Scott mysteries have been sold in the U.S., with millions more world-wide since Shell Scott first appeared in 1950.

Richard S. Prather (1921-2007) received the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1986, and was twice on the Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America. He was Editor of “The Comfortable Coffin,” the 13th Mystery Writers of America Anthology. His stories have appeared in numerous magazines, “The Shell Scott Mystery Magazine,” and several anthologies.

You can purchase The Death Gods on Kindle for $7.29 at http://www.amazon.com/Death-Shell-Scott-Mystery-ebook/dp/B005UNKR0A/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318455390&sr=1-1

PRO SE PRESENTS FOR OCTOBER-AN EPIC NOVELLA BY AN AUTHOR OF EPICS!

PRO SE PRESENTS FOR OCTOBER-AN EPIC NOVELLA BY AN AUTHOR OF EPICS!

  • News
  • September 28, 2011

Pro Se Productions, Publisher of New Pulp books, anthologies, and magazines, announces today that the October issue of its magazine, PRO SE PRESENTS, will be a special issue featuring the novella, THE HUNTER ISLAND ADVENTURE by well known New Pulp author Wayne Reinagel.

Never before in print, THE HUNTER ISLAND ADVENTURE features characters from Reinagel’s INFINITE HORIZONS Universe and his PULP HEROES trilogy.  “Infinite Horizons,” according to Reinagel, “explores the secret lives and revealing the unrecorded adventures of the greatest heroes and villains to ever walk the Earth.


“In the worlds of Infinite Horizons, the question is explored, what if the Victorian and Pulp era adventures actually occurred in our universe. And taking into account all of the events that have happened since that time, how would this have altered the pulp heroes from the 30’s and 40’s? The answers to these questions are presented in the first trilogy of Infinite Horizons novels entitled Pulp Heroes.



“Pulp Heroes is an epic adventure, spanning two centuries in time and linking the incredible lives of history’s most popular Victorian Age adventurers of the 1800’s with the greatest action heroes of the Pulp Era and an assortment of well-known, real-life figures.”

THE HUNTER ISLAND ADVENTURE is a story about Pam Titan, Doc Titan’s cousin and an adventurer in her own right, and three associates who end up on a wild adventure all their own.  Although available in ebook form, this will be the first time that the story has appeared in print.

“We are more than honored,” Tommy Hancock, Editor in Chief of Pro Se Productions says, “to be the home for Wayne’s novella.  Known for his epic storytelling and adventures that span decades, even centuries, full of his own creations as well as reinterpretations of real historical figures and literary characters, Wayne also proves he’s extremely capable in telling gripping tales in a short form.  And you an find out how capable in PRO SE PRESENTS #3 in October.”

More information will follow as the release date nears for PRO SE PRESENTS #3 in October!

JOHN OSTRANDER: How Piracy Made Me A Comic Book Writer

One of the questions I’ve been asked most frequently over the years has been “How do you break in to comics?” – usually by someone looking to break into comics themselves. My standard answer is, “Through the roof with crowbar in the dead of night.” The true answer is – I don’t know. I got into comics because Mike Gold, who was then starting up First Comics, was my friend and liked my work as a playwright and knew I really loved comics and wanted to see what I would do given a chance. So I guess my answer is, “Make friends with someone who will someday become an editor and give you a shot. And then don’t screw up.” Not the easiest advice to follow.

The main reason Mike gave me a shot was one particular play – Bloody Bess – that was co-written by myself and my long time friend, William J. Norris, with Stuart Gordon on plotting assist. The play was performed first by the legendary Chicago theater company, The Organic Theater, and you may know some of the people involved back then. Stuart was founder and director and, if you know him for nothing else, you must know him as the director of the film, [[[Re-Animator]]]. You may know some of the actors who were involved such as Meschach Taylor (Designing Women), Dennis Franz (NYPD Blue), and Joe Mantegna (Criminal Minds, Fat Tony on The Simpsons).

The play was begotten because Stuart wanted to stage a Jacobean revenge tragedy but he couldn’t find an actual one that he liked. It was the height of Watergate and Stuart claimed you could smell the desire for revenge in the air. So he decided to commission a new one. It was about pirates because we were also aware of two actual female pirates – Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

Mike liked the play a lot and came more than once to see the show. All of which brings us to the real reason to write this particular column – to re-tell one of Mike’s favorite stories from my theater days.

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PRO SE DEBUTS SECOND ROOK TRAILER! VOLUME SIX IS COMING!

PRO SE DEBUTS SECOND ROOK TRAILER! VOLUME SIX IS COMING!

Pro Se Productions released a second trailer spotlighting its upcoming release of Barry Reese’s THE ROOK: VOLUME SIX today. Tommy Hancock, Editor in Chief of Pro Se, states, “This book is good enough to have its own movie, much less more than one trailer!  This trailer shows a different aspect from the first one and actually previews art from the upcoming volume!”  Produced by Pro Se CEO Fuller Bumpers, this trailer showcases THE ROOK: VOLUME SIX, due out in a matter of days!

New ‘Star Wars’ Series To Screen at Star Wars Celebration V?

New ‘Star Wars’ Series To Screen at Star Wars Celebration V?

Fans in attendance at the fifth annual Star Wars Celebration got a sweet and soulful treat, when George Jefferson Lucas debuted the upcoming BET series, BlackStar Warriors. The series, which follows the misadventures of Lando Calrissian and his honky partner Han Solo (and some tall whiny dog-man) as they (mainly Lando) deal with ‘the Man”.

After the series trailer debuted to a packed audience, the fans erupted in acceptance. “Finally, a brother gets the spotlight!” acclaimed one fan, known to many as ‘Hooper X’. Others in attendance had chimed in as well. “It’s good to know, in this era of new equality, that the Black Man can finally get his geek on.” said the Reverend Al Sharpton, who showed up for the even shortly after hearing of its existence. He went on to say “…While I don’t know what this ‘Star Wars’ hoopla is about, I’m personally taking credit for the expansion of this once all white universe to better include the Black Man.” Later, the Reverend was screened the original trilogy, and has since taken back his comments.

While we know all of you around the country may not have been able to make it out to Celebration V, we here at ComicMix wanted to treat you to the trailer anyways. So, lean your chair back real low… pour yourself some Courvoisier and enjoy the (space)funk.

Editor’s note: No, this didn’t happen at Celebration today, it’s not a real show, and we’re amazed you thought so. Sheeeesh.

Photosynth Hulk Demo

Photosynth Hulk Demo

  • News
  • August 29, 2008

 

I love tech. Especially new technology. Twitter, iPhone, Media Centers, etc. So I was reading about Photosynth from Microsoft Live Labs. It’s a new way of displaying photos.

Photosynth analyzes each photo for similarities to the others, and uses that data to build a model of where the photos were taken. It then re-creates the environment and uses that as a canvas on which to display the photos.

Basically, it creates a 3D model of a room or a subject from multiple photos of the same subject. An easy way to give a virtual tour or show a piece of merchandise from any angle a buyer could imagine.

Of course my first thought was, ‘This would rock if someone had a ton of pictures of the Watchmen Owlship from San Diego Comic Con.’ Sadly, I didn’t. But I could imagine it being a great tool to show off your action figure. So I grabbed my Smart Hulk action figure and tried it out.

Editor’s note: Evidently, this stuff won’t run on a Mac. It’s Microsoft; go figure. Anyway, you PC guys should follow the above link and Hulk-out.

Review: ‘Superpowers’ by David J. Schwartz

Review: ‘Superpowers’ by David J. Schwartz

Superpowers: A Novel
By David J. Schwartz
Crown, June 2008, $14.95

There are two kinds of superhero novels, with very different rules. The more common – but less respected – kind of superhero novel takes characters and situations we already know from an existing comics universe and tells a story using that furniture. Those books can be amazing, like Elliott S. Maggin’s two Superman novels, Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday, or they can be mediocre, like…fill in your own example here. But they all hit the ground running, since they work from our knowledge of those universes. Who would read a Spider-Man novel if he’d never heard of [[[Spider-Man]]]?

The other kind of superhero novel tends to come from people outside the comics field, and usually reinvents the wheel in its vision of superheroics. (Like everything else, sometimes doing it elegantly and sometimes producing an oval object that doesn’t even work as a wheel.) Some of the better examples of that type of superhero novel are Michael Bishop’s Count Geiger’s Blues and the recent Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. Those books often have aggressively obvious titles – [[[Superfolks]]], [[[Hero]]], that kind of thing – to immediately signal to the audience that they’re novels about superheroes.

[[[Superpowers]]] is one of the latter kind of novels, down to the title. The British cover (see the continuation) even has line drawings of the characters in costume (by Norm Breyfogle, a name we who read comics will nod knowingly at), much in the style of last year’s [[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]]. And the set-up is quite typical of an outsider superhero novel: five undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) develop individual superpowers after an evening of drinking homemade beer. (One of the endearing things about Superpowers is that Schwartz doesn’t even try to explain their origin – something unexpected happened, and they now have powers. Period.)

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William ‘Willie’ Elder, R.I.P.

William ‘Willie’ Elder, R.I.P.

William "Willie" Elder, one of the illustrators instrumental in launching MAD Magazine, passed away today at age 86, according to various reports.

Elder was one of several creators hired by MAD founder Harvey Kurtzman when the popular parody magazine first launched in 1952.

No details have been released regarding Elder’s cause of death. His funeral will be held Sunday in New Jersey.

From the official statement on behalf of DC, the current publisher of MAD Magazine:

“Willie Elder was one of the funniest artists to ever work for MAD. He created visual feasts with dozens of background gags layered into every MAD story he illustrated,” says John Ficarra, Editor of MAD Magazine, “He called these gags “chicken fat.” Willie’s “anything goes” art style set the tone for the entire magazine and created a look that endures to this day.”

“Willie’s passing saddens all of us here at MAD,” says Sam Viviano, MAD Magazine Art Director, “Everyone who has attempted to draw a funny picture over the course of the last fifty or sixty years owes an enormous debt to Willie, who taught us all how to do it — and no one has ever done it better than he did.”

 

Legends of the Dark Fleece

Legends of the Dark Fleece

  • News
  • January 11, 2008

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of ewes?  It’s the Ovine Princess, the Dark Fleece Detective.  We were lucky enough to meet this secretive heroine at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.  She seems to be a big fan of ComicMix, pausing in her contemplation of villainy (and the straw in the stall) to notice the logo on our t-shirt. 

Oddly, we never seem to see glamourous socialite Lani Lind (LL!) when this dominoed dare-doll puts in an appearance.

(Editor’s note: Martha, we told you we wanted you to work on promoting our online edition of The Black Lamb by Timothy Truman, formerly published by Helix/DC Comics. This ain’t what we had in mind. –Glenn H.)

 

 

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