Airship 27 Productions, in conjunction with Dynamic Ram Audio, is thrilled to announce the release of their third audio recording based on the stories of the new pulp sensation, Brother Bones – The Undead Avenger by Ron Fortier. Voice actor Mark Kalita returns to read this new entry called, “The Scales of Terror.”
“I was very excited to be chosen to bring Ron’s Brother Bones stories to the audio medium,” Kalita says. “These tales are so rich in the classic pulp fiction tradition with their noir atmosphere, gritty language and larger-than-life hero that you can’t help but let yourself get pulled into the shadows of their delightfully dark recesses. Hopefully my readings will further enhance the imagery that Ron has so skillfully crafted to make them appeal both to fans of old time radio and modern audio books.”
This short audio files are part of an on-going project to sell all seven of the Brother Bones tales from the Airship 27 Productions’ prose collection for the reasonable price of $2. Once all seven have been recorded and made available, the entire audio book will be offered for the bargain price of $10. “Response thus far has been truly wonderful,” reports Fortier, who is also Airship 27 Productions Managing Editor. “We couldn’t be any happier with Dynamic Ram Audio’s quality on these recordings and Mark brings so much to the table. His readings enhance the creepiness of each story.”
Art: Rob Davis
There is some definitive extra passion to this reading as Kalita went on to explain. “Scales of Terror was particularly special for me to read because I’m a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft and the idea of doing a story about a secret cult and otherworldly beasties had instant appeal. Throw in Brother Bones and his particular brand of undead justice and it just doesn’t get any better. I think listeners will also find Chris Barnes’ special audio treatment really helps bring this tale an added dimension of cool creepiness.”
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Author Aaron Smith has made quite a name for himself in the last few years, practicing his craft in various genres for various companies. ALL PULP felt it was high time that Pulp fans caught up with what Aaron, an All Pulp supporter and fan favorite, was doing.
AP: Aaron, share some background on yourself, both personal and writing.
AS: Well I’m thirty-five years old, I live in New Jersey, and I’ve been seriously writing for about five years now. I was recruited into the pulp community by Ron Fortier of Airship 27 Productions, to whom I will always be grateful for giving me a start. Ron got me going writing for Airship’s series of Sherlock Holmes anthologies, which was a dream come true for me, since Holmes is my favorite character in all of fiction. From there, I started writing other pulp characters like the Black Bat and Dan Fowler and some westerns and war stories. I was allowed to create a few of my own original pulp characters too, which was great fun. After a while, I started branching out into other areas of writing and, as of today, I’ve had over twenty short stories and three novels published, so I think I’m doing pretty well so far. For anyone not familiar with my work, they can find information on it at my blog: www.godsandgalaxies.blogspot.com
Regarding personal stuff, I’m married to a great wife who somehow manages to put up with all my eccentricities and creative mood swings and highs and lows and all the other occupational hazards of living with a writer! I’ll never figure out how she does it. For almost twenty years, I’ve been running produce departments for a major supermarket chain. While that doesn’t sound like a very exciting job, it’s really great training for a writer because of the fact that everybody needs to eat, so everybody has to buy food. I’ve been around the rich and the poor, the old and young, the polite and the rude, and all races, ethnicities, backgrounds and professions you can imagine because I work with the public. It gives me so many opportunities to observe those very strange creatures called human beings in their natural habitat!
AP: You published a rather interesting take on vampires this past June, 100,000 Midnights. What makes this work stand out from other vampire novels and how did it come about?
AS: 100,000 Midnights has a slightly convoluted history. It began as a short story of the same title, originally published in Pro Se Productions’ Fantasy and Fear magazine back in October of 2010. A month later, it’s sequel short story was published in the next issue of the same magazine. I intended to do a whole series of stories there. I had eight of them written when I looked at the whole set of files one day and it dawned on me that it might actually work better as a novel.
At about the same time, a new e-publisher called Musa Publishing began looking for submissions to start up its line of books and it looked like a very good opportunity. I sent the novel to Musa once I had combined all the short stories into one book (with the very gracious permission of the stories’ previous publisher) and they accepted it. I made some changes along the road to the novel being released. I did some heavy editing, both alone and with the help of the editors at Musa, and I lowered the protagonist’s age by a decade because his particular eccentricities seemed to stand out more if he was younger than I had originally made him. The book came out in June of this year, as an e-book only; it doesn’t exist in a print edition, although I’d like it to someday, and it’s sold some copies and received some nice reviews, so it’s worked out well.
As for what makes it stand out among vampire novels, I’d have to say that the main thing I tried to put into it was fun. Yes, it’s a horror story and it has its bloody, grim moments, but it has a lighthearted side too. In fact, I tried to hit all kinds of moods rather than sticking to one type of vampire story. It has some humor, some romance, a lot of action. It’s not only a vampire story either. While it focuses on a young man and the vampire woman who pulls him headfirst into a world he never knew existed, I threw a lot of other horror-related concepts in there too. On one hand, I think it works as my love letter to many of the great archetypes of horror fiction, and I hope I managed to put a little of the charm of old horror movies like the Universal and Hammer films into the story. But on the other hand, I tried to mix in the things that make modern vampire stories appeal to audiences. The vampires in the story all differ from one another. Some are good, some are evil, and some fall between the two extremes. There’s violence, a bit of sex, and a lot of different elements included in the novel. Poor Eric, the protagonist, gets in one supernatural mess after another. He’s lucky he’s got a three-hundred-year-old vampire girl by his side for most of the ordeal!
AP: You’ve also built up a good reputation as a writer of Public Domain characters, particularly the Pulp type. What work have you done recently in this area?
AS: In 2012, I’ve had three stories released by Airship 27 Productions. There’s my Ki-Gor story in Jungle Tales Volume 1, which was great fun to write. I’ve liked jungle adventures ever since my grandfather introduced me to Tarzan when I was little.
There’s my second Black Bat story, in Black Bat Mystery Volume 2. This one was actually written before the story that appeared in Volume 1, which was a choice the editor made and which was fine with me. I also have at least one more Black Bat story coming in the future.
And there’s my second Hound-Dog Harker story. A little background on that: a few years ago, I wrote the Dr. Watson novel, Season of Madness. I needed a short backup story for that book, so I came up with Hound-Dog Harker. He’s the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. It’s the 1930s and he’s grown up to be an agent of the British government. I try to tie each Harker story to a classic novel. The first one is connected to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and the second one, “Hyde and Seek,” is related to both “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and HG Wells’ “The Invisible Man.”
“Hyde and Seek” appears as the backup story in Dr. Watson’s American Adventure, in which the main story is written by Erwin K. Roberts.
To drop a few hints about my future Public Domain character works, there will be more Sherlock Holmes, and I’ve also got something coming up featuring another famous adventure character that I’m not yet at liberty to name, but it’s a big name!
AP: What appeals to you about writing Public Domain characters? Do they have a place in the hands of modern readers?
AS: To answer your second question first, the fact that Public Domain characters have a place with modern readers is evidenced every time someone buys (and hopefully enjoys) one of our books featuring those characters.
As for what appeals to me about writing such characters, almost everything does. We’re able to bring back into the spotlight characters that might otherwise fall into a bottomless pit of obscurity. The Black Bat, for example, is a wonderful superhero-type character and there’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to find an audience among those readers who enjoy Batman or Daredevil. And using these characters again also brings their original creators back into the public view, which is always a good thing. Many of the pulp writers of the past have been forgotten and if our work in the present makes their names known to new generations, I think that’s good thing.
There’s also another side to using Public Domain characters and it has to do with responsibility and the preservation of certain concepts as they were intended by their original authors. Let’s take Sherlock Holmes as an example. Holmes is among the most famous characters in literature and in the past few years there’s been a tremendous resurgence in his popularity among the general public. That’s good and it’s bad. Holmes is open to many interpretations, but not all fans of the character agree with all those versions. There are three big ones in film and TV now and they all stray to one extent or another from Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories. We have the British series Sherlock which brings Holmes and his cast into the twenty-first century and modern London. At first I was skeptical about such an updating, but after seeing it I was very, very impressed because it maintains the spirit and essence of what made Doyle’s work so thrilling. Benedict Cumberbatch (I love that name!) is a superb Holmes and everybody acts just like they should. Then you have the Robert Downey movies which seem to have added a more action-oriented take to Holmes. And there’s also the new American TV version, Elementary, which I won’t watch. Turning Watson into a woman and taking Holmes out of England turns the whole thing into a version which isn’t really Holmes at all. They’re just borrowing the name! But, because Holmes is available for many different interpretations, thanks to the Public Domain status, there are some writers and publishers out there who are sticking to pure Doyle-style Holmes material and that’s important. Sure, it’s okay to do something new with old characters (within reason), but I’m glad to be among those who work within the format established by Doyle. I’ve made a vow to myself that whenever I actually use Holmes in a story, I will use him, to the best of my ability, as Doyle seems to have intended. I have no interest in modernizing him, pitting him against supernatural forces, or otherwise straying from formula (the Dr. Watson novel was a little different, but it didn’t actually feature Holmes, just mentioned him). So with all the variations of certain Public Domain characters out there, I’m glad some of us see fit to present them as they’ve traditionally been portrayed. If the Public Domain status didn’t exist and Holmes (or others) could be monopolized, we might run the risk of losing the traditional versions to somebody’s ambitious (and maybe unnecessary or even blasphemous) updates. With the way it is now, everybody wins. Everybody can find the Sherlock Holmes that suits their interests.
AP: Being a varied writer, you’ve also ventured into the Young Adult arena recently. Talk about that a bit.
AS: That was a very happy accident and one of the best moves I’ve made as a writer. Occasionally, I’ll come across an anthology or magazine that’s looking for a specific type of story. I’ll make a mental note of it and let it sit in my mind and see if something pops up that fits. So I was browsing one day and came across a call for paranormal stories that took place at the prom. I didn’t really think I’d have anything for the theme, but it sank into my brain and an idea developed a few hours later. I’d never written anything for the so-called Young Adult audience before, but I went through with it, submitted the story, and was very pleasantly surprised when it was accepted.
So I found myself working with a great company called Buzz Books and it’s been a fantastic experience. Malena Lott, who runs the show, is one of the most enthusiastic, encouraging publishers I’ve met so far, and Mari Farthing’s attention to detail as an editor brings out the best in my work. So far I’ve had two short stories published with Buzz Books: “A Kiss on the Threshold,” in an anthology called Prom Dates to Die For, and “Spectral Media,” in a collection called Something Wicked, which was released recently, just in time for Halloween.
Jumping into the Young Adult arena with those two anthologies was an interesting experience. When I was a teenager, you never saw a Young Adult section in the bookstore. It wasn’t a term we really used. You had children’s books, adult books, and the classics that sort of intersected age categories. Honestly, when aisles of “Young Adult” material started to appear in the big bookstores a few years ago, I found it a little odd. Did we need that middle category? But now I realize that anything, even if it’s just a category label, that gets people of any age to seek out books is a good thing. And writing for that audience isn’t very different than writing for adults. It’s PG-rated, but that’s not really all that much of a restriction. Readers, no matter how old or young they are, want the same things from stories: interesting characters in dramatic situations that bring wonder and suspense to the experience of reading about them. As long as a story keeps you turning the pages, who cares what aisle of the bookstore it happens to be placed in?
AP: Why a writer? What motivates you to tell stories? What is it about Pulp specifically that draws you in as a creator?
AS: My writing, or at least the constant use of my imagination, began as a defensive thing, a shield. When I was a kid in school, I didn’t really fit in, I felt out of place, and I got picked on. It was uncomfortable. So when I needed strength, I used my imagination to get me through the day. In my mind, I was someone else, maybe Captain Kirk on an alien planet or Peter Parker walking around with the knowledge that I was secretly stronger and braver and nobler than the other kids. Later in life, when I was long past those insecurities, my imagination kept working overtime and eventually I turned it into real writing, as opposed to just mental clutter. Now I tell stories because, rather than hiding behind them, I want to share my ideas and dreams with the people who experience them through the books I write.
Pulp is just pure fun, for the writer as well as the reader. In the wider world of publishing, I see a lot of people worrying about “rules” when they should be devoting their time to actually writing. “You shouldn’t use exclamation points.” “That point of view or type of narration is unacceptable.” “There’s no audience for that type of story.” Now while some of those rules or assumptions might be true in certain sections of the world of literature, no rule or restriction should ever be considered definitive. If it tells the story in the best way the writer can achieve, how can it be wrong? The new pulp community seems to thrive on having fun with our writing. A good pulp story is driven by excitement and adrenaline and not wanting to slam on the brakes. Pulp, just as it was many years ago when writers who later went on to be huge names in other genres started out there, is a great place to learn and to share a sort of home with others who thrive on trying to generate that same sort of excitement with their words and characters.
Pulp is where I learned how to write, where I’ve had the guidance of some great editors and colleagues and friends, and where I gained the confidence to try to go beyond and test the waters in other areas of writing. So now I’m working in other sorts of anthologies and pitching novels to other publishers and exploring various markets for my work, but Pulp began it all for me and welcomed me with open arms. It’s a genre and style that I’ll never get tired of participating in.
AP: You have a work in an altogether different genre coming up soon. Without saying too much, what can you tease our readers with?
AS: I’ve finally written a novel in one of my favorite genres, that of spies and espionage and secret agents! I’ve been a fan of that type of story ever since I saw my first James Bond movie when I was five or six, so I was eventually going to take a shot at writing that kind of book. The novel’s done, it’s been accepted by a publisher (one of the outfits I’ve worked with before in the New Pulp world) and just needs the editing process and all the trimmings before it’s ready to roll. I’m very excited about it. Without giving away more than the basics, it’s about an American intelligence officer who tries to leave government service after suffering a tragedy in his life and going rogue, but gets sucked back into the game and winds up working on missions that are too sensitive for the FBI or CIA or the other usual agencies. Dangerous situations, ruthless villains, beautiful women, and exotic cities are a hell of a lot of fun to write about and this will not be my last visit to that genre.
Thank you, Bryan Adams. See? More than one good thing has come out of Canada that isn’t Wolverine related. Add that to the Barenaked Ladies, good maple syrup, and Mike Meyers’ middle career, and you’ve got one great country! But I digress. I want to come back to a topic I’ve droned on about several times: the continuing story of Unshaven Comics by way of an increasing number of convention appearances.
This past weekend we had a delightful time at what we’d consider to be the best single day convention in the Midwest – the Kokomo Con, in mid-Indiana. And it was here, amidst the moderately sized crowd of fans making their way around the convention center we were privy to my favorite part of being in this business – fans. In the five or so years I’ve been toiling over scripts, pages, websites, and social media groups, nothing has felt better than having someone walk towards our table with an ear to ear smile. “Hey! You guys! I remember you from last year. Got anything new?” Heck, even typing that makes me a little giddy.
For some of the more legendary folks here with whom I share column space, it must be a far different feeling. To be clear, I don’t know if Dennis, John, Mike, or Michael have ever been on the side of the table as Unshaven has. I know they’ve obviously all had booths or artist alley tables, mind you. But I’d be remiss to guess if they ever were the ones chasing the tables, instead of being offered them. For Unshaven, the way into the industry is by hook or crook. We’ve got fiction to hawk, damnit. And for the time being? We’re not established. Our fans are few, but mighty. For a Dennis O’Neil or John Ostrander… they merely plop themselves into a chair and let the masses come to them, and rightfully so. In contrast, Unshaven Comics has cut its teeth with a generation of comic fans I dare say are more finicky, diverse, and uneasy to please repeatedly.
The show runner at Kokomo stopped by our table several times to make sure we were doing well. We were happy to relate every time that we were pleased as punch. By the end of the day, we’d increased our book sales by 20% over the year before. And given that attendance was slightly down from the year prior? This was an even more reassuring notion for our wee little team. To that effort, he quickly quipped “You guys could make a panel for artists to tell them how to be successful at cons!” Truth be told? I’ve detailed our crazy tactics before in my previous con-centric articles. What we do isn’t hard. It’s a bit shameless. But then again, our model for business was Stan Lee, and he certainly has made a living (or two) by never denying his inner huckster.
My greater point here though is this: Beyond any salesmanship we may employ at our table, beyond any marketing and networking we do, beyond any artistic fan-service we whore ourselves out for, what makes us successful comes down to one common denominator: a quality product that connects with fans. If we made bad books, no amount of smiling and pitching would show us increasing sales 10-20% every time we return to a convention. With the blistering amount of competition there is in artist alleys around the country, it’s a badge of pride when someone comes back time and again to see you. Especially when it’s with money-in-hand.
Thanks largely to my day job, I’ve been privy to a ton of extra-curricular reading (non-comic reading, boo) about start-ups. After careful consideration, it’s become obvious to me that my own studio is in fact just that. As a slow moving startup, we’ve done everything to keep costs down, while testing our product in the market. In layman terms? We don’t pay ourselves for the all the time we dedicate to making the books, we stay at cheap hotels, and only pay for dinner when Mark Wheatley, Mike Gold, John Ostrander or Glenn Hauman say to. And with each subsequent release, we’ve managed our risk by truly listening to our fans. After our first book (horror) and our second (rated R super-hero fare), we tried the all ages genre. And, as you read a week or two ago, the fans responded happily. And now, after several one-shots, we’re dipping our toes into mini-series waters.
And if the fans continue to be happy, return in droves, and help define a following for our beardly wares, we just might end up going whole-hog and doing an on-going series. We do what we do because of the fans. When they react positively to what we put on the page, it tells us that we share a bond not only in collective fandom… but it cements to us that our commitment to craft leads to more than a single purchase and lament.
It leads to a relationship between a fan and a creator. It leads to us one day being invited to the convention instead of chasing after it. And rest assured, no matter how we come to the con, we’ll continue to do what we always do – earning one fan at a time, until the convention hall closes.
Stark House Press, in the business of reprinting some of the best mysteries and supernatural fiction of the past 100 years, is pleased to announce the publication and launch of 3 STEPS TO HELL, an omnibus of three hard-hitting novels by Arnold Hano.
Many know Arnold’s name as the editor of noirmeister Jim Thompson at Lion books – Hano was the man who guided Thompson during his most productive period. Others may know Arnold penned A Day in the Bleachers, the seminal book about baseball from a fan’s perspective centered around “The Catch” by Willie Mays in the 1954 World Series. But what few may not be aware of is that Hano, under his own name and several aliases, wrote novels featuring driven, flawed characters.
3 Steps to Hell reprints for the first time three of Arnold’s books. The Big Out was his first novel and was set, appropriately, in the world of baseball. The story features major league players, gangsters, bribes and the outlaw teams of Canada. In So I’m a Heel, a WWII vet, with plastic for a jaw shattered by a sniper’s bullet, seeks to blackmail a rich man over his terrible secret, but the scheme goes way wrong. And in Flint, a western inspired by Jim Thompson’s Savage Night, a tormented gunslinger takes on one more job to kill for money.
This edition also features an introduction by crime novelist Gary Phillips (The Warlord of Willow Ridge) and a Q & A with Arnold conducted by his longtime friend, playwright Dan Duling. 3 Steps to Hell can be obtained via your local bookstore or direct from Stark House Press —http://www.starkhousepress.com/hano.html
HANCOCK TIPS HIS HAT-Reviews o f All Things Pulp by Tommy Hancock
GALEN by Allan Gilbreath Published by Kerlak Publishing
It is no secret, I do not think, to anyone who follows my reviews that I am not the biggest fan of the current books produced by the wave of interest in monsters. In no way am I a proponent of Zombie fiction, I cough up hairballs at the thought of sexy werewolves, and my blood absolutely runs cold at the thought of sparkling bloodsuckers. So a ‘modern monster’ book is a really hard sell for me.
Enter ‘Galen’ by Allan Gilbreath.
A writer known by many far and wide for his ability to essentially conquer any genre he takes a swipe at, Gilbreath is also the maniacal mind behind Kerlak Publishing, a publishing house spotlighting many up and coming works and writers of all types, including a name or three familiar to New Pulpsters and others that will be soon enough. Gilbreath brings his tremendous talent to bear on a trope of fiction. Vampire tales, that many have believed was so tired and exhausted that it required prettying up and repackaging.
Gilbreath did just that, but not by turning vampires into eternal teenagers, but by taking the beast back to its roots in a lot of ways. ‘Galen’ is the first book in a series about the title character, a vampire. Almost instantaneously, Galen reminds readers of the gentlemanly vampire, popularized by Bela Lugosi, the regal bearing, the genteel trappings. But under that refined sophistication lurks something sinister, something single minded, something hungry. Allan Gilbreath in just a handful of pages reminds his readers that vampires are monsters. And Galen, in all his complex dealings to live amongst humans and his meticulous planning as well as his description of potential victims as if they were cattle in front of a butcher shop, is most definitely most modern and monstrous.
‘Galen’ follows two stories essentially, of course both tying back into our title character. One concerns a past feeding of Galen’s and, when he returns to the area several years later, the renewed interest of one of his victim’s friends in the mysterious deaths from before. The other thread focuses squarely on Galen’s need to feed and who and what he seeks out for dinner.
This book is filled with an eerie pulpiness that many writers don’t even attempt to reach anymore. It’s not got explosions, ray guns, or many fist fights. This book is all about pursuit, the hunt, prey and predator. In that, Gilbreath builds the action at a subtle pace that ends up being breakneck before you know it. Galen is reprehensible, yet likable. He is thirsty, yet affable. He is hunger made human, but you simply can’t get enough of him.
The only technical negative with ‘Galen’ is that the transition between the two threads was a tad wobbly at times, but that can be overlooked largely by the fantastic way that Gilbreath tied them together when it counted.
FOUR OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT-Definitely no sparkles here (Although Gilbreath will gladly tell you about how that part of being a Vampire is actually part of the original legends!). Galen is a flat out monster book with a monster you can’t help but like. And he’d like you too. With a pinch of salt.
Back about a half-century past, when the streets of New York were grimy and enchanted and I first tiptoed into the supply side of popular culture, I would occasionally ride the subway to alien parts of the city to socialize with science fiction fans. Nice folk, these were. Sometimes they’d ask me about the science fiction books I was reading – and I read a lot of them in those days – and we’d chat. But, I eventually wondered, why weren’t they reading the stuff that I was? Didn’t they identify themselves as science fiction fans?
My memory is, as always, hazy, but I think I finally decided that what they called fanac had become more important than the fiction that had originally inspired it. The clubs, the meetings, and amateur publications – fanzines, of course – and the conventions occupied their leisure minds and the genre that was identified with the fanac – fan activity, as you have by now guessed – had a lesser place in their concerns. It was useful – it provided a reason for the gatherings and magazines – but the fanac was the thing. Fandom took on a life of its own and there was nothing wrong with that.
Much, much later, when I was seeing socially a lovely young woman who was part of that world (and whom I should have treated way better, and if she’s reading this, I apologize) I realized that fanac served noble purposes: it gave the participants private mythologies to share and elaborate; it gave them a social sphere in which to meet and sometimes mate like-minded others; it gave them places to go and things to do. In short: it gave them a tribe.
I remembered my fanacking friends and their tribal rites when, a couple of days ago, I read that over a thousand Boy Scout leaders were accused of sexual misconduct and their supervisors very seldom blew the whistle on them. Getting to be an old song, isn’t it? Clergymen and educators, make room on the bus for the BSA, and it’s off to hell we’ll go…
Evolution wants us to have tribes and most of us need them. The problems arise when the tribe becomes, to its leaders, more important than the reasons for which the tribe was formed: the football program is a vital part of the university and any young athletes who are harmed are collateral damage, and that is too bad; the church is God’s earthly avatar and its well-being, including its reputation, must be protected at all costs; and don’t the Scouts teach our youth proper values and skills and surely a bit of psychological damage here and there is justified by all the good…
Yeah.
Let us agree: we need tribes. But now, let us ask most earnestly: what do the tribes need?
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: The Meaning of Life – Perspectives from the World’s Great Intellectual Traditions, presented by Jay Garfield and available from The Great Courses. If you take only one philosophy course…
Once again I didn’t make it to the NYCC but I’ve been to umpty-bum comic book conventions over the years, both as a fan and a professional, and I’ve learned one or two things along the way. Being a pro (especially if you’re a guest at the con) and being a fan are two very different experiences. I always regard being a guest at a con as a working weekend and it can, in fact, be more tiring for me than going as a fan.
My first job is giving any fan that comes up to my table a good experience. These are people who buy my books and that fact keeps me employed. I may be tired, I may be stressed, there may be any number of things bothering me but none of that matters. The Con promoter has paid my way with the expectations that my name may help draw more paying customers and that the paying customers will enjoy themselves well enough at the Con to want to come again next year. I’m part of that equation. It’s part of my job as a professional.
I also want to create more fans. I greet people who pass by, try to engage them in conversation, try to interest them in what I do. If I have something to sell, I have a quick spiel to give passers-by an idea of what’s there. Folks at neighboring tables soon learn to tune me out because it can get repetitive. My Mary has noted that I have developed a “Con persona” – an aspect of myself that I trot out at Cons. I call upon my theater and acting background to “play” a version of myself. It’s an authentic version of me but it’s meant to give those I meet a good experience of me, no matter how I may be feeling. That’s important. They deserve it. It also creates positive word of mouth.
That’s not to say I’m above goofing around. At one Star Wars Convention, there were lots of people in costume, some playing characters I created. That’s always interesting – meeting real life versions of characters that had existed only in my head. I have to admit I pay closer attention to those cosplaying Darth Talon. For those who don’t know the character, suffice it to say that it’s sexy female in a brief costume and lots of body paint. One such young lady was posing in front of the Dark Horse booth and she sure could wear that body paint. I sidled up to her during a pause in the snapshots, smiled, and told her, “I’m your Daddy.”
She gave me a look and said, “Excuse me?” I then hastily explained that I was one of the two creators of the character she was cosplaying. Then she smiled and said, “Oh, you’re so cute!” Which, translated, means, “Look at you! Old enough to be my grandfather and you’re flirting with me! That’s so cute!”
Yeah. Cute. Swell.
On the other hand, I can’t complain too much. I met the two big loves of my life – Kimbery Yale and Mary Mitchell – at conventions. Kim was at a big combined Doctor Who/Comic Convention in Chicago during one sweltering summer. I was trying to get the rights to do a Doctor Who live action play and was talking with the show’s producer, John Nathan Turner, and Terry Nation, one of the legendary writers for the show and creator of the Daleks. This young woman accompanied Mr. Nation. She had a slight accent and I assumed she was his secretary or some such. Turns out she was working security for Mr. Nation, she was local, and her name was Kim Yale.
The other woman was, of course, My Mary – Mary Mitchell. I’ve told the story elsewhere of how we met; she came down to Chicago and the Con to show her portfolio and chose to show it to me. The reason she chose me was that she saw me playing with some young, shy kids at my table, trying to draw them out, and she thought if I was kind to them I might be kind to her. I wasn’t kind; I was enthusiastic. Before she knew it, this madman had her portfolio and was dragging her around to all sorts of people insisting she get work. The funny thing is that she didn’t really know who I was when she approached me; she just knew I was nice to children.
I was and I am. Those kids may be readers some day and they might become my readers. Also, the parents who are towing them around the Convention floor are appreciative if you’re nice to their kids. I even discouraged some children from reading some of my work, like GrimJack, if I feel they’re a little young for the material. I’d prefer to steer them towards good comics for their age group even if I had nothing to do with them. Parents appreciate that and some have even written me thank you letters. All part of that good Con experience.
I’ve also learned to be careful naming favorites or least faves of my work before fans. I once, on a panel, named my least fave book in a given series, going so far as to state that, if I could, I’d buy all the copies of it and destroy them. I thought I was being clever. One fan in the front row had a wounded expression and said, “But that was my favorite issue!” So I don’t do that anymore.
I also try to be open. At one Con I was having a quick lunch from the food at the venue. I was sitting at a table by myself when a fan approached me. She and some other fans were sitting at another table and recognized me and wondered if I would care to join them. While I don’t mind eating by myself, I said “yes” and we all had a very good time.
I do have fun at Conventions and it gives me a chance go see old friends – mostly pros – and make some new ones. For me, however, they are working weekends. Writing is solitary work but there is that social aspect, the selling of yourself and your work, and for me being a professional means making sure the fans are happy.
Bones has carefully straddled the line between light-hearted crime drama, ala Hart to Hart and taut melodrama. Over the seven seasons, showrunner Hart Hanson has carefully brought the main characters, Special Agent Seely Booth (David Boreanaz) and Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel), together, nicely balancing the “will they or won’t they?” romantic tension until finally, in the last season, they finally became a couple. Probably quicker than anticipated, thanks to a real life pregnancy, Brennan was with child.
The seventh season of Bones, now out on Blu-ray from 20th Century Home Entertainment, is a shorter than normal thirteen episodes because of the circumstances, but Hanson did not slow down the pacing, setting things up for a dramatic cliffhanger that left fans really hanging for the spring and summer.
Along the way, the supporting cast at the Jeffersonian Institute Forensic Sciences Department was also given their moments in the spotlight, proving they are one of the richest, most interesting ensembles on prime time. With all the personal issues surrounding the cast, it’s pretty impressive they still manage to fit in unique corpse of the week stories. Things kicked off with a body at a paintball event and continued forward. The forensic testing results remain ridiculously fast in arriving and Angela (Michaela Conlin) never meets a challenge whose butt she can’t kick so there are definite stretches of credulity, moreso this season than in the past. Sweets (John Frances Daley) lost some of his boyish charm as he grew deadly accurate with his service revolver.
The series nicely rotated the usual interns, freshening the group dynamic with regularity and the addition of southern gentleman Finn Abernathy (Luke Kleintank) was a nice addition. His flirtation and dating of Cam’s (Tamara Taylor) daughter was an interesting development that ultimately went nowhere.
The most unusual episode of the season has to be “The Suit on the Set” where Booth and Brennan travel to watch a film based on one of her books is being made. They skewer Hollywood’s inability to faithfully adapt a novel, going for busts and pyrotechnics over plot and characterization. A little silly but a refreshing change of pace.
The finale sees the return of criminal Christopher Pellant who goes out of his way to frame Brennan, turning her into a wanted felon. The problem here is that the circumstantial evidence mounts so high so fast, at least one of the characters should have at least questioned the absurdity of all this damning information pouring out at once. But nope, never happened. Instead, Brennan and her dad (Ryan O’Neal) take the baby and go on the run, leaving Booth behind.
Given the shortened season, one would have expected either additional special features to compensate or fewer given the dearth of material to work with. We get more of the latter than the former with two deleted scenes, commentary on one episode, a four minute Gag Reel, and two small pieces on the Hollywood episode. First, there’s Creating The Suit on the Set (10:59) on how the episode was made then a fun, fake Bone of Contention: On the Red Carpet (3:18)
I was late to the series and was able to plow through the first five seasons to jump on board but you cannot start cold with this season. It’s too involved in its continuity and character relationships to be totally accessible to a newcomer. But for those of us who are fans of this show, adapted from the novels by Kathy Reichs, it was a slid if flawed season and worth a second look.
The premise of Helmet Head is simple: Young Jewish motorcycle cop Peter Fagan inadvertently stumbles into the path of someone or something that stalks bikers and leaves them headless. Although there are plenty of outlaw bikers in the story, the killer targets anyone on a motorcycle. Right after he dispatches a member of the local southern Illinois biker gang, he pursues Fagan with frightening singleness of purpose. He pursues Fagan all the way to the biker hangout, a rundown, out of the way bar, where Helmet Head doesn’t kill anyone. Instead, he orders a drink. When the bartender refuses to serve him, he leaves. This sets the tone for a rather long stretch.
The action kicks into high gear again in the last third of the story, and if you can get past the mad scientist angle and the obligatory damsel in distress, it’s a fairly entertaining ride. The climactic conflagration is a smorgasbord of horror movie clichés – which might have worked, despite the rather offhanded way one of the main characters dies, if it weren’t for the rather anti-climactic (and inevitable) scene in which the villain meets his end.
Mike Baron is a good writer, and that shows early on in Helmet Head – and based on my extremely limited sample of self-published works of fiction, Helmet Head is the best-written one so far. The first few chapters are tightly paced, with just enough colorful metaphor to give the narrative depth. But good writing and good storytelling are not the same thing.
Helmet Head apparently started as an idea for a “slasher film,” and that unfortunately also shows. Unlike a non-stop action film, a good novel, even a slasher/horror/thriller novel, requires some characters with depth. Even if you don’t like the characters, you need to have some sense that they are real. For good or ill, you need to care what happens to them; otherwise you won’t keep reading to find out. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, but interspersing the main story with unrelated stories from the characters’ pasts only works if it gives the characters more depth or motivation or something that gives the reader a sense of empathy. In the case of Helmet Head, it just gives the characters … well … pasts. Fagan’s early life and Jewish heritage are apparently supposed to be significant in some way. As it turns out, not so much.
Helmet Head reads like a screenplay padded out to make a novel. The pieces just don’t fit together very well. The pacing is uneven. Aside from the occasional overly long asides into the various characters’ back stories, some scenes just don’t seem to make any sense at all. What does Fagan do after the biker gang takes off in pursuit of the monster that has just chopped off the head of their friend and tossed it through the bar window like a basketball? He goes in the back room of the bar and … takes a shower. Freshly showered, he “… stood in the doorway and scanned the room as he’d been trained to do.” This is because the entire bar is a potential crime scene … one in which he’s just taken a shower. And only after that does it occur to him that maybe he should find a vehicle and get the hell out of there and do something, anything.
To be fair, maybe I expected too much. I’m a big fan of Baron’s work on the comic book Nexus, which seamlessly weaves action, drama, humor, and moral conflict into compelling storylines. The most enjoyable aspect of my brief tenure in the comics industry was working with Mike on that book. Unfortunately, those qualities are sadly lacking in Helmet Head.
