The Dead Sheriff Has A New Home

Several years ago I wrote the first novel in what was going to be a series called The Dead Sheriff.

It was the legend of the Lone Ranger turned inside out and pureed in a blender.

The myth of The Dead Sheriff says that a lawman died trying to protect his family, only to return from his grave to avenge their deaths and avenge all who suffer injustice.

The truth was very different.

What if...

...the faithful Indian sidekick was really the guy in charge?

...the undead lawman was a reanimated corpse controlled like a puppet by an arcane magic stolen by a young man who barely understood the power he controls?

...a writer from the east traveled west to report the story of The Dead Sheriff, only to be caught up in a world of magic, murder and monsters?

The Dead Sheriff: Zombie Damnation, the first volume, was published a few years back. It got several good reviews (including one from my favorite horror magazine Rue Morgue) and I started writing the sequel. For several reasons, some personal, the book was never published.

A few months ago, the original publisher of the book decided to take the company in a different direction, leaving me free to pursue a new home for The Dead Sheriff.

I’m happy to announce that Airship 27, award-winning publisher of New Pulp and the leaders in pulp fiction publishing, will bring The Dead Sheriff back into print.

The new version of The Dead Sheriff: Zombie Damnation will include the full text of the original novel, plus a new novella set in the world of The Dead Sheriff that will ready the stage for the second book The Dead Sheriff: Cannibal Carnage.
 
Airship 27 produces beautiful books with action-packed covers. I can’t wait to see what they come up with for my reanimated lawman.

Publication dates will be announced as the books are scheduled. I have quite a bit of writing to do before the manuscripts are ready, then we have to fit into Airship 27's very packed schedule.

Thanks to Ron Fortier at Airship 27 for believing in the project. I can’t tell you how excited I am that my dead lawman still lives.

I’ll update you here as the project progresses.

Thursday Update

Over at I Was A Bronze Age Boy, I review the new LADY ACTION book by Ron Fortier. 

If you scroll down, you can find a brief writing update.

Also, this week in the Ashland Beacon, I present a primer for cities in naming festivals. It's on page 2.

While you're browsing the Beacon site you can find video of me acting rather undignified for a man of my advanced years.

Tidbits

Currently Watching: In Plain Sight. This is one of Norma’s favorite shows, and we’ve caught up on Season Two. Star Mary McCormack’s lips have gone from hideously overinflated to just kind of rough looking. Check out photos of her from the movie Private Parts or The West Wing series. Nothing wrong with those lips. But she got ‘em all mangled up for In Plain Sight. Thankfully, in the second season, those monster lips are start to return to normal.


Currently reading: Castaways by Brian Keene. Cross Survivor with Richard Laymon’s Beast House and you’ve got a real page-turner. Great fun.


Here’s an interview with my buddy Ron Fortier, the man who’s working harder than anybody at keeping pulp fiction alive.

By the Way

Here's a link to that Pod of Horror episode that featured Robert McCammon and Pulpmaster General Ron Fortier.

***

What's the true meaning of Thanksgiving? The two freshly-baked Red Velvet cakes and two pumpkin pies cooling on my kitchen counter, that's what!

Secret Agent X Returns

Pulpmaster General Ron Fortier’s Airship 27 Productions has reprinted the first volume of Secret Agent X, which includes a long story from me. Folks, this is pure pulp fun at it’s finest. Good guys, bad guys and non-stop action. Here’s the official press release. There’s a link for ordering at the end.

Airship 27 Productions and Cornerstone Book Publishers are happy to announce the reprinting of SECRET AGENT X – Volume One. The greatest pulp spy of them all, the Man of a Thousand Faces, is featured in this thrilling collection by four modern day masters of action adventure writing. “We’re very excited about having the book available again,” said Airship 27 Prod. Editor, Ron Fortier, who was responsible for creating this series of all “new” pulp stories featuring classic heroes from the 1930s.

This new, re-edited edition contains three of the original tales; The Skeleton Men of Calcuatta by Kevin Noel Olson, Cult of the Walking Dead by Mark Justice and The Cold Touch of Death by Brian Meredith.

This new edition also features a brand new Agent X thriller, The Icarus Terror by Andrew Salmon. “Our plan for these reprint editions was to enhance them with new features,” Fortier explained. Artist Rob Davis’ cover has also been beautifully modified with digital colors by Shane Evans.

A popular pulp hero, Secret Agent X, remains one of the most remembered features from the golden age of the pulps. A reprint edition of Volume Two is in the works and later this year Airship 27 Prod. will begin production on an all new Volume Three.

SECRET AGENT X: VOLUME ONE

Edited by Ron Fortier

“Secret Agent “X” and the Skeleton-Men of Calcutta” by Kevin Noel Olson

“Secret Agent “X” and The Cult of the Walking Dead” by Mark Justice

“Secret Agent “X” and The Cold Touch of Death” by Brian Meredith

“Secret Agent “X” and The Icarus Terror” by Andrew Salmon

Cover and original artwork by Rob Davis

Cover computer colors by Shane Evans

Production and design by Anthony Schiavino, update by Rob Davis

ISBN: 1-934935-16-6

Produced by Airship 27

Published by Cornerstone Book Publishers

Release date: 6/05/2008

Retail Price: $24.95

Available the Airship 27 On-Line store.

Review: Daughter of Dracula

I recently slashed my pull list at my local comics store, primarily because I was buying a lot of titles that I wasn’t enjoying. Simultaneously I realized that the stuff I really looked forward to was mainly reprints of titles from the 60s and 70s.

Maybe it’s part of getting older – that craving for the nostalgic favorites of my younger days – but I truly believe a lot of it is a simple dissatisfaction with the quality of comics today, where it seems every title is part of a larger crossover prompting months of build-up for little or no payoff, until the next crossover begins.

I realized that I missed good storytelling. To me, that’s solid writing that uses a beginning, middle and end to tell a tale, rich characterization and art that serves the story, rather than a platform for full-page poses that do little to advance the plot.

So I was in the perfect place to appreciate Daughter of Dracula by Ron Fortier and Rob Davis.

From the striking Mark Maddox cover, I knew I was in for something special. That cover is one of the most effective pieces I have seen is 40-plus years of reading comics.

Foriter is a veteran comics writer and novelist, and from the first page his sure hand is evident in the pacing of Daughter of Dracula. The Countess Marya Dracula has a chance encounter with a young man who will soon come to be known as The Red Baron. Marya is, of course, the child of you-know-who. Foriter quickly establishes her vampiric side, just as he offers her the possibility of true love.

Their romance blossoms, grows and reaches an unexpected conclusion over the 108 pages of this graphic novel. However, before you think this is a comic book version of a chick flick, let me make clear that Daughter of Dracula is filled with many scenes of warfare, bloodletting, sex and aerial dogfights. In fact, the richly detailed World War I setting is almost as much of a character as are Marya and Manfred von Ricthofen.

The art by Davis is always clear. The reader never questions what is happening in a given panel. Some of the landscapes and aerial battles are breathtaking. Davis uses a careful blend of realistic and cartoonish effects at just the right spots to emphasis whatever mood Fortier has thrown at him. Incidentally, Davis handled the art, lettering and, I presume, the gray tones that add so much to the story’s ambiance.

It’s difficult to find fault with any aspect of Daughter of Dracula. Other than a couple of typos and a slight problem I had in reading some of Mayra’s “handwritten” captions, the book is a joy to experience.

In fact, the best compliment I can pay to this satisfying graphic novel is that it could have easily been serialized in one of Marvel black and white horror magazines of the early 1970s, my favorite era in comic book history.

As much as Daughter of Dracula begs for a sequel I hope Fortier and Davis let the story stand as it is. Instead, I would prefer to see them explore other genres and other characters. The comics biz needs these guys.

You can order Daughter of Dracula here.