Weekend Update

Drove down to Casablanca Comics in Portland, Maine on Saturday for Free Comic Book Day. Spent a bit of time with proprietor Rick Lowell and his wife Laura, bought a handful of comics, and picked up a few freebies. It looked like Rick's store was doing brisk business, and I was pleased to see a lot of families there.

On the way home, Brandi and I stopped at a used bookstore in Freeport, where I scored all of Gardner F. Fox's Kothar the Barbarian PBO novels in very good condition. In fact, I bought new, better copies of the two I already had, as well. I'm on record as being a big fan of Fox's fantasy novels, and I'm thrilled to finally have the whole series. Now I just need to find all of his Kyrik books. I also found a copy of John Jakes' Mention My Name in Atlantis, and a first edition of the George Takei (Mr. Sulu)-Robert Asprin science fiction adventure novel, Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe, so it was a pretty good day.

Before reading any of my new scores, though, I have the new Parker novel, Dirty Money, to read. And before I read that, I'm going to re-read the two preceding novels, Nobody Runs Forever and Ask the Parrot. I'm jonesing for a Richard Stark fix, and will be shooting that triple dose of hardboiled right into the main vein, brothers. Talk about a "lost weekend!"

On the film front, we watched I Am Legend Saturday night, and while I thought it was well-produced, directed and acted by Will Smith, I didn't find the CGI cartoon "darkseekers" very frightening at all; stuntmen in make-up with a little CGI "enhancement" would have been so much more effective. I also didn't care for the ending – but then, I think the ending of Matheson's novel is flat-out perfect.

Over the next week, I plan to work on my next DVD review column, finish up a comic book script and try to get a start on scripts for two short stories I've promised to do for a couple of 2009 comics anthologies. One is a revenge story featuring my Gravedigger character, the other is a Western. Want to keep the momentum going, after all!

I also hope that Brandi and I will be able to finagle a screening of Iron Man – by all reports, it's one of the best comic book movies yet!