Work In Progress

So far, my New Year's Resolution to finish up all my stalled comics projects is going pretty well - in the last few weeks I've written new Gravedigger and Perils On Planet X script pages, set those two features up as weekly webcomic sites (HERE and HERE), and started on the script for a Femme Noir graphic novel to be illustrated by my partner-in-crime, Joe Staton... and it's still January!

Once I get those done, *maybe* I can finally get back to Captain Midnight - both the comic and the novel I started last Summer - assuming I still have a publisher.

If your comics diet lacks sufficient quantities of essential pulp, please check out - and bookmark - the websites for the above-mentioned, forthcoming weekly webcomics Perils On Planet X (with Gene Gonzales) and Gravedigger (with Rick Burchett):
 
Both weekly comics debut at the beginning of February! Thank you for your support... and please tell your friends!

A Request from The Secret Squadron

If you read and enjoyed the Captain Midnight Chronicles, I humbly request that you post your thoughts about the book on the Amazon product page.

There's an apparent organized smear campaign against our version of the character going on, and while everyone's entitled to their opinion, I find it difficult to believe that no one who bought our book enjoyed it. Of course, people who like something are less inclined to publicly voice that opinion than those who don't - especially when they have an axe to grind.

A lot of talented authors contributed stories to the book, though, and it pisses me off to see their hard work slammed by people with their own, personal agendas and narrow-minded view of the property.

I want to be clear, though - I'm looking for reader reviews (if there are any), not attacks on any other customer reviewers on the site. If you genuinely enjoyed it - or even if you didn't, as long as your complaints are honest and valid - please post a review so there can be a slightly more balanced view of the material available for other potential Amazon buyers.

Not Your Grandfather's Captain Midnight....

I was bit disturbed when I popped over to Amazon to see if there had been any reviews posted for the new Captain Midnight Chroniclescollection and found a customer review by a Mister Stephen Kallis who seemed quite personally offended by our version of the character.

It's not that the review was a negative one that bugged me, but that his expectations of what the book was going to be were considerably different from what he got. I genuinely felt bad about that, and I didn't want anyone else to be caught off-guard by our "take" on the character, so I posted this over on the product page:

As the editor of the Captain Midnight Chronicles, and the author of the character "bible" that the contributing writers used in writing their stories, I would like to respond to the review written by Mr. Kallis, who was sorely disappointed that we did not provide him with the flight back to the days of the original Captain Midnight radio show - which he considers the "definitive" version of the character. The fact that our stories incorporated elements from later incarnations of the character seems deeply offensive to him, and I genuinely regret that. I understand his affection for the radio show; it was a classic.

But which radio show does he consider the "definitive" one, I wonder? The original Skelly Oil-sponsored series? Or the more well-known version of the program famously sponsored by Ovaltine? The two shows had some notable differences in the portrayal of the character and his supporting cast, after all.

The point I'm clumsily attempting to make is that for fans of any classic fictional character - especially one that has had as long and successful run as the dear Captain - the "definitive version" is usually the one a person is exposed to first. For some people, James Bond is Sean Connery, for others it's Daniel Craig. For me, it's the guy that Ian Fleming wrote about.

Whereas Mr. Kallis clearly first encountered the heroic aviator's adventures over the air, other fans first met the Captain in the comic book series published by Fawcett Comics in the early 1940's where he was portrayed as a scarlet-clad superhero who battled alien invaders like Yog from Saturn, or the 1942 Columbia movie serial starring Dave O'Brien. Many Captain Midnight fans - apparently a bit younger than our Mr. Kallis - know the character only from the early Fifties television series starring square-jawed Richard Webb, who piloted the sleek jet plane, the Silver Dart.

When we started the process of reviving this classic but long-dormant character, a great many creative and commercial choices needed to be made. If we stuck religiously to any one specific version of the character, we risked disappointing those who favored another. And as several decades had passed since the last time the Captain had taken flight in the public eye, we had to also acknowledge that a great many of today's readers had no idea whatsoever who Captain Midnight was. If we had decided to target, say, only the fans of the radio version (not a particularly large audience, these days, I'm afraid), it was unlikely that we would sell enough copies of the book to make the effort worthwhile. If bringing the character back was worth doing at all, we needed to at least try to make him appealing to as many readers as possible - young and old and in-between.

So, I tried to pick what I thought were the most interesting and unique elements of all of the character's various incarnations and created an amalgamated Captain Midnight. I listened to all the surviving radio episodes, read the comics, Big Little books and watched the serial and TV series. I consulted with several well-known Captain Midnight fans and started drinking Ovaltine. And, in the end, I put together a new version of the character that incorporated the best (I hope) elements of all his incarnations. It was suggested by several people that we simply update the character and bring him into the modern day, but being a fan of the Captain and his Secret Squadron myself, I rejected that idea outright. It may have been necessary to make some alterations to the concept to make it viable for contemporary audiences, but I didn't want us to lose the essence of the character.

I can't speak for every author who contributed to the book, but I wouldn't have spent - literally - the last five years of my life working on this volume if I didn't love and respect the character.

I'm posting this not solely to address Mr. Kallis' criticisms - he paid his money, and he's entitled to his opinion, after all - but to try and let other readers know exactly what the book contains, so that they can make their decisions about whether or not to buy the book based on what the book actually is, and not what their expectations might be. I am quite sincerely saddened that he could not enjoy our efforts, and would like to help make sure that no one else is taken by surprise by what we've done with the character.

The Captain Midnight Chronicles portrays a version of the classic aviation hero that, we hope, is recognizable to existing fans and also relevant for new, 21st Century readers who have never encountered him before. The stories are varied - some are gritty war stories, some are fantasies, some are two-fisted pulp adventures - but all of them feature a Captain Midnight of great personal strength, integrity, and idealism. He exists in a fictional universe where history is somewhat different from our own, a world where one man - and his Secret Squadron - can stand against the forces of global tyranny and injustice and keep the peace through the wise application of strength and intelligence.

I suppose one could say, "This isn't your grandfather's Captain Midnight!" - but I think he is. He dresses a little differently, his equipment, aircraft and relationships may be somewhat altered, but he's still a champion of peace and protector of freedom.

Those kinds of heroes are kinda hard to find these days... and we thought it was time to bring one back.

More evidence that I do, indeed, exist.

Captain Midnight Chronicles Takes Off

After several years, the long-awaited Captain Midnight Chronicles short story collection is - according to the publisher - back from the printer and now available to purchase.

Edited by yours truly, and based on my reimagined version of the character - which incorporates the best features of the radio, film, comic book and television incarnations of the character - the book features some thrilling adventure stories by a stellar line-up of talent.

Here's the contents of the volume: "Countdown to Midnight" By Christopher Mills, "Captain Midnight at Ultima Thule" By Win Scott Eckert, "The Black Dragon" By Mark Justice, "Shipwreck In The Sky" By Robert T. Jeschonek, "Death Master of The Secret Island" By Trina Robbins, "Wind & Rain" By Tim Lasiuta, "Cushy Job" By P.C. Hamerlinck, "Captain Midnight Meets Airboy" By Chuck Dixon, "Fantastic Island" By Robert Greenberger, "The Dark of Midnight" By Stephen Mertz, "Witch of The Waning Moon" By Howard Hopkins, and "A Mission In Time" By James J. Nance. The hardcover version includes a brief introduction to the character by P.C. Hamerlinck and an additional short story by yours truly, "The Mediterranean Intercept."

Both versions of the book can be ordered now directly from the publisher, Moonstone Books, or through Amazon.

Hopefully, I'll be getting my copies soon. I'm looking forward to finally holding it in my hands. Hopefully, it will sell well enough to allow for a second volume.

Another FEMME NOIR Review!

Blogger Nick Ahlelm recently reviewed Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries miniseries on his site as part of a "Pulp Month" theme. He had some very nice things to say, such as:

Each issue gives a done-in-one that builds on top the mystery of the character even as she fights villains that take the noir elements and push them straight in to pulp, whether it be a jungle woman or an evil robot. All of it seems to fit in place in the slightly strange city of Port Nocturne. It all works incredibly well together, but I don’t want to give away too much of the fun of this book.

You can read his full review here.

Nick also reviewed Air Fighters #1 from Moonstone Books, which included my first Captain Midnight comics story, "Pyramid of Fear."

You can read that review here.

Captain Midnight: "The Mediterranean Intercept"

At literally the last minute - the book was already at press - Moonstone asked me to write another (very) short story for the limited edition Captain Midnight Chronicles hardcover. Because of the page count, there were a few pages left blank, so instead of keeping them that way, the publisher thought we should include an exclusive-to-the-hardcover bonus story. They asked me on Monday to write it, and somehow I pushed through and turned it in on Wednesday afternoon.

Phew.

Anyway, the only way to read the story, "The Mediterranean Intercept," will be buy purchasing the limited edition hardcover. But that doesn't mean I can't present an excerpt here....

Fifteen minutes later, Captain Midnight was racing through the crowded streets of the Egyptian coastal city in a commandeered roadster, heading for the Café Albatros, where North had arranged to meet with the informer codenamed Fatima. It was late evening, and well past the designated rendezvous time, but the leader of the Secret Squadron prayed that the woman would still be there.

As he drove, he removed the soft leather aviator’s helmet, goggles and scarf, revealing the carrot-colored hair, slate gray eyes and rugged features of James “Red” Albright. He mentally reviewed the identification routine that Ed North had relayed to him before Joyce rushed the rescued agent to a hospital. When he arrived at the café, he parked the automobile at the curb and made his way inside, his eyes searching the restaurant for a European woman in a green dress.

He found a likely candidate at the end of the bar, an attractive brunette in her mid-twenties sitting alone, nursing a tall fruit drink. Her body language was the giveaway – she was obviously tightly coiled, as if prepared to bolt at the slightest provocation. He approached her slowly, and settled upon the empty stool to her right. There was little time to spare, so he spoke as soon as he sat down. “Excuse me, miss. Could you spare a cigarette?”

She eyed him warily. “I only have Gitanes,” she replied.

“ That’s all right,” Albright said. “I became accustomed to French tobacco during the war.”

“You’re very late, Monsieur North. I was about to give up on you.”

“I’m not Ed North, Fatima,” Albright said.

The girl’s eyes widened in panic, and she started to rise from her seat. Albright laid his hand lightly on her arm. “It’s okay, Ed sent me in his place. I’m SQ-1.”

“SQ-1? But that would make you…”

Albright nodded, and attempted a reassuring smile. “That’s right. Can we talk?”

The girl sat back down, and fumbled a pack of cigarettes out of her purse. They weren’t even Gitanes, but a local blend. “I suppose I have to trust you. There’s so little time…”

“What’s your real name?”

“Susanne Vigue,” She took a deep drag on her cigarette, exhaled. “For the last three years, I have been secretary to Pierre Lubec. You know him?”

“We’ve met.”

“Then you know that he deals in munitions. His best customer is a man who calls himself Shark. Ivan Shark.”

Albright wasn’t surprised. Ivan Shark was a megalomaniac genius with a private army of mercenaries and fanatics, whose mad desire for power would be satisfied by nothing less than world conquest. Such ambitions required substantial firepower. “Go on.”

“Shark plans an attack upon the canal, and Pierre has provided him with the special materiel he requires to carry out his plan.”

The Suez Canal, 192 kilometers in length, connected the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, and was one of the world’s busiest and most important waterways. If Shark was able to damage it and shut it down for any length of time, the consequences would be staggering.

“What is Shark’s plan?”

On the Radar: AIR FIGHTERS #1!

The first issue of Moonstone Books' Air Fighters #1, featuring all new stories of the Golden Age aviators Airboy, Valkyrie, Sky Wolf, Black Angel, The Iron Ace, etc., will be in stores next Wednesday, the 24th.

This issue also includes the first new Captain Midnight adventure in decades, "Pyramid of Fear," written by yours truly and illustrated by Rick Burchett and Richard Clark.

This is my first published work of 2010 - looks like I'm off top a flying start!

UPDATE: Comics Continuum has a "first look" at Air Fighters #1, with sample pages from all of the stories. Check it out here.

CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT CHRONICLES on the Runway

The long-anticipated, years-in-the-making, Captain Midnight prose fiction anthology, titled the Captain Midnight Chronicles, is finally taxiing onto the runway in preparation for launch. I'm really proud of this volume, from the striking cover painted by my Midnight co-pilot Richard Clark and designed by yours truly, to the wide variety of the dozen pulp tales lurking beneath it. Some are slightly campy, some are suspenseful, but all of them are hard-hitting, high-flying pulp adventure stories in the finest tradition of the genre.

Moonstone Books has officially solicited the book to the distributors for a May/June 2010 release. There's both a trade paperback version and a limited edition hardcover. The CM Chronicles can be ordered through your local comic shop or you can pre-order it through Amazon. Here's the company's solicitation copy:

CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT Chronicles

Written by: John J. Nance, Stephen Mertz, Chuck Dixon
Chapter Art: Vatche Mavlian
Cover: Richard Clark
224 pages, b/w, squarebound, softcover, 6 x 9, $16.95
10 digit: 1-933076-68-2-----13 digit: 978-1-933076-68-3

234pg Ltd Ed HC = $29.95 1-933076-69-0978-1933076-69-0

Featuring New York Times bestselling aviation novelist John J. Nance! Born in the blazing crucible of war, but sworn to fight for peace, the mysterious obsidian aviator known only by the codename Captain Midnight… flies again! An ace pilot, super secret agent, and astounding scientific genius, the heroic Captain Midnight returns when we need him most, along with his legendary Secret Squadron– to battle spies, saboteurs and the mercenary armies of the evil warmonger Ivan Shark and his delectably deadly daughter, Fury.

Join the Captain and his elite air warriors in eleven all-new stories by some of the greatest adventure writers in the world, as they battle evil and fight for freedom all over the world!

*(HC edition includes a special “history of Captain Midnight” section!)

A complete list of contributors, and their stories from the book, follows:

"Countdown to Midnight" By Christopher Mills
"Captain Midnight at Ultima Thule" By Win Scott Eckert
"The Black Dragon" By Mark Justice
"Shipwreck In The Sky" By Robert T. Jeschonek
"Death master of The Secret Island" By Trina Robbins
"Wind & Rain" By Tim Lasiuta
"Cushy Job" By P.C. Hamerlinck
"Captain Midnight Meets Airboy" By Chuck Dixon
"Fantastic Island" By Robert Greenberger
"The Dark of Midnight" By Stephen Mertz
"Witch of The Waning Moon" By Howard Hopkins
"A Mission In Time" By James J. Nance

PRE-ORDER from Amazon: Captain Midnight Chronicles

Black as Midnight

Here's another look at the first page of the Captain Midnight story for the upcoming Moonstone Air Fighters anthology - this time inked by my CM partner, Richard Clark!

Personally, I love the way that Rick Burchett's pencils and Rich Clark's finishes complement each other. It's like one's peanut butter and the other's chocolate - two great tastes that taste good together!

Fly the Unfriendly Skies!

Well, in the next month or so, the first issue of Moonstone's Air Fighters anthology should be hitting the shelves. Flying formation alongside such (revamped) Golden Age aces as Airboy, The Black Angel, Sky Wolf, The Flying Fool and the Iron Ace will be the legendary Captain Midnight, who stars in his own 8-page adventure.

Titled "Pyramid of Fear," this story was plotted by yours truly and artists Richard Clark and Rick Burchett. Rick B. then provided the pencils and Rich C. expertly embellished them in ink. Finally, I scripted and lettered the action-packed tale. The three of us are working together on the next Cap story for AF #2 in the same manner, while Rich keeps plugging away solo on the CM Zero issue art.

Here's a sample of Burchett's excellent pencils to whet your appetite:

I hope you enjoy this sneak peek, and will check out the book when it hits the stands. Me, I can't wait to see it; I haven't seen any of the other stories (just a few character sketches on the Moonstone website) so I'm eager to see what my fellow creators have come up with!

Winter of my Discontent

Or something like that. Winter's finally here, with roughly a foot of snow on the ground from today's storm. The farmhouse is drafty and chilly, and the dog isn't quite so eager to go outside during the day... and certainly doesn't dawdle when she does.

I've been going through a period of self-examination and trying to take some positive action toward improving my - and my family's - situation. Persistent health and financial problems (which go hand-in-hand) have had me down for too long - years! - and I'm hopeful that some of the steps I've recently taken will help me turn things around.

I'm working on more Kolchak the Night Stalker and Captain Midnight scripts for Moonstone, and have signed on to contribute further prose stories to the company's line of pulp anthologies. I also expect the Femme Noir webcomics collection and new Gravedigger graphic novel to see print in the new year. Other projects are also continuing to creep along, and I'll let you know once I have a firmer idea of their publication date.

Unfortunately, I've fallen off track a bit with my DVD Late Show column for Forces of Geek, and am working hard to get that back on schedule. I've got a lot of discs to review, and writing the column is something I really enjoy doing.

This winter I'm working out of a different room, having moved my office a few months ago. This one is warmer (with the space heater, anyway) and has a door I can close, so hopefully it will be a more conducive atmosphere to work and write in.

We're rapidly closing in on the end of the year. And, frankly, I can't say that I'm going to miss 2009 when it's gone. I'm hoping that as we move into the second decade of the 21st century, I can finally shake off some of the things that have been holding me back (both internal and external) and start making some serious progress toward accomplishing some long-held goals. Like writing that novel, for instance, or actually making a reasonable living again.

It's really tough to be - and then stay - positive these days, and it's not something I've got much experience with. But... I'm trying.

Thanks for being there, guys and gals. It helps.

New Interview & The Airfighters

Richard Vasseur of Jazma Online recently contacted me about doing an interview for his site. That interview, which covers my work on Femme Noir, Kolchak and Captain Midnight, among other things, is now posted and can be found HERE.

Speaking of Captain Midnight, artist Rich Clark and I will be contributing CM adventures to Moonstone's upcoming Airfighters series, where the good Captain will be joining new versions of such Golden Age aviation heroes as Airboy, The Black Angel, The Iron Ace and Sky Wolf. You can see Rich's Captain Midnight in the upper left-hand corner of the Airfighters promo art above. (Click on it for a larger view.)

This is in addition to the forthcoming Captain Midnight one-shot comic and prose anthology.

What? It's August already?!

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. My gout still hasn't gone away, even though the worst of the pain has subsided and I have been able to work again the last few days. It turns out that the gout is most likely caused by the fact that I now only have one kidney, and that one's not working at 100%, so it's probably not producing enough uric acid. Gout, paradoxically, can apparently be caused by having either too much or too little uric acid in your system.

Unfortunately the best medication for treating gout has the potential to damage kidneys, and since I only got one and it's fragile enough already, my doc doesn't want to prescribe it. As she says, I'm "basically screwed." (Yeah, she can be pretty blunt.) So it looks like I'm doomed to experience this particular "ailment of kings" for the rest of my life. And since I also have an unusually high resistance to pain killers... well, my doc put it most succinctly when she said, "Gee, sucks to be you."

Sigh.

Last weekend, my wife and I switched offices. The room I'd chosen when we moved in proved to be too small for all my crap, and as I had a new computer coming for design gigs, I needed additional space for a second work station. So we switched.

My back is still killing me. Desks and books and bookcases and comic boxes are friggin' heavy.

Still, I rather like my new workspace. I'm actually able to display more of my toys (or, as I think of them, inspirations), and now have all my bookcases in one room. I do know that it gets really cold in here in the winter... but I'll deal with that when the time comes. And – I got a new desk chair, so I don't have to use the wooden kitchen chair anymore.

I picked up a few interesting DVDs recently, among them the latest Doctor Who adventure, Planet of the Dead, (liked it) and the latest DC animated feature, Green Lantern: First Flight. I've read some online reviews complaining that the Green Lantern movie is just a cop story set in space, but, um, Green Lantern is a cop in space! With a magic ring! Personally, I loved it... and I was worried I wouldn't, because I really disliked the studio's previous Wonder Woman film.

But, as far as I'm concerned, GL: First Flight is a terrific adventure with some very nice design, animation and excellent voice work, especially on the part of Victor Garber.

We also rented the latest Torchwood series (a Doctor Who spin-off) through Netflix, Children of Earth. I thought it was about 90% successful. It had shocking moments, a downright terrifying alien threat, and some truly horrible ethical choices that the characters had to make. Unfortunately, I thought the main character was, well, somewhat out of character, and I was a bit let down by the ending.

Still, though, it was a pretty remarkable, disturbing five hours of sci-fi drama, and I'm really glad we watched it.

As far as my projects go, I'm trying to make up for my nearly three week incapacitation, and am working on a new Kolchak script for Moonstone. I planned on having it done back at the end of June, so it's my current priority.

I spoke with my Gravedigger collaborators Rick Burchett and Fred Harper today, and according to Rick, he's only a couple pages from completing the second half of the next Gravedigger graphic novella, The Predators! The first half is inked, and Fred will start in on the second half just as soon as Rick sends him the penciled pages. I've given up trying to predict when my comics will be finished, but we all want it out for next Spring.

Richard Clark is steadily sending me lovely pages from our Captain Midnight Zero issue, so that's coming along nicely, and I also received pages this week from Gene Gonzales for Perils On Planet X. They're beautiful – as you can see for yourself from the panels above.

It may take a while, but we'll get there!

I also re-connected with a talented artist I knew about ten years ago, and we're discussing the possibility of collaborating on a new creator-owned comics project. I hope we can get it off the ground – it's another one of those concepts I've been wanting to do for twenty years.

And, finally, the comics line that I'm editing for Michael Hudson – Sequential Pulp – is nearing take off. Our first title, Fredric Brown's Martians, Go Home, adapted from the classic novel by Martin Powell and Mike Manley, will be solicited through Dark Horse Comics this Fall, with Otis Adelbert Kline's Swords of Venus hopefully following soon after.

Then I'll really be busy!

Captain Midnight Preview

My gout is acting up (seriously, it's like I'm a 90 year-old) and I'm in horrible pain, so this will be a brief post, but since I hadn't been posting much here lately, I thought I'd try and make up for it and share with you folks a couple of pages by Rich Clark from our upcoming Captain Midnight one-shot for Moonstone. It's been a long time brewing, but it's finally coming together.

For the several weeks, I've been mostly working on the Captain Midnight prose anthology that I'm editing for the same publisher. The book features stories by Stephen Mertz, Howard Hopkins, Win Scott Eckert, and John J. Nance, among others. I've got a story in there, too, and I only finally got around to writing it last month. Here's an excerpt from that story, "Countdown to Midnight:"

The night sky was overcast, and only a thin sliver of moon occasionally showed itself through rare breaks in the dark gray firmament. Against that sky, the black Nightfires were nearly invisible. Shark would never see them coming.

They had reached the given coordinates, and Midnight reached forward to place a black-gloved hand reassuringly on his stepson’s shoulder. "Remember, Chuck, don’t break radio silence until after the fireworks start. Shark knows our frequencies and is certain to have them monitored."

Chuck struggled to keep his voice calm and his tone strictly professional. "Yes, sir."

"We’ve planned this the best we can. After I get away from there, I’ll try and find someplace for you two to pick me up. If enemy fighters get off the ground, I don’t want you to engage them. Bug out, you hear me?"

His adopted son, who had no intention of abandoning him, nonetheless said, "Yes, sir."

"Good man." Midnight rechecked his gear, and clutched the bulging demolition bag to his chest. With one finger, he toggled a switch, and the section of canopy above him smoothly slid back. The night wind howled deafeningly throughout the open cockpit, and Midnight took a deep, calming breath before hurling himself into the frigid air.

Bailing from the Nightfire fighters without using an ejector seat was always nerve-wracking. If one wasn’t able to propel themselves fully clear of the plane, they could find themselves swept back along the fuselage and into the blades of the propeller. But Captain Midnight had made many jumps from the aircraft he himself had designed, and sailed without difficulty into the darkness.

One hand tightly clutching the demo bag, he reached up with the other to adjust a small knob on the side of his goggles. Instantly, the mountaintops below snapped into clear focus, as the miraculous night-vision device created by Tut Jones was activated. He spread his arms then, deploying small "wings" of treated cloth. He called this his glider-chute, and the strong material stretched from his wrists to his hips, allowing him to guide and control his fall with surprising proficiency, despite the savage mountain air currents. Quickly checking the compass strapped to his wrist, he banked to the south, his crimson scarf snapping in the wind over his shoulder, and glided like a soaring bird of prey towards a particular peak.

I've also been trying to get ahead on scripts for Kolchak: The Night Stalker Files, but things – like this damned gout – keep coming up to keep me away from the keyboard. Well, at least I'm pretty much caught up with Captain Midnight... for now.

Wednesday Cover: Captain Midnight

This week's cover – and it's going up very late, sorry – is a bit different, as it's not yet a comic book. You may remember some time back (almost two years ago), I mentioned that I was working on a revival of the old radio/serial/comic book/TV aviator hero Captain Midnight for Moonstone Books. Well, artist Richard Clark and I are finally getting it together.

This is our proposed cover for the Captain Midnight "Zero Issue." The painting is by Rich, and the logo and trade dress are my work. You're seeing it pretty much the same time that the publisher is. Enjoy.

Early Sunday Morning

It's been an interesting few weeks. I've been very busy writing and trying to write, and I turned in my first script for what is intended to be a new ongoing Kolchak series from Moonstone some days ago. Hopefully, it will pass muster with everyone necessary (it is a licensed property, after all), and I'll get to write more.

I've also put all the finishing touches on the Femme Noir: Dark City Diaries trade paperback. I'm not going to beg everyone to pre-order it again – I figure that if you read this blog, you've already made up your mind and are sick of hearing me grovel. But I do want to say how exciting this is for me. This will be my first genuine graphic novel (The Night Driver was an adaptation; it wasn't mine), and I've been working so damned long on the project that having a nice, thick, bookshelf edition of the material to hold in my hand and place on my shelves is going to be so sweet.

That I also was able to personally design and lay-out the book makes it even more satisfying. This thing is going to be exactly the way I want it; of course, any mistakes will be mine, too. That's why I haven't shipped off all the files quite yet (that will be late tonight). I've been going over them with the proverbial fine-toothed comb, determined that there will be no embarrassing typos in this volume. (That, of course, just jinxed it. Sigh.)

The long-gestating Captain Midnight project finally seems to be coming together, as well. It's been an exciting week on that score – artist Rich Clark has laid out the "zero issue" completely, and we went over his layouts together a few days ago. They look great. He's also painted a knock-out of a cover. Once we've run it by the publishers and gotten their reaction, I'll be sure to share it with you guys here.

Finally, this past week, I was offered a design gig, one that will allow me to get a brand-new, state-of-the-art computer, with a whole bunch of software and software upgrades I've been needing for a long time. Not only will this make the aforementioned gig possible, but should make it possible for me to accept more of the opportunities that occasionally come my way, opportunities that I've had to turn down because I lacked the technical means to do them.

I'm also hoping that it will allow me to pursue a personal side project that I've been wanting to do for a few years. More on that later, if it comes together.

Anyway, it's late (or, more accurately, very early) and I should get to bed so I can rise at a reasonable (for me) hour. I'll try and post more frequently in the next few weeks, but I still have a lot on my plate, and I'm not sure how much blogging time I'll have.

Later.

March Projects Update

Despite a bad bout of the flu that I'm only just now getting over, and some other recent crises, I'm working my butt off these days. I'm running a bit behind schedule, but I'm hanging in there.

I'm just wrapping up my script for the first issue of the new Kolchak: The Night Stalker Files ongoing series that I told you guys about last fall. It should be finished Friday. If it passes muster, it'll be winging it's way off to the artist right away. I've seen samples of the guy's work, and the book should look great.

Immediately after that document gets e-mailed off to Moonstone, I'll be calling up artist Richard Clark, who's illustrating the long-delayed Captain Midnight one-shot special, "Assault on Midnight Mesa." He's already done thumbnail layouts of the entire issue from my plot, and we'll be going over them panel-by-panel to make sure that everything works perfectly before he starts on the finished art. Then, I'll be calling Joe Gentile at Moonstone to discuss other Captain Midnight projects, including the equally long-delayed Midnight prose anthology I'm editing and a very exciting new comics project which is projected to feature the good Captain along with a couple of other famous Golden Age aces on a regular basis.

More on that as the plans finalize.

Lots of Femme Noir stuff is on the way! The page above is from this year's Femme Noir story in Ape Entertainment's Free Comic Book Day special, Ape Comics Cartoonapalooza! It's called "Demon Bat," and is penciled by Joe Staton, inked by Mark Stegbauer and colored by Michael Watkins. It will be available in comic book shops on Free Comic Book Day, May 2, 2009.

Also in May, the Femme Noir: Dark City Diaries trade paperback collection will be on sale. As I mentioned a few days ago, it's listed in the current edition of Diamond Comics' PREVIEWS catalog, and if you want to be sure to get a copy, you should head for your favorite comic book shop and pre-order it now. Six complete stories, a cover gallery, original concept art by Joe, an intro by Max Collins... 148 pages on good paper stock for just $20 bucks. C'mon! How can you pass that up?

The original Femme Noir webcomics are currently being re-colored by the above mentioned Mister Watkins, and will be collected in book form as soon as they are completed, along with a brand new story, "The Beast of the City." Before that, though, these completely remastered strips will be appearing on Ape Entertainments new online comics site, ApeCMX.com, starting next month!

There are also plans percolating to make the Dark City Diaries miniseries available for download to people's iPhones in the next month or so. I'll keep you posted.

And if you happen to be in Maine on Sunday, May 17th, you can drop by the Maine Comics Arts Festival in Portland, and get Joe Staton and I to sign your copy! Yep, I'll be making one of my very rare public appearances with my Femme Noir partner Joe at this one-day celebration of indie comics. It's being put on by my good pals at Casablanca Comics, and it looks like it's going to be a blast.
Joe and I have also collaborated on an 8-page western story (a page from that tale is shown above) called "The Face on the Poster." It's inked by my Gravedigger collaborator, Rick Burchett, and is currently being colored by Femme Noir's ace colorist, Michael Watkins. It's scheduled to appear in the second volume of Image Comics' Outlaw Territory Western anthologies. I have no idea when the book is scheduled to come out, but I do know that the story looks gorgeous, and I'm eager to see it in print.

On top of all this stuff I've mentioned so far, Perils on Planet X with Gene Gonzales & Ian Sokolowiski, and Gravedigger: The Predators, with Rick Burchett & Fred Harper, are both continuing to chug along, and I hope to be able to announce publication dates soon.

I've also agreed to write a ghost story for another upcoming Moonstone Monsters prose anthology, this time in collaboration with my lovely wife, Brandi. And I still hope to get started on the Ravenwulf novel before Summer.

Plus, I'm still editing Otis Adelbert Kline's Swords of Venus and Fredric Brown's Martians Go Home! series for Sequential Pulp Comics. They're both looking great!

So, yeah, as I've mentioned before, I'm writing full-time these days, and I only hope that eventually it actually turns into an income-generating endeavor. Your continued support and enthusiasm for my efforts will help that happen sooner, and I truly appreciate it.

Thanks!

Back @ Home

I'm back from my trip, and back to work, trying to get a couple of scripts written before the end of the month, and starting to ramp up a few new projects.

I'm finally getting around to the Captain Midnight project that's been gestating for several years now. I think Moonstone and I have finally gotten our heads together on a format and a plan, and I'm shooting to get my end of it done by the end of the year. I'm also talking to them about some other interesting projects including possible returns to the worlds of Kolchak and The Spider. Keep your fingers crossed.

Progress continues to be made, albeit slowly, on Perils on Planet X and the new Gravedigger graphic novel, both for Ape Entertainment. I'm hopeful that both projects will finally see the light of day in 2009. I'm also working on further adventures of Femme Noir, beginning with a double-sized Annual, Supernatural Crime, tentatively planned for next Summer.

Speaking of Femme Noir, I'm told that Issue #4 of The Dark City Diaries will be out in about a month.

Another project I'm excited about is "The Name On The Poster," an 8-page Western story that I've written, which will appear in next year's Outlaw Territory anthology from Image Comics. The story is being drawn by my Femme Noir co-creator, Joe Staton, and will be inked by my Gravedigger accomplice, Rick Burchett. I've included the first page of pencils here. It's my first pro work in the Western genre, and it's a real joy having my two favorite collaborators team up on the art.

I finally saw Hellboy II on DVD and thought it was great.. Guillermo Del Toro is just an astounding visual stylist, and I truly hope he returns to the property to finish up a trilogy. Of course, he's got The Hobbit film(s) to do first, and at least a half-dozen other projects on his plate, so we'll have to see how it works out.

I also saw Get Smart, which I didn't hate, but I wish it had hewed closer to the tone of the old television show and that Steve Carrell and the scriptwriters had made Maxwell Smart at least slightly resemble Don Adams' character. The cast was good, for the most part, and Anne Hathaway was gorgeous, but it was ultimately a bit disappointing.

Hoping to see Quantum Of Solace before the end of the week, probably Thursday. So far, I'm hearing very mixed reports, so i'm trying to keep my expectations low. I had very mixed feelings about Casino Royale, and although I liked it overall, there were things about it that I didn't care for... and it sounds like Quantum is made up primarily of those same things.

Oh well, I'll know for sure in a few days.

Hope you guys enjoyed the "Joe Walker" stories. There wasn't much feedback, so I don't think I'll be posting any more fiction pieces here – unless I go out of town again, anyway!

Hey, Kids! Comics!

After Seventeen years toiling away in the comics industry, struggling to make my mark as a writer, it's beginning to look like 2008 might be my biggest year yet in the biz.

Yeah, I know we're not even halfway through 2007 yet, but making indy comics takes a long time. As it stands, though, I have a bunch of projects moving along that should be out next year.

Of course, there are more than a few projects I've been involved with that I thought would be out long ago that never made it to the stands. And some of the projects I have on tap for '08 were originally intended to be finished years ago. But I'm reasonably confident that most of the projects I'm listing here will be out and in comic shops before the end of '08. They're all well-along, production-wise, and have strongly committed, established publishers – publishers that I have confidence will actually still be around when the books are ready to go next year.

Here's what we're looking forward to in '08:

Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries. Finally! The great folks at Ape Entertainment have picked up this long-gestating creator-owned 4-issue project, drawn by Joe Staton, based on our webcomic. Horacio Ottolini and Mark Stegbauer are slapping on the inks, while Melissa Kaercher colors.

Kolchak: Night Stalker of the Living Dead. A three-issue miniseries from Moonstone Books, based on the classic TV series. In this Tim Hamilton-drawn horror epic, I take the intrepid reporter/monster hunter and drop him down into the middle of a Dawn of the Dead/28 Days Later-styled zombie plague. Hey, everybody loves zombies, right? Covers by Dave Aikens.

Captain Midnight. Right now, this is a serialized back-up feature entitled "Assault on Midnight Mesa," made up of three 6-page installments, that I hope Moonstone will eventually collect as a one-shot. The artist is Rich Clark.

Perils on Planet X. I've just come to a verbal agreement (with contracts on the way) with a reputable publisher to bring to the market the long-in-the-works sci-fi swashbuckler illustrated by the talented Gene Gonzales. Three issues, color. Look for more details on this, soon.

And, finally, there's Gravedigger: Dangerous Prey, a new, hardboiled crime comics one-shot, pencilled by Rick Burchett and inked by Fred Harper. Of the projects on this list, it's the most tentative, but I'm hopeful that it will be out before the end of next year.

I also have a number of prose stories lined up for publication by Moonstone Books in '08, featuring characters like The Avenger, Captain Midnight and, possibly, The Spider again.

I'm the busiest I've been in years, and I'm having a blast working on these projects. Hopefully, they'll proceed without serious snags and make it to your local comics shop as planned. Keep your fingers crossed!