Wednesday Cover: NIGHTMARE

The Halloween "Horror-Mood" continues with another glorious Nightmare cover from Skywald Publications. This one is from issue #10, and the artist is the great Ken Kelly.

Wednesday Cover: NIGHTMARE

Here's another stunning cover from Skywald's Nightmare magazine (Issue #13), this time painted by Vicente Segrelles (according to the Grand Comics Database, anyway).

Wednesday Cover: NIGHTMARE!

Issue #18 of Skywald's Nightmare, the predecessor and companion mag to their Psycho comics magazine. The Grand Comics Database credits Jose Antonio Domingo as the artist.

Richard Matheson R.I.P.

Sadly, after an anxious day of rumors on Facebook and Twitter, it has been confirmed that the extraordinarily talented fantasist Richard Matheson has departed this plane at age 87 after a long illness.

Matheson has always been one of my greatest literary influences and inspirations, a man whose imagination knew no limits, who could see the fantastic in the mundane world around us, and paint vivid, indelible, unforgettable images with words. He was a master, and his influence on popular culture - from the Twilight Zone to The Incredible Shrinking Man to Roger Corman's colorful Poe films to Somewhere In Time (the movie theme was played at our wedding) to I Am Legend and beyond - is immeasurable. In fact, I was just watching the 1971 film adaptation of Legend, The Omega Man, last night.

When I was writing my Kolchak The Night Stalker comic book miniseries a few years ago, it was Matheson's teleplays for the original TV movies that I used as my guide to the character.

Rest in peace, sir.

Cover Design: TEARS OF BLOOD by James Chambers

I'm a bit late in posting about this (sorry, Jim!), but the second volume in my pal James Chambers' Corpse Fauna cycle, Tears Of Blood, is now on sale from Dullahan Press, an imprint of Dark Quest Books. Jim explains:

This is (volume two) of the four-volume Corpse Fauna series, which will complete a story cycle which I began writing in 1997. Although some of the Corpse Fauna stories were previously published, these new editions will present them in revised and greatly expanded versions with new stories to be published for the first time.

Jim is a exceptional horror writer. He and I were both editors and writers for Tekno*Comix back in the 90s, and collaborated together on several projects, including our Shadow House comic book series. Tears Of Blood, as well as its predecessor, The Dead Bear Witness, presents a fantastic, terrifyingly original take on the zombie apocalypse genre, and come highly recommended.

By the way, as with the first volume, I designed the cover dress, which features an illustration by the great Glen Ostrander. The plan is for me to lay out and design the covers for the remaining volumes as well.

You can order the book from Amazon here:  Tears of Blood

Wednesday Cover: PSYCHO FRANKENSTEIN!

Getting a jump on October with Skywald's Psycho magazine, featuring Boris Vallejo's interpretation of the Frankenstein Monster.

Cover Design: THE DEAD BEAR WITNESS by James Chambers

The first volume in my pal James Chambers' Corpse Fauna cycle, The Dead Bear Witness, is now on sale from Dullahan Press, an imprint of Dark Quest Books. As Jim explains:

This is volume one of the four-volume Corpse Fauna series, which will complete a story cycle which I began writing in 1997. Although some of the Corpse Fauna stories were previously published, these new editions will present them in revised and greatly expanded versions with new stories to be published for the first time.

Jim is a terrific horror writer. He and I were both editors and writers for Tekno*Comix back in the 90s, and collaborated together on several projects, including our Shadow House comic book series. The Dead Bear Witness is a fantastic, terrifyingly fresh take on the zombie genre, and highly recommended.

By the way, I designed the cover above, which features an illustration by the great Glen Ostrander. The plan is for me to layout and design the covers for the remaining three volumes as well.

You can order the book from Amazon here: Dead Bear Witness

31 Days Has October/Wednesday Cover: TERROR TALES

31 Days Has October: SILVER BULLET/CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF

Every night in October, the wife and I are watching scary movies, and each week of the month, we're choosing a theme. The first week of the month were Amicus Productions horror anthologies from the 60s and 70s, and this week - to accompany the full moon - we're watching werewolf flicks. We kicked Wolf Week off tonight with 1985' Silver Bullet, adapted by Stephen King from his illustrated novella, The Cycle Of The Werewolf.

It's a fun movie - very 80s - with a good cast, including Gary Busey, Megan Follows, Corey Haim, Terrence O'Quinn and Everett McGill.

The animatronic werewolf effects created by Carlo Rambaldi aren't quite up to the level of Rob Bottin's work on the first Howling film, or Rick Baker's American Werewolf In London effects, but they're effective enough, and still preferable to today's computer-animated cartoons. Too bad the actual creature looks more like a bear than a wolf.

I hadn't seen the movie in about ten years, and it's been longer than that since I read King's book. I have often pulled it off the shelf to enjoy the great illustrations by Berni Wrightson, though.

The Engines Of Sacrifice

My pal James Chambers, an exceptionally fine writer with whom I collaborated with on our comic book series Shadow House (among other projects), has a new horror fiction collection coming out from Dark regions Press called The Engines of Sacrifice. This volume contains four novellas inspired by the Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft.

These are:

"Investigation 37": In the late years of the Vietnam War, Lavender May runs away from home to search for freedom and peace in New York City, but instead, she finds only a world of magic, witchcraft, and lies.

"The Ugly Birds": Only one thing could save Carmine Darabont's comics magazine from going under: publishing the next chapter of the hit series The Otherworlders. But what dark secret drives its creator--Carmine's ex-fiancé--to refuse to deliver it?

"The Hidden Room": At the height of the Cold War, Doctor Calvin Lenox is a member of the Nuclear Emergency Search Team. With his life spiraling into despair, he confronts the mystery of a runaway Soviet defector and the death of three men, only to find himself at the mercy of...the Faceless God.

"The Engines of Sacrifice": What is the power of words? Can they control the fabric of reality? In a horrifying new world, underground author Rowley Cray struggles against a totalitarian government gone insane and the possibility that he can control the souls of the dead.

Jim's numerous tales of horror, dark fantasy, crime, and science fiction have appeared in more than 30 anthologies and magazines, including: Bad Cop, No Donut; the award-winning Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series; Bare Bone; Cthulhu Sex; Dark Furies; The Dead Walk; the award-winning Defending the Future anthology series; The Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon; Dragon’s Lure; The Green Hornet Chronicles; Hardboiled Cthulhu; Allen K’s Inhuman; Lin Carter’s Anton Zarnak: Supernatural Sleuth; New Blood; No Longer Dreams; Warfear; and Weird Trails. He wrote the collections The Midnight Hour: Saint Lawn Hill and Other Tales, and Resurrection House.

If Lovecraftian terror is your thing, I guarantee that you'll like Jim's handling of the Mythos. You can pre-order the book HERE.

Summer Reading

I haven't bought many books in a while, but this last week I added a few new titles to my expansive library. The Science Fiction Book Club had a 50% off sale, so I ordered the remaining two Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom hardcover omnibuses (now I don't have to worry about wearing out my treasured paperbacks with the Michael Whelan cover paintings), and the two titles shown above: C.L. Moore's Northwest of Earth and Max Brooks' World War Z.

Northwest of Earth sounds intriguing; apparently it's pulp space opera with a Lovecraftian flavor. I haven't read a lot of Ms. Moore's fiction before, but what few stories I have read seemed superior to most of what was being written at the time. As for World War Z, it's gotten generally positive reviews, and I'm looking forward to reading a good zombie novel.

I also ordered a copy of the last Mike Hammer novel by Mickey Spillane (and Max Allan Collins), The Goliath Bone. Normally, I would have bought that last year as soon as it came out, but I had to wait until I could afford it. I was fortunate enough to have known Mickey, and Collins is a friend, so I'm eager to get my hands on it.

Before I can start on any of those new books, though, I've got to finish reading the spy paperback I'm reading.... and Brian Daley's Han Solo's Revenge, one of the very first Star Wars tie-in novels from the late 70s. I happened upon my copies of both Revenge and its sequel, Han Solo And the Lost Legacy while moving my office, and thought I'd revisit them. So far, it's a perfectly satisfactory space opera adventure novel, refreshingly free of all the history and obsessive continuity that currently afflicts the franchise.

What are you folks reading?

The Joy of Paperback Pulp

So, I was talking to my pal Martin Powell – a prolific and talented writer of long acquaintance – last week, and our meandering, long distance conversation was passing the first hour mark when we wandered into the realm of 70's paperback pulp fiction.

It was then that Martin brought up a series that I had been vaguely aware of – mostly through intriguing Captain Company ads in the back of Warren's Eerie and Creepy magazines – the "Dracula Horror Series" by Robert Lory.

Published by Pinnacle Books, legendary home of such 70's paperback pulp "aggressors" as Don Pendelton's The Executioner, Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir's The Destroyer, and a well-armed militia of lesser heroes (The Butcher, The Death Merchant, Nazi Hunter, The Penetrator), the Dracula Horror Series hearkened back to the more bizarre pulp fiction of the Thirties – but with a decidedly Seventies' flavor.

The premise was insane.

A wheelchair-bound scientist and his Puerto Rican ex-New York cop assistant travel to Transylvania, where they revive Count Dracula with the intention of using the Lord of Vampires as their agent in a war against evil. They figure to control the Count by surgically placing a mechanical implant into Dracula's chest that, should the fiend defy them, will drive a sliver of wood into his heart. The scientist has an implant of his own – if his heart should stop beating, it will send a signal to activate Dracula's.

They succeed, and over the course of the series Dracula is pitted against giant vampire bats, voodoo masters, satanic cults, Elizabeth Bathory(!) and other forces of evil, while constantly scheming to free himself and take his revenge upon the crazy crime fighters.

Well, before Martin had even finished expressing his enthusiasm for the series, I'd already ordered copies of the first two volumes from online used book dealers.

I received the first book, Dracula Returns!, yesterday and finished it this evening. It's utterly ludicrous, but incredibly entertaining. "Robert Lory" (or whatever his real name was) is a solid wordsmith, who manages to keep the pace brisk, the characters interesting, and the wild, left-field story elements coming one after another. His handling of Dracula is interesting – thousands of years old (not just a few hundred), physically imposing, and despite his predicament, imperious, arrogant and commanding.

It's cool stuff, and although reminiscent of some of the odder hero pulps of the 30's, very much a product of the early 1970's, with the overriding theme that it takes evil to battle evil, and the danger of that evil turning against the ones controlling it.

The books aren't easy to find, and kind of pricey (especially with shipping costs added on), but I think I'll probably try to collect all nine books in the series. It's not often that I find pulp fiction as bugnuts fun as this.

Howling @ the Dead Moon

I received my contributor copies of the Moonstone Monsters prose anthology, Werewolves: Dead Moon Rising, today.

The book turned out great, with no apparent printing or formatting problems. The illustrations by Ken Wolak are consistent and well-drawn, and the design of the book is very slick. Effective cover by Dave Dorman, too.

Turns out that my story, "The Beast of Bava Pass," is the lead story in the volume, which is nice. I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's contributions now.

The book is available in some comic book shops and bookstores or it can be ordered from Amazon or directly from the publisher.

Werewolves for Christmas

I haven't received my contributor copies yet, but I got a call from my editor a couple days ago telling me that the Werewolves: Dead Moon Rising prose anthology from Moonstone Books, has finally arrived from the printer and is shipping now.

Here's the publisher's description:

Moonstone proudly steps up during the full moon to launch this first book in a line of monster/horror prose fiction anthologies, with this one featuring our favorite ferocious and furry fiends, werewolves! The blood will run red in the dead of night as both horror-fiction and comic book writers alike unite to bring you an unlucky 13 chilling tales of howling horror, just in time for Halloween. With stories by Elaine Bergstrom, Tom DeFalco, Dave Dorman, Clay Griffith, William R. Halliar, C.J. Henderson, David Michelinie, Christopher Mills, Mike Reynolds, Beau Smith, Paul D, Storrie, Dave Ulanski and Fred Van Lente! Interior illustrations by Ken Wolak and a fang-tastic cover by fan-favorite Dave Dorman, this chilling collection of short stories is sure to keep you cringing under the covers all night long!

My story is a tribute to old school Universal, Hammer and Paul Naschy werewolf films, and is entitled, "The Beast of Bava Pass."

So, if you're interested, you can now order the book from Amazon, Moonstone or look for it at your favorite comic shop or bookstore.

Werewolf Book Details

I told you not long ago that I had a short prose story, "The Beast of Bava Pass," featured in an upcoming anthology from Moonstone Books. Well, here's the cover and the official PR info from the publisher.

Moonstone proudly steps up during the full moon to launch this first book in a line of monster/horror prose fiction anthologies, with this one featuring our favorite ferocious and furry fiends, werewolves!

The blood will run red in the dead of night as both horror-fiction and comic book writers alike unite to bring you an unlucky 13 chilling tales of howling horror, just in time for Halloween.

With stories by Elaine Bergstrom, Tom DeFalco, Dave Dorman, Clay Griffith, William R. Halliar, C.J. Henderson, David Michelinie, Christopher Mills, Mike Reynolds, Beau Smith, Paul D. Storrie, Dave Ulanski, and Fred Van Lente!

Interior illustrations by Ken Wolak- and a fang-tastic cover by fan-favorite Dave Dorman, this chilling collection of short stories is sure to keep you cringing under the covers all night long!

Werewolves: Dead Moon Rising can be pre-ordered now from Amazon.