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When I was at Emerald City ComiCon a couple of weeks ago, I did a brief interview with the fine folks at the Backroom Comics Podcast. They’ve posted the video online, where you can see that I was apparently trying to pull off my left earlobe. (Sorry about that folks, I have no idea what that was about it.) as Allow me to don my publisher hat for a moment, and point out to all and sundry that Kim Newman’s third Diogenes Club collection, Mysteries of the Diogenes Club, is now available for preorder from MonkeyBrain Books. Check out the front cover, courtesy of the insanely talented Lee Moyer.
The book is scheduled for an October 2010 release, and preorders should start shipping as soon as the books arrive from the printer (probably in mid to late September). If you’re on the fence about ordering, perhaps I should point out that the first two Diogenes Club collections both sold out within a matter of months of publication, and are now fetching hefty prices on the collectors market? The kooks behind Comic Twart have gotten up to Archie Andrews in their rota, and as usual Francesco Francavilla delivers the pulpy goodness.
DC has released its full solicitations for June 2010, and there’s one listing that’s particularly close to my heart.
iZOMBIE #2 Over the Christmas holidays, I dug up a bunch of family photos at my parents’ house to scan, and came across a few things I’d forgotten ever existed. One was this gem, from the fall of 1975 or the spring of 1976, when I was five years old. If you’re a child of the 70s, you might remember costumed characters making appearances at shopping malls around the country. (Visit Plaid Stallions to see some terrific snapshots of kids posing with the various characters.) In Duncanville where I grew up, Red Bird Mall seemed to have a steady stream of these guys come through, who I recall mostly set up shop in the Sears. Of course, these were just out-of-work actors or such in ill-fitting costumes, but to us kids, they were awesome. (The story is legendary in my family about what happened when the guy in the Howard the Duck costume got his big duck foot stuck in the bottom of the escalator. It was years before I knew enough to explain to my parents that the stream of obsenities he spouted was in fact completely in character.)
But even at the age of five, I knew these were just guys in costumes. Guys in cool costumes, to be sure, but still just guys. So when I met “Spider-Man,” I was a little confused when he asked me a strange question. “Do you know who I really am?” Um, no. I just shuffled my feet, glancing over to my parents to rescue me, afraid to make eye contact. Well, I couldn’t make eye contact, since he was wearing a full-face mask, but you get the idea. (My daughter does this shuffle and eye-shift thing now, just one of the many things she’s inherited from me.) I just mumbled something about not knowing, hoping the encounter would end soon so I could get my autographed picture and get the heck out of there. “I’m Peter Parker, photographer for the Daily Bugle,” the guy said. “Oooooh, right.” I just nodded, trying to act like this was something I was learning for the first time. When what I was really thinking was something like, “What, does he think I’m stupid or something?” Then, later, I saw what he’d written on the back of my photo while this exchange was going on.
Chris Looking back, I just can’t help but feel sorry for that guy. Stuck in that suit all day, having to be the equivalent of a mall Santa the year round. Was he friends with the guys playing Captain America and Howard the Duck and the Hulk? (Probably they just hired local guys in every town, but in my imagination, they all travelled together in a bus, like the Twirl King Champions.) Barely literate, clearly, and unaware that there’s a hyphen in Spider-man, at least he got to hide behind a full-face mask, unlike the guy assaying the role of Captain America (whose mustache kind of ruined the effect). But the fact that a six year old me actually patronized him when he tried to make a little magic? That has got to be the low point. Vertigo has posted the cover to iZombie #2 on their Graphic Content blog. Behold the awesomeness.
In celebration of the one hundredth anniversay of Thomas A. Edison’s film version of Frankenstein, I’m posting the entirety of my “Edison’s Frankenstein” online. The story originally appeared in the pages of Postscripts 20/21, and will be reprinted in Gardner Dozois’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Volume 27 and in David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer’s Year’s Best SF 15. The story also was included in Locus Magazine’s 2009 Recommended Reading List, and I just learned this morning that it made the Long List for the 2010 British Fantasy Awards. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it online previously, but I’ll be at Emerald City ComiCon this weekend. It’s my first trip to the con, and my first trip to Seattle in years, so I’m looking forward to it. If you’re interested in tracking me down, I can be fairly easily found. On Sunday, I’ll be at the Vertigo panel, though I can’t imagine what we might be talking about… 2:00pm, PANEL ROOM A (4C1-2) Otherwise, I’ll be hanging out with the Boom! Studios folks at booth #402. Sadly, the first issue of Dust to Dust, the sequel to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? that I’m scripting, isn’t quite ready yet. But if you have have copies of Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love you want defaced, or are one of the literally dozens of people who bought my novels and want me to scribble in one, stop on by. I’ll be the guy in the goofy t-shirt with the attractive woman standing behind him and rolling her eyes every time he says something ridiculous. I have my pal Dave Justus to thank for pointing this out to me. (I’d actually seen the Neatorama post yesterday but blithely passed it by. More fool me.) Here is the trailer for a film that is sure to win an Academy award. I am now dutifully adding BriTANicKdotcom to my YouTube subscriptions. I suggest you do the same. |
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