I’ve shared photos of a much younger, costumed me before, but considering the recent brouhaha stirred up by Pat Broderick’s denunciation of cosplayers, which was followed by other comics pros, such as Marv Wolfman, supporting cosplay and offering their own costumed pics, I figured it was time to give you another glimpse of my broadsword and my bare chest.

Sam Maronie, who runs the always entertaining site Sam Maronie’s Entertainment Funhouse, took a ton of con pics in the old timey days, which is surprising, because I’d’ve thought my mug would have broken his camera. In any event, he recently sent along some images of me as a generic barbarian from the 1974 Creation Convention at New York’s Hotel Commodore. (more…)

When I was a kid, ads in comic books were all Sea Monkeys and X-Ray Specs and P. F. Flyers, which says a lot about who the target market was considered to be at the time. But a couple of decades before that, the ads in comics were aimed at an audience a little bit older.

Check out the inside front cover from the December 1945 issue of Airboy Comics. Doesn’t seem as if the same readers who’d want to order 200 plastic World War II soldiers would need insurance paying $1,000 in the event of “accidental loss of life, limbs, or entire sight.”

But maybe that’s just me …

I love ads in old magazines that claim to be able to turn people into published writers, and this one from the July 1932 issue of The American Magazine recently caught my eye. It tempts with a promise of “$25, $50 and $100 or more that can often be earned for material that takes little time to write—stories and articles on business, fads, travels, sports, recipes, etc.—things that can easily be turned out in leisure hours, and often on the impulse of the moment.”

But if someone had cut out and sent in that coupon from the Newspaper Institute of America, how well would they have really done?

Most of these types of ads give us no way to check, but this one does, because it includes a testimonial from Gene E. Levant in which he states that he “sold a feature story to Screenland Magazine for $50,” received “an immediate assignment to do another,” and “have had one short story published.” So what kind of writing career did Gene E. Levant have after that? (more…)

Yep, it’s that time again. Another month is gone, so here’s the round-up of last month’s dreams as shared on Twitter. Guest stars included Will Smith, Marie Severin, Rik Mayall, Kristen Bell, Archie Bunker, and more.

November 2014

I dreamt I’d just critiqued someone’s story in a workshop, and the other writers, instead of critiquing that story — critiqued my critique! Nov 30

I dreamt I wandered Comic-Con’s exhibit hall in a suit, couldn’t figure out why, then realized I was supposed to be at my mother’s funeral. Nov 30

I dreamt I was at a convention when an agent cornered me and asked me to send him my novel. Now THAT’S a dream! Nov 28

I dreamt I was in a battle during medieval times … which I and my friends escaped by hopping into a Jeep. The anachronism then woke me. Nov 28

I dreamt I was bodyguard to a famous rapper, and we headed to make peace with his equally famous rival, which turned into a tense meeting. Nov 28

I had a dream that involved Rik Mayall as the People’s Poet from the Young Ones … but alas, now that I’m awake, I remember nothing more. Nov 27

I dreamt I was part of a panel discussion on the Rolling Stones, during which Mick Jagger showed up to say everything I’d said was wrong. Nov 27

I dreamt I was Reese from Person of Interest, about to go undercover (but where?) by donning an outrageous mod Austin Powers-like outfit. Nov 24

I dreamt I was exchanging emails with my (dead IRL) friend Bob Freedman about getting together for dinner, then woke and remembered. Damn. Nov 24

I dreamt I was on the Canadian border in the Pacific Northwest, looking down with @ShearmanRobert on a waterfall making Niagara seem puny. Nov 23 (more…)

I was reading the July 1932 issue of The American Magazine over at the Comic Book + site, and learned some important medical news … I’ve been using Listerine all wrong!

Seems I’ve been gargling with the stuff all these years, when what I should have been doing with the product is dousing my hair with it and massaging until I can “feel the scalp tingling and glowing.”

Or, based on the photo above, having my loving wife massage my scalp for me.

Somehow I’ve got a feeling that won’t be happening …

I was reading the September/October 1954 issue of the comic Dream Book of Romance (as one does), and came across a moment that had me cheering.

In the lead story “Woman of Shame,” after Nancy’s father dies, she drops out of college and takes a job as a night club “snapshot girl” in order to support herself and her aged mother. (more…)

I may have let my season tickets to Next lapse once I no longer had that Syfy salary funding three trips to Chicago each year, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still interested in what the ever-changing restaurant has in store for 2015. I’ve been lucky enough to experience five menus there—Sicily, Kyoto, The Hunt, Vegan (twice!), and Bocuse d’Or—and have never been less than wowed.

Here, as just announced over on it Facebook page, are the three cuisines Next will be tackling next.

January – May

Next: Bistro

4 Years after opening with our Paris 1906 menu we embrace the more casual side of Parisian dining culture. With the great flood of 1910 behind them, Parisians embraced the Bistro. In 2015, Next will as well.

Every week we will introduce new items on our evolving 5-7 course chalkboard menu — we will also have specials and supplements on a daily basis.

Casual, delicious, and filling for the cold Chicago winter. And the kind of menu you’ll want to revisit every few weeks.

$80-$120 per person.
Please note: optional supplements of $ 15 – $ 75 will be available to order in the dining room. (more…)

As if I wasn’t morose enough yesterday, it having been my late father’s birthday, I also learned that Rocky Wood, former president of the Horror Writers Association, and one of the nicest guys you could ever meet, had succumbed to ALS, with which he’d been diagnosed in 2010.

I didn’t think I’d ever taken a picture with Rocky, but it turns out that Ellen Datlow caught us at the Stoker Awards weekend in 2009.

Rocky and I had many lengthy conversations over the years across many continents, several on the subject of Stephen King, something he knew more about than anyone in the world, even King himself. I’m going to miss those talks, and I’m not alone. His contributions to the horror field in general and to the smooth running of the Horror Writers Association in specific cannot be measured. (more…)

My father, Barney Edelman, should have turned 82 today. But instead, I lost him on January 27, 2009, when he was only 76. I’m missing him, and one of the ways I’m dealing with that is by communing with his artwork. Luckily, he left behind a lot of it.

I’ve shared many of Dad’s paintings with you before, and here he is with four more, a quadriptych of birds he painted to fill a large wall in our new home.

He was an artist his entire life, and his output consisted of far more than the oil paintings I’ve previously posted. Earlier this year, I brought home more than 100 pieces of his artwork, and this morning I looked through them again. Here are just a few. (more…)

A week ago, I told you I’d reread a unpublished novel manuscript of mine—one I’d stopped marketing years ago after multiple rejections, including one which had it sitting with a certain editor who shall not be named for four years before a decision was made—and saw enough good and true in it that I decided I’d try to revise it up to my 2014 standards.

Having come to that conclusion, the first thing I had to do was digitize the book. Sadly, though every other short story or novel I’d ever attempted, whether completed or not, published or not, existed in electronic form, this one didn’t. Even though I searched through all my files in every format, I never found it. (Was the universe trying to tell me something?) So I spent three days OCR-ing the 378-page manuscript, which turned out to contain nearly 94,000 words.

Then, on Thanksgiving, I sat down and started revising the first chapter, which I continued doing Friday, and yesterday as well. But as I moved forward, attempting to collaborate with last century’s me, I soon realized …

No. (more…)