I love timelines, particularly when they’re about something I already know. Reading them is an exercise in recognition, in remembering, in reliving. But every once in a while, there’s that odd factoid that seems to have slipped through from an alternate universe, that causes me to go—”Huh? I don’t remember that!”

So it was with the page below, plucked from Jimmy Olsen #100, and originally published in March 1967. As I read it, I thought—

Return of Krypto? Check! Remember that.

Jimmy teams with Superman to become Nightwing and Flamebird? Check! Remember that, too.

Jimmy turned into a werewolf, and only brought back to normal thanks to the intervention of—Mr. Mxyzptlk’s girlfriend, Miss Gzptlsnz?

Who? What? (more…)

Over at Diversions of the Groovy Kind, The Groovy Agent posted an eight-page photo feature from the 1975 Mighty Marvel Convention program book. Included on those pages were 71 photos of Bullpenners, including two who are particularly near and dear to my heart.

One is me. The other is Irene, my wife of nearly 34 years.

As I study those faces, my heart grows heavy. About one-third of these old friends are gone now, absent forever.

But … as I study those faces, my heart also sings. Because working there, surrounded by such people, was magical.

If my younger self, ensorceled by Stan Lee and standing with 12 cents in his palm trying to decide between Avengers #1 and X-Men #1 (as they both hit newsstands the same day), could have looked ahead to my slightly-less-young younger self, he would have thought, Scott, you’ve made it to Heaven.

And so I had.

Following up on my discovery of a tape of my 1972 interview with George Carlin, I decided to see whether I could locate tape for another interview I’d done that year, one I conducted with Isaac Asimov for a high-school underground newspaper. Check the two of us out below.

Imagine my thrill when I managed to find a cassette tape labeled:

And imagine with what excitement I inserted that cassette into a tape recorder.

Then imagine the disappointment as I heard …

…. 45 minutes of piano music.

OK, I thought, maybe the interview only took up the other side of the C-90 cassette tape. So I turned it over and heard—

—the voice of Steve Gerber! (more…)

There’s something irresistible about the first issue of a new comic. As they launch themselves into the world, they’re often filled with so much hope and promise as to be poignant. And the house ads for them, well, they’re like birth announcements. You have no idea yet what the little thing may grow into, but you still root for them. (Well, I do, anyway.)

So it is with the ad below for the first issue of Boy Commandos, which was originally printed on the back cover of World’s Finest Comics #8 (Winter 1942/1943). I ran across it as Irene and I were going through some old comics and instantly thought, “Man, I have to pick up an issue of that!

Of course, it’s 67 years too late. But Simon and Kirby sure knew how to work their magic, even then.

One interesting difference between comics then and now? Note the announcement of “the first release of a new ‘surprise feature’ that will have you cheering for more and more!” I don’t have a copy of that issue, but based on my reading of the table of contents, I assume it’s reference to the first appearance of the character Liberty Belle. No contemporary comic would ever hide its superheroine away when it could display her in a sexy pose on the cover to boost sales.

But that was a more innocent time. Or maybe just a time when publishers thought their readers were little boys who would go ‘yuck!’ if they saw a girl on the cover.

I first met Phil Klass, who wrote under the name William Tenn, at the 1999 Nebula Awards Weekend in Pittsburgh. I’d of course met him via his writing many years before, particularly his classic short story “Brooklyn Project.” But this was my first chance to meet him in the flesh.

Phil was named Author Emeritus by SFWA that year, and though I’m trying to think of a more entertaining speech at a Nebula ceremony than his, I can’t think of one. I could have listened all night to him talking of the early days of fandom. One of the more hilarious anecdotes was of the time during a fan feud that Elsie Wolheim (if I’m remembering correctly) beat him over the head with her purse so hard that she broke the clasp. (If that speech was taped, could someone please get it it digitized and online? It’s an important bit of SF history.)

After the ceremony, I tracked him down to ask a question about the Blacklist, which has always intrigued me, and we sat in the banquet room (along with Walter Jon Williams, too; again, if my memory is functioning) talking about that sad period in our history for hours as tables were being dismantled around us. The waitstaff finally had to shoo us out of the room.

My wife and I once drove several hundred miles back and forth to Pittsburgh in a single day for the primary reason of taking him and Fruma out to dinner at Top of the Triangle, and trying to siphon off every bit of wisdom we could. (more…)

Last night, as I was prepping my previous entry here, the lights flickered half-a-dozen times, and to show how silly social networking makes us, was I worrying about losing power? No. I was worried about losing power before I could complete the entry and get it posted!

Which is how LiveJournal and Twitter and Facebook make fools of us all …

But once the entry was up, and I was thinking more clearly, I thought—better get to bed and under the covers before the power goes. That way, I figured even if we went dark, we’d still be warm and toasty, and the electricity even might be back before we woke, and we’d be none the wiser.

Well … not quite.

When I got up in the middle of the night, I could tell by the lack of any clocks or night lights that we’d indeed lost power. And when morning came, we were still off the grid. (more…)

Remember that tape I told you about earlier in the week which I thought contained an interview I did with George Carlin following his appearance on The Tonight Show? (You can see a picture of Carlin and me taken at 30 Rock after that gig and read more about the story here.) Well, it turned out I was wrong. But it turned out I was right, too.

The tape did contain an interview with George Carlin, circa 1972. But now that I’ve listened to it, I’ve learned that it took place before his appearance on Carson, and instead was taped backstage at The Bitter End, where I’d gone a day earlier with two high-school friends of mine to see Carlin perform. I now know this because Carlin spoke of appearing the following night, and we tried unsuccessfully to cadge tickets from him.

We brought along a half-dozen gift-wrapped boxes of Post Raisin Bran, which will explain why there’s a mention of that product on the tape. Why did we present such a bizarre gift, as well as a huge homemade card filled with bizarre raisin jokes and altered book and movie titles such as The Raisin Also Rises? Read on.

My wife, on hearing my voice from more than 35 years ago, remarked on how strong my Brooklyn accent had been in the days before she knew me. It had already started wearing off by the time she met me at Marvel Comics.

So you can get your vocal bearings (assuming you bother to click through), that’s me asking the first question, “How do you feel you’d contrast with such a comedian as Lenny Bruce?” And to show just how old this interview actually is, that’s also me asking, “Would you consider going to Vietnam with Bob Hope?” (more…)

Those of you who’ve been following my musings know that I dream. I dream a lot. And I report the ones that seem relevant both on my LiveJournal blog (where I post the dreams which seem to have more details worth sharing) and on Twitter.

But tweets are such fragile, ephemeral things that I’ve decided to collect them each month. Here are my dream tweets from January 2010.

Who knows? Perhaps one of them was about you!

I dreamt I met my parents in their cabin after their return from a cruise, with no sense of surprise that my father was alive once more. 8:34 AM Jan 31st

I dreamt I started up a new company, along with Irene Gallo. Which seemed as if it could actually happen. Until Bruce Boxleitner walked in. 8:28 AM Jan 31st

I dreamt I was helping my mother, played in the dream by some white-haired woman not my mother, plan her second marriage wedding ceremony. 7:16 AM Jan 30th

I dreamt that as I was driving out of a parking garage with Irene, we were attacked by Kate from Lost, guns blazing. And I have no idea why. 7:11 AM Jan 30th

I dreamt I arrived at an Indian wedding, was given bracelets and silk scarves … and then realized Irene couldn’t make it. So I left, sad. 7:34 AM Jan 29th

I dreamt Steve Segal called, and the main thing we discussed was how he had to fend off a hostile takeover of Weird Tales by … Brad Pitt. 7:26 AM Jan 29th

I dreamt I wandered an ur-NY, a Platonian ideal of NY with wondrous domes and towers, but at the same time was sad because I had no camera. 7:59 AM Jan 27th

I dreamt that while driving through a mall parking lot, I spotted a van emblazoned with the names of everyone I used to work with in comics. 8:18 AM Jan 26th

I dreamt I played wiffleball with Derek Morgan, Penelope Garcia and Richard Castle in my backyard, and we lost the ball with every hit. 8:16 AM Jan 26th

I dreamt I was Walter White, Bryan Cranston’s character from Breaking Bad, and had been called to the unemployment office. I wasn’t happy. 8:10 AM Jan 26th (more…)

I woke this morning to discover that my novella The Hunger of Empty Vessels was one of 10 stories to have made the preliminary Stoker Awards ballot in the category of Superior Achievement in Long Fiction.

Those with long memories may recognize one of the other names on the ballot, Gene O’Neill, as that of a Clarion classmate of mine from 1979. Back then, did we dare dream we’d get this far? And even if we did, who ever dreamed we’d get this far together?

Whatever happens next, the one real winner today is Bad Moon Books, which published five of the 10 semi-finalists. In honor of that event, Bad Moon is having a sale on all of its nominated titles. If you don’t yet own a copy of The Hunger of Empty Vessels, here’s your chance to get one at a 20% discount.

So what happens now? HWA members will vote over the next two weeks, and on 2/15, the five titles (unless a tie adds a sixth) which make up the final ballot will be unveiled. After another round of voting, the winners will be announced at the Stoker Awards banquet to be held on 3/27 at the World Horror Convention in Brighton.

MAMA FISH by Rio Youers (Shroud Publishing)
THE HUNGER OF EMPTY VESSELS by Scott Edelman (Bad Moon Books)
DIANA AND THE GOONG-SI by Lisa Morton (MIDNIGHT WALK)
DOC GOOD’S TRAVELING SHOW by Gene O’Neill (Bad Moon Books)
THE GRAY ZONE by John R. Little (Bad Moon Books)
THE LUCID DREAMING by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books)
DREAMING ROBOT MONSTER by Mort Castle (MIGHTY UNCLEAN)
LITTLE GRAVEYARD ON THE PRAIRIE by Steven E. Wedel (Bad Moon Books)
ROT by Michelle Lee (Skullvines Press)
BLACK BUTTERFLIES by Kurt Newton (Sideshow Press)

Gene has also been nominated in the category of Superior Achievement in a Collection for A Taste of Tenderloin from Apex Books. Good luck to him and all my other nominated friends!

I had a dream last night in which I was at a World Horror Convention. I couldn’t tell whether it was meant to be a WHC past or future, so I was outside of time. I wandered the spacious lobby of whatever hotel I was in, which had many comfortable leather couches inhabited by my friends. As I walked through the scrum, I saw Steve Jones, who I’ve seen in real life at many WHCs.

He told me that a book I’d inherited from my father, a huge tome I was lugging under one arm through the lobby, wasn’t any ordinary ancient edition of that title. Steve had his own copy of the book, and from examining it learned that my copy had entries and pages that no other edition of the book had or was meant to have. It had been used in mystic rites at some time in the past.

Steve gave me metal armatures that were meant to attach around my arms and torso like an antique Iron Man suit. They were also meant to have dozens of candles inserted into holders arrayed upon them to adorn my body while I read aloud from the book, for what eldritch purpose I did not know.

I paged through the book, admiring its yellowed pages, and then closed its cover. I would figure it all out later. Meanwhile, it was time to hang with my friends. I walked the perimeter of the lobby, where I saw Steve on a couch sitting with Amanda Foubister and Sharyn November. Sharyn got up and took off for a panel, which left a spot for me to sit with Steve and Amanda, which I did … and then woke up.