When I dug out the March 1975 issue of FOOM last week, I found something fun on the back cover—a piece of John Byrne art I don’t think has seen print in 35 years.

I have no idea why we ran this image that issue, not when it was a “Special Cosmic Issue,” with all the other feature content relating to Marvel’s cosmic characters such as Captain Marvel, the Silver Surfer, and Adam Warlock. John probably just whipped up the spoof as a joke and we all thought it so silly we couldn’t resist sharing it.

Which is sort of the same reason I’m sharing it now.

So check out Shang-She, Mistress of Kung Fu, as she teams up with Iron Sis to take on the insidious Su Manchu.

OK, go ahead, call me out of the loop. But I never heard of the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror awards until today.

And this will be the eighth year they give the things out!

Though the more I think about it, the more I realize that what’s far more likely is that I have heard of them, only they got lost in the grooves of my brain with all the other awards handed out in science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

But what got stirred up from the depths of those very same grooves is the memory of a weekend I spent with Rondo Hatton. Well … not the real Rondo Hatton. (You may think I’ve met everyone, but I really haven’t.)

You can see the Rondo Hatton I’m talking about in the photo below. (more…)

I already told you about the first review my upcoming zombie collection, What Will Come After, received—over at Gnostalgia, Barry Huddleston called three of the stories “must reads,” and gave the book as a whole “4 out of 5 stars.” (Sorry—but I couldn’t resist repeating that!)

Today, two more glowing reviews popped up online.

Seregil of Rhiminee had this to say over at Rising Shadow:

What Will Come After: The Complete Zombie Stories of Scott Edelman is a fascinating short story collection. I’ve always liked zombie stories, so I was very interested in this collection. …

The first story, “What Will Come After,” is a surprisingly tender, but shocking story about love, life, death and life after death as a zombie. It’s a fine example of what a good writer [can] do with words. The other stories are also well written, but I especially liked the Bram Stoker Award nominated stories (“Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man” and “A Plague on Both Your Houses”). They’re perfect zombie stories for zombie fans.

I can recommend What Will Come After: The Complete Zombie Stories of Scott Edelman to all horror readers, because it’s worth reading. If you like good zombie stories, these stories will charm you.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

And at Mass Movement, Jim Dodge, Jr. wrote:

The stories collected here are sad. They’re full of tragedy and despair. Though these tales are chock-full of survivors they still manage to be really, completely … well … sad. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed anything zombie-related as much as Scott Edelman’s newest PS Publishing release but I will say I needed to make sure I got some sunshine when I was finished. He really pulled the old heartstrings with this book and I loved every minute of it!

If you’d like to get your own copy of What Will Come After to see what these three reviewers are talking about, head here for the jacketed hardcover or here for the signed limited traycased edition. As an added incentive, Pete Crowther of PS Publishing has agreed to ship all pre-orders postage free through the end of February.

Roger Stern—longtime comics editor and writer, known for his scripting on Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and The Avengers, as well as for helping create the “Death of Superman” storyline.

Ralph Macchio—comics writer turned editor who was in charge of Daredevil for more than a decade and who most recently oversaw the transformation of Stephen King’s Dark Tower novels into a comics.

But once … once they were fans.

I was remembering that thanks to the issues of FOOM, Marvel’s fan magazine, that I dug up last week.

Here’s the editorial I wrote for FOOM #9, the March 1975 issue, in which I mentioned them both. None of us had any idea of what was to come.

As you can see, back in those days, Sterno worked for WXLW Radio in Indianapolis and published the fanzine C.P.L., while Ralph was a letterhack who won a contest judged by Don McGregor. Their comics futures still lay ahead.

Hey, we all have to start somewhere, right?

Here’s a photo that’s not quite as old as the last one, digging only 17 years back in time, to Labor Day weekend of 1993. Sovereign Media co-owners Carl Gnam and Mark Hintz wanted to do something out of the ordinary at ConFrancisco, the 51st World Science Fiction Convention, to celebrate the first birthday of Science Fiction Age, and when we put our heads together, we figured—

Hey, it’s our first birthday! Why not cake?

So they shelled out for enough cake to serve around 2,000 people, part of which you can see below. There were several overflow sheet cakes to feed the ravenous hordes. The rocket ships, which ended up looking a little too much like Hugo trophies for my comfort (since SFA hadn’t actually won any) were made of solid chocolate. Andy Porter walked off with one of them, something he tells me every time I see him. He supposedly still has it in his refrigerator.

I’m holding copies of Science Fiction Age issues #1 (which debuted at the previous year’s Worldcon, MagiCon, held in Orlando, Florida) and #7. (more…)

I’ve only worn a costume at a science-fiction or comic-book convention once. (Unless you count that time a friend of mine and I absconded with another friend’s Mister Miracle costume and wandered Madison Square Garden in the early morning until we were stopped by the police … but that’s a story for another day.)

The year was 1975. (At least I think it was 1975. But maybe you can help me out with that.) There was a panel at Phil Seuling’s July 4th weekend New York Comic Con on comics as art or how comics can get better, and the panelists were (if I’m remembering correctly) Jim Starlin, Howard Chaykin, maybe Al Milgrom, and … I forget who else.

When the audience filed in for the panel, I was standing on a chair near the back of the room looking as you see me in the photo below taken by Bruce Mittelman. That’s a double-handed broadsword hanging under my right arm, and a bunny in my hands that I occasionally impaled on the end of it. My make-up? Done by none other than (boy, I sure hope I’m not misremembering this) Jim Starlin.

After their initial statements and a little bit of discussion, once the panel was opened for questions, a stooge stood up and asked, “What about the Silver Surfer?,” whining and pleading for the hero to get his own comic. At that point, my job was to step down from the chair, grab the plant by the collar, and pull him kicking and screaming from the room. After which the discussion was supposed to continue on its lofty plane.

And that bit of theater was, as far as I can remember, the only time I ever wore a costume at a convention.

And now … here’s how you can help me.

Anyone out there have a copy of the program for the 1975 Seuling Con so I can see who was actually on that panel, as opposed to who I merely remember as having been on that panel? (It’s not part of the program book itself, which I still have, so it must have been printed on a separate flier.)

Who knows? I might even discover that this all took place at a Creation con instead!

Anyone?

The Horror Writers Association today announced the nominees for the 2009 Stoker Awards, and I’m extremely happy to say that my novella, The Hunger of Empty Vessels, has made the final ballot in the category of Superior Achievement in Long Fiction.

Since so many people have already posted the entire ballot, I’ll save pixels by sending you elsewhere for the complete list of categories.

But here are the four finalists in mine:

Dreaming Robot Monster by Mort Castle (MIGHTY UNCLEAN)
The Hunger of Empty Vessels by Scott Edelman (Bad Moon Books)
The Lucid Dreaming by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books)
Doc Good’s Traveling Show by Gene O’Neill (Bad Moon Books)

Note that whatever happens, there’s already a clear winner here—Bad Moon Books, which published three of the four finalists.

As much as I’m pleased to be on a ballot with three very worthy writers, I must admit that there’s one who pleases me more than the rest—Gene O’Neill, with whom I attended Clarion in 1979. If you’d told us back then that this would happen down the road someday, I don’t think either one of us would have believed you. (more…)

Not only do I want to wish Johnny Hart and Gahan Wilson each a happy birthday—but apparently my wall does, too!

As I read on various comics-related sites of the shared birthdays (though not shared birth years) of the two men, I realized that there was a party going on for them right here in my office.

Hanging over the door is this B.C. strip which originally ran June 26, 1973, and which Hart gave me either that year or the year after. We met at the annual Reuben Awards weekend run by the National Cartoonist Society where I had been a guest of Bill Kresse. Hart sent me this strip a few weeks later.

He didn’t know me save from our brief conversation, yet I don’t believe he could have given me a B.C. installment better suited to my personality had he known me for years. Give it a few clicks to bring it to a readable size and those who know me will see what I mean.

Unfortunately, Hart passed in 2007. Had he lived, he would have been 79 today.

Luckily, Gahan Wilson is still with us. He turned 80 today. (more…)

A story at boingboing the other day sent me to the site of artist Glennray Tutor, who’s responsible for the image below. What’s remarkable is that Tutor is not, as you at first might think, a photographic artist. That isn’t a photo of marbles resting on an open comic-book page. Rather, it’s a painting. All of it. And whatever you think of photorealism as a school of painting, it’s still an amazing feat.

And unlike Roy Lichtenstein (whom my wife eviscerates here at one of her blogs), Tutor isn’t trying to pass off someone else’s work as his own. That is, unlike Lichtenstein, whose works might be mistaken for being merely comics-inspired rather than a theft from specific panels by specific artists, with Tutor it’s clear that there’s existing source material.

So—what about that source material?

Based on the lettering across the top of the splash page, this was from an issue of Heart Throbs. (For other similar paintings, click on the link to the artist’s site above.

According to the Grand Comics Database, there were 46 issues of that title published by Quality Comics from August 1949 through December 1956, and 100 issues published by DC from April/May 1957 through October 1972. Since I don’t have the time or energy to go page by page online through 146 TOCs, can anyone recognize the story and spare me?

I guess I could always e-mail the artist and ask. But where would be the fun in that?

I shouldn’t be awake this early. Why am I awake this early? Because I just had a dream argument with Bill Maher, one that riled me up so much I couldn’t get right back to sleep.

Actually, I had two dreams last night that are too detailed to tweet , though after the first one I was able to fall asleep immediately.

In the first dream, I am Doctor Who, the David Tennant Doctor Who. I am battling with The Master in a rotting seaside resort. The place has really gone to seed. Boarded-up businesses, graffiti and trash everywhere, abandoned newspapers blowing by. And it’s deserted. There are no other people to be seen anywhere. We’re the only ones there as we fight on.

Eventually, there comes a point at which I know he has the upper hand. He somehow has obtained the ability to destroy the planet, and will do so unless I surrender, so I allow myself to be captured for the good of the Earth. In fact, I’m actually about to let him kill me, because if I do so, he’ll let the Earth live. For some reason, I believe that he’ll keep his word. Not sure why. As he escorts me through the empty town toward my doom, I talk of all the things I’ve seen in the universe that I will miss, saying goodbye to them one by one.

That bores The Master, and he kills me mid-sentence with no warning. But at least the Earth is saved, and I am happy as I die. (more…)