This time around, I grow anxious over a dream discovery of long-lost original comic book artwork, realize I was wrong about a certain Alan Moore/Frank Miller memory, contemplate the difficulty of condensing the life of Marie Severin into a mere 1,200 words, share the meager remains of what was once a massive comic book collection, remember there’s an issue of Fantastic Four I need to track down to solve an early fannish mystery, rededicate myself to Marie Kondo-ing my creative life, and more.

You can eavesdrop on all those memories via the embed below or download them at the site of your choice.

Here are several images to enrich your listening experience —

My recent Tales from the Darkside residuals

(more…)

My guest for the 250th episode of Eating the Fantastic is playwright, poet, and fiction writer Tim Paggi, whom I met at December’s Charm City Spec event where he read an excerpt from his recently published novella How to Kill Friends and Eviscerate People. His poetry chapbook “Workforced” won the 2015 Plork “Play/Work” Award for Creative Writing and Publication Arts. His next book, The Other Side of the Hallway, will be released later this year. He holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore. Additionally, for the past 15 years, he’s been giving ghost tours around the neighborhoods of Fells Point and Mt. Vernon.

We discussed the story behind his X-Files-inspired juvenilia, the reason he demanded a refund from Barnes & Noble for a volume of Emily Dickinson’s poetry, why a writing teacher (wrongfully) accused him of plagiarism, how the beginning of the pandemic was also the beginning of his fiction writing career, whether his recent Cthulhu references were intentional or unavoidable, why the Severance TV show has him feeling anxious (it’s probably not the reason you think), the C-word he avoids using in his fiction, whether facing down audiences on stage helped him deal with rejections on the page, the many reasons he loves cosmic horror, the drunkest group he ever led through Baltimore on a ghost tour, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at The Mint Room in Ellicott, Maryland — (more…)

It’s time for lunch in Baltimore’s Little Italy with David Simmons, author of the horror diptych Ghosts of East Baltimore and Ghosts of West Baltimore. His short fiction can be found in Brave New Weird Volume Two, Kaleidotrope, and This World Belongs to Us: An Anthology of Horror Stories About Bugs. His novel Eradicator will be released later this year.

We discussed how he manages to give such dramatic performances during his public readings, why his answer when asked to describe his genre of writing is “Baltimore,” the way discovering the novels of Donald Goines changed his life, why his wife was responsible for his first short story being written and sold, how he hopes reading him will have you feeling as if you’re in a frenetic car chase, why for him the villains always come first, the extensive research he needed to write Baltimore right, why his rapping career is a thing of the past, the reason a story’s opening line is so important, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at Sabatino’s in Baltimore, Maryland — (more…)

My latest look back at what I was doing in comics during the ’70s has me remembering the weekend I couldn’t stop myself from teasing Bill Gaines about the National Lampoon‘s satirical slam of MAD magazine, why famed con-runner Phil Seuling castigated us fans one afternoon for mistreating our mothers, the words Gerry Conway wrote for Daredevil’s girlfriend Karen Page in the basement of a Times Square Nathan’s, how my 1980 DC Comics vampire story ended up as a 1987 episode of Tales from the Darkside, the continuing mystery of the martial arts series I’d forgotten I’d tried to write for Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (and what Tony Stark had to do with it), and much more.

You can eavesdrop on all those memories via the embed below or download them at the site of your choice.

Here are several images which should enrich your listening experience —

My Bill Gaines autograph from the 1972 Fan-Addict Convention

(more…)

The latest episode of Eating the Fantastic wasn’t recorded at a convention, but as you’ll learn if you listen to my introduction, there’s a very good reason you could, if you’d care to, pretend it was.

My guest this time around is Robert Greenberger, a writer and editor of more than 100 books and anthologies, many within the DC, Marvel, and Star Trek franchises. He started his professional career an editor for Comics Scene and Starlog Press, and in 1984, joined DC Comics as an assistant editor to Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. He was promoted to editor the following year, and assigned the titles Star Trek, Suicide Squad, and Doom Patrol. The adaptations of several Star Trek films he edited led to him working on the franchise’s novel series, such as the seven-book crossover miniseries Gateways, developed with novel editor John J. Ordover. He continued at DC until 2000, by which time he’d risen to the position of Manager-Editorial Operations. Over the years, he worked on such titles as The Warlord, Lois Lane, Action Comics Weekly, Time Masters, Secret Origins, The Hacker Files, and more.



In 2001, he joined Marvel Comics as Director-Publishing Operations under Joe Quesada, but soon rejoined DC Comics as a Senior Editor for Collected Editions, where he remained until 2006. Since that time, he’s freelanced as a writer and editor, working for such companies as Weekly World News (where he was Managing Editor in 2006 and 2007), Platinum Studios, Syfy, Famous Monsters of Filmland, and ComicMix.com. He’s also a co-founder of Crazy 8 Press.

We discussed our teen experiences at the first Star Trek convention in 1972, how TV taught him about the existence of Marvel Comics, the way George Reeves as Clark Kent made him want to be a journalist, the lecture Wonder Woman editor Robert Kanigher gave him after he dared give feedback, why so many DC Comics staffers walked around without their shoes on Fridays, how he convinced Cable News to launch Comic Scene magazine, the convoluted way Denny O’Neil was responsible for him becoming Len Wein and Marv Wolfman’s assistant, how his editing of Star Trek comics led to his writing Star Trek fiction, the differences he saw in corporate culture while working at both Marvel and DC, what Clark Kent would have thought of his gig at the Weekly World News, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at Showroom in Frederick, Maryland — (more…)