Launching Transfuzion

I have four books coming out from Transfuzion that are available to order now in the Diamond Previews. Below is the information as well as details on the projects. Of course, more information can be obtained from the Transfuzion website at wwww.transfuzion.biz. Just a quick bit of hype. PAGE 337 in the current Diamond Previews DEC07 3942 GHOST SONATA DEC07 3943 JACK THE RIPPER DEC07 3944 OF SCENES & STORIES DEC07 3945 SAINT GERMAINE: TALES OF AN IMMORTAL Here's the details on each title: GHOST SONATA story by Gary Reed, art by Andy Bennett, cover by Vince Locke 112 pg, trade paperbackBlack and white, $14.99ISBN: 978-0-941613-04-0Based loosely on the play from August Strindberg. A young man, born with a rare ability to sense the feelings and thoughts of others, is plunged into a family of despair and secrets from years gone past. He becomes an unwillingly participant and joins the legacy of torment in the poisonous lies and deceit that have invaded the house. A saga of lost opportunities and vengeful hate. JACK THE RIPPER Story and text by Gary Reed, Art and cover by Mark Bloodworth 54 pg, trade paperback, black and white, $8.99ISBN: 978-0-941613-08-8 An illustrated primer to the most infamous serial killer in history! The shocking murder of five prostitutes in Victorian London ripped apart the society of the civilized world and led to incredible social changes. In this narrative of sequential comic pages, facsimiles of letters and notes, and pictures from the time period, a survey of the social setting, the victims, the investigators, and the possible suspects are explored. OF SCENES AND STORIES story by Gary Reed art by Jim Calafiore, Laurence Campbell, Guy Davis, Michael Gaydos, Michael Lark, Vince Lock, David Mack, Mike Perkins, R. G. Taylor, Patrick Zircher and others. cover by VARIOUS 320 pg, trade paperback, black and white, $24.99 ISBN: 978-0-941613-10-1 A collection of short stories and selected scenes from the diverse and insightful writings of Gary Reed. Covering a wide array of genres, the stories are illustrated by some of today’s top artists, including Guy Davis, Michael Lark, Galen Showman, Mike Perkins, Patrick Zircher, R.G. Taylor, Jim Calafiore, Michael Gaydos, Mark Bloodworth, Vince Locke, Laurence Campbell, and many others. Each selection has a preface where Reed discusses the work and the artist. Tabbed “blistering good” by Rue Morgue Magazine, this collection also includes pages from the never published project, THE BEATLES. SAINT GERMAINE: TALES OF AN IMMORTAL Story by Gary Reed, Art by Andy Bennett, Tom Bionodillo, Guy Davis, Vince Locke, James Lyle. 178 pg, trade paperback, black and white, $19.99 ISBN: 978-0-941613-07-1 A new collection of Saint Germaine that compiles issues 5-8 and the one shots of “Casanova’s Lament” and “Man in the Iron Mask.” Saint Germaine is a man who lives forever, feeding off the memories of those that are about to die. In these stories, Germaine reminisces about his old friend, Casanova; searches for the answer of who was in the Iron Mask; deals with a friend living in the past of the Sioux Ghost Dance; and delves into the origins of the being known as Kilroy. Written by Gary Reed, artists include: Vince Locke, Andy Bennett, James E. Lyle, Tom Bionodillo, and Guy Davis.

Read more »

Catching up....

I guess I was right about the time factor as its been over a month since the last post. Things have been hectic but I expect it to lighten up soon. I'm heading into the last part of the semester so I have a few more lectures to give and then the finals. Next semester I lightened my load to give me more time for the many projects I'm involved with so I expect to be able to finish many things and catch up on others...and of course, embark on even more new projects. Quick update on some projects: The project with Tom Mandrake is on hold as we have to investigate some legal situations and plus Tom is getting a lot of work from DC (which is great for him). There has been communication with a couple of publishers about it so hopefully that will get back on the burner when Tom's schedule permits. There will be an all new SAINT GERMAINE story coming up in Desperado Publishing's Negative Burn. It is a full length story (24 pages) that will run in the anthology and is illustrated by James E. Lyle who drew the Casanova's Lament one shot in the Saint Germaine series. This one deals with the tragedy of Falstaff from the Bard's plays. James is over 75% of the way done with it so when he finishes it, look for it to be scheduled. I have a couple of original graphic novels that I'm working on with various creators and as they come closer to completion, I'll discuss them a bit more. From Transfuzion Publishing (more on that below), there will be an all new anthology of DEADWORLD (the collection is called "Bring Out Your Dead") and I have a few stories in there. TROY is being reprinted in Italy, following the two Deadworld graphic novels that have been reprinted overseas. RED DIARIES is also on the schedule but I'm not sure exactly what countries at this point. The Deadworld role playing game is moving ahead at full speed. I hope to be able to see what cool stuff they're doing for it shortly. Speaking of DW, the new miniseries (which is guest written by Mike Raicht) just came out and it sets the stage for the continuation of the series after this mini-series finishes. More on that later....much later. The estate of Bryon Preiss' iBooks looks to be settled soon and when that happens, it will give me a better idea of what's going on with some projects tied up with that. BAKER STREET might be something that we can take to other publishers depending on what shakes up with the iBooks scene. There is also the BEATLES project that I wrote and R.G. Taylor was illustrating and so that might be something that we will be able to move someplace as well. It's a shame about the deal iBooks had with Penguin Books on the classic graphic novels (I wrote DRACULA with Becky Cloonan doing the art and Frazer Irving illustrated the FRANKENSTEIN adaptation I did). The books seemed to do real well and I see them everywhere including many libraries. It's amazing on the market penetration the big guys (i.e.- Penguin) can obtain. I hope to be getting some more notes from the producers regarding the RENFIELD storyline which I'm writing a play for. Rather than just licensing it out, I was asked to write it as well...so that's cool. I'm looking forward to tackling that. The Actionopolis line stalled a bit with the bankruptcy of the parent company of the distributor (PGW) but things got back on track a couple of months ago. Now it's a period of adjustment and re-evaluation for books like my SPIRIT OF THE SAMURAI. The young adult novel market is highly competitive but the publishers continue their discussions and so hopefully there will be word on that soon and I can finish the second book. I have three books that likely won't find their way into the comics market as they're produced specifically for the library market. They're children's books and are written for very young readers so unlikely to find much appeal beyond that but they were fun to do. Transfuzion is set up to have the first books officially release in February. They will be available via Diamond (hence the delay...in order to get them time to order). The first releases will be OF SCENES AND STORIES, a 320 page anthology of stories written by me and featuring many of today's top artists; JACK THE RIPPER, a docu-comic from me and Mark Bloodworth; GHOST SONATA, a drama with supernatural overtones illustrated by Andy Bennett and based very loosely on the play by August Strindberg, and SAINT GERMAINE: TALES OF AN IMMORTAL which collects issues 5-8 of the Saint Germaine series (drawn by Vince Locke, Tom Bionodillo, and Andy Bennet, some short stories, and the two one shots- Casanova's Lament (James E. Lyle) and Man in the Iron Mask (Guy Davis/Andy Bennett). Next time, I'll go through the first few months schedule which includes titles such as SINERGY, OZ, ORLAK, and others. I'm increasingly torn to spending time on the comics stuff and what is fast becoming my major interest which is science related books. Since I started teaching college biology courses after Caliber closed, I find myself more and more becoming entrenched in that field and I have some projects that I want to do. The book publishers that I talked to seem interested so I may devote more of my future time with that avenue. More on Transfuzion and the schedule next time.

Read more »

Just No Time

No time…just no time. It just never ends, it seems. I’m not talking about time itself as that (as far as we know and can surmise) that it doesn’t end…although when/if it does, the universe as we know it will also so the whole point becomes not only moot, but our realm of understanding. No, what I’m talking about is time…as in not having nearly enough of it. Just don’t have time to spare. I look back to when I had Caliber. I had my stores also at that time, had a three year stint at McFarlane Toys, was President of Stabur Graphics, wrote a lot of comics, and was heavily involved in raising four kids and all the demands (although enjoyable) that entails. Now I’m a freelance writer, I teach, and my kids are getting older so that the demands are nearly as great…yet I seem more strapped for time than before. I know everyone bitches about not having enough time and all these newspaper and magazine articles give credence to all of us being consumed by the rat chase, but it does seem true. I hardly watch any TV…I don’t get a chance to read as much as I’d like. I’m a fast reader so I tend to catch up on all my science magazines (I teach Biology so I have to stay informed) at lunch or breakfast. I’m one of those people that has to read while eating although not at dinner as that’s the family meal that we all sit and discuss the day. And that is something that surprises me…how very few families actually do that. My teaching does take up some time even though I’m getting into the position of teaching classes I’ve taught before so it should be easier. However, I can’t just teach last semester’s stuff…it seems so out of date for the next semester. It’s a little ironic as one of the classes I teach is Evolution that you’d think would be a rather static course outline but the new discoveries coming in almost daily have caused a lot of rethinking and added to the incredible array of evidence. So, I am constantly modifying all my courses as I go through each semester. This semester I’m teaching five classes and being biology, most of them have laboratories so of course, that adds quite a bit of time to it. I decided next semester that I’m dropping down to four. It’s only one class but it will give me a much more manageable schedule so even though it appears to only be a 20% reduction, I actually think it will end up being closer to 40-50%, just because of the scheduling aspects. I’m probably like most people…got so much to get to that it’s almost like paralysis as you start one thing then have to move to something else, so you hesitate on moving on something that you can’t finish. But I’m trying to line up the priorities, essentially for the new year. The rest of the year will pretty much be tying up all the loose ends and preparing for the new endeavors. I HAVE to work on the Deadworld novel. Gary Francis, my writing partner on it, has been pretty much flying solo on the project so now its time for me to step up. But I also have to work on the Deadworld screenplay. A couple of producers are interested and have asked to take it out with my script. Yeah, I know its spec but at least I get a screenplay that I like. You could not imagine what people want to do to Deadworld just because of what came before. I mean, I could let it go so obviously derivative but they just haven’t offered me enough money to kill the property by spinning it in their misguided direction. I’m about to embark on writing a theatrical play for Renfield and that’s a new direction for me. I have a couple of science books that I want to write and I keep scribbling notes during free time to develop those and those notepads are sure multiplying. As for comics, I’m retooling Sinergy (a modern version of Dante’s Inferno) and doing some stories for various anthologies. I have a couple of things churning with Desperado Publishing as original graphic novels (one with R.G. Taylor that I’m real excited about) and I have a couple other publishers that have inquired about things so I have to explore those, and of course, I have the launching of Transfuzion Publishing. I plan on writing more on Transfuzion next time because what started as essentially a reprint line for books by me and Rafael Nieves and some friends…is suddenly blossoming into something else entirely. So, one of the things that I will probably have to spend less time on is things that just aren’t essential…such as this here blog. I plan to keep it around because everyone likes to have the chance to spout off and when it’s your blog, you can say what you want and no one can say no. But I probably won’t keep it up to date that frequently…or at least not feel that I have to. Then again, when I said I was going to be more active with it, I tended to fall even further behind so maybe it will be another opposite effect. The blog does serve a purpose besides ego and venting. It gives a single source for explanation that you can direct people to instead of covering the same ground over and over. For example, when I discussed “Why Transfuzion?”, I could just send people there rather than re-explaining everything again. Some random thoughts: I look at the political candidates as the race is shaping up. Are you kidding me? This is who we have to choose from? And can someone tell me who it is that watches/listens/reads Ann Coulter? I can't believe anyone can give any creditability to what she has to say. It's not jsut because she's so right wing...there's an equal number of leftist nut jobs out there as well but I find her particularly offensive. I saw Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer (at least I think that's the title). Damn...what a horrendous movie. I felt like I was wasting my life while watching it but figured I'd see it to the end, mainly out of curiosity as after all, I grew up on FF and SS. Either I view my childhood through some thickly tinted glasses or the new and improved version hit the hideous meter. And no, I'm not even tempted to check out Ghost Rider. Spiderman is establishing itself as the exception to super hero movies, not a trend. I don't think the public will absorb too many more losers.

Read more »