On Deadworld and other stuff

Just a short one to catch up on things. Deadworld and Renfield have been optioned by Framelight Productions and as soon as any concrete information comes across, I’ll be sure to post it. I refuse to get too excited as I’ve been down this path over a dozen times with various properties being optioned for film, but I have a good feeling for these guys. I get asked if I am writing the scripts but usually the scriptwriter is a part of the system so unlikely although I did do a Renfield script that is included in the proposals circulating. The action figure on King Zombie is apparently finished. Here’s a link to the entire line that it is being shipped out with. No idea of street dates or anything. The Deadworld: Slaughterhouse series had the first issue released and the second one should be coming out about 4-5 weeks after the first one so the monthly schedule will be close. A lot of times, there can be a week or two delay because of the printers and their schedules and it isn’t always when the publisher sends it in. This can happen to just about any publisher except the big two because they have enough product (some say too much) that they don’t have to rely on waiting for gang printing and the like. The Chronicles anthology should be arriving any time now as it has been at the printers for awhile. I have an original graphic novel coming out from Desperado in January called A MURDER OF SCARECROWS. Here’s a link to an advance look at it. Sorry for the quick “product placement” blog and will try to update next week.

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On Starlen Baxter

I just found out that Starlen Baxter is dead. I hadn’t seen any press about it on any of the comic sites which isn’t too surprising as Starlen hadn’t been active in comics for a few years. It was sad news as Starlen was a talented writer and creator and somebody I got along with quite well while he was at Caliber.

I can’t give a detailed of Starlen’s accomplishments in comics but I am familiar with his work on Nerve Magazine and of course, the work he did for Caliber which involved Mack the Knife and Suppressed: A History of Violence in America. For the Iconografix line from Caliber, he did a one shot called Channel X. He was also involved in Go-Man, also from Nerve and Caliber plus he did Columbus, a one-shot biography of the famed explorer with Jack Jackson from Dark Horse.

I first met Starlen at my first Chicago Con as the publisher of Caliber. I had just launched the initial line which included The Crow, Baker Street, Caliber Presents, Deadworld, and The Realm. Starlen was linked tightly with Bill Widener at the time as they were producing Nerve Magazine. They pitched me Go-Man which was a very raw and edgy look at a futuristic superhero/media star named Go-Man. At first glance, I thought it was too edgy but as soon as I got into it, I knew I wanted to do it. Go-Man was Bill Widener’s project but for the two of them, I ended up talking more to Starlen as he seemed to be the more vocal. Starlen had his own project, Mack the Knife, about a cartoon character put out to pasture and took a resemblance to Tex Avery and twisted it.

Go-Man became a series from Caliber and I collected the previous material into a graphic novel which was presented in a flip book format with the collected work of Mack the Knife. Mack also came out from Caliber in a one shot. I think both may have appeared in Caliber Presents as well.

Both were, as I said, raw and edgy but I thought both were exceptional and Go-Man, as I have stated many times, was one of my favorite projects ever produced by Caliber. Go-Man got an introduction from Matt Wagner and accolades from the likes of Dave Sim, Chris Gore, Michael Zulli, Matt Howarth, Bob Schreck, and Steve Bissette.

In fact, it was during a podcast interview with Chuck Moore of Comic Related that I mentioned Go-Man that Chuck told me he knew Bill and would get us back in touch. I talked with Bill about bringing Go-Man back into a new collection and that’s when I found out that Starlen had died June 8^th of this year and it was apparently listed as a suicide. Someone mentioned that it was two years to the date that artist Jack Jackson, who worked on the Columbus book with Starlen, had committed suicide due to inoperable cancer. Could be a coincidence, I don’t know and not about to speculate.

After the Go-Man and Mack the Knife projects, Starlen released two other one shots through Caliber. Channel X was a one shot of his unique style dealing with monsters, both real and perceived. Suppressed: A History of Violence in America was one of my favorite releases from another imprint of Caliber’s, Tome Press. It examined acts of violence in American history and was very successful for us. The first print sold out almost immediately and we had to go back to print. Even though the internet was in its infancy at that time, it was ordered frequently by the “non-comics” audience that Tome Press seemed to attract.

Starlen did the Columbus book with Jack Jackson that came out from Dark Horse and I remember he was pretty excited about it. The last time I saw Starlen was when he was living in Lexington, Kentucky. My family was heading off on a vacation and driving to Florida and we met up with him and had lunch with him and he showed us around Lexington. Like most Caliber creators, over time, I fell out of touch with him.

So, I didn’t know him real well but got along with him as much as any other Caliber creator. A publisher and creator have a certain relationship which can be as friends but I also distinguish as a professional friend rather than personal. I’ve read some of his blog writings and knew I didn’t know him that well but I enjoyed the relationship that we had.

I don’t know why it affected me so much, as we weren’t close, but for some reason, it hit me harder than I would’ve expected. Maybe because as you get older you realize just how important life is and to end it on your own just doesn’t make a lot of sense.I don’t know…I guess I thought someone should at least acknowledge his death.

I just got word from a production company that they’re interested in signing up Renfield for a film. Of course, as with any properties being signed up, it’s hard to get too excited but I’ve always had a good feeling about Renfield in that if it found the right place, it could be a very cool movie. It’s not a blood and gore type movie so when I discuss it with someone, their approach is vital to me as then I can see if they “get” it. I still get fan letters on the book even after all this time and of course, as I mentioned before, when it was put into the curriculum at Northern Illinois University, that was just a very cool thing.

Another project, Red Diaries, is currently in the Diamond Previews, as Image and Desperado Publishing are making it available again. This is probably one of my most re-ordered books, usually from fans of Marilyn Monroe or JFK conspiracists, so it’s good to see that it is officially relisted.

I hope to have news soon about Deadworld that should be exciting. The comic series, Slaughterhouse, is moving along at a fast clip. The first issue isn’t even due out until next month and the artist, Sami Makkonen, is already hitting the third. It looks great.

I’ve spent my summer working on a number of projects that will be released over the next few months and I’m pretty excited about them. I have A Murder of Scarecrows coming out early next year with artist Wayne Reid and deals with a smuggler in Pre-Revolutionary America. That will be an original graphic novel. Another one I have coming out is a murder mystery set during the turn of the century South (the last turn of the century, not the recent one…). An anthology of spies, traitors, rebels, etc. will also be coming out in early 2009 and there’s a action/adventure thriller that is due out in the middle of the year. Summer time is when I do most of my freelance writing but since artists work slower than I do (wonder why….), it usually ends up spacing along the entire year following.

Outside of comics, the college courses I teach always seem to be a bit over-whelming at first as I have to reign it all in at the beginning of the semester. Even though I have 15 weeks to teach it all, I have to lay it all out, including all the text reading before the semester starts so actually, when school starts, my load lessens. School has started so I expect my workload to settle down to primarily class time from now on.

The political race is now fully steamed and rolling along towards November. That means loads of half-truths and mis-representations on both sides. The whole political process nauseates me but I still vote although it seems I usually vote against someone as opposed to voting for a candidate.

That’s it for now. Remember to vote…and don’t follow blindly any one party or someone else’s belief. Look for the truth which when dealing with politicians, can be very hard, I know. But try.

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Summer's Over?

I can't believe it. Summer is officially over for me. I had my first class today. Man, it sure seems this semester started earlier than any I can remember. Even my students thought this was college year came sooner than expected. Even though the temp hit the low 90's, I still had the feeling summer was gone. If you're so inclined, I have an interview via podcast that's up on Comic Related. Here's the link to the podcast at Comic Related. I also mentioned last time that there was an interview in From the Tomb magazine, a leading horror mag in the U.K. The pages are up on my site here. I'm reading with some interest about the whole Robert Kirkman video in which he declares that creators should do their own books instead of Marvel and DC. I'm summarizing quite a bit here because I have not watched it but I think that the gist of it. I have no opinion on it as I haven't really thought about it but what I did find interesting were the discussions on some of the various sites regarding that and of course, they venture into a lot of other areas related to the matter. I'm always surprised at how much mis-information gets spewed out from people who really have no knowledge of what they're promoting as reality. I'm not going into specifics but just a warning that there's a lot of people who spout their wisdom as truth and they just don't have any clue to the real events. With all the hoopla about the Watchmen movie buzzing about, I decided to go back and read the graphic novel. I read it when it first came out but had not re-read it as I tend not to read books twice or watch movies more than once. I have found however, on many movies, that I like them more the second time than the first. So, maybe that was the expectation I had going into my re-visit to Watchmen. But I was strangely disappointed. I loved the fist half but the second part seemed to bog down. The whole pirate scene in the comic that the kid was reading actually started irritating me and I found the best way to handle it was to read that part in its entirety and then go back to the main comic and just ignore the Tales of the Black Freighter. Don't get me wrong, I think it was still a great book but the second time around sort of dulled the memory I had of it (whereas From Hell was completely the opposite). I also think that Watchmen will make one hell of a movie and from what I've seen so far, it appears that they're doing it right. Now all we need to do is get Fox out of the picture with their claims. It should be fun watching the fans reaction if Fox manages to screw up the release. Will fans retaliate against Fox? Keeping it short this time...after all, I got classes to prepare for. Don't forget that Slaughterhouse is still available to order and the artist, Sami Makkonen did a fantastic job on it. More information here.

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