DEAD INSPECTOR SNEAK PEAK

Filip Sablik is simply ROCKING on our project, Dead Inspector. He's one of his latest sketches. He's posting them pretty regularly over on his blog, so check it out! We hope to have some interesting news on this one soon.

ZOMBIE-PROOF Screenplay?

The third and final issue of the first Zombie-Proof mini-series is due out in a couple of weeks from Moonstone, so on my weekly train trips I've been working on the screenplay version of it.

Now the first draft is done and it's out to some of my regular readers for notes, and I'm pretty excited about that!

The fun thing is finishing a first draft. The un-fun thing is that now the serious work begins. Numerous wisemen have pointed out that writing is re-writing, and that's very true. What isn't written can't be re-written. To be sure, one has to celebrate getting down on paper, but that's short-lived. There is a lot of work ahead.

And I'm looking forward to it. It's easily one of most film-ready ideas I've ever had and the path that Vincent Spencer and I created for it in the comic just simply screams for a movie.

BARRY LYGA's Second Novel: BOY TOY

First, I have to admit I might have never read Barry Lyga's novel, Boy Toy, if it wasn't written by a good friend, but that doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the work, rather the time in which we live -- in this day and age when you see a guy my age without kids in the YA section of your local bookstore, it sends the wrong message.

That said, I'm really glad that I had the excuse to pick it up. And now, months after I packed it away right before I moved to New York, I finally found it... and made really quick work of it, too.

Barry is one of the freshest voices in fiction today. Considering how long I've known him and how long I've been reading his stuff, it's something that it's fresh at all to me, but it remains so because he knows who his characters are and goes to great lengths to put himself in their respective heads.

I was fortunate enough to see his previous book, The Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, in several early stages, but circumstances weren't as permitting for this one, so I got to it cold. Didn't matter. The characters, action, and environment in Boy Toy scream realism, and much more so than the "ripped from the headlines" approach of certain TV shows these days. The vision is clear and the book is a serious page turner. Check it out!

MS. TREE IN RETURNS IN NOVEL FORM

One of my all-time favorite crime noir comic book series has turned into a novel. Here's my review from Scoop:

In the pages of Eclipse Magazine, the serialized first comic book adventures of Ms. Tree, private investigator Michael Tree, began appearing in 1981. It's been a long road since then, taking the tough-as-nails leading lady through Aardvark-Vanaheim, Renegade Press, First Comics, and DC Comics, movie options and more. During that time the character's co-creator and author Max Allan Collins (Road To Perdition) has sold more than his fair share of novels, but none about one of his favorite creations.
Cut from the same cloth as Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, Spillane and Collins were close friends, Ms. Tree is the tough guy's tough girl. She is sharp, insightful, hard-nosed, somewhat caustic, and when called for, very deadly. This novel is a bit of a different take on her first two serialized stories ("I, For an Eye" and "Death Do Us Part"), but is mostly a new tale centering on how she became who she is now and what happened those negative elements who got in her way.
It's a synchopated tale of good gal vs. bad people and we're just along for the ride. Mike Hammer fans will find a resonating character that while clearly steeped in Spillane's mindset definitely has her own personality and style. Fans of the comics will definitely want to check this one out, as will crime fans in general. It's from Hard Case Crime and carries a $6.99 cover price.

COVER FEATURE in TOY COLLECTOR MAGAZINE

Despite being a regular contributor to Toy Collector Magazine and numerous othe publications over the years, it's always cool to land the cover feature.

This month's TCM has my cover feature the work of sculptor Randy Bowen. As always with TCM, you can read it online or download a print quality PDF, either one free of charge.

Give it a whirl!