BEDTIME STORIES FOR IMPRESSIONABLE CHILDREN

Sometimes a good idea just won't die. Of course it sort of helps when it's undead to start with.

To say that Bedtime Stories For Impressionable Children has been percolating for a long time would be something of an understatement. I had read Creepy and Eerie, of course, but years and years before I got to work on The EC Archives, even before I discovered Bruce Jones' Twisted Tales, the first screenplay I tried to write while I was still in high school was Bedtime Stories For Impressionable Children.

Sometimes, as was the case with Antiques: The Comic Strip, you just don't know enough to do a good job writing a project when it first hits you. Then later -- sometimes much later -- how to actually do it hits you suddenly. That's the case with this one.

I was having lunch with James Kuhoric, my good friend and the only comic book writer who has made Army of Darkness really come alive (so to speak) for me (he's also the creator of the great Dead Irons and Legendary Talespinners). We weren't even talking about horror anthologies are first, but then (with a nod to Ross Richie and company) ... BOOM!

A couple of minutes later we had the whole first issue figured out.

That same night I had dinner with two other good friends, photographer Michael Solof and multi-media artist Mark Wheatley (creator of, among other things, Vertigo's Breathtaker and the recent graphic novel EZ Street). We talked it over, and it really got rolling.

I wrote up a quick proposal about the one-shot (we're ready to do more if it's a success), sat on it a few days, good some feedback, and then sent it off to Joe Gentile and our friends at Moonstone.

The result will be a 32-page comic book of horror tales by the aforementioned creators along with one by writer-director Robert Tinnell (The Black Forest, The Wicked West). It should be fun, and I already have a lot of other really talented friends ready to roll if people like this one.

We've already started a Facebook page on it, so check it out.

More to follow.