Frst, let me apologize for the extensive gap between this entry and my last one. I suppose I’m too private a person to make a good blogger…like I said in my inaugural posting, I can barely summon up interest in the day-to-day minutae of my own life, so I can’t imagine anyone else finding it a source of fascination.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season. Our Christmas and New Year was very nice, spoiled a little by not being able to get together with Deirdre, but hopefully we can see her in the spring.

The release of the Everything Guide to Writing Graphic Novels was delayed to the end of this month, January. Or actually, it wasn’t delayed…according to the publisher, Adams Media, it was always scheduled for a January release but somebody jumped the gun.

Hopefully, the book will be in stores not too much longer after you read this.

Hi-Yo, NPR

In case you missed it, the All Things Considered segment, featuring moi (among others) about the Lone Ranger aired on January 14^th. You can still give it a listen here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18073741

I was impressed, even moved by the piece and I’m proud to have been a part of it…if for nothing else, my name is now associated with the long history of the Lone Ranger and Tonto, who along with m’man, Kal-El were my earliest non-Dad role models.

Blackboard Jingle

Although I haven’t talked about it, Melissa and I have taught local writing classes for the last few months. This is an outgrowth of the two writer’s groups we’ve moderated for several years now. <>At the beginning of this year, we began teaching an advanced writing workshop for the Rhode Island Writer’s Circle, a non-profit organization sponsored by the Rhode Island Council of the Arts.  Once this twelve week course is completed, we plan to expand our teaching activities in the New England area.

Justice Machine—Gear Up! 

Or Machine Muster…or something. Beginning in the fall of last year, I began receiving inquiries about reviving The Justice Machine in some manner or another, either for comics or RPGs—mediums where the Machine enjoyed some degree of success throughout the 1980s. A couple of the inquiries were the standard “if I can get financing” from well-meaning but basically clueless “Pie In the Skyers” and a couple more were fairly serious. However, during the course of these exchanges, I realized that the status of the Justice Machine was somewhat murky to the people who were making the inquiries, so I’ll lay it out here so anyone else who considers mustering or gearing up the Machine again can read it for themselves without me having to tell the same story over and over again.

The Justice Machine first appeared back in 1981 from a microscopically small independent comics publisher called Noble Comics. Created by Michael Gustovich, the original Justice Machine consisted of Challenger, Diviner, Blazer, Titan, Talisman and Demon. In 1986, The Justice Machine became one of the flagship titles of the fledgling Comico. After three years and 30 plus issues, the Machine moved over to Innovation, where it was assigned to me and artist Darryl Banks. With the approval of Mike Gustovich, we set about streamlining the title and scraping away some of the barnacles that had accrued during its publishing history. After a reintroductory mini-series, The New Justice Machine, Darryl redesigned the costumes and the Machine went on to star in their own series again…but due to a set of pretty stupid circumstances on the part of the so-called publisher, Darryl and I didn’t stay on the new Justice Machine series beyond the first four issues. In fact, Innovation didn’t keep the Machine for very long, either.

Darryl and I subsequently moved over to Millennium where we collaborated on The Wild Wild West and Doc Savage and other projects. Then, in 1991, Mike Gustovich phoned me to say that Innovation’s license on the book had expired and because he knew of my fondness for the Justice Machine, he offered to sell me all the rights to the characters and concepts. The price was right, the enthusiasm high and a deal was quickly struck.  Millennium Publications would be the new publisher of the Justice Machine.

Darryl further refined his redesign the Justice Machine costumes and even added a new character, Chain, who had been introduced in the New Justice Machine mini-series published by Innovation.

 Unfortunately, after two issues, I left Millennium and took the comics properties I owned with me, The Justice Machine among them. Darryl moved on to DC and a long tenure on Green Lantern. Shortly after this, the comics market crashed and burned and the wreckage has been settling ever since. Some of the newer publishers have scanned the rubble and their gazes fixed on the Justice Machine. They remembered it was a viable property back when independent comics themselves were viable…of course, that was in the days of seven distributors and around 6,000 retail shops instead of today’s situation of one distributor and maybe 2,000 retail shops. stress the “maybe”. The final version of The Justice Machine, heretofore known as “The New Justice Machine” is the official Justice Machine. This is the version of the Justice Machine I conceived and this is the one that will appear in a trade paperback compilation this year that collects all the Justice Machine stories I crafted and wrote.

So, if any publisher of comics or games is interested in licensing the Justice Machine from me, be aware it is this Justice Machine, and none other. And they wouldn't have it any other way. I have it on good authority that they don't miss their early 80s-style togs at all.

11-04-07

Over the last week or so, we’ve had some interesting developments on a couple of wildly diverse fronts.First, Melissa was contracted to write The Everything Guide To Ghost-Hunting. Sheesh. This is her third contract in a little over a year and she’s already making more money per book than I am.

However, this is the perfect vehicle for her to showcase her interest in the paranormal and expertise at photography…which sort of fits in with the fact we live in Rhode Island, home of TAPS, the organization featured on the popular Sci-Fi Channel series, Ghost Hunters.

Melissa is a professional photographer (which means she gets paid to take pichurs) and she is also the author of The Everything Guide To Photography (second ed), so she definitely knows the difference between optical illusions and real images.

Here is a shot she took at a churchyard in our community with a reputation of being haunted. This photo (and several others) were sent to a lab for analysis by the Rhode Island Paranormal Group and their opinion is that they definitely depict paranormal activity. Melissa has quite a few more that will be featured in the Everything Guide To Ghost Hunting.

As for me, I recently learned from the producer of the National Public Radio’s long-running All Things Considered program that I’m considered an authority on no less a personage than…

Wait for it. Wait for it.

The Looooooone Ranger.

Yep, among all many other accomplishments and talents (ahem), I’m also an expert on The Masked Rider of the Plains who fought for law and order in the early west.

I was interviewed by the respected Robert Siegel for his All Things Considered series about the Lone Ranger and his enduring impact on popular culture. The interview came about due to a chronology about the character I contributed to Win Eckert’s Wold-Newton family site. http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Reid.htm 

The Wold Newton family is kind of hard to explain, but the brilliant SF writer Philip Jose’ Farmer started a fictional biography scholarship with his 1972 book, Tarzan Alive.Although biographies of fictional characters had been written prior to his book(about Horatio Hornblower and Sherlock Holmes), Mr. Farmer’s Tarzan tome took the whole enterprise to a whole ‘nother, brow-furrowing level. He followed Tarzan Alive shortly thereafter with Doc Savage:His Apocalyptic Life…a character that I’m also considered something of an authority on.

In that book, Mr. Farmer further expanded on his concept that the radiation from a meteorite that fell in Wold Newton, Yorkshire in 1795, caused genetic mutations in the occupants of a passing coach. Many of the descendants were endowed with exceptional intelligence and strength, some of which included Sherlock Holmes, Captain Nemo, Tarzan, Doc Savage and of course, John Reid AKA, The Lone Ranger.It’s safe to say that without Mr. Farmer’s Wold-Newton scholarship, there never would have been a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Win Eckert created a fabulous web-site about all things Wold Newtonian and over the last seven or eight years I’ve contributed a few things, including The Wild, Wild West and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. chronologies.  Win’s own book of Wold-Newtonian scholarship, Myths For a Modern Age is available for order at his site or Amazon.com. Here's a link to an interview with Win: www.jazmaonline.com/.../interviews.asp?intID=184

So,anyway, the producer of All Things Considered found my Lone Ranger chronology on Win’s site and when she learned I was a “famous” author (ahem), that lent  a degree of legitimacy to it…I was also pre-interviewed to find out articulate me am be.

Last week I went to a local recording studio and “talked into the can”, answering phoned-in questions from the inimitable Mr. Siegel about the life and times of the Lone Ranger, his faithful Indian companion Tonto…as well as some inquiries about their horses…

…Not to mention his great-nephew, The Green Hornet.

Here is a shot of that momentous event (we pause again for an “ahem”) taken by Melissa.

Mr. Siegel interviewed me for about 45 minutes and as a former journalist, it was something of a thrill to actually talk to the newsman whose voice I had been listening to since I was in high school. When the segment is set to air, I’ll post the date. Until then, you can get your Lone Ranger fix by clicking on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz2fybxEbak  

I suppose there are far more important things to be considered an authority on than the Lone Ranger, who was a character I loved and served as a role model. But then, there are lot more trivial things, too.

When I was given my first horse at age 11(a Palomino named Nugget who was way too big for me), I had a choice of “show” tack so I picked the kind of saddle, bridle and chest collar that Silver wore—black leather decorated all over with silver conchos.

Some of my few pleasant childhood memories are of letting ol’ Nugget stretch his legs and tear off in a full gallop down a country dirt-road, rigged out in his show tack while the “William Tell Overture” rang in my head. I fired a cap pistol at  fence posts, imagining silver bullets knocking guns out the hands of snarling owlhoots.Hi-Yo, indeed.

Separated at birth—A brief notation.

the similarities

between the Peregrine and the Serenity have always made me go…hmmm. Of course, the similarities in background and even props between Death Hawk and Serenity/Firefly have long been a source of “hming”. But it’s all right with me, as long as when you’re out buying post-modern space westerns graphic novels, you buy the first one too—which is of course, Death Hawk: The Soulworm Saga (http://www.indyplanet.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=407).

And speaking of buying novels--Dark Goddess, the fortieth-something-or-other in my Outlanders series is  now available for purchase at Amazon.com and probably bookstores near you by next week.

A whole lotta stuff blows up and happens in this novel...like in the prologue, for example. (Wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say-no-more, say-no-more.)

A couple of days ago, Melissa and I received galley proofs of the book we co-wrote, The Everything Guide to Writing Graphic Novels. Although I’m not quite plugging the book yet, I will say that it covers just about everything anybody needs to know about producing a comic/graphic novel, from the art to distribution.

I worked in the comics field fairly steadily for about eight years. Then came the crash of 1993-94. After the implosion, like a lot of comics professionals I was pretty much left without a field in which to work.

Publishers went out of business by the dozens and comics shops closed by the thousands. However, at that point in time, the comics form had become so ghettoized it wasn’t a particularly enjoyable or interesting field any longer. Everyone and everything attached to it seemed to stink of desperation and greed.

A short time later I became a novelist and created the Outlanders series and after ten plus years, I think I can say it has been fairly successful.

I maintain one of the reasons it succeeded is because I applied a number of my comics storytelling principles to prose—larger than life characters, colorful settings, big world-threatening plots, a loose epic sweep, continuing subplots and of course, super-villains--who even if they didn’t wear costumes, would still have been worthy of joining the Victor Von Doom/Lex Luthor fraternity.

 In the spring of 1997, a couple of months before the release of the first Outlanders novel, Exile to Hell, I suggested to my then-editor Eva that perhaps Gold Eagle should consider having a presence at the upcoming San Diego Comics Con to promote their line of books. I knew that most SF publishers exhibited their wares there.

According to her, the response from the higher-ups, although not contemptuous was certainly patronizing…something along the lines of: “Heh-heh-heh…that’s not our audience.”

When I asked that if attendees at a mega comics and SF convention wasn’t the audience for book series about postnuke warriors, reborn Sumerian gods, ninja killers, and a Sinanju-trained assassin, then who could it possibly be, she didn’t have an answer.

Okay. What-Evuh.

As Outlanders continued over the next few years, it was confided to me that some folks up at Gold Eagle never cared for the series because of the comic-book sensibilities I brought to it. There were way too many SF concepts and such like...but how an SF series could have too many SF concepts is about perplexing a question as how an SF convention wasn’t the place to promote SF books.

But I digress.

From what I gathered, my credentials as a mere comics writer weren’t considered as legitimate as those of someone who wrote novels tied-in to RPGs and TV shows (significantly, my extensive background as a journalist, newspaper and magazine columnist and suit-and-tie-advertising copywriter never seemed to be addressed).

Anyway, I decided it was best to downplay my involvement in writing comics. Shame and all of that because I had once worked in the ghetto of "funny books", you know.

So, let’s jump ahead a few years. 

 With not quite the suddenness of a thunderbolt, but due in large part to the monstrous success of blockbusters like the Spider-Man films, comics are no longer slouching through the ghetto but struttin’ around in penthouse suites. Rigged out in the shiny new dust-jackets of graphic novels, comics are now the hot, must-be-seen-with item.

 Also all of sudden, a new marketing department at Gold Eagle experienced a “Eureka!”-like epiphany and realized that hey—comics and SF conventions are indeed the place they ought to be and so they loaded up the truck and moved to San Diego-ee …comics con, that is.

Gosh, imagine what would have happened if somebody had clued in GE  ten years ago about representing their wares at the SDCC—oh, wait. Never mind.

Anyhow, last winter Melissa and I were contracted to produce a book about this brand-spanking new form of storytelling and thus came The Everything Guide to Writing Graphic Novels.

Then something interesting began to occur. Through attending various writer’s conferences (including the ginormous Book Expo America) I learned that my background as a comics creator was viewed as far sexier than that of a regular ol’ raggedy prose novelist.

Writers of my acquaintance who had never shown the slightest interest in my comics work (except maybe a condescending smirk) began asking me to show them how to write a comic script, how to break into comics, what’s the difference between a splash and a double-page spread?

Although there’s quite the ironical moral in the above chronicle, I don’t think I have to belabor the point. Even Aesop would probably shake his head in weary exasperation and say something along the lines of what goes around comes around and offer an admonition to appreciate what you’ve got and that sort of thing. So naw…I wouldn’t belabor it.

Not yet, anyway.

The other day on the Graphic Audio forum, I saw a comment referring to Outlanders as “DL (Deathlands) for grownups.”

In many ways, the BBC TV series, Torchwood is “Doctor Who for grownups.”

At this point I’ve only seen the first five episodes (“Small Worlds” aired last night on BBCAmerica) and I have to say that Torchwood is excellent, compelling and to some extent, irritating.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with either Doctor Who or Torchwood—the latter series is about a team of paranormal investigators. The organization traces its roots back to the 19^th century and a very hostile encounter between The Doctor and Queen Victoria. In fact, "Torchwood" is an anagram of "Doctor Who."

The Torchwood Institute as depicted in the series of the same name is actually the third incarnation of the organization and follows the scaled-down branch based in Cardiff, Wales.

Thematically, it’s similar to The X-Files (and even Men In Black), but in execution it’s very different from that series or for that matter, anything else that’s on TV, although it bears a strong resemblance to various comic book features, like Challengers of the Unknown, Night Force, Planetary…and hey, even my own Miskatonic Project.

Like Doctor Who, Torchwood is very theatrical in its style of story-telling, edging the top but not quite going over it. Whereas X-Files often focused on mood rather than movement, Torchwood is fast, vivid, frenetic and frequently frantic.

The acting is usually top-notch, although the Welsh brogue makes some of the dialogue a bit hard for our Yankee ears to easily understand.

The leader of the group is a mysterious and apparently immortal American by the name of Captain Jack Harkness, who was first introduced in the Doctor Who episode, “The Empty Child.”

I find Captain Harkness rather an insubstantial leader. He’s a compelling character in of himself, but he acts like one of the gang most of the time, joking around and trading good-natured insults.

But when a crisis erupts, he starts yelling orders—which often are vociferously challenged by Gwen Cooper, the newest member of Torchwood. The viewer doesn’t know Jack or Gwen quite well enough yet to know who is the most likely to be in the right.

I’m hoping a few more levels will be added to Jack’s character in upcoming episodes. The “Small Worlds” segment indicated that there might be, depicting Jack’s enduring affection for a woman he had loved during WWII

However, those quibbles aside…Torchwood is a very imaginative series and surprisingly the plots are driven by emotion rather than simply facing the alien or paranormal threat of the week.

There are a lot of nice, understated touches to the series format…although a secret organization with an underground headquarters, the local pizza shop knows Torchwood’s address because it makes frequent deliveries there.

Some of the alien tech in storage is “borrowed” by Torchwood members for their own selfish uses.

Jack Harkness still wears his WWII era greatcoat and carries an old Webley revolver when he has all sorts of state-of-the-art weapons available for his use.

The Wales setting is interesting, too…very nice and unusual visuals. Cardiff looks like a unique city.

And judging by the episodes I’ve seen, the way the Torchwood team deals with the insanity of their jobs is to minimize how mad it all is, by treating it and themselves with self-deprecating senses of humor.

Although, it’s early yet, I’ve yet to see the series following a standard formula. So far, each episode has been very different from the preceding, even constrained by the paranormal investigator parameters.

The writing is crisp, witty and intelligent, not talking down to the audience or expecting them to accept “butt-pulled” explanations because the writer couldn’t think of anything else by deadline.

For example “Small Worlds” dealt with the so-called “fairy phenomenon” by following the nature spirits/elementals thesis (with a nod to the famous Cottingley photographs), but taking it one step further and imbuing it with the frightening implication that we still don’t know the true history of our planet or of the human race.

Also, the special effects are excellent, albeit understated.

Overall, I’m far more impressed with Torchwood than I am by most of the current crop of American television SF and I look forward to future episodes, including the ones that feature Doctor Who's Martha Jones (who for my money, is a far more competent and likable character than Rose Tyler).

If you haven’t seen Torchwood yet because you don’t receive BBCAmerica, I understand the first season will be available on DVD around Christmas.

9/17/07

Okay, after years of resistance…here is my very first blog.

Rather than talk about my cruel shoes or how I prefer Peter Pan peanut butter to Jif, this inaugural post will deal with a topic a bit more relevant to my professional life. Later, I’ll get into personal stuff. 

The publication this past May of the 41st Outlanders novel, Skull Throne was significant in a couple of ways...not only did it introduce new concepts into the mix, it brought back a few familiar characters from past books.

But more than that, Skull Throne marked the tenth anniversary of the Outlanders series. Unsurprisingly, that anniversary came and went without acknowledgement from Gold Eagle(my congratulatory Pick-Me-Bouquet must've gone astray).

Granted, in the grand scheme of things, an adventure series that lasts a decade is not much of an accomplishment, but in the world of mass-market paperback publishing, it's pretty remarkable...especially when you take into account that Outlanders has never been promoted outside of the Gold Eagle line itself.

Midlist category fiction has taken a lot of hits over the last twenty years. The time of the ongoing action-adventure series peaked in the early 1990s and has been steeply declining ever since.

The handful of series that came out from other publishers around the same time as the debut of Outlanders are long gone.

As it is, Outlanders had to sink or swim on its own merits. It found its own devoted audience and it's been swimming ever since.

Back in late 1995 when I was contracted to create the series that eventually became Outlanders, I didn't expend much thought on the possibility the series might see ten years of consecutive publication...or that Kane, Brigid Baptiste, Grant, Domi, Lakesh and all of the other characters would become parts of popular culture. 

Of course, what was finally published as Outlanders wasn’t the first concept I submitted. What I initially came up with, ironically enough, was similar to the format/premise of Stargate SG-1, nearly two years before the first episode debuted on Showtime. 

Stargate SG-1 became exceptionally popular and has the distinction of being the longest-lived SF series on TV. It, like Outlanders, lasted a decade.

In light of SG-1’s ongoing popularity, I can’t help but wonder how my original concept (entitled Major Arcana) would have been received if I hadn’t recast it as a post-nuke series with an eleventh hour connection to Deathlands. 

I guess there’s really no way to tell. At any rate, I managed to work a lot of the stuff from Major Arcana into Outlanders over a period of time.

With a decade of hindsight, I've permitted myself to take a certain amount of satisfaction in the series' longevity and fan-following, but more than that, I'm gratified that an audience continues to enjoy sharing the adventures of the Cerberus warriors.

I’m also gratified that Outlanders weathered "re-interpretations" by a fill-in writer that bore no relationship to my (and the fans') vision of the series and characters.

I'm also deeply appreciative of  friends I've made during my career as "James Axler"... people like Ron Miles, who for many years virtually handled the majority of the promotion for both Outlanders and Deathlands, gratis, with his site, JamesAxler.com.

I'd particularly like to thank Chris Van Deelen, who has been an active supporter of Outlanders from its first year onward. He's been a trusted bulwark for a long time now.

More than anyone, I thank my beautiful and talented wife, Melissa, without whom (as I have stated before), Brigid Baptiste would be only a name.

And to all of you, my dedicated readers and fans, I extend a very sincere and heart-felt thank you.