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.