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January 3, 2009
2008 is already reviled as one of the worst years since Queen Nitocris assumed the throne of Egypt in 2200 BC. Filled with financial and political chaos as well as a never-ending stream of crises, 2008 won’t be missed by anyone but Joker-caliber sociopaths and right-wing ideologues. Personally, it was a pretty lousy year for us, marked by loss, trauma, illness in friends and family. I’m tempted to refer to it as “Worst Year EVER” but it wasn’t all bad—just about three-quarters of it.
First was the death of my best friend Jim Mooney, a man whom I’ve blogged about before. Jim was a major part of our lives for many years and the vacuum his passing has left is still profound even all these months later. I sometimes still remind myself to tell him something the next time we talk. Here are some pictures of Jim—one with a special houseguest (a stand-up of Elvira, whose comic book adventures he delineated for awhile in the 90s) and one of us cracking each other up (which we often did) at a comic convention in the late 80s .
 
During the spring and throughout most of the summer, our daughter Deirdre was very ill and that overshadowed just about everything else. It was a very bleak and even traumatic period. Our days and nights were full of worry that she would not recover and even contemplating that possibility was almost more than we could bear.We’re proud of her because she is so bright, beautiful, talented and generally good-humored. Deirdre displayed enormous courageous and resiliency during her ordeal and justified all of our pride in her. Thankfully, she has made a full recovery and words can’t express our relief,This picture of Deirdre was taken during a function at Sarasota’s Dali Museum a few years back.
Another loss was that of our beloved 20 year old cat Liddy, who was born in a hall closet and lived with us her entire life except for about a year when we resided on a Central Florida horse ranch and she went feral. We would’ve been more upset by her passing except for the fact that Liddy lived pretty much the perfect cat life.
She was a devoted mother to her kittens and a devoted daughter to her own mother.She was a one-of-a-kind cat, fearless, very stubborn and often surly. But she was also affectionate and intelligent with a well-developed, albeit devilish sense of humor.Even taking into account my tendency toward anthropomorphism, Liddy possessed far more admirable traits than a lot of humans we’ve met. We respected her as much as we loved her.
As for the good things that happened during 2008…well, as a lot of you already know the book Melissa and I co-wrote The Everything Guide to Writing Graphic Novels motivated us to create Millennial Concepts in order to publish our own graphic novels.
Our first two, (published in partnership with Gary Reed’s Transfuzion), Death Hawk: The Soulworm Saga and The Miskatonic Project: The Whisperer in Darkness were very successful…in fact, The Miskatonic Project actually sold out—even at Amazon.com—and we’ve had to go back to press.
Our first two, (published in partnership with Gary Reed’s Transfuzion), Death Hawk: The Soulworm Saga and The Miskatonic Project: The Whisperer in Darkness were very successful…in fact, The Miskatonic Project actually sold out—even at Amazon.com—and we’ve had to go back to press.
I don’t think any book I’ve ever written has ever sold completely out before. Rather than focus exclusively on our own properties, Melissa and I decided to expand our market by publishing little-seen classic newspaper strips in graphic novel format.There are a number of great adventure comic strips that have never been reprinted and so we’ll be releasing several compilations. A thriving niche market exists for that kind of book.
The first of the newspaper reprint volumes, Mr. Holmes & Dr. Watson: Their Strangest Cases (featuring a beautiful cover by Melissa and interior art by the legendary Gil Kane and Mike Sekowsky) will be out within a few weeks. Check out a preview at: http://www.comicspace.com/markaxlerellis/comics.php?action=gallery&comic_id=23531
That will soon be followed by another personal favorite: None other than Leslie Charteris' Simon Templar, The Saint—a two-fisted, wise-cracking adventurer who is generally considered the direct precursor to James Bond.
His career as a comic strip hero lasted for over a decade, but the beautifully rendered strips—scripted in the main by SF legend Harry Harrison—have rarely been reprinted, certainly not in graphic novel format.
Anyway, I’ll be making announcements about the release schedule and so forth of all of our Millennial Concepts properties. We’re in process of putting up a Millennial Concepts web-site. Until then, you can check out the Transfuzion site for news about upcoming projects: http://www.transfuzion.biz/
Another high point in 2008 happened on November 4th and I’m sure it was a high point for a whole hell of a lot of Americans. Melissa, our dear friend Elizabeth and I decided we couldn’t take the tension of monitoring the election returns in our homes, so we went to the beautifully-appointed lounge at the Goat Island Marriott to watch them come in on a big-screen TV behind the bar.
At one point I went to the men’s room (that happens when you rent a couple of pints of beer) and when I returned, I saw this very image emblazoned on the screen—
I was so amazed, it actually took me a few seconds to process it. Here is a picture taken of Melissa and Elizabeth mere moments after that historic announcement .
The entire atmosphere in the place felt like a mini-version of the end of Return of The Jedi…without the break-dancing Ewoks. But I was so happy and relieved, I wouldn’t have minded if a squealing horde of them had shown up.
On another note-- Although I rarely mention it, Melissa and I have moderated a local writer’s group for several years now. It’s called Newport Round Table and it meets weekly at the Empire Tea and Coffee at 22 Broadway .
Over the years, we’ve attracted a number of very talented and even some phenomenal writers. In fact, I helped one of the early members, Peter Spring, to become a contributor Gold Eagle's Executioner series—although considering my relationship with GE, that's probably not a good topic for conversation. With the current chaotic state of traditional publishing—imagine the automotive industry, but producing books nobody wants to buy instead of cars—it seemed like a long struggle for the Round Table members to attain a publication credential.Melissa and I decided it made sense for the group to put out our own anthology. She presented the theme—walls and bridges—and the Round Table writers provided the stories and the artwork. Melissa designed the whole book, from cover illustration to type-face to interior fonts…and if I say so myself, it’s a beautiful product. It can be ordered through Amazon.com.
This past December 6th, Empire Tea and Coffee hosted a launch party for the Walls & Bridges anthology and it was—again if I say so myself—quite the success. Despite the cold weather, the event was extremely well-attended, as you can see from the pictures below. Maybe it was the lure of free eats or the siren song of fine literature, but for awhile there, it was strictly SRO.Our friend, best-selling horror author Doug Clegg, even managed to turn aside and attend this wonder. We appreciated his support.
A number of the anthology contributors read from their published works, in a "Masterpiece Theater/Praire Home Companion" type stage setting . Overall, the evening was extremely enjoyable and I imagine we’ll do it again when we come out with our second anthology.
Several of our members—namely Elizabeth Carroll, Dick Scott, Jessica Grota and John Michael Skaggs—helped enormously in organzing the event. Elizabeth in particular really extended herself and it would not have been half as successful without her efforts.
Later in December, our good friends Kevin and Stephanie Bongiovanni (along with good ol' Bill "Flashbulb" Saslow and Michelle Jacome) took us to see Aine Minogue the world-famous Irish singer, composer and harpist. The venue was fairly small and comfortably no-frills Irish—I even won the big hand-crafted wreath you see on the stage wall in a raffle
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Also, another good thing about 2008 was how Melissa came into her own as a writer in her—well, in her own right. Here are the covers of two of her books currently available for preorder on Amazon.com
 
So, we wrapped up 2008 by going to see The Spirit, a movie adapted freely from the character and concepts created by our late friend, the legendary comics creator, Will Eisner.
As the end credits scrolled upward, Melissa turned to me and intoned, “Will is rolling in his grave.”
I actually found more to like about the movie than not, but I remembered that Will had taken us out to dinner a couple of nights after the Sam Jones TV movie version of The Spirit had aired in the late 80s…he hated the thing and Melissa defended it. Quite the attitude reversal.
This is a picture taken that evening by Melissa outside the restaurant with Will and his wife, Ann and Deirdre and I. Yes, I was that tan.
I can’t end this "Hasta La Vista 2008" blog without responding to the questions I frequently receive asking about the status of me and Outlanders...well, without going into tortorous detail, suffice it say that Gold Eagle and I are no longer an item.
I’ve been writing the Outlanders series for 12 years…I actually crafted the first, prototypical version in December of 1995.
That I created the series and guided it for a very long time is unique in Gold Eagle's publishing history. No other writer ever did it and the inarguable end result is that Outlanders is Gold Eagle’s only bona fide success in over 20 years.
Gold Eagle never spent a dime’s worth of outside promotion money on it and the series still sold over a million books.
Outlanders is also the product of one vision and one writer, not the usual “Blind Men and the Elephant” creativity-by-committee system which gave birth to such long-lived blockbusters as Room 59 (yeah, that’s some blatant sarcasm at work--I'm entitled).
However, over that decade-plus, certain issues arose and reached such a cumulative degree a couple of years ago that they had to be resolved or the relationship between me and Gold Eagle would no longer be viable.
I raised these issues with the editorial director well over a year ago and I was assured they would be addressed by the close of the current contract.
I turned in my last Outlanders novel this past summer and that was it. There was no further contact from anyone at Gold Eagle.
Zilch. Zero. Nada.
At the time, I was so preoccupied with Deirdre’s illness I had not the energy nor the inclination to contact Gold Eagle and engage in a protracted and most likely pointless ordeal. I’d learned from many years of experience, y'see.
To put it bluntly--I’ve been dealt with very disrespectfully and in very bad faith. Obviously, it was considered too troublesome—perhaps even too dangerous—to actually address the issues I raised, much less make even a superficial attempt at resolving them.
It was easier to let me go without a whisper and hope I’d simply vanish into the haze of has-been anonymity like so many other Gold Eagle writers.
Uh-uh.
Most of you who are reading this blog are aware that my credentials as a creator predate and are more diverse than simply writing a series for Gold Eagle. Doc Savage, The Wild, Wild West, The Miskatonic Project, Death Hawk…those are just a sample of my professional credits and there are considerably more in the pipeline.
So, my byline is going to be attached to various books and projects for quite some time.
My work on Outlanders represents a lot of years, a lot of labor and a whole hell of a lot of books. For that matter, I'm one of the most proflic and versatile authors Gold Eagle ever had.
Most of my Outlanders books are still available with my name imprinted in the indicia (even though there was an attempt a few years back to remove it as way to combat the horrors of a fan-following) and in two different audio book formats.
Outlanders is a substantial part of my professional curriculum vitae.
Therefore, anonymity isn’t going to happen. Outlanders is always going to be considered my series, no matter what.
My final word on Outlanders as a series is this—as the creator I'm naming the "official" end of the series and it is Dark Goddess nee’ Lilitu .Even though I've written several novels past that one, they were/are fill. They have no impact on the series or the characters and that goes for any books not written or approved by me.
I don’t know what the future of an Outlanders series produced by the standard Gold Eagle revolving door process of writers will be. More than likely, it’ll become as generic and soulless as the rest of their output.
So, to sum up—2008 was a tumultous and painful year and I’m extremely glad that Melissa and Deirdre lived through it…but it did have its rewards as well as its losses...despite it all, five books of mine were published in 08. I also received my Irish citizenship.
Still, I would unhesitatingly trade in those few rewards for another year of Jim's life and for Deirdre not to have gone through what she did.
I can only hope that 2009 is much more beneficial for those who deserve a better year than the last one.
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