Graphic Novels Again

Well, I think at this point we could safely say that Road To Perdition did well. The movie was pretty damn good in my book. And the fact that I loved the original graphic novel didn't hurt. Max Allan Collins has since written two novels to finish off the story, last years ROAD TO PURGATORY and thes December's ROAD TO PARADISE. This work shows off Collins' strength of writing books set in the past. His details are meticulous and his research shows. Add the fact that he writes a hell of a story and you can't go wrong with any of his work. ROAD TO PARADISE is some of his best work. Look for it in DEC.

Another movie based on a graphic novel just opened last night. THE HISTORY OF VIOLENCE was put out by the same imprint of DC that did ROAD TO PERDITION. A terrific story and a great cast.

Just out now is the collected IDENTITY CRISIS from DC written by Brad Melzter. Even non comics fans should enjoy this murdermystery full of loss and tradgedy. The consequences of this story are reaching into a lot of the other DC titles. The story stands by itself just fine though, and I would recomend picking it up.

ONI press is doing a wonderful job with Greg Rucka's QUEEN AND COUNTRY espionage series. I've read a bunch of it and really enjoy it. The characters are all to real feeling and while they are doing the right thing, it doesn't always feel right when they do it. I also highly recommend these books, which are all availablein trade paperbacks.

DC Comics has published stories featuring The Legion Of Superheroes for a long time, dating back to ADVENTURE COMICS # 247 in 1958. Over the years a lot of different writers have added their own take to the mythology of this group of teen superheroes in the future. Some of the story arcs have been amazing and others have been lack luster. One of my favorites was THE DARKNESS SAGA in the late eighties.

The series has been revamped again, this time by Mark Waid, a terrific comics writer and a real scholar of the history behind the characters. This time around the series has a little different feel and promises to be amazing. The young heroes are banded together to bring peace and understanding throughout the United Planets, but the government wishes they would just go away. A basic theme of youth feling out of place prevails and it rocks.

Coming this January is Denise Mina's take on John Constantine HELLBLAZER. She's a self admitted fan of the series and given the talent shown inher novels this should be great. And I mean really great. Ruth will have aninterview with Denise in Crimespree #9.

Charlie Huston is currently writing a run of MOON KNIGHT for Marvel. While trying to get reading copies from Marvel Comics is like trying to get the President to step down form office, I will report more as they actually come out.


DC Comics is also releasing a wonderful series in tradepaperback format.
SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE is one of the most noir and pulpish feeling comics I've ever read. DC is putting out the trades of collected story arcs and I couldn't be happier.
So far there are three available,

THE TARANTULA

THE VAMP

THE FACE AND THE BRUTE

. Writeen by Matt Wagner and set in the time of jazz clubs and gansters this is a wildly entertaining series that features a hero who doesn't have powers, just intellect. Terrific stuff, gritty, moody and sometimes creepy.

There's some great stuff out there, and these are not the comics I read as a kid!

A new on line interview

It's been a while since I've done an interview for the web, but I love Crimescene Scotland and Russel was kind enough to let me do one for him. The subject of the interview is one Stuart McBride, author of COLD GRANITE.

Crime Scene Scotland

It was a fun interview and He's also a hell of a writer.

Bouchercon 2005 - another one slips away

Well Chicago Bouchercon 2005 is over. I've unloaded the truck, my dining room table is covered with books, a big pile of laundry taunting me. I'm tired, but not wasted tired. I do think I'll be sleeping in....

So, let's try to recap the highlights:

I got to meet a bunch of new people, Ray Banks,and the Lovely Mrs. Banks, Anthony Rainone, Suane Swierczynski, David "World's Greatest Moderator" Montgomery, Russel McLean, Dusty Rhoades and his wife Lynn, Kathy Daneman of SOHO Press, Daneille Bartlett of Harper Collins, Linda McFall of St. Martins, Andrew Gulli of the Strand Magazine, Colin Campbell, Annette and Martin Meyers, Cornelia Read, Brian Freeman, Joseph Finder, Todd Robinson of Thuglit.com, Simon Wood, Christopher Rice..... It goes on and on. Loads of great people I hope to see more of. Bouchercon being the way it is I seldom get to spend the amount of time with people that I would like to.

Lots of old friends, too numerous to mention.

Kent Krueger won best novel Anthony Award, well deserved and it about time.

Bowling.... Lots of Bowling...... I may not be consistant enough to win, or even be considered good, but I am a very fast bowler. 17.5 MPH......

Lots of good food.A number of very nice breakfasts.

I had my fanboy moment when I met Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini. Wonderful writers, wonderful people.

Barry Eisler is funny as hell, so is Blake Crouch.

Gregg Hurwitz is very cool.

Zoe Sharp is going to be a superstar.
Simon Kernick is going to be big.

The auction item we donated went for $750. Joe Konrath did great job with the auction.

Barbara Seranella is my idol. She wa signing books and handing out onions that had a note attached that said
"Please enjoy this onion, I'm keeping the liver"

Reed Coleman is too cool to put into words.

I saw Anthony Neal Smith smile, more than once. And the PLOTS WITH GUNS anthology looks great!

The shamus awards were amazing fun. Christine Matthews did a spectacular job. And Ken Bruen's intro speaach for best novel was great.

Did I mention Bowling? We went twice....

We bought many Dennis McMillan books. Monkology rocks.

The whole convention had a mellow groovy vibe. The hotel was perfect. And lots to do near by.

Ayo Onatade is one of my favorite people, and so is Sean Chercover. They have both been made honorary Jordans.

Our party was a bit better than we expected. The waitress told us we had over 450 people show up. It started just fine, a few people started walking in, I was able to say hello to everyone, and little by little the place filled up. Before long I couldn't get across the room. Chaos, though controlled , ensued....
We did manage to quiet the crowd long enough to give out our awards.

Jack Recher book of the year went to Lee Child for THE ENEMY
Favorite Book of 2004 wa Scott Phillips
Contributer of the Year went to Ayo Onatade.

Next year we hope to have five....

My wife Ruth moderated her first panel at the Big Show. It went well, she ran out of time before she ran out of questions..
My panel was fun, though I thought I got a bit fanboyish while talking about George Chesbro.

Jerry Healy rocks.

David Morrel rocks.

I best stop now, it's asll blurring together...... It was great.