Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
As I was going through the latest issue of Previews, a new series by Alex Grecian and Riley Rossmo caught my eye. I’ve pre-ordered it and you may want to as well.
Nothing is as it seems in Duane Swierczynski’s first novel Secret Dead Men. Del Farmer appears to be an FBI agent investigating a mob hit. In reality Farmer is a dead reporter trying to discover the reason behind his own murder. Yeah, you read that correctly. Farmer is a dead guy. Well…
…he isn’t just a dead guy.
See, Farmer has the ability to collect souls of the recently departed. In his quest to discover the secrets behind his own murder, Farmer has collected the souls of about a dozen others…
… and they live in his brain hotel.
See, the brain hotel is a mental construct, that appears like a typical hotel and allows the recently departed to have a semblance of life. People in the brain hotel go on about living [although it’s just their memories for the most part] but they can also interact with each other. Sometimes, if their skills are better suited to getting him out of whatever jam he’s in, Farmer even uses them to pilot the body that he currently inhabits…
…and if you’re still with me, then my guess is you’ll enjoy the novel.
I loved Swierczynski’s The Wheelman and The Blonde. And although Secret Dead Men falls a bit short of being as good, we should remember that Secret Dead Men was Swierczynski’s first novel. It’s definitely worth a look.
The piece above is a close-up of a fanzine cover created by Willie Blyberg back in 1978. At that time, Willie was a very prolific and talented fan artist who not only created his own fanzines, but contributed to others as well. Willie’s goal was to break into comics as a professional inker and his dream became a reality.
My favorite Willie Blyberg ink job was over Paul Gulacy on the
Valkyrie: Prisoner of the Past mini-series. I must not have been the only one to enjoy it, because Paul and Willie were nominated for the 1988 Best Art Team Eisner Award. Willie inked a lot of other comics, but then I lost touch with his career.Tonight as I was looking through my copy of Willie’s fanzine from 1978, I wondered where Willie is today. Perhaps someone reading this knows?
I’m a sucker for lists and So here’s my top 25:
Seinfeld (NBC, 1990-98)
Star Trek (NBC, 1966-69)
The Honeymooners (CBS, 1955-56)
The Twilight Zone (CBS, 1959-65)
I Love Lucy (CBS, 1951-61)
The Dick Van Dyke Show (CBS, 1961-66)
Leave it to Beaver (CBS/ABC, 1957-63)
Frasier (NBC, 1993-Present)
Cheers (NBC, 1983-93)
The Andy Griffith Show (CBS, 1960-68)
The Cosby Show (NBC, 1984-92)
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS, 1970-77)
Hill Street Blues (NBC, 1981-87)
Barney Miller (ABC, 1975-82)
The Bob Newhart Show (CBS, 1972-78)
The Carol Burnett Show (CBS, 1967-79)
The Monkees (NBC, 1966-68)
Miami Vice (NBC, 1984-89)
ER (NBC, 1994-Present)
Happy Days (ABC, 1974-84)
The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS, 1948-71)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (CBS/NBC, 1955-65)
Batman (ABC, 1966-68)
Lost in Space (CBS, 1965-68)
The Rockford Files (NBC, 1974-80)
Man vs Bear.
Nuff said.
I’ve never been into the whole MySpace scene, but I definitely went to check out “Digger” McCrea’s page. It was just as cool, retro, hip and tough as I knew it would be. Christopher Mills not only provides us with Digger’s new digs but tantalizes us by saying…
“Oh – and by the way, there will be some exciting news about the future of McCrae’s criminal career coming soon….”
I can hardly wait.
I’m looking forward to Matt Fraction and Cory Walker’s arc on The Punisher War Journal.
I loved Duane Swierczynski’s The Wheelman which opened in the middle of a bank robbery gone wrong and was a fast paced, violent, at times humorous and always unpredictable story. So I couldn’t wait to read Swierczynski’s next novel The Blonde. I’m happy to say that I was hooked from the opening sentence [one of the best in recent memory]:
“I poisoned your drink.”
From there we are taken on a wild ride as Jack Eisley attempts to learn why he was poisoned by a beautiful blonde named Kelly White and why she is infected and on the run from a covert government agency’s hitman. The Blonde is fast paced, lean and will keep you on the edge of your seat as the pages fly by. Duane Swierczynski has another winner that left me excited to start on Secret Dead Men!
___
Update: Duane Swierczynski just posted up the paperback cover to The Blonde which will be available October 30th!
John Beatty called me at work this morning to tell me the news. Mike Wieringo had passed away. It was hard to fathom. Mike was only 44 years old and appeared in good health. He worked out, ate right and by all appearances was in fine shape. The news hit hard. Big Beatty was at a loss… and so was I. What could be said? What could be done?Mike was one of the most popular artists currently working in comics today. Fans loved him. Pros loved him. I never, ever, heard a single negative thing said about Mike or his art. My dealings with Mike were limited, but they were always positive. I first met Mike about 5 or 6 years ago. Mike was gracious and kind to both my son and me, but that’s the way he was with ALL of his fans.
I became a regular visitor to Mike’s blog and would often leave comments about his weekday posts. When Mike posted a sketch of Rocky Balboa along with his thoughts on the movie, I wrote to say that if he ever considered selling the sketch, I would be interested. Mike wrote me back to say that several of the fans who post on his site had already suggested that I might like to have it for my collection. Mike said that as he was drawing it, he thought the same and it was mine for the taking… gratis. Mike went on to say that he would be honored to have his work appear in my gallery. Can you imagine? That’s the kind of guy Mike was. I suggested that if he wouldn’t take money, since he liked the movie, I would be happy to purchase the dvd for him. He said that wasn’t necessary, but did finally agree and acted like I was doing him the favor.
I knew that my blog today would be about Mike Wieringo. Mike positively touched so many lives that I knew that my voice would just be one of the many remembering him, but I knew that I had to mark his passing. I figured that I would probably post the Rocky sketch that he gave me. The when I checked my mail, I found a letter from my old friend Jim Ivey. Jim has always teased me about being a Sylvester Stallone fan. One of Jim’s comments is that Sly has sad eyes… and Jim drew them on the envelope of his letter. Talk about appropriate.
Today Mike Wieringo’s family, friends and fans are in mourning. Yes, there are tears in our eyes. We’ve lost not only a great artist, but a wonderful human being. My life was better for knowing Mike Wieringo. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and fans.
George Romero’s “Diary of the Dead” has a MySpace page and has posted up some new images. You can get THERE by clicking HERE.
A few minutes ago it came over the wires that Merv Griffin had passed away from prostate cancer at the age of 82. Mr. Griffin started out as a singer, but really hit it big with his self-titled talk show which ran for more than 20 years. He is also known for being the creative genius behind two of television’s most popular and longest running game shows “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune.”
It is so good to know that the zombie threat to America is under control. [Thanks and a tip o’ the derby to Bill Crider.]
A couple of posts down Rafael Kayanan mentioned the Enter the Dragon re-make that Kurt Sutter is going to write and direct for Warner Bros. Since I hadn’t heard anything about this, I decided to find out the scoop.…‘writing “Awaken the Dragon” as a contemporized drama about a lone FBI agent who pursues a rogue Shaolin monk into the bloody world of underground martial arts fight clubs.’
