Category: News

I don’t even remember the first time I met Bob Morales.  We might have met when he was an intern at the Village Voice and I was a freelance writer, but I have no memory of that.  When I was publicity manager at DC Comics, he was always around.  As a writer and editor – for Reflex, for Publishers Weekly, for Vibe – he was an invaluable asset for me to exploit.

But he was so much more.

Bob was a world-class gossip.  If you read Bleeding Cool over the last 20 years, you’ve read one of Bob’s stories.  He would, occasionally, let me use him to snipe at someone who was annoying me, on the condition that Bob agreed the person in question deserved it (he always agreed).

Bob was a brilliant writer, of comics and of prose.  Most comics fans know him from his work on Captain America, but he was a brilliant critic, and an hilarious comedian.  He wanted to do an Elseworlds Batman story with Mark Twain as Batman, just so he could refer to “Twain Manor.”

Bob was connected.  He was editor and literary executor for writer Samuel R. Delany, and he helped put together the graphic novel Delany wrote, illustrated by Mia Wolff.  He helped me to get this interview with Harlan Ellison.  He talked about working with Neil Gaiman on packaging a line of public-domain novels.  He knew everyone in science fiction.  He knew everyone in hip-hop.

Bob was vicious.  If you ever crossed him (and didn’t try to correct your mistake), you were on the list.  And if you were on the list, he would do everything he could to destroy you.  Because he was so connected, that meant a lot.  If he found out you were looking for a new job, he’d make sure the stories of your treachery reached human resources at your hoped-for employer.

And yet …

Bob was a pussycat.  If you were his friend, there was nothing he wouldn’t do for you, as Heidi describes in this memory.  He always called you on your birthday.  He called all his friends who were moms on Mothers Day, and all his friends who were dads on Fathers Day.  He called me on every Jewish holiday.  He was thoughtful in ways that were unpredictable and touching.

Bob was my family.  He babysat for my son, and told me stories about my son’s other life, when he was his own person and not just my kid.  He introduced me to the woman who became not only one of my best friends, but also my son’s West Coast mom.  He stayed in my apartment when we went out of town so the cats wouldn’t have to be alone.  Quite often – almost always – some horrible mechanical event would occur in my building, and he would deal with it.

This is from Alan Moore (slightly edited), sent to be read at Bob’s funeral.

“I’m going to miss the savvy New York creak his conversation had as much as I will surely miss his writing; the commitment, insight and rare passion that he brought to every story, ever feature, every line. One of the comic field’s conspicuously rare voices of colour, he was also one of its most gifted and original contemporary writers. As a genuine creator of integrity, inevitably he came into conflict with an industry that much prefers a bland subservience in its employees to the fierce, ungovernable talent of an actual artist who has something deeply felt to say and does not care to compromise a work which he or she believes in…Moving with no apparent effort between his extraordinarily diverse realms of endeavour, Bob was like a human cultural adhesive that connected up a vast cobweb of people who, in every probability, would never have been introduced to one another save through him. One of the last authentic hipsters, he was sharp, astute, and very, very funny. If I’m honest it might be his anecdotes that I’ll miss most of all, the unexpected courtesy and deference extended to him by a crowd of strangers at a party whom, it transpired, had been informed Bob was a Puerto Rican mafia prince… Robert Morales had a fine and blazing life, a side or two of classic vinyl that I’m convinced will replay unendingly, just as I entirely expect to pick the ’phone up for an interview with Vibe, one day back in the hectic1980s, and commence a long, sweet friendship full of warmth and great ideas and lots of memorable laughs.  So long for now, Bob, from me and Melinda, and I’m looking forward to enjoying that mafia anecdote again.

The last time I saw Bob was on Saturday, April 13.  He’d been taking care of my cat while I was in Japan, and while I was gone he came down with a stomach flu.  He swore he was over it, but he insisted on doing the laundry before he left.  While we waited on the machines, we watched Rock of Ages on HBO, agreeing that Mary J. Blige should have been the main story, and that Catherine Zeta-Jones looked like Marie Osmond.

When he left, he said he was glad he could help me get away for a real vacation.  I think –  I hope – I told him I loved him.  On Thursday, I got the call that he had died.

Bob was a talker.  He’d call and say, “Hey, got a minute?” and you’d be on the phone for an hour, minimum.  I don’t know what I’m going to do with all this new free time, but it won’t be nearly as much fun, nor as valuable, as what I did with Bob.

SATURDAY: Marc Alan FishmanSUNDAY: John Ostrander

These days, budgets can be pared down thanks to digital photography, letting producers focus more on cast and story, which often means we get some interesting takes on the standard genres. For example, a bungled robbery has been done time and again. But in the newly released Pawn, out today from Anchor Bay, we get an interesting set of characters.

A small group of would-be thieves hit a diner and are frustrated by discovering a dummy safe and decide to wait. Bit by bit, we learn more about the characters as the hours tick down to midnight when the time-locked safe, containing the diner’s cash, will open. We’re given some interesting narrative structure added by superb performances by a familiar cast led by Michael Chiklis. Chiklis is “The Brit”, who leads the gang and largely interacts with the diner’s owner

(Stephen Lang). They banter, the tension rises and falls as the minutes pass and some interesting, plausible complications arise, starting with the unexpected arrival of a cop (Forest Whitaker).  Then there’s poor Nick (Sean Faris), an ex-con who was in the bathroom when the robbery began and worries the cop will suspect he’s part of the gang. Instead, when things go south and this becomes a hostage situation, the poor guy becomes the go-between when the police negotiator (Common) arrives.

Screenwriter Jay Anthony White is a newcomer, having previously written only shorts so this 88-minute story is his longest outing yet and shows promise. There are a few pacing issues but he creates interesting characters and has a nice way with dialogue. The key here is the structure as thigns escalate and truths are doled out, keeping your interest.  He’s helped here by cinematographer turned director David A. Armstrong, who knows a thing or two about rising tension given his work on the Saw series of films. This shows both men having promising futures as Armstrong gets nice, measured performances from Chiklis and Ray Liotta while letting this be Faris’ showcase. Chiklis has usually played the bad ass good guy, but here he wields his shotgun with authority as the real bad guy.

This is a pleasurable way to pass some time and is worth a look. The direct-to-DVD feature transfers nicely to high definition and is accompanied by a single bonus feature: Pawn: Behind the Scenes (23:09), which gives you the basic behind the scenes information.

The combo set includes the Blu-ray and a DVD edition of the film.