This week, the Green Hornet’s rolling arsenal, the Black Beauty rolls into the Book Cave Podcast. Green Hornet Casefiles writers Ron Fortier, David Boop, and Bobby Nash from Moonstone Books’ second Green Hornet prose anthology join Art and Ric to talk about the book as well as all things Green Hornet.

Listen to The Book Cave Episode 152: The Green Hornet Casefiles at http://thebookcave.libsyn.com/.

About The Green Hornet Casefiles:

The long-awaited return of the Green Hornet & Kato and their rolling arsenal the Black Beauty!
Back again with all-new stories!

Moonstone is proud to present The Green Hornet Casefiles, our second anthology featuring all-new, original crime fiction tales of the man who hunts the biggest of all game, public enemies that even the FBI can’t reach!
On police records, the Green Hornet is actually a wanted criminal, a master manipulator, a crime boss who has his fingers in every pie. In reality, The Green Hornet is actually Britt Reid, owner-publisher of the Daily Sentinel.

Alongside him rides his partner Kato, who is not only is a martial artist of unsurpassed prowess, but a skilled driver, and educated engineer as well.

Their goal is to destroy crime from within by posing as criminals themselves!

Listen to The Book Cave Episode 152: The Green Hornet Casefiles at http://thebookcave.libsyn.com/.

For more on The Green Hornet Casefiles and other Moonstone titles, visit them at http://moonstonebooks.com/.
For more on Ron Fortier, visit him at http://www.airship27.com/.
For more on David Boop, visit him at http://www.davidboop.com/.
For more on Bobby Nash, visit him at http://www.bobbynash.com/.

PLANETARY STORIES #23 / PULP SPIRIT #13 are now available online for immediate reading!
First, there is a report from Ahrvid Engholm about a presentation he attended at the Stockholm Technical Museum, with some great Swedish scientists in attendance plus many NASA displays. Ahrvid took many photos while he was there, and we’ve included many of them. (Did you know there was a Swedish astronaut who had been of TWO Discovery missions?)

In addition to that, there is a PDF action comic book attached! You’ve gotta see CHOPPER JANE vs UFOs – It’s a First.

PLANETARY STORIES #23 – http://www.planetarystories.com/PS23ToC.htm

PULP SPIRIT #13 – http://www.planetarystories.com/spirit13TOC.htm

She left 5 minutes ago.

Getting caught lying is an experience I dread – forehead sweating, tongue stumbling, eyes darting every which way searching for some sort of reprieve. Even with the proliferating success of recent television programs acclimating audiences to the association between cringe-worthy situations and comedy, I still find it difficult to see anyone under that unique pressure. Same Difference revels in this, so you can imagine how hard it was for me to read, doing all I could to avert my eyes knowing the story wouldn’t progress unless I did look.

Same Difference is almost entirely about character development, so it’s difficult to discuss the story without spoiling anything. Generally, life, love, and teenage idiocy are touched upon, with perhaps the most powerful themes being reflection and regret.

Right at the outset, you’re thrust into the amiable characters’ lives, joining them for an everyday meal. The plentiful pop-culture-based dialogues set the timeframe for the story. (Tellingly, not one reference was lost on me.) Similar to meeting someone new in real life, a great way to comfortably get to know someone is through conversational middle ground, and these skillfully used references serve to easily bridge that gap between the reader and the characters. The repartee is clever and the knack for which they glean some wisdom from the random discussions never feels unnatural. Rather, that they can quickly weave through bouts of hilarity and seriousness without batting an eye establishes how good of friends these main characters are.

(more…)

Some months back, I was asked by Danny Fingeroth to partner with him once more, stepping in during the final weeks of production on TwoMorrows’ The Stan Lee Universe. I proofread the book, doublechecked facts, filled in blanks, did some caption writing and told Danny and his co-editor Roy Thomas that it was a pretty solid tribute to a true innovator in the comics field.

The first copies came in from the printer while we were all attending New York Comic-Con and we were delighted with how good it turned out. Now, I received word this morning that the book is finally available for delivery. Since this seems to be my year with Stan, I wanted to bring this your attention. If you get it — or Stan Lee’s How Write Comics — let me know what you think.

Here’s the press release on the matter:

Face front, true believers! THE STAN LEE UNIVERSE is the ultimate repository of interviews with and mementos about Marvel Comics’ fearless leader! (more…)

Every week it’s a visceral war for my attention: between using my time to produce articles, write or draw comics, complete freelance design projects, or be a lazy bastard. Not 12 feet from my Hacktintosh work station is my present to myself. A 46” HDTV, a Sega Saturn, my DVD collection, and an XBox 360. When I moved into my house last year, I put all these amazing toys in said man-cave so I would have a space where I could create, and reward myself when I was finished. Here I sit a year later…clickity-clacking away for you, the fine readers of ComicMix, my entertainment center gathering a thick layer of dust. And it strikes me that I’m toiling away nervously hoping that my words will excite and amaze you when I could be doing something much more important.

I could be saving Gotham City.

Earlier this month, Arkham City, the sequel to the hit video game Arkham Asylum, hit the store shelves. Presumably millions of copies found their way to similar basements as my own. When the game debuted, I decided to be an adult. I abstained. You see, I waited almost a year and a half to buy Arkham Asylum. I’d nabbed it in the used bin at a Gamestop over Hannukah last year. Since, I’d played it handful of times. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Never beat it though. And thus I gave myself every reason with which to remain stoic in my stance. I didn’t need a $60 investment in time wasting. I have articles to write! Comics to draw! A pregnant wife to attend to! A nursery to paint and organize! And I still haven’t beaten the first one!

That Friday, at the weekly Unshaven Comic work-night, my will grew weak. Matt entered my basement with a hearty “Dude, why don’t you have Arkham City yet?” I shook my head in a desperate plea. “Duuuuuuude!” My knees felt weak. Kyle descended into our dank pit of creativity next. “Hey guys. Marc, did you get it yet?” Damnit! I turned to a nearby die. I declared to my cohorts if I rolled a five or a six, I would get up straight away and get the damned thing. I chucked the six-sided keeper of fate to the floor. It skitted around the vinyl tile in a red blur. And there, staring back at our hopeful faces… one lowly dot. Fate, as it were, was giving me a message. “Stay strong.” Screw fate. I rolled it again. Two. Four. One again. Matt and Kyle chortled as lay on the cold floor, forever mocked by my lack of fortune.

The following week, the work-night began as it had the last. “Dude?! Now?!” No, Matt. I had to pay the mortgage and bills. I can’t be tossing away my cash all the time. I bought books this week anyways. Kyle came down, a rustle of plastic tucked between his arm and body. “Well, I got it!” Poop. We worked hard for an hour or so. Set some dates for conventions we’ll attend next year. We bitched to one another about our printer problems. And like a beacon light guiding us away from our duties as creators… Bruce Wayne called out. “My Unshaven Lads! The hammers of justice are yearning to strike down the nails of tyranny. Only you three can unleash my vengeance upon the night! C’mon, just watch the introduction story!”

A hour later we forced the game off. We pried it from my disk tray. We sealed it back inside its plastic Pandora’s box. With the night ending, Kyle whisked the game from my house, and my life. I could always borrow it when he’s finished, I told myself. I’m plenty busy anyways.

That Sunday, Kyle and Matt returned to record our podcast. Kyle entered with a knowing smirk. “Gas pellets, Marc. Gas. Pellets.” No. “Seriously. You get them like right after the part when we turned the game off. You get the gas pellets.” And you can throw them to the ground, and then fire off your grappling gun, and zip away in a puff of smoke? “Oh yeah. And the game is an open world this time, so you could just go around doing that, and beating up thugs for hours.”

Kyle didn’t even get a chance to finish that sentence before the wisps of my Brut aftershave left a Marc-sized silhouette where I was sitting.

And here I am, finishing up this little tale of woe for you. The game sits on the desk next to me, unopened. It’s been sitting there since I brought it home last Sunday. Between interviews for ComicMix, my day job, drawing the next installment of The Samurnauts and finding time to sleep, I’ve yet to crack it open. The anticipation at this point is unsettling. I’ve considered hugging people with the flu in hopes of having a legitimate reason to call in sick.

But who am I kidding? Even when I’m sick I log on to do my day job out of guilt and fear I’ll be missed. And I love drawing and writing comics. And interviewing Will Meungiot this week? It was like a 60 minute conversation with the friend I wish I’d had years ago. Maybe I’m just a masochist. Like Bruce Wayne. Bruce. … What’s that Bruce? Gotham City is overrun with gangsters, psychopaths, and malevolent psychologists hells bent on overtaking the city and exposing your secret to the world? Only I can help you?

And you have those exploding gas pellets? Poop.

SUNDAY: John Ostrander

Artwork © Lowell Isaac.

New Pulp Author Martin Powell shared a new preview page by artist Lowell Isaac from their upcoming graphic novel, MARTIANS, GO HOME, based on the sci-fi classic by Fredric Brown. The invasion begins in 2012 from Sequential Pulp/Dark Horse Comics.

You can learn more about Sequential Pulp Comics at http://www.sequentialpulpcomics.com/

Bobby Nash and BEN Books are proud to announce that Bobby’s latest novel, Deadly Games is now available as an ebook for the Nook Book from Barnes & Noble for the low price of $3.00. You can purchase the Nook Book Edition of Deadly Games! through Barnes & Noble’s Nook Book Store at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1107149904?ean=2940013554849&itm=2&usri=bobby%252bnash

DEADLY GAMES! is also available in these other formats:

Print Direct Sale – $11.99: https://www.createspace.com/3704764

Print at Amazon – $11.99: http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Games-1-Bobby-Nash/dp/0615553435/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319831122&sr=1-17

Kindle ebook – $3.00: http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Games-ebook/dp/B005ZN8VPS/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1319820451&sr=1-3

Smashwords ebook – $3.00: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/101814

Plus, you can always ask your favorite bookseller to order a copy for you.

For more information on Deadly Games!, please visit BEN Books at http://ben-books.blogspot.com/ or Deadly Games! author Bobby Nash at http://www.bobbynash.com/.

There is no question that Neil Patrick Harris owes the reboot of his career to the first HAROLD & KUMAR movie. Now he returns for a third time and tells us about the role plus his directing gigs, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER and the rumors that he’s replacing REGIS. Then we start our look at the Oscar Buzzing new film J EDGAR talking to Leonardo DiCaprio and director Clint Eastwood about the difficulties they had on this groundbreaking project. But wait – what about new GAME OF THRONES swag and the return of THE RIFLEMAN? We cover that, too!