E. R. Torre is a writer/artist whose first major work, the mystery graphic novel The Dark Fringe, was optioned for motion picture production by Platinum Studios (Men In Black, Cowboys vs. Aliens). At DC Comics, his work appeared in role-playing game books and the 9-11 Tribute book. This later piece was eventually displayed, along with others from the 9-11 tribute books, at The Library of Congress. More recently he released Shadows at Dawn (a collection of short stories), Haze (a murder mystery novel with supernatural elements), and Cold Hemispheres (a mystery novel set in the world of The Dark Fringe). He is currently hard at work on his latest science fiction/suspense series, Corrosive Knights, which features the novels Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Chameleon.
I’ve noticed that the common opinion has shifted from a “this race will tighten down the line” to “this might be a Democratic blowout election.”
While by now it should be clear to those who come ’round these parts that I have no love for Trump, looking at his last couple of weeks as neutrally as one can, it has been nothing short of a series of disasters.
It all seemed to begin with the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
The loss of the beloved liberal icon in the Supreme Court brought out the absolute worst/hypocritical in the Republican party (Merrick Garland, anyone?) and culminated with the infamous Rose Garden gathering to introduce Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court… which resulted in what appears to be a super-spreader event. In the end, we have many top officials within the government -Trump included- catching this virus, though given the evasiveness of the Trump administration, one wonders if Trump himself might have been infected already when that meeting occurred.
Mind you, I have no desire to see anyone ill.
Having said that, Trump and many of those people who were there, flouting a sense of invincibility, getting COVID-19 seems almost poetic justice or karma.
How do you keep downplaying/minimizing something that has, to date, claimed 211,000 lives?
The Vice Presidential debate, held last night, appears to have done little to move the general narrative. According to subsequent polls, Pence “lost” the debate. Even if the debate was a “tie”, the Trump campaign needed a sterling performance to try to break things toward them and this debate did not do that.
This morning, it was announced the next Presidential debate, set for October 15th, would be conducted virtually and Trump, calling into shows, stated he would not participate in any such debate.
Obviously there is a tremendous amount of interest in voting this year versus 2016 and in the coming days other states, such as Texas, will start early voting above and beyond mail in ballots.
Here’s the thing, though: We still have close to four weeks to go and any number of things can happen still.
I’ve already voted by mail and, out of an abundance of caution, delivered the ballot directly to the election office.
For the past decade, it was reported, he had been battling throat cancer and, finally, it spread to his brain and other organs.
As someone who grew up in the 1970’s and 1980’s, Eddie Van Halen and his band, Van Halen, were one of the big ones that were heard frequently on the radio. Lead singer David Lee Roth provided plenty of swagger as the lead singer but Eddie Van Halen’s guitar work was impressive, to say the least…!
I still remember when the album 1984 was released and these songs were HUGE hits on the radio upon their release…
As should be obvious by now, my preference of Van Halen songs tends to skew toward the David Lee Roth years. They were known for their very heavy sound, certainly, but unlike some metal music acts that came later they always seemed to be playing around/goofing off. In the case of Eddie Van Halen in particular, it seemed he always played with a huge smile on his face, like he was having a blast and never taking things all that seriously.
After the release of 1984, though, things started to go south for Van Halen. There were tensions between the band and David Lee Roth and he was gone after that album and Sammy Hagar joined the group as the lead singer.
Truthfully, I can’t say I was much of a fan of that version of Van Halen, even though I have/had nothing against Mr. Hagar. It just didn’t work as well for me. Though that version of the band was together for some 10 years, Hagar left and Gary Cherone was brought in for one album (if memory serves) but lasted together only some 3 years.
David Lee Roth re-united with the band twice while Hagar re-joined once but it was always temporary and the glory days of the band, it seemed, were in the past.
For the past several years very little has been heard about Eddie Van Halen other than that he was sick, but I never knew the situation was as grave as it was and the news of his passing is a real shock.
Think I might pull out an old album and give it a whirl…
Been a while since I’ve been excited to see/hear some new releases and it turns out there are at least three things being released in the next couple of months I’m intrigued about.
First up is the November 6th release of the newly remastered David Bowie album Metrobolist.
What, you never heard of that album?
Welp, for good reason: This was the original title David Bowie had for the album that was eventually known as The Man Who Sold The World.
See, at quite literally the very last minute the record company decided Metrobolist was too weird a title (I guess) and renamed it after what is probably the most famous song on it.
The album will feature its original artwork, the cartoonish bit you see above, along with the photographs of Bowie in a dress which wound up being used on the album’s cover later on…
Metrobolist/The Man Who Sold The World is officially David Bowie’s third album after David Bowie and Space Oddity and, IMHO, the first “real” Bowie album through and through. Others might quibble and say Space Oddity is the “real” first Bowie album but, other than a few intriguing songs -including his first big hit- I feel that album is still showing Bowie as a work in progress.
Longtime Bowie producer Tony Visconti has remastered the album and, based on how well he remastered the song Space Oddity (he also remastered the entire album, but I have yet to hear it), it could prove to be something quite special. We’ll see on November 6th!
Next up, also for a November 6th release, is Albert Bouchard’s Re Imaginos.
For those who don’t know the name, Mr. Bouchard used to be the drummer for Blue Oyster Cult and, perhaps most famously, was the one responsible for the “cowbell” in their hit song Don’t Fear The Reaper.
However, back in the 1980’s, the band and he had a falling out and he left them. Shortly afterwards and in the early 1980’s he worked on an album he called Imaginos, which used many of Blue Oyster Cult’s songs and created a concept album.
However, acrimony between the band and he led to the album being taken away from his hands. It was re-worked by the other members of the band and eventually released in 1988…
Bouchard’s original demo version of the album was leaked years ago and can be heard here:
Anyway, the years past and we fast forward to now and Blue Oyster Cult, without Bouchard as their drummer, are about to release a new album. Amusingly, their first music video release for their first single, That Was Me, features a guest appearance by Albert Bouchard and he’s banging away at a… cowbell! (He first appears around the 1:05 mark of the below video)
My guess, when I first saw the video, was that Mr. Bouchard and the remaining original members of Blue Oyster Cult have (perhaps) settled their differences and are even having a laugh at their shared past, though based on the video it doesn’t appear Mr. Bouchard has returned to the band but rather re-appeared for this video and/or provided “cowbell” for that particular song.
However, shortly following the release of the above single/video, I read that Mr. Bouchard was going to release Re Imaginos, his polished up version of the original Imaginos album. A video was released for the song Black Telescope, which is a considerable departure from Workshop of the Telescopes, the original version of the song made by Blue Oyster Cult.
Here’s Mr. Bouchard’s new version of the song from Re Imaginos, which takes on an old mariner’s sound:
And here’s the original version of the song…
Interestingly, if you go back to that demo of Bouchard’s Imaginos I presented above, Workshop of the Telescopes/Black Telescope wasn’t part of that original version of his album!
Anyway, Re Imaginos comes out on November 6th, as I said before, and it should be interesting to hear, especially if you’re a fan of Blue Oyster Cult!
Finally, its been announced that Christopher Nolan’s Tenet will be released to home video come December 15th.
I’m very curious to see the film but there was simply no way I would go to a theater to see it. First, the local theaters in my neck of the woods were closed through the original release dates. Secondly, even if they were open I wouldn’t have felt comfortable being in an enclosed area watching a 2 hour long film. It’s simply not safe.
But I will pick up the movie when its released to home video!
Over at bloomberg.com, Justin Fox wrote a fascinating article that examined the amount of driving done within the United States since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and wonders if these numbers might indicate we’ve peaked in terms of driving out:
Now, before you ask: There is no implication that driving is done.
But there are indicators that maybe we’ve (as I said above) peaked in terms of driving and that even when we get over the COVID-19 situation things might remains roughly as they are, with driving patterns dropping some 10% or so versus what they were before the pandemic.
Why?
For one, it appears many jobs may move from offices to employees’ homes.
This is logical: Many things can be accomplished on a computer and if there’s one thing the pandemic has revealed is that you don’t have to go to the office to do certain work. It is possible there will be many jobs which will require an employee show up to the office perhaps once a week or so versus 5 days a week. Hence, less driving.
The second big takeaway is that online services such as restaurants or Amazon or grocery stores, etc. etc. are delivering more and more products directly to people’s homes.
When people do this, while there are trucks and cars on the roads doing the delivery, it winds up being many less cars on the road as one delivery truck might mean the elimination of several individuals and their cars on the road. One UPS truck, for example, filled with product might well eliminate the need for dozens of households to go out and look for any particular product!
Again, no one is claiming the days of the automobile are done, only that because of work at home and delivery of product, it may be curtailed for the long run.
The first Presidential debate followed by the revelation that President Trump and his wife -and several other Republican Senators and Presidential Staff- testing positive for COVID-19.
Over on TV, Saturday Night Live had a pretty funny take on the debate, and what happened later…
Funny -and simultaneously sad- stuff.
The concluding bits, with “Biden” pausing “Trump” and noting how nice it was not to hear “Trump’s” ramblings…
For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.
So last night we found out that Hope Hicks, confidant to President Trump, had Covid-19.
Right away, speculation ran rampant that President Trump, who hangs around with her perhaps more than any of his other staff, could have it as well.
Last night, a little past midnight, the AP verified what many speculated: The President, as well as his wife Melania, tested positive for Covid-19.
It’s so very tempting, as someone who has absolutely no love for Trump the man and certainly Trump the President, to revel in this moment.
I certainly could, and I even found a posting over at avclub.com that made me laugh out loud:
But eventually the reality of the situation provokes, once the laughter dies, a feeling of… anger.
Here we have the most powerful man in the world, the President of the freaking United States of America, who for months and months and months refused to take Covid-19 seriously. A man who mocked people who wear masks and steadfastly refused to do so, in a country where over 200,000 people have now died from this disease and, to my great shame, there still exist a bunch of people who do not take this disease seriously… mostly because of the actions of President Trump.
President Trump, a man who just three days ago had the first Presidential debate, where everyone on the Joe Biden side wore masks while at least half of those on the Trump side, including his idiot kids and wife, did not wear their masks while in the audience, even though they -and everyone who witnessed the debate- were told they needed to wear them at the indoor event.
The above picture, from the debate, shows Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump sitting next to each other (one in black, one in white, natch).
At this moment in time -again, only three days ago– it was possible both President Trump and Melania were already infected and, because they so steadfastly refuse to wear any protection, were putting people around them at risk.
Including, of course, Joe Biden.
For ninety minutes Mr. Biden, though a fair distance from President Trump, nonetheless was close enough to be in danger of catching the disease. It was reported this morning he will get himself and those around him tested. I’m sure they hope neither he nor anyone who was at the debate on his behalf, even though they wore masks, was infected by this careless bunch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKTknVUIdhQ
Yet another case of Trump saying something that’s come back to bite him right in the ass.
We’re only a month from the actual election and we face yet another couple of weeks of grave uncertainty.
Will Trump recover fairly quickly? What if he doesn’t? What if the infection hits him hard? What if it hits him… really hard?
The big question: What if it kills him?
Grim stuff to contemplate, for sure, but the reality is he’s an elderly man who isn’t -despite his medic’s say so- in terribly good shape. As such, he’s in the population most at risk for developing more serious problems because of the virus.
Though, of course, that’s not to say he will.
Whew.
Once again, its time to buckle up. Hell of a bumpy ride ahead of us.
It’s the way it goes, you never really stand back and admire your work but rather put it aside when its done and start up something new.
While I’m not totally done with Terminus Island -I’m still waiting for the paperback proof copy of the novel to arrive- the fact is the creative aspects of that novel are pretty much finished and, therefore, its time to think about what’s next.
I started doing so and certain ideas started creeping into my head. Next thing I know, I’m putting some of those early rough ideas into a brand new Word file and I’m off and running…!
I suspect this next novel will not take place in the Corrosive Knights universe, making it the first book in many a year that is set apart from that series.
…but…
Does that mean I may be leaving the Corrosive Knights and the various characters behind?
Hard to say. I still have that one “Epilogue” story sitting in my hard drive and I do mean to one day get to it but we’ll see about that.
Further to all this, given that I’m at the very, very early stages of writing this new work and there’s little doubt it will go through a lot of changes before I’m done with the first draft, much less the final draft, it is certainly possible it might wind up tying into the Corrosive Knights universe when all is said and done.
So two nights ago we had the first of three Presidential debates and… well… it sure was something.
Interestingly, the first impressions seemed to be: “Well, that was a shitshow” with the implication being both candidates, Trump and Biden, didn’t do much for themselves…
But, as is usually the case, after some reflection, the immediate reactions went away and a consensus built that Trump was the deranged one, especially toward the very end of the debate when he couldn’t get himself to speak ill of the far right-wing Proud Boys.
Further to that, though, was a feeling that Trump was flailing and interrupting, perhaps desperately so, because either a) he realizes he’s losing and wanted to claim every moment of the debate or b) he’s just that desperate for attention.
Regardless, the next day evaluation seems to be that Trump was the one that looked terrible in the debate. Polls bore this out, with most feeling that Biden “won” simply by not taking the bait, even though he did lose his patience at a couple of points and not only told Trump to “shut up” but also called him a “bozo”.
Certainly never saw anything like that in a Presidential debate before!
If we were to look past the highlights, however, there was plenty of other strange stuff Trump said during the debates. While they may not be quite as startling as being unable to say anything negative about the Proud Boys, it was nonetheless startling.
Ben Mattis-Lilley over at Slate.com offers this list of…
My favorite bit was this, presented at the very end of the article:
This was, according to Trump, one of the reasons he should be reelected:
“The greatest, before COVID came in, the greatest economy in history, lowest unemployment numbers, everything was good. Everything was going—and by the way, there was unity going to happen. People were calling me, for the first time in years, they were calling and they were saying, ‘It’s time, maybe.’ And then what happened? We got hit.“
Time for what? And who was calling? Unfortunately, we will never know, because we got hit.
As of today, September 29, Terminus Island, the 8th Book in the Corrosive Knights series, is now available both in Kindle/Digital format as well as in Paperback:
Whew…!
It’s been quite a bit of work getting it out the door but its for the most part all done on my end. I have yet to get the “proof” copy to verify everything’s ok, but since I’ve already seen the PDF and it all looks good through and through, I felt confident enough to make the paperback available despite not having the proof copy yet.
So for those who prefer to get physical copies of the book, you can get ‘em starting today.
And if you do get the book -I know some of you have already picked up and read the Kindle version!- if you like what you read, please put in a review.
It’s an interesting paradox -of sorts- these days: Until COVID-19 came and disrupted our lives, some of the biggest box-office hits were movies based on comic books.
I’m referring, of course, to the Marvel Comics films and the DC Universe films. Each release seemed to bring out audiences (some, granted, more than others) and bring their studios, Disney and Warner Brothers, huge returns on their investments…
…and yet…
Comic books themselves -or graphic novels, if you prefer that term- seem to be floundering. Sales have been falling for decades now. Hell, I recall interviews with artists/writers from the 1980’s where they talked about how in the 1970’s they were certain the comic book field would die out.
It didn’t, of course, but the scariest thing to realize is that sales of books back in the 1970’s, again, a decade where many thought the industry was on the verge of elimination, was incredible considering sales of books nowadays.
Back then, comic books were present in many places, from drug stores to supermarkets to large stores like Woolworth or K-Mart.
The first comic books I bought way back then were indeed in these places. In fact, Swamp Thing #10, still my all around favorite comic book and the one that made me realize comic books could be art, I found in a local drugstore one day in 1974 (its cover date release is June of that year).
During that time, comic books that sold less than 100,000 copies were considered failures and cancelled. Nowadays, its not unheard of that a relatively popular book sells no more than 20,000 copies and some struggle to sell even 10,000.
Compare this, by the way, to sales figures of comic books in the 1940’s, where some comics boasted sales approaching one million copies!
So, yes, there has been a downward spiral here of sales of comic books over the many years and, nowadays, that number is becoming downright scary and, considering how popular many of these characters seem to be on the big screen, its rather perplexing, no?
There is no lack of opinion as to what’s wrong with the comic book industry and what can be done to aid it.
Writer/creator Gerry Conway, perhaps best known for creating The Punisher and writing the Gwen Stacy storyline in Spider-Man, offers his perspective on what can be done to help the comic book industry:
His plan isn’t new. Artist/writer John Byrne has expressed similar sentiments for quite some time now.
But what gets me is that people like Gerry Conway and John Byrne are somewhat responsible for the predicament comics are in today, even if they correctly point out how things could be made better.
John Bryne, for those unaware, is probably one of the bigger influences on film. He worked on X-Men when they started to go nuclear, making Wolverine (who, it should be noted, he didn’t create) into the character we’re familiar with on the screen. He also had well received runs on both The Fantastic Four and Superman, among others.
Mr. Byrne, as Mr. Conway does in this statement, has noted that one of the biggest problems with comic books occurred when the fans became the creators. Before, up to perhaps the late 1960’s, comic book work was considered a proper job and many of the people involved in them worked them like a 9 to 5 affair, showing up, doing their work, then clocking out when done. They may not have had any special affinity to any of the characters or stories, doing their best each time they were assigned a job and finishing it in its proper deadline.
Books back then also were simpler: A story would be told usually in one issue (rarely more than one) and when the next issue came out, just about anyone could pick it up and get enjoyment out of it.
Not so for more recent books. There has been soap opera levels of backstory ingrained into just about every book nowadays to the point where you are expected to know far more about a character, side-characters, villains, etc. etc. to get enjoyment out of books.
Frankly, even as a fan of many characters and someone who picks up the odd book here and there, its not easy nowadays to just pick some random comic book and get your money’s worth.
Often, the book will be but a part/chapter of a bigger story. This is the result of trade paperbacks (TPBs) which are increasingly popular nowadays but have rendered the individual comic less and less necessary.
Why would I pay for a single comic book issue, say a part of a 4-part story, rather than simply wait for the book to be collected into a TPB?
One of the better comic books runs of the 1970’s, IMHO, was the Michael Fleischer written Jonah Hex. For some 12 years, Mr. Fleischer wrote issue after issue of Jonah Hex, a western book, and each issue was essentially a self-contained story. Anyone could pick up any issue of his run and get a complete story presented, with a clear beginning, middle, and ending and get their money’s worth.
The stories, by the way, weren’t simplistic. They were often quite adult. There was a longish storyline snaking through the books for maybe a year or so, but as a reader you were never confused or left wondering what the hell was going on. Recaps were clearly presented and you were rarely, if ever, left with a “to be continued” blurb at the end of any one particular issue.
Not so with comic nowadays.
Mr. Conway -and Mr. Byrne before him- laments this fact, that you can’t just pick up a comic book and get enjoyment out of an individual issue, that you somehow have to get up to date with so many storylines and concepts that turn off any first time reader.
I think they’re not wrong but, again, it seems to me some of the books they worked on in the past were guilty of this as well.
Mr. Conway, and again Mr. Byrne beforehand, also feel comics should cater to younger audiences. Mr. Conway notes that when visiting the offices of DC comics in the 1960’s and before he became a pro, he talked to editor Julius Schwartz about some story idea and when asked his age -and telling Mr. Schwartz he was 14- was told he was “too old” for the comic book audience of the time.
So Mr. Conway and Byrne feel that comics need to cater to younger audiences, that they cater to people who are older.
To which I say: They should cater to younger audiences and its a shame they currently do cater to older readers, it seems, almost exclusively.
And yet again, Mr. Conway and Byrne, I feel were participants in the way comics were molded in the 1970’s and 80’s to cater to older readers. Their stories (not all, granted) tended to be more “mature” in their perspective. Certainly Mr. Conway’s best known story, that involving Gwen Stacy -and her fate- was a hard-hitting story involving loss and grief. Mr. Byrne, for his part, molded what was arguably one of the first of the bloodthirsty anti-heroes with his portrayal of Wolverine.
Still, even if they had a hand in the way things have shaped up today, they’re not wrong.
Comics should cater to younger audiences and they should once again be available in all the venues possible rather than simply in specialty comic book stores.
They should remove the barnacles of continuity and become less complicated/complex and more new-reader friendly.
Thing is: There’s nothing to say we can’t do both and in this I also agree with Mr. Conway: Have TPBs released which cater to older readers and have regular books which target the younger reader who is curious about the character but finds themselves overwhelmed and unable to just “dive in” to any book without becoming overwhelmed by backstory.
It’s a way forward, certainly, but can it bring back the comic book industry?
