Howling at the moon with Cement

There’s this old joke that I very much love. Two people are talking, the first person asks “What Howls at the moon and has cement in it?”

The second person responds, “I don’t know.”

The first person responds, “A wolf.”

This causes the second person to ask, “What about the cement?”

To which the first person says, “Oh, I just put that in to make it hard.”

 Yeah, I know, a total Dad Joke. Which I get to tell because I’m not only a dad, but a grandad. (To be sure I did also tell the joke prior to actually being a dad.) But I digress.

Some 19 years ago I was at home when I was called by a publisher and tasked with developing an eight-page comic story that frightened me. I told the caller that I was the wrong guy for the assignment, as I didn’t like horror, hadn’t written anything in a year, and hadn’t written fiction in over 10 years. The publisher insisted that I was the guy he wanted. Again, I begged off, stating that I had to go pick up my then 15-year-old son at his job. I hung up and went to pick up my son and returned home.

By the time I returned home, less than an hour later, I called the publisher back and pitched him the story of Wülf Girls—two under-aged sisters who were werewülves that hunted pedophiles. Needless to say, he loved it. So, I went ahead and wrote it. It took me two weeks—a week to write the first six pages and a full second week to write the last two, because, frankly, it was that gruesome, even for me.

Well, the issue came out and when my father read it, he nearly stopped talking to me because of the content. I had to convince him that not only was it just a story, but I had turned the sisters from prey into predators. Once the comic was published, we shopped it at a horror convention in New Jersey, while there I met Melvin Ylagan, the cover artist, and he loved the story and wanted to know what the next story was. I told him there was no next story, because you now knew the punchline of the story. Melvin wouldn’t let up, pointing out that the Girlz were 150 years old so there had to be other stories.

That was the spark that kicked off the rest of what was to come. I went on to write a second and third chapter (as well as two short vignettes, as well as a prose story where the Girlz co-stared with another creator’s character, plus as a comic story for a different publisher where they had a cameo). Between the time of the publication of the second and while waiting patiently for the the original publisher to print the third chapter of the Wülf Girlz saga (2006-2008), I busied myself with writing a prose story about their training into the werewülf community. That story became the prose novella Taste the Moon (now available through Dark Fire Press, yet another publisher). During that time while I was working at a job, I used my coffee and lunch breaks to write two long texts on my (semi-smart) phone that I later downloaded to my computer, stitched together, and edited to become the novella.

In 2019, after having split from the original publisher of Wülf Girlz (the third chapter of which still unpublished), I reconnected with my friend J.M. DeSantis and asked if he was interested in continuing the saga. J.M. agreed, and he and I began our collaborative efforts to do just that. This process involved me getting the three chapters and two vignettes colored, laying out and formatting the novella, getting contracts written, updated, and signed, as well as agreeing to a business plan on how Dark Fire would operate, and ultimately bringing the books to get published.

All of which was complicated by COVID, J.M. and my sometimes conflicting, and often erratic schedules, as well as other complexities of living in the world. Needless to say, against many odds we have finally done it, and both The Wülf Girlz comicbook, and the Taste the Moon novella are now in print and available across multiple platforms, including, but not limited to Dark Fire Press, IndyPlanet, GlobalComix, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Net1World, as well as, of course direct from me at shows.

One of the more important parts of the story that I skipped over, is that, long before I had conceived of the Girlz, I had met and interviewed Steve Bissette in my role as a journalist working for Amazing Heroes. After I had written the first couple of stories and had finished writing the novella I reached out to Steve and asked him if he’d pen a forward to the book, and he graciously agreed. Sadly, it has taken some 17 years to bring the novella to print, and for his part, Steve has patiently waited (thanks Steve).

In the background for all of this, I’ve written two other (unpublished) Wülf Girlz scripts, a short story, and the plots to several other scripts. Currently I’m writing a follow-up novella (yes, on my now Smart Phone), and I’m looking for an artist to illustrate their further adventures. I’ve also written a short prose story of another female wülf character as well as a 500-word flash fiction story involving a female wülf character (neither of whom are Hope or Grace).

What started as a one-off challenge has turned into an on-going collection of stories featuring female wülf characters, and I, for one, couldn’t be happier.

Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow: A Superman Story

So, we just came from watching the new James Gunn Superman flick—which we thoroughly loved—and we wanted to talk a little bit about it. This isn’t our review, we’ll be writing and posting about that later (We’ll link back here to hook you up with that review as soon as it is written, posted, and approved). But for now, what we want to do here is to talk a little bit about how there are reports on social media about how Gunn turned Superman “Woke” and they don’t like it.

To those people who feel this way, all I have to say (as someone who has been reading comics since 1961, working in the field as a journalist since 1981, and as a comicbook creator since 1986) You have no idea what you are talking about here. And trust me, as I’m something of an expert in this.

But first, allow me to go back a few years when the first Wonder Woman film came out in 2017. Back then a pair of conservative talking heads whined on-air about how disrespectful it was that the film changed her uniform from red, white, and blue like Superman’s. This without clearly realizing that her costume was never red, white, and blue, and neither was Superman’s. Hers has always been red, gold, and blue, while Superman’s was red, Yellow, and blue. Further, neither of them are actually Americans, Wonder Woman is from the mythical island of Themyscira, while Superman (Kal-El) was born on the planet Krypton and is (technically) on Earth (and in the U.S.) illegally.

Next up, in 2022 other conservative TV talking heads (probably from the same network) were griping that Marvel has gone woke by creating a female Hulk, without realizing that She-Hulk first appeared some 43 years earlier in her own Marvel Comicbook. According to information at the time, the character was created to protect the company’s trademark on the green-skinned Hulk character’s name. In fact, there is a video clip of a reporter interviewing Bill Bixby (who played David Banner on the TV show. That clip is shown below.

My point with these first couple of paragraphs is that quite often, the folks on (pretend) TV news shows very often don’t know, or even understand, even the simplest of things (which can be looked up) on which they are reporting, and if they can get simple (not important) things like those I cited wrong, then how can we trust them getting actual important news correct.

Then there is the case of Dean Cain (who played Clark Kent/Superman) in the CBS TV show Lois & Clark, The New Adventures of Superman (1973–1977). Sometimes, proving that even when they have some understanding of who the character is because they actually played them on TV. Cain re-entered public awareness recently with his negative assessment over Gunn’s film (without even having seen the film). Cain claimed that the film is too woke because it celebrates Superman as an immigrant (somehow forgetting that only is he an illegal immigrant, but that there was an episode of Lois & Clark that dealt with the same topic.

Another issue the conservative Cain mentioned about the film is Gunn’s changing the long-standing mantra first associated with Superman m the 1950s TV show, stands for “Truth, Justice, and the American way” to “Truth, Justice, and a better tomorrow”. Well, two things here. First, under our current administration, America isn’t as welcoming to immigrants as we were in the ‘50s. Second (and more relevant to the character) those of us who actually read comics already know that back in 2011 (Action Comics #900), Superman addressed the full council of the UN and renounced his U.S. citizenship and declared himself to be a citizen of the world. Thus, making the “…for a better tomorrow” a far more reasonable pledge.

THIS JUST IN!

Shortly after posting this article, we learned that Dean Cain (who is Japanese American and whose father's entire family was interned in a camp in Idaho during WWII) has recently announced that he is joining ICE! 

Having written all that, we have seen the new Superman film and let us state that we fully enjoyed it and state that it is easily one of the best stand-alone Superman films ever made (and the presence of Krypto certainly helped in that regard). Further, the appearance of the Justice Gang (especially Metamorpho, an old favorite of ours) added to the film’s fun. Plus, the addition of Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor was simply brilliant. Ultimately, we believe that a large part of the misunderstandings covered in this article stem from the fact that many folks still believe that superhero films, and the comics from which they are based, are still “junk” or “kiddy” fare, and not legitimate literature or cinema. And frankly, as far as we’re concerned, that’s simply a crying shame.

* * *

Oh, and just to let all’y’all know that I know what I’m talking about, in 1961 I moved from reading syndicated newspaper comic strips to reading comicbooks. Around 1978 I joined comicbook fandom and began to contribute to an APA (Amateur Publishing Alliance). In 1981 my first comicbook article was published in Amazing Heroes #5. In 1986 my first comicbook (Agent Unknown: Renegade Press) was published. I spent the next 15-20 years working as a journalist in comics, writing for virtually all of the magazines that covered the comicbook industry. Currently I still post about comics both here and over at HubPages, I also still write comics at Dark Fire Press, and other indie publishers. 

 

There be Wülves out there

I’m very happy to announce that my comicbook, Wülf Girlz has been published by Dark Fire Press. This comic was some 18 years and four publishers in development. Now that it is finally in print, I’m honestly over the moon. (No pun intended.)

Back in 2006 I was invited to contribute a short horror story to a brand-new comicbook anthology. The writing prompt was to pen a 21^st century horror story that frightened me. The story I chose to write involved child abduction and abuse. This was because, at the time, my children were young, and I had experienced an incident some years earlier where my then three-year-old daughter wandered off in a crowded mall following her mother to the bathroom (without her mother or I knowing it).

This incident was literally the scariest five minutes of my life. All I could think at the moment was that I was going to have to explain to my mother how I lost her granddaughter. I was saved that moment, as my daughter had managed to successfully make her way across the crowded food court and connect with her mother. Because this was at a time before we had cellphones, there was no way her mother could notify me she was safe.

Needless to say, that incident was a large part of the inspiration for the creation of the characters who would come to be called the Wülf Girlz. My first publisher ran the first two installments of the origin tale (in B&W) with most-excellent art by Matt C. Ryan. While I was waiting for my publisher to release the third chapter, I was invited, in 2016, to bring the Girlz and contribute to a prose anthology, teaming them up with another writer’s character.

The concept of the anthology, MetaHumans vs The UltimateEvil, (Lion’s Share Press) was that several writers would team their characters up with Sean N. Koury’s character, The Bounty Hunter, and then each team would face off against some sort of evil entity. Happy to see the Girlz in print again, I agreed and had The Girlz meet up with Bounty Hunter in a short story entitled Northern Lite.

I eventually wound up splitting with my first publisher in 2019 and hooking up with InDELLible Comics. In 2020 The third chapter of their origin story appeared, this time in color with amazing art by Rick Lundeen in InDELLible’s House in Spades #1. The girlz also briefly appeared in 2021 in Popular Comics #5 in a story I wrote entitled Save the Children, which featured the Golden Age Owl Girl in the lead.

It was shortly after that that I negotiated a publishing deal with J.M. DeSantis to bring The Wülf Girlz to J.M.’s company Dark Fire Press. Unfortunately, after all the arrangements were made, COVID hit, and everything wound up on the back burner as we were all tossed into lockdown (and then recovery). Well, fortunately, as it turns out, you simply can’t keep a good comicbook concept down, and in July ’24, we finally achieved print copies of Wülf Girlz #1, with all three chapters now in color, as well as two short pieces — also by Rick — all collected in the issue. The first show I brought them to was the July CollectiCon in Montville, CT, which is where I sold my first copies.

Well, in addition to having my comic being listed on Dark Fire’s web page, and announced in Dark Fire ads, the comic is now available at both GlobalComix and IndyPlanet as both digital and Print on Demand (PoD) versions. Naturally enough, you can also purchase copies direct from me whenever I appear at comic and book shows.

So, what’s next you ask? Well, there is a novella of mine featuring the Girlz which is slated to come out in the early part of 2025. The novella carries an introduction by a well-known horror writer and illustrator (I’ll tell you more about him at a later date — I’ve got to save something for a surprise).  Meanwhile I’m currently working on other projects, including bringing another one of my intellectual properties back into print (yes, also with Dark Fire — when you find a good publisher, you stick with them!)

That’s all for now, kids, as I pen this we have just passed Christmas, and am right in the heart of Chanukah and Kwanzaa, and heading for my daughter’s birthday, and New Year’s Eve. So stay safe, enjoy yourselves, and we’ll see all’y’all next year!