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!

Look for My Stories on the Web

The other day I made a blog post to some of my older articles that can be found on the web. that post can be found here. Now I'd like to make a similar post, only I want to point you to some of my short fiction writing that appears only online. These links art to several short stories of mine that appear on various websites. Check them out, perhaps you‘ll enjoy them. 

This first one is to my take on the backstory to a superhero called The Owl. This particular character is not the Owl who appears in Marvel comics, but one that appeared a generation earlier in the Now defunct Dell comics. Dell published in the ‘50s & ‘60s but has long since gone out of business and the company‘s characters have slipped into the Public Domain. I work with a group of creators who have taken up creating new stories utilizing these characters. We call our publishing venture InDELLible Comics, and our various magazine-sized comics can be found on Amazon. The image of the Owl that appears inside the InDELLible logo at the top of the page was drawn by Carl Morgans. 

Night of the Owl

This next story is something that I wrote at a comicbook convention where we were having a contest to write a flash fiction story. As one of the moderators of the the event I didn't actually compete, but was so entertained by the concept, I penned my own flash fiction.

And Then, Everybody Died!

Another flash fiction story of mine (this one limited to exactly 500 words) is online in another place, this one posted by Weird Fiction Quarterly WFQ comes out (as its name implies) four times a year, we are now wrapping up our fifth issue (Winter '23). I've had work appear in each issue. We are also planning an omnibus hard cover of the first four issues, look for it and the other issues on Amazon

Whiteout

This nest story was a romance story that I penned to enter a contest on Barsdy (I didn't win, but my story is still housed over there.

Good Morning, Cupcake

Next up is a story that I have up online at Writers Unite, a website of writers to which I belong. Writers Unite has published a number of print anthologies. I've had work appear in three of them (with a fourth appearing in print soon).  

Cat Got Your Tongue

My story is the last one in a thread of  10 stories, so when you get to the page, do a search for the title and you'll go right there. 

This just in. I have a new Christmas horror story posted over here called The Yule Cat. It based upon an ancient Icelandic legend. The story is $1.25 as a download, but well worth the price.

Once again, you can also find copies of books that I'm in on the web, just go looking for them. 

Returning to the Old West and More

 

How totally cool is this?

No sooner did my prose story Ghost Dance wind up in the Writers Unite anthology Dimension of the Wild West (Vol. 2) than a second Western tale of mine (this time an illustrated story) show up in InDELLible Comics publication, Crackerjack Comics #3. 

The story American Eagle: Wülf in the Fold was illustrated by the ever-grumpy John Orlando, and the always-terrific, Tom Ahearn. Both of these guys are amazingly creative (In fact, not only is John an incredible artist, but he and his lovely wife comprise the musical duo The Flushing Queens).

Tom, on the other hand, has previously illustrated more than just a couple of my stories for comics published by the Ever-jaunty Jim Main’s Main Enterprises (a portfolio of my work for him can be found here). The folder contains not only publications where stories and articles I’ve written for him, but numerous publications where I produced the interior design, layout, and prepress for him. Check it out (go ahead, I’ll wait).

Needless to say, that’s not all I’ve been doing these days. I have also been producing a number of books for the prolifically-talented Paul Kupperberg. These books include (but are not limited to) Direct Comments, JSA: Ragnarok, Emma’s Landing, and others (if you’re looking for a graph production artist, feel free to contact me). 

Oh, and if you want to see some of the art that John and Tom did for my 2nd Western, check it out. (I did the duotone coloring, and the lettering). 

That's all for now, kids, more coolness when it happens.