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Before the Hunt on NPR!
Over the weekend, John Shableski of The Otto Bookstore in Williamsport, PA spoke to Emily Bright of Minnesota Public Radio's Ask a Bookseller. He sang the praises of Before the Hunt and recommended it to one and all. Very cool! You can listen to the segment here or in the embed below!
really excited one of your book signing events is close enough for me to attend , big fan ! question , at the NJ event , will there be copies of the new book available for purchase at the event or is this a bring your own sort of thing ? wondering if i should preorder or not . thank you !
Yes, there will be copies for sale!!! See you there! 😀
From My Hard Drive: The I Hunt Killers Letter
In celebration of the upcoming new chapter in Jasper Dent’s life, I unearthed this document, which spells out what I planned for the rest of the series. At this point, I had just finished writing the first book and had turned it in to my editor. I wanted to give her a sense of what was to come…and as you’ll see, I was trying to get a handle on how many books I’d have. I originally sold I Hunt Killers and one more book. But I’d always envisioned the story as at least a trilogy, and as you can see below, while I’d figured out how to wrap it up in a second book, I really wanted more. I’ve redacted a portion of this document because believe it or not, there are some things in here I plan to tackle in the new Jasper Dent books. And like Billy, I hate spoilers! I HUNT KILLERS: What Comes Next OK, so you’ve read the first book of I Hunt Killers. If I did my job, you’re pretty sure I’m a really, really twisted guy and you probably will arrange to have friends in the room whenever we happen to be together. Score for me! I want to talk briefly about what comes next. Mainly because there are a number of possibilities and I want everyone to be on the same page as we make these decisions going forward. The second book will pick up soon after the first and will tell the story of Jazz doing what he swore to do in Book 1: Hunt down his father. This will be a harrowing tale, as Jazz comes to realize that in order to find and stop Billy, he may need to sacrifice everything he’s struggled for over the past four years since Billy’s incarceration: his friends, his sanity, his very soul. He will learn what happened to his mother all those years ago, and the discovery may just kill him. And ultimately, he will have to confront the biggest question of them all: Is he willing to become the killer his father is...if doing so will mean that Billy can never hurt another person? In other words, is Jazz capable of murdering his own father in the name of the greater good? Trust me when I say: This book will kick ass. But I don’t want to write it. What I want to write is, instead, the next part of the Jazz saga, if you will. The second part of a story that goes three or four books. (Fair warning: I’m going to be a little coy about some things in this synopsis. I’m going to gloss over some stuff. Why? Because you’re my editor and I need you to be surprised — or not — by things in the books to come so that I know if certain twists and revelations work. If I spell them all out here in this document, you won’t be able to tell.) I HUNT KILLERS: GAME picks up months after the end of the first book. In New York City, the police are stymied. The “Hat-Dog Killer” is at large and no one can figure out who he is, how to stop him, or even what his pattern is. There are fifteen dead so far, all killed in similar fashion, some with hats drawn on their bodies, others with dogs. In desperation, Detective Samuel Lincoln of the NYPD travels to Lobo’s Nod to beg Jazz Dent for his help. “People are still buzzing about the way you took down the Impressionist. Figured maybe you could toss a little of that mojo our way.” Jazz agrees to help, even though it will distract him from tracking down Billy. Soon, he has a pile of police reports, which he sifts through with the help of Connie and Howie (as well as a little on-the-sly assistance from G. William and Deputy Erickson). The cases are puzzling beyond belief, and it only gets worse when three more bodies turn up in rapid succession, apparently with no rhyme or reason to them. But then Jazz realizes two things: 1) There is more than one killer. One is “Hat” and one is “Dog.” The two are playing a game against each other. To be specific, they’re playing a game of Monopoly, of all things, with each victim having something in common with a space on the game board. This makes their moves impossible to predict since each victim is chosen based on a roll of the dice. 2) More importantly, though, Jazz realizes that his father is somehow connected to these killings, too. As with the Impressionist, Billy appears to be the puppetmaster, manipulating Hat and Dog as they play their game of sick one-upsmanship. What ensues is a thrilling chase on the streets of New York as Jazz and the NYPD struggle to stop Hat and Dog before they can kill again. And even when Jazz’s insights and keen understanding of serial killers leads to their success, he realizes he hasn’t really won — the whole thing has been a game to Billy, who has deliberately put his son through his paces...all so that he can reveal something about Jazz’s mother’s death at the end of the book, in a cliffhanger moment that will send Jazz spiralling into despair… ...and have readers desperate for the next book. Now, there can be two more books or there can be one. If one, I’ll combine all of what happens below into a single tale. But I think there’s room for it to breathe a bit. First, though, I need to backtrack a little bit and explain something: I’m a sucker for a good conspiracy theory. I don’t actually believe any of them, but I love exploring them in all of their twisted, crazy-logic detail. So it’s a happy coincidence that a few years ago — before I ever imagined writing this series — I stumbled upon a story about a crazy theory: That serial killers are, in fact, members of a nationwide cult dedicated to upending the social order by means of violent, terrifying acts of murder. In this theory, serial killers aren’t individual actors — they are part of a careful plan to wreak havoc. Obviously, anyone who’s spent more than five minutes with a lunatic serial killer knows that this can’t be the case. But. But what if some serial killers — the highly organized ones, the high-functioning ones — were part of such a conspiracy? And what if Billy Dent was at or near the top of that particular food chain? In the third and fourth books, Jazz — desperate now to uncover the truth behind his mother’s demise — ranges across the country in an attempt to find Billy...and learns of the Collective, a nationwide conspiracy of serial killers dedicated to turning the United States into their own personal hunting preserve, where horrified civilian sheep live lives of mute terror, lorded over and preyed on by their sociopathic masters. Hat and Dog, we learn, were competing to move up the ladder in the Collective’s twisted hierarchy... Jazz must make a crucial decision: Can he sacrifice his own soul to save untold victims? Is he willing to give up his friendship with Howie, his love of Connie, for the greater good? And then there’s the revelation about what Billy did to Jazz’s mother...and why. A revelation that could very well shatter Jazz into a million unrecoverable pieces. The chase intensifies and the revelations come fast and furious as Jazz attempts to navigate a grotesque series of challenges leading him inexorably to a final confrontation with his father and to a final question: Can Jazz kill his own father? Jazz will have to give up everything in his life he’s ever struggled for or dreamed of. His best friend. His girlfriend. The normal life he’s fought for. His soul. An impossible decision. A twisted path to a shocking conclusion. I think people will dig it. (This piece comes from my newsletter, which goes out monthly. For more stuff like this, and to get it first, sign up here!)
Happy to announce the current tour stops for EVERY HUNTER IS HUNTED! I hope to see you there — it’s gonna be a lot of fun!
JUNE 20 - 7:00 PM
WILLIAMSPORT, PA
Otto Bookstore
JUNE 23 - 7:30 PM
MAPLEWOOD, NJ
[words] Bookstore
JUNE 27 - 1:00 PM
OSWEGO, NY
The River's End
JULY 9 - 7:00 PM
PASADENA, CA
Vroman’s
For more information and updates: barrylyga.com/calendar
its unfortunate that artists get talked out of their rare perspectives so often. ‘its just not done that way’ someone says and artist goes ‘oh okay guess ill sand that part off.’ bud that is your SPARK. so much of my success is from holding firm on the things i do that were called ridiculous
this timeline CRAVES your rare perspective. it CRAVES the thing that speaks from your heart but ‘isn’t the way things are done.’ when i talk about ‘what is your story OUTSIDE of the text?’ i am speaking of this. your personal tap into the cosmic is your rare perspective
I will add that many times my publisher (publisher unspecific, I’ve had several) has tried to market my books as cookie cutter and it is always a hideous failure! As it is whenever I try to write stories that conform to trends or received wisdom.
The stories I’ve written that have done best were absolutely out of left field from a marketing perspective.
One of the greatest problems I have is when readers go ‘I expected your book to be just like that other book!’ And I must always say, very gently, ‘Beloved, *I* never told you that.’ (And I was probably down on my knees begging for my publisher not to tell you that either.)
Be the writer that you are, not the writer that you aren’t.
I would have a MUCH different, MUCH more successful and lucrative career had I done things like, say, follow up I HUNT KILLERS with another dark, bloody thriller. Or followed up my very first book with the sequel everyone was dying for.
But doing what people expect is the path to grinding away what makes you unique. You'll make people happy in the short-term, but you'll kill your creativity and lose your audience in the long-term.
"Follow your muse" is just the ancient Greeks' way of saying, "Trust your talent and zig when they all say zag."
i know that in the grand scheme of things it is very silly to debate archvillain characters’ sexualities, but with that disclaimer out of the way, in general i like the idea of mighty mike not really knowing what’s going on with himself. is he ace? straight? bi? pan? he is the last person you should ask about that. HOWEVER, i can’t deny the comedy potential of kyle coming out as gay and mike immediately also coming out as gay, making headlines and totally taking all of the attention off of kyle.
Well, SHIT!
I totally should have done that.
Serial Killer of the Month: Luis Alfredo Garavito
Way back in my July 2024 newsletter, I talked about Gilles de Rais, a French knight who palled around with Joan of Arc and enjoyed molesting and murdering young boys. Well, folks, we have found our modern-day Gilles de Rais. Luis Alfredo Garavito was so awful that he actually prompted Colombia to change its laws around incarceration! Like de Rais, Garavito targeted children. Like de Rais, he was seen as a harmless, generous benefactor to those living in the poorer areas of Colombia. And like de Rais, he was luring kids in with promises of a better life, then torturing and murdering them. In the hundreds. After decades of this, he was finally caught and police were astounded when he led them to grave after grave after grave… Garavito was sentenced to almost two thousand years in prison! But sentencing and serving are two different things. See, Colombia not only does not have the death penalty (and good on them!), but it also has no provision in its legal system for life in prison! By statute, the longest anyone can actually serve in prison in Colombia is forty years. And since Garavito helped the police find all those bodies, his sentence was reduced to twenty-two years. Meaning he would be released in 2023, at which point he declared he would…run for public office…in order to help abused children… I can’t even. Luckily for the decent people of Colombia, Garavito died in a hospital in 2023. Almost like an ironic universe decided to give him life in prison after all, eh? But the prospect of Garavito back on the streets was so inflammatory, so outrageous to Colombians that the law was changed. It is now possible to sentence someone to up to sixty years in prison. Which still isn’t life, but gets a lot closer. (This piece comes from my newsletter, which goes out monthly. For more stuff like this, and to get it first, sign up here!)
Physics: Time travel is technically impossible due to such issues as--
Mark Waid: Say less.
listen. i am not in favor of suicide baiting. however, kyle camden is a twelve year old in 2013 with a really specific grudge against one guy. and so I therefore must conclude that kyle camden would absolutely tell mighty mike to kill himself.
Not only would he tell Mike to kill himself (with great enthusiasm and probably ten-syllable words), but he would also insist on observing because he wouldn’t trust Mike to do the job right.
Outtakes from My Interview with Michael Uslan
For the inaugural issue of Socko! Magazine, I was asked to write a profile of Michael Uslan, the man who owns the movie rights to Batman and who arguably kicked off the modern superhero movie bonanza with 1989's Batman. You can read the profile in Socko! I spoke to Uslan for about 90 minutes, and sadly a lot of what we talked about couldn't fit into the constraints of the profile. So I'm publishing some lightly edited outtakes here, along with a very, very tiny amount of commentary when needed for clarity. Enjoy! On When and How His Love of Comics and Batman Began: I was about four years old, and the only reason I know that is that my mom said I learned to read from comics before I was four. And earliest recollection of seeing Batman was in Bayonne — Irv's luncheonette on Avenue A. My dad had given my brother, Paul, a quarter and a nickel and told us to go down to the candy store and get some comic books or baseball cards or something. And we walked into that place and I saw an entire wall, which to me at age five, was floor to ceiling. I'm not sure if that was accurate, but that's what it was to me. And Paul me on his shoulders and up. The first comic book with Batman I saw, which I thought was scary, was a Detective Comics that had the Batmobile that looked like an assault tank. So it's like 1956. And, I was very, very comfortable with Superman because he was on TV five days a week. And, if memory serves me correctly, I bought either the first or second issue of Sugar And Spike and a Superman comic because at age five Batman was too scary for me until I was a much more mature and sophisticated seven.... On His Early Fandom: I was 12 when I discovered comic book fandom was a thing that had started and was just starting to grow a little bit. And I became a subscriber to, Alter Ego fanzine, the Rocket’s Blast, Comic Collector…The Comic Reader. And I realized, oh my God, there's actually other human beings besides me who are so into comic books and superheroes. As a result of all of that, two great things happened for me. Number one, my parents took me to the first ever comic-con, when I was 13. It was a life changing experience where 200 of us showed up for that con. There's still a couple of us left standing, you know, what is it 60 or 61 years later? Maggie Thompson and I have not missed a year. Roy was there. I think Marv Wolfman and Len Wein were there. Stan was afraid to come. There were adults going to this comic book convention and figured they had to be, you know, complete social outcasts…. So he sent his assistant, Flo Steinberg, and an intern to show up. That's where I met Bill Finger for the first of two times. And my first mentor into the world of comic books, the golden age, was…Otto Binder, who was an amazing prolific writer of science fiction, pulps, and comics. And he kind of took me and my friend Bobby under his wing. On His Parents’ Garage: By the time I graduated high school, I had over 30,000 comic books dating back to 1936. And, yeah, it's a classic story. My parents never got their car in the garage. Not once. On When He Decided He Just HAD to Own Batman: It was a cold night in January 12, 1966. I was 14 years old. I was a fan. I had met Bill Finger twice. I had met Bob Kane. And I knew straight from the horse's mouth what their vision was when they created Batman in 1939. He was a creature of the night. He was dark. He was battling these disturbed villains in the shadows. I was so excited when the Batman TV series was coming on the air… It could have been six months in advance when the word first leaked out. Anything I could find having to do with that TV show, I would clip out and I would stand by ABC like day and night, just waiting for a commercial. And then the day came. And my reaction initially with my friends, Bobby and Barry there in the basement den of my parents' house was, “Okay. That looks like Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson kind of artwork in the opening. It's in color.” The Batcave, the sets were extravagant for the day. The Batmobile was really cool. And I went in on cloud nine and crashed 20 minutes in when it hit me that this was a comedy and that they had, in my humble opinion, made a joke out of Batman. And I thought the whole world is laughing at Batman right now. That killed me. And at the end of that, when Bobby and Barry and I were talking about it, I made a vow. Just like young Bruce Wayne once made a vow. But he made his vow over the bloody slaughter bodies of his parents in the street — mine were safe in the kitchen upstairs. I said, somehow, someday, some way I will show the world a true Batman. On ZAP POW WHAM! By the end of the first episode, I wanted to wipe words like pow, zap, and wham out of the vernacular of the collective consciousness of the world culture. On Robin as a Reader-Insert: It's bull because nobody I know ever identified with Robin. God help me. God help me. You were playing Batman on the playground. The oldest, biggest guy would be Batman. And then you'd go down the ranks and they would be villains. And whoever was left at the end got stuck playing Robin. On Villains: Stan Lee said to me, “You know, Michael, you always have to remember that the super villains are equally important to the superheroes because ultimately they define the superheroes.” And he was right. And Batman had the greatest rogues gallery in history and unarguably the greatest villain ever created. The only two characters for me who ever came anywhere near striking distance were Spider-Man and Flash. But Batman was in a class by himself. On What Prepared Him to Fulfill His Vow: My parents. My mom and my dad were incredible. They sacrificed everything for me and my brother. And whether they had a son like my brother who was a superstar in all of his sports or a strange, geeky kid with weird interests, they were always fully supportive of us. My dad was a stonemason. And he had to drop out of high school when he was 16 in order to go to work and help his family survive the Depression. My dad worked six days a week until he was 80. And the only reason he stopped then was my mom got sick. My father loved what he did. He woke up every morning before dawn, big smile on his face, couldn't wait to get to work because he was an old world artist. He was a craftsman. When you grow up in a house like that, how could you not want that? How could you not want to wake up on a rainy Monday morning and say, “I can't wait to get to work?” My dad, he was out there every day. It didn't matter if it was 95 degrees with New Jersey humidity. If it was snowing, he'd build a fire and keep going. So in high school, Paul and I worked summers for him on his crew. It was horrible. And that's when my dad said to me, “You need to find your bricks and stones. Discover your passion, follow your passion.” And for me, it was very crystal clear. It was comic books. It was superheroes. It was movies, TV, animation. I'm a baby boomer of the pop culture world, of the explosion of television and going to movies every Saturday. And, you know, that really was the first part of this journey. Follow your passion. Second part was all my mom. For her, everything was about perseverance. Everything was about not giving up, trying your hardest, honor and integrity. On His Mother: I was eight years old and I had joined Little League. We were just all starting out. I could barely swing a bat. And this one day at a game, I struck out three times. And at the end of the game, the coach (who to me was this adult, he was probably a college kid) he pulled me aside with two other kids who had struck out during the game. And he brought us over to the side, . And he started screaming in my face. He said, “You struck out three times. You cost us the game. You look like a clown out there. Get the hell out of my sight.” I was eight. I went , crying hysterically. And my mom, who had radar, she always knew when something was wrong. She knew about it. I'm up there crying. She goes, what's the matter? What's going on? And I told her what happened. And I said, “I'm never going back. I hate him. I hate baseball. I hate Little League.” And she said to me, “You are going back.” I started to get hysterical. She goes, “This is never going to happen again. I'm going to talk to your coach. And I promise you, this will never, ever happen again. But Michael, you made a promise to your team that you would show up for the practices and the games.” And that's when she explained to me what integrity and honor were. And she said, in our family, honor counts for everything. And you have to fulfill your commitment that you made. You do not have to play next year. But you have to fulfill . Now, sometimes when we make a commitment and we have to fulfill it, it can be painful. But you have to learn how to accept and deal with that pain. But you have to fulfill your commitment.” Everything about perseverance and integrity was through my mom. On Achieving His Goal: Was It Everything He Dreamed Of? No, of course not. Case in point: Batman and Robin. On That Batman movie… What I learned when I got into the movie business is that a lot of times writers and creative people give their babies up for adoption. And that the way the industry is structured, the rights to characters ultimately have to be assigned to the corporations that are funding it, which becomes the collateral for the loans and all the money that goes in. And you do that subject to a contract. But in doing so, ultimately, unless your name is Steven Spielberg, or now Chris Nolan, they have final say. It's now their football and they can go with it if they want. So, Batman and Robin was the lowest point of my career. It was Batman and Robin and Catwoman. I tried my hardest to stop those movies from being made. Even though it was against my own financial interests. I was stricken when I read the script to those two movies. And my partner in Batman, Ben Melniker, who was a legend in the business, he was my father's age. In the Tiffany days of MGM, Ben was the executive vice president who all divisions reported to. He chaired their film selection committee. He pulled together the movies, Ben-Hur, Dr. Zhivago, 2001, Gigi, and their musicals. And Ben was trying to assuage me. And he said, “Michael, if everything you've been telling them is true, they're going to get bitten on the ass by this. And if they get bitten, not so hard that it kills the franchise forever, but if they get bitten, the next time they're going to have to do it your way.” Which leads us to… On Chris Nolan: When I look back now from this perspective and think of the pain that I experienced during that part of my career, was it worth it? Absolutely. Because that's what got us to Chris Nolan. So when you measure one against the other, absolutely. Ben was right. On Annie(?): When I bought the rights, I went out to Hollywood thinking everybody was going to line up at my doorstep, seeing the potential for animation, toys, games, sequels. And I got turned down by every single studio in Hollywood. They said I was crazy. They said it was the worst idea they ever heard. You can't do dark superheroes. You can't do comic book movies. You can't make a movie out of an old TV series. We've been rejected by everyone. And there was a lot of money at stake with a time clock ticking in my head. And our last pitch ultimately would be to Columbia. The guy who we pitched to had been there decades. And he was an old crony of Ben's from like the 1940s or fifties. And I pitched my heart out for my dark and serious Batman movie. And says, “Michael, Batman will never be successful as a movie because our movie, Annie, isn't doing well." “Are you talking about the little redhead girl who from Broadway who sings the song tomorrow?” He goes, “Yeah.” I go, “Well, what does that have to do with Batman?” He said, “Oh, come on, Michael. They're both out of the funny pages. Nobody wants to see a cartoon character walking and talking in real life.” On the Deal that Almost Happened and the Near-Return of Pow! Zap! Wham!: And so after a little bit, he turns to Ben and says, “Look, Ben, we go back a long way. If you boys really, really are passionate about making a Batman movie, I will consider it. But it has to be that funny pot belly, pow, zap, wham guy from TV, because that's the only Batman audiences will remember and love. And I said no. And with that, he pulls his chair right up to me, leans in and says, “Son, better to have a movie made than no movie at all.” And I looked at him. I never even looked at Ben. I looked at him. I said no. And the meeting was over. And now on a bench on the lot. And I am at my lowest point. I knew that was our last major studio. On Buying the Batman Rights at Age Twenty-Seven: You can't begin to comprehend this without setting it in a historical context of the times. Anybody today would say the story is ridiculous. It's impossible. It's impossible. So let me take you back to circa 1979. I was told by the head of Warner Communications one day that the only reason they actually bought DC Comics was to get their hands on Superman because they felt Superman was the one and only comic book character capable of being turned into a blockbuster movie. They believed that the rest of the library had no value. Marvel had no value. And regarding Batman and Wonder Woman, they had both done their thing in the 60s and 70s. And that was it. They were done. They were done. So. We have that as the context. Second part of the context of this in the 70s into the 80s: The people who were, quote unquote, running Hollywood, studio execs, agents, some directors, producers, they were of an adult generation that had grown up kind of either fearing comic books because of the scare of the 1950s, in which comic books were accused of being the cause of the post World War II rise of juvenile delinquency in America, or they were dismissive of comic books as purely kiddie fare for little kids. It was so bad. It was so bad. Stan Lee used to tell me this story. He said, “Michael, in the 50s and into the first half of the 60s, at least, I'd be invited to some cocktail party in New York. And I'd be there and all these, you know, well-to-do people were around. And somebody would say to me in a group, 'So Stan, what do you do?'" And he said, “I would say, I'm a writer. And then I would quickly excuse myself, walk away. And then they would follow me and they would say, ‘Oh, you're a writer. How great. What do you write?’ ‘I write children's literature.’” And then he would walk over to the hors d'oeuvre table and he said they would follow him. And they go, “That's wonderful. What books do you have you written?” And he goes, “Well, I write comic books.” And then they walked away. So that was the atmosphere. And that was the level of the executives I had to pitch to. So it was either comic books are bad for kids or comic books are only for little kids. So why sink money into a blockbuster movie or franchise if only little kids would go to see it? On How He Got the Rights, and Batman in Space: I was working directly as Sol ’s assistant. He was my mentor there more than anybody else. Ultimately, Julie Schwartz and Denny O'Neill. I was also close with Murray Boltinoff, Bob Kanigher, a number of the other editors, but that was the scenario. And I remember saying to Sol at some point what I wanted to do. And he smiled. He was kind enough not to laugh. He said, “Michael, nobody's interested . You don't have to worry , but you do need credentials. Someday when you have credentials, you'll come back and we can talk about it.” So when I finished college, I sent out 372 resumes to try to get a creative job in the industry. And I got offered two jobs, one working in the mail room at William Morris. Another one was working as a PA for a producer in L.A. They were paying $95 a week. I had just gotten married. I didn't think we could live in either LA or New York on $95 a week. So plan B, I went to law school. And I took whatever courses I could find having anything to do with entertainment or media. Happily, one of my professors sponsored me for six hours of credit and I wrote a master's thesis on copyright infringement in the comic book industry. So, out of law school, I got a job at United Artists in New York, which at that time was one of the major movie studios. And I was put in charge of legal business, financial affairs of different movies as they were being developed and produced, including the first three Rocky movies, Black Stallion, Raging Bull. And for two and a half years of my life, Apocalypse Now, which was a crisis every damn day. I didn't want to be trapped as being a lawyer. it's graduate school; I'll do it for four years. I'll learn everything I can about how you produce and finance movies. I will network like a madman, but at the end of four years, I'm going to quit. And I will either be writing and producing movies, TV, and animation, or I'll be delivering pizza for Domino's, but I will not be trapped being a lawyer for the rest of my life. So as I hit the three and a half year mark, I went back and had a meeting with Sol. I said, “Sol, I want to buy the rights to Batman and I want to make dark and serious Batman movies and show the world.” He looked exactly like the poster to the movie Home Alone. He said, “Michael, for God's sake, you're not really thinking of doing this, are you? Don't you understand that since Batman went off the air on TV, the brand has been dead as a dodo?” And I'm going, “But Sol, I think this is going to be a new form of entertainment. Nobody's ever seen this before. Nobody's ever seen a serious comic book movie with dark superheroes. He shook his head and he goes, “Michael, is there any way I can talk you out of this?” And I said, “No, I made a vow. I made a vow.” And then here's another direct quote. “Okay, schmoozle. Come on.” That began a six month negotiation between them and me and Ben, and that gave us just enough time to raise money privately. Now, all the people who wound up investing in this, none of them knew a damn thing about Batman. None of them read comic books. They were investing in me. They were investing in my passion and my perseverance. So I had that responsibility on my shoulders. I had a responsibility to Batman. For the integrity of the character of Batman. And I had a personal responsibility to Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson, as the creators. To honor their integrity. And I felt it every day. It wasn't just about getting a movie made. As Ben said to me, on that day on the bench after Columbia, he said, “You just passed up a lot of money. You just said no to getting your first movie done by a major movie studio just to protect Batman.” So, you know, it sounds hokey, but but it's really been true. On Being Laughed At: Here's another thing I found out years later — the folks at Warner Communications were having a really good laugh. Because I had to put up the equal of the Superman money. That's what they demanded. It was like this kid’s giving us the Superman money for something that's totally worthless. On Dick Donner and Superman: The Movie: I am the biggest fan of Dick Donner and none of this would be happening without Dick Donner having been the trailblazer of everything. But when you look at the first Superman movie, the Krypton stuff is really serious. Darkness to it. But I'm telling you the moment he gets to Metropolis, the complete the tone of the whole thing .
There’s going to be a new Jasper Dent book? I have to wait until JUNE???
So close…! We’re almost there!
Brooooooooce!
Last night, I went to the angriest rock concert I’ve ever attended and it was goddamn glorious. Bruce Springsteen doesn’t like Donald Trump, he doesn’t like what’s happening to America, and he’s fine to talk about it. And blow out your eardrums in the process.
After a quick, intense introductory rant/verbal essay, he launched immediately into Edwin Starr’s classic “War,” the cover to which on the legendary 1975-85 box set is what turned yours truly into a certified Boss-fanatic back in the day. From then on, it was two hours of Bruce’s angriest songs, an unrelenting and unstinting critique of our current American moment. Like I said: goddamn glorious. You can’t hear “Youngstown,” followed by “Murder Incorporated,” followed by “American Skin (41 Shots)” without feeling that peculiar blend of rage and patriotism.
"Whose crimes go still unpunished now" After a quick, intense introductory rant/verbal essay, he launched immediately into Edwin Starr’s classic “War,” the cover to which on the legendary 1975-85 box set is what turned yours truly into a certified Boss-fanatic back in the day. From then on, it was two hours of Bruce’s angriest songs, an unrelenting and unstinting critique of our current American moment. Goddamn glorious. You can’t hear “Youngstown,” followed by “Murder Incorporated,” followed by “American Skin (41 Shots)” without feeling that peculiar blend of rage and patriotism.
"I pray the devil comes and takes me to stand in the fiery furnaces of hell"
"You can get killed just for living in your American skin" And then when he sings “Long Walk Home” (slowing down to make sure everyone hears the lyric “Your flag flying over the courthouse/Means certain things are set in stone/Who we are, what we'll do and what we won’t”), you just want to set things on fire. In the most constructive possible way, of course.
"It's gonna be a long walk home" Before his hour-long encore, Bruce wrapped up the theme of the evening with “Land of Hope and Dreams,” reminding us all that there is something worth fighting for even in our present benighted landscape. Then he rocked the hell out of the joint with crowd-pleasers “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” before finishing out the evening with Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom.”
"The criminal clown has stolen the throne"
Bruce told the audience that this tour hadn’t been planned. It became a necessity because he needed to feel the hope and faith of his audience in these trying times. It’s a two-way street, Boss. We needed you, too.
And special thanks to my wife for surprising me with the tickets!
I Hunt Killers...in Ukraine!
It seems odd to me that a foreign publisher would suddenly be interested in a book from (gulp) 2012. But interested they are! And I had an unexpectedly emotional reaction to the news. You see, my grandfather was a first-generation American, and his parents had fled to the U.S. from — yep — Ukraine. I had never seen my name written in Ukrainian before, and now I have, and, well, it’s just really cool. I think my grandfather would have been proud.
From My Hard Drive: The End of the Monday Man!
Y'all! I messed up so bad! Back in January, I offered up the first part of a never-written novel set in the Smallville universe, promising to give you the second part in February. But then February was the big cover reveal for Every Hunter is Hunted and when I did March's newsletter, I completely forgot my promise and shoveled my dumb Swamp Thing/Legion of Super-Heroes fanfic at you! Anyway, with apologies, here's the rest of The Monday Man... Whatever had landed in the north field, it must have been amazing. Jonathan couldn’t remember the last time he’d been able to sneak up on Clark, no less driving the pick-up truck. He had first run into the house to tell Martha what was happening, urging her to stall any police or fire personnel who might show up at the farm. Then he’d hopped into the truck and set out for the north field, bouncing and shaking over the plowed-up rows and hillocks as he went. Clark was climbing out of the crater when he pulled up. Jonathan jumped out of the truck — the engine still running — and ran to his son’s side, but Clark didn’t move, didn’t acknowledge him at all. He was staring down into the pit. “Son?” Jonathan put a hand on Clark’s shoulder. His first concern had to be Clark. “Clark? You all right?” Clark jerked as if shocked by a live wire. His eyes, normally so expressive and vulnerable, now looked hollow and almost frightened. Confused. “I can’t believe it,” he said after a moment. “It’s just...” He trailed off, shaking his head. Jonathan hunkered down to look into the pit. The spaceship lay on one side, its top ripped off and set on the ground nearby. Inside... Jonathan squinted. It couldn’t be. Inside the ship, lying in what looked like a large, form-fitting cushion of some sort, was a young man, a few years older than Clark. College age. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be sleeping or unconscious, but unharmed and peaceful. Jonathan could see why Clark was so shaken. Never mind the uncanny coincidence of another ship bearing a passenger — the man in the ship bore a strong resemblance to Clark himself. Jonathan had the feeling that — if it weren’t absolutely impossible — he could be looking at his son’s distant cousin. He was wearing — “Dad, this is... It’s...” For the first time, Jonathan realized that Clark was well and truly rattled. And who could blame him? He stood and put an arm around Clark’s shoulders to steady him, then glanced back into the crater. The passenger wore shiny blue boots that came to his shins, red leggings, and a matching red tunic that zipped up the front. But oddest of all, he also wore a cape. (This piece comes from my newsletter, which goes out monthly. For more stuff like this, and to get it first, sign up here!)
What Am I Enjoying?: Affinity Studio
I am not a professional designer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do love noodling around with design. For years, I used the Affinity suite of apps, and recently -- after an acquisition by Canva -- Affinity made its apps free...and combined them all into big ol' honkin' mega-app that does photos, illustration, and layout. I like it and it's fun to play with. And hey, it's free, so maybe try it out. (This piece comes from my newsletter, which goes out monthly. For more stuff like this, and to get it first, sign up here!)
