Barry Reese

The Green Hornet Casefiles is now out – with my story “Summer of Death” included! Head over to Moonstone or Amazon to buy 4 or 5 copies now!

I usually do these on Mondays but a quick glance over at Amazon showed some interesting results so I figured I’d post them early. The bestselling Barry Reese titles on amazon.com are:

1) Rabbit Heart

2) How the West Was Weird, Volume One

3) How the West Was Weird, Volume Two

4) The Avenger: Justice Inc Files

5) The Rook Volume Six

Glad to see Rabbit Heart doing so well! It’s rarely in the top five.

The first volume in the Lazarus Gray series is almost here! Coming from Pro Se Productions, this first volume has seven short stories featuring the mysterious Lazarus Gray and his associates, Assistance  Unlimited. Their debut story (“The Girl With the Phantom Eyes”) was a nominee for Best Short Story in the 2011 Pulp Ark Awards! I’m very proud of the book, which will feature an Anthony Castrillo cover and George Sellas interior illustrations.

It never *really* went away, of course, but boy is it ever at the forefront now. Yesterday saw Dynamite Entertainment that they were reviving The Shadow in comics. With the John Carter movie coming from Pixar, lots of new pulp prose and comic releases coming from virtually everywhere, it’s a great time to be a pulp fan. Here’s some of what I’m most excited about:

1) John Carter of Mars – Coming from Pixar (their first live-action film), this looks really good.

2) The Shadow – Dynamite isn’t my favorite publisher but they’ve done some good things in the past. As long as they show more respect for the property than DC did with Doc Savage, I’ll be happy.

3) Doc Savage – Though I wish these books cost less, the first in the series was a tremendous read and I’m stoked to see where author Will Murray goes from here.

By the way, there’s a new edition of Table Talk out there — I doubt this one will generate as much controversy as the last one but hey, you never know,  lol.

When I wrote the very first Rook story (“Lucifer’s Cage”), I never knew that the mask I gave our hero would prove so challenging. Here’s how I described it for the very first time:

“On his face was a small domino mask affixed with a birdlike beak over the nose.”

Easy enough, right? But the mask has been interpreted in various ways over the years, with some folks adding wings on the sides, some dispensing with the beak entirely, etc. I’ve enjoyed seeing the various takes on the mask and believe that artistic interpretation is fun. Besides, there’s nothing to say that The Rook doesn’t have several variant masks stashed in his closet.

Here’s a few different looks he’s had :

Storn Cook’s Version

Ver Curtiss’s Version

Anthony Castrillo’s Version

Ed Mironiuk’s Version

So what’s been your favorite?

I’ve gotten several questions lately about The Green Hornet and Avenger books from Moonstone. I have stories in each (“Summer of Death” and “The Devil’s Workmen,” respectively). The proposed release dates for each have been pushed back a few times and, according to Amazon right now, both are slated to finally see print in September. That’s all I know.

It was incredibly awesome to work on both of these legendary characters and I’m as excited as anyone to finally see them on the shelves. The Avenger is my all-time favorite pulp character so working on that one was a dream come true.

Good things come to those who wait… So let’s all be patient!

A wonderful tribute to one of the all-time great pulp characters. Doc is back in all-new novels written by Will Murray. The first of them, The Desert Demons, is out now.