Please allow me to present several things that I am quite looking forward to.
First up is the new album from Danny Michel. This should come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog at all regularly–I hardly hide the fact that I’m pretty much a fanboy for Danny’s stuff. However, reading some of Danny’s announcements about the work on this album makes me anticipate it even more. To wit:
I’m locked in deep 12 hour days recording my 1st indie solo album since Valhalla. having an absolute blast. Working at my speed, spending entire afternoons on one guitar solo, digging up crazy old instruments that barley work & breathing life into them. Really happy with how its going. A little more “rock” than I thought it was gonna be. But also the most eclectic work I’ve done so far. This thing is all over the road.
If he’s saying that, I’m extra excited. I love it when the artists follow the art where it wants to go, rather than consciously try to do something marketable.
Next up, and almost as exciting to me is the news that Top Shelf are planning to do a number of Eddie Campbell
The Alec books are some of my favourite comics, and the idea that they will all (well, all except the most recent Fate Of The Artist–which, incidentally was my pick for Best Comic of 2006) be easily available in one place is thrilling.
You can definitely see Campbell progressing from a talented beginner to a proper comics genius in reading this material. He starts out as a good storyteller who captures the sense of a place and of his characters. Over the years he grows from that into the kind of master storyteller who can both tell an interesting story about specific characters and make that story into something that speaks to the experiences of “everyman”. He ends up connecting with the audience in a much deeper way and making them both feel and think in response to his art.
I think I’ve managed to get all this material over the years, or at least all of it that has been collected, but the solicitation for the omnibus promises “all the stories from THE KING CANUTE CROWD, THREE PIECE SUIT, HOW TO BE AN ARTIST, AFTER THE SNOOTER, as well as the very early out-of-print ALEC stories and tons of bonus material”, so in addition to the all-in-one-place convenience I’ve got the early stuff and the bonus material to look forward too.
It’s kind of cruel for them to announce this and then say they’ll deliver it sometime in 2009. I guess I’ll have to work on enjoying the anticipation.
Top Shelf has also announced plans to collect all of Campbell’s Bacchus books in a two-volume omnibus in 2010. I’ll be getting that as well, although I’m much more excited about the Alec volume.
And while I’m talking Campbell, I’m also anticipating the release of his latest book The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard later this year, which he’s be talking a little bit about on his eminently readable blog.
Speaking of people who have been mentioned here many times, that brings me to Martha Wells. I’ve been quite worried that after her latest trilogy–which I quite enjoyed, but which apparently didn’t sell enough like hotcakes–she was going to end up another casualty of the shrinking midlist. That would have saddened me greatly, since I have all her novels, and have enjoyed them all. Also, I think each shows an improvement in craft, which means I anticipate each new one with greater intensity.
Anyway, I was thus quite pleased to read this on her LiveJournal:
The big thing:
People have been asking me if I’m writing a new fantasy novel, and I haven’t been answering, partly because my hands hurt and partly because I didn’t want to jinx myself, since the last two times I talked about prospective novels on here something went terribly wrong, so I wanted to wait until it was closer to being done. I started a new fantasy novel in May of 2007, it’s a new world, stand-alone, and it’s not too far from being done. I’m not going to describe it yet, I may wait until after it’s finished to do that.
86536 / 120000 words. 72% done!
That image over there is the cover of her earlier work The Death Of The Necromancer, which is the one I usually recommend to get people interested in her work. It’s hard to go wrong when your hero is a mix of Professor Moriarty and the Count of Monte Cristo, and that’s before the necromancer gets involved…
I should also note that I ordered a custom anthology from AnthologyBuilder primarily as an excuse to get her three stories, although I filled it up with other good stuff while I was there. I’m hoping that she will put her Ile-Rien shorts on there so I have an excuse to order another anthology–certainly the list of choices from all contributing authors is growing at a nice rate.
And then there’s this:
Normally I’m not a big fan of adaptations, but I think it’s actually possible to do a decent Solomon Kane movie now. And they have Marc Antony from Rome as Kane–that could really work.
While you’re waiting with me for that feature, and hoping it will be good, be sure to check out The Return of Sir Richard Grenville, a short film based on Howard‘s poem of the same name.
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