Ho Ho Ho! Buffalo Avenue Books for Under a Buck

The price for my three ebooks on Smashwords.com is now .99¢ each...

The Same Old Story
The pulps were dead. Comic books were dying. Now the writing business has turned deadly! When two men working for the same comic book company die under mysterious circumstances only two days apart, writer Max Wiser, son of a NYPD homicide cop, can’t help trying to find the story behind the story...and falling for the beautiful blonde with connections to both victims! 

In My Shorts: Hitler's Bellhop and Other Stories
Six short stories by the author of Two Tales of Atlantis, including a savage look at the dark side of creativity (“Food for the Beast”) and the comedy screenplay that Jerry Lewis never wrote but might have (“Hitler’s Bellhop”), with stops along the way to fight vampire squirrels, live the life of a superhero, visit a graveyard, and bow before the zombie king. 

Two Tales of Atlantis
Two stories by the writer/creator of DC Comics’ Arion, Lord of Atlantis. In “Walk Upon the Waters,” the sorcerer Thalis sails hostile seas in the last battle for Atlantis. In “Passed Lives,” an aging peasant awakens in the middle of her life to realize she is Thalis’ reincarnated lover and leaves her family to go war to find him...and learn which of her two hearts she will follow. 

Me and Sergio Down By The Schoolyard

Of Springdale Elementary School, that is!

My story "Model Citizen Simpson" (with art by James Lloyd and Dan Davis) shares the pages of Bongo Comics' Simpsons Comics Presents Bart Simpson #64 (now on sale!) with my friend, the legendary Sergio Aragones' tale, "An Easy Assignment," as well as Peter Kuper's "Viva La Bart!"

Even if you could care less about me, how can you pass up a comic book featuring both Sergio and Peter, two MAD Magazine mainstays? And, while I'm at it, I recommend another Bongo title: Sergio Aragones Funnies, a monthly mag of mayhem and mirth, all by Sergio hisself.

99¢

Everybody else is having a holiday sale, so why shouldn't I? I've lowered the price of my novel, The Same Old Story on Amazon.com for the Kindle to 99¢. I hope you'll take advantage of my holiday-induced genorosity.

Click here to order ebook

It's 1951 and the comic book industry is undergoing a recession that's sent half the writers and artists in New York to the streets scrambling for the work that remains. Among that number is writer Max Wiser, former pulp scribe and son of a legendary N.Y.P.D. homicide cop, on whose life Wiser based his bestselling pulp stories. When the industry's top writer dies in an accidental drunken tumble from a subway train that proves to have been murder, Max is plunged into a world of lies and conspiracy...discovering that there is often a fine line between real life and the pulp fiction around which he has built his life. Especially after the beautiful blonde mistress of the murdered man works her way into his life...and as the death toll mounts, Max Wiser learns that even in the cliche-ridden world of comics and the pulps, there's really no such thing as The Same Old Story...

It's an ABSOLUTELY MAD, Mad, Mad, Mad World

A retailer friend tells me he's found a stash of the out-of-print ABSOLUTE MAD: 53 YEARS OF MAD MAGAZINE ON DVD-ROM, which includes every issue of the magazine from 1952-2006, over 600 issues, on a single disk. As I was DC Comics' in-house editorial liaison with the publisher of the disk I can vouch for its coolness (like, it allow you to actually fold-in Al Jaffee's Fold-Ins!), and while supplies last, as they say, you can get a brand-new, in-the-box copy for $39.99, plus shipping.

It's Black Friday...buy a beloved MAD one the perfect Holiday Gift, right here on eBay!

You can tell them I sent you but nobody really cares.

The New York Times Thinks Everything's Archie!

According to The New York Times' Book Section, the Archie: The Married Life graphic novel is a "Graphic Novel Worthy of Being A Gift." The article, "A Superhero For Your Stocking" by George Gene Gustines was published today and it reads something like this:

"Something exciting is happening in Riverdale, the longtime home of Archie Andrews. In THE MARRIED LIFE (Archie Comics, $19.99), written by Michael Uslan and Paul Kupperberg and illustrated by Norm Breyfogle, Archie has futures: one with Betty as his wife, the other with Veronica. It’s not all malt shops and sock hops: the gang must deal with a lousy economy, Veronica’s meddling father (in both plotlines) and the nagging thought that their best days may have been in high school."

We are in fine company with books like LIFE WITH MR. DANGEROUS, by Paul Hornschemeier, THE WALKING DEAD, by Robert Kirkman, GREEN RIVER KILLER: A TRUE DETECTIVE STORY by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case, MARVEL FIRSTS: THE 1960S, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby et al, and others.

Stick that in your stocking and stuff it!

Images from a New Jersey Comicon (NJ Comic Expo, Teaneck NJ)

"Some days you can't get rid of a bomb!"

The Dynamic Duo and the Jaunty Jew

Ready to take off aboard the Batcopter!

With artist and DC VP/Art Director, Mark Chiarello

Mark Chiarello, Captain Action Enterprises' Ed Catto, and cartoonist/letterer Rick Parker

And speaking of Captain Action

Writer and one-time DC Comics' production manager, Bob Rozakis

Lee Meriwether, Catwoman in the 1966 BATMAN movie, autographs the Batcopter from the same film

My pal (and collaborator) Jim Beard, editor of Sequential Arts' GOTHAM CITY 14 MILES, to which I contributed an essay

Golden Age great and DONDI creator, the inimitable Irwin Hasen

Artist and one-time DC production artist, Steve Manion, with Papercutz editor/publisher Jim Salicrup, and Una McGurk

"Rest easy, citizens!"

NJ Comic Expo (November 12-13)

I'll be a guest at this weekend's upcoming NJ Comic Expo and Batvention, celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Batman TV show at the Teaneck Armory, Teaneck NJ, November 12 - 13.

Also appearing are a beevy of fabulous femmes from the Batman TV show, including Catwoman Lee Meriwether, Terry Moore, Sherry Jackson, Donna Loren, and others. And if that weren't cool enough, the Batmobile and Batcopter will be on display, and Saturday night the convention hosts a screening of the 1966 Batman movie, with Ms. Meriwether appearing to share her memories of working on that film.

On the comics side, guests include legendary Golden Age and Dondi artist, the delightful Irwin Hasen, DC VP and art director, the equally fabulous and delightful Mark Chiarello, writer Danny Fingeroth (not so fabulous, but delightful nonetheless), artists Mark McKenna and Bob Wiacek, former DC writer and production manager, the legendarily fabulous Bob Rozakis, Joel Eisner (author of The Official Batman Batbook), and my pal Jim Beard, with whom I'll be appearing on a panel discussing Gotham City 14 Miles, the Sequential Arts book about the Batman TV show to which I contributed an essay.

I'll have a table so I'll be on hand both days to say hi, talk, sign, whatever. Hope to see you there!

Scooby D'OH!

Despite the cover story "The Strange Case of Dorian Wormwood" being credited to writer Robert Kupperberg, the lead story in Scooby Doo, Where Are You? #15 was written by me, Robert's evil twin.

Look, I've only been writing for DC since 1975 and working on Scooby Doo since 2008 or so. It's going to take them a while to learn my name, I suppose...