Two Reasons to Hit a Comic Shop Today

1. Chances are, your local comic shop is giving away a sweet little bit of Marvel swag: an April calendar featuring the big "Secret Invasion" event. But on the back (or the front, depending on how it's folded) is a March calendar featuring Cable. I grabbed a bunch yesterday, and forced my kids to hang one in their room. Hey, promotion knows no bounds. And if the big mutant with the glowing eye gives them nightmares... well, that's just part of the joy of childhood. (Remind to tell you sometime about the evil clown my father painted on my bedroom wall... one with real seatbelts for arms, that came out of the freakin' wall...)

2. Ed Brubaker's Criminal Vol. 2 #1 hit the racks yesterday. If you're a fan of Hard Case Crime and Gold Medal paperbacks and Cain and Thompson and Goodis and the gang, you can't afford to miss this hardboiled pulp noir comic. And if you're a newbie, this issue is the perfect place to dive in: "Second Chance in Hell" is a self-contained story, packed with more pages than the usual Criminal installment. I'm also proud to report that my short essay about David Goodis, "Knock Me Over," is included in the back, along with an amazing Sean Phillips illustration. This essay won't appear anywhere else, and the extras aren't reprinted in the trades.

So to recap: walk into a comic shop with $3.50, and walk out with a cool poster, a killer noir story, and a little noir essay by your friendly neighborhood Pole. Tell me a better deal than that and I'll buy you a hot dog.

F*cking Up Someone Else's Day

Over at Noir Originals today, Al "Sunshine" Guthrie posted "The Plumber's Union," an interview with Tom Piccirilli. My favorite exchange:

AG: With the recent release of The Fever Kill and the impending publication of The Cold Spot, would it be safe to say your focus seems to have drifted away from horror and into the crime field?

TP: As I hurl shrieking into middle age, I feel a greater affinity for crime fiction. I seem to be more concerned with writing more realistic, authentic material. I feel comfortable with the crime field because in essence when you purify and distill horror you wind up with crime. Crime against man, crime against God, or crime against nature. Whether your monster is a werewolf or a serial killer or a bank robber, it boils down to somebody fucking up someone else’s day.

You can read the whole Q&A here. And if you haven't picked up Pic's Fever Kill yet... do it. It's modern-day Gold Medal pulp noir, even if it won't fit into one of my precious little plastic bags.

The Bride Recommends...

... Standing Still, by Kelly Simmons. Simon and Shuster sent me a copy a few weeks ago; Meredith picked it up yesterday and pretty much devoured it in three sittings, raving about it the whole time. I'll admit: the cover makes me think it's a romance, or some generation-spanning chick lit. But apparently, it's a very taut suspense story about a kidnapping, marital misdeeds and shady pasts. (Check out the UK version, published as Skylight. See what I mean? It's a thriller!)

"The Bride Recommends" is an occasional feature in which Swierczy's better half recommends a book.Want to send Swierczy or his Bride a book to check out? Email him for contact info.

The Ultimate in Paperback Nerd Gear

Yep. I've gone and done it. I've inched over just a little further into total Gold Medal Geekdom. Mass-Market Madness. The full-on Bill Crider Crazies.

Last week, I purchased 300 paperback-sized poly bags from Budd Plant in Grass Valley, California. I purchased these bags ($6.50 for 100, plus shipping and handling) for the express purpose of bagging and sealing my Gold Medal, Lion, Signet, Avon, Pocket, Bantam and other assorted vintage paperbacks.

In the words of my son Parker: "Dad, that's the most boring package ever."

And maybe he's right.

But would you look at those mothers (above)? All safe and nestled in their bright, shiny polypropylene pockets? It's a thing of beauty. And I've spend a lot of time this weekend bagging my collection. The most needy cases were served first: my Goodises, Horace McCoys, Cains, Woolriches, Westlakes, Starks, Thompsons. Followed by any Gold Medals and Lions. There are only so many bags to go around, and I'm afraid I had to play favorites. The task is not finished, but already I see that three hundred is far, far too few...

And yes, I said polypropylene. Sorry Al Gore. Sorry Planet Earth. These suckers will be around forever. That's the point!

Mmmmmm. Bags...

When the Crimedogs Come Back...

... they come back in a big way. Not only is Plots With Guns back in a big way (including stories by Secret Dead Blog pals Greg Bardsley, Matthew Louis and Stephen Blackmoore), but the boys themselves landed on the cover of the next Crimespree. What's next? An appearance on ABC Television?

3 Cool Things That Happened When I Turned 36

1. Today's mail brought a vital missing piece of my Joe R. Lansdale library: Texas Night Riders, an early western pulp novel written under the pen name of "Ray Slater." I open up the package, and... bonus! It was signed by Mr. Lansdale hisownself. (This same happy accident happened with a copy of Richard Laymon's The Cellar I ordered last year.) Sometimes, the book gods really do smile upon me.

2. I spent the morning of my birthday writing a comic script about a character celebrating his birthday. I swear, it was a total coincidence. One major difference: I'll most likely end this day with my family, chilling out. This character will most likely end his day getting the shit beat out of him.

3. The Bride and Brood gave me one of the awesomest presents I've received in a long, long time: a plane ticket to Edinburgh. Remember the craziness of Allan Guthrie Week last year? Prepare for the sequel, my friends.

Hungry For Work

No, not that kind of work. I mean Gun Work. Charles Ardai just posted the cover and a sample chapter of David J. Schow's sure-to-be-awesome Hard Case Crime novel, due out in... egads, November. I'm dying to read this now. Now, damnit. As I've mentioned previously, I've been a huge Schow fan since the old school late 1980s splatterpunk days, and if you haven't read The Kill Riff or Seeing Red or Lost Angels (just to name a few), you have some catching up to do before November. Which feels like a long, long freakin' time away...

(By way of consolation, I do have Charles Willeford's Made in Miami on deck, which Bill Crider mentioned on his blog a few days ago. So there's that. But still...)