Pervy Clasics Illustrated

A few years back my good pal Joel Sanderson--artist, archivist, TV horror show host, filmmaker, etc. etc.--created this lovely cover for the comic the world still needs.

Hey! Remember me?

All right, I'm the world's most unreliable blogger. I'd make some excuse like "I was busy" or "I had better things to do" but the fact of the matter is I am a lazy SOB.

Anyway, I went to France a month ago in preparation for a TV movie based on a book that's coming out there in September, Nocturne le vendredi. A large chunk of the book is set in an abandoned industrial kitchen underneath a women's dormitory owned by the University of Paris. There was some concern about this regarding the film adaptation, because the producers and my editor assumed I'd made the place up.

Not so! In fact, it's a building whose cafeteria I managed back in the early eighties. The building's director is still a good friend of mine and she and a colleague (who's the daughter of the woman who ran the building back in the day, I knew her as a small child running around the building with her sister) were kind enough to take me and my editor on a guided tour:



And on the way to the airport I shot this footage of the best busker I've heard in a while:

Filthy, Filthy eBooks for your Perverted Pleasure

It's been five months since I last bothered you, but I have important news: Two (2!)new e-books from Concord ePress, the electronic division of the Concord Free Press. The proceeds from these e-books go to support the Free Press's charitable mission in addition to helping pay my mortgage. The first, "Rum, Sodomy and False Eyelashes," is a collection of stories, including one previously unpublished and several that are hard to find elsewhere, and the second is "Rut," my dystopian novel published last year by Concord's Free Press division as a charitable giveaway. Only now you get a swell introduction by the very generous Gregory Maguire--author of "The Next Queen of Heaven" as well as a small cultural phenomenon you may have heard of entitled "Wicked." And there are other books in this début group, including one from Stona Fitch ("Senseless") and one by Matthew McBride ("Frank Sinatra in a Blender"--how can you resist that title?) Buy 'em all!

(And here are those links I failed to post yesterday when this first went up, you'll have to cut and paste them into your browser because for some reason this damned page won't let me post them as clickable links:

http://www.concordepress.com/rum sodomy and false eyelashes/

http://www.concordepress.com/rut/

the Basement Sublet....of Horror!

This week creator/writer/director Joel Sanderson has posted for your viewing pleasure the entire "Atomic Brain" episode of the Basement Sublet of Horror:

http://www.basementsubletofhorror.com/

This is one of two episodes that I guest-hosted. In this one I play regular host Gunther Dedmond's meth-addled landlord. Here are some Basement Sublet trading cards, including the two associated with this episode:



And I get the card right after Herc "Carnival of Souls" Harvey!

More Shameless Promotion: Misadventure!

Just out from McSweeney's: Millard Kaufman's last novel, Misadventure. Kaufman had a brilliant Hollywood career, helping to create Mr. Magoo, writing the screenplay for, among many other fine pictures, "Bad Day at Black Rock," and even serving as a front for his blacklisted pal, Dalton Trumbo. His acclaimed first novel, "Bowl of Cherries," came out when he was ninety, and sadly its follow-up is being published posthumously. But what a followup! Eddie Muller, the Czar of Noir, says:

"Millard Kaufman understands that in a noir world—like, say, Los Angeles in the 1980s—the only hope for sanity is a sense of humor. Having lived through the city's earlier and equally absurd mid-century mores, he is more than qualified to skewer and roast its later incarnation. For a man in his nineties, Kaufman writes with all the verve and venom of a precocious 25-year-old; his story is good—but his storytelling is a non-stop delight."

I believe the book was written circa 1980 (see Eddie's reference to its time frame) and updated shortly before Kaufman's death to set it between the two Gulf wars. Here's my blurb, which will, I guess, appear on the paperback, having been written too late to appear on the jacket:

"Though it's only Millard Kaufman's second novel, 'Misadventure' came after a lifetime of writing about the light and dark sides of humanity, and in it the dark side plainly has the upper hand. Fast, nasty and funny as hell, it's a brand new classic of the noir genre, and I wish the author had lived on to write ten more just like it."

Like I said, it's a gas! So head on out to your local independent bookseller and buy a copy already!

Name this Comic

Here's an inked page from the forthcoming, untitled comic I'm working on with Roger Petersen....ain't it purty? We're still looking for a title, something hotel-related....

More Pencils from Petersen

Still no title for this thing, but check out the throwing arm on old Belle, and the suave nonchalance of her middle-aged boy toy as he dodges that ashtray: "Lobby please, Dawson." These have since been inked and are being colored but I haven't seen them yet. Click to enlarge!

Roger Petersen, resident genius

Here's a xerox of a penciled page from my collaboration with Roger Petersen, inching its way toward pitchability. Click to enlarge and inhale its awesomeness. And if any good titles occur to you, pass them on...

Noir at the Bar! Again!

Keith Rawson, a sort of Canuck-Arizonan hybrid, was kind enough to plug tomorrow night's Noir at the Bar at his blog:

http://bloodyknucklescallusedfingertips.blogspot.com/2009/07/noir-at-bar-part-duex-aka-further-proof.html

Fanks, Keef!

NOIR AT THE BAR RETURNS! SUNDAY AUGUST 2ND!

It's the return of Peter Rozovsky's Noir at the Bar!

Delmar Restaurant & Lounge

(314) 725-6565

6235 Delmar Blvd
Saint Louis, MO 63130

Doors open at 8 PM on Sunday August 2nd. Reading will be me, reading from my "Uncage Me" story, followed by Malachi Stone reading from his novel "St. Agnes's Eve," followed by Jedidiah Ayres reading one of his short stories, followed by the evening's headliner, Chicago's Theresa Schwegel, reading from her new novel "Last Known Address."

If you're not familiar with Schwegel's work you should be. She writes the best cop novels since Richard Price.

Be there or be square. I will repost this the day before.