Jesse James vs. Machine Gun Kelly

Looks like Moonstone is wisely changing the title of Dust to Dust to Jesse James vs. Machine Gun Kelly. Dust to Dust will probably remain as a subtitle, but I agree with Moonstone that having the characters' names as the main title is a much smarter marketing move.

I knew that deep down, but had never vocalized it. Yet another reason why I need an editor and shouldn't self-publish.

The Jesse James Blues

There are a couple of big Assassination of Jesse James releases in the next couple of weeks. The digital release of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' soundtrack will be October 23 (with the CD to follow early next year).

Sooner than that though -- next weekend, October 19th, in fact -- is the wide release of the movie. Unfortunately, critics in some of the new cities aren't getting to see it early, which has folks wondering just what the heck Warner Brothers is thinking. Critics in the initial cities have been kind to it, so you'd think that Warner Brothers would want to keep that going. Maybe they're hoping that those first critics will be enough to convince audiences to check it out.

Unrelated to the movie -- or to the historical Jesse James in general (or even Sandra Bullock's husband) -- but absolutely fascinating nonetheless, is screenwriter Josh Olson's (A History of Violence) funny, emotional account of a friend of his who had an online romance with a guy named Jesse James. It's a long read, but a riveting one. Olson's a talented storyteller and I started off skimming the article only to get caught up in the story and have to start over to read more closely. It's got everything: 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, forest fires, cowboys, post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer, suicide by gutshot, and Harlan Ellison. You'll be glad you read it.

Jesse James: Man of God?

In Dust to Dust, as I've said before, Jesse James isn't a nice guy. He's no "Robin Hood of the West" as portrayed in American Outlaws. We've taken the more historically accurate interpretation that he was an abusive bigot and speculated what might have happened if, after his "death," he found religion.

Alex Ness, my co-writer, and I are both Christians, so we're not trying to point fingers at Christianity as it's supposed to be practiced. But we are painfully and embarrassingly aware that a lot of evil is done in the name of religion and we thought it might be interesting to see how much more dangerous Jesse might've been had he thought he had God on his side.

As it turns out, we're still not far from historical fact. At least, not according to Gene Edward Veith, Culture Editor of WORLD Magazine and the Executive Director of the Cranach Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary. Veith paints Jesse as "a Bible-reading choir director who just happened to make his living robbing trains, sticking up banks, and murdering some 17 men. But he was a man of principle, refusing to rob preachers and widows. He would write letters to newspapers about how God will continue to protect him as long as he continues to serve Him." Veith goes on to call Jesse "a study in false piety. He seemed to rationalize his predations with a defeated-confederate loyalty, a modern Democrat's hostility to corporations, and--above all--a sense that the world disrespects him and so deserves every blow he can give it."

Though Veith's post if the most interesting bit of Jesse news to me, the big Jesse story this week is about a Missouri lawyer who recently discovered documents describing a lawsuit against Jesse for stealing a horse during a bank robbery getaway. Jesse never showed up for trial and unsuccessfully tried twice to kill the lawyer bringing the suit. The lawyer, Henry McDougal, went on to become president of the Kansas City and Missouri bar associations.

And that's pretty much it for your Dust to Dust-related news. Except maybe for this interview with Assassination of Jesse James' director Andrew Dominik. I'm off to finish up a couple of last minute things for FallCon.

The real Jesse James

Your Dust to Dust-related news of the week:

I can't believe I live this close to Northfield and have never been to Defeat of Jesse James Days. It was last weekend though and I needed a break after spending the previous two weekends at the Minnesota State Fair and the Renaissance Festival. At least Rough Draft has the report on DJJD to console me. I'll have to plan better for next year though.

Related to that, Travel & Leisure has a list of other places you can go visit in the footsteps of Jesse James.

A couple of other articles on Jesse went up this week thanks to the movie. Since the movie premiered Brad Pitt's been talking about the link between the events of Jesse's life and the celebrity-worship that still goes on today. The Assassination of Jesse James is mostly about that and how the phenomenon turned deadly for Jesse. The Washington Post covers that part of the story pretty well and also talks about how Jesse's legend -- even during his lifetime -- was exaggerated by the dime novels of the day. Not only was he made famous; his exploits were glamorized to the point that he became known as a Robin Hood figure. I mean, he was played by Roy freakin' Rogers, for crying out loud.

But, as U.S. News and World Report points out, "James himself would have considered this notion a great joke. He more likely would have agreed with a famous bandit of a later generation, Willie Sutton. When someone asked Sutton why he robbed banks, he supposedly replied: 'Because that's where the money is.'"

The article goes on to analyze Jesse's motives in depth and connects them to the Civil War: "These guerrillas were anything but the poor farmers of folklore. Many of them (like James) came from families that were three times more likely to own slaves and possessed twice as much wealth as the average Missouri family. James fought during the war against emancipation and after the war against the Republican Party that freed and enfranchised the slaves. Many of the banks and express companies struck by the James gang were owned by individuals or groups associated with the Republican Party. Like the Ku Klux Klan in former Confederate states, the James gang did its best to undermine the new order ushered in by Northern victory in the Civil War."

That's something that Alex Ness and I latched onto in the backstory for Dust to Dust. Our Jesse is no hero. He's not even an anti-hero. He's a ruthless bigot who's grown more dangerous with age. He may be old, but he's more than a match for poor Machine Gun Kelly (another man whose legend was distorted by the media of his day) who makes the mistake of wandering into Jesse's town to set up a still with a Black man in his gang.

Anyway, Jesse's celebrity is interesting and all, but more than anything else, it's this idea of him as a Southern patriot that I'm most curious to see if the movie portrays.

Warren Ellis scores Jesse James movie

No, not that Warren Ellis. This one. And Nick Cave. The Assassination of Jesse James just got even better.

And in case you don't believe me about the quality -- since I haven't seen it yet and all -- howsabout the opinions of 80% of the Rotten Tomatoes critics? (Okay, only five people have reviewed it so far, but four of 'em liked it!)

Speaking of Jesse James, I'm thinking that the name Jezebel James from FOX's mid-season sitcom The Return of Jezebel James isn't just coincidentally similar. It refers to the childhood imaginary friend of one of the characters, who used to use Jezebel as a scapegoat for her mischief. ''It wasn't me, it was Jezebel James.''

Okay, that's a pretty tenuous connection to this post, but I'm using it because I'm really just excited that Jezebel James is the new show from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino. And that there will be more of "that trademark Gilmore banter."

Yes. I'm a girl.

Jesse James Day

I won't have time to post for real today, but it's Jesse James' birthday and I couldn't let that go without mentioning.

Happy 160th Birthday, you old coot.

Jesse James trailer, Jekyll DVD, and Depp as Sweeney Todd

Dust to Dust-Related

The trailer for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford has been released. I wondered before if they were going for a Legends of the Fall vibe with it and that (or Unforgiven maybe) seems to have been accurate.

David Woodbury is looking into books about Jesse's life and reports his preliminary research into which might be the best ones. I'll look forward to his eventual reviews of them.

Horror

Oh, mama!

I know at least one person reading this will be glad to know that the BBC mini-series Jekyll will be available on DVD next month. The rest of you should too though.

Science Fiction

If I'd ever known that George Lucas had once approached David Lynch about directing Return of the Jedi, I'd forgotten it. Man, what if Lynch had said, "Yes?" I'm trying to decide if that would've increased my chances of still liking the movie today.

Comics

Browsing Stupid Comics is a great way to kill a couple of hours. (Found via Tom Spurgeon.)

Artist du Jour

Pascal Campion. Further proof that Charles Raymond (from whom I've discovered three great artists in about as many days) and I have really similar tastes in art.

Giant Robot Warriors, Poe's visitor, and the Treasure of Constantinople

Kill All Monsters!-Related

I got my Amazon confirmation that Monster Attack Network is on its way. Which reminds me that I also need to check out Stuart Moore and Ryan Kelly's GRW: Giant Robot Warriors from AiT/PlanetLar.

Dust to Dust-Related

Northfield, Minnesota is kicking off its Defeat of Jesse James Days. The official festival isn't until September 6-9, but they have Royalty coronations this weekend and there was a hogroast last night to get things started.

Adventure

Delilah Dirk and the Treasure of Constantinople looks and sounds wonderful. (Thanks to Kevin Melrose for the link.)

Jungle

I'm always up for a new Jungle Book movie.

Horror

RKO is probably my favorite movie studio of all time, so I'm really hoping the revitalization effort works for them. A remake of Karloff's Isle of the Dead sounds like a good place to start. It's nostalgic, but offbeat.

I hate that I'm such a slow reader. Otherwise I'd be all caught up on the 30 Days of Night novels. Especially this one about my favorite 3o Days character Dane. Fortunately, Rod Lott is much faster and has the review.

The mysterious visitor to Edgar Allen Poe's grave has been revealed. Anticlimactically, unfortunately.

Fantasy

Frank Beddor's Looking Glass Wars is an exciting, fast-moving alternate take on the Alice in Wonderland story and I loved it. The sequel, Seeing Redd, comes out next week.

Thanks to Charles Raymond for directing me to artist Sarah Mensinga's wonderful work.

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

My son was absolutely freaked out by the scene in Ratatouille where Remy's dad takes him to the gruesome window of a rat-trap shop. We had to leave right after that. Good thing we're not planning a trip to Paris soon, because that shop is real.

I got a very nice email today from First Second about my latest review of one of their books. I didn't ask, but hopefully they won't mind me sharing this nice compliment: "You’re always seeing to the heart of the books we put out, and that’s such a fantastic thing." I love that.

Links du Jour: Hulk and Shazam casting, a Children of Hurin review, and some really great marketing advice

I almost didn't do a Links entry today, 'cause there's not a lot to talk about. But there are a couple of timely items, so...

Fantasy

• I was pretty sure that I didn't want to read Children of Hurin out of fear that it would be more Silmarillion than Lord of the Rings. Here's a very well-written review that confirms that.

Superheroes

• Yesterday, I linked to an article that revealed the villain in the next Hulk movie. Today, a link to an article that reveals who plays him. And some mighty fine villain casting it is, too.
• It's not a done deal or anything, but it looks like there's a very strong possibility that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will be in the live-action Shazam! movie. If he even knows who he'd play (presumably it would be either Captain Marvel himself or his arch-enemy Black Adam), he's remaining coy about it. But I agree with the poster in the link who says, "The guy is the right choice for either role. He’d make a killer bad guy, having fun with it, and he’s certainly got the look to pull off Black Adam. But there’s also a decency to him that’s almost immediate when you’re talking to him, this open quality."

Writing is Hard

• I said before that I was going to have to come up with a marketing plan for Dust to Dust. The indespinsable Paperback Writer has some excellent thoughts on the subject. This is something I'll be referring to again and again.

To con or not to con (also: Frank Miller movies)

I'm not going to do a Links du Jour today 'cause there's not a lot of news. Frank Miller's Ronin is getting made into a movie thanks no doubt to the success of Sin City and 300, but that's about it. I'm trying to figure out what the next Miller comic will be to get snatched up. Martha Washington maybe? Miller and Dave Gibbons have another installment of it coming out, so maybe. Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot would be even cooler though.

But anyway, what I really wanted to talk about was this article by Von Allen about trying to promote his graphic novel the road to god knows... at conventions. It's interesting because he's put a lot of thought into what he's doing at conventions and what he hopes to get out of them. He's done a lot of research in order to find the right conventions to go to in order to find people who might like his work. And he's been willing to spend some real money on tables and advertising and giveaways, all in return for some word-of-mouth. Unfortunately, the point of his post is that he isn't getting what he hoped to out of it, but it's making me think about my own convention experiences and what I'm trying to achieve while I'm there.

The only conventions I currently attend as a creator are MicroCon and FallCon. They're both local, so I don't have to travel or pay for a hotel room, but that's not why I go. I go because the tables are free for creators. As a writer, I can't draw sketches to sell and make back my money on a table. All I can do is sell comics. If I were better known and had more published to sell, I could probably justify buying a table at an out-of-town con, but I'm not there yet. And I'm not interested in spending a lot of my own money to promote what little I do have published right now. So, a lot of Von's article doesn't apply to me.

On the other hand, authors are expected to do a lot of their own marketing and publicity these days and I need to learn how to do that. I may not need to spend my own money to do it, but I need to be willing to follow Von's example and think hard about making the most of the conventions I attend. I need to think about what I'm specifically trying to achieve at each con.

For example, if everything goes according to plan, Dust to Dust should be in the October issue of the Previews catalog. FallCon is in October and a lot of local retailers will be there. In addition to talking the book up with fans, it might just be a good idea to use some of my con time to talk to retailers about it and see if maybe I can arrange some signings or something. Anything that'll help them to remember Dust to Dust later that month when it comes time to place their orders.

Each con is going to be different because I'll have different projects with different needs that I'll be trying to promote. What I need to remember is to spend a lot more time thinking about how to best use those opportunities, rather than just trying to figure out how to make a couple of bucks and have a good time. Not that I don't want to do those things too; I just want to be more thoughtful about it.

Links du Jour: Happy Detective Story Day, National Treasure 2, and the '80s Shazam! cartoon

Adventure

• As a superhero fan, I love Philip José Farmer's concept that all adventure heroes share a common universe. Other fans of the idea are willing to spend a lot more time on it than I am, but it's still a cool notion. One of those fans is Win Scott Eckert who's published a collection of his essays on the subject. Ron Fortier reviews the collection here.
• I hadn't heard that they're making a National Treasure 2, but I'm in favor of it. The first one was everything that The DaVinci Code should have been. What's especially cool is that I learned about it thanks to this story about the moviemakers' having to displace a prom from its traditional location and how they made up for it.

Mystery

• Today's the birthday of the mystery novel. Or at least the detective story. It's the day that Edgar Allen Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" was published back in 1841. Garrison Keillor has a short, but excellent article about it and the evolution of the genre it gave birth to: from Holmes to Poirot to Spade and Marlowe to Perry Mason and Easy Rawlins. Happy Birthday, Detective Stories!

Science Fiction

• Anyone read any of the Star Trek: New Frontier books? I gave up on trying to keep up with Star Trek novels a long time ago, but the idea of a continuing series that features characters from all the different Star Trek shows, but doesn't have to take TV continuity into account is really attractive to me. And I like the Peter David Star Trek novels that I've read in the past. Just wondering if they're as good in execution as they sound fun in concept.
• Luc Besson was apparently frustrated by the process of making The Fifth Element, but now that special effects have sufficiently advanced, he's going to do some more scifi.

Superheroes

• I was already done with Saturday morning cartoons when Hero High was on, but I'm still kind of interested in it's DVD release thanks to Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family's occasionally appearing on the show. Apparently, Hero High was partly live action and partly animated, and I don't know which part featured the Marvels. I hope it's the live action part, because I like cheesy superhero live action more than cheap superhero cartoons, but really either would be pretty cool. Even though there was a very cool live action Captain Marvel show when I was a kid, I'm betting that the Hero High Marvels are animated, since Hero High shared a time slot with a Shazam! cartoon as part of The Kid Superpower Hour with Shazam. Either way, I'm not buying this until I learn how much Marvel Family I'd be getting. I'd rather wait for a DVD set with just Shazam!.

Other Comics

• Dust to Dust co-writer Alex Ness has a contest at his website for some original Peter Bergting art from the fantasy series The Portent.

Writing is Hard

• I've found character questionnaires to be more fun than useful, but here are some if you like that kind of thing.

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

• I'm a sucker for reading lists. Especially ones compiled by librarians.

Meet Michael May!: MicroCon 2007

Just because I'm not on the website, doesn't mean I won't be at MicroCon on April 29th. They take it for granted that I'll be there. And of course they should. You should too.

I'm an institution I tells ya!

So anyway... yeah, I'll be there hanging out with Alex Ness and Joel Vollmer, aka the rest of the Dust to Dust team. Also, my perennial convention pals Grant Gould, Jessica Hickman, Darla Ecklund, and Paul Taylor.

I've been too busy working on new projects to put together the Art of the Cownt book that I've been meaning to do, but I'll try to have some other Cownt merchandise to sell. Definitely some prints; maybe a mousepad or two. And of course, Tales from the Inner Sanctum. Oh, and I'll be carrying around the inked pages from Kill All Monsters! #1, so ask to see those. They're beeyooteefull!

Links du Jour: The real message of Watchmen, Wonder Woman revealed, and Peter Parker: Wife Beater?

Horror

• Ben Templesmith, the original 30 Days of Night artist, has really proven his storytelling ability on books like Singularity 7 and Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse. So I haven't the slightest amount of fear that his solo take on 30 Days (called 30 Days of Night: Red Snow) will be anything short of spectacular.

Science Fiction

• I don't know if it's going to be any good or not, but I like the idea behind Zenoscope's upcoming Dyno Force comic. Basically, it's about alien dinosaurs trying to take over the world. Unfortunately, the introductory issue that was supposed to be ready for Free Comic Book Day has been delayed by what Zenoscope is calling "undisclosed legal reasons," but I'm reading as "we couldn't get our act together." The fact that Zenoscope's website makes no mention of Dyno Force doesn't bode well either.
• Somebody made a Darth Vader hot air balloon, which is cool on a couple of different levels.

Superheroes

• It's been years and years since I've read Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's Watchmen, but my memory of it is that -- like most of the rest of comics fans -- I missed the point. I figured that it was some sort of maturation milestone that superhero comics had finally met. Something we could all point to and say, "See? Now you have to take superheroes seriously." When, as Dirk Deppey so insightfully points out, "Watchmen is a critique of the ludicrous end results awaiting attempts to import 'realism' to superhero funnybooks." Dirk's also right when he says that not only did comics fans miss the point, but Marvel and DC did too, which is why we have events like Civil War and World War III that try to import that realism and in doing so, "(render) it less enjoyable a reading experience in the process." Not that I think the realistic themes aren't worth exploring, but all the darkness and despair and punching through ribcages is making me tired and I don't think that's the intended result.
• As much as I may like Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, the Hulk himself disagrees.
• I'm not enough of an Avengers fan to have read the original story, but I've never heard anyone challenge the general opinion that Hank Pym was at one point a wife-beating jerk. I thought it was something that everyone just accepted. So, I'm a little curious about whether or not this is true: did Peter Parker really hit Mary Jane? Why does he get a free pass and not Hank Pym?
• I'm gaining a greater and greater appreciation for Jim Steranko, so I think it's very cool that buried in this Captain America retrospective, he hints that he's in talks with Marvel about "the possibility of generating a new Captain America series." Just so long as there's room for him and Ed Brubaker's current, excellent run, that's great news.

Other Comics

• I've been unable to become a manga fan. I like some manga series, but I haven't fallen in love with it as a whole. Sort of like I don't like all American comics either. That's why lists like this that make connections between manga and stuff I already know and like are helpful to me.
• Michael Chabon will be at the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul on May 22nd. He'll be discussing his latest book The Yiddish Policeman's Union as part of Minnesota Public Radio and The Loft Literary Center's Talking Volumes book discussion series. Tickets are $15, but there are discounts available.

Writing is Hard

• Looks like Dust to Dust isn't going to be the only aging-cowboy-meets-young-gangster story in town.
• I've expressed before my frustration over not being able to get a handle on Wonder Woman. Ragnell explains her perfectly, even while lamenting that the current writer doesn't get it (something I haven't talked about, but agree with). It makes sense to me that it's Wonder Woman's confidence that I find attractive (beyond the obvious physical reasons) and in light of Ragnell's observation about how women are generally portrayed in fiction ("Every woman's story in fiction seems to be a coming into herself ... Wonder Woman is not supposed to be like that. Wonder Woman is supposed to already be the woman other women in fiction learn to be. She's at the point where you are done working on your inside and ready to work on the outside world."), I can see why she's an attractive character for women too. Makes me want to write a character like that. Makes me want to read some well-done Wonder Woman too.

Dust to Dust to be published by Moonstone

I've been teasing about Dust to Dust for a little while now, but I've just been given the okay by the publisher to start talking about it in detail.

I co-wrote it with Alex Ness, founder of Pop Thought and a genius with high concepts and plots. He came up with the idea for a one-shot ditty about a tough, old Jesse James fighting a young, green Machine Gun Kelly in the streets of an Oklahoma ghost town. Emphasis on "ghost."

I was fortunate enough that he asked me to take his idea and plot outline and make a comic out of it. Lead's gonna fly.

A local guy named Joel Vollmer is illustrating it and Moonstone is publishing it. It's too early to know exactly when it's coming out, but we're hoping to see it on shelves later this year. That's all I wanna say right now, though I'm sure I'll figure out more to talk about later. I need to come up with a personal marketing plan (as opposed to supporting whatever official plan Moonstone has) for this thing, which'll be an adventure all its own. It's a really fun book; I just need to figure out how best to let people know about it.

A little Dust to Dust news in lieu of anything else

Another busy day at work and I really needed to do some catch up on headlines for Comic World News, so no post here. Didn't even get completely caught up at CWN.

I did hear today that Dust to Dust has been officially green-lit by the publisher, so that's cool. I'll still wait for them to announce it first before telling you who's publishing it and what it's about. Have a great weekend and I'll play catch up on genre news on Monday (hopefully).

Dust to Dust approved

Sorry there wasn't an update yesterday. Spent the day dodging snow and being a dad. Not that there was a lot of news to report. There still isn't today.

So, in lieu of news about other people's stuff, I'll just quickly tell you that Dust to Dust (co-written by me) seems to be a "go." I'm still playing secretive on details because nothing's been officially announced yet, but I'm hoping that it'll be released towards the end of the year.

Hopefully.

Dust to Dust script done

I was home with a sick boy all day on Friday. He just had a low-grade fever, but it kept him out of daycare, so home I stayed. That's why no post on that day.

Finished the script for Dust to Dust today. I apparently underestimated the time it'd take me to script a 32-page comic, even one that's mostly been plotted out for me. Anyway, I sent it to my co-writer and he likes it, so now we just see if the publisher digs it too.

In the meantime, I haven't worked on Le Corsaire for a few days while I concentrated on Dust to Dust, so I have some catching up to do. Shouldn't be too hard though. I like more of what I've already written than I thought I would.

New project

I didn't think I'd be doing another project update so soon, but a couple of cool things have happened since last I posted.

Thanks to the input of a couple of other folks involved with Kill All Monsters! we've added a tenth publisher to our list of submission possibilities, and it sounds like a strong candidate.

I've also been offered the opportunity to co-write a comics project that's already been accepted by a publisher. Can't offer any real details right now, but since I'll need to refer to it later, I'll tell you that the title is Dust to Dust.

That's all for now. Carry on.