Rancho Diablo Book 2 Cover

Here's the cover for the second Rancho Diablo book.  The art, as usual, is by the great Keith Birdsong.  The first book should be available soon.

The Top 50 Gambling Books of All Time

The British website Casino Online has posted the results of a poll to determine the Top 50 Gambling Books of All Time.  Now, I'm no gambler, but I think casinos make a good background for fiction, so I found the list pretty interesting.  There are plenty of "how to win" books on there, but there are also quite a few novels and some narrative non-fiction about the history of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, etc. (including BOARDWALK EMPIRE, which the new HBO series is based on).  Novelists included are Ian Fleming, Michael Connelly, James Swain, and Harold Robbins (actually a ghost writer in this case, probably Junius Podrog).  You can check out the list here.

Fantastic Four: First Family - Joe Casey

I’ve mentioned before that FANTASTIC FOUR is my all-time favorite comic book. FIRST FAMILY collects a mini-series from a few years ago that takes a “Year One” approach to the Fantastic Four, picking up the story soon after the disastrous trip into space that gave them their powers and greatly expanding on the origin story from FF #1. This is a dangerous thing to do when it comes to long-time fans such as myself. A writer has to do more than a simple retelling of material, but change too much and guys like me are going to be unhappy.


I’m glad to say that while there’s a little ret-conning going on in FIRST FAMILY, it doesn’t really mess with the established storyline too much, merely updating a few things and adding a villain we’ve never heard of before. The important thing is that Joe Casey’s script does a good job of capturing the characters, and some of the scenes, such as Ben Grimm’s first visit back to his old Yancy Street neighborhood after he’s turned into The Thing, work very well. It’s also nice to see little details like how the FF came to establish their headquarters in the Baxter Building. The new bad guy (who doesn’t have a supervillain moniker) isn’t too impressive, and neither is the FF’s final showdown with him. But the characters are more important here than the action, and on that score, FIRST FAMILY delivers.


The art by Chris Weston is okay, with decent storytelling that’s easy to follow for the most part, and his version of The Thing is excellent, although it’s based on the later appearance of the character, not the lumpier original version that Jack Kirby gave us in the early issues. That’s a quibble, though. Weston’s Torch isn’t bad, either.


FIRST FAMILY is an entertaining collection if you’re a fan of the Fantastic Four and have some nostalgia for those early days, as I certainly do. If you fall into that category, too, it’s worth reading.

Movies I've Missed (Until Now): A Face in the Crowd

When I was a kid I was a big fan of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW on TV, as most people were in the early Sixties. I also liked the movie NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS, where Griffith played an affable country boy in the Army. I’d also heard some of his comedy bits on the radio, such as “What It Was, Was Football”. But somehow I never got around to watching his film debut, which was much, much different from those other things. I’m talking, of course, about A FACE IN THE CROWD.


At first glance, Griffith plays a similar character in this one, a grinning, guitar-playing, yarn-spinning good ol’ boy from a small town in Arkansas. He’s discovered in the drunk tank by a local radio personality played by Patricia Neal, who does a man-in-the-street show called “A Face in the Crowd” on her uncle’s small-market radio station. In short order, Griffith’s character, Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, becomes a radio star, then a TV star on a station in Memphis, and then the networks come calling and he heads off to New York to become the biggest thing on nationwide television, eventually wielding such power over his fans that he may well be able to determine who’s going to be the next President. Neal’s character goes along with him, as does a writer from the Memphis TV station played by Walter Matthau.


There are hints early on, though, that Lonesome Rhodes isn’t the friendly sort that he pretends to be. In fact, Griffith turns in a great performance as a character who’s actually rotten to the core, as big a heel as any to be found in an Orrie Hitt novel. A FACE IN THE CROWD is a very dark film, a bleak, almost vicious attack on the advertising business, the TV business, and America’s obsession with celebrities. Despite the Fifties trappings, it plays very much like it could have been made in today’s increasingly bitter climate.


This film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg, and it reminds me in places of their earlier collaboration, ON THE WATERFRONT, especially the sense of despair that runs through it. It also puts me in mind of the fact that Schulberg was responsible for another Movie I’ve Missed, WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN? I probably ought to watch it sometime, or at least read the book, which I think I have around here somewhere. Most of you have probably already seen A FACE IN THE CROWD, but if you haven’t, it’s well worth watching. It’s not what you’d call a likable film, but it is very well done.

New Interview on All Pulp

There's a new interview with me on the All Pulp Website, as part of their "Moonstone Monday" which spotlights new projects coming up from Moonstone Books.  I have a story in THE GREEN HORNET CHRONICLES, which will be out soon.  You can find the interview here, and check out the rest of the All Pulp site while you're there.  It's a great site, packed with news, interviews, and reviews of all things pulp.

Avengers: Siege - Brian Michael Bendis

AVENGERS: SIEGE is a graphic novel collecting a recent mini-series published by Marvel, plus a couple of related stories. The book doesn’t actually say “Avengers” on it, but since they’re the main characters I feel justified in adding that tag. I’ve discussed before how I gave up reading comics in the Nineties in utter disgust at the constant rebooting, complete disregard for continuity and the long-time fan, and creative decisions that I considered ridiculous and wrong. In recent years I’ve slowly begun working myself back into comics, usually with collections like this one, and I’m glad to say that all the stuff that went on in the Nineties seems to have been brushed aside and forgotten for the most part. The Marvel Universe today at least bears more than a passing resemblance to the one I enjoyed so much during the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties.


Enough curmudgeonly rambling. What about the story at hand? I’m fuzzy on some of the back-story, of course, but as the book opens, Asgard, home of Thor and the other Norse gods, has been transported to the earthly realm and is now floating in the air above Oklahoma. Why? I dunno, but I’m willing to go with it. Norman Osborn (yes, that Norman Osborn, the guy who was the original Green Goblin and who was dead for a long time but now is alive again) has apparently reformed and is the head of H.A.M.M.E.R., which seems to have replaced S.H.I.E.L.D. as the main peacekeeping force in the Marvel Universe. He’s also organized his own teams of Avengers and X-Men made up of former super-villains. Ah, but Osborn is really still a bad guy and has also put together a cabal of other super-villains that’s operating behind the scenes. I don’t know how all this came about, but again, I’ll go with it. The real Avengers, led by Steve Rogers (who used to be Captain America, but then was dead, but now is alive again but not Captain America, who is now Bucky Barnes, who used to be dead . . . oh, the hell with it) are considered outlaws and are hiding out. Got all that? It doesn’t really matter.


Osborn, who has appropriated a version of Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor and now calls himself the Iron Patriot, for nefarious reasons of his own launches an attack on Asgard, putting the place under siege by most of the superheroes/villains who work for him. Thor and the rest of the real Avengers show up and try to stop him. That’s about the extent of the plot. It’s a real slugfest, as Stan Lee used to say, and lots of stuff Blows Up Real Good.


Tell you what, though . . . I pretty much loved it. This is the same sort of story that Marvel was doing forty years ago in its heyday, only then, of course, it would have played out in the pages of the regular Avengers title, on cheaper paper with less technically-advanced coloring. The script is by Brian Michael Bendis, rightfully regarded as one of the best writers in comics today, and he does a fine job of capturing the voices of the different characters. By the end of the story he’s also managed to sweep away some of the plot clutter of the past few years and gotten things back to a more traditional Marvel Universe (which is just fine with a reactionary old fart like me, of course). The art by Olivier Coipel is good for the most part, although the storytelling is a little hard to follow at times. I like his versions of Thor, Cap, Iron Man, and the other classic Marvel characters, though.


Reading this has convinced me that I’m doing the right thing by starting to read some of the core Marvel titles again. I’ll never be the comic book fan that I once was, but I still enjoy a good superhero yarn. SIEGE definitely falls into that category. If you’re a Marvel fan and haven’t read it yet, I recommend it.

Rancho Diablo Gear

If you need a cap, t-shirt, coffee mug, or other assorted merchandise with the Rancho Diablo logo on it (and you know you do!), this is the place to go for it.

Forgotten Books: One for Hell - Jada M. Davis

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Jada M. Davis’s novel ONE FOR HELL, published in 1952 by Red Seal Books, a cousin of Gold Medal also published by Fawcett, has long had a reputation as a lost classic and one of the finest hardboiled crime novels ever written. Well, guess what? It deserves every bit of that reputation.


ONE FOR HELL is the story of Willa Ree, a tough, down-on-his-luck drifter who drops off a freight train in the West Texas oil town of Breton. Determined to make a big score for himself, Ree is single-minded in pursuit of that goal, almost to the point of being a force of nature as much as a character. He’s a ruthless sociopath, and when he gets involved with the crooked politicians who run things in Breton, they see him as a perfect instrument for strengthening their hold on the town. What they don’t know is that Ree has plans of his own that may wind up bringing down all of them.


The plot snakes back and forth relentlessly, involving murder, robbery, lust, and long, tense scenes of brutal violence and suspense. Although Davis concentrates on Willa Ree for the most part, there are also vivid portraits of other desperate characters in the small town. The book never specifies that it takes place in West Texas, but I’m convinced that it does. I’ve been around enough oil towns to recognize the setting, which Davis recreates with gritty accuracy. The pace is fast, and the writing, which approaches a stream of consciousness style at times, is raw and crude and very powerful. Oddly enough, although Willa Ree is an irredeemably evil character, at times the reader almost roots for him to succeed, because nobody else in ONE FOR HELL is very sympathetic, either, and Ree is almost admirable in his single-mindedness. Almost, but not quite.


After reading this book, I really don’t understand why it hasn’t been continuously in print and compared to the best work of James M. Cain. It certainly belongs in the same tier as the best of the Gold Medal writers such as Harry Whittington, Charles Williams, Gil Brewer, and John D. MacDonald. Maybe it’s because Davis wasn’t prolific, publishing only one other novel that I’m aware of, THE OUTRAGED SECT, which came out from Avon in 1956. If he had written more, maybe ONE FOR HELL would be better remembered.


Thankfully, it hasn’t been completely forgotten. Stark House is about to reprint it, and they deserve a lot of credit for doing so. You want a “lost classic” that’s the real thing? ONE FOR HELL is it. It’s also one of the best novels I’ve read so far this year, and if you’re a fan of hardboiled fiction, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Longarm and the Railroad War

This year's Longarm Giant Edition is a sequel of sorts to the story arc that ran through the previous four Giant Editions, but it can be read as a stand-alone as well.  Jessie Starbuck and Ki from the old Lone Star series make another appearance and team up with Longarm again, for those of you who enjoy those crossovers.

New Interview

I just did an interview with the Italian crime fiction blog Liberi di scrivere.  You can read the English version here, or on Paul Brazill's excellent blog You Would Say That, Wouldn't You.  And the Italian version translated by Luca Conti, for you completists, is here.  I believe there are some things in this one that I haven't talked about in previous interviews, so check it out if you're interested.