At various times on this blog—usually in relation to the Tales of Development Hell projects I’ve written about—I’ve mentioned that I used to work for a New York publishing company called ibooks, inc., owned and operated by Byron Preiss, who passed away in 2005. Before running a publishing house, he made a name for himself as a book packager—developing and providing completed projects (novels, graphic novels, children’s books, etc.) for houses that paid for the rights to publish them—and as a staunch supporter of using comic books as a teaching tool to encourage kids to read. Along those lines, in 1971 he teamed up with comic-art legend Jim Steranko for “The Block”: an antidrug comic distributed to public schools.
Interested in reading it? Then head on over to the site Seduction of the Innocent, where you can find “The Block” posted in its entirety. Just keep in mind it’s a story very much of its time. But the art is classic Steranko.
This past weekend, 
The large fan turnout made it the most successful Doc Con so far, so of course the showrunners wasted no time in inviting Bob back for next year’s gathering! That now makes three conventions in 2015 for which Bob will be a guest of honor: Eternal Con (June 13–14); New York Comic Con (October 8–11); and Doc Con XVIII (October). More information to come as the show dates get closer.
Dave Berns is an artist I knew waaay back in my small-press comics days (late ’80s to mid-’90s), but as he went into professional cartooning and I started up StarWarp Concepts as a publishing house for full-size comics, we lost touch. So imagine my surprise when, in 2003, he sent me the Lorelei pinup you see here—that also showed he remembered my love for the music of late blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. Nice!
Carmilla, author J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 19th-century vampiric romance, has influenced generations of dark-fantasy writers from Bram Stoker to Laurel K. Hamilton, and has been adapted for the screen many times, including Hammer’s The Vampire Lovers and Roger Vadim’s Blood and Roses. These days, Carmilla (and her friend, Laura) are the stars of a 
If you’re a fan of the series interested in reading the source material for the series, or are a fan of vampire fiction who’s heard of the novella but never read it, then have we got a book for you! 
Well, this was a surprise that came in the mail the other day: a contributor copy of the anthology L’Almanach des Vampires (The Almanac of Vampires), released this month by French publishing house Riviere Blanche, a subsidiary of indie publisher Black Coat Press. How much of a surprise was it? I didn’t even know I was a contributor to the book until I received it!
Doc Con—an annual celebration of pulp-fiction hero Doc Savage—starts this Friday, October 17, and runs through Sunday. And Bob Larkin—cover artist of SWC’s Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels and legendary painter of Bantam Books’ Doc Savage novels—will be the guest of honor at this three-day event. Doc Con XVII is being held at the Comfort Suites, in Glendale, Arizona. For more information, head over to the 
Over at the news site Comics for Sinners, hot on the heels of my review of Vampirella, Vol. 2 #4 comes my review of 
And if sexy monster hunters are your thing, then you should definitely check out 
Today is the DVD and Blu-Ray release date for X-Men: Days of Future Past, the blockbuster summer film that united the casts of 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand and 2011’s X-Men: First Class, in an exciting adaptation of a classic X-story by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Terry Austin. If you haven’t seen it already, wait until you meet the super-speedy Quicksilver, who practically steals the movie! (Or, if you prefer, you can wait until 2015 to purchase the Director’s Cut, which reportedly will include all of Anna Paquin’s scenes as Rogue that are missing in the theatrical version.)
Over at the news site Comics for Sinners, you can read my review of 
Teen Read Week 2014 is happening right now, October 12–18. What is it? Well, to quote the event’s Web site:
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