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Post by Van Plexico on Apr 21, 2008 14:04:24 GMT -5
I've just signed the contracts and it's official -- Permuted Press (a small press horror/SF publisher) has purchased the rights to publish all three of my existing SENTINELS novels, with options of first refusal on the coming volumes. The Sentinels will be one of three new superhero-based novel series they're launching as part of their brand new imprint, Swarm Press, which will focus on SF, fantasy, and especially superhero-based prose fiction. And Chris Kohler is doing interior art for the second and third books, to match his amazing work on the first one. I didn't know much about Permuted/Swarm before now, but it looks like they get tons of reader/fan traffic on their message boards, and they have a pretty dedicated and growing reader base. That's encouraging. (Plus, when I was in Borders on Saturday, two guys were buying books from Permuted right in front of me! A good omen...) Meanwhile, White Rocket Books will go on as before, and hopefully will continue to grow. Part of White Rocket's mission statement is to provide publicity for its authors and artists and editors to gain bigger and bigger opportunities, and clearly this is already happening! ps: If you have the White Rocket editions of any of the SENTINELS books, they're now "rare early editions!"
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Post by Van Plexico on Apr 20, 2008 19:37:33 GMT -5
I've edited a big stack of essays by Ian Watson that cover a number of the mid-level Avengers that were not otherwise covered.
I'm sure when it's out, people will complain that character X was left out, or didn't get nearly as much coverage as character Y... but considering how big the roster of the team is, I think I'll be satisfied if we have at least something about most of the first-tier and second-tier members and the major villains. And we will.
I have a few more chapters to edit; I'm awaiting the last few chapters to arrive from contributors; and I'm awaiting the first section of copy-edits from completed parts of the book to come back. The cover is done and is AWESOME.
I'm hoping we'll have it available by the time of HeroesCon in late June. If that deadline passes, we're looking at DragonCon in late August.
These things always take (a lot) longer than you expect. For example, don't try doing something like this and having a baby at the same time! (I had a lot more free time when I put the first book together!!)
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Post by Van Plexico on Apr 20, 2008 19:29:30 GMT -5
Okay, this is probably not worth starting a whole thread, but I thought it was sort of interesting and funny. In comparing the current situation in CAPTAIN AMERICA with the "Death of Superman" back in the early 1990s, I realized something interesting.
So here we go:
(NOTE! Spoilers if you haven't read the last couple of issues of CAPTAIN AMERICA, or as I think of it now, CAPTAIN AMERICA'S AMAZING FRIENDS)--
spoiler
space
just
a
tad
...
THE REIGN OF THE SUPER-CAPS!
And we even have four of them: THE CYBORG CAP: Bucky with the mechanical arm CAP-BOY: Sharon Carter's baby THE CAP OF TOMORROW ("CLONE CAP"): was just taken out of the tank and revived last issue (and if you stretch things just a tad, and recall the publicity pic Marvel did of Iron Man in red and blue armor, with Cap's shield) -- JOHN HENRY CAP (or "IRON!")
So maybe Cap will turn up in a black suit soon, and with a 1990s mullet?? :-)
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Post by Van Plexico on Mar 9, 2008 8:48:02 GMT -5
HeroesCon has announced a special "Avengers ASSEMBLED!" panel for this year's convention, in which we'll be talking Avengers in general... hopefully, rolling out the new ASSEMBLED 2 book (assuming it's ready by then!)... and then I will present the HERO Initiative reps with a big check for the profits from sales of the first book in the past year! Details are on the Friday schedule for HeroesCon: www.heroesonline.com/con-schedule.htmlI hope some of you will be able to make it-- especially if you have a chapter or item in the upcoming book. (Man, I really hope we have A2 ready by then. We were shooting for the Iron Man movie premiere time-frame, but it's going to be close...)
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Post by Van Plexico on Feb 21, 2008 22:27:57 GMT -5
Today was a snowed-in day, so I worked pretty much all day (10 am until now, at 9:30 pm) on the editing. I hope you folks don't mind me posting your first names. The whole names will be in the book, anyway! Here's what I wrapped up today: And in this Corner: Hawkeye! (Sharon K)Whither the Vision? (Karen W)[These are both very long, very meaty chapters, with tons of info included beyond just basic biographical stuff. Hardcore fans will love these chapers. The downside was it took me several hours to sift through them both! Not because of any conceivable lack of quality, but because of how much stuff they include!] Why Stingray is an Avenger (Joe Crowe)
Why Redwing is an Avenger (Joe Crowe)
Jarvis: Why he is an Avenger (Joe Crowe)
They Shoulda Been Avengers (Joe Crowe) [Yes, Joe has four chapters this time... though you can imagine how long the Redwing one is... and yes, they are funny.] Ten Great Moments in Avengers History (Van Plexico) (BOX)[Hey, I'm the editor, I get to list ten favorite moments!] Avengers Annual #7 / MTIO Annual #2 (Van Plexico)
Avengers Forever (Rob Clough) [Rob's chapter is concise and thoughtful and captures what makes that miniseries so great.] Okay, that's it for a few days, probably. I'm moving to a different town for a couple of months, and will be doing a lot of heavy lifting and such. I have several more chapters in hand, that I haven't gotten to yet. I hope the last few that I'm waiting for will arrive while I'm busy. (And please don't take it personally, if yours isn't on either list-- I hit Joe's today because they were all short, and then got back on the regular list order, with Vizh and Hawkeye. It has nothing to do with the authors!)
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Post by Van Plexico on Feb 20, 2008 22:26:17 GMT -5
I do intend to use whatever name the contributors prefer and whatever they include with biographical material.
(If anyone who contributed a chapter has not yet sent me a bio paragraph, please do. It needs to be just 2-3 sentences that say something of who you are and your connection to the Avengers. See the previous book for examples.)
I'm starting to worry that this volume is going to be 500 pages long! Eeeep....
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Post by Van Plexico on Feb 19, 2008 21:51:41 GMT -5
I think it's time to stir up a little buzz about ASSEMBLED! 2.
I'm doing my best to have it ready by the time of the Iron Man movie. We shall see!
In the meantime, here's a list of the chapters I have edited so far. By edited, that means I have read them at least once or twice, copy-edited them (including changing a lot of verb-tenses; Joe Crowe will take a second copy-editing pass, to backstop my misses, once the whole thing is done), and altered whatever needs altering in terms of sentence/paragraph flow, structure, formatting, interior headers, conformity to the book's style (ie we italicize titles, don't list page numbers, etc.), and so on.
Here, then, is where the book currently stands. I am working through them in a particular order that may be apparent, but that I will not explicitly discuss just yet.
I have a lot more than this in my possession, but these are the ones I'm finished with. I have, without exception, enjoyed them all!
ASSEMBLED 2
And There Came a Day... (Van Plexico)
Captain America: An Overview (Dave Medinnus)
Captain America: The Ultimate Avenger (Dave Medinnus)
Captain America: Fallen Son (Mark Bousquet)
Golden Age Captain America (Dave Medinnus)
Iron Man: An Overview (Rob Clough)
Tony Stark: Villain (Mark Beaulieu)
Iron Man: World Conquest by Editorial Fiat (Van Plexico) (BOX)
Iron Man: Bill Mantlo's Overlooked Era (Van Plexico) (BOX)
Gerry Conway's Thor (Scott Harris)
The Celestials and Thor (Scott Harris) (BOX)
Jim Starlin's Thor (Scott Harris) (BOX)
The Enchantress, the Executioner, and Incompetence (Scott Harris) (BOX)
The Big Three (their friendship) (Shiryu)
Henry Pym/Goliath (Doug W)
The Hulk's Brief Career (Karen W)
Captain Mar-Vell and Ms. Marvel (Van Plexico)
A Brief History of Kang (Rob, Van, etc)
This represents roughly ONE-THIRD of what I expect to be in the book! It should be a good one!
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Post by Van Plexico on Feb 11, 2008 23:44:31 GMT -5
We shipped 411 copies to Diamond Distributors for local comic shops last week. They should be turning up right about now!
We will be presenting a check to the HERO Initiative at HeroesCon in Charlotte in late June, as part of a panel with both us and the HERO I. folks.
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Post by Van Plexico on Dec 3, 2007 19:06:45 GMT -5
ASSEMBLED! is a highlighted "Spotlight" selection in the current issue of Diamond's PREVIEWS.
Shops can now order the book direct from Diamond.
It's at the top of page 380.
Please let your local shop owner know it's there. All publisher profits go to HERO Initiative!
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Post by Van Plexico on Nov 4, 2007 19:46:48 GMT -5
I'm going in a slightly different direction with my answer-- the run that was most influential and had the biggest impact on me was Jim Shooter's run, from about 158-177.
The main drawback of this run, for me, was that Kang had been killed off in 143 (or 144), something that was referenced repeatedly during Shooter's run, to my annoyance, since I had no access to back issues as a kid.
Without Kang ever appearing (save in odd form in Michelinie's novel) during those years, though, we still had the definitive Ultron storyline, plus "super Nefaria," the Collector, the Grim Reaper, Gyrich, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and of course Korvac.
The most influential run of all? Maybe not, though even Kurt himself admitted his own run had a serious Shooter flavor to it. But it had a tremendous impact on me, coloring my perceptions of comics stories down to the present day, along with what I write.
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Post by Van Plexico on Sept 28, 2007 8:43:42 GMT -5
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Post by Van Plexico on Feb 20, 2008 22:40:03 GMT -5
I just wanted to let everyone know that ASSEMBLED! has so far sold nearly 600 copies and raised over $1100.00 for the HERO Initiative.
The total would have been much higher but the retailers take a huge bite. (I fear that means the second book will have to have a slightly higher cover price.)
We're keeping nothing money-wise, aside from the most basic costs of publication. It's all going to the charity.
We will be presenting a big check to the HERO Initiative folks as part of a special panel at HeroesCon in Charlotte in June. Both the charity and the convention are on board and are excited about this.
I'm hoping we can sell a few more copies before then, and up the total to $1500! (The charity gets a much bigger cut if folks order via the Lulu.com site or buy the book from us at conventions. That eliminates the retailer cut.)
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Post by Van Plexico on Sept 26, 2007 7:48:52 GMT -5
I have heard from George Perez today and he agrees that the charity to receive the publisher profits from the ASSEMBLED! book should indeed be the HERO Initiative.
We will make the first donation to them as soon as the quarterly checks are sent out from our printers/distributors, and I'll post when that's done.
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Post by Van Plexico on Aug 15, 2007 23:41:26 GMT -5
That's teriffic, Balok! Wow. Someone from back in the glory days of the old AML.
I appreciate your having ordered one of those books. As I said, they are extremely rare. They are sort of the basic, very early blueprint for where I started out with the Sentinels books.
(For example, the "Warlord" story in that book was greatly changed and vastly expanded to be the first novel. And the ideas behind the "Xorex" story figure into books 2 and 3 a little bit.)
We let those ideas sit and stew for nearly ten years before revisiting them. It's good to find someone who was there back at the start!
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Post by Van Plexico on Aug 8, 2007 14:33:50 GMT -5
Hey, cool, Balok. If you mean you have "When Strikes the Warlord," then I hope you'll enjoy the subsequent volumes. If you mean you have the old "Renaissance Comics" anthology that started it all, then all I can say is, "?!!!!!!"Because there are very, very few of those in existence! Talk about a limited edition item... If that's the one, how did you come to have it? You really have me curious now...
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Post by Van Plexico on Aug 7, 2007 10:30:02 GMT -5
No-- but I most assuredly did have a "rural boyhood," which is why I read all those comics!
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Post by Van Plexico on Aug 6, 2007 11:39:24 GMT -5
I'm making this a new thread just so folks who were wondering when they could order from Amazon will see it easily. It just went up over the weekend. www.amazon.com/ASSEMBLED-Van-Plexico/dp/0615154441/(I really don't understand Amazon's search engine. I can search for "Van Plexico" five times, and get different results each time. It's really strange. Plus they're bringing up a "Redwall" book now, every time I search it. Weird!!)
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Post by Van Plexico on Aug 6, 2007 2:04:24 GMT -5
Well, sure-- I can't imagine *anyone* would agree with every opinion expressed in that book. The contributors don't necessarily agree with each other, for that matter. That's part of the fun.
I appreciate Tom's comments very much, and I thank you for posting the URL, Doom.
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Post by Van Plexico on Nov 9, 2007 0:01:43 GMT -5
If any of you were waiting to hear from me via email and have not yet (as of Nov. 8), please drop me a line and let me know. I had an inbox implosion the last couple of weeks and I'm afraid something might have slipped between the cracks.
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Post by Van Plexico on Nov 9, 2007 0:00:03 GMT -5
Pretty much all the folks who contributed to the book are in general contact with Busiek, so that wasn't an issue with regard to Sean writing it.
If there was an issue at the time, it might have been that he generally seemed to like Kurt's run less than most of us. But I knew Sean would be objective and fair and indeed he was. I think his essay is the crown jewel of the book and I was willing to wait to the very last minute to get it from him-- and he nearly killed himself churning it out. He has my eternal thanks for that.
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Post by Van Plexico on Aug 15, 2007 23:29:28 GMT -5
Shiryu, you are now the second person to report that problem-- both were in Europe-- and so I have to assume it's a problem with the presses being used for European copies, and not just an isolated incident. I will investigate this immediately. In the meantime, please email me your mailing address and I will send you a good copy direct from here, with my apologies. And re the different styles of the different authors-- that's interesting; most folks I've heard from so far have said that that is precisely one of the things they like most about the book-- the variety of different styles, approaches, and viewpoints. So to each his own!
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Post by Van Plexico on Aug 6, 2007 2:01:35 GMT -5
Just back from Trinoc-Con in Raleigh. Sold ten copies of the book there. Did a reading of my overview chapter. Folks seemed to like the book.
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 22, 2007 20:40:05 GMT -5
Folks are reporting that they've already started receiving copies. This thing is selling very quickly.
I'm looking forward to some good discussion here of the highs and lows and in-betweens of the book!
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 21, 2007 21:14:07 GMT -5
The local comics shop here bought half a dozen copies from me today, and half of them were snapped up before I got out the door. Sales are looking very good, so far-- and we're still waiting on the distribution via the normal book route to kick in (it'll be a few days/weeks).
I'll pass on the word when it hits Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the like.
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 14, 2007 23:58:05 GMT -5
Lulu are our printers. They are very reliable and very good. I have never had any problems with shipments from them.
The book will be available from Amazon and other bookstores, and will be solicited through Diamond, etc-- but that won't be for weeks if not months. We still have a lot of procedural stuff to deal with on that.
I made the announcement here at the earliest possible moment, so that true Avengers fans could get it before anyone else even learns that it exists!
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 13, 2007 22:40:31 GMT -5
That's George's call. I spoke with him briefly about it a while back, but didn't get a definitive answer. He used to give to a burned children's fund, and last year he was raising money for ACTOR (which has changed its name now, and which provides monetary assistance to older/retired comics professionals.)
My main goal has been to get the book finished and make it available. As soon as I find out from him which charity it'll be supporting, I'll post it here. I've never had any doubt it would be a worthy cause, so I haven't worried about it all that much.
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 13, 2007 15:55:28 GMT -5
ASSEMBLED! Five Decades of Earth's Mightiestis now available for direct ordering from our printers: www.lulu.com/content/545283This is brand new-- you may even get your copy before I do! ;D There's not even an ISBN or barcode on the thing yet. Heck, the ink may still be wet when you get it! It'll be weeks before Diamond gets it, Amazon stocks it, etc. But if you want it now... www.lulu.com/content/54528320+ CHAPTERS 258 PAGES 16 MONTHS IN THE MAKING ALL PROFITS GO TO GEORGE PEREZ'S CHARITY
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 12, 2007 20:36:30 GMT -5
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 12, 2007 18:32:15 GMT -5
I'm setting this up as its own board/category, at least for a while, to make sure it gets maximum visibility.The book ASSEMBLED! Five Decades of Earth's Mightiest will be available for ordering directly from www.whiterocketbooks.com probably within the next couple of days. Maybe within the next 24 hours. All profits from the sale of this book will go to George Perez's chosen charity.It will be a few more weeks after that before it is available in stores and comics shops, from Amazon, and the like. But we'll have it for sale from the White Rocket site immediately. (And George's charity will get a larger cut if you order direct.) So I'm holding off on making the big press releases, going to Diamond, and the like, for right now-- we have to secure the ISBN and so forth. But in the meantime, you can be one of the very few to get the book early and kick things off! We've been working on this for over 15 months now, soliciting chapters and features from a variety of folks who have been involved in Avengers fandom (pro and fan) for many years. Bestselling author Keith R A DeCandido wrote the introduction. Marvel Handbook editor Sean McQuaid wrote a lengthy and outstanding section on the Kurt Busiek/George Perez/etc Era. And there is a whole lot more, too. The trade paperback-sized book has right around 250 pages, with over twenty chapters of analysis, unauthorized opinions, humor, and features. The cover price will be $19.95. I'm looking forward to discussion and commentary about the commentary here in this topic. Here's the direct link to the ASSEMBLED! page: www.whiterocketbooks.com/index_assembled.htm
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Post by Van Plexico on Apr 22, 2007 19:38:46 GMT -5
Finally worked my way down through the stack to INITIATIVE #1 today.
Dan Slott amazes me. He is a very skilled, very talented writer.
Under other circumstances, I would not have been terribly excited about this issue. But in his hands, with the extraordinary skill he displays in laying the story out... Wow! I was very impressed.
He's so good he makes it look like he did less than he actually did. Go back and read that comic again, if you doubt me. He sets everything up so well, with very economical use of scenes and character "bits" to lead to emotional payoffs very quickly.
I am impressed.
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