Hello! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all. I hope you’ve all been well. It’s been a while since I’ve been here but for those of you who like my writing, I thought I’d recommend a few books for your gift giving consideration that I myself have worked on in various capacities this past year or so.
This next year marks a full decade of my working as a sidekick with the uber-creative Craig Yoe. Craig has at one time or another been associated with Disney, the Muppets, Nickelodeon, MTV, and Dark Horse statues. Nowadays, he and his partner-spouse Clizia Gussoni have been turning out beautifully designed tomes collecting themed comic book stories. Here are some of their recent volumes, all of which I was pleased to assist with in one capacity or another.
WE SPOKE OUT—COMIC BOOKS AND THE HOLOCAUST
The subject matter may not be very Christmasy but this volume is an important addition to books on the history of comics as well as to any discussion on the Holocaust. Highlighted by what have been said to be the last published pieces written by the late Stan Lee, the diverse trio of Rabbi Rafael Medoff, legendary artist Neal Adams, and unreconstructed hippie Craig, this one reprints comics stories that taught many of us more about that shameful historical event than we were being taught in schools at the time. Included are the EC masterpiece MASTER RACE, written by Al Feldstein and drawn by Bernard Krigstein, as well as a number of mainstream Marvel and DC stories, including Captain America and Batman, all annotated. I got to proofread and lightly edit parts, including Stan’s. Again, not exactly a jolly holiday book but true comics aficionados and historians will appreciate it!
REEFER MADNESS COMICS
This one is educational, scary, and unintentionally funny as it gathers together bunches of over the top comics format anti-pot stories from the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s by such luminaries as Kirby, Frazetta, Robinson, Meskin, Siegel, Shuster, and Kinstler. The educational part comes from the highly praised intro researched and written by myself with Craig. The rest of it’s just nuts!
THE BEST OF DON WINSLOW OF THE NAVY
Don Winslow is the stalwart Naval hero who fought Nazis and supervillains for nearly 25 years in newspaper comics, pulps, Big Little Books, radio adventures, motion picture chapter plays, and later a TV series made out of those serials. The widely merchandised character also had a long running four color comic book from Fawcett and later Charlton. This volume collects a good sampling of the most heroic sailor this side of Popeye and features an informative history of the character and his creators. I helped quite a bit with the research for that.
SUPER WEIRD HEROES
There are so far two thick volumes in this series but more are promised. Both are just amazing fun for superhero fans as they offer up tales of long-forgotten costumed crimefighters who never stood a chance of being front runners. Mr. Whiskers, anyone? Tomboy? Kangaroo Man? Rainbow Boy? Nightmare and Sleepy? Scores of other obscure series whose publishers all were doing every outrageous thing they could think of to find the next Superman. Volume 2 features an Intro by lifelong comics fan Gene Simmons of KISS. I worked on researching and proofreading both volumes.
SUPER PATRIOTIC HEROES
Along the same lines as the above collections, this book offers up a number of the more bizarre red, white, and blue superheroes that made up so much of the early days of comics during the patriotic fervor of World War II. Some good stories and art with some pretty minor but memorably odd characters. I proofed it and suggested a few of the stories.
BEHAVING MADLY
This fun book is Ger Apeldoorn’s baby, edited by Craig. I worked on various behind the scenes tasks on this one. Ger is an exceptional comics historian—both books and strips—from the Netherlands. Here he has gathered together a highly annotated collection of some of the best pieces from the many MAD magazine rip-offs that proliferated in the US in the 1950s. This book was Eisner-nominated this past year at San Diego.
THE UNKNOWN ANTI-WAR COMICS
While war titles had been a staple of US comic book publishing since the Golden Age of the 1940s, every once in a while creators would slip in some stories that were either blatantly or subtly anti-war. Many of these would slip in under the radar at some of the smaller companies in the 1950s, often dressed up in science fiction or fantasy settings. This book offers a sampling thereof, with an emphasis on the lesser-known Charlton stories of Steve Ditko, who had a lot of anti-war stories. I edited the Intro by Noel Paul Stookey and helped proofread the rest.
MUMMIES
A nifty selection of comic book horror tales of the original walking dead—mummies—chosen, edited, and Foreworded by Steve Banes. I researched and write the lengthy Introduction, offering up a capsule history of mummies in history and pop culture.
LOU CAMERON’S UNSLEEPING DEAD
This volume of Yoe Books’ Chilling Archives of Horror Comics presents a compilation of some of the many creative horror tales by Lou Cameron, a fascinating man who spent years as an artist followed by even MORE years as an award-winning Westerns novelist. Tillmann Courth edited and write the Preface. Having been fascinated by Cameron’s metamorphosis for years, I was pleased to research and write the book’s biographical Introduction.
JUNGLE GIRLS
Edited by Fiction House expert Mitch Maglio, this one’s coming up early in 2019. It’s about a unique genre of which I have never been that much of a fan but I found working on it in several behind the scenes capacities brought me to a new appreciation of it. If you are already a fan of Sheena, Rulah, Fantomah, and Judy of the Jungle, it’s a great collection, highlighted by lots of Good Girl Art by Baker, Frazetta, and others.
THE GREAT TREASURY OF COMIC BOOK CHRISTMAS STORIES
This one came out in hardcover a few years back but this year it’s new in paperback. An absolutely delightful collection of stories by some of the best kids’ comics artists ever to work in the medium—Walt Kelly, Klaus Nordling, John Stanley, Jack Bradbury, and even children’s book legend Richard Scarry! I actually did no work on this book but I get a blurb on the back cover from my original blog review! A truly wonderful holiday book for kids of all ages!
LITTLE PENIS SANTA CLAUS
By contrast, this one is NOT for kids of all ages! The latest in Yoe’s cutely amusing series of kids’ book parodies, this one follows up from the original LITTLE PENIS and its sequel, LITTLE PENIS—OH THE PLACES YOU’LL GROW. A little naughty fun for that special adult someone in your life. (I might add I had nothing to do with this one. LOL)
THE BEST OF BOOKSTEVE’S LIBRARY
Finally, for that obsessive collector who has to have everything ever written by Craig Yoe and/or Steven Thompson, there’s this massive 500-page bargain collecting and annotating 100 pieces from my blog, BOOKSTEVE’S LIBRARY, with an all-new Foreword by Yoe! Now available on Kindle!
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Booksteves-Library-Annotated-Collection-ebook/dp/B07HHN1NT1/
It doesn't quite mean I was in a Brian De Palma movie but it's close! Ready for another Twilight Zone moment? I'm watching the great new De Palma documentary on NF when he mentions that he himself bought and paid for the New York Times ad for his film HOME MOVIES. The camera then shows this image (paused here) of said ad. BUT...that ad was NOT from the New York Times. I know this because if you look closely, you'll see that it has the same tape residue at upper left where I had it in a scrapbook for 25 years or so! THIS IS MY AD, taken from where I posted it on this blog back in 2006!!! And it was clipped from the Cannes Film Festival issue of Variety, NOT the New York Times. Cue Rod Serling.
Hello! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all. I hope you’ve all been well. It’s been a while since I’ve been here but for those of you who like my writing, I thought I’d recommend a few books for your gift giving consideration that I myself have worked on in various capacities this past year or so.
SUPER WEIRD HEROES
SUPER PATRIOTIC HEROES
This fun book is Ger Apeldoorn’s baby, edited by Craig. I worked on various behind the scenes tasks on this one. Ger is an exceptional comics historian—both books and strips—from the Netherlands. Here he has gathered together a highly annotated collection of some of the best pieces from the many MAD magazine rip-offs that proliferated in the US in the 1950s. This book was Eisner-nominated this past year at San Diego. 
While war titles had been a staple of US comic book publishing since the Golden Age of the 1940s, every once in a while creators would slip in some stories that were either blatantly or subtly anti-war. Many of these would slip in under the radar at some of the smaller companies in the 1950s, often dressed up in science fiction or fantasy settings. This book offers a sampling thereof, with an emphasis on the lesser-known Charlton stories of Steve Ditko, who had a lot of anti-war stories. I edited the Intro by Noel Paul Stookey and helped proofread the rest. 
This volume of Yoe Books’ Chilling Archives of Horror Comics presents a compilation of some of the many creative horror tales by Lou Cameron, a fascinating man who spent years as an artist followed by even MORE years as an award-winning Westerns novelist. Tillmann Courth edited and write the Preface. Having been fascinated by Cameron’s metamorphosis for years, I was pleased to research and write the book’s biographical Introduction. 
JUNGLE GIRLS
If you're reading this post ten years from now it may not apply but as of this date, Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Northern Kentucky's Crestview Hills Towne Center is now carrying my book, THE BEST OF BOOKSTEVE'S LIBRARY. This is important to me for two reasons--1) It's the store where I currently work three days a week in the stockroom and 2) It's the store currently at the location of the Waldenbooks where I spent many of my best days as a young bookseller, first as Assistant Manager between 1983 and 1987 and then returning as Manager from 1995-2000. I use to dream of having a book of my own for sale in my own store and now, in a roundabout way, I finally do! 
