Mark Murphy; Nancy Drew

Mr. Gorman:

On "Mr. and Mrs. North," could you mean Richard Denning instead of 
William Lundigan? Granted, the two of them could easily tie in a "Who 
is the most colorless?"contest.

I remember Lundigan from "Man Into Space," I think it was called. He 
also was from my hometown of Syracuse, N.Y., and I can remember my 
brother getting his autograph at the local airport when the TV show 
was airing.

Thanks so much for resuming your blog. I hope you are doing well. I 
have come late to reading your work, and I'm sorry about that, but 
the good news is that I have a lot of good reading to look forward 
to.....

Mark Murphy

Ed here--Thanks for correcting me, Mark. Yes, Denning and Lundigan were pretty colorless. Denning did a decent job acting in "Lady At Midnight" a solid mystery film written by pulpster and later writer-driector ("Suddenly" probaby his best pic) Richard Sale. Still, as you're watching it, you wished he was on speed.
-----------
Ed here: A few years ago a rather uppity literary book publisher (I forget which) opined that graphic novels were a fad. This was similar to Frank Sinatra announcing that rock and roll would be history by 1958. Uh-huh. David McCullogh's published just announced that Mc's enormous bestseller 1776 will now become a graphic novel. Talk about a prestige package. And multiple copies will be in virtually every school in the U.S.

Here's more on graphic novels: from ComicMix copyright 2007

Nancy Drew draws
Teen sleuth movie uses GN promos
When you think of famous fictional females and hear "teen sleuth," I'll bet only one name comes to mind. Well, other than Veronica Mars.

Did you know that Nancy Drew stories are now being published in graphic novel format? NY-based company Papercutz is serving the teen and tween markets in a big way, and it's about to get bigger.

Papercutz, whose Nancy Drew #1: The Demon of River Heights won the Benjamin Franklin Award last year from PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association, also puts out young adult graphic novels featuring those other teen mystery-solvers The Hardy Boys, as well as Zorro and a really adorable-looking "teenage Charlie's Angels" book called Totally Spies. But it's Drew that's going to draw this summer, as Warner Bros. will be releasing a Nancy Drew movie this June 15 starring Emma Roberts, the star of Nickelodeon’s hit show Unfabulous. And ICv2 reports that WB will be using the graphic novels to promote the movie. The GNs will be given out as prizes in on-air radio promotions, and will also be available as the "Gift With Purchase" during the movie's mall tour in major markets.

Papercutz is also seeking artists to help draw their graphic novels, particularly those "versed in the manga style." Nancy Drew is currently drawn by Sho (Sei) Murase, a woman of Japanese and Korean descent who grew up in Spain, then moved to Canada and now lives in California -- a real multicultural phenom! She's also the author of Sei, Death and Legend published by Image Comics and is currently also working on the graphic novel series ME2 for Tokyopop.