Dear Mr Gorman,
I'm glad to see that Max Allan Collins' "Ms Tree" is back and in novel
form.
Growing up in Scotland in the 50s and 60s American comics were a real
splash of colour and excitement in a country that still had war-time
rationing in the year I was born. Even at my present age (52) I still
have a real fondness for them.
The extra-sized "Ms Tree" quarterly series that DC produced was top
notch and I was sorry to see it cancelled. Your own "back-up" feature
using the golden-age character "Midnight" was superb and led to me
reading any of your books that I can get my hands on.
Glasgow, being a busy port way back when (in the Victorian era often
called "the second city of the British Empire") as kids we used to
pick up very quickly on American books, comics and music. It was also
known as "cinema City" because it had more cinemas per head of
population than any other european city. Westerns and crime films were
the favourites.
There is a street market called the "Barras" ( the vendors used to use
wheel barrows for their merchandise) in the East end of the city where
I used to be able to pick up comics and books as a kid. I was down
there for the first time in ages a week or so ago and managed to find
a couple of your Westerns ("The Sharpshooter" and "Graves' Retreat")
for £1 each. For just a few minutes it was like being 14 all over
again! Really enjoyed both of them. I always find that your Westerns
read more like historical mysteries than more traditional "oaters".
Anyway, I just wanted to drop you a line to say how much I enjoy your
work and really look forward to reading news on your "blog". I'm just
about to head off to see my team (Glasgow Celtic) playing in our
football ( or soccer) league.
Best wishes,
Bill Carlin.
Ed here: Thanks for writing, Bill. And for the interesting glimpse of Glasgow. And of course for the compliments. I've never thought of my westerns as historical mysteries but I guess that's what they really are. Thanks for pointing that out.
Nice that he brought up the subject. I have always been meaning to ask you if you've ever scripted any more comics besides those Midnight short stories. This was also the way I was introduced to your writing. BTW, how many Midnight stories did you write?
ReplyDeleteI wrote some other comic scripts, notably a Species issue for Dark Horse. I did a graphic novel based on Dean Koontz's novella "Trapped." I'm not sure how many Midnights there were. I lost a lot of magazine and comic stuff when we moved last. The moving company paid us about a tenth of the worth for the loss and I've never gotten around to replacing most of it. Lazy.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'll look them up. I read them a long time ago but they weren't mine. I guess I should have bought them.
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