Matthew Wayne Selznick

My friend Matt Maxwell, author of the horror-western graphic novel “Strangeways: Murder Moon,” is running the sequel, “Strangeways: The Thirsty” for free in partnership with Blog @ Newsarama, beginning October 27, 2008.

THE THIRSTY follows ex-Union officer Seth Collins from the events of MURDER MOON as he drifts a little further west to a town called Cedar Creek, which is about to find itself under attack from people who are neither dead nor alive, but somewhere in-between. However, just as MURDER MOON was about a lot more than just cowboys and werewolves, THE THIRSTY is more than just cowboys and vampires. Those readers who liked the concept of “Lone,” which was the backup feature for MURDER MOON, will eat up “Red Hands,” which will serve a similar role in THE THIRSTY.

“I’m very pleased to enjoy this opportunity,” Maxwell said recently. “I talked to quite a few potential partners before deciding to serialize THE THIRSTY on Blog @ Newsarama,” Maxwell said. “It isn’t a typical webcomic, as it wasn’t written with online publication in mind. So, I sought a different kind of partnership. Working with a comics news and commentary site as opposed to one known for syndicating webcomics seemed an intriguing and beneficial arrangement. It’s my hope that many more readers who’ve never followed STRANGEWAYS will be introduced to the series now.”

Matt’s been blogging about comics for years. When “Strangeways: Murder Moon” was released last year, it gave me a rush of vicarious glee — my friend since 1980 has his own comic book! I’m so pleased it’s been successful enough to merit a sequel, and I’m especially pleased that he’s decided to release the webcomic edition for free!

In the last few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure to receive and read books from authors who utilize new media and / or the DIY ethic in the pursuit of their art. It’s time to do some reviews!

Full disclosure — these are all folks I know personally. Still, I’ll try to be objective.

“Murder Moon” — Matt Maxwell

I met Matt Maxwell in junior high school. That’s over a quarter of a century ago.

Just letting that sink in for a moment.

Back then, we geeked out over comics, drew our own crude Frank Miller knock-offs of Wolverine, Daredevil, and friends… and imagined we’d see our own comics on the shelves one day.

For Matt, that day has come, and I’m very proud, very excited.

“Murder Moon,” written by Matt Maxwell with art by Luis Guaragña, Gervasio, Steve Lieber, and others, published by Matt’s own Highway 62. Graphic novel, trade paperback. It’s a Western… with werewolves!

Rendered in nice, stark black and white with lots of heavy shadows (albeit a little too heavy in some panels), “Murder Moon” takes classic Western elements and scrambles them with the supernatural. You’ve got the drifter, emotionally scarred from his Civil War years and mysteriously reluctant to be reunited with a family member. You’ve got the small mining town, slowly dying. There’s a sheriff, naturally, and of course, he’s got a little more going on than he’d like to let on. There’s even a hanging.

And you’ve got a werewolf, drawn in some sequences with an apparent nod to the Bill Sienkiewicz rendering of the Werewolf by Night featured in the old Moon Knight comics published when Matt and I were kids — especially in the last panel of page eleven. I can do nothing but salute that, and wonder if it was Matt’s idea or Guaragña’s . I also admire Matt’s take on the werewolf mythos — no spoilers, but it recognizes that this tale takes place in the American frontier, not Eastern Europe.

The presentation is more atmosphere than gore, the pacing easy in a way that befits the passage of time in a hot, dusty one-street frontier town. There are some unanswered questions, but that’s okay, because this will not be the only Strangeways book — Matt’s already working on the follow-up, tentatively titled “The Thirsty.” Wonder what that’s about..?

If you like cross-genre horror, give this a try. You’ll be supporting a long-deserving self-published new talent, and making future works possible. Order it from your local comic book store, if possible. If you don’t have one nearby, see the Amazon.com link below.

“Jack Wakes Up” — Seth Harwood

Seth is one of those pesky podcasting novelists you’ve heard about a time or two. Eschewing the traditional wisdom, he put a version of “Jack Wakes Up” on Podiobooks.com as a free audiobook, read by the author. You’ve heard of this tactic… but lots of folks haven’t, and when the book got picked up by Breakneck Books, a small press in New Hampshire, Seth worked the podcast angle into some excellent promotional mojo in the traditional media.

“Jack Wakes Up” is a crime thriller, a genre I don’t have too much exposure to beyond James Ellroy’s amazing L.A. Quartet novels. I’ve seen a lot more crime thriller movies — stuff like “The Usual Suspects,” “Pulp Fiction,” and such. This stuff can be fun.

Seth’s book is fun! I made an effort to get through it quickly, which is not to say it was an effort to get through — far from it. I made time to read — something I don’t have much of these days — so that I could get back to it.

The set up: Jack Palms is a has-been one-hit movie star and ex-junkie running out of money. An old associate from the bad-old-days invites him to be in on a drug deal involving some traveling Czech characters and a local supplier. Of course, Things Go Wrong, and Jack involves himself in something more complicated and dangerous.

The action is brisk and entertaining, the characters colorful, and the writing is appropriately cinematic. The only thing that threw me out of the story now and then was, unfortunately, the motivation of the lead character.

Jack Palms pulls himself deeper into life-and-death situations, near as I could tell, because he’s bored with living a straight-and-narrow life of clean living and physical fitness he’d fought three years to develop. Yes, he’s running out of his movie money, but he doesn’t consider just going out and finding a job… he goes straight to a one-off payment from Czech joyriders that will just cover his bills. Then what, Jack?

Also troubling is the reactions (or lack thereof) of most of the non-gangster characters when exposed to horrific, bloody violence at extremely close range. Jack, who we presume has never been closer to devastating violence than watching squibs pop on a movie set, seems barely fazed when people are shot to pieces all around him. The few times he does give a stray thought to getting out of the mess, he sticks it out because of the rush he’s getting.

I’ve never been a recovered junkie, so I dunno… but I didn’t quite buy it.

That said, this is meant to be a pulp book — I’m over-analyzing it, for sure. I say again: I enjoyed the heck out of this book, and I think you will, too. Think of it as an action movie on paper, and you’ll have a blast. Pick up a copy through the link below, and you’ll be supporting another podcast author who’s making good for himself.

“Infected” — Scott Sigler

Ah, now we come to the podcast novelist who is making a lot of good for himself. I posted a bit about Scott just a few days ago, so I’m really only going to talk about “Infected” itself. I finished reading it yesterday, having never listened to the podcast version.

First, what’s this book about? Essentially, it’s a ticking-clock novel — government scientists and agents race to track down the cause of a strange disease that makes its victims paranoid, homicidal nutjobs; one infected guy who has spent his adult life fighting his already homicidal nutjob nature struggles to get the better of the disease before his own clock runs down.

I loved this book. I consider Scott a friend, and I respect his talent and unrelenting moxie, so let me be clear: very quickly, while reading “Infected,” I stopped thinking of it as “Scott’s book.” It simply became “this kick-ass, delightfully disturbing book I cannot put down.” I really can’t give higher praise in this context.

This is being marketed as a horror novel, but it isn’t one of those surprise-scare horror books. It’s more accurate to say that it’s horrific. There are genuine cringe moments here, lots of them, and they’re achieved for two reasons:

First, Scott — like his idol, Stephen King — knows how to give you reasons to care about the characters, and does so with great economy. This raises empathy, which is critical if you’re going to give a damn when these people are put in great danger, or do great harm to themselves.

Second… the nature of the nastiness in this book forces you to consider your own body, and its far-from-inviolable sanctity. If you’ve ever decided to deal with an ingrown toenail or fingernail with some hot water, hydrogen peroxide, and a nail file… heck, if you’ve ever dug a splinter out of your skin… the deeply personal, intimate horrors Scott serves up in “Infected” will resonate with shuddering impact.

This book deserves to be a summer blockbuster. It deserves to be a movie… but frankly, after reading it, I’m not sure how a major studio is going to pull that off without some taming. More than anything, it deserves to be in your hands, pages whipping by at paper-cut speed. Get it. “Infected” rocks.

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