Thanks to everyone who responded to last week’s poll about doing a graphic novel! I’m happy to announce that I am now taking pre-orders for this exciting Lawson Vampire adventure. The graphic novel will chronicle one of Lawson’s earlier missions in Europe and it takes him from Vienna to Rome to a whole lot of Hell. Undiscovered races, stolen microfilm, Soviet military intelligence, frozen vampires, and much much more! NOTE: This is NOT a graphic novel of THE FIXER novel; this is an early Lawson mission back when he was more active internationally. This story has never been released until now!
Estimate page count for this is approximately 150 pgs. in full glossy color. It’s going to look and read utterly amazingly and you definitely do NOT want to miss out on this. Our estimate publication date is October 2010, although we’ll have a better idea of an exact date as we get started and also see what sort of pre-order response we get to this initial offering (so be sure to order now!).
Cost is $15.95 for the trade paperback plus $4.00 shipping to anywhere in the world. Use the handy button below to order via Paypal or if you’d rather send me a money order for it, contact me at my email address jonfmerz AT verizon DOT net
This is a first-of-its-kind, so don’t wait. Depending on how many pre-orders we get, we’ll only print a few beyond that number so it really is a limited edition graphic novel. I’ll be releasing more details soon about the artist!
Couple of tidbits and an informal poll for all you cool readers out there…
First off, my good pal Joe Nassise (with whom I’m co-authoring the HELLstalkers series on the Verizon/Vodafone networks) has launched an ambitious new novel project, THE MIRROR’S ROAD. This is a pledge-driven project over at Kickstarter.com. Basically, you pledge a certain amount toward his goal of reaching $5,000 and you can get all sorts of insider tips, see how he writes, behind-the-scenes stuff and much more. It’s a pretty intriguing project, and Joe only actually gets the money you pledge if he reaches the funding goal. All payments are handled by Amazon.com and it’s perfectly safe. If you’d like to read more about the project, please head on over and give the page a look-see – then pledge something!. Joe’s an international best-selling author and his stuff is good, real good. Plus, he’s one of the few folks I actually consider a true friend in this crazy business. He’s good people; so please lend some support.
Still waiting for news on when HELLstalkers will be up and running. Apparently, there are some technical issues that need to be worked through. More hurry-up-and-wait, which is frustrating but at least it’s better to get them out of the way now. News on the release when I have it.
THE FIXER television series is progressing slowly. We shot a second teaser trailer and there’s a bit of a hold-up on the audio side of things. So while that’s being worked on, we’re up to some other stuff but it’s all top secret and I can’t discuss anything yet.
Speaking of the Lawson Vampire novels, I *should* have some other news on them to release soon. Wish I could say more about this, but… 🙂
If you’ve been a fan of Lawson for a while, or even if you’re new to the series via the television show, then you might know that for a while now, it’s been a goal of mine to chronicle some of Lawson’s earlier adventures when he was operating more on an international scale. Lawson got really active in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s before being assigned to the New England AO (area of operations) and I haven’t detailed most of these missions as yet (although we are running THE MADAGASCAR MATTER right now and we’re already up the chapter 3 of the fun. You should subscribe and get in on the the fun!) but have wanted to. My thought has always been that doing so would be especially fun as a comic series or a graphic novel. Seeing Lawson come alive in illustrated form has always appealed to me and it’s another media platform I’d like to get involved with. But before I do, I’d like to ask you a few questions. Feel free to post your responses in the comments section immediately after this post, over on my Facebook Fan Page or email me.
1. Would you prefer a 5-issue comic series or a complete graphic novel for these missions? (Each mission would take approximately 5 issues of comics or one graphic novel)
2. Most graphic novels cost around $15.95 for a glossy trade paperback edition. Are you willing to pay this?
3. If so, would you be willing to pre-order it? (If I get enough pre-order now, I can secure the artist and hopefully we can get this out by October)
Hope you all have a great Friday! Thanks for taking part in my informal survey! Feel free to retweet this or share it around Facebook – the more input, the better!
The Soviet-made RPG-7 had been around since the early 1960s and because the
damned thing was so cheap to manufacture and simultaneously rugged, they showed up
pretty much anywhere there was conflict. While I hadn’t heard that the Soviets and
Americans were conducting war-by-proxy here in Madagascar, we were certainly close
enough to mainland Africa for hundreds of the things to find their way across to the
island nation.
But that wasn’t my primary concern just then as I watched the blue-gray smoke
surround the grenade streaking toward the Range Rover. Wondering how we’d survive if
the thing impacted was.
Zero jerked the truck again and I had to fight to keep my balance. We weren’t
more than a hundred and fifty meters from the bad guys. My brain zipped through the
recent statistics I’d read about US Army tests on the RPG-7 and the probability of taking
a direct hit. At a hundred and fifty meters, the chances were about 75% that we’d get
nailed.
Not my kind of odds.
Zero tried to swerve again but the round stayed with us. They might have
switched from the usual optic and iron sights to passive infra-red, which would mean
much worse things for the three of us.
We shot closer to the turnoff point that Andrian wanted us to take. But Zero was
already shaking his head. We wouldn’t make-
-the RPG exploded off the right side of the vehicle and we went airborne…
I’ve been watching the pictures and video coming out of Haiti today following that massive earthquake and it breaks my heart to see that kind of suffering in what is truly one of the poorest nations in the world. So, here’s the deal: as you know I’m running the serialized Lawson Vampire adventure The Madagascar Matter throughout 2010. I’m donating $5 from every $7.95 subscription to the relief effort for Haiti, so if you haven’t had a chance to donate to the cause and you want something very cool out of it as well, now’s the perfect time to get your subscription using the order form below. Every week (if people keep signing up) I’ll post how much money I’ve sent off to the Red Cross relief efforts. Obviously with that much destruction, they need every dollar they can, and after speaking with some folks at the Red Cross today, they’ve said money is the number one thing they need right now to provide for the families in crisis. I hope you’ll subscribe below and then tell your friends to do the same. My thanks to you!
The brilliant supernova incinerating my eyesight didn’t allow me to see much more than the pistol. It was enough that I knew I was in danger, but not nearly enough to get to grips with the rest of the situation. Before I could even think about reacting to the threat, I needed to know who else was in the room, where they were, what they had for weapons, that sort of thing. If I moved too soon, the only person who was going to get killed was me. And frankly, I kinda liked me the way I was.
Alive.
“You guys really take room service seriously, huh?”
There was a pause and then the briefest chuckle that spilled over into a hearty laugh. The light switched off and I blinked a few times.
In front of me sat a huge man the color of deepest night. He looked like a living shadow with only a swath of brilliant white teeth breaking the smooth, gleaming skin of his face.
More importantly than his smile was the fact that the Colt 1911 lowered. “I was told you have a decent sense of humor.”
“Glad to know my reputation precedes me.” I frowned. “I guess.” I hadn’t been active all that long. But then again, on my first trip overseas when I apprenticed under Zero, I had my mug shot snapped five times by the East German Stasi before I even left the airport. Apparently, someone was compiling a dossier on me. Swell.
“I expected you to be a little bit more aware, however. The fact I was able to break into your room, take a seat, and catch you sleeping has me a bit concerned about your future.”
I nodded in the direction of the door. “Have you seen those locks? They wouldn’t stop a feather from breaking in.”
“Even still, for a Fixer, I must say I’m somewhat disappointed.”
His English was tinged with a British accent, but that wasn’t surprising in this part of the world. I started to say something about expectations when a new voice cut through the air…
The brilliant supernova incinerating my eyesight didn’t allow me to see much more than the pistol. It was enough that I knew I was in danger, but not nearly enough to get to grips with the rest of the situation. Before I could even think about reacting to the threat, I needed to know who else was in the room, where they were, what they had for weapons, that sort of thing. If I moved too soon, the only person who was going to get killed was me. And frankly, I kinda liked me the way I was.
Alive.
“You guys really take room service seriously, huh?”
There was a pause and then the briefest chuckle that spilled over into a hearty laugh. The light switched off and I blinked a few times.
In front of me sat a huge man the color of deepest night. He looked like a living shadow with only a swath of brilliant white teeth breaking the smooth, gleaming skin of his face.
More importantly than his smile was the fact that the Colt 1911 lowered. “I was told you have a decent sense of humor.”
“Glad to know my reputation precedes me.” I frowned. “I guess.” I hadn’t been active all that long. But then again, on my first trip overseas when I apprenticed under Zero, I had my mug shot snapped five times by the East German Stasi before I even left the airport. Apparently, someone was compiling a dossier on me. Swell.
“I expected you to be a little bit more aware, however. The fact I was able to break into your room, take a seat, and catch you sleeping has me a bit concerned about your future.”
I nodded in the direction of the door. “Have you seen those locks? They wouldn’t stop a feather from breaking in.”
“Even still, for a Fixer, I must say I’m somewhat disappointed.”
His English was tinged with a British accent, but that wasn’t surprising in this part of the world. I started to say something about expectations when a new voice cut through the air…
