Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Moonstone Pulp: The Green Ghost!

It's not easy being Green...

No, not Moonstone Books' The Green Hornet Chronicles, which I am happily co-editing with Joe Gentile...

...But the Green Ghost! (Originally just called The Ghost in his initial pulp appearances...) That's right, kids, the Green Ghost is coming to comics and Moonstone's got him.

Before the war, when the GREEN GHOST-master magician and criminologist George Chance-ventured into the night, with his horrific skull-like appearance and his seemingly supernatural abilities, evildoers quaked at the prospect of tangling with him.

But the war in Europe changed him...he witnessed the depths of evil, and now combats it with an intensity that makes his pre-war exploits look like a lark. To this point, though, Geaorge Chance has battled only human depravity and is a skeptic at heart. Can he hold his own against the real supernatural menaces?
When I first heard Moonstone was launching a line of pulp comics and prose stories, I pitched the Green Ghost to Moonstone's Joe Gentile (with a tip o' the hat to pal Martin Powell, who sent me a Green Ghost novel a couple years back), and he was all over it. I gathered up the info about Chance's original pulp appearances, and put together a series bible for the relaunch.

Since then, writer Eric Fein and illustrator David Neihaus have come on board, contributing their ideas and designs for the series, and have crafted the first short comic story. I'll be handling the prose short story duties, co-writing the first tale with Eric, with David handling the spot illos.

For more info, head over to Moonstone Forums' Return of the Originals section for discussing Moonstone Pulp! Also check out Facebook and search on "Moonstone Pulps"--join up for art previews and other cool stuff! And watch this space for more details as they become available.

The spirit of pulp fiction is alive and well!

9 comments:

Paul Bishop said...

This is cool news! Congrats! Moonstone is doing some cool stuff and I'm glad to see you're in the middle of the mix.

Win Scott Eckert said...

Thanks a lot, Bish! :-)

Unknown said...

Incredible. I read the original novel online, and I am glad that he is being revivied. My only question is: When do you sleep nowadays, Win?

Win Scott Eckert said...

When do I sleep? Been wondering that myself. ;-)

Michael Brown said...

While this is nice, the problem I see is the availability of the original stories. No one has done an inexpensive reprint series of the Green Ghost (some reprints in High Adventure, or the expensive collection from Battered Silicon Dispatch Box doesn't count).

Without having read the originals, why would pulp fans get this one???

Its the same problem I see with Airship 27's new "Jim Anthony" stories when the originals aren't that available (Altus only later came out with a collection of the first 3).

Win Scott Eckert said...

emb021: (shrug) To each his own. Enough people have read at least a few of the original stories, enough to get a flavor at least.

Moonstone is not responsible for the expensive Battered Silicon Dispatch Press set, and it is not Moonstone's business model to reprint original pulp tales (at least not that I'm aware).

So clearly you won't be supporting our efforts with the Green Ghost, but it;s all good, we've gotten plenty of positive feedback and are forging ahead.

Best,

-Win

Michael Brown said...

I didn't say I won't get this. I think its great that Moonstone is putting out these collections. I just wish those publishers who pretty much only want to do new stories prehaps work with those who much only do reprints to ensure such reprints get out. I think that would increase the market for the new stories.

Win Scott Eckert said...

Thanks for the clarification, I wasn't getting that positive vibe from your prior comment. Moonstone's plate is full, I imagine, but if you reached out to Altus yourself re: the Green Ghost perhaps they'd consider it.

Michael Brown said...

Actually, Altus Press had a query on their blog about future collections. I put in a list of hero pulps I'd like to see reprinted, and a few others chimed in. Green Ghost is amoung them, along with Green Lama, Dr Satan, and several others.