I’m not one to talk in length about what I’m working on at that precise moment. Don’t want to tempt fate I suppose. But as I’m one of the names already bandied about for the Phantom Prose Anthology to be published by Moonstone, I may as well dwell on a few thoughts. I’ve nearly finished the first draft, and the story, called ‘Truth and Consequence’, is coming along rather nicely. Having said that it’s still a first draft with bits written in the first person, the third person, and in a person who turned up to the party uninvited who no one’s seen before.

The Phantom (AKA ‘The Ghost Who Walks’) is widely considered to be the first superhero, created by Lee Falk for a newspaper strip in 1936. And don’t worry if you’ve never heard of him as he’s pretty big in Sweden J If his name does ring a bell think of the Hollywood film a few years back starring Billy Zane and a pre-Michael Douglas Catherine Zeta Jones. But give the big guy his due he still does good business in the States and Europe, published by Moonstone and Egmont respectively. As for my story, the Phantom has been captured by the Nazis and is being interrogated in an isolated castle in Africa. There follows a war of wills between interrogator and prisoner. I could say more but I can’t be arsed. Think McGoohan’s ‘The Prisoner’ and, erm, stop thinking at around about there! I should say that it’s shaping up as an agreeably psychologically twisted tale and should be a nice change of pace from the more action-orientated stories normally associated with the character. Other writers involved in the project include Ron Marz, Steven Grant, and Paul Storrie. S’no bad indeed.

I take it everyone is enjoying the World Cup. C’moan the Ghana!

http://moonstonebooks.proboards67.com/index.cgi?board=phantom&action=display&thread=1142383573

Cartoon Network Block Party #21 is out about now. It features a Johnny Bravo strip called ‘Fishy Sitter’ by Mike Decarlo and me. In the story Johnny ‘baby-sits’ a goldfish for a friend. Of course he makes a right arse of it and comedy mayhem ensues. Again I’m revisiting an old theme here. In ‘Facts of Life’, a short strip which appeared in the original incarnation of Negative Burn, I tell the tale of a young man who was taught the facts of life by his mother using goldfish. Which itself was inspired by my mother’s real life admission that she taught my sister the facts of life using goldfish. And people wonder how I turned out the way I did.