OUR SHADOWED PAST III in the Works

To devout Dark Shadows fans, the name Bob Issel is well known. For several decades, he has hosted countless gatherings of fans, actors from both the original soap and the 1991 remake, and creative individuals who have contributed to every aspect of the franchise. In 2021, he conceived a volume of essays by both Dark Shadows fans and cast/crew members titled Our Shadowed Past, and—because Bob is a very brave man—he engaged me to do all the production work on this 300-plus-page monster (the original print run sold out, but it is currently available for Kindle). The book included my essay, "Dreams of the Dark," which detailed the many dreams and nightmares that came true during the writing of the novel, Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark (HarperCollins, 2000), by Elizabeth Massie and me, back before the turn of the century.

A couple of years back, Bob produced a second volume—you guessed it—titled Our Shadowed Past II. I wasn't available at that time to do the production work, so Bob's friend and graphics guy Jeff Kenny undertook that project. I had an essay in that one as well, titled "The Shadows of the Towers," about my adventures (and misadventures) at the first Dark Shadows Festival I ever attented, back in 1999, at the late, lamented World Trade Center in New York City.

And now, yes, there will be a third Our Shadowed Past volume. Bob Issel designed the cover and Aleah Shockley provided the art, which you can see above. And once again, because Bob is a brave and possibly foolish young man, he has engaged me to take the ball and run with it. Yep, the book is currently in the works and slated for release in late fall 2025. It includes essays about the franchise, the settings, and the actors (including interviews with original series stars Nancy Barrett, Donna McKechnie, and Christopher Pennock, and 1991 series star, Joanna Going). Plus, there's even some fan fiction.

If you'd like more information about the book or wish to place an advance order, please contact Mr. Bob Issel at bobubas59@gmail.com. Of course, I'll be posting updates and additional information closer to release time.

GOJIRA 1954: A 70th ANNIVERSARY RETROSPECTIVE by Peter H. Brothers

Gojira 1954 is in the house! Just received my contributor copy from long-time author, editor, and daikaiju enthusiast extraordinaire, Peter H. Brothers. His newest monster book is a collection of essays, articles, and interviews devoted to the original 1954 Toho classic, titled Gojira 1954: A 70th Anniversary Retrosective. This one features my little essay, "The Big Old Stomp That Rocked My World," which recounts the day I watched Godzilla - King of the Monsters and the earth literally shook. Other contributors include Mike Bogue, Bradford Grant Boyle, Mark Cerasini, Allen A. Debus & Elizabeth Russell Debus, Davide Di Giorgio, Bob Eggleton, William Tsutsui, Larry Tuczynski, and many others whose names will strike familiar chords among daikaiju aficionados. The book also features personal accounts and interviews with numerous individuals involved in the original film production, including Special Effects Director Sadamasa Arikawa, Director Ishiro Honda, Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, Art Director Akira Watanabe, and many more.

Doubtlessly because Toho is very restrictive about the use of Godzilla images, the book offers only a smattering of photos. To be sure, though, the superlative written content makes this book a true keeper.

Peter H. Brothers is a multi-Rondo Award nominee, author of Atomic Dreams and Nightmares, Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men, Sons of Godzilla, and many others. Gojira 1954: A 70th Anniversary Retrospective is available in ebook, paperback, hardback, and audiobook.

I find the autographed Raymond Burr photo pretty danged awesome.

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Order Gojira 1954: A 70th Anniversary Retrospective at Amazon.com

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Rising Sun Reruns Is in the House!

Another contributor copy popped into my mailbox this week — this one a lovely volume from Becky Books titled Rising Sun Reruns, edited by Jim Beard. My essay, “Bacon, Eggs, Toast, and Ultraman” — believe it or not — is about growing up with Ultraman, at least during those rare spells when I was able to watch Ultraman as a young’un.

“From the 1960s to the 1990s, children in the West were gifted with a bounty of amazing TV shows to watch and enjoy — but it wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy their voracious appetites for adventure! It took the immigration of imported shows from the East to fill their afternoons with all the fun and fantasy they craved!

“Grab a TV tray and hunker down with a group of grown-up kids as they reminisce about their favorite Japanese TV shows of yore! In these pages, you will find glowing memories of flights of fancy such as Ultraman, Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot, Astro Boy, Battle of the Planets, Space Giants, Speed Racer, Robotech, and many, many more—including a few you may never even heard of!

“Writer-editor Jim Beard adds to his Memories from Today's Grown-Up Kids series of pop culture nostalgia books with Rising Sun Reruns, a tantalizing trip into the past when discovering a strange show from Japan alongside your other favorite series was not a weird thing at all…it was downright wonderful!”

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Order Rising Sun Reruns from Amazon.com here!

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Death’s Garden Revisited Is in the House

My contributor copy of Death’s Garden Revisited has arrived. It’s a beautiful, profusely illustrated volume featuring forty essays about personal relationships with graveyards & cemeteries, edited by Loren Rhoads. My essay is titled “The Treasure Hunter” — and some of you might be able to guess what that’s about...

“Death’s Garden Revisited collects forty powerful personal essays — accompanied by full-color photographs — to illuminate the reasons people visit cemeteries. Spanning the globe from Iceland to Argentina and from Portland to Prague, Death’s Garden Revisited explores the complex web of relationships between the living and those who have passed before.

“Genealogists and geocachers, travelers and tour guides, anthropologists, historians, pagan priestesses, and ghost hunters all venture into cemeteries in these essays. Along the way, they discover that cemeteries don’t only provide a rewarding end to a pilgrimage, they can be the perfect location for a first date or a wedding, the highlight of a family vacation, a cure for depression, and the best possible place to grasp history. Not to mention that cemetery-grown fruit is the sweetest.”

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Check out Death’s Garden Revisited here.

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NEW! Death’s Garden Revisited

Death’s Garden Revisited, edited by Loren Rhoads and featuring my essay, “The Treasure Hunter,” is now available.

“Death’s Garden Revisited collects 40 powerful personal essays, accompanied by full-color photographs, to illuminate the reasons people visit cemeteries. Spanning the globe from Iceland to Argentina and from Portland to Prague, Death’s Garden Revisited explores the complex web of relationships between the living and those who have passed before.

“Genealogists and geocachers, travelers and tour guides, anthropologists, historians, pagan priestesses, and ghost hunters all venture into cemeteries in these essays. Along the way, they discover that cemeteries don’t only provide a rewarding end to a pilgrimage, they can be the perfect location for a first date or a wedding, the highlight of a family vacation, a cure for depression, and the best possible place to grasp history. Not to mention that cemetery-grown fruit is the sweetest.”

In addition to “The Treasure Hunter,” you’ll find fascinating, insightful essays by authors such as Priscilla Bettis, Rain Graves, Robert Holt, Erika Mailman, Trish Wilson, Angela Yuriko-Smith, and many others. Full-color photographs accompany each article. Available in softcover and hardcover.

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Order Death’s Garden Revisited here!

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NEW! Rising Sun Reruns From Becky Books

TIME FOR TOKUSATSU!
Looky, looky! On the heels of his phenomenal Dark Shadows retrospective, Running Home to Shadows, editor Jim Beard and publisher Becky Books are back with Rising Sun Reruns, a new volume dedicated to those Japanese television imports from the mid-to-late Twentieth Century that glued so many of us to our small screens.

“From the 1960s to the 1990s children in the West were gifted with a bounty of amazing TV shows to watch and enjoy—but it wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy their voracious appetites for adventure! It took an intriguing immigration of imported shows from the East to fill their afternoons with all the fun and fantasy they craved!

“Grab a TV tray and hunker down in the family den with a group of grown-up kids as they reminisce about their favorite exotic Japanese TV shows of yore! In these pages, you will find glowing memories of flights of fancy such as Ultraman, Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot, Astro Boy, Battle of the Planets, Space Giants, Speed Racer, Robotech, and many, many more—including a few you may never even heard of!

“Writer-editor Jim Beard adds to his Memories from Today's Grown-Up Kids series of pop culture nostalgia books with Rising Sun Reruns, a tantalizing trip into the past when discovering a strange show from Japan alongside your other favorite series was not a weird thing at all… it was downright wonderful!”

My essay, “Bacon, Eggs, Toast, & Ultraman,” showcases — you guessed it! — the original Ultraman TV series. Actor David J. Fielding, from the Power Rangers series, provides the foreword. Cover art is by Adam Benet Shaw. Available in paperback and ebook.

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Order Rising Sun Reruns from
Amazon.com here!

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Now Playing: Running Home to Shadows!

It’s here: Running Home to the Shadows, from editor Jim Beard and publisher Becky Books. This volume, which features plenty of recollections about Dark Shadows from a host of writing professionals — including yours truly — plus a foreword by Dark Shadows’ own Kathryn L Scott (Maggie Evans, Josette DuPres, Rachel Drummond, and others).

From the editor: 

School is out, and Barnabas is IN!

They were a generation all their own, the army of children who ran home from school to watch Dark Shadows, TV’s very first supernatural soap. A breed apart, they set aside the worship of mundane pop stars to follow vampires, witches, and werewolves. From 1966 to 1971, they were daytime Monster Kids… and today they have stories to tell.

Writer-editor Jim Beard has gathered these grown-up kids together in this tome to tell those tales. Their experiences are sometimes tragic and terrifying, yet also uplifting and inspirational, but above all, Dark Shadows touched them so deeply as to leave an indelible impression on their lives that lasts to this day.

Return to Collinwood to brave the stormy nights and rainswept days of yore to listen to this coven of writers spin yarns of childhood encounters with Barnabas, Angelique, Quentin, Vicky, Maggie, and their compatriots. Cross the threshold of the Old House, take a seat by the crackling fire, and make yourself comfortable to the strains of maudlin music issuing forth from the gramophone — the ghosts of the past are about to arise in Running Home to Shadows. Won’t you join us?

Edited by Jim Beard with Charles R. Rutledge

Cover illustration by Mark Maddox with logo design and formatting by Maggie Ryel

Foreword by Kathryn Leigh Scott

Featuring essays by Greg Cox, Kathleen O’Shea David, Mark Dawidziak, Dave Dykema, Bob Freeman, Ed Gross, Nancy Holder, Tina Hunt, Katherine Kerestman, Mark Maddox (with Ed Catto), Elizabeth Massie, Kimberly Oswald, Martin Powell, Dana Pride, Stephen Mark Rainey, Michael Rogers, Charles R. Rutledge, Chris Ryan, Frank Schildiner, Duane Spurlock, and Jeff Thompson

Afterword by Rich Handley

Order Running Home to the Shadows here.

Coming Soon: Death’s Garden Revisited

Another upcoming book release featuring an article of mine is Death’s Garden Revisited, a collection of essays about particularly intriguing graveyards and cemeteries. My experience, perhaps not altogether unexpectedly, involves geocaching. Hunting caches has taken me to innumerable boneyards over the years, and many of my favorites have been in or around graveyards — especially very old ones, such as the Patrick-Watson graveyard, not far from my place in Guilford County, NC. I posted a little about it (among other happenings) in 2019 (“Anyone for Scorpion?” June 15, 2019)

Some years back, editor Loren Rhoads assembled a collection of essays for her original book, titled Death’s Garden, and it has clearly warranted a second volume.

The Kickstarter campaign for this one has just kicked off: Death’s Garden Revisited Kickstarter

Coming Soon: Running Home to Shadows

On the heels of Bob Issel's Our Shadowed Past — a huge volume of essays from fans and the stars of legendary soap Dark Shadows (in which I had a hand in the production) — comes Running Home to Shadows, from Jim Beard and Becky Books. I also have a new essay in this volume, which features plenty of recollections about Dark Shadows from a host of writing professionals — plus a foreword by Dark Shadows's own Kathryn Leigh Scott.

From the editor: 

School is out, and Barnabas is IN!

They were a generation all their own, the army of children who ran home from school to watch Dark Shadows, TV’s very first supernatural soap. A breed apart, they set aside the worship of mundane pop stars to follow vampires, witches, and werewolves. From 1966 to 1971, they were daytime Monster Kids… and today they have stories to tell.

Writer-editor Jim Beard has gathered these grown-up kids together in this tome to tell those tales. Their experiences are sometimes tragic and terrifying, yet also uplifting and inspirational, but above all, Dark Shadows touched them so deeply as to leave an indelible impression on their lives that lasts to this day.

Return to Collinwood to brave the stormy nights and rainswept days of yore to listen to this coven of writers spin yarns of childhood encounters with Barnabas, Angelique, Quentin, Vicky, Maggie, and their compatriots. Cross the threshold of the Old House, take a seat by the crackling fire, and make yourself comfortable to the strains of maudlin music issuing forth from the gramophone — the ghosts of the past are about to arise in Running Home to Shadows. Won’t you join us?

Edited by Jim Beard with Charles R. Rutledge

Cover illustration by Mark Maddox with logo design and formatting by Maggie Ryel

Foreword by Kathryn Leigh Scott

Featuring essays by Greg Cox, Kathleen O’Shea David, Mark Dawidziak, Dave Dykema, Bob Freeman, Ed Gross, Nancy Holder, Tina Hunt, Katherine Kerestman, Mark Maddox (with Ed Catto), Elizabeth Massie, Kimberly Oswald, Martin Powell, Dana Pride, Stephen Mark Rainey, Michael Rogers, Charles R. Rutledge, Chris Ryan, Frank Schildiner, Duane Spurlock, and Jeff Thompson

Afterword by Rich Handley

Stay tuned for release news and ordering information.