Greetings loyal, airmen.  Last Sunday saw the first ever Fortier Comics Creators Pool Party.  As you can see by the photos attached, we had a very good turn out and Valerie and I were delighted.    We got to spend a hot, summer afternoon with lots of good food and drink and much more lively conversations with old and new friends.

From left to right is Thomas Young, his dad, writer Larry Young and daughter Annika.  Then my better half, Valerie, next to artist Michael “Mitch” Mitchell, his son Brandon, yours turly in the Hulk shirt, Kyle Mitchell and his mom, the gracious Laurie.   Larry and I have known each other for more years than I can count and he is one terrific writer.  Whereas Mitch and I only hooked up a short few weeks ago and with this first ever meeting, are now good pals.  Have some fun pulp projects lined with Mitch.

Also showing up to get into the fun were several of guys we met during the Paperback Bazaar Comic School Rich Woodall and I gave over the winter.  In this shot are artists Adam DeGagne and Tom Bonello. Tom is the fellow I'm currently doing the BULLDOZER comic with. Check out our gallery for images of his great work.

And this happy trio is made up of Green Landern super fan, and cartoonist max, Alex Eggleston, with humor writer Josh Florence and his girl friend Christine.  Alex, Josh and I are involved with a cartoon strip called ROBOT-GUY which sooner or later you are going to see on the web.  All these young men abound in talent and truly helped make the afternoon a fun event.  Enough so that you can expect to see this become an annual event at the Fortier Homebase.  Thanks one and all for coming down and making it a blast.

Oh, and yes, some of the guys did take a plunge into the pool.  Although the truth, Larry's two, Thomas and Annika didn't get out longer than five minutes all afternoon and lovely Annika looked like a happy prune when she finally did get out.  I also gave tours of the Batcave (my new den and office) to those few visitors who had yet to revel in the experience.  Ha.

On to comics stuff.  Back in the 1930s, after Bela Lugosi's big hit with the film DRACULA, Universal begged him to come back and do a sequel.  Alas, Lugosi had already done the Count numerous times on American stages and with the completion of the movie version, he was finished with the part.  He adamantly refused to do a sequel.  But Universal was not to be put off doing another vampire tale, as DRACULA had made lots of money and as we all know, Hollywood thrives on sequels to big hits.  Thus they went and made a sequel called
DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, starring actress Gloria Holden; a bit player, this would be her only starring feature. The story picks up where DRACULA ends, with the Count's beautiful daughter Marya, coming to London to see to the remains of his body.  Once in England, she enters high society and attempts, through pyschology to cure her lust for blood.  Of course it doesn't work and soon she has her manservant prowling the night time streets of London to bring her victims; one of these is a lovely blonde lass.  DRACULA'S DAUGHTER is considered one of those lost and forgotten classics among horror fans and is critically a better produced film.
It's blatant erotic overtones certainly make it a more adult movie.    I saw it long ago and never forgot it; it is now a treasured part of my DVD collection.   Over the years I dreamed of rewriting my own version and eventually got around to doing so.  But not wanting to be accused of merely copying Universal's story, mine is called.THE DAUGHTER OF DRACULA…and is an original drama from start to finish.   I initially wrote it as a 108 graphic novel and then later rewrote it as a film script.

A little over two years ago, while surfing the web one night, I found an old comic artist pal, Rob Davis.  Rob and I had communicated back in the 80s when both of us had full-fledged careers in the industry.  We had hoped to do something together, but it never happened, much to both our regrets.   So here we were getting reacquainted and in the course of exchaning lots of e-mails, I mentioned DAUGHTER OF DRACULA to Rob and asked if he'd be interested in doing it?  You'll never know how tight my fingers were crossed while I awaited his reply.
Rob wisely asked to read the script.  I sent it off.  Crossed those digits again. Ha. At last he said yes, but with the proviso that he could only do one page a week.  108 weeks!  That's what he was telling me it would take him to do this comic, if I agreed.  But here's the thing, airmen, Rob was going to do it all…pencils..inks..and letters!! Up to that point the script had been sitting my filing cabinet going nowhere.  Of course I said yes, happily.  Well, last weekend, Rob turned in page # 108!!!  The book is finished!!!.  Then only two short days later handed in his pencils for the cover (see a portion of those pencils above).  The piece will now be colored by Freddy Lopez, who works magic with digital coloring.  It is going to blow you away when completed.

Earlier this week Rob posted his own account of this two year project at his web-site (see my links page) and I urge all of you to drop by and read it.  It's insightful and will tell you much more about this amazing artist who has become a truly good friend and partner.   Rob will be at the Chicago Comic Con next week with some pages from DAUGHTER OF DRACULA.  Any of you lucky to be going, please seek him out. His floor table number is 3320 A.   As to what the future holds for this graphic novel, Rob and I do have plans for that and a particular comic publisher in mind.  But it is too early to talk about that now.  I'll keep you posted. Of course my dream is to see the graphic novel become a huge success for both of us, then drop into somebody's lap in Hollywood and become what it was always intended to be, a feature film.  If you are going to dream, airmen, dream big!

And there you have it for this week.   I am off to Dayton, Ohio, next Wed with Wild Cat Books publisher, Ron Hanna, to attend Pulp Con.  If I have time, I might post something here next Tues.  If not, I'll see you back here in two weeks. 

Till then, stay cool, Ron over and out.