Tuesday 13 July 2010

THAT BIG WESTERN NEWS - WE SPILL THE BEANS

Edge, the biggest selling British western series in history, the cult westerns that dominated the genre for more than two decades, are to return in eBook. The all new edition of The Loner, soon from Solstice Publishing ,will feature both a foreword from myself and an introduction from Edge writer and creator, George G. Gilman as well as all new cover artwork from Tony Masero, the man responsible for many of the original paperback covers.


This is just to test the waters but over the long term I would like to see most, if not all, of the books in digital print. We have ideas for themed volumes with eBooks containing several of the original westerns connected by a common thread, maybe a volume featuring titles selected by fans of the series, or even a volume featuring Terry's favourites. The possibilities are endless in repackaging and making this classic series fresh again - imagine we could do a volume called, Edge: Indian Fighter containing Apache Death and Sioux Uprising or Edge: At War containing the classic Civil War sequence. But I'm getting ahead of myself now - that's what happens when you're a fan!


Can you imagine what it must feel like for me, a lifelong fan of this wonderfully satirical western series, to be so involved in bringing the series to eBook and a whole new audience?

And boy, was I involved all along the line. Firstly securing permission from author, George G. Gilman (that’s, Mr Terry Harknett for those in the know.) to tout the long out of print classics around, to finding and securing a publishing deal and even preparing the original text for electronic publication.

It feels just wonderful.

Back in the day, Edge titles sold like the proverbial hotcakes – The Edge series ran from 1971 – 1989 and sold in excess of seventeen million copies worldwide. They were original and hard hitting and the first of their kind. Perhaps it was the fact that the author never read western fiction and was unfamiliar with the genre that made them so unique. Even today the books have their devoted followers and I count myself among them.

This is all so exciting and makes me feel like that teenage kid who used to read these books over and over until the pages fell from their bindings. Anyone new to the series and wondering what all the fuss is about will find the Archive the place to be - we will have features looking at the evergreen status of the character, we'll talk about the Edge and George G. Gilman websites, message boards and forums, we have an article from Terry on Writing Westerns. This article was originally published in US magazine, The Writer and was brought to my attention by Archive friend,, Keith Chapman a man who writes fine westerns himself as Chap O'Keefe.

Next I will reveal the new cover artwork and the Archive will remain on the cutting Edge for some time to come. A firm publication date for the first eBook is yet to be set, but it will be over the next month or so.


News will be broke here on the Archive.


TOLD YOU IT WAS BIG NEWS!




14 comments:

Matthew P. Mayo said...

Gary!
Now that is indeed good news--and about time, too! The world needs more Edge!

Congratulations to Terry, to you, and to Solstice. Well done.

Cheers,
Matt

Paul Bishop said...

Wow! Great news!

Laurie Powers said...

Very exciting, Gary! You must be very proud.

Jerry House said...

Dang! You're edging [no pun intended] me toward purchasing an e-reader.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this terrific news!! This is great : ).

Charles Gramlich said...

Cool. And how cool for you to be so involved. This will allow me to get those volumes that I've not been able to find in print.

madshadows said...

Fantastic news, kudos to you Gary for doing this and congratulations to Terry Harknett.

John :>

Anonymous said...

"That is something else Gary! Edge is/was about the best Western series, immensely readable, funny, cruel, black, with a good dollop of historical info, always thought it would have made a great adult comic as well (Mark Millar style).
What a tremendous thing to be involved with, still laugh at GG's "Virgin on the ridiculous" throwaway line, much copied since.
Edge always was one of my favourite psychos." BEN C

Nik Morton said...

Excellent news, Gary and well done for steering it to fruition. This could be big for westerns, for Solstice and who knows what else!

David Cranmer said...

Terrific news and congrats on continuing to champion the western.

Randy Johnson said...

Yippee!

Let me be the first to suggest you start with the last twelve(heh,heh), as those I don't have.

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Randy if all is a success - the final books are high on the list to be presented electronically. And thanks to everyone for the interest you have shown - both myself and Terry appreciate it.

Jo Walpole said...

I always admire your enthusiasm. Well done! Jo

benbridges said...

Big news indeed! I look forward to seeing the books in their new format ... and of course, the new covers by Tony Masero. Ah, happy days when we had a new EDGE book to look forward to every three months. This is going to be quite nostalgic for me ...

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