RIP James Arness

Earlier this week we lost a true western icon in James Arness - James Arness was a big man — bigger than life.

He stood 6 feet 7 inches tall, according to his 2001 autobiography, and every inch was filled with the joy of living. No gentle giant, he pursued adventure with zeal. He spent his youth hunting, camping, sailing and hopping rides on freight trains and skipping school as often as he could get away with.

James died on June 3rd aged 88

Before he died he wrote a statement to be posted on his official website in the event of his death.

The letter follows and is used with permission:


Hi Friends,

I decided to write a letter to you for Janet to post on our website in the event I was no longer here.

I had a wonderful life and was blessed with some many loving people and great friends. The best part of my life was my family, especially my wife Janet. Many of you met her at Dodge City so you understand what a special person she is.

I wanted to take this time to thank all of you for the many years of being a fan of Gunsmoke, The Thing, How the West Was Won and all the other fun projects I was lucky enough to have been allowed to be a part of. I had the privilege of working with so many great actors over the years.

I was honored to have served in the army for my country. I was at Anzio during WWII and it makes you realize how very precious life is.

Thank you again for all the many letters, cards, emails and gifts we received from you over the years. You are and always have been truly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Jim Arness

The Archive's Sunday Comics - World's Finest Funnies

This week we feature a scan of an ultra rare comic book - Just Like Junior first appeared in 1941's issue 1 of World's Best Comics - in fact this was the only ever issue of World's Best, since for the second issue the title was changed to the now familiar World's Finest Comics.

The idea for World's Best #1 originated from the identically formatted 1940 New York World's Fair Comics featuring Superman, Batman, and Robin with 96 pages and a cardboard cover. The year before there was a similar 1939 New York World's Fair Comics featuring Superman but without Batman and Robin because Bill Finger and Bob Kane had not yet created them.

Remember click on any image to enlarge...and enjoy.

eBooks/real books - can they co-exist?

Haper Collins have said that their eBook sales are growing between 5% and 10% week on week.

Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury's ebook revenues in the first three months of this year are close to the whole of last year's sales.

Reports like those above are becoming commonplace, but analysts are saying that the remarkable rise in eBooks is giving a false picture and that traditional books are not going to disappear.

Amazon has every interest in trumpeting the success of Kindle books - not least because it wants more consumers to buy its reading device, which now sells for £111 and is widely regarded as the market-leader.However, some observers argue that ebook-buying is being driven at least in part by the technology itself, with sales rising each time a new device such as the Sony Reader, Kindle, Nook and iPad comes to market.

Penguin's ebook sales last year were only 6% of revenues. For Girl With The Dragon Tattoo publisher Quercus, they represented 3%. 

HarperCollins'  told a recent conference that the value of the UK books market has fallen around 7% this year. "I put this almost entirely down to the sale of ebooks," a publisher spokesperson said. "In fact, I think combined sales of ebook and paperback fiction are probably up at a volume level but not at a value level."

And it seems that publishers are finally becoming web savvy - Penguin recently launched a social-networking site for teens, called Spinebreakers, which encourages reading. Similarly, Random House teamed up with teen site stardoll.com to create an online vampire romance story, Mortal Kiss. Digital has now spawned a physical book as well as a clothing range.

That suggests that although digital keeps growing, consumers also value physical goods. As has been said before, the printed product is a great, hand-held wireless device.

The Game of Thrones - First three episodes

Not having read the George Martin books upon which this series is based, I can't say how faithful it is but as a small screen spectacle I can say that it's another great series from HBO. There was a time when the UK used to produce the best English language drama in the world but these days it is the Americans who have all the best shows - Sopranos, Deadwood, Battlestar Galactica, Band of Brothers, The Walking Dead and now this, adaptation of the well regarded fantasy series.

Now this fantasy is so immense, so epic that the first three episodes are mostly exposition as we are introduced to a world as big as anything Tolkein created. And by the end of these episodes, the viewer is eager for the pay offs that have now been set up.

We are briefly introduced to the sinister White Walkers in the first episode, before being launched into a well realised fantasy world, and told the White Walkers no longer exist, that they perished long ago. We are told, by Sean Bean, in great form as Ned Stark, that winter is coming and in this world winter can last a lifetime. Bean's character is a great lead, a man of true compassion and  strength. And he and his family are the main focus of the first trio of episodes, as we witness the strength of the power hungry Lannister family growing around them. Murder, intrigue, adultery and heroics combine in this excellent series.

It all look wonderful and some of the landscapes scenes are brilliant and wouldn't look out place in a big screen movie. The production values are all of the high standard we've come to expect from HBO as is the writing and acting.



Make no mistake - this is high quality, intelligent, adult tele-fantasy.

Western Fans - We Need You

Charles Whipple wrote, "Gary I put this message on the groups, but it needs to go on blogs, too. Can you oblige?"

You bet - when it comes to fighting the western's corner, the Archive always punches heaviest.

Charles' message continued:

Perhaps you've heard of the Global eBook Awards, sponsored by Dan Poynter. I went to take a look at the site as Solstice Publishing, which published my book The Snake Den, suggested some of their authors might be interested. 

Guess what.

No Westerns category.

I emailed one of the men in charge of the competition, Joseph Dowdy, to ask why no Westerns Category. He said, quote: I can't say why because no one came up with it when we created the categories.

Then he went on to say: I'll ask Dan if we can create one. We'll need judges for this category . . . but you can't judge the category you are in.

A few hours later, Joseph wrote: Do you think you could post something about our competition so that we can get judges and more writers in our competition for this category?

Everyone take note. Some people in the industry are blind to Westerns. We can help change that. Here's the URL to the contest.

http://awardsforebooks.com/

 

Come on Archive readers - check it out.

Following the Dead Man

Now this is a series you should be following - Dead Man  is the brainchild of Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin.

"Dead Man began as a TV series idea that Bill Rabkin & I started pitching around Hollywood over 20 years ago," Lee wrote on his blog, A Writer's life. "It suddenly occurred to me that it would be make a kick-ass series of books...and we already had the story lines for twelve of'em."


And that's the concept that the two men came up with - they would employ a series of writers to pen books in the series, and create a series of books, very much like the paperback original series of years gone by. Man I miss those days, but now in a sense, thanks to the possibilities of the eBook market, those days are back.

The reviews of the series have been hugely positive and I can say, after reading the first book in the series, that The Dead Man is looking at having  a lively existence.

Expect a Dead Man feature on the Archive very soon.

Risen a knockout on DVD

Risen out today on DVD - thanks to Amazon my copy dropped through the door this morning.

Here's the review I did after seeing the film at The Newport Film Festival - it won that festival and star Stuart Brennan has just won the Welsh Bafta. Director Neil Jones will bring my novel, The Tarnished Star to the screen under the title, LawMaster.

The Risen, in which I take a small part, is a truly remarkable film telling the story of a remarkable man.

The remarkable story of Welsh boxing legend, Howard Winston is served up in this award winning movie from Burn Hand Films. The story follows Howard from the time he lost three fingers in an industrial accident to him being crowned Featherweight champion of the world after beating Mitsunori Seki in the 1968 fight at the Royal Albert Hall. It truly is a life affirming story of grit and determination as the man who couldn't even make a fist with his right hand went onto rule the boxing world.

The part of Howard Winstone is taken by Stuart Brannan who also co-wrote the screenplay with director, Neil Jones and between them they have produced a grim, gritty but ultimately joyous film that fails to fall into the sentimental trap which is always a danger with sporting based movies. The film pulls no punches in telling it as it was and the grim surroundings of 1960's industrial Wales are brought to vivid life. There are some great character sketches and being a Welshman myself and a Valley boy too, it was pleasing to see characters that rang true on the screen. Boyd Clack, as Howard Winstone Snr gave a great turn as a man suffering from black lung disease, the curse of the coal miner, whose only desire is to help his son overcome all odds in his quest for greatness.


"A Valley's boy. The champion of the world. It's tremendous."

Howard Winstone is portrayed honestly, warts and all, and we see that his highly focused determination is both the making of him as well as the ruin of his marriage. Grainne Joughin plays Mrs Winstone and the actress has some powerful material to get her teeth into. She starts out positively joyous, almost girlish but hardens as her marriage becomes a soulless shell.

"What about what I want?", she pleads to her mother-in-law only to receive a stony look and words spat back with venom.

Though the bottom line is that  this is a boxing movie and it is in the fight scenes that it will ultimately be judged - Neil Jones obviously recognised the fact and he presents Winstone's various fights in several styles -from painfully slow to blurringly fast. The second fight against Vicente Saldivar is particularly effective - played out in grinding slow motion and set to Moonlight Sonata, it becomes a hypnotic ballet as the camera pulls back time after time to the rhythm of the boxer's feet. This is then contrasted by the third and final fight against the Mexican champion flashing across the screen with the speed of strobe lighting.

More Raging Bull than Rocky Balboa, Risen is a gritty story, the mood often as black as the coal fields but it is also a testament to the determination and sheer guts of one man who rises about adversity and handicap to punch his way to the top.


Go get it, folks.