Sample Pages Now Online!

There are now sample pages of Classic Home Video Games, 1989-1990 online. To view them, click HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

You can order the book HERE.

Foreword by Bill Kunkel

To honor his memory, McFarland has posted a pdf of Bill Kunkel's foreword to Classic Home Video Games, 1985-1988.

The Great Bill Kunkel

I'm stunned and saddened to learn of the passing of Bill "The Game Doctor" Kunkel, co-founder of the first and best videogame magazine, Electronic Games.

As a teenager, I eagerly devoured every issue of Electronic Games, reading them again and again until they literally fell apart. When I got to meet Bill at the Classic Gaming Expo in 2007, it was awesome--he and his wife were so gracious and kind. When he bought my first book, I was humbled and honored. When he agreed to write the foreword to my second book, I was left almost speechless. Luckily, Bill had plenty to say--he always did, and that's a good (make that great) thing.

Without Bill, there likely would be no Classic Home Video Games series of books. He was a good friend, and he will be greatly missed.

Classic Home Video Games, 1985-1988--foreword by Bill Kunkel

Orbit: Stephen King

A huge Stephen King fan, I recently reviewed Orbit: Stephen King for the Comics Buyer's guide. Here's that review:

Orbit: Stephen King
Bluewater Comics
$3.99, color, 28 pgs.
Writers: Michael Lent, Brian McCarthy
Artist: Kent Hurlburt
Grade: 2.5 Stars (out of four)

Orbit: Stephen King covers the well-known highlights (and lowlights) of the famous novelist’s life, such as how his father walked out on the family, how his wife, Tabatha, encouraged him to finish Carrie (his breakthrough novel), and how, in the summer of 1999, he was hit by a van and almost killed.

Indeed, the issue reads like a greatest hits (so to speak) of King’s biography, and it does so with dialogue, an omniscient narrator, and quotes from King’s non-fiction masterpiece, On Writing. Hardcore King collectors have heard these stories many times, but there may be a few surprises in store for casual fans, such as the fact that his first independently published story, “I Was a Teenage Grave Robber,” first appeared in 1965 in a fanzine called Comics Review (though it doesn’t mention that a young Marv Wolfman later published the story as “In a Half-World of Terror”).

Orbit has a stylish, cartoony look, but a more realistic take on the subject would’ve been preferable. Also, the text could use a little polish here and there.

www.bluewaterprod.com

DC Comics -- The New 52

My article on the DC Comics reboot was in last Monday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. You can read it here.