by Steven Philip JonesPosted on Posted in Books, Comics, Fiction, On Writing, Personal, Talented Friends — No Comments ↓

Kid books starring Todd McFarlane’s Spawn?

Yes, you read that right.

In 1994 and 1995 I wrote two Spawn Middle Grade book manuscripts for McFarlane Productions. Number One adapted Spawn’s origin story (issues 1-4) and Number Two adapted Spawn’s initial encounter with Overt-Kill (issues 6-7). Neither manuscript was published nor ever will be, but, like Remo Williams says, “That’s the biz, sweetheart.”

I have discussed writing these manuscripts with friends and fans over the years, but I am bringing it up now on my website because this October 3 will mark nine years since the death of Gary Reed, founder and publisher of Caliber Comics and the man who came up with the idea for Spawn MG books. Gary was a friend and mentor to many people, and his unexpected death not only affected us but the comics industry. So much so that I thought it appropriate to mark this sad anniversary with this obscure tidbit of Gary Reed history. Gary loved history, so I think he would have appreciated this.

A sampling of comic book action figures from around the early 1990s.

In 1994, Gary was not only Caliber’s publisher but president of Stabur Corporation and executive vice-president of Todd Toys, later McFarlane Toys. The latter came about the year before because McFarlane was being approached by different toy companies that wanted to license his Spawn characters. The problem was that McFarlane wanted any Spawn toys to be cool and most comic-book-licensed toys at the time were… well… not. McFarlane was also concerned how his devil-spawned character would be treated by these companies, so he contacted Stabur’s owner Paul Burke since the two had worked on some successful projects together, including a line of limited Spawn jewelry. The two discussed the situation and in the end McFarlane decided to produce his own line of toys with Burke/Stabur overseeing the nitty-gritty of set up and production.

The result: Todd Toys earned $10 million in revenue during its first year and enjoyed exponential growth over the next few years.

The quality of comic book action figures changed in 1994 with the first Spawn action figure.

The rest, as they say, is l’histoire, but if you would like more details you can check out Gary’s recollection of events at his blog site:

https://reedgary.blogspot.com/2012/02/caliber-pt-9-playing-with-toys.html

You can also check out Burke’s book “The Early Days of McFarlane Toys: The Action Behind the Figures”:

https://www.amazon.com/Early-Days-McFarlane-Toys-Figures/dp/1733930914

It was during the early days of Todd Toys that Gary got the idea for the Spawn MG books. He had been wanting to branch Caliber into MG and Young Adult books for awhile and had discussed this goal with me from time to time because he knew I wanted to break into the MG and YA market. In fact, in 1994 I completed my first YA manuscript, Muties, based on a comic book series I co-created a few years earlier with my brother-from-another-mother and favorite collaborator Christopher Jones. Gary was interested in publishing the Muties series; so much so that he and Burke tried to trademark the word “muties” for Stabur. So it is not surprising that Gary would have been inspired to finally launch a line of MG and YA books by using Spawn as its flagship series.

Stabur’s attempts to trademark “muties,” like the Spawn MG books, unfortunately turned into another notch in the what-might-have-been belt of my writing career.

The idea, however, did not excite McFarlane. Juvenile books were not his cup of tea. He may have also been concerned with how his devil-spawned character would be treated in a book aimed at children. Nevertheless McFarlane agreed to read a pilot manuscript based on his first Spawn story and Gary asked me to write it, with the understanding that I would have first crack at writing the MG series if it got the green light.

Spawn looks mighty Gothic in this Malibu Graphics house ad, my first glimpse of the series and the changes that were coming to Malibu and the comics industry.

I was delighted by the trust and respect Gary was showing me and by the opportunity to work with one of the comics industry’s hottest properties. I was neither a Spawn fan nor a McFarlane fan, but I did read the comics, so I knew going in that I would need to adapt a violent story with an infernal anti-hero into something suitable for eight-to twelve-year-olds. I also knew McFarlane’s story was sparse enough that it would require a little padding to meet the necessary word count for an MG novel. The good news, though, was that Spawn’s origin was a Gothic horror story somewhat in the Manfred tradition and I love Gothic horror story.

Al Simmons under the Spawn mask.

If you are unfamiliar with his origin, Spawn is Al Simmons, a special agent with a secret American task force. Or he was Al Simmons before he was killed in action under suspicious circumstances, after which a demon-lord named Malebolgia offered Simmons the chance to see his beloved wife Wanda one last time. Simmons accepted, but is resurrected five years later with only scattered fragments of memories about his life and death. As Simmons’ memories gradually return in a piecemeal fashion, he discovers that Wanda has remarried, to his best friend Terry Fitzgerald, and that the couple have a daughter, Cyan. Simmons’ body is also the worse for wear. Malebolgia not only failed to preserve it, the demon-lord added a few monstrous grotesqueries such as claws for hands and green eldritch energy for eyes. Malebolgia also provided Simmons with the uniform of a hellspawn (or “Spawn”) and imbued him with tremendous powers, but only a limited amount. Once Simmons depletes that allotment he will return to the Malebolge and become a general in the demon-lord’s army that will attack Heaven on Armageddon Day.

To get things started, Gary asked me to write a few chapters (around 25 pages) in a similar tone to the comic book to give us a baseline to find the right approach for the MG series. If you would like to read that sample, click on SPAWN_FIRST_ATTEMPT, and please ignore the editorial markings.

The first attempt was wildly inappropriate, but it did provide that baseline, plus it served me in good stead with my peers at Caliber. A couple of years earlier Gary had confided to me that many of Caliber’s other creators thought my writing was pedestrian. Not bad, but not exceptional. I did not say anything to Gary, but I thought this opinion was due to my being a popular genre writer, whereas Caliber’s other creators tended to write (to borrow a phrase from Gary) Veritgo-y stories. My hypothesis was bared out after I submitted this first attempt, which was very Veritgo-y, and Gary passed it around the Caliber office to solicit opinions. Gary later informed me, “Everyone thinks it’s great. There’s no way in hell we can use it in a kid’s book, but they love it.”

If nothing else, I got that out this project.

Anyway, Gary and I discussed how we should tone things down and I wrote a second set of sample chapters, which you can read by clicking on SPAWN_MS_01_Short. Gary approved this attempt and I finished the manuscript and sent it to him in January 1995. After Gary sent it off to McFarlane, he told me that if McFarlane approved what he read that I would be asked to write a second pilot manuscript. All I told Gary was that this sounded fine, but knowing how McFarlane felt about this project, I felt sure that I would never be asked to write that next pilot.

Turns out, I was wrong.

Mafia hit man Overt-Kill got the MG book treatment in my second Spawn MG manuscript.

Six months later Gary called to tell me to get writing as well as start thinking up original pitches for subsequent Spawn MG books.

Things were looking up!

Or so I thought when I submitted that second manuscript in August and then waited… and waited… and waited. (And if you would like to read a few chapters from that second pilot manuscript you can click on SPAWN_MS_02_Short.)

I cannot tell you if the Spawn MG books ever officially got nixed or if the project got lost in the shuffle when Gary left McFarlane Productions in May 1996 to concentrate on Caliber Comics. I am a pat rack but I have been unable to find any letters or emails from this period, most likely because my computer at the time used 3.5″ floppies, making any files on them impossible to retrieve, but I was able to find one reference to the Spawn MG books in a 2004 email Gary sent me:

“Without sounding sappy, I appreciate everything you did for Caliber…I know it wasn’t a lot of success (in terms of sales) but I could always count on you to put together something in a rush and it would come out very professional. Too bad none of it panned out…I’m just glad I insisted that you got paid upon turning in the Spawn novels….at least you got some decent money for that and it sounds good on the resume (who has to know they never came out?)”

I appreciate those comments, just as I appreciate something else Gary told me approximately 10 years later.

This would have been around the time he was relaunching Caliber, which closed its doors around 2000 in part due to the speculator boom of the early nineties going bust in the later nineties. In 1994, however, Gary was so busy with Caliber, Stabur and McFarlane that he needed an editor to assist him with Caliber and at one point offered me the job. As he recollected on his blog some years later, “I do remember flying in Steve Jones who at the time had done a lot of work with Malibu. His wife accompanied him and they stayed for a few days and the plan was to bring him in for Caliber and his wife would work for McFarlane as she had experience with accounting which we always needed.” Working as an editor for Gary would have been a great opportunity and a tremendous learning experience, but it would not have been a good move for my family. I figured Gary never gave the matter another thought after that, but when he contacted me about the return of Caliber, he mentioned that he sometimes wondered what would have happened in the nineties if I had been accepted that job offer. Specifically, he wondered if I would have pushed Caliber towards pursuing more popular markets, which, if successful, might have permitted Caliber to keep its doors open. Now I can tell you that nobody pushed Gary Reed in a direction he did not want to go, but I understood what he was saying and am pleased he thought I might have been able to make such a positive contribution to Caliber.

As for myself, I wonder from time to time what would have happened with Caliber if Gary was still with us. He was an entrepreneur and a student of the comic book market, so I wonder how he might taken advantage of crowdfunding, which was becoming popular at the time of his death. I also wonder how might have adapted to the constantly changing landscape of direct-market comics retailers and comic book distribution? I will never know, of course, but I can thank Gary here and now for asking me to be a part of Caliber and for involving me in Caliber’s attempts to break into the MG and YA market. My thanks may mean a lot in the overall scheme of things, but being a part of this project meant a lot to me and always will.

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by Steven Philip JonesPosted on Posted in Comics, Cool Stuff, Personal — No Comments ↓

Several months ago I posted a tribute to Sanho Kim, my first comic book influence. Now I’d like to pay tribute to another comic book artist who had a tremendous early influence on me as a creator and a person: Marshall Rogers.

Rogers was a wonder when it came to the mechanics of comics storytelling, executing them with elegance, craftsmanship, respect and boundless imagination. He influenced many other people, too, as the description to the new TwoMorrows retrospective Brightest Days and Darkest Knights proclaims:

“From underdog to icon, Marshall Rogers helped redefine Batman for generations, inspiring readers and up-and-coming artists alike. Initially savaged by editors at DC Comics, his style was uniquely complex with vast and angular architectural design anchoring his storytelling[.]”

“…vast and angular architectural design…”

There were other comics artists in the seventies with complex art styles, though not many. Artists like Walt Simonson (Manhunter), Howard Chaykin (The Scorpion) and Bernie Wrightson (Swamp Thing), grandmasters all. And like his peers, Rogers not only incorporated design concepts into his page and panel layouts to enhance his story communication, he was adept at staging a scene, differentiating characters and underscoring their thoughts and moods through expressions and body language, and (perhaps better than anyone except Wrightson) creating atmosphere through shadow and light. But best of all, when Rogers got the chance to draw Batman, he didn’t just return the hero to his Dark Knight roots, he transported the character back to his artistic beginnings. Panels in Rogers’ Batman stories often harken to those in Batman’s initial adventures, right down to the lettering.

To get a true appreciation of Rogers’ talents as a comic book artist, however, you will find nothing better than cartoon theorist R.C. Harvey’s “The Reticulated Rainbow: A Lingering Look at the Comics Art of Marshall Rogers” in The Comics Journal #54 (March 1980).

Getting back to Brightest Days and Darkest Knights for a moment, it is written by Jeff Messer and Dewey Cassell, the team behind Mike Grell: Life is Drawing Without an Eraser, and when Messer first posted on Facebook that he was going to be working on the retrospective, he requested that anyone who had a rare or unusual sample of Rogers’ work contact him to see about including it in the book.

I was already excited to find out there was finally going to be a Rogers retrospective, but the thought of being even an infinitesimal part of it sounded super-fan-tab-u-listic, so I sent Messer a scan of the cover Rogers drew for Quazar. (“What’s Quazar you ask?”  Bear with me one minute.) In reply Messer asked if I could write a few words about how the cover came about.

Even better!

I sent him the following, which, unlike the cover, didn’t make it into the retrospective, so I thought I’d share it here:

Marshall Rogers’ cover art as it appears on Quazar (1980).

“I will always be grateful to Marshall Rogers for drawing the cover to Quazar, an anthology comic book produced by my friend Dave Arnold and me in 1980.

“Quazar was an independent small-press production. Sort of the comic book equivalent of a student-made film.  Dave and I were in our early twenties and had little money much less experience, but we did the best with what we had. To pull off Quazar we printed it at our local Penny Saver on newsprint. That included the cover, which featured hand-cut red and yellow coloring, spurring one reviewer to compare us to a ditto-zine.

“Fair enough.

“We gave you 64 pages for a buck, though, and showcased the first published comics work of Dan Jurgens—who contributed his own sci-fi/gladiator tale as well as the breakdowns and artwork for my superhero story Vanguard—and that Marshall Rogers cover.

“Since 1977 Rogers had been amazing me with his design-y neo-noirish art for DC Comics and the Eclipse Comics graphic novel Detectives Inc.: A Remembrance of Threatening Green.  Rogers’ artwork had strongly guided my vision for Vanguard, so when I heard he was attending the Chicago ComiCon, I purchased some Bristol board and scraped together what money I could on the chance he would agree to draw a convention sketch of my Vanguard character that Dave and I could use for the cover of Quazar.

“Audacious?

“Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

“Does this guy look familiar?” Marshall Rogers’ untampered cover art.

“Keep in mind, the Chicago Comicon was one of America’s largest comic book conventions at the time, although it was much smaller in 1980 than its current media-focused incarnation. That included its Artist Alley, where I found Rogers sitting in a corner with just a few fans waiting at his table. When my turn came I held up my Bristol board like Oliver Twist holding his gruel bowl and stammered my request.

“And what do you know?

“I think Rogers quoted a price of $150, but I will never forget his polite patience as I sat starry-eyed across the table watching MARSHALL ROGERS draw my superhero which he had influenced.

“About an hour later someone from the con reminded Rogers that he had a panel coming up.  Rogers finished inking the figure of Vanguard and then quickly drew a flare effect around the character. “I wanted to give you a better background than this, so how about you just pay me one hundred dollars?”

“Wow.

“As cool as that was, the next day Dave and I were driving home from the con and ogling our cover when Dave peered closer and said, “Hey, is that you?”

“’What?’  I looked even closer than I had been.

“At the time I was spindly and had a mustache, but, yep, Vanguard had my face and mane.  Rogers may not have drawn the background he wanted, but he did take the time to make one starry-eyed fan’s day.

“And for that, like I said, I will always be grateful.”

Feril Nightlinger by Marshall Rogers

More than twenty years later, I was a minor guest at a comic book show in Minneapolis where Rogers was a guest of honor. The con put on a private get-together that Saturday night, and, although I normally avoid these things, I went hoping Rogers would be there so I could shake his hand and tell him I was a huge fan. When I got there, though, I found Rogers debating the state of the imploding comic book industry with some other guest as more creators looked on. I should have taken notes, because I can no longer recall the specifics of that debate. All I remember is that Rogers wasn’t happy with how things were going with the industry, so I decided to wait on that handshake.

The next day I visited Rogers’ table, paid my respects, and asked for a sketch of my character Nightlinger. At this point in his career Rogers was limiting his convention sketches to headshots, but that was fine by me. So, once again, I found myself across a table from this incredible artist and one of my greatest influences as he drew a character of mine, and as he sketched Rogers said, “Sorry about last night. I get passionate when it comes to comics.”

“No reason to apologize,” I told him. “I honestly would have paid money to listen to what you had to say.”

I don’t recall Rogers reacting in any way, except to continue sketching.

Two years later Rogers passed away from heart failure at the age of 57.

In the summer of 2016, I was putting together my Heroes and Horrors anthology for Caliber Comics. I did it at the request of Gary Reed, the publisher, who had been encouraging me to collect some of my early and unpublished stuff for a few years, and as the project neared the end, I asked Gary if it would all right if I reused the Rogers Quazar art for my anthology’s cover. I had the cover recolored and laid out, and after a couple of changes suggested by Gary, he approved it.

On Saturday, October 2, I sent Heroes and Horrors off to Caliber.

On Monday, October 4, I found out that Gary had died the day before of a heart attack.

Since then Caliber has continued on with Eric Reichart of Eagle One Media at the helm. He and Gary had gone into partnership in 2014, but I had never worked with him before, and I certainly didn’t want to make things more difficult for him during the transition period after Gary’s passing, so when Eric asked to use a different cover for Heroes and Horrors that wasn’t so retro, I agreed. And, based on the two times I met Marshall Rogers, I’m sure he would have been fine with my decision.

That said, I still think the reworked cover turned out pretty dang well. And it would have been nice to have that piece as the cover of my own little retrospection, considering its history and the influence Rogers had on the stories in the anthology.

In any event, I’d like to say, “Thank you, Mr. Rogers. I am and always shall be a huge fan.”

 

 

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by Steven Philip JonesPosted on Posted in Audio, Cool Stuff, Fiction, On Writing, Sherlock Holmes — 2 Comments ↓

My last post mentioned how my Dear Holmes play-by-mail mystery, “The Friendly Hand of Death,” would be reviewed over four upcoming episodes of the Co-Op For Two YouTube Channel.

“The Friendly Hand of Death” consists of three clue letters and a fourth letter from Sherlock Holmes where The Great Detective solves the mystery and reveals the steps he followed to reach his resolution.

Now I’m delighted and proud to announce that all four episodes are now available!

Co-Op For Two is hosted by computer programmer and all-around good guy Jesse Reichler, who invites viewers to (according to the site’s description) “Join us for narrative mystery, detective and escape room games, and other cooperative boardgames. Full playthroughs, comprehensive reviews, and long sidebar discussions, with an eye towards game design.”

This has been a unique and insightful experience. It’s one thing to get feedback from readers and critics, or to listen to comments in a writing class from students, but it’s a way different ballgame to watch strangers from around the world reading and trying to solve a mystery I wrote in real time. Humbling is an understatement, especially when two typos made by the Dear Holmes editors and one error made by me, myself, and I reared their ugly heads. Fortunately none of these prevent the solving of the mystery, as I took the liberty of explaining in the comments section for the Letter Three episode.

I learned a great deal watching these episodes, and I would like to extend my thanks to Reichler and his viewers. And if you would like to see what I’m talking about, or would just like to listen to “The Friendly Hand of Death,” just click on the links below:

Letter One (broadcast 6/8/25) in which the writer confronts the horror of the typos:

Letter Two (broadcast 6/15/25) in which the writer confronts the horror of his own boneheaded mistake:

Letter Three (broadcast 6/22/25) in which the writer becomes impressed with the viewers’ efforts to solve his mystery and enjoys the various hypotheses:

Letter Four, Solution (broadcast 6/29/25) in which the writer can relax and breathe again:

This was my first experience writing a play-by-mail story, and it was challenging and intimidating. It had to be a play fair mystery that revealed its clues in a logically gradual progression each week while also being able to stand on its own two feet as a piece of entertainment. As I cast about for a concept to build upon, I chanced upon a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams near the end of their lives: “I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we can think of nothing but how to keep ourselves warm, & how to get rid of our heavy hours until the friendly hand of death shall rid us of all at once (12 October 1823).”

I’m old so that phrase stuck in my head, but in a sing-song way it also recalled the phrase “a friendly hand of poker,” which put me in mind of my recent Holmes fantasy “My Tombstone Days by John H. Watson, M.D.” In that alternate-universe adventure, I indulged in my admiration for John Henry “Doc” Holliday by having Holmes and Dr. Watson participate in events leading up to and including the Gunfight at the OK Corral. One of those events has also stuck in my mind for many years:

My fondness for “Doc” Holliday came into play in an indirect way in “The Friendly Hand of Death.”

“…in perhaps the most famous and certainly the strangest game in the history of poker, several of the leading characters of the following day’s gunfight were gathered at the Occidental Saloon for an all-night session. One wonders what the new governor, John Gosper, might have thought. His report had stressed that the county sheriff and the town and deputy U.S. marshals couldn’t get together; now [Sheriff] John Behan, [Deputy U.S. Marshal] Virgil Earp, Ike Clanton, Tom McLaury, Wyatt [Earp], and Doc Holliday sat in the Occidental for nearly five hours playing poker and watching each other. What was discussed? No one knows. In later testimony the game wasn’t even mentioned. That Ike Clanton and Doc Holliday could have spent nearly five hours together drinking and playing poker without trying to kill each other is practically impossible to believe [Inventing Wyatt Earp, pp. 166-7].”

I asked myself, “How about a mystery that involves an unfriendly hand of poker like the one at the Occidental? A friendly hand of death?”

But what mystery?

I wanted both one hell of a hook and a unique plot, and eventually I remembered a peculiar event of my own in which I apparently dodged a bullet.

Long story short, in 1983 I moved back to my childhood home of Cedar Rapids after working in Des Moines for about a year. A few months after moving into my new apartment, a nondescript young man knocked on my door late one night claiming that his car had broke down and asked if he could borrow my phone to call for help. He made his call, thanked me, but before departing he looked around my apartment and asked what I did for a living. I wasn’t in the mood to tell him anything about myself, so I said I wrote comic books. I certainly wanted to write comics for a living, and my apartment certainly looked like I could write comics for a living, but he said, “No, you don’t.”

Yeah, I was lying, but I didn’t like being called a liar, so I told him, “Yes, I do.”

He still didn’t seem to believe me, but he left and I forgot about the incident… until about a year later when the town newspaper ran a story about a Cedar Rapidian named Steven P. Jones. This Steven P. Jones somehow got confused for a second Steven P. Jones who worked as an accountant whose clients included some very bad guys. An accountant who had done something stupid and naughty, like embezzling money from the bad guys. For several months the first Steven P. Jones was put through the wringer as he was threatened by the bad guys, but all the police could do to help was suggest he move to another town, since no crime had been committed.

In time the bad guys eventually figured out their mistake and the threats stopped, but suddenly that late-night visitor’s accusation regarding my occupation made sense.

Now, if you’d like to see just how I reworked that Tombstone poker game and the peculiar incident of the Steven P. Joneses into a mystery, you’ll have to check out “The Friendly Hand of Death.”

 

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by Steven Philip JonesPosted on Posted in Books, Cool Stuff, Fiction, Sherlock Holmes — No Comments ↓

My newest Sherlock Holmes pastiche “The Adventure of the Cheapside Secret” is now available in The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part LII – The True Sherlock Holmes: England’s Greatest Hero (1902-1923) from MX Publishing.

England, 1912.

A marvelous treasure.

A pair of mysterious Americans.

And Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson.

What role does this emerald pocket watch play in “The Adventures of the Cheapside Secret”?

 

 

In this new adventure the Great Detective must be coaxed out of retirement to prevent a most peculiar and clever pair of American adventurers from making off with a historically-priceless treasure hoard lost somewhere in London. A hoard that includes a large collection of rare Elizabethan and Jacobean jewelry as well as an emerald pocket watch that may or may not somehow  “let slip the dogs of war.”

Who will find it first? And are Watson’s fears that the Great Detective’s powers may have waned during his years of inaction justified?

If this sounds familiar, that is because “Cheapside Secret” debuted as a radio drama last year from Imagination Theater with John Patrick Lowrie (the voice of Sniper to you fans of Team Fortress 2) as Holmes, Lawrence Albert as Watson, Dennis Bateman as Chief Inspector Alec MacDonald, and Richard Ziman and Basil Harris. And while I’m happy to say that I shall have another Holmes pastiche coming soon from Imagination Theatre, I’m sad to say that “The Adventure of the Cheapside Secret” marks my sixth and final pastiche in MX Publishing’s New Sherlock Holmes Stories anthology series.  Editor David Marcum has decided that after 10 years, 52 volumes, and over 1000 stories, now is the time to bring the series to a conclusion.

To celebrate this outstanding achievement, on May 17, 2025, Sherlockians from more than 20 countries attended an event online or in person held at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former home, Undershaw. The many festivities included messages from Sir Jeremy Hunt MP, actor Sir Stephen Fry, the podcast hosts of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Scott Monty and Burt Wolder, and broadcaster and former MP Gyles Brandreth.  Since 2016, Undershaw has been the home of the Stepping Stones School for students with special needs, and since the series’ inception all contributor royalties have gone to Undershaw. To date the series has raised over £100,000 for the school, and this event, which included a live auction of Sherlockian memorabilia, raised £25,000 for the school to implement a new sensory cube program. To see the event, “An Evening with Sherlock Holmes,” check out the video link below:

Cheapside in 1909. The church in the background is St Mary-le-Bow.

It has been an honor and a privilege to be a small part of this series, and I am proud to be a contributor to its final volume. “The Adventure of the Cheapside Secret” is one of 81 new traditional Canonical Holmes pastiches that you will find in Part LII and its companion volumes Part XLIX (1880-1888), Part L (1889-1896) and Part LI (1897-1901). Together this quartet presents the Great Detective and the Good Doctor in untold cases ranging from their early friendship at 221B Baker Street to Holmes’ retirement and the post-War years. And, in regards to my story, that marvelous treasure mentioned above is real. It was discovered along Goldsmith’s Row in the heart of 1912 London. The story goes that workmen were in the process of demolishing a row of three-hundred-year-old houses at the corner of Cheapside and Friday Streets when they excavated a wooden box containing the hoard. Along with nearly 100 jewels and jewelry from around the world, there were over 400 pieces of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewelry, very few examples of which had survived the centuries up to this time.

Pretty cool, huh? But how does Holmes get coerced out of retirement? And does he beat the Americans to the hoard?

Oh, I think we both know what you have to do to find out, don’t we?

Now let’s move on to another pastiche and something… well… not completely but definitely different.

This new pastiche, “The Friendly Hand of Death,” is neither a short story or a radio drama, but my first play-by-mail (PBM) mystery, and it’s brought to you by Dear Holmes.

 

Each month Dear Holmes mails its subscribers one post a week: the first three present clues to a Victorian-era mystery and the fourth presents the solution. The catch here is that the first three “clue letters” are genuine-looking Victorian letters, newspaper clippings, police reports, and so on that are sent by a client to Sherlock Holmes, while the fourth post is a letter from Holmes on his stationary explaining the solution to the client. The subscriber takes on the role of a detective that Holmes and Watson are requesting assistance from, either because they are away from London or preoccupied with another case.

And, let me tell you, Dear Holmes subscribers take their clue solving seriously!

Just check out the Dear Holmes website to see what I mean. Subscribers compete each month to be a Featured Detective, have access to a blog site and a podcast, gather together for mystery nights, create murder boards and more. There is even a YouTube channel hosted by Jesse Reichler, Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Illinois, where letters are painstakingly reviewed and viewers can post theories.

I’ve got to tell you, writing a Dear Holmes mystery is intimidating!

FYI – I will post here when “Friendly Hand of Death” is reviewed by Mr. Reichler, which, I’m afraid, will be the only way you can enjoy the pastiche for the present. Only subscribers can receive Dear Holmes letters and Dear Holmes does not offer old letters for purchase. (I’m not sure why they don’t. I think they’d make a killing… pardon the pun.) I plan on adapting “Friendly Hand of Death” into a short story, radio script or both, but I won’t be able to do that for awhile. In the meantime, I present this back-of-the-paperback blurb:

September 26, 1889.

The asphyxiated body of Phillip Hillcrest Nelson, a freelance chartered accountant and member of the notorious Skeleton Club, is discovered in the club’s strong room.  Hillcrest Nelson’s clientele includes several questionable businessmen and investors, some of them Skeleton Club members. Later that morning, Phillip Herbert Nelson, a barrister’s clerk, calls at Baker Street after being accosted by a stranger accusing him of committing an unspecified wrong against the stranger’s anonymous employer. A few hours after that, Inspector Hobart Floyt of Scotland Yard solicits Holmes’s advice regarding Hillcrest Nelson’s death. Floyt has also interviewed a third Phillip H. Nelson (Henry), a yellow-back author and miscellaneous writer, who recently suffered his own curious confrontation when a belligerent panhandler insisted Henry Nelson was lying about his profession.

Are these incidents coincidence or somehow related? And what connection is there between any of them and the Skeleton Club, whose membership is restricted to men who have been rejected or blackballed by London’s more reputable clubs?

 

 

* * *

If you enjoy “Adventure of the Cheapside Secret” you might want to check out my other Holmes pastiches in audio and print. All books are available in hardcover and paperback unless otherwise noted. And for a bigger view of any cover or illustration just click on the image.

The Adventure of the Coal-Tar Derivative: Being the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson Against the Moriarties During the Great Hiatus

The Adventure of the Coal-Tar Derivative (Audible Book)

Case of the Petty Curses: Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, Imagination Theatre (Audio Production)

 

 

“Case of the Petty Curses” : The Art of Sherlock Holmes – West Palm Beach

 

“Case of the Petty Curses” illustration print by Robert St. Croix

 

 

Case of Unfinished Business: Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Imagination Theatre (Audio Production)

 

“Case of Unfinished Business”: Imagination Theatre’s Sherlock Holmes: A Collection of Scripts from “The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”

 

“Case of the Petty Curses:” MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part VII: Eliminate the Impossible (1880-1891)

 

“The Case for Which the World is Not Yet Prepared”: MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part XVII: Whatever Remains Must Be the Truth

 

“A Case of Unfinished Business”: MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part XX: 2020 Annual (1891-1897)

 

“The Case of the Un-Paralleled Adventures”: MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part XXIII: Some More Untold Cases (1888-1894)

 

The Adventure of the Absent Crossing Sweeper”: MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part XXXVII: 2023 Annual (1875-1889)

 

Adventure of the Tortoise Shell: Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Imagination Theatre (Audio Production)

 

 

“The Adventure of the Ambitious Task”: Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives Vol. 2 (featuring Feril Nightlinger) – PAPERBACK ONLY

 

 

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by Steven Philip JonesPosted on Posted in Memorial Day, Personal — No Comments ↓

This Memorial Day, remember our brothers and sisters who gave the last full measure of devotion, and dedicate ourselves to the unfinished work these men and women so nobly advanced.

General Orders No. 11: “The 30th day of May, 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

“We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose, among other things, “of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion.” What can aid more to assure this result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided republic.

“If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remains in us.

“Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the nation’s gratitude—the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.”

by Steven Philip JonesPosted on Posted in Audio, Books, Fiction, H. P. Lovecraft, Personal — No Comments ↓

This year-end review feels a little repetitive to me because what little I had published or produced in 2024 all came out near the end of this year.

In October I was honored to have my horror story “Expiration Date” serve as the Hallowe’en episode of Jim French’s Imagination Theatre, then one month later my fourth Sherlock Holmes mystery for IT, “The Adventure of the Cheapside Secret,” debuted on The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This is the first time I have had TWO scripts produced during a single season of IT, and I have hopes of a THIRD, but more on that in a moment.

My only publication this year was my alternative universe short story “My Tombstone Days by John H. Watson M.D.” in the anthology Multiverse of Mystery from the International Association of Tie-In Media Writers (IATMW). It tells how Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson first meet in the boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona, where Watson also reunites with a university friend named John Henry “Doc” Holliday, D.D.S.

And there you have it.

Looking ahead to 2025, it’s going to be a big Big BIG year if, for no other reason, I become eligible for Medicare.

Anyway…

That third radio script I submitted to IT for this season is an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s best novel after Dracula: Jewel of Seven Stars. Centered around attempts to resurrect the mummy of a female pharaoh and sorceress, Kim Newman and Stephen Jones ranked it 23rd in their list of the 100 best horror novels and S. T. Joshi has called it an “impressive tale of Egyptian horror.” To date there have been three movie adaptations and one television adaptation of Jewel of Seven Stars, but as far as I can discover no one has ever adapted it for radio. Since Stoker is one of my favorite authors, and Jewel of Seven Stars is one of my favorite novels, and my wife loves mummies, I figured if anyone should try to fix that oversight it ought to be me.

Oh! And here’s a teaser. Jewel of Seven Stars was published in 1903, but since 1912 almost all editions have excluded a contemplative though hardly controversial chapter called “Powers – Old and New” and replaced its original dark and tragic ending with a more upbeat conclusion. My adaptation adapts the 1903 ending, which I believe is the far superior finale.

On the publishing side, it looks like my short story adaptation of “Adventure of the Cheapside Secret” will appear in either volume 49 or 50 of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures. Edited by David Marcum, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures is concluding its ten-year run in May 2025, and I have been honored to have been a very small part of this wonderful series that has featured so many terrific pasticheurs and has done so much to help Stepping Stone School at Undershaw in Surrey. And, for what it’s worth, I am also happy to say I have had at least one pastiche in every ten-volume allotment of the series.

After a long, hard slog, it also looks like I will have another Holmes pastiche, “The Friendly Hand of Death,” appear in the mystery-by-mail serial Dear Holmes. And I do mean a long, hard slog. Each month Dear Holmes mails its subscribers one post a week: the first three present clues to a Victorian-era mystery and the fourth presents the solution. The catch here is that the first three “clue letters” are genuine-looking Victorian letters, newspaper clippings, police reports, and so on that are sent by a client to Sherlock Holmes, while the fourth post is a letter from Holmes on his stationary explaining the solution to the client. And, let me tell you, Dear Holmes subscribers take their clue solving seriously! Just check out the Dear Holmes website to see what I mean. Subscribers compete each month to be a Featured Detective, have access to a blog site and a podcast, gather together for mystery nights, posts theories on YouTube, and more. I’ve got to tell you, writing a Dear Holmes mystery is intimidating!

And that is everything in the pipeline right now. I suspect one or two unexpected writing opportunities will pop up over the course of the year as they usually do, but at this moment the only things on my plate is a long-term novel project that has picked up steam over the past few months, and there has been a definite development in that really cool and very big project I mentioned in last year’s review. Hopefully I can spill the beans about one or the other sometime soon.

Finally, I ended last year’s review with the news that 2024 was going to be the year that the Joneses became grandparents, and I am proud to that say our granddaughter arrived as per schedule and is both healthy and happy. But, as I also mentioned, life is a little laugh and a little tear, and unfortunately my uncle Eugene Jones passed away last October. Better known as Gene or Genie Boy, he was a favorite uncle and the last survivor among my father’s six siblings, so this was a particularly sad passing. Gene and his wife Alice were also among my influences when I was creating my series Max Q, but instead of trying to summarize what all he meant to me, I would like to end this year’s review with Gene’s obituary, which perfectly encapsulates the man and is one of the best obituaries I have ever read:

Gene and Alice Jones, 2005

“Eugene Lee Jones, age 84, of Lincoln, Nebraska passed away on Tuesday, October 15, 2024. He married Alice Truax on July 9, 1960. Gene was a member of the Nebraska Mason Association for over 50 years and took great pride in it. He also loved spending time with his grandchildren and great grandchildren and putting his sons to work. He was full of many jokes and pranks, some of which may have gotten him into a bit of trouble. Outside of his family, his 1966 Ford Mustang was his pride and joy. Eugene was part of the Mustang Club. During football season he loved watching the Steelers and Huskers play, and despite the wins and loses he stayed loyal over the years. Gene had a way of luring you into lengthy conversations about many things and about nothing at the same time. His presence will be missed.”

Left to Right: A young Gene Jones looking dapper in Lincoln, Nebraska; Gene surveying the Mississippi in the early seventies; Gene and my dad Don “Sam” Jones in the home office of Jones Parking Company in the mid eighties.

 

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by Steven Philip JonesPosted on Posted in Books, Fiction, Sherlock Holmes — No Comments ↓

I have a new Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson adventure but this one comes with a twist. In a universe where 6-on-6 basketball and 8-man football can exist, anything is possible, and to prove it here comes “Multiverse of Mystery: A Holmes and Watson Anthology.”

This collection of all-new stories is being brought to you courtesy of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, of which I am proud to say I am a member. Each story is a variation of The Great Detective and The Good Doctor in a kaleidoscope of genres and settings ranging from desolate medieval England to 1977 New York City mean streets to the bitter environs of deep space. And among this treasure trove of warps and wonders is my contribution: “My Tombstone Days by John H. Watson, M.D.”

Come on now. Admit it. That title has got you curious.

It is still the late 19th Century, but we’re not in London anymore. We are in the rough-and-tumble boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona, and trooper-turned-adventurer John Watson has left his native Australia to lend his eldest brother Jude a hand with his medical practice. He has also come to try to mend fences with middle Watson brother, James, a heavy-drinking Wells Fargo agent haunted by a tragedy the two brothers share from their past. And John is hoping to meet up with his old college friend, the southern gentleman and dentist turned gambler and shootist John Henry “Doc” Holliday.

Have I ever told you I am BIG Doc Holliday fan? Well… I am a BIG Doc Holliday fan, and I have been wanting to write a story with Doc in it for years. And now… here it is!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Sherlock Holmes appears as well. And a fairly famous gunfight takes place, too.

Yep, there is a whole bunch going on in “My Tombstone Days by John H. Watson, M.D.”, and if you want to see how I string all this (and more!) together you’re just going to have to read it. And the only place you can get a copy to read is in the “Multiverse of Mystery,” which is available now at Amazon! Just click this link to get yourself a copy, pard’ner. And don’t dillydally. Daylight is wasting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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by Steven Philip JonesPosted on Posted in Audio, H. P. Lovecraft, Sherlock Holmes — No Comments ↓

CLICK HERE FOR STATIONS THAT BROADCAST IMAGINATION THEATRE!

England, 1912.

A marvelous treasure.

A pair of mysterious Americans.

And Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson.

All of this is coming your way starting Saturday November 23 when the good folks at Imagination Theater bring my newest Holmes adventure “The Adventure of the Cheapside Secret” to life over your radio! But there is nothing cheap about this production! Not when John Patrick Lowrie (the voice of Sniper to you fans of Team Fortress 2) and Lawrence Albert return as the preeminent radio Holmes and Watson of their generation! Other cast members include Dennis Bateman, Richard Ziman and Basil Harris.

In this adventure the Great Detective must be coaxed out of retirement to prevent a most peculiar and clever pair of American adventurers from making off with a historically-priceless treasure hoard lost somewhere in London. A hoard that includes a large collection of rare Elizabethan and Jacobean jewelry.

Who will find it first? And are Watson’s fears that the Great Detective’s powers may have waned during his years of inaction justified?

You will just have to listen to find out! But to whet your appetite, how about some information about that marvelous treasure?

Cheapside Street, London, 1909. St. Mary Le Bow is in view in background.

The truth is a real treasure was actually discovered along Goldsmith’s Row in the heart of 1912 London. The story goes that workmen were in the process of demolishing a row of three-hundred-year-old houses at the corner of Cheapside and Friday Streets when they excavated a wooden box containing the hoard. Along with nearly 100 jewels and jewelry from around the world, there were over 400 pieces of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewelry, very few examples of which had survived the centuries up to this time.

“The Adventure of the Cheapside Secret” debuts November 23 on Imagination Theater’s flagship station, KIXI 880 in Seattle at 10:30 Pacific Time.  If you don’t happen to live in Seattle there are plenty of other radio stations that you can catch it on. Just click here for a list of all the radio stations that Imagination Theater is syndicated on.

But if terrestrial radio isn’t your bag there is more good news! You can listen to “The Adventure of the Cheapside Secret” for a limited time on the Imagination Theater YouTube Channel starting around Saturday November 30. You can also download it or purchase it on a USB flash drive, both of which will be for sale at the Imagination Theater website starting November 22.

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by Steven Philip JonesPosted on Posted in Personal — No Comments ↓

It is Veterans Day 2024. Keep it in your hearts and minds tomorrow. To help you do so, here are 7 facts and a heartfelt plea from the UAP (United American Patriots) website:

1. Veterans Day is Not Memorial Day

Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.
Veterans Day is a federal holiday recognized each November to celebrate and honor all U.S. veterans — deceased or living. Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day, a day to remember those service members who gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives. Memorial Day is in May of each year.
 

2. November 11 is Always Veterans Day

Photo by Maddi Bazzocco via Unsplash
No matter the day of the week, Veterans Day always falls on November 11 each year. It’s also a federal holiday recognized nationwide. With 18.2 million vets living in the United States, it’s a holiday most communities celebrate with festivals, parades, and recognition of local vets.
 

3. President Eisenhower Changed the Holiday Name

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs HR7786, June 1, 1954. This ceremony changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day.
Originally called Armistice Day, that name changed in 1954 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower officially switched it to Veterans Day.
 

4. Other Countries Celebrate It Too

Because World War I was a multi-country effort with thousands of lives lost, other countries involved in the war honor their veterans around this time of year, too. On or near November 11, France, Australia, Canada, and Great Britain pay respects to their vets. The UK and Canada call the day of honor Remembrance Day.
 

5. Arlington National Cemetery Hosts an Annual Event

Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Timothy Tamargo
Each year on November 11 at exactly 11 am, Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia holds a Veterans Day event. It starts with a wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The public is always invited to attend.

6. There’s No Apostrophe in Veterans Day

You’ve probably seen it spelled different ways — including  veteran’s or veterans’— but the Department of Defense firmly states it’s simply “Veterans Day”.
 

7. All Veterans are Honored

Photo by Sgt. Kirstin Spanu
The holiday was formerly called Armistice Day to commemorate the end of World War I. While it may have been founded in honor of the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”, Veterans Day is to honor all veterans from all wars.
 

Take Care of a Veteran This Veterans Day

If you have the chance, go into a military community during Veterans Day to experience the true spirit of this observed holiday. Even if you don’t live near a military base, your community likely has special events or festivals to honor your local military members.
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by Steven Philip JonesPosted on Posted in Audio, Promotions — No Comments ↓

CLICK HERE FOR STATIONS THAT BROADCAST IMAGINATION THEATRE!

Okay, okay, it’s been quiet long enough on the website.

Let’s shake stuff up!

So, just between us, “Can the living haunt the dead?”

I’ve asked this twice before, both times when my c-r-e-e-e-e-p-y short story “Expiration Date” was going to debut in a new print anthology. Well, this time I’m asking  because “Expiration Date” is coming at you over the radio starting Saturday October 26 from the uber-talents at Imagination Theatre!

For years Aldin Norton placed the building of his business over his wife, Connie, never imagining she might die. And he certainly never thought she would insist on being buried in her family plot rather than the mausoleum Aldin had erected for them. Now, three months later, Aldin is requesting a codicil be added to his will stipulating that when his time comes he is to be buried with a bottle in his arms. An ancient bottle that Aldin purchased from a peculiar shop across the street from Oak Hill Cemetery, the graveyard where Connie lies and the Nortons’ crypt stands empty. Aldin doesn’t tell his estate lawyer Brad Chambers anything about the bottle, but when Brad has it appraised he discovers some disturbing things about the bottle. Things that suggest Aldin is not as willing to accept Connie’s decision to spend eternity apart from him as he has been acting.

Connie Norton lies here…

…but Aldin Norton wants her buried here.

I was inspired to write “Expiration Date” in the nineties when I read a submission call for an anthology that wanted to pay homage to those fabulous but flawed Amicus portmanteau films like Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, Torture Garden and Asylum. After “Expiration Date” was rejected for being too much like the stories in those Amicus films — such is the life of a creative writer — I submitted it to other anthologies, and in 2019 it finally made its print debut in The Monsters We Forgot, Vol. 1 from Soteira Press. Three years later “Expiration Date” appeared in print again in the seventh volume of Castle Bridge Media’s Castle of Horror anthology series, Love Gone Wrong.

And, boy, does love go wrong in “Expiration Date”!

But “Expiration Date” is more than an homage to Amicus films. It is also a tribute to Lights Out, the best damn suspense and horror radio program and one of the greatest suspense and horror anthology programs in any medium. Created by Wyllis Cooper and carried forward after his departure by Arch Obler, Lights Out presented intensely imaginative, unrelentingly creepy, and more than occasionally gory stories. If you ever heard Bill Cosby’s famous routine about listening to a radio program as a young boy about a chicken heart that grows and swallows the world, that was a real Lights Out episode. I wanted to capture that Lights Out feeling in “Expiration Date,” so after I sold my first audio script to Imagination Theatre in 2007 — the Sherlock Holmes adventure “The Case of the Petty Curses” — it was only natural that I adapt “Expiration Date” and submit it to IT for their Movies for Your Mind anthology segment. And resubmit it. And resubmit it. And resubmit it. And now, seventeen years later… here we are!

If there is a lesson I’ve learned from “Expiration Date” it is that patience and persistence can pay off.

This is my fourth script produced by IT but my first non-Holmes adventure, and you can hear it Saturday October 26 on the IT flagship station KIXI 880AM in Seattle.  You can also click here for a list of all the many radio stations and streaming services that carry Imagination Theatre. You can also listen to “Expiration Date” for a limited time on the Imagination Theater YouTube Channel starting Saturday November 2. And downloads and USB flash drives of “Expiration Date” will also be for sale at the Imagination Theater website starting in November.

Oh, and before I forget… HAPPY HALLOWE’EN!

 

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