Great Fun Nearly Ruined by Poor Production

I’ve read a dozen or so books by Kevin J Anderson.  I lo-oo-ove his Dan Shamble books.  The only one of his many tie-ins I’ve read was his take on Superman’s origins, which did not impress me as to being sanguine with the “true” roots of Superman.  Review here.

When we hosted Anderson in 2019 for SoonerCon 28, he was very friendly, witty, and insightful in person.  I bought ALL of the Shamble books from him, and he signed each one.

And, I’m an original Kolchak Kid, having watched Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak in 1972’s The Night Stalker and 1973’s The Night Strangler on ABC’s Movie of the Week.  So when Anderson plugged this comics hardback, I immediately ordered.

Came to find out there is one comic-book tale of Kolchak and Dan Shamble in a crossover tale, several alternate covers, and two text pieces.

I am NOT disappointed with the art or storytelling.  But the editing-proofreading of this project is VERY disappointing.

The first tale is the Kolchak-Shamble crossover comic story, titled “Unnaturally Normal.”  It’s a lot of fun, although the basic plot and most of the characters are transferred from a nearly identically plotted tale, “Wishful Thinking,” in Anderson’s 2018 collection of Shamble shorts, Services Rendered.

First page, first panel, a goof!  Look at the opening text box, an opening voiceover if you will.  Note that the LAST letter at the end of the first three lines is the FIRST letter of the first word on the next line!  What’s up with that!?!?!?

Read Shamble’s speech balloons circled here.  Somebody repeated the same words in BOTH balloons.  It’s a sure bet that in the script for this page, Shamble IS NOT saying the same thing twice!

The first text piece, featuring Kolchak, is called “On the Wrong Bigfoot,” written by Richard Dean Starr and Matthew Baugh.  Everything seems OK with it.  It’s a fun first-person piece in which our favorite reporter and the long-suffering Tony Vincenzo have some interesting encounters with several aspects of conspiracy culture.

The second text piece, called “Digital van Helsing – The Fate Worse than Death,” is by Anderson and Guy Anthony De Marco.  Like the other tales, it is fun to read.  BUT … the presentation is amateurishly inept!

In several places we have what looks to be a rewording which includes TWO word choices.  The one above can’t decide what to do concerning breakfast— to “think about” breakfast, or “contemplate” it, so we got BOTH!

This happens several places, as above when the narrator can’t decide whether to name Marvin or leave him a “young man.”  But it gets WORSE!

Look at the above page.  See all the circles?  In each place there’s a random insertion of the numeral 1 and a bracket, thus: 1｝

This happens ALL OVER this last story.

Don’t you HATE it with the medium ruins the message?  Ta-ta, see you on Thursday.