Our good friend Harlan Ellison has an exciting new graphic novel coming out on July 10: SEVEN AGAINST CHAOS, with art by Paul Chadwick and Ken Steacy, and it was our hope to be able to celebrate its release with Harlan at our North Hollywood location. However, due to an unfortunate and unavoidable scheduling conflict, that’s not to be. But let us allow the inestimable Mr. Ellison to explain for himself:
TOES DANGLING OVER THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS, I STAND
about to make an announcement and
enter into a set of circumstances
that inevitably
MUST end
with SOMEbody(ies) calling me a shit and a poltroon.
Yet it must be done.
I am trying to accommodate several masters at once, and it is tricksy, thus open to contretemps, and…well…I’ll be tarbrushed yet again, fer shur. I am trying to satisfy everyone, simultaneously; and it cannot be done. Yet circumstance has conspired to make the attempt necessary. Let the canards fall where they may. Here we go. I’ll try to do it step-by-step:
1. As many of you know, I have not done a public book signing since Madcon in 2010, in Wisconsin. It was an arduous period for me. The last three years, with this “malaise” hag-riding me, has been tough. But we soldier on, as do the rest of you.
2. My longtime friend, back in New York, Miriam Linna of KICKS BOOKS and Norton Records, recently published two of my books: PULLING A TRAIN and GETTING IN THE WIND.
3. Miriam asked me to do a book signing for her two editions, here in Los Angeles, a month or so ago, and I agreed. She has posted at her website where and when (Nortonrec@aol.com) — it is scheduled for Saturday 13 July 2013 in Hollywood, at La Luz de Jesus Gallery and Soap Plant (4633 Hollywood Blvd.) (www.laluzdejesus.com) from 2:00 to 5:00. I’ll be signing the two KICKS paperbacks, and–THIS IS STRICTLY ENFORCED–for each one of those–PULLING A TRAIN and GETTING IN THE WIND–bought at the site, I will graciously demur to sign one more book each, either brought in out of the cold or purchased there, written by me. But no trainloads or posses of old magazines, t-shirts, posters, SFBook Club hand-me-downs carted in by re-dealers and fans-with-family-member-mules trailing them. I’ll be polite, you be polite. Signing is tough for me these days, so I have to hold it down to an operable initiative.
But wait…
4. For twenty years (last 10 in actual pre-publication production) I have been working on my magnum opus space opera 7 AGAINST CHAOS with artists Paul (CONCRETE) Chapman and Ken (NIGHT & THE ENEMY) Steacy, to be released as a 208-page DC Comics graphic novel. Well, at last it is coming to bookstores; and chance has snickered as DC announced the release date as July 10th. THIS July 10th.
5. About two years ago, I promised my close friend Jud Meyers of BLASTOFF COMICS (blastoffcomics.com) that I would do a signing for 7 AGAINST CHAOS at his shop in the San Fernando Valley, near my home. I had done no public signings in years, so it seemed little enough exertion for a friend I hold close.
6. But the 10th is just three days before the KICKS BOOKS gig at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, and many people have been telling me they’re chomping to buy 7 AGAINST CHAOS the moment they see it, at Blastoff, or anywhere else.
7. And I couldn’t do TWO sudden–after all this time–signings at once, not only because I’m not up to it, but because one would decimate the other. I was/am between a rock and a hard place. So, to try to mitigate, and not savage either obligation, I have decided that BLASTOFF can post an announcement online that anyone who buys 7 AGAINST CHAOS from them (and has a receipt verifying same), I will personally sign.
8. Buy it anywhere else, and show up at La Luz de Jesus Gallery and Soap Plant on the 13th of July, and if you don’t have a receipt for 7 AGAINST CHAOS (only) from BLASTOFF, I will politely suggest I sign something else. But I will not sign that magnificent new graphic novel if purchased anywhere else.
The Gallery, I’m pretty sure, will not be offering it…and besides, I’m THERE to push Miriam’s books.
9. I know this will go wrong. Despite everyone posting the above everywhere, there will always be someone who comes late to the Town Meeting who will be affronted by my (to them, at that moment) “high-handed behavior.” But I am stumped, folks, how else to be–figuratively–in two places at the same time.
I hope you will credit me for this pretzel-bend attempt at courtesy and universal accommodation.
Check the various websites I’ve cited if you have questions.
Thank you for your time, and pray for my survival on July 13th.
Yr. Pal, Harlan
So there you have it. Buy 7 AGAINST CHAOS from us, take your receipt to La Luz de Jesus Gallery on July 13, have it signed and thank Mr. Ellison for being a stand-up guy who keeps his word.
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