Interview: Callie Schuttera

Today is a special “weekend edition” of “Writer Wednesday” with actress and writer Callie Schuttera.

Callie Schuttera is an American-born actress and producer who grew up in Cincinnati Ohio. Callie is known for her iconic role in Zach Cregger's 'Weapons' and her appearances on shows like 'The Rookie' and 'On Call'. Callie earned international acclaim on the festival circuit for her performance in 'Blue', which took home a slew of awards including multiple wins for Best Picture and Best Actress. Callie can also be seen in the family comedy 'The Last Conception' and voices Vivian Lobdow, on the popular Darkest Night podcast. Callie earned a B.F.A. in Acting from the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). After moving to Los Angeles, she co-created Poison Pictures Film House with her wife, Gabriela Ledesma. Poison Pictures is a leading indie producer of feature films, music videos, and documentaries.

Hi, Callie! Thanks for taking some time to chat with me.

Thanks for reaching out :)

Your new film The Exit State premieres at Screamfest in Los Angeles this month (Tuesday, October 13th, for those in the LA area who may want to catch it). Tell us a bit about the film.

The film is political thriller/horror about a group of American citizens who attempt to illegally flee the United States to Mexico, to escape an authoritarian regime. They arrive at shelter they believe is safe in politically neutral territory but their ‘safe house’ becomes a dystopian nightmare.

Will it be showing at other film festivals or be coming to streaming or on DVD?

Screamfest will be our major film screening before moving to streaming a couple of weeks later!

When did you first know you wanted to pursue acting? How did you get started in the industry?

I knew from a really young age, maybe six or seven. I got as much training as my parents would allow me to. Classes, camps, and then a BFA in Acting from a conservatory program.

When I moved to LA I was lucky to land an agent right away, and I learned a LOT from those first few years of auditioning.

Your most recent screen appearance was as “Alex’s Mom” in Weapons. What was working on that film like?

That was a very cool experience. I was a huge fan of Zach’s previous film Barbarian so I was thrilled to audition for the project even before I knew the details.

Being on set was surreal - not only was everyone so talented (cast + crew), the scale of the project was massive. So the feeling that something iconic was being made was palpable.

You’re the co-writer of both The Exit State (with Josh George and director Gabriela Ledesma) and Blue (also with Ledesma, who directed both films). I would love to hear about the writing process for those films.

Writing is a passion that kind of bloomed for me in late twenties. I had always enjoyed it but the older I get, the more obsessed I am with writing scripts.

My writing process with Gabby is usually quite harmonious. We always say she can ‘see’ the film and I can ‘hear’ it. She’s very in tune with the camera’s trajectory and I’m more drawn to dialogue.

Adding Josh into the mix was a ton of fun. He brought a great perspective to our process and was crucial in world-building and creating the plot’s landscape.

Also regarding the creative process: as an actress, how do you usually work on crafting your performance? And does that process differ when it comes to scripts you wrote versus characters in movies or shows you didn’t have a hand in writing?

Each role feels like a new puzzle, so the process is never exactly the same. That said, I do always keep a little character notebook that contains some of a character’s backstory, their key thought patterns, and their astrology (whether you believe in astrology’s validity or not, it’s a great way to explore a character).

The main difference in playing a role you’ve helped craft is that there’s a lot of subliminal character work being done as you write and rewrite. When you go to prep the acting, you realize that a lot of the character’s nuance is already engrained in you.

Who are some of your strongest influences, both as a writer and as an actor?

As a writer, I’m heavily influenced by Adam McKay, and Jesse Armstrong - they’re both writers who unabashedly comment on real world politics, and some of society’s most dire current circumstances. Their lenses always includes humor without sacrificing the severity of their subject matter.

As an actor, I’m a massive Hannah Einbinder fan right now. I love how much joy translates from her work. I think she’s fearless yet lighthearted and an incredible human being.  Her work in Hacks and Camp Miasma (Jane Schoenbrun is another fantastic writer!) were some of my favorite performances of the past couple years.

You and Gabriela co-founded Poison Pictures, which produced both Blue and The Exit State. Your website states your mission to “collaborate with the best up-and-coming filmmakers in LA and around the world to create high-quality products from start to finish.” What’s coming from Poison Pictures in the near future, in addition to The Exit State?

We are feeling very at home in the horror/thriller genre so we’re putting a lot of our energy behind two other narrative scripts in the same wheelhouse. What I love about both of them is that, like The Exit State, they boldly venture into contentious subject matter, not just to agitate, but for the sake of progress.

In addition we are working on a very special documentary about an organization called The School of Sexuality Project. They teach science-based, fun, shame-free sex-ed to K-college kids and hold community events for adults. We’re very proud to be a part of their cause and helping to take their mission world-wide.

And my usual final question: What is your favorite book, and why (if you feel like sharing)?

The Social Animal by David Brooks. I love all of his work but this one is very special. It blends economics and psychology while drifting in and out (seamlessly) of narrative storytelling to illustrate its points. It left me understanding my own human nature, perhaps more than anything I’ve ever read.

Check out Poison Pictures website for more about the company, and of course the ScreamFest page for the full roster of movies and talks.  Callie can also be found on Instagram and IMDB.

Writer Wednesday: Zig Zag Claybourne

Today, Writer Wednesday welcomes the great Zig Zag Claybourne. I had the pleasure of meeting Zig in person a few years ago at ReaderCon, where we both participated in a play test of C.S.E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez’s wonderful card-based RPG Game Negocios Infernales.

photo by Al Bogdan

Named one of the “6 Best Black Indie Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers You Should Be Reading” by Book Riot (2021), Zig Zag Claybourne is the author of the upcoming fantasy Khumalo Tales and its prequels Breath, Warmth, and Dream and Amnandi Sails. Other novels include The Brothers Jetstream: Leviathan, Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe, and By All Our Violent Guides. His stories and essays have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Apex, Realm (formerly Serial Box), Galaxy’s Edge, Strange Horizons, GigaNotosaurus, and numerous anthologies. Claybourne is a frequent speaker at libraries, conventions, and learning institutions. zzclaybourne.com

Hi Zig Zag! Thanks for taking part in today’s Writer Wednesday chat.

Thank you for making space on the interview sofa for me!

You’ve recently launched a Kickstarter for the final book in your Mother Khumalo trilogy, Khumalo Tales. Tell us about the characters and trajectory of the trilogy.

I wanted to write a grand adventure focusing on the people having the adventures, not so much the adventures themselves. I’ve done a book a year on these characters, a first for me, as well as my first strictly fantasy outing. What started as a short story in 2020 (published at GigaNotosaurus by LaShawn Wanak) evolved into a separate novel in 2024 that I immediately knew was going to be a trilogy. Ayanda Khumalo and her daughter Amnandi are the primary characters throughout. Ayanda is better known to her world of Erah as Unina (Mother) Khumalo, not that she actually seeks to be known. Amnandi Khumalo, in book one, is a sometimes lonely ten-year-old but incredibly aware of herself and what she can do. As a family, their thrust is travel. Who doesn’t want to give their child access to the entire world? And Mother Khumalo does, heading overseas on a whim. As witches, though (my version of witches), certain rules are a given, prime being never allow harm to come to innocents. There’s never a shortage of harm to be found. BREATH WARMTH & DREAM sees them squared off against a thief mage and his cohort of a wraith and a demon.

By AMNANDI SAILS, book two, mother is off on her own adventure while 17-year-old Amnandi sails with a beloved family friend, Captain Maab Pinyasama, on Maab’s fabulous ship. We know what Amnandi is capable of from book one. The question she has for herself is not simply can she push herself, but which directions she should do so, a question shared by everybody in the book regarding themselves. The book concerns itself with power. Coming into one’s own power—and how that affects others—should never have a single definition.

By trilogy’s end, Amnandi’s in her forties, her mother her seventies. We know the witches have grown into legends despite their best efforts to ignore that status. KHUMALO TALES hints at adventures we haven’t seen, and presents the grand duo with one they’re not entirely sure how to face, despite their advanced years.

What was the initial inspiration for this world and characters? How have the world or characters changed from your initial conception to the finished books?

Inspiration came 100% from an offhand remark a good friend made. We were messaging each other and she said she’d baked so much “the air in my house tastes like sugar.” Instant amazing title. Instant story. I wanted to do a riff of Hansel & Gretel. I wanted a storyworld that had the feel of a fairy tale told in an uncertain woods, a story full of magick (on Erah it gets the added ‘k’) but not about the magick. Mob-thought and ignorance are staples of ancient tales, so the story would revolve around that. How would a magickal Black woman and her daughter have molded the typical olde English fantasy world to comport itself in their presence? Particularly when they had no interest in proving themselves to anyone; it was more “prove yourselves to me, otherwise I have better concerns.”

That’s a thread that stayed with them throughout the series. They know their power. Nothing comes between them. Nothing occurs between them but love. By the time we get to KHUMALO TALES, the world of Erah is solidified in the reader’s mind. They know its tastes, its waters, there’s even a map in book 2 (is it even fantasy if there’s not a map?). Readers know that Amnandi in any given situation is going to be a person a reader wants in that situation. They know Mother Khumalo has addressed the situation before the situation ever has a chance to come up and is waiting for the inevitable to catch up to her. But they also know that these are two magickal beings among a world of magickal beings (and non-magickal ones) who love being thrown a curve! And by the time Mother Khumalo has hit seventy, Erah is a lot more peaceful in more ways than one.

covers by Anansi+Hayes 

Was this always intended as a trilogy? And, if you can answer without spoiling the events of Khumalo Tales, is it possible we’ll see more with these characters or this world in the future?

Maybe some part of me decided I was going to sink a buzzer shot from the 3-point line, but as sure as Tolkien sent Bilbo traveling, I knew that this would be a trilogy covering their entire lives as concisely as possible. And I like to think all my books, no matter the genre, are interconnected. It might not be likely we’ll see these characters in the future; ain’t exactly unlikely either.

You write across a number of genres under various pen names. Is there a genre (or sub-genre) you haven’t tried yet that you’d like to?

I’ve dabbled with horror shorts. I’d like to do a horror novel. Except I’m a horror weenie. Especially paranormal stuff. Splatter and gore? Barely registers. Jump scares are easy and don’t stick. But the stuff that gets inside the mind? The feeling of your reflection watching you walk from the bathroom after you turn out the light? Or you hearing a chair pull out when you know you live alone? Nerp. As much as I want to write a horror novel, I’d need several months in a beachside yurt to recover.

What is your writing process like? And does it change based on genre or story length?

I write from a place of feeling. If I can’t feel the soul of a story, my pen doesn’t move. I write everything longhand, then type it up, then print it, then revise with red pen, sticky notes, or taped bits of paper. This means I might take forever to get a story out. Sometimes I tell that to new writers and they panic. They think of ideas as Pokémon; gotta catch em all. Since I think of ideas as tribbles, I can take my time making sure the one I’m working with is what it wants to be, because if I lose one, no big deal. I’ve gotten to the point where I know that no idea I ever have is so precious as to get in the way of me having another. This allows for freedom of expression in prose and exploration of form, which leads to your question of does my process change based on genre or length. It does not. I’m not a perfectionist or absolute completist, which is why if I do take on a project, I have to love it. Pen, paper, soul. If anything, I’m a literary tuning fork. A line, page, or book is only finished when it vibes right.

I’ve heard the term “Afrofuturism” used to describe your work, as well as current writers such as Maurice Broaddus, Rob Cameron, Nnedi Okorafor, Nisi Shawl, and SF grand masters like Octavia E. Butler and Samuel R. Delany. I only recently learned that the term dates to the early 1990s. I’d like to ask what your thoughts are regarding the history of the label, its applicability to your work across genres, and use as a marketing tool. I know it has helped me find authors I haven’t read before.

Short history: the publishing industry found a new means to sequester Black writers under a new label, same as the music industry had to invent “race music” then “roots music”, “R&B”, “world music” and on and on. Whiteness always says “What we do is the thing, what you do is something akin.” Never matters if we invented the thing or not. Black writers have been doing futurism since the Dogon described Sirius B.

Longer, more rooted, contemporary history: there are so many definitions for Afrofuturism; there are so many offshoots, so many refutations, so many dismissals, and conscious mutations. For me, an afrofuturist is a time traveler delivering ways to improve human affairs. It’s not solely “Black people are in the future.” It’s a creative mindset of actively healing the future. We take the past, present, and future as one body. We imagine fictions that tend to that body. I do speculative fiction. I don’t mind if anyone labels what I do as afrofuturist, as long as they’re using that term to embody exploration, not sequestration. Afrofuturism is not interested in the status quo. Stagnancy is infection. Even in my fantasy novels, there’s inherent pushback against the notion that fantasy is the province of white people, with everyone else in the world just tourists in it. I recently watched a documentary about the fantasy genre’s huge dominance in pop culture. Lord of Narnia’s Potter Rings basically. You can guess how white it was except for a 2-second flash of NK Jemisin’s name toward the end of the entire hour. If a documentary wants to do that, then call it Eurofantasy, not Fantasy with a hard F. I’m sure any documentary on the Khumalo Trilogy would call it Afrofantasy so fast my pen would spin. Marketing-wise, terms can help readers who are curious break out of their defaults, but the industry generally keeps a Black writer’s discoverability small within the traditional channels. I’m primarily indie. People that want to go somewhere cool already know where to find me. Zig Zag Claybourne is a speakeasy.

Who are your biggest influences?

Toni Morrison and Dr. Seuss. Seuss enabled me to have fun with words, Morrison sharpened their inner workings. You can imagine “combines the best of Toni Morrison and Dr. Seuss” is not the most comp-ready buzz among the traditional publishing industry. Works for me tho.

What’s next for you, after the Khumalo Tales Kickstarter ends and you put the finishing touches on the project?

Gonna get intimate with the TBR pile. Gonna drink so many leaf squeezins (tea, for the heathens out there). I’m not the fastest writer in the world but I’ve literally done five books since Covid covered the world. Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the World, Conversations with Idras, Breath Warmth & Dream, Amnandi Sails, and now Khumalo Tales. And it’s not a matter of cranking. I don’t crank. A scifi, a satire, and a fantasy. Sometimes the words flow. I jump in my innertube whenever that happens. Once KHUMALO TALES is in the hands of backers I’m going to give my brain time to get its elasticity under control. Right now it’s Mr. Fantastic after three rounds with the Hulk.

And my usual final question: What is your favorite book, and why?

My favorite book of all time is McElligot’s Pool [by Dr. Suess], because it was the first book to teach me how to expand the universe from any small unlikely place, crucial knowledge which is not only valuable but fun.

covers by Anansi+Hayes 

Writer Wednesday: Russell W. Dickson

Today I welcome my childhood friend and neighbor Russell W. Dickson to chat about his books and writing process. Russell and I grew up in the same section of Mahopac, NY and our mothers were good friends. We haven’t seen each other in person in way too long, so it was fun to “catch up” as it were.

Russell W. Dickson is a horror novelist and longtime journalist based in Upstate New York. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English/Writing with a minor in Journalism and has written for NewsBlaze Daily News for more than 26 years. His books include The Man Next Door, Children Shouldn’t Play with the Dead, and The Leather Man’s Curse. Drawing inspiration from the communities, folklore, and dark corners of his home region, he creates interconnected stories where familiar places conceal unsettling secrets. He connects with a combined social media following of approximately 110,000 fans across Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok.

Hi Russell. Thanks for joining me on this Writer Wednesday!

Thanks so much for having me! I’m really happy to be here. It’s especially fun doing this interview with someone who grew up in the same hometown—and even the same part of town—as I did. I’m looking forward to talking about my books, my writing, and maybe revisiting a few ghosts from our old neighborhood along the way.

Your recent books and upcoming novella are all in the horror genre. Is it safe to assume you’re a lifelong horror fan?

Absolutely. I’ve been a horror fan for as long as I can remember. Even as a kid, I was fascinated by movies like The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror, and Halloween. There was something about being scared—while knowing you were safe—that hooked me early on.

As I got older, that fascination grew beyond movies. I became interested in ghost stories, local legends, haunted places, and the darker side of folklore and history. I think that naturally found its way into my writing. Horror has always been the genre that lets my imagination run the wildest, so looking back, it probably makes perfect sense that I ended up writing horror stories of my own.

We grew up in the same small lower Hudson Valley town, and in fact the same part of town. I’ve noticed a few nods to Lake Secor in your work. How did growing up where we did influence your writing?

Growing up there had a huge effect on my writing, probably more than I realized at the time. Camp Henry on Lake Secor in Mahopac and the woods behind my childhood home are featured prominently in Children Shouldn’t Play with the Dead. Those were places I knew intimately as a kid, so when I began creating that story's world, they naturally became part of it.

Even the group of kids in the book was inspired in part by the kids I grew up with in our neighborhood—the friendships, personalities, adventures, and trouble we managed to find.

If you read more of my books, you’ll find other connections to our hometown scattered throughout them. I like leaving those little nuggets behind—places, memories, and details that might not mean anything unusual to most readers, but that old friends like you might recognize immediately. In a way, pieces of where we grew up keep finding their way into the fictional worlds I create.

Who were your major influences (literary or otherwise)?

As a child, I was an avid reader. I loved mystery and adventure books, especially The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Those books gave me an early appreciation for mystery, suspense, and the idea that something unexpected might always be waiting around the corner.

As I got older, I discovered writers like Stephen King and Dean Koontz, who showed me just how powerful horror could be when it was grounded in believable people and places. I was also fascinated by Washington Irving and Hudson Valley folklore. Stories like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle mattered to me because they blended fiction, history, folklore, and recognizable places. That strongly influenced my decision to incorporate local legends, history, and real locations into my own books.

My education broadened those influences considerably. I earned a B.A. in English/Writing with a minor in Journalism, where I learned the discipline and mechanics of writing professionally. In college, I was inspired by a wide range of writers, including Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Leo Tolstoy. I was drawn to Poe's darkness and atmosphere, Dickens's memorable characters, and the harsh realities and psychological depth found in the great Russian writers.

I was also fascinated by vivid firsthand wartime accounts and historical writing, because they demonstrated how powerful specific, honest details can be. Journalism reinforced that lesson: observe, research the facts, and make the reader feel as though they are actually there.

All of those influences eventually came together in my own work. Horror may be the genre I write most often, but underneath it you'll usually find history, folklore, real places, human nature, and little pieces of the world I grew up in.

What is your writing process like? Are you a “plotter,” a “pantser,” somewhere in between? And does that process change based on the length of the work (novels, novellas, short stories)?

I would definitely say I lean more toward being a “pantser,” although there is some plotting involved. Most of my stories begin with an idea, an image, a place, a piece of history, or sometimes just a frightening “what if?” I usually know where I want the story to go in general, but I don’t necessarily know every turn it will take to get there.

I like giving my characters room to develop and letting the story surprise me. Some of my favorite ideas have come while I was actually writing rather than during the planning stage. There are times when a character or situation takes the story somewhere I hadn’t originally intended, and I think that spontaneity gives my work some of its energy.

The longer the work becomes, though, the more organized I have to be. With a novel, especially when I’m weaving together history, local legends, multiple characters, and connections to my other books, I’ll keep notes and map out important events so everything eventually comes together. With novellas, I tend to work from a looser framework. Short stories are probably where I’m the closest to being a pure pantser. I can start with one disturbing idea and follow it to wherever it takes me.

So I suppose I’m somewhere in between, but I always want to leave the door open for the story to surprise me. For me, discovering what happens is part of the fun of writing.

You’re also a journalist. How does your process differ between fiction and non-fiction, if at all?

For me, fiction and journalism actually have a lot in common. Whether I’m writing a novel, a short story, or a news article, it has to be something I have a genuine interest in. I write from both my heart and my mind. If I’m not interested in the subject myself, I can’t expect the reader to be interested either.

Research is also crucial to everything I write. I believe you have to become as much of an expert on your subject as possible. Readers are smart, and if you don’t understand what you’re writing about, it will eventually show, and you’ll lose credibility.

The biggest difference is what I do with that research. As a journalist, the facts are the story. My responsibility is to be accurate, fair, and truthful. In fiction, research becomes the foundation that lets my imagination take over. When I write about a historical event, a local legend, or a real place, I want the details to feel authentic even when I introduce something supernatural.

Journalism taught me discipline, accuracy, research, and how to tell a story clearly. Fiction gives me the freedom to take those same skills and ask, “What if?” I think the two sides of my writing have influenced each other tremendously.

What projects do you have coming up that people should be on the lookout for?

This is a really exciting time for me. Publishers, literary agents, film producers, and actors have expressed interest in my work, so several possibilities are developing behind the scenes.

My first three books—The Man Next Door, Children Shouldn’t Play with the Dead, and The Leather Man’s Curse—along with my upcoming The Witch’s Road, really only scratch the surface of the fictional world I’ve been creating around Gloversville and the surrounding region. The stories are connected through local history, folklore, characters, and supernatural threads, and I currently have three more books planned that will expand that universe considerably.

I’m also writing shorter pieces from the Leather Man world. Readers can find me on Substack at RussellWDickson, where subscribers get multiple creepy short stories and other material that allows me to explore corners of that universe that might not fit into the novels.

Outside of fiction, I continue my journalism work for NewsBlaze.com, and I stay very active on social media, particularly Instagram, where I’ve built a large following and can interact directly with readers.

A lot is happening right now, and I feel like I’m only getting started. If readers enjoy the world they’ve encountered in the books so far, there is a great deal more coming.

Where can interested readers find you or your work online?

Readers can find me all over the place online. The easiest way is to search for Journalist Russell W. Dickson on Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X. I’m very active on social media, where I share updates about my books, upcoming releases, appearances, horror stories, and other projects.

You can also find my journalism at NewsBlaze.com. Readers looking for more horror can find me on Substack as RussellWDickson, where I publish creepy short fiction, including stories that expand my Leather Man universe.

My books are available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com, and other major online booksellers and distribution channels worldwide, as well as through select independent brick-and-mortar bookstores.

And if your local bookstore doesn’t carry my books, tell them they should! Independent bookstores are incredibly important to authors. Booksellers interested in carrying my work can reach out to me directly through Instagram for ordering and distribution information.

Most of all, I enjoy hearing from readers. Whether you find me through my books, journalism, Substack, or social media, feel free to reach out and say hello.

And my standard final question: what is your favorite book?

That’s a tough question for someone who has been an avid reader his entire life, but if I had to choose one, I’d probably say Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I know it’s technically a short story rather than a novel, but it influenced me so deeply that I have to pick it.

Growing up in the Hudson Valley made Irving’s story feel different to me. These weren’t just imaginary places somewhere far away—they were part of the history and folklore of the region I called home. I loved the atmosphere, the mystery surrounding the Headless Horseman, and especially the way Irving blurred the line between history, legend, and the supernatural.

Looking at my own books today, I can see that influence very clearly. I’m constantly digging into local history and legends and then asking myself what might be lurking beneath the stories we think we already know.

Of course, ask me again tomorrow, and I might say Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, Dostoevsky, or Dickens. That’s the problem with asking a writer to name only one favorite!

Writer Wednesday: Don Simpson

Starting up my series of interviews with creative folks again, and branding it “Writer Wednesday,” although it won’t always be writers who are featured.

Today, I welcome my friend Don Simpson to the blog. After seeing Don’s work in comics dating back to the 80s, I got to know him in person through PulpFest, the annual pulp magazine and vintage paperback show held in Cranberry, PA each August (the 2027 show will be August 5-8). Over the past few years we’ve had plenty of great conversations about comics, creativity, and King Kong and so it felt right to re-inaugurate this series with a chat with Don.

Don is probably most well known as the creator of Megaton Man, Border Worlds, and Bizarre Heroes. He also drew an adaptation of the original King Kong, and provided illustrations for Al Franken’s book Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them. His recent releases include The Complete Megaton Man Universe Volume 1: The 1980s, Megaton Man; Microbus, The Lost Art of Don Simpson and X-Amount of Comics 1963: (When Else?!") Annual. Don can be found on Facebook, Instagram, his blog, Substack, and Bluesky.

Q: Hi Don! Thanks for taking some time to “chat” with me.

A: My pleasure, Anthony.

Q: I’m sure you’ve answered this question a million times, but for any of my readers who may not be familiar: how did Megaton Man come to be?

I was preparing to be a “serious” superhero penciler from the time I first started reading comics in the spring of 1972, at the age of ten. I read mostly Marvels at the time, and gravitated to undergrounds and Heavy Metal and European bandes dessinées by the time I was in the late teens and early twenties. Of course, I also always read the daily comic strips in The Detroit News and Peanuts and Funky Winkerbean, and of course Mad magazine and later National Lampoon and so on, so I was always a fan of humor as well. I would always draw funny comic strips for my school newspaper from time to time, and was featured on the choir bulletin board in high school. So I always had a sense of humor, I like to think.

So, like I say, I was submitting stories to Heavy Metal and getting rejection slips from (art director) John Workman, which were still encouraging, and rejections from Jim Shooter at Marvel and Dean Mullaney at Eclipse Comics. I wasn’t giving up on science fiction or superheroes, dramatic comics, as it were, but I also roomed with Mike Kazaleh, an aspiring humor cartoonists and animator—he later had success working for everyone from Ralph Bakshi on a Mighty Mouse revival to Matt Groening on the early Simpsons when it was on the Tracey Ullman show to John Kricfalusi on Ren and Stimpy. He would draw Ren and Stimpy for quite a long run at Marvel. Anyway, we were a couple of undiscovered geniuses getting nowhere in Detroit, and we shared an apartment where our drawing boards were in the kitchen.

One day we got to arguing about the relative difficulty of doing drama versus humor in cartooning, which is an absurd discussion to have—many of the greats were facile with both—Crumb, Kurtzman, Wally Wood, and so on. So we made this kind of friendly bet to try the opposite genre. Mike tried serious superheroes and gave up within a matter of hours; I tried doing funny stuff and it was just awful, but I kept at it. Finally, I drew the over-muscled beach bum with bikini-clad chicks draped all over his massive arms. I showed it to Mike and it was the first thing that got a laugh from him. I thought maybe I had something.

I kept at it and gave him a costume with a big “M” on his torso. I tossed around names with my other roommate, Brian Gabel, and one of us tossed out “Megaton Man,” and it just clicked. The whole concept sprang from that and it has really been a process of elaborating on it ever since.

Q: I’m always interested in the creative process. How do you approach page layout, lettering, etc. for a given project?

A: In the old days, I would start with a scribble in a sketchbook, a thumbnail rough, or maybe I would draw directly on 11" x 17" Bristol board. Today, I’m much more likely to type out a full script on a word processor. But I still can go back and forth. If it is a cover or a one-pager, and I can draw it all out in one sitting, I may just go with the inspiration. If it is a longer story, I’m going to type out plot notes, then start to hear dialogue, then add scenic (visual) descriptions. My full scripts can be quite elaborate—who is in the foreground, who is in the background, who is entering from the left side of the panel, and so on. I include psychological notes about the characters’ states of mind, if necessary.

I’m much more comfortable writing out my thoughts fully because I’ve learned if I have to set a project aside for any length of time, I can read back what I’ve written and recall my state of mind and what it is I want to draw. If I just make a scribble and then set it aside, if I don’t get to it right away, I have no idea how to decipher it later. And an unfinished drawing runs the risk of going stale. I used to draw every day so I ran into that less often. But as I’ve gotten older and life is more complicated, I find writing it out is better in case life intervenes and I can’t finish it all in a few days or weeks.

Sometimes the full-script approach leads to wordy dialogue, but it’s easier to cut dialogue at the drawing board—the fact that I still hand-letter is a big inducement to trim! And if a scene goes stale or no longer serves a purpose, I find it easier to cut writing than to cut finished art. It can be painful to have to cut finished comics pages that no longer serve any purpose in the story.

Q: What are your preferred tools for each step of your process (pencils, inks, letters, colors)? And have those preferences changed over the course of your career?

A: I’m still blue pencil—light blue Col-Erase, although they’ve discontinued them, the bastards—and graphite pencil, Hunt #102 crowquill and sable brush, Rapidographs for lettering, although pigment markers are more convenient nowadays. I scan my art into the computer and color in Photoshop. We used to use Cel-Vinyl colors on greylines—state-of-the art in the 1980s, but that is very primitive now.

Q: As a lifelong King Kong fan, I am particularly interested in how you came to work on the comic book adaptation and what that process was like.

A: I grew up with the movie on TV, of course. It was thrilling. It’s still thrilling today. The artistry really hasn’t been surpassed. The acting was atrocious, but the artistic vision, what is conveyed through stop-motion animation and set design and so on still holds tremendous power.

Fantagraphics approached me. I had done In Pictopia (from a script by Alan Moore) and Gary Groth was always fond of Border Worlds. I also know Tom Powers, a young guy from Detroit who became an assistant editor with Fantagraphics. Gary had been after the Kong license for quite some time—I’m sure you know the ownership of the Kong trademark and copyright—the film versus the screenplay and novelization—has long been a tangled mess.

They lined up six superstar covers by Dave Stevens, Al Williamson, Mark Schultz, William Stout, and Ken Steacy, and they needed someone cheap to do the adaptation and artwork. I was one-stop shopping, I suppose, and we agreed upon a page rate that wasn’t exactly Marvel or DC, but it compared favorably to Kitchen Sink Press, with whom I had just severed ties. So I got a used paperback copy of the Delos W. Lovelace novel—we didn’t have rights to use the RKO imagery, and I cartooned away.

It’s not a job I would have asked for or tried out for. I never thought I was doing the definitive interpretation of King Kong—just a workmanlike effort. I certainly put a lot into it. We were able to restore the giant spider scene and add a few other touches—I have a kid reading a Doc Savage novel in 1931, which is slightly anachronistic, but there you go. At the time it came out, my version didn’t get much love, but I think it has aged rather well. It has a fairly avid following now, especially at a venue like Pulpfest. I’ve sold several comics and a few pieces of original art there.

(Illustrator) Joe DeVito has had the Kong rights tied up for a long time and has refused to collect mine. I think Kong collectors would like to see the six issues collected into a mass-market graphic novel. I numbered all the pages from 1 to 130 for that purpose. Someday, Joe will be out of the picture and not be in a position to hold up the show anymore. I look forward to that.

Q: You’ve got two successful Kickstarters under your belt. Any advice for people looking to do a Kickstarter project? Things to do, and things to avoid?

A: Don’t cheat yourself on foreign postage. Not only are there customs—thank Emperor Tariff—but also filling out the forms is time-consuming. The big thing is not to overpromise and to fulfill promptly. Have your project already in the can and ready to send to the printer before you launch your campaign, and give yourself an extra three months. Also, don’t post pictures of the boxes being delivered, because then your backers will want to know why you haven’t mailed it out already, three days later. You’re not Amazon, so give yourself ample time.

Q: Your most recent successful Kickstarter was for the Megaton Man: Microbus collection, which brought together all of the weekly Megaton Man serials from 1996 to 2001, plus some other material. And before that, you funded The Lost Art of Don Simpson. What’s your next Kickstarter project, and when does it launch?

A: I’ve been working on Megaton Man: Megatropolis, my “9/11” graphic novel, for twenty-five years. I’m finishing the coloring. I’m preparing to launch very shortly, I hope. Watch the skies!

Q: And my standard final question: What is your favorite book?

A: I prefer a lot of nonfiction. I’m not a voracious reader. I think I’ve read maybe twenty Doc Savages, back when I was a teenager. I’ve read one or two since, and they are tough sledding. But I’ve read the opening chapters to Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, by Philip José Farmer, any number of times. For a while there, every spring I’d read the opening chapters, where he summarized the supersagas and talk about Henry Miller and E.E. “Doc” Eddison, and William S. Burroughs, and talk about telling a “rattling good story” and driving the literati up a wall. I found it thrilling and inspirational. More recently, I discovered the Barsoom trilogy of Edgar Rice Burroughs, which I think I prefer to Tarzan. There’s just something magical about A Princess of Mars—I bought the Library of America edition at Pulpfest this past summer. It’s just uncanny. It’s just words on paper, but I feel transported. I know people who are voracious readers and more widely read than I’ll ever be, but I’d rather read a few good examples of writing more than once. I’ve read Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins twice, and it holds up. Henry Miller’s Tropic of Capricorn does not hold up, but the excerpts Farmer mentions in Apocalyptic Life are still thrilling.

A Catcher in the Rye is terribly dated now, and Wicked has to the most over-rated book in the past century.

READING ROUND-UP: JULY AND AUGUST

The seventh monthly summary of what I’ve been reading, listening to, and watching in 2026, covering both July and August!

BOOKS

I read 6 books in July: 3 in print, 1 in e-book format, and 2 in audio format. They were:

1.       Heartstopper Volume 6 by Alice Oseman. (PRINT - SOFTCOVER) (Graphic Novel Challenge)

2.       This Much Is True by Miriam Margoyles (AUDIO)

3.       Long Bright River by Liz Moore (PRINT - SOFTCOVER) (Stanza Books Mystery Book Club July pick)

4.       Hammer Horror: The Complete History of Britain's Legendary House of Horror Films by “The Practical Atlas" (E-BOOK)

5.       A City Dreaming (Astra Black #3) by Maurice Broaddus. (PRINT - HARDCOVER)

6.       Carl's Doomsday Scenario (Dungeon Crawler Carl #2) by Matt Dinniman (AUDIO)

I read 8 books in August: 5 in print, 2 in e-book format, and 0 in audio format. They were:

1.       After The Rain by John Bowen (PRINT – SOFTCOVER)

2.       The View From Lake Como by Adriana Trigliani (PRINT – SOFTCOVER) (Sparta Books Book Club August Pick)

3.       The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (PRINT – SOFTCOVER)

4.       Children Shouldn't Play With The Dead by Russell Dickson (E-BOOK)

5.       War of the Worlds: Thunder Child by Matthew Hardy, Rob Jones, and Kevin Castaniero (PRINT – HARDCOVER)

6.       Monsters Unborn: The Lost Universal Monster Remakes by Bruce Kilkowski Jr. (PRINT – SOFTCOVER)

7.       Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (PRINT – SOFTCOVER)

8.       If I Had Two Wings: Stories by Randall Kenan (E-BOOK)

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 365 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) once again this year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

July:

1.       “You, Me, Us” by Oyedotun Damilola Muess, in Lightspeed Magazine #194, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “The Assumption of Maria” by Max Gladstone

3.       “Fetspace” by Rhiannon Rasmussen

4.       “If A Discarded God Can Change, So Can I” by V.M. Ayala

5.       “Waru Waru” by Ruth Joffre

6.       “Hungry Like The” by E. Catherine Tobler

7.       “The Punishing Animal” by B. Pladek

8.       “Concerto For Wartime” by Sean Williams

9.       “No More Amazement” by Seanan McGuire, from the Author’s Patreon

10.   “The Plague Comes from Chinatown” by Claire Jai-Wen, from Nightmare #166, edited by Wendy N. Wagner

11.   “A Nebraskan Choir” by Steve Toase

12.   “Annette Funicello Is My Dream Mouse” by S.L. Coney

13.   “Our Darkness To Take” by Hailey Piper, from Three-Lobed Burning Eye #47, edited by Andrew S. Fuller

14.   “Lady Night's Menagerie” by Rachael K. Jones, from Three-Lobed Burning Eye #48, edited by Andrew S. Fuller

15.   “Olden” by Nisi Shawl

16.   “The Bathhouse for Long Life” by Claire Jia-Wen, from Apex Magazine #153, edited by Lesley Conner

17.   “Glass” by Beth Dawkins

18.   “Immigrant Girl From the End of the World” by Hannah Yang, from Uncanny #70, edited by Michael Damian Thomas

19.   “A Song in Minor Scale” by Gunnar de Winter, From Kaleidotrope Summer 2026, edited by Fred Coppersmith

20.   “Before She Knew About Magic” by Joshua Geller Schwartz, from Otherside #2 edited by V.M. Ayala, M.R. Robinson, Ash Vale

21.   “Two People” by Ben Francisco

22.   “The Life and Times of the Extraterrestrial Potoo” by K.J. Khan, from Clarkesworld #238, edited by Neil Clarke

23.   “Moby Dick, Ecoterrorist” by James Morrow, from The Sunday Morning Transport July 2026, edited by Fran Wilde and Julian Yap

24.   “Dreams in Burnished Silver” by Christine Hanolsy, from Beneath Ceaseless Skies 462, edited by Scott H. Andrews

25.   “We Are All Strange Ones Here” by Sally Sultzman

26.   “Gas Leak at St. Gentian” by Sara Orner, from The Dark #134, edited by Sean Wallace

27.   “The House Mother” by Krisiti DeMeester

28.   “The Spider at the Heart of It” by Josh Pearce, from Interzone #305, edited by Gareth Jelley

August:

1.       “Legs” by A.M. Maris, in Lightspeed Magazine #195, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “The Age of Cancer” by Vajra Chandrasekera

3.       “What Do You Mean the Nanobots Formed a Union??” by Joel W.D. Buxton

4.       “Ladd's Robot Repair” by David Anaxagoras

5.       “Infinite Wishes” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

6.       “Fragments of the Whole” by Brooke Bolander

7.       “Of All Who Devour” by Adelehin Ijasin

8.       “The Goddess of Not Enough” by Susan Palwick

9.       “Your Piteous Heart” by Seanan McGuire, from the Author’s Patreon

10.   “Focus” by Carlos Hernandez, from Clarkesworld #238, edited by Neil Clarke

11.   “The Cinema of Babel” by Sam J. Miller, from Uncanny #71, edited by Michael Damian Thomas

12.   “When We All Get to Heaven” by Randall Kenan, from If I Had Two Wings: Stories (single author collection), editor: unknown

13.   “I Thought I Heard the Shuffle of Angels' Feet” by Randall Kenan

14.   “The Eternal Glory That Is Ham Hocks” by Randall Kenan

15.   “Ain't No Sunshine” by Randall Kenan

16.   “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel” by Randall Kenan

17.   “Mamiwata” by Randall Kenan

18.   “Resurrection Hardware or, Lard & Promises” by Randall Kenan

19.   “The Acts of Velmajean Swearington Hoyt and the New City of God” by Randall Kenan

20.   “Now Why Come That Is?” by Randall Kenan

21.   “God's Gonna Trouble the Water or, Where Is Marisol?” by Randall Kenan

So that’s 28 short stories in July and 21 in August. Way less than “1 per day” (August 31st was the 243rd day of 2026.)

COMIC BOOKS

I’ve begun tracking the individual monthly comic book issues I read and thought it would be fun to include that list in this monthly round-up as well. I’m striving for a comic book per day. I’ve also started doing a “Random Back Issue Comic Books Read/Reread” daily post on my Facebook and Instagram accounts. I’ve italicized those issues. Here’s the comics I read in July and August:

July:

1.       Dracula #6 (Dell)

2.       House of Mystery #170 (Eclipso and Prince Ra-Man) (DC)

3.       Superboy #203 (DC)

4.       Superboy #228 (DC)

5.       All-Star Squadron Annual #1 (DC)

6.       All-Star Squadron #16 (DC)

7.       All-Star Squadron #17 (DC)

8.       All-Star Squadron #18 (DC)

9.       JSA (2024) #21 (DC)

10.   Batman/Superman: World's Finest #52 (DC)

11.   Green Lantern (2023) (DC)

12.   Green Lantern Corps (2025) (DC)

13.   Avengers Armageddon #1 (Marvel)

14.   Adventure Comics #389 (Supergirl) (DC)

15.   Justice League Unlimited #20 (DC)

16.   The Other/Half #3 (Ignition Press)

17.   Zatanna (2026) #02 (DC)

18.   Adventures of Superman: Book of El #9 (DC)

19.   The Fury of Firestorm (2026) #3 (DC)

20.   Superman Unlimited #14 (DC)

21.   Imperial Guardians #4 (Marvel)

22.   Barbara Gordon: Breakout #2 (DC)

23.   1776 #1 (Charlton)

24.   Captain America #255 (Marvel)

25.   Iceman #2 (Marvel)

26.   Magnus Robot Fighter #6 (Gold Key)

27.   Zatanna (2026) #2 (DC)

28.   The Flash (2023) #34 (DC)

29.   Green Lantern (2023) #36 (DC)

30.   The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery #5 (DC/Vertigo)

31.   Superman (2023) #39 (DC)

32.   Adventures of Superman: Book of El #10 (DC)

33.   Brothers of the Spear #6 (Gold Key)

34.   Star Trek Celebrations #1 (IDW)

35.   Fireborn #3 (Image)

36.   Supergirl: Survive #1 (DC)

37.   Emperor Aquaman #18 (DC)

38.   Excommunicated #2 (Vault)

39.   Universal Monsters: Phantom of the Opera #4 (Image/Skybound)

40.   Super Creepshow #4 (Image)

41.   The Thing on the Doorstep #5 (Image)

42.   All-Star Squadron #19 (DC)

43.   All-Star Squadron #20 (DC)

44.   Tarzan Beyond #1 (Alien Books)

45.   Land of Never #1 (Mad Cave)

46.   Walt Disney's The Sword in the Stone #1 (Gold Key)

47.   Rawhide Kid #1 (Marvel Max)

48.   Justice League of America #198 (DC)

49.   Man From Atlantis #2 (Marvel)

50.   Wordsmith #2 (Renegade Press)

51.   The Nice House By The Sea #10 (DC/Vertigo)

52.   Marvel Two-In-One #99 (The Thing and ROM) (Marvel)

53.   All-Star Squadron #21 (DC)

54.   All-Star Squadron #22 (DC)

55.   All-Star Squadron #23 (DC)

56.   All-Star Squadron #24 (DC)

57.   All-Star Squadron #25 (DC)

58.   All-Star Squadron #26 (DC)

59.   All-Star Squadron Annual #2 (DC)

60.   DC Comics Presents Annual #1 (Earth-1 and Earth-2 Supermen) (DC)

61.   Superheroes #1 (Dell)

62.   Morlock 2001 #1 (Atlas)

63.   Superheroes #3 (Dell)

64.   Hawkman #5 (1960s) (DC)

65.   Micronauts: the New Voyages #11 (Marvel)

66.   All-Star Squadron #27 (DC)

67.   All-Star Squadron #28 (DC)

68.   Shogun Warriors #5 (Marvel)

69.   The Shadow #5 (Archie)

70.   Tarzan #258 (DC)

71.   Justice Inc. #1 (DC)

72.   The Image of the Beast #1 (Last Gasp)

73.   John Carter, Warlord of Mars #1 (Marvel)

August:

1.       Doc Savage (magazine) #1 (Marvel/Curtis)

2.       All-Star Squadron #29 (DC)

3.       All-Star Squadron #30 (DC)

4.       Gay Comics #22 (Gay Comix)

5.       The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery #6 (DC/Vertigo)

6.       The Scorpion #1 (Atlas)

7.       The Scorpion #2 (Atlas)

8.       The Scorpion #3 (Atlas)

9.       The Shadow #1 (DC)

10.   Batman/Superman: World's Finest #53 (DC)

11.   Batman/Superman: World's Finest Annual 2026 (DC)

12.   Justice League Unlimited #21 (DC)

13.   Justice League: Knight Vision Special #1 (DC)

14.   Green Lantern #104 (1970s) (DC)

15.   Imperial Guardians #5 (Marvel)

16.   Avengers Armageddon #2 (Marvel)

17.   Captain America (2025) #12 (Marvel)

18.   Captain America (2025) #13 (Marvel)

19.   Supergirl (2025) #15 (DC)

20.   Superman (2023) #40 (DC)

21.   Superman Unlimited #15 (DC)

22.   Action Comics #1100 (DC)

23.   Superman Year One Thousand #1 (DC)

24.   Worlds Unknown #8 (Golden Voyage of Sinbad) (Marvel)

25.   All-Star Squadron #31 (DC)

26.   All-Star Squadron #32 (DC)

27.   All-Star Squadron #33 (DC)

28.   All-Star Squadron #34 (DC)

29.   All-Star Squadron #35 (DC)

30.   Supergirl: Survive #2 (DC)

31.   Summer of Supergirl Special #1 (DC)

32.   DC's Hawk-Girl Summer #1 (DC)

33.   Marvel Team-Up #28 (Spider-Man and Hercules) (Marvel)

34.   Sorcerer Supreme #8 (Marvel)

35.   Swamp Thing '89 #3 (DC/Vertigo)

36.   Swamp Thing '89 #4 (DC/Vertigo)

37.   The Fury of Firestorm (2026) #4 (DC)

38.   Barbara Gordon: Breakout #3 (DC)

39.   Emperor Aquaman #19 (DC)

40.   Batwoman (2026) #5 (DC)

41.   The Flash (2023) #35 ((DC)

42.   Green Lantern (2023) #37 (DC)

43.   Green Lantern Corps (2025) #18 (DC)

44.   The Man From U.N.C.L.E. #13 (Gold Key)

45.   Justice League of America #209 (DC)

46.   Classics Illustrated #108 (Knights of the Round Table) (Gilberton)

47.   Turok Son of Stone #73 (Gold Key)

48.   Marvel Premiere #57 (Doctor Who) (Marvel)

49.   Marvel Premiere #58 (Doctor Who) (Marvel)

50.   Marvel Premiere #60 (Doctor Who) (Marvel)

51.   All-Star Squadron Annual #3 (DC)

52.   Kona #16 (Dell)

53.   Showcase #28 (Sea Devils) (DC)

54.   Frankenstein #8 (Marvel)

55.   Strange Suspense Stories #75 (Captain Atom) (Charlton)

56.   All-Star Squadron #36 (DC)

57.   All-Star Squadron #37 (DC)

58.   Americomics #2 The Shade, The Messenger, Tara of the Jungle) (AC Comics)

59.   Rima the Jungle Girl # 1 (DC)

60.   Marvel Spotlight #33 (Deathlok) (Marvel)

61.   The Grim Ghost #1 (Atlas)

62.   Marvel Classics Comics #3 (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) (Marvel)

63.   All-Star Squadron #38 (DC)

64.   All-Star Squadron #39 (DC)

65.   All-Star Squadron #40 (DC)

66.   Secret Six #2 (DC)

67.   Walt Disney's Wart and the Wizard #1 (Gold Key)

So that’s 140 comics across the two months, way ahead of the “one per day” goal, but once again fewer new comics and more back issues, especially in August.

MOVIES

I watched ONE movie in July and ZERO in August. This is getting to be a habit I need to break.

1.       Heartstopper Forever, directed by Wash Westmoreland (STREAMING, NETFLIX)

TELEVISION

July:

·       Doctor Who Classic S09 Eps 1 – 26 (Pertwee Season 3) (26 Episodes)

·       Doctor Who Classic S10 Eps 1 – 26 (Pertwee Season 4) (26 Episodes)

·       Doctor Who Classic S18 Eps 9 – 12 (Tom Baker Season 7) (4 Episodes)

·       Man From Atlantis S01 Eps 1 - 3 (3 episodes)

·       Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S04 Ep 1 (1 episode)

August:

·       Doctor Who Classic S18 Eps 13 – 28 (Tom Baker Season 7) (16 Episodes)

·       Man From Atlantis S01 Eps 4 – 7 (4 Episodes)

·       Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S4 Eps 2 – 6 (5 Episodes)

·       Lanterns S01 Ep 1 (1 Episode)

LIVE THEATER

I saw no live theatre in July or August, which makes me sad.

PODCASTS

I’m a fairly recent convert to listening to podcasts, so I thought it would also be fun to list those here in the monthly roundups:

July:

1         The Doctor's Beard Episode 71 (Day of the Daleks)

2         World on Fire: An All-Star Squadron Podcast Episode 10 (All-Star Squadron Annual 1)

3         The Doctor's Beard Episode 72 (The Curse of Peladon)

4         The Doctor's Beard Episode 73 (The Sea Devils)

5         World on Fire: An All-Star Squadron Podcast Episode 11 (All-Star Squadron 14-15/JLA 207-209)

6         World on Fire: An All-Star Squadron Podcast Episode 12 (All-Star Squadron 16-17)

7         World on Fire: An All-Star Squadron Podcast Episode 13 (All-Star Squadron 18)

8         World on Fire: An All-Star Squadron Podcast Episode 14 (All-Star Squadron 19-20)

9         The Doctor's Beard Episode 74 (The Mutants)

August:

1.       The Doctor’s Beard Episode 75 (The Time Monster)

2.       The Doctor's Beard Episode 76 (Patreon Exclusive #61 (Season 8 Retrospective))

3.       The Doctor’s Beard Episode 77 (The Three Doctors)

4.       The Doctor’s Beard Episode 78 (Carnival of Monsters)

5.       The Doctor’s Beard Episode 79 (Frontier in Space)

6.       The Doctor’s Beard Episode 80 (Planet of the Daleks)

7.       The Doctor’s Beard Episode 81 (The Green Death)

8.       The Doctor’s Beard Episode 139 (The Full Circle)

9.       The Doctor’s Beard Episode 140 (State of Decay)

10.   The Doctor’s Beard Episode 141 (Warriors’ Gate)

11.   The Doctor’s Beard Episode 142 (The Keeper of Traken)

Summary of Challenges:

Books Challenge: This month(s): 14 read; YTD: 58 of 120 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month(s): 49 read; YTD: 254 of 366 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge: This month(s): 2 read; YTD: 10 of 52 read.

Movie Challenge: This month(s): 1 watched; YTD: 7 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month(s): 86 episodes watched; YTD: 254 of 365 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: This month(s): 0 shows attended; YTD: 10 of 12 attended.

Comic Books Challenge: This month(s): 140; YTD: 538 of 365 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0 read/watched; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Theatre Thursday: The Balusters

I was fortunate enough thanks to my friend Deb Flood, to catch The Balusters at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre the day before it closed. I wish I had seen it sooner and been able to sing its praises while it was still running. But in life, just as in comedy, timing is everything and good timing is something I usually don’t have. But hey, I still made it thanks to a well-timed phone call and unexpectedly free afternoon.

The Balusters is a comedy about a homeowner’s association in a neighborhood that has been declared a historic landmark area – which means changes, however small or needed for the safety of residents, face an uphill battle to approval. And as soon as one of the characters starts complaining about increased traffic and speeding cars at the intersection outside her front door, you know what battle is about to be fought and what the likely stakes will be. Hint: it’s not actually a fight over balusters (the short vertical spindles that support handrails on stairs, balconies, and decks).

The ensemble cast was led by Anika Noni Rose as new neighbor Kyra Marshall, a wife and mother coerced into joining the homeowner’s association by her friend Melissa (Jeena Yi) and in who’s living room all the action takes place, and by Richard Thomas as board president Elliot Emerson, Kyra’s opposite number in so many ways, who is also the realtor who sold the Marshalls the house (along with almost every other younger person on the board) and who happens to be the former employer of the Marshalls’ housekeeper Luz (Maria-Christina Oliveras). The board is diverse. Sure there are five white people – three older (Elliot; Penny Buell (played by understudy Sophie Hayden at our performance); and Ruth Ackerman (Margaret Colin) and two younger (Willow Gibbons (Kayli Carter) and Alan Kirby (Michael Esper), but there’s also a Latino man (Isaac Rosario, played by Ricardo Chavira), two black people 9 (Kyra, and Brooks Duncan, played by Carl Clemons-Hopkins; Brooks also happens to be gay), and one lesbian Asian woman (the aforementioned Melissa). Over the course of the play, the differences in age, cultural background, economic status, upbringing, and beliefs result in clashes that are comical, revealing, and topical.

Both the titular balusters and the dangerous intersection begin a conversation about historical accuracy versus necessary modernization that veers into arguments about who benefits from such changes, who is adversely affected, and who is doing the gatekeeping. By the end of the play, every character’s secrets have come out – and, remarkably, every character comes across as both sympathetic and unlikeable in equal measure.

Let me stress – this is a social commentary comedy. It is pointed and biting and thought-provoking. I spent a fair amount of time during the week after the show thinking about the points it was making and especially why the moments that made me uncomfortable made me uncomfortable. But I also laughed through most of the 90-ish minutes (the show is performed without an intermission), even when it was uncomfortable (or maybe because it was uncomfortable?). This is a tribute to David Lindsay-Abaire’s script and Kenny Leon’s direction. The pacing, the way secrets are revealed, the shifting alliances, the mad rushes and the quiet moments – perfect synergy of writer and director, in my opinion.

Credit also to Derek McLane’s scenic design (the set includes the living room, dining room, foyer, a staircase, and through windows and front door, the house’s porch is partially visible) which never feels cramped but also doesn’t feel unrealistically spacious; to Allen Lee Hughes’ lighting and Dan Moses Schreier’s sound designs, which work flawlessly together (the thunderstorm scene is a highlight, but I also impressed with the lights and sounds for the scene changes, as the action takes place over the course of several months), and Thomas Schall’s fight direction (when you have people of disparate ages and physical abilities flailing at each other, expressing each character’s physicality is key to the realism of it all). Emilio Sosa’s costumes and J. Jared Janas’ hair and makeup also do heavy lifting in expressing each character’s personality.

While Rose and Thomas are the clear centers of the story (they share a final bow), the show is truly an ensemble and there were no weak performances. I overheard some people in the audience before the show expressing disappointment that they were not seeing Marylouise Burke as Penny, but Sophie Hayden was brilliant in the role – in fact we’re pretty sure that in the second half of the show, her line delivery made everyone on stage almost corpse. The laughter in that moment was a bit more real, I thought.

I have no idea if The Balusters will be touring or if there will be a barrage of regional theater productions, but I can wholeheartedly recommend it if a production does turn up near you. Just don’t ask the theater to replace the staircase balusters with something more historically accurate.

Also: I rarely stagedoor these days, but meeting both Richard Thomas and Anika Noni Rose was a true treat. (Yes, I had a crush on John Boy back in the day.)

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is an occasional series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Book Review: RIVERWORLD ODYSSEY

TITLE: Riverworld Odyssey

EDITOR: Michael Croteau

600 pages, Meteor House Press

MY RATING: Highly Recommended

REVIEW: With Riverworld Odyssey, Meteor House Press continues its excellent series of books focused on the developmental history and cultural impact of Philip Jose Farmer’s work. As the title implies, this latest volume traces the path of the Riverworld series from concept to final installment. That path meanders, bends, and doubles back as much as the Great River of the world on which the books take place.

For those who may be unfamiliar with Riverworld: the basic concept is that every person who ever lived on Earth, from pre-history through 1983, finds themselves resurrected on the banks of an 18-million-mile-long River. They are all in perfect health and twenty-five years old regardless of how old they were when they died on Earth (except if they died at a younger age; then they’re resurrected at the age they were when they died). There is a mysterious technology (eventually called “grails”) that provide food and drink to each individual multiple times per day. Otherwise, technology is limited to pre-Industrial Revolution levels due to the Riverworld’s lack of metal and ores. Also, death simply results in another resurrection elsewhere on Riverworld. Farmer mixes real historical figures (Sir Richard Francis Burton, Alice Hargreaves, Mark Twain, Herman Goering) with fictionalized versions of himself and his family members (his stand-in is Paul Jarius Frigate; his great-great-grandfather Andrew Paxton Davis appears in several short stories) to a few completely made-up characters (the most consistently appearing of which is “Joe the Caveman,” a human from pre-history).

It is not the intent of this review to rehash the backstory of how Farmer came to write the original, unpublished (and as far as we know, lost) short novel Owe For the Flesh, which eventually after many iterations and over many hurdles became the beloved Riverworld series. “Hinterland,” Paul Spiteri’s wonderful introduction to the volume, covers that ground far more capably and in greater detail than I could here. Suffice to say, the behind-the-scenes publishing machinations are fascinating. Spiteri’s introduction is further enhanced throughout the book by letters from Farmer and his various editors and publishers with intended outlines (and even an indication of who Farmer wanted to complete the Riverworld series if he passed away before he did so). The intent of this review is to tell you whether Riverworld Odyssey, as a stand-alone book, is worth the price of admission.

Short answer: YES. Unequivocally yes.

Firstly, it is amazing to be able to track the genesis and development of the concept in so much detail and in essentially “real time” with various drafts and Farmer’s letters and essays. While that original short novel is likely lost completely (although there’s always a spark of hope that some Farmer fan will trip across it in a long-lost lockbox somewhere), this collection does start with “River of Eternity,” the second draft of the story. All of the core ideas of the series, and most of the series’ eventual main characters, appear in “River,” including Sir Richard Francis Burton, about whom Farmer wrote a biography (A Rough Knight For the Queen, also available from Meteor House), and Mark Twain, although both appear under other names (a choice which Farmer explains in one of his essays). The entire tale is told in roughly 137,000 words, by the end of which the entire mystery of Riverworld has been solved. This alone would be worth the cover price (copies of the Phantasia Press hardcover release from 1983 are going for almost as much as this volume costs, and this volume has an additional 400-ish pages!).

Fiction-wise, we also get the version of the novella “Day of the Great Shout” that appeared in Worlds of Tomorrow magazine and eventually became, with some changes, the first half of the first Riverworld novel, To Your Scattered Bodies Go, as well as the novelette “Riverworld” which first appeared in the same magazine, and what I believe are the first reprintings of the short stories Farmer wrote for the paperback anthologies Tales of Riverworld and Quest to Riverworld, and a large section of text that was cut from the novel The Dark Design (here entitled “Riverworld War,” featuring of all things a war between riverboats that is one of the most action-packed and chaotic fights Farmer ever wrote). I should note: this anthology does NOT include any of the stories from the anthologies that were written by authors. It would be wonderful if those could be brought back into print at some point, but I’m sure the rights are a bear to wrangle.

In the non-fiction pieces written by Farmer himself, we get so much insight into how Farmer’s creative mind worked, how he strung ideas together and developed characters. I wish he’d written a book about writing or a memoir (or both!) before his death.

In addition to the letters from Farmer to various publishers and editors, Riverworld Odyssey also includes erudite and informative essays about Farmer’s and Riverworld’s influence, from writers Mary A. Turzillo (who wrote a book about Farmer), Bruce Sterling, John Gregory Betancourt, Tracy Knight, Alex Berman, and editor Michael Croteau.

At 600 pages of $29 (trade paperback)/$75 (hardcover), Riverworld Odyssey is, as stated above, well worth the price of admission, whether you’re already of fan of Riverworld and want to do a deeper dive into the series’ history or you’re a fan of other Farmer works and are just now delving into one of his greatest works.

The other books Meteor House Press has released doing deeper dives into specific Farmer series or interests are Savageology (covering everything Farmer wrote connected to Doc Savage) and The Man Who Met Tarzan (covering everything Farmer wrote regarding Tarzan, of course).

Riverworld Odyssey as well as The Man Who Met Tarzan and Savageology can be ordered from Meteor House’s website. If you’re near Pittsburgh PA, they will also have a table at Pulpfest July 30th - August 2nd!

*I have moved away from a star-based rating system here on the blog (I can’t avoid using stars on Goodreads, NetGalley, and the various bookseller sites). Instead I am switching to ranking books as “highly recommended,” “recommended,” “satisfactory” and “not right for me.” I may add other levels as I refine this concept.

THEATRE THURSDAY: La Cage Aux Folles

The productions in New York City Center’s Encores program are by design short runs, and I have a tendency to procrastinate, so by the time I post reviews of them they’re usually long over. The last time I was in City Center was for their 2023 production of Oliver! starring Raul Esparza, Lili Cooper, Tam Mutu, Julian Lerner, and Benjamin Pajak, and it took me a year to get that review posted. So the fact that we’re only a week out from the end of the City Center run of La Cage Aux Folles (and two weeks from when I saw the production) by the time this review is posted isn’t so bad, is it?

La Cage is one of those shows I know the big numbers from (can you be a Broadway fan, or a John Barrowman fan, and not know “I Am What I Am”?) but which I have never seen on stage. I’ve also never seen the original 1973 French film (yes, I know, I’m a heathen who has no right to call himself a fan of gay cinema). I have seen the Robin Williams-Nathan Lane remake, The Birdcage, several times but of course that does not have this show’s songs. So I was coming to this production with no comparisons to previous productions (the 1983 original or the 2004 or 2010 revivals), which I think maybe enabled me to see it in a less jaded way than some reviewers.

I enjoyed it. A lot. My quibbles are relatively minor.

If you know anything about the Encores program, you know that each show’s rehearsal period is condensed to ten days and that the staging is concert-style (orchestra on stage with the actors, actors carrying scripts) with usually minimal sets and choreography. In this case, scenic designer David Zinn’s set includes three runways that surround the orchestra, with a stage-width promenade at the back of the stage and a wide stairway downstage, allowing for a lot of ballroom-style choreography by Edgar Godineaux. The space works as the on-stage and back-stage portions of the club as well as the dressing room of Albin, the attached home of Georges and Albin, and local eateries.

The all-black cast (a first for a professional production of La Cage, I believe) was led by Wayne Brady as Georges and Billy Porter as Albin. I’ve been wanting to see Wayne Brady on stage for a long time now and somehow just kept missing him, so this was a true treat for me. Brady hit all the right tones as Georges-the-Consummate-Showman, bringing his TV-hosting expertise to the fore. But more impressive were the moments when he let Georges’ love for Albin come forward. “Song on the Sand” and “Look Over There” had me tearing up. The scenes where Georges knows what Jean-Michel is asking him to do is unreasonable but his love for his son brings him to try to do it anyway (even though it will hurt Albin) were also affecting. (More about Jean-Michel in a moment.) I can honestly say I was not disappointed now that I’ve finally seen Wayne live, and I look forward to seeing him again soon.

Billy Porter. I saw him in Cabaret not long before he had to bow out of the run due to sepsis. I knew he’d been deathly ill and in a coma. So if his voice was a little rougher than usual and if he wasn’t as off book as the rest of the cast, it can (and should be!) forgiven. Even with his health issues, he is a powerhouse performer. His “I Am What I Am” is angrier than any other version I’ve seen and given our current political climate towards drag performers and transgender people that anger is completely appropriate. Porter brought down the house, ending Act One with a well-deserved standing ovation and deafening cheering. Earlier in Act One, “Mascara” was a beautiful ode to aging (perhaps not the original interpretation of the song, but again, it works), and the 11-o’clock number, “Best of Times” was also a showstopper.

The supporting cast was also roundly excellent. Both Michael McElroy (as Francis) and James Jackson Jr (as Jacob) stole scenes out from under the leads with impeccable comedic timing. As Jean-Michel, Alaman Diadhiou’s tap dancing and voice during “With Anne on My Arm” were fantastic. Peter Francis James did fine work as the conservative politician Edouard Dindon, as did Sharon Washington as his put-upon wife. (Although I really wished for a moment, even a small one, where she put her husband in his place.)

My relatively minor complaints: 1. Alaman Diadhiou had an unenviable task playing the self-centered Jean-Michel. I know he’s there to drive the plot; I still found the character thoroughly unlikeable throughout, except when he’s singing about or interacting with Anne (an underused but delightful Rachel Webb). Jean-Michel’s repentance at the end of the show rang false to me because we didn’t see any indication that the kid sees Albin as anything more than an embarrassment. (Again, I’m not sure if this has been an issue in previous productions.) Still, Diadhiou has a ton of talent, and I hope we’re going to see a lot more of him on Broadway. 2. Tonya Pinkins’ accent. I’m wondering why she was the only character with a French accent. Yes, the show takes place in France, but no one else was even attempting to use anything other than their normal speaking voice. It was great seeing Pinkins on stage, and every one of the very few scenes she was in was great. But the accent kept just slightly throwing me out of the moment.

But again, those are minor quibbles. City Center seems to have had a solid run of transfers to Broadway over the past few years (Into the Woods, Parade, Ragtime, even stretching all the way back to the still-running Chicago). I have no idea if La Cage did well enough to garner interest in a transfer. If it does, I will definitely see it again. The Brady-Porter pairing was great and given more recuperation and rehearsal time I suspect Porter’s performance would only get even more stunning. And of course, the show is just as topical and important now in 2026 as it was back in 1983.

Image: Billy Porter (center left) and Wayne Brady (center right) enter for their bows between members of the Cagelles chorus, with the orchestra in the background.

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is an occasional series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

READING ROUND-UP: June 2026

The fifth monthly summary of what I’ve been reading, listening to, and watching in 2026!

BOOKS

I read 5 books in June: 3 in print, 1 in e-book format, and 1 in audio format. They were:

1.       Devout: Losing My Faith to Find Myself by David Archuleta. (AUDIOBOOK)

2.       Puck Wild (Storm Warning Book 1) by Declan Rhodes (E-BOOK)

3.       Leonard & Larry: Domesticity Isn't Pretty by Tim Barela (PRINT - SOFTCOVER)

4.       X-Men: Elsewhen Vol 1 by John Byrne (PRINT - HARDCOVER)

5.       A World of Curiosities (Inspector Gamage #18) by Louise Penny. (PRINT - SOFTCOVER; Stanza Books Mystery Book Club pick for June)

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 365 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) once again this year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

1.       “Ghost in the Tank” by M.R. Robinson, in Lightspeed Magazine #193, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “Memostasis” by Benjamin Rosenbaum

3.       “The Overview Initiative” by David Marino

4.       “The Sharing of Some Familiar Song” by Adam-Troy Castro

5.       “The Best of Intentions” by Mari Ness

6.       “An Oral History of the Schooner Key Invasion” by Alex Irvine

7.       “I Cut Off A Monster's Arm. AITA?” by Marie Brennan

8.       “Ash-Shura; or, a Book, a Bowl, A Bag of Coins” by Beesan Odeh

9.       “Let Sirens Sing Your Name” by Seanan McGuire, from the Author’s Patreon

10.   “Ponyhenge” by Faith Allingham, From Kaleidotrope Spring 2026, edited by Fred Coppersmith

11.   “The Tipping Point” by S.M. French-Byrne

12.   “We Who Have Been Raised by Tigers” by P.V. Vamsidhar, from Otherside #2 edited by V.M. Ayala, M.R. Robinson, Ash Vale

13.   “In This Corner of the World” by A.E. Weisgerber, from The Deadlands #42, edited by E. Catherine Tobler

14.   “The Dog” by Phoenix Mendoza

15.   “The Glass City” by AnaMaria Curtis, from Uncanny #70, edited by Michael Damian Thomas

16.   “Extracted from an unravelled braid” by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga

So that’s 16 short stories in June. Way less than “1 per day,” and I don’t think I managed any author birthday short stories at all for like the 3rd month in a row, so that project may be on hiatus! (June 30th was the 181st day of 2026.)

COMIC BOOKS

I’ve begun tracking the individual monthly comic book issues I read and thought it would be fun to include that list in this monthly round-up as well. I’m striving for a comic book per day. I’ve also started doing a “Random Back Issue Comic Books Read/Reread” daily post on my Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky accounts. I’ve italicized those issues. Here’s the comics I read in June:

1.       Marvel Premiere #6 (Satana) (Marvel)

2.       House of Secrets #75 (DC)

3.       Sea Devils #20 (DC)

4.       Rip Hunter, Time Master #29 (DC)

5.       Exquisite Corpses #13 (Image)

6.       JSA (2024) #20 (DC)

7.       Blackhawk #202 (DC)

8.       Blackhawk #207 (DC)

9.       Wiccan & Hulkling: Raid of Ultron #1 (Marvel)

10.   Lost Fantasy #10 (Image)

11.   Justice League Unlimited #19 (DC)

12.   Superman (2024) #38 (DC)

13.   All-Star Squadron #5 (DC)

14.   All-Star Squadron #6 (DC)

15.   The Defenders #100 (Marvel)

16.   Gay Comics #20 (Gay Comics)

17.   Strikeforce: Morituri #1 (Marvel)

18.   Strikeforce: Morituri #8 (Marvel)

19.   Wordsmith #1 (Renegade Press)

20.   Metal Men #40 (DC)

21.   All-Star Squadron #7 (DC)

22.   All-Star Squadron #8 (DC)

23.   All-Star Squadron #9 (DC)

24.   DC Comics Presents Annual #2 (Superman and Superwoman) (DC)

25.   Giant-Size Fantastic Four #2 (Marvel)

26.   Gay Comics #21 (Gay Comics)

27.   Team America #1 (Marvel)

28.   Mage: The Hero Defined #1 (Image)

29.   All-Star Squadron #10 (DC)

30.   All-Star Squadron #11 (DC)

31.   All-Star Squadron #12 (DC)

32.   All-Star Squadron #13 (DC)

33.   Swamp Thing '89 #1 (DC)

34.   Gatchaman: Red Impulse #2 (Mad Cave)

35.   Gatchaman #18 (Mad Cave)

36.   The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery #4 (DC/Vertigo)

37.   The Flash (2023) #33 (DC)

38.   Ironjaw #3 (Atlas)

39.   Ironjaw #4 (Atlas)

40.   Justice Society of America (1991) #4 (DC)

41.   Marvel Two-In-One #95 (The Thing & The Living Mummy) (Marvel)

42.   Toka #6 (Dell)

43.   Logan's Run #2 (Marvel)

44.   Justice League of America #207 (DC)

45.   All-Star Squadron #14 (DC)

46.   Justice League of America #208 (DC)

47.   All-Star Squadron #15 (DC)

48.   Justice League of America #209 (DC)

49.   Marvel Premiere #39 (The Torpedo) (Marvel)

50.   Marvel Premiere #40 (The Torpedo) (Marvel)

51.   Action Comics #1099 (DC)

52.   Deadly Hands of K'un-Lun #5 (Marvel)

53.   Americomics #1 The Shade, The Slayer, & Captain Freedom) (AC Comics)

54.   Batwoman (2026) #4 (DC)

55.   Supergirl (2025) #14 (DC)

56.   Sorcerer Supreme #7 (Marvel)

57.   The Shade Special #1 (AC Comics)

So that’s 57 comics, way ahead of the “one per day” goal, but fewer new comics and more back issues than last month.

MOVIES

I watched ZERO movies in June. This is getting to be a habit I need to break.

TELEVISION

·       Doctor Who Classic S08 Eps 11 – 25 (Pertwee Season 2) (15 Episodes)

·       The 49th Annual Tony Awards (1 episode)

LIVE THEATER

1.       The Balusters (comedy, Manhattan Theatre Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, NYC)

2.       La Cage Aux Folles (musical, New York City Center, NYC)

PODCASTS

I’m a fairly recent convert to listening to podcasts, so I thought it would also be fun to list those here in the monthly roundups:

1         The Doctor's Beard Episode 65 (Terror of the Autons)

2         The Doctor's Beard Episode 66 (The Mind of Evil)

3         The Doctor's Beard Episode 67 (The Claws of Axos)

4         Borgo Pass Horror Podcast Episode 13 (Murders in the Zoo (1933))

5         Borgo Pass Horror Podcast Episode 14 (The Mummy's Hand (1940))

6         The Doctor’s Beard Episode 68 (Colony in Space)

7         The Doctor's Beard Episode 69 (The Daemons)

8         The Doctor's Beard Episode 70 (Patrick Troughton Retrospective)

9         World On Fire: An All-Star Squadron Podcast Episode 6 (Squadron Issues 6 & 7)

10     World On Fire: An All-Star Squadron Podcast Episode 7 (Squadron Issues 8 & 9)

11     Dropping Names ... and other things Episode 1  (Guest: LeVar Burton)

12     World On Fire: An All-Star Squadron Podcast Episode 8 (Squadron Issues 10 & 11)

13     World On Fire: An All-Star Squadron Podcast Episode 9 (Squadron Issues 12 & 13)

14     Justice Society Presents Episode 48 (Justice Society of America 1991 Issue 4)

Summary of Challenges:

Books Challenge: This month: 5 read; YTD: 44 of 120 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month: 16 read; YTD: 205 of 366 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge: This month: 2 read; YTD: 8 of 52 read.

Movie Challenge: This month: 0 watched; YTD: 6 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 16 episodes watched; YTD: 84 of 365 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 2 shows attended; YTD: 10 of 12 attended.

Comic Books Challenge: This month: 57; YTD: 401 of 365 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0 read/watched; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Theatre Thursday: The 2026 Tony Awards

I think this is the first time since I started blogging that I’ve thought to do a post-Tony Awards post for Theatre Thursday. It’s never occurred to me before, probably because I never see enough Tony-nominated shows/performances to have a really strong opinion about nominations/winners or to make any kind of serious predictions. But this year it occurs to me that I can talk about the broadcast itself and what I enjoyed and who I *hoped* would win out of the shows I did see.

And what were those shows? In order of when I saw them: Oedipus. Chess. Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York). The Lost Boys. (I had tickets to see Marjorie Prime back in December on the same day I was supposed to see Oedipus but got sick and then had a ton of work travel and only managed to see one of them before they both ended their limited runs. I did see Titanique during the off-Broadway run, but I don’t think any of that cast is in the current production (we saw Marla Mindelle’s understudy). (The links embedded in the show titles are to my reviews.)

THE HOST

There’s not much I can say about P!nk as host that hasn’t been said already by countless reviewers, pundits, and Broadway-going Instagram accounts. So I’ll just add my voice. Yes, she was an unlikely choice. Yes, she owned it and ran with it. I think she did an excellent job, especially with the opening number and with “All That Jazz” in the Chicago tribute. Her love of live theatre/performance shone through the entire night. That opening number, “Leading Lady Marmalade,” was truly impressive not just in the reworked lyrics but also in the sheer number of performers they worked in (170!), giving all of the Musical-nominated shows (and a few of the Plays) a moment to shine. I’ve rewatched it several times and have attempted to watch it with sub-titles on … and I know I still missed a bunch of references and callouts. (My favorite moments: June Squib’s little spoken word bit; the intro for Megan Thee Stallion and her “cake” comment; Sam Tutty’s Dougal having no lines but wandering the stage looking in-character confused and excited; the little “spoiler” that maybe the Paddington musical is coming to Broadway next season (there’s a family history involving my sister and Paddington, so we WILL be seeing that show if it comes to NYC, no matter what I have to pay for tickets).)  I have to admit that I didn’t really get the interstitial comedy bits with Darren Criss and Ariana DeBose. But that’s fine, not every bit of the show has to be for me!

THE PERFORMANCES

I loved most of the Best Musical and Best Musical Revival performances. I was very happy that The Lost Boys and Two Strangers opted for medleys. While “New York” is clearly the signature song of Two Strangers, it doesn’t really give Christiani Pitts much to do so I was hoping they’d combine it with one of her solos (perhaps “This is the Place”) but “American Express” worked very well and kept the energy super-high. I have said this multiple times, but watching Pitts and Tutty perform together is truly a joy; clips of them online immediately bring a smile to my face. And while The Lost Boys’ “I Have To Have You” clearly establishes David’s (Ali Louis Bourzgui) allure and Michael’s (LJ Benet) attraction to Star (Maria Wirries), it doesn’t feature Shoshana Bean’s Lucy or Benjamin Pajak’s Sam. And I always prefer it when the Musicals that have more than one performer nominated feature most or all of them (My complaint about Death Becomes Her’s performance last year was that it was just Megan Hilty, leaving co-nominee Jennifer Simard out. I understand why they wanted to showcase that number, but still.) For similar reasons, I was happy that Ragtime went with a shortened version of the Prologue which not only sets the tone of the show but also featured all four of their nominees (Caissie Levy, Joshua Henry, Brandon Uranowitz, and Ben Levi Ross). It wasn’t surprising that Shmigadoon! went with their title number, which was old-style fun even if it didn’t feature nominees Sara Chase and Ana Gasteyer heavily. The Rocky Horror Show medley was also raucous fun, again even if it didn’t give Stephanie Hsu as much to do as Luke Evans and Rachel Dratch (at least it was a number where she was on stage, again unlike Death Becomes Her). And (warning! I’m about to be a hypocrite!) while the Cats: The Jellicle Ball performance barely included nominee Andre DeShields, I think they made the smart choice to go again with a truncated version of their opening number, because I already wanted to see it but now DAMN do I really want to see it. The disappointment to me was Titanique! I loved the show when we saw it down in Union Square last year. It is a ridiculously good time. My face hurt from laughing so much, and that is not an exaggeration. But the Tony performance seemed disjointed, and it seemed like Marla Mindelle’s energy was off compared to what I’ve seen in online clips (or even to her earlier appearances on the Tony broadcast, which were fun!). It’s almost like they tried to do too much in the time they had allotted, and it didn’t really sell the show – or give nominee Layton Williams a real moment to shine.

THE WINNERS

Again, having not seen most of the nominated shows/performances, I can’t say categorically who I thought should have won versus who did. I can say that I thought most of the acceptance speeches felt like the right length (okay, it did feel like John Lithgow meandered a bit). I was hoping that Ali Louis Bourzgui, Shoshana Bean, and Lesly Manville would win their categories and was happy when they did. I was hoping that Mark Strong, Nicholas Christopher, Christiani Pitts, Oedipus, and The Lost Boys would win their categories, and they didn’t. I was still happy for John Lithgow, Joshua Henry (who I suspected would win), Caissie Levy, Death of a Salesman, and Schmigadoon! I can also say I was surprised that Aaron Tveit and Lea Michele didn’t get Lead noms for Chess (although I didn’t see Lea, friends who did say she really was compelling in the role), that Anne Reid didn’t get a Featured Actress nom for Oedipus, and that LJ Benet didn’t get a Lead nomination for The Lost Boys.

I haven’t commented on any of the Technical or Writing awards because I didn’t see “Act One” on Pluto TV and I haven’t had a chance to look up the lists of nominees versus winners for those. And as this post is already overdue (at least it’s still Thursday in other time zones), I’m going to wrap this up the way several Tony Awards hosts have in the past:

Go support live theater! You don’t have to be in New York (or London’s West End) to do so. See a touring show. Find your nearest Regional Theater. Support community theatre and high school and college theater programs.

 I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is an occasional series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.