Friday, January 20, 2012

Jeff Easley/R. Scott Taylor Retro-Fantasy Book Launch




Well it looks like Jeff Easley/R. Scott Taylor  are up to no good. They're starting a fantasy publishing company trying to bring the "fun" back into fantasy publishing. Com'n I love reading fantasy novels the size of the New York phone book. I want to get whip lash from trying to turn the pages so I can follow a plot as Byzantine as a labyrinth. 
Actually I think that this is a great niche product idea & I hope that sell millions of copies. They certainly have the experience for it. Anyhow here's a copy of the kick start. 
I’m a fan of ‘the old ways of publishing’, meaning I like covers that inspire the imagination, and books that drive the reader forward instead of bogging them down with extended plots and dark turns.  It’s the way of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and a way that iconic American fantasy artist Jeff Easley knows all too well from his work on the now venerable 1st Edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons as well as the horror and fantasy magazines of Warren Press.
In the spring of 2011 Jeff and I were working on an art book featuring many images throughout his career when we struck upon and idea to revisit some of the adventure, swords & sorcery, and sword & planet serialized stories of a lost era in fantasy publishing.
We realized that with his covers and my experience editing and writing for Black Gate Magazine, we could produce works that were similar to the classics we remembered so fondly.  To do this, however, we needed the support of fans of both his work and the kind of reading material that is no longer put out on the shelves of big box bookstores.
To accomplish this, I will write a 45K word novel and Jeff will provide a cover that helps rekindle the art of the late 60s and 70s. 
If we can find the support, we can produce something inspired that maintains the cutting edge quality of digital publishing while still clinging to the roots of the Grognard and Old School movements.
Also, Jeff came up with an added bonus!  Along with his full color fantasy cover that harkens back to the days of dark wizards, buxom vixens, and horrible beasts, he will include black and white interior illustrations similar to those found in novels of the era as well as the D&D modules he’s so famous for.  If contributions add up to more than the initial pledge, Jeff will contribute a single full page black and white drawing to be used inside the book for every $250 raised [up to ten new drawings].
So that’s our project, and we hope you are with us in our desire to recreate something that has been lost.  Thank you for your time and support.
 You can read more about this idea right Here

5 comments:

  1. If it's not republishing a highly-regarded but out of print story, or doing an open call for writers, this feels to me more like "help us publish our book" than "help us revive the glory days of fantasy".

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  2. I have a wait & see attitude to all things of this nature really. I like Jeff's work & R.Scott Taylor seems like a nice guy so lets wait & see where this goes. Thanks for the comment, welcome aboard, & there's lots more to come! Stay Tuned!

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  3. I'm interested in seeing exactly what sort of stories they want to harken back to. There's a lot of dross out there today, but there was in the 80s and 70s, too. In fact, I'd say the 80s was largely a low point for fantasy lit (Thieves World, aside).

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  4. Anarchist: You are dead on, man. It would certainly be great to revive a genre, but to put that kind of weight on Jeff and my shoulders seems a bit tough. At our core, we're just two guys with similar tastes who enjoy what was 'then' more than what is 'now'. We thought this could be fun, we wanted to see if others thought so as well, so we asked people to fund a book that we created, which at it's base is 'help us publish our book'

    Needles: You are wise, sir, very wise indeed when you wait and see! That's not to say our project won't be awesome, but you can never fail if you never take chances, so consider yourself safe as you wait and see.

    Trey: Its a great question, and lord knows one that is hard to answer. I mean there is some much great stuff from our writing past out there, and 100x as much crap! I've consistently seen my peers thrash Thieves World and yet you seem to have enjoyed it. All I can say is that I'm not Fritz Leiber and Jeff's not Frank Frazetta, but we love them both, and although writing has changed since their days in the sun, we hope to bring something akin to their work with a more modern editing flow to it. We're not here to recreate the past, but we want people to see our link to it in the work and I hope that shows through.

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  5. Thanks Scott! I really can't wait to see what happens with this! Scott thanks for stopping by & stay tuned we've more to come!

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