So for the past couple of months, I’ve been splitting time between two projects. The first is a horror collection. So far, I’ve completed four stories for it and I’m hoping to do at least two more. This collection is totally unrelated to the Reese Unlimited universe and has no connections or references to the characters that I’m generally known for. I wanted to do something different and it’s worked — I think people will like it. No idea about the collection title right now. The second thing I’ve been working on is the fifth book in the Dark Society series. I know, I know, you guys haven’t even seen the *first* book yet. What can I say? I’m far ahead of Pro Se’s publishing schedule, which seems to be slowing down a bit over the last few years, I’m afraid. Still, hopefully one day these books will be released becaue I think they’re pretty good. The art accompanying this post is by Gilbert Monsanto and will eventually be the cover to DS # 5 — it shows Jupiter, Catalyst, and a surprise figure engaged in battle. Hope you enjoy the peek behind the curtain!
I’m continuing to plug away on book six of the Dark Society, which will be a spin-off from the Straw-Man series. You should see book one of Dark Society released after the third Straw-Man volume. I’m excited for people to see what the Society is like. The image accompanying this post is by the amazingly talented Jailton Rabelo Bezerra and it depicts Logan Jenkins, the newest person to take on the Catalyst identity. Look for her to debut in Straw-Man Volume 3 and then continue on into the Dark Society series.
Thrilled that the fourteenth book in the Lazarus Gray series is finally out — I wanted to do something really special for that volume and pitting Lazarus against one of the greatest fictional villains of all time seemed the perfect way to do it. The story has twists-and-turns aplenty, revealing more about Lazarus Gray’s family tree and introducing some new villains along the way… and it wouldn’t be a Fantomas story without some deaths, too. Be prepared to say goodbye to a longstanding supporting cast member or two….
I’m working on the sixth book in the Dark Society series, which you’re still a few years away from being introduced to. When I’m finished with this one, I think I’ll either do something completely new or return to the Lazarus Gray series for volume sixteen (yes, fifteen has already been written!).
I think Straw-Man Volume Two is going to be the next Reese Unlimited release but for now, let’s focus on spreading the word about Lazarus Gray 14!
Harper Riley was an 17 year old girl living with her grandmother when she received an usual spam message to her phone. Recognizing that this same message had been reported on in the news as being terrifying and inducing violent activities in those that watched it, Harper decided to risk it and see what the fuss was about. What she saw was incredibly disturbing and she felt suddenly compelled to kill her grandmother… but she was able to tap into her latent mental abilities to resist the urges, especially once she was discovered by the Fear Devil, who stayed with her until the threat passed. Harper was then introduced to the Dark Society and learned of her own powers, which led her to ask to be trained and inducted into the team. During her stay with the Dark Society, another member of the team encountered the spirit of a dead witch from another Earth — this witch provided them with a Sword of Light, which would bond with an appropriate person and make them the defender of Mother Nature. Harper ended up being that person, meeting with the spirit of the Earth herself, who charged her with its defense. As the Noomancer, Harper has become the newest member of the Society. Her name comes from an esoteric study she had made of the noosphere – a postulated sphere or stage of evolutionary development dominated by consciousness, the mind, and interpersonal relationships. The planet Earth has moved into this phase, the noosphere, and had chosen Harper to guide it through the new era.
As we head towards the Thanksgiving holiday, I figured I’d update all of you on a few things:
I’ve been greatly enjoying the new Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game and I’ve just gotten my hands on The Cataclysm of Kang adventure book. It’s been a lot of fun so far and I highly recommend it. I’ve done a few writeups of my characters for it and maybe I’ll share them here eventually.
I finished working on The Dark Society Book Five: Egregore a week or so back — I know that this won’t mean much for you guys at the moment since book one of this series won’t even be published until after the third Straw-Man volume is released… and we’ve only just recently gotten the first book out. It’s probably going to be years before you see the team square off against the egregore threat.
I’m working on a short story that will run in the fourth Straw-Man book right now. After that, I’m not 100% sure of what I’ll work on. I’m so far ahead of Pro Se’s publishing schedule that it’s kind of humorous at this point – they have three more Straw-Man books, a novel called Omnium Gatherum, two completed Lazarus Gray books, and give Dark Society novels, all in their grasp!
Our art today is something that’s not been seen very often — it’s Anthony Castrillo’s original sketch for what would become the cover to the very first Lazarus Gray book!
In case I don’t post against before Thanksgiving, have a happy holiday to all those that celebrate this day. To everyone else, take care and go see The Marvels — it was great!
Amazon user ChickJ gave The Straw-Man Book One 5 stars and titled his review “The Straw-Man, hero, villain, trickster and what else.” Here’s everything else he had to say: Six imaginative short tales. Barry has really created a really new little universe in his shared universe. The opening start is three strangers tried to convince a young man to kill himself to save the universe. Then it gets strange. Each short story fleshes out this universe. Read one, and you have to read the next one. The straw man is a real winner. (The only thing that I found odd was at the end Barry Reese, the author, dated the book 11/16/2021. It should have been publish sooner. It came out in 09/11/23) A must read for all pulp readers.
Thanks, ChickJ! It sometimes takes awhile for books to move through the publishing pipeline — in the grand scheme of things, two years isn’t a terrible length of time. I definitely feel your pain, though. It’s hard to wait!
Meanwhile, Raven gave the book 3 stars. His review was titled “Could have left out the prolific f-bombs and it wouldn’t have harmed the story one bit.” Here’s his full review:
Sam Hein is murdered one night by a group of three people who have been having dreams that tell them they must induce him to commit suicide. Otherwise, the dreams say, it will cause the rise of an ancient creature that will cause the deaths of many people. This murder simply precipitates the binding of Sam Hein and the entity known as Gwydion fab Dôn into the avenger known as the Straw Man.
These are six tales featuring this new creation as it battles the minions of both heaven and hell, both realms seeming to want it destroyed. The creature is merciless to those it deems worthy of its vengeance but is capable of friendship or at least a truce with those it isn’t after. Sam Hein isn’t gone; he is a secondary manifestation of the being when the Straw Man isn’t in control.
The Straw Man is dressed in tattered clothing and a disreputable hat, with a carved pumpkin for a head. He carries a razor-sharp scythe as a weapon. The pumpkin face, even though carved, is capable of a range of expression, and the eyes glow with a greenish light. The creature moves swiftly and silently.
This new pulp character is interesting, to say the least. I like the fact that the Straw Man actually has a secret identity in Sam Hein (neat choice of name there!) And as Barry explains, the other side of the coin, Gwydion fab Dôn, is a legendary being of Welsh folklore, a trickster and magician. You get the feeling that Sam needs the trickster in order to live and the trickster needs Sam for a body in which to manifest. A scarecrow is thrown into the pot and stirred for the complex recipe.
I will say that I believe the graphic sexual content and prolific f-bombs take away from the story. I have followed Barry from way back when the Peregrine was the Rook, and his pulp is great, hard-hitting stuff, heavy into the occult side of things—good versus evil. But his descent into this hard use of language and insistence on graphic use of sex isn’t necessary to make his stories a great read. For me, anyway, it is a minus, not a plus. And a totally unwarranted one at that.
So, with a heavy heart, I give this one only three stars. I am sorry, Barry.
I appreciate the time you took to review the book, Raven! I’m glad that you appreciated the core character and the overall plot of the book. I am sorry that you felt that the language and graphic nature of the storytelling was a bit too much. I try to keep my “golden age” pulp stories at a PG-13 level but for the modern day stuff, I thought it made sense to push the envelope a bit more to differentiate things and to give me the opportunity to do something a bit different than what I do with Lazarus Gray and the like. It’s been a couple of years since I wrote this book but I honestly don’t recall it being super-heavy into the sexual side of things… perhaps my memory is fading or it could be that we just have different levels of what we consider over-the-top. If it makes you feel any better, I think that future volumes (and the subsequent Dark Society spin-off series) tone down the sex, if not the language.
Catalyst, at least in the form of Nathaniel Caine, is one of my oldest characters. I created him way back in 1985 and he went through several permutations, popping up in various stories, comic book scripts, fanfiction and roleplaying campaigns over the years. When I finally became a professional writer, it was only a matter of time before Nathaniel would enter my Reese Unlimited universe. Why does he still linger, when so many of my other characters from my youth have fallen by the wayside? I’m not sure. He was the first creation of mine that I felt was worthy of saving… plus I always loved his green color scheme. Credit has to go to Cari Reese for taking my original (and very derivative) costume designs and merging them with the Kirby-esque Asgardian and New Gods looks that I desired. Other artists have depicted him since then but all of them have used her costume design.
So who or what is… The Catalyst?
The Gifted is the name given to humans that possess the natural ability to tap into the most primal forces in existence – the stuff that normal humans called Magic. The Catalyst is the High Mage of his era and generally there is only one per century, though their tenure sometimes varied in length and occasionally overlapped. They could be recognized not only by their power but by a peculiar uniform that went along with the responsibility of wielding that much magical ability… an emerald set of clothing that changed appearance with the times but always bore a similar look.
Historically, the first Catalyst that we’ve seen in my universe is actually Andre Thierry, the Catalyst of the 19th century. A creole sorcerer, Thierry’s first recorded activity involved brokering a peace between local farmers and a subterranean race of monsters known as The Shamblers. This treaty took place in 1853 and was mentioned in the story “It Wants To Kill You” that appeared in the eighth volume of The Adventures of Lazarus Gray. In 1903, Thierry died in mystical combat but he used a spell powered by his will to retain his corporeal nature. In this form, he remained on earth, combating evil into the 1930s. In 1937, he journeyed to Sovereign City and aided Lazarus Gray in defeating The Three Sisters (aka Selene, Fiona and Phoebe). These events are shown in “Immortals,” a story that appeared in The Adventures of Lazarus Gray Volume 5. In that same volume, he helped make sure that Lazarus and Kelly’s wedding went off without interruption by any of their enemies (“Wedding Bells”). Less than a year later, in 1938, Thierry’s time as Catalyst came to an end, as his spirit was destroyed during the events depicted in the novel Götterdämmerung.
With Thierry dead, the time was right for a new Catalyst to emerge.
Nathaniel Caine was a police officer in England during this time and he’d fallen into a deep depression following the murder of his girlfriend by a killer known as Tweedledum in 1936. Caine distrusted vigilantes due to the fact that Dan Daring had failed to stop the murder. By 1942, he was a frustrated man, ready to call it quits on his career. That was when he met The Peregrine and a young psychic named Rachel Winters, embarking on a bizarre adventure involving a Nazi experiment called The Un-Earth. Nathaniel and Rachel became lovers, he took on the role of Catalyst and Rachel became his partner, known to the public as Esper. All of this was depicted in “Catalyst,” which appears in The Peregrine Omnibus Volume One.
Nathaniel made his first visit to the United States in 1943 when he was contacted by members of Assistance Unlimited. Lazarus Gray was experiencing a spiritual crisis and the team needed Catalyst’s help in returning Gray to the dimension known as Dread Carcosa. After aiding Lazarus in this affair, Catalyst returned to England. These events are depicted in The Adventures of Lazarus Gray Volume Twelve.
In 1944, Catalyst and Esper were recruited by The Peregrine into a strikeforce known The Claws of The Peregrine. Based out of Atlanta, Georgia, the group initially consisted of Catalyst, Esper, Revenant and Frankenstein’s Monster. As a team, they successfully took part in two adventures during this year – “The Diabolical Mr. Dee” and “A Plague of Wicked Men”, both of which are in The Peregrine Omnibus Volume Two.
The Claws of The Peregrine next appear in 1946’s “The Ivory Machine” which is also in The Peregrine Omnibus Volume Two. The group added several new members following this adventure but Catalyst and Esper remained key players in their activities.
It’s unknown how long the group remained active — we do know that by 2006, Rachel was dead but Nathaniel was still operating as Catalyst.
He aided the Ian Morris version of the Peregrine in dealing with the rise and fall of The Black Mass Barrier. He also aided Babylon in dealing with a mystical assault in London in 2011. Shortly after 2012, he finally passed on, leaving the door open for Logan Jenkins to assume the role.
Much of Logan’s past is still unknown but her mother – a Japanese witch named Kyoko – operated as a magical terrorist under the name of Lady Grimdark. While her mother was madly in love with a master villain named Lord Grimdark, she had gotten pregnant with Logan during a one-night stand with an unnamed man — not only did this cause problems between the Gimdarks but it led to a lifelong resentment that Kyoko felt towards her daughter.
As Catalyst, Logan moved to Grove’s Folly where she opened a curiosity shop called Jenks (pronounced Jinx). She has become extremely close to the Straw-Man and, alongside him and several others, founded the team known as The Dark Society.
Each Catalyst surrounds himself with champions of their era. Andre Thierry was part of the League of Seven. Nathaniel Caine was a member of the Claws of the Peregrine. Logan Jenkins is a member of the Dark Society. The names of the groups change with the times but they’re all allies of the great mage, working alongside them against the forces of black magic.
Today is the first of May. I had hopes at the beginning of the year of making 2023 something special, given that it was the 20th anniversary of my becoming a professional writer. Unfortunately, we’re almost halfway through the year and I haven’t had a single release so it’s beginning to look like this year will be like most of my recent ones… a bit slow. Of course, I’m writing a ton, it’s just a long process to get through the Pro Se editing and publishing schedule. The company has so many great writers and titles that it’s very competitive.
Right now I’m working on the fourth Dark Society novel, which you probably won’t see in print until 2025 or 2026! After this, I have a few ideas… one of the things I’ve thought about doing is releasing a series of stories right here on the blog. That would allow me to get some timely feedback, which is something I’ve been sorely lacking. It’s not like I make a ton of money off my writing as it is — so I might be willing to trade the royalties for feedback!
So I write fast. Back in my fanfiction days (yep, I used to write fanfic), that wasn’t a real problem but now… it sorta is. I mean, I’m usually years ahead of my publisher. Look at this way: I’ve written a novel called Omnium Gatherum, four volumes of Straw-Man stories, and three Dark Society novels… none of which any of you will see for god know’s how long. By the time they see print, they’ll be way in my rear-view mirror and it’s hard to get excited about it… or to feel that I’m doing good things now when nobody but my editor will read them for years.
It’s frustrating.
That’s not even counting when I contribute to anthologies that are never published because other writers never turn in their stories! It almost makes me want to do the self-publishing thing just to get these stories out there.
Qualities *Heroic Legacy *Thrill of Adventure *Bad Luck
Background
Brandon Hill is the great-grandson of Bart Hill, the original Daredevil. Brandon was obsessed with his great-grandfather’s career, mastering the boomerang and becoming a brown belt in karate. His life was rather mundane until the Chaos Wave unleashed by Thanatos awakened latent powers within him – he was now able to sense and track large levels of fear, as well as induce the same in others. After coming to the attention of the Dark Society, Fear Devil quickly became a member and helped them save the world from a demonic invasion. He now works as a full-time hero with the team, doing his best to live up to the legacy he’s inherited.
Barry Reese - Writer of Badass heroes 