Death of A Serpent introduces Serafina Florio, a forty-something midwife with seven children and diminishing funds. When three prostitutes are killed and left on their madam’s doorstep, and the police show little interest, the madam asks her lifelong friend Serafina to help find the killer. Susan Russo Anderson’s mystery set in nineteenth century Sicily is rich in atmosphere and detail, and her protagonist unlike any other. This mystery will surely excite sleuths and lovers of historical fiction alike! Buy Death of a Serpent from Amazon today!

Fall Of Darkness is the first book of the Legend Of Zodiac trilogy, written by John D. Glass. When seventeen-year-old Gwen Carson is brought to Edinburgh, Scotland by an uncle she has never met she quickly realizes everything in her new life is not as it appears to be. Vampires, magic and danger inhabit the city’s dark alleys and its secret underworld as an ancient truce between bitter enemies teeters on the edge of collapse threatening to explode into a war that will engulf the city with terrifying consequences for its inhabitants. Caught in a race against time Gwen begins piecing together the mystery that just might save them all…until the dangers begin to multiply threatening the fulfillment of her destiny. Excellent reading! Buy Legend of Zodiac, Fall of Darkness, from Amazon today. The second book will be published soon!

Last year I designed the cover for Robert Swartwood’s The Serial Killer’s Wife. It had a pulpy feel, with some branding elements linking it to The Dishonored Dead (an excellent and decidedly different zombie novel), a cover I had done shortly before. But perception and focus change, and after the design of the cover for his thriller Man Of Wax it seemed logical to update the design of The Serial Killer’s Wife. Above is the new design, below the first cover. Buy The Serial Killer’s Wife as ebook from Amazon today, or opt for the paperback (for a very limited time still available with pulpy cover I believe - collectible!).

Or buy The Dishonored Dead from Amazon, if you’re in the mood for a fantastic and unique zombie novel.

Blue and Gray Tales of Mystery is a collection of short stories by Brendan Dubois. The seven very different short stories share the leitmotiv of the bloodiest conflict on North American soil - the Civil War. Buy Blue and Gray Tales of Mystery from Amazon today.

Dave Zeltserman has written two kick ass novellettes mixing hard boiled crime with government conspirency. In The Hunted unemployed protagonist Dan Willis lands a position at The Factory. Doing what his new employer has trained him for - hunting down and terminating insurgents hell bent on destroying his country, a sense of discomfort takes the better of him. He soon discovers no one is safe from The Factory, including himself. It basically goes from bad to worse for Dan from there. Exciting stuff! Buy The Hunted from Amazon today. I’m sure you’ll buy The Dame shortly after.

A new cover for Hunting Season, a novellette written by Blake Crouch and Selena Kitt. This love story is a bit different from the regular as the cover suggests. A bloody good read, not as much for vegetarians. Buy Hunting Season from Amazon today.

Above one of the two cover designs for DOUBLE IMPACT, containing Lee Goldberg’s excellent novel Watch Me Die and the roller coaster novelette McGrave. The above cover would work well as a printed cover, not as much as ebook cover. Hence the ebook cover below. If you haven’t bought either of the two titles DOUBLE IMPACT contains, this is an excellent volume to get introduced to Lee’s writing. Buy DOUBLE IMPACT from Amazon today.

Michael Loynd’s All Things Irish is a heartwarming and humorous yarn about the Irish Meg McKenna and her mother’s Irish store in a somewhat hostile seaside village in Door County, Wisconsin. When locals threaten to put her mother’s newly opened Irish shop out of business, Meg returns, attracting unexpected surprises, laughter, friendship, romance, and more bad Irish luck—which her mother swears is a good thing. Buy All Things Irish from Amazon as ebook (currently available for US$0.99 - a steal!) or as paperback today.

The City Of The Dying is Mark Samojedny’s first novel, and the start of the Eradicus Purify series. After a Mexican drug cartel steals eighteen million dollars’ worth of Oxycontin from a pharmaceutical manufacturer in Mexico City, it ends up on a truck headed for the Continental Freight terminal in Strickland, Illinois, setting off a chain of horrors that tears through not only Strickland and the nearby wealthy city of Vinings, but the entire United States. Trapped in the middle of it all is Eradicus Purify. This is an exciting debut! Buy The City Of The Dying as ebook or as paperback from Amazon today.

Jean Giraud/Moebius 1938 - 2012

Jean Giraud, the creator of the comic strip Blueberry died Saturday at age 73. While I loved the Blueberry series, it was Giraud’s alter ego MOEBIUS that made a huge impact on me in my teens as I was discovering my love for the graphic arts, illustration more specifically. His work is definitely one of the reasons that set me on my path to illustration and graphic design, something I’m forever grateful for.

It started in the summer of 1976 or ‘77, on holiday with my parents in France. Browsing in a bookstore I found the book above. I had never seen anything like it and desperately wanted to have it. Being 12 at the time I had to convince my parents to buy it as they wondered what the attraction was - I have cherished ARZACH ever since. The book is a collection of four wordless short comic strips each displaying the enormous artistic and storytelling talent MOEBIUS was gifted with. It is as amazing today as it was 35 years ago.

I have read it countless times since and for two decades collected his books. At the time MOEBIUS’ work heavily influenced my illustration style. The comic strip below is a clear indication of his influence, while at the same time displaying my complete lack of talent for creating comic strips. It is the only comic strip I ever finished and it was published in 1981 in VULPES, a school magazine of SPINOZA Lyceum, Amsterdam. 

To see pages upon pages of Jean Giraud and MOEBIUS art, please go to http://theairtightgarage.tumblr.com/