Posted in: Comics | Tagged: , , ,


Peter David Kickstarts Mash Up Of A Comic Cons & The Canterbury Tales

Novelist, screenwriter and comic book writer Peter David writes about an anthology without a home, titled The Fans Are Buried Tales. A book about a convention meant to launch at a convention before this thing called a global pandemic kicked in. Peter David writes from hospital, currently recovering from surgery;

Most people, when they embark on putting together an anthology, launch a Kickstarter program ahead of time. I don't like doing that. I have a problem with asking for people to donate to something that they don't know what they're going to get. And since I was doing a pretty broad, sweeping solicit, open to the types of folks who typically don't get approached for such undertakings, I had no idea what I was going to get. Who knew that there was so much talent out there? Most of the Crazy 8 Press authors contributed, sure, but we received a murderers row of contributions from fans and pros alike. What was the premise of the anthology? Nineteen years ago the attendees of a Star Trek convention called Farpoint got snowed in by a massive unexpected storm. For several days after the expected end of the con, Erin Gray led yoga classes in the lobby, Armin Shimerman conducted acting seminars, and everyone found ways to kill time. Meanwhile, centuries ago, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in which a group of pilgrims exchanged stories of their lives on their way to visit the shrine of Sir Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. I decided to combine the two, and created the concept of a large, general SF convention in which the attendees are snowed in and wind up exchanging stories of their characters/genres in the hotel bar. I was flooded with submissions, more than I had money to pay. But I figured, no problem— the copies that I would sell or take orders for at the Farpoint Convention would enable me to pay off everyone. But now, Crazy 8 Press has just learned that this year Farpoint will not be requiring attendees to present proof of either vaccination or negative test results, which to our mind makes attending the convention too hazardous. Despite the title, we don't want fans buried permanently. So… we're doing a fairly straightforward Kickstarter here, selling copies here that would normally be selling at the show. All the money raised will go to pay the authors. Here's the advantage of doing a Kickstarter for something that's done– I can show you the Table of Contents:

Peter David Kickstarts Mash Up Of A Comic Cons & The Canterbury Tales
Peter David Kickstarts Mash Up Of A Comic Cons & The Canterbury Tales

THE GREAT BRITISH DETECTIVE'S TALE By Aaron Rosenberg
THE HOUSE STARK FAN'S TALE By Robert Greenberger
THE BASEBALL FAN'S TALE By Michael Jan Friedman
THE SPACE OPERA FAN'S TALE By Mary Fan
THE FANTASY WESTERN FAN'S TALE By Jo Duffy
THE AMAZON'S TALE By Rigel Ailur
THE CONSPIRACY THEORIST'S TALE By Ian Randal Strock
THE OLD TOWNIE'S TALE By Patrick Storck
THE BOUNTY HUNTER'S TALE By Susan Hillwig
THE PARLIAMENTARIAN FAN'S/OWL'S TALE By Brenda Huettner
THE DADAIST'S TALE By Robert Jeschonek
THE H.P. LOVECRAFT FAN'S TALE By C.J. Espinoza
THE FILMATION FAN'S TALE By Paige Daniels
THE QUEER SF DETECTIVE'S TALE By D.M. Rasch
THE FANTASY FOOTBALL FAN'S TALE By Eugene Ramos
THE SAM BECKETT FAN'S TALE By Steve Nagy
THE GROGNARD'S TALE By Ian Harac
THE ANIMATED MYSTERY FAN'S TALE By Rande Goodwin
THE PULP FICTION FAN'S TALE By Martin A. Perez
THE PRO'S TALE By John Trumbull
THE CAPED CRUSADER'S TALE
By Christopher J. Valin and Steve Beaulieu
THE GHOST'S TALE By John J. X. Cihon
THE SPACE OPERA FAN'S TALE By "Uncle" Wes Nicholson
THE FOUR HORSEMEN FAN'S TALE By Raphael Sutton
THE EYE OF ARGON FAN'S TALE By Laura VanArendonk Baugh
THE PRINCESS'S TALE By Susan Stanelow Olesen
THE CYCLIST'S TALE By R.P. Steeves
THE CARPET'S TALE By Keith R. A. DeCandido
THE RED RANGER'S TALE By Isaac Sher
THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST FAN'S TALE By Denise Sutton
SANTA'S TALE By Andy Allard
THE ZOMBIE FAN'S TALE By Glen Cadigan
THE MASH-UP FAN'S TALE By John Peel
THE BRITISH INVASION FAN'S TALE By James Ryan
THE SUPER-VILLAIN FAN'S TALE By Josh Pritchett
THE PARALLEL LIVES FAN'S TALE By Steven L. Rosenhaus
THE CAPER FILM FAN'S TALE By Bev Vincent
THE ROBIN HOOD FAN'S TALE By Peter David
And all of this under covers designed by Glenn Hauman.

It's a 410 pages long book. You can get it in electronic form or in paperback. If you're a retailer, you can get multiple copies at a discount. If you'd like it autographed, you can purchase autographs as add-ons. Simple, right? Okay, if you insist, we have a bunch of other Peter David novels and assorted  books available for sale, which we'll be adding on as the campaign goes and we figure out how many copies of books we have left. We also have a wide variety of comics from Peter's personal stash, too many and diverse (some even in foreign languages?) to list individually, so we're just going to sell them for $5 each, and include a certificate of authenticity showing that they're from Peter's stock.

And if you want to read up about the original Canterbury Tales, you can do that too…


Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!

Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
twitterfacebookinstagramwebsite
Comments will load 20 seconds after page. Click here to load them now.