The Johnny Bacardi Show

Got an email the other day from artist Bernard Chang, who has illustrated a new graphic novel called How to Make Money Like a Porn Star, telling me about its September 26th release date and asking if I'd pass on the heads-up, because publisher ReganBooks/HarperCollins is kinda new to the graphic novel game. I do get occasional promo emails from people, and even though I'm happy to be included, I don't always carry through and mention them like I should. So, for once, I'm gonna follow through.

It's written by New York Times bestselling author Neil Strauss, and here's how Bernard describes it:

...the book is a dark, comedic satire of the porn industry, taken from
Neil's observations while he was writing the Jenna Jameson
autiobiography "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star." It is the story of
fictitious porn queen, Claudia Corvette, who's kidnapped on her way
to settle a score with porn rival, Giselle Viper. (All the porn stars
have the first names of supermodels and the last names of sports cars.)

I'm all about the dark and comedic, so it could be interesting, who knows. It's a little out of my price range, so I doubt I'll be reading it anytime soon. But then again, these days a 40 oz. Mountain Dew, Cheez-its and a copy of USA Today (my morning routine, y'know) are out of my price range. One reason why I'm inclined to hype this, though, is that I checked out Bernard's website and he is a heck of an artist- especially his sports-themed drawings. Seems he used to be a pretty good college basketball player as well. I wasn't very familiar with his work, although his name sounded familiar (I was afraid I was mixing him up with Cliff Chiang)...guess I managed to avoid picking up any comics with his art in them. Not the first time this has happened to me, probably won't be the last.

Also, he mentions that there are several art cameos in this book, including ones by Sean Chen and (most interestingly, to me anyway) John Paul Leon. Seems he was one of a group of artists called "The BLVD", among which were also numbered, along with Chen and Leon, one of my favorites: Tommy Lee Edwards. There's a book collection on sale by these fellas in tandem on Chang's site.

OK! Hype machine deactivated. Enjoy the rest of your Saturday!