Everyone's Wrong and I'm Right: May 2009

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Peppi Marchello & the Good Rats: Still Doing It in NJ

Peppi Marchello of the Good Rats, who was quoted prominently in my trade paperback SNAKED, is still making the rounds with a new line-up of Rats that includes his son Stephan. There's a free show tonight starting at 5 p.m. at The Jefferson House,
139 Nolans Point Road, Lake Hopatcong, NJ. I'll be there with at least a Beta Upsilon or two.

Bull Justice

A bull takes several spears in the back. Then Spanish matador Israel Lancho takes one in the maracas.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Harlan Turns 75

"The internet is the ultimate villain," Harlan Ellison once told me. "It has made all information suspect."

Happy 75th birthday, pal. You've been one tough conscience. When all is said and done, our friendship will be one of the things I enjoyed most.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Here is a Truck Stop Instead of St. Peter's

Unqualified genius Andy Kaufman.

January 17, 1949-May 16, 1984

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Dave Cockrum's personal comics...half price sale

The list of comics for sale from Dave Cockrum's personal collection is updated regularly. Through June 15, for every order of $100 or more, the Estate will match your order with randon books from Dave Cockrum's collection. That means, for example, if you order $130 of books from the Estate, you will receive $260 in books. You pay exact postage/shipping. Click here to see what's available. If you need additional information, write cliffmeth@aol.com

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Seven Thin Cows. And Getting Thinner.

If you're a reader of mine and plan to purchase my new book, please order it directly from me (cliffmeth@aol.com). IDW Publishing plans to release BILLBOARDS, my first hardcover collection in nearly six years, by the end of the month. BILLBOARDS features cover and interior art by Dave Gutierrez, along with an introduction by legendary science-fiction author Robert Silverberg. You can purchase the book signed or personalized for $14.99 plus $3.50 shipping. There are also 26 signed/lettered copies available for $40.00 each plus $3.50 shipping.

While you're at it, if there's any of my other books you can't live without, get those from me, too, and save on the combined shipping. As always, my books come with full money-back guarantees.

Please visit the blog post below re: comics from Dave Cockrum's personal collection. Dave, the co-creator of the X-Men, left a wealth of file copies which we sell to fund the annual Dave & Paty Cockrum Scholarship. I'll be presenting the award on May 14 at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon Art & Graphic Design.

Eye of the Beholder

Meth is a dangerous writer. He doesn’t seem to care if you like him.
- Neal Adams

Meth’s writing is fresh and absorbing—clever and replete with surprises.
- Stan Lee

Anyone who can give Barry Windsor-Smith a pissy fit is okay in my book.
- Joe Staton

The only thing about Cliff’s writing that makes me crazy is the demented titles he puts on them. For a guy who writes as well as he does, and who thinks as deeply as he does, I can’t figure it out!
- Harlan Ellison

Clifford Meth is one of dark fiction's best-kept secrets.
- Barnes and Noble

Clifford Meth has the touch. Fantasy dark humour and ravishing detail to his characters. Isaac Asimov meets C. S. Lewis meets Beelzebub.
- Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull)

Razor sharp dialogue, wonderfully erotic and beautifully said. The meaty characters appear extremely real in front of me.
- Jeffrey Jones

Clifford Meth is one of the most brilliant writers of dark fiction out there today.
- Bud Plant Comic Art

The way that Meth carefully controls your expectations,then takes an almost sadistic pleasure in messing withyour mind is, artistically speaking, a beautiful thing.
- SilverBulletComicBooks.com

Clifford Meth writes like whiskey bites: Deceptively smooth until you realize he’s put you flat on the floor.
- David Gerrold (author of Star Trek's "Trouble With Tribbles" and The Martian Child)

Meth writes in pictures that make me want to draw. This is good stuff!
- Joe Kubert

Clifford Meth writes with power and authority. Great stuff and a great read!
- Gerry Conway (creator of The Punisher)

What separate Meth from most writers is his courage to take on sensitive issues. I’d read anything he’s ever written.
- Gene Colan (creator of Blade)

What can I say that hasn’t been said about Meth’s work except the stories are so interesting and original that I’m looking forward to the next collection!
- John Buscema

There isn't a writer in the world I would have preferred to have collaborated with--not even Mr. Ellison.
- J.R. (Septimus Orion)

What makes Meth's work special is that it grows out of a unique confluence of outlook, culture, comics and prose.
- Walter Simonson

Here's the key: Cliff is actor an audience.
- Jim Reeber (Aardwolf Publishing)

Meth is one of the more intriguing writers of short stories to arrive in recent years. A damned fine writer. He does not write the easy stories.
- Tony Isabella / The Comic Buyer’s Guide

Meth’s imagination, integrity and insight are touched by a dark, often perverse humor. It’s always exciting to discover new writers on their way up—and Meth’s course is worth charting.
- Jim Steranko

I don’t know how much money the Cockrums got, but having a friend like Clifford Meth is worth more than a million dollars.
- John Romita

Cliff’s writing has attitude. While his stories are frequently angry or outrageous, they’re all honest insights into the human psyche.
- Dave Cockrum (co-creator of The X-Men)

Meth is a unique and exciting voice--funny, twisted, visionary. His insights into character and culture are often startling and his stories, always entertaining. I am a huge fan.
- Richard Saperstein, Pres. The Weinstein Company

Clifford Meth sharpens the mundane details of everyday life to a razor's edge. I know of no other experience so simultaneously depressing...and uplifting.
- Steve Brown, Chairman IDT Entertainment

You write character dialogue like O'Hara & string words together so effortlessly, kiddo. Kudos to you! Love good writing--the stuff so rare in comics & animation, my two vexing venues...I'm ossified, I'm sure, by actually reading top story work.
- Alex Toth

Although they're called dark fiction, there's a "real" quality to Clifford Meth's stories that lifts them up and out of his books. And each successive story remains unique enough to make me start another, wondering what he'll come up with next.
- Steve Forbert

Clifford Meth knows things. Dark, dank, nasty things... He doesn't scrape away the barnacles covering the hull of human interaction so much as he lifts up the barnacles, describes what's under them, and then puts the barnacles back and walks away with his hands in his pockets, whistling in the dark.
- Peter David

Clifford Meth has done more to make the comic book industry better for its creators than has the collective career of many good people working within it. Those who speak much and do little struggle to fathom how some inspire granduer with few words. To them, Clifford Meth is of the unfathomable.
- Michael Netzer

[Meth's] work is about the dark side of life, as if he were sculpting beautifully realistic statues while working exclusively in blood and excrement. And then setting them on fire...I'm a huge fan. I read him mouth open and giggling, stunned, amused and aroused.
- Bill Messner-Loebs

I love Clifford. He's a mensch.
- Harlan Ellison

Read Meth. He is pure humanity, pure emotion, pure smart... And, the fuckin’ guy made me cry.
- Handsome Dick Manitoba / The Dictators

Cliff is a dangerously talented writer.
- Pat DiNizio (The Smithreens)

I read Clifford Meth because the guy has a unique niche. He doesn't write fiction--he writes punk fiction!
- Andy Shernoff (The Dictators)

Meth's writing is dark, relentless and always in your face. It doesn’t make for easy reading, but it is highly emotional and makes you pay attention, which is the best thing a writer can do... He writes from a place others won’t walk.
- Marv Wolfman (creator of Blade)

Every Clifford Meth story is a tale of two balls.
- Peppi Marchello (The Good Rats)

If you have missed the true, revealing richness of [Meth's] implications, then consider this an urgent reminder--a rap on the knuckles--to read it again.
- Robert Bloch (author of Psycho)

Cliff writes very well about very intimate subjects.
- Steve Gerber (creator of Howard the Duck)

It's easy to be your friend when there ain't no shit coming down. It's when the nails are being driven into your wrists that you find out whether somebody is a real friend and a stand-up person. And that's Cliff.
- Harlan Ellison

Cliff, on behalf of the creative community, let me be the zillionth to thank you for the great care and Ellisonian-level protectiveness you've shown to the giants.
- Mark Waid

Meth can be subtle, beautiful and venal in one sentence.
- Howard Chaykin

Saying good things about Clifford Meth is like giving endorsements to Zorro.
- Barney Dannelke

Sunday, May 31, 2009