Though it isn’t out till late September, QUARRY’S EX has already racked up a rave! It’s courtesy of Ron Fortier (a terrific writer in his own right), whose Pulp Fiction review site is always worth checking out.

THE BIG BANG received a pretty positive if patronizing review from the Chicago Sun Times. The reviewer is the kind of guy who enjoys a cheeseburger, then apologizes for it. But it’s a nice high-profile place to get reviewed, in an era where most of the reviewing is done on-line now.

There’s a new website about DICK TRACY up – old pal Jim Doherty is part of it. A TRACY comic-book story, circa 1990, that I did with artist Joe Staton (another old pal) is supposedly posted there, but all I can find so far is the first page. But check into it. That story – “Fireworks” – was done for a Disney comics digest but never got used. The website just went up recently, so to get the full “Fireworks,” you may have to check back now and then.

A blast from the past – a recent, positive review of THE EXPERT (1995), my first screenwriting credit. I like that movie, though it’s only fittingly faithful to what I wrote. I always like to say that they apparently had only one copy of the screenplay, misplaced it, then tried to remember it. Anyway, that’s the case with the Jeff Speakman scenes – the James Brolin crazy-warden scenes are right on script. If you’ve never seen this, it’s worth tracking down – a decent B action movie about a prison break-in. With the great Jim Varney! It deserves better on video than it’s received – the only widescreen presentation is the laserdisc, and there’s never been a U.S. DVD release (the UK DVD is full screen pan-and-scan).

On the music front, intense rehearsals lay ahead – we have the Daybreakers Reunion for the Class of 1970 coming up on July 10, and on July 28, we have the Crusin’/XL’s Great River Days Concert. More about these later.

M.A.C.

Tags: Crusin', Dick Tracy, Mike Hammer, Movies, Quarry, Quarry's Ex, Reviews, Spillane, The Big Bang, The Expert