Saturday, October 04, 2008

Longarm and the Valley of Skulls

I was in a bookstore yesterday and noticed that the new Longarm Giant is out. Like the past two Giant editions, this one features guest appearances by characters from other Western series -- in this case, the men of Easy Company, a cavalry series published by Jove back in the Eighties, and John Fury, the hero of a short-lived series from the Nineties.

8 comments:

David Cranmer said...

I'm there. Consider it bought! I just finished the Happiness Killers and need a new one...

mybillcrider said...

Longarm keeps turning up in the local Wal-Mart, so maybe they'll stock this one. But no Trailsman books so far.

James Reasoner said...

I noticed on my last royalty statements that the books were shipping higher numbers than they were for a while. I'm convinced that's because some of the Wal-Marts have started carrying them again. I haven't seen any in the Wal-Marts around here, though.

Charles Gramlich said...

That's a cool idea. Might be worth checking out. I'm reading Will Henry's "reckoning at Yankee Flat" at the moment.

Steve M said...

Just finished it this morning, excellent read, and that's all I'm going to say at the moment so as not to spoil it for those who've yet to pick up a copy.

Funny how I managed to get a copy about a week ago over here in England (via the internet, UK seller), and it's now only just appearing on shelves in America.

Anonymous said...

Hey, could I prevail upon you to tell us which guest stars from other western tales appeared in the earlier two Longarm giants?

I purely love that kind of referential stuff.

John Hocking

James Reasoner said...

Jessie Starbuck and Ki from the Lone Star series co-star in LONGARM AND THE OUTLAW EMPRESS. When the Longarm Giants first began appearing many years ago, they were always crossovers between the Longarm and Lone Star series. I thought it would be nice to get back to that tradition and even expand on it. Raider and Doc, a pair of Pinkerton operatives in a series published under the house-name J.D. Hardin, appear in LONGARM AND THE GOLDEN EAGLE SHOOT-OUT. Jessie and Ki will be back in next year's Giant.

Anonymous said...

Back in the 90s andn the fourth Tom Swift series there were a couple Tom Swift/Hardy Boys crossover stories. They were about twice as long as the regular Tom Swift stories and tended towards more challenging concepts and involved plots. I liked the crossover stories but felt that of regular Tom Swift pieces were lame-ish.