Excerpting a New Graphic Novel Adaptation of “The Great Gatsby”

Today, we’re pleased to present an excerpt from Ted Adams and Jorge Coelho’s graphic novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby. This project has been in the works since 2019, and is currently available via a Kickstarter campaign from Clover Press. As Coelho explained in a statement, the timing of the project was unexpectedly serendipitous: “A feeling of chaos, confusion and crumbling eras permeated both art and real life during the making of this book, resulting in my largest and most rewarding creative challenge so far.” Read on to see a new adaptation of a classic story.

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Sunday Stories: “Die Hard, Starring Frank Sinatra”

Titles

Die Hard, Starring Frank Sinatra
by John Waddy Bullion

Did you know that, in 1968, Frank Sinatra starred in a moderately successful but ultimately forgettable crime thriller called The Detective? Did you also know that when 20th Century Fox first secured the rights to the source material (Roderick Thorp’s bestselling novel), the studio’s legal department inserted a clause giving it ownership of any subsequent novels produced by Thorp featuring Sinatra’s character, Detective Joe Leland? Would it surprise you in the least to learn that Roderick Thorp wrote another Joe Leland potboiler more than a decade later called Nothing Lasts Forever, which follows Leland—now retired from detective work—as he fights off an army of terrorists that has taken an entire Los Angeles skyscraper hostage? Did you know that Thorp’s book was another bestseller, and that Fox, without lifting a finger, now found itself sitting on a guaranteed summer blockbuster? (Do you see where this is heading?). 

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An Unconventional Writer’s Unconventional Memoir: Cris Mazza on “It’s No Puzzle”

"It's No Puzzle" cover    

The writer Cris Mazza and her siblings were blessed with remarkable parents. Her father, a World War II veteran who became a community college physics professor, was a forward-thinking man for his era, ensuring his girls had access to the same educational opportunities as boys. Her mother was not only college-educated, also unusual for her generation, but later returned for a second round of schooling so she could obtain a teaching credential and start a second career in elementary education. Together, the Mazzas made their children the center of their lives; they were rewarded by seeing their clan grow into vibrant, self-sufficient adults. Mazza chronicled these good times in Indigenous: Growing Up Californian, a critically acclaimed introduction into the “normality beneath the California myth that seems all the more dazzling and exotic with the passage of time,” as the Los Angeles Times said. While that book was fueled by memory, her new memoir, It’s No Puzzle: a memoir in artifact (Spuyten Duyvil Books), is powered by the questions that emerged as Mazza considered the objects that would amount to her parents’ legacy.  

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