Lawrence Block's THE NAKED AND THE DEADLY in deluxe softcover

 

Reissuing Lawrence Block's long-lost work for men's adventure magazines in the Men's Adventure Library collection The Naked and the Deadly is a milestone for the series, and a considerable source of great pride for us.

We had two primary goals for the project: First, to issue Block's work in the kind of deluxe presentation it deserves. Second, to try to ensure that the book's sticker price would allow anyone who wants to read the book the opportunity to own a copy—even readers on tighter budgets.

So we issued the book in multiple editions: A deluxe signed and numbered hardcover, and a deluxe (unsigned) hardcover, both printed in full color and packed with supplementary history, context, and illustrations.

We also put together a relatively no-frills ebook edition, and a compact mass market paperback edition—both focused on the stories alone.

But we are so wild about the hardcover presentations, we decided to issue another edition: a softcover that (mostly) replicates the contents and design of the hardcovers: a deluxe softcover edition.

Priced at $29.95 for a big 368 color pages, it's $16 less than the hardcover, but includes everything that's in the hardcover—minus the hardcover's bonus story.

It's been available for a while now. The problem is, many of our readers buy our books from Amazon, and Amazon doesn't seem to know what to do with a title that's been released in two softcover editions—despite the many differences between those softcover editions. Even searching for the deluxe softcover on Amazon can be a frustrating experience.

So, here's a direct link to the deluxe softcover on Amazon: https://amzn.to/41W23fl

Of course, copies are always available from the book's co-editor Bob Deis via his webstore at MensPulpMags.com. Bob often offers deals and discounts on all our books there, and he's always glad to sign or personalize books on request. Order directly from Bob by clicking HERE.

Now, please feel free to get Naked!

Why Our Books' Cover Prices Are Going Up

This sucks. 

Our distributor is compelling us to adjust our wholesale pricing in a way that knocks most of our books out of profitability. This is not a change we welcome, and we have no say in the matter. We have to raise our prices, or our books lose their distribution. 

At the same time, despite our books’ cover prices going up, our per-book profits will actually be reduced. So we will actually earn less, even as our books cost our readers more. 

You read that right: We are being forced to raise our prices, yet somehow we’ll still earn less on each book sold. 

I think this is what they used to call “the new math.” 

This price increase will primarily affect readers who buy our books via Amazon. So if you’re a New Texture reader who prefers to buy from Amazon, the time to fill any gaps on your New Texture bookshelf is now; the cover prices on our books are about to go up.

Current prices should remain in effect until this time next month (October). After that, everything will cost a few dollars more, while we earn a few dollars less. You can order our books from Amazon by clicking their covers, running down the the right-hand column of this site.

As ever, thank you for your support.

QMH Press Joins New Texture

We are pleased and deeply proud to ring in Pride Month with the announcement of a civil partnership between JD Doyle's newly minted QMH Press and New Texture for the release of JD's first book, 1981—My Gay American Road Trip. The book will be the imprints' first joint release, appearing in hardcover and softcover editions from QMH and NT later this month.  

JD Doyle, an American LGBT music/history archivist and radio producer, was formerly Editor of Our Own Community Press, a gay newspaper based out of Norfolk, Virginia. Doyle later produced the radio programs Queer Music Heritage on the station KPFT, and OutRadio, heard online. His currently active works include the Texas Obituary Project and the Houston LGBT History website, all part of his 501(c)(3) non-profit, the JD Doyle Archives. Those archives also contain one of the largest collections of queer music in the country. In 2019, the United States Library of Congress selected the archives for digital inclusion in their collection of LGBT history. 

Doyle believes that history exists to be shared, not hoarded, and strives to make his collection accessible to all. 

His work has been honored by numerous awards, such as the Legacy Award from the Greater Houston LGBT Chamber of Commerce (2023); Trailblazer Award from Texas Conference on Digital Libraries (2021); a Proclamation from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner during LGBT History Month (October 2022) naming it “JD Doyle Day;” from the Houston LGBTQ Political Caucus, given the Lifetime Achievement Award (2019) and Kristen Capps Social Conscience Award (2021); Legacy Community Health Mint Julep Award (2023); Male Grand Marshal for the 2014 Houston Pride Parade; and the Alan Bérubé Prize, from the Committee on LGBT History (2012). 

“We are delighted to welcome JD and QMH Press to the New Texture family,” said New Texture ringmaster Wyatt Doyle (no relation). “New Texture's dedication to presenting and preserving personal and cultural histories that too often fall under the mainstream radar suggest NT and QMH Press will prove well matched. JD's passionate, engaged, decades-long commitment to queer art and history (and their documentation and preservation), mirrors NT's own efforts to document left-of-the-dial lives, lifestyles, and cultural trends that might otherwise be lost to history.” 

JD Doyle added, “After more than twenty years documenting as much online history content as I can, it is a new adventure to release my first book, and this time get a more personal story out into the world—of course bringing our history along with it.”

Lawrence Block's THE NAKED AND THE DEADLY

The focus and subject matter of mid-century men’s adventure magazines (MAMs) were wide-ranging, and versatile storytellers able to confidently navigate genres, approaches, and authorial voices found regular, lucrative work in their pages. Among those talented writers was a notable newcomer: Lawrence Block—though his initial pieces would see print under various pseudonyms. 

Not the Lawrence Block you know, who is among the most widely read, respected, and celebrated writers of crime and mystery fiction in the world. Internationally read and internationally honored, upon whom The Mystery Writers of America bestowed the title of Grand Master. A storyteller with over 65 years of professional experience in damn near every mode of written expression, whose essays, magazine columns, and non-fiction books focused on the art, craft, and business of writing have endured to inform generations. 

Not that Lawrence Block. 

Not yet…

The Men's Adventure Library announces the release of one of the most anticipated books in the series: The Naked and the Deadly: Lawrence Block in Men's Adventure Magazines. Collecting Block's early work for MAMs, with stories ranging from dramatic non-fiction to hard-boiled crime, detective stories, and international intrigue, The Naked and the Deadly is at once a look at a legendary writer's earliest work and swift development as well as a representative selection of the types of stories that made MAMs famous -- and infamous.

In this latest release from The Men’s Adventure Library, series editors Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle restore the early work of Lawrence Block for their new collection, reissuing these long lost early stories in their original, unexpurgated versions for the first time since their original publication, and presented with the full cooperation of the Author. 

To welcome Block to the Men’s Adventure Library, The Naked and the Deadly will be issued in four distinct, handsome editions: 

1. An expanded 396-page, 6” x 9” color hardcover that adds over 60 pages to the contents of the paperback and ebook editions. Includes dozens of supplementary color and monochrome illustrations, further context and background by the Editors, and an entire additional 8,000-word story by Block that is exclusive to the hardcover. Get it here: https://amzn.to/3ORiKBV

2. A 12-story, 444-page, 4.370” x 7.000” collectible mass market paperback edition, created to honor Block’s many successes in paperbacks. Get it here: https://amzn.to/43fdIDy

3. A 12-story ebook, duplicating the contents of the mass market paperback. Get it here: https://amzn.to/3N5U6ev

4. A strictly limited, 200-copy edition of the expanded hardcover that includes a custom bookplate signed by Lawrence Block and the Editors, tipped-in by hand. Available exclusively at www.BlockNaked.com while copies remain. Get it here: www.BlockNaked.com

All editions include a scene-setting preface by the Editors and a brand new introduction written for this collection by Block.

This is the summer to get Naked!

Below is an early review video from Paperback Parade's Gary Lovisi that offers a peek inside both print editions:

Hall, Skrowaczewski, Zappa's FREE / REFUSE available NOW

 

The latest digital release in New Texture's Zappacrypha series of recordings by Stanley J. Zappa (and compatriots) is available now! Free / Refuse features Jacob Hall, bass; Nick Skrowaczewski, percussion, vibraphone; Stanley J. Zappa, saxophones. It was recorded by Hall at Audible Alchemy, Portland, Oregon, and mastered by Jeremy Stewart at Swan's Yowl.

Per Zappa:

"Three years after the release of Visions (by Leonard/Skrowaczewski/Zappa), Steve Lobdel was just about done moving his recording empire to his new facility. Jacob Hall was Steve's assistant. Jacob and I played in a group with the rhythm section of Steve's group, The Davis Redford Triad. Nick Skrowaczewski was in Portland at the time, learning the fine art of video editing. No sooner were Nick and Jacob introduced than they were sneaking off to eat chicken fried steak at the Interstate Diner for brunch together.

Lobdel kindly permitted Jacob to use the studio so we could record this Trio—the main attraction of which being a Studer tape deck with pitch control. This recording makes ample use of said pitch control, both to speed up and to slow down. This left a large impression (dent) in my 'sound vision' and only bolstered my vow never to take western harmony seriously ever again."

Buy it/hear it here.

Explore the album's packaging here. Photos and design by Wyatt Doyle.

Out Now: THE LAST COLORING BOOK by Jimmy Angelina & Wyatt Doyle

Put the crayons down. The Last Coloring Book by Jimmy Angelina and Wyatt Doyle is available today.

Described as "a coloring book for adults who buy coloring books, and those who don't," the 130-page oversized, illustrated softcover has a retail price of $14.95 USD and is available for preview and purchase via Amazon here.

The Last Coloring Book is recommended for mature readers.

Booksellers/wholesale inquiries please contact LastColoringBook (at) gmail (dot) com

SIXTY, GODDAMMIT: Josh Alan's New Album Out Now!

Josh Alan’s first album in 15 years. Atomic acoustic blues-funk-rock. Can you dig it?

SIXTY, GODDAMMIT? Ya damn right.

Track list:

1. This Radio Don’t Play Nothin’ but the Blues
2. Theme from Shaft
3. What’d I Say
4. I’m Blacker Than You
5. Cat’s Squirrel
6. Born Under a Bad Sign
7. Tush
8. Street Fight
9. Down Home Girl
10. Mystery Train
11. Deep River Blues II

Download it from Amazon

Download it on iTunes

Download it from CD Baby

From Black Cracker Music/New Texture

Stanley J. Zappa's SING-SONG SONGS CD Available Now!

If you enjoy _________

A. loud noises
B. broken machinery
C. free jazz
D. Charles Gayle
E. Albert Ayler
F. Frank Wright

and __________

A. Jimmy Lyons
B. Marco Eneidi
C. Arthur Doyle
D. improvised music
E. the sound of glass shattering
F. ice cubes in a blender

Sing-Song Songs is the new album by Stanley J. Zappa.
Get it on CD and download HERE. 

Preview the CD's artwork:

artist photo: K. Molloy

Out Now: DOLLAR HALLOWEEN by Wyatt Doyle!

Dollar Halloween is a new book of photographs by Wyatt Doyle, focusing on the glut of cheaply manufactured Halloween decorations, toys, and knick-knacks created for and sold in American dollar stores. Preview the limited edition hardcover in its entirety via the Issuu embed above. 

Doyle's introductory essay to the book follows: 

Los Angeles is a dollar store town. With significant blocs of its population composed of recent immigrants, low-income laborers, and entertainment-industry cannon fodder—all working for peanuts—dollar stores help ensure the continued survival of the working poor by offering grocery essentials at a buck apiece. If you’ve got a dollar, you’ve got a dinner…or something, anyway, until a dinner comes along.

The ubiquity of the 99 Cents Only chain makes the brand the Starbucks of their weight class (at least in Los Angeles), and their high-ceilinged, well-lit interiors provide familiar and reassuring echoes of their more expensive cousins (unlike most smaller, ethnic, or independently owned discount shops). 

When a medium-sized 99 Cents Only in my old neighborhood outgrew its location, the company opened a much larger store, barely a block south—only to retain the original location as well. Even with the roaring success of the new superstore, there was no discernable drop in business at the old location, just a few yards away. Both stores continue to thrive.

*     *     *

Halloween decorations are curious items to begin with. The trappings of the holiday are so deeply ingrained, so traditional, they’ve all but lost their meaning. A date or the time of year is enough to move us to festoon our homes with make-believe rotting corpse parts and an ever-growing variety of sparkly death totems.

And where there’s a need, or even a mild desire, a dollar store stands ready to fill it, for whatever you’ve got in your pocket. Come autumn, their aisles swell with an onslaught of flimsy window decorations and off-brand Halloween tchotchkes. Most made in China, few sturdy enough to survive a single use.

Plastic jack-o’-lanterns and fastener-hinged cardboard skeletons are familiar, but the uncontrollable compulsion to foist more and more stuff on each other leads to the introduction of dozens of ultimately disposable decorating ideas to the seasonal shelves each year. And if Walgreens wants to sell you their version for $9.95, you’d better believe there’s a factory in China crapping out something like it that’ll wholesale for pennies and still turn a profit.

The haste, disinterest, and cynicism in the products’ manufacture are often reflected in the product. At times the low production standards and cheap molds add a layer of unintentional deformed menace to an expression, or lend an accidental resemblance to some obscure movie monster; other items, the process renders unrecognizable. Thin, plaster skulls crusted with cheap sequins, possibly topped by a bat- or spider-shaped glob…plastic severed limbs, heads, and masks, their spray-on painted details applied out of register…armies of gaudy Grim Reaper figurines, familiar year-round from the windows of the city’s many Santeria botanicas…and occasional malformed, misshapen rejects that appear to have collided with another product somewhere down the assembly line. Most of it dusted with glitter, all of it junk. When you handle one, it leaves paint on your fingers. Throw it away, and bits are left behind.

copyright © 2015 Wyatt Doyle

Purchase Dollar Halloween in limited edition hardcover here.

Happy Birthday, Victoria Doyle!

Visit VictoriaDoyle.com

New Texture and Friends at Comic Fest 2013!

New Texture returns to San Diego Comic Fest - and we're bringing reinforcements!

The day after our Mystery & Imagination event in Glendale, we'll be in San Diego with George Clayton Johnson et cie for San Diego Comic Fest 2013.

Wyatt Doyle is back to premiere our latest release of vintage pulp fiction, He-Men, Bag Men & Nymphos by Walter Kaylin.

Andrew Biscontini points the covered wagon west from NYC to make his first Comic Fest appearance and beat the drum for his visionary novel nu luna.

They're joined by novelist and musician Henry Baum (Oscar Caliber Gun, The American Book of Dead series) and writer Kate Danley (The Woodcutter, Maggie For Hire).

We had a blast last year, and 2013 promises to be even better. Check out Comic Fest's website for full details of the event.

Join us in San Diego!