Pop Thought Heaps Big Praise on Steve’s October Releases

Wow, I dunno, but Alex Ness over at Pop Thought has been having something of a love affair with Steve lately. Steve’s work, not the man himself. At any rate, in Alex’s recent column he looks at four new releases from Steve and loves them all. Regarding “Monsters on the Prowl”:

“You get a fun story about some tough guys and some smart guys fighting all the odd beasts who threatened New York City in old weird Marvel titles during the fifties and sixties. The dialogue is perfect. The story is fun. The art is ideal. Buy this. Buy this now.”

Regarding “Giant Monster”:

“Tempting as it is to say big monster destroys earth, earth fights back, there is much more to this than that. I’ve waited three years for this story as I am a great fan of Gargantuan sized monsters, and I have to say that it was a good result, worth waiting for and completely different than I’d expected.”

Regarding “Lonely Tombstone”:

“I think that while this is a title that was not in my realm of taste that it was very good, and if Nikki wants to work with Steve or alone, she is worth watching as a writer. This title has all ages appeal as well as appeal to girls in the awkward stage of adolescence of being attached to tombstones and talking to them.”

And finally, regarding “Batman: Gotham County Line” #1:

“I liked this far more than any recent take on the Batguy. Read for what it is, I suggest that that most non typical Batman readers will enthusiastically return to the rest of the issues of this series. I liked it in all its component parts, production, story and art.”

Thanks, Alex. You’re making us blush. GROUP HUG! Wait, no. Be cool. Keep it together. We got a little ahead of ourselves.

The Philadelphia Daily News (subscription required) ran a nice article on Halloween/Horror themed comics that are on stands right now this past Monday and Steve’s books got not one, but two (count ‘em!) mentions. “Marvel Monsters: Monsters on the Prowl” and “Batman: Gotham County Line” both get a mention in the article, with DC’s Dan DiDio heaping big praise on Steve. “[Batman: Gotham County Line] was done specifically with Halloween in mind,” DiDio told the Philadelphia Daily News. “Batman versus zombies done by Steve Niles? Who could ask for anything more? Steve has done such a fine job on it and presented such a creepy story, but within the Batman mythos… It really felt like it could take place in Batman’s world, even though there was all the insanity of zombies and monsters running around him.”

There’s an interesting interview with Steve up at Comic Foundry. It’s not your usual interview with Steve where he talks about a specific comic, but rather it’s an examination of how to write horror. It starts:

How is writing horror different than writing other genres?

That’s an interesting question to answer. On the surface writing horror is the same as writing westerns or romance or a thriller. I think the main thing in any fiction writing is to create characters you believe in and can sympathize with, relate to, or know in some way. In a horror story, the key is to keep people on edge, create an atmosphere where these characters you’ve created are not safe and could possibly die.

Read on.