Copperhead Connections (no spoilers)

Smart, here. Connect me with Copperhead, please. 

Those of you who follow my humbler'n humble writing career--yes, both of you--are aware that I've been writing (and occasionally selling) new short stories. Two of the stories that I sold to AHOY Comics share a specific connection; the second wasn't a sequel to the first, nor is reading one essential to digging the other. Now that I've added a third (as yet unsold) story within that same connected thread, I want to explain it a little bit. No spoilers.



"The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid" was my attempt to write a Western, and it was intended as a stand-alone adventure. An editor at AHOY expressed enthusiasm for the story, and that welcome shot of praise prompted me to think of how I could follow it. I didn't want to write another Western just yet, so instead I conjured an idea of picking up a separate story several decades later, but in the same world where the events of "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid" occurred.



That process resulted in "The Copperhead Strikes!," a pulp hero story set in 1939, intended as a tribute to characters like The Shadow and The Green Hornet, and incorporating a fight scene I wrote a couple of years ago for a Batman story. "The Copperhead Strikes!" contains a general reference to some characters from "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid," though none of them actually appear in the later tale. And, with an eye toward further milking the connection, a character I introduce in "The Copperhead Strikes!" was always intended to reappear in a future story.



That character does indeed return in the 1965-set secret agent yarn "The Copperhead Affair." Beyond that return, "The Copperhead Affair" otherwise contains only one vague reference to either of the previous stories, and it's an obscure Easter egg reference that most would miss. But the story also refers to a new character, mentioned but neither seen nor named, whom we may get to meet if I decide to do another Copperhead story. 

And I have an idea about that. Stay tuned.


TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

(And you can still get our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, on CD from Kool Kat Musik and as a download from Futureman Records.)

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).