'Wonder Woman 1984' Delayed... but There's Also Good News!

We just learned that the new Wonder Woman movie has been pushed back from its June 4th, 2020, release to August 14th. While, on the one hand, this is disappointing to us, on the other hand, it means that there will be many more Wonder Woman Wednesdays, with their galleries of great portraits of everyone's favorite Amazon (and her pals)!

By Frank Cho

By Jose Luis Garcia Lopez

From now, until August, you will find a post full of Wonder Woman art, by great illustrators, right here, every other Wednesday --with the next one appearing on April 1!

We're doing our part to fight climate change!

Here at Shades of Gray, we're devoted to the fight to stop climate change! Here's what we're doing...

1. We don't deal with anything in color, except for the obvious shades of gray, black, and white. This preserves those resources for the Future.

2. We focus on old stuff--some studies state that 99.39% of the material covered here was created before blog owner and operator and writer Steve Miller was even born. If everyone would only focus on old stuff and stop creating anything new, it would preserve those resources for other things... and possibly the Future.

3. We are extracting promises from key figures here at the blog to do their part to stop climate change. Since most of them are dead--and the only impact they have on climate change is that they keep voting for Democrats--we're off to a good start! Even so, some are stepping up and going above and beyond. Grace Bradley, for example, has vowed to ride her bike everywhere. She's even gotten herself a special bike helmet to help her get through the long rainy season here in western Washington State!

What are YOU doing to stop climate change?!

New art collection avaliable from NUELOW!

The eighth collection of art from the archive of NUELOW Games is now available to those among the public who want some cool classic horror comic book art to look at, and bloggers, website owners, and small- and self-publishers looking for neat royalty free artwork that is provided with few limitations to use and re-use. Most images in the set are included in both b/w and color formats, and in 72dpi and 300dpi to make them as easily and as broadly useful as possible.

You can click here to see a preview of the booklet indexing the art in "NUELOW Stock art Collection #8: Killers & Cultists" (under the quick preview link on the page), or you can get your own copy of this great collection. By way of further preview, here is a small sampling of the images included in the set. Click on them to see larger versions.

By Alex Schomburg & Karl M.

By Jack Sparling

By Matt Baker

By Bob Forgione

Click here to see the entire inventory of NUELOW's royalty-free art packs.

The Big Labor Day Weekend Sale!

(This should have been posted to the NUELOW Games blog, but I stuck it here by accident. Well, since most the books are in black and white, it is kinda-sorta fitting for here too. So, support my blog by buying my books from NUELOW Games. And happy Labor Day!)

All NUELOW Games fiction anthologies, comics/rpg hybrid books, core rulebooks, art packs, and selected other products are on sale this Labor Day Weekend for just $0.99! The special prices are good through September 1.

Treat yourself to some fun games and great games and reading material!

Click here to see the full listings!

Line, Please! (Contest Time!)

In July, NUELOW Games released its best-selling comics title so far--Science Sleuths #1.

On August 22, the second issue of Science Sleuths will be released through DriveThruComics, RPGNow, and DriveThruRPG. It contains three more tales featuring the hard-hitting inventor/crime-buster Jill Trent and another adventure starring the original web-slinger, Spider Queen.

NUELOW Games is offering Shades of Gray readers  an opportunity to win not only a free copy of  Science Sleuths #2, but free copies of every issue of Science Sleuths published for the rest of 2013.

To enter the contest, you need to write the best line for the this panel, taken from one of the Jill Trent, Science Sleuth stories:

By Al Camy

Submit your line through a comment below this post, through Twitter  or to nuelow@clearwire.net. The funniest or most interesting line will win the free four-month subscription to Science Sleuths while two runner-ups will win free copies of Science Sleuths #2.

Rules & Such
Contest entries must be submitted by Midnight on August 22, 2013. Winners will be selected by Steve Miller, and all decisions are final. Entrants grant permission for their submissions to appear on blogs operated by Steve Miller, as well as NUELOW Games's Facebook page. Entrants must provide a working email address in order to be notified, and winners will also need to have an account or to establish one with DriveThruComics, RPGNow, or DriveThruRPG in order to receive their winnings. DriveThruComics, RPGNow, and DriveThruRPG not involved with this contest in any way, nor is the mention of them to be construed as an endorsement. The awards have no cash value.

Lights, Camera, and plenty of Black Cat Action!

"Film Fun Comics Vol. 2: The Black Cat vs. Him" is now available for purchase and download at DriveThruComics,com, DriveThruFiction.com, DriveThruRPG.com, and RPGNow.com,  It's a 48 page  book that presents four stories illustrated by the, great Joe Kubert--some of his earliest professional work--and three stories illustrated by the artist most closely associated with the Golden Age Black Cat, Lee Elias.

As a little preview, here's the splash-page from one of the Kubert stories (click on the image for a larger version):

Also, as a special treat, here's a short Linda Turner story NOT included in the book. My partner in NUELOW Games efforts L.L. Hundal felt that three non-superhero Lee Elias two-page stories were plenty, so this one got held for one of our planned follow-up "Film Fun Comics" editions--or just for posting here... time will tell!. Click on the images for larger versions.

If you've enjoyed this blog over the years, I encourage you to get a copy of "The Black Cat vs. HIM!". I edited the book and wrote "Excerpts from the Diary of Linda Turner," which is a fiction piece that adds a little more flesh to the "revised background" for Black Cat that's been implied in previous NUELOW Games products featuring the character. Supporting that book is supporting me and my love for places where "everything is in black and white" and my ability to have the time to put this blog together. (And other books like the "Film Fun Comics" series.)

Your support will be greatly appreciated. If you DO get a copy, please let me know what you think of "Film Fun Comics Vol. 2: The Black Cat vs. HIM!", either here, or in the comments section on the download page!

It's 'Film Fun Comics' from NUELOW Games!

My latest compilation project for NUELOW Games--"Film Fun Comics Vol. 1: Stuntman" -- is now on sale. It features four Golden Age comic book stories by the great team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, in glorious black and white. Here's a splash page from one of the stories (click on the image to enlarge):

In addition to more than 50 pages of Simon & Kirby greatness, this pdf-format e-book contains a "Stuntman" scenario and characters for "ROLF!: The Rollplaying Game of Big Dumb Fighters" and a special preview of what you can expect to see in "Film Fun Comics, Vol. 2: The Black Cat at War."

A question that may cross the minds of fellow fans of Golden Age comics might be why did we choose to present the Simon & Kirby art as grayscale instead of in its original four-color format? We certainly had that option, given that we were working with scans of printed comic books.

There are several reasons for that. The main reason is that the "Film Fun Comics" features Golden Age comics that use Hollywood's Golden Age as a springboard for action and adventure, so I decided to give the comics a look that matches the black-and-white movies the characters were making. Another important reason is that comic book conventions have changed since the 1940s when these stories were originally published; they really read much better to the modern eye if the color is stripped away.

I hope you'll give the book a shot. Click here to read a preview, or to get your own copy. And please let me know what you think of it--your comments may have an impact on future volumes of "Film Fun Comics" and other comic book projects that NUELOW Games has in the works.

It's the Final Battle (#4)!

Every month this year, until the Mayan-predicted End of the World, I am producing a ROLF! Final Battle product for NUELOW Games.

Given that the world has survived yet another month, the fourth one just saw release. The cover for it, by Darrel Miller and Karl M., is on display below. Click here for more information, or to download your very own copy from RPGNow.

No posts on any of my blogs this week.

I am having really bad eye trouble. Hopefully, tomorrow's trip to the doctor will start to make things better.

I hope you'll check in at some point in the future.

'The Devil Bat' flies again... for the first time!

I rarely pass along press releases on this blog, unless I'm plugging one of MY projects, but Peter H. Brothers' "Devil Bat Diary" sounds like so much fun, I want to help get the word out quickly... and I am presently up to my eyeballs in things that need to be done ASAP, so I don't have time to write something nice of my own.

I am going to assume sight-unseen that Brothers' book is a lot of fun. Not only does it springboard off of one of the better movies from PRC that featured one of Bela Lugosi's best performances, but the film's kinda-sorta sequel, "The Devil Bat's Daughter" was so disconnected from the facts as they appeared in the original movie that the space for telling the "true story" of the events in "The Devil Bat" as told by one of the characters in the film.

Without further ado, here's what the publicists have to say about the book. (And if you pick it up, please drop by and let me know what you thought of it; it can be purchased via the Amazon links at the bottom of this post in hard-copy or Kindle ebook formats.)

Inspired by the famous 1940 film, “Devil Bat Diary” (ISBN: 9-781461-070924), tells the “true” story of what “really” happened to the unhappy citizens of Heathville, Illinois, during that terrible prewar summer, as recorded in the long-suppressed journals of Chicago City Register’s principal newspaper correspondent, Jonathan “Johnny” Layton.

The Devil Bats were furry fiends created by a scientific genius who believes himself wrongfully relegated to concocting perfumes and colognes which he despises for wages not worth mentioning. So, as a means to an embittered end, he manufactures an evil ointment with a scent that so infuriates his giant bats to such an extent they feel compelled to tear the throats out of their unsuspecting victims.

“Devil Bat Diary” tells for the first time the full inside story of what took place in ways not possible to show to Production Code audiences back then: such as Chief Wilkins being in love with Layton, or that Mary was a religious lunatic, or that Maxine the French Maid does not was “zee Devil Bat” to be killed and that Layton and his partner “One-Shot” McGuire couldn’t stand the sight of each other!

Written to coincide with the 70th Anniversary of the film’s release and dedicated to the eternal memory of Bela Lugosi, “Devil Bat Diary” is an unforgettably entertaining venture into a world filled with chirping Chiropterans, malicious murders, sacred sex and revolting revelations.

(Peter H. Brothers is also the author of “Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men – The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda.”)

Click here to read my review of "The Devil Bat", and here to read about "The Devil Bat's Daughter".

Introducing 'Pretty Little Maids, All in a Row'

A look at the "popular post" list shows both what people visiting are Googling for, but also what they click through to via the "You might also like feature at the bottom of each entry on the blog.

To serve those of you looking for pictures of and posts about actresses and pretty women in general, I have created an archive blog that's fed by the five most-frequently updated Cinema Steve blogs. Click here to visit Pretty Little Maids, All in a Row.

If you already follow several of my blogs, there won't be a whole lot at Maids you won't already have seen or read, although I will be swapping out many of the stills from the original posts to more closely match the theme of the archive. That will be a process way down the list of priorities.

However, if you do check it out, I hope you enjoy it as much as I know Groucho would.

Film from PRC to be dug up at Carfax Abby

Film writer extra-ordinaire Matthew Coniam will be spending the rest of January at his Carfax Abby blog surveying the horror offerings of Poverty Row movie factory PRC.

Matthew's articles are always worth checking out, but lovers of the classic (and not so classic) films that I've skimmed the surface of here definitely need to check out his writings this month, as he explores George Zucco's performances in all their over-the-top melodramatic glory and faces the horror of dimwitted werewolves and vengeance-seeking perfumiers-turned-animal-trainers.

The event promises to feature George Zucco chewing on scenery like it has rarely been chewed on before, Click here to visit Carfax Abbey for a fresh take on some old movies.