The Battered Golden Bell

One of the unique things about Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell is that right out of the wrapping it looks like an old pulp magazine that's been around for seventy years.

No, PulpWork Press isn't pulling a switcheroo and sending you an old beat up copy they've passed around the offices, lent to their friends, and that they in turn lent to their friends. Cover artist Tamas Jakab (artist for El Gorgo the greatest comic book about a wrestling rock-star gorilla that ever was) purposely simulated the cover of a beat up pulp magazine. Look close and you can see the cracks, wrinkles and stress lines. You can even see the texture of the canvas upon which the cover art was painting. (These canvas textures come out more clearly in the printed copy of the book. They might be difficult to see in the low-resolution digital image on your computer).

Now, I don't know if Tamas Jakab actually painted the cover on canvas or if he used some nifty Photoshop texturizer filter to create the effect, but while I was toting Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell around, so I could read it whenever I had a spare moment, I had a number of people comment on the "old book" I was carrying.

So enough about the cover. We all know that we can't judge a book by one, right? What about the contents of the book? Well, I like to describe it as "James Bond meets Cthulhu" and Pulpworks liked my quote so much they used it on the back cover.

I asked Derrick Ferguson a few questions about Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell and I'll post his responses later this week. In the meantime, consider picking up a copy at Amazon.com, order a copy at your local book seller, and/or check out the press release at Derrick Ferguson's own blog.