Last night I headed down to Seattle's great Elliot Bay Book Co. to see my old friend Chelsea Cain read from her latest novel, Evil at Heart, the third book in her NY Times bestselling thriller series from Minotaur (following Heartsick and Sweetheart), featuring serial killer Gretchen Lowell and her nemesis-slash-soulmate, Detective Archie Sheridan. The series has sold a kajillion copies, been featured on HBO's True Blood, and been praised by no less an authority as Stephen King as well as just about everyone else on the planet, so you don't need to take my word for it when I tell you that if you like a good, character-driven thriller, you should really pick these up.
Now that Chelsea's a superstar in the book world, I thought it would be fun/self-serving to point out one of her earliest "literary" efforts, a little-seen entry in the world of underground funnybooks. Back in 1997, Chelsea was one of the first people to proudly take up the challenge of contributing to my then-new anthology for Fantagraphics, Dirty Stories, a fairly self-explanatory collection of transgressive, "smutty" comics that also featured work by Jaime Hernandez, Dylan Horrocks, Reneé French, Peter Bagge, Jessica Abel, Paul Pope, Dave Cooper, and many others. Chelsea collaborated with our mutual pal Jeremy Eaton on a funny little parody of sexual politics, power, and political correctness titled "The Adventures of Whitecop: P.C. Misogynist." The book is long out-of-print (although volumes two and three are still available), but you can read the entire story on Jeremy's blog; it's a hoot. Here's the first page:
All you Cain collectors out there will need to update your checklists and try to find a second-hand copy of this rare gem.
Oh, and since I already pointed out the self-servingness of this post, according to Chelsea at her reading last night, there's a character in Evil at Heart named after me. *Blush!* I can't wait to find out what cruel fate awaits me.