Pierre V. Comtois
Author
Welcome to the web site of freelance writer Pierre V. Comtois where you’ll find information on my latest projects, books available for sale, and upcoming releases.
The next year will see plenty of exciting developments including my participation in a new EC style comic book series!
But before getting to that, I want you to learn a bit more about me and what I’ve been up to over the years.
Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, I grew up in the 1960s a fan of Marvel Comics, a voracious reader of science fiction and fantasy, a lover of non-fiction and history, a connoisseur of such TV shows as the Outer Limits and anything produced by Irwin Allen, and a dedicated viewer of 1950s era sci-fi movies (especially those films by director Jack Arnold).
It proved to be a toxic mix that soon yielded early attempts at writing my own tales and entertaining the dream of some day becoming a professional storyteller. But with enthusiasm running ahead of experience, that dream ended up being deferred for some time as I was forced to learn the actual craft of writing.
Along the way, my literary interests began to fan out with new discoveries such as Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and John Carter, H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu, and Walter Gibson’s Shadow. Later, the fantasies of William Morris, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord Dunsany, E.R. Eddison, William Hope Hodgson, Robert W. Chambers, Clark Ashton Smith, Mervyn Peake, James Branch Cabell, and Katherine Kurtz also captured my imagination.
Then came four years at Salem State College where I became an editor of the student newspaper and eventually received a BA in English and Communications. From there, it was the dull routine of a local reporter’s life punctuated here and there with continued efforts at fiction writing.
Unfortunately, by the early 1980s the market for short stories had almost completely dried up and I was forced to the conclusion that if my stories were to see print, I’d have to publish them myself. Thus, Fungi, “the Literary Magazine of Fantasy and the Supernatural” was born. I published Fungi with the help of friends (some of whose art can be seen elsewhere on this site) off and on for over two decades (along with companion ‘zine The Cthulhu Codex) which indirectly offered me entrée into the larger world of small press publishing.
With my discovery of the small press, I began to submit selections from my backlog of short stories and slowly began to have them published. Small press magazines with such titles as Crypt of Cthulhu, Haunts, Nocturne, Vortex, Astro Adventures, and The Horror Show were regular venues and my name slowly became infamous in the fan community. My notoriety was such that I began to receive offers to write stories specifically for anthologies resulting in celebrated appearances in such collections as The Ithaqua Cycle, The Cthulhu Cycle, Tales Out of Innsmouth, and Anton Zarnak: Supernatural Sleuth. Finally came the crowning achievement for any fantasy writer, inclusion in a book released by fantasy publisher Arkham House; in my case it was a tome celebrating the life and career of writer E. Hoffman Price called The Book of the Dead.
Thus emboldened, I decided to branch out to paying gigs by indulging in my other interest: non-fiction. Successful from the very start with an article sold to Military History Magazine, I was soon cranking out full length features for such publications as World War II Magazine, Wild West, and America’s Civil War.
When I had a few minutes to spare between short stories and articles, I began to dash off other articles to various comic book magazines as well including Comic Book Marketplace, Comics Source, and The Jack Kirby Collector. It was the article I wrote for CBA though, that eventually evolved into my book on Marvel Comics in the silver age entitled Marvel Comics in the 1960s: An Issue by Issue Field Guide to a Pop Culture Phenomenon, which was released in July, 2009.
That book, however, was preceded by The Way the Future Was: An Anthology of Science Fiction Fables released in October, 2008 and Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor: Capsule Portraits of Figures from the American Revolution released in March, 2009.
Later in the spring of 2009 came the release of my novel Strange Company: An untold Story of the American Revolution as well as a young adult novel entitled Sometimes A Warm Rain Falls.
Still to come will be the first issue of a comic book series tentatively titled Space 1958; an anthology of science fiction tales in the manner of the old EC Comics of the 1950s. These tales will be written primarily by myself and illustrated by talented artist Dan Morton.
Finally, later this year, a collection of my best horror and weird stories entitled Autumnal Tales will also be released.
For more information on each of these projects, please click the appropriate link elsewhere on this page. And don’t be shy about letting me know what you think by using comment links provided.
So the upcoming year is expected to be an exciting one for me and one I hope you’ll decide to share through any of the different access points my career offers to the interested reader: history, science fiction, horror, fantasy, mystery, or comics.
Check Out Available and Upcoming Books by Pierre Comtois!
