I’ve talked before about my friendship with Jan Strnad - we go way way to the days when Jesus rode a dinosaur, and he was the guy who taught me the secrets to writing comics.

Jan’s cred includes a ton of collaborations with Richard Corben, some of the best of the old underground comix, the occasional work for Marvel and DC (Sword of the Atom), a run on Dark Horse’s Star Wars comics, animation writing (Darkwing Duck), indy comics (Dalgoda) and novels.

I read and enjoyed the heck out of his first novel, Risen, and I’m pleased to report that he’s got a new one coming out this month. Jan’s always been drawn to darker, fantastical material, and The Summer We Lost Alice continues down that path as a supernatural mystery.

Here's what it says at Jan's website:

"After forty-some years of writing comic books and cartoons, I'm finally embarking on the career my college writing instructors always wanted for me, that of a novelist. Jack Matthews and Richard Yates... I'm sorry it took me so long! My latest book is The Summer We Lost Alice, scheduled for release September 14, 2012. It should appear at Amazon and Barnes and Noble at about the same time, with Kobo.com to follow. The Summer We Lost Alice is about the disappearance of a young girl, the devastating effect on her family, and the final resolution of the case twenty-five years later."

There's also an free-reading excerpt from the novel at the site.

And if you’re looking for a double-dose of Strnad this fall, the Ragemoor mini-series that he did with Corben is being collected in a nice hardcover edition from Dark Horse in November.

Here's what Dark Horse says about it: “Ragemoor! A living castle, nurtured on pagan blood, harborer to deadly monsters! A fortress possessed of its own will and ability to change itself, with the power to add and destroy rooms and to grow without the help of any human hand. Its servants aren’t human, its origins are Lovecraftian, and its keeper must fend off the castle walls from the terrible race of worm men!”

Worm Men!

I’m in for both Strnad projects and you should be too.

[Artwork: The Summer We Lost Alice]