Like pioneers in Earth’s past, Terry and his wife came to the red planet seeking their fortune. But others came too, ready to prove— There was death above. The Martian Sand Vulture swooped and hissed and twitched its barbed, poisonous tail in the thin air. There was death below. The man lay cradled in the pebbly sand. Red sand that matched the color of his hair and the color of the blood oozing slowly from the hole in his forehead and trickling greasily along the inside of his punctured head-bubble. The air whistled thinly through the corresponding hole in the bubble as the oxygen converter tried vainly to maintain the proper breathing mixture. There was death in the muzzle of the gun dangling nonchalantly from the tall man’s gloved hand. It grinned from his face, etched in the sardonic twist that the purple scar gave to his right cheek. It danced in the emotionless distances of his eyes.

Samuel Wesley's 'Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry and the Essay on Heroic Poetry' is a captivating exploration of the art of poetry and the significance of heroic poetry within the literary landscape of the 18th century. Wesley artfully delves into the complexities of poetic form, language, and rhyme scheme, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of the craft. His work stands out for its insightful commentary on the role of poetry in society and its ability to inspire and provoke thought. Wesley's eloquent prose and profound analysis make this book a valuable resource for scholars and poetry enthusiasts alike. As an accomplished poet and educator, Wesley's perspective on poetry is both enlightening and engaging, shedding light on the nuances of poetic expression and the impact it has on both individuals and society as a whole. I highly recommend 'Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry and the Essay on Heroic Poetry' to readers interested in delving deeper into the art of poetry and its cultural significance.

Written from a Christian perspective, this volume delves into what the Bible says about grief and what friends of survivors can do to effectively minister to those grieving.

This is the first in a two-volume retrospective―collecting full comics stories, unpublished art, ads, etc.―and biography of the famous Mad cartoonist. This is the first of two volumes reprinting copious amounts of comics stories and recounting the career of cartoonist Basil Wolverton. Based on his correspondence and journals, the biographical portion of the books follow Wolverton from childhood to adult day-to-day life as freelance cartoonist, itinerant handyman, persistent contest enterer, and local pastor of the Radio Church of God. Wolverton lived and worked in the Pacific Northwest, unique among the first generation of comic book pioneers. In the precious period before the industry calcified into a commercial institution, Wolverton was free to work under the radar to explore in detail his weird tales of the future. The book collects all of Wolverton’s non-humorous comic stories and a substantial selection of his humorous comics, alongside dozens of pages of unpublished artwork, unsold features, and never-before-seen correspondence, including rejection letters!

Montese Crandall is a downtrodden writer whose rare collection of baseball cards won't sustain him, financially or emotionally, through the grave illness of his wife. Luckily, he swindles himself a job churning out a novelization of the 2025 remake of a 1963 horror classic, The Crawling Hand. Crandall tells therein of the United States, in a bid to regain global eminence, launching at last its doomed manned mission to the desolation of Mars. Three space pods with nine Americans on board travel three months, expecting to spend three years as the planet's first colonists. When a secret mission to retrieve a flesh-eating bacterium for use in bio-warfare is uncovered, mayhem ensues. Only a lonely human arm (missing its middle finger) returns to earth, crash-landing in the vast Sonoran Desert of Arizona. The arm may hold the secret to reanimation or it may simply be an infectious killing machine. In the ensuing days, it crawls through the heartbroken wasteland of a civilization at its breaking point, economically and culturally -- a dystopia of lowlife, emigration from America, and laughable lifestyle alternatives. The Four Fingers of Death is a stunningly inventive, sometimes hilarious, monumental novel. It will delight admirers of comic masterpieces like Slaughterhouse-Five, The Crying of Lot 49, and Catch-22.