Finalmente!

Ladies and gentlemen, the Bava Book is FINISHED.

This little box I'm holding contains 32 years of my life and 65 years of Mario Bava's. Coming your way from Video WatcHDog this summer.

Donna's been averaging three hours' of sleep per night this week in order to get this book done by the weekend. She finished the book's interior last Tuesday or Wednesday, Thursday she put the final touches on the dustjacket, and then she pulled an all-nighter Thursday to ensure that everything could be in the mail to our Hong Kong printer by the end of the day on Friday. Most of Friday was spent by a very tired lady dividing the book into more than 90 high-res files on four DVD-ROM discs. This task occupied her till after 6:00, too late to have the package picked up at our doorstep, but fortunately the Kinko's nearest our home accepts FedEx drop-offs until 7:00pm -- so we hopped in the car and rushed across town. We got there just in time for Donna to press the package into the FedEx driver's hands as he was about to walk out of the store.

So this is the fabled day we've been working toward for the past... oh, let's not dwell on all that. The book is now done and on its way to Hong Kong. Mission finally accomplished!

Now there's a happy lady.

I made the formal announcement of the book's completion last night while guesting on FANGORIA Radio with Dee Snider, Debbie Rochon and Tony Timpone (three terrific people who made me feel very comfortable on the air). I know that some of you heard my segment because we're already getting some "next wave" letters -- the ones asking "So when's it coming out?"

On the book's indicia page, we've listed a likely release date of July 2007. But of course some books make it out before their release date, and it's possible that we'll have books in hand before then. At this point, we have to hear a release date from our printer. The book -- 1128 pages, full color, 12 pounds per copy -- has to be printed and bound and packaged for shipment to us. As I understand it, the books will then be shipped to the west coast and driven cross-country to us. So they could reach us in June, but it could be later, and considering how arduous the shipping process is bound to be from our end, we don't want to promise anything before July.

So how do we feel after all this? Well, as I type these words, Donna is sleeping the sleep of the justified. As for me, I'm still in shock, I suppose; it will probably take a celebration to make this event real, so hopefully we can figure out something to do this weekend to mark the occasion.

Because Monday, we start working on VIDEO WATCHDOG #130.

FANGORIA Radio, Here I Come

I'm going to be one of the featured guests on tomorrow night's installment of FANGORIA Radio, hosted by Dee Snider and Debbie Rochon. Nobody's told me who the other guests are, and their website doesn't have any information about this week's show either, but I at least know that I've been scheduled.

For those of you who haven't heard FANGORIA Radio, it airs every Friday night from 10:00pm to 1:00am on Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 102. If you're not already a Sirius subscriber, I believe you can get a free three-day trial run online. Sign up now and get it just in time to hear Dee and Debbie interview me about Anchor Bay's new Mario Bava box set! I'll probably be asked about the Bava book too, and if so, I just may have an historic announcement to make. (How's that for a teaser?) Anyway, I'm scheduled to be interviewed between 11:00 and 11:20pm, so do pop in and lend an ear.

By the way, it's worth visiting FANGORIA Radio's website, where various excerpts from past interviews are interred. I spent some time last night listening to Dee and Debbie's past talks with Roger Corman, John Waters, and Tom Weaver -- fun stuff.

Take The Circle Test!

This is the newspaper ad that appeared in a New York newspaper on the 1961 opening day of Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY. The choice of co-feature is almost as inspired as the one that would accompany BLACK SABBATH in New York upon its NYC opening in 1964: McHALE'S NAVY! I love this ad because the movie is playing at Brooklyn's RKO Albee, which just happens to be the name of the Cincinnati-based theater where Donna and I met twelve years later.

Print off this page and take the Circle Test found in the bottom left corner of the ad. If the Circle doesn't change color when you breathe on it, check back here in a day or two for what we expect will be some happy news. And if it does changes color... LOOK OUT!

Genius At Work

Here's a photo I took on Saturday evening, March 10th, of Donna at work on the Bava book -- with our cat Elvis in his usual snoozing location. I'm afraid I haven't taken many photographs documenting the process we've been going through these past years -- probably because they'd all look like this one, more or less -- but I'm glad I thought to take this one, and I thought I'd share it with the rest of you. In case you're wondering what's going on with the book... it's this, until I report otherwise.

The front matter of the book is now finished (except for the title page) and the back matter is nearly there. This photo shows Donna finalizing the Bava Discography section, one of the book's appendices.