GOLEM CLAY FOR PURPLE SCAR #4/A MUMMY MOVIE'S INFLUENCE

With a conscientious company like Airship 27 Productions, projects always reach fruition, despite unforeseen delays. As such, The Purple Scar, Vol 4 has at long last entered its culminating, production phases and will include illustrations by Chuck (The Last Days of Poe) Bordell, with Adam (Ravenwood, Stepson of Mystery, Vol 4) Shaw on the short list to render its cover. 

As readers may recall, The Purple Scar, Vol 4 will include one of my stories. For the most part, it caters to the golem legend, but it also incorporates mummy-movie lore, namely an aspect of Universal Studios' The Mummy's Curse in which Virginia Christine's reincarnated Princess Ananka rises from the boggy clay. I can't unveil how this precise component figures into the tale, so as not to spoil the plot, but trust me, one will recognize its influence once it (ahem) unwraps.

The Purple Scar, aka Dr. Miles Murdock, is a horror-leaning character, so to weave golem and mummy notions into the pulp hero's macabre mythology was an absolute delight, as well as an maneuver that felt so right. 

I'm proud of "Golem Clay" and honored that Airship 27's upcoming anthology will bring my yarn to frightful light. Stay tuned for further details.  

MICHAEL HOUSEL PENS A PURPLE SCAR!!!

Ron Fortier recruited me to pen a "Purple Scar" adventure. My story will appear in Vol IV of Airship 27 Production's ongoing series.

The Purple Scar is a character attributed to John S. Endicott, though some historians claim that the name is just a cover for a number of pulp writers who contributed to the saga in the early '40s for Exciting Detective.

For the record, the Purple Scar is in truth a brilliant plastic surgeon named Miles Murdock. Murdock's brother was murdered, his face blemished by acid and his carcass dumped into the river, only to be discovered days after the grisly fact. To cope and avenge his brother's death, Murdock wears a mask molded from his sibling's deformities. Talk about striking fear into the hearts of evil!!!

I became familiar with the Purple Scar after reading Ron Fortier's crossover novella, "Faces of Fear" (see June '17 review), where the crusader teams with the fabled Black Bat. 

My yarn will pit the Purple Scar against a mythological monster, though there will be a twist to the creature's origin and progression.

I'm honored to be a part of this classic, pulp hero's tapestry and will keep all posted on the volume's inevitable publication.