Fandemonium
Rick Schindler
Book Genre: Adult fiction, fantasy, satire
Publisher: Wattle Publishing
Ray Sirico used to have it all. Once, he was the brilliant and outrageous Clown Prince of Comics, who reinvented the venerable superhero Skylord, and ranted and rollicked everywhere from TV talk shows to Hollywood premieres. But that was in the ’70s and ’80s. Now it’s 1993, and Sirico is a drunken has-been. His wife has left him, his movie flopped, and his comics’ publisher is doing so poorly that its new corporate parent has come up with a radical marketing stunt: the Death of Skylord. Still, Sirico has one last chance to recapture the limelight: Fandemonium, the nation’s biggest fantasy convention. But others are coming to the con too: Harmony Storm, the sex-crazed actress who broke up Ray’s marriage; his former collaborator Tad Carlyle, who now has his own company, and a troubled relationship; Fred D’Auria, a fanboy fleeing adolescent traumas, and corporate conspirators who are plotting to sacrifice Sirico’s greatest creation for motives deeper than even his fevered imagination could conceive. Together, antihero Sirico and his superhero Skylord stand at the crossroads of comics and commerce, where quirky creators, fervent fans, conniving businessmen and preening celebrities converge. Deal-making, drug-dealing, lovemaking and truth-telling all collide at the riotous climax of a fateful weekend that leaves no one unchanged.
Fandemonium uses the colourful world of comics and fantasy as a microcosm and metaphor for media consolidation and the excesses of global mass culture. It is at once a hilarious satire of business and society, a portrait of an artist no longer young, and a sometimes poignant look at a universal challenge: to grow up, face the world, and put away childish things.
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Book title: Fandemonium Author: Rick Schindler
My name’s Fred D’Auria, I’m 12 years old, and all I’ve ever wanted to do is draw comics. That’s why I HAD to go toFandemonium. Not just because it’s the most awesome comic book convention of the year, but also because my favorite artist in the entire universe was going to be there: Tad Carlyle, the guy who drew comics’ greatest superhero, Skylord.
But that wasn’t the only thing going on at Fandemonium. For one thing, the guy who WROTE Skylord, Ray Sirico, was going to be there too, and there were these crazy rumors that Skylord was going to DIE. Weird, right? Skylord, dead? That doesn’t even make sense.
Not only that: All these sci-fi fans were going to Fandemonium too, dressed up like aliens and stuff because Harmony Storm was going to be there – you know, that actress who plays a super robot on TV. I guess she IS pretty hot. But all I cared about was meeting Tad Carlyle, because he was going to help me break into the comics business. Fandemoniumwas going to be the most important weekend of my life.
But nothing went the way it was supposed to. Crazy stuff happened. Along the way I met a lot of people who seemed really weird but turned out to be OK (even a girl!) along with some people who were definitely not OK at all.
But I was right about one thing: Fandemonium DID turn out to be the most important weekend of my life.
And a lot of other people’s lives too.
Rick Schindler is an award-winning journalist and a lifelong comics fan and collector. He is an editor, writer and producer for NBC News Digital. He lives in White Plains, N.Y. Fandemonium is his first novel.
Wattle Publishing
Wattle Publishing is an independent publisher. We publish fiction, non-fiction and poetry. www.wattlepublishing.com
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