They had begun their reading with writers like Poe and Verne and Wells and Doyle and Shakespeare and Robert Louis Stevenson and. It was this older generation I had read and grown up on, and they, like me, had not just read the works of three years back. I'm quite a bit older-but when I was becoming a writer I generally related better to the generation of writers ahead of me than those of my own generation. We both read comics, loved old films-noir, crime, mystery, horror, science fiction, all kinds of low budget trash-and we read or have read a lot of the same authors. When I got to know Norm, this proved true.

Not necessarily meaning he was imitating me, but that both of us had obviously grown up on the same source material. I will flatter myself by saying I saw echoes of my own work in his. It was early work, but I could see where he was going even then. Partridge or Norman, because I know him as Norm, and I admit up front we are friends and perhaps that gives this introduction a certain prejudice. I'm not going to be formal here and refer to him as Mr. There were a few others I wrote introductions for who I thought were original, quirky, enjoyable, and at the same time accessible, outstanding. In some cases, I thought the work was highly original, quirky, maybe not for everyone, but something that should be respected and examined. In a couple of cases the introductions were written not so much because I thought the writer was breaking new ground or writing the best prose ever written, but because they had something that allowed me to enjoy their work and honestly endorse it to others. Sometimes the writers were writers I knew well, and also liked their work. Sometimes these were written for writers I hardly knew, or knew not at all, but I knew and liked their work. By important I mean the fact that I've been honored to write the introduction for Norm Partridge's work.īefore I continue with Norm, however, let me explain about the introductions I've written. Still, I've written a lot of introductions, and that being the case, I give notice here that this is going to be the last intro I write for some time, and I also give notice that I think this one is one of the most important I've written.īy important, I don't mean my introduction. I like a lot of different kinds of writing, both in books and short stories and comics, and I've had a number of writers I've been excited about, and because of this, I was willing to write introductions to their work. I've written several, and though I've never written one that I didn't want to write, I have written enough of them that I fear readers might begin to think that I do them professionally and purely as a favor to the writer I'm addressing. IN SOME WAYS I'm reluctant to write another introduction. THE ELECTRIFIED BOXING HOLLYWOOD COWBOY IN A GORILLA SUIT

Johnny Halloween by Norman Partridge