Broken Frontier

Although it's been over 40 years since the deaths of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, the unanswered questions and murky conclusions have fascinated audiences in books, films, lectures, and now comics.  Desperado Publishing, through Image Comics, will release the conspiracy laden graphic novel, The Red Diaries, from writer Gary Reed and artists Christopher Jones and Laurence Campbell.

The graphic novel reprints the four 48 page issues originally from Caliber Comics in 1997 and will be presented in black and white with a page count of 176 pages and cover price of $16.95.  In addition to the comic story, there are pages of text material giving background and relevant information on the events of both Marilyn Monroe’s death and the assassination of Kennedy.

It was a conspiracy of secrets, a conspiracy of murder, as events swirled around Monroe, JFK, Castro, the mob, the CIA, and other political figures.  A group of investigators are pulled in to the mystery as the revelations of a set of diaries are set to blow the whole secret wide open.  Failing to comprehend how the diaries could impact the world of today, the investigators are pulled deeper into the decades old conspiracy and find themselves in an abyss of subversive cover-ups.

“The story is structured around the actual red diary that Marilyn Monroe always kept by her side,” says creator and writer, Gary Reed.  “But when her dead body was found, the diary was missing.  It was said to have contained all of her thoughts and revelations regarding her presumed affairs with the President and the Attorney General of the United States.”  Reed explained that in the Red Diaries story, a hit man who takes on the name of Carlos, retrieved the diary and because of his unrequited love for Marilyn, continued the diary over the next few decades and leads into the assassination and the consequential cover-up of the death of the President.  “The mystery isn’t just about that day in Dallas but the impact it had and still has in current day,” said Reed.

Reed has quite a bit of experience in writing fictional accounts of real events. His Saint Germaine series deals with an immortal man who takes memories of those dying throughout history.  He has also written comics and graphic novels dealing with Cortez conquering the Aztecs, the Zulu Wars in South Africa, and about the Plague ravaging the population of Europe.

“The Red Diaries is the type of series I want to publish at Desperado,” said Desperado Publishing publisher, Joe Pruett. “It’s a book that can appeal to fans outside of the traditional demographics of comic readers and is the type that can pull in new readers. But most of all, its just a really great story.”

The Red Diaries will be released in May 2006 from Image Comics.