A ghost who only appears under a blazing sun. Vaughan Beadles, Professor of Anthropology at Creighton University, is at the top of his game. Married to the beautiful Betty, with a baby son, Beadles has just taken possession of the largest uncatalogued post-Anasazi Indian collection in the world. Creighton has long maintained the existence of the Azuma, a previously unknown and extremely belligerent southwest Amerindian tribe. When a scorpion crawls out of a bowl and stings Beadles' student, his world turns upside down. The university charges Beadles with theft and the police charge him with homicide. He loses his job, his wife, and his future. Beadles' only chance at redemption is to prove the Azuma existed, setting him on a path that will inexorably lead to a terrifying confrontation in the desert with a creature beyond belief.
Excerpt
Heat lingered in the desert, even at dusk. The VW bus, wedged between two dusty pick-ups outside the Last Chance Bar & Grill in Gap, AZ, was plastered with Grateful Dead stickers, peace symbols, and flowers, a relic from the dawn of rock and roll. The symbols were barely visible through the patina of dust that descended on any vehicle on the plateau. Even vehicles kept in closed garages were covered with dust.
The Last Chance formed the end cap of an exiguous Main Street stretching for two blocks, consisting of a couple two story brick office buildings, a feed store, the Last Chance Bank, Vern's Hardware, Vern's Gas, and directly across the street, Vern's Motel.
It was 1985. At Vern's Gas, it was a buck eleven a gallon.
The Last Chance itself was an adobe structure with viga poles protruding from its brow, a plank porch that ran the length, and a landscape window in which the neon Last Chance light flashed over the small Budweiser. The bar had once been pink but now, like everything else exposed to the Sonoran desert, it was sandy beige. Constant wind whipped through the streets sandblasting everything in its path. It was ninety-eight degrees outside, the only living thing an old dog on the bar's porch, which got up and circled five times before settling down on a filthy blanket. A hand-made Navajo bowl held water.
The only sounds were the wind, the whine of the rooftop air-conditioner, and very faintly, the Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit."
Inside, Curt Mayweather and Ronnie Potts, seniors and roommates at Creighton University in Creighton, IL, sat at the bar. They were stoned to the gills. Each had a sixteen ounce glass of Rattlesnake IPA before them, ten percent alcohol. Curt hunched over the bar, ballpoint pen in hand, sketching in a bristol board pad he carried with him at all times. Ronnie looked at the stuffed rattlesnake and coyote over the bar, the tin signs celebrating defunct motor vehicles, WW II nose art, and shootin', the sawdust-covered plank floor, the dart board, and the patrons themselves, four cowboys in boots, Stetsons, and bonnaroo belt buckles the size of Texas, and thought, how cool is this?
Ronnie was five eleven, second of three children belonging to Marge and Daniel Potts of Evanston. Daniel Potts of Stankle, Murphy and Crowder, Attorneys at Law specializing in corporate litigation. Ronnie was a varsity wrestler at 170, working toward his bachelor's degree in Anthropology. After which he would go straight for the Masters while trying to hitch a ride on every archaeological dig he could find.
Curt bent over his drawing. He majored in psychology but was toying with the idea of changing his major to art. He had always drawn, ever since he was a child. He drew in the margins of his books in grade school. He created little flip books by drawing the same image over and over again--with slight variations--so that when you gathered the pages between thumb and forefinger and let 'em rip, you saw a tiny skeleton dance the hoochie-koochie.
His teachers tried to discourage him at first but by the time he reached Junior High, it had become evident to all, even his parents, that Curt could draw. He was an only child. His father was an accountant for Sheldon Property Management in Evanston, and his mother worked as a librarian. Curt was a round-shouldered hulk with a beer belly and a beard. Unlike the other patrons, the students' faces were as smooth and unblemished as freshly laundered sheets.
The interior winked and gleamed through its gloom--Christmas tree lights surrounding the bar, the neon in the window, and the bubbling Wurlitzer in the corner into which Ronnie had plugged a buck in quarters, a full album's worth. He'd searched among the Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Johnny Paycheck and Merle Haggard that dominated the little rotating selection menus. Nobody so much as looked up when Grace Slick began to wail.
Herders and cowboys, the patrons were taciturn and tolerant and frankly grateful for a change from the usual fare. The bartender was a middle-aged half-Apache with “Muriel” stitched on her blue bowling shirt in red script. Her long grayish hair was tied in a ponytail and she wore a silver and turquoise brooch around her neck. Her skin was the color of brick yet remarkably smooth. Like the regulars, she viewed the two college kids with bemusement. They were so obviously "not from around here" in their cargo-shorts, high-zoot hiking shoes, and backpacks.
Muriel wandered over to where the boys were grooving and looked at Curt's sketch. Even from upside down it was readily apparent as a butte, beautifully rendered in pencil with shading that looked almost real.
"Whatcha drawin' there, hoss?" she said.
Curt reversed the notepad so she could look at it right-side up. "It's this place I keep seeing in my dreams."
A faint shiver trickled down Muriel's spine. She looked up. Damned condensation from the ancient AC. It seemed to her that she'd seen the butte too, but couldn't recall when or where. Maybe in her dreams.
"You ever see this place?" Curt asked.
"Now how would I see that place?" Muriel said. "You couldn't pay me to go out there. I hope you boys ain't goin' out there."
"That's why we're here!" Ronnie gushed. "I mean, I'm an anthropology major and we hear there are all sorts of glyphs out there." He did not mention the other reason, that they had both read Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception and wanted to trip in the desert like Timothy Leary and Cary Grant.
"Huh," Muriel said. "Thought you was here for the eclipse. You know not to look directly at the sun, right?"
One of the regulars eased out of his booth against the front wall and ambled to the bar, slightly bow-legged from years of ranch work. He had a face like a sharpei and a white handlebar mustache. He set a glass tumbler on the counter.
"Muriel, my love, if you don't mind."
Muriel emptied the glass, scooped in more ice, and added two inches of Old Buffalo Fine Distilled Spirits. "Here you go, Pete."
Pete gazed over Curt's shoulder at the drawing, which had returned to its original position. "Seems I seen something like that once."
Curt looked up. "Where?"
The old cowboy nodded his head to the east. "Out there. Back when I was young, dumb and fulla come and we used to ride dune buggies out there. Nothin' out there but sand, rattlesnakes and scorpions."
"That's what I'm tellin' 'em, Pete. This here's an anthro-pologist."
Ronnie turned, grinning, his horn-rimmed glasses reflecting the neon lights. "Ronnie Potts, sir. Student at Creighton University."
Pete took the kid's soft hand in his rough one and shook it. "Anthropology, huh? When I was a boy we studied ranching, business, and water management."
"Understanding ancient cultures is the key to understanding ourselves," Ronnie said.
"Ain't that the truth. Well you can call me Pete. You goin' out there?"
"We're prepared," Ronnie said. "We've camped before."
"Ahuh. Take plenty of water. I mean plenty. Take twice as much as you're thinkin' of takin'. Got any guns?"
Ronnie's grin went wide-screen. "No, of course not. We're students."
"Of course not," Pete said. He hefted his glass. "Good luck to ya, son."
Professional Reviews
http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/01/review-skorpio-mike-baron/
If you aren’t familiar with him, Mike Baron is the guy responsible for what I personally hold to be the greatest comic book of all time: The Badger. He also is responsible for my favorite take on the Punisher. And you may have heard of this award-winning comic he did called Nexus. In any event, Mr. Baron is a well-known comic book writer, who has now joined the ranks of novelists around the world.
My first read of Mr. Baron’s literary work was one of his latest: Skorpio. It has a suitably interesting cover, with some kind of cadaverous monster walking away from what looks to be one of those desert Devil’s Tower-looking things.
The blurb offers this as a tease of what the book is about:
A ghost who only appears under a blazing sun.Vaughan Beadles, Professor of Anthropology at Creighton University, is at the top of his game. Married to the beautiful Betty, with a baby son, Beadles has just taken possession of the largest uncatalogued post-Anasazi Indian collection in the world. Creighton has long maintained the existence of the Azuma, a previously unknown and extremely belligerent southwest Amerindian tribe. When a scorpion crawls out of a bowl and stings Beadles’ student, his world turns upside down. The university charges Beadles with theft and the police charge him with homicide. He loses his job, his wife, and his future. Beadles’ only chance at redemption is to prove the Azuma existed, setting him on a path that will inexorably lead to a terrifying confrontation in the desert with a creature beyond belief.
While The Badger is a supernatural, kungfu satire that left me flipping pages as fast as I could, despite often wonderful art, Skorpio progresses at an entirely different speed.
First off, there’s darned little humor. Which is okay, but I was more than a little bummed not to have any belly-aching laughs as I read this. Mike Baron is a funny guy. Even on Facebook.
Secondly, the book reads like a Quentin Tarantino film, taking place in a seedy underbelly of crime setting, with hookers, drugs, sex and a few glimpses of violence that are horrifying and not fun at all.
Third, there’s a whole lots of drama and tragedy. I hate drama and tragedy. I mean, I still get mad about the ending of Terminator 2.
Skorpio is not the Badger. And it’s not the Punisher (although I’d definitely be interested to see Tarantino direct a Punisher movie).
It is a darn good book though. Baron paints vivid scenes with his narrative. I wanted to pop in Nightwing (1979) or Pale Rider (1985) or something so I could compare the desert in the movies to the one the book so clearly painted in my mind’s eye.
It’s also a gripping story. It’s not fast-paced, pulp-styled ass whoopery, but it does keep you reading, as Baron strings you along, making you want to see what is going to happen to these people. Will they find the treasure or not? Will Beadles and his wife work things out? Will the Native American Hooker with the heart of gold and a link to the supernatural escape her abusive boyfriend? Yes, stuff I normally could care less about was interesting this go-round. I couldn’t stop reading. In fact, I often lost track of time reading Skorpio–and that’s always a good sign in a book.
Would I read Skorpio again? Probably not–I like explosions, car chases and fast, fast prose with lots of humor. But this is a good book and I do plan to read the sequel. I suppose a little bit of drama, done right, is okay once in awhile.
If you’re at all a fan of shows like The Walking Dead, where the story is about the people, and not the situation, I highly recommend Skorpio. If you’re more of an action person, I’d suggest something like Doc Savage or an Indiana Jones novel.
Four Treasure-digging Shovels up.
Share this:
If you aren’t familiar with him, Mike Baron is the guy responsible for what I personally hold to be the greatest comic book of all time: The Badger. He also is responsible for my favorite take on the Punisher. And you may have heard of this award-winning comic he did called Nexus. In any event, Mr. Baron is a well-known comic book writer, who has now joined the ranks of novelists around the world.
My first read of Mr. Baron’s literary work was one of his latest: Skorpio. It has a suitably interesting cover, with some kind of cadaverous monster walking away from what looks to be one of those desert Devil’s Tower-looking things.
The blurb offers this as a tease of what the book is about:
A ghost who only appears under a blazing sun.Vaughan Beadles, Professor of Anthropology at Creighton University, is at the top of his game. Married to the beautiful Betty, with a baby son, Beadles has just taken possession of the largest uncatalogued post-Anasazi Indian collection in the world. Creighton has long maintained the existence of the Azuma, a previously unknown and extremely belligerent southwest Amerindian tribe. When a scorpion crawls out of a bowl and stings Beadles’ student, his world turns upside down. The university charges Beadles with theft and the police charge him with homicide. He loses his job, his wife, and his future. Beadles’ only chance at redemption is to prove the Azuma existed, setting him on a path that will inexorably lead to a terrifying confrontation in the desert with a creature beyond belief.
While The Badger is a supernatural, kungfu satire that left me flipping pages as fast as I could, despite often wonderful art, Skorpio progresses at an entirely different speed.
First off, there’s darned little humor. Which is okay, but I was more than a little bummed not to have any belly-aching laughs as I read this. Mike Baron is a funny guy. Even on Facebook.
Secondly, the book reads like a Quentin Tarantino film, taking place in a seedy underbelly of crime setting, with hookers, drugs, sex and a few glimpses of violence that are horrifying and not fun at all.
Third, there’s a whole lots of drama and tragedy. I hate drama and tragedy. I mean, I still get mad about the ending of Terminator 2.
Skorpio is not the Badger. And it’s not the Punisher (although I’d definitely be interested to see Tarantino direct a Punisher movie).
It is a darn good book though. Baron paints vivid scenes with his narrative. I wanted to pop in Nightwing (1979) or Pale Rider (1985) or something so I could compare the desert in the movies to the one the book so clearly painted in my mind’s eye.
It’s also a gripping story. It’s not fast-paced, pulp-styled ass whoopery, but it does keep you reading, as Baron strings you along, making you want to see what is going to happen to these people. Will they find the treasure or not? Will Beadles and his wife work things out? Will the Native American Hooker with the heart of gold and a link to the supernatural escape her abusive boyfriend? Yes, stuff I normally could care less about was interesting this go-round. I couldn’t stop reading. In fact, I often lost track of time reading Skorpio–and that’s always a good sign in a book.
Would I read Skorpio again? Probably not–I like explosions, car chases and fast, fast prose with lots of humor. But this is a good book and I do plan to read the sequel. I suppose a little bit of drama, done right, is okay once in awhile.
If you’re at all a fan of shows like The Walking Dead, where the story is about the people, and not the situation, I highly recommend Skorpio. If you’re more of an action person, I’d suggest something like Doc Savage or an Indiana Jones novel.
Four Treasure-digging Shovels up.
Share this:
If you aren’t familiar with him, Mike Baron is the guy responsible for what I personally hold to be the greatest comic book of all time: The Badger. He also is responsible for my favorite take on the Punisher. And you may have heard of this award-winning comic he did called Nexus. In any event, Mr. Baron is a well-known comic book writer, who has now joined the ranks of novelists around the world.
My first read of Mr. Baron’s literary work was one of his latest: Skorpio. It has a suitably interesting cover, with some kind of cadaverous monster walking away from what looks to be one of those desert Devil’s Tower-looking things.
The blurb offers this as a tease of what the book is about:
A ghost who only appears under a blazing sun.Vaughan Beadles, Professor of Anthropology at Creighton University, is at the top of his game. Married to the beautiful Betty, with a baby son, Beadles has just taken possession of the largest uncatalogued post-Anasazi Indian collection in the world. Creighton has long maintained the existence of the Azuma, a previously unknown and extremely belligerent southwest Amerindian tribe. When a scorpion crawls out of a bowl and stings Beadles’ student, his world turns upside down. The university charges Beadles with theft and the police charge him with homicide. He loses his job, his wife, and his future. Beadles’ only chance at redemption is to prove the Azuma existed, setting him on a path that will inexorably lead to a terrifying confrontation in the desert with a creature beyond belief.
While The Badger is a supernatural, kungfu satire that left me flipping pages as fast as I could, despite often wonderful art, Skorpio progresses at an entirely different speed.
First off, there’s darned little humor. Which is okay, but I was more than a little bummed not to have any belly-aching laughs as I read this. Mike Baron is a funny guy. Even on Facebook.
Secondly, the book reads like a Quentin Tarantino film, taking place in a seedy underbelly of crime setting, with hookers, drugs, sex and a few glimpses of violence that are horrifying and not fun at all.
Third, there’s a whole lots of drama and tragedy. I hate drama and tragedy. I mean, I still get mad about the ending of Terminator 2.
Skorpio is not the Badger. And it’s not the Punisher (although I’d definitely be interested to see Tarantino direct a Punisher movie).
It is a darn good book though. Baron paints vivid scenes with his narrative. I wanted to pop in Nightwing (1979) or Pale Rider (1985) or something so I could compare the desert in the movies to the one the book so clearly painted in my mind’s eye.
It’s also a gripping story. It’s not fast-paced, pulp-styled ass whoopery, but it does keep you reading, as Baron strings you along, making you want to see what is going to happen to these people. Will they find the treasure or not? Will Beadles and his wife work things out? Will the Native American Hooker with the heart of gold and a link to the supernatural escape her abusive boyfriend? Yes, stuff I normally could care less about was interesting this go-round. I couldn’t stop reading. In fact, I often lost track of time reading Skorpio–and that’s always a good sign in a book.
Would I read Skorpio again? Probably not–I like explosions, car chases and fast, fast prose with lots of humor. But this is a good book and I do plan to read the sequel. I suppose a little bit of drama, done right, is okay once in awhile.
If you’re at all a fan of shows like The Walking Dead, where the story is about the people, and not the situation, I highly recommend Skorpio. If you’re more of an action person, I’d suggest something like Doc Savage or an Indiana Jones novel.
Four Treasure-digging Shovels up.
Share this:
If you aren’t familiar with him, Mike Baron is the guy responsible for what I personally hold to be the greatest comic book of all time: The Badger. He also is responsible for my favorite take on the Punisher. And you may have heard of this award-winning comic he did called Nexus. In any event, Mr. Baron is a well-known comic book writer, who has now joined the ranks of novelists around the world.
My first read of Mr. Baron’s literary work was one of his latest: Skorpio. It has a suitably interesting cover, with some kind of cadaverous monster walking away from what looks to be one of those desert Devil’s Tower-looking things.
The blurb offers this as a tease of what the book is about:
A ghost who only appears under a blazing sun.Vaughan Beadles, Professor of Anthropology at Creighton University, is at the top of his game. Married to the beautiful Betty, with a baby son, Beadles has just taken possession of the largest uncatalogued post-Anasazi Indian collection in the world. Creighton has long maintained the existence of the Azuma, a previously unknown and extremely belligerent southwest Amerindian tribe. When a scorpion crawls out of a bowl and stings Beadles’ student, his world turns upside down. The university charges Beadles with theft and the police charge him with homicide. He loses his job, his wife, and his future. Beadles’ only chance at redemption is to prove the Azuma existed, setting him on a path that will inexorably lead to a terrifying confrontation in the desert with a creature beyond belief.
While The Badger is a supernatural, kungfu satire that left me flipping pages as fast as I could, despite often wonderful art, Skorpio progresses at an entirely different speed.
First off, there’s darned little humor. Which is okay, but I was more than a little bummed not to have any belly-aching laughs as I read this. Mike Baron is a funny guy. Even on Facebook.
Secondly, the book reads like a Quentin Tarantino film, taking place in a seedy underbelly of crime setting, with hookers, drugs, sex and a few glimpses of violence that are horrifying and not fun at all.
Third, there’s a whole lots of drama and tragedy. I hate drama and tragedy. I mean, I still get mad about the ending of Terminator 2.
Skorpio is not the Badger. And it’s not the Punisher (although I’d definitely be interested to see Tarantino direct a Punisher movie).
It is a darn good book though. Baron paints vivid scenes with his narrative. I wanted to pop in Nightwing (1979) or Pale Rider (1985) or something so I could compare the desert in the movies to the one the book so clearly painted in my mind’s eye.
It’s also a gripping story. It’s not fast-paced, pulp-styled ass whoopery, but it does keep you reading, as Baron strings you along, making you want to see what is going to happen to these people. Will they find the treasure or not? Will Beadles and his wife work things out? Will the Native American Hooker with the heart of gold and a link to the supernatural escape her abusive boyfriend? Yes, stuff I normally could care less about was interesting this go-round. I couldn’t stop reading. In fact, I often lost track of time reading Skorpio–and that’s always a good sign in a book.
Would I read Skorpio again? Probably not–I like explosions, car chases and fast, fast prose with lots of humor. But this is a good book and I do plan to read the sequel. I suppose a little bit of drama, done right, is okay once in awhile.
If you’re at all a fan of shows like The Walking Dead, where the story is about the people, and not the situation, I highly recommend Skorpio. If you’re more of an action person, I’d suggest something like Doc Savage or an Indiana Jones novel.
Four Treasure-digging Shovels up.
Amazon review Ralph L. Angelo Jr.
A Review of Skorpio
By Mike Baron
I read the book `Skorpio' by Mike Baron, he of comics fame from such characters as `Nexus' and `The Badger'.
Mike's `Skorpio' is a different type of story from I am used to from him in that it was a horror tale focusing on a terrible, ghostly creature of vengeance in the American Southwest. The book starts off a little slow, but it was still interesting. The main character (Or hero, though he was almost an anti-hero) was a professor named Vaughn Beadles. Who is framed for a theft at the university he worked for and fired as well as disgraced. He loses his family over it, as well as his home, his car-basically everything. There is a girl named 'Summer' whose story is running parallel to Beadles. She is beaten by her drug dealing/drug addict boyfriend. Who is also a failed MMA fighter.
The first 40% of the book is a bit slow, but once you get past that it pops into high gear and a very nicely woven story comes together. I ended up reading the final 60% of the book in a day or so, including the final 20% of it in one sitting. Let's just say it held my attention.
Within this book you will find ghostly monsters as well as other apparitions that walk the American plains. To me though the most horrifying things were the creatures that followed the title characters commands. Let me put it as one of my favorite all time characters would, `I hate snakes!' and you can add Scorpions to that as well.
Just so you understand, it is a horror story, not a heroic tale. Beadles is kind of a fool in a lot of ways, and it seems he understands that as well before the stories end. The end of the conflict is a bit clichéd for my tastes, but all in all I liked it quite a bit. The epilogue chapter tied things up nicely, as well as leaving a new sense of dread and foreboding.
Four and a half out of five stars.
Amazon review Derrick Ferguson
If you’re as well read as I think you are (and you must be…why else are you reading book reviews? You’re looking for something good to read, right?) then you should have some familiarity with the name Mike Baron. Mr. Baron first landed on my radar when I discovered his innovative science fiction comic book “Nexus” which he co-created with Mike Rude. Much like other great comic book pairings like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers or Marv Wolfman and Gene Colon, the two of them made magic together and if you haven’t read “Nexus” yet then you should correct that at your earliest opportunity.
Mr. Baron has also written many other comic book titles but in recent years he’s been working in prose, writing some really compelling novels such as “Helmet Head” which I really enjoyed. That’s a book you really ought to pick up as it reads like the lost novelization of a John Carpenter movie. Yeah, it’s that good.
SKORPIO is almost as good. It’s not a roller coaster ride like “Helmet Head’ which reads like a runaway train going downhill from start to finish. Mr. Baron takes his time setting up the situation and the characters before he gets to the guts of his story but I appreciate a writer who has the confidence to take his time to take us where we need to go so he can most effectively deliver the goods later on and yeah, SKORPIO delivers.
Vaughan Beadles is a Professor of Anthropology at Creighton University in Illinois where he enjoys a near rock star status. He’s too handsome for his own good with a gorgeous wife and beautiful baby boy. Beadles is riding high due to his acquisition of relics belonging to a previously lost Southwestern Indian tribe, the Azuma. But all that comes to a screeching halt when Beadles is framed for stealing some of the artifacts. And if that wasn’t enough, one of his students dies from a scorpion sting that he got when Beadles lets the kid get an unauthorized sneak peek at the artifacts.
His life rapidly falls into ruin. His wife leaves him, he loses his job and all of his money goes toward his legal fees. The only way Beadles can see to salvage his life is to find where the Azuma actually lived and prove his theories to be true. In his quest to find the birthplace, Beadles runs into a truly amazing diverse cast of characters. Some of them you’ll wonder what the hell they’re doing in the book but trust me, part of the enjoyment of reading SKORPIO is seeing just how Mike Baron pulls all of these characters together and makes them integral components of the story.
It takes a while for the title character to show up but when it does it’s worth the wait. Skorpio is a vengeful ghost of hideous power who appears in the sunlight, which is a nice twist as ghosts are usually associated with the nighttime. I also liked Mr. Baron’s choice of protagonist. Vaughan Beadles isn’t exactly squeaky clean in his dealings and he’s a bit of an opportunist, always actively looking for an angle to advance his career and fatten his bank account.
In fact, most of the characters in SKORPIO are a little more on the gray side than you might expect but I enjoyed that as it gave the book an unpredictability I found refreshing. There’s never any way to tell what these characters are going to do or say and for me, that’s always welcome in my fiction.
Mike Baron’s prose is as uncomplicated and straightforward as the word “No.” He doesn’t go in for flowery purple prose. He’s a born storyteller who is concerned with only one thing: telling you a good story. He’s not interested in showing off his vocabulary or trying to impress you with his cleverness in turning a pithy phrase. He just wants you to have a good time and I certainly did have a good time reading SKORPIO.
Pray for the light. Pray that you last that long. The Long Hour Before Light is a classic collection of Horror tales, re-mastered by Champagne Book Group
