Art Briefs

‘Good Things’ coming to Stage West Good Things, a play by Liz Lochhead, will be presented by Stage West from Oct. 29 through Nov. 29. Directed by Jim Covault and featuring Stephanie Dunnam and John S. Davies, the play will also include actors Amber Nicole Guest and Art Peden. Previews will be in the evenings of Oct. 29 and Oct. 30 and tickets will be discounted. During the normal running of the play, ticket prices will range from $26 to $30, and performance times will be Thursday evenings at 7:30, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8, and Sunday matinees at 3. Pay-what-you-can performances will be Nov. 1 and Nov. 5. For more information about the play, schedules and to find ticket information for the performances and reservation information for food service, visit www.StageWest.org. —Elizabeth Bassett ‘Carnival of Souls’ graphic novel set for library display A new edition of the classic graphic novel, Carnival of Souls, will celebrate its publication with an exhibition of original artwork from the book’s 1991 edition. The Carnival exhibition will open at 6 p.m. Oct. 29 with a reception at the Fort Worth Central Library Gallery, 500 W. 3rd, in downtown Fort Worth. At 6:30 p.m., Michael H. Price, current Fort Worth Business Press columnist, a longtime area journalist and well-known cartoonist, will introduce an admission-free screening of Herk Harvey’s film in the adjoining Tandy Lecture Hall. The exhibition, featuring approximately 40 pen-and-ink comic-book drawings from the original edition in addition to selected additional graphic-story pages, will remain on view through Nov. 28. Based upon a celebrated 1962 film by independent director Herk Harvey, Carnival of Souls has been out of print. The new edition will be published shortly by Midnight Marquee Press of Baltimore — expanded significantly from the initial version to include an expanded comics version of Carnival of Souls in addition to several short comics stories and a complete reprinting of another graphic novel, Oswald’s Confession, by Jim Marrs and Price. The 270-page trade-paperback anthology will retail for $25. Price’s art-and-music studio, Cremo Studios, an affiliate of the Web-publishing and market-consultation firm of MedDogs LLC, produced the new version. The combined art and script are primarily the work of Price, with the participation of cartoonist Todd Camp as contributing pencil artist and inker. The Carnival of Souls graphic novel was originally published in 1991 by Malibu Graphics. Carnival of Souls relates the story of an alienated young woman who appears to have survived a drag-racing accident — only to find herself trapped in a phantom-like state and pursued by a ghostly stalker. The film, shot on a shoestring budget, gained fame for its moody atmosphere and sense of menace. The new edition of Carnival of Souls marks the start of a new line of graphic-novel publications from a coalition of Price’s Cremo Studios and Midnight Marquee Press. Midnight Marquee Press also is the publisher of an anthology of crime-and-horror stories by Price and Mark Evan Walker, What You See May Shock You! www.fortworthgov.org/Library/ Shook receives laureate award Fort Worth resident Don Shook, 69, received the 2009 Texas Senior Poet Laureate Award at the 17th annual national Senior Poets Laureate Poetry Competition, focused on American poets 50 years old or older. Shook, who produces videos, films and live entertainment, won the award for his poem “This Too Shall Pass.” Three other Texas poets were recognized for their poems. Bertha Johnson of Sweetwater, Yvonne Nunn of Hermleigh, and Dr. Charles Stone of Austin received Honor Scroll Awards for winning in the first round of judging. The competition was sponsored by Amy Kitchener’s Angels Without Wings Foundation of Monterey, Calif. Wyoming resident Patricia Frolander won the National Senior Poet Laureate Award for her poem “Father when You call.” —Elizabeth Bassett