WEEKEND READING: Peter Gillis, Buck Rogers, Teen-Age Sex Club and Howard Nostrand

From our friends the mechanical men to missing comic book creators, a teenage sex club and a takedown of Buck Rogers, there’s lots of great stuff to keep you occupied until Monday morning.
PETER GILLIS: If you still recall your 1980s comic books enough to run a Jeopardy category on the subject, then you probably remember Peter Gillis who wrote for Marvel, DC and First Comics. You might’ve seen his work on Shattered (the first digital comic, with Michael Saenz), Warp, Strikeforce: Morituri (which he co-created with artist Brent Anderson), Micronauts: The New Voyages, Strange Tales, What If…?, The Defenders, The Eternals, Gammarauders and Tailgunner Jo (with Tom Artis). After that long-running stint in comics, he seems to have disappeared. Well, not for long – lots of missing people turn up on the internets and Gillis is no exception. He’s anxious to plunge back into writing and he’s got a website with something to free-read. As he puts it: “I’ve recently completed a fantasy novel, and am hard into the sequel. Since my literary agent had the bad taste to die, I’m seeking representation for it/them. In the meantime, I’ve written a short story set in the world of these novels, and decided in the interest of shameless self-promotion, to put the story up here for free download.”
ROBOTS: These mechanical freaks come in all sizes and shapes and all manner of deadliness. Friend or foe, they will one day rule us all. They’ve already taken over mail sorting, manufacturing and telephones.