Terror TV Signs Acclaimed Anthology SHADOW SHOW: An Interview With Mort Castle

While he is most famously known for his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, American author Ray Bradbury has been at the root of inspiration for many writers. Over the years hundreds of artists have paid homage to the magic of his of words. And in 2009, Chicago authors Mort Castle and Sam Weller set out to do just that.

After years of collaboration and revisions, Castle and Weller released an anthology called Shadow Show in 2012 (published by Gauntlet Press/Borderlands Press and as a trade paperback by William Morrow). The collection pays tribute to the late Bradbury with numerous short stories inspired by his work. Authors throughout the book include such greats as Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, Joe Hill, and more.

Shadow Show turned out to be a tremendous success; upon all the positive praise, in 2014 Castle and Weller met with IDW Publishing (a major comic book publisher), to adapt the anthology into comic format. Shadow Show continued to receive more praise, catching the eyes and hearts of readers around the world. Now four years later and Shadow Show is preparing for another significant release come 2019; fans of the anthology will be pleased to learn that Shadow Show will be adapted for television via Roku’s Terror TV.

Debuting this past August, Terror TV includes films from the library of Acort International Distribution, a Terror TV distribution partner. The program is working towards creating original content for spring 2019 (with one property being Shadow Show).

For Mort Castle, a writer who lives for his craft, this is a remarkable achievement; but significant artistic achievements aren’t anything new to him. With over 600 published short stories and being a three-time winner of the prestigious Bram Stoker Award, Castle is a professional of the written word.

Castle’s love for writing and storytelling has been with him ever since he was a child. He shares, “[Since I was a child], I remember thinking story. I simply loved story. I was read to regularly, particularly by my mother, and my great-grandfather, who taught himself to read English when he was 60; and [who] frequently shared with me the heavily Eastern European-Yiddish-accented presentation of Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Pay-Tur [sic], the Peter Rabbit story. [In] kindergarten I started making up stories in my head and telling them to anyone I could get to listen.”

He adds how television also played a significant role in his love for storytelling. “Television… Positive influence here. That, ‘Oooh, what happens next?’ feeling that came from television shows [in particular]. (I was one of the first of the TV-addicted generations; we got our set in 1949.) I was hooked on the serial adventures of the daily Howdy Doody Show and the Hopalong Cassidy westerns, and huzzah for Captain Video; the less than stellar fare that made up early TV, but helped shape this storyteller.”

Diving deeper into his art, Castle also speaks to his love for horror and how the genre has always fascinated him. “Dr. F. Paul Wilson, a writer of thrillers, mysteries, science-fiction, and horror, has said he thinks the affinity for horror is hard-wired. It’s DNA.”

As a child, a school experience involving a famous horror short story would further establish his intrigue in the macabre. “I became really aware of my horror chip in third grade when I discovered Edgar Allan Poe; the [first] story [of his I heard] was ‘The Tell-Tale Heart,’ which is pretty grim stuff. Murder without rational reason. Dismemberment. Madness. Obsession. And conscience which must disguise itself. My teacher, Mrs. Curlin, brought in a long-playing phonograph record, and we eight-year-olds sat and listened and were horrified. But I was enthralled and not traumatized because horror pushed the right buttons for me. It scared [me] so good! I liked it.”

He adds, “Like I said, I always loved stories, and thus I was always drawn to the horrific, the terrifying, the dark, and the scary, and I’ve learned that most horror writers say the same. All kids have nightmares (just like adults). I was one of those kids who had and ’em and liked ‘em.

Among his many inspirations, Bradbury was one of the biggest. As another discovery from his childhood, Castle reflects on the first time he read a Bradbury story. “I was 13 [and a] high school freshman. […] And then [I found] a book from the library [and had] discovered Bradbury; [it was his] short novel, Something Wicked This Way Comes. And there’s a section in it I kept reading aloud, ‘The woman in the ice’; [those] passages, such elegant, elevated language and so magical … And I‘m saying, ‘Damn, that’s poetry. Damn, that’s literature. That talks to me.”

Expressing Bradbury’s inspiration and influence, he shares, “Bradbury, for me, stood at the door of LiteratureLand [sic] and beckoned, ‘Come here, and we’ll think and laugh and cry and go to Mars in a backyard rocket, and really go trick or treating and … There are wonders within.’ [And] there were.”

The Shadow Show TV adaptation was as a fun surprise to him; in further detail, Castle shares the story of how the adaptation came together.

“I get a call from Dave Moll, a former student of the days when I taught English at Crete-Monee High School. Dave’s been in about 9,000 aspects of showbiz, and the (ahem) ‘communications arts’. […] Dave says, ‘We’re doing a documentary.’ […] “At which time I meet Dave’s pal, long time Hollywood pro-Dennis O’Connor, who’s going to edit the documentary. […] The documentary doesn’t happen. […] But Dave and Dennis think, hey, let’s just do something for fun, okay? And we get together a TV anthology concept inspired by Shadow Show.”

Further commenting on the TV version of Shadow Show, Castle adds, “Not that we’re specifically honoring the life and work of Mr. Bradbury in this iteration, but that we’re developing dramatic stories true in spirit to the soul of the great imagination that was his. And the writers who inspired him. And the modern writers he inspired. Stories of, as Mr. Poe had it, ’Mystery and Imagination.’”

Castle and his team formed a partnership under the title 4Maples Productions; they would eventually add another member, Mark Valadez, who was also a former student of Castle’s. The team would then join forces with Council Tree Productions, with the principal being Joel Eisenberg, a producer and a veteran in the television business.

 Joel went out searching for the right home for Shadow Show. “In 2018, Joel takes Shadow Show to Darrin Ramage, head of Sun Studios in Tempe AZ and CEO of the newly launching Roku station, Terror TV. Darrin wants original programming for Terror TV. Terror TV signs Joel’s Terror Talk, featuring personalities from the world of horror, science fiction, and fantasy, and… Shadow Show!”

In half an hour episodes, Terror TV’s Shadow Show will explore blends of horror and fantasy elements inspired from the Shadow Show pages. As a new chapter in his artistic journey, Castle could not be any more proud. Together, he and his team have pushed themselves to create something numerous generations can be part of; in doing all of this, Castle has consistently honored the spirit of Bradbury’s work, guiding readers (and now viewers) towards worlds full of magic and wonder.

Given all his success along the way, Castle holds one crucial lesson close to heart. “I’ve become a firm believer in the metaphysical concept… Luck.”

“You will encounter bad luck, which is one rough customer; it’s when you find a hundred dollar bill on the street and bend over to pick it up, and a ten-ton safe falls from an overhead crane. You’ll have your good luck. You said ‘Frognado’ just when the SYFY network was looking for a sequel to Sharknado.”

“And then those times when it’s no luck at all: You just plod on and on and on, and the treadmill keeps grinding, and you keep going nowhere as your knees wear out. But when the good luck comes your way, and it will, you have to be ready with, ‘Hey, glad to see you and let me show you what I’ve got here!’”

Looking to the future, Castle has no intention of slowing down; with numerous projects on the horizon, he’s excited to get writing. He says, “This year, I will have three of my books published in Poland, along with fiction in the Polish edition of Playboy, so I’d like to get over there and meet some Polish readers. I’ve had two books come out in the USA, Knowing When to Die and Little Cobalt Book of Old Blue Stories, and I’m working to get them in front of as many sets of eyes as possible.”

“And of course, I like my venture into television. I’ve got concepts for another half dozen programs. Hey, think of how many television shows I’ll have out there in the next 60 years!”

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