Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 27, 2025 | 1 comment

Welcome back, Cliff Galbraith!

Those with long memories will recall that in the primordial days of 13th Dimension more than 12 years ago, I had a partner who co-founded the site with me: Cliff Galbraith. Cliff is an artist, entrepreneur and promoter of such popular shows as the late, lamented Asbury Park Comicon and East Coast Comicon, both wonderful events for the comics cognoscenti. Unfortunately, COVID did in his convention biz and in the intervening time, Cliff has added a new chapter to his creative life: novelist.

Cliff’s first book, Jagged Worlds: Avoid a Senseless Death, is available now and had a long and meandering path to publication, dating all the way to the turn of the 21st century when he lived in Los Angeles. (He’s actually an avowed Jersey guy.)

“I had plenty of time during the pandemic and decided to work on the sprawling sci-fi graphic novel I’d always wanted to complete but never found the time,” he told me. “I originally conceived the story back in 2002 while living in Los Angeles. From July to November 2020, I made piles of sketches of characters, environments, vehicles — the kind of drawings that would be considered pre-visualization for a film. I created several pages in graphic novel form and had settled into a style. Then one day I glanced at my notes on my computer, and they looked like pages in a book, which I found funny because I didn’t know how to write a book. The next day I began writing, and 13 months later I finished my first manuscript.”

Early graphic novel page

“As the Parthenon hurtles through space with its 82,000 crew members, deals are made, egos clash, and fortunes are won and lost,” reads Jagged Worlds’ official description. “Planets and moons are divided into plots and auctioned off to acquire precious minerals, exotic life forms, alien technology, ancient artifacts, and habitable terrain. The humans are coming, and they didn’t travel all this way to make friends.

“Arturo Foster finds himself ever closer to the end of what was once an illustrious career, now struggling to eke out one last score. Meanwhile, young Thabo Van Hoven is desperately trying to find an opening in the acquisition trade. And the clever business-minded Alta Corbis may be in over her head and blind to forces that could ruin everything she’s worked for.”

Cliff says his influences range from Elmore Leonard to Michael Chabon.

Early graphic novel page

“I love snappy dialogue, clever banter, and characters who show you who they are through conversation,” he said. “Other than a few exceptions, such as Craig Alanson, Andy Weir, and Dennis E. Taylor, most sci-fi books have rather dull characters. Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov wrote great sci-fi stories, but dialogue and character were not their strong points. So I read a wide selection of genres to learn from whoever I can.

“I want my readers to come away entertained,” he added. I want them to laugh, gasp, and maybe shed a tear. I want them to find characters they care about or despise. The workers in Jagged Worlds are like us; they’re trying to get ahead or keep their heads above water. They have bills to pay, careers to pursue, and relationships to make. The only difference is that they work in the merciless environment of space.”

Cliff is already working on a sequel and prequel, as well as finishing the graphic-novel version with a few artists.

“The 10 years I promoted Asbury Park and East Coast Comicon were a blast. But on separate occasions, both Jim Steranko and Howard Chaykin told me I was wasting my talent running conventions,” he said. “The pandemic gave me a way out. I was free to create for an extended period without interruption. You could say I seized the moment. That lockdown period was a life-changer for so many people, and I consider myself fortunate to have come away from it with my first manuscript.

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Jagged Worlds: Avoid a Senseless Death is available in paperback for $14.95 at Amazon. It is also available as an ebook for $.99.

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MORE

— JOHN OSTRANDER Picks 13 Great Dystopian Sci-Fi Stories. Click here.

— CHARIOTS OF THE KING: Dave Gibbons on Kirby’s Sci-Fi Worlds. Click here.

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Cliff Galbraith is the creator of the comic book Rat Bastard, which Ron Howard’s Imagine Television optioned in 2000. He collaborated with RoboCop creator Ed Neumeier and Batman: The Animated Series director Kevin Altieri to create a five-minute pilot but the series never aired. Years later, he launched the Asbury Park Comicon and later the wildly successful East Coast Comicon. When the pandemic struck in 2020, Cliff found himself without an event to promote, but also a new opportunity. In 2013, he co-founded 13th Dimension with Dan Greenfield.