Monthly Archive: September 2010

BEHIND THE PEN & MASK by Sarge Portera

  • News
  • September 26, 2010
An Introduction

When Bob Blesco, a close FB friend of mine, saw my ALL PULP 7 snapshot he instantly spotted my full Windsor knot! That’s what I call observant!! I don’t like doing anything half-way & although we live in the Deep Fried South I consider my neckties to be Florida scarves that ward off chilly weather!!! Truth is I’d feel naked without a necktie. Just ask my wonderful wife, Marci, or our daughter.

When Tommy Hancock introduced my “Weapons of Choice” column he explained how I speak in “living pulp’ on my FaceBook pages!

When I was asked to describe myself at ALL PULP I explained that “with me darlin’ daughter’s able assist” we’ve created & maintained 5 pulp-related FB Groups that I’d like to briefly describe  in this column’s 1st outing so that you have a better idea of who is BEHIND THE PEN & MASK!

BRONZE PASTICHES

A pastiche is usually an imitation of a copyrighted character, which would include noncanonical exploits of a character not sanctioned by the copyright holder.

Most of the “Doc Savage” 181 published adventures from 1933 to 1949 were written by Lester Dent under the house name of Kenneth Robeson. Will Murray successfully wrote seven more using remaining notes and outlines left by Lester Dent. In 1973 Philip Jose Farmer wrote “Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life” and in 1991 he wrote a prequel to “The Man of Bronze.” The Farmer and Murray publications were authorized by the copyright holder, Conde Nast. It is the hope of this group to learn more about the high adventure heroes who follow in Doc Savage’s footsteps!

It’s on this FB Group that I have around 50 ongoing Discussion Boards dedicated to the growing number of fictional characters inspired by the Man of Bronze.

PURPLE PROSE PULP PARADE

PURPLE PROSE PULP PARADE FB Group is dedicated to the preservation & promotion of high adventure, potboilers, pulps & purple prose as a legitimate literary genre!

It’s here that we invite reviews of pulps, pulp authors’ bibliographies and host an on-going & open-ended pulp adventure entitled “The Purple Rose of Pulpdom!”

Any & all pulp writers are invited to post their own bibliography on a Discussion Board of their making &/or add a paragraph or a page to “The Purple Rose of Pulpdom.”

Pulp Artists are encouraged to join the growing ranks of the Royal Mounted Artists of Pulpdom (RMAP) and post their pulp art, too!

SERGEANT PRESTON OF THE YUKON FAN CLUB

This FB Group is dedicated to all the Mounties in the Movies and most especially to Dick Simmons and his convincingly compelling portrayal of “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon ” on CBS TV in the fifties!

SERGEANT PRESTON OF THE YUKON FAN CLUB was co-created by my daughter & myself when we challenged one another to a rollicking day long round of Yukon Challenge on the internet!

“Sergeant Preston of the Yukon ” ran from September 25th, 1955, to September 29th, 1958, on CBS TV. “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon ” Week is a 5-day countdown from the show’s last episode (9/29/58) to its eventful launch date (9/29/55)! How are you commemorating this moment in television history?

SILHOUETTE PASTICHES

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The answer may be known by more than “The Shadow!” Although, the Shadow’s voice haunted the airwaves and Walter Gibson’s stories graced the news stands this spectral detective wasn’t alone in his battle against darkness!! SILHOUETTE PASTICHES FB Group is dedicated to exploring the fictional lives of the masked detectives that walk in the shadow of the pulp hero who could cloud men’s’ minds!!!

It’s in SILHOUETTE PASTICHES, which was created by my daughter, Alanna, that group members discuss Shadowy calling cards, Shadowy epithets, Shadowy locales, Shadowy miniatures, Shadowy proclamations, Shadowy publishers, Obscure Shadows and Shadoweapons!

WORLDS OF DOC DIAMOND

WORLDS OF DOC DIAMOND is another FB Group creation of my daughter, Alanna. Just read her description below and you’ll see why we want ta keep this pulp hero in the family!

“My grandfather, Albert, and my great grandfather, August, created an adventure hero back in the late forties. They named him Doc Diamond and copyrighted him under the name of A.J. Portera which is my name, too! Doc Diamond’s mysteries were published by their little Christian publishing house, The Olive Press. The purpose of this FaceBook Group is to relive the adventures & mysteries of yesteryears’ action hero, Justus Diamond!”

THAT’S ALL FOLKS! ALL PULP, that is!

I hope the above 5 FB Group summaries give you a better insight behind the pen & mask of 1 of the bespectacled ALL PULP 7!

BEHIND THE PEN & MASK is my ALL PULP column that will look up & into the lives of the many pulp writers who wrote under a house name & pseudonym. My hope is to shed some light on those who have contributed to pulp literature & popular culture over the years. I also hope to learn the where-abouts of pulp writers who have went missing in recent years & will rely on our readership’s able assistance! Does Lance Curry, Steve Mitchell or Thomas Victor Powers ring a bell?

PORTERA’S P.O.P. QUIZ CENTRAL: PULP WRITERS

  • News
  • September 26, 2010


Did you break out in a cold sweat every time a teacher hollered, “Pop Quiz!” I know I did! My hope is that these P.O.P. QUIZ CENTRAL “tests” and their results are more insightful than the quizzes, tests and exams you’ve been coerced into taking over the years. Tests are designed not only to assess the progress of the pupil but the teacher, too! Now let’s test the waters over your preferences of pulp writers and pulp genres. What do you prefer freshwater fishing or saltwater fishing?
(Remember, to circle only one name per line. I believe you’ll see a pattern right away.)
1.        Jules Verne or Edgar Allen Poe?
2.        L. Frank Baum or Arthur Conan Doyle?
3.        H.G. Wells or Rex Stout?
4.        Edgra Rice Burroughs or Michael Avallone?
5.        Ottis Adelbert Kline or Gayle Lynds?
6.        Philip Wylie or Lester Dent?
7.        Edmund Hamilton or Walter Gibson?
8.        Andre Norton or Paul Ernst?
9.        Richard Shaver or Richard Prather?
10.     Robert Heinlien or Erle Stanley Gardner ?
11.     Arthur C. Clarke or Dashiel Hammet?
12.     Henry Kuttner or Emile Tepperman?
13.     Harlan Ellison or Stuart Woods?
14.     Ray Bradbury or Sax Roehmer?
15.     Leigh Brackett or Agatha Christie?
16.     Philip K. Dick or Mickey Spillane?
17.     Piers Anthony or Ellery Queen?
18.     Michael Moorcock or William Patrick Maynard?
19.     Jack Chalker or Calvin Daniels?
20.     Tim Salber or Martin Powell?
21.     Ray Cummings or Lee Falk?
22.     Isaac Asimov or Norvell Page?
23.     Thomas Disch or Raymond Chandler?
24.     H. Beam Piper or Ian Fleming?
25.     E.E. “Doc” Smith or Robert E. Howard?
26.     Gardner Fox or Heather Graham?
27.     Clark Ashton Smith or Ross Macdonald?
28.     Theodore Sturgeon or Joseph Tringali?
29.     Jack Vance or Dennis Lynds?
30.     Mark Ellis or Will Murray?
Now that was easy, wasn’t it? How long did it take you to find the rather obvious pattern? All the writers that wrote mostly science fiction were on the left while those on the right are best known as mystery writers. So what were your results? Do like science fiction or prefer a good who-done-it?  Maybe you like both! Of course, there’s the chance you found yourself acknowledging the writers you’re familiar with. At the least, you’re left with a list of authors whose books you can now be on the look out for?

MEMBER OF ALL PULP’S SPECTACLED SEVEN TALKS PULP ON COMIC PODCAST!

  • News
  • September 26, 2010


Comic Related, a popular and well known comic information website headed up by Chuck Moore, announced the debut of the latest episode of one of its podcasts, ZONE 4, on 9/24/10.   ALL PULP will let the blurb from Comic Related speak for itself-

In this episode:
Brant, Cary, and Chuck K. are back once again, this time joined by comic and pulp legend, and fellow Comic Related family member, Mr. Ron Fortier as we tackle all things pulp, and veer off into discussions about various movies and more. We bring sexy back with a nearly 2-hour episode for your listening pleasure! 
Ron indeed discussed pulp on this episode, including Moonstone Books’ RETURN OF THE ORIGINALS line of comics, ALL PULP, Pro Se Productions, Airship 27, Altus Press, Windy City Con, Pulp Fest, Pulp Ark, and tons of other things!!!  Want to listen…then go ahead and click already-

NEW MOVIE REVIEW AT THE LONG MATINEE!!!-National Treasure!

  • News
  • September 26, 2010

THE LONG MATINEE – Movie Reviews by Derrick Ferguson

NATIONAL TREASURE                         

2004                                       
Walt Disney Pictures

Directed by Jon Turtletaub
Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer
Written by Jim Kouf, Oren Aviv & Charles Segar (story)
Jim Kouf, Cormac Wibberley & Marianne Wibberley (screenplay)
I had heard a lot about NATIONAL TREASURE before I saw it.  Friends of mine told me to see it because it reminded them of something that I would write.  Roger Ebert just about called it an out-and-out rip off of “The DaVinci Code”.  Other people said it was boring, stupid, trite, a rip-off of this or that movie or character, mostly Indiana Jones or Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt
I saw it for myself and you know what was the most surprising thing to me about the movie was?  That this was a Jerry Bruckheimer/Nicolas Cage collaboration that didn’t have any of the qualities that were evident in their other films together such as “Con Air” or “The Rock”.    This is an action movie, yes.  But when you compare it to what we call action movies today, it’s practically a throwback.  There is only one explosion, one car chase, one shootout, one death and even that is due to the poor dumb bastard who gets killed making a wrong step.  NATIONAL TREASURE is a movie that plays as if Cage and Bruckheimer had deliberately sat down and said: “let’s do an action movie that’s totally different from what we’ve done before.” and in doing so, they’ve given today’s audience what amounts to an updated version of my beloved pulp adventure serials from the 1930’s/1940’s.
Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage) has spent his entire life looking for a treasure that has passed from Emperors to Kings to Pharaohs and finally to The Founding Fathers of The American Government.  The treasure has grown to such enormous wealth that supposedly it’s “too large for any one man or nation to own” and The Knights Templars protected it in Europe for hundreds of years until it was moved to America along with The Knights Templar who became The Freemasons.  The Freemasons counted among their members such notable Founding Fathers such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin who left clues scattered among the various works they left behind as to where this fabulously immense treasure could be found.
 Gates has discovered that the map to where the National Treasure is located is on the back of The Declaration of Independence.  What is unfortunate is that he can get nobody to believe him, especially The FBI or Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), who is a curator at The National Archives.  When Gates tells her about the invisible map that is on the back of The Declaration of Independence and has been there for hundreds of years undetected she asks him quite seriously: “Who wrote it there?  Bigfoot?”
Gates doesn’t have much time to try and change the minds of the FBI or Dr. Chase since his former partner Ian Howe has double-crossed him and intends to steal The Declaration and find the treasure.  Gates decides that the only thing to do is steal The Declaration of Independence himself, along with his brilliant tech-savvy sidekick Riley Poole and find the treasure before Ian does. 
NATIONAL TREASURE has a lot going for it in the way it handles the characters and the motivations behind what they’re doing.  Gates is not a treasure seeker in the conventional sense and indeed, he keeps telling people that he’s a ‘treasure protector’.  He’s looking for the National Treasure to vindicate his family name since The Gates Family are looked upon as crackpots by the historical/archeological community for believing that the treasure is real.   And he’s got a diverse and interesting background as shown by a scene where the FBI Agent assigned to catch Gates (played by Harvey Keitel) reads Gates’ file.  Gates has degrees in a whole bunch of diverse fields, which leads Keitel to muse; “I wonder just what this guy wanted to be when he grew up”.
And the relationship between Gates and his rival Ian is interesting and well handled as well.  For once, the bad guy in a movie isn’t a bloodthirsty maniac out to kill everybody in his way.  In fact, Ian tries to go out of his way not to kill anybody because as he sensibly explains to one of his gun happy henchmen: “The authorities tend to want to find out why dead bodies have bullets in them and who put them there” As a matter of fact, NATIONAL TREASURE is one of the few action/adventure movies I’ve seen recently where the bad guy actually has good reasons for why he doesn’t kill the hero when he has a chance to, especially in a scene near the end where Ian leaves Gates and his sidekicks alive in a secret tomb underneath New York’s Wall Street when he certainly would have reason not to.  It surprised me and that’s not easy for movies nowadays to do.
I liked a lot of the performances here.  Nicholas Cage looks more at home playing Benjamin Franklin Gates than any of the other characters in his other action movies he’s done with Bruckheimer and maybe that’s because Gates isn’t an Indiana Jones, despite what you may have read or heard.  Gates isn’t a super martial artist or expert gunman or daredevil adventurer.  He’s an historian searching for vindication of his family’s dream and he plays it that way.  When he’s confronted with bad guys brandishing automatic weapons he runs like his ass is on fire and he only stops to fight when he has no other way out.  What makes him dangerous is his brainpower: he sees connections and can make them faster than anybody else and he’s smart enough to know that about himself and use it to his advantage.
Sean Bean is absolutely great as Cage’s rival in the race for the treasure and you get the sense that a lot of the reasons why he doesn’t kill Gates is that he really admires and respects Gates’ knowledge and resourcefulness.  Jon Voigt has a lot more to do here as Patrick Henry Gates, the father of Cage’s character than he had to do as Lara Croft’s father in “Tomb Raider”.  Justin Bartha as Riley Poole is one of the best sidekicks I’ve seen in recent moves and he has a wonderful scene where he proves just how much that a sidekick can enhance the hero’s character.
The main selling point for me with NATIONAL TREASURE, that it isn’t an Indiana Jones type of cliffhanging-thrill a minute-claw your date’s arm-type of movie.  It’s more in the nature of a scavenger hunt and the fun comes from seeing Cage’s character and his sidekicks put together the clues and piece them together.  Not that to say that there aren’t thrills aplenty: this is an exciting movie with fights, captures, chases and plot twists.  It’s just that it isn’t packed with explosions, car chases and deaths every five minutes 
images1-4554491
Having said all that let me say that I recommend NATIONAL TREASURE wholeheartedly.  I had an excellent time with the story and characters and I don’t even think you’ll miss the usual mayhem that we expect from a Bruckheimer/Cage action movie.  Are there holes in the plot holes and flaws?  Sure there are.  Cage and his crew find a ship that has supposedly been buried in the Arctic ice for hundreds of years far too easily.  And would gunpowder burn after being buried under the ice for that long a time?  And there’s another scene later on where Cage and his crew just happen be standing at the tower where The Liberty Bell is kept so that the shadow of the sun will be cast at just the right moment at just that right moment so they can find another clue to the treasure.  But by that time I had been so captivated by the performances and the sheer audacity of the story’s premise I was just watching and saying to the movie; “what the hell, let’s go.”  And I suppose that’s the best way I can tell you to take your viewing of NATIONAL TREASURE: sit back in your seat with your soda, popcorn, candy and say: “what the hell, let’s go.” Movie studios don’t make Saturday Morning Serials anymore but every so often they do make movies like NATIONAL TREASURE to remind us that once upon a time they did.

Rated: PG

131 Minutes

Review: ‘Doctor Who The Visual Dictionary’

  • Uncategorized
  • September 25, 2010

Doctor Who The Visual Dictionary

By Neil Corry. Jacqueline Rayner, Andrew Darling, Kerrie Dougherty, David John and Simon Beecroft
144 pages, DK Publishing, $24.99
 
Your first thought is, why on earth are we reviewing this book when it came out last year? The answer is – because this is a brand new edition, incorporating only some of the previous edition’s material and thoroughly revised to incorporate the known exploits of the eleventh Doctor.

The problem with fact books based on ongoing franchises is that almost immediately, the facts are outdated. Wisely, this new volume covers the entirety of the fifth season of the current version of the BBC’s perennial [[[Doctor Who]]] and is being released in that fallow period between the season ending and the Christmas Special.

Interestingly, Matt Smith’s Doctor is merely an insight to the brightly colored Daleks fronting this book, which is in the traditional large DK guidebook side. The Doctor’s equipment, friends, and foes certainly deserve large pages in which to luxuriate in the minutia. And boy is there plenty of detail here. Taking a cue from the [[[ Star Trek]]] tech manuals, the multitude of authors provide pseudo-scientific explanations to how things work. We get a nice double-gatefold examining the TARDIS and now we know what each station does. Yet, the cut-aways for the new Sonic Screwdriver do not give us any idea where the readout display goes.

Visually, the book covers the five seasons beginning with the Christopher Eccleston revival, heavily favoring the current Matt Smith era. The text, however, delves through the years with some information dating back to the earliest days of the Doctor so fans of the entire series will appreciate the acknowledgment of the past.

There, of course, can be quibbles. Some 20 pages are spent on the Daleks in all their colorful glory while the Doctor and his eleven incarnations get a mere six pages. Torchwood is under-represented as is dear old Wilf.

In some cases, we learn more about the alien races here than we ever did on the series, which enriches them to a degree. The photography and layout is visually engaging and clean to comprehend which is greatly appreciated.

If anything is missing, is some sort of timeline, establishing the various eras and worlds visited by the Doctors, which probably deserves a book of its own. This is a fine collection to flip through and cherish until the next edition rolls out. You have to love the Doctor to fully appreciate this treasure trove of information but most of us here at ComicMix fall into that category. Be sure to tell Santa you want this.

DC’s First Wave Continues in December

  • News
  • September 25, 2010


DOC SAVAGE #9
Written by IVAN BRANDON & BRIAN AZZARELLO
Co-feature written by JASON STARR
Art by NIC KLEIN
Co-feature art by SCOTT HAMPTON
Cover by J.G. JONES
Doc’s adventure in the war-torn Middle East takes a nasty turn when he realizes that the people who sent him into the Zone don’t necessarily want him coming back out. Meanwhile, the threat he came to neutralize is not what it seems!

And in the JUSTICE, INC. co-feature, there’s nothing standing between Smitty and his quarry, the murdering scum he plans to pay back in kind – but what will become of him if he breaks Benson’s cardinal rule? “Murder and Vengeance” concludes here!
On sale DECEMBER 8 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US

THE SPIRIT #9
Written by DAVID HINE
Co-feature written by PAUL DINI
Art by MORITAT
Co-feature art by MIKE PLOOG
Cover by LADR÷NN
The Spirit knew there was something suspicious about the relationship of mafia heir Ophelia Ottoman and no-good loser Jimmy Bauhaus, but he didn’t know that the secret they kept could pit Central City’s crime families against each other! But that doesn’t mean he’s going to let Ottoman get away with murder. . . does it? Say it ain’t so, Spirit!

And in the co-feature, THE SPIRIT: BLACK & WHITE, Paul Dini and Mike Ploog have a holiday gift for you: the tale of an extremely bad Santa – a crook haunted by the Spirit of Christmas everywhere he turns!
On sale DECEMBER 15 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US

Review: ‘Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics’

Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics
By N.C. Christopher Couch
Abrams ComicArts; 224 pages, $35

The early days of comic books was a vast frontier as the rules were being written and the flourished so rapidly that the demand for talent was voracious. As a result, just about anyone, of any age, who could hold a brush or tell a story was given a chance to work. The more successful ones built up a client base and then brought in others to assist, paralleling the development of comic strips.

When young Bob Kane added the costumed feature Batman to his list of properties produced for Detective Comics, Inc, he found himself in need of help. He had already been working with writer Bill Finger to take his shapeless ideas and turn them into witty adventures. But, Batman meant Kane also needed artistic help and a chance meeting led to 17 year old Jerry Robinson beginning an artistic career that begins today.

Robinson is one of the last of his generation and remains a vital talent, curating museum shows and encouraging the next generation of talent. His story is known in bits and pieces but for the first time, his wide-ranging artistic career is covered in the aptly named [[[Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics]]].

Written by N.C. Christopher Couch, a former [[[Manga]]] editor and professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst, the book begins with a young Robinson learning to draw on his own while his family fell from the middle class during the Great Depression. It was while Robinson was on a brief vacation in the Poconos that Robinson met Kane and a friendship developed.

Quickly, Robinson was immersed in Kane and Finger’s world, brainstorming stories and characters whenever they were together. Robinson realized he was going to learn by doing and absorbed everything he could with Finger proving a knowledgeable tutor about all manner of fine arts, especially foreign films.

As organized, Couch’s work divides Robinson’s career into thematic chapters but you never really fit all the pieces together. While we know Batman had already debuted in [[[Detective Comics]]] # 27, on sale in the spring of 1939, and can intuit that by the time Robinson began working for Kane it was September, just in time for Finger to create Robin and add him to the feature but we’re never told which issue first featured Robinson’s work. Not long after, though, DC must have commissioned the [[[Batman]]] quarterly title which led to Robinson’s greatest contribution to comic books: creating the Joker. But Couch doesn’t lay it all out for us in a linear manner, so there are jumps and overlaps in Robinson’s career that would have benefitted from a better chronology or timeline as an appendix.

(more…)

The Point Radio: Why BEING HUMAN Works

The second season of BEING HUMAN hit DVD stores last week and we sit with the cast to talk about the changes the characters went through and what is coming in the future. Plus DC does a Re-Org and SUPERMAN may have found a director.

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‘Crazy Sexy Geeks’ Asks… Is Batman Really Crazy?

  • Uncategorized
  • September 24, 2010

For decades, the question has been asked… is it sane to spend millions of dollars and obsessively micro-manage your life to go out and beat up muggers dressed as a giant bat with a young boy following you around? Well, in the return of Crazy Sexy Geeks, comic book historian Alan Kistler discusses the mental state of Batman
with three forensic psychiatrists, the founders of Broadcast Thought.

Take a look– and then give us your thoughts in the comments section!

Crazy Sexy Geeks – Superhero Psychology Part 1 on Vimeo.

PULP ARTIST/WRITER/EDITOR HAS A SIGNING COMING SOON!

  • News
  • September 24, 2010
air-23-6889917

Pulp cover painter and now author Laura Givens is having a book signing on Oct 17 at 3PM at the Broadway Book Mall, 200 South
Broadway, Denver Colorado – she is signing copies of the weird western  book she just edited called SIX-GUNS STRAIGHT FROM HELL. Laura has done many covers for pulp writer Billy Craig and recently began gracing the covers of Airship 27 titles.

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