Monthly Archive: July 2011

FORTIER TAKES ON THE MYTH HUNTER!!

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  • July 25, 2011

ALL PULP REVIEWS by Ron Fortier

THE MYTH HUNTER

By Percival Constantine

Pulpwork Press

192 pages

Release Date – May 2011

ISBN 10 – 1461050596

ISBN 13 – 978-1461050599

(Suspense – thriller – pulp adventure)

What happens when you put the best parts of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft together then mix them up with a little bit of Modesty Blaise?  Answer, you get Percival Constantine’s coolest new pulp hero, Elisa Hill.  From the opening action sequence to the last climatic battle with a cruel and vicious assassin, “The Myth Hunter” is a super charged thriller that never lets up.

Even when dealing with exposition scenes, Constantine shines in this adventure.  His writing has matured greatly since his last book and “The Myth Hunter” captures the reader’s interest with a fluid ease of storytelling that is both polished and suspenseful.  Learning that a little is often better than more, he gives us bits and pieces of Elisa’s past, when she was a mercenary tomb raider, seeking out the world’s ancient treasures solely for personal gains.  Yet somewhere along the way, echoes from her parents’ teachings take root and she learns to value the non material treasures of the world, particularly honor, loyalty and courage.

Now she is out to discover the secret to the whereabouts of the fable lost Lemuria with the help of her university allies and a truly bizarre Japanese changeling.  But there are also dark forces gathered against her such as the secret society known as the Order and their roguish agent, Lucas Davalos.  Davalos and Elisa were once partners, now they are on opposite sides and a victory for one could mean death to the other.

“The Myth Hunter” is a solid, masterful thriller by a young writer realizing his tremendous potential.  Another publishing note, “The Myth Hunter” is the first book from any publisher to bear the New Pulp logo brand signifying a very exciting movement in the field.  Based on the classics of old, new pulp thrillers like “The Myth Hunter” are blazing into the future to thrill and excite an entire new generation of readers.  Isn’t it time you bought a ticket on this train?

THEATER OF VAMPIRES, SECOND JASON DARK BOOK, REVIEWED!

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  • July 25, 2011
Theater of Vampires, a Jason Dark Supernatural Mystery by Guido Henkel

by Suzanne Fuller

Having enjoyed Demon’s Night despite not having much of an emotional connection with the investigating Protagonist Jason Dark, I was looking forward to reading Theater of Vampires. Already comfortable with Henkel’s writing style, I was excited to see his take on everyone’s favourite creatures of the night. So I dived head first back into his dark, foggy world. With familiar characters reappearing for your nostalgic pleasure and new ones shuffling their way in. I was left feeling pleasantly surprised and sad that it ended so quickly.

The second book in a Series is a hard one to tackle. There’s the worry of not being able to keep up the excitement from the first or keep the characters true to themselves without endangering the plot. And to tackle possibly the most over-done creature in horror literature takes guts.

The story was fast paced and hard hitting. The characters were all believable and fear quickened the pace of my heart when the creatures of the night appeared from behind their human masks.

The setting was indeed creepy but I was beginning to worry that it sounded an awful lot like a particular vampire story many of us know. The last half of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire took place in a theater, where Armand and his un-dead family tricked their human audience into believing the death performed on stage was acted, when in fact it was not. But, just before the book takes a turn away from following Rice’s footsteps a comment from Selene, the supposed master of the vampires, says, “I swear, I couldn’t bear another one like that insufferable blonde French guy De Lioncourt.” Which, of course, is a nod to Lestat. I had to place my cup of tea on the bedside table very carefully and hope that I didn’t choke on the gulp I’d just swallowed. There was another nod to a classic vampire at the very end but I will not say for fear of giving away anything inside the plot. All that will be said about it is it was a very, very good last line. One that left a mark, so to speak.

If there was any complaint to be had about this novella it’s that Sui Lin, Dark’s young, beautiful accomplice is so skilled in the art of fighting that it almost seems as though Dark himself falls behind. It happened in Demon’s Night and again in Theater of Vampires and no matter how much I love the strong, female character I worry that the series should be renamed A Sui Lin Supernatural Mystery.

With a great twist at the end that leaves you with many questions, for Dark’s future, moral rules and how the rest of the stories will unfold if the conflict were to raise it’s head once more. That is the wonderful thing about a series of stories, when you read the next instalment it’s like slipping into a pair of comfy slippers.

STRANGE GODS AND SWEET DISCOUNTS!

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  • July 24, 2011

The newest volume in Joel Jenkins’ sword & planet series, Strange Gods of the Dire Planet, is now available for pre-order from PulpWork Press! Order the book before the August 1st release date by punching in the discount code ZUEEWBQV before completing the order! Note: the discount is only available via the PWP site.  Also, tune into the August 1st Episode of PULPED! (www.pulped.libsyn.com) for an interview with author Joel Jenkins AND a special offer on this book!

DARK WORLDS #6 NOW AVAILABLE! ALL FANTASY ISSUE!

  • News
  • July 24, 2011
DARK WORLDS’ ALL-FANTASY ISSUE OUT NOW!

dark-worlds-6_cover_lorez-8955143

The sixth issue of the PULP ARK award nominated Dark Worlds Magazine has just been released and it’s a doozy!  Over a hundred pages chock-full of fully illustrated pulp goodness, this issue is ALL-FANTASY, ALL THE TIME! Stocked to the gills with sword & sorcery stories by Everette Bell, Peter J. Welmerink, Joshua Reynolds, Martin Edward Stephenson, Joel Jenkins, David A. Hardy, Jack Mackenzie, and GW Thomas and art by MD Jackson, GW Thomas and Aaron Siddall and Sean P. Thomas, it’s available in both print and electronic versions from RAGEmachine Books!

TO PURCHASE OR SEE A PREVIEW: http://www.gwthomas.org/darkworlds6.htm

NEW PULP AUTHOR BRINGS OUT ‘BULLETS AND BLADES’!

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  • July 24, 2011

From New Pulp Author, Bill Craig!-

“Just wanted to announce the official print release of Bullets and Blades: the short fiction of Bill Craig on Amazon.com. This is my first release to bear the New Pulp Banner on the back cover. I am very excited about this from the stories contained to the beautiful cover rendered by our own lovely and talented Laura Givens. Mystery author Robert J. Ray who wrote the Murdock mysteries many years ago told me it evoked memories of the Conan covers by Frazetta that he read as a teen. Heavy praise indeed!”

From Amazon-

These are some of the collected works of New Pulp Author Bill Craig, featuring tales of fantasy, hard-boiled mystery, masked heroes, cowboys, and things that go bump in the night. So pour a shot of whiskey, turn down the lights and crank up some Jazz and settle in for some edge of the seat fun!

About the Author

A journeyman author who started writing at age 6 and published at age 40, making it only 34 years to become an overnight success. His burning ambition is to break Walter B. Gibson’s world record for writing the most words in a single year…

Derrick Ferguson Suits Up With THE IMPOSTOR

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  • July 24, 2011
A lot of times I’ll get asked can a superhero be a pulp hero and vice versa.  And I say sure.  Take Batman.  To me, he’s a pulp character who happens to inhabit a superhero universe.  Or the Challengers of The Unknown who to me are also pulp characters.  The lines can get blurry, especially with guys like Thor who is both a legitimate epic fantasy character (or at least he used to be back in the day) and well as being a superhero.  Now guys like Spider-Man, Superman and The Flash, I call them straight up superheroes.
What does all of this have to do with THE IMPOSTOR #0: “Suiting Up” by Richard Lee Byers?  Not much, to be honest with you.  But it was thoughts like that bouncing around in my melon of a head while I read the story.  There’s a lot of New Pulp as well as Classic Pulp for that matter that can also classified as prose superhero fiction.  When it’s done well, it can be just as much fun and as satisfying as a well-drawn or well-written comic book.
The story is as uncomplicated as a glass of milk: Working stiff Matt Brown is on his way home after a hard day of labor when the Earth is invaded by aliens.  But Matt’s Earth is protected by superheroes who valiantly throw themselves into the defense of their planet.  Not all of them survive and Matt himself is captured by the aliens.  He manages to escape and in the process, acquires some of the equipment and powers of the slain superheroes.  Now it’s all up to Matt to take on the invaders.
That’s it.  But considering that it’s an origin story, how much more do you need?  Mr. Byers sets up his character and the premise of the series in a neat, tight bundle that I found highly enjoyable Old School superheroics with a fine Silver Age DC feel to it.  While reading the story I was visualizing the action as if it were drawn by the 60’s Gil Kane.  I dunno if that was the vibe Mr. Byers was going for but that’s the one I got.  And I liked it.
Should you read THE IMPOSTOR #0: “Suiting Up”?  I don’t see why not.  Certainly the price is right.  You can find it here for free.  That’s right, I said, free.  And at 23 pages it makes for a quick, exciting read, just the way all good pulp should go down.  Mr. Byers has promised further adventures of his hero and I’m looking forward to them.

JOHN OSTRANDER: Hacking Up Letter Balls

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  • July 24, 2011

mrzippy-1473164I wrote last time about digital comics and I realize there was another big question for me as we cross the digital Rubicon into this brave new world: will there be letter columns?

Now you might point out to me, “John, most comics don’t have letter columns now.” I’ve always felt that was a mistake. In fact, I think it’s one of the reasons for the decline of comics, if not of the entire Western Civilization as we know it. My first work in comics appeared in a letter column. During the Overlord saga in Thor, I pretty much figured out who the mysterious Overlord really was. (I think it was Odin or some manifestation of Odin or something.) I even was awarded a Mighty Marvel No-Prize for my efforts, which was supposed to be for service above and beyond the call of duty to Marvel before they cheapened it for giving it out to every slob who wrote in and said, “Make Mine Marvel!” and yes it still burns me today that they did that but never mind. (For those of you who are interested, the No-Prize consisted of a an envelope mailed to you that clearly stamped “No Prize” on the front. You opened the envelope and it was empty – there was no prize! That was the gag. My first reaction was that somebody slipped up and forgotten to include my No-Prize in the envelope. I did eventually get the joke. I’m not always real swift but I get there.)

I had a better letter published in a Savage Sword Of Conan.  One story had Conan betrayed by his female companion and he snarled at her, “Waitress!” Of course, they meant to say “Traitress!” Obviously, an error no one caught but my letter tried to prove that it wasn’t an error but a nice bit of characterization, showing that Conan obviously had bad experiences with female serving staff; thus, the worst thing he could call the wench was “Waitress!” I remember my closing line was, “After all, have you ever seen the big Cimmerian lug tip?!” I figured the letter was clever enough to make the letter column, and it did.

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A Brief Look at Foreign Comics Adapted into Film

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  • July 23, 2011

Italy’s Dylan Dog is interesting in that it is one of the first foreign comics adapted by Americans for the big screen. With the video release of the little seen feature film coming July 26, we were given to consider the foreign comics we know as readers and may have never seen the film versions. The first adaptation of Dylan Dog was a homegrown effort, 1994’s Dellamorte Dellamore (known in English as Cemetery Man or Of Death and Love) from director Michele Soavi.

Other countries have tried their hand at adapting their homegrown comics as films, with about the same level of fidelity and success as most American attempts. For example, there the dreadful 1966 movie based on Peter O’Donnell’s brilliant Modesty Blaise. Not to be outdone in awfulness, America tried their hand at a prime time series, starring Ann Turkel. The 1982 ABC pilot aired and got some reasonable reviews but Americanizing it robbed the show of its charm. The direct-to-video My Name is Modesty, released in 2004, was far worse.

America didn’t do any better with Britain’s beloved Judge Dredd. Danny Cannon and Sylvester Stallone share credit for ruining a wonderful concept with their ham-fisted 1995 feature film.

Italy’s Danger: Diabolik was turned into a 1968 feature film from horromeister Mario Bava based on the Italian comic character Diabolik, a 1962 creation by Angela and Luciana Giussani. The film is noteworthy simply because it was bad enough to be used as the final episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

More iconic was the 1968 film from director Roger Vadim, based on Jean-Claude Forest’s Barbarella. Starring Jane Fonda, it was psychedelic and campy and tremendous fun. Maybe that’s why attempts at a remake have stalled; hitting those notes is a trick most filmmakers today struggle with. John Philip Law deserves credit for appearing in both Diabolik and Barbarella in this year, showing his agent had no taste.

Maybe they should just faithfully adapt the source material much as the successful series about everyone’s favorite Gaul, Asterix, who has starred in 11 films since 1967.

They all could have taken lessons from Japan which pays a lot more fealty to the source material when adapting manga to anime or film to manga. A prime example is the seven films based on Lone Wolf and Cub. The first screened in America in the 1980s under the title Sword of Vengeance, just as comics fans were being introduced to First Comics’ editions of the classic tale. Shogun Assassin, also shown in the US, took the first film and a chunk of the second and for people unfamiliar with the concept, as I was when I screened it for Fangoria, it was eye-opening.  Known as the Baby Cart series, they launched in 1972 and remained revered.

Of course, Belgium’s Tin Tin will take his turn this winter but that’s a story for another day.

Crazy Sexy Geeks: Tim Gunn vs. Green Lantern!

  • News
  • July 23, 2011

crazy-sexy-geeks-jennifer-ewing-alan-kister-tim-gunn-5298598

Just in time for the San Diego Comic-Con Masquerade tonight, we bring you the return of Crazy Sexy Geeks with special guest, fashion authority Tim Gunn! This episode, the Project Runway mentor looks at Green Lantern with hosts Jennifer Ewing and Alan Kistler, superhero historian & Agent of S.T.Y.L.E. columnist for Newsarama.com (@SizzlerKistler)!

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Be sure to listen to the weekly Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast (featuring Alan and Jill Pantozzi, @TheNerdyBird) on iTunes and at CrazySexyGeeks.libsyn.com

MARC ALAN FISHMAN: It’s Not Easy Being Green… Wait … Yes It Is!

  • News
  • July 23, 2011

green-ring-9813668Welcome back to my angry little corner of the Interwebs, folks. Since my column last week seemed to find some harmonious affinity amongst the fine folks reading, I figured I’d continue riding my snarky-train one more week. Don’t fret, I’ve got plenty of anger to dispense at Marvel, Image, Todd MacFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Robert Kirkman, and the new Voltron show on Nickelodeon.

For today, though? I’m shining my hate-fueled lantern of justice on my favorite hero. Yes my friends, this li’l rant is on Green Lantern. Let’s start appropriately, shall we?

In Brightest Day,
In Blackest Night,
Hal Jordan beamed as he soared in flight,
The other lanterns can’t seem to be
Treated just as equally.
Rayner’s got heart,
And Garnder’s got ‘tude,
And John Stewart’s still the one black dude…
Geoff Johns and the DC Elite,
Think the Silver Age is totally neat!
But Sinestro now wears the crown,
For a few months, until sales are down.
Then Jordan’s back, to fight all fears,
And retcon the last two damned years!

The summer before my Bar Mitzvah I was hauled off to a Jewish summer camp, where my bunkmate loaned me his copies of the Green Lantern. Rayner, the newly crowned emerald knight, was DC’s answer to Peter Parker. An every-kid who had actual fun being a superhero. Long story short? It sold me on comics. Soon thereafter, I declared him my BFF in fiction, and I’ve maintained a subscription to the Green Lantern books since the mid-to-late 90s. Not to be just a one-Lantern guy, I’ve since read tons of stories starring (amongst others…) Hal Jordan. I even own the first volume of his “archived” appearances. Suffice to say, I “get” Hal and why he’s the number one ring bearer. From his cocksure attitude to his “not the black guy, Irish guy, or 90s kid with stubble and girl problems” whiteyness, he’s the model DCU hero. An inoffensive guy with a “this was cool in the 60s” secret identity, who Geoff Johns could angst up. I guess the question to ask here is simple: Is Hal Jordan any better than Barry Allen right now?
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