Here at All Pulp are happy to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of our favorite pulp place: PULP SUNDAY! On August 26, 2007, New Pulp Artist Francesco Francavilla started Pulp Sunday with a series of Old Radio shows of The Shadow and The Spider accompanied by lobby cards and spot illustrations Francavilla drew specifically for each episode. “Little did I know back then that The Shadow and The Spider would eventually come back in comics 5 years later and that I would be providing the covers for them,” Francavilla said on his site.
Over the course of five years, Francesco has also introduced a new pulp hero on Pulp Sunday, The Black Beetle.
Read more about Pulp Sunday’s Anniversary as well as Francesco Francavilla’s upcoming plans at http://pulpsunday.blogspot.com.
The Fall of the Ponds. The Last Page. The Great Weeping. You knew it was coming, The Grand Moff Steven made it clear. Who died, who lived, and who will have a LOT of explaining to do to the parents. Spoilers abound, even more than usual, so here we go…
THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN
by Steven Moffat
Directed by Nick Hurran
The episode jumps between 1938 and 2012 Manhattan – in 1938, detective Sam Garner is asked to investigate a mysterious apartment house “where the angels live”, only to meet…himself, years older. In modern day, The Doctor is visiting Central Park with Amy and Rory, when Rory is sent backwards by a weeping angel, into the arms of his daughter River Song. How do you fight an enemy that can suddenly make you go decades into the past? Perhaps the answer in some cases is: you can’t.
The story bears more than a few parallels to the original Angels story, Blink, as it should. In both cases, The Doctor’s actions are linked, even dictated, by a set of notes (here concealed in a book) provided before he begins, but written afterwards by one of the parties involved.
GUEST STAR REPORT
Mike McShane (Grayle), an American actor and comedian, was one of the regulars on the original British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? He played Friar Tuck in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, the hypnotherapist in Office Space, and (sigh) Professor Keenbean in Richie Rich. He’s also one of a small numbers of actors who got to play another “Doctor” – he provided the voice for recurring and ubiquitous scientist Cid in Final Fantasy X and its sequel, X-2.
MONSTER REPORT – The Weeping Angels made their first appearance only a few years back, in Steven Moffat’s spectacular and Hugo-winning episode Blink. They’re described by the Doctor as “The only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely”. Their preferred method of taking their prey is to send them back in time. They feed on the potential energy of the life the victims were supposed to live in the present. The victim arrives back in time with no real idea how they got there – some may go mad, some may injure themselves, but many simply adapt and live out the remainder of their days there in the past. They are functionally indestructible – when they are seen by anyone, they “Quantum-lock”, or transform into stone. They move impossibly fast when they can, hence The Doctor’s advice, “Don’t blink”. In their second appearance in The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone, the Angels were in a very weakened state, and could not (or chose not to) use their standard attack, sticking to simple acts of violence as they slowly drained power from the crashed spaceship the Byzantium. Here, they’re at full strength again. They also have the power to replicate themselves – it’s explained that any image of a Weeping Angel itself becomes a Weeping Angel (likely because of Quantum), in this episode, it’s suggested they can infect or take over other statues, such as ones in a fountain or park, or even big honkin’ ones out in the harbor.
Something I’ve mentioned before: There’s a short story from 1984 called “Bones” by P.C. Hodgell that features a race of creatures called Vhors, skeletal ratlike creatures who, like the Angels, can only move when they’re not being observed. Surely a case of parallel evolution, but a pointed lesson in how there’s only so many truly original ideas, and how it’s all based on how you use the ideas and tropes we’ve been recycling since Og the caveman first set in stone (literally) the tale of a young boy who was destined to bring down a great kingdom run by an evil monarch.
The Statue of Liberty has had more than a few appearances in science fiction. It was previously animated by Mood Slime and Jackie Wilson in Ghostbusters 2. It was fitted with a honkin’ huge Neuralyzer in Men In Black 2. And of course it was seen as a twisted broken wreck at the end of Planet of the Apes.
BACKGROUND BITS AND BOBS – Trivia and production details
DARKER AND DARKER – It took me a while to realize the image in the logo this week’s opening credits was the crown of the Statue of Liberty. Also, note that the color is all but gone from the TARDIS’ trip through the time vortex, and the electrical distortions have increased greatly. Does it represent the immediate trouble of the trip to 1938, or a continuing change to the vortex?
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION – This episode was filmed in Manhattan, where it was followed around by hundreds of fans who spread the news of filming location via social media, which meant the crowds grew exponentially over the day. In a recent interview (modesty forbids mentioning the writer), they discussed the excitement of filming in NYC, and the zeal and courtesy of the fans. And one of the wonderful things about the city is there are plenty of buildings that would not look out of place in 1938, allowing for lots of sites to film.
YOU’RE MUCH TOO NICE TO BE A GRUBBY DETECTIVE ALL YOUR LIFE – There’s a lot of references to detective fiction and film noir in this episode. Mike McShane plays Mr. Grayle – the Grayle family was featured in Raymond Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely, which was adapted twice to film, once as Murder My Sweet, and again under its original title. Detective “Sam Garner” is clearly in the style of classic dicks Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, the latter of which was once played by…James Garner. “Melody Malone”, while also mirroring “Marlowe”, reminds one of Michael J. Malone, hero of Craig Rice’s (a female author – Craig was her middle name, Georgina her first), one adapted to film with the postcard-ready title Having Wonderful Crime. Mike McShane is clearly playing a character in the Sydney Greenstreet “Fat Man” style.
I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY – I can write off “The New York Record” as not being allowed to use the masthead of a more…Timesy…paper. But “Detroit Lions win Superbowl”? For one thing, does that mean this episode takes place in February? Or just that the British have no idea when the Superbowl takes place? Or what teams are worth a damn?
ROLLS ROYCE? – The plaque The Doctor does a quick recce in seems to be from the engine of a Supermarine Spitfire, last seen (flying in space, yet) in Victory of the Daleks. There’s two explanations for that. One is by the implication of its jury-rigged appearance that the TARDIS has had many, many post-showroom upgrades with whatever parts could be found, hence its patchwork appearance. But a concept that was to be mentioned in Neil Gaiman’s story The Doctor’s Wife is that a TARDIS’ Chameleon Circuit affects the interior of the ship as well as the outside. The Doctor and Idris look out on a junkyard, and once she reminds him of the fact, he realizes he’s not looking at junk, but the disguised remnants of various TARDISes. So he isn’t building a console from a hairdryer and coat hangers, but from highly technical components that LOOK like a hairdryer and coat hangers.
“Vortex Manipulator – less bulky than a TARDIS…a motorbike through traffic” River’s had the device since the events of The Pandorica Opens, when she bought it off the corpulent blue-skinned trader Dorium. The Vortex Manipulator is standard equipment for the time agency, and one is almost always on the wrist of the rakishly charming Captain Jack Harkness. The Doctor describes using it as “slightly addictive”, but odds are River can handle it.
“Once we know it’s coming, it’s written in stone” – The rules for the immutability of time are…rather mutable. The Doctor rather makes a habit of changing things he knows will happen, though in fairness, they don’t always go well, such as the crushed temporal reality of The Wedding of River Song.
“Are you an archaeologist as well as a detective?” Indeed she is – her Doctorate is is Archaeology, mainly so she can go about searching for events related to The Doctor.
“Oh, I know how they work” / “And it’s Professor Song Now” These two quotes allow us to place where this adventure happens in River’s timeline. It’s after the events of Angels / Stone, and even a bit later in her life after that, as she’s earned her Professorship. She was surprised to hear she would become a Professor in the Angels adventure, but she’d she gained it in her “first/last” adventure, Silence in the Library. So this is interesting, in that it’s the first of her appearances that have happened “out of order”. To date, each of her appearances have been happening in reverse order – the first time we meet her, she’s known The Doctor for years, and it’s her last adventure, as she “dies”. Each adventure after that, she’s come from a point further back in her time line. She knew about “the crash of the Byzantium” in Silence in the Library, but during the crash (in Angels/Stone), she didn’t know she’d be a professor. Similarly, she mentions that she’ll see The Doctor again “When The Pandorica Opens“, another event that had yet to occur to him, and so on. Basically, we’ve been following a specific story arc for River – now that it’s done and her big secret is revealed, it’s okay to pick and choose her time of appearances again.
“Oh I was pardoned ages ago…turns out the person I killed never existed in the first place” More evidence of The Doctor doing all he can to fade away, continuing the job that Oswin started for him in Asylum of the Daleks. He didn’t show up in Solomon’s database in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship either. Of course, there’s a faction who suggests that he’s not the one doing it, and that someone else is assisting him, possibly even without his knowledge…
“He’s been moved in space, but not in time” – This is a change from the stated abilities of the Angels – until now, they’ve been only able to displace in time. If they could do both, why didn’t Rory appear in front of Winter Quay when he first arrived, since that was their intended target? Perhaps they can only do one or the other, so they get their targets back to when they need them, then worry about the where? There’s also the possibility of a scene missing where he simply escaped from the basement and went looking for help, which would rather make more sense.
“That was a stupid waste of regeneration energy” It’s only paying back a favor – River, conceived in the TARDIS and possessing Time Lord DNA, could regenerate, and has, at least twice. She gave up all the rest of her regenerations to restore The Doctor to life and health in Let’s Kill Hitler. Likely that’s not a trick he could perform with any other person, which deftly explains why he’s never done it before. Unless you count giving the fuel cells of the TARDIS a jump start by giving it about ten years of his life in Rise of the Cybermen.
“I can’t ever take the TARDIS back there, the timelines are too scrambled” – Lucky all the times he’s already been there have already happened, then. Christmas of 1938 is when the events of The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe take place. It’s also when they landed in Hitler’s meeting room in Let’s Kill Hitler.
“I will never be able to see you again” I don’t see why. They spend many decades in Manhattan (presuming they don’t go traveling), and the time distortion is only centered around 1938, so there’s no reason he can’t pop by a year or two later, or even decades later. Besides, River is already making plans to go see them, to drop off the book she’s now got to go write.
The seeming finality of the separation may be be partly based on the wishes of Karen Gillan. In the aforementioned interview, she said, “I’ve always said that when I go, I want it to be for good. Because I want that final scene to have that same impact, maybe ten years on. I want people to be able to revisit it and still have the same emotion. That’s really important for me, so for that reason, I think I’m going to rule out any returns.” However, when I quietly complimented her on her ability to lie, she replied, “I learned it from the best!”
I expect at the very least we’ll see a rasher of fanfic of Amy and Rory’s life in New York, the evils they fought and the lives they saved. We already know (based on River’s plan) that Amy will be involved in publishing in the years after her re-arrival in this pre-war period and beyond. So clearly they CAN be contacted. One can only assume they’ll use their foreknowledge of history to make a few successful investments to keep themselves off the streets as well.
Let’s do a bit of math. Amy was born in 1989, so when she met The Doctor (for the second time) in 2008, she was about 19. Last week, she surmises it’s been ten years of her personal timeline, so she’s now 29. 74 years pass between being popped back to 1938 and seeing their gravestone in 2012, where she’s listed as having died at 87. So unless she REALLY lied about her age, she and Rory are not only dead here, but died at least a couple of years, maybe decades back. Also, it’s not made clear, but it’s implied that Amy and Rory do not necessarily die at the same time – she’s five years older than him, and her name appears under his.
“This is the story of Amelia Pond, and this is how it ends” Back in her first episode, young Amelia Pond is sitting waiting for The Doctor to return – he doesn’t, not to another fourteen years, but she hears the wheezing engines of the TARDIS in the sky, so at least she know she hadn’t dreamt it. A nice callback to that first episode, and a good end to the story.
BIG BAD REPORT / CLEVER THEORY DEPARTMENT –
“You think you’ll just come back to life again?” “When DON’T I?” There’s been two recurring themes to Amy and Rory’s life with The Doctor – death (usually of Rory) and waiting. Amy waited 14 years for The Doctor to return in The Eleventh Hour. Rory guarded the Pandorica for millennia between that and The Big Bang. And in The Girl Who Waited, Amy was lost for decades in a parallel timeline, and her opinion of The Doctor…somewhat soured. Rory’s made a habit of dying, something that’s become a bit of a running joke with both the show and the fans. So it’s quite fitting that in this episode, both themes are referenced. The Old Rory of 1938 is clearly overjoyed to see his Amy again, quite the difference between her reaction to him in The Girl Who Waited. In both cases, the timelines vanished, with only the memories remaining.
Similarly, Rory dies. A lot. Sometimes winked entirely out of existence, sometimes just long enough for be revived after drowning, but it gets to the point where here, he’s betting on his past performance to guarantee future results.
“Does the bulb on top need changing?” “I just changed it” He did too, in Pond Life. But it’s another appearance of a recurring theme that a few folks have mentioned – flickering and dead lightbulbs. They flickered whenever a Dalek Puppet activated in Asylum of the Daleks, Brian was trying to help with one in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, they flickered and sparked all over the place in A Town Called Mercy, power went out a couple times in The Power of Three, and they kept going out all over the place in this episode. Just a common symptom of teleportation or alien power use, or a further suggestion of something else?
NEXT TIME ON DOCTOR WHO – Always a fun and tantalizing question to ask when the next episode isn’t for several months; in this case, Christmas. We know a few things for sure:
Jenna-Louse Coleman will make her premiere as The Doctor’s new Companion. Though after her surprise appearance as Oswin Oswald in Asylum of the Daleks, all expectations are off. It has been rumored, based on overheard lines during location shoots, that her character’s name is Clara. Steven Moffat has said in interviews that one of the things interesting about her is whereThe Doctor meets her. Now, that could mean any number of things – it could refer to the fact that they “met” in Asylum, but I had a Clever Theory of my own back when I heard that. The most surprising place for The Doctor to meet someone would be in the TARDIS itself.
In this interview on the BBC YouTube channel, a young person asks about why/how Jenna (as Oswin) appears in Asylum. The Moff’s answer is telling and maddening – “All of that will be explained in the future … that’s the question I want you asking”. So clearly he does have something insidious planned. He also was adamant that her character was “as yet un-named”, blockading the overheard dialogue.
Richard E. Grant and Tom Ward makes guest appearances in the episode. Richard Grant has played The Doctor TWICE before – once in the oft-referenced Comic Relief special, and once in the animated episode Scream of the Shalka.
Vastra and Jenny (Neve Macintosh and Catrin Stewart) will be back from A Good Man Goes to War, but so will Strax (Dan Starkey), the Sontaran sentenced to serve as a nurse. One wonders if this adventure will take place before or after the events of Good Man.
We’ll see you again then. If you’ve got any requests for Doctor Who articles to keep my busy till then, do let me know.
Banned Books Week, the national celebration of the Freedom to Read, starts this Sunday! Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a sponsor of Banned Books Week, and will be joined in the celebration by members of ComicsPRO, the comics retailer trade association who will be hosting displays and events to raise awareness of the comics that have been banned and challenged!
Muse Comics + Games Banned Comics display, plus thank you gifts for members signing up for CBLDF Membership!
Louisiana
BSI Comics Banned Comics Party on October 5! Plus display and discussion group, CBLDF membership drive and an auction!
Mississippi
Southern Fried Comics Banned Comics shirts & display. For every $5 donation, customers will go in the draw to win a banned books gift pack (and we’ll get 10% off their purchases).
Montana
The Splash Page Banned Comics Display, plus thank you gifts for members signing up for CBLDF Membership! Muse Comics Banned Comics Display, plus thank you gifts for members signing up for CBLDF Membership!
Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy Banned Comics Readout on Wednesday October 3rd starting at 6:00PM. Additionally, a display of banned graphic novels up all week with case files for people to read and a membership drive!
Are you doing a Banned Books Week event? Would you like to get in on the fun and host one? Email us at info@cbldf.org and put Banned Books Week in the subject and we’ll add you to our list! If you’re looking for ways to get involved, check out our How You Can Help page. Want to spread the word? Here’s some handy signage you can print out, and here’s a brochure you can print to spread the word!
Fight Card scores another main event by bringing New Pulp maven Tommy Hancock into the Fight Card Team.Hancock will get his shot at a Fight Card title in early 2013, adding another exciting installment to the Fight Card canon.
Tommy is a writer, editor, publisher, podcast host, and audio voice actor, but beyond all those things he is first and foremost a fan.Pulp, comics, movies, TV, old time radio, and new audio drama, Hancock is steeped in all sorts of pop culture up to the brim of his fedora.
A partner in and Editor in Chief of Pro Se Productions, Hancock is also one of the leading figures in the organization of the New Pulp Movement.Aside from Pro Se, Hancock is also an editor and writer for Moonstone Books, and editor for Kerlak Publishing as well as having written for Airship 27, Age of Adventure, Pulpwork Press, and a few companies where work is still up coming.
The founder and organizer of Pulp Ark, the Official New Pulp Convention, Hancock is also the founder, organizer, and one of the four hosts of PULPED!The Official New Pulp Podcast.
His novel Fight Card: Fight River will be published in March 2013
Got The Avengers DVD on the day of its release and watched it all over again. My Mary and I enjoyed ourselves immensely and, from all indications, so did a lot of other people since its big screen release made more money than all but two other films.
Yes, previous Marvel films (Iron Man 1 and 2, Thor, Captain America, and the last Hulk film) all built up to it. It was great how it took the basic stuff we knew about all of them, including the initial Avengers comics, and was true to them but do you know what really made The Avengers such a juggernaut?
It was accessible.
You don’t need to know anything about the comics. You don’t need even to know anything about the other films. Everything you need to know to sit back and enjoy the movie is in the movie. Yes, if you know your Marvel lore it adds to the enjoyment but the fun of the movie and your understanding of the story is not predicated on that lore.
Over at DC, the Silver Age began when the legendary Julius Schwartz (hallowed be his name) took a bunch of character titles and concepts from the Golden Age, re-imagined them for what were more contemporary tastes, and re-ignited the superhero comic. He wasn’t concerned with continuity with the Golden Age, which was itself never too concerned with internal continuity; he wanted to sell comics.
When Marvel started (as Marvel) back in the Sixties, it started with all new characters at first so they didn’t have continuity problems. Even when they worked in Golden Age characters like Captain America and Namor, you didn’t need to have ever read any of the old stories. Everything you needed to know about those characters were in the stories.
Say that you’ve seen the movie The Avengers and you’d like to read a comic based on what you saw. So you go into a comic book shop and find: The Avengers, The Uncanny Avengers, The New Avengers, The Secret Avengers, Avengers Assemble, Avengers Academy, Dark Avengers, and, if you hurry, Avengers Vs. X-Men. This doesn’t include The Ultimates, which might be closest to the movie. Which one do you choose? And, if you do choose one, can you understand the story? Is it accessible or so caught up in past or current continuity as to not make sense to a casual reader?
I’m not excluding DC either. Say that you saw and liked The Dark Knight Rises and would love to know what happened next. So you go to the comic book store and you will not only find nothing that would tell you what happened next but nothing that isn’t tied to a crossover.
Look, I’m well versed in the ways of continuity. I’ve mined it for my own uses. However, when I started my run on Suicide Squad I essentially dropped everything but the title, even redefining the concept. Yes, I made use of continuity but I never assumed that the reader of the new book would know anything about the old series or care about the old characters.
I work in Star Wars and believe me when I say that the continuity there is as dense and complicated as anything at Marvel or DC. I’ve learned how to negotiate those reef filled waters by either creating new characters or going forward or backwards or even sideways in time. I research the continuity where my stories touch upon it but I don’t get tied down to it.
The ones who care about continuity are the fans and the hardcore fans care about it most. I’ve had all sorts of fans who want to tell a story based upon some obscure plot point that doesn’t fit quite snuggly enough into continuity (or how they perceive it) and explains it all. It’s hard to tell stories based on continuity alone. They’re bloodless. Story comes from characters and their desires and interactions.
This summer we’ve seen a load of very successful superhero movies – The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man (itself a reboot from the last Spider-Man movie which was out only about five years ago). So there is a market out there. Yes, yes – comics and movies are two different media but the concepts are the same in both. Do we want to attract even a portion of that audience? For the survival of a medium we love, all of us – fans and pros alike – need to say yes.
The way to do that is with well-told stories that are accessible to all readers. Mary and I know a friend who watched The Avengers with her grandson and both enjoyed it. And they enjoyed watching it together. That’s something we should aim for.
In the end, if continuity gets in the way of a really good, accessible story, then I say – continuity be damned.
I don’t recall how I first stumbled across the ABC soap opera Dark Shadows back in the 1960s. Normally, back then, I‘d come home from school and watch ‘50s reruns on WNEW or WPIX but somehow, I found the Dan Curtis series and fell for it thanks to the supernatural overtones. It was was heady mix of vampires, werewolves, witches, parallel universes and lots of secrets. When the show reached its conclusion, I was in high school, at a friend’s house and insisted we watch it even though he’d never seen it. I read many of the Marion Ross novels, some of the Gold Key comics, and even the short-lived syndicated strip with terrific Ken Bald artwork. The attempts to revive the series ever since never worked. Ever. So, when I heard both Tim Burton and Johnny Depp were fans, I figured they’d be ideal for a modern film version.
The casting sounded spot on and the first visuals looked great. Then came the first trailer and it was a bit of culture shock, much like Barnabas Collins’ resurrection after 196 years of undead contemplation in the Maine soil. It was quirky and akin to Burton’s Mars Attacks! but I was game to see more. Thankfully, word from screenings indicated the trailers emphasized the quirk and the movie was actually stronger. Perhaps, but not strong enough, and the tepid reviews in the wake of The Avengers meant it was DOA at the box office.
Now we have a chance to re-examine it as Warner Home Video releases the film on disc, notably its Combo Pack (Blu-ray, DVD, Ultraviolet). Visually, it’s stunning, capturing the beauty of Maine, the creepiness of Collinwood mansion and replete with grace notes harkening back to the black and white series, especially the water crashing on the rocks. Danny Elfman’s score eerily echoes the original music and supplements that with songs culled from 1972, punctuating the cultural dissonance experienced by Barnabas.
Depp is well supported by Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Lee Miller, Helena Bonham Carter, Jackie Earle Haley, and Chloe Grace Moretz. In some cases they closely resemble their television counterparts and their characterizations are close enough to be satisfying. Eva Green as Angelique, the witch who cursed him to be a vampire after spurning her love two centuries ago, is trampy, campy and sex as hell.
While the film has all the elements to be a strong remake of the series, it falls apart because of a thin script, surprising for a Burton production. Seth Grahame-Smith’s script, from a story concocted by Smith and John August, hints at many soap opera threads but rarely strays from the core conflict between would-be lovers. Angelique is frustrated because Barnabas’ true love, Josette, has been resurrected as Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote), the newly arrived governess. Further complicating the triangle is the unhealthy interest Dr. Grayson (Carter) has in Barnabas’ vampiric qualities.
The supporting cast is good and does fine with what they’re given, but it’s not enough, especially given how rich and varied the storylines were, which propelled the series for years. We’re reminded of that and Burton deserves credit for including members of the original cast – Jonathan Frid, David Selby, Lara Parker, and Kathryn Leigh Scott—make a cameo appearance at a party. It’s as if they come on scene, have a moment and vanish until needed again which robs the overall film of a richness the material deserves.
The film’s final act, with its pyrotechnic climax was overdone, overlong and totally out of place, more Harryhausen than Curtis.
Depp, with oversized ears and long, tapering clawed fingers, channels Frid’s Barnabas, without the tortured soul that made the original actor an unexpected heartthrob. Instead, he’s devoted to family, playful with the kids, and determined to break the curse that causes him to kill. He is boggled by the technological and cultural changes but it’s all on the surface and worthy of exploration.
As a result, the sum is less than the parts and the movie is a misfire from Burton. For the diehard fans of the cast, director, or series, it’s certainly worth a look. The Blu-ray transfer is both strong with terrific color and sound.
The handful of extras include about 15 minutes of deleted scenes, several of which would have enhanced the film, especially a scene between Barnabas and young David (Gulliver McGrath).You can also watch the film in Maximum Movie Mode that lets you see special featurettes on the casting, production, effects, etc. Thankfully, they are all provided as standalone pieces so you can watch whatever catches your fancy.
(In honor of Banned Books Week (September 30-October 6, 2012) we are reprinting this list from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and will be reprinting lots of stuff from them over the coming week to highlight their efforts. Donate now! —CM)
Banned Books Week is upon us, and it’s telling that the event is more relevant than ever in its 30th year. Given their visual nature and the rampantly held misconception that comic books are for children, comics are among the most challenged and banned books in libraries and schools. Let’s take a look at some frequently challenged and banned comics…
Amazing Spider-Man: Revelations by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita, Jr., and Scott Hanna
• Location of key challenge: A middle-school library in Millard, Nebraska
• Reason challenged: Sexual overtones
The parent of a 6-year-old who checked out the book filed a complaint and took the story to the media; the parent also withheld the book for the duration of the review process rather than returning it per library policy.
• Location of key challenge: Stark County District Library in Canton, Ohio
• Reason challenged: Sexism, offensive language, and unsuited to age group
Despite the challenge, the library retained the book and now holds two copies, which are shelved in the Teen section.
Blankets by Craig Thompson
• Location of key challenge: The public library in Marshall, Missouri
• Reason challenged: Obscene images
CBLDF wrote a letter to the Marshall library on behalf of Blankets and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, playing a key role in keeping both books on shelves.
Bone by Jeff Smith
• Location of key challenge: Independent School District 196 in Rosemount, Minnesota
• Reason challenged: Promotion of smoking and drinking
A letter from Jeff Smith decrying the attempted ban of his book was read aloud at the library review committee’s hearing, and the challenge was ultimately rejected by a 10-1 vote, to the praise of Smith and the CBLDF.
Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama
• Location of key challenge: All public school libraries in Wicomico County, Maryland
• Reason challenged: Violence and nudity
The library review committee recommended that the books in the Dragon Ball series, which were recommended by the publisher for ages 13+, be removed from the entire public school library system, including at the high school level.
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
• Location of key challenge: The public library in Marshall, Missouri
• Reason challenged: Obscene images
CBLDF wrote a letter to the Marshall library on behalf of Fun Home and Craig Thompson’s Blankets, playing a key role in keeping both books on shelves.
Ice Haven by Daniel Clowes
• Location of key challenge: A high school in Guilford, Connecticut
• Reason challenged: Profanity, course language, and brief non-sexual nudity
A high school teacher was forced to resign from his job after a parent filed both a complaint with the school and a police complaint against the teacher for lending a high school freshman a copy of Eightball #22, which was later published as the graphic novel Ice Haven.
In The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
• Location of key challenge: Multiple locations
• Reason challenged: Nudity
In the Night Kitchen was not often removed from shelves; instead, librarians censored it by painting underwear or diapers over the genitals of the main character, a precocious child named Mickey.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
• Location of key challenge: Jessamine County Public Library in Kentucky
• Reason challenged: Sex scenes
Two employees of the Jessamine County Public Library in Kentucky were fired after they took it upon themselves to withhold the library’s copy of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier from circulation because they felt it was pornographic.
Maus by Art Spiegelman
• Location of key challenge: Pasadena Public Library in Pasadena, California
• Reason challenged: Anti-ethnic and unsuited for age group
Nick Smith of the Pasadena Public Library describes the challenge as being “made by a Polish-American who is very proud of his heritage, and who had made other suggestions about adding books on Polish history… The thing is, Maus made him uncomfortable, so he didn’t want other people to read it. That is censorship, as opposed to parental guidance.”
Neonomicon by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows
• Location of key challenge: The public library in Greenville, South Carolina
• Reason challenged: Sexual content
Despite giving her 14-year-old daughter permission to check out the book, which was appropriately shelved in the adult section of the library, a mother filed a complaint, claiming the book was “pornographic.” CBLDF wrote a letter in support of the book, but it remains out of circulation pending review.
Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughn and Niko Henrichon
• Location of key challenge: Various
• Reason challenged: Sexual content
Despite receiving high praise from the ALA and Booklist and featuring a cast consisting of animals, the book has been challenged at libraries for sexual content.
Sandman by Neil Gaiman and various artists
• Location of key challenge: Various
• Reason challenged: Anti-family themes, offensive language, and unsuited for age group
When asked about how he felt when Sandman was labelled unsuitable for teens, Gaiman responded, “I suspect that having a reputation as adult material that’s unsuitable for teens will probably do more to get teens to read Sandman than having the books ready and waiting on the YA shelves would ever do.”
SideScrollers by Matthew Loux
• Location of key challenge: The public school district in Enfield, Connecticut
• Reason challenged: Profanity and sexual references
The school district removed the book from non-compulsory summer reading lists, possibly violating its own review policy, which states in part that “no parent nor group of parents has the right to negate the use of educational resources for students other than his/her own child.” CBLDF wrote a letter in support of the book and is still awaiting a response from the school board.
Stuck in the Middle, edited by Ariel Schrag
• Location of key challenge: The public school system in Dixfield, Maine
• Reason challenged: Language, sexual content, and drug references
CBLDF wrote a letter in support of the book, and the school board voted to leave the book on library shelves with the caveat the students must have parental permission to check out the book. “While we’re pleased to see the book retained in the library’s collection, we’re very disappointed that it is retained with restrictions,” said Executive Director Charles Brownstein.
Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
• Location of key challenge: Montgomery County Memorial Library System, Texas
• Reason challenged: Depiction of homosexuality
The book was challenged alongside 15 other young adult books with gay positive themes. The book was ultimately retained in the Montgomery County system, but was reclassified from Young Adult to Adult.
Tank Girl by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett
• Location of key challenge: Hammond Public Library in Hammond, Indiana
• Reason challenged: Nudity and violence
The Tank Girl books are meant to entertain an adult audience, frequently depicting violence, flatulence, vomiting, sex, and drug use. After the 2009 challenge, the Hammond Public Library chose to retain the book, and it remains on shelves today.
The Color of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa
• Location of key challenge: Various
• Reason challenged: Nudity, sexual content, and unsuited to age group
When the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom released their list of the Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011, the second-most challenged book on that list was The Color of Earth, the first book of a critically-acclaimed Korean manwha, or comic book, series.
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
• Location of key challenge: Various
• Reason challenged: Unsuited to age group
Watchmenreceived a Hugo Award in 1988 and was instrumental in garnering more respect and shelf space for comics and graphic novels in libraries and mainstream bookstores. The inclusion of Watchmen in school library collections has been challenged by parents at least twice, according to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.
Given their visual nature, graphic novels and comic books are among the most-challenged books in libraries and schools. CBLDF is an official sponsor of Banned Books Week, which takes place September 30 – October 6, 2012. Please help support CBLDF’s defense of your right to read by making a donation or becoming a member of the CBLDF!
(CNN) — Would you recognize a roscoe if you see one? Ever run into a gumshoe? Do you take your heroes hard-boiled and your dames dangerous?
If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then dear reader, you will welcome the arrival of a lost novel from a prince of pulp fiction. The book is “The Cocktail Waitress.”
The author is James M. Cain, best known for two noir masterpieces, “The Postman Always Rings Twice” and “Double Indemnity.” Both books sold millions of copies and inspired classic movies. When Cain died in 1977, his fans thought it was the end of the story.
Now, 35 years later, Cain’s last novel is finally reaching readers. So how did this book go from buried treasure to publication?
Credit crime fiction connoisseur Charles Ardai with discovering “The Cocktail Waitress.” Ardai is a longtime Cain fan, an author, editor and the publisher behind the Hard Case Crime series. Ardai helped revive the pulp fiction genre in recent years with a series of popular paperbacks packed with sex, sin and recognized for their tawdry covers.
Years ago, Ardai heard rumors of a lost Cain novel, written at the end of his life but never published. With nearly a decade of detective work, Ardai uncovered “The Cocktail Waitress,” polished the manuscript and this week brings it to bookstores. To fans of old school crime fiction, this book is akin to finding an unheard symphony or a missing oil masterpiece. It has all the hallmarks of classic Cain: lust, greed, betrayal and deception.
It’s the story of beautiful young widow, Joan Medford. After her husband dies under suspicious circumstances, she’s forced to work as a waitress in a cocktail lounge where she meets a handsome young hustler and an aging millionaire. To reveal more would spoil the fun for readers, but suffice to say Joan is not your typical femme fatale. CNN recently spoke to Ardai about the hunt for Cain’s long-lost novel.
The following transcript has been edited for style and brevity:
CNN: Tell me about the hunt for “The Cocktail Waitress.” How did you discover the book?
Ardai: A decade ago, before we ever put out our first book, I was talking with “Road to Perdition” author Max Allan Collins about what sorts of books we might want Hard Case Crime to publish, and he mentioned that he’d heard that there was a last unpublished James M. Cain novel called “The Cocktail Waitress,” written at the very end of Cain’s life, but Max had never seen the book and no one he knew had. Maybe I could find it?
Well, I’d been a huge Cain fan since my freshman year in college, when I’d found a battered copy of “Double Indemnity” on a used book table, and I couldn’t resist this challenge. So I began searching.
The search took nine years. No one I asked seemed to have seen a copy of the manuscript. The Cain estate didn’t have one. None of the collectors or historians I reached out to did. For a while, the more inquiries I put out the less progress I seemed to be making. But I finally thought to ask Joel Gotler, the Hollywood agent who’d inherited the files of H. N. Swanson, Cain’s agent back in the day, and sure enough, there was a copy of the manuscript lurking in Swanson’s files.
But even that wasn’t the end of the search, since it turned out there were several incomplete drafts hiding in the rare manuscript collection of the Library of Congress. …
CNN: This sounds like quite a literary find?
Ardai: Very much so. Cain is considered one of the “big three” in hard-boiled crime fiction, the other two being Dashiell Hammett (“The Maltese Falcon”) and Raymond Chandler (“The Big Sleep”). Chandler and Hammett defined the hard-boiled detective story, but when you take the detective away and just focus on the criminals — the story of a femme fatale out to kill her husband for the insurance money and the lust-blinded sap she seduces into doing the deed — then you’re on Cain’s turf.
He completely owned that type of sordid, desperate crime story. And finding an unpublished manuscript by Cain — it’s like finding a lost Steinbeck novel, or a lost Hemingway, or if you’re a music lover a lost score by George Gershwin. A last chance to hear a great voice from the past, taking you on one last wild ride.
CNN: Once you found the novel, your work was not over. There was quite a bit of revision and editing before the novel’s release.
Ardai: Cain worked and reworked this novel several times at the end of his life, which was presumably why it never got published — he was still working on it when he died. But just to be clear, this doesn’t mean the book was incomplete; on the contrary, he completed at least two full drafts, and then also had various partial drafts that petered out after anywhere from 1 to 100 pages. Which left me with an editing challenge: How to put together a single, complete final draft out of all the material Cain left behind?
In some cases, it was clear that Cain had made a choice he wanted to stick with — for instance, after writing his first draft in the third person, all subsequent drafts were penned in the first person. So first person clearly was his preference.
But in other places, it was less clear what he’d have preferred, so we had to just go with the version we felt was stronger. But in the end, this is what an editor always does — work with an author’s draft to make it the strongest book you possibly can.
It’s easier when the author is alive and can answer questions, but this is hardly the first posthumous book we’ve published. We’ve had similar situations with Donald E. Westlake and Roger Zelazny and David Dodge, among others. So I could draw on that experience when working on this book.
CNN: How does the novel hold up for today’s audience?
Ardai: Oh, it’s great. Part of the reason is that it’s set smack in the heart of the “Mad Men” era, which is certainly not a turnoff for today’s audience. But a bigger reason is that Cain’s themes are timeless.
The dialogue and clothing and hairstyles might remind you you’re reading about the past, but men still kill each other over the love of a beautiful woman today; women still hunger for men who aren’t their husbands; people still find themselves in dire situations, desperate for money and forced to take a degrading job to provide for their children.
The danger in the book, the threats, the pain, the horror of losing a loved one — these are things that never go away.
CNN: “The Cocktail Waitress” is written from the point of view of Joan Medford. How would you describe her?
Ardai: The thing that makes Joan unusual is that she’s the narrator of the book. Usually in Cain’s novels, it’s a man who’s narrating and you see the femme fatale through his eyes — beautiful, sultry, ice cold one minute and burning hot the next, more than a little mysterious. But here Cain makes the brave choice to put us inside the head of the femme fatale herself, which makes her a much richer and more complex character.
No femme fatale thinks she is one or will admit it if she does. From her point of view, she’s just a woman who’s acting reasonably while the world goes mad around her. Do the men in her life drop like flies? Perhaps — but it’s not her fault! This chance to see a classic femme fatale from the inside out is part of what makes “The Cocktail Waitress” so fascinating, and so daring.
CNN: As an award-winning writer, editor and publisher of crime fiction, Cain must have had a great influence on you.
Ardai: No question. The pair of novels I wrote as Richard Aleas — “Little Girl Lost” and “Songs of Innocence” — were directly inspired by Cain. They’re the story of a young man blinded by his love for two beautiful women, who finds himself doing terrible things as a result.
Before I wrote them, I read every book Cain had ever published. He was my muse. As you can imagine, it was an honor and a privilege to get to work on Cain’s final novel, to have a hand in bringing this last lost dollop of darkness to light.
Fight Card is excited to announce the addition of Derrick Ferguson and Terrence P. McCaulley to the Fight Card Team of two-fisted, hard-punching, writers who will have fighters slugging it out on the pages of Fight Card main events in 2013.
New Pulp sensation Derrick Ferguson – the creator of the modern pulp hero Dillon– is a native of Brooklyn, New York. His interests include radio/audio drama, Classic Pulp from the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and the current New Pulp movement.
With his podcast partner, Thomas Deja, Derrick currently co-hosts the Better In The Dark podcast where he rants and raves about movies on a bi-weekly basis. Derrick is also a rotating co-host of the PULPED! podcast, where he interview writers of the New Pulp Movement as well as discusses the various themes, topics, ebb and flow of what constitutes New Pulp and why you should be reading it.
Terrance P. McCauley
His books include, Dillon and the Voice of Odin, Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell, FourBullets For Dillon, Dillon And The Pirates of Xonira, and The Adventures of Fortune McCall, all of which are available through Amazon.com as paperbacks and ebooks.
Terrence P. McCauley is a proud native of the Bronx, NY. He first gained recognition as a writer by winning TruTV’s Search for the Next Great Crime Writer contest in 2008.
You ready to step into the ring?
His short story Blood Moon of 1931 appeared in Matt Hilton’s Acton: Pulse Pounding Tales Vol. 1 and his short story Lady Madeline’s Dive appeared in the first edition relaunch of Thug Lit in 2012. Both anthologies are available for the Kindle at Amazon.com. His novels include, The Slow Burn from Noir Nation Books (as an e-book), and Prohibition from Airship 27, both of which will be published in late 2012.
McCauley’s novel Fight Card: will be released in January 2013.
Ferguson’s Fight Card: Brooklyn Beatdown will be released in February 2013.
