Monthly Archive: November 2012

THE AVENGER BRINGS JUSTICE (INC.) TO IPULP

News
November 9, 2012

Pulp action adventure hero The Avenger debuts this week on www.iPulpFiction.com in thrilling original stories from Moonstone Books. First up: Introducing The Other Man of Steel by Howard Hopkins and The White Curse by Will Murray.

About The Avenger:
Out of tragedy, a hero is born! In the roaring heart of the crucible, steel is made. In the raging flame of personal tragedy, men are sometimes forged into something more than human. Wealthy and successful at an early age, Richard Benson was preparing to enjoy a long and happy life with his family when crime took away his wife and young daughter. Once he was just a man, but now he is a machine of vengeance dedicated to the extermination of all crime. A figure of ice and steel, but more pitiless than both, Benson has become a symbol to crooks and killers–a terrible, almost impersonal force, masking cold genius and a nearly supernatural power behind a face as white and still as a dead man’s mask. Only pale eyes, like ice in a polar dawn, hint at what awaits criminals when they invoke the rage of millionaire adventurer Richard Benson – The Avenger!

Now, for the first time in over 30 years, the fearless/expressionless crime fighter; the man with the moldable face, the man with the shock white hair and the pale grey eyes, is back in action in a stunning collection of stories featuring all the action, adventure, and revenge Avenger fans have come to expect! From noir adventure and two-fisted action, to emotional tales of inner demons, join The Avenger for the E-ticket thrill ride of your life!

Learn more about iPulp Fiction at www.iPulpFiction.com.
Learn more about Moonstone Books at www.moonstonebooks.com.

Also, look for more great tales from Moonstone Books at iPulp Fiction.

The Point Radio: Lori’s Return On THE WALKING DEAD

Podcasts
November 9, 2012

We’ve got more with THE WALKING DEAD‘s two latest casualties, Sarah Wayne Callis and IronE Singleton. We cover it all from Lori’s Haters, IronE’s surprise at his fate and the possibility that Sarah might have a chance to return to the show. Plus DC goes digital in an even bigger way and we move two steps closer to that ELFQUEST movie.

The Point Radio – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Martha Thomases: The Future Is All Right

Columns
November 9, 2012

The electricity, heat, hot water, Internet and phone service all work today. Even my elevator works. Doing without is last week’s news.

This week’s news is the election. As I write this, people are voting. We won’t have results until tonight at the earliest. Since I’ve voted already, I’m going to try to ignore the media until the polls close. There’s nothing more I can do, and that is frustrating. I want to do everything, and I can’t. If you are a spiritual person, pray for me.

For the last few years, my Republican brother-in-law has been telling me that the problem with the economy (and Obama’s presidency) is “uncertainty.” Because job-creators don’t know what Obama will do, they hesitate to expand, to hire more people, because what if they make the wrong choice? As someone who started a business (albeit in 1979), I can report that I never knew what was going to happen, nor did I expect to. It was my responsibility to make things happen.

According to Aaron Ross Sorkin in The New York Times, the election won’t make any difference in solving this problem, even if things go my brother-in-law’s way.

What will the future bring? We don’t know. When I was a kid, I thought the future meant I’d have a jetpack, or a flying (electric) car, and my clothes would have those pads on the shoulders like everyone wore on Krypton and the Legion of Super-Heroes. My apartment would clean itself. I thought we’d get our meals in pill form. I thought we’d wear Dick Tracy two-way radios.

Instead, we’re still dependent on fossil fuels. That’s bad. We don’t have pills for dinner. That’s good. I couldn’t have predicted the local food movement, but I’m really happy because now I can tell the difference among 15 different kinds of apples.

Then there are the things I didn’t even think about to form a prediction. Gay marriage became legal instead of marriage fading away as an institution. Instead of working a George Jetson three-hour work week, we expect employees to put in 50 hours or more. I don’t have a robot maid, but I could have a robot vacuum cleaner if I wanted. I could have a robot dog. I carry around more computing power in my pocket than there was on the entire Star Ship Enterprise. That’s dazzling, even if I use a lot of it to send photos of my cat.

We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. That’s what makes life interesting.

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman

James Bond theme songs, from worst to first

Reviews
November 9, 2012

The James Bond films are a part of the American pop culture landscape. Like another British perennial, Doctor Who, you have your favorite, but you never forget your first Bond. And almost more so than the films’ effect on us are the film’s theme songs. Each one is memorable in its own way, some are standards, and some are positively iconic, recognizable after only two or three notes.

With the new film, Skyfall, out this weekend, I’ve taken a listen to them all. And after much debate and shifting about, The Management has compiled a list of fifty years of James Bond theme songs, ranking them from bottom to top.

As is true of any list like this, there will be more than a little dissent. We invite you to use the comments section to express your opinions. Comparisons of the author’s intelligence and/or musical taste to various species of flora and fauna will not be conducive to a spirited argument.

Hall of Fame

Certain songs, as a result of being used in numerous Bond films, or simply because they’re so awesome as they’d take up place in the top of the list, have been accorded the honor of being placed on a dais above the competition, looking down upon the battleground in the way royalty watches a fine joust with detached satisfaction.

James Bond Theme – Rather an obvious one here. technically it is the theme from the first Bond film, Dr. No (1962), but became almost synonymous with the character. It’s appeared in every film since, and rightly so. Monty Norman could have laid his pencil down and never composed again, and he still would get to go straight to Heaven.

007 Theme – First appearing in From Russia With Love and appearing in several films since, usually as background to a chase or fight scene, it’s another John Barry masterpiece, with its high brass and percussion.

Honorable Mention

These songs are either not from the official Bond series, or in one case, was not used, but are so thematically tied to the films that they deserve mention.

Casino Royale – Not the recent Daniel Craig film, but the screwball comedy with David Niven, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, Daliah Lavi, and in that order. With a score and main theme by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and the classic “The Look of Love” by Mr. Burt Bacharach, it’s a chaotic jumboort of a film, as memorable as any of the main series.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – This theme song was originally intended to be the theme for Thunderball, but after versions were recorded by both Dionne Warwick and the grande dame of Bond, Shirley Bassey, the song was scrapped for the Tom Jones number with which we are all acquainted. The decision was that the song needed to incorporate the title (a rule that fell by the wayside in later years, as you shall see. Recent releases of the film’s soundtrack feature both recordings. There’s an urban legend that maintains that “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” is the Japanese name for 007. It is from this song that both the 2005 film and the first episode of Torchwood got their name.

Never Say Never Again – The history of Kevin McClory is a long one. To summarize, he was the first person to have the film rights to Bond, helped write the screenplay that eventually became the novel Thunderball, and got writer’s credit on the novel (after a court case) and held the film rights to Thunderball until his death. He also held the film rights to SPECTRE, which is why the organization stopped appearing in the films after that one. He tried many times to use his filmrights, but the only successful attempt was this film, in which they got Sean Connery to trturn to the role that made him world-famous. The song is quite good, incorporates the theme well, and come on, it’s Sean Connery as Bond again, I refuse to give anything in the film a serious dig. Yes, EVEN the hologrammy-shocky video game.

Spy Hard – The film was one of a long series of film spoofs in the Airplane! mold, starring Leslie Nielsen. But it’s the theme song by “Weird Al” Yankovic that we honor here. An original song, in the style of Bond themes, particularly Thunderball (with an obvious nod to the end of Goldfinger), sung by Al, over a Bond-esque title sequence, also directed by him, his first foray into directing.

Dr. Evil theme – from the second Austin powers film, The Spy Who Shagged Me, the song, by Brooklyn’s ambassadors of love, They Might Be Giants, and performed by John Flansburgh’s wife Robin Goldwasser, is a note-perfect sendup of the “villain song” that many Bond films have featured as their main theme.

Goodbye, Mr. Bond – by Buffalo-based rock band Blotto, the song was the last tune on their third album, Combo Akimbo. Singer Bowtie Blotto took the role of the baddie who had the joy of welcoming the superspy to his “fortress retreat”. It features a number of original but very 007-reminiscent motifs, as well as witty lyrics that you could easily hear come from any Bond villain, and probably have.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbKNwEVF3Wo[/youtube]

MYSTERY MEN (& Women) VOL. 3 DEBUTS FROM AIRSHIP 27

News
November 8, 2012

Cover Art: Marco Turini

Airship 27 release its 14th title of 2012.

PRESS RELEASE!

THEY’RE BACK!

Airship 27 Productions is excited to announce the release of their third MYSTERY MEN (& Women) anthology celebrating the creations of brand new pulp heroes to follow in the steps of the classic avengers of old. Managing Editor, Ron Fortier explains it this way, “After doing new stories of classic pulp heroes for nearly four years, many of our writers starting getting the itch to invent their own original pulp characters. This anthology series addresses that need and has been a huge hit with all our readers.”

As in the first two volumes in this series, a quartet of today’s most ambitious pulp writers put on their creative caps and have whipped up four thrilling brand new pulp adventures crammed with wall-to-wall action. In MYSTERY MEN (& Women) Vol III we get to meet three brand new characters and have the pleasure of enjoying the return of a familiar character from volume two.

THE SKEIN – A black veteran of World War One returns home to the bayou country only confront an evil practitioner of the voodoo magic is turning living people into lifeless zombies. Donning his old doughboy uniform and a gasmask, the Skein is born to protect the innocent and defeat the wicked, written and created by Kevin Noel Olson

THE BROWN RECLUSE – Next, in the grand tradition of the old pulp magazines comes a new series that focuses not on the stalwart heroes of the tale but rather on its dastardly villain. A mad scientist whose genius is capable of inventing the most bizarre weapons, the Brown Recluse has but one goal in mind, the complete domination of all mankind under his heel. He is the invention of writer by Greg Gick

KIRI – A beautiful female samurai comes to New York in the early 1930s employed as the personal aid to a newspaper business woman wanting to clean up the city from vice and corruption. Along the way, Kiri stumbles on a white slavery ring connected to a former ally who murdered her teacher back in Japan. Suddenly her mission becomes that of personal vengeance and before it is over blood will be spilled. Airship 27 Productions is thrilled to welcome gifted writer Curt Ferlund to our ranks and premier this truly wonderful new pulp hero.

MONGREL (Chapter Two) – And lastly the saga of the modern day action hero, Mongrel, continues in this second chapter picking up where the first ended. There is a conspiracy to destroy Mongrel’s family, the owners of a multi-faceted high tech communications empire. Using disguised, sophisticated cyborg assassins, the enemy strikes from the shadows. This is Airship 27 Productions’ first on-going chapter serial and is presented by the creator of Dillon, the one and only Derrick Ferguson.

Airship 27 Productions’ 14^th title of the year features a stunning cover by artist Marco Turini with interior illustrations and designs by Art Director Rob Davis. Here once more are four fast-paced, colorful heroes created in the spirit of the golden age pulp avengers and brought to you by the publisher where adventure reigns. Airship 27 Productions. PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!

Now Available at Create Space – (https://www.createspace.com/4049994)

Within 7 to 10 days at Amazon and Kindle.

As a PDF Digital Download Now at our Website.

(http://robmdavis.com/Airship27Hangar/index.airshipHangar.html)

And in two weeks as a POD from – (http://indyplanet.com/store/)

WHITE ROCKET LOOKS AT SUPERHEROES IN NOVELS AND BEYOND

Podcasts
November 8, 2012

On this week’s episode of the White Rocket Podcast (now part of the ESO Network), Author Van Allen Plexico is joined by his longtime friend and collaborative partner, Robert J. Politte for a wide-ranging discussion of superheroes in various media–especially including the new and growing field of independent superhero novels. They also discuss influences from their favorite comic book stories and creators of the past. Find The white Rocket Podcast episode 3 on iTunes or at: http://whiterocket.podbean.com/

Plus, Van introduces the White Rocket Podcast on episode 136 of the Earth Station One podcast this week.

Toys on the Hudson offers Holiday Shopping Alternative

Press Releases
November 8, 2012

Jersey City, NJ (November 8, 2012) – Toys on the Hudson is pleased to announce the tri-state area’s first family-focused toy fair. Developed as a shopping alternative to Black Friday, Toys on the Hudson offers families and collectors an opportunity to discover unique gifts, meet celebrities and enjoy photo opportunities in more than 18,000 square feet of floor space.

Featured will be over 100 tables of vintage and current hard-to-find toys, comics and collectibles covering unique gift ideas for lovers of movie memorabilia, DVDs, Disney, anime, small antiques, action figures, tin, sports & non-sports, Barbie, original art and classic monster collectibles.

“We’re excited to offer a fun, alternative family activity during the busy post-Thanksgiving weekend,” said Phil DeMario, co-promoter of Toys on the Hudson. “This is a great event for both families and seasoned collectors who are looking for a different shopping experience and unique gift after they’ve fought the mall crowds.”

Many celebrities will be on hand including Steve Savino from the Toy Hunter TV series with visits by Jordan Hembrough, The “Pizza Boss” TV Pizza Tossing sensation Michael Testa, The Brady Bunch’s Geri Reischl, A Christmas Story’s Ian Patrella and many more movie and TV celebrities. Toys on the Hudson will also offer great photo opportunities for families and fans with the Batmobile, the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin and Star Wars costumed characters.

“Toys on the Hudson is the perfect place to shop for the comic collector on your holiday list, as the entire Grand Ballroom is transformed into a Comic Collectors dream with over 50 tables of vintage and collectible comics, artists, authors and related merchandise,” said Mike Spino, co-promoter of Toys on the Hudson.

There will be a mix of vintage and new toys at show. “We’re excited to bring our newest Captain Action toys and collectibles to Toys on the Hudson for this exciting weekend,” said retropreneur Ed Catto, co-founder of Captain Action Enterprises.

“Toys on the Hudson might be a great way to sell your own treasures, too. Attendees can bring a toy or collectible and have it appraised by one of the many on site appraisers,” added Phil DeMario.

For the “serious-must-have-first” collector, the show opens Black Friday Evening with a Preview Night for anyone who wants a chance to shop while the dealers put the finishing touches to their booths.

The 3 day event starts on Black Friday, November 23, 2012 at 5:00 pm and continues all weekend. The event is held at the Westin Newport Hotel, on the banks of the Hudson River, adjacent to Newport Mall, 495 Washington Blvd Jersey City, N.J. The hotel is accessible from PATH, NYC and all NJ public transit. Parking is adjacent to hotel and is validated by select local restaurants. More detailed information can be found on Toys on the Hudson facebook page or at www.toysonthehudson.com .

REVIEW: Ruby Sparks

Reviews
November 8, 2012

A writer’s character coming to life is nothing new. It was done effectively on The Twilight Zone and Sharon Stone even portrayed a muse come to life to bedevil Albert Brooks. As a result, the premise behind the charming Ruby Sparks is not at all fresh but the approach is what makes this small film well worth your time and attention. That it is heartfelt and well-constructed is to be expected considering the movie comes from Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris who first caught our attention with Little Miss Sunshine. They have been missed.

Paul Dano is Calvin, an author who hit his first novel out of the park and has been struggling to remain commercially relevant ever since (think Jonathan Franzen). Then, finally, he creates a character, Ruby, who genuinely stirs his soul thanks to a prompt given him by his therapist (Elliott Gould). The pages flow easily for the first time in a decade. A week later, though, Ruby (Zoe Kazan) has come to life and is found sitting on his couch, ready to experience life. Ruby is 26, doesn’t own a computer and always roots for the underdog, something Calvin most certainly is.

What does one do when the woman of his dreams is made manifest? If he imagined her to life, can he or should he alter her to his exact specifications? And that is what propels the remainder of the film, a sitcom version of magical realism. Does he share her with the world, make love to her, or admire her from afar? His brother Harry (Chris Messina) says jump her after realizing she is the women Calvin has been writing about.

What starts out as a pretty funny comedy takes on serious tones as we progress and the shifting mood isn’t smoothly handled. It raises some interesting question and only partially answers them, leaving you somewhat entertained, somewhat dissatisfied. This is about Calvin growing up and we watch him flail all over the place despite a support system including his mom and his step-father (nice cameos from Annette Bening and Antonio Banderas). Calvin remains a mess, still in pain after breaking up with his last girlfriend (Deborah Ann Woll), and has a tough relationship with his lousy literary agent (Steve Coogan).

Dano and Kazan are wonderful together, ably supported by the deep, veteran cast. They rise above the film when the material gets weak or meanders but overall leave you entertained from beginning to end. This could have benefitted from a stronger script but still remains entertaining and thoughtful, not at all a bad combination.

The transfer to Blu-ray by 20^th Century Home Entertainment is excellent and the disc comes with the standard assortment of special features. Most feel like they came from the press materials with little shot specifically for the disc. You get a handful of pieces ranging in length from three minutes to four minutes, never letting you delve deep into the film itself.

Actor leaves Neil Gaiman “Doctor Who” script in cab, obvious happens

News
November 8, 2012

Bleeding Cool has a report of a very lucky person who found something lost in the back of a Cardiff cab – a copy of the readthrough script for Neil Gaiman’s upcoming Doctor Who episode. Providing only a photo of the cover and a snippet of the cast list, it provides a number of spoilers, including:

The title of the episode (assuming it doesn’t change – Neil’s first episode, The Doctor’s Wife was originally titled The House of Nothing among other names)
The names of both Warwick Davis’ and, perhaps more importantly, verification of Jenna-Louise Coleman’s character.
Presumably, the name of the actor who lost the script, as it’s printed in big gray letters on the cover (and one must assume, every page) so it can be easily tracked whose it is in case, well, in case it gets left in a cab.

After much soul-searching, this reporter has chosen not to disclose these facts, for the sake of maintaining the fun of not knowing what cometh. But it’s up at the link above.

The image first appeared on FaceBook, and since moved to Reddit, where it has garnered much interest, including, eventually, that of the BBC, who have made arrangements to have it returned. One must assume a brief neuralyzer session will follow.

Review: “The Book of Human Insects” by Osamu Tezuka

Reviews
November 8, 2012

Some writers love their characters, and can hardly bear to have anything bad happen to them. Osamu Tezuka, though, is not one of them: particularly in his books for adults, like MW, Ayako, Ode to Kirihito, and Apollo’s Song, he creates profoundly damaged — and damaging — characters, and then sets them up to bounce off each other like frenzied fighting cocks until he’s satisfied.

[[[The Book of Human Insects]]] is another work in that vein, though even more so — its main character is a cuckoo of a woman, who “steals” the creative abilities of every person she comes into contact with, doing what they do just a bit better and more impressive and leaving them wrung out and ruined when she moves on. It’s from that period in Tezuka’s career when he was focusing on comics like this — it was serialized in Play Comic during 1970 and 71, at roughly the same time as Ode and Apollo. And, to be honest, the people that Toshiko Tomura (or any of her many other names) steals from aren’t much better than she is — they’re certainly not innocent, or anything more than slightly better than she is.

Tomura has just won a major literary award with her first book as Human Insects opens — but, as we come to see, that means it’s time for her to move on, since she can only have one great achievement in any field. (Since they’re not her achievements, really, except in that she takes them and makes them hers.) Human Insects follows Tomura as she stalks forward into new territory, and we also slowly discover the people — men, primarily; this is a story from the early ’70s and could be read as a curdled take on a certain kind of feminism — that she’s already met, seduced, co-opted, and abandoned already.

A Western story of the same era would probably spend a long time psychologizing about Tomura, explaining why she is the way she is, with references to her childhood traumas and whatnot. Tezuka, coming out of a different tradition, just presents Tomura: we see some hints of her past, and she clearly doesn’t have a healthy relationship with that, but there’s none of the deadening “now I’ll explain everything to you” that an American would have felt compelled to include in 1970. Tomura is nasty and manipulative and utterly self-centered: that’s just who she is. And, because that’s who she is, she will win, even when faced with men more powerful and seemingly as ruthless as she is.

Human Insects is not the most pleasant read, in common with Tezuka’s other books of this era: in a world full of scoundrels and bastards, there is only nastiness and back-stabbing. And Human Instincts doesn’t have the supernatural majesty of Ode to Kirihito or the epic family-saga sweep of Ayako (or the pure feral energy of MW), so it’s pleasures are at a more human scale, and driven by schadenfreude and bemused head-shaking. These are nasty people doing nasty things, but we recognize them all: Tezuka makes them all very real nasty people, doing exaggerated, large-scale versions of the kind of petty slights we see every day. Human Insects is a misanthropic book, as you’d expect from the title, but not an unconvincing one.