Monthly Archive: January 2013

FORTIER TAKES ON ‘TARZAN-THE GREYSTOKE LEGACY’!

  • News
  • January 30, 2013

ALL PULP REVIEWS by Ron Fortier
TARZAN-The Greystoke Legacy
By Andy Briggs
Open Road Media
177 pages
tarzan-2881523

We’d vaguely heard mention someone was going to be re-launching a new, modern version of Tarzan a while back then promptly forgot all about it.  These kind of re-imaginings have been tried before with various pulp heroes; most of them have failed miserably and are better left forgotten.  Thus when one of the marketing agents for Open Road Media contacted us about reviewing Andy Briggs new Tarzan books we were curious enough to accept their gracious invitation.  The books arrived two weeks ago (they are also available as Ebooks) and we were anxious to dig into them.
It is important that we make it resoundingly clear that Tarzan of the Apes as created and written by Edgar Rice Burroughs is one of ourfavorite fictional characters.  Having discovered Burroughs books in paperback format during our teenyears, we devoured most of them and particularly cherish the first two; “Tarzan of the Apes” and “The Return of Tarzan.”  Together they tell one of the most amazing yarns ever put to paper and from which an entire cottage industry was born.  Tarzan is easily one of the most recognizable figures of all times and has been portrayed in movies (starting with the silent era), TV series, comic books, radio and who knows what else.  His venerable tale is of man’s daily struggles with survival, the preservation of his natural environment and the steadily encroaching beast that is modern civilization.
After having read, “Tarzan : The Greystoke Legacy,” we confess to having been wonderfully surprised at just how well it was both conceived and executed.  Briggs is a truly talented writer who is obviously a true fan of Burroughs’ original stories and he reshapes the origin of the Ape Man with both a logical presentation and a great deal of reverence for the classic source material.  Unlike Burroughs, who lived in a time when his background setting for Tarzan was a still largely unexplored “Dark” Continent, Briggs is challenged to offer us a hero whose jungle home is a rapidly dwindling landscape endangered daily by multiple factions.
Burroughs never once, in his many books, ever offered us scientific details of the wildlife and flora of the savage jungle he wrote about.  Not so in this retelling.  Yet, despite his handicap of portraying an authentic wilderness, Briggs never loses sight of the intrinsic nature of his hero; Tarzan is a savage being nurtured by the law of the jungle.  He kills his enemies and protects his friend, be they beast or human.
Jane Porter is a troubled, lonely young woman, who has followed her father into Congo where he and his partner are operating anillegal tree-cutting operation.  When mysterious acts of vandalism begin plaguing the camp and slowing down the work, those in charge believe the sabotage to be the work of militant rebels hiding deeper in the jungle.  One night someone sets fires to the machinery and Jane, disorientated by an explosion, awakens to find herself lost in the jungle.  When he is found and rescued by a half naked white man calling himself Tarzan, she is propelled into an adventure that will both alter her world view and awaken an inner strength and courage she didn’t know she possessed.  All because of this strange, mysterious man who dwells amongst the giant apes of the forest.
The last thing this reviewer desires is to spoil the exuberant, grand adventure this book presents by giving away scenes that are both fresh while echoing the iconic trappings of this legendary figure.  “Tarzan : The Greystorke Legacy,” is a rousing, hugely entertaining read that respects it heritage while offering us a truly exciting “new” Tarzan for our times.  We can’t wait to dig into book two.  Stat tuned, Tarzan fans.

Mike Gold: Squeeze Batman Until He Bleeds!

  • Uncategorized
  • January 30, 2013

gold-art-130139-6850424

Pop quiz: Who’s that guy over to your left with the bowler hat and the two guns blazin’ away?

To nobody’s surprise, Cartoon Network (an arm of Time Warner) cancelled Young Justice and Green Lantern and will be replacing them next summer with an original cast return of Teen Titans and the long-lurking Beware The Batman. So here’s a clue: yes, that piece of art is from Beware The Batman.

OK, I’m a relic but I’m a relic who has a hell of a lot more than a passing familiarity with The Batman mythos, and a crucial part of that mythos, one of the only truly enduring parts of The Batman mythos, is his antipathy towards guns.

So it’s kind of surprising to see Batman’s butler Alfred being recast as – literally – an ex-secret agent who likes to run around doing the one thing that Batman – the “real” Batman – would never, ever do: run head-first into a situation with his two guns blazin’ away, presumably at the bad guys.

Hey, you know what they say. Guns don’t kill. Butlers kill.

Bats and Alfred aren’t alone in this new endeavor: Katana will bravely and boldly go where no ‘Toon has gone before. And if you think there will be a bed scene with Kat and Alfred, you’re thinking harder than they are.

Beware The Batman is produced by Warner Bros. Animation, which is part of Time Warner’s Warner Bros. division. DC Comics is also part of Time Warner’s Warner Bros. division. Some readers – including a ComicMix columnist or two – have suggested that perhaps Warner Bros. doesn’t have a clue about the DC properties, that they are only there to mold and reshape at will according to what some otherwise unemployable 23 year old thinks is cool at that moment in time.

This latest attempt to resurrect the success of the brilliant Batman Animated series from 20 years ago, evidently by people who either didn’t see it or didn’t understand it. The show will be featuring villains new to Batanimation although, again from the look of the promo art, they seem to be clones of the villains from Bob Clampett’s classic Warner Bros. cartoon The Great Piggy Bank Robbery. But I’ll bet the latest crop of Warner animators don’t know that. From watching their output, I doubt they even know of Bob Clampett.

Oh, yes. One exciting thing more. The press release claims Beware The Batman features “cutting-edge CGI visuals.” You mean, like Green Lantern did? Oh, wow.

DC Nation. Another banana republic, without the class or style.

THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil

 

 

UCHRONIC PRESS ANNOUNCES LATEST UCHRONIC TALE- THE STUDIO SPECTRE!

  • Uncategorized
  • January 30, 2013
PRESS RELEASE-The Uchronic Press is proud to announce the third novella in the Uchronic Tales line—The Studio Spectre.



This time around, Clark Tyler finds himself on a movie lot with a killer on the loose. The rumors had always warned that the lot was haunted, but this time it seems the Spectre is out to kill Hollywood’s hottest starlet.

W. Peter Miller (The Zeppelin, The Horn) brings another exciting pulp action tale to the Uchronic series. Dames, death, and Tinseltown are the backdrop for this mystery in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Is the Spectre real, or an elaborate hoax? The Jade Monk joins forces with Clark as they hunt for The Studio Spectre!

The eBook is on sale now at Amazon and the Nook store and just about everywhere else eBooks are sold. The paperback is at Amazon. The book features a stunning cover by Mike Fyles and is packed with thrill, chills, and a firetruck chase through the streets of Hollywood! How many books can say that!

The Uchronic Press serves reader that crave action, excitement, and a bit of an edge to their pulp adventure fiction. Or stories take place in a alternate past, a Uchronic world greatly like our own, but with a dash more mystery, danger, and the macabre. Here you will find heroic adventure, outlandish science, ferocious alchemy, and an alternate history just slightly larger than our own.

Look for other adventures featuring perilous airships, lost civilizations, and earth-shattering danger!

For more information visit:
UchronicTales.com
docsavagetales.blogspot.com

UCHRONIC PRESS ANNOUNCES LATEST UCHRONIC TALE- THE STUDIO SPECTRE!

  • Uncategorized
  • January 30, 2013

PRESS RELEASE-The Uchronic Press is proud to announce the third novella in the Uchronic Tales line—The Studio Spectre.

This time around, Clark Tyler finds himself on a movie lot with a killer on the loose. The rumors had always warned that the lot was haunted, but this time it seems the Spectre is out to kill Hollywood’s hottest starlet.

W. Peter Miller (The Zeppelin, The Horn) brings another exciting pulp action tale to the Uchronic series. Dames, death, and Tinseltown are the backdrop for this mystery in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Is the Spectre real, or an elaborate hoax? The Jade Monk joins forces with Clark as they hunt for The Studio Spectre!

The eBook is on sale now at Amazon and the Nook store and just about everywhere else eBooks are sold. The paperback is at Amazon. The book features a stunning cover by Mike Fyles and is packed with thrill, chills, and a firetruck chase through the streets of Hollywood! How many books can say that!

The Uchronic Press serves reader that crave action, excitement, and a bit of an edge to their pulp adventure fiction. Or stories take place in a alternate past, a Uchronic world greatly like our own, but with a dash more mystery, danger, and the macabre. Here you will find heroic adventure, outlandish science, ferocious alchemy, and an alternate history just slightly larger than our own.

Look for other adventures featuring perilous airships, lost civilizations, and earth-shattering danger!

For more information visit:
UchronicTales.com
docsavagetales.blogspot.com

DOC SAVAGE MEETS KING KONG IN NEXT WILD ADVENTURE FROM ALTUS PRESS!

  • News
  • January 29, 2013
200px-docsavage-5725610

Eighty years ago in February, 1933 the Street & Smith company released the first issue of Doc Savage Magazine, introducing one of the most
kingkongstylea-8500100popular and influential pulp superheroes ever to hit the American scene.
Doc Savage was the greatest adventure and scientist of his era, and
while his magazine ended in 1949, he influenced the creators of
Superman, Batman, Star Trek, The Man from UNCLE and the Marvel
Universe—to name only a few.

While that first issue of Doc Savage was fresh on Depression newsstands,
RKO Pictures released one of the most important fantasy films of
all time. Everyone knows the story of how King Kong was discovered on
Skull Island and hauled back to New York in chains, only to perish
tragically atop the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Empire State
Building.

As it happened, that was where Doc Savage had his world headquarters.
For decades, fans have wondered: Where was Doc the day Kong fell?

On the eightieth anniversary of these fictional giants, Altus Press is
proud to release the first authorized clash between The Man of Bronze
and the Eighth Wonder of the World—Doc Savage: Skull Island.Written
by Will Murray in collaboration with Joe DeVito, creator of KONG: King
of Skull Island, Doc Savage: Skull Island is a new pulp epic.

The story opens when Doc returns from his Fortress of Solitude in the
North Pole to discover the cold corpse of Kong lying on his doorstep.

“I know this creature,” he tells his dumbfounded men.

Tasked to dispose of the remains, the Man of Bronze then tells the
untold story of his epic encounter with Kong back in 1920, after Doc
returns from service in World War I, long before Kong became King Kong.

Doc Savage: Skull Island is a multi-generational story in which Doc and
his father—the man who placed him in the hands of scientists who
made him into a superman—sail to the Indian Ocean in search of Doc’s
grandfather, the legendary Stormalong Savage, whose famous ship has been
discovered floating, deserted, her masts snapped by some incredible
force.

The quest for Stormalong Savage leads to the fog-shrouded Indian
Ocean—and Skull Island! There, Doc Savage faces his first great test
as he encounters its prehistoric dangers and tangles with the towering,
unstoppable Kong.

“When Joe DeVito brought this idea to me,” says Will Murray, “I knew it
had to be written with reverence for both of these immortal characters.
So I used the locale of Skull Island to tell a larger story, an untold
origin for Doc Savage. It all started back on Skull Island….”

Doc Savage: Skull Island has already been hailed as “The Doc Savage
novel that Doc fans have been waiting on for 80 years!”

Doc Savage: Skull Island is will be released in March, as the fifth
entry in Altus Press’ popular Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series.
Cover by Joe DeVito.
Source(s): Altus Press http://www.altuspress.com/> 

altus-2951758


  • News
  • January 29, 2013

Eighty years ago in February, 1933 the Street & Smith company released
the first issue of Doc Savage Magazine, introducing one of the most
popular and influential pulp superheroes ever to hit the American scene.
Doc Savage was the greatest adventure and scientist of his era, and
while his magazine ended in 1949, he influenced the creators of
Superman, Batman, Star Trek, The Man from UNCLE and the Marvel
Universe—to name only a few.

While that first issue of Doc Savage was fresh on Depression newsstands,
Universal Studios released one of the most important fantasy films of
all time. Everyone knows the story of how King Kong was discovered on
Skull Island and hauled back to New York in chains, only to perish
tragically atop the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Empire State
Building.

As it happened, that was where Doc Savage had his world headquarters.
For decades, fans have wondered: Where was Doc the day Kong fell?

On the eightieth anniversary of these fictional giants, Altus Press is
proud to release the first authorized clash between The Man of Bronze
and the Eighth Wonder of the World—Doc Savage: Skull Island.Written
by Will Murray in collaboration with Joe DeVito, creator of KONG: King
of Skull Island, Doc Savage: Skull Island is a new pulp epic.

The story opens when Doc returns from his Fortress of Solitude in the
North Pole to discover the cold corpse of Kong lying on his doorstep.

“I know this creature,” he tells his dumbfounded men.

Tasked to dispose of the remains, the Man of Bronze then tells the
untold story of his epic encounter with Kong back in 1920, after Doc
returns from service in World War I, long before Kong became King Kong.

Doc Savage: Skull Island is a multi-generational story in which Doc and
his father—the man who placed him in the hands of scientists who
made him into a superman—sail to the Indian Ocean in search of Doc’s
grandfather, the legendary Stormalong Savage, whose famous ship has been
discovered floating, deserted, her masts snapped by some incredible
force.

The quest for Stormalong Savage leads to the fog-shrouded Indian
Ocean—and Skull Island! There, Doc Savage faces his first great test
as he encounters its prehistoric dangers and tangles with the towering,
unstoppable Kong.

“When Joe DeVito brought this idea to me,” says Will Murray, “I knew it
had to be written with reverence for both of these immortal characters.
So I used the locale of Skull Island to tell a larger story, an untold
origin for Doc Savage. It all started back on Skull Island….”

Doc Savage: Skull Island has already been hailed as “The Doc Savage
novel that Doc fans have been waiting on for 80 years!”

Doc Savage: Skull Island is will be released in March, as the fifth
entry in Altus Press’ popular Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series.
Cover by Joe DeVito.
Source(s): Altus Press http://www.altuspress.com/> 

Michael Davis: Dark Horse Wants Me Dead

davis-art-130129-7541603Mike Richardson CEO, publisher and owner has ordered a hit on me. Here’s the story…

Over a decade ago I sold a project to DC Comics and that deal fell apart.

Why? Why does the phone always ring when you are in the bathroom? Why do gay people join the GOP? Why from behind certain white guys look like girls? Why after I found out he was a guy did I still buy him a drink?

Sometimes it’s just silly to ask why. Sometimes you just continue on your journey the why becoming less and less important. I’m also not one to relive old dumb shit in my life.

This is not the place to pick at old wounds…but since I know you want to know…

The editor assigned to the project wanted me off the project. Yeah, my project, my idea and he wanted me gone. Why?

Why ask why? Why does every fat girl you made fun of in high school turn out to be a skinny fox who won’t give your stupid ass the time of day? Why don’t Democrats make it a point to never let the country forget we went to war twice for no fucking reason because of the GOP? Why do some people like fruitcake?

I’m above asking why and won’t lower myself to even think about why the editor wanted me off my own project. But what kind of writer would I be to leave my fans (both of them) wondering?

The stupid motherfucker just didn’t like me.

DC would have wrote me a check and still did the project without me but I politely told the editor “No thank you, I’ll take the project elsewhere.”

I think my exact words were something like “Fuck you bitch.”

Two days after that polite conversation, I was pitching the project to Dark Horse. Mike Richardson loved it and signed on to do it.

Take that, DC Comics!

Dark Horse is one of, if not the, best place, to do a creator owned property was going to do my project! On top of that Mike Richardson was going to edit the book himself!

Mike Richardson a legend in the business! Mike Richardson, maker of great comics, great movies, great toys!

Mike Richardson was going to oversee my project! That was indeed great news!

Mike Richardson was going to oversee my project! That was indeed a great problem!

Why you ask was that both great news a great problem?

Why ask wh…oh fuck it, I’ll just tell you.

It’s great because Mike is one of the best at what he does. Just look at the numerous products Dark Horse does all over the entertainment world Dark Horse is into movies, television, toys you name the media chances are good that Dark Horse has a project in it.

Not to shabby being in business with the guy that runs all that eh?

Why is this a problem?

Because Mike Richardson may be in Portland on a Monday, Los Angeles Monday night and Prague Tuesday afternoon. When Mike is overseeing your project meetings and feedback can take a day a week or a couple of months.

I started sending Mike outlines of the four-issue superhero mini series and Mike would send me notes or we would sit down and go over it. I did many and I mean many drafts of this superhero epic over a couple of years.

That’s right, years.

One day out of the blue Mike called me and said; “This isn’t a superhero story. Let’s take the superheroes out ”

Mind you, I had written literally hundreds of pages of outline over the course of what was now three years. Also this was to be my “Black Watchman,” a term coined by Keith Giffen, BTW.

So now I have to start all over. So I did and this was when I realized that my “Black Watchmen” story was a good story but it wasn’t this story, so Mike was right.

So for the next couple of years I’m submitting outlines to Mike he’s giving me notes and we meet on occasion to talk about the project.

Then low and behold, one day Mike says to me about my latest outline, ‘This is it, go do the book!”

So now I have to do the book.

Shit…

End Part One.

WEDNESDAY: Mike Gold And Alfred Pennyworth’s Guns

 

RUNEMASTER PULP CASTS A SPELL OF BLOOD!

  • News
  • January 29, 2013

PRESS RELEASE: RMP Announces Runemaster: Spell of Blood eBook series

Runemaster Press is pleased to announce the release of the newest eBook, the first in the series introducing Skarl Kirwall, The Runemaster. 

The series will continue in eBook installments each month for the foreseeable future. 

Forged in the fires of Conan, Beowulf and Braveheart, 

steeped in Norse legendry and baptized in the blood of those who would oppose him comes the
Born during the Last Great War, Skarl Kirwall was destined to lead his clan as the next Runemaster. Betrayed by a clansman, Skarl is banished from his village, only to learn of its destruction at the hands of their bitter enemies, the Ysling clan. Mourning his father’s death, he discovers his beloved Lacina is still alive, but taken by the bloodthirsty Yslings as a sacrifice to their god, Ysfang, the world serpent. Now, Skarl must pursue his lost love across the frozen wastes of Njordica and save her from the slathering jaws of the serpent god and in the process, take his rightful place as the next Runemaster. 

The latest in New ePulp from 

runemaster_pulp_banner1-8-4979890


Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks