Renowned comics writer and novelist Chris Claremont, best known for his many years writing Marvel’s X-Men and Uncanny X-Men series, has reached an agreement to donate his archives to Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
via X-Men Writer Chris Claremont Donates Archive to Columbia University.
In related news, Frank Miller’s writings are being donated to Glenn Beck University.
Photo via Luigi Novi.
We hold in our hands the covers for DC Comics this February. As a child of four can plainly see, these comics have been hermetically sealed in a CGC 9.9 slab, and they’ve been kept in a #2 mayonnaise jar under a giant stack of returned copies of Holy Terror since noon today.
What do we have worth noting? The new look of Darkseid, and we’re far enough into the new 52 books that it’s time for Batman to start crossing over in all of them. Plus Mara Jade, the red-haired assassin who fell in love with her blond-haired man she was sent to kill– oh, I’m sorry, that’s from Star Wars. This is Mera in a jade outfit. Our mistake.
Shall we? Surely!
As usual, spoilers may lurk beyond this point.
In this rare, never before seen crossover between The Amazing Spider-Man (starring Nicholas Hammond) and The Brady Bunch, we see Peter Parker in a relationship with Marcia Brady. That is, until Peter’s Spider-Sense predicts a fatal accident for Marcia. Can Spidey save Marcia in time, or will the ringing words of “with great power, comes great responsibility” prevent Peter from pursuing his heart’s desire?
The LONE RANGER Chronicles
Authors: James Reasoner, Johnny D. Boggs, Denny O’Neil
Edited: Matthew Baugh, Tim Lasiuta
Cover: David Palumbo
6″ x 9″, 288pgs, $18.95
978-1-936814-23-7
THE FIRST EVER COLLECTION of NEW Lone Ranger prose stories!
The masked ex-Texas Ranger and his Native American companion Tonto fight injustice in the Wild West!
Stories include meetings with The Cisco Kid, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, as well as the origin of Tonto and the origin of Silver!
Authors include Spur Award winner Johnny D Boggs, James Reasoner, Alex Award winner Mel Odom, Anthony Award winner Bill Crider, Matthew Baugh, Tim Lasiuta, Joe Gentile, Paul Kupperberg, Denny O’Neil, Kent Conwell, David McDonald, Thom Brannon, Spur Award winner Troy D. Smith, Chick Dixon, and Richard Dean Starr.
The LONE RANGER Chronicles HCAuthors: James Reasoner, Johnny D. Boggs, Denny O’Neil
Edited: Matthew Baugh, Tim Lasiuta
Cover: Ruben Procopio
6″ x 9″, 304pgs, $29.95
978-1-936814-22-0
Exclusive HC Bonus: “75 years of the Lone Ranger”
The SPIDER: Shadow of Evil Author: CJ Henderson
Cover: J. Anthony Kosar
4″ x 6″, 190pgs, $6.99
978-1-936814-20-6
The first new Spider novel in 65 years picks up where the last left off, packed to the gills with the greatest slam-bang action ever penned by master pulpster CJ Henderson!
Richard Wentworth, the Spider, wonders if his long struggle against the forces of evil has been worth it? Should he continue, or grab for personal happiness before his time runs out? Then, at the moment he makes his decision, fate unleashes the most hellish horrors against New York City of all time!
The SPIDER: Shadow of Evil HC6″ x7″, 210pgs, $22.99
978-1-936814-19-0
Author: CJ Henderson
Cover: J. Anthony Kosar
Bonus HC feature: an exclusive brand new hard-boiled Ed Race (“the Masked Marksman”) story by Rich Harvey!
The SPIDER: Slaughter, Inc. Author: Donald Cormack
Cover: Stephen Bryant
6″ x 9″, 190pgs, $14.95
978-1-936814-21-3
For the FIRST time anywhere…the last Spider pulp novel ever written…is published as an actual Spider novel!
A criminal genius has created an organization to sell murder where innocents are fingered for the crimes. When Nita Van Sloan is framed for murder, the Spider must infiltrate the cartel in disguise and clean house!
The HONEY WEST files vol.1 sc Author: G. G. Fickling
600pgs, 6″ x 9″, SC, $23.99
978-1-93681-17-6
The first female private eye is back in action: a volatile combination of Marilyn Monroe and Mike Hammer!
First appearing in 1957, Honey went on to star in eleven novels and the successful 1965 TV show starring Anne Francis, as well as the current series of comic books from Moonstone!
For the FIRST TIME anywhere, the original Honey West novels will be reprinted in one series of books!
Most of the books are long out of print, so here’s your chance to catch her!
In this volume: “This Girl for Hire”, “A Gun for Honey”, and “Girl on the Loose”.
PHASES of the MOON: Full Moon Conclusion!Story: Paul D. Storrie, CJ Henderson, Earl Mac Rauch
Art: Nathan Stockman, Glen Fernandez
Cover: Andy Black
48pgs, PC, $4.99
The conclusion to the decade-spanning craziest serial-killer saga of all time, starring SHEENA: QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE! What started with The Spider, Domino Lady, Honey West, Kolchak and others…ends here!
*Plus a recently uncovered BUCKAROO BANZAI part of this tale!
*Plus an epilogue starring KOLCHAK, as years later he uncovers the even more startling truth behind the lies!
For more on Moonstone Books, visit http://www.moonstonebooks.com/.
NEWS RELEASE
The i’s have it. The “it” they have is Weird Horror Tales, the first of a trilogy of braided horror novels by Michael Vance set in the outré town of Light’s End, Maine. And the “it” that has Weird Horror Tales is iPulpFiction, a cloud-based reading service that publishes classic and contemporary short stories that are accessible from any device with an up-to-date browser and an Internet connection including i-phones, i-pads, and ay-yi-yi, most everything electronic.
Weird Horror Tales offers 13 harrowing stories of horror and suspense in the tradition of H. P. Lovecraft and Ray Bradbury, both of whom were prominent writers for the pulp magazines of the ‘20s, ‘30’s, ‘40s, and ‘50s. It is a perfect fit for the iPulpFiction site that includes stories from pulp titles including The Spider, Horror Tales, Amazing Stories, Astonishing Stories, and All Story Love.
The location for Vance’s trilogy is the desolate, rocky coast of Maine where squats the uncanny, isolated town of Light’s End. Built along a metaphysical fault line between order and chaos, it is the setting for horror and depravity. There is something lurking behind the white picket fences of Light’s End and in the shadows of August Street. For here, amidst the age old Victorian houses and the New England traditions of its citizens broods a dark secret, a religious cult which infects every aspect of life. The first of these thirteen stories, Picked Clean, is set in the year 1653, and can be found at http://ipulpfiction.com. Just type in the title in the site’s browser. Vance has written for national and international magazines, and as a syndicated columnist and cartoonist in over 500 newspapers. His history book, “Forbidden Adventures”, has been called a “benchmark in comics history”. Vance briefly ghosted an internationally syndicated comic strip, wrote his own strip and several comic books. He is listed in the Who’s Who of American Comic Books and Comic Book Superstars. IPulpFiction also offers classic stories in Super Science Stories, Black Mask, Kolchak, Rangeland Romances, Horror Tales and many, many other titles. So, the next time you’re in the mood for fun in the form of prose, keep your eye out for IPulp.
Picked Clean
1653—Murderer Caleb Elliott flees England for Maine only to sire an eldritch horror on a squamous thing deep beneath the murky water of Abomination Bay. The dirty consequence is that Caleb, and Ezekiel and Hiram Azreal, found the outre town of Light’s End and leave a monstrosity that writhes under the ominous cliffs of that dead bay. Or do they?
You can read Picked Clean at http://ipulpfiction.com/books/WeirdHorrorTales-01-PickedClean/jacketNotes.php
The Well Sunk In The Sky
1838 — Does Light’s End’s ebon lighthouse at the mouth of Abomination Bay warn wooden ships of the bay’s deadly reef hidden by murky fog or raging storm, or welcome silver ships from the stars? Under the watchful eye of Jake Horne, is the lighthouse the site of an outre Azrealite prenuptial ritual for Charlotte Elliott and Obediah Azreal, or a stone womb for The Other?
You can read The Well Sunk In The Sky at http://ipulpfiction.com/books/WeirdHorrorTales-02-TheWellSunkInTheSky/jacketNotes.php
Weird Horror Tales, Weird Horror Tales: The Feasting, and Weird Horror Tales: Light’s End are now available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other bookstores. Best price for traditional book is from Cornerstone Book Publishers at (http://www.gopulp.info/). For electronic version, go to: http://homepage.mac.com/robmdavis/Airship27Hangar/index.htm
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| The New Challengers of the Unknown. Cover: Ryan Sook |
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| The original Challengers. Art: Jack Kirby |
Allan Cole, continuing his stories of writing for The Incredible Hulk TV series, reveals a fact I never knew about the show…
After all, it was Lou Ferrigno who played the Hulk, right?
Right.
But Lou didn’t do his own stunts. The guy who actually crashed through buildings, jumped off cliffs, and generally beat the hell out of the bad guys, was Manny Perry, one of the premier body builders and stunt men of his era. He was also black.
It seems they cast seventy or eighty guys to stand in for Lou, but only Manny was big enough to double Ferrigno and athletic enough to do the stunts. As Manny once told an interviewer, “They figured green is green and who could tell the difference?”
via MY HOLLYWOOD MISADVENTURES: LOU FERRIGNO AND THE HARLEY HULKOUT.
PRESS RELEASE
THE NEWEST HIT-SERIES IN DYNAMITE’S WARLORD OF MARS LINE OF COMICS!
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| Cover Art: Joe Jusko |
November 9, 2011, Runnemede, NJ – After the incredible critical and commercial success of Dynamite’s Warlord of Mars, Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris, and Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom series, comes Warriors of Mars #1! Before John Carter another earthman visited the Red planet: Lt. Gullivar Jones. Now these legendary warriors are brought together for the first time! When Lt. Guillivar Jones happens upon a mysterious old man with a beautiful carpet he soon finds himself transported through space and time to the planet Mars where he meets the beautiful Princess Hera and a ferocious tribe of Red Martians bent on capturing her! Warriors of Mars is written by Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom writer Robert Napton, drawn by Jack Jadson, with covers by the legendary Joe Jusko and will hit comic stores February 2012!
“Gullivar was written first, but Carter cornered the market and became a legend,” says writer Robert Napton. “It’s Gullivar Vs. John Carter-let the battle begin! It’s a thrill to bring these two southern gents together on the same stretch of red turf and let them have at it. But it won’t be all blood and guts. There’s a story to be told. Many have heard of Gullivar of Mars, but don’t know who he is and how he’s a different sort of man from Carter despite being caught in the same otherworldly circumstances. This is one mash-up fans of pulp won’t want to miss.”
“We’ve found a smart and clever way to tie these two pulp heroes together and rescue Gullivar from relative obscurity and place him up on the dais among the greats,” adds Dynamite Editor Joe Rybandt. “We’re going to explore more of the eras of Mars with Gullivar, the past, present and future and Robert Napton has proven himself more than capable of spinning some excellent Barsoomian tales and we’ve paired him with a great new artistic find in Jack Jadson.”
Princess of Mars is an Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel, the first of his famous series, which initially began publication in serialized form within the pages of All-Story Magazine in February 1912. It is also Burroughs’ first novel, predating his Tarzan stories. Full of swordplay and daring feats, the story is considered a classic example of 20th century pulp fiction.
Edwin Lester Arnold’s Gullivar of Mars novel, originally published as Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation in 1905, bears a number of striking similarities to Burroughs’ Princess of Mars. Both Gullivar and Burroughs’ protagonist John Carter are Southern United States soldiers who arrive on Mars by apparently magical means (magic carpet in the case of the former, astral projection in that of the latter) and have numerous adventures there, including falling in love with Martian princesses. Gullivar is a more hapless character, however, paling beside the heroic and accomplished Carter. Gullivar, in contrast, stumbles in and out of trouble and never quite succeeds in mastering it.
Robert Napton has written hundreds of comics. He is currently writing WARLORD OF MARS: THE FALL OF BARSOOM for DYNAMITE. In 2008, he adapted Terry Brooks’ DARK WRAITH OF SHANNARA as a graphic novel and wrote the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.
Join the conversation on Twitter with #WarriorsOfMars
To learn more about Dynamite Entertainment, please visit: www.dynamite.net
There’s one more ghost looking over Billy, Jeffy, Dolly, and P.J. The AP is reporting that Bil Keane, who started drawing the one-panel cartoon The Family Circus in February 1960, died Tuesday at age 89 at his longtime home in Paradise Valley, near Phoenix.
Jeff Keane, Keane’s son who lives in Laguna Hills, Calif., said that his father died of congestive heart failure with one of his other sons by his side after his conditioned worsened during the last month. All of Keane’s five children, nine grandchildren and great-granddaughter were able to visit him last week, Jeff Keane said.
“He said, ‘I love you’ and that’s what I said to him, which is a great way to go out,” Jeff Keane said of the last conversation he had with his father. “The great thing is Dad loved the family so much, so the fact that we all saw him, I think that gave him great comfort and made his passing easy. Luckily he didn’t suffer through a lot of things.”
Jeff Keane has been drawing “Family Circus” in the last few years as his father enjoyed retirement. His comic strip is featured in nearly 1,500 newspapers across the country.
Our condolences to his family.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko still doesn’t see a single dime from the show. Or the movies. Or the comics. Or any of a thousand different licenses of the character he co-created. So if we’re going to start talking about copyright infringement, let’s go back a bit, hmmm?
NEW YORK (AP) — Director Julie Taymor sued the producers of “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark” Tuesday, saying they violated her creative rights and haven’t compensated her for the work she put into Broadway’s most expensive musical.
Charles Spada, an attorney who filed the suit on behalf of the Tony Award-winning director, said Tuesday in a statement that “the producers’ actions have left her no choice but to resort to legal recourse to protect her rights.”
Rick Miramontez, the show’s spokesman, was not immediately aware of the copyright infringement lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Taymor was not available to comment.
The lawsuit seeks half of all profits, gains and advantages derived from the sale, license, transfer or lease of any rights in the original Spiderman book along with a permanent ban of the use of Taymor’s name or likeness in connection with a promotional film without her written consent. It also seeks a jury trial to determine her share of profits from the unauthorized use of her book, which the lawsuit said was believed to be in excess of $1 million.
via Julie Taymor sues ‘Spider-Man’ producers – Yahoo! News.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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