Category: News

LOST NOVELS OF ARNOLD HANO DEBUT!

3 Steps To Hell

Rediscovering the Lost Novels

of Arnold Hano

Stark House Press, in the business of reprinting some of the best mysteries and supernatural fiction of the past 100 years, is pleased to announce the publication and launch of 3 STEPS TO HELL, an omnibus of three hard-hitting novels by Arnold Hano. 

Many know Arnold’s name as the editor of noirmeister Jim Thompson at Lion books – Hano was the man who guided Thompson during his most productive period.  Others may know Arnold penned A Day in the Bleachers, the seminal book about baseball from a fan’s perspective centered around “The Catch” by Willie Mays in the 1954 World Series. But what few may not be aware of is that Hano, under his own name and several aliases, wrote novels featuring driven, flawed characters.

3 Steps to Hell reprints for the first time three of Arnold’s books.  The Big Out was his first novel and was set, appropriately, in the world of baseball.  The story features major league players, gangsters, bribes and the outlaw teams of Canada.  In So I’m a Heel, a WWII vet, with plastic for a jaw shattered by a sniper’s bullet, seeks to blackmail a rich man over his terrible secret, but the scheme goes way wrong.  And in Flint, a western inspired by Jim Thompson’s Savage Night, a tormented gunslinger takes on one more job to kill for money. 

This edition also features an introduction by crime novelist Gary Phillips (The Warlord of Willow Ridge) and a Q & A with Arnold conducted by his longtime friend, playwright Dan Duling.  3 Steps to Hell can be obtained via your local bookstore or direct from Stark House Press —http://www.starkhousepress.com/hano.html

HANCOCK TIPS HIS HAT TO VAMPIRE NOVEL ‘GALEN’

HANCOCK TIPS HIS HAT-Reviews o f All Things Pulp by Tommy Hancock

GALEN
by Allan Gilbreath
Published by Kerlak Publishing

It is no secret, I do not think, to anyone who follows my reviews that I am not the biggest fan of the current books produced by the wave of interest in monsters.  In no way am I a proponent of Zombie fiction, I cough up hairballs at the thought of sexy werewolves, and my blood absolutely runs cold at the thought of sparkling bloodsuckers. So a ‘modern monster’ book is a really hard sell for me.

Enter ‘Galen’ by Allan Gilbreath.

A writer known by many far and wide for his ability to essentially conquer any genre he takes a swipe at, Gilbreath is also the maniacal mind behind Kerlak Publishing, a publishing house spotlighting many up and coming works and writers of all types, including a name or three familiar to New Pulpsters and others that will be soon enough.  Gilbreath brings his tremendous talent to bear on a trope of fiction. Vampire tales, that many have believed was so tired and exhausted that it required prettying up and repackaging.

Gilbreath did just that, but not by turning vampires into eternal teenagers, but by taking the beast back to its roots in a lot of ways.  ‘Galen’ is the first book in a series about the title character, a vampire.  Almost instantaneously, Galen reminds readers of the gentlemanly vampire, popularized by Bela Lugosi, the regal bearing, the genteel trappings.   But under that refined sophistication lurks something sinister, something single minded, something hungry.  Allan Gilbreath in just a handful of pages reminds his readers that vampires are monsters.  And Galen, in all his complex dealings to live amongst humans and his meticulous planning as well as his description of potential victims as if they were cattle in front of a butcher shop, is most definitely most modern and monstrous.

‘Galen’ follows two stories essentially, of course both tying back into our title character.  One concerns a past feeding of Galen’s and, when he returns to the area several years later, the renewed interest of one of his victim’s friends in the mysterious deaths from before.  The other thread focuses squarely on Galen’s need to feed and who and what he seeks out for dinner.  

This book is filled with an eerie pulpiness that many writers don’t even attempt to reach anymore.  It’s not got explosions, ray guns, or many fist fights.  This book is all about pursuit, the hunt, prey and predator.  In that, Gilbreath builds the action at a subtle pace that ends up being breakneck before you know it.  Galen is reprehensible, yet likable.  He is thirsty, yet affable.   He is hunger made human, but you simply can’t get enough of him.

The only technical negative with ‘Galen’ is that the transition between the two threads was a tad wobbly at times, but that can be overlooked largely by the fantastic way that Gilbreath tied them together when it counted.  

FOUR OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT-Definitely no sparkles here (Although Gilbreath will gladly tell you about how that part of being a Vampire is actually part of the original legends!).  Galen is a flat out monster book with a monster you can’t help but like. And he’d like you too.  With a pinch of salt.

GREEN HORNET: STILL AT LARGE NOW AVAILABLE AS EBOOK!

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Cover: Douglas Klauba

Moonstone Books has released Green Hornet: Still At Large in ebook format at Amazon (Kindle) and Barnes & Noble (Nook).

Edited by Joe Gentile, Win Scott Eckert, and Matthew Baugh, this third anthology featuring the 1960s Green Hornet, based on the television program starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee, follows The Green Hornet Chronicles and The Green Hornet Casefiles.

Cover: Ruben Procopio

Contents:
“Hero” by S.J. Rozan
“The Black Torpedo” by Will Murray
“The World Will End in Fire” by Richard Dean Starr
“The Man Inside” by Matthew Baugh
“Death from Beyond” by Ron Fortier
“Play the Game” by Thom Brannan
“The Gauntlet” by Bobby Nash
“Chaos and the Year of the Dog” by Bobbie Metevier
“Axford’s Sting” by Dan Wickline
“Revenge of the Yellowjacket” by Howard Hopkins
“The Man in the Picture” by Patricia Weakley
“Masks” by C.J. Henderson
“Bad Man’s Blunder” by John Allen Small
“Losers, Weepers” by Rich Harvey
“Stormfront” by Greg Gick
“The Night I Met The Hornet” by Mel Odom
“Progress” by Win Scott Eckert

Ordering information:
Amazon (ebook)
B&N (ebook)
Moonstone direct (trade paperback)
Moonstone direct (limited hardcover)
Amazon (trade paperback)
Amazon (limited hardcover)
B&N (trade paperback)
B&N (limited hardcover)

THE SHADOW FAN PODCAST DEBUTS

New Pulp Author Barry Reese has released the first episode of The Shadow Fan, a new weekly podcast. The Shadow Fan Podcast is easily accessible via Barry’s website, libsyn, and iTunes.

Every week Barry will talk about Shadow news, reviewing old novels & new comics, and just generally shooting the breeze about pulp’s greatest hero.

Give the first episode a listen now at http://theshadowfan.libsyn.com.

See the haunted opera “Lilith: Mother of Dreams” this Sunday

lilith-red-close-up-300x375-1024941Join poet-violist (and ComicMix contributor) Alexandra Honigsberg, international artist composer-clarinetist Demetrius Spaneas, soprano Christina Rohm, and pianist-conductor James Siranovich at the premiere of Lilith: Mother of Dreams, a chamber opera of the iconic demon goddess. It’s debuting on Halloween Weekend (this Sunday at 7 p.m.) at a historic haunted opera house, Flushing Town Hall.

The Lilith Project is conceived as a modern American suitcase opera, a chamber monodrama: intense, human, universal, compact in form and forces, accessible.

Before there was Eve, there was Lilith: Adam’s first lover, once human, made from the same dust, sensuality’s queen, bride of the Angel of Death, mother of opposing cosmic forces – strong, willful, unstoppable. She rules the storms of the skies and the heart – night owl, holy woman of power. From ancient tales of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, to Greece’s Lamiae and Daughters of Hecate, to Native American lore and Victorian Gothic Horror, Lilith looms large in the minds of men and women when the lights go out and they enter dream time. Some call her demon, vampire, child killer – others mother, lover, elder, friend. But whatever the appellations, she persists in the realms of our imaginations, from holy books and high literature to popular feminist concert series, TV shows, and Japanese anime. Child of Light? Daughter of Darkness? Both? Neither? You decide.

Composer Spaneas is a long-time professional, curator of Cornelia St. Café’s Serial Underground award-winning new music series’ 25th year, and Fullbright Specialist of the State Department’s musical diplomats. Librettist Honigsberg is a veteran violist, award-winning songwriter, long-time published poet, and this year’s winner of the Mayor’s Poetry Prize. Both Rohm and Siranovich have established opera careers all over the US and cities abroad.  Long-time colleagues in many configurations over the years, Lilith marks this creative team’s debut.

There will be a talk by the artists before the performance and then time for questions and answers, afterwards, and a reception to which all are invited. Come as you are, but gala premiere attire, period dress, and other unique finery is encouraged!

The production is fiscally sponsored by Composers Collaborative, Inc. $10 suggested donation/FTH members free, all welcome.

CREDITS OF THE BASKERVILLES

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Artwork © Jamie Chase
Artwork © Jamie Chase

Sequential Pulp Comics has released the title and credits page for the upcoming THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES graphic novel, coming your way this February from Sequential Pulp/Dark Horse Comics. Reserve your copy today!

Written by Martin Powell and illustrated by Jamie Chase, The Hound of the Baskervilles is based on the classic Sherlock Holmes mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is published by Sequential Pulp/Dark Horse Comics to be released on February 20, 2013 for the retail price of $12.99.

FEAR, MYSTERY, AND THE OCCULT-THIS MONTH IN PRO SE PRESENTS #14!


Pro Se Productions, a leading Publisher of New Pulp, Heroic Fiction, and Genre Adventure continues its excellent tradition of terrific short stories with the latest issue of its award winning magazine- PRO SE PRESENTS #14!

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Fear and Fantasy reign in PRO SE PRESENTS #14! First, an exclusive excerpt of James Palmer’s Occult Mystery novel- SLOW DJINN! Then Kevin Rodgers explores what fear really means in CLAUSTROPHOBIA! Finally, Pro Se introduces the world to Kristy Zebell and her debut tale WARMTH OF THE ICY SOUL!

Featuring Stunning Cover Art as well as Interior Art by Sean E. Ali, this issue is a sight to see!

PRO SE PRESENTS #14 available at Pro Se’s store HERE! And at Amazon HERE! for $6.00!  Coming soon as an Ebook!

Guns, Terror, Swords, and more in this month’s PRO SE PRESENTS from PRO SE PRODUCTIONS- Puttin’ The Monthly Back into Pulp!

HANCOCK TIPS HIS HAT TO LANSDALE’S ‘EDGE OF DARK WATER’

TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT- Reviews of All Things Pulp by Tommy Hancock

EDGE OF DARK WATER
by Joe R. Lansdale
Published by Mulholland Books

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There are several names that get bandied about today, and when I say names I don’t necessarily refer to those of us considered firmly under the New Pulp umbrella, but I mean writers that have some notoriety in other ways but clearly also have Pulp sensibilities in their work.   One that is coming up like that more and more frequently, and rightfully so, is Joe R. Lansdale.

Apparently able to tackle just about any genre and any character, from Tarzan to two of my favorites of his own creating (Hap and Leonard), Lansdale is not only an accomplished writer and master of the craft.  He is someone who clearly enjoys the process of creating, the firestorm of breathing life into figments and words.   That is clearly evident in EDGE OF DARK WATER.

EDGE OF DARK WATER, according to the back cover is ‘Mark Twain meets classic Stephen King.’ Although that is a good mash up comparison, I see some other qualities in this work.  

Set in East Texas, EDGE follows Sue Ellen, a teenage girl who has an abusive father, a mother who seems to care about nothing, and, as the book opens, a dead friend.  A dead friend who had aspirations to be a Hollywood starlet.   Disturbed by the fact that this dream is gone for the departed, Sue Ellen determines to dig up her friend, burn the body, and transport the ashes to Hollywood.  Teaming up with her only two friends, each having their own reasons for wanting to leave, Sue Ellen sets off downriver on a journey that will forever alter her as well as those closest…and farthest from her.

EDGE OF DARK WATER definitely harkens back to Twain’s Huck Finn and has that rural eeriness that permeates King’s early work.  But it has so much more.  This is a classic quest story, heroes off on a journey to take a friend to her final resting place.  It’s also a chase story as a Villain of sorts almost ripped from the pages of a Pulp it seems joins the journey, out to make sure Sue Ellen never finishes it.  But even beyond all that, this is a study of people, a varied wide expanse of humanity laid open and filleted for the reader to ingest, enjoy, and even be appropriately disturbed by.

FIVE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT-EDGE OF DARK WATER is most definitely a multifaceted story that touches every button a Pulp fan might have and goes far beyond that.

The Point Radio: WALKING DEAD Comics, TV and….Movies?

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Robert Kirkman, the brain behind THE WALKING dead talks to us about the comics, the TV show – and if the two will ever meet. Or better yet, what about a WD movie? Plus ARGO‘s director-producer-star, Ben Affleck, explains why that film is generating so much Oscar buzz, and why Marvel is using A List talent on new B List books.


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.