Larry Tye’s book was on the living room shelf for a month or more before I got around to reading it last week, and I’m not exactly sure why. I‘ve spent time with Larry and never doubted that he’d do good work, and he was kind enough to mention me in his biography, Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero.  But whatever the reason for my tardiness, I’ll mark it “happy” because when I did finally delve into the book, it happened to be during Superman’s 75th birthday week. (Note to casual fans: the Man of Steel’s debut was on April 18th, 1938.)

And here it was, the whole story: the early lives of Superman’s creators, a couple of Jewish kids from Cleveland named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster; their attempts to sell their brainchild as a comic strip before they finally placed it at a comic book publisher that later became, and remains, DC Comics; the instant success, and then the deluge – radio shows, movies, novels, early television, recent television, trading cards, cereal boxes, animation, lunch boxes, Halloween costumes and everything I’m forgetting to mention. Larry Tye covers it all with a skillful combination of contemporary reporting and historicity.

The story isn’t always pretty. It has its share of sleaze. The most familiar scandal concerns the death of television’s first Man of Steel, George Reeves, found shot to death in his Hollywood bedroom with a gun at his feet. Suicide? Maybe. But there are doubts. That was the ugliness that made the papers, was the subject of other books, and was even the basis for a movie starring Ben Affleck.

The rest of the dubious behavior wasn’t as sensational – no slain actors – and mostly happened behind doors and walls.

I was around for some of it – that is, I was working for DC and even wrote the flagship Superman title for a year. Being close to the hub of big-time comics (though not very close) I must have heard rumors, and I did have a rough notion of the tribulations of Superman’s creators, and hey, I’m not immune to gossip, but I guess I wasn’t more than casually interested. I walked past those doors and walls, but I was never invited inside, and might not have cared to be. I mean, wouldn’t they have wanted me to wear a tie?

Good or bad, my ignorance? I don’t know. I can’t see how getting the inside dirt would have enhanced my scripts.

Would it have lessened them – maybe provide a distraction from the tasks at hand? Again, I don’t know. Never will, and don’t have to. But the information itself? That I’m glad to have, and I’m grateful to Larry Tye for providing it.

FRIDAY: Martha Thomases

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman

Altus Press has announced the release of The Black Bat Omnibus Volume 2 by Norman A. Daniels.

Press release:

Another new release… now available!

The Black Bat Omnibus Volume 2 by Norman A. Daniels.
The Black Bat returns! This collection contains the next three adventures of the Black Bat: “The Black Bat’s Challenge,” “The Black Bat’s Spy Trail,” and “The Black Bat’s Crusade,” uncut and restored. It’s the next volume of the complete reprinting of the series.
400 pages, approx. 6″x9″

Order the paperback from Amazon: $29.95
Order the limited edition hardcover: $39.95 (only 100 made)

Learn more here.

New Pulp Author Jonathan Maberry announced that his fan-favorite character, Joe Ledger, will return for more action on April 30 in an eBook exclusive short story called BORROWED POWER.

Here’s what the author has to say about Borrowed Power.

Some secrets should remain hidden.

Some secrets refuse to die.

Something evil is buried beneath the streets of Paris.

Time is running out.

Thirty years ago the man known as Mr. Church and the assassin called Lilith teamed-up to stop a terrible weapon from being used against the innocent.

Now that same evil rises again and Joe Ledger teams with Lilith’s daughter, the beautiful killer Violin, to keep the world from falling into darkness.

BORROWED POWER is an original Joe Ledger adventure featuring an action cameo by Mr. Church. Available for Kindle, Nook, Kobo and all eReaders.

Learn more about Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger series here.

Altus Press has announced the release of The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, the Occult Detector, Volume 1: 1912 by J.U. Giesy and Junius B. Smith.

Press release:

The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, the Occult Detector, Volume 1: 1912 by J.U. Giesy and Junius B. Smith.
Introduction by Garyn Roberts, Ph.D.

One of Pulpdom’s earliest occult detectives returns! Running for over twenty years in the pages of The Cavalier, All-Story Weekly, The People’s Magazine, Top Notch, and Argosy, among others, these tales have never been reprinted until now. Volume 1 contains the first three tales of Semi Dual, all from 1912: “The Occult Detector,” “The Significance of High ‘D’,” and “The Wisteria Scarf.” This premiere collection includes an all-new introduction by Garyn Roberts.

274 pages, approx. 6″x9″

Order the paperback from Amazon: $24.95
Order the limited edition hardcover: $34.95 (only 100 made)

Learn more here.

Not actual cover

Meteor House is proud to announce a new edition of Philip José Farmer’s landmark biography, Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, is now available for preorder and will be available in July 2013 with a cover by Doc Savage cover artist Joe DeVito!

PRESS RELEASE:

Back in print for the first time in over 30 years, Philip José Farmer’s biography of the bronze crusader who fought almost 200 separate battles against the forces of evil “is ingenious, sardonic, adulatory, outrageous and funny in turn.” (Publisher’s Weekly)

Philip José Farmer, biographer of Lord Greystoke, has turned his superb research and narrative skills to one of the greatest heroes of our time: Doc Savage, the bronze champion of justice. Now, at last, the incredible life story of the real man behind the exploits in the Doc Savage pulp novels can be told, including: his true name (Dr. James Clarke Wildman, Jr.); his family background, covering his relationship to such stalwarts as Lord Greystoke, Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, James Bond, and Fu Manchu); detailed information on some of his most devilish opponents—John Sunlight, the Mystic Mullah, and Mr. Wail; a summation of some of Doc’s most amazing inventions; and biographies of the Fabulous Five—Monk, Ham, Renny, Long Tom, and Johnny—as well as the group’s Lady Auxiliary and Bronze Knockout, Doc’s own cousin Pat Savage!

Together with other data and brilliant deductions, Philip José Farmer offers an amazing account of this remarkable man’s astonishing career!

Available now for preorder, the newly revised edition of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life also features a brand new foreword by Farmer and pulp expert Win Scott Eckert, updates to the “List of Doc Savage Stories” including the latest novels, and rare material culled from Mr. Farmer’s notes.

The deluxe hardcover edition arrives just in time for Doc’s 80th anniversary, and features tributes by other Farmer and Doc experts, including John Allen Small, Keith Howell, Rick Lai, Art Sippo, Christopher Paul Carey, and current Doc Savage writer Will Murray, as well as other bonus materials not seen in prior editions, such as:

Doc’s Coat of Arms, reconstructed by Win Scott Eckert and illustrated by Keith Howell, from notes by Philip José Farmer. A List of Doc Savage Comics by Win Scott Eckert and John Allen Small (a rundown of authorized Doc Savage comics which supplements Mr. Farmer’s “List of Doc Savage Stories”)
Writing Doc’s Biography by Philip José Farmer.

“Written with wit and charm, sprinkled with allusions, this is a book to delight both science fiction and mystery fans.” (Library Journal)

If you want a signed copy, be sure to read this:

All copies preordered by June 30th, 2013 will be signed by Win Scott Eckert at FarmerCon VIII / Pulpfest 2013. In addition, Meteor House will try to organize a signing by the bonus material contributors (John Allen Small, Keith Howell, Rick Lai, Art Sippo, Christopher Paul Carey, and Will Murray), who are available at FarmerCon VIII / Pulpfest 2013. (Hint: almost all of them are sure to be there!)

After FarmerCon VIII only unsigned copies of the book will be available to purchase.