The Shadow Fan podcast returns for Episode 15 and this time around, Barry Reese reviews “The White Legion” (radio episode 03/20/38) and “The Devil’s Paymaster,” which wraps up Theodore Tinsley’s epic Prince of Evil series. Barry then talks about the Prince of Evil storyline as a whole and why he thinks it ranks among the greatest Shadow stories of all time.

If you love the greatest pulp hero of all time, then this is the show for you! Proudly sponsored by Blue Coal Anthracite!

Join the conversation about pulp’s greatest hero today at http://theshadowfan.libsyn.com/the-devil-s-paymaster

Cover Art: Mike Fyles

Pro Se Productions has shared a sneak peek of the cover to the upcoming Pulp Obscura title, The New Adventures of The Griffon by New Pulp Artist Mike Fyles.

From Pro Se Productions’ Tommy Hancock:
Flying Your Way, VERY SOON– From Van Allen Plexico, Chuck Miller, Rich Steeves, Don Thomas, Phil Bledsoe, S. E. Dogaru, Mike Fyles, Sean E. Ali, Russ Anderson, and edited by David White…. THE NEW ADVENTURES OF THE GRIFFON-From Pulp Obscura!

Okay, who’s to blame? Somebody has to be responsible – stands to reason. I mean, it’s always somebody’s fault. We’re not that somebody, you and me, so it has to be one of them! The hippies. The nonconformists. The others. Them!

Take this nonsense about global warming or climate change or whatever they’re calling it this week. What a load! So the ice caps are melting. Even if that’s true, and as far as I’m concerned the jury’s still out, but even if it is true… So what? You telling me we can’t handle a little more water? What are we, sissies afraid to get our socks wet?

There’s a newspaper in London – I forget which one – that said that global warming stopped years ago. Sounds right to me.

But you know what I think? I think that under those ice caps there’s some kind of big furnace, maybe atomic powered, that’s causing the ice to melt. Who put it there? Maybe the commies. I personally believe that the International Communist Conspiracy is not out of business, not by a long shot. It’s just biding its time, waiting for the right opportunity.

But as much as I hate the commies, I don’t think they’re melting the ice. Ask yourself this – who stands to profit? Obvious, when you think about it. The liberals, or progressives, or whatever they’re calling themselves this week. Simple logic. They convince us that the climate’s changing and they say that’s bad and that gas and oil and factories and cars are responsible. Then, wham-o! They lead us to their buddies, the mooches and takers, the nonproducers, who try to sell us on the idea that we have to replace our fuel sources with sunshine and wind! Bottom line, they turn a nice profit while we work on our tans.

I’m telling you, something has to be done.

And that reminds me. Comic books! How long are we going to let this filth pollute the minds of our young? It’s been going on for…what? Ever since the end of World War II, maybe earlier. A real doctor – not one of your liberal pseudo-doctors, but a doctor with a medical degree and everything name of Doctor Fredrick Wertham wrote a book proving – I’ll say that again, proving! – that these comic books cause juvenile delinquency and sexual perversion – you know what I mean – and crime in the streets and disrespect for authority and who knows what else! Got so bad, a United States senator name of Estes Kefauver held hearings on the matter. Oh, he knocked the wind out of their sails, Senator Kefauver did, and a lot of these comic book publishers went out of business. But not all. Just the other day, I saw somebody on the bus reading a comic book. So we still got a big part of the job to do. We shouldn’t rest until nobody even remembers these comic books!

•   •   •

Wayne LaPierre, of the National Rifle Association, blames gun violence on the media and the mental health care system. Sound right to you?

RECOMMENDED READING: The Ten Cent Plague, by David Hadju

FRIDAY: Martha Thomases Looks At Comics Creators Looking At Themselves

The Nao of Brown
 By Glyn Dillon
206 pages, $24.95, SelfMadeHero/Abrams

Somewhat lost amidst the affection showered on Chris Ware’s Building Stories was Glyn Dillon’s triumphant return to the comics form with the impressive Nao of Brown. Dillon began making a name for himself at Vertigo with a variety of works, notably the Egypt miniseries and then walked away to work in film. The tug of comics was strong enough to lure him back and commit nearly three years of his to producing this lengthy graphic novel.

Making his writing debut, he presents us with the story of Nao, a half-Japanese/half-English twentysomething who is yearning for a normal life and love but struggles daily with purely obsessional compulsive disorder, a secret she shares only with flatmate Tara. Her mind is filled with images of committing extremely violent acts and rates them on a scale from 1-10. As we open, she’s using Buddhist meditation to control her impulses and takes a job selling Japanese collectable toys at a small shop run by her friend, Steve, totally oblivious toward how he feels for her.

Instead, Nao is drawn to a large bear of man, Gregory, who repairs washing machines. Engineering a meeting, she damages the flat’s machine so he can come fix it. They begin to date, a tentative start at best given his own issues. He has some deep pain he masks with alcohol so we have two damaged souls looking for love and saving.

Throughout this beautifully illustrated work, Dillon presents a parallel story in Nao’s favorite Ichi style. While it features a protagonist named Pictor, who tries to rescue his family after being turned half into a tree by a being called the Nothing, it also has father figure Nobodaddy, who looks somewhat like Gregory. Here, Dillon shows his versatility, channeling the influence of Moebius and Miyazaki although the sequences don’t always work or really enhance the main story.

Tara, Steve, and the mothers to Nao and Gregory are fine, underdeveloped supporting characters. Contrasting the relations between the lovers and their mothers might have given this a little more substance but it’s nice to see positive familial relations and good friends in a story like this.

This is a slice of life style story as we meander from the shop to the flat to dates to Nao’s OCD and imaginary tale. We enjoy this because Dillon, younger brother to noted artist Steve Dillon, takes his time and makes us care about these characters. His naturalistic style emphasizes body language, setting, and mood through watercolor work that is a delight to look at.

He does not dwell at length on any of the themes raised in the story and this is far from a moral tale about OCD, despite the unique take on the mental disorder. He told The Comics Journal, “I was learning to meditate as well. In this meditation group there were other students saying how they couldn’t stop their minds from racing when they were trying to meditate, and there seemed to be parallels between that and OCD that all interested me at the time.” We get into Nao’s head and see what she gets out of meditation, what she sees in Gregory, and how she copes day in and day out. The coping and self-absorption, though, blinds her to other issues such as Steve’s infatuation or Greg’s personal demons, which eventually are thrown in her face.

As a tyro writer, though, he does not successfully build up to a strong climax, but let’s things happen and then we hurry through the crisis and then leap four years ahead for a too-tidy ending. A compelling character study, I find his overall message elusive. While entertained by the characters and enthralled by the art, the conclusion suddenly feels predictable, undercutting the rest of the book’s strengths.

Dillon’s return to comics is a most welcome one and if The Nao of Brown is an indication of what he’s interested in exploring, I‘ll be there to see what he uncovers.

A great many idioms have their roots planted firmly in the comics media, and to the present generation there is none more vital than Walt Kelly’s famous phrase that occupies the headline space above.

Kelly, in case you didn’t know (and shame on you for that), was the cartoonist who created, wrote and drew the feature Pogo for comic books, newspaper strips, and miniature trade paperbacks starting in 1942 (Animal Comics #1, published by Dell). He continued working on Pogo until his death in 1973. Pogo was a funny, clever strip that was uniquely gentle in its political and sociological satire. The phrase “We have met the enemy and he is us” was used several times, usually in conjunction with ecological issues. Indeed, for Earth Day 1970 Kelly produced a lavish poster with Pogo looking at a beautiful forest littered with garbage; it employed this famous phrase.

A couple days ago I was reading a Pogo trade paperback released in 1972 titled “We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us,” a collection of short… let’s call them graphic short stories. The eponymously titled story wasn’t about ecology at all. In point of fact, were it published today, January 16 2013, I suspect most people would think it was in reference to our extremely unyielding, highly polarized, and therefore do-nothing Congress.

I reprint it here (© 1972 Walt Kelly Estate. All Rights Reserved.) without further comment, except to note that I edited out two panels so that it would make sense without the surrounding story. Enjoy the brilliance of a true master of the form, but dread the reality it reflects.

THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil plays the Blame Game

When I was a kid, comics were all I thought about. There was no better time in my day than when I was finished all my crap schoolwork and was able to turn my attention to the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man or Batman

I was a child of DC but soon I was just as vested in Marvel as I was in DC. I remember when Kirby left Marvel to do the Fourth World books at DC. That to me at the time was as big a deal as Obama becoming the first black President is now.

Really.

Kirby coming to DC was Huge. I’ll never forget when I got my first issue of the Forever People and saw Kirby’s Here on the cover.

Comics golden age for me was the second silver age. That second silver age was Walt Simonson’s Thor, Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg!, Frank Miller’s Daredevil, Marvel’s Secret Wars, The Killing Joke, the Dark Knight, The Watchmen and about another dozen or so titles.

I freely admit that I’m biased in my thinking about comics and what’s important and what’s not. I also freely admit that I have no right nor do have any influence over what you may think.

But…

In my day I think comics were better than they are today.

That’s my opinion and I’m welcome to it but consider the following before you dismiss me, are you tired of new universes and new number ones?

In my day a number one was the Holy Grail of the comic book world.

Now?

New number ones are as common as a new Kardashian lover and just as relevant.

While I’m on the subject, Kim Kardashian has no talent and contributes nothing to the world, yet millions of people hang on her every stupid move.  Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for her milking America for millions of dollars when she has no value whatsoever.

That’s not a joke, I respect anyone who can figure out a way to milk millions from people with absolutely no talent or value. Again I’m not kidding I respect that kind of moxey.

But…

Come the (bad word here) on, what does she or her family contribute except some of them have really nice tits? Oh and yes, I’d hit that but that’s beside the point. She and her family really have no significance in the real world.

Comics on the other hand do have significance in the real world.

How so you ask?

A hundred years from now Superman will still be relevant. Kim? She may not be relevant in two years. I know this for sure because America has a way of waking up to bullshit. It may take a moment but soon perhaps very soon the country and world will see that the Emperor (Empress?) has no clothes.

How do I know this for sure? Two words: Paris Hilton.

But I digress (thinking about you, Peter). I maintain that the comics in my day were better than the comics today and what follows are my admittedly flawed arguments.

When ever a comic universe goes to a new number one that erases the vast history of what was gone before. It’s a ‘do over’ and a ‘screw you’ to fans that loved the universe at the same time. When Marvel did Secret Wars and DC did Crisis those were really massive events but they were not do overs or a screw you to fans. Those were events that changed the universe not events that discarded the universe.

They were also the kind of events you talked about for years because they really were events.

Now an event is talked about until the next event, two, three weeks later.

B L A M!! R I M S H O T !! I’m here all week! Try the veal! Herman Cain, try the watermelon!

When Marv Wolfman killed Barry Allen (something to this day I have not forgiven him for) I felt that lost. When Stan Lee killed Gwen Stacy I felt I had lost a girlfriend. Now these sort of deaths are commonplace and it my humble opinion it’s because of Superman.

When Superman “died” no one and I mean no one in the comic book world thought for a second he was really dead. The only people who thought he was really dead were the suckers who brought 50 copies thinking one day they would be worth millions.

BAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

If you can kill the most important superhero in the history of the industry then everything and I mean everything is fair game.

But…

That fair game seems to be monthly now. When DC killed Superman it, at the time, was a bold move designed to boost the icon’s lagging sales. Now characters dying, coming out of the closet, going over to the dark side, etc. is no longer an event it’s as common as the Cubs not making the World Series. The Cubs suck; that’s why they don’t make the series. Comic book creators don’t suck; comic book creators are better than the bullshit event like Archie kissing a black girl.

What the heck was that anyway? Archie Andrews pulling a black girl? Talk about imaginary stories.

Yes, I’m quite aware that the audience today is not me. Yes, there are books being done today that quite frankly are works of art and literary genius. Yes, some books today have transcended comics, TV and film and become part of what fuels movements.

But…

Forget all of that. In my day comics were better and that is that.

Bottom line your comics suck and mine don’t.

So there.

WEDNESDAY: Mike Gold Babbles On and On…

New Pulp Publisher Moonstone Books has released solicitation information for books arriving in stores May 2013.

DOMINO LADY/SHERLOCK HOLMES #2 
Written by Nancy Holder (with Bobby Nash), art by Nick Diaz, colors by James Brown, cover by Mark Sparacio.

A two-part murder mystery set against the backdrop of ancient Egypt! Domino Lady and Sherlock Holmes team up to solve the riddle of the Sphinx… ok, not really, but they do solve this riddle of passion, identity, and antiquity!

32 pages, $3.99.

You can see preview pages from Domino Lady/Sherlock Holmes here and here.

KOLCHAK: NECROMONICON SC 
Written by C.J. Henderson, art by Robert Hack, colors by Jason Jensen.

The Necromonicon trilogy is finished! Parts 2 and 3 are long since sold out, but Moonstone has included a brand-new prequel story! New softcover edition replaces the sold-out HC!

Carl Kolchak, whether he wants the mantle or not, is the world;s premier supernatural investigator. Vampires, werewolves, witches, demons, he has seen it all. Or … has he? Can even all the horrors he has stumbled across prepare him for the monstrous denizens of the Lovecraft Mythos, let alone its most damned volume, the Necronomicon? Told in widevision.

188 pages, $23.95.

THE SPIDER: EXTREME PREJUDICE 
Written by Will Murray, Ron Fortier, C.J. Henderson, and more, cover by Malcolm McClinton.

New short stories of prose starring pulpdom’s most violent and ruthless crime fighter ever: The Spider! More just than the law, more dangerous than the Underworld…hated, feared and wanted by both!

One cloaked, fanged, border-line crazy denizen of the dark force-feeding hard justice with a pair of 45’s! Guest starring: The Black Bat, The Green Ghost, and Operator 5!

Featuring stories by Will Murray, Mel Odom, C.J. Henderson, James Chambers, Ron Fortier, Bobby Nash, Howard Hopkins, Eric Fein, Gary Phillips, Don Roff, Matthew Baugh, I.A. Wilson, and Rik Hoskin.

Softcover, 288 pages, $19.95; Hardcover, 288 pages, $29.99.

Learn more about Moonstone Books at www.moonstonebooks.com