Knight watchman: Graveyard Shift (c) 2012 & TM by Big Bang Comics. Published by Pulp 2.0 Press.
New Pulp Publisher, Pulp 2.0 Press has announced and shared the cover to the upcoming 2013 release of the Knight Watchman: Graveyard Shift collecting the 4-issue 1998 mini-series originally published by Big Bang Comics. Pulp 2.0 Press’ resident Mad Pulp Bastard and publisher, Bill Cunningham calls Graveyard Shift “A love letter to the 90’s and a major reinvention of The Knight Watchman.
About Graveyard Shift: In the wake of a tragedy, a masked hero forced out of retirement to save the city from itself. When a dead body turns up and all the evidence points to the Knight Watchman, Midway City’s former good guy becomes its most wanted criminal unless he can survive long enough to clear his name.
Knight Watchman: Graveyard Shift is by Chris Ecker, Gary Carlson, and Ben Torres and retails for $8.99 plus shipping and handling.
A few days ago I received an email from my friend John Jennings. John is a fantastic artist and teacher and I’ve known him for a lot of years.
I was not happy with what John had to say and let him know it. What John wrote me was a pretty detailed accounting of why some in the black comic arts community were not happy with the following line from the gallery show I’m curating for the Geppi Entertainment Museum called Milestones: African Americans in Comics. Pop Culture and Beyond.
“Up until now there has been no serious attempt to showcase African-Americans in the world of comic books, and the impact of their creative excellence, which has been a mainstay of the industry for as long as comics have been an American art form.”
Man, I went (as we say in the hood) Negro when I read that that line in the press release offended some people.
My response to John was in affect, how dare these mofo’s (white people, ask someone what that means, oh wait it’s New Years Day and you are all hung over so I’ll just tell you, motherfuckers. It means “motherfuckers”) be offended??
The reason why they were offended is because that line from the press release gives the impression that Milestones is the first exhibit of its kind. I must say, I’ve written some great kiss my ass letters in the past, but the one I wrote about those people who were “offended” was so good I thought about using it for a ComicMix article.
Before I could do that, John wrote a response that pretty much put be on blast (white people, ask someone what that means…oh I forgot New Years Day, hung over, OK “blast” in this instance means you call someone on their shit. Damn! I keep forgetting, New Year, hung over…’calling someone on their shit means you dismantle their argument), John called me on my shit.
John was right.
Milestones is the latest in a line of exhibits that feature black comic book art and artists.
I’m going to give John a forum to break down what has gone before in the Black Comic Space in a guest column here (something he’s just learning right now) as no one is better equipped than John to do so.
Those who know me are well aware that when I’m wrong, I say it.
I was wrong.
I also intend to acknowledge what has come before in any future press releases, interviews, etc. I think letting the millions of people that read me on ComicMix is a good start but I can do more and I will.
I’m excited about the show, I’m excited that Tatiana El-Khouri is co-curator, John is lending his considerable expertise and talent to the exhibition and Obama beat the living shit out of Romney.
That I was right about, was I not?
On a somber note, Peter David had a stroke the other day and all I can think of is how much I love that guy. Peter is not just a friend, he’s not just a great writer, he’s a really great guy.
Get well Peter and do it fast. We all love you dude.
As of today, it is officially 2013; and there’s nothing we can do about that, so we may as well enjoy it!
There’s nothing like a song to ring in the new year, and nothing like some resolutions (that may or may not be kept) to start that year off right. So join me, won’t you, in singing the geekiest song of New Year’s Resolutions that ever you will see, i.e. My Twelve Vows of New Year’s. I think you all know the tune. It’s similar to that silly old thing about the partridge and the pear and the damsels in distress or whatever.
Ready? Here we go!
My Twelve Vows of New Year’s
On the first day of this year,
my New Year’s vow will be:
To book my flight for SDCC! Fn1
On the second day of this year,
my New Year’s vow will be:
sell on Etsy, Fn2
And to book my flight for SDCC!
On the third day of this year,
my New Year’s vow will be:
Watch Arrow, Fn3
sell on Etsy,
And to book my flight for SDCC!
On the fourth day of this year,
my New Year’s vow will be:
sort my Deadpool, Fn4
Watch Arrow,
sell on Etsy,
And to book my flight for SDCC!
On the fifth day of this year,
my New Year’s vow will be:
Beat Fallout 3, Fn5
sort my Deadpool,
Watch Arrow,
sell on Etsy,
And to book my flight for SDCC!
On the sixth day of this year,
my New Year’s vow will be:
get my subscriptions, Fn6
Beat Fallout 3,
sort my Deadpool,
Watch Arrow,
sell on Etsy,
And to book my flight for SDCC!
On the seventh day of this year,
my New Year’s vow will be:
write a new webcomic, Fn7
get my subscriptions,
Beat Fallout 3,
sort my Deadpool,
Watch Arrow,
sell on Etsy,
And to book my flight for SDCC!
On the eighth day of this year,
my New Year’s vow will be:
launch our Kickstarter, Fn8
write a new webcomic,
get my subscriptions,
Beat Fallout 3,
sort my Deadpool,
Watch Arrow,
sell on Etsy,
And to book my flight for SDCC!
On the ninth day of this year,
my New Year’s vow will be:
make my next costume, Fn9
launch our Kickstarter,
write a new webcomic,
get my subscriptions,
Beat Fallout 3,
sort my Deadpool,
Watch Arrow,
sell on Etsy,
And to book my flight for SDCC!
On the tenth day of this year,
my New Year’s vow will be:
don’t buy more variants, Fn10
make my next costume,
launch our Kickstarter,
write a new webcomic,
get my subscriptions,
Beat Fallout 3,
sort my Deadpool,
Watch Arrow,
sell on Etsy,
And to book my flight for SDCC!
On the eleventh day of this year,
my New Year’s vow will be: postaseriouscolumn, Fn11
don’t buy more variants,
make my next costume,
launch our Kickstarter,
write a new webcomic,
get my subscriptions,
Beat Fallout 3,
sort my Deadpool,
Watch Arrow,
sell on Etsy,
And to book my flight for SDCC!
On the twelfth day of this year,
my New Year’s vow will be:
read my new comics, Fn12
post a serious column,
don’t buy more variants,
make my next costume,
launch our Kickstarter,
write a new webcomic,
get my subscriptions,
Beat Fallout 3,
sort my Deadpool,
Watch Arrow,
sell on Etsy, And to book my flight for SDCC!!!
Thanks for singing along! Wishing everyone the very happiest and geekiest of new years; and until next time: Servo Lectio!
Fn 1: Seriously, I am finally going to go this year, I swear. I’m so excited!
Fn 2: I want to open a store in which I sell tiny, adorkable, possibly wearable geekery made of clay.
Fn 3: I always seem to be one episode behind. How does this keep happening?? I blame Deathstroke.
Fn 4: How did everything get all out of order and stuff?? I swear I used to have the whole collection arranged by date!
Fn 5: Seriously, I have owned this game for how long now and never played it? It came out in 2008! What is wrong with me??
Fn 6: My poor local comics shop owner recently mailed me a stack of my subscription comics because it takes me so long to get around to visiting the store. It’s not that I don’t want them right away. But I don’t have a car and the store’s a 20 minute walk from the Metro!! That’s like it being in the middle of the ocean or something.
Fn 7: Probably while on the Metro. That’s where I write most of my webcomic scripts.
Fn 8: For the new comic Ben Fisher and I are writing! It’s going to be amazing! And full of hamsters. Sooooo many hamsters.
Fn 9: I have an idea for DragonCon that is going take forever. But it will be magical.
Fn 10: I can’t help myself – the Deadpool Does Memes variant covers are Just. So. Great. <a href=”
Styyyyyle!!
Fn 11: But really. This was fun too, right? Just you wait; next time I’ll do iambic pentameter.
Fn 12: The pile, it is large. So very, very large.
Decoder Ring Theater rings out 2012 with a new episode of The Red Panda Adventures called The Lost Sheep. You can listen to it here.
About The Lost Sheep: The tempest of war has carried many of the Red Panda’s allies far from the field of his private war for justice. But even after so many years of seeing the best, boldest and brightest torn away, some wounds are impossible to bear. How far will the Flying Squirrel go to save… The Lost Sheep?
About Decoder Ring Theater: Welcome to Decoder Ring Theatre – home of all-new audio adventures in the tradition of the classic programs of Radio’s Golden Age. Here you will find full-length, full-cast tales of mystery and adventure to fire your imagination, with new releases on the 1st and 15th of every month, year-round – including our latest episodes, posted below.
Decoder Ring Theatre’s shows are available for free download in mp3 format, either directly from our site, via the Podcast Feed or subscribe in iTunes. Or if you prefer, use the handy player beside each episode.. Please explore and enjoy the pulse-pounding thrills of The Red Panda Adventures, the noir stylings of Black Jack Justice and the grab-bag of suspense, science fiction and comedy found in our Showcase. Each episode is a stand-alone story and you can begin wherever you’d like!
We begin our look back on the Pop Culture that was in 2012 as Media Mogul Ric Meyers (ricmeyers.com) runs down the vast array of great TV comedy from the year. From CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL to HAPPY ENDINGS to SUBURGATORY, it’s been a damn good twelve months. Plus what show was downloaded illegally the most in 2012 (we are talking millions here) and how iPads are killing the toy business.
(Peter David‘s wife, Kathleen, updates us on what happened. Taken from Peter’s site. –CM)As stated yesterday on his web log, Peter had a stroke. So we are at the beginning of what is going to be a long road. We have a diagnosis, which is a small stroke in the Pons section of his brain. Now we have to figure out where we go from here and how we get Peter back to what he was before the stroke. We know that a total recovery is slim because damage to the brain doesn’t go away but the brain can be trained to work around the damage and give Peter back what he has lost.
I am dealing with a lot of woulda, coulda, and shoulda issues right now. But we are where we are and we are working out a plan of recovery.
What happened was that we were in Disney Hollywood Studios having just had lunch at the Prime Time Café. We were walking to the front gate because we were off to Animal Kingdom to see a friend of ours perform in the Finding Nemo Show. Peter had been tired and also not sleeping well the past week or so. He had been taking naps in the afternoon to catch up on the sleep that was eluding him at night. He told me that he had blurry vision in his right eye. The way he described it to me sounded like an ocular migraine so we took him back to the Hotel and went onto Animal Kingdom. We got back and he was working on his next novel. We decided to go to dinner but he was still having a slight vision problem so I drove.
While at dinner I thought his speech was a bit slurred. He put it down to fatigue and his face always looked like that. That morning he couldn’t get his right leg to move correctly. He told us later that he had gotten up because he couldn’t sleep and tried to type and couldn’t get his hand to work correctly but he didn’t want to wake me up and alarm me. I called my mom with the laundry list of things. My mother said get him to a hospital NOW. We loaded him into the car and took him to Celebration Hospital at the recommendation of some friends.
Celebration Hospital did a great job of getting him in and starting treatment. His blood pressure was scary scary high so their first job was to get it back to closer to normal. They did some tests and a CAT scan to check for a stroke. The CAT scan didn’t show anything but they were going with their observations and the evidence that his blood work was not good and getting worse. The decision was made to transfer him down to Florida Hospital in downtown Orlando where they could do an MRI and some other tests Also Florida hospital has the best cardiac unit and they were worried that he had a heart attack or a cardiac episode (having told Peter that he might be having a cardiac episode, he put on his best comic guy voice and said, ”Worst Episode Ever.” So Ariel got to take “ride in an ambulance” off her bucket list as she went down to the hospital with Peter while I dealt with getting us out of our hotel room.
So I am betting that in this point of the narrative you, if you know our family, are asking where is Caroline while this is all going on. She was and is in Jacksonville with her sister and Peter’s eldest daughter, Shana. Currently we haven’t told her what is going on but that is going to change in the next couple of days. So she is having fun with big sister and her playmates in Jacksonville. Shana has been a rock in all this and a champ about taking care of her little sister while all this has been going on. I have been able to concentrate on Peter right now.
He went into the Florida Hospital in the Cardiac Care Unit as they try to ascertain what exactly happened. They did an MRI about midnight along with some other tests. They came to the conclusion that it was not a heart attack but a stroke and moved him to the neurology unit where he is now.
As he stated, he has lost most of the use of his right arm, his right leg is incredibly weak, the vision in his right eye is blurry, and the right side of his face is drooping slightly. But the brain is there with all its quips and quick retorts. He has had the nurses laughing a lot.
Today we figure out what the next step is and where it is going to happen. Tonight the New Year Begins and for us it is a very different beginning than we thought we were going to be having.
Thank you everyone for your good wishes, prayers and kind words. They do help. And BIG thank you to our Orlando buddies who have taken us into their houses and helped us deal with what is going on.
Continue to think good thoughts for Peter. This is not going to be easy for him or us but we will get through this together.
This is a story I told to Joe Kubert. He loved it, said to write it up and he would use it as a backup in Sgt. Rock.
1943. Somewhere over Burma. The Dragonfly Squadron, inheritors of the famed Flying Tigers, is returning to base after flying a coverage mission for Merrill’s Marauders. First Lieutenant Meyer “Mike” C. Newell is flying wingman to his best bud, First Lieutenant Benjamin “Blackie” Blackstone. They met in training, and have been flying together ever since. The P-51D’s are pretty banged up, but the planes are the workhorses of the CBI and the pilots are confident that they will make it back to base, even though Johnson’s aircraft is leaking hydraulic fluid.
It is the rainy season in Burma and the landing strip, cleared out of the jungle overgrowth by Army engineers and sun-baked and rock-hard during the dry months, is a quagmire of mud that sucks at the wheels of P-51s as they touch down. The pilots must come down fast and hard with their throttles all the way open to clear the runway.
Three succeed, but Johnson’s plane, with its loss of hydraulic fluid, doesn’t have the power. Even with the throttle all the open the plane comes in slow and dodgy, and the mud captures the P-51 halfway down the runway. Johnson quickly gets out of the plane, and with the aid of the ground crew, is working to move the plane off the landing strip.
Blackie is already making his approach when the flare is sent up warning the other pilots off. Unable to veer off, he is forced to come in, still flying hard. As the wheels hit the ground, Blackie pulls back on the throttle and hits the brakes, but the inertia drives the P-51 forward and up onto Johnson’s plane. Blackie can’t shut off his engines, and the propellers are chopping their way through the other plane’s fuselage. That bird is still leaking hydraulic fluid. Blackie tries to open his canopy, but it is stuck. He is trapped.
Up above, Mike Newell, preparing his landing, sees the flare and pulls off, circling over the airfield. There is radio silence; no one knows what is happening below, though they know it is bad.
Admiral of the Fleet Lord Louis Mountbatten, First Earl of Burma and Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia Command (SEAC) is visiting the base. He and his aide-de-campe (they have been together for many, many years) are watching the disaster on the landing strip unfold.
Fire is dancing from the Johnson’s plane, and billowing black smoke is making the work of the ground crew even more difficult as their eyes tear and their lungs fill with the noxious stuff. Blackie is still alive; he can be seen struggling to open his canopy.
Suddenly the aide-de-campe runs to Blackie’s plane, jumps up on the wing, and works to free Blackie…
The fire is inching closer. It is an inferno consuming both P-51’s…
They explode.
The air is heavy with the smell of fuel.
Bits of burnt fuselage dance in the air like dust motes.
There is nothing left.
The runway is clear.
A second flare is sent up. Mike Newell resumes his approach.
He lands cleanly.
The remaining pilots bring in their planes, one by one, without incident.
They report for debriefing.
Late that night, Mike Newell is sitting on the wing of his plane, a bottle of Scotch in his hand. He swills it frequently, staring at the now silent and empty runway. It is raining again.
A shape approaches him in the darkness, and a clipped British voice says, “May I join you, Leftenant?”
Mountbatten swings himself up onto the wing as Mike moves over.
“This buggered war.” says Mountbatten.
“Yeah,” says Mike Newell.
“May I have some of that?”
Mike hands him the bottle. Mountbatten takes a swallow.
The two men sit in silence, sharing the Scotch.
• • • • •
Lord Mountbatten was the Last Viceroy and First Governor-General of India, overseeing the transition of that country into an independent republic. The IRA, who planted a bomb aboard his yacht when Mountbatten was vacationing in Ireland, killed him. First
Lieutenant Meyer C. Newell, awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and many other medals and honors for his service in the Army Air Corps, survived the war, came home, and married Loretta Yontef. They had two children, Mindy and Glenn. He stayed in the Army Air Corps – which became the U.S. Air Force – until the middle of the 1950s. His unit was called up during the Korean War, but never saw active service. The new Israeli Air Force sought him out, offering him a high commission if he would join them. Worried about losing his United States citizenship, he refused. In 1985 he received the Medal of Honor from China for brave and decorous duty for the Chinese Republic during World War II. The Dragonfly Squadron received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their service to the United States of America several years ago. Last year, a student at the Air Force Academy wrote his graduate paper on the CBI theatre, the Dragonfly Squadron, and First Lieutenant Meyer Carl Newell, P-51 fighter jock.
Sgt. Rock was cancelled and the story of Blackie, the aide-de-campe, Lord Mountbatten, and my father never saw print. Until today.
My father, who will be 90 in January, is dying. We brought him home from the hospital. He is receiving hospice care. Every now and then he will talk to us.
Yesterday I said to him, “Dad, it’s Mindy.”
“I know,” he said.
“I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you, too.”
I bent over and gave him a kiss. He moved his head, weakly gesturing for me to come closer.
Samaritan by Bobby Nash is a novella set in the future where man is exploring space aboard prospector ships. The Aquarius is one such ship. The Aquarius has been out in deep space for eight long years and is just now returning to Earth. In all that time they have not encountered another being of any species. That is about to change.
When the ship comes upon a seeming graveyard of spaceships and spaceship parts the crew is understandably curious and excited. For the first time they have evidence of life on other worlds. Sadly, as they are about to find out, itâÂÂs better off not answering certain questions, at least not at this time.
This is a VERY well written space adventure, and within its forty plus pages an entire story is told, and nothing is left wanting. I really liked this one a lot, even more than I expected too. It held my interest and the pace which started out slow built to a frenetic crescendo at the tales end. This is as much a horror story as it is Sci-fi, in the vein of âÂÂAlienâÂÂ.
But therein lies the problem with this tale, to me at least. The end, while excellently and professionally written, felt a little too expected for me. The big surprise was pretty much what I expected to happen.
But do NOT let that deter you from reading this story. It honestly is one of the best things IâÂÂve read in a long time. ThereâÂÂs very little sci-fi out there that I like. Most of it reads like bad Star Trek or Star Wars. Or it strives far too hard to be neither. This just read like a good sci-fi story. IâÂÂve been lucky recently and read three good sci-fi stories in a row, including this one. You canâÂÂt go wrong here. BobbyâÂÂs characters are real and you donâÂÂt like all of them, which to me is the sign of a good writer, and a good story.
Give Samaritan a whirl. ItâÂÂs a short but very engrossing story. Far better than most novellaâÂÂs IâÂÂve read recently.
#####
About SAMARITAN (an ebook novella by Bobby Nash):
Deep space.
The science ship Aquarius, under the command of Captain Jeremiah Rains has finally reached the end of its exploratory mission to the depths of uncharted space and is returning home to Earth.
Captain Rains and his skeleton military crew are tired and bored from the lack of adventure they expected to find out in the great beyond. The scientists, however, are extremely happy with their many discoveries.
When the ship comes upon the wreckage of a destroyed space vessel, the crew is surprised to find one survivor; a woman, quite possibly the most beautiful woman any of them have ever seen. Her name is Lari and all she wants is someone, some Good Samaritan, to take her home.
The catch is that her planet is located at the center of a black hole.
Samaritan will be part of the upcoming BEN Books release, FRONTIER, a collection of sci fi stories by New Pulp Author Bobby Nash. Frontier will be the first time Samaritan has been in print since its original run in Startling Stories #3 from Wild Cat Books in 2007.
UPDATE: Peter’s site is back. Feel free to add well-wishes there.
Peter David, writer of over one thousand comics for everyone over the past four decades, has suffered a stroke. He writes on his site:
I have had a stroke. We were on vacation in Florida when I lost control of the right side of my body. I cannot see properly and I cannot move my right arm or leg. We are currently getting the extent of the damage sorted out and will report as further details become clarified.
His main website, PeterDavid.net, is getting hammered, but we’ll be updating as we have more information. He’s still planning on hitting all his deadlines, though.
Peter, of course, is well known for his comics work, holding the current record for most months consistently published. comic book resume includes an award-winning twelve-year run on The Incredible Hulk, and he has also worked on such varied and popular titles as X-Factor, Supergirl, Young Justice, Soulsearchers and Company, Aquaman, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Star Trek, Wolverine, The Phantom, Sachs & Violens, The Dark Tower, and many others. He has also written comic book related novels, such as The Incredible Hulk: What Savage Beast, and co-edited The Ultimate Hulk short story collection. Furthermore, his opinion column, “But I Digress…,” has been running in the industry trade newspaper The Comic Buyers’s Guide for nearly a decade, and in that time has been the paper’s consistently most popular feature and was also collected into a trade paperback edition.
His latest prose fiction, Pulling Up Stakes, is available from Crazy 8 Press. Part one is available as an e-book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble now, with part two arriving shortly. His latest comic, Richard Castle’s A Calm Before Storm, is a spinoff from the TV series Castle, starring Nathan Fillion.
New Pulp Author Martin Powell shared a couple of teaser images on his Facebook page this week that shows not one, but two projects featuring classic pulp jungle lords coming in 2013.
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