New Pulp Author Tom Johnson has posted information on his latest projects on his blog.

From Tom’s Blog:
Over the years I’ve written new stories featuring many of the original pulp characters, as well as some in the new pulp tradition. If you are a fan of any of these character, you might be interested in my short story collections from Altus Press www.altuspress.com/ and NTD www.bloodredshadow.com/ These are available also on Amazon, plus I may have a few copies on hand if you would rather get them from me at fadingshadows40@gmail.com

PULP DETECTIVES, available from Altus Press and Amazon, $24.95: Nine all-new stories starring the classic pulp heroes of the 1930s, featuring the following characters, written by pulp scholar Tom Johnson, it’s nearly 350 pages of excitement:
The Phantom Detective in “Satan’s Minions”
The Black Bat “Murder Under The Big Top”
The Lone Eagle in “The Nazi Spider Staffel”
The Masked Detective in “The Masked Detective’s Deadly Trail”
Secret Agent X in “The Spider’s Web”
The Black Bat in “Guns of Vengence”
The Phantom Detective (sort of) in “Fangs of Death”
 Nightwind in “Mystery of Haunted Range”

EXCITING PULP TALES, available from Altus Press and Amazon, 24.95: The exciting sequel to Tom Johnson’s 2010 anthology, PULP DETECTIVES, brings you ten more all-new stories featuring classic pulp heroes:
The Angel in “The Devil of A Case”
The Green Ghost in “The Case of The Blind Soldier”
The Cobra in “Curse of The Viper”
The Crimson Mask in “The Mask of Anubis”
Gentle Jones in “Nazis Over Washington”
The Purple Scar in “The Skull Killer”
Funny Face in “The Star of Africa”
Mr. Death in “Coffins of Death”
The Jungle Queen in “Jungle Terror”
Ki-Gor in “The Lost Valley of Ja Far”

PULP ECHOES, available from NTD and Amazon, $15.50: Seven new stories in the pulp tradition, both new and original characters:
The Bat in “Blind As A Bat”
The Crimson Clown in “The Crimson Clown – Killer”
Nibs Holloway battles Dr. Death in “Till Death Do Us Part”
The Black Ghost in “Carnival of Death”
Captain Anthony Adventure in “Terror In The North Country”
The Black Cat in “A Cat Among Dogs”
Senora Scorpion in “Senora Scorpion”

Also available now on Kindle are three new books by Tom Johnson.

HUNTER’S MOON, featuring the Moon Man in his best adventure since Frederick C. Davis. With the police closing in on Angel’s hideaway, the danger for the Moon Man may be escalating for Great City’s Robin Hood. To compound matters, tragedy strikes closer to home. This time, he will not be able to provide help to someone close to him. Sergeant Steve Thatcher, seeing the people struggling to survive, dons the mysterious garments of the Robin Hood thief to relieve the filthy rich of their ill-gotten gains to be distributed among the poor by ex boxer Ned Dargan. When they come up against an illegal weapons manufacturer masquerading as a toy company, his fiancé is taken prisoner by criminals and he must not only remove them of their money, but put a stop to their weapons sale overseas. $1.99

IN THE SILENCE OF DEATH, Colonel Jeremiah Custer’s Wild West Show comes across murder in a small Texas town. A mystifying murder mystery ensnares the famous criminologist and sharpshooter, Colonel Jeremiah Custer when his team encounters a young boy accused of mayhem. The lad cannot deny the charges for he can neither hear nor speak. The scientific brain of the greatest man hunter is put to task as he attempts to unravel this new crime! The ex intelligence officer puts his scientific brain to work to prove that the deaf mute boy is not the killer. Follow Colonel Custer and his aides as they unravel this deep mystery, and bring to justice this evil murderer. $1.99

THE DEATH TOWER. Secret Agent X is back in The Death Tower. What could a German agent be after in America? During Secret Agent X’s recovery at the Montgomery Mansion after the battle with Zerna’s drug gang in 1937, Betty Dale falls into a trap while following a suspect and is captured by a German Spy. Her whereabouts are unknown, and indeed, it’s not known if she’s even alive. Although the Agent hasn’t fully recovered from his previous battle with Zerna and the underworld, it’s imperative for him to locate and rescue the girl. For Betty Dale is more precious to him than anything in the world. If she has been harmed, he will exact vengeance on those responsible! $.99

To learn more, visit Tom Johnson’s Amazon Author Page or his blog.

Hermes Press has announced it will publish an archival reprint of George Wunder’s Terry and the Pirates. Wunder took over the strip after Milton Caniff left in 1946 and continued for nearly 27 years.

Terry and the Pirates: the George Wunder Years: Volume One 1946-1948, a deluxe hardcover in landscape format, will includes the daily and Sunday strips (reproduced in full color) which ran in continuity.

Learn more at www.hermespress.com.

Comic Book Adaptation Cover

Movie Poster

IDW Publishing, along with comic production house Hazmat Studios and film production company Blind Spot Pictures, have announced an Iron Sky movie tie-in graphic novel in March.

Drawn and colored by the team of Gerry Kissell and Amin Amat, the artists behind IDW’s best selling graphic novel Code Word: Geronimo, and Xbox’s comic game tie-in Alan Wake. The book will also feature original pin-up art by Miguel Angel Abad and Darren Douglas, and chronicles the battle against the return of history’s most notoriously evil villains, the Nazis, who unbeknownst to us, escaped to the moon following their defeat in World War II.

Movie Poster

“The graphic novel is a prequel to the hit sci-fi action film Iron Sky produced by Blind Spot Pictures, and focuses on how the Nazis ended up on the moon, and how Udo Kier’s character, Wolfgang Kortzfleisch, became Der Uberfuhrer,” Kissell said. “Part steampunk and part comedy, the graphic novel was written masterfully by Alan Wake scribe, Mikko Rautalahti. who has a wicked sense of humor.”

The book will be 104 pages, with 67 pages of comic art with an additional 33 pages of production art, behind the scenes bonus material, and other exclusive material written by the film’s director, Timo Vuorensola.

Learn more about Iron Sky: the movie at www.ironsky.net.
Learn more about IDW and their books at www.idwpublishing.com.

Artist Jeff Doten chats with The Book Cave crew of Art Sippo and Ric Croxton about his art and the Strange Worlds Anthology.

Listen to The Book Cave Episode 208: Jeff Doten now at http://thebookcave.libsyn.com/the-book-cave-episode-208-jeff-doten.

Fictional spies seem to come in two varieties, with numerous subsets: There are the glamorous and super-competent who bop around the globe, always traveling first class, driving lavishly sports cars, staying at palatial hotels, indulging in expensive cuisine and exotic liquor and comely members of the opposite sex and killing bad guys and saving civilization from slightly caricatured nut cases. (Bond – James Bond.)

If you can ignore the authoritarian subtext, mentioned in his space last week, and if you aren’t bothered by the veneration of conspicuous consumption, this almost-fantasy can be excellently entertaining, and often I have been excellently entertained by it.

This kind of secret agent is currently represented on television by Covert Affairs, a show in which the superspy is a woman incarnated by Piper Perabo. Her character isn’t quite as over-the-top as Bond, and thus far her opponents haven’t been any more caricatured than most televised antagonists, but she is one tough jet-setter who doesn’t stay in hostels when abroad and seems to have no qualms about her profession. She is part of a CIA unit that functions as a surrogate family, has a brotherly colleague with whom she has a platonic (so far) relationship, and even a biological sister. Oh, and she’s gorgeous. Did I mention that – the gorgeousness?

The other kind of fictional spy is a lot less fun. You find him/her in print in the novels of John LeCarre and Graham Greene and on the screen in movies made from those novels, and, I guess, some others. On the screen in your living room, this brand of spy is represented by another woman who is a far distance from Ms Perabo’s Annie Walker. Claire Danes’s Carrie Mathison, of Homeland fame, is deeply conflicted and in need of psychiatric help, which she got in the last episode of the previous season in the form of shock therapy. Ouch!

She has a love-hate relationship with her primary antagonist and doesn’t always mesh with her fellow CIAers. She usually looks unhappy and she’s been known to raise her voice. Her world is dark and the mortal climate is ambiguous: watching Homeland this week, I saw a beautifully written and played scene in which Carrie and a terrorist debated the righteousness of their respective causes and neither was in error. Grey is apparently the universe’s hue of choice and Homeland reflects that.

So what kind of spy story is better? Hey, no need for such a comparison. There is absolutely nothing wrong with pure entertainment and I would sashay along Annie Walker’s path any time. But – maybe drama should occasionally try for something more than entertainment. Maybe it should reflect the perplexities of the real world and maybe it should prompt us to question inherited wisdom and assumptions and so, if we were indulging in pointless comparisons (and we’re not! We’re not!) Carrie would be the more valuable she-spy.

But I’d still rather sashay with Annie.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING: The Science of Natural Healing, presented by Dr. Mimi Guarneri and available from The Teaching Company. The information Dr. Guarneri gives us could conceivably save lives. Stuff everyone should know.

FRIDAY: Martha Thomases – Where Are The New Nerds?