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TARZAN RELIVES THE RUSS MANNING YEARS

Art: Russ Manning

Just in time for Tarzan’s Centennial Celebration, Dark Horse Comics is releasing Tarzan: The Russ Manning Years Volume 1. The hardcover collection will arrive in comic shops on Wednesday, December 12.

Tarzan: The Russ Manning Years Volume 1 features stories by Gaylord DuBois (Writer) and Russ Manning (Artist).

Experience three of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels as drawn by Russ Manning, the most beloved comic-book interpreter of the lord of the jungle! Collecting Tarzan #155 – #161, #163, #164, #166, and #167, from the 1960s, this volume is an essential addition to any comics fan’s collection!

Tarzan: The Russ Manning Years Volume 1 is 288 pages and retails for $49.99.

Enjoy this preview.
Click on images for a larger view.

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The Point Radio: ARROW’s Aim Is Still True

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As ARROW  hits the halfway mark of the TV season, fans and critics alike say it keeps getting better. We go backstage with the creators and cast to find out how they got this far, and what lies ahead for new characters including one played by fan favorite John Barrowman. Plus How about Captain Kirk, Ron Burgundy or Spock doing your voice mail message? It can happen if you hurry.

Take us ANYWHERE! The Point Radio App is now in the iTunes App store – and it’s FREE! Just search under “pop culture The Point”. The Point Radio  – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any other  mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

PULPFEST 2012 PODCAST– AND THE AWARD GOES TO…

The Book Cave’s Panel Fest podcast, Panel Fest Episode 15 covers the PulpFest 2012 Awards.

Matt Moring

The winner of the 2012 PulpFest Munsey Award is Matt Moring of Altus Press.

Matt Moring is the publisher at Altus Press. Reprinting pulp fiction from a wide variety of pulp genres, including hero, detective, jungle, the French Foreign Legion, and more, Matt has quickly become one of the leading publishers in the pulp world. He has also published numerous historical works on the pulps including biographies, indices, and examinations of single-character magazines. Together with Will Murray, Matt revived the Doc Savage series, publishing brand new stories after a long absence. The Altus Press website is also an excellent reference source, featuring links to The Pulp Superhero Index and The Echoes Index.

Jack and Sally Cullers

The winner of the 2012 PulpFest Rusty Hevelin Service Award are Jack and Sally Cullers.

Jack Cullers has worked quietly and tirelessly for the pulp community for decades. A longtime volunteer for many pulp conventions, Jack has ferried guests of honor to and from airports and made sure they had a friendly face with whom to dine. He has stuffed envelopes, arranged for advertising, organized auctions, and done many other behind-the-scenes tasks, selflessly and without seeking accolades. Time and again, he has welcomed newcomers to the hobby, even inviting them to his home for dinner during their earliest pulp conventions. He has offered space at his dealer tables for down-on-their-luck pulpsters unable to attend conventions. As the chairman of the PulpFest committee, he has worked to assure that convention guests, dealers, presenters, and attendees are treated fairly and respectfully, helping everyone to feel welcome and comfortable at the convention. Of course, Jack could not have done all that he has done without the support of his wife, Sally, herself a longtime pulp con volunteer, often helping with registrations and auctions. His children and friends have also lent a hand. Few are more deserving of recognition than Jack and Sally Cullers, who have labored long and hard for our small community of pulp lovers.

Thanks to Jason Aiken for recording the awards panel.

Listen now at http://thebookcave.libsyn.com/panel-fest-episode-15-pulp-fest-2012-awards

Learn more about The PulpFest Awards here.

All Pulp congratulates the winners.

Martha Thomases: Where Are Our New Nerds?

In last Monday’s New York Times Media Watch columns, they ran a list of the ten films released this year that had the highest box office ion their opening weekends. What’s amazing to me is that the top five (Marvel’s The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Hunger Games, Amazing Spider-Man and Twilight: Breaking Dawn: Part 2) can all be classified in the fantasy genre, or, as I like to call it, nerd stuff.

Of the next five (Skyfall, Brave, Ted, Madagascar 3 and Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax), three are aimed primarily at children, and one is a James Bond film, which has its own separate but overlapping geek audience. Only Ted could be considered a movie aimed at what was once the wide, mainstream audience, and even then, because it is an R-rated comedy, that limits the wideness.

When did our beloved nerd culture become so dominant? I was certainly the only girl in my high school (which was all girls) who read superhero comics, and if anyone else read science fiction or fantasy, they were in the closet about it.

Even in the 1980s, when Frank Miller and Alan Moore and Art Spiegelman were publishing work that attracted mainstream media attention, there wasn’t much spillover to the medium of graphic storytelling.

When I first went to work for DC, the most common reaction I encountered when people learned what I did was, “Do they still publish those?”

For that matter, even today, the success of the movies listed above doesn’t do much for comics. There’s a history of tie-in films boosting the sale of books (for example, Gone With the Wind), but that doesn’t always overlap to your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, or comic book store.

Still, I don’t think fans like us can claim to be outsiders anymore. We might not be the cool kids, but we aren’t unwanted loners, either. What are today’s nerds about?

Is it Steampunk? Is it libertarian politics? Are there still obscure rock bands to follow, or has everything been American Idol’d to a bland pap. What distinguishes the kids getting beat up and/or ostracized today?

Besides being queer, I mean.

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman and This Week’s New DC

 

NEW PULP FROM TOM JOHNSON

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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 ANNOUNCES TERRY AND THE PIRATES PLANS

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.

CONAN TURNS 80!

Robert E. Howard’s famous barbarian, Conan celebrates 80 years. Join the celebration at www.conan.com.

New Pulp Author Ed Erdelac wrote a nice blog on appreciating Conan at http://emerdelac.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/happy-80th-birthday-conan-the-cimmerian/

All Pulp wishes Conan a happy 80th Birthday. Here’s looking at the next 80.

IRON SKY COMES TO IDW

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Comic Book Adaptation Cover

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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.

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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.

JEFF DOTEN VISITS THE BOOK CAVE

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.

A Doctor A Day – “The End of the World”

Cassandra (Doctor Who) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Using the new Doctor Who Limited Edition Gift Set, your noble author will make his way through as much of the modern series as he can before the Christmas episode, The Snowmen. Travelers are advised against the use of weapons, teleportation, and religion.

In this episode, it looks like it’ll be a fabulous evening’s apocalypse, but The Doctor and Rose find out that there’s a chance they may be in danger during…

The End of the World
by Russell T Davies
directed by Euros Lyn
“Moisturize me, moisturize me!”

Rose wants to visit the future – The Doctor takes her to the year 5.5/apple/26, five billion years on, the day the Earth will be destroyed by the sudden expansion of the sun as it dies.  Humanity has long since moved on throughout the galaxy, and the death of their homeworld is seen as more of a celebratory experience.  Platform One, a massive force-shielded spacestation is the floating ballroom for a huge party to watch the planet get the finger, and that’s where Rose and The Doctor have landed.  Enjoying the opportunity to hobnob with extraterrestrials, Rose begins to notice that some…THING is wrong on Platform One.  The force fields are brought down, and Lady Cassandra stands revealed as behind a plot to put everyone in danger solely to collect on a massive compensation suit.  As The Doctor says, five billion years later, it all comes down to money.

We’ve seen in the first episode how well the new Who crew can do a story set on Earth, so they chose to impress us quickly and go big with a quick trip into the future.  A wide assortment of wonderful makeup, mechanical effects and CGI provide a solid and believable experience, with no “wobbly sets” as they playfully reference in the commentary and on confidential the occasional cheesiness of the original series.  Davies keeps a good balance of the dramatic and the silly here.  Billie Piper gets some great scenes as she comes to grips with the fact that she hopped into the proverbial car with a total stranger, and stands a severe chance of getting burned over it. Literally.

There’s quite a few first appearances in this episode.  In addition to recurring characters like the Face of Boe and Cassandra O’Brien, it’s the first appearance of the Psychic Paper. Another brilliant little idea to explain how easily the Doctor can get into any situation so smoothly, it’s a tool that’s rapidly become as commonplace and popular as the Sonic Screwdriver.  It’s also the first time a running concept was used clearly – when the TARDIS travels into the future, the Time Vortex is red, when they travel into the past, it’s blue.  When Tennant and Smith take over the role, that color theme carries through to their costumes – check the colors of Ten’s outfits, and Eleven’s bowtie.  And assuming you already know how the season ends, you might notice this is the first mention of “Bad Wolf” – two aliens are chatting, and one mentions that this is “The bad wolf scenario”.

Davies starts another tradition going here as well – spectacular characters who appear once alone yet appear fully formed.  Jabe of the Forest of Cheem is the first person to sacrifice herself to help The Doctor,  She’s also the first to reveal a bit more about the Great Time War. It was mentioned in the previous episode; the war was the reason the Nestene food planets were lost, and The Doctor admits he couldn’t stop it.  But here we learn that the rest of the Time Lords are gone, and his world is destroyed.  The details are yet to come, but it’s a major departure from the previous series.  The Time Lords were always seen as unassailable, undefeatable.  For them to fall shows that no one in the universe is infallible.  And that carries through to The Doctor.  In the new series, he makes mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes put people in danger.  It gives the Companions a chance to save the day, and generally increases the sense of drama: The Doctor will not always have the answer.