The Mix : What are people talking about today?
The Point Radio: Kurt Sutter On SONS Bloody End
SONS OF ANARCHY will be wrapping this season on a particularly bloody note, which has been the tone for the last few months. We talked with series creator Kurt Sutter about his plans to keep the tension and betrayal coming. Plus everyone is waiting for the 2nd part of the direct-to-DVD DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. Bruce Timm & Andrea Romano join us to talk about what we will and won’t be seeing in the next part set to hit stores in 2013.
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.
Martha Thomases: Nada
I got nothing.
This may surprise you. Here I am, a well-educated woman in the media capitol of the universe, someone who reads a few dozen comics every week, who goes to the movies when she can and stays in watching movies when she can’t.
And yet, I spend an inordinate amount of time playing fetch with my cat, and, when she lets me, knitting. So, on weeks such as this, when no news story catches my attention, I’m stuck treading water.
Which I will do now, with the following random observations:
• The ongoing debate about “fake” geek girls continues, with this, which is hilarious mostly because of the comments. Some boys get really really scared when girls do their own thing, and I find it even more amusing when they try to sound reasonable about their castration fears.
• As nearly as I can tell, the most famous knitter in comics is Martha Kent, who unravelled the blankets she found in Kal-El’s rocketship to make his costume. Since The New 52, I haven’t seen this story, so perhaps it is no longer canon. In any case, it’s a lot of work to knit a costume like that, presumably on rather small needles, and in the round, since we never see any seams. Is that why we don’t see her knitting again very often?
• When my cat permits, I’ve been watching the revamped Doctor Who on Netflix. I’m late to this party, and I’m only halfway through Season 4, so I have nothing particularly new to say. It’s a fun show, but I don’t entirely feel the fanaticism that so many of my friends enjoy. To me, the best part (aside from the cheesy special effects, which are one of my favorite things about British television) is the sheer glee the characters have about being alive.
• I hate the hype around the holidays, and therefore don’t pay much attention to Black Friday and the attendant promotions. Still, I’m rather encouraged that comic book publishers and retailers are getting on the bandwagon. It suggests that comics are mainstream enough to make the “fake geek girls” meme even more irrelevant.
• The season finale of NBC’s Revolution had the homoerotic undertones of a bowdlerized 1950s Tennessee Williams movie. The hero and the villain were friends since childhood, but now they are separated. The villain wants the hero back, and there are many long, smoldering looks between them. These looks last so long, in fact, that I started to notice that, in a society that has no power, and everyday living is a struggle for survival, these men have time to color their hair. The women not only color their hair, but also pluck their eyebrows. Even the fat guy, the shameful nerd, has highlights. If the revolution ends up being televised, at least they’ll be ready for their close-ups.
Ye Editor apologizes for the late posting of today’s column. He was probably drunk or something.
SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman
ALL STAR PULP COMICS 2 COVER PREVIEW
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| Cover Art in Process: Will Meugniot |
Airship 27 Productions and Redbud Studio’s All-Star Pulp Comics #2 is in production and will feature comic tales of some of pulp’s favorite characters by some of New Pulp‘s best. Cover artist Will Meugniot shared his behind-the-scenes process for designing the cover on his Facebook page.
From Will Meugniot:
Here’s a preview of the new cover I just completed for Airship 27’s ALL-STAR PULP COMICS #2 out early next year. That complicated man with the Tommy gun is Derrick Ferguson’s exciting new pulp era adventure hero, Dillon, battling unknown evils alongside classic hero Ki-gor’s lovely mate, the crimson tressed Helene. On the left is the comp, at center is the inks and to the right, the finish. Hope you all will pick up a copy!
All-Star Pulp Comics #1 is still available.
Features cover art by Jeffrey Butler.
You can find it here.
Keep watching All Pulp for more details on All-Star Pulp Comics #2 when they become available.
A PLETHORA OF PULP IN PRO SE PRESENTS #15
Vigilantes!
Dark Cookies!
Ninjas!
Cops!
Dog Detectives!
All this and more available this month in PRO SE PRESENTS #15. Authors Aaron Smith, Brad Mengel, David White, Adam Lance Garcia, and A. M. Paulson bring you two fisted action, spine tingling suspense, and even family friendly adventure in this issue, showing that New Pulp has something for everyone! Pro Se Presents 15 features great design work and art by Sean E. Ali! Pro Se -Puttin’ The Monthly Back into Pulp! Available now in print for $6.00 at Amazon and at Pro Se’s Store!
PRO SE PRODUCTIONS-www.prosepulp.com
NEW BOOK! NEW STORIES! AND A CHANCE TO DIE IN PRINT!
Meteor House Press announces a wonderfully strange, wild new novel and and a contest! And even offers a free excerpt below!
The Abnormalities of Stringent Strange
The Abnormalities of Stringent Strange
The exploits of an apeman test pilot
The world has never seen an aviator quite like Stringent Strange. Half man, half ape, half badly added fraction, he can fly anything with wings and many things without. Under the mentorship of the unorthodox genius Professor Tobias Crinkle, our hairy hero soon gets much more than he bargains for when he finds himself up against a fiendish Nazi plot to invade and conquer America before the war has even begun!
Fortunately there exists an invention that can help him fight back against the warlike scoundrels, but the consequences of using it will propel him into even greater peril, into an alternative future where the themes and tropes of early magazine science fiction are menacingly real and coexist in perfect disharmony! Into a bracing reality where the only weapons he can rely on are the three special abnormalities he was born with…
Come and join Stringent Strange in a stupendous, mysterious, inventive adventure set in a far-flung time When Pulps Collide!
Get this at http://meteorhousepress.com/stringent/
In addition to buying the book, which will be a signed limited edition, customers can order a “deleted scene” which Rhys will write specifically for them. It will not appear in the book but will printed out from the “manuscript” and mailed with the book. In this (short) scene the reader will be killed by the author of their choice in the arena as they battle as gladiators. Here is an example: http://meteorhousepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/deleted1.pdfAlso, Rhys is currently writing a new novelette featuring Stringent Strange, “The Further Fangs of Suet Pudding,” http://rhysaurus.blogspot.com/2012/11/suet-pudding-returns.html. Everyone who preorders The Abnormalities of Stringent Strange, will get the ebook of “The Further Fangs of Suet Pudding” for free.Anyone who orders a deleted scene before the end of November (Two days left!), will be Tuckerized as a character in “The Further Fangs of Suet Pudding.”Go on a wild ride and learn all about THE ABNORMALITIES OF STRINGENT STRANGE! Start with the excerpt below!
Excerpt from
The Abnormalities of Stringent Strange
THE PLANE TRUTH
Sunlight flashed on the wings of the single-engine Northrop Gamma as it banked around the small cumulus that was the only cloud in the sky. The monoplane performed a final barrel roll before coming in to land and the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 14-cylinder radial engine droned comfortably as the pilot adjusted the fuel/air mix. The overinflated wheels bounced once on the hot tarmac and the propeller clattered to a standstill. Then the pilot emerged and rubbed his gloved hands.
“She’s a beauty, no doubt about it, doc. Handles like a French whore. I mean that the frills serve a purpose…”
“I comprehend the allusion,” sighed Crinkle.
“Another winner, in my opinion.”
The pilot removed his goggles and grinned. Stringent Strange was tall and muscular with a manly chin and the clear blue eyes of a hero. He was exactly the sort of fellow that girls should go wild over, but in fact he had to spend an unhealthy percentage of his test pilot’s salary on prostitutes. It was his body that was the cause of this discrepancy. It was hirsute beyond belief, the torso of a gorilla balanced on the legs of a giant lemur; and the hairs were malodorous in the extreme.
“My worst fear has been confirmed,” continued Professor Crinkle, as he rubbed his bleary eyes, “but there’s nothing we can do about it. Jack is the winner and that’s a plain fact.”
“Knowing when to quit is a useful talent, doc!”
“Yes, I suppose so, dear boy.”
Stringent began walking back to the control tower. He was in a good mood but he tried to hide his exuberance for the sake of his mentor, who trailed behind him with pouting lips. When a man’s dreams are shattered in front of him, it’s poor taste to whistle and skip. Tobias Crinkle, Ph.D., had devoted almost twenty-five years to the cutting edge of the aviation industry but dedication isn’t enough on its own. Genius counts for more and his main rival had plenty of that.
His main rival had a name. Jack Northrop.
Although Stringent felt empathy for Crinkle, his recent flight brimmed him with an almost sexual joy and he strode ahead rapidly, not caring to be brought down by the glum expression and nihilistic mutterings of the disappointed professor; but at the entrance to the control tower he turned for a last glance of the gleaming Northrop Gamma, its aerodynamic spats giving the airplane a curiously anthropomorphic appearance, like a jazz musician performing a primal dance.
Stringent’s psychology wasn’t quite that of a normal man and he often saw resemblances that no one else could perceive, or would even want to, but on this occasion he could be forgiven his conceit, for the machine did actually have the semblance of a speakeasy reveler. Three steps at a time he climbed the spiral stairway to the control room and grinned at the man who sat on a leather chair in front of a transmitter. This man had been in constant radio contact during the flight.
“A beautiful plane, Mr. Northrop,” Stringent said.
The seated man nodded once. “I’m glad you like it. I do feel bad about Tobias, but it’s a cutthroat business.”
“That’s true. We appreciate the situation.”
“Well, Jack,” cried Professor Crinkle as he emerged into the room. “It only remains for me to throw in the towel and admit I’m beaten. Stringent here says your new Gamma is something really special and I know better than to ever distrust his word on anything connected with aviation. So I’m going to quit the business and sell up.”
“That’s a shame,” said Jack. “You’re a good designer.”
The professor smiled wistfully. “Sure, but not a patch on you, and I’m not too proud to acknowledge the obvious. My own rival prototype, the Crinkle Crisp, just isn’t up to scratch. Sure, it’s faster than diarrhea in a Malay Peninsula missionary, but it doesn’t have the maneuverability of your model. Look, I don’t have a towel on me, just a pocket handkerchief, so I ought to throw that in instead.”
He bunched up the square of filthy cloth and hurled it at Jack’s head. It missed and struck the wall behind: a wholly symbolic gesture. The mucus acted like glue and it remained stuck on the wall. Stringent thought about wrenching it off, then decided not to.
Jack Northrop leaned back in his chair until the leather creaked and he made a pyramid with his fingertips. “Listen, Tobias, my new Gamma is a superb small cargo plane and does everything it should to make it the best of its kind in that category, but that doesn’t mean you should abandon all your ongoing projects. I’m extremely interested in some of your proposed innovations. The Flying Tail, for example. An aircraft without fuselage or wings, cutting drag to the minimum!”
Professor Crinkle shook his head. “I suspect you’re just flattering me, Jack. Agreed, my Flying Tail is a pretty neat idea, but the tests I’ve run on miniature models prove that it’s very unstable. And you’ve got your own low drag project, the Flying Wing.”
Jack licked his lips and lowered his voice.
“Yes, that’s a particular favorite of mine. But I’m going to come clean with the pair of you. There’s something even more special in the works. A stratospheric cruiser with a highly experimental propulsion system that’ll generate vast amounts of free power if it works properly. Forgive me if I don’t say much more at this stage.”
“You never cease to amaze me, Jack,” said Crinkle.
The leather creaked again as the occupant of the chair stood up. “Time is passing rapidly and I have an engagement in Los Angeles this evening, so I should make my farewells now.”
Stringent nodded. “Thanks for inviting us over, Mr. Northrop, and for letting me fly your Gamma.” He turned to the professor. “I know you are sore disappointed, doc, but at least you’ve been saved pumping more cash into that ridiculous Crinkle Crisp.”
“Yes, that was a rather large favor, dear boy.”
“Think nothing of it,” said Jack.
“Keep us updated about your triumphs, will you?” asked Crinkle. His reddening eyes blinked rapidly.
“Of course I will, Tobias. Maybe I’ll see you again before 1932 is out, and if you decide to let Stringent go, there’ll always be a job for him here. Have a safe journey back to…?”
“Tallahassee. That’s where we’re based.”
Jack’s eyebrows shot up. “In Florida? But I always believed you had headquarters somewhere in Nevada.”
“We did. Then a freak sandstorm destroyed all our hangars. We had no choice but to relocate and now we’re on the far side of the continent. Rent is lower and the climate isn’t so harsh, plus I prefer the food and the local Seminole workers are reliable.”
“And I enjoy swamp whores,” added Stringent.
There was an awkward pause.
“Ahem… Yes, well, many factors contribute to the desirability of the Florida Panhandle as a suitable location for our operations, not that there will be any further products rolling off my production line. My intention is to cancel all Crinkle Industry programs. I’ve had it with aviation, Jack. I can’t even face getting in a plane to return home. I think I’ll take a train instead. Is that fine by you, Stringy?”
Stringent nodded dubiously. “I guess so.”
Jack Northrop pulled on his coat and perched a hat on his head. “If I’d known you had to come so far, I wouldn’t have invited you over just for a few hours and a solitary test flight. Damn it, Florida’s two thousand miles distant and by locomotive it’s a monstrous and vaporous journey. And I’m not referring to California when I honestly point out that you don’t look in any fit state to go back right now.”
“I amrather tired,” admitted the professor.
Jack puffed out his cheeks. “In that case, why not spend the night here on the airfield? There’s a cabin on the edge of the runway with a bunk bed and a kitchen and other facilities. I had it built so I could sometimes work late without having to go home.”
Crinkle and Stringent exchanged glances.
“Why not?” they said in unison.
The Abnormalities of Stringent Strange, copyright © 2012 by Rhys Hughes
TWO NEW EPISODES OF THE SHADOW FAN PODCAST ARE LIVE!
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| Shadow Art: Michael W. Kaluta |
The Shadow Fan Podcast hosted by New Pulp Author Barry Reese is back with two all-new episodes.
The Chinese Disks
The Shadow Fan returns with another episode, filled with discussion on the greatest of the pulp heroes! In this episode, host Barry Reese talks about the continuity heavy “The Chinese Disks,” The Shadow Annual # 1 (1987) and the arrival of Moe Shrevnitz to the series. What could be better than spending a half hour talking The Shadow with a fellow fan? Download today!
Listen now at http://theshadowfan.libsyn.com/the-chinese-disks
The Murder Genius!
We return for our seventh episode and this time around, we have Shadow news, three different reviews, an Agent profile *and* listener feedback! Let us return to the Sanctum!
Listen now at http://theshadowfan.libsyn.com/the-murder-genius
CAPTAIN HAZZARD HEADS TO AUDIO!
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| Cover Art: Mark Maddox |
Press Release:
CAPTAIN HAZZARD AUDIO BOOK
Airship 27 Productions & Dynamic Ram Audio are thrilled to announced the release of the first ever Captain Hazzard adventure, “Python Men of the Lost City,” as an audio book recorded by actor Joe Stofko.
In 2006 six, writer Ron Fortier realized a personal dream when he re-wrote the original pulp classic known amongst fans because it only produced one issue. Although released under the house name of Chester Hawks, it is believed that pulp veteran Paul Chadwick was the true author of this Doc Savage want-to-be.
“Finding a facsimile reprint copy years go,” explains Fortier, “I was instantly enamored with the characters, especially Hazzard. I could also see why the book failed. Chadwick, better known for his Secret Agent X exploits, wasn’t at all comfortable with high adventure and the book is filled with plot holes galore.” Fortier sat down, re-wrote the entire book and republished it via Ron Hanna’s Wild Cat Books. It became an instant hit amongst the pulp community. “I would challenge pulp fans to read the original and then my re-write,” Fortier chuckles. “The response I received from those who did this was overwhelmingly positive. Enough so that I started writing new Captain Hazzard novels.”
Later, Fortier and his partner, Art Director Rob Davis, parted ways with Wild Cat Books to start their own publishing imprint, Airship 27 Productions and quickly produced new editions of the book. Earlier this year, Airship 27 joined forces with Dynamic Ram Audio headed by Sound Engineer Chris Barnes. One of the titles chosen to bring to audio life was of course, “Catpain Hazzard – Python Men of the Lost City.” The audio files run approximately four and a half hours. There are plans to do CD versions in the coming months and make them available at various cons.
Fortier had high praise for Joe Stofko’s reading. “Joe’s a professional actor and does a lot of theater. His reading is full of passion and drama with a hint of the fun. That’s what I loved the most while listening to the tapes. Joe brings the story to life with his reading and adds a completely different dimension to the experience. No one could have done a better job with this.”
Now available at the Airship 27 Hangar Catalog site for $9.99! Direct link to the entry.
Print and Kindle Editions are available here.
Dennis O’Neil: Movies, Comics, and Heroes
Okay, first another bow toward my friend and colleague, John Ostrander. No sense in reviewing Skyfall, the new James Bond flick, since, in his November 18th column, John already wrote virtually everything I might have written about the entertainment. Let us agree: best Bond ever, for the reasons John cited.
It’s been a banner year for this kind of show, hasn’t it? We had two of the best superheroes – no, let’s not be mealy mouthed, Marvel’s Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises were, though quite different, the best superhero movies yet. (You want to disagree? Fine. This is only my opinion and, doggone it, I’ve misplaced my cloak of infallibility. Wonder if I could borrow the pope’s…) I think there’s been, among media types, a discernible learning curve. They have learned how to do this kind of material really well. Not that all such material is really good, but now there is the possibility of it being as good as anything out there. And, maybe more important, there has arisen the consensus that it ought to be good; no need to phone it in just because it’s that comic book stuff.
Reasons? Hey, do I look like a savant? Let’s just make one guess and hurry on. The guess: for the past couple of decades, many (if not most?) of the bright, creative kids have been comics readers. The form is familiar to them and they’re friendly to it. “Of course the movies can be good,” they might say. “Why wouldn’t they be good?”
The first Hollywood guys who tried adapting comics to the screen were on unfamiliar turf; to the current guys it’s home territory.
That was the guess, plus addenda. Now, the moving on, in the form of a confession: When I was a drifting, quasi-beatnik/peacenik, still on the south side of the dreaded 30, Bond was a Guilty Pleasure. A peacenik buddy (who was not as quasi as I was) and I saw the movies, first run, and enjoyed the action and adventure and romance and pretty females – all the Bondian delights – but! There was what I thought was an unhealthy glorification of consumerism – no, whoever has the most toys when he dies doesn’t always wins – and this aspect is, blessedly, almost absent from Skyfall. The other guilt-inducer was a bit thornier: wasn’t James Bond a fascist?
Sure, the word “fascist” has been tossed around and in the process lost some precision, but it usually involves unquestioning obedience to some authority figure, presumably for the common good. (Has any leader ever claimed to act for the common bad?) Strongly implicit in this conduct is that the authority figure gets to decide what the good is. So enter Bond: His friendly neighborhood authority figure, M, tells him to go commit bloody mayhem and he does. No questioning of right or wrong–just do the mayhem, often merrily. Recent history has demonstrated the inadvisability of blind obedience to the boss.
Again, we can pretty much find Skyfall innocent. The authoritarianism is muted, and neither Bond nor M seem to be happy about the mayhem. And they both seem fallible.
Maybe this kind of analysis is bringing too much baggage to what is, after all, just show-biz. But I’m glad I did it 50 years ago, and I don’t think it’s unhealthy to do it now.
FRIDAY: Martha Thomases
White Rocket Podcast 005: Jeff Deischer on Superheroes in Novels & Beyond– The Golden Age!
On this week’s episode of The White Rocket Podcast, New Pulp Author/Publisher Van Allen Plexico is joined by New Pulp best-selling author Jeff Deischer for part 2 of the series on “Superheroes in Novels and Beyond.” Van and Jeff discuss his new novel, THE GOLDEN AGE, which brings the classic Better/Nedor characters such as the Black Terror roaring into the New Pulp/novel realm. They discuss what makes pulp pulp, and what happens when you throw superheroic characters into that style of storytelling.
Listen now at http://whiterocket.podbean.com/2012/11/29/white-rocket-005-superheroes-in-novels-beyond-pt-2-the-golden-age/
Also available on iTunes and via the Podcast app on iPhone/iPad.
Part 1 of the series, Episode 003, with guest Bobby Politte is available here.
The White Rocket Podcast is part of The ESO Network.
