Press Release:

Arctic Adventure! A Thunderbirds novel by Anthony Taylor is now available.

Brains is the genius behind International Rescue’s technology. Besides designing and upgrading all of their equipment, he constantly develops and tests new products and processes, sometimes in partnership with outside interests. Eager to try out a new stealth system of his invention, Brains teams up with Humboldt Aviation to install his system on their new aircraft, the V-17. On the first test flight, the V-17 is shot down over the arctic by agents of the outlaw state of Reznia. With the aircraft shattered and partly buried in the ice, Brains and the V-17’s pilot are injured and unable to free themselves. Although Brains is able to contact International Rescue for recovery, the Reznians are also converging on the crash site in order to claim the wreckage for their research. Can the rest of International Rescue find and retrieve Brains and the V-17 pilot before the Reznians can capture them and the crashed plane?

Ordering information for Thunderdirds Arctic Adventure novel can be found at http://shop.ftlpublications.com/product.sc?productId=21&categoryId=1

$10.00
SHIPS TO USA AND CANADA ONLY

Readers outside the USA and Canada can order via http://www.ftlpublications.com/ordering.htm.

Thunderbirds ™ and © ITC Entertainment Group Limited 1964, 1999 and 2011. Licensed by Granada Ventures Ltd. All rights reserved.

On Saturday, November 19, AudioComics Pulp history was made on Mission Street in San Francisco at Broken Radio Studios, site of the legendary Coast Recorders Studio. Ably engineered by Piper Payne, Craig Neibaur, Karen Stilwell, and the members of the Pulp Adventures Acting Company (Bill Chessman, Suzan Lorraine, Kevin Donnelly, Mandy Brown, Peter Carini, Peter Papadopoulos, and Perry Aliado) recorded the first of many Green Lama and Domino Lady audio movies (or in this case audio shorts).

Pete Carini said it best when it was all over: “about twenty minutes from now I’m going to have an adrenaline crash.”

You can view photos from the AudioComics Pulp session at http://audiocomics.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/audiocomics-pulp-in-san-francisco. The Green Lama and The Domino Lady AudioComic Pulp stories will be available for download February 2012.

For more on AudioComic Pulp, visit them at http://audiocomics.wordpress.com/.

You have to appreciate the efforts from MGM and Warner Bros., trolling through their film libraries and resurrecting titles that only a handful of videophiles might be interested in owning. After transferring these to disc, they are made available as manufactured to order, largely available only through websites. Warner has over 1000 such videos available in every genre imaginable while MGM is catching up quickly.  Among the recent releases is one curiosity worth noting for ComicMix readers.

While we are all familiar with Conde Naste’s The Shadow, few beyond Anthony Tollin may recall that there were three really low budget features produced in 1946 from Monogram, all starring Kane Richmond. The second of the trio, Behind the Mask, is now out and if you’re a big fan of the character, you might want to check this one out.

The stories are watered down crime adventures; missing the spark Walter Gibson (writing as Maxwell Grant) brought to the pulp magazine that debuted in 1931 and was still coming out twice-a-month but running out of steam by this point. Visually, the gun-toting vigilante wears a full black face mask rather than the red scarf covering the lower half of his face. The slouch hat and cloak are present along with familiar figures for the magazines and popular radio series.

The fairly pedestrian story, from Arthur Hoerl (Reefer Madness) and George Kallahan involves the murder of Daily Bulletin reporter Jeff Mann with people thinking it’s the Shadow when it’s actually an impostor, the Silhouette. While this is happening, Lamont Cranston is about to marry Margo Lane (Barbara Reed), something that was never going to happen. Oddly, despite being his confidante and agent for countless missions, she now wants him to hang up his .45s simply because they are to be married, as if his cause has become superfluous. Others from the mythos include Shrevvy (George Chandler), the faithful chauffeur.

The mystery is predictable but we take our time getting to the obvious, with comedic asides that do nothing to make the characters appealing or counterpoint the story. Richmond handles the comedic elements far better than he does portraying the cold, cruel crime fighter. The film was handled with a by-the-numbers approach by director Phil Karlson, who apparently never thought to make the low budget work in his favor with camera angles and lighting to create some sense of mood, the same mood so easily created on radio. Trust me, the earlier movie serials were better. As for the other two Monogram films, The Shadow Returns and The Missing Lady, last time I looked, both were available for instant streaming on Netflix.

A few weeks ago I was blathering about the absence of new superheroes in the current television schedules. Shame on me! I forgot about Super Ray.

Before you rush off to consult TV Guide searching for time and channel, be assured that you won’t find Ray there. The show he’s on isn’t about him. Fact is, he’s not exactly on the show. He’s a character created by one of the fictional people who is on the show. This character, also named Ray, is a comic book artist and Super Ray is his brainchild.

Still with me? Good, because it gets even more complicated.

The show is called Bored to Death and it concerns Jonathan Ames, a largely unpublished writer who moonlights as a private eye, his editor/restaurateur mentor George, and his cartoonist pal Ray. It’s a comedy, one which has grown on me; initially, my reaction was take-it-or-leave-it, but that’s morphed into a genuine fondness for an entertainment that’s quirky, unique and… what am I forgetting?… oh yeah, often quite funny.

Bored to Death gleefully and wantonly blurs the line between fiction and real life. The nominal hero, Jonathan Ames, played by Jason Schwartzman, is – no surprise here – based on the real Jonathan Ames but…the actual Ames plays Irwin who is trying to stab Ray because of a problem involving a woman. George Christopher is played by Ted Danson and I’ve never liked him in any role as much as I like him as George.

Which brings us to Ray, played by the ubiquitous Zach Galifianakis, and also inspired by a person with an address and a social security number, Dean Haspiel. Like the quasi-fictitious Ray, Dean is a cartoonist and a friend and colleague of Mr. Ames. All clear, right? Ray is tight with the Schwartzman/Ames and Dean is tight with the Ames/Ames.

Wait – there’s more! Some of Bored to Death’s storylines are borrowed from Dean’s autobiography.

But here the correspondences begin to dissolve. You probably wouldn’t mistake Haspiel for Galifianakis. Zach/Ray is a pretty dour dude whereas Dean is cheery and ebullient. To me, Dean seems to be absolutely delighted to be who and what and where he is.

(Yeah, you got me. I do know Dean – have known him since he was a little kid. He’s one of my son’s oldest friends. Okay with me if it’s okay with him.)

One more thing: Dean Haspiel is the only person I know who possesses an Emmy, an award he received for work on Bored to Death’s animated title sequence. And when Zach/Ray draws a picture on television, Dean actually wields the pencil…and again, the lines blur.

But see for yourself. Bored to Death. HBO. Monday nights at nine, eastern time.

RECOMMENDED READING: Nothing in particular, but Dean Haspiel’s website has information about his published work and a little Googling would probably yield more Dean, as well as a list if Jonathan Ames’s books. (The real Jonathan Ames, that is.)

FRIDAY: Martha Thomases