ComicMix

Dwayne McDuffie and Earl Kress to Receive WGAW Animation Writing Awards

News
November 18, 2011

I guess the write-in campaign worked. Applause to the Writers Guild for honoring these guys.

Dwayne McDuffie and Earl Kress are set to receive the Writers Guild of America, West Animation Writers Caucus’ 14th annual Animation Writing Award posthumously. The honor recognizes their animation writing work and their efforts to organize animation for the guild.

“This year, animation lost two talented, hard-working people who have given much of themselves and their talent to our field,” said AWC chair Craig Miller. “Dwayne McDuffie was a talented writer and creator of comics and animation who worked hard for others, particularly for minority writers. Earl Kress was a writer whose career included both feature and TV animation and hard work on behalf of all animation writers as a member of the WGA Animation Writers Caucus and the Animation Guild Board of Directors. Both were people I was glad to call friend and colleague, and whose efforts, it can truthfully be said, made all of us the better for them.”

via Dwayne McDuffie and Earl Kress to Receive WGAW Animation Writing Award – Hollywood Reporter.

FORTIER TAKES ON HARDLUCK HANNIGAN’S LATEST!

Uncategorized
November 17, 2011

ALL PULP REVIEWS by Ron Fortier

The Fantastic Adventures of HARDLUCK HANNIGAN-The Golden Scorpion

By Bill Craig

Cover by Laura Givens

Ever since starting this column, I’ve reviewed many small independent books but all of them were in one fashion or another associated with either a publishing group or writers’ organization. They all had ISBN numbers, a website or link as to where their books could be purchased. Bill Craig’s offering here has neither, no ISBN, no website address and no page numbering. I can’t even tell you how many pages there are in this great little book. This book exemplifies self-publishing to the maximum understanding of that process. This book was written, assembled and printed by Bill Craig. Happily, I’m informed that all of Craig’s books are available at Amazon.

Despite the book’s amateurish production values, Craig is really a very competent writer who excels at fast paced action. He is most assuredly a new pulp writer worthy of your attention and one of the most prolific working today. The Hardluck Hannigan series is only one of several he has invented and continues to pump out at a rather remarkable rate. Understand, Craig’s purple prose is masculine and he wastes no time jumping into each book’s plot with little fanfare as to who these characters are or where they’ve been up to this point in their lives.

The Golden Scorpion opens with Michael Hardluck Hannigan in Cairo having just completed an adventure in Africa. At the bequest of his Russian buddy, Gregor Shotsky, they go to meet an unscrupulous dealer in antiquities who has information on the whereabouts of an ancient mystical artifact known as the Golden Scorpion. The Golden Scorpion supposedly is a powerful arcane weapon of some kind said to be buried deep in the sands of the Sahara. Within minutes of meeting this fellow, Hannigan and Gregor are attacked by Tureg warriors, the merchant is killed and they escape with their lives and a new ally, a lovely American secret agent named Chas Ridings.

As I said before, the action never lets up and all too quickly we learn Hannigan is being pursued by a secret cult of dessert warriors, a Chinese master criminal and members of the Illuminati based in England. A great deal of Craig’s writing is reminiscent of Lester Dent’s classic Doc Savage stories in that Hannigan seems to be always accompanied by an eclectic group of aides made up of assassins, soldiers of fortune and brilliant scientists answering the siren song of adventure. Throughout their madcap race across the burning sands, battling both human and inhuman foes, Hannigan and company press on while Craig occasionally drops information concerning their previous exploits that led to their current predicament. It is both frustrating and intriguing at the same time.

The Golden Scorpion is a quick read that left me wanting a whole lot more. If you haven’t heard of Bill Craig before, then you need to remedy that. He’s a damn awesome pulp writer who knows how to spin a yarn.

SEQUENTIAL PULP BRAVES KING SOLOMON’S MINES!

Uncategorized
November 17, 2011

Art: Pablo Marcos

New Pulp Author Mark Ellis has shared Pablo Marcos’ stunning cover to the upcoming King Solomon’s Mines graphic novel that is scheduled to be in stores next year from Sequential Pulp/Dark Horse. Says Ellis of the book, “If you think you know everything about this story and Allan Quatermain–well, I’m fairly
confident you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

You can learn more about Sequential Pulp Comics at http://www.sequentialpulpcomics.com/
You can learn more about Dark Horse Comics at http://www.darkhorse.com/

SEQUENTIAL PULP UNLEASHES THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF!

News
November 17, 2011

Art: Steven Gordon

Sequential Pulp Comics has released promo art for their 2012 release, CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF OF PARIS by Steven Gordon. The graphic novel is scripted by Mark Ellis and will be available in 2012 from Dark Horse Comics’ Sequential Pulp Comics imprint.

You can learn more about Sequential Pulp Comics at http://www.sequentialpulpcomics.com/.
You can learn more about Dark Horse Comics at http://www.darkhorse.com/.

Uproar at Tunisian trial on Persepolis showing – Yahoo! News

News
November 17, 2011

This reminds me to renew my membership in the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (no, they aren’t called to defend this one, but they do great work both here and abroad):

The trial in Tunisia over the broadcasting the animated Iranian film [[[Persepolis]]] was cut short Thursday after an uproar in the courtroom. Lawyers for the two sides shouted at each other and exchanged insults inside the courtroom, prompting the judge to adjourn the trial until Jan. 23. The controversy over the film illustrates how Tunisia, the country that started the wave of uprisings that have swept through the Arab world this year, is struggling to work out the role of Islam in society after years of officially enforced secularism.The privately owned Nessma television station provoked an angry reaction last month when it broadcast a dubbed version of Iranian director Marjane Satrapi’s award-winning adaptation of her graphic novels about growing up during Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.The film, which won the jury prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, contains a scene showing a character representing God. Depictions of God are considered sacrilege in Islam.

via Uproar at Tunisian trial on Persepolis showing – Yahoo! News.

Gutter Magic “Spells” Potential

Uncategorized
November 17, 2011

by Alec Berry

Something about the urban landscape emphasizes the human condition. Maybe it’s the close contact of your neighbors. Maybe it’s the partial grime left exposed. Maybe it’s simply the notion and stigma that bad things happen on the streets. Whatever it is, fiction always seems to capitalize on it. Authors and artists enjoy looking toward the mean pavements to either observe or use them as a backdrop, and by the time the final product reveals itself, it’s clear the harsh, unforgiving landscape brings out the worst, or at least questionable, in its subjects. This is what writer Rich Douek gets right in this zero issue preview of the forthcoming comic, Gutter Magic.

Gutter Magic blends the fantasy genre with a hint of crime to present a story that’s really about the characters and their determined faults or problematic situations. This zero issue contains sixteen pages of more or less setup material, but within only sixteen pages writer Rich Douek manages to cover three members of his cast and somewhat establish who each of them are.

(more…)

DENNIS O’NEIL: Percy’s Inspiration

Uncategorized
November 17, 2011

Our story thus far: Percy the comic book artist has gone to the South Street Seaport seeking influences. There he meets a mime and:

The mime stared directly at Percy and asked, “Looking for an influence, numb nuts?”

Gobsmacked! That’s what Percy was, absolutely gobsmacked! How could this white-faced bozo know what he, Percy, was after? It’s not like he was wearing a sign that said: Will work for influences.

“Pay attention,” the mime said and:

Was transformed into a little boy who is creeping down the stairs and sees a box and eagerly, eagerly unwraps it, flinging aside paper and ribbon and looks inside and is horribly disappointed and…

The mime transformed into himself again and, moving his face to within inches of Percy’s, growled. “You influenced?”

Percy stared at his shoes and mumbled, “You’re not even an artist. You’re just a guy who…I dunno what you do but how can you influence me…”

“Go to a museum,” the mime said and when Percy raised his eyes, the mime was gone.

A museum?

Well, Percy knew that there were a lot of them in Manhattan and he’d always kind of planned to visit one and he’d even got close to the big one on Fifth Avenue once when he was girl watching in Central Park…Okay, he’d go to a museum because, really, he had nothing better to do – in fact, he had nothing at all to do.

He found the right subway and got off at the right stop and went up wide, concrete steps past some columns and then he was inside a museum. Big. Crowded. Intimidating. He wandered into a gallery full of large paintings and scoped them out: saints – the people with halos – and characters from mythology –that’s what the little cards told him– and just people, all engaged in activities that were recognizable and interesting. Pretty cool, some of it, but…? “What does any of this have to do with comics” he said aloud, to no one.

“It’s about storytelling,” said a man standing nearby – a man who looked oddly like the mime if the mime had gotten rid of his whiteface, was sporting a huge, waxed moustache, and was wearing a tuxedo. “What these painter chaps do,” the man continued, “is imagine how their subjects would appear when their faces and bodies are at their most expressive and render that in the purest possible manner. Rather like what those buskers in the park…the silent ones who seem to be forever walking against the wind, poor devils.”

Gobsmacked – really, really, no kidding gobsmacked – Percy shuffled from the museum, took a bus downtown, entered his building, and slept a very deep sleep. The next morning, he skipped breakfast and went straight to his drawing board: the mime, the paintings, and what they did, how they communicated – his task was clear. Percy wasn’t satisfied with his first effort, or his five hundredth, but eventually, he got close to what he wanted. Then, he began winning prizes. But that is a story for another time.

Note: Thanks to Martha Thomases for “gobsmacked.”

FRIDAY: Martha “Gobsmacked” Thomases

CLASSIC AND NEW PULP JOIN FORCES!

News
November 17, 2011

Two Pulp Publishers join forces to bring Fans more and more of the stories they love! Altus Press, the foremost publisher in quality Pulp reprints as well as the Publisher of THE WILD ADVENTURES OF DOC SAVAGE and Pro Se Productions, one of the leading companies in the New Pulp Movement announce today a cooperative effort and imprint to provide even more Pulp Fiction, both classic and New, to diehard fans of Pulp or simply exciting adventure fiction!

Beginning in February, Altus Press and Pro Se Productions will work in conjunction to produce related products. When Altus Press publishes specially selected titles featuring rare and largely forgotten Pulp characters’ original stories, Pro Se will bring together the best writers of New Pulp today and simultaneously release a collection of newly written tales starring the same character. This stunning partnership will showcase both the classic adventures of some of pulp’s lost treasures while simultaneously allowing New Pulp’s finest to bring those characters back to life.

“For a long time, I thought there was a good opportunity to simultaneously release classic pulp reprints and a companion volume of new stories featuring that same character. These are solid, well-rounded characters who have tons of untapped potential. I’m glad to see there are plans afoot to take advantage of this and utilize two companies’ joint promotions towards a common complimentary product,” notes Altus Press’ Publisher Matt Moring.

This is,” said Tommy Hancock, Partner in and Editor in Chief of Pro Se Productions, “an honor and privilege for both me personally and Pro Se. Working with Matt and Altus Press to provide complimentary material to the great work he is already doing is simply a good move forward for Pro Se. And I am such a fan of the obscure, lesser known, even totally forgotten characters of Pulp that this project is already one of my favorites and it’s just a few days old.”

Beginning with the first cooperative publication in February, Pro Se will initiate a new imprint. PULP OBSCURA will be the title of the line and will feature a logo and other graphics highlighting the relationship between Pro Se and Altus Press. Both companies will provide various forms of cross promotion as well for the complimentary releases.

“Pro Se,” Hancock commented, “has largely stayed out of the Public Domain market as far as New Pulp goes because many publishers are doing the better known characters and doing them well. We’ve been looking for something different, something that makes Pro Se distinctive in this field. PULP OBSCURA, shining the talent of writers and creators on the little or completely unknown heroes and villains of Classic Pulp, makes that distinction.”

Pro Se Press will publish a New Pulp collection each time Altus Press produces a new reprint collection that both companies consider appropriate for the PULP OBSCURA treatment. Pro Se, with the encouragement of Altus Press, will also be exploring Altus Press’ catalog and be publishing New Pulp collections of previously published reprints that will have no future volumes.

The first PULP OBSCURA related project will be THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES OF RICHARD KNIGHT VOLUME ONE written by Donald E. Keyhoe to be released from Altus Press in February. Best known for writing the adventures of Philip Strange, UFO legend Donald E. Keyhoe also wrote another long-running aerial hero for the pages of FLYING ACES: Richard Knight. This collection will include the first four stories from this series, tales that mix in elements of lost races, dinosaurs and more!

Also in February, Pro Se will simultaneously release THE NEW ADVENTURES OF RICHARD KNIGHT VOLUME ONE as the debut title in its Pulp Obscura line. Based on the stories included in Altus Press’ volume, six writers will write Knight as he wings into all new dangers, startling mysteries, and discoveries that may very well change the world!

The writers featured in this first collection are-

Terry Alexander – A member of multiple writers groups. Primarily a horror writer, Published in several anthologies from Static Movement, Open Casket Press, Living Dead Press, Knightwatch Press, May December Publications, Paper Cut Publishing, Moonstone Books and Mini Komix.

Barry Reese-Award winning New Pulp Author known for his characters THE ROOK and LAZARUS GRAY as well as being one of the most talented and prolific writers in New Pulp today. Published by Marvel Comics, Wild Cat Books, Airship 27 Productions, Moonstone, Pro Se, and more. Also Author of GREEN HORNET and AVENGER tales published by Moonstone

Adam L. Garcia-Author of the Award winning GREEN LAMA UNBOUND and other works centered around the Lama, including short stories, more novels, and audio scripts. Also Author and Creator of other characters, including DOCK DOYLE.

Ian Watson-Award winning Author, known thus far for his work primarily with Airship 27 Productions. Writer of tales in SHERLOCK HOLMES, CONSULTING DETECTIVE and GIDEON CAIN. Also Author of the well received critically acclaimed novel ROBIN HOOD-KING OF SHERWOOD.

Frank Schildiner-Pulp Author known for work with Airship 27 on characters such as THE BLACK BAT, RAVENWOOD, and SECRET AGENT X and with Black Coat Press on such concepts as THE TOFF and JEAN KARIVEN as well as stories for Nemo Publishing. Currently developing a novel for Pro Se Productions.

Joshua Reynolds- Author known for multiple works, including stories centered around classic Pulp character JIM ANTHONY for Airship 27 and DRACULA for his own PulpWork Press. Also an Author for The Black Library as well having been published by Pro Se Press, Innsmouth Press, and countless others. Considered one of the fastest, most consistent and prolific Authors in the New Pulp field.

Other PULP OBSCURA collections are currently in the works and any writers or artists interested in being a part of these projects can email Hancock at proseproductions@earthlink.net for submission details. Both Moring and Hancock cite a massive list of works coming in the near future starring Classic Pulp Characters in both Reprints and New Pulp Collections. “I’m excited to see just how new Authors take to these characters and what they come up with. There are so many forgotten characters that the possibilities are endless,” Moring comments.

For more information on Altus Press, go to www.altuspress.com. To learn more about Pro Se Productions, go to www.prosepulp.com.

NEW PULP GETS IN THE RING WITH ‘FIGHT CARD’ FROM BISHOP AND ODOM!

Uncategorized
November 16, 2011

ON THE FIGHT CARD!

A Special All Pulp Report and Release from Paul Bishop (www.bishsbeat.blogspot.com)

I’ve been a pulp fanatic for as long as I can remember, but not just for the hero pulps. The aviation pulps and the western pulps also caught my imagination along with the sports pulps . . . Wait? Sports pulps?

Yes! Sports pulps! While hero, adventure, weird menace, western, and aviation pulps are still hot collecting commodities, the sports pulps, like the romance pulps are mostly forgotten.

In my typical walking to the beat of a different drummer way, the sports pulps have become my passion. Street and Smiths Sport Story Magazine, Sports Novels, Fifteen Sports Stories, Dime Sports, and Thrilling Sports were among the best of the many sports pulps that proliferated between the late ‘20s and the mid ‘50s.

Baseball, track, and basketball strories dominated the early years of sports pulps. As football caught the American imagination, it too became a fertile source for the sports pulps. Horseracing, hockey, car racing also had their popular place in the sports pulps. Eventually, as the sports pulps proliferated, stories of almost any sporting contest – from log rolling to canoeing to powerboat racing – found their way between the pages. Even stories of soccer, rugby, and cricket can be found if one looks hard enough.

Pride of place in my collection of sports pulps, however, goes to Fight Stories Magazine. During the pulp era, boxing was even more popular than baseball both in the actual arena of sports and in the fictional creation of endless fisticuff dust-ups. There remains something elemental about one man pitted against another that continues to capture the imagination.

The history of fight fiction both on the page and on film is crowded with tales both filled with the desperation of noir and the triumph of the underdog. Even today, as mixed martial arts (MMA) fighting becomes popular, fight films and fiction have accepted the transition and continue to tell stories of fighters.

Started in 1928, Fight Stories Magazine – subtitled, Fact And Fiction Of The Ring – was the first of the sports pulps dedicated to a single athletic endeavor. While most of it’s fiction took place in the pro ring, there was also room for tales set in military outposts, carnivals, and anywhere else two men could find room to square off.

Reading Fight Stories Magazine today is still a joy. Both the fiction and non-fiction pieces were a cut above the rest of the pack and hold up better than most pulp tales. In particular, the retro-fight examinations and fighter profiles by Jack Kofeod could be reprinted word for word today in any fight interest zine; and fisticuff tales from the likes of Robert E. Howard (most often featuring his slugger Sailor Steve Costigan) remain brilliant storytelling.

So, imagine my delight last year when I came across a gem of a new novella, Smoker, by Mel Odom when cruising the virtual boxing fiction titles for my Kindle. Smoker was a cool fight tale, set in the ‘50s, with a supernatural twist – but it read like it could have been the lead tale in Fight Stories Magazine or Knockout Magazine – the other all boxing stories pulp.

Mel Odom is a prolific writer, but while I was familiar with his work, our paths had somehow not crossed over the years on the conference / organization / convention circuits. Undaunted by this, I tracked Mel down by email. Before long we were yacking on the phone like we’d known each other for years.

We had tons of stuff in common from comic books to favorite authors to television shows, but we we’re in total sync with our love of the tough guys who populated the pages of Fight Stories Magazine and the many other boxing stories from the sports pulps.

While we agreed we liked modern bozxing tales, we lamented the fact nobody was writing fight stories anymore like those from the pulps: two-fisted tales zipping along with lots of ring action and heroes fighting for more than just a championship or a monetary purse.

One thing led to another, as things do when writers talk, and we decided we were the perfect guys to write those tales. We also believed we could reach our niche audience by through using the new e-publishing platforms, which have reinvented the publishing market and have made the 25,000 word pulp style novellete, an endangered speicies, viable again.

Thus our Fight Card series was born – two-fisted pulp-style tales to thrill and chill . . .

We decided to set the tales in the ‘50s because it was an era we both loved and felt comfortable writing about. We wanted to emulate the tales from back in the day by striking the same tone and atmosphere existing then.

While Mel’s writing style and mine are different, we embraced this as a way to distiguish each of the novels. We decided to make the main characters from each of our efforts brothers. Mel’s character, Mickey Flynn, is a merchant marine sailor who’s tough as nails. My character is Mickey’s younger brother Patrick Flynn, an LAPD detective on Chief Parker’s infamous Hat Squad. The brothers grew up in an orphanage in Chicago where they were taught the “sweet science” by Father Tim, a tough ex-cop turned fighting priest.

We were surprised, when we talked about the project with other writers, by their response – they wanted in on the action. They remembered and loved these stories as much as we did and couldn’t wait to put on their virtual gloves and get in the ring with us – apparently there are going to be a lot of orphans trained by Father Tim at Our Lady Of the Glass Jaw, the nickname of the orphange. As a result, we have some top notch tales from top notch writers scheduled to appear over the coming months.

Fight Card debuted this past weekend with the publication of Felony Fists from me and The Cutman from Mel. In an effort to unify the series on the various e-platforms, we have published the novels under the pseudonym Jack Tunney as an homage to Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney – two of the great heavyweight champions.

Next up in December is Eric Beetner’s Split Decision, a gem of a noir tale that would have been snapped up as a Gold Medal original back in the day.

Mel and I had a blast with our first entries in the series, and we’re already planning the next round for our characters.

If you like tough guys, boxing, noir, crime stories, and pulps, we know you’ll find something to enjoy in these tales.

JACK AVARICE IS THE COURIER #3

Uncategorized
November 16, 2011

JACK AVARICE IS THE COURIER #3 by Chris Madden will be in comic shops on Wednesday, November 16th.

IDW Publishing is thrilled to introduce JACK AVARICE IS THE COURIER, an exciting, month-long, weekly comic series for the five-Wednesday month of November. Created, written, drawn, and lettered by rising star Chris Madden, the artist on the upcoming Danger Girl: Revolver series, this special five-part series is timed specifically to release one issue a week for each Wednesday of the month.

In issue #3, Newly minted Courier Jack Avarice and his partner Sam Kind are off in a race against time to find the deadly Eyes of Fate — but their mysterious enemy is hot on their heels! With their only lead dead and the fuse lit, they’ll lead a trail of destruction and burning tire tracks across India from Jaipur to the lost temple of Angkora — but will they find the answers they need in time?Â And who is behind their mysterious opposition, blocking them at every turn?
32 Pages.
$3.99.