Cover Art: Dan Brereton

This Halloween, Moonstone heads back to their monstrous roots with the Return of the Monsters Event. Return of the Monsters features four stand-alone tales of pulp’s mightiest heroes facing off against some classic monsters. One of those titles is The Black Bat vs. Dracula by Mike Bullock and Eric Johns. All Pulp sat down with the writer about this upcoming book.

All Pulp: Hi, Mike. Tell us a little about yourself and your pulp interests.

Mike Bullock: Well, I’m a guy who loves escapist fiction. Mostly the kind that goes on inside my head. I don’t have much time anymore to spend reading great books or watching thrilling movies, so that love burrows deep into my mind and sinks its fangs into the wellspring of imagination constantly flowing through my thoughts.

My pulp interests began with sword and sorcery stuff, then sci fi and space opera stuff. I was never much into the hard-boiled detective type stuff and somehow missed the boat on Doc Savage, but I love Conan, John Carter, Flash Gordon and the more fantastical stuff like Captain Future, Gladiator and the like.

Oh, and, I love pizza.

Art: Eric Johns

AP: Your story for the Return of the Monsters Halloween event is called The Black Bat vs. Dracula. What can we expect from this titanic throw down?

MB: It’s a game of cat and mouse and cat as Death Angel investigates a serial killing only to discover the killer is after her next and he doesn’t want to kill her, but to make her his eternal lover. A fateful game of huntsmanship through the historic Phaidor hotel, brought to life by the zealous pencils and pens of Eric Johns.

AP: The Black Bat vs. Dracula has a pulp hero battling a classic monster, a combination that even though done in some regards hasn’t ever really been done the way Moonstone is doing it with the Return of the Monster event. What do these genres have in common and how do they differ in ways that complement each other?

MB: I’m sure everyone has their own view of how to answer that, but since you’re asking me, here’s mine: Both pulp and the classic monster tales use some really imaginative characters that are far outside the ordinary and place them into situations that force the ordinary to become extraordinary. Frankenstein, Dracula, werewolves, mummies and zombies all seem to come from the same wellspring I mentioned above, and so do characters like Black Bat, Phantom Detective, Domino Lady, Spider and Death Angel.

I also think both “genres” (I use that word very, very loosely) appeal to a similar audience, people looking for escapism with a solid sense of right and wrong, the heroic and villainous. There aren’t many shades of grey in either, although characters on both sides of the table do have both human and monstrous sides to their personas.

AP: The Black Bat vs. Dracula also features your creation, Death Angel. How does this modern day creation hold her own against these two classic characters?

Art: Eric Johns

MB: I think that’s up to the readers to decide. I’d have to be pretty egotistical to think a character I came up with just a few years ago could compare to the likes of Dracula and Black Bat. Those are two creations that have stood the test of time for a very long time and will continue to do so. I can only hope ‘Angel is still remembered when she’s been around as long as those two heavyweights. Honestly, I’m just tickled that people seem to dig her as much as they do.

AP: The Return of the Monsters Halloween event brings back several classic monster archetypes to Moonstone’s lineup. How does this version of Dracula compare and contrast to previous versions of the character?

MB: I haven’t seen all the previous versions, but my take on the Prince of Darkness is fairly ‘classic’ I think. He’s young in appearance, charismatic, self assured, powerful and someone who is very used to getting his way. Until this story, Death Angel had never met her equal in a fight and it’s made her a bit overconfident. After this encounter, if she survives, that confidence will be shaken to the core.

AP: What appeals to you about pulp heroes battling classic monsters? What was it that excited you about pitting the Black Bat against the lord of the vampires?

MB: For me, it was a classic “Battle to Rule The Night” scenario. Black Bat, Death Angel and Dracula all exist in the shadows, stalking their prey through the darkness, using fear as a weapon. But, while their methods are all very similar, their motives and desired goals are definitely not. Black Bat wants justice, Death Angel wants revenge and Dracula wants blood. Aim those three at the same crossroads and get ready for the “big one”.

AP: You’ve been spearheading the Black Bat’s comic book adventures for Moonstone. What’s ahead for the book and character?

MB: At some point the second Black Bat graphic novel will come out, concluding the “Black Death” story begun in the first graphic novel. I also have a Black Bat/Spider crossover tale coming in the Spider prose anthology. After that, I think the majority of new Black Bat tales will come in prose form. I’d like to start building him ground up in a series of prose tales, but we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds.

Art: Eric Johns

AP: What, if any, existing pulp, monster, or comic book characters would you like to try your hand at writing?

MB: Pulp – Conan, John Carter. Monster, more Dracula and possibly some Frankenstein. I wrote a Frankenstein tale years ago I might dust off, polish up and release in eBook format sometime. For comics, I’d love to write Moon Knight, Firestorm and Captain “Shazam” Marvel, and to a minor extent would love to do some Silver Surfer and eventually Batman.

AP: What does Mike Bullock do when he’s not writing?

MB: Spend entirely too much time on the phone discussing writing with clients, publishers, artists and friends. When not doing that, I love to spend time with my beautiful wife and awesome son.

Cover Art: Dan Brereton

AP: Where can readers learn more about you and your work?

MB; Read the tea leaves. They know everything. If not, roll the bones; the runes never lie. But, if you don’t have access to tea leaves and rune stones, you can check out my studios’ website at www.runemasterstudios.com and the sister site www.pulp.runemasterstudios.com/

AP: Any upcoming projects you would like to mention?

MB: Anyone out there who is into sword and sorcery should stay tuned for my first prose novel, coming from Airship 27 early next year, “The Runemaster.” It’s a Viking epic in the vein of Conan, Braveheart and Beowulf. After that, check out my second novel, coming from Pro Se entitled “Janus: Guardian of Worlds.” Janus exists in the late 1930s where he finds himself as the lone guardian between our world and an infinite number of others inhabited by all sorts of nasty creatures, unimaginable evil and supernatural forces all hell-bent on the destruction of everything we know. And you thought the Nazis were the only thing to worry about back then…

AP: Thanks, Mike.

MB: You’re welcome. Thanks for the interview and thanks for everything All Pulp does for those of us with an addiction to fiction.

The Black Bat vs. Dracula is solicited in August Previews for an October in store release.

Looking back at the past week’s columns here on ComicMix, I’ve noticed a lot of folks are kind of upset about DC’s New 52. Perhaps upset isn’t the right word. Perhaps “untrusting” is more appropriate.

This has been mirrored in the various conversations I’ve had with folks in the past week – fans, pros, casual readers, advertising executives, media moguls, relatives, and the rest of the usual folks who clutter my life and cut into my valued reading time. Nobody seemed very happy about The New 52; some thought it insane. Most were checking it out, and simple curiosity will inflate sales figures for a while. Then these books will live or die on their strengths and weaknesses, as it should be, and in DC’s ability to maintain a publicity campaign that isn’t catering strictly to the established Comic Book Donut Shop.

I can’t say I’ve read all of the first week’s output, nor am I likely to. I’m not overwhelmed by the concept – been there, done that, right down to the “52” bit. But some of the stuff I’ve read was pretty good, and I thought I should peep up about it.

Heading that list is Action Comics volume 2 number 1. I picked this one up because I’m a huge fan of artist Rags Morales; I’ve been such since he first walked into DC’s offices and I’m very glad to have had the opportunity to work with him a few times. His Superman did not disappoint, not in the least. It has an energy and a determination that lends itself well to this incarnation.

Writer Grant Morrison, on the other hand, has had a mixed career at DC. I loved – and I mean “stop reading this and go buy it” loved – Zenith, his series for 2000AD. Some of his DC work has been really good, some not so much, and a little bit of it incomprehensible. But he’s always worth the effort.

Dismissing the parts of The New 52 that are little more than stupid marketing tricks – relaunches are never as good as simply doing it better – Grant and Rags used an interesting starting point for the new adventures of the ol’ Man of Steel. They used as their starting point the original mid-1930s Superman. They placed that character into our contemporary environment, and presumably are going on from there. This is not the new, angry, ballsy, tits to the wind Superman. This is the original angry, ballsy, tits to the wind Superman. And I think it’s good stuff.

I say “I think” because this issue of Action Comics is exactly like the other New 52 issues I’ve read in that it is a very quick read, light on story and burdened with all the problems of introducing a new series. I would have appreciated at least twice as much “story” in this story, although it has more than Justice League #1, which would give your average single day’s newspaper comic strip a run for its money.

This rather significant element aside, what we got wasn’t as much of a reboot as a restoration. This is a good thing.

I promised myself I wouldn’t comment on the more contemporary atrocity that is one of the new Superman costumes, but clearly I lied to me. Yeah, dumping the external red shorts is okay; they were stupid. A nod to their design source, the circus strongman. But by wearing blue jeans and a swell contemporary belt and a short sleeved shirt, the new stuff makes Superman’s cape look ridiculous.  It looks like a bib worn backwards. But Superman without his cape is like the American flag without the stars, and no matter how silly capes look and how they destroy verisimilitude Superman’s cape is part of the deal. Maybe they can fuss with it a bit.

Superman is the crux of the DC Universe, and DC has to make him work for the 21^st Century in order to make The New 52 work. This first issue came maybe two-thirds of the way there.

That’s pretty good. Better than I expected.

THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil

Editor’s Note: This originally appeared at www.michaeldavisworld.com on January 28, 2011. It is being reprinted here without permission. It’s been reformatted to meet ComicMix’s high editorial standards.

A long time ago in a galaxy, blah, blah, blah…

…Denys Cowan, Bill Sienkiewicz and I shared a studio next to some creators who are all legends now. It was the second silver age of comics and we were in the thick of it.

Howard Chaykin was doing American Flagg!, Walt Simonson was on Thor, Al Milgrom was doing Spider-Man. Jim Sherman was in the studio but I forgot what he was working on, I do remember it was bad ass.

The studio where all those superstar upstarts were was called Upstart Studio.

Duh.

Also at Upstart was Frank Miller who was doing Daredevil and about to do Ronin. I seldom saw Frank but when I did more often than not he would ask what I was working on and was just a great guy. I remember being a bit jealous when Bill and Frank started working on Elektra and for the life of me I can’t remember why.

All that said, how’s that for a line up?

Those guys (Denys included) sounds like a comic fan’s dream team even now. Speaking of my best friend Denys a few years forward in time from our studios days would see him nominated for an Eisner for best penciler… twice. People forget just how badass Denys Cowan is.

Our studio never got an official name although Bill liked to call it Bill and his little helpers… the bastard.

As far as what we were doing at Bill and his little helpers Studio, Bill was working on Elektra and The New Mutants; Denys was doing The Black Panther for Marvel, V (the comic adaption of the original TV series) and Vigilante for DC.

What was I doing? Nothing great in comics, that’s for sure.

I was working on children books, movie posters, etc. I had one comic book assignment for the Marvel magazine Epic. The assignment was given to me by the late great Archie Goodwin. I made an appointment with Archie hoping for a cover assignment I never dreamt he would give me an interior job.

I loved comics but I was trained as an editorial and mainstream illustrator. I never learned to do comics like, say, a Denys Cowan who can imagine and draw anything from his head. I need reference, I need to look at stuff, and I need dozens of layouts before I start a finished piece. Comics that are fully painted and tell a non-liner story at that time were rare. I was always jealous (still am) of guys that can do that make it up from nothing jazz.

Dwayne McDuffie recently commented on multitalented guys that can write and draw. Truth be told Dwayne, just as a writer, is light years away from where I will ever be as a visual storyteller. That, to me, is multitalented. When Christopher Priest was the editor on the Spider-Man book he once dissected a cover painting I did for him like he was a high school science teacher and I was the frog. He’s also a hell of a writer and just as good a musician. Reggie Hudlin glides between producing and directing movies and TV shows to writing some of the best comics I’ve ever read. Those guys are multitalented.

20 or so years ago, except for Heavy Metal and a few other outlets, painted comics were few and far between. The graphic novel as a fully painted editorial piece of art and content was not quite there yet. It was about to come into its own lead by people like my brother from another mother Bill Sienkiewicz. The work of Kent Williams, George Pratt and Dave McKean was just around the corner as well but not there yet.

Howard Chaykin saw over 20 years ago where comics were going and produced a few painted books before just about anyone did.

Like an asshole, I tried to do comics the way Denys, Walt, Howard and Frank did. I was too stupid to listen to Howard Chaykin when he told me, “Do what you do, the industry is changing and you can bring something new to it.’

Some of the best advice I’ve ever been given. It’s right up there with, put your hands on the wheel and answer in a civil tone of voice, “Yes officer, whatever you say officer.”

I wish I was joking about the cop advice, but I assure you I’m not.

I did not listen to Howard. Years later Mike Gold told me the same thing after I delivered a Wasteland story, which was not my finest hour. I didn’t think he would but Mike gave me another Wasteland story and said, “Do this like any other illustration assignment.” The story was about South Africa and I nailed that mother.

Of all the high profile regular illustrations gigs I was doing (Newsweek, NBC, etc.) the assignment I was the most excited about was Epic. It was a six-page story I was writing and drawing and taking forever to do because I wanted to do it like “regular” comics artists did. Could not do it then, can’t do it now.

Long story short, I will never forget those late night talks with Howard, Bill, Frank, Jim, Al and Denys. It was indeed the second silver age but for me it will always be my golden age.

Bill and his little helpers. Somehow that does not brother me anymore.

Yeah, I know this is pretty damn sappy.

That’s OK. Sap is the new black.

WEDNESDAY: Mike Gold

Today, as I write this, is September 11, 2011.

Ten years.

The World Trade Center. The Pentagon. Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

I’m watching the memorial services.

Tom Brokaw, David Gregory on NBC and MSNBC. Anderson Cooper and Candy Crowley on CNN. President Obama with Michelle and President George W. Bush with Laura. Mayor Bloomberg. Rudy Giuliani. Vice President Biden.

Breaking news: a truck bomb has killed at least 50 American soldiers in Afghanistan.

The ticker on CNN now reads: Global Terror Evolves. Al Qaeda under attack but keeps changing as Peter Bergen says: “Ten years out, terrorism remains, but is very different.”

Yesterday I read the “debut” issue of Action Comics #1. The one with Superman in a t-shirt, jeans, and Timberland boots.

It’s a different look for him.

He’s different.

The story opens as Superman breaks into a corporate (corporate = evil) meeting and manhandles the CEO (CEO = malevolence). The police (hired mercenaries?) rush in. They order Superman to put down the CEO. His answer, in the last panel on page three: “Just as soon as he makes a full confession. To someone who still believes the law works for the same for rich and poor alike…”

I turn the page.

Two-page spread, splash panel. Superman is standing on the edge of the roof, holding the CEO up with one hand, threatening to drop him. His eyes are burning, glowing red. He’s firing up his heat vision, eyes burning and glowing red. The CEO is screaming for someone to save him. The cops have their weaponry aimed at him. It’s a stand off. And Superman finishes his thought:

“…because that ain’t Superman!!!!”

It sure ain’t.

I could write a thesis on how American culture has changed since the last ten years. But better men and women, better writers and thinkers have done that already, so I won’t.

But I will say that I believe there is a disease that is rampant in this country. It’s a highly contagious disease that causes its victims to change facts. In America its sufferers believe that the United States and its government has always “played fair.” That the original colonists never slaughtered the native culture they found here or that 100 years later the U.S. Cavalry didn’t lace blankets with smallpox to kill the “Indians” of the Great Plains. That those who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States. That slavery itself was a fair and equitable system in which master and slave worked for the common good. That President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a scion of one of the wealthiest families in America, was a socialist. That Eisenhower was a tool of the communists. That the Civil Rights Act was propagated and staunchly defended by Southern Republicans and fought with tooth-and-nail by the Democrats. That the World Trade Center was brought down by controlled demolition explosions and that a missile hit the Pentagon was launched by “elements” inside the Bush administration. That Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. That Obama isn’t an American.

This is the culture of America today, September 11, 2011. It’s a suspicious and cynical culture that would rather dream nostalgic dreams of a past that wasn’t than to work together to shape those dreams into reality.

But is it so different from the culture that shaped two kids from Cleveland in 1932, two kids who believed in “the American Dream” of truth and justice for all, and created an avenging crusader a “superman” who beat up mobsters and wife beaters, profiteers and lynch mobs? That culture supposedly welcomed immigrants, and then barred them from communities and colleges and jobs. It was a culture that restricted voting and allowed segregation. The Superman created in 1932 and who debuted to the world in 1938 was a result of the suppressed anger of two Jewish boys who saw the inequities and untruths in the American reality, but still believed in the American dream.

Ronald Reagan, for all his faults, was right when he spoke of America as that “great shining city on a hill.” America, the idea of America, is still, will always be, in my not-so-humble opinion, the quest, the Arthurian legend, come to life.

My question is, and my worry is, how can the kids reading Grant Morrison’s 2011 version of Superman still believe in that quest, those ideals, that American dream that the hero has always represented when he clearly states, That Ain’t Superman?

Ten years later.

No.

It’s not.

TUESDAY: Michael Davis