A BOOK A DAY TELLS YOU WHO REALLY WON WORLD WAR II!
http://www.bearmanormedia.com/
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The Mix : What are people talking about today?
Batmobile Inspires British Tank Design
In the movies, Batman fights crime with a collection of, to quote Jack Nicholson, wonderful toys. Hisham Awad, project leader of defense company BAE System’s future protected vehicles group, liked some of those ideas so much he used them to build an assault vehicle:
While Awad was showing one of his team’s concept vehicles, the unmanned skirmisher known as Raider, another of the assembled journalists gave a low whistle.
‘I like that,’ he said. ‘Looks like the Batmobile.’
‘Ah!’ Awad replied, with a grin. ‘Glad you said that. That’s what we based it on.’
Pardon?
‘Yes, we liked the look of that, so we designed something similar.’
What, the Batmobile in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight?
‘Yes, that one. You see, it turns like a motorbike and it has the same wheel configuration.’
Yes, yes, but you’re basing a future fighting vehicle on something you saw in a film?
‘Well, why not?’ Awad replied. ‘In all seriousness, we decided that we didn’t have a monopoly on inspiration, and if we saw something in a film that we thought might be a good idea, why not take a look at it and see if there’s something practical we can develop?’
Hat tip (I can’t believe I’m saying this): FoxNews.com.
Borders Files For Bankruptcy, Owes Diamond Nearly $4 Million
The axe has finally swung. From PW:
After a drawn out process that began at the end of last year when it missed payments to top publishers, Borders Group has given in to the inevitable and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The company has received $505 million in debtor-in possession financing led by GE Capital, Restructuring Finance. And as part of its turnaround plan, Borders said it will close approximately 30% of its current store base, about 200 locations, within the next several weeks.
According to Borders, the financing should enable the company to operate the stores that will remain open in a “normal course” including honoring its Borders Rewards program, gift cards, and other customer programs. Additionally, the company said it expects to make payroll and continue its benefits programs for its employees.
The announcement made this morning was foreshadowed last night when Borders implemented an ordering freeze and Ingram, its lifeline to the publishers, stopped shipping books. Publishers are now on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars, led by Penguin Group (USA) which is owed $41.1 million, followed by Hachette at $36.9 million, Simon & Schuster at $33.8 million, Random House at $33.5 million, and HarperCollins at $25.8 million. Neither major book distributor, Ingram or Baker & Taylor, were among the leading creditors, and only one book distributor, National Book Network, is owed money with $2 million outstanding. The top 30 unsecured creditors are owed $314 million. The filing listed $1.27 billion in assets and $1.29 billion in liabilities. Borders said it expects to be able to pay vendors for merchandise shipped to it after today’s filing; those owed money prior to the filing will only be paid with the approval of the bankruptcy court.
As of Tuesday, the company had instituted an ordering freeze and book distributor Ingram, the company’s major lifeline to publishers, had stopped supplying the retailer. Diamond had already stopped orders to Borders weeks ago, and according to Heidi at ComicsBeat, court filings reveal Borders owes Diamond Comic Distributors $3,906,549.94.
To say this portends major disaster is an understatement. Diamond is already in precarious financial straits, and they can no longer hide the fact that they have an account that’s millions behind which they may never collect. And their losses will ripple through to publishers, many of whom have no slack to survive the sudden hit to the bottom line.
Stay tuned. This is not going to be pretty.
ALL PULP NEWSSTAND BULLDOG EDITION 1/16/11
ALL PULP NEWSSTAND
BULLDOG EDITION
1/16/11
PRO SE’S PULP MACHINE POUNDING OUT PULP DAILY!
Pro Se Productions announces that via its blogsite, http://www.pulpmachine.blogspot.com/, it will be running two alternating web only tales for free to provide daily content for the site. Each story will be written and illustrated by Fuller Bumpers and are insured to be wild rides in totally different directions! Stay tuned to ALL PULP for a future interview with Bumpers. Bur for now, meet…
This web comic from Bumpers looks at an old man ravaged by age and illness and asks the question- What if he wasn’t always this way? What if in fact he was a man beyond mortal men, a hero of the super variety? And what if one day in his dark twilight years, he had to be that man again? Strap in and hold on tight for this post modern deconstruction and reconstruction of the heroic concept! Yesterday he was in a wheelchair. Today once more he is THE AMERICAN!
Or if something else is a little more your speed, maybe you should be reading…
This Detective with a twist tale set in San Francisco in the late 1960s stars Cole Adams, a man who, by his own words will, for the right money, wear a suit. Adams, a private investigator by trade, is hired to take pictures and, if necessary, protect the daughter of a well heeled client from ‘the wrong people’. What follows for Adams and the reader will definitely be a mystery, but with elements like none you’ve ever seen!
Follow http://www.pulpmachine.blogspot.com/ to keep up with these wild stretches of the imagination!
SNEAK PEEK AT INTERIOR ART FOR THE NEXT ROOK!
Noted Pulp Author and Bespectacled Seven member Barry Reese eagerly shares this little artistic tidbit from the upcoming THE ROOK, VOLUME SIX, due out later this year from Wild Cat Books. This piece, masterfully done by Anthony Castrillo, is of Sun Koh, referred to by many as ‘The German Doc Savage!’
THE ROOK, VOLUME SIX by Barry Reese coming this year from Wild Cat Books!!!
A BOOK A DAY-It’s Those Battlin’ Bickersons!!!!
ALL PULP is sorry, but due to a sickness, we didn’t get you your book a day like we had for so long..well, no worries! We now bring you…
The official Bickersons biography!
For anyone writing in the golden era of Pulp, this is a great resource to have just so you know a sample of what America was listening to at the time….
Finally – the definitive biography of The Bickersons! Lavishly illustrated, with a foreword by Blanche herself, Frances Langford, this book unearths material never before published:
A complete history of the program
Biographies of the cast
Scripts from Star Time, Old Gold & radio commercials
A history of John, Blanche, Nature Boy & those grasping relatives
The infamous Honeymooners/Jackie Gleason court case
Unused material
And much more!
ALL PULP NEWSSTAND NIGHTHAWK EDITION 1/15/11
ALL PULP NEWSSTAND
NIGHTHAWK EDITION
1/15/11
NOTED PULP AUTHOR OFFERS FREE STORY TO RAISE FUNDS FOR PULP OUTLET!
Joshua Reynolds, author of DRACULA LIVES and the writer of the Charles St. Cyprian series for Pro Se Productions, is offering a special incentive for those considering a donation to Innsmouth Free Press’ February Fundraiser-a free 10,000 word (or thereabouts) novella, with artwork by noted pulp-artist MD Jackson! “The Black-Winged Ones” is an occult mystery set in turn of the century New Orleans, and features Lovecraft’s own creations Harley Warren and Inspector Legrasse investigating a gruesome series of murders! Visit http://joshuamreynolds.blogspot.com/2011/02/thursday-is-for-charity-and-cthulhu.html for more details!’
COLLECTION OF RARE PULPS ACQUIRED, NOW FOR SALE!!
Friends of ALL PULP have informed this stalwart news site that a seller of pop culture items and a pulp fan to boot has recently come into possession of a massive collection of rare pulp magazines. David White, a known seller of comics and pulps on Ebay and looking to break into selling at conventions at well, has acquired well over 2000 rare pulps, titles that range across multiple genres!
According to White, the individual who built the collection put approximately seventy years into building it into nearly 3,000 issues, including such titles as Amazing Stories, Thrilling Wonder, Wonder Stories, Science Wonder, Fantastic Adventure, Horror Tales, Argosy, among many others. Included in some of the magazines are pulp landmarks, such as debuts of many writers and early tales from such icons as Burroughs, Cummings, McCulley, and others.
Currently White is listing these items as he goes through them on his Ebay store at http://stores.ebay.com/Daves-Comic-Vault or can be emailed at dwhite904@yahoo.com
Hancock Tips His Hat to a few Tales from Back in the Day!
TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT-Pulp Reviews by Tommy Hancock
This is a bit of a different column than my usual. Normally, I tip my hat to the newest members and denizens of what many of us are referring to as “The Pulp Renaissance”, looking at new authors and works. But I also am a reader, student, and mostly a fan of the true blue classics from the golden era of Pulps. Which means I read those missives and from time to time will share my thoughts with some of them with you…like these for instance…
DEATH IS TOO EASY
by Arthur J. Burks
http://www.blackmask.com/, http://www.pulpgen.com/
Two cops work as partners and work from two different philosophies, one by the book, the other by the gun. When it finally gets too much for the law and order type, he walks off from his more violent partner who ends up taking on a whole mob on his own. Quickly he learns how even with a fast gun, he can’t do it all alone. Will he have to?
This is a fast paced story that does a good job of throwing bullets on every page as well as giving you a one two punch on characterization. The two main characters are just barely more dimensional than the cardboard cutout criminals they fight, but it’s just enough to make the story interesting. Burks does a good job of not only showing personality traits, but also of showing how characters evolve and grow. This is definitely a shining example of what pulp tales could be when done right.
FOUR OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT-Cops, robbers, bullets, and character growth. Wow.
CAVE OF TERROR
from the Lone Ranger Magazine
by Fran Striker
August, 1937
I’ve read enough western pulp and read, seen, and heard enough Lone Ranger to know what to expect when I read a tale starring the Masked Man and his Indian companion. OK, so even I can be wrong! CAVE OF TERROR on its surface is a tale of the Lone Ranger and Tonto going after bad guys who are holed up in a labyrinthine cave led by a criminal mastermind who might also be an once well respected judge. This leads to all the stereotypical western conceits, confrontations, and cliches and Striker deftly nails every single one of those.
But CAVE OF TERROR exceeds the typical western pulp limitations. This is a thriller bar none and I will honestly tell you that The Ranger in this tale is not a super heroic man in a mask, but a hero who gets in way over his cowboy hat more than once and knows it! Striker amps up the danger and intrigue, setting a very good stage for the ‘Who is the Boss’ mystery and puts the Ranger in situations that test even his abilities and does it in a very believable way. CAVE OF TERROR is a fantastically wild, pulse pounding well paced mystery adventure!
FIVE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT!-Hi yo, Silver!! For sure.
LONG SHOT
by Richard Sale
Detective Fiction Weekly
January 9, 1937
This is the first story to star Candid Jones, one of Richard Sale’s most used pulp heroes. Jones, along with another creation, Daffy Dill, established Sale as an author skilled at writing off kilter, yet consistently well paced hard boiled detective stories. Although LONG SHOT does have the qualities that made Sale the legend he became, it isn’t really a top of the line tale. The storyline concerns attempts to manipulate races at a racetrack with a good dose of murder thrown in. Sale’s characterizations are extremely entertaining and the wrap up of the case is fairly decent, but the build up lags in parts and in other parts simply lacks cohesiveness. The connections that have to be made to discover the killer’s identity aren’t really as strong as they could have been. But overall a fine debut for a neat character.
THREE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF HANCOCK’S HAT-Less racing, more Candid would have been nice.
Hancock Tips His Hat to Nick Kismet-Espionage, Action, Magic-All in One Spot!
TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT-Pulp Reviews by Tommy Hancock
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
by Sean Ellis
Published by Seven Realms Publishing
Published 12/10
Pulp is a wonderful field. It encompasses so many genres and focuses on so many different types of heroes, villains, and characters. You can have action, crime, magic, adventure, even romance and humor in the stories that erupt from the volcano of pulp fiction. What’s even better is when all the lava and ash and such mingle together and what you get when it hardens is a character and a story that has it all.
Sean Ellis’ Nick Kismet in THE DEVIL YOU KNOW is the result of a perfect pulp eruption.
Kismet, a consultant for the Global Heritage Commission, is basically a one stop man of action/adventure/troubleshooting/globehopping. In this novella, you get a hint of his history and background, enough to know that if Ellis had written him back in the 1930s and 40s, then Kismet would rank right up there with The Saint and The Falcon.
This particular story has Kismet getting a call that hints at giving him information on Prometheus, a shadowy group that he’s tracked in past cases. At first Kismet thinks the half message he receives is nothing, but he can’t resist following it up. Keeping the meet suggested in the message, Kismet gets involved in what appears to be a tug of war between a traditional Mafia family and Colombian drug cartels led by a seemingly immortal priest who wears an ancient biblical artifact full of evil. I say appears because by the time Kismet rescues the girls, fights commandoes, runs from attack dogs and ATVs, and basically incites a shootout at a mansion, what Nick is really involved in turns out to be something altogether different. And awesome.
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW is a fast paced tale that starts at the beginning and doesn’t stop. The only real criticism I have is that maybe it starts too quickly in the high octane vein and the reader has to spend some time catching his/her breath to figure out just what is going on. Ellis allows for this, though, less than halfway through the tale, so this again is just a minor issue.
Like your heroes able to do just about anything, think on their feet, and ready to answer any call or even half messages? Then Kismet is your man. Ellis combines a modern pacing and today’s world with a pulp archetypal hero who is unabashedly a jack of all trades, a man’s man, and here to do good. Wow.
FOUR OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT-Leslie Charteris, meet your successor.
Joanne Siegel, R.I.P.
Joanne Siegel, the widow of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and model for the original likeness of Lois Lane and the person who inspired Lois’s middle name, has passed away at 93. Word hit the comics community yesterday through a Tweet from Brad Meltzer and was later confirmed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
“I got the word from the people at the Siegel and Shuster Society. I met her when I was doing [my novel] ‘The Book of Lies’ because I was researching who killed Jerry Siegel’s father. I met Laura first, who is Jerry and Joanne’s daughter. We became really good friends, and she said to me ‘Of all the people who have ever researched Jerry Siegel, you’re the only one who’s ever called us.’ I became really close with the family, and they seemed really excited that someone was going to tell their story.”
“The crazy part is– of everyone I’ve ever spoken to in my life, there’s nothing like speaking to Lois Lane. When I finally met her at the unveiling of the repaired Siegel and Shuster house, which I flew to because I wanted to meet her face-to-face and see all the work everyone in Cleveland had done, everyone said to me ‘She’s beautiful. You won’t believe how beautiful she is.’ And I was thinking that this is a 90-year-old woman…how beautiful can she be? But she was beautiful. It was the only way to describe her. You saw here, and there was this stunning, elegant, amazing woman that was a spitfire.”It wasn’t like talking to your grandmother. You really saw ‘intrepid reporter’ as part of her personality. I just got a note from her in December talking about everything we’ve been doing on the [History] show and it’s still amazing to see how much she had going even at that age.”
The former Joanne Carter met her future husband and his artist partner Joe Shuster in Cleveland in the late ’30s when she responded to an ad the two had placed looking for local models. The original sketch Shuster did of her grew to become the foundation for fast-talking reporter Lois Lane, and Joanne later married Jerry in 1948. In the years since, she stood by the struggling writer as he saw the financial benefit and artistic credit for Superman pass him by while his publisher pushed the character to wider cultural acceptance, and later took a very public and prolific role in fighting DC owner Warner Bros. for the rights to the character after her husband’s passing in 1996. Along with her family and the family of Shuster, Siegel teamed with well-known intellectual property lawyer Marc Toberoff to push for more rights on the character than Superman’s creators had ever been able to earn in their lifetimes, which led to various reversions and much wrangling over settlements and compensation. The suit has been on hold since October, and it is unknown how Siegel’s death will affect the proceedings.
Here’s a photo from Alan Light of the Siegels (Jerry, Joanne, and daughter Laura) from the 1976 San Diego Comic Con.
Related articles
- RIP: Joanne Siegel (comicsbeat.com)
Hancock Tips His Hat to a Christmas Tale a bit Late…or…a bit Early…
TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT-Pulp Reviews by Tommy Hancock
‘KRAMPUSNACT’
A Charles St. Cyprian Tale
written By Joshua Reynolds
distributed in limited time as free tale from Author
We oftentimes get the attitude that just because a story has a theme or is centered around an event, especially a holiday, that it is just that…a special novelty tale in remembrance of so-and-so and/or when-and-when. We feel these sort of stories don’t usually have anything to offer to the general literary field or to the character they deal with, that they’re simply a trumpeting of a special time and that’s it, that they sort of stand alone. I hate that because we miss the fact often that these stories have great things to contribute, that because they do deal with a holiday or special event, there are aspects of said day and event that can be mined, made literary, and transformed from an obscure detail or more hokum into sparkling tools of storytelling and even horrifying figures we are not likely to soon forget.
Joshua Reynolds, fortunately, did not miss that fact. Not at all.
KRAMPUSNACHT is a tale that Josh wrote last year to introduce a new series character he’s doing for Pro Se Productions’ FANTASY AND FEAR magazine. Charles St. Cyprian is the Queen’s handler of occult oddities and mystical mysteries and comes with a skillset all his own in dealing with such things. This tale, however, finds St. Cyprian and his very well crafted assistant Ebe Gallowglass (maybe it’s the whole British motif, but I got a very Emma Peel feel for Gallowglass) at Cyprian’s residence when he receives a visit from an old acquaintance. This acquaintance has run afoul of one of the lesser known and much less liked aspects of Christmas mythology, the antithesis to Santa Claus, the creature known as The Krampus. The tale involves St. Cyprian’s attempts to deal with the Krampus, determine if his friend’s place on said naughty list is valid, and to wrap it all up with a nice Christmas bow, which he does. And so, as an author, does Reynolds.
Reynolds paints not only a horrifying yuletide haunt with this tale, but he also sets up St. Cyprian and Gallowglass very well. Their dialogue, their interactions, and their overall personalities are so well established that the reader wants more, but also feels like they already know them. And as for St. Cyprian’s ‘client’, Joshua builds this character from the first word to the last in such a way that he himself is a mystery and the way it unfolds is completely and totally satisfying.
For those of you who missed KRAMPUSHNACHT, I’m sorry. You can catch St. Cyprian every third month in FANTASY AND FEAR. For those who got the pleasure of this great Christmas introduction to the characters, it was a good holiday, wasn’t it?
FIVE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF HANCOCK’S HAT
