Tagged: comics

LANCE STAR’S ORIGINAL PUBLISHER TALKS ABOUT IPULP VERSIONS!

  • News
  • July 10, 2011

The Lance Star: Sky Ranger interviews – Author/Publisher Ron Fortier

Ron Fortier

With the announcement of Lance Star: Sky Ranger joining the iPulp Fiction Library, we wanted to introduce readers to some of the Honorary Sky Rangers involved with making these stories happen. Next up is Lance star: Sky Ranger Publisher Ron Fortier.

LSSR: Tell us a little about yourself and where readers can find out more about you, your work, and Airship 27 Productions?

RF: Okay, Reader’s Digest version here. Been writing professionally for past thirty-five years, mostly comics and now pulps. Folks can visit my website (www.airship27.com) to see what I’m up to on a weekly basis and learn more about Airship 27 Productions etc.

Airship 27 Productions

LSSR: How did you become involved with the Lance Star: Sky Ranger series?

RF: Having been a fan of the old pulp aviation heroes, we wanted to do our own series and Lance Star was the answer. He and his Star Rangers are classic aviation heroes with tons of adventures to tell.

LSSR: Who is Lance Star? What makes pulp characters like Lance and the Sky Rangers appeal to you as a writer, a reader, and a publisher?

Lance Star: Sky Ranger Vol. 1

RF: Lance Star is an flying adventurer and veteran of World War One. He and his crew travel the globe of the 1930s and setting them against this ear as historical background is always fun.

LSSR: Digital content has changed the publishing landscape. As a creator and publisher, what excites you about digital content? As a reader?

RF: Obviously the ability to get our books out to a much larger audience, folks who own Kindles and Nooks, is the biggest attractions. We want lots of people to have the fun of reading our books and the digital market has opened that possibility far beyond our wildest dreams.

Lance Star: Sky Ranger Vol. 2

LSSR: Airship 27 currently has two Lance Star: Sky Ranger anthologies in print and available as eBooks with several of those stories soon to be released individually at iPulp Fiction. What’s next for these pulp heroes?

RF: Simply more of the same. We have a third Lance Star anthology in production and hope to follow it up with his first ever full blown novel.

And I’m told there are more shot comics in the works. We plan on keeping Lance and the Sky Rangers flying high for a long time to come.

Damballa

LSSR: Any upcoming projects you would like to plug?

RF: Airship 27 Production just released its third SHERLOCK HOLMES – CONSULTING DETECTIVE anthology and will soon be releasing the first ever African American 1930s avenger, DAMBALLA by novelist, Charles Saunders. It’s a book we’re damn proud of.

LSSR: Thanks, Ron.

Sherlock Holmes Vol. 3

For more information on Airship 27 Productions, please visit http://www.gopulp.info/
For more information on iPulp Fiction, please visit http://www.ipulpfiction.com/

AUTHOR SPANGLER, LANCE STAR, AND IPULP!!

  • News
  • July 10, 2011

The Lance Star: Sky Ranger interviews – Author Bill Spangler

Bill Spangler

With the announcement of Lance Star: Sky Ranger joining the iPulp Fiction Library, we wanted to introduce readers to some of the Honorary Sky Rangers involved with making these stories happen. Next up is Lance star: Sky Ranger Author Bill Spangler.

LSSR: Tell us a little about yourself and where readers can find out more about you and your work?

BS: I’ve been selling fiction for a number of years now. Primarily my work has appeared in comic books, but I’ve been selling prose short stories—such as “Talons Of the Red Condors”—too. My most recent credits are a graphic novel based on Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, the classic sf TV series from the 1950s, and “Mutual Assured Destruction,” a prose story featuring the Green Hornet. The latter is in the first volume of The Green Hornet Chronicles, published by Moonstone Books.

The Green Hornet Chronicles

You can order either of those through your local comics shop, or through Amazon.

My comic book work also includes The Argonauts, a pulp-adventure series in the tradition of Doc Savage and Buckaroo Banzai, and several series based on the animated TV show Robotech. Frankly, the best place to find them is probably in the three-for-a-dollar box at your local comics shop.

LSSR: How did you become involved with the Lance Star: Sky Ranger series?

BS: I wish I had an interesting story to tell you here, but the truth is I just don’t. Ron Fortier graciously asked me to participate, and I said, “Sure!” Ron and I have been corresponding since the late 1980s or the early ‘90s—you know, back when you actually sent paper letters to people—but, now that I think about it, I don’t think we’ve actually been in the same room together more than two or three times.

Talons Of The Red Condors

LSSR: Who is Lance Star? What makes pulp characters like Lance and the Sky Rangers appeal to you as a writer and a reader?

BS: Lance is an inventor, a pilot and an adventurer. From time to time, he and his team help out the government. You could say he’s part Doc Savage, part Indiana Jones and part Blackhawk. When I wrote “Talons,” I started to visualize Lance as a young Jimmy Stewart…or, his modern analog, Tom Hanks. He’s smart and competent, but a bit of a dreamer.

Personally, I’ve always found that to be an appealing mix. Some of my favorite characters fall into that tradition, like Tom Swift Jr., for instance, and the Tracy family from the Thunderbirds TV show. And I think some of the exotic airplanes in these stories are the ancestors of the gadgetry and vehicles in anime.

LSSR: Digital content has changed the publishing landscape. As a creator, what excites you about digital content? As a reader?

BS: I’m hoping that the minimal overhead of doing digital books will encourage publishers to take chances on stories and authors that you don’t see often in the big book store chains. With a little luck, publishers will be more willing to give authors the time to develop an audience or not demand that every title make Steven-King level profits. I guess that applies to me both as a creator and a reader because, in general, the stuff I want to write is the stuff I want to read.

Lance Star: Sky Ranger

LSSR: Your Lance Star: Sky Ranger story, “Talons Of The Red Condors” is currently available in print, as an eBook, and soon to be released individually at iPulp Fiction. What can you tell us about this story?

BS: Basically, I started out with the idea of wanting to do a big springboard, a big McGuffin, and I wanted to set it in a foreign country. So, “Talons” is set in Panama, and the bad guys perform an audacious…well, let’s call it a hijacking. There’s a lost city and a woman who changes sides during the course of the story, along with some other pulp riffs. I had a lot of fun researching it, and a lot of fun writing it.

LSSR: Thanks, Bill.

http://www.ipulpfiction.com/

Release schedule for Lance Star: Sky Ranger tales on iPulp:
06/17: Lance Star: Sky Ranger – Vol.1 #1: Attack of the Bird Man by Frank Dirsherl (now available)
07/07: Lance Star: Sky Ranger – Vol.1 #2: Where the Sea Meets the Sky by Bobby Nash
07/27: Lance Star: Sky Ranger – Vol.1 #3: Talons of the Red Condors by Bill Spangler

For more information on iPulp Fiction’s offerings, please visit http://www.ipulpfiction.com/
For more information on Airship 27 Productions’ offerings, please visit http://www.gopulp.info/

BIG BANG IS BACK THANKS TO PULP 2.0 PRESS!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July
5th, 2011
        
                                                                                                                    Pulp
2.0 Press


Pulp 2.0 Press Acquires Publishing Rights to Big Bang Universe


Pulp Publisher to reprint classic Big Bang Comics as Collector’s Volumes




Los Angeles, CA – Pulp 2.0 Press CEO Bill Cunningham today announced that the company has acquired the publishing and media licensing rights to the library of work by creators Gary Carlson and Chris Ecker under their Big Bang Comics imprint.  This deal signals another expansion for the company’s library of graphic novels. “I’ve always loved the history and the classic sensibility of the Big Bang Comics characters like Knight Watchman, Ultiman, Thunder Girl and others that Gary and Chris have created.  I’m very pleased we have a chance to bring their work and the work of celebrated giants like Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson, Shelly Moldoff, and Marty Nodell out in collector’s editions that capture that four color fun we all enjoyed when we were kids.”

The company plans to issue their editions as showcases to each individual Big Bang Comics character by collecting all of that character’s work under one cover, and adding historical reference, essays and rare, behind-the-scenes photos, sketches, covers, and memorabilia.  Formerly published by Image comics, Big Bang made a reputation for itself as the place where comics were fun again by creating the classic comics work of BB giants like Tom King and Jack Kingler.
“Big Bang Comics is an example of the kind of of fun we want to inject back into book publishing,” said Cunningham.  “I grew up reading books like The Great Comic Book Heroes and Batman:
From the 30’s to the 70’s. Each Big Bang character deserves the same sort of presentation so fans old and new can read and appreciate both the comics and the history behind the company just
like I did.”

“Big Bang Comics began in 1992 when Chris Ecker told me that he was tired of comic book publishers and art directors telling him that he drew like an “old guy” and that he was going to sit down and draw an old style comic book story and that I was going to write it.  We talked his ideaover at a small comic convention in Elgin, Illinois where we both lived. Then we got Gary Reed  at Caliber Press involved as our first publisher and the rest is history. With Big Bang I got to write stories about the characters I had loved and even got to work with some of my favorite creators: Shelly Moldoff, Mart Nodell, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson (they even signed it “Swanderson”!), Dave Cockrum and Rich Buckler,” said Big Bang Creator Gary Carlson.
Big Bang Co-Creator Chris Ecker adds, “If the Golden Age and Silver Age creators had the opportunity to see their work available on “space aged” digital devices (like, say a Kindle or Nook), they’d have jumped at it. With Pulp2.0, we’re able to do things with our “vintage” comic universe that they could only dream–and write or draw–about. I also think there’s an untapped group of potential fans that aren’t familiar with Big Bang out there, and the digital and print on demand capabilities that our Pulp 2.0 partnership presents will allow them total access. “

Individual editions in Pulp 2.0’s Big Bang Comics Collector’s series will be announced as they become available.  The first editions are scheduled for 2nd quarter 2012. For more information on Big Bang go to: www.bigbangcomics.com

About Pulp 2.0:
Pulp 2.0 is a publishing and media company that creates and distributes quality pulp entertainment media in every manner possible for its audience all over the world to enjoy. The company licenses, redesigns and republishes classic pulp, exploitation paperbacks and magazines through a variety of print and digital media; breathing new life into many of these ‘lost’ properties.

The company also creates new pulp entertainment for its target audience including the original vampire blaxploitation novel Brother Blood by Donald F. Glut, the internet radio adventure serial   “The Murder Legion Strikes at Midnight” (produced in association with Toronto’s  Decoder Ring Theater), and the tribute to legendary radio adventure historian Jim Harmon, Radio Western Adventures that features a lost western tale by Doc Savage creator Lester Dent.  In addition, the company is developing the re-release of Glut’s widely acclaimed horror-adventure book series The
New Adventures of Frankenstein in collectible editions for print and digital.  For more information go to: www.pulp2ohpress.com




Crazy 8 Press Plans CBLDF Benefit Story

c8-final-logo-300x247-3867144Yeah, yeah, it ‘s a bit of shameless self-promotion but it’s for a good cause.

Hunt Valley, Maryland — They may not be wearing super-hero capes, but members of the new web-based writers’ group Crazy 8 Press will swoop in to help the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) at the 33rd annual Shore Leave science fiction media convention the weekend of July 8-10, 2011.

Crazy 8 founders Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, Aaron Rosenberg and Howard Weinstein will raise funds for the CBLDF by tag-team writing an original story on the floor of the convention at Baltimore’s Marriott Hunt Valley Inn.

Fans will have a chance to participate by contributing possible opening sentences, one of which will be randomly chosen as the story’s starting point. First-sentence candidates can be submitted in advance through the Crazy 8 Press Facebook (www.facebook.com/pages/Crazy-8-Press) page, as well as at the convention on Friday evening. The finished work will be sold as a low-cost e-book, on sale through Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com and other internet booksellers.

Profits from this story will benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit organization fighting censorship and defending the First Amendment rights of comic book professionals. All of Crazy 8’s founding writers have worked in the comic book industry and David currently serves on the CBLDF board of directors.

Crazy 8 Press, which announced its formation in February, is a home for its established authors to sell original novels directly to readers through online book retailers. Together, Crazy 8’s founders have written hundreds of books and comics over the past 35 years, with combined sales of more than 15 million copies. The group has set a first-year goal of presenting at least one new novel-length title every other month.

The first new novel will be Peter David’s The Camelot Papers. Aaron Rosenberg’s novel No Small Bills will follow in September. Information on these and all future Crazy 8 Press projects can be found at www.crazy8press.com. All new stories (and some older, out of print works) by the Crazy 8 writers will be available for purchase through online booksellers including Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.

Friedman described Crazy 8 Press as a natural response to upheavals in book publishing. “With publishers and retailers under pressure,” he said, “distribution channels are shrinking. We’re offering our readers a way to receive our work that’s not dependent on any third party.”

“Until now,” said David, “we’ve been at the mercy of book store buyers, who would tell publishers if what we wrote was suitable for their stores. Now that barrier is down. We’re coming to readers pure and unleashed, with stories they would never have seen in a traditional publishing environment.”

“Science fiction has always been a community where writers and readers enjoy a close relationship and exchange ideas,” Greenberger added. “The Crazy 8 platform allows us to make that relationship even closer and more interactive.”

Crazy 8 Press Releases Second Preview of ‘The Camelot Papers’, On Sale July 8th

c8-final-logo-300-248-2494770In a case of the shoemaker’s children going barefoot, we didn’t mention anything beyond the teaser on Monday, but: ComicMix contributors Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, and Aaron Rosenberg have joined with comic book writers Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, and Howard Weinstein to form Crazy 8 Press, while we saw numerous writeups from The Beat, Bleeding Cool, and io9.

camelot_papers_100px-1006769However, we can advance the story a bit further: a second preview of the first book, The Camelot Papers by Peter David, has been added to the Crazy 8 Press Facebook page. Just go there and like the page, and you’ll get access to Chapters 2 and 3. (Chapter 1 is still available on the Crazy 8 Press website.

The Camelot Papers will officially go on sale on July 8, both to tie in with the “8” and the Shore Leave convention in Hunt Valley, MD, where all six founders will be in attendance– and doing a special comic related project together which we’ll tell you about when the time comes.

ALL PULP INTERVIEWS NOTED PULP ARTIST ROB DAVIS ABOUT SKY RANGER!

  • News
  • June 24, 2011

With the announcement of Lance Star: Sky Ranger joining the iPulp Fiction Library, ALL PULP wanted to introduce readers to some of the Honorary Sky Rangers involved with making these stories happen. Next up is Lance star: Sky Ranger Art Director and Designer, Rob Davis.

AP: Tell us a little about yourself and where readers can find out more about you, your work, and Airship 27 Productions?

robdavis2-5804492
RD: I’ve been a freelance artist since 1986 working on such diverse projects as a Saturday morning cartoon adaptation for Marvel to Star Trek books for DC and Malibu Comics. Presently I’m the art director/designer for Airship 27, which encompasses the actual design and look of each of Airship 27’s books to cover and interior illustrations. I’m also a comics publisher using the Redbud Studio Comics imprint to sell “print on demand” comics through IndyPlanet.com. Yeah, I’m busy!

AP: How did you become involved with the Lance Star: Sky Ranger series?


RD: Through my design work for Airship 27. We have been the publisher of the prose versions of the tales of Lance Star through anthologies and eventually novels featuring the pulp-era air ace.

AP: Who is Lance Star? What makes pulp characters like Lance and the Sky Rangers appeal to you as a creator, a reader, and a publisher?

RD: Lance is another star in the pantheon of pulp heroes in that he has a definite sense of right and wrong and will fight to the end to defend the right. In the pulp age aviators like Lance were like today’s astronauts in that they were envied for their daring flight into the atmosphere. It’s interesting to me to see what the interest was of pulp era readers in these cousins of Charles Lindberg and Amelia Earhart.

AP: Digital content has changed the publishing landscape. As a creator, what excites you about digital content? As a reader?

RD: As a reader it’s exciting to think about being able to carry my whole library of books with me in my new iPad. As a creator and publisher it excites me that we now have a new, thrilling and inexpensive outlet to get our productions out to the reader. The first few weeks after Airship 27 opened up our Airship27Hangar.com site we had phenomenal response! It’s exciting to put up another new book and see sales within just hours or minutes of the upload.

AP: As you are both a designer and artist, tell us a bit about your process for both the print and digital versions of the Airship 27 stories.

RD: Fortunately, there’s not much difference in the two. Since I have so many irons in the fire I don’t have a lot of time to devote to producing our digital versions. Mostly what I do is add the front and back covers to the interior PDF file that we send to our printing sources, reduce the file size (since digital screens need less resolution than traditional print) and then mark each page with a watermark to keep our books safe from pirating. The whole process takes less than an hour for each book. Add in the design time to create the online catalogue entry and within just a couple of hours we have a version of our latest masterpiece of New Pulp ready for viewing and enjoyment!

AP: Any upcoming projects you would like to plug?

RD: We have a number of different books in the Airship 27 pipeline. Right now my next illustrating gig for Airship 27 is calling to me: Robin Hood: Arrow of Justice written by Ian Watson, a very talented writer from the UK. This is the second of a three-part retelling of the Robin Hood legend and it is rollicking good fun! Ian is very gifted and his version of Robin Hood is a joy to read and illustrate!

AP: Thanks, Rob.

RD: Thanks for having me!

Release schedule for Lance Star: Sky Ranger tales on iPulp:

06/17: Lance Star: Sky Ranger – Vol.1 #1: Attack of the Bird Man by Frank Dirsherl (now available)

07/07: Lance Star: Sky Ranger – Vol.1 #2: Where the Sea Meets the Sky by Bobby Nash

07/27: Lance Star: Sky Ranger – Vol.1 #3: Talons of the Red Condors by Bill Spangler

For more information on iPulp Fiction’s offerings, please visit www.ipulpfiction.com

For more information on Airship 27 Productions’ offerings, please visit www.gopulp.info

For more information on Lance Star: Sky Ranger, please visit www.lance-star.com

For more information on Rob Davis, please visit http://homepage.mac.com/robmdavis/

Batman Artist Lew Sayre Schwartz Dead at 84

  • News
  • June 21, 2011

lew-detective-300x410-4944089Lew Sayre Schwartz, one of the lesser known Bob Kane ghosts on Batman, died on June 7 at age 84 after a fall according to his son, Andrew. Schwartz began working for Kane as a ghost in 1948 and remained the principal artist under Kane’s name on the Batman features in Batman and Detective Comics until 1953. Art historians believe he produced at least 120 stories during this period.

Kane signed a new deal with DC in 1948 and hired Schwartz to help handle the workload. Schwartz’s work began with penciling the stories, letting Kane do the actual Batman and Robin faces, then ink the lettered pages. Kane was understood to have made frequent changes to the artwork, altering the main heroic figures and secondary characters.

Without benefit of credits in the stories, art experts can usually identify Schwartz work given the detailed backgrounds and his frequent staging of the action that carried less impact than the ones Kane himself composed. Some, including Eddie Campbell, consider Schwartz one of the finest practitioners ever to work for Kane’s shop.

Schwartz toured Korea in the aftermath of the Korean War, visiting the troops and returned feeling he no longer wanted to draw comic book stories. After leaving Kane’s studio, Schwartz went on to teach at what is now known as the School for Visual Arts.  During this period, he also did ghosting work on several comic strips such as Secret Agent X-9 spelling artist Mel Graff, as well as several weeks of The Saint.

In 1961, Schwartz helped form Ferro, Mogubgub and Schwartz which produced live and animated commercials, earning the company four Emmy Awards and six Clio Awards. Schwartz began drawing storyboards and expanded his creative role over time. They may be best remembered for their animated title design work on Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 masterpiece Dr. Strangelove. Schwartz even went on to direct a Barbra Streisand television special. (more…)

M.A.S.K.: The Complete Original Series Arrives in August

  • News
  • June 20, 2011

One of the earliest comics series I inherited as an editor was M.A.S.K., based on the toys and cartoon series. I have no recollection how or why DC Comics acquired the comics rights but it was handed to Mike Gold shortly after he arrived on staff. He tapped the versatile Mike Fleisher as the writer, helping burn off contractual obligations. Better, he assigned the artwork to Curt Swan who needed something regular to produce after losing the Superman assignments. Inking was Kurt Schaffenberger so at least it looked good. I helped Mike get the series up and running then edited it a few issues before I handed it off to Mike Carlin to wrap up.

I never played with the toys or watched the cartoon, but thanks to Shout! Factory that can be rectified as seen in the following press release:

This Summer, loyal fans and collectors can finally bring home one of the most enduring animated adventures from the 80’s when the long-awaited M.A.S.K.: The Complete Original Series DVD box set debuts nationwide on August 9, 2011 from Shout! Factory, incollaboration with FremantleMedia Enterprises. Poised to attract an audience of kids, young adults and parents who grew up with this animated series, this 12-DVD box set contains all 65 action-packed episodes – known to fans as the original series aired in 1985, as well as insightful bonus features.  A must-have for collectors to complete their pop culture video library, M.A.S.K.: The Complete Original Series is available for pre-order now from Amazon.com and major retailers. (more…)

ComicMix Quick Picks: June 15, 2011

Boy, migrate one server, and a lot of links can pile up while waiting for your computers to reboot. Here’s some of the stuff we have to do before we get to the stuff we didn’t get around to covering yet…

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

Reviews from the 86th Floor: Barry Reese looks at The Last Phantom

  • News
  • June 13, 2011


THE LAST PHANTOM VOLUME ONE:
GHOSTWALK
Beatty/Ferigato
Dynamite Entertainment
ISBN 1-60690-201-6

Like many hardcore Phantom fans, I was disappointed when Moonstone lost the comics license. They had handled the character very well over the years, managing to both pay respect to his origins while also updating him to the 21st Century. When images began to filter out about the Dynamite version, complete with a new look, a more violent tone and a potentially revised origin, I was not pleased. So now I’ve finally gotten around to reading the first trade… and I have to say, it’s not bad.

In this story, the 22nd Phantom (not the 21st who is seen in most Phantom materials) has decided to retire the family business. He still plans to save the world but he’s doing it through philanthropy, not firearms. But someone close to him has motives that aren’t so pure and they arrange for Kit Walker to die in a plane crash, at the same time as his wife and son are murdered. Kit survives, learning that his family’s legacy of death isn’t one that can easily be broken. The bizarre look featured on the cover and in promotional images is actually a temporary one, used while Kit is recovering his Phantom gear. He does update the suit, using one now that can bend light around it so he appears to be a literal ghost. From the point at which Kit returns to the suit, things are much more traditional, though the violence is still raised a notch over the usual Phantom fare.

The art ranges from great to simply serviceable but for the most part it’s dynamic and tells the story well. The story is good and actually seems like a good way to update The Phantom to a modern audience: it wouldn’t make a bad movie. I hated to see Kit’s wife and son die (it’s so cliche) but it certainly sets the tone and explains the title (though Kit looks young enough that there could be more heirs in his future).

Was this so good that it makes up for losing the Moonstone versions? No… but I do wish we could have somehow had both on the stands. This is a smart updating of the mythos and if it hadn’t been mismarketed to fans at the beginning, I think it would have been embraced more.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

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