Tagged: review

ALL PULP NEWSSTAND BULLDOG EDITION 3/15/11

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  • March 15, 2011
FRANKENSTEIN LIVES AGAIN IN A BIG WAY!
From Bill Cunningham, Pulp 2.0 Press-
I just wanted to share (Okay, I wanted to blow my horn a little bit – sue me) some of the great reviews we’ve been getting for Pulp 2.0 Press’s digital edition of FRANKENSTEIN LIVES AGAIN! It’s clear (to me) that our target audience is responding to the work we’ve put into making THE NEW ADVENTURES OF FRANKENSTEIN novel series something special. We would appreciate your help in spreading the word to your networks of contacts if you think it will be of interest, as we are actively creating, developing and licensing a variety of ‘pulp media’ based on our properties.  
You will be hearing more and more about us in the coming months.

From Joshua Unruh at THE CONSORTIUM:


http://www.consortiumokc.com/writing/review-frankenstein-lives-again-novel/


“…I recommend this book as the sort of thrilling horror-adventure tale you want to knock out while laying in a hammock on a lazy Saturday afternoon.”


From Christopher Michael Bell in the UK:


http://awritingculdesac.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/review-frankenstein-lives-again-by-donald-f-glut/


“Where to begin properly? How about with gushing praise for what is a terrifically fun ride. Pulp is best when it is exploitative, rough, plot and action heavy. In this regard Donald Gluts work sings. This is no Gothic horror, it is fantasy adventure and I found myself reading the Kindle edition with increasing speed. The pace of the action builds and builds throughout the story. Great fun, and captures that pulp B movie feeling as well with regular cliff hangers at the end of chapters.”


and from TERROR OF FU MANCHU writer, William Patrick Maynard:


http://www.blackgate.com/2011/03/11/rediscovering-the-ubiquitous-donald-f-glut/


” The New Adventures of Frankenstein has been given a whole new lease on life from Pulp 2.0. Mark Maddox’s gorgeous cover artwork for the first book, Frankenstein Lives Again! recalls both the Universal Monster classics of the 1930s and 1940s and the Aurora model kits of the 1960s. Glut’s prose is fast-paced, thrill-a-minute fun as Dr. Burt Winslow unwisely revives the Monster. The original misunderstood misanthrope tangles with a psychic circus master and torch-bearing villagers in an update that owes as much to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original 1960s run on The Incredible Hulk as it does to the Universal monster classics.”


FRANKENSTEIN LIVES AGAIN! will be on sale in the Kindle store at the end of the March for only $.99  Available soon after on other digital platforms and in collector’s print editions. 
FrankBookCoverMark_SMALL .jpg

—
Bill Cunningham
Pulp 2.0 Press
323.662.2508
2908 Allesandro St. Los Angeles, CA 90039
www.pulp2ohpress.com
Twitter: @madpulpbastard

A NEW WEEK, A NEW FLYING GLORY PAGE!
From Kevin Paul Shaw Broden-
FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY

Almost ten years in the making… 
a major secret is at last revealed. 
 Catch the final page of Issue #13, 
“Looking for a Love Song,” 

PULP ARK ROOM DEADLINE NEARS! AND MORE GUEST TABLES!

Tommy Hancock, Coordinator for PULP ARK, the Pulp Writers Conference/Convention coming to Batesville, AR May 13-15 informed ALL PULP that due to the weekend of PULP ARK being a graduation weekend, the Comfort Suites of Batesville, PULP ARK’s official hotel, has set a limit for PULP ARK fans and guests and vendors to get the special rate.  If you are coming to PULP ARK, you must make your reservation by APRIL 15, 2011 in order to receive the special rate!  And it is a very special rate!  For a link to the hotel as well as any other information on PULP ARK go to http://pulpmachine.blogspot.com/p/pulp-ark.html or contact Hancock at proseproductions@earthlink.net
Hancock also announced that due to the response from people, both local and outside of Arkansas, about PULP ARK, especially interest shown in guests, more guest tables are available!  If you are a writer or artist and are interested in being a guest at Pulp Ark, contact Hancock and he will explain this process!

HANCOCK TIPS HIS HAT TO THE SEA GHOST!!

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  • March 11, 2011

TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT-Reviews of Things Pulp by Tommy Hancock
THE SEA GHOST #1 (ONE SHOT)
Written and Illustrated by Jay Piscopo
Nemo Publishing Group

This is my third review in as many days of a Jay Piscopo work.  The previous two reviews had words in them like ‘nostalgic’, ‘cutting edge’, ‘reminds me of Saturday morning cartoons’, etc.  They were both digest sized graphic type novels that read extremely easily and were filled with great, fun stuff.  The third item I’m reviewing from Jay is a straight up comic book spotlighting a character from Piscopo’s CAPT’N ELI universe and opened it expecting a totally different experience than reading the previous two works.

Thankfully for me, I was dead wrong. 

THE SEA GHOST is a human given great powers by an undersea race in an effort to save his life.   He fights during World War II as the Sea Raider, but after some tragedy, takes on the role of The Sea Ghost.  He is well established in this role, working with his children as a hero as this comic opens.

I could get fancy and say all sorts of cool things about how Jay achieved what he wanted to, according to his own piece in the book, about a great homage to characters, especially Space Ghost.  That feel is definitely here.   But I think I’ll simply say that this story is just plain FUN.   I opened it and swore I was looking at a Gold Key comic from when I was a kid.  And that is a COMPLIMENT!  I enjoyed the ‘independent’ comics even then because the styles were so different and experimental.  THE SEA GHOST harkens back to that as well as back to the great Silver Age books where literally anything could happen.  The Sea Ghost can investigate a strange ship and get sucked in and be on another planet and it works! (That happens, by the way).   The focus is definitely on the Ghost in this issue, but there are cool threads and supporting characters that pepper this thing like bullets from a Tommy gun.  I particularly want to see more of a trio of characters who show up toward the end!!

THE SEA GHOST is a rollicking tale that has a ton of stuff in it, but also stays very true to the ‘undersea’ nature of the character as well as evokes comic tales of times past, the ones that were full of wonder and excitement and just had the intention of telling one heckuva tale.

FIVE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT-This one hit with me on all cylinders.

HANCOCK TIPS HIS HAT TO CAPT’N ELI…A LOT!

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  • March 10, 2011

TIPPIN’ HANCOCKS’ HAT-Reviews of Things Pulp by Tommy Hancock
THE UNDERSEA ADVENTURES OF CAPT’N ELI: VOLUME 1
Written and Illustrated by Jay Piscopo
Cover Art by Steve Rude
Nemo Publishing, 2008

WARNING!! If you are one of those adult type readers who believe that as you age, your reading choices should mature, become less exciting, more prose than picture, and border on bland and spoon fed to you, then STOP READING! This review IS NOT for you!

For the rest of you who actually probably enjoy life and love things both nostalgic and cutting edge, continue on with my blessing…

For those who aren’t Facebookers like most of us, you might not know who Jay Piscopo is.  If you travel in the social network circles most of our readers do, though, it is likely.  Jay is an accomplished creator that has also proven to be one of the best I’ve seen at self promotion.  Whether it be work on his original creations or his awesome takes on classic pulp characters or his breathtaking renditions of the work of others (He’s the guy behind my much bally hooed YESTERYEAR novel cover), Jay has made a name for himself as being up and coming, awesome, and dead on with his work.

That reputation is furthered by this first volume of THE UNDERSEA ADVENTURES OF CAPT’N ELI, Jay’s own tale put out by Nemo Publishing set in a wild and wonderful universe all his own.    This graphic novel/digest like tome centers around Capt’n Eli, a genius of a boy who has a very familiar feeling origin and takes off almost from birth on adventures that while reminding some of us of things we’ve read or seen in the past, manage to be innovative, original, and exciting.

Jay brings all his creative wonder to bear in this first volume of Capt’n Eli’s adventures.   Within this you see tips of the hat to adventures and creators of the past as Jay’s influences for both art and story are pretty obvious.  Capt’n Eli has traces of Johnny Quest, Superman, Doc Savage, Tom Swift, and the list goes on.  But what makes this cool is although you, if you’re a reader steeped in this Saturday morning/pulp magazine stuff, get all the references, they are simply that.  References, little things that Jay does with the story or the art to put you in mind of what we all thought was a simpler time, a time when storytelling was about telling the story and the art backed up the story, but didn’t overshadow it.

In this first volume, we get Capt’n Eli’s origin, his first meeting with and hints of connection to Commander X, Jay’s mix of Doc Savage and Captain Nemo that is DEAD ON, Eli’s teaming up with a crack team of sea based heroes, and two of the coolest sidekicks in a long time-Barney, the knot tying dog and Jolly Roger, a parrot of some years who knows seventy languages.  Oh, and time travel, strange ships, a historic moment (literally) and so much more!

Also included in the volume is a story from ‘the golden age’ of Jay’s universe done very much in a golden age style that showcases Commander X in his hero days along with two others that make up the Big Three.  Stir this in with words from Jay, a hit-the-head-on-the-nail introduction from argon Zark! creator Charley Parker, and pin ups by Steve Rude, Herb Trimpe, and Howard Chaykin, and you have one classic, now and later, tale that makes me want to watch Boomerang late at night to see more stuff like this!

The layout of the book is awesome, part action adventure comic, part edutainment (and not boring edutainment, but story supporting, mind enhancing edutainment), and part sunday newspaper comic strip!  I enjoyed the size of the book, not a TPB size, more digest like, and the overall layout does what a layout should do, makes the book stand out among others and not only compliments, but adds to the tale it tells!

The only thing I found a bit hard to deal with at first was the mix of art with 3-D backgrounds.  Although stunning in many places, I initially had a little difficulty with this, mostly because the look is a bit jarring at times.  I will say, though, about halfway through the first read of this, I was not only adjusted to this mix of things, but actually enjoyed it quite a bit.  It added a bit of uniqueness to the book as a whole.

THE UNDERSEA ADVENTURES OF CAPT’N ELI: VOLUME ONE is a high sailing, deep sea divin’, time travellin’, ocean explorin’ story that cannot be missed!!!

FIVE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT-Probably the best comprehensive (touching many points of my inner fanboy) read that I’ve had in a long time!  Thanks, Jay!

THE LONG MATINEE PUTS THE PULP BALL IN YOUR COURT!

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  • March 9, 2011

THE LONG MATINEE-Pulp Movie Reviews by Derrick Ferguson

So just what is a Pulp Movie?

Isn’t that opening up a Pandora’s Box of opinions.  We’re all still trying to achieve a meeting of the minds on what a Pulp story/novel/comic is.  We get on Skype, on IM, debate and discuss in chatrooms, message boards and at conventions on what Pulp is and at the end of the day, everybody can only agree on one thing: Pulp is Different Things To Different People.

And that’s okay.  That why The Good Lord in His Infinite Widsom made us all different.  So we could have fun trying to figure out stuff like this.

So back to Pulp Movies.  See, I can point at Alan Rudolph’s wonderfully quirky TROUBLE IN MIND and say that for me, that’s Pulp.  You may disagree.  I think we can all safely shake hands on the Indiana Jones and The Mummy movies and agree those are Pulp.  But then again, I consider TRUCK TURNER, SNAKES ON A PLANE and Woody Allen’s BROADWAY DANNY ROSE Pulp as well.  No doubt you feel differently about those choices.  Again, this is a good thing and it brings me to the meat-and-potatoes portion of this.

Our Mr. Hancock has been insisting most strenuously that I resume writing movie reviews for ALL PULP, which is a good idea.  Pulp novels, stories and comics get plenty of ink here but movies sometimes get lost in the sauce, as they say.

That’s where you guys come in.  After all, you’re part of this family, aintcha?  So why shouldn’t you get in on the fun?  Why don’t you recommend movies that you think qualify as Pulp Movies and I’ll review ‘em right here on ALL PULP.  If you have any doubts as to my competency as a movie reviewer then allow me to kindly direct you to The Ferguson Theater http://derricklferguson.wordpress.com/  where you can find a whole buncha reviews a’mine to read and enjoy.

Be so good as to send your movie recommendations directly to me at DerrickFerguson1@aol.com and as long as my Netflix subscription and personal DVD collection holds out, I’ll review ‘em.  It’ll keep me busy, you’ll get good stuff to read and Our Mr. Hancock will stop sending me suspicious looking packages in the mail.

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ALL PULP GUEST REVIEW-DOC HERMES REVIEWS DOC SAVAGE!

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  • March 8, 2011

From May 1941, this is a very minor but enjoyable case for Doc and his crew. After slogging through a few dreary Laurence Donovan misfires, it’s a treat to see again how deftly Lester Dent keeps the story flowing, providing just enough information to make the situation clear while not giving everything away. Not that this is one of Dent’s better efforts, but it’s a decent little mixture of action and mystery that rolls along and provides a few hours’ diversion.

This book shares with THE SEVEN AGATE DEVILS (where Doc leaps at a speeding car and kicks the front wheel with both feet to make the car swerve), the “Oh, Come ON! Award” Here we find from out of nowhere that Long Tom, while infiltrating a gang of suspicious crooks, has concealed carrier pigeons in some old clothes and has covered up their cooing by pretending to have asthma and hiccups. Sounds like a scene from a British sitcom.

The type of story is a Mad Science gimmick (as opposed to a Lost Race or Warlord or Enigmatic Clue Mystery) and here something is turning people a bright, bubble-gum pink– even their teeth and eyes. From the opening chapter, when a panicky pink lady bursts into a hotel lobby during a thunderstorm and is brutally burned to death by gasmasked thugs (or IS she?), one development flows another in a well-crafted thriller. Trying to summarize the complex twists and reversals in the plot, where suspects are telling conflicting stories and posing as each other, while at the same time Doc is juggling some of his more intricate schemes, would really be difficult to do clearly. If you haven’t read this particular story yet, you might want to pay closer attention than usual.

Despite the fact that the opposition in this adventure are rather ordinary hoodlums, with no masked mastermind or world conquest scheme, the crooks are well organized and resourceful. They put up a real struggle, and at one point, things look so dismal and hopeless, that Doc picks up a book and glances through it nervously while he thinks.

All five aides take active part in this book, and each gets a bit of characteristic dialogue or action. Monk, who has been turned invisible in THE SPOOK LEGION, here goes pink, as does Long Tom (but in a fake guise as an undercover agent). Renny tells a gangster wearing a bulletproof vest, “Pal, I can shoot the pupils out of your eyes without touching the whites.” Ham tries to do some research on color in Doc’s library but is left scratching his head; we’re told many times in the stories that he’s a great lawyer and linguist but knows less science than the average man.

One of the characteristics I enjoy about Dent is the confident way he throws out casual details a fill-in writer might hesitate to include. Long Tom leaves a zig-zag mark representing electricity as his personal insignia; it’s also the brand used “on a small cow ranch which he owned in the Jackson Hole County of Wyoming.” And we’re told Doc used to carry an explosive formula in a fake wisdom tooth, but then he grew a genuine wisdom tooth and has no place for it. Irrelevant touches like this don’t further the plot and will probably never be mentioned again, but they do bolster the illusion that these men have actual lives and histories outside of the adventures we read.

Doc goes about solving the mystery in his competent, deadpan way. He uses the full range of gadgets and some elaborate ruses and trickery to work on the case, but doesn’t hesitate to fall back on bronze knuckles when necessary. He has his hands full with a pair of muscular fighters trained in close quarters combat, showing he’s at the upper levels of human development, but then other people can approach this also. Doc keeps going with a dislocated arm, not the first one he’s suffered. And the mention of clothing ripping indicate that this might one of the cases where he actually looks the way he’s depicted on the Bantam reprints. (“Another shirt ruined– well, at least the right cuff’s still attached….”)

Grant Morrison Examines ‘All-Star Superman’ Page-to-Screen Transition

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  • March 8, 2011

as_37-e1299508463287-7706879Renowned comics writer Grant Morrison has found a lot to like in the transfer from page-to-screen of his Eisner Award-winning All-Star Superman, the critically-acclaimed, hot-selling new entry in the ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies available now from Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Home Video.

In All-Star Superman, the Man of Steel rescues an ill-fated mission to the Sun (sabotaged by Lex Luthor) and, in the process, is oversaturated by radiation – which accelerates his cell degeneration. Sensing even he will be unable to cheat death, Superman ventures into new realms – finally revealing his secret to Lois, confronting Lex Luthor’s perspective of humanity, and attempting to ensure Earth’s safety before his own impending end with one final, selfless act.

All-Star Superman is now available from Warner Home Video as a Blu-Ray™ Combo Pack and 2-Disc Special Edition DVD, as well as single disc DVD. The film will is also available On Demand and for Download.

Morrison had a few moments to chat from his home in Scotland last week about the all-new film based on his landmark comics series, and the late Dwayne McDuffie’s impressive job in re-imagining Morrison’s words into animated glory.

Question: Did you have, and did you want, creative input into the script?

Grant Morrison: Once I knew someone else was going to do it, I kind of wanted to let it happen and not interfere. I’m always excited to see how others translate things from page to screen. I didn’t even know Dwayne (McDuffie) was involved at first, but I’m so glad he did it. I was happy to see what the story might look like from someone else’s perspective and he did a fantastic job.

(more…)

Review: ‘Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Vol. One’

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  • March 2, 2011

scooby-doo-mystery-inc-v1-e1298842097616-5724225Could the eleventh time be the charm? I stopped watching Saturday morning cartoons right around the time Scooby-Doo solved his first mystery. To my mind, it was also a show from my younger brother’s era. At the time, I thought it looked and sounded pretty stupid, an opinion I maintained ever since.

Last year, I was forced to re-examine those feelings when I was invited to write a few Scooby-Doo stories for DC Comics’ print incarnation. I talked with longtime fans and other writers in addition to reading a ton of stories. The formula had its charm and the characters diverse enough to hang stories on but I couldn’t imagine things like their family lives or the unlikely coincidence of all four being only children.

I apparently was not the only one with those questions, and Warner Bros. Animation has offered up a new series, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated which debuted in July. In late January, the first four episodes from the fourteen episode first season were released on DVD by Warner Home Video.

The formula remains the same. People get spooked by something, the kids investigate, wackiness ensues, and the monster is revealed to be someone in disguise who would have gotten away with the scheme du jour “if it wasn’t for those darn kids”. What’s different this time, though, is the introduction of a Big Bad, someone calling himself Mr. E (Mystery, get it? They owe Bob Rozakis a royalty), who is teasing Mystery, Inc. with clues to a some big mystery surrounding Crystal Cove. The mystery relates to the town’s history and involves a quartet of teen sleuths and their pet, and is being slowly unfolded so you don’t get a resolution to this in disc one (or disc two, due in March).  Heck, you only get two clues this time around.

(more…)

ANOTHER GUEST REVIEW THIS WEEK-HALEGUA LOOKS AT PLEXICO’S SENTINELS!

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  • February 23, 2011

Review of Sentinels Vols. 1-3

by Mark S. Halegua

Intrigue, humor, paranormal humans, aliens, androids, paranormal aliens, robots, mystery, amnesia, other planets, other galaxies, other dimensions, betrayal, cosmic villains, and battles, battles, battles.

All of these are in Van Allen Plexico’s first trilogy of the Sentinels.

From the first book through the third in this trilogy I was enthralled. I had a hard time putting them down and after each ended I wanted to read more.

From the beginning this read very much like a Jim Starlin cosmic tale, with mostly earth bound super heroes facing off against villains, robots, and groups with multi-dimensional/universal goals of conquest and galactic power and abilities.

There’s no doubt Marvel comics and the Avengers were a large influence for the Sentinels, who are, or will, come together as a super-team on Earth. Its nascent members include a powerful, government authorized powerhouse, Ultraa, with a mysterious past – even to himself; a paranormal teenager with the power, more than even she knows, over electro-magnetic forces; a billionaire inventor with aspirations of wearing the armor he’s designing instead of giving it to the double agent the government has selected; a robot/android over 1,000 years old with memory issues – who is himself an agent of a galactic entity wanting the resources of the planet; an alien woman finding herself a slave then holder of unexpected powers and also an agent of yet another civilization which may be inimical to Earth; a man who allows an otherworldly material to attach to him symbiotically; and more.

The first three books of the series are titled “When Strikes the Warlord,” “A Distant Star,” and “Apocalypse Rising.” Each one raises the stakes and the threat to Earth, and each one adds a potential new member to the team taking shape.

The only issue I have with the books is the pace. It’s like riding a roller-coaster that never slows down, only going faster as it moves up down and around the track. Its pace is such the reader almost has no chance to breathe, and neither do the heroes.

Van Allen Plexico has created a world of continuing and mounting danger, of interesting people, and never-slowing-down action. I enjoyed them and still want more.

But first, a little time to breathe.

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GUEST REVIEW-Doc Hermes takes on ‘THE PROBLEM OF SORE BRIDGE’!

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  • February 22, 2011
07 February 2011 @ 06:13 pm
Raffles foils an interplanetary invasion (what, really?)  
“The Problem of Sore Bridge”

SEVERE SPOILERS AHEAD
Just so you know….

From 1975, this is one of the best of the pastiches which Philip Jose Farmer wrote, using classic pulp and mystery characters. There is no XXX-rated attempt to shock the reader or convoluted speculation about lineages. There is, on the other hand, a cleverly written and well structured short story that explains three of the puzzling references from “The Problem of Thor Bridge”, which have tantalized Holmes fans for generations.

For his main protagonists, Farmer chooses Arthur J. Raffles and Bunny Manders. Like Bulldog Drummond, still another character once immensely popular but almost forgotten today, Raffles was an upper class rogue who was famous as a champion cricket player and (when motivated by boredom or financial problems) a master burglar and thief. Appearing in a series of stories by E.W. Hornung (who was married to Arthur Conan Doyle`s sister), Raffles had great appeal to Victorian readers. A respectable gentleman and sports idol, the “amateur cracksman’ also was a thief. So there was an inherent tension in the stories, as he could have lost it all if he was ever caught. (Also, there was the comforting suspicion that these idle swells were crooks.)

The Raffles tales are narrated by Bunny Manders, a sidekick who seems to have a serious crush on the cricketeer. Since it seems pretty clear that Leslie Charteris was strongly influenced by these stories, it explains the excessive praise of the hero’s looks and mannerisms that is found in the early Saint books. I really doubt that there was any intention for readers to interpret this as anything more than straight friendship and hero worship, but it does feel a bit odd sometimes.

In “The Problem of the Sore Bridge”, Raffles starts out initially to find out how the mysterious James Phillimore is obtaining the magnificent star saphhires which, once a month, he produces and sells. Investigating, our hero gets entangled with the journalist and duellist Isadora Persona, which leads his coming face to (sorta) face with the remarkable worm unknown to science. After that, events becomes completely wild as Raffles realizes he is dealing with a shape-changing extraterrestrial who can swiftlly transform to exactly resemble an armchair, a tree ….or an Englishman named James Philimore. To make things more urgent, every month the alien lays an egg (which resembles a star sapphire), from which hatches a remarkable worm (a larva alien.) So the creatures will multiply in geometric progression, moving undetectably among the unsuspecting humans, quickly replacing mankind. Eeek! And the only ones who realize the situation are a gentleman burglar and his sidekick.

Farmer keeps the story rolling along quickly, with Raffles and Bunny pursuing the ET. leading up to the dramatic showdown on the cutter ALICIA as it sails to a rendezvous with the creature`s submerged spaceship. The amateur cracksman shows quick thinking and (frankly) an astonishing ability to comprehend these staggering events, where a typical Englishman of 1895 might have been stupefied. (In a realistic moment, when Bunny actually sees the alien melting, as it splits into three midget forms, he becomes nauseated and promptly vomits. I always thought people in horror films would be throwing up at some of the stuff they witness.)

Sherlock Holmes is on the periphery of the story, always just a few minutes behind Raffles, and his presence is felt more in the chance he might catch up and detain the cracksman. The two are distant relatives (third or fourth cousins) who have never met. So this story is of interest to Holmes fans as one of the better of many which explain those puzzling hints Watson dropped, and although Holmes makes only a brief appearance, he`s treated with respect and fidelity to the original canon.

It’s been a very long time since I read the Raffles stories (another series long overdue for a revival), but as I recall, there is nothing here that is false to the personalities or actions of the two upper class crooks. Farmer portrays the rogue as likeable and flippant (“After all, if one is an Englishman, it`s no crime to be a snob, is it? Somebody has to be superior and we know who that someone is, don’t we?”) but capable of violent action as needed. Very much like his literary descendant, the Saint.

But finally, the title involves a truly atrocious pun. The alien assumes the guise of a narrow footbridge across a stream, Raffles and Bunny pound across it in their hard boots, there’s a low moan…the sore bridge…oh, I can’t continue.

MOONSTONE MONDAY-SAVAGE BEAUTY A DARLING WITH REVIEWERS!

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  • February 21, 2011
moonstone_monday_logo_bar-8951704

Moonstone Entertainment, Inc., Captain Action Enterprises, and Runemaster Studios, the forces behind Moonstone’s latest comic title SAVAGE BEAUTY, have been saying for months just how spectacular this new series would be.  An updating of the Jungle Girl genre tale, SAVAGE BEAUTY uses two very strong female leads to not only introduce pulp like heroics into the jungles of today’s world, but also tackles real life issues.   The comic is a tool of vital partnership between its creators and agencies and organizations dedicated to making life better and even saving lives in Kenya, Africa, and other ravaged lands.   Moonstone, CAE, and Runemaster have been shouting the praises of SAVAGE BEAUTY and rightfully so.

And now, so are other people.   The reviews are in and it seems others have jumped on the SAVAGE BEAUTY bandwagon.

Eric J., www.thepullbox.com, summed up the origins and appeal of SAVAGE BEAUTY wonderfully-

I am a huge pulp fan, always have been.  A childhood constant of mine was watching old B&W’s with my mom on Sunday afternoons.  The adventure, thrill and danger of an altruistic hero risking life and limb to take down a dastardly villain was almost too much for my little 7-year heart to handle.  Well, what I know (as most of you do too) is that when creative teams try to “modernize” the genre something is lost in the translation and they fail more often than they succeed.  And the less-than-stellar-results are usually something off-center, overly cheesy and perhaps way dark.

Running counter to that sad norm, the folks over at Moonstone have been lighting the way for years and showing fans that pulp can still be done and done well.  Savage Beauty, as a title, just continues to add to their testimony.

In his review at www.playeraffinity.com, Dustin Cabeal points out what makes SAVAGE BEAUTY a modern and relevant title in his ‘Short Version’-

If you’re looking for a sexy jungle story about two women fighting the crimes of Africa then you’ll only be half right. This story is anything but goofy and uses the comic to look at a very realistic problem in the world, while presenting it in a very accessible way. Simply put this isn’t a kid’s comic, but it’s still really good.

Cabeal also goes on to point out specific strong points of the debut issue-

Mike Bullock (The Phantom: Generations) does an impressive job of taking a book with a name that seems unserious and making it anything but. With this first issue, Bullock has tackled an issue that is still a problem in Africa today….There’s a balance that’s struck between the message and the fictional world of the comic and Bullock manages to walk the line between the two.

The art is very good and maintains a “pulp” look to it which really fits the book. Artist Jose Massaroli draws a wide variety of people, animals, settings and objects and exceeds at doing all of them well.

Ray Tate with www.comicsbulletin.com sees SAVAGE BEAUTY as…

 a welcome addition to the jungle girls category of books. The writers and artists direct their talents to raise awareness about real world vermin while creating satisfying escapism in a twist on legacy heroism.

SAVAGE BEAUTY is a comic that appeals to the masses because it tackles real world issues and does so in an entertaining, captivating way utilizing well known staples of heroic fiction and the jungle girl genre.  Christopher with www.jonja.net states-

With roots deep in Edgar Rice Borroughs’ romanticized version of Africa and his hero ‘Tarzan’, Savage Beauty mixes the mythos of jungle warriors with real world drama and adds in a splash of dual identities…Don’t let the cover fool you, this is more than just an excuse to draw pretty girls in fur bikinis. This new spin on the jungle heroine looks like it will be a serious and at times dark journey to, at least in the literary world, bring justice to the criminals that deserve it most.

The reviews are definitely in.   And SAVAGE BEAUTY will be in as well this month from Moonstone!

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