Tagged: Star Trek

“Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Next Level” Will Be Released on January 31

We knew this was coming and finally, here are the details:

LOS ANGELES – The beloved series STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® will be transferred to high definition for the first time ever and released on Blu-ray™, it was announced today by Ken Ross, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CBS Home Entertainment.

All 178 episodes from seven seasons will be transferred to true high-definition 1080p for release on Blu-ray and eventual runs on television and digital platforms both domestically and internationally.

“Fans have been clamoring for a high-definition release of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® for years,” said Ross. “Transferring the series to high-definition presented difficult technical challenges, but our team has come up with a process to create true 1080p HD masters with true HD visual effects. We can’t wait to show fans how pristine the series looks and sounds with our upcoming Blu-ray releases.”

Transferring STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® to high-definition presented numerous challenges – The series was originally shot on film and then transferred to videotape, which was used to edit episodes together. In order to create true HD masters, CBS is going back to the original uncut film negative – all 25,000 plus film reels of it – and cutting the episodes together exactly the way they originally aired. The visual effects were all shot on film and will be painstakingly recompositioned, not upconverted from videotape. The newly cut film will then be transferred to true high-definition with 7.1 DTS Master Audio. Denise and Mike Okuda are consulting on the project.

While the first full season won’t be available until later in 2012, CBS Home Entertainment is releasing STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® – THE NEXT LEVEL, a single Blu-ray disc to give fans a taste of the series in HD, on January 31, 2012. The disc will include the feature-length pilot – “Encounter at Farpoint” – as well as two more “fan favorite” episodes, “The Inner Light” (Season 5) and “Sins of the Father” (Season 3). The single disc will be available for a suggested retail price of $21.99.

One of the most popular series in the STAR TREK franchise, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2012. It premiered in first-run syndication during the week of September 28, 1987 and ran through 1994.

Set in the 24th century on the Starship Enterprise, about 100 years after the original STAR TREKseries took place, the series starred Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard,

Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker, LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge, Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi, Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data, Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf, Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher and Wil Wheaton as her son Wesley Crusher.

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® won numerous accolades, including 18 Emmy® awards, and was the first – and only – syndicated television show to be nominated for the Emmy® for Outstanding Drama Series for its seventh season. It was also ranked #46 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time list in 2002.

ALL PULP ANNOUNCES NEW STAFF!

  • News
  • July 29, 2011

In efforts to continue to bring Pulp fans the most comprehensive coverage of Pulp news of all types, ALL PULP has expanded its staff to include top notch reporters, reviewers, and commentators!  With the Spectacled Seven at the helm, ALL PULP has made a name for itself in being a major source of Pulp news and discussion for nearly a year.  With both the increase of awareness among fans and the public of ALL PULP along with the continuing increase of interest in all things Pulp, it was determined more hands were needed to man the juggernaut that is ALL PULP!  Current ALL PULP staff, leading off with the new Staffers and ending with the Spectacled Seven are as follows-

STAFF
WEEKLY STAFFERS
josh-5466253 JOSHUA PANTALLERESCO comes on board as ALL PULP’S Assistant Editor.   Joshua has published “I Am…” a poetry book and is working on a new collection. He also penned an essay, “The Modern Day Perceval” In the collection “Secrets of the Dragon Riders”. Joshua has served as one of the editors for Northern Flight, an arts and literary magazine. and has published a non fiction piece “A Series of Unfortunate Events” and the fiction piece “Imaginary” as well. Veritas, Joshua’s first comic, is completed and now available. He is currently working on two novels and now will be assisting with editorial duties at ALL PULP as well as working in the trenches as a full time staffer, providing reviews, columns, and interviews several times a week!
adamprofile-9699647ADAM L. GARCIA, one of the up and coming faces in the New Pulp Movement, is an award winning writer, most notably for his work on revitalizing the classic pulp character THE GREEN LAMA via Airship 27.  Adam isn’t a one character writer, though.  He’s working on various other projects, including original Pulp characters as well as mutliple projects that go beyond Pulp.  Adam will be providing news stories as well as his own unique take on Pulp via reviews and editorial columns.
brent-2774552BRENT LAMBERT, is an aspiring author working on his first novel and is excited to be able to expand not only his experience, but his knowledge as well by joining ALL PULP and delivering the best in news, reviews, interviews, and commentary on the world that is Pulp!
 
 
frank2-4117320FRANK SCHILDINER, Pulp Author and Creator, joins ALL PULP’s ranks, ready to bring all his best to news coverage in the Pulp World.  Frank has had work published with Airship 27 Productions and is one of the many creators involved in the Infinity Comics Group.  Frank is also working on a novel and a whole universe all his own, for Pro Se Press, where he also acts as the editor of Pro Se’s ‘MASKED GUN MYSTERY’ line of short stories

joshr-9979506JOSHUA REYNOLDS is perhaps one of the most prolific writers of the New Pulp Movement.  A partner in Pulpwork Press, Joshua has also written for Airship 27, Pro Se Press, Moonstone, as well as other New Pulp Publishers.  Currently, Joshua is writing for Black Library as well and has a WARHAMMER novel coming out in the near future, not to mention a ton of other really cool projects that are so secret even Josh isn’t allowed to know about them.  With all of that, Joshua will be bringing his views and thoughts to ALL PULP every week!



CONTRIBUTING STAFFERS
suzanne-2188748Suzanne Fuller, an aspiring writer, hails from Scotland and provides reviews that are entertaining, comprehensive, insightful, and do what a good review should-Helps the reader make a decision about the book and keeps the reader coming back looking for Suzanne’s next review at ALL PULP!

chuck2-1215608CHUCK MILLER, New Pulp Author and Creator, is the mastermind behind one of the internet’s best New Pulp characters and accompanying universes, The Black Centipede!  With Pro Se Press publishing the first and future volumes of the Centipede’s adventures, Chuck is readying to work on other projects as continuing to expand the Centipede’s wild and wacky world, turning out the occasional column or interview for ALL PULP in the process.

AND FINALLY, THE SPECTACLED SEVEN
tommy-1454826Tommy Hancock,Editor in Chief of ALL PULP,  first and foremost, is a Pulp fan. What form it comes in really doesn’t matter. Book, Movie, Radio, Comic…Orange, not really a deal for him. This has been a lifetime condition for Tommy and went to the next level very early in life as he became a writer and, soon following that development, an actor. He has performed on stage since high school, formed and disbanded (mostly) a community theater all his own, and is now Drama Ministry Director at his church. He also has a background in audio drama. He was a newspaper reporter at 14 and has lived a variety of experiences in his time. Currently, he is Editor in Chief of Pro Se Press and the founder and coordinator of the PULP ARK Creator’s Conference/Convention. He is also a published writer, his first novella published by Airship 27 Productions. He is currently working on projects for Airship 27,  Moonstone, Decoder Ring Theater, and his own Pro Se Press.

img_0034-7141277Barry Reese has spent the last decade writing for publishers as diverse as Marvel Comics, West End Games, Wild Cat Books and Moonstone Books. Known primarily for his pulp adventure works like The Rook Chronicles, The Adventures of Lazarus Gray and Savage Tales of Ki-Gor, Barry has also delved into slasher horror (Rabbit Heart) and even the fantasy pirate genre (Guan-Yin and the Horrors of Skull Island). His favorite classic pulp heroes are The Avenger, Doc Savage, John Carter, Conan and Seekay.
From his secret lair in the wilds of Bethlehem, Georgia, Bobby Nash writes. He is an author of novels and short stories like Evil Ways, Fantastix, Lance Star: Sky Ranger, Domino Lady, Sentinels: Alternate Visions, Full Throttle Space Tales: Space Sirens, A Fistful Of Legends, and the upcoming Green Hornet Chronicles and Secret Agent X among others. He also writes comic books and graphic novels like Life In The Faster Lane, Fuzzy Bunnies From Hell, Demonslayer, Fantastix, Yin Yang, I Am Googol: The Great Invasion, and Lance Star: Sky Ranger, among others. For more information on Bobby Nash please visit him at www.bobbynash.com, http://bobby-nash-news.blogspot.com, www.facebook.com/bobbyenash, www.lance-star.com, and www.twitter.com/bobbynash, among other places across the web.

Much like removing a bandaid I suppose the best way to get through this is to rip it off as quickly as possible, accept the pain and move on: My name is Derrick Ferguson and I’m from Brooklyn, New York where I’ve lived most of my life. Married for 28 years to the wonderful Patricia Cabbagestalk-Ferguson who lets me get away with far more than is good for me. My interests include old radio shows, classic pulps from the 30’s/40’s, comic books, fan fiction, Star Trek, pop culture, science fiction, animation, television and movies…oh yeah…movies. I’m currently the co-host of the podcast BETTER IN THE DARK where my partner Thomas Deja and I rant and rave about movies on a bi-weekly basis. To date I’ve written five books: “Dillon And The Voice of Odin”, my love letter to classic pulp action/adventure with a modern flavor and the sequel, “Dillon And The Legend of The Golden Bell” ; “Derrick Ferguson’s Movie Review Notebook” and its sequel “The Return of Derrick Ferguson’s Movie Review Notebook.” Both of ’em packed full of movie reviews that I think are pretty damn good otherwise I wouldn’t be asking folks to pay hard earned cash for ’em, now would I? ; “Diamondback Vol I: It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time”, a spaghetti western disgused as a modern day gangster/urban crime thriller. Anything else you’d like to know about me, check out my Live Journal: http://dferguson.livejournal.com/. The Pulpwork Press website: http://www.freewebs.com/pulpworkpress/. or Better In The Dark: http://sites.google.com/site/betterinthedarkcentralsite/. Or hit me up on Facebook. I ain’t hard to find!

ron-9433017Ron Fortier had been writing professionally for thirty-five years. He is best known for his work on the Green Hornet comic series for Now Comics and writing Alex Ross’ first comic project, Terminator:Burning Earth for the same company. Four years ago Ron co-founded Airship 27 Productions with artist Rob Davis. The company produces brand new novels and anthologies featuring classic pulp heroes from the 1930s, to include Ron’s revival of Captain Hazzard. Their books are published by Cornerstone Book Publishers of New Orleans. Ron also maintains a weekly blog at his website (www.Airship27.com) and writes a review column, Pulp Fictions Reviews found at – (http://www.pulpfictionreviews.blogspot.com/) He is a frequent contributor to Moonstone Books pulp fiction anthologies and is currently writing and self-publishing a new comic series, Mr. Jigsaw, Man of a Thousand Parts from Rob Davis’ Redbud Studios plus working on three new weekly webstrip comics. Redbud recently published Ron’s pulp comic graphic novel, The Boston Bombers. Email Ron at Airship27@ comcast.net.
Writer, editor, publisher, and historian Van Allen Plexico stands at the forefront of the pulp revival movement and the new wave of prose superhero fiction, with popular works including his “Sentinels” novels, “Sherlock Holmes,” “Lucian,” and “Gideon Cain” (with Kurt Busiek). His big-selling “Assembled!” books garnered praise from the original Marvel creators themselves. He has been published by Airship 27, Swarm Press, White Rocket, Rittenhouse, Adamant Entertainment, RevolutionSF.com, and Pro Se Press, and is the publisher of White Rocket Books. He and his family live near St Louis. Visit him at http://www.plexico.net/ and/or at http://www.whiterocketbooks.com/ .

sarge-9573288Sarge Portera: As someone recently pointed out to me, I’m a 3rd generation pulp enthusiast whose dad & grandfather created an obscure pulp hero, Doc Diamond, that they self-published! Being nurtured on comicbooks, movies, science fiction & actioneers since childhood it would only be natural for me to help establish & maintain the following FB Groups with me darlin’ daughter’s able assist: Bronze Pastiches, Purple Prose Pulp Parade, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon Fan Club, Silhouette Pastiches & Worlds of Doc Diamond!

Green Lantern Limps Past the $100 Million Threshold

blake-lively-ryan-reynolds-green-lantern-thumb-420xauto-27679-300x191-8754649For those paying attention, Green Lantern’s failure to remain in the domestic box office top five has to be of concern to Warner Bros. The film took in an estimated $6,270,000, down a steep 65% from the second weekend which was already down a steep 66.1% from the opening weekend. This means that the core geek audience expected to revel in the galactic adventure multiple times decided once was enough and word of mouth was not positive enough to make up the difference.

Beyond that, the studio gambled on the 3-D effects being a lure but by the time the movie opened June 17, the warning signs were already crystal clear that 3-D was once more a passing fad and not a silver bullet to re-energize theater going habits.

After 17 days in release, the movie has taken in approximately $101,962, about a third of what was spent on production and marketing. The international box office has been anemic as well, with just $33.3 million taken in so after three weeks, the film has not cracked the $200 million barrier that would have at least allowed Warner and DC Entertainment to save face.

And while Warner has commissioned work on a second script, there is no guarantee that they will invest in an expensive sequel. The mantra among the fans is that it took Paramount two films before they got Star Trek right but DC had a lot riding on this as their first entry into the shared universe superhero market and attempting to compete directly with Marvel. A core difference between the rivals is that Marvel’s production arm is independent of studio interference while DC’s Creative Officer, Geoff Johns, still has to dance to Warners’ tune. There’s no direct evidence that Warner execs meddled in the film, but if they didn’t then the film’s disappointing commercial results has to be placed at Johns’ feet.

Should they choose not to go forward with a sequel, Green Lantern will continue to headline multiple titles from DC plus continue his animated adventures on the Cartoon Network. It will, though, limit his merchandising appeal which will affect the conglomerate’s bottom line.

How this may impact the films already in development, notably The Flash, Johns’ other baby, remains to be seen. In some ways, not having it before the cameras means there’s plenty of time to take the lessons learned and apply them. On the other hand, Marvel has already staked two key dates in 2013 (for Iron Man 3 and Thor 2) so if the DC Universe expects to compete on the silver screen, there has to be energy expended to get things rolling.

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/

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.

Superman The Complete Anthology

It’s interesting to watch how time and again, writers, artists, moviemakers, and studio executives struggle to find ways to adapt the very first comic book super-hero. Superman was something readers (and rival publishers) had never seen before, and he served as the template for the heroic fantasy that followed these last seven decades. When you have powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, you need visionaries to bring the character from the printed page to other media. Robert Maxwell figured out how to do that with the popular radio serial. In fact, Maxwell came up with various characters and concepts that seeped into the comics, a symbiosis that made both stronger.

I was given to considering Superman in his many forms when the eight-disc Superman The Complete Anthology Blu-ray set arrived for review. Warner Home Video has taken all the previous versions and spruced them up a bit, added some new features, and placed them in a handsome box. Despite the uneven content, this is a must-have for fans.

When the Fleischer brothers got a chance to animate the Man of Steel, they set the standard that all other animators have emulated or strived to match. It certainly raised the bar when Superman came to the movie serials, with Kirk Allyn looking the part but the low budget and low-tech kept his feats to the above-average, not super-human. Things got somewhat better with the George Reeve television series of the 1950s, imprinting the archetype on two generations of television watchers and comics readers. Again, Maxwell receives credit for his serious translation to the half hour demands of syndicated television before he left and it got dumbed down in subsequent seasons. (more…)

THE PANEL THAT JUST WON’T STOP!!!

  • News
  • March 4, 2011

We originally said ‘Here’s a Panel Topic everyone should sound off on’ and we were right….people keep sending responses, so we thought it’d be good to repost just in case you weren’t caught up…Got a response of your own? Send it in!

 We all know that DC announced this week that its FIRST WAVE line, the one that combined Batman, Doc Savage, the Spirit, and other Golden Age pulp and comic characters into one sort of ‘timeless’ universe where dirigibles and cell phones coexisted, is being cancelled. This extremely controversial line of comics, made so by the fact that many pulp fans saw the portrayals of their favorite characters as mishandled at best, blasphemous at worse, has definitely stirred up a lot of talk. Here’s the panel topic-Was DC’s First Wave as bad as all that? If so, why? What does the cancelling of this line mean for the future of pulp centered comics, if anything? Email your panel responses to allpulp@yahoo.com and they’ll be posted here!

*****
From Teel James Glenn, writer in the pulp tradition….

Why did the First Wave fail? the art wasn’t bad and even some of the ideas were interesting, but the basic premise seemed to be that even though pulp chracters have endured in their original form for 70 years the writers at DC knew how to ‘fix’ them. Why fix what isn’t broken? I doubt any of the writers actually read any of the books they were ‘improving’ by changing basic premises and characters. It is the same problem most movie adaptations have; everyone thinks they can violate the very core of the creations they SAY they are ‘reimagining. Bullflock!

Uncreative people feed off other people’s creations and bring the level down. You have to honor the work of those who came before and then you can prehaps–prehaps- move forward with new creations that can interact with them. Always look at the ‘character/series’ bible and honor it as if it was gospel–because it is.
If DC wanted to do pulps right they should have hired pulp writers not guys who said in interviews “I never read the books”–arrogance like that deserves to be discarded…

From Barry Reese, Member of the Spectacled Seven….

Where do I start? DC mismanaged the entire line, starting with a series of interviews from creators that alienated the hardcore fans and made newer fans wonder why they should try a bunch of characters that even the main writer talked about with disdain. Then go on to the launch miniseries, which still hasn’t finished… Here’s a clue: don’t launch a new line of books with a book that’s supposed to set up the whole thing but doesn’t come out on time. Makes the entire affair look half-assed and poorly planned. Then you have a book (Doc Savage) that after a mediocre beginning slides into outright crapitude with shifting writers and artists. And don’t get me started on The Avenger stuff, which was such an insult to the original characters that I wish DC had just renamed it.

They shouldn’t have solicited the kickoff mini until it was completed. They should have hired people who not only understood the characters but who genuinely loved them — you can update the characters and still maintain their core… but you have to *want* to do that. And why include Batman in this universe if his only appearances would be in a one-shot special and the mini? They should have had a Bat-Man series set in this universe that the other books could have orbited around — the Bat guy sells, you know.

Mishandled and poor creative decisions. I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did.

*********

From Tommy Hancock, another of the Spectacled Seven

Mine will be short.   It will be short because I didn’t read anything but the first issue of the FIRST WAVE mini series and the first three issues of DOC SAVAGE.  Well, I say the first three issues, I actually only read the full first issue because I couldn’t stomach anymore of what they jokingly referred to as THE AVENGER.

I am not a purist.  I am also not a ‘we have to make changes to everything’ sort either.  I like what I like and I like companies and writers to produce things I like.  It helps when they are producing stuff I like based on other stuff I already like.  What didn’t work in this regard is DC not only didn’t produce stuff that I liked based on characters I adore, but they ignored me.  I didn’t want DC to ask me my opinion, well, maybe I wanted them to, but didn’t expect it.  But I, being a pretty big pulp fan, was simply left out of the equation when DC got their hands on these great characters.  My opinion, my interests, my desire to see these characters live again…didn’t matter at all.  The bad part for DC was that these new readers I guess they were trying to appeal to…didn’t have any buy in at all to these concepts and saw them for what they were…poorly handled editorially misdirected imitations at best, toilet paper with pictures on it at worst.  And me, my buy in…it went to Moonstone, Doc Savage reprints, and new pulp…

Just sayin’…
***********

From Derrick Ferguson, yet another of the Spectacled Seven

I read the first three issues of DOC SAVAGE (hey, there was no way I wasn’t going read it) and was unimpressed.  I have to admit that the idea of all these classic pulp characters and certain DC characters like The Blackhawks and The Spirit, who in my mind are pulp characters, appealed to me.  But the execution was, in a word, lousy.
Here’s what I can’t wrap my head around: why in the world would you hire writers who plainly have no love or liking for the characters they’re writing about?  Wouldn’t it have made more sense to hire writers who actually know, love and have a true desire to write the best possible Doc Savage or Avenger stories they possibly could?  Stories that would not only thrill and delight old time fans but make newer readers sit up and understand why these characters are cool and remain so after so many years?
And yeah, I agree with Barry: it didn’t help to have interviews with writers who I felt were giving me the digitus impudicus for loving pulp and had really snotty attitudes toward not only the work they were producing but who they were producing it for.

************
From Adam Garcia, Scribe of the Green Lama

I never read first Wave, but I think it’s fair to say it failed on execution rather than concept. While I advocate change, I don’t necessarily think you need to change everything, to make things effective. I’m more a believer that to keep things one specific way is a mistake and to open to adaptation. I’m 100% certain that First Wave would have been considered amazing if the story had been effective. Take the new Star Trek film as an example, a bottom to top reinvention that was overwhelmingly loved, or Batman: the Brave and the Bold or even the massive massive changes made to the Joker in Dark Knight. That’s what I’ve been arguing. Reinvention isn’t bad, it’s frankly the nature of pop culture, but refusing to accept it is.
You may not like the adaptation, that’s a fact of personal preference, but with licensed character adaptation is the only way the stay alive. So First Wave might have failed creatively, but I applaud the effort.
 ***************
Elizabeth Tadehara: Fan of The Shadow

I was shocked and angry when I learned through All Pulp that DC had finally decided to end First Wave. Then I wonder why? Why was I angry? Why was I shocked?

The art was not some of the Best work, I know DC is able and capable of turning out. Take First Wave’s One Shot with Doc and Batman. The art work seriously rubbed me all the wrong ways. Yet, it greatly improved with the actually series came out. While the good Doc’s was beautiful and captivating from the get go. Nor was the story… I’ll emit to not picking up any of Doc Savage’s First Waves after the first story arch, and the ones I did, I immediately put down cause they went off on some ungodly random tangent that the first four issues had not prepared me for. While First Wave, itself, let much to desired because I still have absolutely no idea what in blue blazes is going on. It’s like the writers for the series decided over coffee one day. “Hey! Who needs a decent story when you can just throw some well known character together and sees what happens?” Sheesh.

Now to why I was angry at the announcement of cancellation of First Wave. I had it on good authority that when DC approached the current owners of Doc Savage’s rights for First Wave, that this great Comic publisher agreed to also buy the rights to The Shadow. As an obsessed (yes, I am emitting to IT!) of The Shadow. I was hopefully and optimistic, since there has not been a decent comic form since DC’s: The Shadow Strikes.

The shock of the said cancellation wore off a few hours later, after I had some serious time to think about it. Even though, I am an obsessed fan, I am not by a purist either… cause sometimes the obsession out ways the purist. So I’m somewhat thankful, after reading all the other options, that they never got their hands on The Shadow. We do not need a repeat… Not after DC’s attempted update in the 1980s or (shutters) The Archie disaster.

As to the future of pulp comics. You need look no further than Moonstone. Enough said.

ALL PULP PANEL-WHY THE FIRST WAVE ENDED??

  • News
  • February 24, 2011

Here’s a Panel Topic everyone should sound off on. We all know that DC announced this week that its FIRST WAVE line, the one that combined Batman, Doc Savage, the Spirit, and other Golden Age pulp and comic characters into one sort of ‘timeless’ universe where dirigibles and cell phones coexisted, is being cancelled. This extremely controversial line of comics, made so by the fact that many pulp fans saw the portrayals of their favorite characters as mishandled at best, blasphemous at worse, has definitely stirred up a lot of talk. Here’s the panel topic-Was DC’s First Wave as bad as all that? If so, why? What does the cancelling of this line mean for the future of pulp centered comics, if anything? Email your panel responses to allpulp@yahoo.com and they’ll be posted here!

*****
From Teel James Glenn, writer in the pulp tradition….

Why did the First Wave fail? the art wasn’t bad and even some of the ideas were interesting, but the basic premise seemed to be that even though pulp chracters have endured in their original form for 70 years the writers at DC knew how to ‘fix’ them. Why fix what isn’t broken? I doubt any of the writers actually read any of the books they were ‘improving’ by changing basic premises and characters. It is the same problem most movie adaptations have; everyone thinks they can violate the very core of the creations they SAY they are ‘reimagining. Bullflock!

Uncreative people feed off other people’s creations and bring the level down. You have to honor the work of those who came before and then you can prehaps–prehaps- move forward with new creations that can interact with them. Always look at the ‘character/series’ bible and honor it as if it was gospel–because it is.
If DC wanted to do pulps right they should have hired pulp writers not guys who said in interviews “I never read the books”–arrogance like that deserves to be discarded…

From Barry Reese, Member of the Spectacled Seven….

Where do I start? DC mismanaged the entire line, starting with a series of interviews from creators that alienated the hardcore fans and made newer fans wonder why they should try a bunch of characters that even the main writer talked about with disdain. Then go on to the launch miniseries, which still hasn’t finished… Here’s a clue: don’t launch a new line of books with a book that’s supposed to set up the whole thing but doesn’t come out on time. Makes the entire affair look half-assed and poorly planned. Then you have a book (Doc Savage) that after a mediocre beginning slides into outright crapitude with shifting writers and artists. And don’t get me started on The Avenger stuff, which was such an insult to the original characters that I wish DC had just renamed it.

They shouldn’t have solicited the kickoff mini until it was completed. They should have hired people who not only understood the characters but who genuinely loved them — you can update the characters and still maintain their core… but you have to *want* to do that. And why include Batman in this universe if his only appearances would be in a one-shot special and the mini? They should have had a Bat-Man series set in this universe that the other books could have orbited around — the Bat guy sells, you know.

Mishandled and poor creative decisions. I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did.

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From Tommy Hancock, another of the Spectacled Seven

Mine will be short.   It will be short because I didn’t read anything but the first issue of the FIRST WAVE mini series and the first three issues of DOC SAVAGE.  Well, I say the first three issues, I actually only read the full first issue because I couldn’t stomach anymore of what they jokingly referred to as THE AVENGER.

I am not a purist.  I am also not a ‘we have to make changes to everything’ sort either.  I like what I like and I like companies and writers to produce things I like.  It helps when they are producing stuff I like based on other stuff I already like.  What didn’t work in this regard is DC not only didn’t produce stuff that I liked based on characters I adore, but they ignored me.  I didn’t want DC to ask me my opinion, well, maybe I wanted them to, but didn’t expect it.  But I, being a pretty big pulp fan, was simply left out of the equation when DC got their hands on these great characters.  My opinion, my interests, my desire to see these characters live again…didn’t matter at all.  The bad part for DC was that these new readers I guess they were trying to appeal to…didn’t have any buy in at all to these concepts and saw them for what they were…poorly handled editorially misdirected imitations at best, toilet paper with pictures on it at worst.  And me, my buy in…it went to Moonstone, Doc Savage reprints, and new pulp…

Just sayin’…
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From Derrick Ferguson, yet another of the Spectacled Seven

I read the first three issues of DOC SAVAGE (hey, there was no way I wasn’t going read it) and was unimpressed.  I have to admit that the idea of all these classic pulp characters and certain DC characters like The Blackhawks and The Spirit, who in my mind are pulp characters, appealed to me.  But the execution was, in a word, lousy.
Here’s what I can’t wrap my head around: why in the world would you hire writers who plainly have no love or liking for the characters they’re writing about?  Wouldn’t it have made more sense to hire writers who actually know, love and have a true desire to write the best possible Doc Savage or Avenger stories they possibly could?  Stories that would not only thrill and delight old time fans but make newer readers sit up and understand why these characters are cool and remain so after so many years?
And yeah, I agree with Barry: it didn’t help to have interviews with writers who I felt were giving me the digitus impudicus for loving pulp and had really snotty attitudes toward not only the work they were producing but who they were producing it for.

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From Adam Garcia, Scribe of the Green Lama

I never read first Wave, but I think it’s fair to say it failed on execution rather than concept. While I advocate change, I don’t necessarily think you need to change everything, to make things effective. I’m more a believer that to keep things one specific way is a mistake and to open to adaptation. I’m 100% certain that First Wave would have been considered amazing if the story had been effective. Take the new Star Trek film as an example, a bottom to top reinvention that was overwhelmingly loved, or Batman: the Brave and the Bold or even the massive massive changes made to the Joker in Dark Knight. That’s what I’ve been arguing. Reinvention isn’t bad, it’s frankly the nature of pop culture, but refusing to accept it is.
You may not like the adaptation, that’s a fact of personal preference, but with licensed character adaptation is the only way the stay alive. So First Wave might have failed creatively, but I applaud the effort.
 
 

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