Tagged: Star Trek

  • News
  • November 15, 2010

TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT-Reviews by Tommy Hancock
“Voices-A Captain Future Story”
Written by Mike Bullock
Art by Norm Lanting
From Moonstone Books

I am probably a moderate fan of science fiction pulp compared to most pulp fans.  I cut my teeth on the hero and detective stories of the age, so that is where my interests lie most, but I also enjoy me some good sci fi pulp.  And that is exactly what we have in this story detailing an adventure of Captain Future and his Futuremen, written by Mike Bullock and scheduled for release in an upcoming Moonstone publication.

“Voices” is a story of encounters by a space station, a science colony, and a probe with a strange anomaly.  The powers-that-be are unsure about what this thing is, so they send their best team, who happens to be in the area, out to investigate.  Of course, that is Captain Future, his buddy The Brain (literally the greatest scientist ever contained in a mechanical box apparatus), Otho, the synthetic man, and Grag, the almost human robot.  What Future and his team encounter is the crux of the story, but it involves contact, conflict, knowledge, and a great moral at the end.

This story is complete with every good science fiction trope a kid of the seventies and eighties like me was trained to look for.  This reads like an excellent episode of STAR TREK in several regards, but stands beyond that.  Bullock uses dialogue here not only to stage witty banter between Otho and Grag, but for the purpose dialogue was meant for.  Not filling the air with words, but filling the mind of the reader with the story’s characters.  Eyes may be the windows to our soul, but Bullock’s narrative and dialogue indicate there are other ways to get in as well.

The art is atmospheric and engaging.  And on some levels, downright creepy in that the shading and manipulation of black and white make parts of the images look as if they have the potential for life…way too cool.  Lanting captures not only the feel of the stories, but adds a cinematic flare to the whole affair.

Five out of Five Tips of the Hat-Yup, wow!

CASING THE CON-Convention Reports and Reviews by Bobby Nash

  • News
  • November 11, 2010

Convention Review: Memphis Comic And Fantasy Convention

On November 5 – 6, 2010 I was proud to be one of the guests on hand for the first Memphis Comic And Fantasy Convention in Memphis Tennessee. First year conventions are always a mystery when deciding whether to do the show as a guest. Like most first time shows, this one had a few first year bugs to work out, but they were minor. The guest list was impressive and I had a wonderful time. The set up was well done although I would have preferred to see more events happening in the main hall of the Cook Convention Center. Along with the open main hall there was a dealer’s room, artist alley (where I was set up), and a panel room.

The convention was very family friendly and I was excited to see a lot of kids on hand. Which brings me to the highlight of my weekend. The show opened to the public at 1 p.m. on Friday. However, before that, from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. the convention, in conjunction with local schools brought kids to the show on a field trip. There were Q & A sessions with actors, artists, and writers as well as demonstrations, cartoons, video games, movies, and costumed heroes and villains all signing autographs. I was excited to see all of the kids on hand. Not only was their enthusiasm infectious, but it was great to see them looking over the comic books and art. If I had known about the field trip beforehand I would have made sure to bring some Life In The Faster Lane cards to pass out. Still, everyone who stopped by my table got a Lance Star: Sky Ranger postcard, which the kids seemed to enjoy.

Guests for the weekend included Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Denise Crosby, wrestler and comic book artist Jerry (The King) Lawler, Actor and comic book artist Arne Starr, along with artists such as Billy Tackett, Martheus Wade, Gary Friedrich, Mitch Brietwiester, Jason Craig, Mitch Foust, and more. Also on hand were writers like myself, Sean Taylor, Allan Gilbreath, Kimberly Richardson, and more.

I had a great time at the first Memphis Comic And Fantasy Convention. I certainly hope there is a second show in 2011 and that they invite me back again. You can learn more about the convention at http://www.memphiscfc.com/. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=573923&id=625160511&l=b22ef141ce (photos can be viewed even if you don’t have a Facebook account).

Photos from the weekend can be found on my Facebook page at
Bobby

Bobby Nash, conventions, Memphis Comic And Fantasy Convention, Memphis, Tennessee

PULP ARTIST’S WEEKEND-Rob Davis, Comic/Pulp Artist/Designer

  • News
  • November 6, 2010
ROB DAVIS, Comic/Pulp Artist, Designer, Co-Publisher
AP –Thanks for stopping by All Pulp HQ, Rob.  Let’s start with some biographical data.  At the present, who is Rob Davis?  Where do you live and what is you current occupation? Etc.
RD – I live in central Missouri near Columbia, home of the University of Missouri. When I’m not drawing, painting or working on designs on my computer I drive a bus for the Columbia Transit system.
AP –What kind of formal art education did you have?
RD – Most of what I do these days I taught myself, but I worked three years toward a Graphic Design/Illustration degree at what is now known as Missouri State University. The basics I learned there were a great foundation for what I ended up having to teach myself later.
AP –Were you a big comic book fan as a kid growing up?  What was your favorite comic company, Marvel or DC?
RD – I read both Marvel and DC comics as a kid in the 60’s, though my favorite characters were those at Marvel. They just seemed more “real” to me somehow, though I certainly enjoyed what was going on at DC at the same time. I bought the Marvel comics off the stand and read the DC comics at the barber shop. Ha!
AP –Which graphic artists did you admire the most and which do you think had the most influence on your own style of drawing?

RD – Jack Kirby was/is a major influence. His dynamic storytelling and wild, exciting concepts were a magnet to lots of imaginative kids in the 60’s. I was no exception. It was his work that inspired me to try to become a comic book artist. Also, it wasn’t conscious, but I was told that some people see the influence of Curt Swan (long-time artist of Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes at DC) in my work. After they told me that I thought about it and agree that Mr. Swan’s influence is definitely there.

AP – What was your first professional comic assignment?  Who was the writer and for what company did this appear?
RD – Oh, my. Now you’re making me dig back! Ha! My first professional comics work was as a letterer for NOW Comics’ “SYPHONS” comic. I can’t tell you who the artist/writer was- we’re talking 1988-89, here-, but after that first issue I was made the inker of the strip too. After about 3-4 issues of that I also lettered and inked another book from NOW that never saw print and eventually penciller on DAI KAMIKAZE! Before my work at NOW I did some illustration work on Mayfair Games’ DC HEROES role-playing game.
AP – Describe the feeling of seeing your work published for the first time.  Were you happy with it, or are you one of those critical types who sees where you’d have done things differently?
RD – I always see the flaws. Ha! I’ve been told that as an artist if you’re ever completely satisfied with your work, or stop growing and improving then you’re “dead” as a creative person. I’d tend to agree with that assessment.
AP – What other companies did you work for during your career?
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 RD – After NOW I worked for a number of years at what became MALIBU Comics. Perhaps my biggest individual and creative success there was on R.A. Jones’ SCIMIDAR. R.A. and I developed what I called a “synergy” working on the book where he’d send me page by page plot breakdowns that I would then interpret and send back to him to script- very “Marvel-style.” It turned into a “the sum is greater than the parts” thing where we amplified each other’s creativity. R.A. and I worked on a couple of other projects, most notably MERLIN.

Shortly after doing MERLIN I moved over to David Campiti’s INNOVATION Comics for a few issues of QUANTUM LEAP and a black and white mini-series, STRAW MEN. I then jumped back to Malibu to work on STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE for its whole run there doing mini-series and backup work. At that same time I also did some work on DC’s STAR TREK titles, both the original series and Next Generation.
For Marvel I did a three-issue stint on PIRATES OF DARK WATER, a Saturday morning cartoon adaptation. This assignment grew out of conversations I’d been having with Marvel’s promotions manager, Carol Kalish. She was planning to start up a line of religious-themed comics there and I was in talks to be one of her stable of artists. We had all but sealed the deal. Unfortunately Carol collapsed and died from a heart-attack before we could get it going. It was her assistant who got me the connection to work on PIRATES.
AP – When did you leave mainstream comic works?  Was it for purely economic reasons?

RD – Yeah. The mid to late 1990’s saw a collapse in the comics market. Marvel had bought out Malibu and initially promised not to shut it down, but after a couple of years they did. The started up their much-touted STAR TREK books which I had hoped to work on, but they decided to try a whole different approach to producing the books which meant using different artists. Just before that happened I had been tapped to be the regular artist on Malibu’s STAR TREK: VOYAGER comic- which would have been my first month-to-month work as regular penciller on any book since DAI KAMIKAZE! It would also have made me the only artist to work on every incarnation of STAR TREK up until then- STAR TREK, STAR TREK the NEXT GENERATION, STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, and finally STAR TREK: VOYAGER. Alas it never happened.

AP – Since then, you’ve actually illustrated several self-published projects.  Tell us about those and how that came about?
RD – We need a bit of history here to explain it all, so bear with me. After I left NOW comics and went to Malibu NOW’S writer of THE GREEN HORNET, Ron Fortier, approached me to do a version of the character. I think I was being asked to do the 60’s TV version at the time, but my memory is a bit foggy. My break with NOW had not been amicable (a recurring theme there, I hear) so, though I would have loved to draw the character, I had to turn it down.
After that, Ron and I tried to put some other proposals together for various publishers, but nothing came of any of what I thought were some great ideas, sadly. Ron and I eventually lost touch, though we did trade Christmas cards for a while.
Then 5 or 6 years ago I was doing a weekly online comic strip called THE SPIRIT OF ROUTE 66 that Ron caught. He liked what I’d done and pitched me another strip for a startup comics site called ADVENTURESTRIPS.com. “Doctor Satan” lasted for about 32 episodes, if I recall, and then we folded up shop.

Ron being the idea guy that he is, he pitched me another project he’d been shopping around first as a movie script and then a graphic novel called DAUGHTER OF DRACULA. I knew I wouldn’t have the time necessary to devote to the book, though it was a worthy project. So, thinking Ron would reject the idea, I replied that in order to do the book it would have to come as one page per week. At 112 pages that meant it would take a while to complete. To my surprise Ron said “yes.” HA! Two years later I delivered the finished project pencilled, inked, lettered and gray-toned. Ron and I shopped it around, but we finally ended up publishing it ourselves through Ka-Blam and my own imprint: REDBUD STUDIO COMICS. Since then REDBUD has also published Ron and Gary Kato’s MR. JIGSAW. We’re up to seven issues now! We’ve also published a collection of Ron’s BOSTON BOMBERS mini-series from Caliber Comics.

AP – When did you first become affiliated with Airship 27 Productions?  Was it your first exposure to the world of pulps?
RD – Initially Ron asked me to illustrate an online book HOUNDS OF HELL that eventually became Airship 27’s first printed book through WILDCAT BOOKS. As for it being my first exposure to pulp? No, that would have to be my initiation into pulp storytelling with TARZAN when I was in High School. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was pulp. One could also argue that comic books, which I’d been reading since I was eight, are essentially pulp. Then there’s Ian Fleming’s James Bond books and movies and similar stuff. Pulp is all around if you look for it. Ha!
AP –  What is the big difference between sequential comics work and pulp illustrating, aside from the obvious number of images?
RD – Well, that’s a big part of it, but it’s more like doing a cover image with each illustration. You’re trying to tell a bit of the story in just one image as opposed to a series of images.
AP –  What is it about pulp work that appeals to you as an artist?

RD – I’ve always loved telling stories and this is is just one more way to do it. It’s fun and challenging to try to figure out which scene to portray and then how best to present it. It’s some of the same challenges as comics work, but quicker.

AP – Beside artwork, you are also Airship 27 Productions’ designer.  Is that a new hat for you and what kind of challenges does that particular task demand?
RD – It’s a “new hat,” as you say, but it’s an outgrowth of my early interest in design from my college days. I’ve really enjoyed learning to use the computer to do my illustration work, so it’s an outgrowth of that aspect too. Some days I’d rather sit down to work out the problems of a book’s design than sit at the drawing table. That’s saying something for someone who’s been drawing nearly every day for almost 30 years!
AP – You helped design the Pulp Factory Awards statue.  Tells us a little about that?
RD – At the regular Sunday morning breakfast gathering of the Pulp Factory members at Chicago’s Windy City Pulp and Paper show it was proposed that we create and award for new pulp creators. As everyone else was talking the idea for what that award would look like popped into my head full form. I grabbed the napkin and sketched it out really quickly. Everyone approved it on the spot!
AP –  Do you believe this renewed interest in pulp is a passing fad or do you believe it will be around for a long while?
RD- It’s hard to say. But I fully believe that pulps have never left us. It influences all sorts of things without us consciously realizing it. I mentioned James Bond earlier. Then there’s comic books and their attendant movie incarnations. Then there’s the pulp influence on action films. So, I don’t think pulp storytelling will ever go away, it just finds new was to manifest itself.
AP –Lastly, what’s coming down the road for Rob Davis and Airship 27 Productions that you’d like to give a shout out to here?  Feel free to promote what you’ve got coming in the months ahead that will excite the pulp community.

RD – Well, I just finished up illustration and design for our next book: MYSTERY MEN (and Women) and sent it off to the proofreader. Once we have the cover finished up and the corrections made it will be off to the press! We’ve also got some great books in pipeline including sequels to our Sherlock Holmes and Robin Hood books that I’ll be illustrating and designing coming out next year. There’s never a moment to rest at Airship 27’s production facilities. HA!

AP – Rob, this has been both enlightening and a real pleasure. Continued success and many thanks.
RD – Thanks. I really enjoyed it.
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National Graphic Novel Writing Month Day 29: It’s NOT A Novel, by Keith R.A. DeCandido

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  • October 29, 2010

nagranowrimo-3797489

My biggest problem with the term “graphic novel” is that it’s wrong.

Graphic, yes. Novel, not so much.

A novel is generally defined as a work of prose that is 50,000 words or more, and most novels are much more than that.

Yet the average item that is referred to as a “graphic novel” rarely has
a novel’s worth of story. Back in the 1990s, when I reviewed these
things for Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, we tried referring to them with the more accurate term “trade comics.” But it didn’t take for very long, and that fight has long since been given up.

Which is a pity, because the term is really misleading. And that affects the writing, because when you’re writing a so-called “graphic novel”—or just writing an issue of a monthly comic book—your ability to tell the story is somewhat more proscribed than it is in prose.

Indeed, while there are significant and important differences between screenwriting and comic book writing—as expertly outlined by my buddy David Alan Mack earlier this month—one thing they share is that there are limits.

Graphic novels and movies have more flexibility, but ultimately there’s only so far you can go. Each has a range of pages or minutes that it can legitimately run, with very rare exceptions.

With, say, a TV episode or a monthly comic book, that’s a much harder limit. A “one-hour” episode must be 42 minutes, no more, no less. A monthly comic book must be 22 pages, no more, no less. (And yes, I know some shows have more minutes, and some comics have fewer pages, but work with me here.)

That’s probably what you most need to take into account when you’re writing any kind of comic book. You only have a set number of pages (or a range, anyhow), and that means you need to boil your story down to what will fit in that range.

The lack of flexibility is perhaps the hardest adjustment to make when you go from writing a prose novel to a graphic novel. If you need a new subplot in a novel, you can just add the 10,000 words or whatever—with a graphic novel, that option isn’t there.

Keith R.A. DeCandido has written more than 40 novels, including more than a dozen Star Trek novels, as well as half the Supernatural novels that have been published, and tons more. He is currently the scripter of the monthly Farscape comic and wrote the first arc of the Cars: Adventures of Tow Mater comic and the recent Star Trek: Captain’s Log: Jellico one-shot. Look for his Dungeons & Dragons novel in 2011. You can read his inane ramblings at kradical.livejournal.com or cyberstalk him on either Facebook or Twitter under the handle KRADeC.

Remember: you can follow all the NaGraNoWriMo posts here!

INTERVIEW WITH PULP WRITER AARON SMITH!!!

  • News
  • October 26, 2010
AARON SMITH -Author
AP – First of all, thanks for dropping by All Pulp HQ, Aaron and agreeing to sit in the hot seat for us.  Let’s get cracking with some personal information. Who exactly is Aaron Smith, where do you reside and what’s your day job?
AS –Well, I’m 33 years old, so I seem to be one of the younger writers in the recent pulp revival. I live in Ringwood, New Jersey which is a nice mountainous town away from the noise of the cities that I lived in for most of the earlier part of my life, a great place to get the peace and quiet that I like. For my day job, I run a produce department for a large supermarket chain. I’ve been with the company for 17 years now and it’s not a bad job, although my goal would be to write full-time or, failing that, to make enough writing that I could just supplement my income with a part-time job. Actually, even if I was making a ton of money writing, I’d probably still have some kind of day job, just to keep myself from becoming a total hermit! After all, everybody needs some kind of interaction with other human beings to keep the inspiration coming. I also have to mention my absolutely wonderful wife who somehow…and I wonder if this qualifies as a superpower…manages to put up with all my eccentricities, my curmudgeonly moods, my mad rants about things that annoy me, and all my crazy mood swings that go from high-as-a-kite to the deepest bowels of crankiness. Really, she’s marvelous and I don’t know what I’d do without her. She’s also been incredibly supportive and motivating over the two years or so that I’ve really seriously been doing pulp writing work.      
AP – Where in all that background did you first get the idea you wanted to be a writer?  And was the transition from dream to reality an easy or difficult one for you?
AS –Becoming a writer was, in my case, a long process that evolved slowly over the entire first thirty years of my life. I suppose I always had a writer inside of me but it took a long time for that egg to really hatch and for me to really start doing what I do now. It started, I guess, with the things that really jumpstarted my imagination as a kid. My earliest memories of things really shaking up my mind include Star Wars which was probably the thing that did it for a lot of people of my generation. George Lucas created the great epic of our generation, I suppose. It’s too bad he dropped the ball with the prequels. Then there was my grandmother, who used to tell me bedtime stories about Jack the Ripper! Somehow, I didn’t grow up to be a serial killer, but I did become a writer. Some people might say that’s equally scary, but I think I turned out okay. I always made up stories as a kid, but they were mostly in my head and not on paper, but I was writing internally from an early age. Imagination was vital to my sanity in grammar school. I was a skinny little kid and considered a nerd. I didn’t have much self-confidence and sometimes the only thing that got me through those long days of being picked on and laughed at was pretending I was somebody else and that the school was part of an adventure, like James Bond infiltrating a base full of Spectre agents or Captain Kirk in disguise on a hostile alien world. Imagination was a defense mechanism for me and maybe that’s where the writer came from! But for some reason it took me forever to really decide to just write. Somehow I managed to try almost every other creative endeavor first. I wanted to be a comic book artist at one time and I could actually draw really well for a while there, but I just don’t have the discipline it takes to draw for hours on end, day after day. Writing comes easier to me because it’s so internal and mental. I can “write” all day and put ideas together, but I only have to sit and actually type for a short portion of the time that the creative process is actually taking place. When I was a little older, I got into music and played guitar for a few years, but I eventually realized that I liked being a guitar player more than I liked playing the guitar, if that makes any sense. In other words, I liked the feeling of being the character more than the act of playing. When I realized that, I decided to try acting. I studied it for awhile and did theatre for several years, did some Shakespeare and some other stuff, worked with some great people who are still good friends of mine now and even had a part in a movie that, unfortunately, was never released (but I got together with my wife during the filming of that movie so, in that sense, I was better paid than any Oscar winner ever was!). The acting was fun, but it’s impossible to pursue that type of work and have a regular life. When you have to work a full-time job, you can’t just drop things on the spur of the moment and go chasing after audition opportunities. So I stopped acting eventually. After that, I just kind of lived for the remainder of my twenties. I wrote a little but never anything too serious, never tried to publish anything. Then, two years ago, I was floating around on the internet and I saw this little ad on some site about some editor looking for pulp writers and I inquired and suddenly I was writing every day and things were actually getting published! Was the transition an easy one? Yes, once I got started it was, but it was a long road that I travelled to get there. But had the road been shorter I might not have had all the experiences that inspire my work now, so I guess it worked out perfectly.      
AP –What was your first published work?  Describe the feeling of seeing your work in print for the first time.
AS –My first published story was “The Massachusetts Affair” in SHERLOCK HOLMES CONSULTING DETECTIVE Volume One from Airship 27 Productions. It’s been almost 2 years and I still get a feeling of amazement thinking about the fact that my career as a writer began with the chance to write a Holmes story! What a great privilege to be able to work with the most famous character in all of detective literature! Seeing that story in print, on real pages, wrapped in that great cover by Mark Maddox was one of the greatest thrills of my life. And after the book came out, it only got better when several people told me that I had succeeded in capturing the essence of the world that Conan Doyle had created. I can’t really say that it was difficult though, and I can’t give myself the credit, because Doyle gave us such a great set of toys to play with. When you have characters as real and alive as Holmes and Watson and their supporting cast, they do tend to write themselves once you get your mind to Baker Street and the right mood is there.    
AP –How did you become affiliated with Airship 27 Productions?  What was the first work you did for them?
AS –That little ad I came across on the internet, the ad I mentioned before, was what led me to Airship 27. I wrote to Ron Fortier about his need for pulp writers and he replied asking me to send him a short sample of my prose writing. I sent him this short piece I had concocted about Adolph Hitler interviewing a vampire for a job in the SS. Ron liked it and asked me to work for Airship 27. It was only after the first few emails went back and forth that I realized that I was communicating with the guy who had written the great Green Hornet comics that I’d read nearly twenty years before! That just blew me away that a writer whose work I’d loved so much thought my stuff was good enough to publish! And Ron has been just incredible ever since. He brought me into the world of pulp writing and he’s a great editor and a great friend and the Obi-Wan Kenobi of my writing career. The first work he gave me to do for Airship 27 was a Black Bat story. I started on that but before I finished it Ron wrote me back and asked if I’d be willing to put the Bat on hold to do a Holmes story first and I jumped at the chance. I’ve had stuff coming out from Airship 27 pretty steadily ever since and it’s been a pleasure to have my stories published alongside work by great writers like my friends Andrew Salmon and Van Allen Plexico and Tommy Hancock and so many others and to see my stories illustrated by artists like Rob Davis and Pedro Cruz.  
AP –Were you always a pulp fan?  If not, how did you ultimately become one?
AS –I guess I could say that I met and was inspired by all of pulp’s cousins before meeting pure pulp. I’ve always been heavily into serialized adventure fiction, but not necessarily the actual pulp magazine characters. For most of my life I’ve been a fan of comics, especially the classics of the superhero genre, stuff by Stan Lee and all his collaborators like Buscema and Kirby and Gene Colan and Steve Ditko and also the DC side of things done by people like Gardner Fox and Dennis O’Neill and the great Joe Kubert who just doesn’t stop producing incredible work even now in his eighties! Every title that guy worked on in the 80s and 90s turned to gold  I was reading Sherlock Holmes when I was 7 or 8 and I got into Ian Fleming’s Bond books not long after that. Then of course there’s the two great science fiction franchises of Star Trek and Star Wars and the classic science fiction authors who sort of sprang out of the pulps, guys like Asimov and Bradbury and Roger Zelazny. And there’s Bram Stoker who certainly solidified the whole vampire genre and probably influenced almost every horror writer who came after him. So I was into all these fictional worlds that have a pulp essence to them, but my interest in the actual pulps only came along after I started to write some of the classic pulp characters.     
AP-What is it about pulp that you enjoy that can’t be found in other genres?
AS – Pulp strikes fast and hits hard and is all about telling the story with as much impact as possible. Pulp is, I think, perfect for me because I’m a pure storyteller. I don’t try to do anything except tell my stories. In other words, I don’t consciously try to create a style or be too artistic or fancy with how I do things. Sure, there are moments when I look back at something I’ve written and realize that I’ve done something or connected words in a certain way that surprises me, but all that happens subconsciously. I have a story to tell and I try to tell it as well as I can but I also work very quickly and hammer it out before the initial impact and whatever it was that appealed to me about the story is lost. That’s what makes pulp unique. It has an urgency to it that, I suspect, came from the old time pulp writers needing to bang this stuff out in a fast and furious manner in order to put food on the table! I recently read a novel which was very good and so I went online to see what else the author had written and there was nothing because she had apparently taken 10 years to write the book I’d just read! That would be like torture to me, to spend a decade on one story! I have way too many ideas to be stuck on one thing for so long. By the time I’m halfway through one story, I have the next one formulating in my head already. I like to fire all my bullets rapidly and reload right away and find another target to shoot at. Pulp is pure creative instinct and that may be one of the reasons why certain writers who came out of the pulps were so unique; they didn’t worry about stylistic choices as much as they just shot from the hip and their real, natural styles and ideas came out because of that. I mean, look at guys like Robert E. Howard and HP Lovecraft! Those guys weren’t intentionally planning out those incredible worlds that they managed to put on paper. Their universes are too real for that. That stuff came straight from their guts and that’s why it’s so effective and so influential even today. The best pulp writers dragged the lakes of their souls and put what they found out there for the world to see. Pulp doesn’t compromise.    
AP – Give us a list of the classic pulp heroes you’ve written and which was/is your favorite?
AS – I’ve written the Black Bat, three stories, though only one has been published so far. I’ve done a couple stories with Dan Fowler, G-Man. I have two short stories out there about the Three Mosquitoes, who were World War I fighter pilots. I did a Wild Bill Hickok story for the Masked Rider anthology. I’ve also done a few other classic pulp hero stories with others, but those books aren’t out yet, so I’ll leave them for a future interview. Out of the ones I’ve just listed, I guess I’d have to say that Dan Fowler beats out the Black Bat by just a slight margin as my favorite. The reason for that is that because Fowler is an FBI man he sort of falls right on the borders of two great genres. A Fowler story can kind of straddle the line between a detective story and a spy story. Fowler investigates crimes like a Dick Tracy, but the whole United States can be his playground because he’s Federal and not tied to one particular city like a police detective would be. So a Fowler story can put him pretty much anywhere in the USA and be a detective story at the same time. In the two Fowler stories I’ve done so far, he’s been in a whole bunch of different cities, faced some twisted, exotic villains, and I’ve had a lot of fun writing about him. There are cases where I know I have one story to tell about a character and then the well runs dry, and there are those characters who I feel like I could write about over and over and over again. Dan Fowler falls into the second category.
AP – You wrote a short novel starring Sherlock Holmes’s friend, Dr.Watson. Tell us about this book and how it came about.
AS – SEASON OF MADNESS came about because I usually have several books that I’m reading at any given time. I like to alternate books. It had been years since I’d originally read the Sherlock Holmes stories, still not knowing I’d be asked to write one. At the same time, I was reading Stoker’s DRACULA, a book I’d started to read earlier and never quite finished. So I was reading Holmes and Dracula simultaneously and something clicked. I was thinking about the characters of Dr. John Watson from the Holmes stories and Dr. John Seward from Dracula and I realized that there are a lot of similarities between these two men. Both were medical doctors; both had a habit of recording their experiences, Watson in his written records of his adventures with Holmes and Seward in his phonograph journals; and both were “sidekicks” to their brilliant and eccentric mentors, Holmes and Van Helsing. They both lived in London at the same time too, so I decided that they should meet. I wanted to do a crossover between the worlds of Holmes and Dracula without either of those main characters appearing. With Dracula, I decided I wouldn’t use him because he’s dead. Stoker killed him off at the end of his book and who am I to resurrect him? I also wanted to use Watson without Holmes because I have this thing about defending Watson. One thing that’s always bothered me, and this came mostly from the Basil Rathbone /Nigel Bruce movies, is Watson’s reputation (among those who haven’t read Doyle’s original stories) as a bumbling idiot. Watson is NOT a stupid man! Sherlock Holmes would not associate with a moron! John Watson is a very intelligent, very courageous man in the medical field who is a trusted companion to an absolute genius. Watson is us. It is through his eyes that we see Holmes. Doyle used Watson as narrator so that we could see the genius of Holmes in a way that we could understand. There is nothing weak or inferior about Watson and I wanted to show that by placing him in the role of a man who could solve a mystery without Holmes being around and step into the lead role with Seward as the junior partner of this new crime-solving duo. My original idea was to do SEASON OF MADNESS as a graphic novel or maybe a comic book mini-series. I pitched the idea to my friend Pedro Cruz who is an excellent artist from Portugal. He liked it and I began to write a script. Halfway through that, I began my association with Airship 27 Productions and wound up doing my Sherlock Holmes story. The success of the Holmes book made me consider doing SEASON OF MADNESS as a prose novel instead. I pitched the idea to Ron Fortier and he liked it and I sent him some samples of Pedro’s work and he agreed to have Pedro illustrate the novel and also gave Pedro some other illustration work for other Airship books. It worked out great for all of us and SEASON OF MADNESS became a sort of sequel to that first Holmes volume. I’d like to say one more thing about this. Whenever someone asks me about SEASON OF MADNESS, I try to see if they’re familiar with the original sources of both main characters. I’ve been finding that almost everyone has read some Holmes, but there are a lot of people who have never read DRACULA. If anyone who’s reading this hasn’t read Stoker’s book, don’t be fooled into thinking you know the story already because of all the supposed adaptations and pastiches out here. It’s a great horror novel that climbs to far greater heights of creepiness and mood and atmosphere than anything that drew from it. You’re missing a great experience if you haven’t read it.            
AP – Who is Hound Dog Harker?  Where did he first appear and will we be seeing any more of his adventures in the future?
AS –Hound Dog Harker is my own original pulp character, but I can really only claim about a third of the credit for his existence. Not long after I began writing pulp, I discovered a series of movies from the 1930s starring John Howard as the character Bulldog Drummond. I loved those movies, sort of a cross between James Bond and Will Eisner’s THE SPIRIT. Drummond was created, in a series of novels, by Herman Cyril McNeile. The films came later. I immediately did some searching to see if the character was in the public domain to see if I could use the character in new stories. I learned two things. First, the character is still owned and unavailable. Second, the Drummond of the novels is quite different from the character in the movies and not in a way I’d be interested in working on anyway. So I put that idea down for awhile. Meanwhile, I was working on SEASON OF MADNESS. As I got to the end of that book, I began to realize that it just wasn’t going to be long enough to fill a whole novel. I had told the story I’d set out to tell and I wasn’t going to stuff it with filler just to get to a certain word count. I had to come up with another solution. I decided to make it a two-story book with SEASON OF MADNESS as a short novel, and a short backup story to fill up the remainder of the volume. I started to think about ideas for that second story and I decided it should somehow connect to either Holmes or Dracula. I thought about the various other characters I could use. I didn’t want to use Holmes or Van Helsing because I didn’t want their popularity to overshadow the main story. I thought about Lestrade, but he already had a major part in the Watson/Seward story. Then I thought about the various characters in DRACULA and I remembered the very end of the book where Mina Harker mentions that she and Jonathan, several years after the events with Dracula, have a son who they call Quincy after the one member of their group who died in the final battle with the vampire. That was when I realized I had the perfect idea to fill that book up. Hound Dog Harker is little Quincy all grown up. He’s raised by Jonathan and Mina, growing up with this feeling that his parents are hiding some dark secret about their past, but never really learning about the whole Dracula business. As a young man, he fights in World War I, rising to the rank of Captain and earning his nickname of Hound Dog. By the 1930s, he works for British intelligence as a character that is very much like the Bulldog Drummond that John Howard portrayed in those movies. He’s sort of a pulp-era James Bond with a knack for finding himself assigned to cases that have some sort of connection to strange or seemingly supernatural or super-scientific events. His first adventure, “Attack of the Electric Shark,” appears in SEASON OF MADNESS. There will be a new Hound Dog Harker story out soon, once again as the backup feature in another Airship 27 book, a book with a main story by one of my fellow Airship writers. I do have an idea for a third Harker story too, but I haven’t started to work on it yet.                
AP -Who is Red Veil and where will she be appearing?
AS – The Red Veil is my other brand new pulp character to come out from Airship 27. She’s my first attempt at writing a pulp story with a female hero. She’ll be appearing in a new anthology called MYSTERY MEN. When I learned that Airship 27 would be putting out a book with new original pulp heroes, I of course wanted to be involved. Ron told me that he wanted a new female pulp character, so I came up with Red Veil. Her story is basically a tale of the American Dream coming true and then being snatched away, and how one woman deals with such a thing happening to her. The Red Veil is Alice Carter, a young woman who survived a rough childhood in England, made her way to America, married a handsome young police officer, and then had her heart broken when her husband was killed in the line of duty. Without saying too much, because I want people to actually read the story before they know the story, Alice reacts to this tragedy by taking the law into her own hands. It’s a pretty dark story and she’s a pretty dark character once she really gets going. I created her and I’m not even really sure if she’s sane or not! She’s got a little of the Shadow in her, a pinch of the Spider, and a lot of the terrible wrath that comes when a woman gets really, really pissed off at the world and its injustices.      
AP –Besides your pulp work, what else do you have coming from other publishers?
AS – The main thing that I’m waiting to see the release of is my science-fantasy novel GODS AND GALAXIES. It’s been attached to a certain small publisher for quite a while now. There seem to be ongoing delays to its release, but I hope that will all be sorted out sooner rather than later. It starts out as a love story about a man who meets a woman who is quite different than any woman he’s ever encountered before. Eventually, he finds out just what makes her so different. The book eventually turns from that quiet beginning into a full-out, fast-paced, brutal space adventure. Somebody compared it to a modern variation on John Carter of Mars. All I can really say is that it’s among my most personal works so far. There are big parts of me in that main character and there are a few people I know who might recognize themselves in the story too, although the names have been changed to protect both the innocent and the guilty writer! I really hope that whatever the publisher is going through gets resolved soon so that I can see that book available. It will be my first full-length novel and I hope it has enough cross-genre appeal for a lot of different people to give it a shot. That’s the only thing I have definitely coming out that’s not really pulp work, but I always have other stuff in progress. I have a long horror novel that’s not far from completion, but it’s on hold at the moment. I actually dug a little too deep into the pits of my own soul for that one and had to take a break!    
AP –Is there anything you would like to plug here?  Feel free to give our readers a sneak-peek at what’s coming from Aaron Smith in the year ahead.
AS –I have plenty of new stuff coming out in the next few months. From Airship 27 Productions, there’s the second Hound Dog Harker story, there’s the Red Veil debut in the MYSTERY MEN book, and there’s SHERLOCK HOLMES CONSULTING DETECTIVE Volume 3 in which I have two short stories. Then there’s the line of magazines being published by Pro Se Productions. Tommy Hancock was kind enough to offer me a position as a staff writer for his magazines and he’s done an amazing job of getting pulp stuff coming out on a monthly basis again. I have the first stories of two different series out there already. In MASKED GUN MYSTERY # 1 we have the first of my stories with my character Lieutenant Marcel Picard, a former NHL hockey player who retires from the game to become a homicide detective. I’ve already written the second Picard story and I’m working on a third. Picard was inspired by a conversation I overheard in a restaurant one evening, so ideas can come from anywhere. Also, just last week Pro Se released FANTASY AND FEAR # 2 which includes my “100,000 Midnights,” which is the first in my new series of vampire stories. This is a series that just grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go and it’s going to be a series of eight stories which I eventually hope to see collected into one volume after they’ve run in the magazines. It’s partially inspired by all the vampire material that’s come from Stoker and others and it’s also my own take on vampires and other supernatural lore. So I’m trying to pay homage to what’s come before while still infusing it with my own unique point of view. In addition to those two series, there are also a few standalone stories in the adventure and fantasy genres that I hope to see included in the Pro Se magazines in coming months.            
AP – Aaron, this had been a lot of fun. Thanks so much for joining us here at All Pulp.
AS –Thank you for having me and I hope I’ve been an interesting enough subject that some of the people reading this will want to check out my work.

REMO WILLIAMS playing at THE LONG MATINEE!!!

  • News
  • October 23, 2010

 

THE LONG MATINEE-Movie Reviews by Derrick Ferguson

 

REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

1985
Orion Pictures
Directed by Guy Hamilton

Produced by Larry Spiegel and Dick Clark

Screenplay by Christopher Wood
Based on “The Destroyer” created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir
            In the 1970’s there was a tremendous revival of pulp adventure heroes of the 1930’s and 1940’s.  And as a result the paperback racks in bookstores were stuffed with novels reprinting the adventures of such classic characters like Doc Savage, The Shadow, Conan The Barbarian, G-8 And His Battle Aces and The Spider.  They were helped along by breathtakingly beautiful covers done by legends of the art world such as James Bama, Jim Steranko and Frank Frazetta. And they sold like crack.  And it was like crack to the imagination of a high school student named Derrick Ferguson who spent his entire allowance on buying them and who spent his weekends devouring them voraciously and it was these pulps that shaped my writing ambitions and my style.
            Publishers who saw this trend for pulp adventure jumped on the bandwagon and soon there was a whole army of modern day characters inspired by the pulps with their own series fighting for space on the racks with their forefathers.  Some of them were pretty poor, to be honest.  Some like Mack Bolan, The Executioner still survive to this day.  One of my favorites was The Inquisitor,  a hitman that worked for The Vatican.  He had to fast for three days for every man he killed while on assignment and his confession was only heard by The Pope himself.  But the guy who really stood out and gained a rabid fan following that exists to this day is Remo Williams, The Master Of Sinanju who is the hero of “The Destroyer” series of novels which still enjoys life in paperbacks and was featured in the movie REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS which in the opinion of your humble reviewer is along with “The Phantom” one of the unsung classics of pulp adventure movies.
            A New York cop (Fred Ward) is catching a coffee break under The Brooklyn Bridge when he stumbles on what appears to be a random mugging.  He takes out the three muggers all by himself and while he’s calling for backup in his patrol car, it’s shoved into the East River and he’s presumed killed.  He wakes up in a hospital where he’s told by the sharply dressed Conn MacCleary (J.A. Preston) that he’s been handpicked to be the enforcement arm of a secret organization called CURE.  “Why CURE?” The cop asks.  Cleary answers; “because this country has a disease and we’re the cure.  You’re going to be the Thirteenth Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Get Away With It.” Which I think should be the motto of just about every pulp hero.  Especially guys like The Spider and Secret Agent X.
           MacCleary gives him his new name: Remo Williams and takes him to meet the head of the organization, one Harold Smith, who works in a dark sub-basement of The World Bank.  Smith tells him that CURE has only four members: MacCleary, Smith, Remo and the man who will train Remo: Chiun (Joel Grey) The current Master Of Sinanju, an ancient Korean who will teach Remo the art of Sinanju, which is the martial art from which all other martial arts such as karate, kung fu and ninjitsu was derived. CURE is an organization that is only known to The President of the United States and answers only to him.
            Chiun is takes Remo under his wing as his student and informs him that The House of Sinanju has a long history of ‘perfect assassinations’.  As Chiun tells Remo in a scene that is hysterical to watch and listen to courtesy of Joel Grey’s utter seriousness and Fred Ward’s increasing disbelief, assassination is the highest form of public service.  The House of Sinanju is responsible for the deaths of such notable historical figures as Alexander The Great, Napoleon and Robin Hood.  All perfect assassinations carried out with such skill and grace that they appeared to be accidents or natural deaths.  Chiun begins training Remo for his job while Smith lines up his first job: an industrialist named George Grove (Charles Cioffi) who has been bilking the United States Army out of billions with a weapons systems called The Harp that doesn’t work.  Grove’s theft has come to attention of Major Rayner Fleming (Kate Mulgrew) who is making trouble for Grove and she’s targeted to be killed.  Smith assigns Remo Williams to protect Major Fleming and expose Grove’s evildoing.
            REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES isn’t a movie that comes up very often when people discuss superhero or pulp inspired movies but  it’s a movie that I highly recommend you seek out and watch.  Mainly for the performances of the always likeable and watchable Fred Ward (who would have been the perfect Rocky Davis if a ‘Challengers Of The Unknown’ movie had ever been made) and Joel Grey as Chiun.  Their relationship in the movie is what really sells this movie as it progresses from one of active hatred to respect and love to the point where Chiun calls Remo his son and Remo calls Chiun ‘Little Father” The training scenes are a lot of fun, especially the one where Chiun seeks to conquer Remo’s fear of heights by having him stand on the top of a moving car of Coney Island’s world famous Wonder Wheel while dodging the other moving cars.  The scene is helped tremendously by the fact that it’s obviously Fred Ward doing his stunts and its nail-bitingly suspenseful as well as hilarious, once again courtesy of Joel Grey’s comments.
            In fact, Joel Grey effortlessly steals the movie as Chiun.  He creates a wonderfully eccentric character that is as wise and as badass as Master Yoda.  But a whole lot funnier.  Chiun is capable of taking out an army of fully armed men barehanded but he’s also addicted to soap operas which he considers to be the highest artistic achievement of American culture.  One of the best scenes in the movie is when he is forced to tell Remo that if Remo fails in his assignment to take out Grove that Chiun will have to kill Remo.  The scene is done with a degree of feeling and sheer acting power that lifts it out of what could have been a run of the mill action movie and approaches real heart.  It’s a terrific scene.  It’s also helped by the music which is done by Craig Safan and it is absolutely one the best music soundtracks ever done for a movie.  The theme music is guaranteed to get your heart pumping.
The only let down of the movie is the badguy.  Charles Cioffi’s George Grove really isn’t much of a villain and it’s he’s not much of a threat.  The fact that he’s stealing billions of money from the US Government reduces Remo to not much more than a high level collection agent and Grove’s crew of henchmen aren’t on the level of James Bond style enforcers such as Oddjob or Jaws which is what the movie really needs to give Remo a real threat.  But the performances are what really sell this movie, especially those of a pre ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ Kate Mulgrew and Fred Ward and Joel Grey.  Joel Grey won two awards for his role in this movie:  One from The Golden Globes and one from The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films and he deserved them both. 
            So should you see REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS?  You get an enthusiastic Hell Yes from me.  It’s a lost classic that needs to be seen by fans of superhero movies and lovers of the pulps.  It’s modern day pulp all the way and it’s done with style, class and a love of the genre.  It should be seen just for the terrific performances of Fred Ward and Joel Grey is nothing else.  It’s a really good movie and a perfect Saturday night rental.  Enjoy with my blessings.
121 minutes
Rated PG-13

PULP ARTIST’S WEEKEND-TIM SALBER INTERVIEW

  • News
  • October 16, 2010


AP: Hi, Tim! Please take a seat. I want to thank you so much for permitting ALL PULP and myself the opportunity to interview you. Would you care for a cup of coffee or tea, a tall, ice-cold glass of lemonade, loganberry or sweet tea? I’d offer you an espresso but the diminutive alien that lives in our machine has invited some friends over to convert it into a transtemporal spaceport!
TS: You know, I have that same problem and have just given up on espresso. By the way, the little buggers are called Pithians, and there is an interesting anecdote about them in my book. I’ll have a small shot of Satchel’s Fire Water if you have any. I just love the flavor, and the little flames that burst out of your mouth after each sip are a real hoot.

AP: Salber? Is that French? How did you meet Tim Storm? Are you old school chums?

TS: Salber is actually of German origin and means “Salve Maker.” My early ancestors must have been alchemists of sorts. I’ve used the stage name “Tim Storm” for many years as a musician, as my pen name, and also when signing my artwork. I started singing for a rock band during my high school years, and our drummer enjoyed doing things to get my dander up. When I would get angry he would tell me “Calm down, Stormy.” I eventually realized that he was simply having fun with me, somewhat like the friendly rivalry between Monk Mayfair and Ham Brooks, so I took it all in good humor and started using the name. It sounded more like a name worthy of a pulp hero, or rock star than my given surname.
AP: Are you a native of Florida? Where were you born and raised? Could you tell us little about your family as you were growing up?
TS: My father worked as an engineer for NASA during the Apollo program. Having grown up and lived most of my life near Kennedy Space Center, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to view countless launches of the Apollo and Saturn rockets, and eventually the Shuttle missions from my own back yard. Naturally, I became interested in the exploration of space and how it might play a role in mankind’s future. The space program stimulated my imagination, and I eventually began to wonder and speculate about the grander mysteries of the universe, such as the relationship between time and distance, as well as the anomalies of space, so these are some of the elements that are crucial to the plot of Magenta Zephyr and the Universe Bender. To quote from the book; “The universe is populated with phenomena that defy human understanding and challenge the laws of physics as we understand them. It is a boiling cauldron of cosmic soup peppered with unique singularities that blur the distinctions between matter and energy and distort the very fabric of time and space.”
I have one brother and three sisters and, although we all pretty much had our own interests growing up, we are a very close family as adults and we try to get together as often as possible. I am happy to say that my family members are some of my closest and most respected friends, though I am really the only one of my immediate family who is so immersed in the arts. Neither of my parents and none of my siblings have had the inclination to follow that path. I don’t really know why I seem to pursue all of the arts with such fervor. I’m always thinking creatively and just seem to view life as one big opportunity to continually create something interesting and unique. Maybe it’s because I so admire the great creative minds that have contributed in a positive way to our culture.
AP: What kind of books did you read when you were young? What led you to start writing fiction? What were your favorite TV shows? Did you participate in school sports? Do you remember the first movie you saw?
TS: As a boy I was first inspired by reading Mark Twain’s works featuring Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. My friends and I would build our own rafts and travel through the canals and swamps throughout Brevard County, FL and I began to realize that you can create your own adventure simply by exploring the world around you. Around the age of nine or ten I began to develop an insatiable desire to read everything I could get my hands on, and decided that I would like to create my own adventures to share with others.
During my teenage years I was deeply moved by the themes and style of Ken Kesey’s book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Other authors whose writing had a deep impression on me are Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I really enjoyed their unconventional writing style and it helped me to understand that you can really create your own unique voice as an author. Some of my favorite authors are Robert A. Heinlein, Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Rice Burroughs. As far as modern authors, I love any well-written mystery or thriller with a unique protagonist.
I’ve always had a vivid imagination, and wrote my first novel at the age of fourteen. It was a detective novel set during the Great Depression and featured two young friends who had a penchant for solving crimes. Since then, I have developed a great number of story outlines and intend to develop them further in the future. Right now, I’m focusing on promoting Magenta Zephyr and the Universe Bender, but hope to get back to spending more time focusing on my writing soon. Many people have inquired about the sequel, so I suppose I really need to get cracking on that . . .
Some of my favorite shows while growing up were Star Trek, Night Gallery, The Twilight Zone, Night Stalker, and (believe it or not) Leave it to Beaver and The Andy Griffith Show. Though most of these were older programs and in syndication at the time.
AP: What inspired you or Tim Storm to create a female pulp hero like Magenta Zephyr? What gave you the idea for Magenta Zephyr & The Universe Bender?
TS: Since most famous fictional heroes are male, my intent was to create a strong iconic heroine that people could identify with. I wanted to write an adventure that would be fun and entertaining to read, whether the reader is a fan of science fiction or not. Being a musician, it seemed natural to incorporate some of those experiences into the novel as well, so the title character, Magenta Zephyr, is a musical superstar and an iconic heroine in the mold of the old Pulp Fiction heroes. The story features quirky characters, unique plot elements, and a healthy dose of humor. Along with presenting some of the deep questions posed by the mysteries of the universe, the book also deals with themes of human spirituality and other issues confronting humanity in a manner that is intended to stimulate the reader’s imagination. I wanted to write a book that has universal appeal and rises above the classification of a science fiction novel, in the same way that the Harry Potter novels have wider appeal among readers than books that are classified as “fantasy” novels.
AP: What is Magenta’s connection, if any, to the Wold Newton family of pulp heroes?
TS: I’m a huge fan of iconic fictional heroes such as Sherlock Holmes, Ellery Queen, and the old Pulp Fiction heroes, The Shadow, The Avenger and my all-time favorite Doc Savage. Magenta Zephyr is a larger-than-life heroine modeled after some of those old pulp magazine heroes and she is a direct descendant of Doc Savage and Tarzan, as presented in Philip Jose Farmer’s Wold Newton family tree. Many of the characters in the book are descendants of famous fictional characters linked to the Wold Newton universe, which is my way of paying tribute to the pulp genre.
AP: What was your weirdest childhood experience?
TS: I used to have extremely vivid dreams and terrifying nightmares. My bedroom windows faced a densely wooded area and I actually believed that I was visited by spirits that would drift out of the forest. I would wake up and I could feel them touching me and one time even seemed to be embraced by one of these ethereal creatures. I would try to scream but could neither move nor make a sound. As I grew older, I learned that these experiences are called “Sleep Paralysis” and are common for some people. It is a dream-state in which one is not fully asleep, yet not fully awake either. It is believed that these experiences are the origins of the Incubus and Succubus myths, and I can tell you first-hand that they are truly terrifying. I recently saw a documentary in which people were subjected to magnetic fields around certain areas of the brain and this state was induced. Many of the subjects experienced the presence of strange beings, and the doctor who was directing the study hypothesized that these might indeed be actual interdimensional beings, or possibly what we call “angels.” (Insert scary music here) It’s an extremely interesting phenomenon that has always intrigued me. Perhaps a subject for a future novel . . .
AP: Did you keep in touch with your childhood friends? Did any of them encourage you to be an artist, author or musician? Who introduced you to the Man of Bronze? What was the first Doc Savage story you read? Was Doc the first piece of pulp fiction you read?
TS: Interestingly enough, I still keep in constant contact with my closest boyhood friend, the person who introduced me to Doc Savage when I was about thirteen years old. His father was a huge fan of Doc Savage and my friend, Chris, would give the Bantam paperbacks to me after he and his father had finished reading them. I believe the very first adventure that I read was “Red Snow,” and I was instantly hooked! I began collecting them and buying them myself, and eventually acquired the entire Bantam catalog. I still own the entire collection as well as every other Doc related item I can find. I have about 20 of the original pulps, as well as all of the Street and Smith hardbacks. I probably have one of the most extensive Doc Savage collections in existence and still think that Doc is the greatest literary hero ever. I really tried to create a similar iconic character with Magenta Zephyr and think that I succeeded on many levels. Although, Magenta is more sensitive and artistic — much more able to relate to people on an emotional level than the stoic Doc. My friend Chris also introduced me to some of the great music that I grew up on . . . I owe him a huge debt for introducing me to the world of Doc Savage and influencing my taste in music.
AP: Where did you go to school? Were you a member of the drama club or school band?
TS: After the Apollo program ended, my family moved to Daytona Beach, where I attended my first year of High School. Then we moved to San Jose, California where I finished out my High School years. I was heavily involved in the Drama Clubs during high school and my most exciting and memorable times were with the crazy, creative people who tend to gravitate toward the performing arts. My proudest achievements during those years were playing the starring role as Randall McMurphy in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” and writing and producing a play for children, based on my first novel, which was presented to numerous elementary schools in the San Jose area. I played the alto saxophone in the school band during my junior high years, but eventually dropped it and took up the guitar.
AP: Where did you get your graphic design training?
TS: I am a self-taught artist, spending much of my time in elementary school daydreaming and drawing cartoons. I had the opportunity to hone my skills as a graphic artist during my eleven years working for the newspaper, FLORIDA TODAY, based in Brevard County. I worked as a Creative Services Graphic Designer, developing and designing advertising campaigns for local businesses, as well as large national corporations. I’ve been employed as a writer and graphic designer for the past 15 years, and I enjoy helping people translate their ideas into reality, but my illustration and fiction writing give me the freedom to express my own creative ideas.
AP: What instruments do you play? Have you ever been the frontman for a band? Can we listen to music you’ve written somewhere on the internet?
TS:I play guitar and sing, and have been the frontman for a group called Shadowfax during the late 70’s and shared the spotlight with my songwriting partner, Barry Hicks, in a band called The Imposters during the 80’s and 90’s. I have a CD of my own original songs available online at:
I’ve been working with my partner, Barry, to mix some of the studio tracks that we recorded through the years and we hope to release a CD of the Imposters’ music sometime in the next year.
AP: Would you say that Magenta’s first outing in MAGENTA ZEPHYR AND THE UNIVERSE BENDER is speculative fiction or an outright tribute to space opera of times gone by?
TS: I would say that it is an equal measure of both. Although it has many of the elements of a traditional pulp story, it is written in an unconventional style and is unique in its presentation of those elements. I consider it to be a tribute to the pulp genre, but written for a modern audience.
AP: What books are you, currently, reading? Was there a summer blockbuster of a movie that you savored?
TS: I am a voracious reader, at least 2 or 3 books a week. I’ve been reading a lot of Clive Cussler, and I love the writing team of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child and their Agent Pendergast novels. Agent Pendergast is an eccentric FBI agent whose eccentricities rival the great Sherlock Holmes. Also, love James Rollins and anything by Dean Koontz. I am really enjoying reading a lot of the new authors who incorporate historical elements with modern adventure and intrigue.
As for movies, I am thrilled by the proliferation of superhero-based films and I’m really looking forward to all the new Marvel hero movies that are planned for release in the coming years. Modern computer animation has made so many things possible on film that just couldn’t be done before, and I really enjoy any film that incorporates some of that amazing imagery. Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson’s King Kong, The Transformers, X-Men . . . I just love all that stuff!
AP: Speaking of blockbusters, not only have you written one but you’ve also created something that no else has done before! What can you tell us about THE GREAT COSMIC BOOK?
TS: That’s one of my favorite parts of the novel. I use quotes from the Great Cosmic Book throughout the novel and actually incorporate it into the storyline. It’s an enigmatic book of irreverent universal wisdom that appears mysteriously throughout the universe. Its source is unknown and it is often found in hotel rooms, in place of the Gideon’s Bible. How the book is distributed is unknown, but it often appears in place of lost or stolen personal items and trinkets of negligible value.
I’ve created an online version intended to be an eternally expanding collection of new and original quotations; simple adages with profound insight into the mysteries of the universe, whether sublime or mundane. All visitors to the site are encouraged to submit their own contributions, as well as to browse through the existing entries. A couple sample entries:
“In the beginning one infinite spark ignited all of this divine madness.”
“When it starts to rain save the fire.”
I hope some of your readers will visit
AP: Do pigs fly?
TS: Not yet, but in the Universe according to Magenta Zephyr, famed geneticist Dr. Lunden Fogg, a descendant of the renowned adventurer Phileas Fogg from Jules Verne’s classic “Around the World in Eighty Days,” eventually creates the world’s first flying pig, a momentous achievement which has unfortunate consequences.
AP: Are there any book shows or comicbook conventions that you’ll be attending soon or in the year ahead?
TS: I am planning to attend some conventions in 2012, do some book signings and promote Magenta Zephyr, but it all depends on my work schedule.
AP:Is this your first published work of fiction?
TS: I’ve previously written and illustrated two children’s books; Monkey See, Monkey Do and Way Over Yonder. Magenta Zephyr and the Universe Bender is the first book that I’ve had published for more mature readers. It’s intended for an audience ranging from young readers to adults. (Side note: I also created the cover art for the novel.)
AP: Best part about writing?
TS: Writing is a form of therapy for me. It’s a great way to escape from the daily grind, vent my creative energy, and express myself. It’s a fantastic way to reach out and connect with people. It’s my hope that Magenta Zephyr and the Universe Bender will entertain people, stimulate their imaginations, and perhaps, on a deeper level, contribute to our culture in a positive way. Since this is my first full-length novel, that may be too much to hope for, but I believe those are the ultimate goals of most authors, and what motivates those of us who express our ideas through creative fiction.
AP: Biggest challenge in writing it Magenta Zephyr and the Universe Bender?

TS: The biggest challenge in completing the book was finding the time to write while
working full-time and keeping up with other daily obligations. It’s also difficult, as an author, to find that fount of inspiration and maintain enthusiasm for writing while dealing with the pressures that we face in this modern world. They’re the same challenges we all face, day to day, in motivating ourselves, setting priorities, taking care of our responsibilities, and making time to do what’s most important to us.

AP: What did you learn about writing you didn’t know before?
TS: I suppose it’s the same in any field, but I didn’t realize that writing is an art that requires an immense amount of dedication and personal discipline. While writing a book, an author has to really immerse himself in the characters and the world he is creating in order to maintain continuity in plot and style. If you’re not already a successful novelist, time is a precious commodity, so an aspiring author has to sacrifice leisure time and curtail their social life if they really want to fulfill their aspirations and complete a book. In learning how much effort it really takes to maintain focus and complete a full-length novel, I developed a deep respect for authors and professional writers.

AP: What’s next for you as a writer?

TS:I am currently working on an outline for the sequel to Magenta Zephyr and the Universe Bender, and I intend to write a series of books chronicling her adventures. I am also writing and illustrating a children’s book titled, Linus Hart, Private Eye, featuring a young lion in the title role and a cast of animal characters that I’ve developed over the past few years. In this particular book, I plan to include puzzles and educational elements, such as vocabulary and math exercises for young readers. I have numerous other projects in development including some treatments for animated cartoon series.
AP: Any parting shots? Someone you would like to say “Hello!” to? Something you’d like to unabashedly promote?
TS: Magenta Zephyr and the Universe Bender is published by iUniverse and is available at iuniverse.com, barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, and other online retailers. Anyone interested in learning more about the book or purchasing it can visit the official web site at www.greatcosmicbook.com or the Magenta Zephyr web site and leave some quotes of their own.www.magentazephyr.com. Also, anyone interested in hearing my music can listen to clips and purchase tracks at www.cdbaby.com/cd/timstorm http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/timstorm

AP: Thanks again, Tim, for graciously allowing us the opportunity to interview you on behalf of ALL PULP! Good Luck and God Bless You on your current and future endeavors!!

TS: My pleasure, Sarge! I really appreciate the opportunity to share my love of the pulp genre and shamelessly plug my book!

Review: ‘DC Comics Year by Year’

DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle

By Alan Cowsill, Alex Irvine, Matthew K. Manning, Michael McAvennie, Daniel Wallace
352 pages, DK Publishing, $50

This is a tough book to review given growing up reading the majority of titles covered here in addition to working on staff for twenty years plus continuing to contribute to the company today. It’s also a book I wish I had written. That said, this is a mighty undertaking that is strong and eminently readable. This is a worthwhile 75th anniversary collector’s item and a great way to encapsulate DC Comics’ rich history. By all means, this belongs on your bookshelf.

It is almost impossible to properly encapsulate the 75 years of DC Comics alone but this book also attempts to weave in the histories of the companies or properties now owned by DC, including Fawcett’s super-heroes, Charlton’s Action Heroes, and the Quality Comics library. Unfortunately, these all get lip-service rather than a proper meshing of titles therefore significant publications are absent.

DC Comics began as one title, New Comics, released in 1935 by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. It added titles slowly and when there was a disagreement over the size of the company, Jack Liebowitz, who bought out Wheeler-Nicholson with Harry Donenfeld, decided to expand in partnership with Max Gaines, forming All-American Comics. It would be years before Gaines sold out and the two companies became National Comics.

When Quality went out of business in the 1950s, DC took over their titles, continuing several of them, notably [[[G.I. Combat]]] and [[[Blackhawk]]], without missing a beat. In the 1970s, DC acquired rights to their heroes, from Captain Marvel to Spy Smasher, fully coming to own them within a decade. And as a gift to their executive editor, Dick Giordano, DC also acquired the Charlton heroes that Giordano once edited, headed by Captain Atom. When Bill Gaines died, DC became the parent to Mad, but the EC line of titles from [[[Picture Stories from the Bible to Weird Science]]] are missing. The purchase by DC of WildStorm changed the company. You’ll see some of this throughout the year-by-year presentation.

We get anywhere from one to two spreads per year when many years were bursting and deserved twice the space. Unfortunately, as happens with these DK projects, entire spreads are devoted to cover or panel blow-ups that unnecessarily take up space. As a result, you may scratch your head at the emphasis given to some titles and the absence of others.

(more…)

National Graphic Novel Writing Month, Day 15: Plotting Your Way Out Of A Paper Bag

  • News
  • October 15, 2010

Let me give you an example of a bad plot that you’re already familiar with– the story of William Tell.

The legend has it that William Tell was known as an expert shot with the crossbow. In his time, the new ruler of his land raised a pole in the village’s central square, hung his hat on top of
it, demanding that all the townsfolk bow before the hat. When Tell
passed by the hat without bowing to it, he was arrested. As punishment,
he was forced to shoot an apple off the head of his son.
Otherwise, both would be executed. Tell was promised freedom if he
successfully made the shot.

Now, ladies and gentlemen– do you think there’s any doubt that he made the shot? Of course he did.

In history, this is an exciting moment, because you don’t know if a real person could do it. But in fiction? BORING.

Why? Because in fiction, you can have your characters do anything. They can be good enough or lucky enough to make the shot because the author says he’s lucky enough to make the shot. There is no suspense there.

I’ve said before that one of the things that drives me nuts about most fantasy novels, and a problem that I discovered when first writing Star Trek
stories, is that any story that you can technobabble your way into to,
or technobabble your way out of, is inherently boring. It’s make
believe. There’s absolutely no tension, the writer will wave his wand
and make everything come out. There’s nothing to resolve.

By contrast, any story with an choice – what do you do and
why? – has interest. Think about all the stories that haunt you, and
you’ll find that there’s often a choice that’s presented in the story,
and you revisit the story because the dilemma is still not fully
resolved in your own head.

This was brought home for me a few years back watching Star Wars— the real one, thank you– in a theater. The audience applauded and cheered like crazy during the final attack on the Death Star, but they surprised me by applauding the most during what I thought was the pivotal moment.

Quick now– you know the scene. What’s the pivotal moment?

The death of Biggs or Porkins? Spurs him on, sad, but no.

Blowing up the Death Star? Anticlimax. Go back earlier.

The death of Red Leader? Closer. Luke takes over command because there’s nobody else to take over at that point, and he chooses to do so, but that’s not much of a choice when every commander above him has been taken out.

No– the crowd went wild when Luke turned off his targeting computer. He chose to accept the world around him, and to take faith in his own abilities to solve the problem. No crutches, just him.

And then it’s followed up by the second great cheer, when Han Solo chooses to come back and join the fight just in time to save Luke’s hash, when Han chooses to be about something more than money.

Make your characters work for a choice, show how they change to get there– and you have a story worth telling.

So– it’s Day Fifteen. Half way through the month. How are you doing?

Remember: you can follow all the NaGraNoWriMo posts here!

SKY CAPTAIN-REVIEWED BY DERRICK FERGUSON AT THE LONG MATINEE!

  • News
  • October 2, 2010

THE LONG MATINEE- Movie Reviews by Derrick Ferguson

SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW

2004
Paramount

Produced by Jon Avnet
Written And Directed by Kerry Conran

In doing my research prior to writing this review I discovered that Kerry Conran originally wanted to do this movie with unknown actors and break it up into ‘chapters’ and present it as if it were a lost serial from the 1930’s that had recently been discovered. I would really have liked to see that version of SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW since I think he could have pulled it off. As anybody who’s read my work knows, I’m a full out geek when it comes to the blood and thunder pulps of the 1930’s and 1940’s and Saturday morning serials and 90% of my work is written in the tradition of the pulps. As I watched SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW I realized that I had a spiritual brother in Kerry Conran. I don’t often recommend that people see a movie just for the way it looks but SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW is one of those movies. It’s an out-of-body experience that truly takes you into another world and despite what I think are some flaws that prevent it from being quite as good as such great pulp inspired films such as The Indiana Jones movies “The Rocketeer” “The Phantom” and “Buckaroo Banzai” it’s an astounding adventure movie that proves what I’ve been saying for years: pulp action adventure is alive and well and if presented in the right way, people will eat it up.

The look of the movie is achieved through the means of almost total CGI. Except for the actors, their costumes and some of the sets, nearly everything else is a digital creation and the results are simply astounding in evoking a 1939 that only existed in the pages of pulp magazines and serials and could only be realized now. There’s a certain irony in the fact that the best way to visualize a world of the past is by means of a futuristic technology but it works. Boy, does it ever work.

SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW takes place in an alternate Earth where the Second World War has obviously never happened. We can tell that right from the beautiful opening sequence where The Hindenburg III docks at The Empire State Building. That huge tower on the top was designed exactly for that purpose in our reality but after it was built it was discovered that the high winds would make dirigibles move around too much and make it impossible for passengers to disembark. But in this world they’ve obviously overcome that problem. Aboard The Hindenburg is Dr. Vargas (Julian Curry) who is on the run from sinister forces who have been kidnapping the world’s leading scientists and he’s next on the list.

He’s come to New York to warn his colleague, Dr. Jennings (Trevor Baxter) who in turn contacts the crack reporter of The New York Chronicle, the wonderfully named Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) and informs her that he was once a member of a mysterious group known as Unit 11 who worked for a Doctor Totenkopf (Sir Laurence Oliver in archival footage) who worked on projects that were “too horrible to speak of” It’s during their meeting that New York is attacked by an army of giant flying robots that proceed to steal the city’s generators. There’s only one chance for the city to survive and the call goes out for Joe Sullivan aka Sky Captain (Jude Law) to come and save the day in his customized, pimped-out P-40 Warhawk which he does in a breathtaking sequence that sets the tone for the rest of the movie.

Turns out that Sky Captain is the only hope to find out where these giant robots are coming from and why they’re attacking cities all over the entire world for their generators. Sky Captain is ably backed up by his own private army and his faithful sidekick, Dex (Giovanni Ribisi) who judging from his speech patterns and technological genius must be an ancestor of Star Trek’s Mr. Spock. Polly insists on going along the adventure and it turns out that she and Sky Captain had a wild romance in the past that resulted in her sabotaging his beloved plane.   That led to him being held in a prison for six months so there’s a certain amount of friction there that leads to some entertaining banter between the two as they go off on a world-wide quest for Tontenkopf’s secret base to stop his mad schemes. They’re followed by The Mysterious Woman (Bai Ling) who is Totenkopf’s enforcer and seeks to stop them. Along the way Sky Captain and Polly get the help of Franky (Angelina Jolie) the eye patch wearing commander of a fleet of aerial aircraft carriers and they assault Dr. Totenkopf’s island fortress in a last ditch effort to save the world.

SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW is a great movie for those of us who love the pulps and those of us who have no idea of what the pulps were and want to know. Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie do an absolutely bang-up job in their roles and considering they were working on sets where they had to imagine what they were seeing, they do a great job. I really liked Angelina Jolie’s work in this movie and I bet if you ask her she’d admit that she’s a fan of Jim Steranko’s “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” since her role is practically a 1930’s female version of that character. There’s a fantastic scene where she and her squadron of ace pilots dive into the ocean and we see that their planes can also become submarine fighters that had me jumping up and hollaring like a maniac. And I won’t even tell you the scene that happens after that when she has to take out a giant robotic crab monster protecting Totenkopf’s island.

But SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW does have some major flaws. First is that even though Sky Captain is the hero he never has a real enemy to face off with. Dr. Totenkopf is played by Sir Laurence Oliver who died before the movie was made and so only appears either in footage that has been CGI’ed. And The Mysterious Woman looks as if she might be a formidable enemy but she and Sky Captain never have a real emotional or physical conflict. Near the end of the movie, The Mysterious Woman and Sky Captain square off in a battle that looks as if we’re going to get some real ass-kicking action but it doesn’t happen. It’s resolved in a manner that had me saying; “That’s IT?!”

Another thing that had me puzzling over is that early in the movie it’s said that the nations of the world have to rely on Sky Captain and his private army to find Totenkopf since their armies are engaged in other conflicts. Well, if in this world there’s no World War II then what conflict is going on that would prevent the world powers from sending their armies after Totenkopf.  And I also didn’t like how near the end where Sky Captain and Polly have been busting their asses to save Dex for nearly 30 minutes of the movie’s running time Dex shows up to save them and he explains how he escaped in an unconvincing offhanded manner.

And the movie doesn’t have the headlong adrenaline rush of the Indiana Jones movies or “The Rocketeer” or “The Phantom”. It’s a good movie, don’t get me wrong…but it’s obvious that the director is more in love with getting the look and feel of the movie right more than the action elements. But you just can’t beat the scene in New York with Sky Captain fighting the robots and that simply incredible underwater scene with the amphibious planes. Stuff like that is what a pulp fan like me lives for and I certainly got it. But there’s a curious lack of headlong action that doesn’t carry you along in a rush that I attribute to the director. Kerry Conran is good, yeah, but he’s not a major action direction who could have torn up the screen with material like this.

The performances in the movie are also worth mentioning. SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW was part of the Jude Law Film Festival of 2004 where it seemed as if every other movie that hit the screens that year starred Jude Law. He’s really good in this one as he plays it absolutely straight. His daredevil pilot Joe Sullivan would have been right at home in a Howard Hawkes movie like “Only Angels Have Wings” and I loved how during the underwater fight scene Angelina Jolie was grinning like a kid on Christmas while wearing a helmet I’m positive was inspired by Wally Wood.

So should you see SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW? Without a doubt. It’s an excellent movie simply on a technical level in that it brings to life a world that I love with my whole heart and I try to recreate in my work. I would advise you to see The Indiana Jones movies or “The Rocketeer” or “The Phantom” if you want to know what the action and energy of the pulps and Saturday Morning serials felt like but see SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW if you want to know what the pulps and Saturday morning serials looked like.

106 minutes
Rated PG

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