Tagged: superhero

Dennis O’Neil: So, Who Didn’t Like The Avengers?

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Yeah, yeah. I know it’s early in the summer movie season – I do have a calendar, after all – and two of the three big superhero flicks won’t be on screens for weeks yet. But for now, let us proclaim; Joss Whedon is king of the superheroes!

A couple of days ago, Mari suggested we go to the movies and I said no, I had work to do, and then, about ten minutes later I said yes, let’s go to the movies, and we did.

Marvel’s The Avengers, of course.

I don’t attend the 21-plex to criticize – to pry faults out of what’s intended to entertain me and maybe convince myself that I’m really a smart guy. I used to do that for money – the fault-prying part – and though it was okay for me then, it wouldn’t be okay now. I don’t want to criticize, I want to get out from under it. Not to have to think for a little while.

And yet… I don’t want my intelligence insulted, either. When that happens, the magic is gone and there I am, right back under it. So, for example, I loved the Indiana Jones flicks because they delivered the escapism I sought and didn’t expect me to forgive plot glitches, which tend to get in the way of enjoying the escapism. Anything that pulls me out of the story, that makes me question did he director and writer intend what I just saw or is it a mistake? – anything that does that sabotages the experience.

The Avengers verdict: not guilty.

Mr. Whedon understands the appeal of the early Marvel comics, the ones he read as a kid, and what made them work: the broad, extravagant action, the rough edges on the heroes, the occasional flashes of humor, the juxtaposition of larger-than-life characters with realistic settings. (That sure looks like the real New York City the villains are trashing.) He’s translated these from the language of comic books to the language of movies, filled in some blanks, provided some motivations, hired good actors who didn’t condescend to the material any more than he did, gave them decent dialogue and then put the special effects wizards to work and…

Presto! Behold what I think is the best Marvel movie yet (though the first Iron Man might also be worthy of that title).

Did I mention that Joss Whedon, of teevee’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Dollhouse and Firefly wrote and directed The Avengers? No, I didn’t – my bad – but you figured that out, if you didn’t already know it before you started reading this. Well, that same Joss Whedon had this to say to a Time magazine journalist: “I love fantasy…I love it because of the scope and the chance to talk about humanity that is very close to the heart but not wearing the same skin.”

Go buy yourself a movie ticket and see what he’s talking about.

FRIDAY: Martha Thomases On Alien Sex

 

  • News
  • March 4, 2012
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ARDDEN ENTERTAINMENT TEAMS WITH SERIEPLANETEN TO BRING
SWEDEN’S FIRST SUPERHERO, AGENT MARC SAUNDERS, TO AMERICA!

It was inevitable.   Sweden’s very first superhero, Agent Marc Saunders, the story of an American agent fighting the forces of evil worldwide, has finally reached the United States!
Teaming up with Serieplaneten, the original Swedish publisher of the hit comic book series, Ardden Entertainment, the publisher of Flash Gordon and Casper and the Spectrals, among others, is proud to bring this amazing new character to American shores.

Before Marc Saunders, Sweden never had a seriously meant superhero title of its own. There was “Dotty Whirlwind” back in 1945 – 1946, but she never carried her own book.

Until 2011, when writer/artist Mikael Bergkvist created Agent Marc Saunders.  A cross between James Bond and Doc Savage, Saunders is a super-powered agent working for the American government, facing a series of increasingly brutal enemies with bigger and bigger plans for destruction and mayhem.   Saunders is aided by his trusted team of allies, including the beautiful media tycoon Marion Gold. This series has been embraced by Sweden, largely due to its classic pulp type of adventure, like “The Shadow” or “Doc Savage”, but set in in modern times.

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Issue #1 of the American version of Agent Marc Saunders comes out in April and is currently available for order through Diamond Comics.  It features a cover by none other than the legendary Neal Adams!

Mikael Bergkvist has been writing comics for 25 years but Agent Marc Saunders is his first original creation.

Serieplaneten, an up and coming comic publisher in Sweden, publishes the Swedish version of “The Simpsons vs Futurama,” among other titles, and in 2011 they began publishing Marc Saunders, making Swedish comic book history in the process.

Founded in 2008, Ardden Entertainment LLC is the proud publisher of FLASH GORDON, CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST, and the ATLAS COMICS resurrection, among others. Ardden is run by former Miramax Films executive Brendan Deneen and comic book store owner Richard Emms, with industry legend Mike Grell acting as the company’s Editor-in-Chief.
Ardden’s mission statement is to produce high quality licensed comic books as well as original concepts that work both as comic books and larger, multi-media properties. For more information about Arddenn Entertainment, please visit http://limited-edition-comix.com/atlas/index.htm

NEW PULP WRITER, EDITOR, SUPPORTER AND FRIEND HOWARD HOPKINS-REST IN PEACE

  • News
  • January 16, 2012
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Howard Hopkins, prolific writer as well as Historian, Editor, and Friend of Pulp writers, publishers, and fandom, passed away on Thursday, January 12, 2012.   This is a tremendous loss for the Pulp Community specifically and the world as a whole.  All Pulp will be honoring Howard’s memory with a retrospective as well as other articles possibly and other sites, such as New Pulp Fiction, also intend to do so this week.

At the request of Dominique, Howard’s wife, we are sharing the following notice with all those affected by Howard’s living and passing.

http://www.cotefuneralhome.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=323:unnamed&catid=7:obituaries&Itemid=4

Continue to follow All Pulp for any further news concerning Howard as well as plans by his wife to continue Howard’s work and dreams.

Howard Lance Hopkins PDF Print E-mail
Monday, 16 January 2012 03:30
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Howard Lance Hopkins
January 14, 2012
Old Orchard Beach
Howard Lance Hopkins, 50, of Old Orchard Beach, passed away unexpectedly on Thursday, January 12, 2012, inBiddeford.
He was born in Biddeford on December 12, 1961, son of Frank and Lynne Dion Hopkins. He was a graduate ofScarborough High School.
The superheroes of Howard’s youth, Doc Savage, The Avenger and The Shadow, influenced his decision to become a professional writer. For the past 24 years, Howard has written numerous books including Westerns for Hale Publications, graphic novels such as a Sherlock Holmes series and a widely known children’s series called the Nightmare Club. Most recently, he focused his energy on writing the Chloe Files, a character derived from his novel Grimm.
Howard was an avid reader of superhero comic books, including Wonder Woman, Superman and The Hulk, to name a few.
He will be remembered as a devoted, loving and very supportive husband. He will be greatly missed not only by his loving and caring wife of 22 years, Dominique Morency Hopkins, but by many, especially his nephew Steap and niece Sam, who he loved, mentored and guided as his own.
Mr. Hopkins was a member of the United Methodist Church.
He is survived by his wife, Dominique of Old Orchard Beach
                        His parents – Lynne and Frank Hopkins
                        His sister – Robyn Hopkins
                        His in laws – Madeleine and Victor Morency and Marianne and Michael Fleischmann
                        His goddaughter – Renee Whitehouse
                        Several Aunts, Uncles, Nieces, Nephews and Cousins
A Visiting Hour will be from 10:30-11:30AM Wednesday at Cote Funeral Home, corner of Beach and James Streets, Saco. A Funeral Service will be held at 11:30AM Wednesday at Cote Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Saco. Arrangements are by Cote Funeral Home, Saco. You may wish to send flowers to the Cote Funeral Home or a donation to your local animal shelter in Howard’s name.  To send private condolences to the family go towww.cotefuneralhome.com

GUEST REVIEW-REVIEWER SAYS YES TO YESTERYEAR!

  • News
  • December 16, 2011
YESteryear

A Review of Tommy Hancock’s Yesteryear by Andrew Salmon

Disclaimer: Tommy Hancock is one of the creators of the New Pulp website.

One of New Pulp’s claims to fame is that time is no longer a factor when it comes to crafting pulp tales. Back in the Golden Age, writers typed until their fingers bled, racing the clock with deadlines looming. Today, New Pulp authors have the freedom to craft stories that are a little more complex than those written in a white heat and on the fly. There’s a chance to explore pulp worlds and characters and you’ll seldom find it done better than in Tommy Hancock’s YESTERYEAR.

The novel is a compelling read and one you won’t soon forget. Its episodic structure of pulp and superhero origin and adventure tales set around a unifying tell-all book makes the novel a standout in the burgeoning New Pulp field.

Yes, you heard that right, superheroes. Now some pulp fans might wonder what superheroes are doing in a pulp novel and while reading the book one might get the impression that this is more of a superhero prose work than a straight up pulp thriller. The point is a valid one but considering that the classic pulp characters of the Golden Age gave birth to the superheroes that came after, the novel’s historic sweep allows it to fall neatly into both categories, bridging the gap between pulp prose and comics.

As the novel deals with the main plot: the lengths some of these adventurers are willing to take to prevent the book’s publication, Hancock also treats us to numerous excerpts from the controversial work. Heroes rise and fall, alliances are formed and broken while drastic, deadly measures are taken to keep the manuscript from the public eye.

Some might find the jumping around from different time periods to the present day distracting or confusing but a careful read will smooth out these rough spots. Also, Hancock uses different fonts and writing styles to convey the shifts and this reader thought these worked very well. My only knock about this aspect of the novel is that there are a few too many time jumps and that some can be jarring. It’s a great narrative technique but occasionally it is overused here and the whole lacks an overlying cohesion. As this is Hancock’s first novel, one expects these odd rough spots, and occasional wordiness, will be smoothed out in future works.

While on the topic of criticism, this reader found the interior illustrations by Peter Cooper amateurish. With apologies to Mr. Cooper, the art is weak at best and does not measure up to the level of the writing. The cover by Jay Piscopo is striking although it, too, is out of place, seeming better suited to a graphic novel than a prose work, which could confuse readers new to the work.

Criticisms aside, YESTERYEAR is one of the best New Pulp releases of the year and I urge readers to give the book a try. It not only provides an atypical reading experience but also brings a fresh look at classic pulp fiction and superheroes. Hancock has crafted an engaging, refreshing work chock full of ideas, well drawn characters, and action galore. Pick it up, it is well worth your time.

Review: “Avengers” #19

avengers19_thumb-7406966CR Review: Avengers #19
Creators: Brian Michael Bendis, Daniel Acuna
Publishing Information: Marvel Comics, comic book, 40 pages, November 2011, $3.99

Perhaps the oddest thing about the Avengers property becoming Marvel’s flagship title the last few years is that there’s no underlying concept involved in its execution. It’s Marvel’s biggest superheroes (and some of its stronger supporting characters) teaming up to take on various super-baddie threats… and that’s really about it, as far as I can tell. It’s not a family, it’s not a community, it’s not a certain way of doing things; it’s everybody the fans think are cool put into the same room. In a similar vein, the writer Brian Michael Bendis recently announcing the conclusion of his run with that property surprised only in that there’s little in the way of a dramatic arc — at least not one I can see, from several steps back — that would indicate he was close to wrapping up whatever personal, creative business he might have brought to the series several years ago. In most ways that count, the defining characteristics of this comic book series lies in how it resists past signifiers. For all that it defines the current superhero mainstream, Avengers is one contrary comic book.

Marvel Minimalism from Marko Manev of Macedonia

  • News
  • August 30, 2011

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These are some of the neatest superhero posters I’ve come across in a while. Take a look at his posters for the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Avengers, Wolverine, and Magneto.

DENNIS O’NEIL: The Weight of Fall

It’s the time of year when the world holds its breath. Back from vacation and if you’re old enough and lucky enough to be employed, fill the tank, Monday morning will be here before you know it, and if you’re going to school, either to sit in rows among the other students or to stand and teach… well, there are supplies to get – how late is Staples open? – and maybe some last minute reading and – one, two, three, all of us cop to it now – the anticipation: will the subjects be interesting, will the room’s other occupants be pleasant and/or pretty or trolls, will something that spins existence on its axis occur and change life forever and if you’re a lady who’s just retired after schoolmarming in four states for fifty years will you feel a tad blue – not that I know anyone like that – and, finally, will the English teacher get really frosted at having to read sentences that go on and on and on and on…?

No gold star for me? I’ll live with it.

If you’re a comics geek – and yes, we do know who we are – you may be feeling a bit disoriented. Not long ago, the days that cluster around the September holiday marked the end of major fan activity. The big conventions were history, the summer annuals lie all snug in their Mylar nests, the big publishers seemed to take a breather between those annuals and the big Christmas push to fill stockings with graphic novels, preferably in hardcover. Oh sure, all the regular titles appeared, but they were just … you know… stories. Nothing special. This year, though, there are several conventions yet to come, including the monster-doozie that occurs at the Javits Center in Manhattan, Marvel and DC are going digital, which will almost certainly change the biz, maybe a lot, and – what am I forgetting…?

Oh yeah. DC Comics is relaunching its whole line. Relaunching its superhero pantheon when print publishing is struggling to survive and reinvent itself in what may be the most turbulent climate since Gutenberg set his first stick of type: an important bookstore chain that according to one estimate accounts for maybe fifteen percent of retail sales is closing its many doors and an online retailer is altering the way business is done and nobody seems to know what the hell the e-book revolution will spawn.

All that is figure resting on the ground of a legislative system that seems hopelessly broken and huge environmental uncertainties that might affect publishing and everything else.

Plus…is the Mayans who say the world will end next year? Or am I thinking of that television preacher?

Yessir, Mr. D, the times they are a’changin’.

Ask me if I care. In about six weeks, the Rockland County foliage will begin its yearly display and, for a while, the daily trip to the mailbox will be reason for rejoicing. That will be enough now, and maybe forever.

Recommended Reading: The Will Eisner Companion, by N.C. Christopher Couch and Stephen Weiner. Disclosure: I contributed an essay to this book, but I’m not in the way of any royalties. If you know Eisner’s work, you’ll want to read it, and if you don’t…hey, it’s about time.

FRIDAY: Martha Thomases

 

 

Derrick Ferguson Suits Up With THE IMPOSTOR

  • News
  • July 24, 2011
A lot of times I’ll get asked can a superhero be a pulp hero and vice versa.  And I say sure.  Take Batman.  To me, he’s a pulp character who happens to inhabit a superhero universe.  Or the Challengers of The Unknown who to me are also pulp characters.  The lines can get blurry, especially with guys like Thor who is both a legitimate epic fantasy character (or at least he used to be back in the day) and well as being a superhero.  Now guys like Spider-Man, Superman and The Flash, I call them straight up superheroes.
What does all of this have to do with THE IMPOSTOR #0: “Suiting Up” by Richard Lee Byers?  Not much, to be honest with you.  But it was thoughts like that bouncing around in my melon of a head while I read the story.  There’s a lot of New Pulp as well as Classic Pulp for that matter that can also classified as prose superhero fiction.  When it’s done well, it can be just as much fun and as satisfying as a well-drawn or well-written comic book.
The story is as uncomplicated as a glass of milk: Working stiff Matt Brown is on his way home after a hard day of labor when the Earth is invaded by aliens.  But Matt’s Earth is protected by superheroes who valiantly throw themselves into the defense of their planet.  Not all of them survive and Matt himself is captured by the aliens.  He manages to escape and in the process, acquires some of the equipment and powers of the slain superheroes.  Now it’s all up to Matt to take on the invaders.
That’s it.  But considering that it’s an origin story, how much more do you need?  Mr. Byers sets up his character and the premise of the series in a neat, tight bundle that I found highly enjoyable Old School superheroics with a fine Silver Age DC feel to it.  While reading the story I was visualizing the action as if it were drawn by the 60’s Gil Kane.  I dunno if that was the vibe Mr. Byers was going for but that’s the one I got.  And I liked it.
Should you read THE IMPOSTOR #0: “Suiting Up”?  I don’t see why not.  Certainly the price is right.  You can find it here for free.  That’s right, I said, free.  And at 23 pages it makes for a quick, exciting read, just the way all good pulp should go down.  Mr. Byers has promised further adventures of his hero and I’m looking forward to them.

DENNIS O’NEIL: Universal Upheaval!

So the universe upheaved and a gap appeared in time and here we are, at the far end of that gap. (Or the near end, if we’re looking backwards. But never mind.) We’ve again grubbed residence in Comicmixland and vowed to deliver weekly blather.

But, with a deep bow to Bill Maher, we have new rules—or to be exact, just rules, since when I last did this nobody mentioned rules, though I did promise Mike Gold and myself to do at least 500 words per installment, lest I be mistaken for a carbuncle. The 500 word deal still holds, but Mike has added a new proviso; subject matter should be somehow related to comics.

Pretty draconian, huh?

Actually, Mike’s edict doesn’t much close any doors. First, a lot is happening in comics and related media per se and, second, virtually everything in our media-drenched, perpetual-news-cycling global civilization is connected. Always has been. Really. Remember the butterfly effect: The sumbitch flapping around a garden in Tokyo today will cause your hat to blow off next Tuesday and the breath I just took may have contained an atom that was once part of Cleopatra. (And, more painfully, the monetary crisis in Greece may bump your mortgage.) And we all come from the same place, out there among the stars in the baby cosmos.

So yeah, the world is a vast network of interconnections, and it’s a lot easier to see that now that it was a century ago. It shouldn’t be much of a rhetorical trick to write about comics and still acknowledge that other things exist, and are worthy our notice.

(I wonder: could you have a comprehensive knowledge of comics, beginning with [[[The Yellow Kid]]] and ending with…oh, I dunno – Chris Claremont’s run on [[[X-Men]]]? – could you know that and be ignorant of the history of the United States in the Twentieth Century? Maybe not.)

But where to begin?

Well, this week, nowhere. I’ve already burned away 329 of those 500 words and unless I want to content myself with knocking off a few haiku, there isn’t much room left for pontificating. But next week? Hey, this has been called the summer of the superhero movie, hasn’t it? And although I haven’t seen all of the films in question, and probably won’t in the next seven days (Thor has already hammered back to Asgard, which I think is somewhere just off Sunset Boulevard, and is not available for viewing) but doesn’t utter ignorance of my subject qualify me as a pundit? Darn right! And what’s happening behind the cameras—the changes in management—is worth a bit of uninformed opinionating, too.

A final note: In the previous incarnation of this feature, and in a comic book that the aforementioned Mike Gold and I worked on a couple of decades past, we recommended books we thought might amuse our readers. I’d like to continue recommending reading, but not every week, just when I come across something I think will be of particular interest to y’all.

Happy trails…

FRIDAY… Martha Thomases

NEW DOC SAVAGE NOVELS COMING FROM WILL MURRAY AND ALTUS PRESS!!

  • News
  • June 14, 2011

　

ALTUS PRESS • ALTUSPRESS.COM • MATTHEW MORING, PUBLISHER

ANNOUNCING ALL-NEW DOC SAVAGE NOVELS!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Announcing All-New Doc Savage Novels!

BOSTON, MA—JUNE 14, 2011: Altus Press is excited to announce the launch of The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage, the first in a new series of blockbuster novels starring the legendary pulp superhero in nearly 20 years.

Written by prolific pulp writer Will Murray, who has won acclaim for his unequalled ten-year tenure ghostwriting Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir’s Destroyer action-adventure series, The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage is a continuation of the well-received Doc novels Murray wrote for Bantam Books back in the 1990s, along with the late Lester Dent. The posthumous collaborations will be published under time-honored byline, Kenneth Robeson.

“These new novels are kicked-up, over-the-top exploits of the Man of Bronze, pitting him against forces and foes never before encountered,” promises Murray. “This is not some comic book scripter’s concept of Doc Savage. It’s the real deal.”

Fully authorized by Condé Nast, trademark holder of Doc Savage and based upon unpublished outlines and manuscripts originally written by Lester Dent, the originating writer of the seminal Street & Smith superman, and licensed from the Heirs of Norma Dent, The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage begins with a searing story set in the summer of 1936, The Desert Demons!

“I’ve always had an uncanny knack of writing novels that are more topical when published than when I wrote them,” Murray revealed. “Witness Nick Fury; Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D: Empyre. Published in 2000, it reads like a blueprint for the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., right down to the use of passenger aircraft piloted by terrorists to decimate U.S. cities.

“In The Desert Demons, a rash of unexplainable tornado-like outbreaks wreak havoc in California, calling Doc Savage and his men into action. And what action! Men and machinery are swallowed up by the scarlet cyclones, never to be seen again. Some chapters read like news reports of the Spring of 2011. Let’s hope we have a happy ending in real life! The entire Doc Savage cast is back for this reintroductory episode, including fan-favorite Patricia Savage.”

Murray also reunites with his other Doc Savage collaborator, award-winning artist and sculptor Joe DeVito, who will paint the covers from never-seen photographs of model Steve Holland, who posed for the best-selling James Bama covers as the living embodiment of the Man of Bronze. These vintage photos were donated to the project by Mr. Bama.

DeVito notes, “Working with Doc Savage again might best be described as revisiting old friends: both figuratively and literally. Collaborating with Will Murray, working from classic photos of the late Steve Holland provided by Jim Bama to illustrate the first super hero of them all… I guess I can also describe it as FUN!”

The Desert Demons will be released in July, followed by a second wild exploit, Horror In Gold, by late summer. Seven new novels are planned. Murray promises the familiar characters in their rightful time period, but with a definite edge to them.

“Since I wrote my last Bantam Books Doc,” Murray commented, “a lot of writers have taken a swing at the bronze man, and struck out. It was painful to watch. So Lester Dent and I have come out of semi-retirement to show everyone how Doc Savage is done. With the recent release of Python Isle, the first of my original seven Doc novels to be released as audiobooks by Radioarchives.com, I’m proclaiming this the Summer of Doc Savage. Doc is back. For real this time.”

The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage will be released in a variety of formats:

—6″x9″ trade paperbacks which will be available to bookstores and comic shops everywhere, as well as to individual purchasers through the official Wild Adventures of Doc Savage website, www.adventuresinbronze.com.

—6″x9″deluxe hardcovers which will contain an illustrated Afterword detailing the background creation of each novel, as well as bonus articles and biographies by Will Murray and others—available in this edition only. These will also include signed bookplates autographed by Will Murray, artist Joe DeVito, and “Lester Dent” (in facsimile).

—e-book formats available for all the most popular e-readers: Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Apple’s iBookstore (for the iPad and iPhone).

Website: www.adventuresinbronze.com

Facebook Page: The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage

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