Tagged: Superman

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Fully authorized by Condé Nast, trademark holder of Doc Savage and based upon unpublished outlines and manuscripts originally written by Lester Dent, the originating writer of the seminal Street & Smith superman, and licensed from the Heirs of Norma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

DC’s Official #1 Solicitations For September 2011

  • News
  • June 13, 2011

Making it all official, here are all 52 of the #1 solicits from DC Comics for September.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
1:25 Variant cover by DAVID FINCH
RETROSOLICITED • On sale AUGUST 31 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US RATED T • Combo pack edition: $4.99 US
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
Comics superstars Geoff Johns and Jim Lee make history! In a universe where super heroes are strange and new, Batman has discovered a dark evil that requires him to unite the World Greatest Heroes!

This spectacular debut issue is also offered as a special combo pack edition, polybagged with a redemption code for a digital download of the issue.

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INTERVIEW WITH WRITER MARTIN POWELL ABOUT MONSTERS!!

AP:  Martin, thanks for joining ALL PULP once again for an interview.  Can you catch us up to speed on some of the things you’ve been doing since your last visit?
POWELL:  Thanks for asking me back.  It’s been a crazily busy time since we last spoke.  I’m writing several new comics, graphic novels, and co-writing a screenplay, as well as a top secret new pulp prose novel featuring a very famous classic character.  Also, I have a new novella for teens about to be published.  There’s a lot going on here.  I’m not sure where to begin.
AP:  You are involved in a very special project, one that means a lot to you both professionally and personally.  Talk a bit, if you would, about the professional aspects of FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN, how you became involved, the process of getting the project going, etc.?
POWELL:  I’ve written a vintage-style “filmbook” treatment of the classic Universal movie FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN for the newly resurrected Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine.  Fans of the magazine will know exactly what I mean, but to clarify, this will be a pulpy prose version of the story as adapted from Curt Siodmak’s original screenplay, profusely illustrated with photos from the film.  This is one of the secret projects I’ve been teasing about on Facebook for the past few months.  I pitched the proposal around last Halloween to editor Jessie Lilley, and she was wild about it.  Next, we approached Joe Jusko for the cover.  There was no other artist better suited and we were absolutely thrilled when he enthusiastically agreed.  Joe loves this stuff as much as we do, and he created a magnificently monstrous cover painting.
AP:  One question is why?  Why does a classic monster movie need the sort of adaptation you’re giving it decades after it was released?
POWELL:  Because this version of the movie has never been seen before, containing several scenes that were cut from the released film.  In my filmbook, Bela Lugosi’s Frankenstein Monster is blind, and will speak, as Siodmak originally intended. Think of it as a sort of “Director’s Cut” of a long-cherished classic monster movie.  Today, there are almost always novelized paperbacks of current hit movies, and FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN was a ground-breaking blockbuster at the box office, and deserves the very same attention today.
AP:  How do you as a writer take this entire concept, including the very classic, but also in some views very stereotypical portrayals of these monsters and make it appeal to a modern audience?
POWELL:  In no way do I consider these characters “stereotypical.”  Someone might as well say Superman, Sherlock Holmes, or Tarzan are stereotypes.  The Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man are legendary archetypes of the cinema, and will far outlive the soulless slashers and the zombie-glut of today.  I doubt there are very many kids over the age of six, anywhere in this country, who can’t name the classic monsters by sight, even if they’ve never seen one of the old movies.
AP:  What does this being a feature in a magazine add to the concept, if anything?  Why this particular medium?
 POWELL:  It’s not just any magazine—this is Famous Monsters of Filmland!  As co-created by the late, great Forrest J Ackerman, it’s been the single most influential publication of my life.  This is a national magazine with a tremendous readership, and there’s no greater home for this project.  I can hardly express how exciting it is to be the writer of a cover feature in this iconic magazine!
AP:  All right, now let’s talk about your personal affection for these characters.  Why do these monsters mean so much to you?
POWELL:  That’s tough to describe, but I’ll try.  I was sick a lot as a little kid and Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine served as a sort of security blanket for me every dreaded time I went to the doctor’s office. FM never, ever failed to make me feel better.  I was a monster movie fanatic, and my older brothers have told me that Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi were the first movie stars I recognized on TV.  FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN was only the second Frankenstein film I ever saw—and also was my first encounter with the Wolf Man—when I was six years old, and I was utterly fascinated.  When I first read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel at the age of eleven, it was a life-defining moment.  That book, and especially the Boris Karloff films, changed me forever and I’ve never been the same since.
AP:  Horror in recent years has moved away from Frankenstein, Wolf Man, Dracula, etc., and more to the visceral slasher type killers and the torture types.  Why do you think this has occurred?  And can the classic monsters and the stories those movies told be made viable again?
 POWELL:  Personally, I feel these slasher/torture movies represent lazy storytelling.  Somewhere, somehow, the horror film became the gross-out film, with visceral effects replacing story and performance.  To each his own, but I don’t find that sort of thing very entertaining.  The classic monster movies have their peaks and valleys, but they’ve always returned to the screen and to new popularity.  It’s happening again already.  I recently read in Variety that no less than a half-dozen new Frankenstein films are currently in production in Hollywood.  Plus, there’s The National Theatre’s brilliant new Frankenstein stage play by Danny Boyle and Nick Dear, where actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternated the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature.  The play was a huge critical success and a phenomenal sell-out hit.  Audiences are always ready for something done exceptionally well.
AP:  This is a Pulp news site.  Some would, and actually have, argued that things such as movie adaptations of classic monster tales and other such things don’t qualify as Pulp.  How would you respond to that?
 POWELL:  ‘Pulp’, at least as I understand it, is difficult to contain with such a narrow view, and by its nature has a very broad definition.
AP:  You’ve also got a ton of other projects going.  Care to share any information on what you can talk about?
 POWELL:  Well, I’m the writer for the continuing comic book series of THE SPIDER, for Moonstone, including a Halloween Special issue with artist Jay Piscopo, whom I’m very excited to be working with again.  And speaking of my favorite holiday, my teen-readers mystery novella THE HALLOWEEN LEGION will be published later in the summer, and is probably the most personal project I’ve ever written.  Also, I’ve just been contracted for a number of graphic novels coming from Sequential Pulp Comics, an imprint of Dark Horse Comics, including an exciting collaboration with my favorite author, Edgar Rice Burroughs, which will be happily teaming me again with my good friend, and Golden Lion Award Winner, illustrator Tom Floyd.  Very shortly, I’ll be co-writing the screenplay for a new murder mystery set in the 1920s, but there’s not much more I can say about that right now.  Most importantly, I’m surrounded by the things I love, which is the luckiest place for any writer to be.
AP: Martin, it’s been absolutely great to have you back on ALL PULP!
POWELL:  Thank you very much.  I always appreciate your interest in what I’m doing.

Superman The Complete Anthology

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

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

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

Some Thoughts on DC’s New World Order

dcspin-std-bl-jpg-2In 1986, as the Crisis on Infinite Earths was winding down, Marv Wolfman made the radical suggestion that DC indicate the universe had truly changed by altering the numbering on all the titles and restart everything with a #1. For a number of reasons, it was a great idea but the timing couldn’t allow the move. Years later, Dick Giordano indicated it as one of his greatest editorial regrets. However, he can’t be blamed since the Crisis was wrapping up while DC was still negotiating to relaunch its flagship heroes. At that time, only Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli had been lined up for Batman: Year One while John Byrne was still being wooed for Superman, and very late in the process, Greg Potter and George Perez were circling Wonder Woman.

Had the stars aligned, it could have avoided two decades of constant revisions to the reality.

It now seems DC’s executive team has spent the last year moving the stars around. Today’s bombshell announcement indicates the rebooted line will kick off in September, with Justice League #1 previewing the new order on August 31.

I can only hope that DC has its house in order and can avoid embarrassing fill-ins and radical creative team changes early in a title’s run – problems which have plagued the core titles for the last few years.  The worst example may well be Batman: The Dark Knight, written and drawn by David Finch. After debuting in November, the fifth issue of this monthly series is not coming out until August and only then with a fill-in artist.

That aforementioned new Justice League book is coming from DC’s two busiest executives: Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. Sure, it’ll read well and look great, but will it be a monthly and for how long will the talent remain intact? At minimum, these new titles, all 50 of them, need consistent talent on board for at least the first six issues and fill-ins need to be carefully integrated. (more…)

FORTIER GOES BACK TO THE THRILLING DAYS OF ‘YESTERYEAR’!

ALL PULP FICTION REVIEWS by Ron Fortier
YESTERYEAR
By Tommy Hancock
Pro Se Press
180 pages

One of the most widely recognized facts regarding American comic book heroes is that they actually evolved out of the Depression Era pulp magazines.  Fans of both media are well aware that the likes of Batman and Superman were the literary children of characters such as the Shadow and Doc Savage.  Tommy Hancock employs this historical theory against which to set his first novel, “Yesteryear.”  Hancock, the winner of this year’s Pulp Ark Award for Best New Writer, had earned that title based on his short fiction. Now with this novel length drama, he cements that position soundly with a work of deft imagination heralding past days of American glory.

J.C.Smithenson is a one time crime fighting boy detective who has grown up to become a writer and publisher.  He has put his hero days behind him, though his good friend, Detective Donovan Bradley, suspects he still harbors longings to get back into the fray.  Then one day a mysterious package is left on Smithenson’s steps containing the journal of newspaper man, Ramsey Long, who was part of the Golden Age of Heroes back in the 30s and 40s.  Thought to be a myth, Ramsey’s musings are said to be a tell-all book that honestly rips aside the veil of public relation mumb-jumbo to detail the true history and exploits of those early mystery men and women.
Which is why when it is learned that Smithenson possesses the book, factions both political and private, begin targeting him and his loved ones to guarantee the journal never sees the light of day.  For J.C., it is an eye-opening revelation that some of the people he once admired are flawed enough to want to destroy him rather than have their human failings exposed publicly.  Still, he is determined that the truth will be told regardless of the consequences.
“Yesteryear” is a marvelous homage to all those great pulp characters and golden age comic heroes who followed in their footsteps wonderfully told with a true sense of time and place.  Hancock knows his history and the richness with which he paints the times adds much to the book’s plot and appeal.  So on a purely literary basis, I recommend this book highly, it was tons of fun to read.
But I do have one criticism and it deals with the book’s packaging, not the story.  I don’t often make mention of actual production values but in this case felt compelled to do so because in the end, it did lessen my overall enjoyment of “Yesteryear.”  Hancock is also the book’s producer and he’s filled many of its pages with some truly fantastic drawings of many of the fabulous characters described in the text.  All to the good.   Alas, that’s where his design musings should have stopped.
Instead he also chose to change the fonts and styling of the text throughout the entire book so that the reader is confronted with bold type, cursive scribbles, light, thin fonts constantly changing, many difficult to adjust to after finishing a chapter presented in an entirely different way.  I understand the concept he was trying to achieve with this mixing, but it does not work and instead becomes a physical flaw to an otherwise stellar offering.   Hopefully his next book will have a more conservative presentation.

DC Revamps Again! And Again! And Again!

article-1041243-00f92f4000000191-180_468x521-8761712Hey, kids! Guess what? DC is revamping their line again, for what seems like the 1,000th time since Crisis On Infinite Earths. What a shock! How original!

O.K. Here’s the poop. DC honchos Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, both exceptionally talented comics creators, are going to make “bombshell announcements about the future of Superman and the entire DC Universe” on Saturday, June 11th at the Hero Complex Film Festival. Maybe this time they’ll stick to it: if Geoff and Jim are behind it, there’s some cause for hope. If they stick to it.

Even though control of DC Comics has passed through several hands since the first Crisis, perhaps the concept of leaving well enough alone will grab somebody this time. The DC Universe has gone through so many needlessly confusing transformations a roadmap to the place would give M.C.. Escher vertigo. With a small “v.”

Good grief, I’m getting tired of writing this story. I’m going to link to the Los Angeles Times so you can get what’s passing for news here.

DC Comics August Releases – Covers & Solicitation Copy

 

We’ve received all the covers for DC Comics August solicitations, and Flashpoint promises that worlds will live, worlds will die, and the DC Universe will never be the sa– oh, sorry, that was the tagline for Crisis On Infinite Earths, back when I worked at Flashpoint. I’m so confused…

My favorite item for the month is pictured above, the Sergio Aragones version of Batman from Batman: Black & White. But there are some absolute art gems here, including Darwyn Cooke’s JSA cover, and Frank Quitely’s redoing of Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson’s cover for [[[Green Lantern]]] #52.

As for the rest of the books, take a look… as usual, spoilers ahead:

 

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Smallville – We Truly Knew Ye

smallville-absolutejustice-wide-2618907

I’ve checked with my cadre of DC contributors, staffers and fans current and past. While it’s impossible to decide on an exact number, the consensus is that in the past ten years the teevee series Smallville painstakingly built a cohesive and linear universe of DC characters while, at the same time, DC Comics reinvented itself in whole or in substance approximately 14 thousand times. Guess which was more entertaining.

And now Smallville’s gone. Pushed out of the way for still another Superman movie that, like the comic books, gets to ignore everything that has gone before it. That’s not entirely bad: Superman Returns was so awful I was thinking of getting rid of the memories by electroshock therapy.

Instead, I watched Smallville. At first I was there out of professional and fanboy curiosity. It was good but not great, and I stuck with it because my wife enjoyed the show. In time, Michael Rosenbaum’s performance as Lex Luthor grabbed me, and when they introduced John Glover as his eviler father, the tension between the two was riveting. When they brought Green Arrow in (using the Grell costume) and started really building their version of the DC universe, I got absorbed.

Then they brought in Erica Durance as Lois Lane. I enjoyed her performance and her character so much I felt like I was betraying my own childhood. More DC characters were introduced, heroes and villains alike. As they moved away from the Kryptonite-villain of the week and developed Zod, Darkseid, and the first interesting Toyman ever, Smallville moved towards the top of my TiVo must-record list. After ten seasons the show had more storylines going on than Soap – but by the time that final episode aired last night, they had resolved or at least tied-up just about everything. It was remarkable; the fact that so many of the actors from earlier seasons returned was even more remarkable.

At its best, Smallville has been about the human drama, and its science-fiction environment rarely mitigated this. It is in this spirit that the two-hour finale was produced. Some might find this to be overbearing; respectfully, I think those people have missed the point. If you take this element out of the story, all you have left is a comic book – in the most clichéd and repellant sense of the term.

The production team also avoided the trap of giving each character their moment to shine. Whereas most had sufficient screen time, this last episode was all about Clark Kent, as it was, by and large, from the very beginning of the series.

This is not to say that there isn’t a kick-ass story here. Two of them, in fact, with enough villains to fill the Justice League’s dance card. Darkseid, Granny Goodness, Lionel Luthor, and of course, his son Lex.

The finale was not flawless. For one thing, everybody showed a lack of respect for how gravity works, not to mention security on Air Force One. The big scene between Lex and Clark was pretty much lifted from The Dark Knight; thankfully, both the characters and the performers make it their own. Technically, this show was at least as proficient as teevee gets. If it were a theatrical movie, it would have been in 3-D, and that would have screwed the pooch.

Teevee is teevee. It’s not comics, and shows come and go all the time. Smallville’s decade was a remarkable achievement, and it set the high-water mark for superhero television.

At the end of the ten-year day, you will believe a man should fly.

 

Must There Be An “American Way”?

  • News
  • April 29, 2011

superman-citizenship-1303916053-300x213-9024541By now, you’ve probably heard about the controversy– ZOMG SUPERMAN RENOUNCES AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP!!! A lot of people are taking this panel at right from Action Comics #900 out of context.

For me, I always thought that “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” was a bit redundant. At least, I hoped that it was, because that implied that the American Way didn’t actually include truth and justice. As it turns out, the phrase wasn’t even original to the character. Remember the introduction to the Fleischer Superman cartoons of the 40s?

Heard it? Never-ending Battle for Truth and Justice… but no American Way. Same with The Adventures Of Superman radio show, which started with:

Look! Up in the sky!
It’s a bird!
It’s a plane!
It’s Superman!

“Yes, it’s Superman–strange visitor from the planet Krypton who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, who can leap tall buildings in a single bound, race a speeding bullet to its target, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great Metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth and justice.”

And this was during World War II, not exactly a time short on American patriotism.

It wasn’t until 1952 that the TV series gave us:

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! (“Look! Up in the sky!” “It’s a bird!” “It’s a plane!” “It’s Superman!”)… Yes, it’s Superman … strange visitor from another planet, who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men! Superman … who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way! And now, another exciting episode, in The Adventures of Superman!

Why was “the American Way” phrase added? Probably for the same reason that the words “under God” started showing up in the Pledge of Allegiance around the same time– it was supposed to help fight communism.

Considering this issue shipped the same day Barack Obama had to take extraordinary steps to prove that he was born in this country to the same sort of people who are now braying that Superman has betrayed them, I cannot help but be a bit confused. The fictional character is a real American citizen, and the President of the United States isn’t?

Of course, Superman really wasn’t born in the United States. (He really wasn’t born at all, but play along with me here.) If you asked Superman to produce a birth certificate, he couldn’t– hell, the Kents lied to get Clark one.

Now, whether DC made a good storytelling choice here– that’s for the next article.

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