You are at the San Diego Comic-Con, the biggest pop-culture event on the planet. And you may feel a little over-whelmed. So many people. So much to see, so much sound and color. So many nay-sayers, such as myself a week ago.
What should you do?
Let me help. I am going to tell you how to have the best time possible.
It’s not a matter of rules (wear comfortable shoes) or tricks (there is a secret passageway between the Hyatt bar and Hall H, known only to the local Masons). It’s a matter of attitude.
Surrender.
You’ve been planning since you got the programming schedule, and you have your weekend planned out like a military assault.
Give it up.
Well, don’t give it up. Just be prepared for things to go wrong.
The best con experiences I’ve had have been great precisely because I could not have planned them. Perhaps I got locked out of a panel I really wanted to see because of an ever crowded floor slowing my progress, but on the way back, I saw a cosplay staging of all the crews of the various Star Trek series.
Or the people I’ve met, standing in line for signings.
Or the great Italian restaurant you got to through a grocery store, where I took out 15 people for not much more than $200, including drinks. Never been able to find it again. I think it’s like Brigadoon.
You are in one of our nation’s most beautiful cities, on the water, with hundreds of thousands of people who share your interests. Don’t get so caught up I what you’re going to do next that you don’t notice what you’re doing now.
Breathe out. Breathe in.
My point is, if your happiness depends on successfully completing your plans, you will fail. If you have goals, but keep yourself open to possibility, you will have stories to tell.
Stories. Ultimately, that’s what the San Diego Comic-Con is all about.
Airship 27 Productions is extremely proud to announce the release of I.A. Watson’s third Robin Hood adventure novel, “Robin Hood – Freedom’s Outlaw.”
As depicted in the first two books of this amazing trilogy, King of Sherwood and Arrow of Justice, the upstart outlaw of Sherwood Forest has become a thorn in Prince John’s side. All the efforts by his sadistic stooge, the Sheriff of Nottingham, to capture the elusive figure known as Robin Hood have failed.
Now, in this climatic final chapter to I.A. Watson’s exciting trilogy, Freedom’s Outlaw has Robin’s enemy devising a devious scheme to draw him out into the opening by laying siege to the castle of his ally, Sir Richard at the Lee. But the trickster of the greenwoods may just be two steps ahead of them. Meanwhile the Lady Marion uses her royal connections to bring all parties together before the High Nobles Court in London Town where the brash rogue’s fate will be decided.
Surrounding all these events is the whispered talk of the appearance of a White Hart in Sherwood Forest, a powerful symbol to the people for whoever captures her will be acknowledged the true King of the Forest.
“I’ve always loved Robin Hood stories,” explains Airship 27 Productions Managing Editor Ron Fortier. “He’s such a classic hero figure and it is fun to watch each new generation discover him for the very first time; be it in books, on TV or in the movies. With this particular trilogy, Ian Watson has recaptured the thrills and excitement of this well known saga and made it fresh and new again. No easy task.”
Now I.A. Watson brings his stunning, clever and historically based adventure to a rousing, crowd cheering conclusion that will leave all Robin Hood fans applauding. The book features a stunning cover by Pulp Factory Award winner Mike Manley with interior illustrations and book design by fellow PF Award winner, Rob Davis and includes a very special post-essay on the character’s role in British history by the author. At last the finale is here and it is one you will never forget!
AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – NEW PULPS FOR A NEW GENERATION!
The book is now available at Create Space and should be at Amazon and on Kindle within the next few days.
PULPED! returns with a two fisted discussion like no other! Hosts Tommy Hancock and Derrick Ferguson return to PULPED! with more guests than You can shake a Pulp Magazine at! Featuring Lee Houston, Jr., Andrew Salmon, Michael Brown, Jeff Deischer, B. C. Bell, and Teel James Glenn, this podcast explores a question that has popped up increasingly in the last few months! New Pulp-Just What Is It’s Connection to Classic Pulp? A controversial topic amongst fans of both, Whether or not New Pulp is a descendant of Classic Pulp, a mutation, or something all its own is explored, discussed, and debated within this SPECIAL episode of PULPED!
Woman of the Woods The new Sword and Soul novel by Milton Davis!
The latest Sword and Soul novel by Milton Davis returns to the land of Meji, the amazing world of Uhuru. It tells the story of Sadatina, a girl on the brink of becoming a woman living with her family in Adamusola, the land beyond the Old Men Mountains. But tragic events transpire that change her life forever, revealing a hidden past that leads her into the midst of a war between her people and those that would see them destroyed, the Mosele. Armed
with a spiritual weapon and her feline ‘sisters,’ Sadatina becomes a Shosa, a warrior trained to fight the terrible nyokas, demon-like creatures that aid the Mosele in their war against her people.
Woman of the Woods is an action filled, emotionally charged adventure that expands the scope of the world of Uhuru and introduces another unforgettable character to its heroic legends.
Learn more about Woman of the Woods here. Learn more about the Land of Meji here.
Mainstream Comics (read: The Big Two) have begun to remind me of that much-mocked TV commercial with the old woman screaming “Help! I’ve fallen but I can’t get up!”
That business seems to me to be in freefall, and only gaming the numbers so as not to scare the horses maintains the status quo, with ongoing monthlies somehow being considered successes with four-digit sell-through estimates that, as few as 10 years ago, would’ve gotten a title canceled long before things got that desperate. And the “top-selling” titles, you’ll note, are all brand extensions – all variations on, or team-ups with, batmen, wolverines, and other tried-and-trues.
Which presents a thorny dilemma.
Neither of the “Big” Two’s corporate parents wants to be in the business of putting ink on dead trees, which – though ComiXology might claim otherwise – is still the major comics delivery-system. And publishing’s a low-margin biz, and low margins are as crucifixes to Count Disnela and Baron Von Warner. But they’ve been persuaded not to drive a stake through the comics divisions’ hearts by being sold on the dubious proposition that comics are low-cost R&D for blockbuster movie and TV development.
Yet not one of the tentpole franchises from the Big Two’s studio daddies has been based on anything created more recently than 50 years ago (the 40-year old Bladebeing neither tentpole nor generated by Marvel Entertainment). If you’re going to be a stickler and say, for example, that X-Men’s success owes more to the ‘80s reboot than the Lee-Kirby original, okay – 30 years ago. So far the closest Hollywood has come to building a discrete film around a newer character is the alleged Deadpool movie. Since the New Mutants and X-Force titles that whelped the character are both X-Men spinoffs, however, Deadpool doesn’t really count as something that isn’t a brand extension. If Jeff Robinov’s successors don’t share his aversion to making a Lobo film, maybe then I’ll sit up and take notice.
To make matters worse, the comics themselves are not being used as a development lab, since most, if not all, of the new titles in recent years have themselves been brand extensions. (And, when films like RedandThe Loserstank, the incentive to look to newer “original” Big Two titles as source material dies with them.)
If the Big Two can’t be profit centers from publishing alone, the only way Pub Ops can truthfully be a development lab is if the publishers increasingly take back control of the creative development of their comics, which they’ve completely outsourced. This, to control new product development focused less on selling comics and more on creating potential movies and TV shows. But they probably can’t do this – at least, not easily.
For one thing, The Big Two seem to be under pressure to roll back the kinds of deals that used to give Creatives limited profit participation in new characters. And in this Brave New World of self-publishing, it’s hard to find strong, seasoned talent willing to let their new ideas be Wholly Owned by the Big Two.
So how much longer can the Big Floppymeisters justify their existence? Especially when they’re completely reliant on the freelance talent … because they no longer have editors who can control the process credibly, even if their bosses were willing to redefine the role of the editor. Few, if any, of them have the chops to pick up a pencil, graphics tablet or keyboard and make the product themselves (and show the newbies how it’s done) – the way the Infantinos, Orlandos, Lees, Romitas, O’Neils, Weins, and Shooters did when they were running things.
More in the third and final installment of this rant, written from the San Diego Comic-Con, where I’ll be looking for signs of a forced-change in Talent Relations – if any – and reporting back from my maybe not-so-uniquely skewed perspective.
You’ve watched the newscasts? Read the papers? You’re aware of what’s been happening in the courts and Congress? It is a time, perhaps, to consider wickedness.
Outside, our patch of the Lower Hudson Valley is again suffering brutal heat and if your life has given you certain prompts – if someone much taller than you once convinced you that you were a bad, bad, bad little child and you were going to be punished! – you might step outside, feel the heat and remember what you were taught about hell. Which is where evil sons of bitches like you go to roast for all eternity and that will teach you to disobey Sister Henrietta! In case you’ve forgotten.
We believe in a retributional afterlife because, among other reasons, we have a need for the world to be ordered and rational, and that means that the wicked should have to answer for their misdeeds. Obviously, not all of them do, not while they’re alive, but later…well, Christians might go to the aforementioned hell and Hindus might be reincarnated as an intestinal parasite. Hell, parasite… Something unpleasant, anyway.
We deal in villainy, we fabricators of heroic melodrama.We give our protagonists fierce, cruel, determined and formidable adversaries, mostly because our heroes need them.No need to wait for retribution after death, not in our tales, thank you. Our miscreants get retribution right here, right now. We witness their fall and cheer – okay, mostly cheer silently – because justice has been served, hot and fresh – served by our hero, who has thus demonstrated his bona fides and justified our admiration for him. Without the adversary, our hero wouldn’t have the opportunity to be super.We probably wouldn’t want to buy tickets to watch a pillar of virtue sit around being virtuous.
The craftier of our fiction writing bretheren give the bad guy a reason to be bad so there’s a excuse for him or her to be in the story. One of our greatest popular entertainers, Alfred Hitchcock, seemed to regard the villain’s motive as an afterthought.He called such motives “mcguffins” and gave this explanation of them: “The only thing that matters is that the plans, documents, secrets must seem to be of vital importance to the characters…to the narrator, they’re of no importance whatever.”
Far be it from me to quarrel with the master, but allow me to express a gentle demurrer, in the form of advice to beginning writers: Give some thought to your mcguffin. If it’s out-and-out dumb, it will make your bad guy look dumb and a good guy who beats a dummy might not be all that impressive.
General Zod, Superman’s antagonist in the current movie, has a terrific mcguffin, one that confers nobility. And he does not consider himself to be evil.
Do the denizens of our courts and Congress consider themselves evil? Almost certainly not. Have you ever committed an evil act? Hey, there’s a gnarly question to end on.
Pro Se Productions once more proves to be a leader in genre fiction with its latest release. A man of the far future plying his dangerous trade like one of the past. 1950s Sensibilities collide explosively with Science Fiction Action and Danger once again as Lee Houston, Jr. follows up his debut 2012 collection with HUGH MONN, PRIVATE DETECTIVE: CATCH A RISING STAR!
Thick, red lips were just a shade darker than her crimson skin tone, but both were in striking contrast to her long orange hair. Her eyes appeared to be only irises, as black as a starless corner of the universe resting on a field of white, but that toothy smile was brighter than a supernova. She was dressed in white like everyone else, but her outfit was a sleeveless, short hemmed number at least one size too small, that did everything possible to accent every aspect of her figure. “Do I have the pleasure of addressing Hugh Monn, the private detective?” asked the older man with an accent I couldn’t place. After all, it’s a pretty big universe and xenology wasn’t one of my strong
suits, so I couldn’t identify any of their races or species. Besides, the woman was the only one present any insensitive jerk would call ‘alien’. Outwardly, all the men appeared to be as human as me.
“There’s no pleasure involved from my perspective,” I said, while motioning my head to indicate his traveling companions. From Chapter 1 of HUGH MONN, PRIVATE DETECTIVE: CATCH A RISING STAR
Hugh Monn, the private detective of the far flung future, is back in his first full length adventure!
In Lee Houston’s latest installment of his 1950s style detective in the future, Hugh is hired as a security consultant when actress Ruby Kwartz comes to the island nation of Galveston 2 to record a new vid. What is supposed to be an easy assignment turns deadly when Monn discovers that everyone around Ruby has a hidden agenda and someone wants to make sure this production will be her last. Can Hugh Monn catch a rising star before she falls?
“After writing short stories for his first book,” states Houston, “I wanted to create longer adventures for Hugh in a second anthology, but CATCH A RISING STAR took on a life of its own and became his first full length novel. Fans of the private detective in the far flung future not only get more action, adventure, and mystery in this tale; but more Big Louie too.”
“We’re excited,” comments Tommy Hancock, Pro Se Partner and Editor in Chief, “to not only have Hugh back for another adventure, but to see Lee push both himself and this wonderful world he’s imagined into a full length novel. The definitely different mix of Science Fiction with the Detective genre as well as Lee’s placing of Hugh somewhere along the center of the Private Eye spectrum makes the concept a fun, exciting one and one that appeals to many types of readers.”
As for Hugh Monn’s first adventures, Ron Fortier, noted Reviewer, Author, and Publisher stated-What is particularly refreshing in these tales is that Houston wisely opts not to make his hero a hard-boiled, typically cynical type. Hugh Monn is a genuinely nice guy who likes people and aliens alike and is sincere in trying to make his world a better place for all to live in. He’s a good guy I liked meeting and hope to see him again real soon.
HUGH MONN, PRIVATE DETECTIVE: CATCH A RISING STAR features an excellent and evocative cover by David L. Russell as well as stunning cover design by Sean E. Ali and Ebook formatting by Russ Anderson! Available in Print at Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/n47oso2 and from Pro Se’s own store at https://www.createspace.com/4362923 for only $15.00! This stunning addition to Hugh’s adventures is also available for $2.99 as an Ebook! Available for the Kindle at http://tinyurl.com/makex3b, via the Nook at http://tinyurl.com/mnzgyww, and at Smashwords in
For More Information on the author, visit his Pro Se page at http://prose-press.com/lee-houston-jr-staffauthor. For more about Pro Se itself, go to www.prose-press.com.
For interviews, review copies, and questions, contact Morgan Minor, Director of Corporate Operations at MorganMinorProSe@yahoo.com
On this week’s episode of the Earth Station One podcast, the ESO crew powers up their Jaegers to battle invading the Kaiju! Mike Faber, Mike Gordon, Jennifer Hartshorn, the award-winning author Bobby Nash, Ashley Bergner, William Faber, and the award-winning artist Mark Maddox join together in one massive neural link to share one another’s deepest thoughts about giant mechs fighting colossal monsters. The apocalypse may have been canceled, but San Diego Comic Con is still on schedule! On the eve of the biggest conventions of the year, we also give our thoughts on the already released info as well as some predictions of news to be revealed. All this, plus the usual Rants, Raves, Khan Report, and Shout Outs!
Join us for yet another episode of The Earth Station One Podcast we like to call: When Monsters Attack – The Pacific Rim Movie Review at www.esopodcast.com
You are at the San Diego Comic-Con, the biggest pop-culture event on the planet. And you may feel a little over-whelmed. So many people. So much to see, so much sound and color. So many nay-sayers, such as myself a week ago.
