Monthly Archive: October 2010

Happy 60th Birthday, Peanuts!

Happy 60th Birthday, Peanuts!

  • News
  • October 3, 2010

On October 2, 1950, Peanuts premiered on October 2, 1950, in eight newspapers: The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Minneapolis Tribune, The Allentown Call-Chronicle, The Bethlehem Globe-Times, The Denver Post, The Seattle Times, and The Boston Globe. It began as a daily strip, reprinted above.

If you’ve never heard of Peanuts, I, for one, would like to welcome our new alien overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted blogger I could be
helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves!

Alan Menken Revisits ‘Beauty & The Beast’

Alan Menken Revisits ‘Beauty & The Beast’

  • News
  • October 2, 2010

In case you missed it, Walt Disney is finally releasing their wonderful Beauty and the Beast on Blu-ray this coming Tuesday. The movie, which earned an Academy Award nomination for best picture, is getting the full PR treatment and they provided us with this interview with composer Alan Mencken, whose work with the late Howard Ashman re-energized the films during the 1980s and 1990s.The combo pack will include the Blu-ray, a standard DVD and a digital copy for your personal use.

Alan Menken has composed huge hits such as THE LITTLE MERMAID, ALADDIN, HERCULES, POCAHONTAS   and ENCHANTED and   has won more Oscars than any other living person. He sat down for the following  interview.

Question: You have been involved with so many wonderful Disney films, what does BEAUTY AND THE BEAST mean to you?

Alan Menken: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST has been a perennial favorite of people who love Disney animation. They   have a continued appetite to know more about it and to see it enhanced. That is incredibly gratifying. I love the film too. I just watched it  again and it is gorgeous. It is possible that it is even more beautiful than it was when it debuted. It is very gratifying to have this “Diamond Edition”.

Question: Can you explain what it was that you did musically  with BEAUTY  AND THE BEAST?

Alan Menken: All  Howard and I did  was to tell the story, which is very romantic. The setting is   timeless and I just went to my gut, which is what I always do. With  this one, Howard was in his last days, although at the beginning I didn’t know that, but by the end of working on it, I knew that this was  a great artist’s last creation. I am sure that emotion informed what we did. We worked with a palette of French and classical and Broadway music and it was a culmination of a certain kind of  emotion for us. Also all these projects we do – whether it is THE LITTLE MERMAID OR BEAUTY AND THE BEAST or ALADDIN –  are  homages. This  one is an homage to the most romantic  parts of the Disney canon. Maybe I was channeling something special I don’t know, but it was clearly romantic and timeless and I credit Howard with a lot of what we came up with.

Question: The music has everything: from poignancy, to humor and ultimately joy, how did you convey that spectrum of emotions?

Alan Menken: That is what we always aim to do.  As an ideal, the Disney musical   is  always a combination of things that are joyful and things that are wistful and scary too and BEAUTY has all those elements. I can only be as good as the stories I am telling and  the characters that I am bringing to life. And with this film we were bringing some powerful things to life.

(more…)

ANNOUNCING THE FIRST EVER ALL PULP Pulp Artist Weekend!!! Lead off interview-Tamas Jakab!

  • News
  • October 2, 2010
That’s right, Pulpsters!  In a last minute inspired decision ALL PULP is now dedicating weekends (as long as material and artist types last anyway) to that often unsung pulp creator, the ARTIST.  Each weekend, ALL PULP will endeavor to post interviews, columns, news, etc. that focuses on the work of artists of all types in bringing pulp to life!   

With the short notice of this (sorry, ALL PULP just works that way sometimes), if you have any art you’d like to share, make sure you have permission of the artist and send it on for the first ever ALL PULP P.A.W. Gallery to debut ON SUNDAY.  This will occur every weekend and will include art submitted for the Gallery each week!

First up for ALL PULP’s P.A.W., an interview with Tamas Jakab, artist and co-creator on EL GORGO!!!

TAMAS JAKAB, Artist/Letterer/Colorist/Co-Creator on El Gorgo!

AP: Who is Tamas Jakab?
TJ: Tamas Jakab is a person (presumably, though he may actually be a clone or a robot), who lives in Cleveland, Ohio with 2 cats, a dog and a girl. I had a brief career doing cover and design work for the late, great Frontier Publishing, as well as various freelance gigs. I am the co-creator, artist, letterer and colorist on EL GORGO! On the side I work a day job unrelated to comics.
AP: What are your artistic influences and aspirations?
TJ: From comics, Jack Kirby, because all superhero comics are Jack Kirby, whether they realize it or not. Also Grant Morrison, because he goes for the big, crazy ideas, and superhero comics work best when they’re big and crazy. Otherwise, the list could go on and on – Los Bros Hernandez, Darwyn Cooke, Steve Ditko, Mike Allred…
AP: What do your think your strengths as an artist are?
TJ: Certainly not inking. I think I’m barely adequate as an inker, which can be frustrating, because I really love the aesthetics of comic book inking. I do think I have a really good eye for color, design and typography though.
AP: What’s your dream project?
TJ: Currently, EL GORGO! I’m really not the type of person who just wants to draw BATMAN or SPIDER-MAN. I prefer working on original concepts where I’ve got a lot of creative freedom and can play with different styles and genres.
AP: How did you get involved with Mike McGee and end up co-creating EL GORGO! ?
TJ: I’ve known Mike since 1987. We first collaborated on an adaptation of one of his short stories for the FRONTIER PUBLISHING PRESENTS comic back in 2005, and we’d been trying to get a new project going for 2 years with little success. EL GORGO! was a happy accident that came from a proposal to do a throwaway story for a comics anthology. We pretty much had the basic character of El Gorgo worked out in about an hour. We quickly realized we had a really fun, high-concept character and kept at it after the anthology didn’t work out.
AP: Who is EL GORGO! ?
TJ: EL GORGO! is a super-intelligent luchador gorilla scientist who saves the world on several occasions, plays in the world’s greatest surf-rock band, Gorgo-A-Go-Go, and is an historical novelist on the side. He’s pretty much Reed Richards, Captain America, Indiana Jones and Doctor Who rolled into one.
AP: Where do you see EL GORGO! as a character and as a comic book going?
TJ: Optimally, EL GORGO! would be in the mind and heart of every living being on Earth. Right now we’re just getting issues out as we can, which isn’t as frequently as it should be, and I’d like to see us move away from print and entirely into digital publishing.
As a character, we’ve really just gotten started…
AP: What do you and Mike have planned for EL GORGO! ?
TJ: We have way more things planned out than we will probably ever get to. Currently we have the book plotted out to about issue 13 or so, which would run through the Secret Origin of El Gorgo. In between, there are still some major characters to introduce, but I can’t give spoilers. Should we ever get to it, we have a good idea what the last EL GORGO! story would be, and I know exactly what’s on the very last page.
In a perfect world, we’d find the time to go at least 40 issues, which seems to be the sweet spot for good comic runs.
AP: You did the cover for DILLON AND THE LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN BELL.  What was the concept for that cover?
It was based on a cover from DOC SAVAGE MAGAZINE in 1933, “The Red Skull” by Walter Baumhofer, which is featured in the great collection PULP ART. Given Dillon’s pulp roots, particularly Doc Savage, I figured I’d go right back to the source for inspiration.
TJ: How did you achieve that aged look that makes the cover look like an old paperback?
Additionally, on the EL GORGO! back covers, I used halftone patterns to simulate old-school color separation by hand. I love the fact that I can use expensive modern technology to simulate cheap printing methods that were replaced by better technology.
AP: What’s your method of working? 
TJ: I work 100% digitally these days. I reached a point where it made no difference if I worked on paper or on the computer, except it’s easier to fix mistakes on the computer. I work primarily in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, and I now use Manga Studio to draw and ink EL GORGO! The cover for DILLON AND THE LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN BELL was created in Corel Painter and then finished in Photoshop. 
AP:  What’s a typical Day In The Life of Tamas Jakab like?
TJ: Very hectic and yet unspectacular.
AP: Where should we go to see other examples of your work?
TJ: The covers for Frontier and some pre-EL GORGO art projects are still hosted on my old website, http://rednever.com. I’m no longer maintaining the site, and eventually the art projects will find a new home.
AP: Anything else we should know about you?
TJ: I haven’t forgotten about EL GORGO! issue #4! I have some other non-art projects I have to work on, but I’ll be back on it as soon as I can!
National Graphic Novel Writing Month, Day #2: Why 48 pages?

National Graphic Novel Writing Month, Day #2: Why 48 pages?

  • News
  • October 2, 2010

So we’re already getting questions in (and if you have questions, post them in a comments thread or use the feedfack form for privacy) and the most immediate one is– why 48 pages? Why not 50, or 45, or whatever length seems appropriate for the story?

1. If a picture is worth a thousand words, and National Novel Writing Month wants a minimum of 50,000 words– you do the math.

2. We’re going for the shortest length of comic book that you can put a spine on as a prestige format book.

3. More to the point, the production requirements of comics limit you to the number of pages you can use, usually in multiples of 8 or 16. With a novel, you can enlarge or shrink the text to fit those multiple page counts– and obviously, you can’t do that with pictures that are designed to go a certain way. Printing more pages so you can fit those extra three pages in can mean a huge increase in the cost of printing the book. (Production limitations show up in other areas too. As a quick example, there’s little more irritating to an editor to have a double page spread come in that’s supposed to go on pages 11 and 12– which are back to back pages, not facing pages. We’ll discuss others in future installments.)

Understand, the script you’re writing will probably not be 48 pages long, but you have to write that when it’s all drawn that it will fill 48 pages. Your script may be shorter, or it may be far longer. The Killing Joke was a 48 page graphic novel, and it took Alan Moore over 16000 words just to describe the first quarter of the book. That’s 39 single spaced pages of typing for 12 pages of comics, people.

Is there a right ratio for your script? Actually, yes– if you do a thumbnail version of your story as part of your process, then obviously your layout should match the number of pages. But we’ll get into that next time.

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

The Point Radio: Adam Green Is FROZEN

The Point Radio: Adam Green Is FROZEN


It’s been a good month for fan fave director Adam Green – HATCHET II is in theaters and FROZEN is in DVD stores this week. Adam fills us in on how his own fears played a part in constructing a big screen thriller. Plus Robert Zemeckis back in time – again?

And be sure to stay on The Point via iTunes - ComicMix, RSS, MyPodcast.Comor Podbean!

Follow us now on and !

Don’t forget that you can now enjoy THE POINT 24 hours a Day – 7 Days a week!. Updates on all parts of pop culture, special programming by some of your favorite personalities and the biggest variety of contemporary music on the net – plus there is a great round of new programs on the air including classic radio each night at 12mid (Eastern) on RETRO RADIO COMICMIX’s Mark Wheatley hitting the FREQUENCY every Saturday at 9pm and even the Editor-In-Chief of COMICMIX, Mike Gold, with his daily WEIRD SCENES and two full hours of insanity every Sunday (7pm ET) with WEIRD SOUNDS!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE FOR FREE or go to GetThePointRadio for more including a connection for mobile phones including iPhone & Blackberrys.

 

 

PLANETARY STORIES REACHES 20TH ISSUE!!

  • News
  • October 1, 2010
From Publisher Shelby Vick-
“Jerry Page, Bob Kennedy and I tossed around the idea of having our October issue be a Special Holiday Issue — then decided, “Nah — we’ll just see what comes along.”
What came along was a great group of holiday stories!  More, in fact, than we had in our distant Holiday Issue.
In reverse order, we start with Eugie Foster’s classic story about the origin of Chinese New Year — well-illustrated by Roy Coker.  Then Rob Shelsky flabbergasted us with some Christmas humor that should become a classic on its own.

 Jim Griffin took an unusual step and wrote a short Christmas story about his Texas Ranger, Jim Blawcyzk.  To this point, the Ranger has only been in novels.

The Mountie is involved in a Christmas story, Erwin Roberts presents us with a Grant Rockwell story set in a past Thanksgiving, while the FutureTeam saves Thanksgiving turkeys for the universe, four burlesque girls who happen to be ghosts star in a Halloween trilogy, while the Diamondville Dolls are involved in their own trick’r’treating, and —
Well, I’m sure I’m missing some!
Some people might view “Cavern Wight” by Lane Harrison as revisiting a major controversy from the 1940s but the truth is, it’s just a lot of fun to read. It’s the first of a series and we hope you enjoy it.
We also have space opera!  Ron  Butler brings us another Rory Rammer story, Kirk Straughen gives us excitement, Richard Logan has his hero save a princess, Bob Brolin’s strange friend has an adventure — there’s even a Capt Puffin adventure.
Have fun!”

Spectacled 7 Author on Earth Station One Podcast!!!

  • News
  • October 1, 2010

Check it out at http://tinyurl.com/27uv44j

Earth Station One Episode 27 – I Think I’m A Clone Now, There’s always two of me just a hangin’ around.


This week on ESO, Mike, Dan and Mike are joined by comic book writer Bobby Nash to talk about his new trade paperback Yin Yang, and then we dive back into the world of Star Wars and talk about Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Also this week we try again at our new crew rant section “Crew Kudos“.


Join us for another fun filled podcast that we like to call Episode 27: I Think I’m A Clone Now, There’s always two of me just a hangin’ around.


Table of Contents
0:00:00 Intro / Welcome
0:02:26 Crew Kudos – Batman: The Cult / The Akinator / Superman – Batman: Apocalypse / Comic Book Prices
0:28:48 Bobby Nash Interview
0:53:32 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
1:29:13 Show Close

NaGraNoWriMo Day #1: Writing Resources

NaGraNoWriMo Day #1: Writing Resources

  • News
  • October 1, 2010

Are you in for National Graphic Novel Writing Month? We hope so. And because we’re generous people, we thought we’d give you some reading material to help you start on your masterpiece.

The books above could be considered the holy trinity to the world of sequential art. Scott McCloud presents how to write and build a comic book, by deconstructing the art form into its basic principles and components. We can’t recommend this books enough. And once you get through those, consider:

Before Scott McCloud, there was Will Eisner… the legend that spawned an industry. If you don’t know who Will is… we recommend you just buy these books now and thank us later. And if you’ve finished these, why not take a gander at:

Living legends in their own rights, this trio of books could be considered the followup courses after you’ve polished off both Eisner and McCould’s contributions. All of these books will help you, and are available at decent comic
book stores, through your local library, or by following the links to
purchase through Amazon.

After you’ve boned up on your structure, have your basic plot in mind, and your word doc opened… why not get a graphic novel that gives you access to the final working script, so you can compare structures! We recommend:

We also have to point to the excellent work of Tim Simmons and the Comic Book Script Archive, where you can see a number of scripts in various styles and levels of development. (We’ll probably have a few more to add by the time we’re done.)

What books do you recommend? Sound off in the comments.

Pulp 2.0 Press Announces New Line of Pulp Graphic Novels for Digital and Print

  • News
  • October 1, 2010
Pulp Publisher Launching Line by Licensing Wooley and Tidwell’s 1980’s Indie Comic Serials
MIRACLE SQUAD and TWILIGHT AVENGER for 2011 Release



Los Angeles, CA – Pulp 2.0 Press CEO Bill Cunningham today announced that the company is launching a line of what he calls “pulp graphic novels” for digital and print distribution.  The company begins this new line of pulp entertainment media by licensing the publishing  and media rights to the 1980’s indie comic book serials THE MIRACLE SQUAD and THE TWILIGHT AVENGER created by writer John Wooley and artist Terry Tidwell.

THE MIRACLE SQUAD was originally published as two 4-issue miniseries by  Upshot Graphics  and later, Apple Comics.  The first serial chronicles the adventures of a team of 1936 movie studio professionals who take on the mob bent on ‘acquiring’ their poverty row studio as a means of money laundering.  The team uses their unique skills in props, stunts, makeup, escapology and acting to uncover the leader behind the ‘hostile takeover’ and give him his two-fisted comeuppance. Cunningham is quick to say that, “The Miracle Squad is akin to today’s A-TEAM only set in 1930’s poverty row Hollywood. It’s fun, outrageous and jam-packed with all sorts of pulpy goodness.”

The second Miracle Squad serial  BLOOD AND DUST features the adventures of the team when they tackle a group of land thieves capitalizing on the infamous ‘Dust Bowl’ crisis of the 1930’s.  Set against the backdrop of the Oklahoma range, the movie studio adventurers go head-to-head against poverty, exploitation and cross-burning klansmen.  

THE TWILIGHT AVENGER is the story of a college student Reece Chambers who uses an arsenal of super-scientific gadgets to seek revenge against the criminals who ran down his fiancee and left her in a coma.  Unknown to Chambers is the fact the criminals are led by a masked villain known only as The Centipede. Originally launched by Elite Comics, the series was later published by Eternity Comics and featured zombies, mad scientists and even time travel.

“Both titles reflect the action-packed pulps, cliffhanger serials and B-movies of the 1930’s — the era which also inspired retro movies like THE ROCKETEER and THE INDIANA JONES series,”  said Pulp 2.0 Press MPB (Mad Pulp Bastard),  Bill Cunningham.  “John Wooley and Terry Tidwell captured that dynamic era within the pages of their comic achieving the perfect blend of the heroic daring of the serials with the real-life drama of the 1930’s Depression.  I remember reading both comics in the 1980’s when they were first published, and after I began building Pulp 2.0, I sought John and Terry out to see if their work was available. Their retro-styled comics are a perfect fit for our readers.”  

After several emails and phone conversations, Cunningham licensed the rights to bring back the duo’s comic creations for both print and digital readers.  While the books design style is still in the beginning stages of development, the company is approaching both Miracle Squad and Twilight Avenger as ‘pulp properties that look appropriate to their source material.’  As Cunningham says, “Pulp isn’t a particular medium, it’s an attitude.”  Since both titles were obviously influenced by poverty row adventure cinema of the 1930’s it makes sense to keep and try to amplify that aesthetic.  Miracle Squad and Twilight Avenger  are both terrific stories and our audience deserves to read them in uniquely designed collected editions in whatever format they choose. This is the approach we have taken with our first book, BROTHER BLOOD by Donald F. Glut as well as our soon-to-be-released RADIO WESTERN ADVENTURES which features a ‘lost’ short stories by Glut and legendary DOC SAVAGE creator Lester Dent.”

To that end, Pulp 2.0 is digitally ‘cleaning up’ the original pages for both  Miracle Squad and Twilight Avenger and compiling many bonus “behind-the-scenes” features for the print editions. The bonus features will include design sketches, notes, script pages and essays. “We take our time in the design phase and try and come up with a few special surprises for our readers,” said Cunningham.  “Our goal is to create collectible editions that are easily available online.”

John Wooley, the writer / co-creator of Miracle Squad and Twilight Avenger had this to say: “No one loves pulps and the whole idea of classic pulp fiction more than I do, and our first  phone conversation made it clear to me that Bill Cunningham was a kindred soul who not only shared that love, but also knew exactly how to get the Twilight Avenger and the Miracle Squad to a wider audience than they were ever able to reach during their initial runs.  F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote that there were no second acts in American lives. Terry and I are so pleased that,  thanks to Pulp 2.0 Press,  our ’30s heroes and heroines are going to be an exception.”

Both ‘pulp graphic novels’ are scheduled to begin release in 1st quarter 2011.  More details will be made available as they develop. Please visit the Pulp 2.0 website at http://www.pulp2ohpress.com/.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact Bill Cunningham at the information at the top of the page.

About Pulp 2.0:

Pulp 2.0 is a publishing and media company that creates and distributes quality pulp entertainment media in every manner possible for its audience all over the world to enjoy. The company licenses, redesigns and republishes classic pulp, exploitation paperbacks and magazines through a variety of print and digital media; breathing new life into many of these ‘lost’ properties.

The company also creates new pulp entertainment for its target audience including the original vampire blaxploitation novel BROTHER BLOOD by Donald F. Glut, an internet radio adventure serial THE KNIGHTMARE  “The Murder Legion Strikes at Midnight”  (produced in association with Toronto’s  Decoder Ring Theater), and the upcoming book tribute to legendary radio adventure historian Jim Harmon, RADIO WESTERN ADVENTURES.  In addition, the company is developing the re-release of Glut’s widely acclaimed horror-adventure book series THE NEW ADVENTURES OF FRANKENSTEIN in collectible editions for print and digital.

Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks