Throughout the month of September, The University of Chicago Press is giving away the digital edition of The Score, the fifth book in Richard Stark’s ‘Parker’ series.
Stark’s ‘Parker’ has become an icon of action, violence, and crime fiction and has gained prominence in the last several months, due in part to graphic novel adaptations of the Stark works by Darwyn Cooke as well as renewed interest in the character as a film property.
Also currently available for an unknown length of time is the Edgar award winning comic crime novel ‘God Save the Mark.’ This book, hailed as one of the best blends of humor and crime to date, was written by Donald Westlake, the man who also wrote as Richard Stark.
Both books are available in Kindle format from Amazon. The epub edition of The Score can be had through Barnes & Noble, the PDF of The Score can be obtained from U of C, and the epub edition of God Save the Mark is available via Copia.
Harlan Zinck, a long time member of the Radio Archives family, has moved on to take advantage of new opportunities. Radio Archives wishes Harlan all the best in his future endeavors.
Starting with this issue, the Radio Archives Newsletter will be bi-weekly and emailed to you every other Friday afternoon. Tommy Hancock, a good friend and supporter of the Archives, joins the Archives as editor of this newsletter. Tommy is one of the bright lights in New Pulp. A partner in a publishing company, Tommy is an author with many fiction short stories and one published novel to his credit. Tommy also runs a Pulp convention each year while maintaining several blogs and a podcast.
We are excited that the infrastructure of our website has been dramatically upgraded and you should see a much faster and snappier website.
Stay tuned for the same great info and quality you’ve come to know and for a few new surprises as well, all from RadioArchives.com!
The World’s Greatest Detective Back On The Case
NEW RELEASE – The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 2
Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887, the character of Sherlock Holmes was a fixture of American broadcasting almost from the beginning of network radio. First heard over NBC in the fall of 1930, Holmes and Dr. John Watson – his friend, right-hand man, and chronicler (his “Boswell” as Holmes called him) – were portrayed by a number of actors on screen and on radio throughout the 1930s. Most definitely the appearance of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in the 1939 20th Century Fox film “The Hound of the Baskervilles” created, for many, the perfect embodiment of the characters. Because of this, Rathbone and Bruce would come to be seen as Holmes and Watson in the flesh for the next six years – both on radio, in series for NBC and Mutual, and in a lengthy series of second features made for both Fox and Universal through 1945.
By the middle of 1946, however, Basil Rathbone had grown weary of playing Holmes – so much so, in fact, that he refused to sign a lucrative seven-year radio contract. And so, at the end of the 1945-46 season, the producers of “The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” faced the necessity of finding another actor to play the leading part – and, after considering a number of talented members of Hollywood’s British colony, happened upon the name of Tom Conway.
Born in Russia and educated in England, Tom Conway was certainly no stranger to the detective genre, having taken over the movie role of The Falcon from his brother George Sanders in 1942. His seasoned acting abilities gave him the ability to adopt a voice and delivery very similar to that of Basil Rathbone, performing his lines in much the same clipped and precise way that his predecessor had done. He quickly acquainted himself with the role and, in the company of Nigel Bruce – who opted to stay with the series in exchange for being assigned star billing in the weekly adventures – was introduced as Sherlock Holmes in October of 1946. Also, in 1946, the series moved from the Mutual network to ABC – the former Blue Network – and was given a few more production values to boost interest, as well as a new sponsor – the Semler Company, promoting their Kreml Hair Tonic and Shampoo.
Unfortunately, due to a combination of Rathbone’s departure and the inevitable loss of interest in a series that had been on the air for over six years led to both Conway and Bruce leaving the roles at the end of the 1946/47 season. “The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” would return the following season, moving from Hollywood to New York and recast with John Stanley and Alfred Shirley in the leading roles which is also available from RadioArchives.com.
Heard today, “The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”, with Tom Conway and Nigel Bruce, not only retain their entertainment value but compare quite favorably with the earlier series with Rathbone. Conway is indeed quite good as Holmes and Nigel Bruce, though often disdained by the “Baker Street Irregulars” who prefer their Conan Doyle adventures straight, is always charming as the sometimes baffled but always loyal Dr. Watson. Wisely, the producers retained the framing device of Watson introducing each story from the cozy scene of his fireside, retired (as radio would have it) comfortably in California.
This collection offers ten full length broadcasts of “The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” starring Tom Conway and Nigel Bruce, all taken from the original reference recordings and beautifully restored for outstanding audio fidelity. If you’re a long-time fan of “the world’s greatest consulting detective”, or if you just love a good mystery, you’ll definitely want to add The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 2 to your collection today priced at only $14.98 for the five Audio CD set or $9.98 for the Digital Download.
Celebrating Sherlock Means More Holmes For You!
With the debut of The New Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 2, Radio Archives is celebrating Sherlock Holmes for the next two weeks! And you’re invited to the party!
Radio Archives, in association with Moonstone Entertainment, commissioned the beautifully rendered art for this collection from Timothy Lantz. Radio Archives is proud to offer you Moonstone’s comic take on the World’s Greatest Detective as part of a limited time promotion!
Buy any of the Sherlock Holmes products listed below from now until the next newsletter is released and RadioArchives.com will automatically include for absolutely FREE The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, Volume One, a Graphic Novel from Moonstone, normally priced at $22.95. No coupon code required.
Order one of the following Audio CDs or DVD:
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 2
Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1 from Nostalgia Ventures
Sherlock Holmes, Volume 2 from Nostalgia Ventures
Sherlock Holmes (Classic Television Series) DVD
And with your order, you’ll be able to thrill to the World’s Greatest Detective combating Dracula and the Invisible Man in Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, Volume One from Moonstone for FREE! Offer good for the next two weeks. (The bonus offer does not apply to the Download versions of these products)
New Digital Downloads Now Available
Laugh out loud at the lovable neighbor Harold Peary made famous – The Great Gildersleeve!
RA006 The Great Gildersleeve, Volume 1
RA035 The Great Gildersleeve, Volume 2
Dive into the original Medical Drama with The Story of Dr. Kildare!
RA018 The Story of Dr. Kildare, Volume 1
RA048 The Story of Dr. Kildare, Volume 2
Ride the Vocal Range with America’s Singing Cowboy – Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch!
RA104 Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, Volume 1
RA126 Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, Volume 2
Follow Ann Sothern’s antics as that Jill-of-all-trades – The Adventures of Maisie!
RA157 The Adventures of Maisie, Volume 1
RA197 The Adventures of Maisie, Volume 2
Find Mystery, Intrigue, and Espionage in The Adventures of Frank Race!
RA170 The Adventures of Frank Race, Volume 1
RA191 The Adventures of Frank Race, Volume 2
Fighting his way from Dime Novels to Radio – The Adventures of Frank Merriwell!
RA101 The Adventures of Frank Merriwell, Volume 1
RA203 The Adventures of Frank Merriwell, Volume 2
Digital Downloads from RadioArchives.com literally give you the best of everything. The same sparkling high quality audio content as our compact disc collections at a reduced price; Delivery immediately upon payment and the ability to play them on your phone, computer, iPod or portable device! Purchase the audio collections you love and enjoy them in a whole new way. Click here to see all the sets available for download.
New in Pulp Fiction: Doc Savage Volume 50 and The Shadow Volume 52
Anyone living in the world today knows that true heroes are very hard to come by. But, in the pulp fiction world of the 1930s and 1940s, heroes were always on watch to fight the criminals and evildoers that threatened our way of life. You’ll find proof of this in the two new double-novel pulp reprints now available from RadioArchives.com, featuring the top heroes from this Golden Age of literary entertainment:
Doc Savage Volume 50
The Pulp Era’s greatest superman journeys to the American West in classic pulp thrillers by Lester Dent writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, a bequest from a dying scientist leads Doc Savage to Death Valley in search of a long-dead pirate’s legendary treasure. Can this amazing invention allow The Pirate’s Ghost to speak from beyond the grave? Then, the Man of Bronze goes undercover at a Wyoming dude ranch to solve the bizarre puzzle of a strange Green Eagle with lead feathers. This special anniversary edition showcases the original color pulp covers by Emery Clarke, Paul Orban’s classic interior illustrations and an intriguing article by The Shadow’s famous raconteur, Walter B. Gibson. Priced at $14.95.
The Shadow Volume 52
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! The Knight of Darkness wages war on criminal masterminds in two thrilling pulp novels by Walter Gibson and Theodore Tinsley writing as “Maxwell Grant.” First, The Shadow executes a deadly chess game with The Crime Master, an underworld kingpin whose amazing superbrain rivals his own. Who will have the last laugh? Then, the Master of Darkness seeks to unmask The Fifth Napoleon, the master plotter who commands New York’s four most powerful crime lords. This instant collectors’ item features both classic cover paintings by George Rozen, the original interior pulp illustrations by Tom Lovell, historical commentary by popular culture historian Will Murray plus a biographical article by Anthony Tollin on Frank Readick,.”The Man with The Shadow’s Laugh.” Available for only $14.95.
Knowing The Shadow
Reviews Of The Shadow Pulp Tales By John Olsen
“The Golden Vulture” was published in the July 15, 1938 issue of The Shadow Magazine. It was actually written much earlier, in July of 1932. And it was written, not by Walter Gibson, but Lester Dent – the same Lester Dent who would begin writing the adventures of Doc Savage a few months later. It is the only Shadow pulp mystery ever written by Lester Dent, and was greatly revised by Walter Gibson before its 1938 publication, all which makes it a unique collaboration between the two.
The Golden Vulture is an unseen master criminal who extorts millions from wealthy men of society. He controls a vast empire of gangsters who do his every bidding. He communicates his instructions to his minions via small golden statues of a vulture which can receive and transmit radio and television signals. Who is The Golden Vulture? Who will be his next victim? And who can stop him? Only The Shadow can stop this super fiend’s quest for power and wealth!
Many of Lester Dent’s famous touches are evident in this story — little things that would later show up in his Doc Savage stories. Great strength, for example. The Shadow, as described by the pen of Lester Dent, is capable of great strength. Even Walter Gibson’s Shadow was exceedingly strong, but Dent’s description of The Shadow’s display of strength seems quite familiar to anyone who has read Doc Savage. His grip is that of steel bands. He easily overpowers a foe of tremendous strength and throws him through a door, reducing it to splinters. And then, there’s the gadgets. Lester Dent loved to use gadgets in his stories. And although Walter Gibson enjoyed using them in his Shadow stories as well, he employed far fewer of them than did Dent. In this story, the coolest gadget of all is the actual statues of The Golden Vulture. Most are small statuettes of under two feet tall. But their insides contain enough electronics to receive and transmit both audio and video as well as enough explosive charges to create tremendous destruction.
We also see the touch of Walter Gibson in this story. He keeps the character of The Shadow true to the version readers had come to recognize in 1938. The Shadow creates a temporary sanctum in Miami, where he puts his thoughts to paper with pen and disappearing ink. The Shadow has strange but vague powers to compel others to do his wishes. He communicates secret messages by the use of slightly emphasized words in otherwise seemingly innocent announcements. He disappears from the back of taxi-cabs, leaving a five dollar bill on the seat. He is a master of disguise, who can make himself faultlessly appear as others.
I really enjoyed reading this partial collaboration of Dent and Gibson, and I think you will too. You’ll appreciate the exotic locations and gadgets typical of Doc Savage, mixed with the moody atmosphere and frenetic action of Walter Gibson’s Shadow. A very unique story, and one that is definitely recommended!
Read The Golden Vulture and another Shadow tale when you get your copy of The Shadow, Volume 1 available at RadioArchives.com for only $12.95.
AUDIOBOOKS
Special Collectors’ Editions of Audiobooks
Attention collectors and autograph seekers! Here’s a special offer just made for you.
RadioArchives.com’s two new audiobooks, Python Isle and White Eyes, are now available in special signed limited editions, available only from RadioArchives.com!
Each Special Edition CD set is autographed by the entire production team including author Will Murray, producer/director Roger Rittner, and the voice actors and recordist. They come with a special bookplate to certify their authenticity.
There are only 50 copies of each set available. There will be no more.
These special collector editions are available for just $45.98 for Python Isle, and $51.98 for White Eyes. That includes the complete set of CDs, plus the autographed case, and certified bookplate.
Reviews are starting to come in for White Eyes, the latest audiobook from RadioArchives.com. And they’re just as enthusiastic as the reviews for our first audiobook, Python Isle.
Stephen Brandt at Audiobook Heaven says:
“The whole idea behind these Doc Savage productions is to give them the feel of an old-time radio program. Richard Epcar achieved this with his radio-announcer voice, and his melodramatic characterizations. White Eyes is narrated in 3D stereo, with Epcar’s narration coming through the center channel, and his character voices coming from the right or left, putting the listener right in the middle. Add to this Radio Archive’s crystal clear reproduction technology, and you have a cinema quality extravaganza.”
“… you can really tell how much work the likes of Roger Rittner and of course Radio Archives puts into these audiobooks. The sound is crisp and clear and they make sure to get a narrator that can not only portray the Man of Bronze and his “fabulous five” but EVERY character in the tale as well, and they’ve chosen wisely with Richard Epcar.
I have to say that in Chapter 28 “Gangdom’s Long Arm” I was pacing the floor in front of the radio, since this is a chapter where Doc Savage’s skyscraper headquarters comes under siege by the united criminal underworld. That I think is the greatest compliment I can give to Radio Archives and Will Murray, the writing and production is so strong that I actually got nervous for Doc Savage and his friends!”
And don’t miss narrator Michael McConnohie’s exclusive “Python Isle” promotional video, including a number of dialog excerpts (scroll to the bottom of the page):
Radio Archives not only offers the finest Audio and Pulp Products, but we also give you awesome bargains with the RadioArchives.com Deal Of The Day! You can take advantage of Three Deals at All Times with the Deal of the Day!
Every Day a Different Item is available at 10% Off. If you’re into Pulp, Tuesdays and Thursdays are the days to pick up a great Pulp deal at a 10% discount!
Every two weeks as the newsletter comes out, a different item is available at 25% off from RadioArchives.com
Each month, one item is 50% off for the entire month!
Enjoy Quality. Enjoy Savings. Take advantage of the Deal of the Day from RadioArchives.com!
Hearing From You!
Comments From Customers!
Greg Burton listened to Let George Do It and writes:
I am so glad you have made the radio shows available as downloads. I started collecting old radio shows in mp3 format in 1995 and have listened regularly (daily) since that time. Last year I purchased a CD from you (“Let George Do It”), and since you have been making shows available as a download, I have purchased three items from you. I have been amazingly surprised how much more I enjoy listening to your top-quality productions. I did not think it would make that big of a difference, but it does. I can’t thank you enough. There are many more that over time I will purchase. I get on your site regularly to see if you have any new releases.
Find out for yourself what Greg is talking about! Pick up an Old Time Radio Classic, on CD or by Digital Download, today from RadioArchives.com!
She wants to conquer the charts using the same superhero identity as her grandmother who dutifully served her country in WWII. Backed by her band, the Hounds of Glory, Flying Glory struggles with life’s battles while fighting supervillians
Something may have short circuited when you struck the machine… Dr. Molly Payne gets more than she bargained for in this week’s page of “Revelations,” available now at http://www.flying-glory.com/ !
The Complete Casebook of Cardigan, Volume 1: 1931-32 by Frederick Nebel, introduction by Will Murray, illustrations by John Fleming Gould, cover by Walter Baumhofer
The greatest series from the pages of Dime Detective Magazine is finally collected in four large editions. Running from 1931-37, Frederick Nebel’s P.I. Jack Cardigan was one of the main reasons for that magazine’s success as well as highly influential to the most popular hard-boiled writers of the day. Sadly, only a handful of the 44-installment series have ever been reprinted since their original appearances 80 years ago. This reprint series will reprint the entire run. Volume 1 contains an all-new introduction by Will Murray and features the first 11 stories, complete, uncut, and with the original John Fleming Gould illustrations: “Death Alley (November, 1931),” “Hell’s Pay Check (December, 1931),” “Six Diamonds and a Dick (January, 1932),” “And There Was Murder (February, 1932),” “Phantom Fingers (March, 1932),” “Murder on the Loose (April, 1932),” “Rogues’ Ransom (August, 1932),” “Lead Pearls (September, 1932,” “The Dead Don’t Die (October, 1932),” and “The Candy Killer (November, 1932),” “A Truck-Load of Diamonds (December, 1932).”
GETTING OFF By Lawrence Block (Writing as Jill Emerson) Hard Case Crime 335 pages Release Date 20 Sept 2011
One of the classic traits of a noire crime story is the protagonist being an unsympathetic character. The history of American literature took a sharp left turn when this new genre came into its own, evolving from the hardcore crime pulps of the 1930s. Till then, the majority of books generally portrayed the central figures as worthy of the readers’ admiration when the behaved in true heroic style, or sympathetic when they did not. But either way, one was able to identify with the characters.
Noire changed all that and GETTING OFF is a truly fitting example of the genre as the lead character is a female sociopath without a conscience. Early in the tale we learn that Kit Tolliver was sexually abused by her father from a very young age. But whether that abuse caused her unrelenting psychosis is not argued in the slightest, as her personal response to it is to coldly murder total strangers. Block does make it clear that Kit is in some bizarre mentally deranged way killing her father over and over again with each new man she sleeps with. What he does not do his judge her for it and therein lies the perspective that is truly unsettling.
At times the book’s heavy handedness slips into black comedy territory and the prevailing humor is twisted in its perversity. Along Kit’s journey of life, and death-dealing, she logically encounters partners who are just as sick as she is. In those scenes it is all too easy to start rooting for her as if she is somehow more worthy of survival then the other monsters she has crossed paths with. The last noire thriller to have bothered me this much was Jim Thompson’s classic THE KILLER INSIDE ME. And like that book, this one is not for the faint of heart.
In the end, GETTING OFF is a cautionary tale about the sexual mores of our times and the dangerous waters singles, and cheaters, swim in. Let them read GETTING OFF and I guarantee you they will think twice about their next plunge into those dark depths where the toothy sharks prowl.
QUARRY’S EX By Max Allan Collins Hard Case Crime 211 pages
Available 20 Sept.2011
Review by Ron Fortier
Max Allan Collins started writing his Quarry books back in 1976 with The Broker. It was the first time we were introduced to the Vietnam vet turned paid assassin. In that tale, we learned how Quarry, not his real name of course, came home to find his wife in bed with another man. He murders the guy by dropping a car on him and then, because of his service record as a war hero, is acquitted by jury. Shortly thereafter he is recruited by a man known only as the Broker to become a professional killer.
In the books that have appeared since that stellar debut, that opening scenario has often been retold many times to bring the new readers up to speed. Recently, since becoming affiliated with Hard Case Crime, Collins has begun filling in specific details of Quarry’s life, each more compelling than the last. In this particular book, we are told what happened to Quarry’s ex-wife after they divorced and parted. But Quarry’s personal life is, as always case, only the subplot of the story.
Quarry has come to a small Arizona town where a movie studio is shooting an action B movie. When he discovers that the director of the film is the target of a hit, Quarry approaches the man and offers his own lethal services to both eliminate the threat and discover who put out the contract in the first place. It is this neat little twist combination of mystery and crime thriller that makes this series so original and fun. Quarry is no knight-in-shining armor private eye out to save the world. He’s a killer who makes a good living taking out other killers.
Once the first part of his contract has been efficiently resolved, Quarry is a master of death-dealing, he then becomes a detective chasing down the person who put out the contract on the moviemaker. As always, there are plenty of juicy suspects from the mob boss who is financing the project to the director’s wife who inherits all if he dies. The problem is the woman is Quarry’s ex-wife. The second he lays eyes on her, old familiar feelings he thought long dead begin to resurface, complicating an already precarious situation.
Paying homage to the potboilers of the 40s and 50s, Collins laces his tale with the most outrageous sexual encounters; all done with a sly, sharp wit that is ingratiating. At the same time he balances that adult humor with explosive violence that is as mesmerizing as it is ugly. His prose falls into place with the deft touch of a contemporary poet, each line awakening a new possibility in how we see the world. Reading Quarry is an education in human psychology taught from the barrel of a silenced automatic.
(Postscript – This review was written and posted last year when the book was first published by Dorchester Press. Shortly thereafter Hard Case Crime parted company with that firm and this new edition is now being released by their new British publisher, Titan Books.)
Sean Ellis is the talented author of multiple novels, including Heaven’s Shroud and The Chessmen series. He is also the creator of his own New Pulp character, Dodge Dalton, which has currently two books out in his series. Dodge Dalton In The Shadow of Falcons Wings and Dodge Dalton and the Outpost of Fate are as high adventure as they sound and after talking to Sean, Dodge’s origins come Ellis’ own sense of adventure .
Sean admits, “When I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark as a kid, I fell in love with adventure stories, and I really became fascinated with the pre-World War II time period. It was a turning point for the way we saw the world in terms of exploration and technology. The world of the 1930’s was still pretty big and there were a lot of unexplored places. If you wanted to find a lost city or something like that, you couldn’t just jump on Google Earth and do satellite reconnaissance and then fly directly there in a helicopter.
That fascination for the time period, and the fact that I was making a serious bid to write for the (now mostly defunct) Indiana Jones novel series, led me to the pulps, and particularly Doc Savage. I had a passing familiarity with pulp fiction, but once I started doing some research, I realized that there was a lot of potential for a new pulp renaissance, not just in terms of content, but in the way books are published.
I had the idea to launch a series where several authors would be working simultaneously to produce titles for a single series—much like Charles Ardai did with the Gabriel Hunt series a few years later—and so I enlisted some friends to help me draw up the characters and brainstorm some plots. My original dream didn’t quite happen as planned, but the process got the ball rolling creatively.
The concept that came out of that mix was a passing of the torch story loosely based on Doc Savage. The pitch went something like this: An evil force is rising and the world needs its greatest hero…but he’s been missing for years. A young journalist tracks down the hero’s associates in an effort to find the missing hero, battling the villains every step of the way, and eventually becomes the world’s new champion.
As much as I was influenced by the Doc Savage concept, I didn’t want my hero to be larger-than-life. Instead of being a war-hero, surgeon, inventor, etc. with unlimited resources, he would be young and inexperienced, but intelligent and resourceful enough to outwit the villains and earn the respect of the old champion’s team of seasoned veteran adventurers.”
The desire to be an adventurer and a writer perhaps is the biggest connection between Ellis and Dalton.
“One of my favorite tropes has always been the writer as protagonist. I like the idea of the writer trying to imitate his literary creations, probably because my childhood dream was to be a writer/adventure hero.
In the story, Dodge is a sportswriter for a New York newspaper, who get tapped to ghostwrite stories about a war hero named Captain Falcon, as told by one of Falcon’s purported associates, “Hurricane” Hurley. Dodge thinks that stories are fiction, or at the very least exaggerated from a factual account, so he writes them that way, and they become a runaway success. The idea of becoming an adventurer is that last thing on Dodge’s mind…at least until the bad guys show up, demanding to square off with Captain Falcon.
I suppose in that respect, I’m quite a bit different than Dodge. One of my earliest sources of inspiration as a writer was Clive Cussler. I still remember reading the bio in one of his early novels; it talked about how he spent his free time searching for shipwrecks and lost mines, just like his hero Dirk Pitt. When I read that, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. And while I haven’t found any lost cities, I have managed to have a few adventures along the way, and I’d like to think some of that comes through in my novels.”
While Sean didn’t divulge any details of his own adventures, his experiences definitely help color his action scenes. “There are some scenes in the first Dodge Dalton novel where Dodge is underwater and trying to get back to the surface; when I write that, I try to tap in on my own memories of making some deep free dives and thinking: ‘Why is it taking so long to get to the surface? I really need to breathe…starting to panic a little.’ I like to get a little of that adrenaline rush onto the page. You don’t really get that from watching a movie, where the hero–Bond or Indy–can calmly react to whatever life-threatening situation comes along.” Both books are available on amazon.com.
News reported by Joshua Reynolds, All Pulp Staffer
*PULP FICTION ON THE BBC!
Starting August 20th on BBC Radio 4 Extra, the BBC presented readings of five stories from the classic era of pulp crime fiction, read by Peter Marinker!
*19 NOCTURNE BOULEVARD PRESENTS…THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP!
19 Nocturne Boulevard: Your Address for Strange Stories
has just released an audio version of Lovecraft ’s pulp-tastic tale of body-swapping , “The Thing on the Doorstep”. Go give it a listen, then maybe cycle through the rest of the episodes…you won’t be disappointed!
The Robert E. Howard Foundation is proud to present their newest collection of hard-to-find REH work, Spicy Adventures! Available now for pre-order, the collection contains eight full-length stories as well as odd bits and bobs of miscellanea as well as a kick-butt cover by Jim & Ruth Keegan! For information:
In November 1993, the last of Will Murray’s new Doc Savage novels, THE FORGOTTEN REALM, was published. I wrote in a review a dozen years later, “It has been twelve years since THE FORGOTTEN REALM was published. Right now, it looks like we will not see a new Doc Savage novel on the stands ever again. But…. that’s what we thought in 1949, too.”
And against the odds (as we might expect from him) the Man of Bronze has returned yet again. Will Murray has begun a new “new” series of Doc adventures and I’m signing up for the ride. I had to order a copy from Altus Press: Barnes & Noble were no help and I’m not much for using Amazon or eBay. (And frankly, $24 is a bit of a gouge for a trade paperback this size but of course I’ve paid more than that for an old pulp or out-of-print books, it’s my choice).
THE DESERT DEMONS is just fine. It’s not as good as the very best of the original pulp stories like METEOR MENACE or THE SARGASSO OGRE, but then neither were most the pulps. There were many original Docs that ranged from passable down to atrocious, and DEMONS is a lot more fun than most of the wartime issues. The book is based on an unused outline Lester Dent left behind. I appreciate the respect Will Murray shows for Dent and understand why he incorporates as much Dent material as he can. But I would be perfectly willing to read a new book that is all Murray, I have trust in his integrity and his own storytelling.
Okay, it’s 1936 again and yet another mysterious menace has surfaced for our hero to investigate. Out in Hollywood, a phenomenon called the Copper Clouds has been killing people. They’re a sort of red cyclonic masses that swoop down from the sky as if targetting individuals, then turn black and evaporate, leaving only white ash, bleached brittle houses or cars and an occasional piece of glass. This is exactly the sort of threat Clark Savage Sr raised his little boy to handle. All five of the aides are on hand, plus Patricia and even Chemistry and Habeas Corpus, and there are enough “hair-raising thrills, breath-taking escapes and blood-curdling excitement” (as the old Bantam paperbacks promised) to more than satisfy. The gadgets are fired off with abandon, science detection is used and there’s even a dirigible. It’s Thirties to the core. References to the then-new phenomenon “smog” and the then-recent Florida land-bust add to the atmosphere.
Of COURSE I have a few complaints. It’s inevitable, there are always a few flaws in any piece of work. Coming in at 239 pages, this is more accessible than the unweildy 300-pagers like THE FORGOTTEN REALM or THE WHISTLING WRAITH. I like my pulp novels around 120 to 150 pages, enough to finish off on a snowy Sunday afternoon without real breaks. They seem to work best when you plow through them at a good clip like riding a roller coaster. Even so, while THE DESERT DEMONS is well paced and doesn’t drag, it can’t be as crisp and headlong as the original pulps. With the extra space available, I hoped to see Renny or Long Tom get a few chapters to themselves with room for them to shine but instead we got more incidents and incidental characters. The other place where I think THE DESERT DEMONS misstepped is that nearly all the story takes place in Hollywood and at the very end we go to Florida for the wrap-up. My preference is for the classic two-part structure with mystery and intrigue in New York, then a trip to Tibet or Brazil or Samoa for a blast of all-out action. So I’d like to see that structure return, but it’s not mandatory for every adventure.
And the menace turns out to be more outright science fictional than usual. I’m good with this. The original series, after all, featured everything from genuine invisibility to fifteen-foot tall Monster Men to the Blue Meteor and earthquake-making machines. The wilder more implausible stuff was usually explained away as hoaxes and misinterpretations (“so the giant spider was a marionette?” “Fraid so,”) but Doc Savage was always borderline science fiction. I think I would draw the line at time travel as going too far, but I’d be fine with seeing Doc tackle things like someone rediscovering Dr Jekyll’s serum. Nothing of the outright supernatural, though… I think Doc Savage’s world just wouldn’t have real werewolves or vampires.
I have come to count on Will Murray to throw in many delightful bits almost as asides. Ham Brooks shows some actual legal knowledge for once. (He says,”In the absence of a corpse, California law allows a grace period of a year before someone may be declared dead.”)Doc can look at a revolver held on him and see that it’s loaded with blanks. Long Tom finally gets useful application for his electronic bug-repelling machine he always seemed to be getting nowhere with. When Doc grapples with someone, the person’s actions seem to be in slow-motion because the bronze man is moving so quickly. (This has the ring of classic Lester Dent to it!)
That’s it, I’m convinced. It would take an awful lot to keep me from getting the next book in the series. I’m so glad how things have turned out for Doc Savage fans. The pulp ended in 1949, which was then thought to be the last the characters would ever be seen. Then in 1964, Bantam started a few reprint paperbacks and the usual event would be to see a handful appear but no… eventually all 181 of the original novels were available, as well as a previously unpublished story. Ah well, that was good but it had to be the end. No. Then Philip Jose Farmer wrote ESCAPE FROM LOKI and starting in 1991, Will Murray turned out seven new books. In 1993, putting down THE FORBIDDEN REALM, I hoped that I would live long enough to see a few more authorized Doc Savage adventures come to be, and here we are.
Mike Bullock is fast becoming one of the most prolific New Pulp writers today. His work has ranged from comics like the Phantom and Black Bat to prose stories like Death Angel. All Pulp spoke to Mike on what is currently going on with his comics, his prose and to talk about his influences in general.
ALL PULP: Have you always wanted to write pulp stories?
Mike Bullock: Yes and no, I guess. I’ve wanted to write since I was four years old. I discovered pulps when I was ten or eleven when I walked into a book store and saw Michael Whelan’s cover for “A Princess of Mars.” That cover captivated my senses and to this day it’s one of my favorite pieces of sci-fi/fantasy artwork. I’d already been a comic book junkie for as long as I could remember at that point and pulps seemed, to me at least, a natural progression of that love. Action-packed, speculative fiction where imagination was the only limitation to where the story could take the hero and that really spoke to me. It wasn’t much later when I realized people actually wrote for a living and that’s when the proverbial light bulb went off over my head.
AP: What writers have influenced your work?
MB: There’s quite a few, but the ones that immediately come to mind are Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Bill Mantlo, Roy Thomas, Alan Dean Foster, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lee Falk, Ron Marz and JM DeMatteis. I was also heavily influenced by the original Star Wars trilogy, and by default Joseph Campbell.
AP: Will we ever see you do the Phantom again? I enjoyed the run, and I’d love to see you tackle a one shot or special again.
MB: I certainly hope so. I felt like I was just hitting my stride when I found out Moonstone wasn’t going to renew the license. I still have a pile of Phantom story ideas sitting on my hard drive and rattling around in my head and each one I read through sparks new ideas. I certainly wasn’t done kickin’ it in the Skull Cave and God willing the opportunity to go back will present itself in the future. Thankfully, Phantom artist Silvestre Szilagyi and I are working on another pitch together, so I’ll get to work with Sil again if nothing else.
AP: Looking back on your Phantom run, which story are you most proud of? Are there any dangling threads you wished you could have finished?
MB: I don’t know that I’m necessarily proud of any of it, but the one that brings the closest thing to satisfaction is the “Checkmate” arc. If I hadn’t had to abridge the final arc in Ghost Who Walks, that might be my favorite. Looking back, “Final Roar”, which oddly enough ended up being the last Phantom story printed by Moonstone, is the one I believe is the best Phantom tale I wrote, though. I also miss working with Silvestre and Fernando on Phantom tales, but thankfully, Fernando and I are doing Joe Palooka together now. As for dangling threads, there’re quite a few. My original goal with the Ghost Who Walks series was to hit issue 75 before I’d step down from it, so I was laying a lot of ground work for things to come throughout the twelve issues of that series.
AP: You have four prose books coming next year. Does that mean you won’t be doing any more comics for the time being? Why the emphasis on prose?
MB: Well, I actually have several comics/graphic novels coming out over the next eighteen months as well including all three “Lions, Tigers and Bears” graphic novels (volume III for the first time and vI and II for the first time in the new format). The focus on prose is something that’s been coming for a long time. I was writing prose and poetry long before I was fortunate enough to do comic books, so going back to that just seems to make sense. I do hope that I can take these prose novels and have them adapted to comics, however. I think “Runemaster” especially would make a great comic series. And, Death Angel debuted as a New Pulp hero in comic books, so it’s not like I view the two formats as mutually exclusive.
AP: Can you tell me something about Lions, Tigers and Bears vol. 3 that hasn’t been said elsewhere?
MB: It’s the coolest book you’ll ever buy in your life. In fact, it’s so cool, you should buy dozens of copies and pass them out to random strangers to increase your own personal happiness quota as doing so prevents cancer and immunizes you from chronic frowning. Don’t know if that’s true, but I don’t think it’s been said elsewhere. On a more serious note, it has some truly amazing art from Michael Metcalf, Adam Van Wyk and Dan Hipp inside. That’s worth the price of admission alone, if you ask me.
AP: Any other graphic novels/comics you can tell me about?
MB: I’m not sure if I mentioned Joe Palooka and Fiefdom of Angels upstream, but expect to see those coming as comics and graphic novels beginning with Fiefdom of Angels #0 debuting in September.
AP: Fiefdom of Angels. Sounds cool. What’s it about?
MB: The first war. Ever. Brought to life from a story created by Grammy Award Winner Kevin Max by myself and artists Tyler “Dungeons & Dragons” Walpole, Peter Mohrbacher and Rob Schwager.
AP: Let’s talk about your books. First off, The Runemaster. I read the premise and am intrigued. Who is he? And what is the novel about?
MB: The Runemaster is his tribe’s leader and holy man of sorts; the character given that designation is Skarl Kirwall, a young man preparing to take over the mantle of Runemaster from his father. Mere weeks before the responsibilities are passed down to him, he’s betrayed by a fellow clansman and exiled while his father is away at a summit of all the northern clans. Skarl seeks a meeting with the clan elders to allow him back in to the Kirwall village on the day his father is to return. But, when he arrives that morning Skarl discovers the entire village has been ransacked, his father murdered and his love taken to be sacrificed to a demon worshiped by the hated Yslings. Now, it’s up to Skarl to save her and avenge his clan.
The novel is the first in a projected series from Airship 27 that will hopefully feed the hunger of those looking for New Pulp sword and sorcery adventures.
AP: Cool book. I can’t wait to read it. Now describe Janus: Guardian of Worlds.
MB: Janus is a legacy hero of sorts coming from Pro Se Press. The character is always two people, the ghost of the grandfather acting as mentor and sidekick to the living grandson. Armed with a totem staff and armband that provides them with the ability to draw on an ancient arcane power source, they’re charged with guarding our world against invasions from those beyond.
Unlike Runemaster, the Janus novel takes place in the early 20th century. However, there has been a Guardian of Worlds in their family line since 2012 BC, so future tales may take place in the past. While the cover artist for Runemaster has yet to be determined, Manny Trembley has signed on to do covers for the “Janus: Guardian of Worlds novel series.”
AP: The third book I saw forthcoming was Death Angel. I saw that the first prose story I could find for it was on iPulpfiction.com. Explain a bit about Death Angel and how it came to be?
MB: Death Angel is an evolution of a character I created a long time ago called Revenant. After creating that character to tell some street-level super hero tales, I discovered there was several other characters named Revenant in comics and I didn’t want to just toss one more onto the pile. So, I set it aside for awhile, then when Joe Gentile over at Moonstone Books and I first dreamed up the Moonstone Pulp universe, I dusted off the old Revenant character and injected it with a whole new life, new origin, new name and new set of motivations. Michael Metcalf came aboard to handle the art chores and he really brought the image of Death Angel to fruition with his more experimental style that those who are familiar with his all-ages work never saw coming.
After Death Angel debuted in the pages of “Phantom: KGB Noir”, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive which led to doing more and more with the character, including the tales that saw the light of day in the first Black Bat graphic novel. Once I discovered iPulpfiction, the desire to do something of a serial nature infiltrated my mind and Death Angel seemed like the right character to explore that. I turned in the second story to iPulpfiction a few days ago and it should be available on the site in August some time.
AP: Did doing books like the Phantom and Savage Beauty teach you anything with how to develop your own properties in the sense of world building?
MB: Not really [Laughs] I’m not that smart. I built the Savage Beauty world from the ground up and did inject some of what Lee Falk did in Phantom, but I’m not sure it was a learning experience, per se. It was a lot of fun, however. The most gratifying thing about the world building is watching others take the ball and run with it, like artists Dave Hoover, Mark Wheatley, Thomas Yeates, Paul Gulacy and Jose Massaroli. It’s one thing to rattle all these ideas and images around in your mind, it’s a whole new level of ‘kid at Christmas time’ to see high caliber artists bring those ideas to vivid, living color.
AP: What do you prefer, working with older properties like Black Bat or The Phantom, or your own creations?
MB: That depends on the time of day [laughs]. It’s nice to be able to switch back and forth as the muse guides me. Ultimately, I’d rather work strictly with my own creations, but there’s a great deal of joy to be had playing with other people’s toys. When I wrote the Phantom for all those years, I didn’t need to wrestle with the world-building, as Lee Falk had already done that, and done it masterfully, for me.
There’s something to be said about running with the excitement that other writers ignite in your heart. For instance, I’d love to write Moon Knight or Conan and I greatly enjoyed penning Phantom tales for seven years. But, if I had to choose, I’d stick with my own stuff.
AP: This is the last question of the interview. Say anything you want here.
MB: I’ll resist the urge to say “anything you want here” as that joke’s ship has sailed. I would like to encourage people to invest in imagination. Yours, your family’s, friend’s, anyone you encounter. Imagination is the key that unlocks a bold new future, so don’t lose it, leave it behind or forget to use it every chance you get.
Following up the announcement made on 8/17 that Dynamite Comics will be bringing the Pulp icon THE SHADOW back to comics, Dynamite announced today that fellow Pulp legend THE SPIDER will be joining the company’s growing cast of characters.
On board for Dynamite’s take on the millionaire turned somewhat horrifying hero will be writer David Liss, currently writing Marvel’s MYSTERY MEN mini series, artist Colton Worley and cover artists Alex Ross and John Cassaday.
Based on the art released thus far, Dynamite’s visual take on the character hews more toward how The Spider appeared in serials produced in the late 1930s and early 1940s by Columbia Pictures than how he has been portrayed in the original Pulps or in other comic adaptations, most recently that done by Moonstone Entertainment.
Throughout the month of September, The University of Chicago Press is giving away the digital edition of The Score, the fifth book in Richard Stark’s ‘Parker’ series.
Also currently available for an unknown length of time is the Edgar award winning comic crime novel ‘God Save the Mark.’ This book, hailed as one of the best blends of humor and crime to date, was written by Donald Westlake, the man who also wrote as Richard Stark.
