Author: Tommy Hancock

YESTERYEAR SNEAK PEEK FROM HANCOCK AND PRO SE!

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  • February 22, 2011
From Author Tommy Hancock and Pro Se Productions…A Free Preview of his upcoming debut novel-
Cover by Jay Piscopo, Logos by Sean Ali

And trust us, folks…this is literally in so many ways….only the beginning…..
Note-This story was originally submitted as an installment of syndicated columnist/writer Ramsey Long’s column, “The Long of It” for the first week of April, 1955.  Of the over 500 papers that ran Long’s column, only one, The Missalou Missourian, Missalou, Missouri, ran it.  
Ramsey Long vanished the first week of April, 1955.
The offices of the Missalou Missourian burnt to the ground the day after this column ran.  All six staff members and two other individuals died in the blaze.  The former site of the newspaper office remains a vacant dirt lot today.

THE FIRST YESTERDAY
by Ramsey Long
It was a Tuesday. Two days before All Hallow’s Eve. People would say years and years afterward that no one saw it coming, that there were no warning signs, no tolling bells. Even those who should have known back then have been quoted as saying they were blindsided, no idea that a locomotive the entire world traveled on was threatening to derail at any time.
I never believed that, not for a moment.
I was there, in New York City, on that Tuesday. Had been for most of my life. People knew it was a different day, everyone from the newshawk on the street corner to the Chairman of the Board in any high rise in the skyline. They all knew it was a different sort of day, yet they all said they never saw it coming.
I still don’t know if they meant the Stock Market Crash that day in 1929 or the first time the world knew men could fly without metallic wings.
It was clear as chaos in Germany that the Crash was coming by October 29th, 1929, at least to anyone who knew how to read a ticker tape or a reporter hounding flustered businessmen for even the hint of a story. I was the latter, I hated the noise of that damned ticker tape machine too much to be the former. I didn’t much care for the nasal chatter of brokers or the frantic yelps of would-be tycoons on Wall Street, either. That’s why I was over on Broadway that Tuesday afternoon, thinking about how I was going to turn my escape from confused chaos into printable copy. Maybe ask the common man on the street what he thought about the economy of our country lying in its deathbed in New York City. I looked around me, not too many people out on the street that time of day, but there were a few likely candidates, men and women who looked like they could string words together into reasonable sentences. That was all I needed, I could weave loose threads into one doozy of a rug, I was sure. I was going to have to have something turned in by the evening edition, even if I had to strangle the streets to get it.
Then it happened. My story, up above me, on the tenth floor of the Flatiron Building on the ledge facing Broadway. The lead-in to my headline stepped out on the sill, his tie loosened from around his neck, his pudgy body trembling like a leaf lost in a cyclone. One of the first casualties of the Crash, one of those despondent businessmen that jumped to his death when he realized his life just went belly up with his company. Not nearly as many men died that Tuesday as American myth later said, just a handful dashed their hopes and their bodies on the streets below their lofty offices. And one member of that melancholy band tested the air above Broadway, sticking his foot out like he was at the shore testing how cold the water was. He didn’t jerk it back. Just right for a suicide dive.  I hated it, but there was my story.
A fencepost of a cop screamed from across the street. A woman struggled to hold on to her son’s arm, the boy scratching and fighting to watch the guy jump. The kid didn’t have to wait long. The man pulled his foot back slowly, hesitated, and for an instant, stood perfectly still. Then he pitched forward, a tubby scarecrow falling from its post, a shocking move even though we were all expecting it. I gasped as I ran for where he’d hit, knowing there’d be nothing I could do. But I ran anyway, my head down, racing the cop now in the middle of the street. All of that in a matter of three seconds.
The fourth second changed the world forever.
“What is that?”
I glanced up as I moved. The man plummeted at me, not like a rock freefalling from a cliffside, but gradually, at least in my eyes. I could almost see the pock marks left by youth on his face he fell so slowly. Then, just out of sight, tickling at the corner of my vision, I saw a blur. To the right of the jumper, now passing the fourth floor windows. It moved quickly over him. Not moved. Flew.
“It’s a man!”



Art by Peter Cooper

 
It was. A man chasing the falling executive toward the ground. Darting down the side of the triangle shaped FlatIron building behind him, his right arm extended, his left arm out slightly from his side, to steady him maybe, like a rudder. I stopped, the cop nearly bowling over me until he saw what everyone on the street, everyone at every window on Broadway was looking at. A blur of black and white. And he was flying, swooping under the would be suicide, catching him gently in a cradle of muscular arms just feet from the sidewalk.

“He’s no man! He’s a hero!”

The once desperate-to-die executive clung to his airborne savior as a baby latches to a mother’s chest, afraid he might get dropped. The man in black denim britches and a white shirt, no buttons, sleeves hemmed at the elbows, the collar up tight around his neck, flew up a few feet, shifting from a horizontal to a standing position, then lighted on the ground not five hundred feet from me. He dropped his left arm, then his right, but still his cargo held on, tears bubbling out and down his pudgy red cheeks. Smiling meekly, the man shrugged his broad shoulders once, shaking his passenger off his chest. People poured into the street, cabbies leaving their hacks abandoned, children deserting their mothers. Everyone wanting to touch the man who could fly.
None of them asked where he came from. None of them demanded to know how he flew. None of them noticed the mask he wore, a domino mask like the ones that come with masquerade costumes. They just wanted to be near him, brush his arm, stand in his shadow.
I didn’t ask any of those things, either. And the mask, it was just an interesting, quirky side note for me. I studied him, all 6’4″ of him. His brown hair glistened with sweat, his blue eyes wide at the attention he was getting. He just stood there, quietly letting those lucky few on Broadway stake their place in history. They were all among the first to see a real…well…person with powers. Not just any stiff with strange powers and good looks, but the first one. They all witnessed the dawn of a new age, the birth of Hero.
He was at his purest that first day. Before the red body suit and the cape, even before the silver H he’d wear as a belt buckle. To everyone on the street, to the entire country that would hear about him on the radio that night, he was just a guy like the rest of us. Some joe that got lucky and decided to share his luck by helping other unfortunates stuck in this crazy world. The value of paper money plummeting didn’t concern him, a falling man did. He didn’t worry about the hand basket the world was riding to Hell in, he was going to try to keep it out of there. He was just a good man in a mask.
At least that was what we all saw then.
I started to move closer to him, the crowd still gathering steam around me, but I decided I’d seen enough, words from him would come in a follow up piece. The throng of people pawing at him was a story in itself, so I stepped back to watch. Amused. Intrigued. A few minutes later, he turned his head, his eyes crossing mine, and he smiled. Then we both learned something. He’d just started a trip that would carry him places no one ever dreamed. And my by-line would haunt him every step of the way.
*********

MOONSTONE MONDAY-Johnny Dollar Wraps It Up This Week!

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  • February 21, 2011

THIS WEEK ON MOONSTONE CLIFFHANGER FICTION-

Moonstone Books and ALL PULP proudly bring you the conclusion to a a two fisted detective pulp tale from MOONSTONE CLIFFHANGER FICTION featuring the radio icon YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR ! This is a pulse pounder from Pulp author Eric Fein! This tale can be found in the SEX, LIES, AND PRIVATE EYES collection available from Moonstone at http://www.moonstonebooks.com/

THE PRETTY CORPSE MATTER
Part Two of Two
by Eric Fein
 
 
 
 
“So why’d you do it, Brody?” Lundy said.
“My foot is killing me. I need to go to the hospital.”
“You will,” Lundy said. “First, you’ll answer my questions or I’ll shoot you in the other foot.”
We were in an interrogation room in the Fifth Precinct. I was leaning against the wall watching. Lundy was sitting across the table from Brody.
Lundy flipped through a folder, “You’ve got quite a record, Frank. Assault and Battery, Breaking and Entering, drugs. And now rape and murder.”
“I didn’t do nothing to no one.”
“That’s not what Alice Allard’s autopsy shows,” Lundy said.
“Who’s that?” he said.
“The woman you murdered,” Lundy said.
“Never heard of her,” Brody said.
“Maybe, you’ve heard of her father, Stephen, the retail tycoon?” Lundy said. “Naturally, he’s pretty upset. So are his close friends, the mayor and the governor. They want this case wrapped up and the killer sent to the electric chair.”
“You can’t prove I did it,” Brody said.
“We have your prints all over the apartment,” Lundy said.
“Crowley ran prostitutes out of that place and I used them.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re taking the fall for it. The question is how hard. If you confess now, I’ll talk to the D.A. The choice is yours. Life without parole or the chair.”
Brody looked like he was just kicked in the groin. His mouth opened and closed like a tuna’s but no sound came out.
“Not so tough, now,” Lundy said.
“What if it was an accident?” Brody said.
“Go on,” Lundy said.
“It was dark and I was drunk. I thought she was Marie. I was angry at Marie for getting Crowley after me. I was just going to rough her up a little. She screamed. I just wanted to shut her up. I never meant to kill her.”
“What did you do with the necklace?” I said.
“What necklace?” Brody said.
“Allard had a diamond necklace worth $25,000. It’s missing.”
“Well, I didn’t take it!” Brody said. “You think if I had I would have been holed up in my rattrap apartment?”
“I believe you,” I said.
He and Lundy looked at me like I was nuts.
“Thanks for letting me sit in, Lundy.”
“Where are you going?” Lundy said.
“To play a hunch,” I said. “I’ll call you later.”
Expense account item five: $3.35, cab fare to East 89th street.
* * *
“Mr. Dollar,” Marie said. “This is a surprise.”
“May I come in?”
“Certainly. Please excuse the mess. The police only left a few hours ago.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
There was an open suitcase sitting on the couch overflowing with clothes and toiletries. Her teddy bear was packed in it, too.
“Going on a trip?” I said.
“Yes,” she said. “I can’t stand the thought of spending another night in this place.”
“I understand,” I said. “Where are you headed?”
“Las Vegas. I have a cousin there.”
“Las Vegas is an expensive town. You need money to live there.”
“You need money to live anywhere, Mr. Dollar.”
“True. I’m sure you’ll find a job. Of course, you could ask Mr. Crowley if he has any associates out in Vegas.”
“No. I don’t want him to know where I am going.”
“Okay. I can give you a lift to the bus station.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I insist. Let me help you with that suitcase. It must weigh a ton.”
“That’s not necessary.”
I ignored her and made a big deal out of trying to get the suitcase to close.
“You’ve just got too much in it,” I said. “If you get rid of the bear, it should close just fine.”
I took it out and she grabbed at it. I held tight as she pulled on it. The seam under the bear’s right arm ripped and a small package, wrapped in tissue paper, popped out and hit the floor.
We looked at each other for a long time before she burst into tears. I picked up the bundle and unwrapped it. Inside, was the necklace. Marie collapsed onto the couch.
I pulled over a chair and sat down in front of her.
“Why?” I said.
“Because, that necklace was my ticket out of here. The money I could get for it would stake me to a new life. Why shouldn’t I take it? Alice took plenty from me. Before she showed up I was Crowley’s girlfriend. I was the one he let sing with the band.
“As soon as she showed up, he had me flat on my back servicing every scumbag with the cash to pay for it. Alice didn’t care. She thought being a gangster’s girlfriend was thrilling.
“When I found her dead. I realized that it was supposed to have been me. I wasn’t scheduled to work last night, Alice was. But, she had a bad cold so I took her shift. I can’t tell you how many times clients have beaten me. And the things they make me do…no one should have to do that. No one.
“Before I called the police, I messed up the apartment to make it look like a burglary gone bad. How did you know it was in the bear?”
“Just a hunch. The police ripped this place apart looking for it. They also hit several pawnshops. No necklace. Then when Frank Brody was arrested, he admitted to everything but stealing the necklace. I remembered the way you held onto the bear, even taking it with you to the precinct. Despite all you’ve been through, it struck me as odd that you would walk around with it all day. I came here hoping I was wrong.”
“And now you’re going to turn me in,” she said.
“I should. You’re guilty of theft and tampering with evidence. On the other hand, the necklace has been recovered. The murderer is in jail. I don’t see how turning you in makes the world a safer place.”
“Thank you, Mr. Dollar.”
“Now, finish packing. You’ve got a bus to catch.”
Expense account item six: $3.25, cab fare to the bus terminal.
Expense account item seven: $55.00, a one-way ticket to Las Vegas.
* * *
I made sure Marie Davies got on the bus without a hitch. In addition to the bus ticket, I gave her $500.00 as a finder’s fee for the necklace.
Afterwards, I stopped at the Allards and gave them the necklace. I explained about Marie. They agreed that she shouldn’t be punished.
Expense account item eight: $.10, phone call to the Fifth Precinct.
Lundy had a few choice words for me when I explained how I got the necklace back. He threatened to arrest me for interfering with his investigation and aiding a fugitive. In the end, though, he knew I was right and dropped it.
Expense account item nine: $14.95, train from New York City to Hartford, Connecticut.
Final remarks: Some people live a charmed life and don’t appreciate it. Others, struggle just to survive from one day to the next. Alice Allard, despite being born with a silver spoon in her mouth and having a world of opportunity at her feet, made all the wrong choices. She threw away the good life for one of excitement. Only, it was the wrong kind of excitement. She turned out to be the wrong girl in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the end all she had to show for her life was a pretty corpse.
Expense account total, including the $500.00 finder’s fee for Marie Davies, don’t bark Pat, you got off easy this time, $598.65.
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
THE END
Tune in next week for a new tale of MOONSTONE FICTION!  And check out http://www.moonstonebooks.com/ for this and other collections and tales!

 
Let ALL PULP know what you think of MOONSTONE CLIFFHANGER FICTION on the Comments Page!!!

TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT-MOONSTONE MONDAY WESTERN STYLE!

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  • February 21, 2011

TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT-Pulp Reviews by Tommy Hancock
MOONSTONE’S WESTERN TRIPLE PLAY
(TPB collecting WYATT EARP: DODGE CITY, BELLE STARR: QUEEN OF BANDITS and THE CISCO KID: GUNFIRE AND BRIMSTONE)
2008
Moonstone Entertainment, Inc.

Moonstone has long had a reputation for going places in the comic and prose medium that many companies just won’t go anymore.  Known for steering away from traditional spandex and capes fare, tales from Moonstone tend to tap genres less explored or all but ignored in the modern era, letting writers and artists flex their muscles in old territory in all new ways.  

The works collected in MOONSTONE’S WESTERN TRIPLE PLAY are three such masterful flexings.  The overall collection, including the cover and book design by Erik Enervold and the masterful cover putting the three stars in one magnificent shot by Sergio Cariello and colored by Ken Wolak, is packaged well and presented in a slightly extravagant, but overall stark style that fits the tone of the tales within to a T.  The black and white pages add a certain bit of nostalgic authenticity to the stories, giving the comic a pulpy western feel.

Presentation/Design-FIVE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT

WYATT EARP: DODGE CITY
written by Chuck Dixon
Art by Enrigque Villagras
Letters by Erik Enervold
Editing by Joe Gentile, Lori G., and Garrett Anderson

I am a historian by training and education.   One area of particular interest in that vein as well as a writer has always been the true life as well as the character (the two not always interchangeable) of Wyatt Earp.   Earp himself was not only a complex character.  He was indeed a complicated man living in complicated times and DODGE CITY shows this in a raw, yet tragically evocative way.   The story is simple-Wyatt is brought to Dodge City to basically provide law and order, but it turns out that even those who brought him to town don’t necessarily like his version of law and order.  Allies become enemies, shadowy streets transform into havens of danger, and Wyatt along with the Masterson Brothers and a particularly rheumy philosopher of a dentist end up standing on their own against basically the entire city.    Dixon’s tale and Villagras’ art mend and mingle so well together, almost as if they were wrought from the same imaginative energy and captured as fluid on the page.  The story is a fast paced one, a good strong gallop, but takes time to throw in characterization where needed.  Wyatt Earp is a fully realized hero in this story and what makes him so heroic is both his strength and his weakness-his flawed humanity.

FIVE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT

BELLE STARR: QUEEN OF THE BANDITS
written and lettered by Mark Ricketts
art by Steve Buccellato
Edited by Garrett Anderson, Lori G, and Joe Gentile

Although women of the wild west worthy of storytelling actually nearly outnumber the men, one that has always captured the fascination of western fans and historians alike is Belle Starr.   Not nearly as attractive physically as she is portrayed in this story or in most other works about her, this horsey faced outlaw heroine is definitely attractive to folklorists, historians, fans, and writers.

This story is essentially a shotgun approach to Belle’s storied history.   Looking at it initially through the eyes of a writer wanting to capture the full story of Belle’s life, we get glimpses into her debutante years, her dalliances with men of the mostly bad variety, and her own outlaw doings as well as her tumultuous time as a mother.   Ricketts gives Belle many faces in this story, wanting the reader to clearly see the complete woman, all the parts that made up the fascinating whole.   That is done extremely well.

One aspect, however, that takes a bit away from the story is the flow.   A lot is thrown at the reader and although the connecting device of the writer is a valid one, the story still seems choppy, almost like there’s a scene or two missing in a couple of the transitions.  

Buccellato’s art is a strong point as well.  Almost whimsical at times, he conveys the lighter parts of Belle’s life well, almost as subtext to the dark truths that continually haunted her.  It’s definitely not a photorealistic touch at all, but that’s not what this story needed.  A story about a woman with so many layers needs a style that appeals to the eye and is engaging, even if it doesn’t necessarily fit what the reader first thinks it should look like.  Buccellato’s work adds strongly to the storytelling.

THREE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT

THE CISCO KID: GUNFIRE AND BRIMSTONE
Written by Len Kody
Art by Dennis Calero and Matt Camp
Lettered by Erik Enervold
Edited by Garrett Anderson and Joe Gentile

First, for those who don’t know, this is not Duncan Renaldo in his big sombrero saying ‘Ohhh, Pancho!’, no this is not that Cisco Kid.  This is not even the Cisco Kid from that Jimmy Smits film a few years ago.  No, this is probably a rougher version than even presented in the original O’Henry tale outlining the adventures of, in my opinion, one of the most maligned outlaw hero characters of western fiction.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the Cisco Kid TV show and it, for what it is, is wonderful, but this character was written originally with a much deeper pen, layers upon layers to him in the space of a short story.   He is returned to those roots in GUNFIRE AND BRIMSTONE.

Kody spins a yarn of a man who is clearly an outlaw by most standards, continually in pursuit, either by boys trying to make bones by killing a legend or by masked legends and Indian companions looking to see justice done.  Kody does something more, though.  He goes to the root of Cisco’s history, to the root of any outlaw tale, and pulls from it what it’s truly all about.  Not evil.  Not redemption.  But the choice of one or the other.  This is done on a canvas of desert heat, fast draws, and mysticism.  The storytelling is overall tight, aimed dead on at the peeling back of the aforementioned layers of Cisco without damaging the hard outlaw shell that he’s built around himself.

Calero and Camp do a fantastic job of telling the story through pictures, bringing out the starkness of the scenery and the savagery of the actions men made.   The use of dark and light is a little heavy in some places, making it difficult to tell what is going on in places where that doesn’t seem intentional, but overall, the art matches the beats of the story extremely well.

FOUR OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT

Overall-FOUR OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT

MOONSTONE MONDAY-SAVAGE BEAUTY A DARLING WITH REVIEWERS!

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  • February 21, 2011

Moonstone Entertainment, Inc., Captain Action Enterprises, and Runemaster Studios, the forces behind Moonstone’s latest comic title SAVAGE BEAUTY, have been saying for months just how spectacular this new series would be.  An updating of the Jungle Girl genre tale, SAVAGE BEAUTY uses two very strong female leads to not only introduce pulp like heroics into the jungles of today’s world, but also tackles real life issues.   The comic is a tool of vital partnership between its creators and agencies and organizations dedicated to making life better and even saving lives in Kenya, Africa, and other ravaged lands.   Moonstone, CAE, and Runemaster have been shouting the praises of SAVAGE BEAUTY and rightfully so.

And now, so are other people.   The reviews are in and it seems others have jumped on the SAVAGE BEAUTY bandwagon.

Eric J., www.thepullbox.com, summed up the origins and appeal of SAVAGE BEAUTY wonderfully-

I am a huge pulp fan, always have been.  A childhood constant of mine was watching old B&W’s with my mom on Sunday afternoons.  The adventure, thrill and danger of an altruistic hero risking life and limb to take down a dastardly villain was almost too much for my little 7-year heart to handle.  Well, what I know (as most of you do too) is that when creative teams try to “modernize” the genre something is lost in the translation and they fail more often than they succeed.  And the less-than-stellar-results are usually something off-center, overly cheesy and perhaps way dark.

Running counter to that sad norm, the folks over at Moonstone have been lighting the way for years and showing fans that pulp can still be done and done well.  Savage Beauty, as a title, just continues to add to their testimony.

In his review at www.playeraffinity.com, Dustin Cabeal points out what makes SAVAGE BEAUTY a modern and relevant title in his ‘Short Version’-

If you’re looking for a sexy jungle story about two women fighting the crimes of Africa then you’ll only be half right. This story is anything but goofy and uses the comic to look at a very realistic problem in the world, while presenting it in a very accessible way. Simply put this isn’t a kid’s comic, but it’s still really good.

Cabeal also goes on to point out specific strong points of the debut issue-

Mike Bullock (The Phantom: Generations) does an impressive job of taking a book with a name that seems unserious and making it anything but. With this first issue, Bullock has tackled an issue that is still a problem in Africa today….There’s a balance that’s struck between the message and the fictional world of the comic and Bullock manages to walk the line between the two.

The art is very good and maintains a “pulp” look to it which really fits the book. Artist Jose Massaroli draws a wide variety of people, animals, settings and objects and exceeds at doing all of them well.

Ray Tate with www.comicsbulletin.com sees SAVAGE BEAUTY as…

 a welcome addition to the jungle girls category of books. The writers and artists direct their talents to raise awareness about real world vermin while creating satisfying escapism in a twist on legacy heroism.

SAVAGE BEAUTY is a comic that appeals to the masses because it tackles real world issues and does so in an entertaining, captivating way utilizing well known staples of heroic fiction and the jungle girl genre.  Christopher with www.jonja.net states-

With roots deep in Edgar Rice Borroughs’ romanticized version of Africa and his hero ‘Tarzan’, Savage Beauty mixes the mythos of jungle warriors with real world drama and adds in a splash of dual identities…Don’t let the cover fool you, this is more than just an excuse to draw pretty girls in fur bikinis. This new spin on the jungle heroine looks like it will be a serious and at times dark journey to, at least in the literary world, bring justice to the criminals that deserve it most.

The reviews are definitely in.   And SAVAGE BEAUTY will be in as well this month from Moonstone!

DODGE DALTON’S SECOND ADVENTURE IS COMING-HERE’S THE TRAILER!

  • News
  • February 20, 2011
From Seven Realms Publishing-

In the Golden Age of Adventure…

Dodge Dalton and his team of heroes are back and this time, the stakes are even higher. When a faceless madman seeks out the secrets of the Outpost, created thousands of years ago by a mysterious civilization, he has one thing on his mind: the complete destruction of the entire world. Only Dodge and his friends, along with a master thief and a brilliant scientist can stop the villain from unleashing hell on earth!

View it here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gAhKeNaxu0

ALL PULP’S SITE SPOTLIGHT-FANTASTIC PULP!

  • News
  • February 20, 2011

site suggested by Phil Bledsoe

http://www.fantasticpulp.com/

From the Site-



Welcome!

The Shadow, the Phantom, Doc Savage, the Green Lama, Fu Manchu, the Lone Ranger. These are all characters that share the heritage of pulp magazines. Not the only ones of course, in fact only a very small fraction of the characters that have had stories told about them for over eighty years.

Think of it. It’s a tradition that dates back even farther, to the mid 1800s. They have given readers enjoyment and escapism during the darkest times of the 1900s, and enjoyed a renaissance in the 1960s and ‘70s. Even now, care of publishers such as DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics, new readers are getting exposed to some of these great characters. It’s not enough. As good as these characters are, they are, as I said, a small contingent. Unfortunately, most people have never heard of the vast majority of characters that were published on the cheap wood-pulp paper that was the only commercial option for some of these publishers.

Part of the problem is that most people only think of characters like The Shadow or Doc Savage as pulp characters. Yet, The Phantom, The Lone Ranger, and Zorro are all pulp hero characters. Tarzan, Sheena and Hopalong Cassidy are as well. To me, everything that was published in that time, on that paper, are pulp stories.

I’ve been told that I’m being overly broad with this definition. I suppose I understand that, but my goal here is to celebrate the glorious history of an, in my opinion, under-appreciated meta-genre of stories that deserve to be shared with as many people as possible.

Fantastic Pulp is dedicated to those wonderful and sometimes cheesy stories of old, but also the newer generation of stories that have started to appear. Both my co-publisher and myself have written stories inspired by these great stories, we have a Doctor Who enthusiast who is eager to share his appreciation of the character, who I feel is the embodiment of the newer pulp tradition. We also have a pulp researcher, a comics enthusiast and more.

In short, enjoy this ongoing tour through the pulp tradition. If you would like to join in, feel free to email us at editor@fantasticpulp.com or join us on our forums. Have your own pulp related website? Let’s talk about advertising or link exchanges. We want people to contribute and talk, be able to meet other enthusiasts. Please, join us and have fun!

A BOOK A DAY-Growing Up With Monsters!!!

A BOOK A DAY-Growing Up With Monsters!!!

  • News
  • February 20, 2011

monsters_coverfront.jpg

 
Growing Up With Monsters: My Times at Universal Studios in Rhymes

By Carla Laemmle and Daniel Kinske, LCDR, USN

Foreword by Ray Bradbury

Illustrated by Jack Davis and Hermann Mejia

A lovely book that tells the true story of how the classic Universal Studios Monsters were born from a centenarian who was there when it happened. Enjoy Carla’s tale of growing up on her uncles Universal Studio Lot from 1921 to 1937 and not only witnessing the filming of such early classics as The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1923, but actually being in The Phantom of the Opera in 1925 and Dracula in 1931, where her “bit” part was that of having the first line of spoken dialogue in that perennial classic vampire film. Beware of vampires and hearses, but enjoy her story’s verses! Wonderfully illustrated by MAD Magazines Jack Davis and Hermann Mejia. Foreword provided by master of horror and SCI-FI, Ray Bradbury.

Fortier Nails the Latest Mike Hammer Novel with an ALL PULP REVIEW!

  • News
  • February 19, 2011
ALL PULP REVIEWS
KISS HER GOODBYE
By Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
270 pages
Available 25 May 2011
This book, the third Mike Hammer thriller begun by the late Spillane and completed by his protégé Collins, takes place in the mid 1970s.  Hammer is in sunny Florida recuperating from several bullet wounds; the results of a shoot-out on the New York City docks with the crazy son of a mob boss.  Emotionally wounded as well as physically, Hammer has fled the Big Bad Apple, deserting his friends and most importantly the one truly love of his life, Velda.  He is determined to spend the rest of his days basking in the sun and deep sea fishing.  But when his pal, Detective Pat Chambers calls with the news that his old mentor, Inspector Doolan is dead, an apparent suicide, Hammer has no choice but to pack it up and return to the asphalt jungle.
So begins one of the most convoluted mysteries the tough-as-nails Hammer has ever confronted.  Doolan had been diagnosed with cancer and his days were numbered.  Everyone, including the coroner, is convinced he shot himself in the heart before the end became too painful to endure.  Hammer doesn’t buy it, even though the evidence is stacked against him.  It doesn’t feel right.  His love of the old war horse tells him Doolan would never have succumbed to what he always referred as “the coward’s” way out.
No sooner does Hammer start poking around, visiting Doolan’s friends and a few of his enemies, then he and Pat stumble on the body of a young waitress stabbed to death only a few blocks from the funeral service for Doolan.  Is it random coincident; just another senseless death on the mean streets of the city?  If so, then why does the newly appointed, highly ambitious assistant district attorney show up at the crime scene?  What is her interest in a supposedly routine slaying?  With each passing hour, Hammer uncovers facts that on the surface appear totally unconnected. From a former gangland heir operating the city’s fanciest disco for the rich and famous to a legendary jewel with ties to Nazis war criminals living in South America. 
Couple this with Hammer’s own confused emotions about being back in the steel canyons he both loves and hates and the stage is set for a slam-bang adventure unlike any the savvy gumshoe has ever encountered.  This book is packed with fast guns and dames and plenty of punches all culminating in a shootout that makes the Gunfight at the OK Corral look like a picnic! In a world that has become soft and compromised with the corruption of “political correctness,”  having Mike Hammer back to plow through the BS and uncover the truth, no matter the cost, is a jolt of clear headed sanity we all need lots more of.

ALL PULP PANEL- WHAT IS PULP?!?

  • News
  • February 18, 2011

It’s been a while, but the ALL PULP Panel is back!  And this time around we’re asking a simply phrased question that is really quite a complicated conundrum.    We are all pulp fans, writers, artists, creators, etc. here at ALL PULP and with what many are calling the Pulp Renaissance in full swing, one question begs to be asked…Just what qualifies a story as pulp?  What things have to be in a tale for it to be considered pulp fiction?

Now, here are some rules-You can only list three things that you believe make a story a pulp story.  They can be the same three things as someone else, they can be different, but only three.  Now, it may take more than three things to make a tale pulp, but you can only list three.

You can discuss your three, argue for or against someone else’s choices, and just tear loose-AS LONG AS YOU ARE RESPECTFUL.  ALL PULP reserves the right not to post replies or comments that are rude or disrespectful to individuals.

OK, so there it is…What three aspects need to be in a story to make it pulp? 

If you want to join in, send your comments to allpulp@yahoo.com and your response will be posted!  Comment as many times as you like….so without further ado, let the Panel procede-

From Luis Guillermo Del Corral
Well, in my humble opinion, there are the 3 aspects that make a pulp story:

-Plot driven. A solid charismatic plot. Pulp is about things happening. Even when the characters are talking between them, the dialogue must flow in a way that makes flow the plot and story.

-Adventure!: This can be space opera, or a mystery story. A PI doing his job, a hero battling evildoers. An expedition searching a lost city in the Arabic desert… must be something larger than life.

-Fun!.Ok, this is very subjective, but pulp is evasion, entertainment. get away from anxieties and problems for a moment, allowing us to relax and believe in other, more appealing worlds.

Oh, and thanks for this chance of being on the Panel ^^
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