IDW Presents Jack Avarice IS The Courier All-new five-weekly miniseries coming in November
San Diego, CA (September 20, 2011) — IDW Publishing is thrilled to introduceJACK AVARICE IS THE COURIER, an exciting, month-long, weekly comic series for the five-Wednesday month of November. Created, written, drawn, and lettered by rising star Chris Madden, the artist on the upcoming Danger Girl: Revolver series, this special five-part series is timed specifically to release one issue a week for each Wednesday of the month.
“When Chris Madden first presented JACK AVARICE IS THE COURIER to me, I was absolutely floored,” said editor Tom Waltz. “I mean, the guy is writing, drawing, coloring AND lettering the series—and doing it at top-notch levels on all accounts! It’s a great comic book story filled with exciting and entertaining characters and distinctly fun artwork. Madden is the real deal and I’m so happy IDW gets the chance to show off his diverse talents to the world!”
This explosive miniseries tells the story of Jack Avarice, a down-on-his-luck kid who dreams of a life like the movies. His world is about to change when he’s recruited by the secretive agency called Courier and is dumped head-first into the world of international spying. Each issue will take Jack on an exhilarating new adventure, where he’ll discover that the reality of spycraft is far deadlier than any movie he could imagine. Spies, voodoo magic, deadly beauties, high-caliber thrills, and high-octane destruction, JACK AVARICE IShas it all.THE COURIER
“I can’t wait for Jack Avarice to hit stands,” creator Madden said. “And I couldn’t be happier releasing it through IDW—it’s a perfect match!”
To kick off this great comic event, IDW is offering a special 5% discount on the entire series. Plus, readers are encouraged to contact their local retailers about the special variant Madden sketch cover.
Click on images for a larger view. JACK AVARICE IS THE COURIER #1 ($3.99, 32 pages, full color) will be available in stores on November 2, 2011. Diamond order code: SEPT11 0253. IS THE COURIER #2 ($3.99, 32 pages, full color) will be available in stores on November 9, 2011. Diamond order code: SEPT11 0255. Be careful what you ask for—it might get you! Jack Avarice has just been dumped head-first into the world of international spying, and he’s about to find out if he can swim! Recruited by the secretive Courier agency, it quickly becomes apparent to Jack that his life might not be quite as it seems. But before he can digest this revelation, he’s off on his first harrowing mission with a gorgeous new partner, and a deadly new mission—unravel the mystery of the Eyes of Fate… before they can unleash their horror upon the world!
JACK AVARICE IS THE COURIER #3 ($3.99, 32 pages, full color) will be available in stores on November 16, 2011. Diamond order code: SEPT11 0257. IS($3.99, 32 pages, full color) will be available in stores on November 23, 2011. Diamond order code: SEPT11 0259. IS($3.99, 32 pages, full color) will be available in stores on November 30, 2011. Diamond order code: SEPT11 0261.
Visit IDWPublishing.com to learn more about the company and its top-selling books.
About IDW Publishing::::: IDW is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks, based in San Diego, California. Renowned for its diverse catalog of licensed and independent titles, IDW publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the industry, including: Hasbro’s The Transformers and G.I. JOE, Paramount’s Star Trek; HBO’s True Blood; the BBC’s DOCTOR WHO; Toho’s Godzilla; Sony’s Ghostbusters; and comics and trade collections based on novels by worldwide bestselling author, James Patterson. IDW is also home to the Library of American Comics imprint, which publishes classic comic reprints; Yoe! Books, a partnership with Yoe! Studio; and is the print publisher for EA Comics.
IDW’s original horror series, 30 Days of Night, was launched as a major motion picture in October 2007 by Sony Pictures and was the #1 film in its first week of release. More information about the company can be found at http://www.idwpublishing.com/.THE COURIER #5 JACK AVARICE THE COURIER #4 JACK AVARICE Spies, explosions, voodoo magic, deadly beauties, high-caliber thrills, and high-octane destruction… action-adventure has a brand-new name, and it’s JACK AVARICE! The world of spies and intrigue is very much real and lies hidden just below the surface. But when a down-on-his-luck kid who dreams of a life like the movies meets the world’s greatest secret agent, he’ll discover the reality of spycraft is far deadlier and more explosive than any movie he could imagine—and he now has a starring role! The explosive five-issue miniseries starts here!
Gene Gardens is a free weekly webcomic by Shawn Granger and Jorge Mongiovi. New episodes go live on Wednesdays at http://www.genegardens.com/.
Time has almost run out on the small blue planet, and the human race has been split into two; the mutants and the clones. Nations regrouped and reformed, the United Americas and Asia Proper being two of the emerging super powers. The wars now centralize on the hoarding and stealing of DNA, the most prized commodity on earth. Countries frequently raid one another just to steal DNA samples and clones for breeding. In Asia Proper cities the bored youth have created neo-traceur gangs, organized from stories of free runners from the 21st Century. Two in particular are big in the capital Alliance, the Le Parkours and Yamakasi. Through their eyes we learn of hidden agendas, sublime plots, and schemes that may end up breaking this already fragile world.
Gene Gardens is a story about people surviving any way they can in a ruined world they didn’t create. It’s the human experience, cloned. Gene Gardens is like a Takashi Miike sci-fi graphic novel…if he did that sort of thing. Lots of gratuitous sex, over-the-top violence and crazy situations. This is definitely for mature minded people.
“I’ve been working on Gene Gardens since 2004 and then Jorge joined me in 2007,” says Granger of the project. “It takes us a while to get it just right. I have struggled with just the right vehicle to bring out Gene Gardens and finally settled on first publishing as a webcomic. It should allow for a more community interaction, which is one of the main threads throughout the Gene Gardens universe. I’m excited to see what happens. I also would like to put out chapters in digital form and maybe even print them eventually for fans who don’t want to wait for the Wednesday updates.”
According to Blastr.com, That epic new Doc Savage movie we’ve been waiting on for eons still has some life left in it. Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout) is attached to direct the strapping hero and believes the adaptation will get his full attention once his other little comic movie, Iron Man 3, is done.
Black came aboard the project back in 2009 to co-write the screenplay, then was assigned to direct for Columbia in February of last year. It is rumored to be a period piece set in the ’30s, the era in which pulp magazines were enjoying vast popularity. Seems like a juicy gig for the pulp-loving Black’s exotic tastes.
In a chat with Comic Book Resources at last week’s Long Beach Comic Con, Black outlined the feasibility of the Man of Bronze bursting onto the big screen soon:
“If we do Doc Savage, the challenge is make it adult,” said Black. “I think that there are so few practitioners of action movies these days who are doing worthwhile stuff that it behooves me to try to weigh in and try to do the Raiders Of The Lost Ark-type stuff, to try to recapture the magic. When I stood in line for a summer movie when I was coming up at eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old, I stood in line for two and a half, three hours and you got the goods! They delivered! And if they didn’t, you went outside and said, ‘Arg, Indiana Jones 2′ wasn’t that good, I stood in line for three hours!’ Now, you don’t know what you’re getting!
“There’s just, I think, a decrease in the quality of these types of comic book action movies, and so it’s almost irresistible, sometimes, to try and shore that up a little, or weigh in at least with my opinion about what’s wrong and how it should be. It’s not the next thing I want to do. I want to do something more serious, a smaller movie at some point. I’m sure there’s a Winter’s Bone in my future. But for now, I’ve immersed myself in comics. I do want to do Doc Savage. The script is still evolving and I’m kind of busy, but I want to get it right and I want to do it.”
Doc Savage was first published in U.S. pulp magazines during the glory years of the ’30s and ’40s and was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L. Nanovic. Lester Dent served as the beefy action hero’s main writer. Savage was a surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer, musician and martial arts master. Raised from birth to fight crime and evil, he lived in an Empire State Building-like skyscraper and kept a secret frozen lair in the Arctic. The popular bare-chested badass would go on to appear in radio serials, film and comic books, and was reprinted for modern audiences in a series of paperbacks.
In 1975, a faithful but campy version hit Hollywood, titled Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze starring ex-Tarzan actor Ron Ely. Let’s hope Black’s rendition returns to the retro rawness and adventurous spirit infused in the original comics. Old-school heroes never die, they just keep swingin’.
According to Deadline (http://www.deadline.com/), Actor/Director Bill Paxton is in talks to direct Kung Fu, a screen adaptation of the classic 1972 TV series that starred David Carradine. Paxton, who’s coming off a run in the HBO series Big Love, gets the job after helming two solid films: Frailty and The Greatest Game Ever Played. John McLaughlin will write the script. The film’s being put together under the Legendary Entertainment banner to shoot partly in China next summer. It is possible that this will come under Legendary East, the Hong Kong-based joint venture that involves Thomas Tull’s Legendary, but insiders said that hasn’t happened to this point.
The original series tracked the adventures of a Shaolin monk as he wanders the American West. The monk wants peace but usually winds up using his spectacular martial arts skills to kick some serious tail, in between flashbacks of his early life in the monastery. A second Kung Fu series aired featuring David Carradine playing a modern-day descendant of his original series character and his police officer son.
Treacherous mermaids in the Sargasso Sea, mysterious death in Accra, an alien race beneath Mombasa and Voudou sorcery in Haiti? All this and more inside…. Jungle Jim is a bimonthly African pulp fiction magazine featuring genre-based writing from all over Africa. This inaugural issue contains three stories and the first part (in a series) of The White Darkness – a real-life account of cult film-maker Richard Stanley’s extraordinary experiences in Haiti as recorded in his private diaries while filming a documentary on Voudou for the BBC. Issues 1 – 5 are now available on Kindle through Amazon UK. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jungle-African-Pulp-Fiction-ebook/dp/B0055SW5NW/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1309464363&sr=8-10
Win Scott Eckert announced on his blog [http://woldnewton.blogspot.com] that a German translation of Philip Jose Farmer’s classic Sherlock Holmes-Lord Greystoke pastiche The Peerless Peer will appear in 2012 from publisher Atlantis Verlag.
ThePulp.Net is a fan-produced Web site devoted to the pulp magazines of the 1890s through the 1950s. ThePulp.Net debuted March 26, 1996, as .Pulp on America Online. Its initial concept was for a Web site devoted to The Shadow. But eventually that changed to encompass additional pulp characters and books.
From the TPN site, “In mid-1995, we found it difficult to track down Web sites about pulp magazines. You had to search Yahoo (there wasn’t a Google then) and otherwise just surf the Net looking for pulp-related sites. Out of that frustration grew the seed for ThePulp.Net.”
.Pulp started with links pages to Web sites devoted to The Shadow, Doc Savage and The Spider and a page to other pulp-related sites, plus a brief history of the pulps that was originally published in 1979. In July 1998, ThePulp.Net got its own domain name and really began to grow.
In addition to turning 10 years old in 2006, ThePulp.Net celebrated another milestone in January 2006 when the site surpassed 500,000 visitors. It is their hope that it won’t take another 10 years to reach one million visitors to the site. ThePulp.Net was created to help pulp fans increase their enjoyment of the pulp magazines.
In addition to information on the heyday of the pulps as well as new pulp, you can find links to other pulp sites, pulp publishers, blogs, websites, character bios, and more. ThePulp.Net is a treasure trove of pulp information.
The printed edition features five interior illustrations by artist Danny Kelly.
“Many thanks to Ron Hanna and Wild Cat Books for allowing my little group of weirdos to finally be born–and in time for Halloween!” Powell said on his blog.
Howard Hopkins is a prolific writer of novels, comic books, and short stories as well as an editor and musician. It was recently announced that Howard would be writing the first new Lone Ranger novel of the 21st Century, which will certainly be a future Trivial Pursuit question. All Pulp sat down to discuss the new novel, Lone Ranger: Vendetta as well as Howard’s other writing and editing projects.
AP: Tell us a little about yourself and your pulp interests.
HH: I’m a horror, western, kids’ horror, pulp, comics writer who lives in Maine, in a small seaside community haunted by sea captains’ ghosts and tourists. It’s a very mysterious place of snaking mist and strange happenings, most of which occur on beer night, which is basically every night in these parts! I’m not sure I can really label myself a “pulp” fan, but I am a huge fan of certain pulp characters, such as Doc Savage, The Avenger and The Shadow, maybe a handful of others to a lesser degree. I grew up on the Doc Savage paperback reprints with their gorgeous Bama covers, as well as The Avenger with their Caras and Gross covers. As a kid I didn’t know what a pulp was, only that there was the occasional odd reference in the books to running boards and wire recorders. It was only in my 20s I got my hands on an actual, honest-to-goodness-crumble-my-hands-as-tried-to-read-it pulp and learned of some of the other characters, like The Spider, Captain Future and The Moon Man.
AP: It was recently announced that your next novel will be The Lone Ranger: Vendetta from Moonstone Books. With your history writing western novels, this seems like a perfect fit. What can we expect from the first Lone Ranger novel of the 21st century? HH: You can expect the true Lone Ranger, no re-imaging and political correctness. Set in a more realistic and gritty West, dealing with authentic issues and vicious villains. The original Lone Ranger series on the radio and TV—which, make no mistake, I love dearly—was largely intended for a younger audience. Moonstone’s series is not aimed at kids, but it is aimed at Lone Ranger fans and Western readers, as well as adventure readers and folks who just enjoy a thrilling story. The Lone Ranger and Tonto—I don’t like to use the term Blood Brothers because it was a term not used by the Native Americans, but that’s what they really are—are equal parts of a whole, dealing with a West full of prejudice, sudden death and human corruption. Yet The Ranger also stands above that. He is The Lone Ranger and I have taken great pains to keep the soul and spirit of the character intact. I have a great love and respect for this character and have done my best to make sure to respect Rangers fans in writing the book. There’s nothing I hate more than seeing a cherished character so totally redone as to be not only unrecognizable but alienating. These are great, iconic characters. They were popular and loved for a reason. I see no need to screw with that. At the same time, the Old West is a violent, vast and even lonely place, and The Lone Ranger and Tonto are operating within it. Basically I have done my durndest to preserve everything that makes The Ranger The Ranger, and set it against a backdrop of a Deadwood styled West (without the cussing). I believe fans as well as many non-Western readers will like it. I am hoping there will be a few of those goosebump moments we all look for in our favorite characters when they appear in new books or movies.
You can also expect a pretty vicious villain seeking revenge. The story is called Vendetta and the lead villain has a hell of a score to settle. Unfortunately this means bad news for some of the Masked Rider of the Plains’ acquaintances.
AP: In addition to writing, you also have a couple of anthologies coming up that you’ve edited as well. Tell us a bit about the upcoming Sherlock Holmes and The Avenger collections.
HH: Yes, indeed. A Honey West anthology too, in fact. The Sherlock Holmes antho is called Sherlock Holmes: The Crossovers Casebook, and involves the Great Detective working with some of history’s fictional and real characters, solving a crime. My own story, called The Haunted Manor, teams Sherlock with Calamity Jane. He teams with Arsene Lupin, The Great and Powerful OZ, Lawrence of Arabia and many others. We have some truly excellent writers involved with the project and an awesome cover. I believe Holmes fans will enjoy it and if I may say so myself it’s going to be one kick ass anthology. I have also been co-editor with Joe Gentile on three Avenger anthologies, the first two of which are out now and available from comic shops and Amazon.com. These are labors of love for me, since The Avenger is one of my all time favorite characters, second (or perhaps even tied with) Doc Savage. I’ve done stories for all three volumes, and the second volume, titled The Justice, Inc. Files, includes, in the special hardcover edition, the first three of six vignettes focusing on the original Man of Steel’s aides. In this case, Nellie, Mac and Cole Wilson. The next will spotlight Smitty, Josh and Rosabel. And of course this is THE Richard Benson, not somebody named Benny or a drastic updating of characters.
AP: What is The Chloe Files?
HH: The Chloe Files is my paranormal horror series focusing on Chloe Everson, a dancer at The Red Lagoon who gets herself into all sorts of supernatural problems. She’s not a wizard like Harry Dresden, but she does take on others’ ghostly problems and something quite special about her will be revealed as the series progresses. Two books are now available on Kindle, Nook and in paperback. The action takes place in the cursed seaside town of New Salem, Maine, and this is not your sparkly vampire lovefest. The monsters Chloe faces are classic style and mean as hell. She’s Kolchak with boobs. She’s also going to find out some rather dark and startling revelations about her past and the reasons the supernatural is after her. In the meantime, she’s kicking Evil’s ass—one demon at a time.
AP: Your books have spanned multiple genres including westerns, horror, mystery, pulp adventure, and more. Do you have a favorite genre to write? What appeals to you about switching genres?
HH: The spooky genes are probably my favorite. I love things that go bump in the night and I love to scare readers. But I enjoy all genres I write in because it all boils down to the same thing–I read to escape…I write to help others escape. I like working in genres that take folks away from their worries and day to day problems, at least for a couple hours. I do not strive to be literary, though I do strive to make my characters live and drive the story. I am an entertainer and that’s just fine with me. It’s all about the escape. When I was a kid, I went through some tough times—and if not for some of the heroes and books I love, honestly, I might not have made it. They saved me from at least some addictions that might have proved destructive. I owe the writers of those stories more than I can repay and I owe my readers what I was given.
AP: Is there a genre you’ve not written that you would like to try your hand at some point?
HH: Well, actually there’s one I am just now getting a chance to write in I haven’t done much with before and that’s 50s noir. I will be writing a 15,000 word novella (novelette?) for a brand new anthology based on the old radio show Nightbeat, about a reporter who stumbles into serious crime. And the best part is I am getting to be in it with some super talents. What more can a writer ask? It will be a lot of fun slipping into that noir world.
AP: There seem to be many different opinions about what can be defined as pulp. How do you define pulp and what do you look for in a pulp story as a writer and a reader?
HH: Oh, man, this may get me into some trouble, but I don’t define pulp. Pulp was a type of paper novels and stories were printed on, in magazine format. In every genre. Now stories are printed in paperbacks and in ebooks. It was cheap fiction, but still just fiction, often written hastily and for the specific reason of entertaining its audience. Escapism, again. I don’t write pulp, because pulp does not really exist as a genre, in my opinion. I write about some characters who appeared in pulp magazines, but I make no deliberate attempt to write in the same style or emulate the technical mistakes they made. I believe the authors, had they been paid better and given the opportunity, would have polished their stories more. But they weren’t and didn’t have time. When I write about those characters, I do my best to flesh them out and present as highly a polished story as my ability allows. Some are hero stories, some horror, some adventure. I think the modern audience expects more from authors now. While I think it’s a huge mistake to reinvent the wheel with these characters—I do my damnedest to maintain the core and soul of the characters and let’s face it, these characters have cult followings because there was something special that didn’t need changing—I do feel writers handling them have to give them more depth, along with slicker writing and better plot. I love reading these characters’ original adventures, but I accept them for what they are and when they were written. I won’t accept that from modern writers who have the time and talent to avoid the things the original writers would have avoided had they gotten the time for rewrites. If you look at The Avenger Chronicles and Justice, Inc. Files, you won’t see “pulp” stories; you’ll see very talented authors telling great stories. I don’t label anything “pulp.” I label them good stories using pulp characters. They are adventure, hero stories in genre. They cross into mystery, horror, western, etc.
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That said, anyone who wants to call it pulp or call me a pulp writer is certainly free to do so and it bothers me not in the least. I just don’t feel it’s even an argument and worth the time debating, to be honest. I’d rather read and write the stories!
AP: Where can readers find information on you and your books?
AP: What upcoming projects do you have coming up that you can tell us about at this time?
HH: Well, The Lone Ranger novel, of course, and a Lone Ranger short story for an anthology, along with another story for The Green Hornet 3, the novella for Nightbeat, a new Chloe Files novel in the works, an Avenger story, Honey West story, a new Western novel, a comic book called Threesome that involves my own—dare I now say “pulp”?—heroine called The Veil and the return of the Golden Amazon (with The Domino Lady and co-written with NY Times bestselling author, the lovely and talented Nancy Holder), A Golden Amazon novel called Ripper, Burning Bright, three Spider widescreen graphic novels from Moonstone, new Golden Amazon short stories, a YA series novel, and some other stuff. Two upcoming Westerns called Hell of Hoofs and Twilight Trail. Then a kidnapping of myself by Jennifer Love Hewitt, but shhhh on that…
AP: Do you have any shows, signings, or conventions coming up where your fans can meet you?
HH: Nothing scheduled at present. I haven’t done many shows, but I’m hoping to change that soon.
AP: And finally, what does Howard Hopkins do when he’s not writing?
HH: Um, what do you mean by that? What is this not writing thing of which you speak? My ass is superglued to the office chair. Well, ok, I am a musician—mandolin, keyboards, guitar, singing—so when I have time I do that, read, of course, collect comic books and DVDs of old TV shows such as UFO, Hulk, Dark Shadows, etc. Sometimes I sleep, but try not to let that get in the way.
AP: Thanks, Howard.
HH: Thank you, All Pulp Potentates!s
About The Lone Ranger – Vendetta:
The Masked Man in a brand-new adventure! From out of the past comes a mysterious killer systematically murdering anyone with a connection to the Masked Rider of the Pains former identity. When all signs point to Butch Cavendish, a man long dead, The Lone Ranger finds himself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the life of his faithful Indian companion hanging in the balance!
New Pulp Author, publisher, and one of All Pulp’s Spectacled Seven, Derrick Ferguson was interviewed by Garrison James for New Pulp Fiction’s Pulp Magnet column. You can read all about Derrick, his work, and his creations at http://www.newpulpfiction.com/. Tell ’em All Pulp sent ya!
