FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY! Get in on the ground level of one of the best New Pulp Series ever! THE ADVENTURES OF LAZARUS GRAY VOLUME ONE by Barry Reese is available to you for FREE for a very short period! You have 24 hours to get the debut adventures of the mysterious Gray and team, Assistance, Unlimited! Go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/115333 and pick the Ebook format you want. Then enter this code- HU55N – to get THE ADVENTURES OF LAZARUS GRAY VOLUME ONE for FREE! Once you read it, leave a review at Amazon, Smashwords, etc. if you will. But Most of All, Enjoy the read from Barry Reese and Pro Se Productions!
Prolific author, James Reasoner has released a Markham P.I. novella that was originally published in MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE as an ebook, which can be found at Amazon and Smashwords.
“At more than 15,000 words, “War Games” is the longest of the Markham stories and a pretty good yarn, if I do say so myself,” said Reasoner of the release. “And you can read it for less than a buck.”
About The Cagliostro Chronicles:
In the year 2089 man’s first faster than light space flight is about to begin, but where it ends will be filled with action, adventure and the unknown! The Cagliostro is an experimental space craft which is destined to begin mans first faster than light voyage beyond his solar system and into a greater universe filled with dangerous adversaries, intrigue and a deadly conspiracy set to tear humanity apart! Join Mark Johnson and his crew of adventurers as they travel beyond our wildest dreams and into a universe fraught with mystery and danger!
Is now available in paperback here and for Kindle here.
Altus Press has announced that Dr. Thaddeus C. Harker: The Complete Tales is now available in softcover, limited edition hardcover, and ebook.
Press Release:
Dr. Thaddeus C. Harker: The Complete Tales
by Edwin Truett Long
introduction by Tom Johnson
Written by Edwin Truett Long, Doc Harker was one of the last of the Munsey heroes who were introduced to battle the oncoming wave of the comic book industry. Dressed in a Prince Albert coat and looking like a Kentucky gentleman, Harker and his crew travel the country selling their cure-all Chickasha Remedies… and encounter crime at every stop. This edition collects the entire series: “Crime Nest,” “Woe to the Vanquished” and “South of the Border,” all from 1940 and complete, remastered, with all the original illustrations. And it’s rounded out by an introduction by pulp historian Tom Johnson which reveals many facts about this previously-unidentified pulp author, along with an exhaustive Edwin Truett Long bibliography.
So this is the story told in the Florida courtroom.
George Zimmerman looks out his window. He sees Treyvon Martin walking down the block. Zimmerman picks up his gun, goes outside, gets in his car, and hunts Martin down. Zimmerman finds Martin and confronts him. Martin is carrying a dangerous bag of Skittles. The two men get into an altercation. Zimmerman shoots Martin dead. Zimmerman tells the police that Treyvon Martin started the altercation and that he, Zimmerman, was “standing his ground.”
Can you pick out what is wrong in the story?*
• • • • •
As I was saying…
I started to regret ever taking on the whole assignment. I felt I was turning out crap. I was embarrassed. I was sad. I worried about my future as a comics writer. And finally…
I got fed up.
I will never forget the day it happened. I was arguing with Alan. And something in me simply exploded…
Mt. St. Mindy blew.
“Fuck you!!!! I don’t need this shit! I quit!!!!”
I slammed the door as I left. I walked out to the elevator. I pushed the button. I was fuming. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
I was done. But Marv (Wolfman) had followed me out to the lobby and there he talked me down, convincing me to keep going, not to quit. He walked me back to the office, and I apologized to editor Alan Gold, and he apologized to me. (And by the way, Alan is a terrific guy, and he and I got along beautifully when we weren’t discussing Wonder Woman.)
So I finished the run. If you can’t remember that far back, the series was ending to prepare the way for George Pérez’s relaunch, and I was responsible for only the last three or four issues. But to be honest, I don’t think I would have stayed on with Alan as the editor, despite our personal friendship, even if the series had continued. I think I would have been fired. Lesson here, boys and girls: never curse out your editor in a loud voice that can be heard everywhere and starts the office talking. Or simply, never curse out your boss. These days I would still want to yell and curse and scream, but I’m a little bit wiser and a whole lot older (not just chronologically) – meaning more mature (?) – and I would try to find a solution that worked for both my editor and myself. Or, if that didn’t work, take myself off the book.
So I was done with Diana.
Until November 1989, and Wonder Woman volume 2, number 36.
Wonder Woman had been rebooted in 1987. Not many people remember that Greg Potter was the original writer/scripter, by the way, with George co-plotting and penciling. But Greg dropped out after the release of Wonder Woman #2, and George became the plotter, with Len Wein writing the scripts until issue #18, when George took over the whole shebang.
This post-Crisis reboot was the one that did it for me. As I’ve stated previously, I have always loved Greek mythology, and my favorite stories about Diana were those involving the Amazons and their gods. Apparently, George and Greg appreciated the rich background, too. The inclusion of the Hellenic mythos and theology of gods and goddesses with supernatural powers but all too human personalities and foibles finally imbued Diana with her own raison d’être that brimmed with a new truthfulness for the character.
Responding to the heartache and prayers of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, who had led her followers to an island shielded in the mists from the patriarchal and brutal world in which they lived, (as the Isle of Avalon is in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists Of Avalon), the goddesses instructed Hippolyta to shape a baby girl out of the earth, and breathed the “gift of life” into the clay. (Hmm…in Jewish lore this makes Diana a golem. A golem is a figure made of clay upon whose forehead the Hebrew letters aleph, mem, and tav are written out to spell emet, which means “truth,” and doesn’t Diana have a golden lariat that forces those bound by it to speak truth? Boy, could I run with that one!)
The child was given the gift of beauty and compassion by Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love; the gift of wisdom from Athena; the power and strength of the earth from Demeter; the creativity, passion, authority, and energy of fire from Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth; and from Artemis, the Huntress, respect for all life and a mastery of weapons. Only Hermes, of all the male gods, bestowed a gift upon Diana – that of speed and the power of flight.
This Diana, though once grown a great warrior and unafraid to use force when necessary, was also a “stranger in a strange land” – not only an innocent in the ways of the world, but unable even to speak English when she first arrived here as an ambassador (or emissary) from Themiscrya.
Even the supporting characters made sense. Steve Trevor was still in the Air Force, but he was older and involved with Etta Candy, who was also more mature and with a realistic physique for her age. And Diana’s mentor in Patriarch’s World, a.k.a. Man’s World, was one Julia Kapatelis, an archaeologist and scholar of the ancient Greek world, who recognized Diana’s speech as a variant of early Greek, and who had a daughter, Vanessa, just about to enter her crazy ‘teens.
Working on this Wonder Woman with George and Karen was absolutely sublime. He was doing the plots, but it was definitely a partnership; and all the characters were so real, so defined – they were easy to write because I knew just what each one would say in whatever situation they found themselves.
The highlight of our work together, im-no-so-ho, was Wonder Woman #46, “Chalk Drawings.” It was ostensibly about Lucy’s suicide, but George and I decided to not focus on Lucy herself; instead, it was about the aftermath of Lucy’s final action. No one knew why Lucy had killed herself; everyone searched for an answer; everyone blamed him or herself. Even Diana, who went home to seek solace from her mother, only to learn from Hippolyta that even an Amazon is capable of committing suicide; even an Amazon cannot always find the answer or the way to help. And with the beautiful artwork of Jill Thompson and Romeo Tanghal, I believe it deserves to be a classic.
On a personal level, having had to deal with clinical depression throughout almost my entire adult life – it wasn’t properly diagnosed until my mid-30’s, btw, and don’t ever try to tell me antidepressants, especially the SSRI class, is more dangerous than the disease, because I will bite your face off – that issue was very special to me, and really emphasized what Wonder Woman, the hero made of clay, the golem, stands for…
Emet.
Truth.
* The truth about George Zimmerman is that he deliberately went out and hunted down and provoked, Treyvon Martin. The truth about Treyvon Martin is that he was the one who “stood his ground.”
TUESDAY MORNING: Emily S. Whitten
TUESDAY AFTERNOON: Michael Davis, if he’s recovered from SDCC
Piccadilly Publishing has added Gordon Davis’ The Sergeant to their ebook reprint catalog.
PRESS RELEASE:
I’m delighted to announce that we have acquired the ebook rights to one of the great series of the 1980s — THE SERGEANT by Gordon Davis. Beginning in October we’ll be issuing all nine books in the series, this time under the author’s real name, and all featuring covers painted by Tony Masero!
About Piccadilly Publishing: Piccadilly Publishing is the brainchild of longtime Western fans and Amazon Kindle Number One bestselling Western writers Mike Stotter and David Whitehead (a.k.a. Ben Bridges). The company intends to bring back into ‘e-print’ some of the most popular and best-loved Western and action-adventure series fiction of the last forty years.
Series fiction (the most popular genre was always the Western, but it also encompassed war stories, tales of pillaging Vikings, life in the Roman arena and action-adventure set in the far-flung future) was at its most popular throughout the 1970s and 80s and is still fondly remembered and avidly collected by die-hard fans even today. Some books are now so hard to come by that it’s not unusual for them to change hands for astronomical amounts.
“We got to know a number of the authors when we were teenagers,” remembers Mike. “Although they mostly wrote Westerns, they often joked that they had never been further west than Piccadilly, in London’s West End.”
Thus Piccadilly Publishing was born. One of its aims is to bring back titles for new and old readers alike. Great care is taken over the production of each title, and each one has a specially-commissioned cover from Westworld Designs that recreates the feel of the originals, at the same time giving them a fresh and more modern look.
At the moment all Piccadilly Publishing titles are available for download from Amazon’s platforms in the UK, US, Spain, France, Germany and Italy, with more titles are set to follow on a regular basis. There are also plans to expand their availability on other electronic platforms.
“We’re adding authors and series to our catalogue almost every day,” reports Whitehead. “Over the coming years I think we’ll surprise and delight our fellow fans with what we have to offer.”
New Pulp Publisher, Trinity Comics has announced that Frank (Lance Star: Sky Ranger) Dirscherl’s debut novel, THE WRAITH, is now available to buy (in paperback) in a new revamped and represented edition. This is the first novel in The Wraith novel series.
Go back to where it all began. Currently only available from the Trinity Comics Store, Frank Dirscherl’s The Wraith will soon also be available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble et al as well as an eBook. Stay tuned here for further details. For now, the paperback can be ordered from the Trinity Comics on-line store here.
About Frank Dirscherl’s The Wraith: In a world not far removed from our own, a city lies ravaged. Crime overruns its streets, its citizens are
helpless. Crime-lord Robert Latham, to the world at large a legitimate businessman, holds the city in his sway. Fear and intimidation rule throughout. One man stands above the rest, willing to fight for freedom. That man is The Wraith. The Wraith, the city’s bogeyman, is known to exist only by a very few, and seen by even fewer. Those that do know of him, especially Latham, know to fear him, for his fury at those who commit evil knows no bounds. By day, The Wraith is the reclusive millionaire Paul Sanderson, a man more mysterious and less seen than his night-time counterpart. Sensing the desperation of Latham and that his own time may be limited, Sanderson readies a replacement–Michael Reeve, an honest cop drawn inexorably into a world he may not be ready for. Can the new Wraith save his city even while he struggles to save his own soul?
Learn more about Frank Dirscherl’s The Wraith here.
About Frank Dirscherl: Frank Dirscherl AssDipArts (Lib Prac) CertIIIInfTch (Tech Sppt) ALIATec AIMM
Frank Dirscherl (b. 1973) is a professionally certified library technician and has been working in libraries since 1992. Over the years he has also covered and packed books and other material for a book wholesale company, worked as a data assistant at an ENT surgery and as a lecturer to children on the merits of the comic book. His written work includes The Wraith (filmed in 2005), Valley of Evil, Cult of the Damned, the non-fiction The Wraith: Eyes of Judgment – The Official Script Book & Movie Guide (with
Stephen Semones) and more. He lives on the south coast of NSW, Australia with his wife, where he’s currently working on his fifth Wraith novel amongst other works of fiction.
It started in the home of actor Sean Hayes – and now HOLLYWOOD GAME NIGHT is open to all. Host Jane Lynch talks to us about the NBC summer series and which celebs really had any game. Plus retailers scream as Amazon unleashes Jet City and comics in June have an “OK” month.
This summer, we are updating once a week – every Friday – but you don’t have to miss any pop culture news. THE POINT covers it 24/7! Take us ANYWHERE! The Point Radio App is now in the iTunes App store – and it’s FREE! Just search under “pop culture The Point”. The Point Radio – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any other mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.
The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage, by Stephen D. Korshak and J David Spurlock, Vanguard Publishing, retail: $39.95 hardcover, Amazon $16.59 softcover / $28.61 hardcover.
Generally speaking, when I’m reading a biography of a spectacularly talented popular culture artist I rarely encounter a lot of references to the Industrial Workers of the World. In the interest of full disclosure, I was a member of the IWW and I still fully sympathize with the heritage and the goals of the Wobblies. So there.
Irrespective of her personal history, Margaret Brundage’s pulp illustrations – mostly for Weird Tales – speak for themselves. They were spectacularly sensual, evoking the most base emotions in the true pulp tradition. That she was a woman made her work all the more unusual: back then, commercial illustration was very much an old boy’s club, and generally old W.A.S.P. boys at that. Then again, it is likely a man couldn’t get away with Brundage’s corporeal work.
Within a six-year period Brundage produced 66 covers for the vaunted magazine, including 39 straight issues. That’s quite an achievement, particularly given the fact that Weird Tales’ second most successful cover artist was Virgil Finley. Her run ended when the magazine was sold in 1938 and moved from Chicago to New York: her editor did not make the move, and NYC Mayor Fiorello La Guardia had started his infamous crackdown on sensuality in the public media and thus her work was regarded as a liability. The magazine’s circulation suffered from her absence.
Throughout her Weird Tales period Brundage was married to a man named Slim Brundage, a character even by Chicago’s colorful standards. A hobo, labor organizer (for the IWW), playwright, writer, humorist, bootlegger and owner of a coffee house called College for Complexes, Slim was also a member of the Dil Pickle Club (sic), a hidden Towertown hangout for radical literati such as Clarence Darrow, Emma Goldman, Big Bill Haywood, Lucy Parsons, Upton Sinclair, Sherwood Anderson, Carl Sandburg and Ben Hecht. Google around; these are some of the most fascinating Americans ever. Margaret met Slim at the Dil Pickle; their marriage lasted until 1939 although that hardly ended her involvement with the left-wing intelligentsia.
Korshak and Spurlock’s book contains eight essays and an introduction from Rowena; again, in the interest of full disclosure, essayists include my friends and occasional cultural collusionists Robert Weinberg and George Hagenauer. They are all wonderful and worthy on their own.
But screw that. The main appeal is the faithful reproduction of an uncountable number of Brundage paintings. Well, that’s not true: I could count them, but each time I tried I got lost in the beauty of the work itself.
I’d like to say that without Margaret Brundage, there might not have been a Rowena, a Julie Bell, or a Olivia de Beradinis, but eventually talent supersedes silly obstacles such as gender. Sometimes.
Two rival tent boxing troupes clash over a territorial dispute in the Outback town of Birdsville. In the sweltering heat, tensions simmer, tempers flare, and as things reach boiling point, a boxing tent is burned to the ground.
Fighting men know only one way to solve their disputes, and that’s in the ring. The solution, a show-down, smack-down, winner take all bout between the two rival outfits.
In the blue corner, representing ‘Walter Wheeler’s Boxing Sideshow’ is Tommy King, a young aboriginal boxer with a big heart and iron fists.
In the red corner, representing ‘Arnold Sanderson’s Boxing Show’, is ‘Jumpin’ Jack Douglas, a monstrous wrecking machine from the city – a man who’ll do anything to win.
The fight – brutal. In the world of Tent Boxing, in the harsh Australian Outback, weight divisions and rules don’t count for much. It’s a fight to decide, who is indeed, King of the Outback!
