Tagged: Andrew Salmon

GUEST REVIEW BY ANDREW SALMON- PULP OBSCURA’S NEW ADVENTURES OF RICHARD KNIGHT!

INTO THAT GOOD KNIGHT

A Review of The New Adventures of Richard Knight

by Andrew Salmon

(Disclaimer: Andrew Salmon writes for Pulp Obscura) 


When Pro Se Press got together with Altus Press to create the Pulp Obscura line, it was a match made in Heaven. As Altus gave rabid pulp fans top-notch collections of forgotten heroes from the Golden Age of pulp, Pro Se wrangled together a bevy of New Pulp’s finest authors to create anthologies containing new tales featuring these forgotten heroes – the perfect melding of past and future.


Submitted for your consideration is first release in the Pulp Obscura line: The New Adventures of Richard Knight.With Altus’s first collection of original Knight tales comes this first volume of new Knight stories by some of New Pulp’s best. And it does not disappoint.


But first a little background. For those of you who don’t know, Richard Knight was a 1940s pulp hero in the rich playboy by day, ace pilot and secret spy designated Q by night. Created by Donald Keyhoe, Knight and his trusted assistant Larry Doyle worked for General Brett who gave them strange cases featuring science-fiction elements solved with espionage, aerial escapades and two-fisted action. A fine introduction by Tommy Hancock provides all the information you’ll need before diving into the tales themselves.


In The New Adventures of Richard Knight, we get six brand new adventures to add to the original canon. New Pulp scribes Josh Reynolds, Barry Reese, Terry Alexander, I. A. Watson, Frank Schildiner and Adam Lance Garciado the honors this time out and the result is a mixed bag of pulp goodies.


Reynolds gets things going with Hell’s Hands, a tale featuring aerial pirates threatening European skies. There is a lot of great action in this first outing and the villain is well drawn. For all its merits, the tale does suffer from a little too much character set up since the tale wraps up without giving us a true look at the villain. I can’t help thinking that Reynolds has plans for this baddie which will play out later. All well in good, but the absence of sufficient details in this story lessens one’s enjoyment of it. The story more than makes up for it with its lightning pace and great action sequences and is a great way to get this party started.


Richard Knight and the Stones of Heavenby Barry Reese is next up. In this yarn, Knight goes up against a group of artifact-hunting Nazis bent on created a death ray for nefarious purposes by collecting the six stones of Heaven and harnessing their strange power. Most of the action takes place on the ground, rather than in the air, but the tale moves well and is an enjoyable traditional pulp actioner that would not be out of place in Knight’s original run. Good writing and clear characterization are on display here as well, making for a fun read.


Terry Alexander gives us The Bapet, a tale with traditional horror elements as a small town is terrorized by a supernatural creature. All the makings of a good, scary action tale. However it doesn’t quite gel here. It’s as if Alexander is fitting Knight and his supporting cast to an existing plot rather than The Bapet reading like a true Knight tale. The result is a somewhat engaging read with gore and scares aplenty yet feels somehow out of place.


The Hostage Academy by I. A. Watson is another strong entry in this collection. The death of a senator in a plane crash barely crosses Knight’s radar but when the love of his love, Benita, meets a similar fate, then it’s time for this Knight to go on a crusade. Strong characterization highlight this very personal mission of Knight’s and emotions run high as the airman tries to solve a compelling mystery in his search for vengeance.


Fear From Above by Frank Schildiner has Richard Knight going it alone in an intriguing adventure slightly hampered by its wordiness. The strange disappearance of the crew of a ship out of Jack London’s The Sea Wolf leads Knight on an adventure that sets itself apart from the norm. Some great action and vivid description make for a rousing adventure in the air, on the ground and on the high seas.


Crimes of the Ancients by Adam Lance Garcia is my personal favorite in this fine collection. It starts with a bang and the pace does not let up. A character-driven tale, it features Knight going toe-to-toe and quip-to-quip with a former love interest. The plot is never fully explained but given that classic pulp tales generally featured the simple Good vs Evil plot to begin with, it’s interesting to see a detailed breakdown of the situation Knight finds himself in being left to the readers. It’s as if Garcia is saying to pulp fans: “You’ve read enough of these great action yarns, you already know what the story is here.” Although the banter did get annoying in spots, this new approach to a traditional pulp tale, the ending in particular, left a pleasant taste in this reader’s mouth after closing the book.


The New Adventures of Richard Knight is sure to please pulp fans, old and new, as well as any action junkie. It’s available in print and as an ebook so they’ve got your preferred method of reading covered. If you’re a fan of action fiction, then this book is for you. Don’t miss it!

LANCE STAR: SKY RANGER VOL. 4 ARTIST ANNOUNCED

Art: Scott “Doc” Vaughn (not Lance Star art)

Art: Felipe Echevarria

Airship 27 Productions has announced the artist for Volume 4 their wildly popular pulp anthology series, Lance Star: Sky Ranger. Artist Scott “Doc” Vaughn will join writers Bobby Nash, Sean Taylor, Andrew Salmon, and Jim Beard and cover artist Felipe Echevarria for the continuing adventures of America’s Favorite Air Ace!

Look for Lance Star: Sky Ranger vol. 4 coming from Airship 27 Productions.
For more information on Airship 27 Productions, visit them on-line at www.airship27.com and www.gopulp.info

For more information on Lance Star: Sky Ranger, visit www.lance-star.com
Lance Star: Sky Ranger volumes 1, 2, & 3, and the Lance Star comic book “One Shot!” are still available.

RICK RUBY ANSWERS READER QUESTIONS.

Art: Rob Moran

Art: Mark Wheatley

Star of Airship 27 Productions’ The Ruby Files, pulp p.i. Richard “Rick” Ruby took some time out of his hectic caseload to answer another reader’s question.

Sweet Thing in New York wants to know if Rick ever plans to settle down and get married?

Read Rick’s response at http://rickruby.blogspot.com/2012/10/rick-ruby-takes-your-questions-2.html

Want Rick to answer one of your questions? Leave a comment at Belle’s online.

THE RUBY FILES VOL. 1 is still available for purchase at any of the following booksellers:
Createspace paperback
Amazon paperback
Indy Planet paperback
Airship 27 Hangar ebook

The Ruby Files created by Bobby Nash and Sean Taylor.

The Ruby Files returns in 2013.

WHO IS RICK RUBY?

Bobby Nash and Sean Taylor discuss the creation of The Ruby Files at Josh Reynold’s blog. Please check it out at http://joshuamreynolds.blogspot.com/

And check out these other Ruby Files interviews:

THE RUBY FILES GETS PULPED! The creative team behind the new anthology interviewed by the PULPED! podcast. http://pulped.libsyn.com/webpage/pulped-the-official-new-pulp-podcast-the-ruby-files-gets-pulped

All Pulp’s The Ruby Files Round Robin Interview: http://allpulp.blogspot.com/2012/03/all-pulps-round-robin-interview-ruby.html

And there’s a free preview download at http://www.taylorverse.com/Rick%20Ruby%20Preview%20Edition.pdf

You can learn more about The Ruby Files and Airship 27 at http://www.airship27.com/
You can learn more about Ruby co-creator Sean Taylor at http://www.taylorverse.com/
You can learn more about Ruby co-creator Bobby Nash at http://www.bobbynash.com/

Visit the official The Ruby Files website at http://rickruby.blogspot.com/

THE RUBY FILES GETS PULPED!

Cover Art: Mark Wheatley

PULPED! The Official New Pulp Podcast presents: THE RUBY FILES GETS PULPED!

Host Tommy Hancock brings on a whole herd of Pulp Cats to talk about Airship 27 Productions’ latest original anthology – THE RUBY FILES! Listen as Ron Fortier, Rob Davis, Bobby Nash, Sean Taylor, William Patrick Maynard, Mark Wheatley, and Andrew Salmon discuss noir, hard boiledness, gumshoes, dames, and more! Learn about the creation, writing, and art behind this brand new chapter in the history of Private Eye Pulp!

You can listen to THE RUBY FILES GETS PULPED! now at http://pulped.libsyn.com/webpage/pulped-the-official-new-pulp-podcast-the-ruby-files-gets-pulped

FORTIER TAKES ON ‘SCARECROW’!

ALL PULP REVIEWS by Ron Fortier
SCARECROW
By Matthew Reilly
St.Martin’s Paperbacks
457 pages
When this reviewer can chew through four hundred and fifty-seven pages of fiction as if it were a ball of yummy cotton-candy, you know there is lots of awesome action in those pages.  “Scarecrow” by Matthew Reilly is easily one of the fastest paced action thrillers I’ve ever had the pleasure of devouring.  From the very first page to the last, it takes off like a rocket ship cutting through one massive, terrorist style threat after another pitting our hero, Special Forces Marine Captain Shane Schofield against a veritable army of the deadliest professional killers in the world.
The plot is about as melodramatic as these kind of books can get.  A super secret group of arms dealers wish to create a second Cold War so that there will be a renewed demand for their product; a need that has lessened considerably since the collapse of the Soviet Union.  They plan elaborate missile strikes against the major cities of both the east and the west, using weaponry that can be traced back to specific nations and thus throw false blame on them. What the group doesn’t know is that amongst them is a psychopath who has no interest in a “cold” war, but rather this monster is intent on starting Armageddon and seeing the world destroyed.
The only thing that can foil this global scheme is the fact that all the missiles can be aborted by one universal “kill” code; a code that requires near super human reflexes to administer.  There are only fifteen men in the world, soldiers, who have such reflexes to properly activate this “kill” switch.  Thus the clandestine group puts a million dollar bounty on their heads, literally.  They also set a time-table as they want these targets eliminated before the launching of their insidious plan.  
Captain Shane Schofield, code name Scarecrow, is one of those targeted for execution.  Of course, he isn’t that easy to kill and when he escapes the first attempt on his life, he immediately begins to turn the tables on his hunters.  At the same time he is fleeing these crazed killers, he is using his Pentagon contacts to figure out what is actually going on and by the last quarter of the book, Scarecrow has unraveled the plot and begins racing against time to save the world.
Honestly, there were times when reading Reilly’s over-the-top outlandish action sequence where I was thought even Michael Bay couldn’t do justice to this gung-ho Road Runner cartoon brought to life.  There is more action in this one book than any other dozen bestselling thrillers on the market today.  Reilly is the quintessential New Pulp writer who understands the rules of break-neck pacing and the objective of entertaining the hell out of his readers.  He does both masterfully.  It is no wonder he has a huge fan following amongst action readers; this reviewer being the latest recruit.
Note, “Scarecrow” was written back in 2003 and the dog-eared copy I just read was sent to me last year by my Canadian colleague, Andrew Salmon, a long time Reilly convert who knew I’d get a bang out of it. I just couldn’t imagine just how big a bang it would be.

Want to read a free preview of The Ruby Files?

Cover: Mark Wheatley

Airship 27 has released a special preview edition PDF of their latest title, The Ruby Files.
Get your free preview download here:
http://www.taylorverse.com/Rick%20Ruby%20Preview%20Edition.pdf

You can also read All Pulp’s interview with The Ruby Files writers and editor at http://allpulp.blogspot.com/2012/03/all-pulps-round-robin-interview-ruby.html

You can find The Ruby Files at the following:
Digital: Airship 27 Hangar – http://robmdavis.com/Airship27Hangar/airship27hangar.html
Print: Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/dp/0615609236/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_NHRypb1G20K9Y
Print: Indy Planet – http://www.indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6797
Please visit the official site for The Ruby Files at http://rickruby.blogspot.com/

ALL PULP’S ROUND ROBIN INTERVIEW – THE RUBY FILES

http://rickruby.blogspot.com

In March, Airship 27 launched its 45th title (the 4th of 2012) about a 1930’s pulp detective named Rick Ruby. All Pulp sat down with co-creators/writers Bobby Nash and Sean Taylor, writers Andrew Salmon and William Patrick Maynard, and editor/publisher Ron Fortier to delve into The Ruby Files.

AP: Tell us a little about yourself.

Ron: I’ve been a professional writer of comics and genre fiction for over thirty five years now. Created Airship 27 Productions seven years ago with my pal, artist Rob Davis. This book is the 45th title in our current catalog of New Pulp fiction.

Andrew: My name is Andrew Salmon and I live and write in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I discovered Classic Pulp back in 2000 with Doc Savage and have been hooked ever since. When the New Pulp movement began in earnest 4 or 5 years ago, I had the great good fortune to write pulp stories of my own featuring classic, public domain characters like Sherlock Holmes, Secret Agent X, Dan Fowler and Jim Anthony as well as new creations like the Ghost Squad (with Ron Fortier) and Rick Ruby to name a few.

My short stories and novellas have since been nominated twice for the Pulp Factory Award (winning once for “The Adventure of the Locked Room” in Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective Volume One from Airship 27), three times for a Pulp Ark Award and once for the Ellis Award, which is the Canadian equivalent of the Edgar.

Writing pulp has been very rewarding, an experience I wouldn’t have missed for the world. I love writing pulp and have BIG plans for the future.

William: Hi, I’m William Patrick Maynard. I have the honor to be authorized by Sax Rohmer’s Literary Estate to continue the Fu Manchu thrillers for Black Coat Press. I am fortunate to have been nominated for both a Rondo and a Pulp Factory Award. I also contribute an article on all things pulp each week for The Black Gate. My short fiction has appeared in GASLIGHT GROTESQUE and TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN. THE RUBY FILES is my first work for Airship 27.

Sean Taylor

Sean: I write stories. I write them in comic books, graphic novels, magazines, book anthologies and novels. I write them for money, and I write them for fun — both at the same time. I’m fortunate like that.

Bobby: I’m Bobby Nash. I write stories for novels, comic books, short stories, novellas, graphic novels, and have been dabbling with screenplays of late as well. I started writing pulp stories back when Airship 27 launched with its first title, Lance Star: Sky Ranger.

AP: What attracted you to The Ruby Files anthology?

Ron: I’ve always been a sucker for old fashion private tales whether it was Sam Spade or Mike Hammer, I love the tough guy heroes of fiction. We’d done some different genres in our line-up at Airship 27 but never a private eye series.

Bobby Nash

Andrew: I was a huge fan of hardboiled fiction long before I stumbled across classic pulp heroes like The Shadow and Doc Savage. I’m steeped in Cornell Woolrich, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, Ross Macdonald, Donald Hamilton, Dan J. Marlowe, John D. MacDonald, Ed McBain, Edwards S. Aarons, Richard Prather, Brett Halliday and so many others.

So when I got wind of Rick Ruby and discovered that an invite to race down the dark alleys of Ruby’s world was out there, I jumped, baby! Writing classic pulp characters has been a blast but I realized immediately that I hadn’t used my hardboiled voice in far too long. Well, with Ruby I’d have a chance to cut loose. No way was I going to miss it.

Ron Fortier

Added to that was the level of talent associated with the project. With Bobby Nash and Sean Taylor at the helm, the book couldn’t miss. Throw in brilliant artwork from Mark Wheatley (cover) and stunning interiors courtesy of Rob Moran along with the top New Pulp writing talent and a first-rate publishing outfit like Airship 27 and I could see right off that the book was going to be one for the ages. It was a perfect storm. I dove in with both feet and had a blast!

William: Hammett and Chandler and Ross Macdonald are a part of my essential appetite for fiction. I feel the same way about JOHNNY DOLLAR, SAM SPADE, and RICHARD DIAMOND for Old Time Radio and PETER GUNN and RICHARD DIAMOND for Golden Age TV. This was a natural fit. I’m very grateful to Ron Fortier for giving me a shot at demonstrating I could do something other than Yellow Peril thrillers. One of Airship 27’s strengths is the fact that they don’t try to pigeonhole talent. Encouraging versatility and believing in giving new voices a chance to be heard is definitely part of what helps Airship 27 make its mark alongside those stunning covers.

Andrew Salmon

Sean: Noir detectives? Duh. Next question.

Seriously, I’m a sucker for the noir P.I. One off my favorite series of a books at the moment is the Hard Case Crime line of books. Both the classic ones and the brand new stuff written in that style. Some of my favorite films are noir films, and the characters really resonate with me. The emotionally tortured, morally conflicted leading Private Dick, the femme fatale with legs up to where she hides the revolver, the dirty cops, the gangsters… what’s not to love?

And on top of all that, getting to do the book meant renewed life for the dead concept Bobby and I had originally conceived to tell stories of Richard Diamond. And let’s be honest, I much prefer Rick Ruby to Richard Diamond now anyway.

William Patrick Maynard

Bobby: I blame Sean Taylor. No. Really. I was slowly digging myself out of a backlog of stories under the weight of that old dreaded deadline doom when I noticed the discussion on The Pulp Factory Yahoo Group about detectives. I was intrigued, but was way too busy to add more to my plate at that time. Then Sean goes and throws down the gauntlet by suggesting that he and I co-create the character that became Rick Ruby. How could I refuse? So, yeah, it’s all Sean Taylor’s fault. (grins)

AP: The characters that fill the pages of The Ruby Files are classic archetypes from pulp and noir detective stories. What attracts you to these types of characters and stories as a writer and a reader?

Ron: Growing up watching those classic black and white gangster and noire films with actors like James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, I loved the edge gray world they existed in. Not so much shiny white knights as tarnished souls in search of redemption.

Andrew: They’re real. It’s as simple as that. Often in hero fiction we forget that our stalwart defenders against injustice stare long and hard into the abyss. This affects them, how they think, how they act and their attitudes towards the world they inhabit. Sure, they can often be buried in cliches and stereotypes when written poorly, but they provide a wealth of great opportunities when handled properly.

As a writer, these are characters you can sink your teeth into. You can explore what makes them tick, how they survive what the world has thrown at them. Also the detective tale allows you to shine the spotlight on aspects of the human condition that we all experience in our daily lives to one extent or another.

As a reader, hardboiled fiction works as a kind of ‘what if’ morality tale. We’ve all got that boss we’d like to strangle or that co-worker who screwed us out of that promotion. But we don’t murder them and try to get away with it, do we? Or, maybe we do… why are their sirens outside my door just now?

Also, one does not have to look too long to see injustice in the real world and, sadly, a lot of the time the bad guys get away with it. Hardboiled detective fiction reminds us, in the fictional world, that there are people out there who will catch crooks, find kidnapped loved ones, bring murderers to justice and so on. Hardboiled fiction is great escapist fiction and we all need that sometimes.

William: It’s a simpler world without DNA testing and political correctness, but it’s still modern enough to turn an honest critical eye on capitalism and human nature at its worst. Chandler really laid it all out in black and white in his “Simple Art of Murder” essay – it’s all about the knight errant who rises above the dark streets he walks. That moral complexity hooks you every time. For me, hardboiled detective fiction or noir thrillers are pulp fiction at its purest.

Sean: I still remember with gusto the first time I saw Bogey as Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep and as Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon. Just one cocky line to the coppers, one snarky come-on to the femme fatale, one left hook to a crook’s glass jaw, and I knew I was hooked. (I learned how to whistle too, for the record, thanks to Bogey’s costar, but that’s another tale for the telling.) The addiction only grew stronger when I discovered Stacey Keach as Mike Hammer (in both TV versions, thank you very much), and later, the old radio show and television show featuring Richard Diamond.

There was something about these renegade men that appealed to the kid in me who needed someone not only to root for but to try to emulate. Sure, we all knew that smoking was bad for you and that you shouldn’t treat a lady like sexual property, but when the private dicks did it, it seemed somehow… innocent… as if a mere throwback to an era when it was all okay and kind of, well, expected.

Of course, looking back, I know now it was pure fantasy.

In reality, private detectives seldom got the girl, more often than not got stuck photographing cheating lovers, and rarely got to beat the cops out of any famous murder cases. And they never, ever, ever had leggy dames with curves like the coast of Florida lining up outside their offices for double entendres, sultry seductions and hard-boiled adventures.

Bobby: There’s something so exciting about watching the harried p.i. get in over his head and take his lumps while trying to solve a case he would rather not have taken in the first place, but only did so because he couldn’t resist a damsel in distress, even though every instinct he had told him that she couldn’t be trusted. As a reader, those stories are fun to read. I also love seeing them in TV and movies. Writing them was simply too much fun.

AP: Tell us a bit about your Ruby Files story and some of the challenges or unexpected surprises you encountered in Rick Ruby’s world? Ron, can you give us some insights about editing and publishing this volume?

Ron: I knew going in this was going to be a fun job for me. As each of the four writers were old pros, I had no anxieties their stories wouldn’t be great. It was the range of themes that took me by surprise, from Andrew’s delving into Rick’s past concerning his father’s death in WW I to Bill taking him to Hollywood in the heyday of movie making. Each story was, as cover Mark Wheatley so aptly put it on the cover, a real gem!

Andrew: My entry is called “WOUNDS” and it was an honor to learn that the story would kick off the anthology. It explores to some extent what I was talking about earlier. The characters inhabiting hardboiled tales are often broken but most, if not all, have been wounded in some way. I wanted to explore that in my tale. The character bible sketched out that Ruby’s father had died in WWI and I hit on a way to touch on this in the tale as Ruby tries to hunt down the people responsible for a cop’s murder.

It was a challenge getting into Rick’s head as he was not a character of my own creation. I wanted to do justice to what Bobby and Sean created and stick to their guidelines to the best of my ability. The hardboiled world was one I was very familiar with so I had no trouble slipping into that however.

When I hit my stride on the tale, I was surprised at how easily I was able to tweak some of the hardboiled tropes we all know and love. The result is a tale I hope will feel familiar to fans of this wonderful genre but will also bring something new to the table. Also the ending of the tale is not what readers would call typical for the genre. I wanted my story to hit and hit hard. I pulled no punches. That to me is what good hardboiled fiction is all about. Only readers can decide if I succeeded or not.

One of the big surprises of writing the tale was how many pop culture easter eggs simply dropped into Ruby’s world. They were not intentional but just fell into place while I was writing the first draft. Savvy readers will be able to spot them. Sorry, no hints. But, hey, Easter isn’t that far away. What better time for a little easter egg hunt? Can you spot them all? Happy hunting!

William: My story, “Tulsa Blackie’s Last Dive” is a fish out of water story. We take Rick out of his comfort zone of New York and drop him into the artificial utopia of 1930s Hollywood. We get to see the glitz and the grime underneath. Rick has enough trouble being underestimated at the best of times, it’s even worse out among Tinsel Town sharks.

No real challenges fleshing out the story. I was working with a great character bible and I immediately felt I knew Rick so it was easy enough to drop him into a case in a town where everyone is a fish out of water (whether they’re immigrants or small town dreamers) trying to act like they belong. This was pure pleasure to write. I love THE RUBY FILES and hope the series takes off big for Airship 27.

Sean: My story formed in my head the minute Bobby and I finished fleshing out the character. I saw the tawdry love quadrangle (love square?), the leggy jazz crooning dame to mix up Rick’s thinking, and the way that a man in that kind of situation just needed one little match to set off one heck of an explosion. I couldn’t help but make sure she carried a full box of matches, just in case.

But if you’re asking for specifics, my tale puts Rick in the middle of a defecting German scientist, a worried niece, and a lethal level of inheritance. And that’s never a safe place to be.

Bobby: My story for The Ruby Files volume 1 is called “The Case of the Wayward Brother.” On the surface, the case seemed simple enough. All Rick Ruby had to do was track down the runaway brother of the sexy socialite from California then collect his fee. Of course, in Rick Ruby’s world, even the simplest case is never that simple.

AP: Where can readers find and learn more about you and your work?

Ron: We have a brand new website for all things Airship 27 Productions and we hope our readers, old and new will check it out. Not only that, but register as well. That way they can keep abreast of each new book we release during the year. http://robmdavis.com/Airship27Hangar/airship27hangar.html

Andrew: I don’t have a website at the moment, but most of what I’ve published to date can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Salmon/e/B002NS5KR0/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_7?qid=1328666769&sr=1-7

Folks can also swing by my Facebook page.

William: Well, I have a blog, http://www.setisays.blogspot.com/ that cross-posts my articles for http://blackgate.com/ and archives the articles I wrote for http://thecimmerian.com/ I use Facebook as a free marketing tool rather than social networking so anyone is welcome to befriend me there. Outside of my work, I’m a husband and father and keep that side of my life private from my writing.

Thanks, I enjoyed being part of this.

Sean: Are you kidding?! I’m all over the place. For more information visit http://www.taylorverse.com/ or my blog, Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fisted Action at http://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/. Or visit any social networking site from Facebook to Twitter and look for seanhtaylor and the new Rick Ruby site at http://rickruby.blogspot.com/. I’m easy… to find, I mean.

Bobby: Much like Sean, I’m all over the net. My home base is http://www.bobbynash.com/, which has all you need to know to find more about me and my work. You can also find me at www.facebook.com/AuthorBobbyNash, www.twitter.com/bobbynash, http://www.lance-star.com/, http://ben-books.blogspot.com/, and the new Rick Ruby site at http://rickruby.blogspot.com/.

More Ruby Coming Soon

AP: And finally, Ron, Bobby, and Sean, what are the future plans for Rick Ruby and his companions? Can we expect a return visit to Belle’s Bar?

Ron: Alan Porter has already turned in a wild and wacky Rick Ruby tale for Volume Two, so yeah, we’re rolling again. Going to be interesting to see what kind of new trouble old Rick gets himself into next time.

Sean: Oh, hell yeah! I’m already hard at work plotting a new adventure to see which sultry dame will turn Rick’s head next and get him in a world of trouble. Readers of the book already know that one of Rick’s regular affairs doesn’t sit well in 1930s society, and succumbing to racial “experimentation” can be the kind of thing than can get a man and his girl killed in two shakes of a lamb’s tale. So yeah, we’re definitely heading back to Belle’s for good times, strong drinks, and fast bullets.

Bobby: I’ve already plotted a new Rick Ruby story called “The Life” that has Rick running afoul of a high-end prostitute who may or may not be more than she appears. It should be a fun time.

Please visit the official site for The Ruby Files at http://rickruby.blogspot.com/.

THE RUBY FILES PRESS RELEASE:
GANGSTERS & GUNMOLLS

Airship 27 Productions dons its tough-guy mantle, as it premiers its newest pulp star in THE RUBY FILES.
It was the 1930s and America was locked in the grip of the Great Depression. Gangsters controlled the major cities while outlaws roamed the rural back country. It was a time of Speak Easy gin-joints, Tommy-guns, fast cars and even faster dames. This is the world of New York based Private Investigator Rick Ruby, a world he is all too familiar with. From the back alleys of Gotham to the gold laden boulevards of Hollywood, Ruby is the shamus with a nose for trouble and an insatiable appetite for justice. So if you’ve got a taste for hot lead and knuckle sandwiches, tug your cuffs, adjust your fedora and light up a Lucky, a brand new pulp detective is coming your way.

Created by pulp masters, Bobby Nash & Sean Taylor, Rick Ruby echoes the tales of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe while offering up his own brand of two-fisted action. Joined by fellow pulp smiths Andrew Salmon & William Patrick Maynard, these modern scribes of purple prose present a quartet of tales to delight any true lover of private eye fiction. This instant classic features a gorgeous Mark Wheatley cover and eight evocative black and white illustrations by Rob Moran.

This is a book that harkens back to the classic black and white Warner Brothers gangster movies that featured James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson to name a few. The atmosphere is gritty with a no-nonsense hero pulp fans are going to applaud from the first story to the last. And when that last tale comes to a close, you can bet we haven’t seen the last of Rick Ruby, Private Eye.

AIRHSIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!
$3 digital copy available here – http://robmdavis.com/Airship27Hangar/airship27hangar.html

From Create Space here – https://www.createspace.com/3810386

POD version from Indy Planet – http://www.indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6797

Please visit the official site for The Ruby Files at http://rickruby.blogspot.com/.

HANCOCK TIPS HIS HAT TO ‘THE GHOST SQUAD’!

TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT- Reviews of All Things Pulp by Tommy Hancock

GHOST SQUAD: RISE OF THE BLACK LEGION
by Andrew Salmon and Ron Fortier
Cover by Chad Hardin
Interiors by Rob Davis
Published by Airship 27 Productions
2008

Even though Pulp, both Classic and New, runs rampant over a myriad of genres, there’s no doubt that a personal favorite of mine and indeed of many Pulp fans of all shades and types is the tried and true Hero Pulp.  A strong central ‘lead’ character surrounded by able bodied, skilled, and interesting teammates off on an adventure against over the top villains with a larger than life plan to take over some corner, or pray tell  even the entire world.   There’s just something about those stories that endear themselves to me and to Pulp Fans as a whole.

I really enjoy it when I find such characters in a New Pulp work, one that effectively tips its fedora to what came before, but also brings enough modern sensibility and nuance to the Hero genre to make it stand out, to make it more New than Rehash.

That’s why I really, really enjoyed GHOST SQUAD: RISE OF THE BLACK LEGION from Airship 27 Productions.

Co-written by Ron Fortier and Andrew Salmon and originally released in 2008, GHOST SQUAD opens with a story known to many of a man once dead returned to life by Jesus Christ.  This opening segues into another introductory sequence showing the same man now working the front lines of World War One.   This unique way of setting up the central character of the team we get introduced to in later chapters quickly endears the reader to said character, who currently, in this title, is using the name John Lazarus.

The uniqueness of utilizing the biblical character adds a touch of fantastic imagination to a story that also comes replete with a two fisted pilot, a beguiling lady stage magician skilled in real magic, an elite group of Nazis led by someone nearly as long lived as Lazarus and very much his opposite number, and so much more.   GHOST SQUAD moves with a pacing in the first 12 chapters and from chapter 14 on that is top notch and would serve as a great blueprint for New Pulp writers on how to pace a Pulpy tale and utilize both rapid fire action and balance throughout.

There are times, however, when one section, one chapter, even one page of a book can threaten to derail the whole process, disengage the reader so completely that they almost don’t finish the tale.  GHOST SQUAD has just such a stumbling block.  Chapter 13, which highlights a car chase involving Hale, one of the Ghost Squad members, and a very special guest star from the era of the Classic Pulps through the city of San Francisco, is a complete waste of time.   Well, not the whole thing necessarily, but the chapter, 23 pages in length, drags on after about the tenth page and carries the heroes and villains through a series of twists and turns that, although possibly intended to add tension and excitement to the story as a whole, does just the opposite and weighs the story down so much that it made it hard to stay invested in the tale.   Fortunately for the book and for me as the reader, Salmon and Fortier return to the dead on pacing and storytelling they exhibited in the first 12 chapters with Chapter 14 and do not let up or fall back into that Chapter 13 trap again at all.  

Although the cover to this book isn’t typically what I enjoy stylistically, Hardin’s work fits this piece extremely well and the image cast by the cover works perfectly.  Add in Davis’ top of the line interiors, some of his best New Pulp work I’ve seen to date, along with his equally excellent design work on the package as a whole, and GHOST SQUAD definitely stands as one of the best looking New Pulp offerings out there.

FOUR OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF HANCOCK’S HAT- This book came out in 2008.   Far too long since Lazarus and crew have seen light, if you ask me.

LANCE STAR: SKY RANGER VOL. 4 FLIES INTO PRODUCTION

Cover Sketch by Felipe Echevarria

Airship 27 publisher, Ron Fortier unveiled the cover artist and cover sketch for the fourth volume in the highly popular Lance Star: Sky Ranger pulp anthology series.

Cover mock up ad

The cover sketch by Felipe Echevarria included with this entry is just a tease of the upcoming painted cover, which depicts a scene from Bobby Nash’s story from this volume called “Ring of Fire.”

Lance Star: Sky Ranger vol. 4 includes stories from New Pulp Authors Bobby Nash, Andrew Salmon, Tom Novak, and Sean Taylor. Edits by Ron Fortier. Production design by Rob Davis. Cover by Felipe Echevarria. Interior art by Scott “Doc” Vaughn.

Look for Lance Star: Sky Ranger vol. 4 coming from Airship 27 Productions.

You can learn more about artist Felipe Echevarria at http://www.felipe.tv/ or www.facebook.com/people/Felipe-Echevarria/100000501620661

For more information on Airship 27 Productions, visit them on-line at http://www.airship27.com/ and http://www.gopulp.info/

For more information on Lance Star: Sky Ranger, visit http://www.lance-star.com/

Lance Star: Sky Ranger volumes 1, 2, & 3, and the Lance Star comic book “One Shot!” are still available. Look for links at http://www.bobbynash.com/ and http://www.lance-star.com/.