You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 26: PulpFest 2013 Jim Beard here.
About The Beard . . . . New Fictioneer!:
Jim Beard was introduced to comic books by his father, who passed on to him a love for the medium and the pulp characters that preceded it. After decades of reading, collecting, and dissecting comics, Jim became a published writer when he sold a story to DC Comics in 2002. Since that time, he’s written comic stories for Dark Horse’s Star Wars and IDW’s Ghostbusters and contributed articles and essays to several volumes of comic book history.
A native of Toledo, Ohio where he is a regular columnist for the Toledo Free Press, Jim broke into the world of “New Pulp” in 2012 when Airship 27 published Sgt. Janus, Spirit-Breaker, a collection of ghost stories featuring an occult detective, and Captain Action: Riddle of the Glowing Men, the first prose novel based on the 1960s action figure. Jim provides regular content for Marvel.com, the official Marvel Comics website, and has new and forthcoming comic and prose work from Bluewater, TwoMorrows, Airship 27 and Pro Se Productions.
On Saturday, July 27th at PulpFest, “The Beard” did a reading from Sgt. Janus, Spirit-Breaker, Captain Action: Riddle of the Glowing Men, and “The Parade of Moments,” a story published in Monster Earth, a shared-world anthology of giant monster tales. And to learn more about this exciting new writer, please visit The Beard: The Jim Beard Fan Page.
You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 26: PulpFest 2013 Jim Beard here.
The Captain Action team is working to get the good Captain’s figures on the shelf at Wal-Mart for 2014. The Captain Action line was selected for a special program they have at Wal-Mart. It’s kind of like American Idol for shelf space. If you are so inclined, please help them to advance in the competition by voting here.
You can vote 1 time per day! It ends in early September.
The other day I was sitting in my studio at 4 AM working on a double page spread for a graphic novel I’m writing and illustrating.
There was a movie playing in the background, coffee and tequila on my side table and my dog Puffy laying at my feet. The house was silent, well silent except for the screams of the guy Jason Statham just threw off a roof in the movie I was watching.
Other than that guy screaming like a little bitch, my house was silent.
All of a sudden it hit me. I’m an artist.
I went to school to become a professional illustrator. I wanted to study to be a cartoonist because I wanted to do comics so badly!
But…
My cousin told me if I became a cartoonist I would “stave and die.” My cousin was also my mentor and if not for him there was a very good chance I’d be in jail or dead now.
No joke.
He’s also a world-renowned artist. How renowned? The house I live in cost less than one of his paintings and I live in a pretty nice house.
Again, no joke.
So when your cousin who is also your mentor who also saved you from death and/or prison who is also a world-renowned artist tells you if you became a cartoonist you will stare and die, you listen.
I listened.
I became an illustrator and as luck would have it the industry changed so as an illustrator I could still do comics just not the traditional way they had been done.
My illustration career was pretty damn good before I got into comics that I did pretty damn bad. It took me a while to understand the medium but once I did the work got better…I hope.
Somewhere along the way my illustration and comics career stopped completely as I found myself working in other media: television, publishing, radio and education.
Before I knew it I had a mini entertainment empire going and the only art I was doing was doodling a fat Batman every chance I got.
At 4 AM the other day sitting in my studio I realized that all is right when I’m doing art. Just me, my dog, my Captain Action mug for my coffee and tequila, a movie and my work is freakin awesome.
No Hollywood drama, no politics, no egos, no bullshit.
It’s like when I was in the sixth grade drawing the adventures of The Fighting Five my very own superhero group. The Fighting Five were, the Liberator, (spelled Liverator; I went to public school) Bulldozer, The Anything Man (because I couldn’t think of anything else to name him) Judo Master (stolen from Charlton Comics but I felt I could use him because his book was cancelled) and The Human Torch (but it was the original Human Torch and I felt I could use him also since Marvel had thrown him away).
When I was alone in my room in the projects with my art nothing else mattered and I was the happiest I’d ever been as a child. Now, I’ve come full circle as I sit in my studio alone at 4 am in the morning happy with what I’m doing and who I am.
People have a hard time putting me into a category because I wear so many hats. I usually just say I’m a content producer but that’s never really felt right to me. It’s just an easy way for me to say, I’m a writer, TV producer, etc., etc., Shado, Shado (a invitation to my annual San Diego Comic Con party to the first person that gets that joke) I just figured out at 4 am in the morning sitting in my studio what and who I am.
I’m Michael Davis… and I’m an artist.
WEDNESDAY MORNING: Mike Gold Presents Pulp Pulchritude
Dynamite Entertainment adds a new Captain Action comic book series, Codename: Action to their line of pulp heroes.
PRESS RELEASE:
June 11, 2013, Mt. Laurel, NJ- Dynamite Entertainment, in conjunction with Captain Action Enterprises, proudly announces the September launch of CODENAME: ACTION, a six-issue comic book event that unites the ultimate super-spy, Captain Action, with classic pulp heroes including Green Hornet, Kato, the Spider, and Black Venus. Written by Chris Roberson (Masks, Superman) and featuring artwork by Jonathan Lau (Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet), the debut #1 issues will include variant covers by accomplished illustrators Jae Lee, Francesco Francavilla, Jonathan Lau, Johnny Desjardins, and Art Baltazar.
CODENAME: ACTION takes place during the Cold War, as unknown forces scheme to heat up the global conflict. When key officials on both sides of the Iron Curtain are replaced with doppelgangers, the infiltration threatens to disrupt the precarious state of world affairs… until one young secret agent shapes the world’s masked heroes into a force with singular purpose and unyielding resolve!
“CODENAME: ACTION is a showcase of the things I love about jet-age superspies and Cold War-era superheroics,” says the World Fantasy Award-nominated author, Chris Roberson. “In part, it functions as an origin story for Captain Action, reintroducing him to a modern audience while at the same time setting him firmly in the period in which the character first appeared. Captain Action was a product of the time that gave us the James Bond films, and TV shows like Man From UNCLE and The Prisoner, and CODENAME: ACTION is very much an attempt to put the character in that kind of context.
Roberson, hot off of his stint as writer for the bestselling Masks series, knows how best to balance a handful of fan-favorite and highly independent characters. “The main focus of the attention is on the spy and espionage characters like Operator 5, Black Venus, and Operative 1001 (the man who will become Captain Action). Along the way, our heroes will encounter various masked heroes and vigilantes, like American Crusader, Green Hornet, and Kato. It’s been an organic process, as I find the best places to fill in supporting or ‘guest star’ roles.”
Jonathan Lau, whose spirited artwork graced the pages of Dynamite titles Green Hornet and Black Terror, looks forward to drawing so many spies and superheroes with great enthusiasm. “I’m excited! Captain Action is sort of like Nick Fury, and there’s a dynamism in laying out the Green Hornet/Kato duo, especially when it comes to Kato making big motions to convey
action. The American Crusader is another character I enjoy drawing again (after his appearance in Black Terror), since he’s the muscle of this series, and it’s always fun to draw super-powered beings doing super stuff.”
In a joint statement, Ed Catto and Joe Ahearn of licensor Captain Action Enterprises gave a shining endorsement: “We’re big comic, spy and pulp fans, so it’s a thrill to see all those characters in one adventure together. And we’re also big Chris Roberson fans from his work on iZombie and Monkeybrain Comics. Captain Action is a spy, and impersonating others (especially superheroes) is an important part of what’s he all about… so to start the Captain’s adventures with heroes like the Green Hornet and Kato makes all the sense in the world. We’re also honored that the baton was passed to Captain Action as he’s center stage in this mini-series. Like a young quarterback given the opportunity to play in the big game, it’s both daunting and terribly exciting!”
About Dynamite Entertainment: DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT was founded in 2004 and is home to several best-selling comic book titles and properties, including The Boys, The Shadow, Vampirella, Warlord of Mars, Bionic Man, A Game of Thrones, and more!
Dynamite owns and controls an extensive library with over 3,000 characters (which includes the Harris Comics and Chaos Comics properties), such as Vampirella, Pantha, Evil Ernie, Smiley the Psychotic Button, Chastity, Purgatori, and Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt.
In addition to their critically-acclaimed titles and bestselling comics, Dynamite works with some of the most high profile creators in comics and entertainment, including Kevin Smith, Alex Ross, John Cassaday, Garth Ennis, Jae Lee, Marc Guggenheim, Mike Carey, Jim Krueger, Greg Pak, Brett Matthews, Matt Wagner, and a host of up-and-coming new talent!
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Dynamite is consistently ranked in the upper tiers of comic book publishers and several of their titles – including Alex Ross and Jim Krueger’s Project Superpowers – have debuted in the Top Ten lists produced by Diamond Comics Distributors. In 2005, Diamond awarded the company a GEM award for Best New Publisher and another GEM in 2006 for Comics Publisher of the Year (under 5%) and again in 2011. The company has also been nominated for and won several industry awards, including the prestigious Harvey and Eisner Awards.
About Captain Action Enterprises As Retropreneurs, Captain Action Enterprises, LLC specializes in taking old properties and rejuvenating them for a new generation. Captain Action appears in an on-going action figure line, lithographs, statues, T-shirts, hoodies, model kits, pulp novels, drink ware, and ID cases. Currently, CAE is collaborating with G7 in order to develop a Captain Action animated series. Additional properties include the Zeroids and Savage Beauty. For additional information, please contact Ed Catto at edcatto@CaptainAction.com.
Off to Gertz we went! Gertz was the department store back in the day. When we got there my mother walked right to the toy department and brought me Captain Action and the Batman and Superman costume changes.
At that point I had to wonder, who was this woman and what had she done with my mother.
This was entirely way to good to be true.
As I would find out soon it certainly was.
I found out later that, what was a great Saturday turned crappy, why my mother was so quick to buy me Captain Action, which I just knew, was the last thing I would ever want or need.
My stepdad (who at the time I thought was my real dad; long sad story) told my mother earlier in the day he would not be picking me up to spend the night with him. Those times with my father were all I lived for.
If I had to choose between having Christmas every day and spending one day with my dad, Santa would have lost out.
My mom didn’t tell me that on the bus ride back. Nor did she broach the subject when we got home. She missed the opportunity while I was introducing the good Captain to my GI Joes. Introduction may not be the best word for the Joe exchange.
It was more like an eviction.
I evicted a platoon of Joes from a few of my GI Joe footlockers. The good Captain and his costume changes could not be made to spend his down time in a ghetto toy box. The toy box was where the poor toys lived.
The toys box were the projects in the ghetto. The footlockers were the nice homes, you know, the white neighborhood. Hey, I was a child living in a world where all Black people lived in the projects and all white people lived in nice homes in safe neighborhoods. That’s what the TV told me and TV was everything to a child.
Anywho, my mom never did tell me that my father wasn’t coming over – which was most likely her plan. The toys were a distraction. A distraction that was working until my sister asked me if Robert (That’s what we called my father, not dad or daddy. It’s a black thing you wouldn’t understand) brought me the toys.
Just like that I remembered that I was supposed to spend the night with Robert and realized that he had not picked me up yet.
My mother was then forced to tell me that he was not coming and I started crying like baby.
Then something magical happened, my mortal enemy, my sister Sharon picked up my Captain Action and started taking to me about it. After a few minutes I was proudly explaining what my new toy was showing her the costume changes and schooling her on all the reasons Captain Action was just the greatest thing that ever happened to the world. I’m not sure when I stopped crying or when I forgot Robert was not coming over.
Then, I was an adult.
That what happens in life one moment you are a five-year old with the greatest toy you have ever had the next you are a grown man trying to recapture those moments by becoming a collector of the things from your childhood that brought you that wonder. My Captain Action collection features the Ideal Toy Company original. The Prying Mantis 90’s redo and the current Captain Action Enterprise’s new line.
DC Comics did Captain Action comics back in the day and the good Captain has been returned to the industry those books are in stores now and I hear big plans are planed for comics in the future.
Yes, this article and part one is my love letter to an old friend who has always been in my life. It’s sappy, I’m sappy and I know that.
When I was around four, my mother took my sister and me to a toy store. She told us we could have any one thing we wanted. My sister made a quick decision and choose a Barbie. I spent some time trying to choose between a guitar and a GI Joe. I finally made the decision and went with the Joe.
I was as happy as I had ever been with a toy.
GI Joe soon became my favorite toy, best friend and constant companion. Not too long after I got a Black GI Joe which was just a white GI Joe painted brown.
I could not have been happier.
After a time I had seven or eight Joes, as I made sure all my relatives knew my fascination with the action figure. Christmas and birthdays always brought me a new Joe.
My Joes were the highlights of my young life.
One fateful Saturday morning I was watching cartoons and on came a commercial for Captain Action.
Whoa.
Captain Action was cool all by itself but what was this I was seeing? Did I dare believe my eyes? Did the good Captain ALSO change into OTHER SUPERHEROES???
OH YES HE DID!!
I had to have him. I had to have him, I HAD TO HAVE HIM!!!!
I waited impatiently for my mother to get out of bed. Saturday mornings were the only day she was able to sleep in. My mother worked two jobs six days a week, on Saturday she only worked one.
So I waited and waited for what seemed an eternity for her to get out of bed. When she did, I had to wait a wee bit longer (which seemed like decades) because she had to have her coffee. Facing my mother even today without her having had her coffee is a dangerous thing to do.
The second she went into the kitchen I joined her at the table with what had to be the biggest smile I’d ever had. I waited for her to brew her coffee (old school brewing, people, none of this bullshit Mr. Coffee) have that first sip but before I could start in on what I thought was going to be my best ‘I’ve GOT to have it’ plea my mother said;
“What do you want?”
“Captain Action!”
“What’s Captain Action?”
“It’s this cool superhero that changes into other superheroes!’
As if on cue, I heard the commercial playing on the living room television, and I left the table screaming like a mad child.
“Come see!! Come see!!”
My mother stood behind me while I stared again at the object of desire, convinced I would never ever want anything as bad.
“See? That’s Captain Action? Can I have it? PLEASE?”
“Oh, it’s like a GI Joe,” my mother said.
“FUCK GI JOE!!!”
No, I didn’t say that but thinking back that’s how I felt.
After the commercial I resorted to speaking so fast and with so much passion prying that my mother would see how my life would be over if I did not have that toy. I figured as long as I didn’t hear “no” there was still a chance. As every kid knows if you keep talking and don’t give your parents an opportunity to chime in they can’t say “no.”
“Michael, stop!”
Shit.
“Get your coat, you can come shopping with me and we will see about your toy.”
THANKYOUGOD!!!
Off to Gertz we went! Gertz was THE department store back in the day. When we got there my mother walked right to the toy department and brought me Captain Action and the Batman and Superman costume changes.
At that point I had to wonder, who was this woman and what had she done with my mother.
Atlanta, GA—James Palmer, editor and publisher of Mechanoid Press, an independent publishing imprint specializing in New Pulp, science fiction, and more, is proud to announce the upcoming release of its first anthology MONSTER EARTH.
MONSTER EARTH harkens back to the classic giant monsters of yesteryear like Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera, and King Kong, while focusing on the human element and what it would be like to live in such a world where giant monsters terrorize the Earth.
“There have been a few other giant monster anthologies over the years,” says Palmer. “But our book is going to be a bit different. It has a unifying concept, as well as a solid pulp style of storytelling.”
Developed by MONSTER EARTH co-editor Jim Beard (writer, Captain Action and the Riddle of the Glowing Men), each story in the book takes place in a different decade of the 20th century, which leads to a Cold War fought with giant monsters rather than the threat of nuclear weapons.
“I really wanted all the stories to have an underlying thread that weaves between them all the stories, and Jim really came up with a winner.”
The stories in MONSTER EARTH have a strong human angle as well.
“Focusing in on the human beings living in this world is important to me,” says Palmer. “The monsters are like forces of nature, with the humans trying to control them. But don’t worry, these aren’t just regular human interest stories with a monster thrown in for window dressing. There are plenty of great monster battles and more than enough citywide destruction to please the most discerning kaiju fan – and anyone who loves a good tale.
Palmer and Beard have assembled a great line-up of New Pulp all-stars to give us their visions of a world ruled by giant monsters. MONSTER EARTH will include stories by I.A. Watson (Sherlock Holmes, Blackthorn: Dynasty of Mars), Ed Erdelac (The Merkabah Rider), Nancy Hansen, and newcomer Jeff McGinnis. Beard and Palmer will also provide stories, and there will be a free online bonus tale by Jeff McGinnis coming out shortly before the book’s release.
MONSTER EARTH is slated for a Christmas release, and will be available in print and ebook formats.
For more information and updates, including a preview of the cover and table of contents when they are finalized, go to http://www.mechanoidpress.com/ and sign up for our FREE newsletter.
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About Mechanoid Press: Mechanoid Press is a new imprint specializing in science fiction, New Pulp, and steampunk ebooks and anthologies. For more, visit http://www.mechanoidpress.com/ or follow the robot revolution on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mechanoidpress. You can also like Mechanoid Press on Facebook.
Over on the Captain Action Facebook page, Joe Ahearn and Ed Catto, the founders of Captain Action Enterprises and the fine folks behind the action figure line have posted a poll. For the upcoming Lady Action figure, what Marvel Heroine costume sets would you most like to see?
This is your chance to let them know what you’d like to see next.
