Tarzan: The Russ Manning Years Volume 1 features stories by Gaylord DuBois (Writer) and Russ Manning (Artist).
Experience three of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels as drawn by Russ Manning, the most beloved comic-book interpreter of the lord of the jungle! Collecting Tarzan #155 – #161, #163, #164, #166, and #167, from the 1960s, this volume is an essential addition to any comics fan’s collection!
Tarzan: The Russ Manning Years Volume 1 is 288 pages and retails for $49.99.
Enjoy this preview. Click on images for a larger view.
As ARROW hits the halfway mark of the TV season, fans and critics alike say it keeps getting better. We go backstage with the creators and cast to find out how they got this far, and what lies ahead for new characters including one played by fan favorite John Barrowman. Plus How about Captain Kirk, Ron Burgundy or Spock doing your voice mail message? It can happen if you hurry.
This installment in the great Fight Card series starts off in the reader’s comfort zone. As the goal of recreating the classic pulp fight fiction of yesteryear is the goal of Fight Card, having Golden Gate Gloves begin with part-time fighter, full-time dock worker, Conall O’Quinn working hard at the San Francisco docks is typical of the genre and any fan of this type of fiction could probably finish this story from there: fighting to prove who is the toughest on the dock, trouble with organized crime, a penultimate fight with everything on the line. These are the foundation posts of this type of fiction — any fan knows that going in — and it falls to the writer to squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of the formula.
Although Robert Evans, writing as Jack Tunney, begins his tale in this tried and true tradition, with O’Quinn having to fight the dock boss’s son to prove he’s the toughest only to get fired when he meets the challenge, the story then takes a refreshing right hook to the country and the hunt for buried treasure. Yes, you read that right. O’Quinn, in fleeing crooked crime bosses and labor leaders, stumbles upon a treasure map pinpointing buried gold in the abandoned California gold mines.
Only the mines are not abandoned and we are soon treated to a fish (or should I say, fist?) out of water tale with O’Quinn and his partner searching for the lost gold while working for the current owners of the mine. It doesn’t take long for O’Quinn to fall in love with the mine boss’s daughter and it doesn’t take long for the trouble he left in San Francisco to catch up to him while he is left to battle for the hand of the woman he loves.
If it sounds like there’s a lot going on in this stiff jab of a tale, that’s because there is and Evans keeps the pace moving quickly as he introduces us to two distinct settings and casts of characters in 76 pages. The fight scenes are great and you feel every punch as O’Quinn is battling for his life against disreputable opponents. For $2.99 you get your money’s worth in this novella as there’s enough going on here to fill a good size novel. What Evans pulls off so well is to give his tale that full feeling without the needless padding so prevalent in today’s fiction.
Using the new Doctor Who Limited Edition Gift Set, your noble author will make his way through as much of the modern series as he can before the Christmas episode, The Snowmen. Come along.
Shop girl Rose Tyler was not expecting much to change in her life. In a very brief time, she faces down animated plastic shop dummies, teams up with a 900 year old time traveler, and helps save the world. There’s no doubt why the episode was named after her…
ROSE
By Russell T. Davies
Directed by Keith Boak
“Nice to meet you, Rose; run for your life!”
After a long dark silence, peppered only with books, audio adventures, comics, magazines and…well, ok, but no new TV adventures, Doctor Who returned to the air with a lot to prove, and not a lot of time to do it in. Russell T. Davies had to grab the new audience, and at the same time, assure the old fans that the show was in good hands. He achieved it all brilliantly.
Billie Piper as Rose Tyler is very much a new style of Companion for The Doctor – sure of herself, independent, and much more likely to fight than to scream. We also see another change to the companions; we meet her family and friends. The glorious Camille Coduri as her Mom, Jackie, and her boyfriend Mickey as played by Noel Clarke are different from other Companion’s family in they’re not dead, usually killed by the monster of the week, if we see them at all. They give Rose more of a grounding; she’s happy to go off and explore the world, but there’s people waiting for her at home, and that naturally brings them back to Earth often, something that doesn’t hurt the budget.
And at the center, Christopher Eccleston as a very different and modern Doctor. His clothing is nondescript, his manner gruff, his opinion of Humanity seemingly dismissive, but when he speaks in their defense, it’s clear he loves them. His tongue is sharp; his first few lines to Rose are delightful, telling her to go off and eat her beans on toast, but congratulating her for coming up with a logical explanation for what she’s seeing. But shortly later, he gives a peek at the emotion he’s feeling every day, about he can actually feel the planet spinning under his feet.
Davies and co chose well for the series first villain; the Nestene Consciousness and its plastic commandos the Autons. Only seen twice in the original series, they were obscure enough that it’d please the fans, but easy enough to explain to the newcomers. From the dramatic scenes of gun-handed mannequins taking people out left and right in a mall to the ridiculous scene of Mickey getting kidnapped by a garbage bin, the show did what it always did well – take commonplace things and make them scary.
In this episode’s commentary, we hear about how they chose to keep the first appearance of The Doctor very underplayed, as opposed to giving him a big dramatic entrance. Also, the episode ran sort of short, and the scene with The Doctor talking about how he can feel the rotation of the Earth was added later, and then re-shot, as Chris decided he could do it better. One of the few times they had time to re-shoot something for quality.
The episodes of Confidential on this first series are the edited versions that appeared later on the website and other locations, not the full half-hour version that were run after the original broadcast. They’re still quite interesting to get a look at how the show was put together. It’s interesting to see the interviews with Chris Eccleston, both here and in additional extras on the disc. Remember by this point he’d already decided to leave, they’d already filmed the whole series, and they already had his regeneration in the can. But he’s happily giving these interviews, talking about what a joy it was, and gamefully smiling and nodding when asked how long he plans to stay with the series.
In one episode they do a perfect job of reintroducing the character to a new audience. It was kept simple, but let everyone know the show was very much to be taker seriously. The special effects were very much up to modern standards, and the writing of Davies did not talk down to the show’s traditional primary audience of children. Like it had been before, there was no guarantee the show would fly, but it got a damn fine running start.
TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT-Reviews of All Things Pulp by Tommy Hancock
HUNT AT WORLD’S END
By Nicholas Kaufmann (writing as Gabriel Hunt)
Gabriel Hunt created by Charles Ardai
Published by Leisure Books, 2009
There’s something to be said for archetypes. We enjoy them, we return to them, many sociologists and psychologists say that they are essential to our survival as individuals and a race. And being a fan of Heroic Fiction and particularly of Pulp, I am darn glad that writers today believe in archetypes as well and don’t shy away from writing a story around a character who is like some previous creation or reminds readers of that guy in that movie. Many good tales are written because writers, too, enjoy playing with archetypes.
Enter Gabriel Hunt.
Created by Charles Ardai, the genius behind the Hard Case Crime books, Gabriel Hunt is one of two brothers whose parents mysteriously disappeared and are believed dead. The brothers are now entrusted with the operation of the Hunt Foundation, which Gabriel leaves largely to his brother Michael while he travels the globe rescuing lost artifacts from the wrong hands in efforts to give them to museums and, if necessary, saving the world in the process.
Sound a tad familiar? Yes, there are definite shades of Indiana Jones and other such fortune and glory for museums types in Hunt. But in this tale that opens with a bar fight in an Explorer’s type club and involves chasing down three jewels and an ancient Hittite device, Hunt definitely steps out as his own character. This is both a blessing and a curse for the story.
The action is well paced throughout HUNT AT THE WORLD’S END, the third novel in the series, and leaps off the page at the reader. The characters are engaging, colorful, and run the gamut of beautiful I-Can-Take-Care-of-Myself damsel, over the top villain, and even an ancient cult of scaries with worldwide membership thrown in for good measure. The build up of and resolution of the adventure is nearly flawless. And Hunt himself provides a heroic figure that the book revolves around easily.
Mostly.
It seems that many writers feel the need to write characters in Heroic Fiction today that will hopefully have a broader market appeal than typical concepts of Heroes as we see them. There have to be flaws, there must be angst, there have to be internal complications that give breadth, depth and color to the hero, even in some cases making him seem less than heroic. This is supposed to, I think, make him appear more heroic when he works his hero mojo.
In HUNT AT THE WORLD’S END, all this sort of characterization, most of it done as internal narration, accomplished was to make Hunt seem insecure, arrogant, and whiny. The middle of the novel is bogged down with Hunt’s concern over a particular cast member being involved in their hunt, his love or interest or whatever he has in the aforementioned damsel, and there’s even a hint of regret for his chosen life thrown in. All of this is fine if it’s handled correctly, but the way it’s presented in this book makes Hunt’s subsequent heroic actions seem hollow, false.
Another point about this book- and this is more the writer in me, not the reviewer, complaining- is the fact that it is written under a house name of the lead character. Gabriel Hunt wrote the book and yet it’s in third person. It would have been much more affective to have this tale told in first person and would have made some of the above mentioned issues with whininess a little easier for the writer- and the reader- to deal with.
THREE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT- HUNT AT WORLD’S END is a great actioner, wonderfully paced with plenty of derring do and baddies for the good guys to contend with. I just wish I liked the hero more than I did and that maybe in this instance, the author would have stuck a tad more to the archetype than trying to broaden his reader base (that he was doing that is only my assumption, but still…this is my review).
If you’re not sure what to buy somebody who’s a fan of something, you can’t go wrong by giving them everything.
This year’s Doctor Who analogue to the Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle is the Doctor Who Limited Edition Gift Set, collecting the entire run of the new series on DVD, from Eccleston to Tennant to Smith. It also includes a replica (dang) of the eleventh Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver, a copy of IDW’s Doctor Who comic, specifically the San Diego Comic-Con special issue, and a set of lovely art cards of the Doctors of the new series and their companions.
Each of the series sets is as complete as they can physically be without including DNA samples. All the episodes, plus the episodes of the late lamented Doctor Who Confidential, cut scenes, episode commentaries, prequel episodes, the Children in Need and Comic Relief sketches, features from the website, and believe it or not, many more.
Rounding out the set is the trilogy of specials BBC America did as a lead-up to the new season: The Women, Destinations and Timey-Wimey of Doctor Who. In each, cast members, celebrities and various dignitaries all ruminate and reminisce about the series, discuss the possibility of the technology of the show crossing over to the real world, and compare how quickly they’d race into the old TT40 if it landed and The Doctor held out his hand and said “Join me”.
Now, a set like this demands one’s attention. And that’s exactly what I’m going to give it. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be doing A Doctor A Day, where I’ll watch and review (at least) one episode a day, all in preparation for the new Christmas episode The Snowmen, lensing, oddly enough, on Christmas Day.
The Doctor Who Limited Edition Giftset is available via Amazon and any number of online purveyors of fabulous.
This morning a li’l post by Jim Zub, the author of the indie book Skullkickers, hit the viral airwaves. His post entitled “The Reality of Mainstream Creator-Owned Comics” set a plethora of shared Facebook posts ablaze in ‘likes’ and comments. Even my close and personal friend Gene Ha placed it on his wall with a very nice send up. By the way, when I say Gene and I are “close and personal friends,” I mean to say that he recognized me at Baltimore Comic-Con, actually talked to me for more than 10 minutes, and we once had pizza at Matt Wright’s (my Unshaven cohort) house. The article in question laid out in basic math how a comic on the rack of your favorite pulp store breaks down. It’s a sobering, but near perfect (as far as I can tell) account on how we little folk of Artist Alley aren’t in the business for the piles and piles of cash.
I won’t waste your time recanting the article verbatim. Go ahead and read it. I’ll wait. Back so soon? Great. I’d simply like to take up my little corner of the Internet this morning to add to Jim’s ending thoughts. He retorts “Skullkickers is the most expensive hobby I’ve ever had :D” Truer words, my friend, truer words. I decided to do some math myself. When you look at our meager books, you’ll see that things are actually looking up for us. After a year toiling on the con trail we have enough money in our little cash box to afford being able to register for the 16 conventions we wish to attend next year. And that’s it. It doesn’t cover the hotel rooms we’ll have to stay in. It doesn’t cover the gas to drive to them. It doesn’t cover the food we’ll eat. It doesn’t even cover the cost of printing the books we actually sell at the table. And we’re doing awesome. Not even kidding, kiddos.
When we started in the business, Kickstarter was just an incubating idea in some hipster’s noodle. Our lucky break, The March: Crossing Bridges In America netted us a whopping $500; it took us the better part of a year to complete. Mind you, we were as green as they came, and worked only on nights and weekends. And with many of those nights and weekends, we watched tons of cartoons, ate terrible food, and played Versus CCG until we fell asleep on the couch. But, if you distilled the man hours – from outlining the script, to taking the reference photos, to penciling, inking, lettering, coloring, and laying out the 54 page book? Easily 150 man hours. Simple math then dictates each of we three Unshavenauts earned a whopping $1.12 an hour to create the book. Take away from that total the $350 it cost us to buy our table at Wizard World Chicago? Well, I think you’re starting to get the picture.
They say the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting different results. And for five years, we have toiled mercilessly over our own books, driven halfway across the country to sit in convention centers 10 hours at a time, and pumped hundreds of thousands of unpaid hours of labor all to sell a whopping 1,408 copies of our wares in 2012 alone. But the kicker is we’re not insane. We never expected different results. Zub said it best – this is the most expensive hobby we could have ever had.
But unlike building model trains, collecting stamps, or memorizing the IMDB in hopes of crushing people at “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”… making comic books has produced something no other hobby could. The fact that I say without a quiver to my lip that “I Make Comics” is a badge of pride. Even ten years ago, when going to conventions as a fan became part of my vernacular, I didn’t honestly think I’d have it in me to sit on the other side of the aisle.
Now, it’s part of my identity. With Unshaven Comics, I have rubbed elbows and broke bread with industry legends. I have had some of the best meals with some of the greatest conversations I’ve been privy to in cities I would have never thought twice to visit. And most important … I’ve sold books (I dare not say thousands lest I make it sound better than it actually is) to complete strangers who then have returned to my table the following year to ask me “what’s next?” It’s a feeling I assure you no model train ride could touch.
And yes, there’s no smoke-screen to be had here. We indie folk all (probably) share that pipe-dream that our books will be noticed by some muckity-muck who will Pretty Woman us out of the Artist Alley and into the hearts of America. For those really daring, making comics is even a full time job (a luxury I could not afford, nor fathom). The reality of the numbers though prove what a zero-sum game it all is. Through the Image channel as Zub is doing, or the “out of our cars with a wish and a dream” as Unshaven Comics… being in the industry (if only on the very outer most ring of it) is a costly endeavor we do not for the bling. We do it for the love of the medium. We do it for the rush of having a fan. We do it because the movies and cartoons that play in our heads when we close our eyes can’t be turned off – they can only be crudely captured and splattered on a page. It may never pay our bills… but it fills our soul.
Simply put, this is an industry unlike most others. This is an industry being held together by duct tape, dreams, and desire. For those lucky few who are making the big bucks, we in the gutter don’t wish them ill will. We celebrate their successes as our successes. It’s a community. To be on the other side of that aisle – be you a long-time veteran, or a first time ash-can publisher… it’s a collected universe unto itself. One well worth the toil, the long drives, the longer conversations… and yes, the debt.
By the way, if you’d like to fill my soul, or any of the other starving souls here at ComicMix, do us a solid, and check out our holiday gift guide and spread the love.
New Pulp Author Jeff Deischer returns to The Book Cave to chat about his newest mind blowing novel, The Golden Age. If you are as big a fan of the Golden Age comic book characters as Ric is, you will love this novel.
The Chinese Disks The Shadow Fan returns with another episode, filled with discussion on the greatest of the pulp heroes! In this episode, host Barry Reese talks about the continuity heavy “The Chinese Disks,” The Shadow Annual # 1 (1987) and the arrival of Moe Shrevnitz to the series. What could be better than spending a half hour talking The Shadow with a fellow fan? Download today!
The Murder Genius! We return for our seventh episode and this time around, we have Shadow news, three different reviews, an Agent profile *and* listener feedback! Let us return to the Sanctum!
One of the best writers the comic book industry has ever seen is Mike Baron. He created two of the greatest comic book properties ever, Nexus and the Badger. Mike has written for all of the major comic book companies and handled some of the biggest characters in comics. Mike has won two, count ‘em, two Eisners and has been nominated for a slew of awards including a Harvey.
On a personal note, Mike is also one of the few people I’ve given a painting to. That may not be a big deal for you but I don’t give away art so it’s a big deal for me.
Mike is a comic book treasure.
Mike is a fantastic writer.
Mike not only writes comics, he writes kick ass novels.
Mike is also a major pain in the ass.
Yeah, Mike is one persistent pain in the ass motherfucker.
In his role as major pain in the ass, Mike wants me to read two of his latest novels, Helmet Head and Whack Job and has been on me like the KKK on Obama to do so. I have not been able to read them as of yet, just as I have not been able to produce a long promised drawing for a fan, more on that completely unrelated to this article later.
Mike bugs the shit out of me and I take it because Mike is not only a great talent he is a dear friend who I love like a brother. Yes, Mike understands that I’m swamped like a bitch with my workload and understands as much as I’d love to read one of my favorite writers latest work I need the time to do it justice but Mike could give a fuck.
It’s a great problem to have. One of the best writers the industry has ever produced wanting my opinion on his work is so damn cool I pinch myself sometimes at the sheer coolness of it. Yes, I could garb a few hours during the week and fly trough the books but I simply cannot read a Mike Baron story like that.
A Mike Baron story you have to sit and enjoy and if it’s a Mike Baron horror story you have to take the extra step of making sure you are not alone in the house while reading. That’s because it’s a certainty that at some point the story will be so scary and/or brutal you will long for the comfort of human contact.
Clearly it’s not just my lack of time preventing me from reading the two novels it’s all the prep that goes into reading a Baron novel. I just don’t want to read it, I want the time to read, enjoy and prepare for it.
Those are not excuses, they are facts. That persistent pain in the ass motherfucker is that good.
Really.
Mike, I know you are reading this so know this, I plan on reading at least one of your books during the Thanksgiving holiday this week. So stop sending me emails with the subject line; What the fuck are you doing that’s more important than reading my books?
Nothing, Mike. Nothing is more important than reading your books, please no more dead cats nailed to my door.
On a completely unrelated yet somehow I see a parallel so I’m working it in here note, I owe a fan a drawing and I have every intention of doing that drawing but if said fan keeps posting shit on Facebook trying to shame me into doing it then he is in for a rude awakening.
Mike’s not the only guy who can nail a cat. Hell, now that I think of it I’ve nailed quite a lot of pussy in my life…
Blam!!! Rimshot!! I’m here all week! Try the chicken! Read Mike Baron!
This year’s Doctor Who analogue to the Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle is the 
