Tagged: game

Wii U offers new power, new games, long wait times

  • News
  • November 22, 2012

Wii U ControllerThe [[[Wii U]]] was released on November 18 to a gleefully waiting public with midnight release events and the requisite pomp and circumstance.  The system offers a big jump in power and screen resolution, the first system from Nintendo that’s HDMI-compatible.  Add to that a good raft of first and third-party games available, a new layer of social media interaction and a strong (albeit coming-soon) set of media streaming functions, and you get a solid system designed for the family and the hardcore player in mind.

The system is not without faults, tho. It’s slow. Painfully slow.  It required a system update before any games could be played (taking almost 90 minutes to download, exacerbated by the demand on Nintendo’s systems from EVERYONE needing it), as well as a separate update for each and every game before they started up, averaging five minutes each to download and install.

Once the games load, however, they are gorgeous.  The new addition to the Mario Bros franchise draws from a number of chapters of the series, including many from the latest 3DS edition, and adds on many more.  The showpiece game, [[[Nintendo Land]]], (included with the Deluxe Set, available separately for Basic Set purchasers) is a series of “mini-games”, but in name only.  Each is an engrossing and deep game featuring franchise titles like Metroid and Pikmin, games not yet featured in stand-alone games on the system, but do a good job of keeping them in the public’s mind.  The new GamePad works well with the new games, as well as being able to function as a TV remote, allowing you to power up everything at once to use the system.  Many games can be played entirely on the GamePad, allowing the TV to be used by the rest of the family.  It lacks any local storage to allow you to play games independent of the main unit, but that’s more wishful thinking than a real issue.

The system is backwards-compatible with the Wii, but this too is very slow.  It runs through a software-based emulator that provides a bare-bones Wii menu and interface.  Gone is the ability  to send email to other Wii systems, as well as the ability to import Miis, the system’s personal avatars.  You have the option to transfer your Wii’s system data to the new Wii U, but it’s an all-or-nothing option; there’s no way to pick and choose what game saves, Miis or other system data, and once it’s transferred, your old Wii is returned to Factory specs.   Fine if you’re  planning on tossing it in the closet, or on ebay, but if you were hoping to keep it as a second system, you’re somewhat out of luck.

Each game has its own bulletin board in the MiiVerse, part of the social media platform the Nintendo Network, where you can both write and draw notes about the games, share game tips and if possible, get a few laughs.  At the moment, there’s no way to choose what game boards to see,  or to sort the so the games you own and play, making accessing your preferred boards a bit cumbersome.  And of course, getting to the MiiVerse is…slow.

Coming in the next month are the various streaming media channels like Amazon Video and Hulu Plus, joining Netflix which is already up and running.  The Gamepad will also be the center of a service known as TVii, the details on which are a bit sketchy; details will be forthcoming as the service is unveiled in December.

There’s clearly room for improvement in the system, but what’s available now is well worth the expense, and  if you’ve not already gotten a Wii U, the wait.

THE RED MENACE DEBUTS FROM MOONSTONE MARCH 2013!

  • News
  • November 19, 2012
Cover Art: Mark Maddox

Press Release:

FROM MOONSTONE IN MARCH 2013

The Red Menace
Author: James Mullaney
Cover: Mark Maddox
258pgs, 4” x 6”, $6.99
ISBN: 978-1-936814-43-5

By the author of “The New Destroyer, the Adventures of Remo Williams!”
         
WHO IS THE RED MENACE?

In the 1950s, the mysterious masked figure was a shadow and a whisper in Cold War corridors from Moscow to Beijing. Where walked the Red Menace, America’s enemies knew fear. And death.

Then in 1960 the whisper grew silent.

Twelve years later, Patrick “Podge” Becket thinks he’s escaped the spy game for good, but into his restless retirement steps a ghost from his past; a bitter Russian colonel with nothing to lose and the means to wreak worldwide destruction.

Aided by brilliant inventor and physician Dr. Thaddeus Wainwright, the Red Menace is reborn for a new generation. But it’s a whole new world out there, and if he doesn’t watch his step the swingin’ Seventies might just find him RED AND BURIED!

Learn more about Moonstone Books at http://moonstonebooks.com.

Marc Alan Fishman: Licensed to Bore

As a rule of thumb (the very same thumb I referenced not seven days ago), I stay away from licensed books. How did I come to that rule? It’s one engrained in my loathing of fan-fiction. Gasp! I’ve never, ever, (ever-ever) appreciated the world of fan-fiction. The whole notion that one’s love of a property goes so far they must appropriate the universe another writer created for their own nefarious purposes seems weak to me. Why limit oneself to the rules of another’s whims when the post-modern world allows for infinite homage, pastiche, and appropriation? Given the pre-sales of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (go Katie Cook!), I’m obviously in the wrong.

But Marc, you fickle bastard, you’ve just argued yourself into a corner! You, who have lamented on countless occasions how you’d love to write for Marvel and DC… don’t you realize if you were given a run on Green Lantern, Batman, or the Slingers, you would in essence be “limiting oneself to the rules of someone else’s whims?” Too true.

And when DC and Marvel hire me, you’re welcome to call me a hypocrite.

There’s nuance to this argument, and my greater point stands true. Writing for mainstream comics is its own beast, one I’m sure to tackle soon. For the time being, stay with me.

The fact is that amongst the small presses (still large enough to get rack space) are almost entirely engrained with this unyielding genre, save perhaps for Image or Valiant. Certainly we know why: licensed properties bring with them a given fan-base. For much of Dark Horse, IDW, Boom, and Dynamite’s catalogs are siphoning life-force from the lost and misspent youth of their target demographic. And since I’m no Bob Wayne, I simply don’t know how well it’s boding for any of them. The ideology that the comic buying audience at large is desperate to read more tales set inside the Hellraiser, Battlestar: Galatica, and the Ghostbusters seems legitimate, if only on paper (heh). But when I see the book on the shelf, it is truly taxing to find reason to open the gates again on properties built elsewhere.

Perhaps it’s my fear that licensed comics seem far from canon (that is to say that their contributions will hold true forever). Perhaps it’s my fear that adding to existing canon makes it harder to enjoy. I can’t tell you how many times my unshaven cohort Matt has given me the verbal Wikipedia entry on all that has gone down in Transformers extended properties (novels, comics, soft-core porn). And every time? My eyes glaze over, and I’m immediately reminded that I’m happy to have the G1 box set and Beast Wars and call it a day. It’s this fear of the overwrought rules and backstory one needs to know that stifles any anticipated joy in reading a licensed book.

But what if the teams involved are at the top of their game? Creative teams be damned. Truly, if you told me Alex Ross would paint over a Mark Waid script of G.I. Joe… and that it was the best work ever put out by either one of them… I’d still sooner spend my paycheck on a Grant Morrison Doom Patrol graphic novel or maybe some new socks.

Lest you think I’ve never even given a book like this a chance, allow me a simple anecdote. An amazing columnist for the Chicago Daily Red Eye (think hipster news for the daily commuter) Elliot Serrano had been given the opportunity to write a new Army of Darkness comic. Given that it was a slow week, I decided I should support my fellow indie creator (and he was nice enough to interview me for his blog twice) and give it a chance. I’d never purchased an Army of Darkness comic in the past. My knowledge of the source material was limited to the handful of viewings I’d had of Raimi’s film. And to his credit, Serrano’s pen wasn’t weighed down too heavily by the yoke of backstory that came with the property.

That being said, the book suffered terribly from Serrano having to forcefully hit the beats the license (and, no doubt, the legion of deadite fans) demanded. What we were left with? I quote myself from my MichaelDavisWorld review:

 “The book has moments of clarity, but they are dragged down by the wishy-washy plot and cardboard cutout of a protagonist. I think I’ll go put on my copy of the movie, and bury this necronomicon deep in a long box… in hopes that the evil spirits lurking within don’t wreck havoc on my soul.”

Given that I thought Elliot’s writing was better than what he’d showed on page only proved to me that the book was not intended for me. While fans of the AoD universe were heralding it as a success, I was left back in the starting blocks wondering why the book shifted tone more than Mitt Romney (ooooh, semi-late reference burn!).

Suffice to say, licensed books have their place. There’s been great examples of those who made great leaps of fiction balancing the properties’ beats while adding to the canon. John Ostrander’s run on Star Wars is still sold out at my local shop. And Joss Whedon’s continuation of the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer into a “9th season” via comics helped fans continue their love affair with the series. There is a place for these books, indeed. The fact is unless you yourself are a die-hard lover of the property in question, the book is wasted space on the rack. And for someone who is now actively seeking originality at the shop… no amount of lightsaber fun will turn me toward the dark side. Simply put? A licensed book is a license to limit your sales to those who are familiar. Everyone else? Find some place else to read.

I would like to note that if the powers that be would like to license Exo-Squad to Unshaven Comics, I will voluntarily lop off my left leg, and then proceed to write and draw the best damned Exo-Squad comic is history. And I can guarantee that it’ll be a top seller… to the 40 or so people who still love the property.

SUNDAY: John Ostrander

 

Mike Gold: EC Comics Fight – T’aint The Teat, It’s The Humanity

Over at The Comics Journal website Michael Dean posted an article about how the Harvey Kurtzman Estate (represented by Denis Kitchen) and Al Feldstein filed to “regain” the copyrights to their EC Comics work.

Feldstein and the Bill Gaines estate reached an agreement – undisclosed, of course – but the Kurtzman situation is more complex. Kurtzman created Mad, he wrote it, he did the layouts for his artists and he drew a modicum of the material as well. But it’s Mad and Mad is owned by Time Warner. It’s a teevee show on one of Time Warner’s cablenets. The magazine might not be very profitable any longer, but the brand name most certainly is.

Be that as it may, I put the word “regain” in quotation marks because, well, Al and Harvey never had those copyrights in the first place. EC Publications and its sundry successors in interest always held them. And, as Dean and others point out, the exploitation value of the material has been well-plundered. But we’re saddled with a remarkably antiquated, unfair and pro-theft copyright law and I think Al and Denis deserve to get in the game.

But who really should own what? This is the sort of thing that gives compassionate thinkers migraines and earns lawyers their reputations. Lots of people contributed massively to the creation of this body of material, including a great many of the most accomplished writers and artists of the time. And, in my opinion, of any time.

Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Bernie Krigstein, Willie Elder, Al Williamson, John Severin – to name simply the first half-dozen creators to come to mind. They and their co-workers played as important a function in the creation of the EC legacy as Al and Harvey. Their work was not interchangeable. The then-current artist list of, say, Charlton or even St. John Comics could not have been dropped into their place – well, they could, but you wouldn’t have had EC Comics and I wouldn’t be writing this piece.

Then again, Bill Gaines took the financial risk. He selected and hired these people. He contributed to a great many of the stories, particularly those edited by Al Feldstein. Does he (or his estate) deserve to be chilled from the long-term rewards?

Maybe. Bill didn’t return any of the original art – but, then again, in those days nobody did. However, Bill kept and archived the original art, and decades later he had it auctioned off. When he did this, artists were getting their work back and those that had it returned whatever inventories of old art they had on hand. Bill did not do this. He gave the artist a taste of the revenue, at a price determined by him and him alone. The artists were unable to get their art back, to do with what they wish.

“Ethics” are tricky. The idea is to rectify wrongs without wronging others in the process. This is only somewhat easier than building a perpetual motion machine.

The conversation over at The Comics Journal is spirited, engaging and, in a few instances, amusingly over-the-top. These are three important elements in protracted online conversations. You might want to check it out.

THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil

 

AUDIOBOOKS DEBUT FROM MOONSTONE AND DYNAMIC RAM AUDIO PRODUCTIONS!

  • News
  • November 8, 2012

Moonstone, a leading Publisher of New Pulp and Heroic Fiction, announced the debut of unabridged audiobook versions of two of its best titles written by a fan favorite author and featuring characters familiar to fans of genre fiction everywhere! In conjunction with Dynamic Ram Audio Productions, a company bringing several New Pulp companies’ works into audiobooks, Moonstone released “PARTNERS IN CRIME” written by CJ Henderson with Joe Gentile and read by Fiona Thraille and “KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER: A BLACK & EVIL TRUTH” also written by CJ Henderson and read by Mark Kalita.

In Partners in Crime by CJ Henderson and Joe Gentile, the Past meets the Future to defeat an unspeakable evil! Europe, 1945, the final days of World War II. A sinister plan to defeat the Allies using black sorcery is thwarted, only to be resurrected again in a form more terrible than ever before! Now, over six turbulent decades, across multiple continents, and through the darkest alternate dimensions, a force of unimaginable power is poised to subjugate all mankind! Bound by time, a band of heroes will rise! Their names are legend; their exploits are known around the world: Kolchak: the Nightstalker, Boston Blackie, Johnny Dollar, Lai Wan, Candy Matson, Pat Novak, Blackshirt, Mr. Keen, and Jack Hagee. Now, this amazing group will find themselves pitted against a power that transcends time and space… an evil so corrupt that the fate of humanity may hang in the balance! Listen as these classic characters of Television, Novels, and Radio explode into being as read by Fiona Thraille. 

Download Partners in Crime for only $9.99, over 7 hours of mystery and intrigue at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/fionathraille. 

Kolchak: The Night Stalker A Black & Evil Truth by CJ Henderson stars everyone’s favorite reporter of the weird and strange, Karl Kolchak, in his most bizarre adventure yet.  Carl Kolchak was just your average reporter until the day he put two and two together and came up with evil. A reluctant paranormal investigator, Kolchak couldn’t stop tripping over the unusual even if he wanted to. And for all of his efforts of seeking the truth… unemployment and ridicule have followed him like the plague. Someone, or something, is tearing people up into little pieces in small town West Virginia. It’s up to Kolchak to wade through the bloody science jigsaw puzzle, while watching his back against an unseen foe! It’s a cat and mouse game, as he battles a maelstrom of terror that everyone around him gets sucked into.  Chills and thrills abound in this Adventure Horror tale thrillingly voiced by Mark Kalita.  Over 7 Hours of Kolchak for only $9.99! Download Kolchak the Nightstalker: A Black & Evil Truth from Moonstone and Dynamic Ram at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/markkalita. 

Both titles are coming soon to Amazon, iTunes and other online providers of Audiobooks!

Put yourself in the action, adventure, horror, and terror of two of Moonstone’s most popular novels by downloading and listening to the Audiobooks today!

HOWARD HOPKINS’ LONE RANGER RIDES AGAIN AT IPULP

  • News
  • November 7, 2012
Cover Art: Douglas Klauba

IPulp Fiction has released the ebook version of Moonstone’s novel by the late New Pulp author, Howard Hopkins, The Lone Ranger: Vendetta.

From out of the past comes a mysterious killer systematically murdering anyone with a connection to the Masked Rider of the Plains former identity. When all signs point to Butch Cavendish, a man long dead, The Ranger finds himself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the life of his faithful Indian companion hanging in the balance.

Learn more about iPulp Fiction at www.iPulpFiction.com.
Learn more about Moonstone Books at www.moonstonebooks.com.

Also, look for more great tales from Moonstone Books at iPulp Fiction.

Review: “Wreck-It Ralph” needs no hint book to unlock its fun

The Kid would never forgive if I used any other poster…

Wreck-It Ralph is very much of a new breed of Disney animation, showing both the freshness of new blood in the company, and a new attention to story with Pixar’s John Lasseter now holding court as the New Walt at the company.  Directed by Rich Moore (The Simpsons) and written by Moore, other Simpsons alum Jim Reardon, the film takes ideas from Toy Story, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Saturday Morning cult favorite Reboot.  The world inside videogames is alive; after hours they visit each other, attend parties and if their games were unplugged, roam the halls of Game Central Station begging for spare fruits and power-ups.

Wreck-it Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the antagonist of classic videogame Fix It Felix Jr., the titular hero voiced by Jack McBrayer.  After thirty years of being the bad guy, he examines his life and finds it lacking.  He attends the 30th anniversary party for the game at Felix’s penthouse apartment, and is made clear he is not welcome by the denizens of the apartment house whose job is his to demolish hundreds of times daily.  He attempts to show that he wants to be a good guy, and is told that he is a bad guy, will remain a bad guy, and that he must “go with the program”.  He embarks on a quest to “become a hero”, which he believes will bring him the love (or at least the penthouse apartment) of the people of his game.  He plans to “game jump” into another videogame, where he can take the role of good guy and achieve his dream.  His choice, the new sci-fi shoot-em-up Hero’s Duty, spearheaded by the gruff and buxom Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch).  He makes it to the climax of the game, and earns a “hero” medal, but his ingrained predilection to destroy sends things into a shamble quickly, launching him screaming into the super-sweet cart-racer Sugar Rush, with a cy-bug, one of the baddies from Duty in tow.  He meets Vanellope Von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), a bit of glitch code from the game who, like Ralph, wants to better herself and prove she can be a hero.  But according to the ruler of the land, King Kandy (Alan Tudyk), there may be a real danger if Vanellope lives out her dream.  And all along, the Cy-Bug from Hero’s Duty is multiplying into peppermint-striped hordes under the taffy swamps and rock-candy mountains.

The film takes a unique take from the first scene – Ralph is clearly portrayed as the bad guy, but not all that bad.  But in addition, like in many of the Farrelly Brothers comedies, he’s given a reasonable motivation for his unpleasantness.  According to the games opening cut scene, he was ejected from his home (a stump in the forest) in order to build the residential edifice at which he daily expresses his dissatisfaction.  The theme of the film is clearly about the upsides and downsides trying to be more than you were literally created to be – Ralph’s desire is honest, but like Vanellope’s, runs the risk of hurting many others.  The ecology of the game world has a bit of an edge as well – the idea of homeless videogame characters gets a laugh, but it’s an uncomfortable laugh for the parents.

You’ve already heard about the cameos.  Like the aforementioned Roger Rabbit, the film had gained great buzz by arranging cameos from scads of classic videogames and characters, including the combatants from Street Fighter, the cast of Pac-Man, and, The Kid’s personal favorite, Sonic The Hedgehog. Lesser-known games like Burger Time and Tapper make an appearance, the latter being the popular after-hours hang-out of the gaming world.  Like the appearance of actual toys in Toy Story, they give the world a sense of verisimilitude and realism, as well as provide for plugs of lots of classic games. Not to mention a few new ones.  As part of Sonic’s appearance, Ralph will be appearing in Sonic’s new game, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.  Even the legendary Konami Super-Code appears in the game.  No child of the 80s can sit through those scenes of Dig-Dug diving into the floor of the game station without being gobsmacked by nostalgia.

But in addition to the cameos the Disney creators do a great job of creating games that have the real look and feel of real games from various gaming eras.  Fix-It Felix Jr. is a game in the Donkey Kong / Crazy Climber mold, and and first look, it looks fun enough to want to play for real (and you can, at the film’s website, as well as Hero’s Duty and Sugar Rush). Hero’s Duty is a parody of modern first-person shooters like Halo, and Calhoun is clearly a kissing cousin of “Fem-Shep” from Mass Effect.  Sugar Rush also parodies the recent tactic of product placements in video games, by having actual product placements.  Felix and Calhoun almost meet their end in Nestle Quik-sand, are saved by Laffy Taffy, and while the boiling “diet cola” lake may be generic, the stalactites of Mentos above it are decidedly not.

The quality of the film can be best explained by an error of The Wife’s – when she saw the level of humor and clearly rich plot, she mistakenly assumed it was a Pixar release.  High praise indeed, and praise that Disney has worked hard to obtain.  The last few Disney releases have been quite a step up from a recent period of repetition, and that’s a good thing.

DAVEY BEAUCHAMP TALKS AMAZING PULP ADVENTURES RPG

SuperPowerCast 9: “A Wide-Eyed Ambition To Dream” Davey Beauchamp Talks Amazing Pulp Adventures. For the second time this week, we sit down to look at the Amazing Pulp Adventures Kickstarter drive. This time we are joined not just by Scaldcrow Games publisher Timothy Glenn Bane but also by game creator and lead writer Davey Beauchamp. Davey discusses the origins of the settings and some of the characters and concepts we will see come to life in the game. Plus we discuss with the guys a little bit about their ideas of what makes a great pen and paper RPG!

You can listen to the podcast here or download it here.

Nintendo Wii U digital promotion offers benefits for Deluxe owners

  • News
  • November 2, 2012

The Nintendo Wii U Deluxe Set, listing at 349.99, is already sold out before its release on the 18th

Nintendo of America today announced a benefits incentive program for purchasers of its new [[[Nintendo Wii U Deluxe Set]]].  By signing up with their Club Nintendowebsite and registering their system purchase, users will receive a ten percent “points rebate” on purchases of WII U made through the Nintendo e-Shop.  In addition, for each five hundred points earned in this fashion, users will receive a five dollar credit on future purchases in the eShop.

Club Nintendo allows users to earn points by registering their Nintendo purchases, and by taking brief surveys about the reasons for purchase and opinions on gameplay.  The points can be redeemed for downloadable games or collectible accessories.  High points earners are also eligible for rarer limited-edition items, made available for free.

This is the latest in a series of promotions intended to drive business to the Nintendo eShop. The release of [[[New Super Mario Bros 2]]] for the 3DS offered a 50 point Club Nintendo bonus for buying the downloadable version of the game.  Another promotion running now allows users to receive a free downloadable game with the purchase of one of a select set of new releases for the 3DS.  Nintendo does not offer their downloadable games at a discount over the store-bought versions, which makes them far more profitable to the company – while saving money on printing and shipping of physical media, they also receive the full price of the game, not just the wholesale price made if sold to a retail store.  It also eliminates the resale market – the downloaded games cannot be sold back to a store, and can only be transferred from one system to another a limited number of times. Special offers like this are clearly intended to make the digital purchase more appealing to the user.

With this offer, a fifty dollar or higher game would effectively earn an immediate five dollar rebate towards further eShop purchases. However, the final list of Wii U games available through the eShop has not yet been revealed; only four retail games have been announced so far, including NintendoLand, which already comes with the Deluxe Set.  Nintendo customer service reps have stated it will include their both “full-size” retail releases like New Mario Bros Wii U, as well as many smaller games at lower price points.  Their retail games are delivered on a DVD, which holds up to 4.2 GB of data. It’s almost certain most of their releases do not fill those discs to bursting; if they did, only about 8 retail games could be stored on the system’s 32GB internal storage. The system does support additional storage via SDHC cards, and while external hard drive support has been reported, no details are available.  So at the moment, the viability of downloading a high number of their retail games is questionable, rendering the ability to truly take advantage of the promotion somewhat limited.

 The  Wii U Deluxe Set retails for 349.99, but is already sold out via pre-sale, and like many new systems, is commanding usurious prices via ebay and other secondary markets. It features, for an additional fifty dollars over the basic system, an extra 16 GB of storage, the game Nintendo Land, and additional accessories including  a  charging cradle for the new Wii U Game Pad.

While the promotion begins officially in December, all Wii U purchases made starting on the day of release (Nov. 18th) will qualify. Details on the promotion are being made available at the Nintendo site at http://ddp.nintendo.com/

IDEAS LIKE BULLETS RETURNS TO ALL PULP!

  • News
  • October 31, 2012

IDEAS LIKE BULLETS- A Column by Tommy Hancock

That’s right.  Although I’ve struck out with my own blog (ideaslikebullets.blogspot.com), I have been encouraged in the last few days to restore the ILB column to its first home.  So, when there is an idea that I feel I want to share, it will most definitely appear here.  There may even be a frew ALL PULP exclusives, ideas that I don’t share anywhere but here…. but now to our first new ILB!  

How this game is played, guys and dolls, is simple.  Generally I share an idea that I don’t have time to write or run with and give any and all of You a chance to write it.  Sometimes I want to retain ownership and let you play with it.  Sometimes its a freely given seed of inspiration that You may take and do with as You please.  Today’s is a bit of both.

This idea I have is very much just an inkling, but it is for a character that I will hold onto at least most of the proprietary rights to, in a ‘Concept created by’ sense.   The reason for that is I’m toying with this character becoming a regular addition to the Pro Se line up, someone who might show up in every magazine or somesuch like that. But other than that, I’m going to leave the door pretty open to whatever you as a writer want to do with it….and, if enough of You play along, you’ll all even get to see your take on this concept in print.

Here we go, first with the idea-  A man, six feet tall, athletic build, black suit and shirt, red tie, red gloves, black shoes, black fedora, red mask that is pulled over the top of his head and ends at the bridge of his nose..so sort of like a full face mask cut in half, the bottom hem resembling a domino cut.  He has a plethora of weapons, reliant on no one in particular, but the weapons are not high tech gizmos- just guns, knives, anything that is needed to fight crime and destroy evil.  No one knows who he is under the mask, but one key element is that when he slips that mask on, he is a total and completely focused Pursuer of Justice.   Justice as he defines it, by the Law if that fits, in the Spirit of Justice if that is more applicable.   He investigates…He brings to trial…and he prosecutes in his own unique way…That is why  they call him… THE D.A.!

Now, the actual reason they call him The DA is, except for the mask, he wears an outfit that is exactly what prominent up and coming D.A. Frank ‘Two Fisted’ Finnegan wore on every single day he was seen in public.  Finnegan was also mercilessly killed and butchered, first riddled with bullets by unseen gunmen and then literally sliced into pieces by a fast moving blade wielding assassin known only as The Knife…in front of over 300,000 people at a campaign rally in the largest park in the city in October, 1938.  On January 1st, 1939, this character in a mask and Finnegan’s outfit delivered The Knife and six gunmen to the city police station, beaten, unconscious and bound.   The papers immediately picked up on the resemblance to Finnegan and theories abounded….so the name- The D. A.- struck and stuck hard.

So, that’s the idea…and here’s the rest of it.   You, if you’re interested, write a 1,000 word story (I know, didn’t say it would be easy) focused on the D.A.  Not one word more, not one word less.  1,000.  It must be complete, beginning, middle, and end.   Any and all who write one will not only be reprinted here, but will also find their way into a future issue of PRO SE PRESENTS (after editing of course).
So, you get a chance to breathe life into this character and get published as a result.  Oh and let’s say by December 1st, that thousand words.  Work for you? Good.   Just email to tommyhancockpulp@yahoo.com as you get it done with the subject -THE D.A.-IDEAS LIKE BULLETS.  And don’t ask me questions about the character…You have all the information you’re going to get…the rest, dear Bulleteer, is up to you.

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