Tagged: IDW

THE TOTAL PULP EXPERIENCE! WILL MURRAY’S PULP CLASSICS! AND MORE FROM RADIO ARCHIVES!

RadioArchives.com Newsletter

 
September 7, 2012
 

 

Radio Archives is very proud to announce that we have Upgraded all of our Pulp eBooks, and you can upgrade the eBooks you have purchased from Radio Archives for FREE.
 
For the last four months a team of 35 people working around the clock under the leadership of John Olsen have upgraded every one of the Will Murray’s Pulp Classics eBooks.
 
What did we do? We made the eBooks look better by polishing the formatting, making the graphics crisper, and a new Table of Contents when you open the book just like in a pulp magazine. Other improvements include putting the front cover at the beginning of the book.
 
As part of the upgrade every eBook has been proof-read several times so you can enjoy these wonderful pulp stories as they were written.
 
We made it easier to purchase by eliminating the zipfile. Buy a Will Murray’s Pulp Classic from your iPad or other mobile reading device, and be reading within seconds. There is no need for a desktop computer.
 
When you see the Radio Archives brand on a product, you can be assured of its excellence.
 
What is the Total Pulp Experience? Look for the Total Pulp Experience graphic on the cover of all the Popular Publication pulp eBooks where we have added every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine including the letter column. Radio Archives is all about preservation. What better way to preserve these great pulp Magazines than by reprinting everything? We know you wouldn’t want to read an incomplete book.
 

“We’ve decided,” stated Will Murray, “that from now on, most Will Murray Pulp Classics eBook will contain every story, editorial feature and even the letter columns from the original pulp magazine. Previously, if we reprinted the lead novel from the October, 1934 issue of The Spider that was all you gotthat juicy story. Going forward, we’re giving you the back-of-the-book short stories too. We do leave out the ads.”
 
Murray explains this in terms of the stories the line has already become known for putting in eBook format. “This means that with the Spider eBooks, you’ll also receive the popular Doc Turner stories by Arthur Leo Zagat and Emile Tepperman’s Masked Marksman backup series. Since both pulpsters also ghosted the lead Spider novels, this makes sense. On Operator #5, we’ll be including Zagat’s Red Finger stories where applicable.”
 

Reasons for this change are numerous, including providing more stories and bringing great, lesser known stories and characters back to a pulp-hungry public after decades. Murray noted, “With the growing interest in pulp eBooks, RadioArchives.com is simply doing what it has always done, going back to its Old Time Radio roots: Innovate. Improving the product is something Radio Archives has always striven to do. The new Total Pulp Experience eBooks means that the customer will get everything worthwhile that can be culled from a given magazine. That’s the appeal. Of course, our anthologies like “The Moon Pool and Other Wonders” are a different deal.”
 
Bringing the Total Pulp Experience to Will Murray’s Pulp Classics eBooks by including the additional stories from the original Pulps will give readers a better sense and experience for what it was like to read a complete magazine right off the rack.
 
For those of you who have purchased eBooks already in the smaller size will not be left behind. Customers who have purchased the previous eBooks will be able to upgrade to the new versions at no additional cost. “The exciting part for me,” said Will Murray, “is that Radio Archives automatically upgrades my Will Murray Pulp Classics eBooks as it converts them. Every customer will receive the same courtesy at no cost. There will be no orphaned customers at Will Murray’s Pulp Classics!”
 
Will further said “This was Tom Brown’s brainstorm. I give him full credit. It’s part of his vision to remain current through constant innovation and the need to stay on top of the ever-evolving technology. The same thinking that inspired Tom to offer our original versions in multiple formats so that customers did not have to repurchase any eBook should he change devices, or the devices themselves change, compelled him decide to implement this idea. No purchaser suggested it. No one complained over the lack of short stories in The Spider. But Tom decided that their absence needed to be rectified. Me, I just stay out of his way.”
 
If you have already purchased Will Murray’s Pulp Classic Ebooks all you need to do is send an email to Service@RadioArchives.com and we will send you instructions on how to upgrade. You will be able to upgrade all of your eBooks in just a few short days from now. Send your email today and be among the first to be upgraded.
 
Fantastic characters and great stories from Pulp’s Golden Age have had new life as a part of Will Murray’s Pulp Classics. Now readers can enjoy even more of the authentic feel of the Classic Pulps thanks to The Total Pulp Experience!
 
All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats for the ultimate in compatibility. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your eBook to your new device without the need to purchase anything new.
 
Find these legendary Pulp tales and more in Will Murray’s Pulp Classics, now available in the Kindle store, the Barnes and Noble Nook store, and RadioArchives.com.

 
 

Receive an exciting original Spider adventure for FREE! Part of the Will Murray Pulp Classics line, The Spider #11, Prince of the Red Looters first saw print in 1934 and features his momentous battle with The Fly and his armies of crazed criminal killers.
 
For those who have been unsure about digging into the wonderful world of pulps, this is a perfect opportunity to give one of these fantastic yarns a real test run. With a full introduction to the Spider written by famed pulp historian and author Will Murray, The Spider #11 was written by one of pulp’s most respected authors, Norvell W. Page. Writing as Grant Stockbridge, Page’s stories included some of the most bizarre and fun takes on heroes and crime fighting in the history of escapist fiction.
 
Even today Page’s scenarios and his edge-of-the-seat writing style are still thrilling both new and old fans everywhere. For those who have never read one of these rollercoaster adventures, you are in for a thrill. If you already know how much fun a classic pulp is, make sure you get a copy of this classic.
 

See what the Total Pulp Experience is for yourself. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
 

Send an eMail to eBooks@RadioArchives.com and start reading your FREE copy of  the Spider #11 within seconds! Experience The Best Pulps the Past has to offer in the most modern way possible!

 

 

The best of timeless Pulp now available as cutting edge eBooks! Will Murray’s Pulp Classics brings the greatest heroes, awesome action, and two fisted thrills to your eReader! Presenting Pulp Icons such as the Spider and Operator #5 as well as wonderfully obscure characters like the Octopus and more, Will Murray’s Pulp Classics brings you the best of yesterday’s Pulp today!

 

A horde of shaggy-browed, blood-hungry madmen with uncouth, primitive weapons, with unlimited vitality and bottomless ferocity, are hewing a path of terror and destruction through the very centers of civilized America — organized and directed by a passion-mad, money-lusting arch-criminal whose devilish cunning has trapped even the Spider, Master of Men, sole champion of outraged humanity, in a net from which, apparently, there is no escape. Who but Richard Wentworth is to pick up the cudgels in defense of mankind — of civilization? Who else can wage successful war against the most malevolent, the most resourceful criminal brain that ever set itself to gut the heart of a nation! Total Pulp Reprint. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
 

A shrill scream pierced the quiet night as the mighty Plutonic breasted the glassy waves. As if at a signal, countless passengers, young and old, men and women, were seized by an epidemic of frantic self-destruction. By water, fire, steel and lead they tried eagerly to hurl themselves into oblivion — into the greedy arms of Anubis, grim Egyptian deity of death! Richard Wentworth, who defended humanity in the guise of the dread Spider, recognized the suicide-mania immediately as an extremely cunning attack by the master-brains of the international underworld. Yet when his fellow men needed his protection more than ever before, the Spider lay gravely wounded, ruthlessly harried by Law and Criminal, while his beloved Nita, fortified by her courageous love, went forth to prove she was indeed the Spider’s mate! Total Pulp Reprint. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine. As a special bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction especially for this series of eBooks.

 

By plague and fire, bribery and chicanery, terrorism and extortion, the insane dictator Ursus Young has established himself as the supreme ruler of America. Who is left with sufficient strength to thwart him? Already he has scattered far and wide the organization of which Operator 5, America’s Secret Service Ace, forms so important a part. Against such tremendous, dictatorial power Jimmy Christopher finds himself battling with a desperation such as he has never felt before… Total Pulp Reprint. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine. As a special bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction especially for this series of eBooks.

 
Curt Newton, Joan Randall and the Futuremen cruise into a strange world peopled with weird, pallid inhabitants, on the quest of a lost satellite which was mysteriously plucked from the sky! Captain Future… the Ace of Space! Born and raised on the moon, Curt Newton survived the murder of his scientist parents to become the protector of the galaxy known as Captain Future. With his Futuremen, Grag the giant robot, Otho, the shape-shifting android and Simon Wright, the Living Brain, he patrols the solar system in the fastest space ship ever constructed, the Comet, pursuing human monsters and alien threats to Earth and her neighbor planets. The exploits of Captain Future, Wizard of Science, originally appeared in the pages of Captain Future and Startling Stories magazines back in the days before NASA’s manned space program. Captain Future returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.

 

Out of the teeming turbulent East had come Dr. Yen Sin — saffron-skinned wizard of crime — bringing to the Capital of the West all the ancient Devil’s-lore at his command — and a horde of Asian Hell-born to help him spawn it. But Michael Traile — The Man Who Never Slept — had crammed into his own keen brain the means to cope with the sinister doctor. For he knew even the secrets of the Dragon’s Shadow and how to penetrate the yellow murder fog that had descended on the capital to mingle its blood-wisps with the mist from the Potomac. Total Pulp Reprint. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine. One of the Bonus stories is written by Arch Oboler
 

All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats for the ultimate in compatibility. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your eBook to your new device without the need to purchase anything new.
 
Find these legendary Pulp tales and more in Will Murray’s Pulp Classics, now available in the Kindle store and the Barnes and Noble Nook store! and RadioArchives.com!
 
 

 

The end of World War II brought much change in the world and in American Society. As the middle class gained more money, Suburbia grew and the face of the United States changed, entertainment changed right along with it. A prime example of radio reflecting 1950s life can be heard on Father Knows Best, Volume 5 from Radio Archives.
 
In its initial incarnation, Father Knows Best was not much different than similar situation comedies of the period. However, by 1949, it became something quite unique for the period, a solid, well-written portrayal of typical Midwestern family life with a surprising emphasis on well-shaded characters, rather than outlandish situations, to bring out the humorous side of suburban life.
 
Played by Robert Young, the title character of Jim Anderson is a successful insurance salesman living in Springfield with his wife Margaret and their three children: Betty, Bud, and Kathy. Thanks to excellent writing and the outstanding acting talents of the principals, these hilarious slices of everyday life rise above the norm to make Father Knows Best one of the highlight series of late-era network radio entertainment.
 
Heard today, Father Knows Best still hilariously reflects the interpersonal relationships of a typical American family. Regardless if it’s the 1950s or the 21st Century, certain aspects of raising a family never change and remain hilariously consistent. Peek into the past and find a bit of yourself in Father Knows Best, Volume 5 from Radio Archives! Ten hours, twenty shows are available now for only $29.98 on Audio CDs or $14.98 for the Digital Download.
 
The interest in Digital Downloads has always been good but for the last 4 weeks it has been the preferred version for 80% of our customers, more than double the rate before. Because of your great response, Digital Downloads of any of our Old Time Radio sets will be priced at 50% off the regular Audio CD price through the end of the year.
 
You can continue to get the same sparkling high quality audio content as our compact disc collections at a reduced price, Delivery immediately upon payment, and the ability to play them on your phone, computer, or portable device! Purchase the audio collections you love and enjoy them in a whole new way!
 

Rapid Fire Radio
A Column by Tommy Hancock
 

Reviews!
In an era of reality TV, it’s fantastic to take a listen back to a time when Game Shows were original and both entertained and challenged the audience! Information Please, Volume 1 from Radio Archives presents a classic radio Game show that truly reversed a formula already old hat by game show standards! Instead of quizzing audience members or contest winners, regular citizens sent in questions and a panel of experts had to answer the queries from John Q. Public! Funny, interesting, and fresh and new nearly every episode, Information Please, Volume 1 is a hoot to listen to! Find out how much fun Information Please, Volume 1 is for only $29.98 for Audio CDs or $14.98 for the Digital Download version.
 
Tommy Dorsey. Count Basie. Vaughn Monroe. Les Brown. Names that Big Band fans will never forget, but also four of the brilliant pioneers of one of the most fantastic periods of America’s musical history. The Best of the Big Bands, Volume 1 features performances by this legendary conductors and orchestras as well as several others! Like lightning in a bottle, this collection recaptures a time when the music America moved to was played in large nightclubs and dance halls and filled with brass and bravado! Dance your way back to a simpler, grander time with The Best of the Big Bands, Volume 1 only $29.98 for ten Audio CDs.
 

Television had nothing on Radio as far as Reality shows. Night Watch, Volume 1 from Radio Archives is a collection of real on the scene action as a police recorder rode each week with a California officer on his nightly patrol. Night Watch captures the stark reality of police work in the 1950s and honestly, lets modern listeners realize that not a lot has changed in over 60 years. No punches are pulled with this ‘as it happens’ crime show as the action of the night in each episode is broadcast as it happened, making listeners feel very much as if they are there. Ride along with Night Watch, Volume 1 from Radio Archives for only $29.98 for ten Audio CDs.
 
Although his comedic star rose mostly due to TV, classic funnyman Milton Berle brought his audacious personality and unique humor to radio. Often a guest on many shows, Berle actually landed his own program, The Milton Berle Show, collected as a ten hour set by Radio Archives! Each week, Berle satirically saluted some aspect of American life and culture. Nothing was safe from this brilliant performer’s razor wit. Making light of such august institutions as farmers and railroads, Berle also picked on lighter subjects that were in the public eye, such as Good Health, Public Service, and even the medium he was played on – radio. For guffaws and giggles as well as wonderfully witty commentary on times gone by, The Milton Berle Show is a great bet! Only $29.98 for Audio CDs or $14.98 for the Download version.

 

 
Read by Doug Stone
 

One of the most bizarre pulp magazines ever published was titled The Octopus.
 
Released in 1939 by Popular Publications, it turned the formula of The Spider on its head. Instead of centering on a fearless avenger of crime, it focused on the master criminal himself!
 
His true identity unknown, The Octopus is a denizen of the underworld, bent on bringing America’s greatest city to its knees through a campaign of terror and horror never before seen.
 
Writers Norvell W. Page of Spider fame, backed by Edith and Eljir Jakobsson produced this weird epic under the name of Randolph Craig. Evidently they were attempting to duplicate the success of The Spider—with a weird twist. But there was more to The Octopus than an archfiend who dressed like a cuttlefish. Just as no pulp series can last long without a worthy villain, they understood that without a formidable foe, The Octopus would flop. So they created a hero with three identities. Jeffrey Fairchild is a wealthy medico. By day, he masquerades as kindly old Dr. Skull, treater of the sick in New York’s East Side slums. But at night, he dons a more sinister guise and becomes the sworn foe of all crime—The Skull Killer! Branding his kills on the forehead like the Spider, The Skull Killer takes on The Octopus and his purple-eyed minions in the wildly over-the-top story, The City Condemned to Hell.
 
Backing up this masterpiece of weird menace are three novelettes torn from the pages of the only issue of The Octopus ever published. This audiobook is narrated by the talented brothers of Doug Stone and Glen Stone.

 

 
Fantastic tales of action and adventure come alive in an exciting modern way thanks to Will Murray’s Pulp Classics line of Audiobooks from Radio Archives! Heroes that stir the imagination and Villains that chill the soul made Pulp Magazines extremely popular in the early 20th Century and fans today can thrill to those same wonderfully written, wild stories as performed by the leading names in Audiobooks today!
 
The Master of Men deals his own brand of justice in the Spider, enhanced audiobooks crafted by producer Roger Rittner. Featuring the excellent voice of Nick Santa Maria, the stories of one of Pulp’s greatest characters erupt with new energy. Combine that with the wonderful talent of Robin Riker as Nita Van Sloan and wrap it all up in sound effects and a full musical score, and the Spider is a great Audiobook for any Pulp Fan!
 
From Hero to Madman, Will Murray’s Pulp Classics covers every base! Doctor Death, possibly one of the strangest, most imaginative creations to come out of the Pulp Era, spreads his malignant evil to a modern audience, thanks to the talented Joey D’Auria. As Jimmy Holm and his Secret Twelve attempt to defeat the strange scientist, Doctor Death wreaks havoc as he wills! With D’Auria’s voice giving the twisted doctor life, Doctor Death is definitely a great Audio Adventure!
 
Classic characters of Yesterday come blazing into Today thanks to Will Murray’s Pulp Classic Audiobooks! The Black Bat swings in guns blazing, courtesy of Michael McConnohie! Voiced by Richard Epcar, Dan Fowler: G-Man, takes criminals head on! The Octopus spreads his tentacles of terror in the first Audiobook to feature the Bonus short stories from the original magazine as performed by brothers Doug and Glen Stone! Operator Five, The Three Planeteers, Secret Agent X, and so many more classic Pulp characters and tales make Will Murray’s Pulp Classic Audiobooks a must have!
 
Even Pulp’s greatest hero makes his Audiobook home at Radio Archives! Doc Savage, as written by Will Murray himself, thunders through tale after tale, thinking and fighting his way through the worst evils imagined. Thanks to the extremely talented Michael McConnohie, these enhanced audiobook adventures, beautifully produced by Roger Rittner, sound very nearly like full cast productions. The Man of Bronze and his terrific team of aides are larger than life in Will Murray’s Doc Savage Audiobooks!
 
 

 

The Master of Darkness investigates baffling mysteries in two classic pulp novels by Walter B. Gibson writing as “Maxwell Grant.” First, The Shadow must unravel the baffling mystery of “The Ribbon Clues” to stop a serial killer and unearth hidden millions! Then, to unmask a diabolical supercrook, The Shadow follows a bizarre trail of murder that leads from San Francisco to Chicago and Manhattan as “Death Rides the Skyway” in an thrill-packed tale of industrial sabotage and deadly greed. This instant collector’s item showcases both classic pulp covers by George Rozen and the original interior illustrations by legendary artist Tom Lovell, with historical commentary by Will Murray. Buy it today for $14.95.
 

The pulp era’s greatest superman returns in two titanic tales by Lester Dent writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, the unbelievable sight of “The Man Who Fell Up” sets Doc and Pat Savage on the trail of the Man of Bronze’s missing aides and a super-weapon that could change the course of World War II. Then, the FBI wrongly links Doc Savage and his aides to brutal outbreaks of mindless insanity! Can the Man of Bronze elude the G-Men long enough to solve the incredible mystery of “The Three Wild Men”? This double-novel collector’s edition features both original color pulp covers by Emery Clarke, Paul Orban’s classic interior illustrations and historical commentary by Will Murray, writer of ten Doc Savage novels. Buy it today for $14.95.
 

One of the top crime-fighters from the golden age of pulp fiction, The Spider returns in two thrill-packed adventures written by Norvell Page under the pseudonym of Grant Stockbridge. First, in “Laboratory Of The Damned” (1936), Poisoned! Struck down by a deadly assault from a mad murderer, the Spider finds his friend Stanley Kirkpatrick, Commissioner of Police, doomed to a stupor of living death. Nor is he the only victim… also stricken with the dread malady is Richard Wentworth’s fiancee, Nita van Sloan! The Spider battles both the Law and the Underworld to survive! Then, in “Hell’s Sales Manager” (1940), The Brand wields a weird new weapon that sucks everything in its path into a vortex of destruction! How can even the Master of Men fight an enemy that seems to simply vanish? While this reign of terror goes unchecked, the Spider finds his every effort hampered by a human bloodhound assigned to track down and eliminate him. These two exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading and feature both of the original full color covers as well as interior illustrations that accompany each story. Available now for $14.95!
 

Altus Press is proud to announce the release of the third volume in its acclaimed Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series, written by Will Murray and Lester Dent, writing as Kenneth Robeson.
 
Set in the Fall of 1936, The Infernal Buddha tells the epic story of Doc Savage’s desperate quest to control the Buddha of Ice, a relic of unknown origin—and what may become the most dangerous object on Earth!
 
When a mummy arrives at Doc Savage’s New York headquarters wearing the clothes of his missing assistant, engineer Renny Renwick, Doc, Monk, and Ham rush to Singapore where they get on the trail of a swashbuckling pirate who calls himself the Scourge of the South China Sea, in whose hands a piece of the infernal Buddha has fallen. The trail leads to Pirate Island, the fate of Renny, and a mysterious box containing a terrible, unstoppable power.
 
But that is only the beginning of the quest into which the Man of Bronze plunges—one that will take him to the upper reaches of the Yellow Sea and a series a wild ocean battles against the vicious factions fighting for control on the infernal Buddha.
 
Before it is all over, every human life on Earth will tremble on the brink of eternity, and Doc Savage will face his greatest test.
 
“This may be my wildest Doc novel to date,” says author Will Murray. “The Infernal Buddha is a fantasy epic full of corsairs, criminals and other culprits. The menace is planetary. The threat, extinction. Doc Savage has a reputation for saving the world. This time he does it on the greatest scale possible. I began this book back in 1992, working from an opening situation Lester Dent started in 1935. Together, we have produced a true Doc Savage epic. And it only took about 75 years….”
 
The Infernal Buddha features a startling cover painted by Joe DeVito, depicting Doc Savage as the Buccaneer of Bronze! This cover was painted from a still taken in 1964 of legendary model Steve Holland, and is a variant pose shot for famed illustrator James Bama’s classic cover to The Man of Bronze. There has never been a Doc cover like it! Buy it today for only $24.95 from Radio Archives.
 
 

By Dr. Art Sippo

 
As Doc Savage arrives at London’s Croydon airport, a shooting occurs. A thin white man is wounded and cries out for someone named Sen Gat. As Doc comes to his aid, the wounded man throws him a small package and asks him to keep it safe. Inside the package is a strange black waxy stick. From that point on, Doc and his men are under assault by the oriental mastermind Sen Gat and his cronies who are trying to steal that black stick. There are actually several of them and Sen Gat wants them all. The battle rages in London and the body count rises. Doc and his men meet the lovely and resourceful Lucile Copeland whose father Calvin Copeland was lost on an expedition to Indochina seeking the legendary monster known as “The Thousand-Headed Man.” Lucile believes that Sen Gat knows where her father is and that he too is seeking the “Thousand-Headed Man.” Somehow the black sticks are part of the key to this mystery.
 
Doc and his men accompany Miss Copeland on an airplane expedition to the depths of Indochina following a chain of horribly carved pagodas all leading to the mysterious lair of the Thousand Headed Man. Along the way, they encounter the scions of an ancient lost cult millennia old and its strange rustling weapon that can incapacitate or kill. At the same time Sen Gat and his band of criminals are in pursuit using the deadly weapons of modern times. Caught between the forces of Aulden and contemporary evil, can Doc Savage and his men survive let alone prevail?
 
“The Thousand-Headed Man” was originally published in July 1934. It has remained one of the perennial favorites in the Doc Savage canon. The story includes exotic locales, a wily oriental villain, lost civilizations, mysterious means of death, and a central mystery the solution of which is the denouement of the story. All the things that make up the true pulp adventure novel we all know and love are here along with the skillful writing of Lester Dent at his best.
 
It is no wonder that “The Thousand-Headed Man” had been chosen in 1966 to be the first story adapted in a series of Doc Savage movies that would have starred Chuck Connors. Mr. Connors actually went on the late night Johnny Carson show to announce the planned series. There was even a comic book from Gold-Key based on this story as a tie in to the movie. Sadly the film never came to pass. But the story was adapted into a radio play that was broadcast on NPR in the late 1980s the recording of which is currently available from Radio Archives.
 
Thrill now to ‘The Thousand Headed Man”, including the color cover and the internal artwork, as well as another full length Doc tale. Get Doc Savage Volume 20 for only $12.95 from Radio Archives!
 

Comments From Our Customers!
 
Paul Gray writes:
Many thanks for the prompt attention in refunding the duplicate payment I made for the download for Mutual Radio Theater vol. 2 recently. Since then I have downloaded three more sets from you. All this is great stuff and the quality is superb as per usual. In future I will be concentrating on downloads instead of CDs – the saving in cost is a tremendous help — and there is no need to find a lot of extra shelf space.
 
Robert Graff writes:
I recently purchased your download editions of several shows including your set of the Mercury Theater on the Air. I was highly impressed by the quality of these shows, especially Mercury Theater as I’ve only ever heard fair to poor sounding copies of those shows. Also, one request I would love to make assuming that it’s possible, would be a collection of remastered episodes of Flash Gordon. The copies that have been available and floating around for years have been, in my opinion, barely listenable do the poor sound quality and this is a series that I think would greatly benefit from your work.
 

Barney McCasland writes:
I’ve listened to The Octopus “The City Condemned to Hell”, and I have to admit it was more entertaining than I remembered, due, I suspect, in no small part to Doug Stone’s reading. I enjoyed Doug and Glen Stone’s readings of the three bonus short stories.

 

If you’d like to share a comment with us or if you have a question or a suggestion send an email to Service@RadioArchives.com. We’d love to hear from you!

 

The products you’ve read about in this newsletter are just a small fraction of what you’ll find waiting for you at RadioArchives.com. Whether it’s the sparkling audio fidelity of our classic radio collections, the excitement of our new line of audiobooks, or the timeless novels of the pulp heroes, you’ll find hundreds of intriguing items at RadioArchives.com.
 
If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, or if this newsletter has been sent to you in error, please reply to this e-mail with the subject line UNSUBSCRIBE and your name will immediately be removed from our mailing list.
 

Diamond announces August 2012 Best Sellers

Avengers Vs. X-Men #9 from Marvel Comics, the best-selling comic book to specialty retailers in August 2012, according to information provided by Diamond Comic Distributors, the world’s largest distributor of comics, graphic novels, and pop culture merchandise.

DC Entertainment was August’s leading publisher in Retail Dollars, leading Marvel Comics 33.32% to 32.42%. Meanwhile, Marvel Comics edged DC Entertainment on the Unit Market Share for the month, 37.18% to 37.12%.

For the second month in a row, Geoff Johns and Gary Franks’ [[[Batman: Earth One]]], the original graphic novel that reimagines the early days of Batman, was the best-selling graphic novel to retailers.

Based on Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s best-selling Batman: Arkham Asylum video game, Square-Enix’s Batman: Arkham Asylum Play Arts ~Kai~: Harley Quinn Action Figure was the best-selling toy product to comic book specialty retailers in August.

Earth’s most powerful heroes join the HeroClix campaign with the DC HeroClix: Justice League Expansion from WizKids/NECA, the best-selling games product to comic book specialty retailers in August.

TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

PUBLISHER

DOLLAR

SHARE

UNIT

SHARE

DC COMICS

33.32%

37.12%

MARVEL COMICS

32.42%

37.18%

IDW PUBLISHING

5.88%

4.64%

IMAGE COMICS

5.75%

5.37%

DARK HORSE COMICS

4.92%

3.89%

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

3.19%

3.16%

EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD

1.83%

0.40%

BOOM! STUDIOS

1.52%

1.48%

VIZ MEDIA

0.96%

0.41%

ARCHIE COMICS

0.85%

0.82%

OTHER NON-TOP 10

9.35%

5.52%

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

 

DOLLARS

UNITS

AUGUST 2012 VS. JULY 2012

COMICS

6.49%

6.38%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

22.13%

19.48%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

11.23%

7.43%

AUGUST 2012 VS. AUGUST 2011

COMICS

19.27%

14.22%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

14.95%

24.74%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

17.80%

15.09%

YEAR-TO-DATE 2012 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2011

COMICS

20.51%

17.97%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

14.13%

12.78%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

18.41%

17.54%

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #9

$3.99

JUN120592-M MAR

2

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #10

$3.99

JUN120599-M MAR

3

BATMAN #12

$3.99

JUN120177-M DC

4

JUSTICE LEAGUE #12

$3.99

JUN120142-M DC

5

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #692

$5.99

JUN120622-M MAR

6

BEFORE WATCHMEN: RORSCHACH #1 (MR) [*]

$3.99

JUN120129-M DC

7

AVX VS #5

$3.99

JUN120590-M MAR

8

BEFORE WATCHMEN: DR. MANHATTAN #1 (MR) [*]

$3.99

JUN120134-M DC

9

GREEN LANTERN #12

$2.99

JUN120196-M DC

10

DETECTIVE COMICS #12

$3.99

JUN120181-M DC

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

BATMAN: EARTH ONE HC

$22.99

MAR120234 DC

2

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 1: DAYS GONE BYE TP

$9.99

JUL068351 IMA

3

SWAMP THING VOL. 1: RAISE THEM BONES TP

$14.99

MAY120280 DC

4

SUPERMAN: ACTION COMICS VOL. 1: SUPERMAN MEN OF STEEL HC

$24.99

APR120245 DC

5

BATMAN VOL. 1: THE COURT OF OWLS HC

$24.99

JAN120300 DC

6

HULK SEASON ONE PREMIERE HC

$24.99

MAY120746 MAR

7

SCOTT PILGRIM VOLUME 1 COLOR HC

$24.99

MAY121234 ONI

8

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS: SITH HUNTERS TP

$7.99

APR120041 DAR

9

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 2: MILES BEHIND US TP

$14.99

SEP088204 IMA

10

FEAR ITSELF TP

$29.99

JUN120721 MAR

TOP 10 TOYS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM PLAY ARTS KAI: HARLEY QUINN ACTION FIGURE JAN128132 SQU

2

BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM PLAY ARTS KAI: ARMORED BATMAN ACTION FIGURE JAN128131 SQU

3

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES RETRO COLLECTOR FIGURES APR121769 PLA

4

MARVEL SELECT: AVENGERS MOVIE ENEMY FIGURE JAN121705 DST

5

ALICE: THE MADNESS RETURNS SELECT FIGURE JAN121700 DST

6

BATMAN BLACK & WHITE STATUE: DARWYN COOKE APR120307 DC

7

AVENGERS MOVIE: IRON MAN MK VII ARTFX STATUE MAR121684 KOT

8

BATMAN BLACK & WHITE STATUE: DICK GRAYSON BY JOCK MAY120346 DC

9

FORBIDDEN PLANET: ROBBY THE ROBOT 12-INCH FIGURE FEB121668 X P

10

MARVEL UNIVERSE ACTION FIGURES JUN121848 HAS

TOP 10 GAMES

RANK

DESCRIPTION

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

DC HEROCLIX: JUSTICE LEAGUE APR121984 NEC

2

MARVEL HEROCLIX: CHAOS WAR BOOSTER BRICK APR121987 NEC

3

DOCTOR WHO ACTION BOARD GAME OCT101791 DIA

4

DC HEROCLIX: JUSTICE LEAGUE FAST FORCES 6-PACK APR121985 NEC

5

WONDERLAND BOARD GAME APR121345 ZEN

6

THE WALKING DEAD TV BOARD GAME JUL112137 CRY

7

THE WALKING DEAD COMIC BOARD GAME JUL112185 Z-M

8

MAGIC THE GATHERING TCG: 2013 CORE SET EVENT DECK APR121978 WIZ

9

MAGIC THE GATHERING TCG: 2013 CORE SET BOOSTERS APR121977 WIZ

10

PATHFINDER BATTLES: RISE OF THE RUNELORDS BOOSTER BRICK MAY128110 NEC

Data for Diamond’s sales charts — which include the monthly market shares and all top product charts — are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from a universe of over 3,500 comic book specialty shops located in North America and around the world. The account base includes brick-and-mortar comic book specialty shops, Internet merchants, and other specialty stores.

Unit and dollars sales are calculated based upon orders invoiced and shipped to Diamond accounts during any given month, which comprises initial pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable.

Please note that comics marked with an asterisk have had their reported quantities reduced due to retailer returnability, and thus may rank lower on the charts than their actual sales would reflect.

Steve Ditko – Creativity Just Beyond Reality

The Creativity of Steve Ditko  • Craig Yoe • With essays by Mykal Banta, Mike Gold, Jack C. Harris, Paul Levitz, and Amber Stanton • IDW/Yoe Books • $39.99 retail

It’s only fitting that I start a review of a book about Steve Ditko by raising an ethical question. Is it proper for a critic to review a book in which he has an essay, no matter how brilliant, poignant and vital that essay might be?

I don’t care. The latest tome from YoeBooks, The Creativity of Steve Ditko is so magnificent such petty concerns such as objectivity do not matter. Anything I can do to help direct the masses towards this effort is in service to a greater cause and, besides, I don’t get royalties.

There have been a number of books about Ditko, one of America’s most important comics creators who is as reclusive as he is gifted. In fact, this one is a sequel to Yoe’s The Art of Ditko, which I haven’t read – not because I’m not in it, but because I’m a cheap bastard. Creativity runs over 200 over-sized pages and weighs over three and one-half pounds, supporting my argument for electronic publishing as I suspect the majority of its audience consists of aging baby boomers who can only keep the book on our laps for a short period before reaching for Depends. I’m hard-pressed to suggest what Yoe could have cut.

There’s tons of artwork, including lots of large reprints of Ditko’s work including many full-length reprints of sundry horror and mystery stories. Steve always said he wants his work to speak for itself; here, it doesn’t speak – it screams. Loudly. The photographs are particularly interesting, as Steve hasn’t been seen in public since roughly the time we crawled out of the sea.

As one would expect from the man who ran one of America’s foremost design studios after his stint as creative director, vice president and general manager of Jim Henson’s Muppets with enough awards, honors, yadda yadda yadda, to sink the Titanic, The Creativity of Steve Ditko is as exquisitely designed as a fifth dimensional cathedral. I particularly admire Craig’s patience: it must have taken him forever to find so many top-shelf Ditko stories from Charlton that were actually printed on-register.

I don’t know if Steve would like this book. My feeling is, probably not. He simply doesn’t like the attention, although I’m unlikely to debate the right to privacy issue with him. But whether he likes it or not, Ditko deserves that attention – and he deserves all of the effort that Craig Yoe has lavished upon him.

And those essays are great.

 

Travis Richey’s (Not) Inspector Spacetime web series proceeding nicely

Inspector Spacetime is a self-paradoxical anomaly, which makes perfect sense.  It’s only existed for a few months, but has also apparently been on television for nearly fifty years.  Actor Travis Richey has played him for all of that time, for a grand total of less than two minutes of footage, and yet 11 actors have played the role, including Stephen Fry and Christopher Lee.  As Travis explains it, “The best part is, NOTHING is canon, and EVERYTHING  is canon”.

After the character made its debut as a brief Doctor Who parody on NBC’s Community, the Internet got right to work fleshing out his history and adventures.  A Tumblr feed was quickly created to serve as the main repository of the work, and photos from past episodes were quickly “discovered” and shared.

Travis Richey had a very good time at Gallifrey One, the country’s biggest Doctor Who convention.  At a panel dedicated to Inspector Spacetime, he announced plans to produce an independent web series dedicated to the Infinity Knight and his continuing adventures.

“Tony Lee (writer for IDW’s Doctor Who comic) reached out to me to do a video for Chicago Tardis (the Midwest DW convention) back in November” Travis explains. “I did that, and the greeting went over so well that Tony put me in touch with Shaun (Lyon) who does Gallifrey One.”

The panel was filled with fans and the panel “reminiscing” about their favorite moments of the show, including past Inspectors, and of course, the death of Jeffrey.  “There were jokes people were making that I hadn’t heard, like ‘Horse-Bot 3000’, and I was ‘ Huh? What’s that?’  But I do improv all the time, so I just accepted it, gave it a ‘Yes, and…’ and went with.”  He shouldn’t have been surprised; as is traditional the people starring in the sci-fi show don’t know NEARLY as much about the show as the fans.

What was amazing is that everything they discussed in the panel was all created from whole cloth on sites like the Tumblr blog, in a world wide improv session. Fans across the world agreed which jokes were funnier, went with the stronger material, and the mythos became cohesive amazingly quickly.  “One example of that was the word DARSIT, for the the Inspector’s vehicle,” Travis recalls. “I have to admit, I never really liked it; I thought it was too simple of a joke, from TARDIS.  But someone on the ProBoards came up with BOOTH, and everybody liked it, and not only did the change get made in the “canon”, but they have, I hear, retconned things so that “Darsit” is now an Infinity Knight curse word. And they’ve already started folding Boyish the Extraordinary, our bad guy, into the canon, so by the time we see him, it’ll be his return.”

The ability for fans to so easily collaborate on such a mad undertaking, couldn’t have existed only a few years back.  “It’s really extraordinary. I admit that I saw the potential, but my vision was so far from what actually happened, and how much it means to the fans.  And I think part of it is for fans to be able to actually have a hand in creating something new.  A lot of people don’t have the opportunity to create something new, so to be able to write something on the Internet, or submit a photo to the tumblr blog…it’s an easy way for the fans to be engaged, and I think that’s something that has been lacking. So in that respect, this is something totally new.

Travis saw the potential in the character while he was still filming that first episode.  “I wrote the script [for the web series] with my writing partner after I shot the first episode, but before it even aired.  We knew it was gonna be pretty big” Travis recalls.  “I’m a pretty forward thinker; I’m never happy just waiting for things to happen.  So my thought was, Hey, I’ll write this, and if there’s a second episode, I’ll tell them you should do this for the DVD or for web content.  Especially after the first weekend, when it just EXPLODED, so I knew that it was going to be something the audience wanted.”

“So I wrote this, and I brought it with me when I did my second episode, and the  word on set was ‘We can’t just look at it’. So I went back to my agent and said to submit this, because this is really huge, and we understand the character and the meme, and the world that the fans created’.  And he sent it in, but never got any response, one way or the other.  I certainly didn’t get a ‘no, don’t do this cause we’re doing it’, nor did I get a ‘yes’, or even a ‘Hey, this is good, but no thanks’.”

“But like I said, I’m not a person to wait for things to happen. I did wait, actually – I wasn’t going to anything while they were still working with the character.  As long as they had things to do with Inspector Spacetime, I was just, ‘Let that happen’.  But after the Christmas episode, I knew they were shooting the rest of the season, and they weren’t using me. And then the status of the show coming back at all was in question, and I thought, ‘At the very least, this’ll get some buzz, for Community, at least.  Plus, it was a case of me being prepared to take advantage of opportunities presented to me.”

Considering the reaction that 15 seconds of footage got, it’d seem somewhat surprising they didn’t want to do something more with the character, but Travis has a theory. “I think it’s more just how Hollywood works.  It’s very difficult to get a piece of writing into someone’s hand.  And I’m not sure why that it is, because Star Trek did it.  Some of the best names we know in Sci-Fi today, from Jane Espenson, to Ron Moore to Rene Echevarria , they all got their start because they sent in spec scripts to Star Trek: The Next Generation.  I don’t understand it.”

Like air rushing in to fill a vacuum, fans stepped up and created a full 50 years of history for this character, and hasn’t stopped.  “It was less than two or three weeks to form the basis of it, but over the last few months, it’s just continually been adding and adding and adding. It’s astounding the amount of creativity that exploded over the Internet, base on all of this three-line joke. And it was wonderful to see.  And that’s exactly the kind of person I am – I was a fan, at one point. I wrote Star Trek scripts in my bedroom, I wrote Doctor Who stuff.”

With all that creativity already in place, one has to wonder how much material did Travis plan to cull from the communal pool, and how much would be brand new? “When we started to write the first episode, it was before the fans even knew it existed.  Eric [Loya, Travis’ writing partner on his other video work, including Robot, Ninja and Gay Guy] and I spent hours going through the mythos and creating a rudimentary character bible.  We had to understand how it spoofed Doctor Who.  Cause the Community people didn’t really do anything.  They showed that Blorgons were Daleks, and they showed the red phonebooth. So we had to invent everything else. And then the fans came along and started doing their thing, I was actually involved in some of the fandom  – I was on the ProBoards, talking to people about what was what. “Infinity Knight” was mine and Eric’s invention [compared to the “Space master” term the fans have been using], the name of the home planet is fan-created, like that. What we have in the web-series is, I believe, 100% original.  We invented a new Associate; we’re not going to use Constable Reggie, and we have a new arch-nemesis we invented, Boyish The Extraordinary. We’re making a quick reference to the Circuit-Chaps [the fan-created Cybermen-spoof].  We took out the Blorgon reference in respect to the Community team.”

Science-Fiction shows are well aware of the fannish community, and know when to turn a blind eye to fan-made fiction, and even merchandise.  Travis thinks Community is aware of that as well.  “There are people posting mash-ups that use clips from the show; people are posting actual clips of the show,” Travis notes.  “The merchandise that people produce – not only for Community, but for Inspector Spacetime.  And nobody has told the t-shirt companies that they can’t produce the shirts.  And I want to be clear, we’re not selling [the series]. We’re going to make it, and it’s going to exist for free.  We’re not going to make DVDs, we’re not going to do ads on it on YouTube, nothing like that.”

Sony and NBC did decide that an outside entity producing an Inspector Spacetime series was a bit offsides, and sent Travis a request to shut down.  Luckily Travis had a backup plan just in case someone in the legal field got uppity. “Except for the name ‘Inspector Spacetime’, everything we have in the script is invented by us.  So there’s no reason this can’t get made.  And you can’t copyright a title…and they haven’t trademarked the name; I did a trademark search. Cause I want to be careful.  So hopefully they’ll let this happen. And more hopefully it’ll create some buzz for Community. Cause even though it’s coming back for the rest of the third season, there’s no guarantee it’ll be renewed for a fourth.”  The series will be titled “The Untitled Webseries About A Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel In Time”.  So we’ve got an unofficial adaptation of a parody show that only exists in the mind of its fandom…that sound you hear is reality folding in on itself.

The Kickstarter campaign, which made its $20,000 goal and them some, will cover the cost of the production.  “Frankly, I don’t have the capability to make it look and sound as good as it deserves to,”  says Travis.  “If you look at the stuff I’ve produced so far, it looks…okay, but you can tell that it was made with no budget. But here the writing and the acting is so strong, it really deserves to be be complemented by good equipment; a decent camera, lights and stuff.”  Travis schedule is pretty accelerated. He’d already posted a better-quality animatic of the first episode through the folks at io9, the same episode he did a live read-through of at Gallifrey One.  Principal photography is complete, and Travis is looking for a sound designer now.

NBC has also seen the potential in the character.  It was announced at San Diego that an episode of the new season Community would center around an Inspector Spacetime convention.  And the show (both Community and IS) has one other big fan – Karen Gillan, AKA Amy Pond on Doctor Who.  She’s already gone on record as saying that she’d LOVE to appear on an episode.   The irony is that in the continuity of the show, it’s her on-screen husband that would be a more logical fit.  According to the history, the character Rory Williams (played by Arthur Darvill) is the only one to appear on BOTH shows, moving from Inspector Spacetime to Doctor Who.

It seems that The Inspector’s possibilities are, rightfully, infinite.  It’s not WHERE he’ll pop up next…but WHEN.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnMgJ9FNS1c[/youtube]

Mike Gold: Doctor Who Fans Can Barely Hold It

If you get off on anticipation and you also happen to be a Doctor Who fan, these are amazing times. We-all have so much to get excited about. To wit:

1)   The beginning of the next half-season, which will start in England any day now. The BBC likes to wait until the last minute to make their announcements; the show debuts in the United States, Canada and much of the rest of the world shortly thereafter. As of this writing, the season premiere is not on this Saturday’s schedule, so the August 25th rumor is likely untrue… unless the Pirates of the Caribbean movie presently in the Doctor Who slot is bunkum.

2)   The exiting of the two current companions at the end of the half-season, which may or may not involve killing one or both off.

3)   The Doctor Who Christmas Special, which is likely to be aired on or about December 25th and will feature the introduction of the Doctor’s new companion. The show will also feature the “return” of Richard E. Grant – he voiced the Doctor in the animated “Scream of the Shalka” and joined Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, and Joanna Lumley in Steven Moffat’s debut Who, the satirical “Curse of Fatal Death.

4)   The 50th anniversary of the show’s debut, which happened mere moments after the BBC announced the death of President John F. Kennedy. Talk about your dramatic lead-ins.

As hyped-up as we may be about the first three items on the above list, I’m far more amused by all the folderol around the 50th Anniversary. Writer/producer/showrunner Steven Moffat has been having enormous fun jerking the fans and media around, teasing the hell out of the event and roughly expanding our enthusiasm to apocalyptic proportions. Previous Doctors Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy and David Tennent have all publically committed to return “if asked,” and Christopher Eccleston has actually stopped saying he wouldn’t return under any circumstances, although his work on the next Thor movie might interfere with scheduling. Similarly, John Barrowman’s work on Arrow might mitigate his availability. Colin Baker noted he might have grown, ahem, a bit too big for the part. To me, that sounds like something Moffat can have fun with.

If Moffat is to be believed, there likely will be several or many 50th Anniversary events next year. My question is “will there actually be a regular 50th Anniversary season?” There will be a dramatic made-for-teevee-movie about the creation of the original television show, being produced by Moffat and written by his Sherlock partner Mark Gatiss. There’s quite a feminist hook in this tale, as the show’s original producer, the person who actually got the show on television, was Verity Lambert, one of the very, very few women in such a position at the BBC back in 1963.

Of course, we’ll see all sorts of Doctor Who comics from IDW – we already see all sorts of Doctor Who comics from IDW, including reprints of Dave Gibbons’ beautiful work on the feature – and there will be tons and tons of merchandising and convention thrills. I suspect Community and The Inspector will have something to say about it all as well.

So the rumors will continue to grow in mass, time and space, and the resultant brouhaha will keep the rabble at fever-pitch. Perhaps there will be TARDIS-themed Depends being marketed to those who can’t hold it in.

That’s right, guys. It’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil waiting on shadowy rooftops.

 

Mindy Newell: Butterflies Are Timey-Wimey

Before I get started – or let’s pretend that I have just stopped time – just want to say regarding Martha Thomases’ column of last week:

Shit, Martha, why the fuck didn’t I think of writing that?

•     •     •     •     •

See, about two months ago I hurt my middle finger at work. It got caught between a stretcher and a door. The noted and very adorable Dr. Christopher Doumas used the C-arm to check it out. Nothing was broken – be thankful for small miracles, right? – but there was plenty of soft tissue damage, meaning I bruised the fascia, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Plus broken capillaries and such. Which caused my ahem middle finger to swell up and turn several shades of purple.

But you know how they say that soft tissue damage hurts worse than a broken bone? – well, maybe you don’t, but trust me, they do say that – so believe me when I tell you:

Goddamn, it hurt!

Anyway, I had to write an incident report, which meant I had to go to the boss’s office. The boss is from the Midwest, and, imho, the outfit that owns my ambulatory surgery center reflects that what’s the matter with Kansas? mentality. So I’m sitting there trying to write, which was extremely difficult because said middle finger was on my right hand, and I’m a “righty” – the only thing about me that is.

Just trying to use the keyboard was a pain in the ass – or finger – and I muttered “Fuck, that hurts.”

My what’s the matter with Kansas? boss looked very disturbed. Did she say, “I’m so sorry, Mindy.” Did she say, “Do you want an Advil?” Did she cluck and coo and offer other bromides?

Nope.

She said, “Don’t use that language. It’s not professional.”

I looked at her. I thought are you kidding me?

And I said:

“I’m from New York.”

 

•     •     •     •     •

I will now allow time to resume its normal linear course.

I have always, always loved time-travel stories.

Last night I was watching The Timey-Wimey Of Doctor Who on BBC America when, all of a sudden during a commercial break, I remembered a Silver Age Superboy story in which the Boy of Steel discovers the origin of Cinderella’s glass slipper – all of which inspired me to write about time travel today. Anyway, I was sure the Cinderella story was featured on the cover. But guess what I discovered when doing my due diligence?

The Cinderella thingy was only a “side-trip” in a very famous and critical-to-DC-mythology story written by Robert Bernstein and penciled and inked by George Pepp. The story was “Superboy’s Big Brother” (Superboy #89, June 1961), featuring the introduction of Mon-El – whom I’ve also always loved, but that’s a topic for another day and another column. Leaving Mon-El to hang out at the Kent home with his parents, Clark goes to school ‘cause he has a test he can’t skip. I guess it was an English class, or maybe history, or maybe even creative writing because one of the questions on the test is about the origin of fairy tales and uses the Cinderella story as an example.  Clark remembers meeting the real Cinderella in the past. I guess to jog his memory – although since Superboy has super-memory I don’t know why it needs jogging – he decides to revisit the past to make sure he’s got the details right.

Clark asks permission to get a drink of water. (The teacher says okay, which means allowing him to leave the room during a test. Try doing that these days, kids!) Changing into Superboy, he flies through the time barrier to Egypt, circa 4,000 B.C. He takes a drink of water from the Nile – ‘cause, you know Superboy never tells a lie, and this way he can honestly tell the teacher that he got his drink of water. While getting his allotment of H2O, he sees an eagle steal a sandal from a girl putting a bassinet made from reeds into the Nile. There’s a baby inside. It floats down the Nile to where the Pharaoh’s daughter is bathing. The Pharaoh’s daughter finds the baby in the bassinette, and names him Moses….

Strike that.

Superboy is about to go after the eagle when that super-memory of his is jogged once again, so he does nothing. Instead he watches as the bird drops the sandal in the Pharaoh’s palace. The Pharaoh searches for the woman whose foot fits the sandal. He finds her and makes her his queen. Aha! thinks Superboy. This is the Cinderella story he came back in time to see. Now it’s time to go back to school and finish that test.

So Clark writes up the story, but the teacher says he has no proof, so only gives him an 89. (Guess it wasn’t a creative writing class after all.) And Clark isn’t unhappy, because if he had aced it, the teacher might suspect he’s Superboy because Clark is so smart. (Huh?)

Meanwhile, suspecting that Mon-El is lying about being his brother – um, excuse me, but aren’t you the one who assumed that he was, Clark? – Superboy exposes Mon-El to a meteorite that looks like Kryptonite but is really made of lead.

Oops. Your bad, Superboy.

Mon-El is really Lar Gand, a native of the planet Daxam. And Daxamites can’t handle lead. In fact, it kills them. Like the Roach Motel: once they check in, they don’t check out. Swearing that one day he will find a cure to the fatal lead poisoning, Superboy has no choice but to send Mon-El to the Phantom Zone in order to save his life.

Leading in a timey-winey, butterfly effect way to the other time travel story that added-to-the-DC-mythology big time, the introduction of the Legion of Super-Heroes (Adventure Comics #247, April 1958, by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino). And if I have to recount that story, you shouldn’t call yourself a comics fan! J The Legion traveled through the time barrier by means of a “time bubble,” which maybe was inspired by the bubble in which Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, travels to Oz. Only they don’t ask Superboy if he is a witch. They also don’t think Krypto is a witch.

It was Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super-Heroes who, in “The Secret of the Mystery Legionnaire” revealed that he had discovered a permanent cure for Mon-El. This happened in Adventure Comics #330, March 1962, by Jerry Siegel and John Forte. This is only a year for us poor Earth-Prime Homo sapiens who are cursed to experience time in a this-way-forward linear manner, but it was about twenty centuries as a phantom for poor Lar Gand.

No wonder he went nuts.

TUESDAY MORNING: Emily S. Whitten, Esq

TUESDAY AFTERNOON: Michael Davis, PhD

 

Six Most Important Comics Stories From San Diego Comic-Con

comicmixsix600-550x121-2506163

We’ve all had a chance to recover and step back a bit, and we can now look at what are the most important pure-comics stories out of San Diego Comic-Con. (No, not movies, or movies based on comics, or video games based on comics, those are all for other posts.) So what are the ComicMix Six Comic Stories from Comic-Con International?

1. Neil Gaiman returns to write “Before Sandman”.

Neil Gaiman is returning to his most famous comics creation, The Sandman, one more time, for a prequel miniseries to be released next year to be drawn by J.H. Williams (Promethea, Batwoman). “When I finished writing THE SANDMAN, there was one tale still untold. The story of what had happened to Morpheus to allow him to be so easily captured in THE SANDMAN #1, and why he was returned from far away, exhausted beyond imagining, and dressed for war. It was a story that we discussed telling for SANDMAN’s 20th anniversary… but the time got away from us. And now, with SANDMAN’s 25th anniversary year coming up, I’m delighted, and nervous, that that story is finally going to be told,” said Gaiman.

Get More: MTV Shows

Mike Gold: Creators’ Rights… And A Big Wrong

My original First Comics partner Rick Obadiah, who is not prone to outrage (I took care of that part), sent me an email a couple days ago expressing his pissed-offness at a piece in last Sunday’s New York Times.

For those who don’t have time to click-through, the Times essentially gives credit for the whole creators’ rights movement to Image Comics, now enjoying their 20th anniversary. I have no axe to grind with Image and I don’t think Rick does either; this is another case of typically sloppy reporting from the fantastically over-important New York Times.

In his email, Rick correctly points out that the stuff attributed to Image Comics started with First and with the other so-called independent publishers of the time: Eclipse, Comico, Now, Malibu, and others too numerous to name. I won’t quibble with the definition of “independent” – back in those days the term really meant “not Marvel/DC.” The Comics Buyers Guide even listed Disney Comics as “independent,” and that was the day I stopped using the term.

As I pointed out nearly 30 years ago in the pages of sundry First Comics, the creators’ rights movement on a publishing level started with Denis Kitchen and his fellow “underground comix” providers. The actual creators’ rights movement pretty much started on Day Two of the comic book industry when folks like Will Eisner, Bob Kane, William Moulton Marston and Joe Simon and Jack Kirby negotiated their own deals with the existing publishers and retained certain rights and/or received cover billing and/or creator credit and/or royalties.

But we – First, Eclipse, Comico, Now, Malibu, and the rest – took all that several steps further. Creators received certain ownership rights, cover billing, creator credit and royalties. Perhaps that was tame by today’s standards, but in 1983 this was akin to torching the Great Teat. We paid a price for this: all of those companies are now extinct, although some lasted nearly two decades – a good run in publishing. But we had nothing to take to the bank in terms of actual ownership when times got rough, when distributors went out of business and when investment-mania boiled over.

Once we started offering fair deals, DC and Marvel pretty rapidly started offering some of these rights under certain circumstances. That didn’t make them competitive on the creators’ rights front, but they provided acceptable safe haven to creators when times got rough on the independents front. And that includes me, and I am not ungrateful.

Did Image take this one step further when they went into business a decade later? They goddamn well should have and, yes, of course they did: the company was started by a half-dozen of the top writers and artists in the field. But Image isn’t a publisher in the traditional sense – to its credit, it’s more of a vanity press without the negative connotations of that term.

Image – and Dark Horse and more recently IDW and Dynamite – were built on the shoulders of the founders of First, Eclipse, Comico, Now, Malibu and the rest, and on our investors and our creative talent who took big risks breaking from the clutches of DC and Marvel without any guarantee those doors would reopen for them should the desire arise.

Again, I do not blame Image in the least. I blame the lazy, self-important “journalists” at the New York Times for having a historical point of view that fails to go beyond recently emailed press releases.

Here’s a secret. It is well known that the New York Times has never run comic strips. But this was not because comics were too lowbrow and well beneath their dignity. That was just their typical arrogant posturing. The New York Times didn’t run comic strips back when Pulitzer and Hearst started the medium because they couldn’t afford the fancy color presses. The paper of record, indeed.

THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil and the God Particle

SDCC 2012: Eisner Award Winners 2012

SDCC 2012: Eisner Award Winners 2012

An updated and corrected list — congrats to all the winners.

Best Short Story
“The Seventh,” by Darwyn Cooke, in Richard Stark’s Parker: The Martini Edition(IDW)

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
Daredevil #7, by Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Joe Rivera (Marvel)

Best Continuing Series
Daredevil, by Mark Waid, Marcos Martin, Paolo Rivera, and Joe Rivera (Marvel)

Best Limited Series
Criminal: The Last of the Innocent, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Marvel Icon)

Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 7)
Dragon Puncher Island, by James Kochalka (Top Shelf)

Best Publication for Kids (ages 8–12)
Snarked, by Roger Langridge (kaboom!)

Best Publication for Young Adults (Ages 12–17)
Anya’s Ghost, by Vera Brosgol (First Second)

Best Anthology
Dark Horse Presents, edited by Mike Richardson (Dark Horse)

Best Humor Publication
Milk & Cheese: Dairy Products Gone Bad, by Evan Dorkin (Dark Horse Books)

Best Digital Comic
Battlepug, by Mike Norton, www.battlepug.com

Best Reality-Based Work
Green River Killer: A True Detective Story, by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case (Dark Horse Books)

Best Graphic Album – New
Jim Hensons Tale of Sand, adapted by Ramón K. Pérez (Archaia)

Best Graphic Album – Reprint
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Martini Edition, by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)

Best Archival Collection/Project – Comic Strips
Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse vols. 1-2, by Floyd Gottfredson, edited by David Gerstein and Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)

Best Archival Collection/Project – Comic Books
Walt Simonson’s The Mighty Thor Artist’s Edition (IDW)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material
The Manara Library, vol. 1: Indian Summer and Other Stories, by Milo Manara with Hugo Pratt (Dark Horse Books)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia
Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, by Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Writer
Mark Waid, Irredeemable, Incorruptible (BOOM!); Daredevil (Marvel)

Best Writer/Artist
Craig Thompson, Habibi (Pantheon)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team
Ramón K. Pérez, Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand (Archaia)

Best Cover Artist
Francesco Francavilla, Black Panther (Marvel); Lone Ranger, Lone Ranger/Zorro, Dark Shadows, Warlord of Mars (Dynamite); Archie Meets
Kiss (Archie)

Best Coloring
Laura Allred, iZombie (Vertigo/DC); Madman All-New Giant-Size Super-Ginchy Special (Image)

Best Lettering
Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse)

Best Comics-Related Journalism
The Comics Reporter, produced by Tom Spurgeon, www.comicsreporter.com

Best Educational/Academic Work (tie)
Cartooning: Philosophy & Practice, by Ivan Brunetti (Yale University Press)
Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby, by Charles Hatfield (University Press of Mississippi)

Best Comics-Related Book
MetaMaus, by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon)

Best Publication Design
Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand, designed by Eric Skillman (Archaia)

Hall of Fame

Judges’ Choices: Rudolf Dirks, Harry Lucey
Bill Blackbeard, Richard Corben, Katsuhiro Otomo, Gilbert Shelton

Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award:
Tyler Crook

Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award:
Morrie Turner

Bill Finger Excellence in Comic Book Writing Award:
Frank Doyle, Steve Skeates

Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award:
Akira Comics, Madrid, Spain – Jesus Marugan Escobar and
The Dragon, Guelph, ON, Canada – Jennifer Haines

AIRSHIP 27 ENTERS THE REALM OF LICENSED WORK WITH ‘CAPTAIN ACTION’ PULP NOVEL DEBUT!

CAPTAIN ACTION – PULP HERO!
Airship 27 Productions, one of the premier publishers in the New Pulp movement, and Captain Action Enterprises, licensors of the popular Captain Action toy line, have joined forces to produce the first ever Captain Action pulp novel, “Riddle of the Glowing Men,” by Jim Beard.  The book debuts this Aug. at Pulp Fest in Columbus, Ohio.
“We are tremendously excited to be working with Joe Ahearn and Ed Catto of Captain Action Enterprises,” said Airship 27 Productions’ Managing Editor, Ron Fortier.  “This is the first time we’ve ever put together a title based on a highly popular and successful license.”
Captain Action is based on the action figure created in 1966 by Stan Weston for Ideal Toys. He came equipped with a wardrobe of costumes allowing him to become many different heroes such as Batman, The Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet and many more. In 1967, Captain Action proved so popular that the line was expanded to include a sidekick, Action Boy and a blue skinned alien foe with bug eyes, the nefarious Dr. Evil.  The following year, DC Comics licensed the character from Ideal and published five issues of Captain Action featuring industry luminaries such as Jim Shooter, Wally Wood and Gil Kane.

Since 2005, Captain Action Enterprises, has been producing an array of exciting new collectibles, including statues, toys, comics, trading cards, and apparel.  Still, the one remaining venue the enduring hero had yet to conquer was that of a prose novel.  Enter veteran writer Jim Beard, a life-long fan of the character.  “Jim approached us late last year with this idea for a Captain Action pulp novel,” recalls Catto. “We were immediately intrigued by the possibilities and began seriously exploring the idea.”
It was Beard who then brought Ahearn and Catto to Airship 27 Productions.  “At the time I’d just finished my first book for Airship 27,” Beard elaborates.  “Impressed with their industry leading quality and professionalism, I knew they were the right people to usher Captain Action into the fast-paced world of pulpdom.”

The challenge of doing a licensed property appealed to Fortier and his partner and Art Director, Rob Davis and they signed on.  Their first goal was to assemble the finest art team possible. This was achieved by recruiting the talented cover painter, Nick Runge.  Runge’s work on such IDW titles as Angel & Terminator –Salvation has spotlighted him as being one of the finest new artists in the graphic field today.  Davis himself took on the task of doing the nine interior illustrations while also designing the entire package.

Riddle of the Glowing Men,” is set in the sixties where secret agent, Miles Drake, aka, Captain Action, is attacked at A.C.T.I.O.N. headquarters by several assassins whose green skin glows as if radiated.  In the process of learning the identity of these killers and the reason behind their attack, Captain Action teams with a beautiful female Russian agent and their quest leads them to a hidden civilization under the frozen wasteland of Siberia. “Jim Beard has written a terrific, authentic Captain Action adventure,” applauds Fortier. “It perfectly captures the break-neck speed and thrills of the early pulps only with today’s modern sensibilities. This book is sure to appeal to both Captain Action fans and new pulp enthusiasts alike.”
Joe Ahearn and Ed Catto will be hosting a Captain Action panel at this year’s San Diego Comic Con with further details about other exciting plans for the classic hero.  Artist Nick Runge will also be present at his table in Artist Alley.  Fortier, Davis and Beard will be in attendance at Pulp Fest and will announce the book’s actual publication date.

About Captain Action Enterprises

As Retropreneurs, Captain Action Enterprises, LLC specializes in taking old properties and rejuvenating them for a new generation. Captain Action now appears in an on-going comic book series, lithographs, statues, action figures, T-shirts, model kits and an iPhone app. Additional properties include Lady Action, the Zeroids and Savage Beauty. For additional information, contact ed.catto@bonfireagency.com.


About Airship 27 Productions

Begun in 2004 to produce new novels and anthologies featuring classic, public domain pulp heroes of the 30s and 40s, Airship 27 Productions was one of the major factors behind the pulp renaissance which evolved into the New Pulp Movement.  Today they have over fifty titles in their ever expanding catalog, sell both hard copy and digital versions of their books and will soon be launching audio books of their titles. They can be found at airship27hangar.com