Tagged: Jr.

Archie Unleashes the Fox

Cover: Dean Haspiel
Cover: Darwyn Cooke

Archie Comics has tapped an A-List line up of talent to celebrate the launch of their new Red Circle Comics series, The Fox. Award-winning creators Mark Waid and Dean Haspiel craft the story inside the book, which also includes variant covers by Darwyn Cooke and Fiona Staples.

THE FOX #1
NEW RED CIRCLE SERIES!
From the world of the New Crusaders, comes the FANTASTIC debut of the high-flying FOX! Emmy Award winning writer/artist Dean Haspiel (Billy Dogma, HBO’s Bored to Death) and Eisner Award winning writer Mark Waid (Daredevil, Thrillbent) bring the legendary, pulp-style hero The Fox to life in “Freak Magnet, Part One: The True Face of MyFace”! When photojournalist Paul Patton, Jr. donned a super hero costume,

Cover: Fiona Staples

he thought it would be a quick way to make some news—now the strange and unusual just can’t help but be drawn to the freak-magnetism of the fabulous fighting FOX! While working on a puff-piece at the Red Circle Gazette, an evil truth about social media mogul Lucy Fur is discovered, bringing Paul face-to-face with a criminal kingpin! Get in on the ground floor with the hottest new fall series featuring art and story from the biggest names in comics today! Get freaky!

Plot/Script: Dean Haspiel, Mark Waid
Art: Dean Haspiel, Allen Passalaqua, John Workman
Cover: Dean Haspiel
FREAK MAGNET Variant: Dean Haspiel
Running with the Foxes Variant Cover: Darwyn Cooke

 

High-Flying Variant Cover: Fiona Staples

Cover: Dean Haspiel

Shipping Date: 10/16
On Sale at Comic Specialty Shops:
32-page, full color comic
$2.99 US.

Click on images for a larger view.

Are You Ready for Torahg the Warrior: Sword of Vengeance?

Cover: Terry Pavlet

PRESS RELEASE:

A leader in New Pulp and Genre Fiction, Pro Se Productions announces the debut of a New Pulp Character cast in the grand tradition of sword and sorcery classics! From Author Ralph L. Angelo, Jr. comes TORAHG THE WARRIOR: SWORD OF VENGEANCE!

“Journey with me,” Angelo states, “back to a time unheard of, a land of myth, monsters and magic where a steel muscled warrior must battle against an entire nation to avenge the wrongs done to him as well as to avenge his father’s death! Without a doubt my favorite creation so far, Torahg is destined to take his place alongside classic heroes such as Conan, Tarzan, Kull, John Carter and many more.”

An honored prince stands first in line for the throne of his father, the most powerful King in the world. Young and unaware that the world he knows, his very birthright is about to be snatched from him by murder. In one fateful day, his own brother, in league with a malevolent sorcerer, kills the king. And The Prince, the rightful heir to the kingdom, becomes a wanted fugitive, forced to abandon his life, to exile himself seemingly forever.

Twenty years later, the fugitive returns, no longer the kind hearted youth who watched his father murdered before his very eyes. He walks with the confidence and scars of a hardened warrior, a veteran of many campaigns, and a trained fighter in many forms of combat. With a heart hardened by twenty years as an outlaw across the world, Destiny calls again, driving him to return to the land of his birth. No longer the Heir to the throne, he is instead a man with only one mission. He is TORAHG THE WARRIOR: SWORD OF VENGEANCE!

“TORAHG,” says Tommy Hancock, Editor in Chief and Partner in Pro Se, “is exciting for Pro Se on a couple of levels. First, Ralph’s novel is a great addition to the Pulp fantasy we’ve become known for thanks to Nancy Hansen’s work and it comes from a different angle as well. Also, though, Ralph’s narrative style and presentation overall is unique amongst what Pro Se offers. The story takes the reader and puts them in the flow of the tale actively and allows them to vicariously stand alongside Torahg as he fights his way through his home and his own history.”

Ralph L. Angelo, Jr. is an author who has written for many major motorcycle magazines as well as having written a ‘how to’ instructional book on motorcycling entitled “Help! They’re All Out to Get Me! The Motorcyclists Guide to Surviving the Everyday World.’

His first novel ’Redemption of the Sorcerer’ was recently released. Since then he has written several more novels, including TORAHG for Pro Se as well as the forthcoming Sci-Fi adventure novel ‘The Cagliostro Chronicles’ amongst others.

A young fugitive prince fled the land. Now he returns and he will be forever remembered as TORAHG THE WARRIOR: SWORD OF VENGEANCE! Written by Ralph L. Angelo, Jr., Edited by Nancy Hansen, Cover art by Terry Pavlet, Design and Print Formatting by Sean Ali, Ebook Formatting by Russ Anderson! Fight alongside TORAHG THE WARRIOR in his debut adventure from Pro Se Productions!

In print for$15.00 from Pro Se’s own storeAmazon , and Barnes and Noble.

This New Pulp Sword and Sorcery tale is also available as an Ebook for only $2.99 for your Kindle, on the Nook, and in nearly all available formats at Smashwords.

For interviews, review copies, and information, contact Morgan Minor, Pro Se Director of Corporate Operations, at MorganMinorProSe@yahoo.com.

For more on Pro Se, go to www.prose-press.com

 

Martin Pasko Hates Comic Book Movies

Pasko Art 130627It might surprise you that a writer who spent so much time writing coverage on Warner Bros. film scripts for DC and won an award for an animated TV series about Batman … Hates. Comic. Book. Movies.

Usually. Not always, but most of the time. There’s a reason for that, though.

By virtue of my peculiar set of writing credits, I am a graduate of the Berlitz course in Geek-to-Hollywood translating. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, just make enough bank off it to pay back the student loan.

Ever since comic book artist lizards first started crawling out of the four-color slime and evolving into knuckle-dragging primates with Panaflexes on their shoulders, the meme that comics are little more than frozen movies – when what they more closely resemble is storyboards with half the frames cut out of every scene – has visited a host of unfortunate consequences on the medium we supposedly celebrate here.

For one thing, the intrusion of the Hollywood mentality on mainstream comics often results in exactly the sort of Big Mistake that Hollywood itself makes. (Mistake in the art crime sense, mind you, not the ka-ching, ka-ching sense.)

“Auteurs” we have up the wazoo, but directors who write their own stuff are seldom well-served by their writers. The two disciplines aren’t necessary mutually-reinforcing. And it’s a far rarer creature than we generally assume who can do both well. Which is why I think most talented comic book artists probably should have their typing fingers broken. Not everybody who graduates from UCLA film school is Orson Welles, and not everyone who buys a diploma from Joe Kubert’s school is Frank Miller.

And, to put a metaphor into the Cuisinart and push for “puree,” this epidemic of the sins of one medium being visited on another is a two-way street. You can’t get good movies out of styling or constructing a film as if it were a comic book, though Chthulhu knows Hollywood now seems to be trying to.

The two media aren’t the same. Each has a grammar of its own which is part of its unique appeal. (After too many instances of watching Robert Downey, Jr. debase himself and repudiate his profound talent by playing flying Spam, I hesitate to use the word “charm.”) And if you conflate the two, IMO you dilute the unique appeal of both.

That, uhm, whack Batman TV series in ‘66 not only proved that, but leveraged those differences to create its signature whackness. By “transliterating” — as opposed to adapting — the tropes and conventions of one medium (the “Meanwhile…” V.O.s, the POW!s and the ZAP!s, the “I’m a duly deputized law enforcement officer” even though I look like I just escaped from Liberace’s closet) into a completely different medium, it commented on the absurdity of superheroes from a non-Geek perspective. Which is why Geeks hated it.

No amount of redesigning the Spandex as Tutti-Frutti Kevlar can hide the self-evident fact that any grown-up celebrity-wannbe who goes outside looking like that will do his 15 minutes of fame in Celebrity Rehab. But I preferred the Batman: Animated stuff because it worked in animation: everything was stylized, appropriate to the surreality of it all. You could accept that Batman existed when he stood next to a Commissioner Gordon who looked like an inverted pyramid with eyes, in a suit jacket whose lapels grazed his earlobes. By contrast, Christian Bale’s teeth-gritting just looks silly.

The live-action stuff used to make me giggle. Now, of course, it just pisses me off as much as mainstream comic book pacing does: you can’t figure out WTF is going on in any of these things unless you’ve seen the previous five entries in the series. And date night at the Octoplex still costs more than five “floppies.”

All that said, I eagerly look forward to being dragged to see Sin City: A Dame For Our Rape Culture, secure in the knowledge that I won’t be too pissed off to fall asleep on it. If Frank and Rodriguez light this one the same way they lighted the first one, I won’t be able to see WTF is going on there, either, and won’t have to care.

FRIDAY: Martha Thomases

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman

 

Downey Signed for Avengers 2-3 — What Happens Next?

Iron-Man-II-Tony-StarkTo the surprise of few, Marvel announced on their website today that Robert Downey, Jr. would don the armor at least two more times. What’s interesting is that the two films he signed for are Avengers 2 and Avengers 3, the latter of which has yet to be given a formal green-light or spot on the Disney release schedule.

Downey has been handsomely rewarded for his early participation in the Marvel film universe, earning a reported $50 million for his work in the first Avengers film in addition to his salary from the first three Iron Man movies.

As the Marvel Film Universe continues, Phase 2 is well mapped out and with the claiming of two weekends in 2016 and 2017; Disney is clearly staking their territory for Phase 3. Speculation abounds as to what Phase 3 will be comprised of but with today’s announcement, it is increasingly clear the solo Iron Man series are done for now. Instead, other characters will fill the void with projected second sequels to Captain America, Thor, and one for Guardians of the Galaxy leading the way. Should Edgar Wright’s Ant Man succeed, that too would spawn a sequel. Meantime, an armload of other heroes and heroines are being eyed for the Big Screen.

050412-the-avengersAt present, Marvel has not announced if Black Panther, Doctor Strange, The Inhumans, or Heroes for Hire are being seriously developed or merely teased. No one saw Guardians coming so the possibilities are really limitless.

Add into the mix the recently returned rights to films featuring Blade, Ghost Rider, and Daredevil and Marvel has an embarrassment of riches. All of which leads one to wonder when the saturation point will be felt. That could come as early as next summer when four Marvel films from three studios are released in four months, starting with April’s Captain America: The Winter Solider leading the way, followed by The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Guardians. Sony has also just announced third and fourth installments of the current Spider-Man series of films with several plot threads added in the second film.

It has been speculated that Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD television series may be used as a launching pad for new film properties or television series. While the CW’s Smallville trotted out numerous spin-off possibilities from Aquaman to Booster Gold, none of them succeeded and there’s no guarantee Marvel will be any more successful, even with Joss Whedon’s intimate involvement.

DC Entertainment has finally succeeded with getting their cinematic universe off the ground with the smash success of Man of Steel. While its sequel is being fast-tracked for, most likely, a 2015 release, they’ll be playing catch-up well into the 2020s. By then, though, audiences may have been super-heroed out reminding one that Denny O’Neil always described them as “DC Misses the Boat Comics”.

NEW WESTERN CHARACTERS ADDED TO LINEUP FOR NEW STORIES FOR CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS! OPEN CALL!

Pro Se, a leading independent Publisher specializing in Genre Fiction announced new characters available for use and an open call for stories  in a recently debuted imprint spotlighting the work of Pulp Author  and Pulp Ark 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Charles Boeckman!

 Boeckman, a 92 year old author/world traveler/jazz musician self published SUSPENSE, SUSPICION, & SHOCKERS last year.  Boeckman, with the assistance of his wife, Patti, is in the process of publishing a second collection, SADDLES, SIX GUNS, & SHOOTOUTS.  This collection of 10 stories was written by Boeckman, many of them under the name Charles Beckman,  Jr. and were printed in Pulps such as Western Ace High, Star Western, and others.

Following the first collection, Pro Se annnounced a new imprint entitled CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS… that would feature new stories written by modern authors around characters Boeckman created and that were featured in the first book.  Pro Se announces today that characters featured in Boeckman’s western collection will also be made available to writers for us in the CBP imprint and that an open call is now being made for proposals featuring these characters.

“Charles Boeckman,” Tommy Hancock, Editor in Chief and Partner in Pro Se, states, “is a living legend.  Maybe his name isn’t as hallowed as Dent, Gibson, or others, but when you not only take into account this huge body of work he produced, but also the fact that he worked well into the era of the digest and is still writing today, he has few comparisons.  And then add into that the fact that the man writes westerns as two fisted and hard bitten as his suspense and mystery stories but also very much solidly Western.  There was no way Pro Se could do CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS without including a cast of frontier cowboy types that rode out of his mind and right onto the pulp page.”

Pro Se announces an open call for stories featuring western characters from Boeckman’s collection. Although each individual digest in the line may focus on a different theme or character, they will all appear under the CBP banner, and will feature new stories based on Boeckman’s work.

Charles Boeckman

“This is an open call,” Hancock states, “to any and all writers who might be interested in trying their hand at Charles’ western characters.  The first step in this process will be for interested writers to look over the brief descriptions of the characters provided and email Morgan Minor, our Director of Corporate Operations, at tommyhancockpulp@yahoo.com with any and all they may be interested in.  Based on that interest, story bibles and other information will be sent to interested authors who will then be required to draft a proposal for a story, length being minimum 8,000 words to a full novella length of 30,000.  The proposal must be no more than a page long and, if the writer has never submitted to Pro Se before, a writing sample of at least 3 pages of narrative must be supplied as well. One thing to note, also.  Although these characters were originally created by Mr. Boeckman and  Pro Se will be insuring that they remain true to the source material, we are not wanting any writer to ape or copy Mr. Boeckman’s style.  We will be great stewards of these classic ideas as well as the skills and styles of the modern writers pouring life into them.”

The characters being utilized from Boeckman’s latest collection are-

Art Billow from ‘Bad Man From Boston.’  Crippled Art Billow lied his way into trouble and had to be the hero he’d imagined himself to save townsfolk. Now it’s a year later and he’s returned from the East, no longer a cripple, and ready to enjoy the results of his heroics…if he can keep it up as more trouble descends on his adopted hometown.

Clayton Traveler from ‘The Kid Comes Back.’
Traveler returned and took everything from the man who’d destroyed his family, including the heart of the woman he loved.  She remained with the villain, though, as he was a broken man as Traveler drove cattle to the market.  Now Traveler returns to a town that he essentially owned when he left to either make his name as lord of the realm or die trying to keep alive.

Ollie Downs from ‘Stagecoach to Hell.’  Ollie Downs tried to get out of town before an old enemy came hunting him, but the original story ends with him walking down the street to face his past.  What happens after the former gunman/now barber and resident doctor of the small western town stares down a killer?

Jim Brady from ‘Home is the Killer.’  Jim Brady rode into town a disgruntled veteran looking to take a dead man’s life as his own.  He came out with a wife, children, a spread, and a hero to boot.  Now all he has to do is keep all he has acquired of the life of a man he took a picture from on a battlefield.

Bull Hubler from ‘Bitter Reunion at Rimrock.’ Bull rode into town to help a woman who’d left him for another man, to keep him alive, and uncovered more than either of them bargained for.  Now with his woman returning to him, they have a daughter to raise in the wilds of the West and that is doubly hard for a man of Bull’s temper and reputation.

Ed Brennan from ‘The Devil’s Deadline.’ Surviving the threats of a crooked sheriff and keeping his small frontier newspaper as a result, Ed Brennan continues to fight and write for what is right and just in a town full of cowpokes, outlaws, cattlemen, and misfits.

Steve Kent from ‘Hell’s Cargo’-Steve Kent, expert Riverboat captain, went after the man who’d taken his boat and woman, the man who’d taught him the river, and won.  Now, along with new love Lucy Furman and his Irish engineer, Mike O’Shean, Steve has two options- To continue on the river and save money for his sojourn out west or to strike out into the frontier- Both types of stories will be welcome!

Also, Pro Se is still taking proposals for characters from Boeckman’s mystery/suspense collection, SUSPENSE, SUSPICION, AND SHOCKERS.  The first volume of CBP has debuted, featuring Johnny Nickle.  More Nickle stories are welcome as are any stories on the other characters.  Those characters are as follows-

Detective Mercer Basous from ‘The G-String Corpse’- A homely 1970s New Orleans Detective who knows three things very well- New Orleans, the people that make it up, and how to do his job.

Big Lip from ‘The Last Trumpet’-A piano player on1950s Broadway who solved the murder of his great friend and one of the greatest horn players the world has ever known who moves onto further tales and adventures in a band in a world without The Earl.

Buddy Gardner and Frank Judson from ‘Blind Date’- Frank, a mid 1960s small town reporter, and Buddy, a deputy in the small town with detective skills to spare, find new stories and cases to follow and crack in Kingsbury after their initial tale, where Frank finds a dead woman in his trunk that all evidence said he had an affair with, then murdered, but he’d never met her before.

Lt. Mike O’Shean ( Yes, just like in the Western story) and Lil Brown of the Daily Herald from “I’ll Make The Arrest”-Mike O’Shean, a passionate two fisted cop  of the early 1950s who sinks his teeth into a case and won’t let go, even if it kills him, and Lil Brown, the reporter who knows her job and city better than anyone…and knows O’Shean better than that.   These two are at the beginning of what may be a beautiful relationship if crime and corruption don’t get in the way!

Doc and Sally from ‘A Hot Lick for Doc’-Fresh in 1950s LA from their debut tale, Doc, a washed up clarinet player who found his music again following being involved and solving a murder, and Sally, the recovering heroin addict who accompanied him, would be ready to write new tunes and chop a new life out of whatever life and LA throws at them.

Johnny Nickle from ‘Run, Cat, Run’-A trumpet player who’s claim to fame was having played on a supposedly haunted Jazz Classic that led to him being on the run from a curse and a murderer for years, Johnny Nickle is now back on top in the early 1950s blowing his horn and finding trouble almost everywhere he finds a stage to stand on.

The stories will be set in the periods mentioned for each of the characters.  If a writer wishes to go beyond that period, then that must be clearly mentioned in the proposal.

Deadline for initial proposal submissions on the Western Characters is June 10, 2013.  Proposals for the Mystery/Suspense characters are accepted at any time until a book is filled.  


Other characters from Mr. Boeckman’s many stories may be added to the available list to write from at a later date, Hancock points out, but these are currently the only characters discussed thus far.

For more information on Pro Se Productions, go to www.prosepulp.com. For a copy of SADDLES, SIXGUNS & SHOOTOUTS, go to http://www.amazon.com/Saddles-Guns-Shootouts-Charles-Beckman/dp/1483922103/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368064282&sr=8-1&keywords=saddles%2C+sixguns+%26+shootouts.

 To get a copy of SUSPENSE, SUSPICIONS, AND SHOCKERS go to http://www.amazon.com/Suspense-Suspicion-Shockers-Charles-Boeckman/dp/1479238732/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350269187&sr=1-6.

And for CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS JOHNNY NICKLE, go to http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Boeckman-Presents-Johnny-Nickle/dp/1484894707/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368064399&sr=1-2&keywords=johnny+nickle

NEW CHARACTERS AVAILABLE FOR TALES IN CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS!

Pro Se, a leading independent Publisher specializing in Genre Fiction announced new characters available for use and an open call for stories  in a recently debuted imprint spotlighting the work of Pulp Author  and Pulp Ark 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Charles Boeckman!

 Boeckman, a 92 year old author/world traveler/jazz musician self published SUSPENSE, SUSPICION, & SHOCKERS last year.  Boeckman, with the assistance of his wife, Patti, is in the process of publishing a second collection, SADDLES, SIX GUNS, & SHOOTOUTS.  This collection of 10 stories was written by Boeckman, many of them under the name Charles Beckman,  Jr. and were printed in Pulps such as Western Ace High, Star Western, and others.

Following the first collection, Pro Se annnounced a new imprint entitled CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS… that would feature new stories written by modern authors around characters Boeckman created and that were featured in the first book.  Pro Se announces today that characters featured in Boeckman’s western collection will also be made available to writers for us in the CBP imprint and that an open call is now being made for proposals featuring these characters.

“Charles Boeckman,” Tommy Hancock, Editor in Chief and Partner in Pro Se, states, “is a living legend.  Maybe his name isn’t as hallowed as Dent, Gibson, or others, but when you not only take into account this huge body of work he produced, but also the fact that he worked well into the era of the digest and is still writing today, he has few comparisons.  And then add into that the fact that the man writes westerns as two fisted and hard bitten as his suspense and mystery stories but also very much solidly Western.  There was no way Pro Se could do CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS without including a cast of frontier cowboy types that rode out of his mind and right onto the pulp page.”

Pro Se announces an open call for stories featuring western characters from Boeckman’s collection. Although each individual digest in the line may focus on a different theme or character, they will all appear under the CBP banner, and will feature new stories based on Boeckman’s work.

Charles Boeckman

“This is an open call,” Hancock states, “to any and all writers who might be interested in trying their hand at Charles’ western characters.  The first step in this process will be for interested writers to look over the brief descriptions of the characters provided and email Morgan Minor, our Director of Corporate Operations, at tommyhancockpulp@yahoo.com with any and all they may be interested in.  Based on that interest, story bibles and other information will be sent to interested authors who will then be required to draft a proposal for a story, length being minimum 8,000 words to a full novella length of 30,000.  The proposal must be no more than a page long and, if the writer has never submitted to Pro Se before, a writing sample of at least 3 pages of narrative must be supplied as well. One thing to note, also.  Although these characters were originally created by Mr. Boeckman and  Pro Se will be insuring that they remain true to the source material, we are not wanting any writer to ape or copy Mr. Boeckman’s style.  We will be great stewards of these classic ideas as well as the skills and styles of the modern writers pouring life into them.”

The characters being utilized from Boeckman’s latest collection are-

Art Billow from ‘Bad Man From Boston.’  Crippled Art Billow lied his way into trouble and had to be the hero he’d imagined himself to save townsfolk. Now it’s a year later and he’s returned from the East, no longer a cripple, and ready to enjoy the results of his heroics…if he can keep it up as more trouble descends on his adopted hometown.

Clayton Traveler from ‘The Kid Comes Back.’
Traveler returned and took everything from the man who’d destroyed his family, including the heart of the woman he loved.  She remained with the villain, though, as he was a broken man as Traveler drove cattle to the market.  Now Traveler returns to a town that he essentially owned when he left to either make his name as lord of the realm or die trying to keep alive.

Ollie Downs from ‘Stagecoach to Hell.’  Ollie Downs tried to get out of town before an old enemy came hunting him, but the original story ends with him walking down the street to face his past.  What happens after the former gunman/now barber and resident doctor of the small western town stares down a killer?

Jim Brady from ‘Home is the Killer.’  Jim Brady rode into town a disgruntled veteran looking to take a dead man’s life as his own.  He came out with a wife, children, a spread, and a hero to boot.  Now all he has to do is keep all he has acquired of the life of a man he took a picture from on a battlefield.

Bull Hubler from ‘Bitter Reunion at Rimrock.’ Bull rode into town to help a woman who’d left him for another man, to keep him alive, and uncovered more than either of them bargained for.  Now with his woman returning to him, they have a daughter to raise in the wilds of the West and that is doubly hard for a man of Bull’s temper and reputation.

Ed Brennan from ‘The Devil’s Deadline.’ Surviving the threats of a crooked sheriff and keeping his small frontier newspaper as a result, Ed Brennan continues to fight and write for what is right and just in a town full of cowpokes, outlaws, cattlemen, and misfits.

Steve Kent from ‘Hell’s Cargo’-Steve Kent, expert Riverboat captain, went after the man who’d taken his boat and woman, the man who’d taught him the river, and won.  Now, along with new love Lucy Furman and his Irish engineer, Mike O’Shean, Steve has two options- To continue on the river and save money for his sojourn out west or to strike out into the frontier- Both types of stories will be welcome!

Also, Pro Se is still taking proposals for characters from Boeckman’s mystery/suspense collection, SUSPENSE, SUSPICION, AND SHOCKERS.  The first volume of CBP has debuted, featuring Johnny Nickle.  More Nickle stories are welcome as are any stories on the other characters.  Those characters are as follows-

Detective Mercer Basous from ‘The G-String Corpse’- A homely 1970s New Orleans Detective who knows three things very well- New Orleans, the people that make it up, and how to do his job.

Big Lip from ‘The Last Trumpet’-A piano player on1950s Broadway who solved the murder of his great friend and one of the greatest horn players the world has ever known who moves onto further tales and adventures in a band in a world without The Earl.

Buddy Gardner and Frank Judson from ‘Blind Date’- Frank, a mid 1960s small town reporter, and Buddy, a deputy in the small town with detective skills to spare, find new stories and cases to follow and crack in Kingsbury after their initial tale, where Frank finds a dead woman in his trunk that all evidence said he had an affair with, then murdered, but he’d never met her before.

Lt. Mike O’Shean ( Yes, just like in the Western story) and Lil Brown of the Daily Herald from “I’ll Make The Arrest”-Mike O’Shean, a passionate two fisted cop  of the early 1950s who sinks his teeth into a case and won’t let go, even if it kills him, and Lil Brown, the reporter who knows her job and city better than anyone…and knows O’Shean better than that.   These two are at the beginning of what may be a beautiful relationship if crime and corruption don’t get in the way!

Doc and Sally from ‘A Hot Lick for Doc’-Fresh in 1950s LA from their debut tale, Doc, a washed up clarinet player who found his music again following being involved and solving a murder, and Sally, the recovering heroin addict who accompanied him, would be ready to write new tunes and chop a new life out of whatever life and LA throws at them.

Johnny Nickle from ‘Run, Cat, Run’-A trumpet player who’s claim to fame was having played on a supposedly haunted Jazz Classic that led to him being on the run from a curse and a murderer for years, Johnny Nickle is now back on top in the early 1950s blowing his horn and finding trouble almost everywhere he finds a stage to stand on.

The stories will be set in the periods mentioned for each of the characters.  If a writer wishes to go beyond that period, then that must be clearly mentioned in the proposal.

Deadline for initial proposal submissions on the Western Characters is June 10, 2013.  Proposals for the Mystery/Suspense characters are accepted at any time until a book is filled.  


Other characters from Mr. Boeckman’s many stories may be added to the available list to write from at a later date, Hancock points out, but these are currently the only characters discussed thus far.

For more information on Pro Se Productions, go to www.prosepulp.com. For a copy of SADDLES, SIXGUNS & SHOOTOUTS, go to http://www.amazon.com/Saddles-Guns-Shootouts-Charles-Beckman/dp/1483922103/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368064282&sr=8-1&keywords=saddles%2C+sixguns+%26+shootouts.

 To get a copy of SUSPENSE, SUSPICIONS, AND SHOCKERS go to http://www.amazon.com/Suspense-Suspicion-Shockers-Charles-Boeckman/dp/1479238732/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350269187&sr=1-6.

And for CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS JOHNNY NICKLE, go to http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Boeckman-Presents-Johnny-Nickle/dp/1484894707/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368064399&sr=1-2&keywords=johnny+nickle

Doc Savage: His Revised Apocalyptic Life

Not actual cover

Meteor House is proud to announce a new edition of Philip José Farmer’s landmark biography, Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, is now available for preorder and will be available in July 2013 with a cover by Doc Savage cover artist Joe DeVito!

PRESS RELEASE:

Back in print for the first time in over 30 years, Philip José Farmer’s biography of the bronze crusader who fought almost 200 separate battles against the forces of evil “is ingenious, sardonic, adulatory, outrageous and funny in turn.” (Publisher’s Weekly)

Philip José Farmer, biographer of Lord Greystoke, has turned his superb research and narrative skills to one of the greatest heroes of our time: Doc Savage, the bronze champion of justice. Now, at last, the incredible life story of the real man behind the exploits in the Doc Savage pulp novels can be told, including: his true name (Dr. James Clarke Wildman, Jr.); his family background, covering his relationship to such stalwarts as Lord Greystoke, Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, James Bond, and Fu Manchu); detailed information on some of his most devilish opponents—John Sunlight, the Mystic Mullah, and Mr. Wail; a summation of some of Doc’s most amazing inventions; and biographies of the Fabulous Five—Monk, Ham, Renny, Long Tom, and Johnny—as well as the group’s Lady Auxiliary and Bronze Knockout, Doc’s own cousin Pat Savage!

Together with other data and brilliant deductions, Philip José Farmer offers an amazing account of this remarkable man’s astonishing career!

Available now for preorder, the newly revised edition of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life also features a brand new foreword by Farmer and pulp expert Win Scott Eckert, updates to the “List of Doc Savage Stories” including the latest novels, and rare material culled from Mr. Farmer’s notes.

The deluxe hardcover edition arrives just in time for Doc’s 80th anniversary, and features tributes by other Farmer and Doc experts, including John Allen Small, Keith Howell, Rick Lai, Art Sippo, Christopher Paul Carey, and current Doc Savage writer Will Murray, as well as other bonus materials not seen in prior editions, such as:

Doc’s Coat of Arms, reconstructed by Win Scott Eckert and illustrated by Keith Howell, from notes by Philip José Farmer. A List of Doc Savage Comics by Win Scott Eckert and John Allen Small (a rundown of authorized Doc Savage comics which supplements Mr. Farmer’s “List of Doc Savage Stories”)
Writing Doc’s Biography by Philip José Farmer.

“Written with wit and charm, sprinkled with allusions, this is a book to delight both science fiction and mystery fans.” (Library Journal)

If you want a signed copy, be sure to read this:

All copies preordered by June 30th, 2013 will be signed by Win Scott Eckert at FarmerCon VIII / Pulpfest 2013. In addition, Meteor House will try to organize a signing by the bonus material contributors (John Allen Small, Keith Howell, Rick Lai, Art Sippo, Christopher Paul Carey, and Will Murray), who are available at FarmerCon VIII / Pulpfest 2013. (Hint: almost all of them are sure to be there!)

After FarmerCon VIII only unsigned copies of the book will be available to purchase.

THE WHITE SAVAGE COMES TO ALTUS PRESS

Altus Press announced another new release today.

The White Savage: The Complete Tales of Matalaa

by E. Hoffmann Price
introduction by Will Murray

The Jungle Lord… of the South Pacific? Thrill to the adventures of Warren Steele, Jr., the only survivor of a South Seas shipwreck who was raised by a witch doctor to battle evil.

Written by pulp master E. Hoffmann Price, this series has never been properly reprinted, until now.

368 pages, approx. 6″x9″

Learn more about The White Savage: The Complete Tales of Matalaa here.

Emily S. Whitten: The Little Things

Whitten Art 130409I love tiny things. Love them. Tiny things, filled with tiny details. This is why, somewhere in my closet, I have a box of random tiny dollhouse items that I’ve bought in various places or made myself, despite not ever having owned a dollhouse or the dolls that would accompany it. (My dolls were either baby-sized or tiny. Polly Pocket, anyone?) I have tiny newspapers and books that open; tiny jars of fake Necco Wafers and peppermint sticks; tiny wrapped “Christmas presents;” tiny forks and knives and mugs…I can’t resist them, because they’re just so intricate and cute. And tiny!

It’s also why I own and dote on a tiny Chinese dwarf hamster. Well, okay, so I’ve had bigger pets, too, but anyone who reads Twitter knows Bitty Miss Izzy is like my spirit animal or something, and I am perpetually unable to get over how tiny and cute she and her little paws and little nose and little ears are, which is why I am always photographing and filming her.

It’s also why, in my “spare time,” (haha) I sometimes make tiny models of geektastic things, like a tiny Tenth Doctor (Who) and TARDIS, or a tiny little Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon, or a tiny batch of lembas bread or tiny Rorschach accessories. And, of course, a tiny “Scary Trousers” Neil (Gaiman), based on the drawing of the same name, because who doesn’t need one of those? (Though that one now resides with the real Neil Gaiman, unless he’s given it away or something.)

Aside from the general cuteness of tiny things, I think a main reason I like them is because of the astounding amount of detail that they frequently manage to include, despite size; and as a geek, I’m more than a little inclined to obsess over detail, and particularly the (haha) tiniest details. I like intricacy. And let’s be honest here – I’m not alone. Most geeks are a bit detail-obsessed. Whether it’s every detail of a beloved character’s fictional life or a beloved fictional world, or every detail of a replica convention costume or collectible item, or every detail of minutia about the real-life production process of a favorite show, or trilogy, or what-have-you, we geeks are all about the details.

And being a geek, you know what I really find fascinating? When geekness combines with detailed tininess and produces amazing, awesome, and sometimes useful things. Here are some of my favorites this week:

Via the wonder of 3-D printing (how much do I want a 3-D printer and a 3-D printing pen? So much) I give you: tiny Winterfell.

] from the beautiful, amazing Game of Thrones opening credits. Look at it! Look!! It’s made of plastic and preciousness and precision. It’s under 10 square inches! I want one. (I also adore the entirety of the opening credit of that show, which feature a clockwork map of the story’s locations that is so tiny and intricate and beautiful and clever that it won an Emmy. You can read a cool piece about how the credits are done here.)

But lest you think that 10 square inches is anything special, there’s also this 3-D printed Wing Commander spaceship that is the diameter of a human hair. (Also, did you know there was a Wing Commander movie starring Freddie Prinze, Jr.? I didn’t! Apparently it was terrible.) A human hair! That’s almost too ridiculously tiny to be real, and yet, there it is, in incredible detail, just ready to be accidentally snorted up someone’s nose while they’re eyeing it up close. It’s adorbs, and I want one, even if I’d lose it immediately. I also see great promise for a nano-printer, in that it could conceivably be used to produce tiny bits for a myriad of helpful scientific or medical things, or even to produce an incredibly tiny Iron Man. You know which one I’d use it for first.

Speaking of robotics, how about this little Festo BionicOpter? Granted, it’s not quite as cute or small as a tiny Winterfell or Wing Commander plane, but it does have the benefit of being potentially a bit more useful. It’s an arm-sized quadcopter that “looks and moves like a dragonfly,” and “despite its complexity, the highly integrated system can be operated easily and intuitively via a smartphone.” Wow. I’m kind of in awe. Watch the video; it’s pretty cool. It also makes me wonder how long it’s going to take Festo (or other quadcopter folks) to make even smaller quadcopters. (Or, in a more sinister vein than the dreamy music of the BionicOpter video would have us thinking, how long until we’re going to be seeing things like the heat-sensing, eye-scanning electric shock spider robots of Minority Report? Eep!)

Despite the possible sinister applications of making technological things smaller (and that sort of thing has been around for years in the spy world, where we have things like the key ring spy camera and the DocuPen scanner, I think the current possibilities of the technology that allows things like the above to be made tiny and real is pretty amazing, and am curious to see what the miniaturization geniuses will come up with next.

Also, I think it’s amusing that we live in an age where miniaturization can also be used for practical jokes. I’m ordering my Micro Spy Remote as we speak. So don’t be too distressed if your TV mysteriously starts changing channels on its own next time I come to visit; and until next week, Servo Lectio!

TUESDAY AFTERNOON: Michael Davis

THURSDAY MORNING: Dennis O’Neil

 

PRO SE ANNOUNCES SUBMISSION INFORMATION FOR 2013 AND BEYOND!

Pro Se Productions, a leader in Genre and New Pulp Fiction, announces today that as of April 1, 2013, no further unsolicited novel or collection submissions will be set for publication in 2013. 
“The reason is,” Tommy Hancock, Partner in and Editor in Chief of Pro Se Productions explained, “we simply have more than enough Genre goodness scheduled to come out this year.  Pro Se has truly become a force as an independent press and a large part of that has to do with the writers and staff that have already had work published and/or developed with Pro Se.     The quality of work that Pro Se puts out has brought an unprecedented amount of submissions to our door, many of those from authors, both established and new, who know of Pro Se’s reputation and want their work with us.  We definitely want the best in Genre Fiction under our banner as well, but there comes a point to where you have to be fair to everyone involved, including the company itself.  So, Pro Se is not closing submissions, but we are not scheduling any other unsolicited works for publication in 2013.”
“As for 2014,” Hancock stated, “that calendar is filling up quickly as well, both with new works as well as follow up novels to existing Pro Se material.   We intend to publish an unprecedented amount of books this year, but do not intend to repeat that next year necessarily.  So, although space is open for 2014, we also already have books on our 2015 schedule as well.”
Hancock states that this is not a typical closing of submissions.  “We’ve had a lot of inquiries,” he stated, “as many as two a week in the last two months.  And it’s simply come up that we feel it necessary to establish that although we’re very much interested in reviewing your novel or collection for publication with Pro Se, we also have to be honest and up front about when your book will likely see print.”
Any projects accepted prior to April 1, 2013, Hancock stated, are still scheduled for dates provided in private correspondence, if such dates have been set.  This announcement does not affect any project that has been accepted by Pro Se prior to April 1, 2013.
Hancock also emphasized that this does not include stories for the now quarterly PRO SE PRESENTS Magazine.  “You can send in stories if you’re seeking publication in the magazine and they will, upon acceptance, be send to Lee Houston, Jr., the managing editor of the magazine, and then scheduled for inclusion.”
“This also,” Hancock maintained, “does not include calls for submissions made by Pro Se for anthologies or future works.   If we put out the call, most definitely we seek submissions for that specific work.”
All submissions as of April 1, 2013 will need to be sent to Morgan Minor, Director of Corporate Operations for Pro Se at Tommyhancockpulp@yahoo.com.  Morgan then will start each proposal/manuscript through the submission process within Pro Se.
Pro Se reminds all potential authors that submission standards are as follows-
Story must be Pulp in Style, regardless of Genre
Single Spaced, Double Between Paragraphs
Times New Roman, 12 point type
No paragraph indentions
Five Asterisks (*****) between scene breaks
Submissions must include Name, Contact information, and Word Count.
For any questions concerning submissions, please email Morgan Minor at Tommyhancockpulp@yahoo.com.