Tagged: Look

Snow White and the Huntsman News and Notes

With Snow White and the Huntsman about to be released on home video, Universal Pictures has released a variety of short news items. While awaiting the disc and the confirmation of the sequel’s content, check this out:

Snow White & the Huntsman Magic Mirror Takeovers

Approximately 165 bars and restaurants in seven cities will transform their restroom mirrors to offer personal photo opportunities for patrons to emulate either Queen Ravenna or The Huntsman via specially designed window clings of the characters.  Just position yourself within the image and snap a photo to upload to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and share with friends and fans.  Look for the “Queens” or “Huntsman” restroom door signs at locations in Atlanta, Boston, Philly, Chicago, NYC, Los Angeles and San Fran from Sept 5 – 12.

Free ‘Queen Ravenna Red’ Nail Changes at Participating Nail Salons

Twenty participating nail salons around the country will offer FREE “Queen Ravenna Red” polish changes and a keepsake mirrored key chain to the first 50 patrons to make an appointment from Sept 4 – 14 at locations in Detroit, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Orange County, Chicago, Tampa, Cleveland, St. Louis, Boston, Minneapolis, Denver, Houston, San Diego, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York, San Fran, Washington, Philly. Look for the special flyers distributed at malls and bring your friends, post your new look and enjoy watching sneak peek clips from the upcoming “Snow White & the Huntsman” Blu-ray/DVD.

Kelly’s Coffee & Fudge Shops Celebrate Snow White & the Huntsman

Thirteen participating Kelly’s Coffee & Fudge shops in the SoCal area will feature specially-created ‘Snow White & the Huntsman’ candied apples along with complimentary promotional items from Sept 7 through October 7. And don’t forget, an exclusive game code to play the online game “Conquer the Kingdom” is contained on signature coffee cup sleeves while supplies last.  Look for store posters and tags for more information about the game and a chance to win daily prizes and qualify to win a grand prize free trip to Ireland.

Snow White & the Huntsman Conquer the Kingdom Game

Launched online Aug. 29 the Conquer the Kingdom game allows fans to uncover “spell codes” by participating in various Snow White & the Huntsman activities, both online and offline.  Fans submit their “spell codes” to the Mirror (for a chance to win prizes throughout the promotion, accumulating multiple entries for the chance to win the Grand Prize.

The Conquer the Kingdom website is the main hub for activation.  It will feature four challenges, each with a unique environment based on locations in the film.  By playing the various challenges, consumers earn “spell codes” to submit to the Mirror. The website will also feature videos to watch to as an incentive to earn additional “spell codes”.

Snow White & the Huntsman Collector’s Bags at Comic Book Stores

Over 125 comic book stores around the country are distributing over 120,000 colorful limited edition Snow White & the Huntsman bags and promo items from Sept 6 – Oct 6 and offering exclusive game codes to visitors to play “Conquer the Kingdom” for a chance to win daily prizes and qualify for the grand prize trip to Ireland.

Snow White & the Huntsman Gameplay Tour at Simon Malls Properties

Over fourteen Simon Malls locations are hosting Gameplay, the interactive gaming tour that connects fans of all ages to the hottest video games before they are officially launched and available in stores. From Aug 7 – Oct 3, visitors can get an advance look at the upcoming Blu-ray/DVD release of Snow White & the Huntsman and play the popular online games created for the release.  In addition as an exclusive for the malls, an exclusive game code will be given to participants to play the new online game “Conquer the Kingdom” to win daily prizes and qualify to win a grand prize free trip to Ireland.

Stating the Obvious

Cover of "The Hunger Games"

This story is a week old, but I neglected to mention it when it hit: Amazon declares that Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” trilogy is the highest-selling series ever for them in the US.

This does not mean that Collins’s books have sold more copies overall than, for example, J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series, which was the prior record-holder. And it doesn’t mean any of the things implied in Sara Nelson’s self-lauding statement at the link.

What it means — and what everyone who works in publishing already knows, but doesn’t usually like to say in public — is that Amazon is capturing an ever-larger share of the book business, which means that they sell a larger percent of books now than they did ten years ago — so of course the big sellers now are bigger for Amazon than the big sellers were ten years ago. (Look for a similar statement about those “Fifty Shades of Grey” books in another year, especially if a movie does get made.)

This is good if you think that a single retailer should dominate the entire retail landscape for a particular kind of product. If you don’t think that’s such a good thing, your mileage may vary.

But what the statement really is saying is “we own the book market now, suckers.” So you might as well learn to love Big Brother.

Martha Thomases: Superman, Wonder Woman, and Sex

According to Entertainment Weekly, we are about to see a romance between Superman and Wonder Woman. According to the illustration on the site, it looks to be an “adult” relationship.

In some ways, this is genius. DC won’t have to field questions about the Larry Niven issue, since Wonder Woman is invulnerable. Although I’ve always thought Niven’s premise is flawed. There are no holes in the Kent’s farmhouse from Clark’s wet dreams or wank sessions. Or from him spitting.

And, in the current continuity, Superman and Wonder Woman are both the (mostly) sole survivors of lost civilizations. They share outsider status.

In some ways, it’s just another stunt. Look, two of our flagship characters are having sex with each other! No Lois Lane! No Steve Trevor! This is not your father’s DC Comics!

(How desperate is that, since that ad campaign was aimed at your father when he was your age?)

I’ll be interested to see how they do this. The new Superman hasn’t particularly defined himself to me, at least not out of Grant Morrison’s Action Comics stories, which are supposed to be five or so years in the past. I find Wonder Woman a better-drawn character. So much better, in fact, that I can’t imagine how they will write her in a sexual relationship. With Superman.

I’ll be interested, but I expect to be appalled. Sex in mainstream comics is, for the most part, handled very poorly. It’s all about tits and ass, which are among my favorite body parts, but not all there is to sex. However, fighting and rescuing people and standing around talking in mainstream comics are also all about tits and ass.

There is also a really smarmy air to most adult relationships in comics. It is as if sex is such a rare thing that only really cool people can have it. Maybe this was true in high school, but it’s not true for real grown-ups. Grown-ups have sex on a regular basis, most often with someone they like.

In comics, sex is unusual and awesome. One cannot have a conversation of any kind with a sex-partner without referring to sex, whether that conversation is in the office, at breakfast, or in a fight with aliens. I felt like that when I first had sex (in medieval times). It seemed like an amazing secret among me and the people I slept with, like we were in the world’s greatest VIP section. But then I got over myself, and realized that millions of people are having sex at any given moment. It’s one of the things that makes us humans, or at least mammals.

True, not all of them can fly. Maybe that will make the difference.

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman Lightens Up On Wizard World

 

Mindy Newell: A World Of Pure Imagination

Charlie Bucket lived with his mom and his grandparents in a dirty, downtrodden industrial city that used to be a thriving center of commerce, with factories making cars and furniture and steel and zippers and paper clips. The citizens of the city were happy to work in the factories, because they were well-paid and had wonderful benefits thanks to their unions, and all their kids were able to go to college because of the money they were able to save and the national student loan program. But then all the factories moved to China and Vietnam and India and Malaysia because the CEOs of the companies who owned the factories needed more money for more corporate jets and limousines and private islands and new mansions with elevators for their cars, and the people in China and Vietnam and India and Malaysia didn’t have unions that forced the CEOs to give wonderful wages and pesky pensions and hardy health insurance to their slaves…uh, I mean, employees.

So all the factories in Charlie’s city closed – except for one, Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Charlie’s father died because he didn’t have health insurance, and Charlie and his mom got kicked out of their 3 BR, 2 BATH, RMS W/VU apartment overlooking the harbor because the Social Security money which they depended on had been privatized, and when the market crashed, there went the monthly checks for Mrs. Bucket and Charlie. They had to move to a little, tiny house that was really too small for the two of them, and then Mr. and Mrs. Bucket’s parents came to live with them because their homes were foreclosed after the mortgage securities crisis, so things were really crowded in the little house.

Charlie tried to help out by delivering newspapers, which is how the family found out that Mr. Willy Wonka, sole owner and proprietor of the one factory left in town, had hidden five Golden Tickets in the wrappings of his Wonka Bars. The five people who found the Golden Tickets would not only win a lifetime supply of Willy Wonka chocolate, but also be taken on a private tour of the factory.

Four of the tickets are bought and found by Klaus Rave, a man who looks just like the chief pig in Animal Farm; twin brothers named Donny and Cain Coke, who are very rich and give money to philanthropic organizations like Success For All Amerikans and The Birthright Society; Alice Coltrane, a girl with a sassy, big mouth known for making hilarious barbs; and a boy named Pablo Rico, who saved up all his Social Security money after his father died and used it to go to college. But he doesn’t like women too much.

There’s only one ticket left, and Charlie is sure he is going to find it. But then it is announced that an eccentric millionaire who claims to wear magic underwear bought the final ticket. His name is Mingus Wilbur Rosary.

So Charlie is among all the other onlookers as Klaus and Donny and Cain and Alice and Pablo are greeted by Willy Wonka and led inside the magical, wonderful, chocolate factory.

Inside Willy Wonka has them all sign a contract before the tour can begin. There is lots of small print on it, and everybody grumbles, but they all sign it, because Klaus and Donny and Cain and Alice and Pablo and the eccentric millionaire whose name is Mingus Wilbur Rosary really want to get inside and look around.

The factor is full of mind-blowing, mouth-watering, stomach-rumbling marvels like a real chocolate river, tasty flowers and mushrooms, and even delicious wallpaper. Wonka’s workers – considered the luckiest people in town, not only because they have a good job with benefits and a guaranteed pension, but also because they work for Willy Wonka – are all hard at worker. Willie Wonka warns his guests not to touch anything unless he says it’s okay, but Klaus and Donny and Cain and Alice and Pablo and the eccentric millionaire whose name is Mingus Wilbur Rosary ignore him, and one by one, they disappear.

Klaus gets sucked into the chocolate works, after falling into the chocolate river from which he was trying to drink. Donny turns into a giant blueberry after chewing on a piece of Three-Course Dinner Gum, which was still in the experimental stages. Cain falls down a garbage chute that is for the “bad eggs” in the Chocolate Golden Egg Sorting room. Alice opens her big mouth and makes some sassy barbs about Wonkavision television, and finds herself stuck in a TV land where there are no commercial breaks and she can’t go to the bathroom.

The eccentric millionaire whose name is Mingus Wilbur Rosary sneaks into the Bubble Room and tastes the Fizzy Lifting Drinks. He starts to float up, up, up, and is nearly whisked into an exhaust fan on the ceiling. But he starts burping to let out the fizz and floats back down to the floor.

The tour is over. Willy Wonka says goodbye to the eccentric millionaire whose name is Mingus Wilbur Rosary, but before he can leave, the eccentric millionaire whose name is Mingus Wilbur Rosary demands his lifetime supply of chocolate. But Willy Wonka tells him he has violated the terms of the contract by tasting the Fizzy Lifting Drinks, and snaps out the signed contract to emphasize this.

But suddenly the eccentric millionaire whose name is Mingus Wilbur Rosary pulled his own contract out of his magic underwear and flaunts it in Willy Wonka’s face. He revealed that Klaus, Donny, Cain, and Alice are all actually employees of the eccentric millionaire whose name is Mingus Wilbur Rosary, and they have actually worked together, through the lawyers of the Success For Amerikans Organization and The Birthright Society, to have become the primary shareholders of the Chocolate Factory, with the eccentric millionaire whose name is Mingus Wilbur Rosary as Chairman, President, and CEO.

“We are moving the Chocolate Factory to China, Vietnam, India, and Malaysia,” said the eccentric Chairman, President, and CEO of the Chocolate Factory whose name is Mingus Wilbur Rosary.

“You can’t do this!” said Willie Wonka.

“I can, and it’s already done. Look around, Mr. Wonka.

Willy Wonka looked around. All his workers were gone, and men in black suits and dark sunglasses were supervising other men in overalls as they took down and broke apart the Chocolate Factory.

“And you, Mr. Willy Wonka, are out of a job.”

Artwork courtesy of The Daily Share.

TUESDAY MORNING: Emily S. Whitten

 

JOHN OSTRANDER: Written Connections

idea

idea (Photo credit: Tony Dowler)

Writing can be fun. Most of the time. Even writing for profit. Or writing for fun like I do here.

And some days, it’s not. You sit down with the best intentions and nothing happens or nothing good. Like this time. I’m in a bad mood, my cats are nagging me, I feel tired and everything I write seems like crap and probably is. However, the column is due and I’d better not go back to Casablanca again. I told Mike I wouldn’t.

So I’m doing what I usually do. Sit down and type stuff and see if there’s anything useful in it.

I’m betting that, on some level, you know what I’m talking about. Doesn’t matter if it’s about writing. You’re trying to get something done and, for whatever reason, it’s just not working. It could be work, it could be a relationship, it could be just trying to fix something around the house – whatever, the fates are not aligned and it just doesn’t work and it’s frustrating as hell, isn’t it? We all know that feeling.

That’s what makes storytelling work, I think. We may not all have the exact same experiences but we know the feelings that come out of those experiences. Do I have to kill someone in order to know how a murderer might feel? Of course not. What I have to find in myself is how the murderer might feel in this given situation. Have you ever killed a fly? How did you feel about it? Most of us would feel nothing or might feel a bit of triumph or glee. It’s a pest that annoys you or it might be a threat that will bring some illness or lay eggs in your hamburger. (One of the reasons My Mary hates flies; that happened.) Different folks, different motivations.

Maybe that’s how the murderer feels about taking a human life. On the other hand, have you ever said or done something that you instantly regretted and knew you couldn’t take back? Hurt someone, perhaps ended a relationship beyond all possibility of revival? Maybe your murderer feels something like that.

As I write, I have to figure out what the character might feel and then find in myself some situation, some memory, some feeling that is similar and extrapolate from that. If I do that correctly, the reader will also – hopefully – find some feeling in themselves with which they can respond to the scene or the story and it will have greater impact.

It’s why so many men have the same reaction to the end of Field of Dreams that I get. It tears me up every time I watch it. (And, yes, I understand many women have the same reactions.) It’s about the complicated relationship between fathers and sons/daughters and what was, what might have been, what maybe could be.

Can you have stories without that? Sure. You can use a formula, you can connect the dots, and have something perfectly serviceable and even entertaining. You can make money doing that. The stories that stay with us, however, are the ones where we connect on some emotional level. I, as a writer, turn to the reader and ask, “Have you ever experienced something like this? Have you ever felt something like this?”

It’s the moments were that happens that a connection is made. It’s like flipping a light switch – the electricity flows, the connection is completed, and the lights come on. We share something together. We need that sharing – that empathy –to live with one another. We do that and we create something special – whether it’s a story or a civilization. One of my rules is that “Nothing that is human is alien to me” and when we deny that we deny our common humanity.

Huh. Look at that. Guess I found something to write about after all.

MONDAY: Mindy Newell

AIRSHIP 27’S LATEST- CALL OF SHADOWS- DEBUTS!

A MAN OUT OF TIME

Airship 27 Productions is proud to release its fifth book of the year; CALL OF SHADOWS, by well known fantasy adventure writer David C. Smith. Although known for its novel and anthologies starring classic and new pulp heroes from the 30s, Airship 27 Productions has occasionally ventured beyond that era umbrella.

“Every now and then, a project comes along that totally appeals to us as modern pulp,” Managing Editor Ron Fortier explained. “This was such a book. Written with all the sophistication and sensibilities of a 21st Century narrative yet capturing some of the same magic and sense of wonder the classic pulps were famous for. We’re very excited about this title.”

Restaurant owner Steve Beaudine is killed in a car accident and his beautiful wife, Ava is severely injured. After months of physical recuperation, she returns to AVA’S with the desire to keep the business going. But Tony Jasco, her husband’s partner, has plans to sell the eatery and split the profits. Ava adamantly refuses to terminate what had been Steve’s dream. She is determined to make it work no matter Jasco’s opposition.

Then the mysterious David Ehlert enters her life with a fantastic story, one straight out of a fairy tale. He claims to be a wizard and that Jasco is trying to have her killed to gain his own ends. Ava simply can’t believe such a fanciful claim…until they are attacked by magical dark forces. Suddenly she finds herself the target of a twisted, dark magician and her only salvation is Ehlert, a man claiming to have been born in 1886 but still looking young and fit.

Writer David C. Smith spins a colorful, fast paced thriller that introduces a fascinating new hero in the vein of the classic golden age pulps but with a decidedly modern day twist. It is the story of a haunted man out of time seeking redemption for past sins in a world of arcane mysteries and magiks. CALL TO SHADOWS is a masterful thriller by a veteran writer that will keep you on the edge of your chair from start to finish.

The book features a cover painted by Bryan Fowler and designed by Art Director Rob Davis with nine interior illustrations by artist Mark Saxton. Look for it at Amazon, Airship 27 Productions’ website and soon fromwww.IndyPlanet.com.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – Pulp Fiction For A New Generation !

Available now at Amazon’s Create Space

(https://www.createspace.com/3829099)

$3 PDF version available at Airship 27 Hangar Site

(http://robmdavis.com/Airship27Hangar/airship27hangar.html)

And soon at the POD store, Indy Planet.

(http://indyplanet.com/store/)

LANCE STAR: SKY RANGER VOL. 4 FLIES INTO PRODUCTION

Cover Sketch by Felipe Echevarria

Airship 27 publisher, Ron Fortier unveiled the cover artist and cover sketch for the fourth volume in the highly popular Lance Star: Sky Ranger pulp anthology series.

Cover mock up ad

The cover sketch by Felipe Echevarria included with this entry is just a tease of the upcoming painted cover, which depicts a scene from Bobby Nash’s story from this volume called “Ring of Fire.”

Lance Star: Sky Ranger vol. 4 includes stories from New Pulp Authors Bobby Nash, Andrew Salmon, Tom Novak, and Sean Taylor. Edits by Ron Fortier. Production design by Rob Davis. Cover by Felipe Echevarria. Interior art by Scott “Doc” Vaughn.

Look for Lance Star: Sky Ranger vol. 4 coming from Airship 27 Productions.

You can learn more about artist Felipe Echevarria at http://www.felipe.tv/ or www.facebook.com/people/Felipe-Echevarria/100000501620661

For more information on Airship 27 Productions, visit them on-line at http://www.airship27.com/ and http://www.gopulp.info/

For more information on Lance Star: Sky Ranger, visit http://www.lance-star.com/

Lance Star: Sky Ranger volumes 1, 2, & 3, and the Lance Star comic book “One Shot!” are still available. Look for links at http://www.bobbynash.com/ and http://www.lance-star.com/.

FORTIER TAKES ON TRASH ‘N’ TREASURES!

ALL PULP REVIEWS- by Ron Fortier

ANTIQUES DISPOSAL
A Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mystery
Barbara Allan
Kensington Books
230 pages

Vivian Borne is an eccentric antiques dealer who lives in Serenity, a small Midwestern  town situated on the banks of the Mississippi river.  She lives with her daughters, Peggy Sue and Brandy.  Together Vivian and Brandy solve murders that in one way or another deal with the business of antiquing.  Which is the simplest way to describe this series, of which this book is the sixth and has been described by other reviewers as being a “cozy” series if anyone really knows exactly what that means.
As a fan of hardboiled detective fiction, I’m assuming “cozy” refers to those mysteries wherein the protagonist is a little old lady ala Agatha Christie’s popular Miss Marple books or the old Angela Landsbury TV show, “Murder She Wrote.”  In other words, not my particular brand of tea; I prefer a headier beverage literature.  Still, every now and then one desires to try something different.  I decided I’d take a chance with “Antiques Disposal.”
It is probably one of the smartest things I’ve done in a while.  Why?  Well simply because the book is so damn funny, I honestly couldn’t put it down.  And the characters!  Oh, my God, is there a more dysfunctional group then the Borne girls?  Remember I said Brandy was Vivian’s youngest daughter?  Well she’s actually Peggy Sue’s daughter.  Yup.  Echoes of “Chinatown.”  You see Peggy Sue got herself “in trouble” as a young, unmarried girl and left her baby with her mother to raise figuring it was best for the child.  Did I mention Vivian suffers from a bi-polar disorder and is on medication?  Never mind that Brandy herself has a daughter….oh, forget it.  Its way too complicated for me to keep track of after only one visit with this eclectic bunch.  The thing is the writing is so clean and precise, even though you haven’t read those first five books  (something I hope to one day correct) the reader just goes with the flow.  There is a charm and decency to these characters that immediately grabbed me and had me caring for them from page one. 
Look, here’s what every true mystery fan knows as a fact, series fail or succeed not on how brilliant the crimes are staged and then solved, but on how appealing and original the heroes are.  Don’t believe me, give this some thought.   Early fans of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson came to demand more stories from Arthur Conan Doyle to read more about them and not the mysteries they dealt with, those became incidental.  The same can be said of every solid mystery series from Sam Spade, to Nero Wolfe and Nate Heller.  In fact one of those famous shamus plays a huge part in this book’s climatic dénouement finale in such a hilarious way, I will not spoil it for you.  It’s just too damn funny.
Okay, if you really need to know the plot, here it is.  Vivian and Brandy go to a storage unit auction, wherein the person who owned the unit stopped paying rental fees on it and the manager is legally free to sell its contents to recoup his or her loses.  These auctions have become very common among antique dealers and I believe there is even a reality show based on the practice.  So our two ladies end up winning the bid, begin transporting the boxed contents to their home and cataloguing them; everything perfectly normal and routine.  Until they return to the storage facility for their second trip and find the manager dead in the now empty unit.  The very next night someone breaks into Vivian’s home, attacks Peggy Sue leaving her unconscious and nearly kill’s Brandy’s loveable little blind poodle, Sushi.
From this point forward, both Vivian and Brandy are on the hunt for the killer and how they go about it so entertaining, pages simply fly by.  Sure, I was playing along and looking for clues too, but honestly, it was the ride I was enjoying to the max.  Bottom line, if all of the Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mysteries are as wonderful as “Antiques Disposal,” then sign me up for the long haul.
Hey, even if you end up not liking the book, did I mention there are recipes for chocolate brownies in it?  Now how can you go wrong with that? 
ILLUSTRATING THE EARTH’S CORE!

ILLUSTRATING THE EARTH’S CORE!

Tarzan ™ ERB, Inc. Artwork © Tim Burgard.

Sequential Pulp Comics shared this beautifully elegant preview page by artist Tim Burgard for the Martin Powell penned graphic novel, TARZAN AT THE EARTH’S CORE. The graphic novel is licensed and authorized by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. and published by Sequential Pulp/Dark Horse Comics.

Look for TARZAN AT THE EARTH’S CORE coming in 2012 as part of the 100th Anniversary celebration of pulpdom’s favorite Ape-Man.

Tarzan ™ ERB, Inc. Artwork © Tim Burgard.

You can learn more about Sequential Pulp Comics at http://www.sequentialpulpcomics.com/
You can learn more about Dark Horse Comics at http://www.darkhorse.com/

DEBUT EBOOK FROM UCHRONIC PRESS FOR 99 CENTS!

Press Release

The Uchronic Press is proud to announce “Uchronic Tales: The Zeppelin,” our debut release. This action-packed 18,000 word novella by W. Peter Miller with a cover by Mike Fyles features the premiere appearance of Clark Tyler, a man that trouble seems to find. Or perhaps he is just good at finding it. This story is available now on Kindle, with Nook and all other formats to follow as soon as possible.

 The Uchronic Press is here to serve all readers that crave action, excitement, and a bit of an edge in their pulp adventure fiction. Our stories take place in an alternate past, a uchronic world greatly like our own, but with a dash more mystery, danger, and the macabre. Here you will find heroic adventures, outlandish science, ferocious alchemy, mystic forces, and an alternate history just slightly larger than our own.

 Uchronic Tales: The Zeppelin features a young Clark Tyler, an American airman caught up in a conspiracy that threatens to turn the tide of the Great War. Reich Zeppelins have been bombing London mercilessly, but the night one of them takes a strange detour could turn the tide of the war. The Germans have kidnapped a mysterious passenger and it is up to Clark Tyler and a band of elite commandos to stop the massive airship Eisern Feist from returning her secrets to the Fatherland.

In the months ahead, danger will put Clark in a number of Uchronic Tales. Look for stories featuring the classic days of Hollywood, earth-shattering danger, lost civilizations, and bizarre visitors from the unknown aether.

Welcome to Uchronic Tales