When I was in the eighth grade I began to notice that all things were not created equal. Up until then the sneakers I wore were generic sneakers. No brand name that I can recall everyone just called them Skips.
One day some other kids started making fun of my sneakers. They were all wearing Pro Keds or Converse. That’s the moment I realized things were not created equal. Back in the day you wore either Pro Keds or Converse or you were not cool.
Back then I thought being cool was important. Well, it was for me, my Junior High experience sucked and anything I could do to ease my lame ass rep I was willing to try.
So I asked my mother for some new sneakers…
Me: I need new sneakers.
Mom: I just brought you new sneakers.
Me: (having thought this out beforehand, I was ready for that) those were for everyday. I need new sneakers for Gym.
Mom: Let Jim get his own sneakers.
Needless to say I didn’t get any new sneakers and my mother kept insisting that gym was Jim and simply kept me on the defensive. The kids in my school were ruthless about my Skips.
Peer pressure where I lived was no joke. I lived in the hood. Not the play hood you see on television the real hood. Not being part of the cool kids could be a health hazard. I’d make a joke that most of the kids that teased me are now dead or in jail but it wouldn’t be funny because it’s true.
I was into the status thing for a long time. When I started making money I brought only designer this or brand name that. If I hadn’t heard of it I didn’t even look at it no matter how cool I thought it was.
Stupid.
Now?
The last pair of brand name sneakers I purchased were Reebok’s some 20 years ago (When I was 5, Jean) and a pair of Converses a year or so ago which I have yet to wear. I’m glad to say I have no and I mean no interest in buying or doing anything because of a preconceived status.
There is one exception to that rule. I’ve been a real snob when it’s come to movies and comics. When I write I listen to music in my office but in my studio I watch movies and unless I’ve heard of the movie I simply won’t watch it.
That is, until now.
Over the last few weeks I’ve had a serious case of insomnia fueled no doubt by a serious case of stress. One particular sleep deprived day I was in my studio working (or trying too) and watching movies on Netflix, AT&T U-verse, Amazon Prime, On Demand and a few outlets on the net. You name a way to get movies and I’m pretty sure I have access to it.
Out of the blue I decided to watch something I’d never heard of with the full expectation that after a few minutes of sucking I’d watch something else.
It was great.
I then watched four straight movies I had never heard of and all were great or pretty damn good.
That got me thinking about comics and my reading habits. Like movies unless I’ve heard of the book or really like the creative team I’ve been hesitant to give certain comics a look.
Again, stupid.
I’ll admit, I was not as bad with comics as I have been with movies but I wonder why I will pick up a novel read the back for an overview and rather I’ve heard of it or not if it’s interesting to me I’ll buy it.
That’s exactly how I came to read The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay, one of the best books I’ve ever read – and I’ve read thousands. I was looking for something to read on a flight and purchased the book at an airport bookstore.
If by some chance you have never heard of The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay, do your self a favor and get that book yesterday.
Really.
I still have insomnia (still stressed) but I was wondering if any ComicMix readers would be so kind as to suggest movies or comics that are off the beaten path that you loved and think I may enjoy.
I’ll really appreciate it. Please send them in anytime. I’ll be up.
BURBANK, Calif. (January 30, 2013) – The filmmaking team behind 2011’s celebrated film The Muppets reunites as Disney’s The Muppets … Again! kicked off production last week in London. The all-new global Muppets adventure welcomes Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell and Tina Fey to the mayhem, along with Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Walter and rest of the Muppets. The film is directed by James Bobin (Flight of the Conchords, Da Ali G Show), who was just nominated for a BAFTA for The Muppets (Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer), and produced by the Academy Award®-nominated team of David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman (The Fighter, The Proposal). With a screenplay by Bobin and Nicholas Stoller (The Five-Year Engagement), who is also executive producer with John Scotti, The Muppets … Again! will feature music from Academy Award®-winning songwriter Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords), who won an Oscar® for best original song for “The Muppets” (“Man or Muppet”). The new film will hit the big screen March 21, 2014.
“It’s great to be back working with the Muppets,” said Bobin, “some of them even remember my name occasionally now. As for the movie, it’s a tip of the hat to the old-school crime capers of the ’60s, but featuring a frog, a pig, a bear and a dog—no panthers, even pink ones—along with the usual Muppet-y mix of mayhem, music and laughs.”
Disney’s The Muppets … Again! takes the entire Muppets gang on a global tour, selling out grand theaters in some of Europe’s most exciting destinations, including Berlin, Madrid and London. But mayhem follows the Muppets overseas, as they find themselves unwittingly entangled in an international crime caper headed by Constantine—the World’s Number One Criminal and a dead ringer for Kermit—and his dastardly sidekick Dominic, aka Number Two, portrayed by Ricky Gervais, creator of “Derek” and the Golden Globe®- and Emmy®-winning series The Office and Extras. The film stars Golden Globe-, Emmy- and SAG Award®-winning actress and writer Tina Fey (30 Rock, Mean Girls, Date Night) as Nadya, a feisty prison guard, and Emmy Award winner Ty Burrell (Modern Family) as Interpol agent Jean Pierre Napoleon.
Said Kermit the Frog, “This movie takes us places we’ve never been before. And trust me—this frog has never seen so much international flavor. I think audiences will eat it up—the entertainment, that is.”
Featuring a slew of surprising celebrity cameos, Disney’s The Muppets … Again! will shoot on location in London and in Hollywood, as well as in the famed Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, just outside of London.
I think tomorrow I’ll call up Merriam-Webster and suggest a new word for their dictionary. That word? Geeklitism. (Not to be confused with Geekleetist, which posts fun stuff).
It should be in the dictionary, because it certainly is a thing that exists. But how would I suggest they define it? Damned if I know, although I guess the short version could be: “claiming you’re a ‘real geek’ and other people aren’t; claiming you’re the superior geek.” But really, the various aspects of both this attitude and of being a “geek” generally are so broad that I’m not sure they can be encompassed in a dictionary definition.
The reason for this, and the funny thing about “being a geek,” is that it’s a different experience for everyone. For instance, I’ve been a geek probably all of my life; but I don’t know that I ever really knew it until adulthood, when, thanks to the increased ease of finding like-minded people via the internet, it suddenly turned out it wasn’t such a bad thing to be. As far as I recall, no one called me a geek growing up. I had no idea I was part of this mysterious group of people called “geeks.”
“What??” I can hear a geeklitist out there crying out in triumph. “No one called you a geek? That must mean that you didn’t get bullied by the “cool kids” in school! Haha! You can’t understand the suffering and hardships that I went through in my formative years because of my love of stories about hobbits! You are not a real geek like me!” (This is the kind of thing geeklitists say, don’t you know. Sometimes they also add, “And all the girls made fun of me!! I’ve never gotten over that! My life was so hard!”)
But that’s not really what I said, is it? Of course I got picked on. Most kids do. For instance, when I was in first grade and all the cool kids in my new school had moved on to jeans or whatever was in fashion, my mom, bless her, still dressed me in cutesy pastel sweatsuits with big decorative (but pointless) buttons and bows on them. It follows that one of my first memories of my new school is three girls in my class making fun of my clothes on the playground – at which point I probably said something mean.
I was a well-read little child, who could creatively insult other children with words that none of us really knew the meaning of; but they sounded like insults, so it all worked out. For example, at some point in my primary school years, one of the biggest insults I remember using was, “You’re corroded!” (Which makes no sense under the real definition but sounds like maybe you have a gross skin condition?) My favorite of the weird words I personally transmogrified into an insult when young was “You’re a transubstantiationalist!” No one else had any idea what it meant, but I managed to convince the kids I was using it on that it was a really horrible thing to be. Mwahaha. But I digress. Anyway, at that point, we all got in a fight. Like a physical fight, of the kicking and punching and hair and decorative bow-pulling variety. Yowch.
“Whatever!” the geeklitist is saying. “That’s not what I meant. That’s just fashion. You were only a geek if you were ostracized because of your offbeat hobbies and/or love of genre fiction as a child! That’s what makes you a real geek like me.” Well, yes. I was that, too. I used to sit by myself at lunch and read giant books that were too “old” for me, like Clan of the Cave Bear and The Mists of Avalon, propped up in front of me as I ate with painful slowness (something else for which I was occasionally teased, but which turns out to be the healthy way to eat. Take that!). I’d walk down the school halls reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet or maybe The Deed of Paksenarrion without looking up (during which I developed a great sixth sense for not running into people while looking down, which is very handy these days when texting while walking to work).
I was definitely called weird, and often, annoying (because I used big words and talked a lot) more times than I can count. I engaged in some geek activities that probably would have been thought cool by at least the little boys in my class, like watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-Men cartoons, but I never realized that, because at that point in my life, boys had cooties. (Of course.) I’m not saying I didn’t have friends; I did, and they were a lot of fun. But I also got made fun of; and as far as I knew, most of my friends were not actually interested in The Lord of the Rings or Batman: The Animated Series. I don’t even know that I ever thought to ask most of them.(Or if I did, and received blank stares, I probably never brought it up again. This is why I’d never make a good Whedonvangelist, another word I’ve decided should be in the dictionary.)
Those were the sorts of things I often enjoyed alone, and didn’t really talk about that much, and that was fine. I knew (from others telling me, repeatedly) that I was a weird child, and I guess I just kind of assumed that was how life was and would continue to be for me – having some interests that nobody around me shared. Of course, that feeling of being alone in one’s interests is often cited as part of the experience of geekdom; and of course, in truth, lots of other people also had those interests; I just hadn’t discovered them yet. But I guess that’s all part of being a geek.
“Ahaha!” an entirely different brand of geeklitist is chortling. “But none of that matters! That’s just kid stuff! You’re not a real geek like me unless you can list, right this minute, in reverse alphabetical order, every superhero who turned out to be a Skrull during Secret Invasion! And until you can name at least three obscure continuity errors in [my favorite comics character’s] ongoing storyline! And unless you can tell me your three favorite fighting tactics for the video game character whose costume you are now wearing!” But, second brand of geeklitist…the water is wide, and the world is large, and I might like a different character than you do, or I might focus on something for different reasons than you do. Are you saying your viewpoint and favorite genre things and factoids are inherently better and geekier than mine, and are the only things that can bestow upon all of us admission into the uber-exclusive society of geekdom, just because they are yours? …Well, yes, yes you are, and that’s pretty self-centered. We can all be geeks in our own ways, with our own specific areas of interest and knowledge. Right?
“No no,” chides another, lone geeklitist, standing apart with one brow raised and pointing a finger at each of us in turn. “You will never, ever be a real geek, because you didn’t watch Firefly until it came out on DVD! You only like the newest Doctor Who! You never participated in the drive to keep Chuck on the air via purchasing mounds of Subway sandwiches. You’ll never be a real geek, not any of you, because (cue dramatic music and Iwo Jima flag-raising reenactment) I was here first, and I claim this geekdom in the name of Geekmoria! It’s mine, all miiiiine!!!!!”
…What? No, really, what? That’s just asinine.
“…”
“…”
“Well…maybe,” says the lone geeklitist doubtfully. “But I was here first.”
How do you know, lone geeklitist? Did you turn on your TV to a new show before anyone else in the entire world? Acquire an ARC of the first book in a now-beloved series? Hold in your excited hands the very first copy of the very first appearance of a comic book character? And even if you did…why does that give you any more claim to an appreciation of it than anyone else? Why does timing somehow make you more passionate about your geekdom than all the other geeks?
“…?”
Exactly.
So, any other geeklitists out there want to make a stand about how they’re the real geeks? I just ask because I don’t like to exclude people, although I realize the irony of saying that to you, geeklitists.
…
…
I’m hearing a lot of silence out there. Guess I’ll just wrap this u–what? I’m sorry? What did you say?
A chorus of low, angry, guttural voices rises from the deep to repeat itself, as one last group of geeklitists has its say:
New Year’s Resolutions aren’t for me. When I was a kid, my parents would sit my sister and me down with paper and have us write some. I suppose it helped their hangovers. Since I had to do it, I hated it.
For most of the last decade, my only resolution has been to drink more water. If that.
Still, there is a new year ahead, and that means twelve months of possibilities. It would be foolish not to have a plan to take advantage of them. So here, for better or worse, is what I want to do. We’ll see if I have the resolve to follow through.
• Try new things. When I go to the comic book store on Wednesday morning (hi, gang!), it’s easy to just pick up my usual. But just as that’s a boring way to go to a restaurant when there are so many other choices, it’s no way to approach the rack. Last year, for one example, I took great joy in Resident Alien. If you didn’t see it, I highly recommend the trade. As for me, I’m going to look for more than a DC bullet in the corner.
• Don’t support what I don’t like. As I said above, I have a tendency to just look for the DC bullet. And while I’ve expanded my repertoire over the decades I’ve read comics, I tend to add titles more than subtract them. Why do I do this? Am I afraid I’ll miss something? The Internet means I can always catch up. In the meantime, I’ll save myself time, money, and indicate my displeasure to publishers.
• Proselytize. When something is good, I’ll say so, especially if that thing isn’t getting enough attention. For example, American Horror Story: Asylum is the best television show I never hear anybody talking about. It has everything you could want in an entertainment – Nazi doctors, serial killers, demon-possessed nuns, crusading lesbian reporters, aliens from outer space – and it’s from the guys who bring you Glee, so you know everybody looks good.
• Shut up, occasionally. It’s easy for us Baby Boomers to talk incessantly about how much better we had it, back when rent was cheap, there was no HIV, and there were no rating systems. We had great movies, great comics and music that still moves us. But most of us forgot our ideals, and sold out our legacy. Patti Smith is doing Levi ads. We are in no position to tell younger people what to do.
It’s my fondest hope that I can stick to these, at least through Groundhog Day. And to keep my water bottle handy.
Like many old people, New Year’s Eve makes me remember earlier times. When I was young. When I knew who the new bands were. When I was cool. Once one has children, one is never cool again.
There was a period of time in the mid-1970s when I dropped out of college and went to work for an antiwar magazine. We had a barter arrangement with lots of underground newspapers and magazines, so I got to read CREEM magazine, and from that and the Village Voice, I knew who all the cool bands were and where to see them in New York.
When I decided to go back to college for my degree, I kept up subscriptions to CREEM and the Voice, and it was from these that I discovered Punk.
Not the music, although also the music. No, I mean Punk, a magazine that combined my two greatest passions, comics and rock’n’roll. It was hand-lettered. It was rude and crude and hilarious. I so wanted to work there.
After I graduated, I moved to Manhattan and tried to get a job in journalism. I applied at straight places, like Time-Life, Condé Nast and Hearst. And I walked into the PUNK office, then on Tenth Avenue, to see if they would hire me. When I said I had worked for an antiwar magazine, Legs McNeil, the Resident Punk, leaped on top of a desk, pointed at me, and yelled that I was a Commie.
That didn’t stop them from letting me do some typing for them, when they needed labels for a mailing. And it didn’t stop me from becoming friends with Legs and John Holmstrom, the editor.
John is, in my opinion, the most ripped-off man in comics. I mean, lots of early comic book creators were screwed financially by their publishers. And lots of early comic book creators have been imitated by the artists who followed them. John, however, created a style that was part Harvey Kurtzman (a mentor of his), part Bazooka Joe, part Basil Wolverton, but uniquely his own. In no time at all, and with not even an acknowledgement or thanks, he was co-opted by every art director at every publisher and every ad agency in the world.
But John was more than an innovator. He was a great patron of new talent. Not only did Punk do stories on new bands, but they published work by new cartoonists. For example, John was one of the first person to publish Peter Bagge.
It has long been my contention that the comics and rock’n’roll share the characteristics that both are uniquely American art forms, but only gained respect when English people did them. John combined them in astonishingly simple ways, by drawing his interviews, or staging fumetti stories that starred Richard Hell, Debbie Harry, the Ramones and Andy Warhol, among others.
It’s not just nostalgia at Auld Lang Syne that has me thinking about how cool Punk was. Harper Collins has just published a big, beautiful hard cover volume, The Best of Punk Magazine that brings those late 1970s/early 1980s days back to life. It’s on much slicker paper than the original, but it still has the brattiness that made the original so much fun.
It’s a book that will get up on a desk and yell at you, and then bum money for cigarettes and beer.
The Big Book of Bronze #5 will be released November 23rd on Lulu.com. At 282 pages, this tome of Doc Savage information, by the leading Doc Savage authorities of our time, holds insights into the Man of Bronze that you will be thrilled to read and ponder. In addition to the documentation of Doc Savage musings, you will find the must have companion to the new Jazz CD (Bronze Nemesis) by Scott Robinson about the music and his meeting with James Bama, the Ron Ely interview conducted in September where Ron discusses the movie in detail with Steve Ringgenberg, the detailed reflections of a meeting with Norma Dent by Dean Russell and an article by the current Kenneth Robeson: Will Murray.
Check out the great Doc Savage reading below and order your books in time for Christmas!
WHO IS FRED FORINO? by William Lampkin HIS NAME WAS DOC SAVAGE by Fred Forino WHO IS JACK JUKA? by Joe DeVito COLLECTING ORIGINAL DOC SAVAGE ART by Jack Juka WHO IS JAY RYAN? by Terry Allen A GLEAMING SPIKE OF STEAL AND BRICK by Jay Ryan THE RED DEATH’S ELEPHANT GUN by Jay Ryan A FLOOR BY ANY OTHER NAME… by Jay Ryan BULLETS OVER BROADWAY by Jay Ryan WHO IS JEFF DEISCHER? COMING DOWN OUT OF THE TREES by Jeff Deischer WHO IS STEVE DONOSO? THE BRONZE ARCHIVE by Steve Donoso WHO IS MATT HIEBERT? by Lokke Heiss FOUNDATIONS FOR DOC SAVAGE’S PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT by Matt Hiebert WHO IS JULIAN PUGA? THE LAST REGISTERED DOC SAVAGE ADVENTURE by Julián Puga WHO IS DAFYDD NEAL DYAR? by Allyson Dyar DOC SAVAGE AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW by Dafydd Neal Dyar WHO IS COURTNEY ROGERS? by Pat Lilja THE MYSTERY OF THE DOUBLE-USE PFEIFFER COVER by Courtney Rogers WHO IS DEAN RUSSELL? by Jay Ryan REFLECTING ON NORMA DENT by Dean Russell WHO IS WILL MURRAY? by Matt Moring MAN OF MIGHT by Will Murray WHO IS SCOTT CRANFORD? by Wayne Skiver THE ADVENTURES OF A BRONZE PAINTING by Scott Cranford WHO IS JIM COX? DOC SAVAGE AND THE ASIAN MARTIAL ARTS by Jim Cox WHO IS RICK LAI? by Art Sippo DOC SAVAGE AND THE CAGLIOSTRO LEGACY by Rick Lai FIRST SIGHTING (Part Two) by Fred Forino FIRST SIGHTING (Part Three) by Fred Forino WHO IS DUANE SPURLOCK? by Chuck Welch DENT’S HARD BOILED DOC: SATAN BLACK by Duane Spurlock WHO IS TIM FAUROTE? by Bert Ehrmann DOC SAVAGE: THE MAN OF…PLASTIC by Tim Faurote WHO IS ARTHUR C. SIPPO MD, MPH? by Rick Lai DOC’S LEGAL AIDE: AN APPRECIATION OF HAM BROOKS, ESQUIRE by Art Sippo WHO IS SCOTT ROBINSON? by Michael Steinman BRONZE NEMESIS: THE MAKING OF A MUSICAL ADVENTURE by Scott Robinson WHO IS STEVE RINGGENBERG? DOC SAVAGE SPEAKS: RON ELY! by Steve Ringgenberg
Learn more about The Big Book of Bronze series here.
2011 Rondo Artist of the Year, and New Pulp artist, Mark Maddox has illustrated the cover for the Christmas 2012 issue of Diabolique magazine in stores this November.
From the press release: The cover painting is by the brilliant Mark Maddox. And a very special thanks to Spring Wolf D.D., Ph.D. for writing a superb cover article for us on the dark origins of Santa Claus.
About Diabolique Magazine: Diabolique is a lavishly illustrated, bimonthly print and digital magazine that explores all aspects of the horror genre, including film, theatre, literature, music, history and the arts, bringing fresh perspective and analysis to subjects old and new, from ancient folklore and Gothic classics to contemporary film releases and modern literary gems. Each issue brims with insightful commentary, criticism, and engrossing information complemented by photos, illustrations and handsome, full-color design. Past issues have included contributors from such horror luminaries as Jonathan Rigby, David Del Valle, David Huckvale, Paul Murray, and Elizabeth Miller. Diabolique is edited by Scott Feinblatt and Brandon Kosters.
Airship 27 Productions and Dynamic Ram Audio are very, very happy to announce the release of the second Brother Bones audio pulp adventure as read by Mark Kalita with production by Sound Engineer Chris Barnes.
Following the successful release of the origin story, “The Bone Brothers,” this second story, of the seven that appeared in Airship 27 Productions’ book BROTHER BONES – THE UNDEAD AVENGER, is titled “Shield and Claw,” and has the grim hero of Port Noir battling a savage werewolf in a fast paced, melodramatics audio experience.
“Once again, voice actor Mark Kalita provides the chills,” Airship 27 Managing Editor Ron Fortier applauds enthusiastically. “His reading pulls the listener along like a runaway freight train and Chris adds the proper mood music and effects to properly heighten the suspense.”
Airship 27 Production is selling each of the original stories individually for $2 each as mp3 downloads from their website. After all seven have been produced and released individually, the entire book audio package will go on sale for $9.99, a $4 savings.
Art Director Rob Davis has provided cover images from the illustrations he drew for each story. SHIELD AND CLAW is an audio pulp written by Ron Fortier and read by Mark Kalita is now on sale and is the perfect “treat” for this Halloween season.
Pro Se, a growing Publisher specializing in Heroic Fiction, New Pulp, and tales covering multiple genres, announced an open call today for a new series of books from Pro Se that mark the collaboration between the New Pulp Publisher and a classic Pulp Author!
Charles Boeckman, a 91 year old author/world traveler/jazz musician recently self published SUSPENSE, SUSPICION, & SHOCKERS. This collection of 24 stories was written by Boeckman, many of them under the name Charles Beckman, Jr. and were printed in Pulps such as Dime Detective, Detective Tales, Dime Mystery, and others as well as in digest mystery magazines such as Manhunt and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. With a career ranging from the 40s into the modern era in fiction, much of it crime and mystery related, Boeckman is truly one of the last remaining true Pulp Authors today and has crafted characters that, although they only appeared once originally, have potential for further adventures, a potential Pro Se Productions plans to tap.
“This book,” Tommy Hancock, Editor in Chief and Partner in Pro Se, states, “is truly a fantastic read. Mr. Boeckman’s words sing with the huskiness and weight of a torch singer and the stories deliver blows like gunshots from all sides. He breathes life into every character, every locale, and every situation these hard luck heroes find themselves in. And one of the great things about his stories is, although there are definitely heroes between the beginning and end, they’re not cast in bronze or refined from gold. These are bruised, battered, often broken souls who have talents for music, in a lot of cases, or mystery and are almost as talented in getting themselves in trouble that most people would have to die to get out of.”
“After reading his book,” Hancock continues, “I contacted Mr. Boeckman and, following drowning him in compliments and fanboy like sentiments, I identified several characters that I felt like could have life in new stories and would appeal to a modern audience, both for nostalgic reasons as well as the fact that these characters, even the ones written back in the 1940s, were definitely written with a sensibility that makes them viable to modern readers. I requested the permission to put together anthologies and books based around these characters in a series of digests that sport Mr. Boeckman’s name and he agreed to that.”
Pro Se will begin publishing the CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS line of digest sized anthologies and novellas featuring characters originally created and featured in stories written by Boeckman. Although each individual digest 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 Mr. Boeckman’s characters. The first step in this process will be for interested writers to look over the brief descriptions of the characters provided and email proseproductions@earthlink.net 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.”
Charles Boeckman
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 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 is November 1st, 2012. 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. “This,” Hancock says, “is not only a great opportunity for Pro Se, but it is truly an honor to have not only made the acquaintance of such a great writer and part of Pulp history as Mr. Boeckman, but to have the privilege of giving new life to these classic friends of his, there’s no real words for that except We intend to make him proud.” For more information on Pro Se Productions, go to www.prosepulp.com. 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.
When I was in the eighth grade I began to notice that all things were not created equal. Up until then the sneakers I wore were generic sneakers. No brand name that I can recall everyone just called them Skips.
