Tagged: New Pulp

The Book Cave Presents Panel Fest Episode 25: Pulpfest 2013 Will Murray

Cover Art: Joe Devito

The Doc Meets The King panel at Pulpfest 2013 featured a reading of the Doc Savage novel, Skull Island by Radio Archives’ Roger Price. Also, author Will Murray talks about how Skull Island came to be. It’s Doc Savage vs. King Kong live from Pulpfest. The panel was recorded by The Book Cave’s Art Sippo.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 25: PulpFest 2013 Will Murray here.

About Doc Meets The King:
Beginning with the premier of Standard Magazines’ The Phantom Detective at the start of the year and Nick Carter and Doc Savage from Street & Smith in February, on through to the fall when Popular Publications released G-8 and His Battle Aces and The Spider, 1933 was the “year of the hero pulp.” And let’s not forget that The Lone Eagle and Pete Rice likewise debuted that year.

But 1933 was not just the year of the hero pulp. On March 2 of that same year, RKO Radio Pictures premiered “the eighth wonder of the world,” King Kong, at New York’s Radio City Music Hall and the Roxy. In just four days, the film earned nearly $90,000, a substantial sum in those dark Depression days.

To celebrate the 80th anniversaries of “The Man of Bronze” and King Kong, Will Murray, author of The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage, paired the two characters in his novel, Skull Island. On Saturday, July 27th, at 2 PM, PulpFest 2013 hosted a special New Fictioneers reading of Mr. Murray’s bestselling novel by Radio Archives’ reader Roger Price.

During his lengthy career as an entertainer, Roger has performed on television, radio and the live stage. At one time or another, he has worked as a stand-up comic, hosted a late night movie series as a character called “The Baron,” worked as a morning radio personality, hosted and emceed numerous live events, served as an entertainment news anchor and even as a ring announcer for professional wrestling. Comic book and pop culture fans know Roger as the creator, director and “voice” of Mid-Ohio-Con, one of the largest and longest running shows of it’s kind.

Through Radio Archives, Roger Price can be heard reading various short stories on Strange Detective Mysteries #1, Captain Satan #1, Captain Zero #1 and other audiobooks. Roger also works with a wide variety of clients as an announcer and voice actor, specializing in character/cartoon voices and dialects.

Following the reading, both Will Murray and Roger Price were available for questions and conversation.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 25: PulpFest 2013 Will Murray here.

Pulp Fiction Reviews and Sweet Money Won

New Pulp Author Ron Fortier returns with another Pulp Fiction Review. This time out Ron takes a look at Sweet Money Won by Mycroft Magnusson.

SWEET MONEY WON
By Mycroft Magnusson
ISBN -13:978-1481952811
401 pages

Here’s a trick question for you.  Can any well written book ever be too long for its own good?  I would have thought that impossible until reading “Sweet Money Won.”  Which is going to make this review a delicate balancing act as I want all of you to understand how much I truly liked this book; in many, many ways.  Save one.  So allow me to applaud what is a truly superbly well crafted crime comedy reminiscent of Elmore Leonard’s best efforts.

Rick and Liam are two small time conmen living in the seedy Koreatown section of Los Angeles.  They survive hand to mouth on their meager rewards for the small cons they perpetuate, mostly on middle-class tourist visiting L.A. for the first time.  Magnusson deftly defines both their personalities so that they immediately appealed to this reader.  Liam, the smarter of the two, is the philosophical gambling addict who loves the Boston Patriots whereas Rick is the more reckless, by-the-seat-of-his-pants character who has a  problem with pornography and sex, the latter being what gets them both into a world of hurt.

When Rick takes their entire money reserve to rescue a Russian porn-princess named Svetlana, whom he’s met on-line, from her muscle-bound pimps, he puts them both in harms way.  Liam had placed a bet on a Patriot’s game, the cash being his debt should the Pats lose.  Of course the Pats lose and the Korean strong-arm bookies are none too pleased when Liam doesn’t have the money to cover his bet.  Now he and Rick have just twenty-four hours to come up with twenty thousand dollars.  It is at this point when  Svetlana agrees to help the boys by having sex with and then blackmailing a rich, up and coming congressman.

Reading “Sweet Money Won” is a truly engrossing, fun literary escapade that plays fast and loose with gunfire pacing.  Again, Magnusson’s prose is both insightful and inventive when it needs to be.  His writing is what is excellent and why I’m recommending you pick up a copy of this top-notch crime novel.

But Magnusson has to learn when scenes are extraneous and should be cut.  Any scene that does not serve the plot should be excised and there are several of these that frustrated me.  Rick’s Mexican weekend and Liam’s sports ticket scam are both unnecessary. A good editor could have trimmed this book by a hundred pages and helped shape it into an even better story.  I hope that’s a lesson he learns soon.  Rick and Liam and awesome characters and I’d love to see them in action again.

The Book Cave Presents Panel Fest Episode 24: Pulpfest 2013 Walter Baumhofer

Davis Saunders hosted the Walter Baumhofer: King of the Pulps panel at the 2013 PulpFest convention, spotlighting the artist’s life and career. The panel was recorded by The Book Cave’s Art Sippo.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 24: PulpFest 2013 Walter Baumhofer here.

About Walter Baumhofer: King of the Pulps:
Adventure35-08-15Who was the “King of the Pulps?” Some say it was H. Bedford Jones, while others claim the title for Frederick Faust, better known as Max Brand. But to the young readers who devoured the pulp magazines and “delighted in his four-color depictions of action and adventure,” the one and only “King of the Pulps” was Walter M. Baumhofer.

When an injury at age fourteen left him unable to perform manual labor, Baumhofer began to intently study art. A scholarship allowed him to attend the prestigious Pratt Institute where he was able to study under Dean Cornwell and H. Winfield Scott. While still a student, he began his art career drawing pen and ink story illustrations for Adventure Magazine. By 1926, he was contributing covers to Clayton Publications and, soon thereafter, to Harold Hersey’s line of pulps. Street & Smith signed him to a contract in 1932 to paint a cover each week for their pulps. Around the same time, he was sought out by Popular Publications to provide cover art for their line of magazines, and so began his reign as the “King of the Pulps.”

Baumhofer labored for the pulp market for just over a decade, painting about 550 covers for a wide variety of titles including Ace High, Adventure, Detective Tales, Dime Mystery Magazine,

Doc Savage, Fire Fighters, Gangland Stories, The Spider, Spy Stories, Western Story Magazine, and others. He moved into the slick market and advertising art in the late thirties, contributing work to American Weekly, Collier’s, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Redbook, Women’s Day, and other magazines. In later years, his paintings graced the covers of Argosy, Outdoor Life, and Sports Afield and his portrait, landscape, and Western art were exhibited in fine art galleries nationwide.

At 9:30 PM on Friday, July 26th, David Saunders presented a biographical profile of Walter Baumhofer’s life story as well as the artist’s fascinating family history. He exhibited never-before-seen visual documents from the personal world of this pulp art master.  Walter was a close friend of the presenter’s father, Norman Saunders, and as such David was personally acquainted with the artist for over thirty years. Baumhofer was a

sensationally colorful character and David Saunders looks forward to sharing many amusing anecdotes and incidents that will help to promote a greater awareness of this legendary artist.

American Art Archives. Walter Baumhofer (1904-1987).

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 24: PulpFest 2013 Walter Baumhofer here.

Panel Fest Episode 23: Pulpfest 2013 Heroes of 1933 Panel

 

Hosted by Blood ‘n’ Thunder’s Ed Hulse, the Doc Savage and the Pulp Heroes of 1933 panel at the 2013 PulpFest convention included Nick Carr, Don Hutchison, Garyn Roberts, and Will Murray as they discussed eighty years of “The Great Pulp Heroes”. The panel was recorded by The Book Cave’s Art Sippo.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 23: PulpFest2013 Heroes of 1933 here.

About Doc Savage and the Pulp Heroes of 1933:
Eighty years ago, following the astounding success of The Shadow Magazine, the pulp industry created a tremendous splash in publishing by releasing a wave of single-character magazines. The Phantom Detective, Nick Carter, Doc Savage, The Lone Eagle, G-8 and His Battle Aces, The Spider, and Pete Rice Magazine all debuted in 1933, despite the economic hardships wrought by The Great Depression.

The Shadow Magazine was introduced to readers by Street & Smith Publishing in early 1931. Employing the talents of author Walter B. Gibson, the magazine proved an instant hit. Planned as a quarterly, this first “hero” pulp became a monthly after just two issues. A year later, The Shadow Magazine became a semi-monthly, appearing twice each month until early 1943.

By 1932, Street & Smith was planning other single-character pulps, hoping to emulate the high-flying Shadow Magazine. Other publishing houses also noticed the strong sales experienced by Gibson’s “Dark Avenger.” As Henry Steeger of Popular Publications stated: “At this point in pulp history, individual titles became very popular, so we decided to try out a few . . .” And so began what we now call, “The Hero Pulp Explosion of 1933.”

On Friday, July 26th at 8:30 PM in the Fairfield Room of the Hyatt Regency Columbus, Ed Hulse, editor and publisher of Blood ‘n’ Thunder, and a panel of pulp historians took a look at Doc Savage and the Pulp Heroes of 1933. Joining Ed will be Nick Carr, one of the elders of the pulp community, who actually read The Spider and other pulps fresh off the newsstand, and has written countless articles about pulp heroes both known and little known; Don Hutchison, who also had the opportunity to buy pulps at a news agency and has likewise written many articles on the history of the pulps as well as the Stoker Award nominee, The

Great Pulp Heroes (a “must-read” book for fans of the hero pulps); a child of the sixties when he first discovered “The Man of Bronze” and now today’s “Kenneth Robeson,” Will Murray, yet another author of numerous books and articles concerning the pulps; and Garyn Roberts, professor of English and popular culture studies and unabashed pulp fan and editor of some of the best collections from the pulps including The Compleat Adventures of the Moon Man, The Magical Mysteries of Don Diavolo, and other titles will join Ed to discuss the causes and effects of the “Hero Pulp Explosion of 1933.”

Once again, Walter Baumhofer’s masterful cover to the first issue of Doc Savage Magazine, illustrating “The Man of Bronze.”

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 23: PulpFest2013 Heroes of 1933 here.

Panel Fest Episode 22: Pulpfest 2013 Doc Savage Panel

The panelists

The Book Cave’s Art Sippo hosted the Philip Jose Farmer panel on Doc Savage at this year’s PulpFest convention in Columbus, Ohio. Rick Lai, John Small, Christopher Paul Carey, and Win Scott Eckert share their knowledge with the listeners.

Listen to Panel Fest Episode 22: PulpFest 2013 Doc Savage Panel here.

About the Philip José Farmer’s Doc Savage panel:
Since 2011, PulpFest has hosted FarmerCon, a convention within a convention. FarmerCon began in Peoria, Illinois, the hometown of Grand Master of Science Fiction Philip José Farmer. Originally a gathering of Farmer fans figuratively, and literally, right outside Phil’s back door, FarmerCon offered presentations, dinners, and even picnics at the author’s house.

After the passing of Phil and Bette Farmer in 2009, it was decided to take FarmerCon on the road to broaden its horizons. By holding  the convention alongside events like PulpFest, Farmer fans get a variety of programming and a room full of pulp and book dealers to enjoy. This year, PulpFest is once again pleased to welcome FarmerCon VIII to the Hyatt Regency Columbus.

As it has every year since 2011, FarmerCon will provide some of PulpFest’s evening programming. On Friday, July 26th, at 7:30 PM, our FarmerCon friends turn their attention toward the Grand Master‘s work related to Doc Savage with a panel entitled His Apocalyptic Life, Escape from Loki, and The Mad Goblin.

The earliest of the three works, The Mad Goblin, was first published in 1970, paired with The Lord of the Trees as half of an Ace Double. Both novels were sequels to an earlier work, A Feast Unknown, that introduced Lord Grandrith, a thinly disguised Tarzan, and a “man of bronze” known as Doc Caliban. In Feast, Grandrith and Caliban learn that a powerful secret society known as The Nine has manipulated their lives. The two heroes go to war against their tormentors: The Mad Goblin tells the story from the point of view of Doc Caliban, while The Lord of the Trees presents Lord Grandrith’s version.

Although he published over fifty novels and 100 short stories during his career, Philip José Farmer may be remembered best for his Wold Newton Family. According to the author, the radiation from a meteorite that landed near the village of Wold Newton caused mutations in the villagers’ descendants, making them smarter, stronger, and more driven than most. Including among the offspring was Lord Greystoke, Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, Fu Manchu, and Dr. James Clarke Wildman, Jr., best known as Doc Savage. Much of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, first published by Doubleday in 1973, is devoted to this idea.

The last of Farmer’s works of bronze was Escape from Loki, published by Bantam Books in 1991. Shot down behind enemy lines during World War I, sixteen-year-old Clark Savage, Jr. finds himself in a German baron’s notorious escape-proof prison. Here Doc and his future aids come together to match wits and derring-do against the sinister baron, who Doc believes is intent on wielding a weapon of mass destruction that could very well mean the end of freedom and victory for the Kaiser.

Moderator Art Sippo, author of Sun Koh: Heir of Atlantis, a 2010 Pulp Factory Award nominee for Best Pulp Novel, and his panelists will dissect and analyze the Grand Master‘s contributions to the Doc Savage mythos. Joining Art will be Christopher Paul Carey, the co-author with Philip José Farmer of Gods of Opar: Tales of Lost Khokarsa, and the author of Rick Lai, well known for his articles expanding on Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe concepts, recently collected into four volumes by Altus Press; Win Scott Eckert, the co-author with Philip José Farmer of The Evil in Pemberley House, and the author of its forthcoming sequel, The Scarlet Jaguar, featuring Doc Wildman’s daughter Pat; and John Allen Small, an award-winning journalist, columnist, and fiction writer whose work includes “The Bright Heart of Eternity,” a tribute to Edgar Rice Burroughs and Philip José Farmer, and “Into Time’s Abyss,” anthologized in The Worlds Of Philip José Farmer 2: Of Dust And Souls.

Exiles of Kho, a prelude to the Khokarsa series;

Meteor House premiered a new, expanded edition of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life at PulpFest 2013. Featuring dust jacket art by Joe DeVito (pictured above) and essays by Win Scott Eckert, John Allen Small, Keith Howell, Rick Lai, Art Sippo, Christopher Paul Carey, and current Doc Savage writer Will Murray, it will be available as a deluxe hardcover. Altus Press will be publishing the softcover edition. It will be available at PulpFest through Mike Chomko, Books.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 22: PulpFest 2013 Doc Savage Panel here.

The panelists autographing books.

Sword and Sorcery Comes to Seventh Star Press

Cover Art: Enggar Adirasa

Seventh Star Press has announced that the two volume anthology series, Thunder on the Battlefield: Sword, and Thunder on the Battlefield: Sorcery. The series will be available August 8th in ebook format with print editions coming a week or two after.

Press Release:

New 2 Volume Sword and Sorcery Anthology Edited by James R. Tuck, Deacon Chalk Author!

Available this Thursday in eBook formats, and mid August in print, SSP is proud to offer a 2 volume anthology edited by James R. Tuck, author of the Deacon Chalk Novels.

Introducing Thunder on the Battlefield: Sword, and Thunder on the Battlefield: Sorcery, featuring two dozen brand new, hard-hitting sword and sorcery tales!  Here are the two covers from artist Enggar Adirasa!  Stay tuned for more information on this exciting release week!

“HARK! to the sounds of battle. Mighty men and women who take their destinies with the strength of their arm and the sharpness of their blades. These are tales of warriors, reavers, barbarians, and kings. Lands of wonder populated with monsters, black-hearted sorcerors of Stygian power, and heroes who have blood on their hands and on their steel.

This is SWORD AND SORCERY.”

 
Learn more about Thunder on the Battlefield: Sword and Sorcery here.

MECHANOID PRESS RIDES THE WEIRD WEST WITH DEBUT OF ‘STRANGE TRAILS’!

Contact: James Palmer
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mechanoid Press Saddles Up for a Ride Through Some Strange Trails

ATLANTA, GA—Mechanoid Press, an innovative small press publisher of science fiction and pulp adventure, has just released their latest anthology, exploring the Weird West.
STRANGE TRAILS features exciting tales of a West that never was, written by some of the biggest names in New Pulp.
“The Weird Western is very popular today,” says Mechanoid Press publisher James Palmer. “I wanted to put something together to celebrate this bizarre yet exciting sub-genre.”
Palmer has assembled a posse of some of today’s most talented New Pulp authors. Riding the range is Josh Reynolds (Mr. Brass), Tommy Hancock and Morgan Minor (Pro Se Productions), Barry Reese (The Rook), Edward M. Erdelac (The Merkabah Rider), and Joel Jenkins (Dire Planet).
“Everyone in the book is there because they have solid New Pulp and/or Weird West chops,” says Palmer. “All the stories are terrific, and I know readers will love it.”
STRANGE TRAILS is available in print here:
And Kindle here:

About Mechanoid Press
Mechanoid Press is an independent publisher specializing in science fiction and New Pulp e-books and books. Join the Robot Revolution at www.mechanoidpress.com, follow the ‘bot on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mechanoidpressand like them on Facebook.

PRO SE PRESENTS: THE PODCAST- EPISODE FOUR-PULSE FICTION!

PRO SE PRESENTS: THE PODCAST- EPISODE FOUR-PULSE FICTION!

This week PSP Podcast Host Tommy Hancock welcomes Crime and Pulp Author Paul Bishop. Together these two fans and creators of Genre Fiction and the Pulp style introduce a new imprint coming very soon to Pro Se- PULSE FICTION! The brainchild of Bishop, this series brings a host of characters created by Hancock and Bishop and cast in the mold of classic genre fiction from the era of the pulps to Pro Se! Tommy and Paul talk about the origins of the concept, why something like Pulse Fiction is needed and what it means to New Pulp and beyond, the ideas and the characters in the mix, and the writers already involved. The two men behind Pulse Fiction also discuss how any writer can get involved in this new imprint! Pulse Fiction and Paul Bishop on this week’s PRO SE PRESENTS: THE PODCAST!
http://prosepodcast.libsyn.com/pro-se-presents-the-podcast-episode-four-pulse-fiction

Panel Fest Episode 19: Pulpfest 2013 William Patrick Maynard

 

New Pulp Author William Patrick Maynard reads from his latest Fu Manchu novel, from The Triumph of Fu Manchu at the 2013 PulpFest convention. The panel was recorded by The Book Cave’s Art Sippo.

Listen to Panel Fest Episode 19: PulpFest 2013 William Patrick Maynard here.

From PulpFest website:
Bill Maynard Presents Fu Manchu
They were called scribes, word slingers, hacks, and penny-a-worders. But perhaps the most favored term, especially among the men and women who

labored for the bloody pulps, was fictioneer or, more specifically, a fiction writer, particularly a prolific creator of commercial or pulp fiction. Join PulpFest as we celebrate today’s fictioneers—the authors writing the new pulp fiction—the New Fictioneers!

Our special guest, William Patrick Maynard, will get things rolling on Friday, July 26th. Authorized by the estate of Sax Rohmer to continue the Fu Manchu series, Maynard’s debut novel, The Terror of Fu Manchu, was published in 2009 by Black Coat Press. A sequel, The Destiny of Fu Manchu, followed in 2012. Bill will be reading from The Triumph of Fu Manchu, his forthcoming novel concerning Rohmer’s fabulous devil doctor.

Listen to Panel Fest Episode 19: PulpFest 2013 William Patrick Maynard here.