With the release of the third volume of Lance Star: Sky Ranger from Airship 27 Productions and Cornerstone Books, we here at Sky Ranger Central talked to the creators, writers, artists, and publishers involved with the latest installment in the Lance Star: Sky Ranger series. 
Next up is Lance Star: Sky Ranger writer, Sean Taylor.
You can read the full interview at http://www.lance-star.com/.
With the release of the third volume of Lance Star: Sky Ranger from Airship 27 Productions and Cornerstone Books, we here at Sky Ranger Central talked to the creators, writers, artists, and publishers involved with the latest installment in the Lance Star: Sky Ranger series.
Next up is Airship 27’s Art Director, Rob Davis.
You can read the full interview at
http://www.lance-star.com/.
With the release of the third volume of Lance Star: Sky Ranger from Airship 27 Productions and Cornerstone Books, we here at Sky Ranger Central talked to the creators, writers, artists, and publishers involved with the latest installment in the Lance Star: Sky Ranger series. 
First up is Airship 27’s Air Chief, Ron Fortier.
You can read the full interview at http://www.lance-star.com/.
BEHIND THE VEIL by Joshua Pantalleresco
Sean Ellis is the talented author of multiple novels, including Heaven’s Shroud and The Chessmen series. He is also the creator of his own New Pulp character, Dodge Dalton, which has currently two books out in his series. Dodge Dalton In The Shadow of Falcons Wings and Dodge Dalton and the Outpost of Fate are as high adventure as they sound and after talking to Sean, Dodge’s origins come Ellis’ own sense of adventure .Sean admits, “When I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark as a kid, I fell in love with adventure stories, and I really became fascinated with the pre-World War II time period. It was a turning point for the way we saw the world in terms of exploration and technology. The world of the 1930’s was still pretty big and there were a lot of unexplored places. If you wanted to find a lost city or something like that, you couldn’t just jump on Google Earth and do satellite reconnaissance and then fly directly there in a helicopter.
That fascination for the time period, and the fact that I was making a serious bid to write for the (now mostly defunct) Indiana Jones novel series, led me to the pulps, and particularly Doc Savage. I had a passing familiarity with pulp fiction, but once I started doing some research, I realized that there was a lot of potential for a new pulp renaissance, not just in terms of content, but in the way books are published. I had the idea to launch a series where several authors would be working simultaneously to produce titles for a single series—much like Charles Ardai did with the Gabriel Hunt series a few years later—and so I enlisted some friends to help me draw up the characters and brainstorm some plots. My original dream didn’t quite happen as planned, but the process got the ball rolling creatively.
The concept that came out of that mix was a passing of the torch story loosely based on Doc Savage. The pitch went something like this: An evil force is rising and the world needs its greatest hero…but he’s been missing for years. A young journalist tracks down the hero’s associates in an effort to find the missing hero, battling the villains every step of the way, and eventually becomes the world’s new champion.
The desire to be an adventurer and a writer perhaps is the biggest connection between Ellis and Dalton.
“One of my favorite tropes has always been the writer as protagonist. I like the idea of the writer trying to imitate his literary creations, probably because my childhood dream was to be a writer/adventure hero.
In the story, Dodge is a sportswriter for a New York newspaper, who get tapped to ghostwrite stories about a war hero named Captain Falcon, as told by one of Falcon’s purported associates, “Hurricane” Hurley. Dodge thinks that stories are fiction, or at the very least exaggerated from a factual account, so he writes them that way, and they become a runaway success. The idea of becoming an adventurer is that last thing on Dodge’s mind…at least until the bad guys show up, demanding to square off with Captain Falcon.
I suppose in that respect, I’m quite a bit different than Dodge. One of my earliest sources of inspiration as a writer was Clive Cussler. I still remember reading the bio in one of his early novels; it talked about how he spent his free time searching for shipwrecks and lost mines, just like his hero Dirk Pitt. When I read that, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. And while I haven’t found any lost cities, I have managed to have a few adventures along the way, and I’d like to think some of that comes through in my novels.”While Sean didn’t divulge any details of his own adventures, his experiences definitely help color his action scenes.
“There are some scenes in the first Dodge Dalton novel where Dodge is underwater and trying to get back to the surface; when I write that, I try to tap in on my own memories of making some deep free dives and thinking: ‘Why is it taking so long to get to the surface? I really need to breathe…starting to panic a little.’ I like to get a little of that adrenaline rush onto the page. You don’t really get that from watching a movie, where the hero–Bond or Indy–can calmly react to whatever life-threatening situation comes along.”
Both books are available on amazon.com.
Wayne Reinagel’s newest novella entitled The Hunter Island Adventure is now available as a direct download eBook at http://wwwpulpheroesmorethanmortal.webs.com/Infinite%20Horizons%20Online%20Store.html. It will be available for Kindle, Nook, and other devices in a few days.
The Hunter Island Adventure is a fun-filled fantastic non-stop adventure that occurs (chronologically) roughly one year before the events of the best-selling novel, Pulp Heroes – More Than Mortal. This wild tale tells the story of what happens when four kidnapped women (friends and relatives of my main pulp hero characters) prove to be much more trouble than their captors expected. This download also features a special bonus, a complete copy of The Most Dangerous Game, written by Richard Connell and originally published in 1924, and one of the original inspirations for The Hunter Island Adventure. (As was the short story Ransom of the Red Chief by O. Henry, where two men who attempt to kidnap and ransom a wealthy Alabaman’s son; eventually, the men are driven to distraction by the boy and end up having to pay the boy’s father to take him back.)
In addition, several new eBooks are also available at the Knightraven Studios store. In addition to the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde written by Robert Louis Stevenson (also available in audiobook format), Wayne has posted The Vampyre written by Doctor John Polidori and a fully illustrated (by Gustave Dore) version of Edgar Allen Poe’s Gothic poem The Raven. For anyone who has not read one of Wayne’s novels, Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde, and Robert Louis Stevenson are all characters in Pulp Heroes – Khan Dynasty novel, and Edgar Allan Poe and Polidori are a main characters in Modern Marvels – Viktoriana novel. (As well as Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, Nikola Tesla, Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Harry Houdini, H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Count Dracula, and Varney the Vampire.)
The Hunter Island Adventure is now available as a direct download eBook at http://wwwpulpheroesmorethanmortal.webs.com/Infinite%20Horizons%20Online%20Store.html. It will be available for Kindle, Nook, and other devices in a few days.
For more information on Wayne Reinagel and his novels, visit http://wwwpulpheroesmorethanmortal.webs.com/
All Pulp would like to share a hearty congratulations to New Pulp Author and one of The Spectacled Seven, Van Allen Plexico on the inclusion of his novels on Kirkus Reviews’ list of good original super-fiction!
You can read the entire article at http://www.kirkusreviews.com/blog/science-fiction-and-fantasy/superheroes-lit-part-2
Want to learn more about The Sentinels novels? Learn more about this fantastic novel series at http://www.whiterocketbooks.com/sentinels.
Table Talk returns to New Pulp. This week, Bobby, Barry and Mike dig into the hats they wear and what it’s like to switch them around, based on the needs of the moment.
You can read the Table Talk conversation at http://www.newpulpfiction.com/2011/08/table-talk-who-are-you.html
Mike Bullock is fast becoming one of the most prolific New Pulp writers today. His work has ranged from comics like the Phantom and Black Bat to prose stories like Death Angel. All Pulp spoke to Mike on what is currently going on with his comics, his prose and to talk about his influences in general.
ALL PULP: Have you always wanted to write pulp stories?
Mike Bullock: Yes and no, I guess. I’ve wanted to write since I was four years old. I discovered pulps when I was ten or eleven when I walked into a book store and saw Michael Whelan’s cover for “A Princess of Mars.” That cover captivated my senses and to this day it’s one of my favorite pieces of sci-fi/fantasy artwork. I’d already been a comic book junkie for as long as I could remember at that point and pulps seemed, to me at least, a natural progression of that love. Action-packed, speculative fiction where imagination was the only limitation to where the story could take the hero and that really spoke to me. It wasn’t much later when I realized people actually wrote for a living and that’s when the proverbial light bulb went off over my head.AP: What writers have influenced your work?
MB: There’s quite a few, but the ones that immediately come to mind are Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Bill Mantlo, Roy Thomas, Alan Dean Foster, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lee Falk, Ron Marz and JM DeMatteis. I was also heavily influenced by the original Star Wars trilogy, and by default Joseph Campbell.
AP: Will we ever see you do the Phantom again? I enjoyed the run, and I’d love to see you tackle a one shot or special again.MB: I certainly hope so. I felt like I was just hitting my stride when I found out Moonstone wasn’t going to renew the license. I still have a pile of Phantom story ideas sitting on my hard drive and rattling around in my head and each one I read through sparks new ideas. I certainly wasn’t done kickin’ it in the Skull Cave and God willing the opportunity to go back will present itself in the future. Thankfully, Phantom artist Silvestre Szilagyi and I are working on another pitch together, so I’ll get to work with Sil again if nothing else.
AP: Looking back on your Phantom run, which story are you most proud of? Are there any dangling threads you wished you could have finished?
MB: I don’t know that I’m necessarily proud of any of it, but the one that brings the closest thing to satisfaction is the “Checkmate” arc. If I hadn’t had to abridge the final arc in Ghost Who Walks, that might be my favorite. Looking back, “Final Roar”, which oddly enough ended up being the last Phantom story printed by Moonstone, is the one I believe is the best Phantom tale I wrote, though. I also miss working with Silvestre and Fernando on Phantom tales, but thankfully, Fernando and I are doing Joe Palooka together now. As for dangling threads, there’re quite a few. My original goal with the Ghost Who Walks series was to hit issue 75 before I’d step down from it, so I was laying a lot of ground work for things to come throughout the twelve issues of that series.
AP: You have four prose books coming next year. Does that mean you won’t be doing any more comics for the time being? Why the emphasis on prose?
MB: Well, I actually have several comics/graphic novels coming out over the next eighteen months as well including all three “Lions, Tigers and Bears” graphic novels (volume III for the first time and vI and II for the first time in the new format). The focus on prose is something that’s been coming for a long time. I was writing prose and poetry long before I was fortunate enough to do comic books, so going back to that just seems to make sense. I do hope that I can take these prose novels and have them adapted to comics, however. I think “Runemaster” especially would make a great comic series. And, Death Angel debuted as a New Pulp hero in comic books, so it’s not like I view the two formats as mutually exclusive.
AP: Can you tell me something about Lions, Tigers and Bears vol. 3 that hasn’t been said elsewhere?
MB: It’s the coolest book you’ll ever buy in your life. In fact, it’s so cool, you should buy dozens of copies and pass them out to random strangers to increase your own personal happiness quota as doing so prevents cancer and immunizes you from chronic frowning. Don’t know if that’s true, but I don’t think it’s been said elsewhere. On a more serious note, it has some truly amazing art from Michael Metcalf, Adam Van Wyk and Dan Hipp inside. That’s worth the price of admission alone, if you ask me.
AP: Any other graphic novels/comics you can tell me about?
MB: I’m not sure if I mentioned Joe Palooka and Fiefdom of Angels upstream, but expect to see those coming as comics and graphic novels beginning with Fiefdom of Angels #0 debuting in September.
AP: Fiefdom of Angels. Sounds cool. What’s it about?
MB: The first war. Ever. Brought to life from a story created by Grammy Award Winner Kevin Max by myself and artists Tyler “Dungeons & Dragons” Walpole, Peter Mohrbacher and Rob Schwager.
AP: Let’s talk about your books. First off, The Runemaster. I read the premise and am intrigued. Who is he? And what is the novel about?
MB: The Runemaster is his tribe’s leader and holy man of sorts; the character given that designation is Skarl Kirwall, a young man preparing to take over the mantle of Runemaster from his father. Mere weeks before the responsibilities are passed down to him, he’s betrayed by a fellow clansman and exiled while his father is away at a summit of all the northern clans. Skarl seeks a meeting with the clan elders to allow him back in to the Kirwall village on the day his father is to return. But, when he arrives that morning Skarl discovers the entire village has been ransacked, his father murdered and his love taken to be sacrificed to a demon worshiped by the hated Yslings. Now, it’s up to Skarl to save her and avenge his clan.
The novel is the first in a projected series from Airship 27 that will hopefully feed the hunger of those looking for New Pulp sword and sorcery adventures.
AP: Cool book. I can’t wait to read it. Now describe Janus: Guardian of Worlds.MB: Janus is a legacy hero of sorts coming from Pro Se Press. The character is always two people, the ghost of the grandfather acting as mentor and sidekick to the living grandson. Armed with a totem staff and armband that provides them with the ability to draw on an ancient arcane power source, they’re charged with guarding our world against invasions from those beyond.
Unlike Runemaster, the Janus novel takes place in the early 20th century. However, there has been a Guardian of Worlds in their family line since 2012 BC, so future tales may take place in the past. While the cover artist for Runemaster has yet to be determined, Manny Trembley has signed on to do covers for the “Janus: Guardian of Worlds novel series.”
AP: The third book I saw forthcoming was Death Angel. I saw that the first prose story I could find for it was on iPulpfiction.com. Explain a bit about Death Angel and how it came to be?
MB: Death Angel is an evolution of a character I created a long time ago called Revenant. After creating that character to tell some street-level super hero tales, I discovered there was several other characters named Revenant in comics and I didn’t want to just toss one more onto the pile. So, I set it aside for awhile, then when Joe Gentile over at Moonstone Books and I first dreamed up the Moonstone Pulp universe, I dusted off the old Revenant character and injected it with a whole new life, new origin, new name and new set of motivations. Michael Metcalf came aboard to handle the art chores and he really brought the image of Death Angel to fruition with his more experimental style that those who are familiar with his all-ages work never saw coming.
After Death Angel debuted in the pages of “Phantom: KGB Noir”, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive which led to doing more and more with the character, including the tales that saw the light of day in the first Black Bat graphic novel. Once I discovered iPulpfiction, the desire to do something of a serial nature infiltrated my mind and Death Angel seemed like the right character to explore that. I turned in the second story to iPulpfiction a few days ago and it should be available on the site in August some time. AP: Did doing books like the Phantom and Savage Beauty teach you anything with how to develop your own properties in the sense of world building?
MB: Not really [Laughs] I’m not that smart. I built the Savage Beauty world from the ground up and did inject some of what Lee Falk did in Phantom, but I’m not sure it was a learning experience, per se. It was a lot of fun, however. The most gratifying thing about the world building is watching others take the ball and run with it, like artists Dave Hoover, Mark Wheatley, Thomas Yeates, Paul Gulacy and Jose Massaroli. It’s one thing to rattle all these ideas and images around in your mind, it’s a whole new level of ‘kid at Christmas time’ to see high caliber artists bring those ideas to vivid, living color.
AP: What do you prefer, working with older properties like Black Bat or The Phantom, or your own creations?MB: That depends on the time of day [laughs]. It’s nice to be able to switch back and forth as the muse guides me. Ultimately, I’d rather work strictly with my own creations, but there’s a great deal of joy to be had playing with other people’s toys. When I wrote the Phantom for all those years, I didn’t need to wrestle with the world-building, as Lee Falk had already done that, and done it masterfully, for me.
There’s something to be said about running with the excitement that other writers ignite in your heart. For instance, I’d love to write Moon Knight or Conan and I greatly enjoyed penning Phantom tales for seven years. But, if I had to choose, I’d stick with my own stuff.
AP: This is the last question of the interview. Say anything you want here.
MB: I’ll resist the urge to say “anything you want here” as that joke’s ship has sailed. I would like to encourage people to invest in imagination. Yours, your family’s, friend’s, anyone you encounter. Imagination is the key that unlocks a bold new future, so don’t lose it, leave it behind or forget to use it every chance you get.
The Avenger: The Justice Inc. Files from Moonstone Books is now available at http://moonstonebooks.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=35.
You can learn more about The Avenger: The Justice Inc. Files at http://moonstonebooks.com/.
Look for them in your favorite bookstore and on-line retailer as well in a few days.
The Avenger: The Justice Inc Files SC
Item #: avj
Price/ea: $18.95
The Avenger: The Justice Inc Files HC
Item #: AvCf
Price/ea: $45.95
The Avenger: The Justice Inc. Files
Written by: Robin Wayne Bailey, Will Murray, David Michelinie, Win Scott Eckert, Mark Ellis, Matthew Baugh, Ron Fortier, Howard Hopkins, Barry Reese, Eric Fein, Frank Schlidiner, Chris Paul Carey, Chris Bell…
Cover Art: Tom Gianni
Edited by: Joe Gentile & Howard Hopkins
336pgs, b/w, Squarebound, 6″x9″
The Avenger…All-New Stories for the Next Generation! Moonstone Books is proud to present this original anthology featuring never before seen tales of The Avenger.
**See it here…for the first and ONLY time anywhere…these two pulp titans collide… The AVENGER meets the uncompromising relentless justice of The SPIDER!
**See the never before told origin of The Avenger’s personal weapons “Mike” and “Ike”!
**The AVENGER meets up with the DOMINO LADY!
**HC includes bonus stories of the Avenger’s aides!
From the Flames of Tragedy, a Hero Rises In the roaring heart of the crucible, steel is made. In the raging flame of personal tragedy, men are sometimes forged into something more than human.
Life was bliss for millionaire adventurer Richard Henry Benson until the fateful day crime and greed took away his wife and younger daughter and turned him into something more than human.
Driven by loss, compelled by grief, he becomes a chilled impersonal force of justice, more machine than man, dedicated to the destruction of evildoers everywhere. A figure of ice and steel, more pitiless than both, Benson has been forged into an avatar of vengeance, possessed of superhuman genius and supernormal power. His frozen face and pale eyes, like ice in a polar dawn, only hint at the terrible force the underworld heedlessly invoked upon itself the day they created… The Avenger!
Now, the greatest crime-fighter of the 40s returns in a stunning collection of original action-packed tales of adventure, intrigue and revenge and even a chilling showdown with the Lord of Vampires himself!
The Green Hornet Casefiles from Moonstone Books is now available at http://moonstonebooks.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=29.
You can learn more about The Green Hornet Casefiles and view cover art at http://moonstonebooks.com/.
Look for them in your favorite bookstore and on-line retailer as well in a few days.
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| Procopio Cover |
The Green Hornet Casefiles SC
Item #: gh2s
Price/ea: $18.95
336pgs, b/w, Squarebound, 6″x9″, sc $18.95
The Green Hornet Casefiles HC
Item #: GH2hc
Price/ea: $43.95
336pgs, b/w, Squarebound, 6″x9″, Ltd Ed HC $43.95
The Green Hornet Casefiles
Edited by Joe Gentile and Win Scott Eckert
Written by: Joe McKinney, Jim Mullaney, John Everson, Paul D. Storrie, Eric Fein, Vito Delsante, Win Scott Eckert, Dan Wickline, Paul Kupperberg, Howard Hopkins, Bobby Nash, Arthur A. Lyon, Bradley Sinor, Matthew Baugh, F.J. Desanto, David Boop, Barry Reese, Micheal Uslan, Joe Gentile, Tim Lasiuta, Rafael Nieves
Covers by Ruben Procopio and Michael Kaluta
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| Kaluta Cover |
The long-awaited return of the Green Hornet & Kato and their rolling arsenal the Black Beauty!
Back again with all-new stories!
Moonstone is proud to present The Green Hornet Casefiles, our second anthology featuring all-new, original crime fiction tales of the man who hunts the biggest of all game, public enemies that even the FBI can’t reach!
It’s the mid 1960’s, the political climate is shaky, there’s civil unrest, freedom and equality issues erupt everywhere from film to music to out in the streets.
On police records, the Green Hornet is actually a wanted criminal, a master manipulator, a crime boss who has his fingers in every pie. In reality, The Green Hornet is actually Britt Reid, owner-publisher of the Daily Sentinel. Alongside him rides his partner Kato, who is not only is a martial artist of unsurpassed prowess, but a skilled driver, and educated engineer as well. Their goal is to destroy crime from within by posing as criminals themselves!
The Matthew Baugh story, the Win Scott Eckert story, and the Howard Hopkins stories are sequels to their stories in the first volume!
You can learn more about The Green Hornet Casefiles and view cover art at http://moonstonebooks.com/.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
Stephen Colbert, we have your writer for “The Chronicles of Amber”!
January 20, 2023
The Law Is A Ass #460: Those “For Life” Sentences Are Nonsense
February 24, 2022
