In March, Airship 27 launched its 45th title (the 4th of 2012) about a 1930’s pulp detective named Rick Ruby. All Pulp sat down with co-creators/writers Bobby Nash and Sean Taylor, writers Andrew Salmon and William Patrick Maynard, and editor/publisher Ron Fortier to delve into The Ruby Files.
AP: Tell us a little about yourself.
Ron: I’ve been a professional writer of comics and genre fiction for over thirty five years now. Created Airship 27 Productions seven years ago with my pal, artist Rob Davis. This book is the 45th title in our current catalog of New Pulp fiction.
Andrew: My name is Andrew Salmon and I live and write in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I discovered Classic Pulp back in 2000 with Doc Savage and have been hooked ever since. When the New Pulp movement began in earnest 4 or 5 years ago, I had the great good fortune to write pulp stories of my own featuring classic, public domain characters like Sherlock Holmes, Secret Agent X, Dan Fowler and Jim Anthony as well as new creations like the Ghost Squad (with Ron Fortier) and Rick Ruby to name a few.
My short stories and novellas have since been nominated twice for the Pulp Factory Award (winning once for “The Adventure of the Locked Room” in Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective Volume One from Airship 27), three times for a Pulp Ark Award and once for the Ellis Award, which is the Canadian equivalent of the Edgar.
Writing pulp has been very rewarding, an experience I wouldn’t have missed for the world. I love writing pulp and have BIG plans for the future.
William: Hi, I’m William Patrick Maynard. I have the honor to be authorized by Sax Rohmer’s Literary Estate to continue the Fu Manchu thrillers for Black Coat Press. I am fortunate to have been nominated for both a Rondo and a Pulp Factory Award. I also contribute an article on all things pulp each week for The Black Gate. My short fiction has appeared in GASLIGHT GROTESQUE and TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN. THE RUBY FILES is my first work for Airship 27.
Sean Taylor
Sean: I write stories. I write them in comic books, graphic novels, magazines, book anthologies and novels. I write them for money, and I write them for fun — both at the same time. I’m fortunate like that.
Bobby: I’m Bobby Nash. I write stories for novels, comic books, short stories, novellas, graphic novels, and have been dabbling with screenplays of late as well. I started writing pulp stories back when Airship 27 launched with its first title, Lance Star: Sky Ranger.
AP: What attracted you to The Ruby Files anthology?
Ron: I’ve always been a sucker for old fashion private tales whether it was Sam Spade or Mike Hammer, I love the tough guy heroes of fiction. We’d done some different genres in our line-up at Airship 27 but never a private eye series.
Bobby Nash
Andrew: I was a huge fan of hardboiled fiction long before I stumbled across classic pulp heroes like The Shadow and Doc Savage. I’m steeped in Cornell Woolrich, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, Ross Macdonald, Donald Hamilton, Dan J. Marlowe, John D. MacDonald, Ed McBain, Edwards S. Aarons, Richard Prather, Brett Halliday and so many others.
So when I got wind of Rick Ruby and discovered that an invite to race down the dark alleys of Ruby’s world was out there, I jumped, baby! Writing classic pulp characters has been a blast but I realized immediately that I hadn’t used my hardboiled voice in far too long. Well, with Ruby I’d have a chance to cut loose. No way was I going to miss it.
Ron Fortier
Added to that was the level of talent associated with the project. With Bobby Nash and Sean Taylor at the helm, the book couldn’t miss. Throw in brilliant artwork from Mark Wheatley (cover) and stunning interiors courtesy of Rob Moran along with the top New Pulp writing talent and a first-rate publishing outfit like Airship 27 and I could see right off that the book was going to be one for the ages. It was a perfect storm. I dove in with both feet and had a blast!
William: Hammett and Chandler and Ross Macdonald are a part of my essential appetite for fiction. I feel the same way about JOHNNY DOLLAR, SAM SPADE, and RICHARD DIAMOND for Old Time Radio and PETER GUNN and RICHARD DIAMOND for Golden Age TV. This was a natural fit. I’m very grateful to Ron Fortier for giving me a shot at demonstrating I could do something other than Yellow Peril thrillers. One of Airship 27’s strengths is the fact that they don’t try to pigeonhole talent. Encouraging versatility and believing in giving new voices a chance to be heard is definitely part of what helps Airship 27 make its mark alongside those stunning covers.
Andrew Salmon
Sean: Noir detectives? Duh. Next question.
Seriously, I’m a sucker for the noir P.I. One off my favorite series of a books at the moment is the Hard Case Crime line of books. Both the classic ones and the brand new stuff written in that style. Some of my favorite films are noir films, and the characters really resonate with me. The emotionally tortured, morally conflicted leading Private Dick, the femme fatale with legs up to where she hides the revolver, the dirty cops, the gangsters… what’s not to love?
And on top of all that, getting to do the book meant renewed life for the dead concept Bobby and I had originally conceived to tell stories of Richard Diamond. And let’s be honest, I much prefer Rick Ruby to Richard Diamond now anyway.
William Patrick Maynard
Bobby: I blame Sean Taylor. No. Really. I was slowly digging myself out of a backlog of stories under the weight of that old dreaded deadline doom when I noticed the discussion on The Pulp Factory Yahoo Group about detectives. I was intrigued, but was way too busy to add more to my plate at that time. Then Sean goes and throws down the gauntlet by suggesting that he and I co-create the character that became Rick Ruby. How could I refuse? So, yeah, it’s all Sean Taylor’s fault. (grins)
AP: The characters that fill the pages of The Ruby Files are classic archetypes from pulp and noir detective stories. What attracts you to these types of characters and stories as a writer and a reader?
Ron: Growing up watching those classic black and white gangster and noire films with actors like James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, I loved the edge gray world they existed in. Not so much shiny white knights as tarnished souls in search of redemption.
Andrew: They’re real. It’s as simple as that. Often in hero fiction we forget that our stalwart defenders against injustice stare long and hard into the abyss. This affects them, how they think, how they act and their attitudes towards the world they inhabit. Sure, they can often be buried in cliches and stereotypes when written poorly, but they provide a wealth of great opportunities when handled properly.
As a writer, these are characters you can sink your teeth into. You can explore what makes them tick, how they survive what the world has thrown at them. Also the detective tale allows you to shine the spotlight on aspects of the human condition that we all experience in our daily lives to one extent or another.
As a reader, hardboiled fiction works as a kind of ‘what if’ morality tale. We’ve all got that boss we’d like to strangle or that co-worker who screwed us out of that promotion. But we don’t murder them and try to get away with it, do we? Or, maybe we do… why are their sirens outside my door just now?
Also, one does not have to look too long to see injustice in the real world and, sadly, a lot of the time the bad guys get away with it. Hardboiled detective fiction reminds us, in the fictional world, that there are people out there who will catch crooks, find kidnapped loved ones, bring murderers to justice and so on. Hardboiled fiction is great escapist fiction and we all need that sometimes.
William: It’s a simpler world without DNA testing and political correctness, but it’s still modern enough to turn an honest critical eye on capitalism and human nature at its worst. Chandler really laid it all out in black and white in his “Simple Art of Murder” essay – it’s all about the knight errant who rises above the dark streets he walks. That moral complexity hooks you every time. For me, hardboiled detective fiction or noir thrillers are pulp fiction at its purest.
Sean: I still remember with gusto the first time I saw Bogey as Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep and as Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon. Just one cocky line to the coppers, one snarky come-on to the femme fatale, one left hook to a crook’s glass jaw, and I knew I was hooked. (I learned how to whistle too, for the record, thanks to Bogey’s costar, but that’s another tale for the telling.) The addiction only grew stronger when I discovered Stacey Keach as Mike Hammer (in both TV versions, thank you very much), and later, the old radio show and television show featuring Richard Diamond.
There was something about these renegade men that appealed to the kid in me who needed someone not only to root for but to try to emulate. Sure, we all knew that smoking was bad for you and that you shouldn’t treat a lady like sexual property, but when the private dicks did it, it seemed somehow… innocent… as if a mere throwback to an era when it was all okay and kind of, well, expected.
Of course, looking back, I know now it was pure fantasy.
In reality, private detectives seldom got the girl, more often than not got stuck photographing cheating lovers, and rarely got to beat the cops out of any famous murder cases. And they never, ever, ever had leggy dames with curves like the coast of Florida lining up outside their offices for double entendres, sultry seductions and hard-boiled adventures.
Bobby: There’s something so exciting about watching the harried p.i. get in over his head and take his lumps while trying to solve a case he would rather not have taken in the first place, but only did so because he couldn’t resist a damsel in distress, even though every instinct he had told him that she couldn’t be trusted. As a reader, those stories are fun to read. I also love seeing them in TV and movies. Writing them was simply too much fun.
AP: Tell us a bit about your Ruby Files story and some of the challenges or unexpected surprises you encountered in Rick Ruby’s world? Ron, can you give us some insights about editing and publishing this volume?
Ron: I knew going in this was going to be a fun job for me. As each of the four writers were old pros, I had no anxieties their stories wouldn’t be great. It was the range of themes that took me by surprise, from Andrew’s delving into Rick’s past concerning his father’s death in WW I to Bill taking him to Hollywood in the heyday of movie making. Each story was, as cover Mark Wheatley so aptly put it on the cover, a real gem!
Andrew: My entry is called “WOUNDS” and it was an honor to learn that the story would kick off the anthology. It explores to some extent what I was talking about earlier. The characters inhabiting hardboiled tales are often broken but most, if not all, have been wounded in some way. I wanted to explore that in my tale. The character bible sketched out that Ruby’s father had died in WWI and I hit on a way to touch on this in the tale as Ruby tries to hunt down the people responsible for a cop’s murder.
It was a challenge getting into Rick’s head as he was not a character of my own creation. I wanted to do justice to what Bobby and Sean created and stick to their guidelines to the best of my ability. The hardboiled world was one I was very familiar with so I had no trouble slipping into that however.
When I hit my stride on the tale, I was surprised at how easily I was able to tweak some of the hardboiled tropes we all know and love. The result is a tale I hope will feel familiar to fans of this wonderful genre but will also bring something new to the table. Also the ending of the tale is not what readers would call typical for the genre. I wanted my story to hit and hit hard. I pulled no punches. That to me is what good hardboiled fiction is all about. Only readers can decide if I succeeded or not.
One of the big surprises of writing the tale was how many pop culture easter eggs simply dropped into Ruby’s world. They were not intentional but just fell into place while I was writing the first draft. Savvy readers will be able to spot them. Sorry, no hints. But, hey, Easter isn’t that far away. What better time for a little easter egg hunt? Can you spot them all? Happy hunting!
William: My story, “Tulsa Blackie’s Last Dive” is a fish out of water story. We take Rick out of his comfort zone of New York and drop him into the artificial utopia of 1930s Hollywood. We get to see the glitz and the grime underneath. Rick has enough trouble being underestimated at the best of times, it’s even worse out among Tinsel Town sharks.
No real challenges fleshing out the story. I was working with a great character bible and I immediately felt I knew Rick so it was easy enough to drop him into a case in a town where everyone is a fish out of water (whether they’re immigrants or small town dreamers) trying to act like they belong. This was pure pleasure to write. I love THE RUBY FILES and hope the series takes off big for Airship 27.
Sean: My story formed in my head the minute Bobby and I finished fleshing out the character. I saw the tawdry love quadrangle (love square?), the leggy jazz crooning dame to mix up Rick’s thinking, and the way that a man in that kind of situation just needed one little match to set off one heck of an explosion. I couldn’t help but make sure she carried a full box of matches, just in case.
But if you’re asking for specifics, my tale puts Rick in the middle of a defecting German scientist, a worried niece, and a lethal level of inheritance. And that’s never a safe place to be.
Bobby: My story for The Ruby Files volume 1 is called “The Case of the Wayward Brother.” On the surface, the case seemed simple enough. All Rick Ruby had to do was track down the runaway brother of the sexy socialite from California then collect his fee. Of course, in Rick Ruby’s world, even the simplest case is never that simple.
AP: Where can readers find and learn more about you and your work?
Ron: We have a brand new website for all things Airship 27 Productions and we hope our readers, old and new will check it out. Not only that, but register as well. That way they can keep abreast of each new book we release during the year. http://robmdavis.com/Airship27Hangar/airship27hangar.html
William: Well, I have a blog, http://www.setisays.blogspot.com/ that cross-posts my articles for http://blackgate.com/ and archives the articles I wrote for http://thecimmerian.com/ I use Facebook as a free marketing tool rather than social networking so anyone is welcome to befriend me there. Outside of my work, I’m a husband and father and keep that side of my life private from my writing.
Thanks, I enjoyed being part of this.
Sean: Are you kidding?! I’m all over the place. For more information visit http://www.taylorverse.com/ or my blog, Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fisted Action at http://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/. Or visit any social networking site from Facebook to Twitter and look for seanhtaylor and the new Rick Ruby site at http://rickruby.blogspot.com/. I’m easy… to find, I mean.
AP: And finally, Ron, Bobby, and Sean, what are the future plans for Rick Ruby and his companions? Can we expect a return visit to Belle’s Bar?
Ron: Alan Porter has already turned in a wild and wacky Rick Ruby tale for Volume Two, so yeah, we’re rolling again. Going to be interesting to see what kind of new trouble old Rick gets himself into next time.
Sean: Oh, hell yeah! I’m already hard at work plotting a new adventure to see which sultry dame will turn Rick’s head next and get him in a world of trouble. Readers of the book already know that one of Rick’s regular affairs doesn’t sit well in 1930s society, and succumbing to racial “experimentation” can be the kind of thing than can get a man and his girl killed in two shakes of a lamb’s tale. So yeah, we’re definitely heading back to Belle’s for good times, strong drinks, and fast bullets.
Bobby: I’ve already plotted a new Rick Ruby story called “The Life” that has Rick running afoul of a high-end prostitute who may or may not be more than she appears. It should be a fun time.
THE RUBY FILES PRESS RELEASE: GANGSTERS & GUNMOLLS
Airship 27 Productions dons its tough-guy mantle, as it premiers its newest pulp star in THE RUBY FILES. It was the 1930s and America was locked in the grip of the Great Depression. Gangsters controlled the major cities while outlaws roamed the rural back country. It was a time of Speak Easy gin-joints, Tommy-guns, fast cars and even faster dames. This is the world of New York based Private Investigator Rick Ruby, a world he is all too familiar with. From the back alleys of Gotham to the gold laden boulevards of Hollywood, Ruby is the shamus with a nose for trouble and an insatiable appetite for justice. So if you’ve got a taste for hot lead and knuckle sandwiches, tug your cuffs, adjust your fedora and light up a Lucky, a brand new pulp detective is coming your way.
Created by pulp masters, Bobby Nash & Sean Taylor, Rick Ruby echoes the tales of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe while offering up his own brand of two-fisted action. Joined by fellow pulp smiths Andrew Salmon & William Patrick Maynard, these modern scribes of purple prose present a quartet of tales to delight any true lover of private eye fiction. This instant classic features a gorgeous Mark Wheatley cover and eight evocative black and white illustrations by Rob Moran.
This is a book that harkens back to the classic black and white Warner Brothers gangster movies that featured James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson to name a few. The atmosphere is gritty with a no-nonsense hero pulp fans are going to applaud from the first story to the last. And when that last tale comes to a close, you can bet we haven’t seen the last of Rick Ruby, Private Eye.
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.
Airship 27 Productions announces the release a brand new fantasy novel by noted comic book writer, R.A. Jones; “Deathwalker.” Jones is best remembered for his early work for Malibu Comics where he created the adult action series, “Scimitar” along with artist Rob Davis. Now he turns his imagination to a different kind of hero, this one inspired by a certain Robert E. Howard barbarian.
While on his vision quest, the young Cheyenne brave High Bird encounters the spirit of Death. The powerful wraith recruits the boy as his new agent in the world and High Bird returns to his tribe altered forever as Deathwalker. When the Cheyenne become the target of a vengeful Pawnee Shaman, Stands Alone, only Deathwalker can stand between this evil sorcerer and the total destruction of his people.
Writer R.A. Jones has woven a new and exciting fantasy set against the background of authentic Native American lore and culture. He dares to imagine what this wild untamed land would have become had there been no conquests by outside civilizations beyond the great waters. Here is an old world re-envisioned in a bold new action packed adventure worthy of pulp writers such as Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Featuring stunning cover art by Laura Givens with interior illustrations by Michael Neno.
Airship27 is proud to present R.A. Jones’ DEATHWALKER, another original and quality title in the New Pulp movement.
AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – Pulp Fiction For A New Generation!
After months of hard work, Rob Davis, the Art Director has finished work on the new official Airship 27 Productions website.Titled the Airship 27 Hangar, the site features two all important links.
The first brings visitors to the PDF store where all Airship 27 pulp titles are available for $3 dollars as PDF downloads for their PCs or various e-readers.
The second brings readers to the Airship 27 Print-On-Demand shop at Indy Planet.Indy Planet is a division of Ka-Blam, one of the leading print-on-demand operations in the publishing world today.
“Now our fans can find all books with one click of their mouse button,” Airship 27 Managing Editor-in-Chief Ron Fortier announced.“These new internet shops have allowed us to drop the prices of our product while maintaining the high standard of quality our readers have come to expect from Airship 27 Productions.These steps insure our continued growth with dozens of great new titles now in the planning stages.”
“Expect our first title of 2012 to be released within the next week,” Fortier continued.“Both Rob and me are very, very excited about the future of Airship 27 Productions.”
Listen to tonight’s live episode of the PULPED! radio show tonight at 8 p.m. EST at http://www.tmvcafe.com/ to discuss the recently released Airship 27 Presents: All-Star Pulp Comics comic book anthology from Red Bud Studios.
Press Release:
YOU HAVE TO TUNE INTO THE FIRST EVER PULPED! SPECIAL TONIGHT! Two Hours of Pulpy Goodness talking to the creators and publishers of ALL STAR PULP COMICS!
Airship 27’s own Ron Fortier and Rob Davis will be on tonight with the crew of talented writers they recruited for this Pulp event! Barry Reese, Bobby Nash, Sean Taylor, and Adam L. Garcia will join Tommy Hancock and Derrick Ferguson tonight to discuss their stories in ALL STAR PULP COMICS and comics and pulp goodness all around! http://www.tmvcafe.com/ at 7 PM CST, 8 PM EST!
TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT-Reviews of All Things Pulp by Tommy Hancock
MYSTERY MEN (& WOMEN) VOLUME TWO
Written by Various Authors
Cover by Mike Fyles
Interior Art and Design by Rob Davis
Published by Airship 27 Productions
New Pulp is such an interesting creature.It is organic, something sprouting from the past, but as it grows and blossoms, it becomes its own thing.And there are Publishers and Writers today who continue to care for this beautiful thing we call New Pulp, making sure that it remains available, that it stands out as innovative and different, not derivative and unoriginal.A leading Publisher in doing just that is Airship 27 Productions, a company that divides itself between New Pulp based on Public Domain pulp characters as well as new and original characters blazing trails through New Pulp.
One of the titles that showcases the movement of original characters in Airship is their MYSTERY MEN (& WOMEN) series of books.Four stories in the first volume introduced the idea and it has been continued in a second volume.Overall, the book is enjoyable, a hoot to read, and wonderful to view.Individually, the stories vary in style and quality.
THE RED BADGE ATTACKS- by Mark Halegua and Andrew Salmon
This is not only the debut of the vigilante known as The Red Badge, but it’s also the first story published by the Badge’s creator, Mark Halegua.The premise is simple.A vigilante is in the city taking out the bad guys as quickly and violently as possible. Throw into that the fact that the identity of the Badge is a mystery, even up until the very end, but a mystery with a myriad of suspects.
The Red Badge has definite potential as a concept.The path traveled by this story is well worn, but its also one that could be done with twists and turns.Unfortunately, that’s not done nearly enough with this tale.Yes, some of the action scenes sing like a chorus of tommy guns, but others drag like they’re falling on dead chambers.The same with the dialogue-There’s a few solid exchanges, but overall it’s stilted and weak.The strongest point of this story is you can see what Halegua (with help from Salmon) wants the Red Badge to be, which gives one hope he may get there in future tales.
TWO OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT
LAIR OF THE MOLE PEOPLE- by Greg Bastianelli
One of the neatest stories in Pulp is when you take a person in an occupation that isn’t cop, adventurer, spy, and you throw them into a Pulp over the top adventure tale and it works!Bastianelli does this with his character Jack Minch, Ace Reporter in this tale and does it so well and with such skill that the story was over before I even realized it.The premise, again like with the previous story, is straightforward.Minch opens a message from a woman who had left it behind to be opened if she disappeared, which she did.This action leads this spunky, two fisted typewriter jockey into a world beneath the city, as indicated by the title, and at that point, the real fun begins.
This story crackles with solid characterization, strong dialogue, and enough jump-from-around the corner action to keep any Pulp fan enticed and most definitely wanting more!
FIVE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT
DOCK DOYLE AND THE WANDERING CITY by Adam Lance Garcia
This story gave me fits.Here’s why.
Dock Doyle is a great American Hero and Movie Star, legends galore attached to his name.And this story takes him on an adventure deep into the Jungle for what is apparently another film job, but Doyle finds out far too late that things are not at all what they seem.And the reader finds that out as well, even about the central character himself.
This is quite possibly one of the best stories I have ever read.No kidding.Looking at it as an avid bibliophile who reads across all genres and recognizes all the movements, nuances, and influences in literature, mainstream and otherwise, this story is one of the best examples of post modern deconstruction I have found in a long time.
Looking at it as a reviewer of Pulp….It isn’t.It simply isn’t a Pulp Tale.
Don’t get me wrong.Some key elements are woven in.Action.Quick Pacing.Exotic locales.Defiance of death.All of that is there.Where this fails as a Pulp story is in the characters, especially the lead himself. Garcia paints vivid pictures and builds characters from the ground up.But they’re not Pulp characters.And trust me, I don’t feel Pulp characters have to be two dimensional or all good or all bad….but with Dock Doyle, there’s far too much gray even in the lead character…especially in the lead character…for this to be a Pulp Tale.
THREE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT- It ain’t Pulp, but it is damned good.
A MAN CALLED MONGREL by Derrick Ferguson
One of the great things about a good author…no, about a great author, is that he/she can deliver consistently, even when they are writing characters with some similarities in the same field of literature.And not just consistently in terms of quality, but also consistently in terms of differentiation-in making their work stand out solidly from what has come before.
Derrick Ferguson is just such an author.A master of the art.
Mongrel is a member of a family who essentially has a corner on the genius gene pool. When an attempt is made on the life of a family member, Mongrel swings into action against a Family that is focused on taking down leading corporations in the world via super science.But not while Mongrel Henderson is on the job.
This tale is raucous, over the top, and yet grounded in strong values.Family connections, pure heroism, and the battle of intellect versus emotion are all not only clearly on display in this story, but turned up to Eleven and broadcast in every single word.These characters, particularly Mongrel, exude excitement, action, as well as humanity.Mongrel can take on nearly any baddie that wants to stand with him, but he still cowers when called down by his mother.Ferguson’s strong suit in all his work is that the action is relentless, the violence is pointed and necessary, and the characters ooze the good and bad of simply being human, although the smartest, toughest, and most righteous or vile humans ever seen anywhere.This story stands out as the best in the entire volume and likely in the entire MYSTERY MEN (& WOMEN) series to date.
FIVE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT
Design and Art-Even though I said what I did about Dock Doyle’s debut story, the first image of Dock to be seen, the cover of this volume, is phenomenal.Award winning artist Mike Fyles delivers once again and proves he understands the concept of what Pulp covers are and what they need to convey.
Likewise the interior art and design of the book by Rob Davis does just what both of those things are supposed to.Davis’ work supports all the stories, the images bringing out in wonderful line work and iconic imagery exact moments from the stories and the format of the book makes one feel as if they’re holding a Pulp from a news kiosk back in the Thirties.Even the back cover design as well as the ads included add to that authentic feel.
FIVE OUT FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT
Even though every story wasn’t a grand slam and one might be better suited in another volume, MYSTERY MEN (& WOMEN) VOLUME TWO as a whole delivers.
This massive comic one shot features 58 pages of wall to wall pulp adventure in graphic form. Seven old and new pulp heroes as written by today’s most exciting new pulp writers and brought to glorious graphic reality by super talented artists.
Here are the Green Lama, Domino Lady, Jim Anthony Super Detective to name only a few. The volume also contains the very first ever comic adventure of Barry Reese’s highly popular hero, the Rook.
The color cover featuring the Green Lama & the Domino Lady is by Jeff Butler.
Stories include: •Green Lama by Adam Garcia & Mike Fyles • Jim Anthony by Erwin K. Roberts & Pedro Cruz • Black Bat by C. William Russette & Wayne Beeman • The Blue Lady by Sean Taylor & James Ritchey III • The Rook by Barry Reese & Craig Wilson • Secret Agent “X” by Bobby Nash & Jeremy McHugh • Domino Lady by Percival Constantine, Rock Baker & Jeff Austin • Cover by Jeff Butler
Standard Sized Trade Paperback Black & White Page Count: 58 $6.99 POD
A collection of stories in varied styles from retro to new age digital painting here comes a collection of Pulp Age characters in comic storytelling- some in that form for the very first time. New Pulp writers and artists bring you stories with fists flying and action galore. Join the fun in ALL-STAR PULP COMICS #1.
Bringing together some of the most intriguing characters from the Golden Age of the Pulps in comics form- some for the very first time!
Airship 27 Productions Air Chief, Ron Fortier announced that three more Airship 27 titles have been posted at Indy Planet, the new POD site where the entire Airship 27 library is being re-released. This is in addition to the mass market Cornerstone Book Publishers editions and Airship 27’s digital editions of each title.
Airship 27’s latest release was CHALLENGER STORM – Isle of Blood by Don Gates & Michael Kaluta, SHERLOCK HOLMES Consulting Detective Vol II, and GREEN LAMA UNBOUND by Adam Garcia.
This brings to 11 the total of our 42 titles Rob Davis has been able to get up at Indy Planet in a relatively short time. Come Jan 2012 Rob will be creating the Airship 27 Super Site where all our books, of all formats, will be available at one handy location for all our fans to find. Thanks for you continually support.
Airship 27 Productions and Cornerstone Book Publishers are excited to announce the release of their third Jim Anthony Super Detective book, a full length novel, THE MARK OF TERROR.
From the early days of his crime fighting career, comes this brand new adventure of the man known as Jim Anthony; Super Detective. Half Irish, half Comanche and All American, Jim Anthony finds himself caught up in a world-wide conspiracy of murder and carnage as two ancient Greek cults square off against each other in modern times; each vying for world dominance over the other.
When several of New York’s leading business men suddenly go insane and begin committing suicide, the police are baffled and reluctantly look to the Super Detective for help. Soon, with the aid of a renowned archeological historian and a spunky, fearless female reporter, Jim Anthony is quickly caught up in a mystery like no other he has ever faced before. With danger from deadly masked assassins at every turn, the famous adventurer’s own life is soon hanging in the balance as he becomes the primary target of both warring cults.
Acclaimed New Pulp scribe, Joshua Reynolds delivers a fast paced, non-stop action thriller that is pure pulp gold. “This is Reynold’s second Jim Anthony story for us,” reported Airship 27 Productions’ Managing Editor Ron Fortier. “It’s very clear in how well he writes this classic hero that he has a genuine affection for the character and that comes across on every page.” Accompanied by nine illustrations from artist Isaac Nacilla and a stunning cover by painter Jeff Herndon, with designs by Rob Davis, JIM ANTHONY – SUPER DETECTIVE – THE MARK OF TERROR is the latest in an on-going series of brand new Jim Anthony adventures.
Cornerstone Book Publishers also publishes Masonic and esoteric books, selected pulp fiction, art literature, limited children’s books, and poetry collections. For more information about Cornerstone, go to www.cornerstonepublishers.com.
Airship 27 packages and publishes anthologies and novels in the pulp magazine tradition. In addition to Weird Horror Tales, Weird Horror Tales: The Feasting, and Weird Horror Tales: Light’s End, Airship 27 has released Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, a series of “Captain Hazzard” pulp thrillers, more pulp fiction in The Green Lam,a and Secret Agent X. For more information on Airship 27, go to www.airship27.com.
AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – Pulp Fiction for a New Generation!
