Tagged: Ron Fortier

Ed Catto’s Holiday Gift Guide 2017

Yesterday The New York Times devoted a full page to this perplexing moment in Geek Culture we find ourselves in: a time when there are “too many versions” of Batman on the big and little screen. This persnickety topic is worth a deeper dive at a later date, but the big headline for this gift-giving season is that are a cornucopia of options for Geek Culture lovers. I could devote a whole column to Batman stuff available, but instead let me just touch on the Caped Crusader and instead offer up a broad range of Geek Culture gift ideas.

I love just about all of the Titan publications, and their merchandise is quite impressive as well. Their list of new goodies includes everything from The Beatles to Preacher to Pulp Fiction to Kill Bill! Titan’s Yellow Submarine vinyl figures blind box series is especially fun for Beatles fans as it includes obscure and esoteric figures. And each one looks fab.

Eaglemoss creates so many cool products for Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, DC characters, Marvel characters (via their chess set series), Walking Dead and Alien that it’s hard to choose favorites. But let me spotlight a couple I really like – their new Batman Animated Series figures and their Star Trek starships. One spectacular item is the new 11” classic Enterprise. Each item comes with intensely detailed guides that are produced by professionals who know their fandom.

Dan Gearino educates and entertains in Comic Shop The Retail Mavericks Who Gave Us a New Geek Culture, recently published by Ohio University’s Swallow Press. It’s an engaging read that explains the birth of comics’ direct market and also provides up-to-the-minute profiles of retailers and their comic stores.

In Lady Action: The Sand of Forever, author Ron Fortier delivered a thriller cocktail that’s one part Modesty Blaise, one part 007 and one part Indiana Jones. It gets even better, as Airship 27 just released the audio book version. I think Kalinda Little does a superb job reading it, but find out for yourself here.

Michael Eury’s Back Issue Magazine celebrates comics of the 70s, 80s and today with insightful articles and columns. Sometimes I’m afraid to pick up an issue because I can never put it down! An annual subscription http://tinyurl.com/BackIssueSub makes an enduring gift that fans will appreciate throughout the year.

FanSets is a company run by fans for fans – and it shows. They have created gorgeous enamel pins featuring characters from Star Trek, Valiant, DC, Harry Potter, Firefly and more. I am in awe of their choices for DC characters pins like the Golden Age Sandman, Saturn Girl, and the grown-up Robin of Earth Two. It’s hard not to agree with Star Trek fans that this series of pin, including Discovery, look incredible too. Available at your local comic shop (look for their new displays!) or FanSets.com.

John Siuntres’ Word Balloon Podcast offers one-on-one interviews with the industry’s most interesting creators. Siuntres, a longtime radio professional, knows how to get folks talking. I listen to this show to find out more from creators I like and to learn about new things from creators with whom I’m less familiar. The podcast is free, but you could make someone a part of the League of Word Balloon Listeners with a gift donation. Find out more at http://wordballoon.blogspot.com.

This fall, I bought a copy of Classic Comics Press’ Kelly Green: The Complete Collection by Stan Drake and Leonard Starr from Emil Novak at Queen City Comics. I promptly wrote about how much I enjoyed it. Classic Comics Press Publisher Charles Pelto does a great job with all his books and you can’t go wrong with any of them for gifting.

I haven’t completely finished Craig Yoe’s Super Weird Heroes even though I wrote about it earlier this year. That’s because it’s so much fun that I just don’t want it end. Another Yoe book, Behaving MADly is a refreshing read for hard core and casual fans. It’s a wonderful book all about the many MAD magazine knockoffs. I gifted a copy to my pal Walshy (who is completely nuts too) and he was thrilled.

The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide always seemed like a “must have,” but each year publisher J.C.Vaughn and his merry band make it even more and more “must have-ier”! I especially liked Jim Steranko’s Batman cover on this year’s edition. Oh wait, it’s another version of Batman!

All the best to you and yours this Yuletide Season!

Ed Catto: Ron Fortier, Pulp Fiction & Geek Culture

Plates

Geek Culture is a big term that’s used to describe various aspects of Pop Culture. Comics, superhero movies, games and graphic novels are at the center of it all, but it’s a big crazy quilt composed of so much more: anime, cosplay, RPG’s… the list goes on and on. This week, I sat down with one of the standard bearers of another flavor of Geek Culture – modern pulp fiction. Ron Fortier is a writer, a publisher and an all around good guy to chat with over a beer.

620923Ed Catto: Ron, it’s a pleasure to have this opportunity to speak with you. I was first introduced to your comics writing, and especially loved your work, on Now Comics’ Green Hornet series. Can you provide me with a little background on your comics career and that series in particular?

Ron Fortier: Hi Ed, happy to be here, my friend. As I recall, I came home from the military in 1968 and immediately got back into comic collecting… and writing. Really wanted to break into the business and all that happened in 1976 when I sold my first story to Charlton Comics out of Connecticut. Shortly after that I was approached Mike Friedrich of Star-Reach Agency and signed on as a client. It was Mike who prompted me to go to the San Diego Con in 1989. There I met the good people at Now Comics and landed the job of writing the Terminator series for them. Before leaving the con, I gave them my proposal for a new Green Hornet comic series. Four months later they called to say they’d gotten the license, based on my proposal, and gave me the go ahead to start writing the book for them.

EC: As a guy named Catto, I’ve always liked the Green Hornet’s sidekick, Kato. You introduced some fresh innovations in the Now Comics series, and I feel your clever innovations have almost become “industry standards” for reboots. What do you think?

HornetRF: Honestly, Ed, I think my major innovation was eschewing the whole reboot from scratch idea in the first place and instead incorporate all the various incarnations that came before. By creating a family saga that started with the characters from their radio days through the two cliffhanger serials and the popular 60s TV series, I was purposely attracting all the Green Hornet fans to one book. So you could say, I inadvertently invented what has since become known as “legacy characters” in the industry.

EC: In retrospect, it seemed pretty gutsy to develop a new publishing imprint like Now. What do you think they did right and what could they have done better?

RF: That’s a rather easy one. Now followed the old 60s Dell Comics formula of going after licensed properties from film and TV. By the time we did the Green Hornet for them, they were already doing comics based on Ghostbusters, Speed Racer, Terminator and Fright Night to name a few. If something is popular in one medium, you’ve a pretty good shot at selling it in another. As to what they did wrong, well that’s the business end. They couldn’t manage their cash flow and soon were not paying their creators or distributors, which eventually cause them to go into bankruptcy. Really a shame. With smart business practices they could still be around today.

Air-16EC: The Green Hornet wasn’t really a Pulp character, having been created for radio, but at some point you became enamored with Pulp. What sparked that for you?

RF: Anyone who is a true comic book fan will invariably learn its history and discover comics evolved from the hero pulps of the 1930s and 40s. When those pulps died out, many of the pulp writers and artists gravitated to comics after World War II. Thing is there has always been an active pulp fandom and a little over ten years ago, just out of curiosity, I attended one of the very last Pulp Cons in Dayton, Ohio. From that came the idea of bringing back these great classic characters in brand new stories and thus was born Airship 27 Productions.

EC: Airship 27 is a fascinating publishing imprint, and obviously a labor of love.

What’s the best part about Airship and what have enjoyed the most?

RF: Well, as I just said, getting to bring back such great pulp characters to an entire new audience of readers has been truly gratifying while at the same time we think we’ve given the entire pulp fandom a much needed shot in the arm in keeping alive and healthy for future generations of genre readers. And perhaps the most rewarding part of publishing has been our opportunity to give new, super talented young writers and artists their first big breaks in establishing their careers. You just can’t put a price on that.

Haz3EC: And for Airship 27, what do you have planned for the future?

RF: Hmm, I guess we just want to keep the old Airship 27 flying as long as we can and that means embracing the various media venues out there. Aside from traditional book publishing, we’ve become stable of the big pulp shows and have started branching out to comic cons to show off New Pulp to comic fans. Four years ago we began doing digital copies of our titles and Kindle sales exploded through the roof. Now, within a few weeks, fans will be able to get audio book via our new deal with Radio Archives. Every single one of our titles will soon be available as an audio book. What’s next beyond that? Movies? TV? Who knows?  If you are going to dream, I say dream big.

EC: Airship 27 is a big supporter of Pulp conventions. Can you compare and contrast them to comic conventions? Are they really just another flavor of Geek Culture?

RF: Pulp fandom is really much smaller than general comic fandom but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Whereas most comic cons today have evolved away from comics to become media cultural events focusing primarily on films and TV rather than comics, pulp cons have remained true to their subject. Oh sure, they do sell books, DVDs, posters etc., but their continued reason for existence is pulp magazines and books …old and new. If you’ve never been to a pulp con, I recommend both the Windy City Pulp & Paper show in Chicago in the spring and Pulp Fest in Columbus Ohio in late summer. Both are wonderful shows and tons of fun.

EC: Tommy Hancock is one of the leading voices for and supporters of New Pulp Fiction. Can you tell me a little about him?

RF: Tommy got his start in pulps by submitting a western story to Airship 27 Productions. We hit it off immediately and after his story was published in our Masked Rider – Tales of the Wild West Vol One, Tommy was hooked on pulp writing. But if you know Tommy, he never settles for just one taste of anything. Within months of that story’s publication, Tommy went out and launched his own new pulp company and called it Pro Se. And yes, they are by far our main competitor in the field and we love it. Why? Because having another quality publishing outfit doing New Pulp raises the stakes for all of us, pushing us to do better and better books and thus the readers of pulp fiction benefit. Tommy has become one of the leading proponents of this movement and remains a dear and close friend to this day.

EC: Thanks, much, Ron.

RF: This was fun – thanks, Ed. Only next time we do this, I’ll buy the beer.

 

Mike Gold: Forward, Into The Past!

Regular readers of this space know my first true love is the city of Chicago, and that I’ll use any excuse to cop a visit to my fatherland. That’s where I was this past week, and I did not need an excuse. The 15th annual Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention was in town, and, therefore, so was I.

It’s a great chance to meet up with old friends and make a couple new ones, all the while gawking at ancient publications printed on ever-deteriorating paper, more permanent facsimile reprints of same, and brand new efforts that replicate the mood, techniques and often the characters of those thrilling days of yesteryear. As my pal Jim Wisniewski says, the comradery echoes the days when comic book conventions were social occasions accessible to all… and were actually about comic books.

pulp-cover-5For the few of you who may be unaware – and who have yet to obtain the first volume of Jim Steranko’s History of Comics – comic books characters and comic book publishers got their start in those sense-of-wonder inspiring lurid tales of adventure. The Shadow, Doc Savage, John Carter of Mars, Nick Carter and The Spider, among many others, begat super-hero comics. Archie, DC Comics, and Marvel Comics, among many others that did not survive Fredric Wertham et al, got their start by publishing pulp magazines. It’s our roots.

And it’s slipping away. Paper was not meant to last forever, and pulpwood paper wasn’t meant to survive more than a month. That’s why I am so supportive of all the reprint projects. Yes, one man – another old pal, Anthony Tollin – has the lion’s share of the most popular characters but he is hardly alone in these endeavors. He’s already reprinted half of all The Shadow stories.

I am equally amazed and pleased to see so many small-press publishers (defining “small-press” as, say, not as large as Abrams and Simon and Shuster and their pals) doing “new pulp.” This is exactly what it sounds like: new stories written in the style of the classic pulps. Many of the new pulp authors are comic book veterans: Chuck Dixon, Martin Powell, CJ Henderson, Ron Fortier, John Ostrander, Paul Kupperberg, Will Murray, David Michelinie, Rob Davis… the list is as long as the long arm of the law. And it appears that I’ll be joining that stalwart group.

JimWiz laments the days when conventions were social occasions, and he’s most certainly not alone. Way back in those days, comics fans enjoyed more than comics, television and new movies. We enjoyed the pulps, sure, and we enjoyed newspaper comic strips, science fiction, mysteries, dramatic radio, illustration art… all kinds of stuff. We had a well-rounded education in America’s popular culture.

I’m not saying today’s comics fans avoid these important and closely related media, but you can’t ascertain their interest from going to shows such as this weekend’s C2E2 or the New York Comicon or the San Diego Comic-Con. Indeed, if you walk around these megashows and their ilk, you’d have a hard time ascertaining the level of interest in comic books. These shows have very little to do with comic books per se, and some of these convention organizers (note I said “some” and not “all”) clearly could not care less.

So when I go to shows such as the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention – and there are many others; check out Pulp Coming Attractions for all the news in the pulp world, including these shows.

This stuff has little to do with nostalgia. It’s all about our cultural heritage.

And the folks doing the new stuff, the reprints, and the conventions are true cultural warriors.

 

 

A New Pulp Clash of Titans

Art: Sean E. Ali
Art: George Sellas

On his blog, New Pulp Author Barry Reese announced that volume 5 of the popular Lazarus Gray series will feature a guest-appearance by one of New Pulp’s most popular heroes: Ron Fortier’s Brother Bones!

The Undead Avenger will be face off against Assistance Unlimited in a story that takes Reese’s heroes into the gloomy environs of Cape Noire. Said Reese of using Brother Bones, “I appreciate Ron’s willingness to share the character with me and I’m going to do my best to do it right. Ron’s a good friend and a major figure in the New Pulp movement, which makes it all the more important for me to not screw it up! Since Ron did such a bang-up job writing The Rook in Tales of The Rook, I want to at least make him smile as much he did me.”

Art: Rob Davis

Brother Bones starred in his own collection of stories and recently appeared in Red Bud Studio’s comic book, “Bullets of Jade” and issues of Pro Se Presents. A Brother Bones novel has also been teased.

In response to the team up, Ron Fortier said, “I’m really excited about our two characters meeting on the pulp stage and I personally can’t wait to see what happens when they do.”

Keep watching this space for more news as it develops.

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Nik Poliwko Roughs Up Rick Ruby!

Illustrator, Nik Poliwko shared a new rough sketch for an upcoming illustration for the upcoming The Ruby Files Vol. 2, a companion to the illustration at left.

The award-winning The Ruby Files returns for a second volume of pulpy detective yarns in 2013 from Airship 27 Productions. The Ruby Files Vol. 2 features stories by Ruby Files creators Sean Taylor and Bobby Nash and authors Alan J. Porter and Ron Fortier. Interior illustrations provided by Nik Poliwko under a cover by Mark Wheatley. Rob Davis returns as book designer.

Keep watching http://rickruby.blogspot.com for more The Ruby Files vol. 2 news as soon as it becomes available.

The Battling Bagman Returns

New Pulp Publisher Airship 27 Productions has released New Pulp Author B.C. Bell‘s The Bagman vs. The World’s Fair.
PRESS RELEASE:
Airship 27 Productions is delighted to announce the release of its latest pulp title, THE BAGMAN vs THE WORLD’S FAIR by B.C. Bell.

It is the summer of 1933 and the Windy City is hosting the fabulous World’s Fair. The famous Navy Pier along the shores of Lake Michigan is invaded by thousands of tourists from around the nation and the world; all there to marvel at the newest scientific advancements on display.

But within this glittering pleasure park of wonder lurks a devilish fiend set upon causing mass destruction and ruining the Fair; a scientist turned mad employing a bizarre sonic cannon to commit murder and chaos amongst the innocent throngs.  Now it will be up to the unlikeliest hero of them all, the odd, notorious Bagman, to save the day.

Writer B.C. Bell sends his one time petty crook, Frank “Mac” McCullough back into action in this, the Bagman’s first full length adventure.  Along with his loyal buddy, the ace mechanic, Crankshaft, Chicago’s most unusual mystery man must find the lunatic inventor and put an end to his heinous attacks before more people will die.

“The first time I read a Chris Bell Bagman story, I actually chuckled aloud,” says Airship 27 Productions Managing Editor Ron Fortier.  “Bell’s ability to combine both fast paced, pure pulp action with slapstick humor is sheer genius. The Bagman is one of the most original of the new pulp heroes we have today.  His fans will not be disappointed with this new, longer adventure.”
The book features nine interiors illustrations by Andy Fish and sports a truly colorful painting by Laura Givens with book designs by Rob Davis.  As an added bonus, the story also features a very special cameo by Canadian writer Calvin Daniels’ own new pulp hero, the Black Wolf.

So slap another clip in your .45, straighten your tie and put that bag over your head, pulp fans; here comes the Bagman, delivering justice in his own peculiar way. 

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – Pulp Fiction for a New Generation!

Available now from Amazon in paperback.

Learn more about B.C. Bell’s The Bagman here.

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Airship 27 Patches Available

New Pulp Publisher Airship 27 Productions has a way for loyal airmen to show their pulp support with the new Airship 27 patches.
PRESS RELEASE:
For the first time ever, we offered all our Loyal Airmen a premium quality Airship 27 Crew Patch.  These we debut at the Windy City Pulp & Paper Con to a truly wonderful response.  Then we took them to PulpFest with the same results, our readers truly enjoyed them and remarked at the quality of the item.
Now, with the cons behind us, we are offering them to all you Loyal Airmen via mail.  Each quality 4″ x 4″ crew patch is only $3 plus a small shipping and handling fee.  They look great on shirts, jacket shoulders or even baseball caps.
If you would like to join the ever growing ranks of Airship 27 Productions’ Loyal Airmen by sporting one of these super cook patches, simply write Rob Davis at (robmdavis@me.com) for further information.
Thanks,
Captain Ron
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Pulp Fiction Reviews and The Red Reunion

New Pulp Author Ron Fortier returns with another Pulp Fiction Review. This time out Ron takes a look at Stein and Candle Vol. III by Michael Panush.

STEIN AND CANDLE Vol III
By Michael Panush
Curiosity Quills Press
232 pages

From the talented imagination of writer Michael Panush comes this third volume in the adventures of Mort Candle, a grizzled ex-Sergeant and his ward, the teenage occult expert Weatherby Stein.  Panush continues to chronicle their post World War II exploits as paranormal investigators and within these pages you’ll find the duo’s newest exploits as they travel the globe encountering all manner of supernatural monsters.  There are a total of six cases set forth here and each is a well presented pulp actioner, all worthy of the 1930s classics.

The book kicks off with our guys in Japan in “Trouble in Tokyo.”  They are hired by a police detective discover who it is attacking rival Yakuza clans and in the process fomenting a gangland war that could severely hamper the city’s reconstruction efforts.  Soon Candle and Stein aren’t only dealing with sword wielding crooks but a secret ninja clan controlling ancient Japanese creatures of mythology to wipe out their foes.  This one is exotic wall to wall action without let up from beginning to end.

The X-Files meets Happy Days in “Teenage Wasteland” when Weatherby goes undercover in a suburban high school to investigate teenagers meddling with the occult.  Along the way he encounters ethnic prejudices, an athletic bully and a Sandra Dee like blonde beauty that turns his head and melts his heart.  Easily one of the weirder but most enjoyable stories in this series yet.

Then there is “Lounge Lizard” wherein our heroes head for Lake Tahoe to find a missing crooner who has run off with the his boss’ cash. This leads them into a deadly parallel world of dinosaurs and their lizard-men riders.  Exactly the mishmash Panush excels at.  Whereas in “Drac’s Back,” Castle, short on funds, accepts an assignment from a group of American vampires to help them travel to Transylvania and resurrect the greatest bloodsucker of them all, Count Dracula.  Stein is opposed to the idea and has good reason to be.  It doesn’t turn out well.

The fifth tale, “Stein Family Reunion,” has Mort and Weatherby in San Francisco encountering Adam, a monstrous individual created from parts of dead bodies by an earlier member of the Stein clan.  Thus do our heroes come to the aid of one of the most iconic monsters in English fiction.  After introducing Dracula to the series, we just knew “the monster” couldn’t be far behind.

The book wraps up with “Big City Showdown,” parts one and two and is the longest single Stein and Candle adventure yet.  And it deserves that extra space as it has a sense of climatic finality to it.  Dracula and the Stein’s twisted wizard ancestor, the Viscount Wagner Stein, team up in New York with an audacious plan to conquer America.  The challenges these two powerful entities posed singularly proved to be difficult to our heroes in past encounters.  Now combined, they are virtually unbeatable; unless that is, our two occult detectives can assemble their own team to battle them.  And this is exactly what transpires until almost every major supporting character in the series reappears for this one cataclysmic confrontation between the forces of good and evil.

There is a definitive air of closure by the story’s end that had this reader both pleased and sad.  If this is the end of the Stein and Candle Detective Agency, then they go out on a grand note that we applaud.  But we truly hope this isn’t the last chapter in one of New Pulp’s most imaginative series ever created.  Please, Michael Panush, we want more!

PULP FICTION REVIEWS AND THE RED REUNION

PULP FICTION REVIEWS AND THE RED REUNION

New Pulp Author Ron Fortier returns with another Pulp Fiction Review. This time out Ron takes a look at Stein and Candle Vol. III by Michael Panush.

STEIN AND CANDLE Vol III
By Michael Panush
Curiosity Quills Press
232 pages

From the talented imagination of writer Michael Panush comes this third volume in the adventures of Mort Candle, a grizzled ex-Sergeant and his ward, the teenage occult expert Weatherby Stein.  Panush continues to chronicle their post World War II exploits as paranormal investigators and within these pages you’ll find the duo’s newest exploits as they travel the globe encountering all manner of supernatural monsters.  There are a total of six cases set forth here and each is a well presented pulp actioner, all worthy of the 1930s classics.

The book kicks off with our guys in Japan in “Trouble in Tokyo.”  They are hired by a police detective discover who it is attacking rival Yakuza clans and in the process fomenting a gangland war that could severely hamper the city’s reconstruction efforts.  Soon Candle and Stein aren’t only dealing with sword wielding crooks but a secret ninja clan controlling ancient Japanese creatures of mythology to wipe out their foes.  This one is exotic wall to wall action without let up from beginning to end.

The X-Files meets Happy Days in “Teenage Wasteland” when Weatherby goes undercover in a suburban high school to investigate teenagers meddling with the occult.  Along the way he encounters ethnic prejudices, an athletic bully and a Sandra Dee like blonde beauty that turns his head and melts his heart.  Easily one of the weirder but most enjoyable stories in this series yet.

Then there is “Lounge Lizard” wherein our heroes head for Lake Tahoe to find a missing crooner who has run off with the his boss’ cash. This leads them into a deadly parallel world of dinosaurs and their lizard-men riders.  Exactly the mishmash Panush excels at.  Whereas in “Drac’s Back,” Castle, short on funds, accepts an assignment from a group of American vampires to help them travel to Transylvania and resurrect the greatest bloodsucker of them all, Count Dracula.  Stein is opposed to the idea and has good reason to be.  It doesn’t turn out well.

The fifth tale, “Stein Family Reunion,” has Mort and Weatherby in San Francisco encountering Adam, a monstrous individual created from parts of dead bodies by an earlier member of the Stein clan.  Thus do our heroes come to the aid of one of the most iconic monsters in English fiction.  After introducing Dracula to the series, we just knew “the monster” couldn’t be far behind.

The book wraps up with “Big City Showdown,” parts one and two and is the longest single Stein and Candle adventure yet.  And it deserves that extra space as it has a sense of climatic finality to it.  Dracula and the Stein’s twisted wizard ancestor, the Viscount Wagner Stein, team up in New York with an audacious plan to conquer America.  The challenges these two powerful entities posed singularly proved to be difficult to our heroes in past encounters.  Now combined, they are virtually unbeatable; unless that is, our two occult detectives can assemble their own team to battle them.  And this is exactly what transpires until almost every major supporting character in the series reappears for this one cataclysmic confrontation between the forces of good and evil.

There is a definitive air of closure by the story’s end that had this reader both pleased and sad.  If this is the end of the Stein and Candle Detective Agency, then they go out on a grand note that we applaud.  But we truly hope this isn’t the last chapter in one of New Pulp’s most imaginative series ever created.  Please, Michael Panush, we want more!

Zone 4 Spotlights the Indies

The Zone 4 podcast crew of Brant Fowler, Gordon Dymowski, and Captain Ron Fortier, return. Episode #230 shines a light on some books and online comics they are enjoying that are not from the “big two,” Marvel and DC. Everything from Dark Horse, to Thrillbent, to Action Lab, to Bottled Lightning and more!

But before all that, there are some headlines. Some of them are pretty heavy, like the Kevin Maguire and Kirby Heirs situations. And some are light, like an actor interested in taking over Iron Man, and Groot being cast. And the crew has some words for Dan DiDio… again! And there are new shout-outs again this week! Plus some plugs.

So hunker down with some bacon bits, put aside your mainstream books, and get ready for some indie goodness. It’s time to enter the Zone!

You can listen to Zone 4 – Episode #230: Non-Big Two Spotlight! here.
You can now find Zone 4 on Stitcher as well!