Tagged: Sci-Fi

Marc Alan Fishman: Exclusivity Is For the Devils

For those not paying attention, this week Paolo Rivera broke the shackles that bound him to the House of Mouse. That’s right, after a 10+ year career at Marvel, he ended his exclusive contract. Presently, you might know him from his absolutely stunning work on Daredevil. And if you’re not familiar? Go down to your local comic emporium, and partake in a few books bearing his name. You won’t be disappointed.

So why the departure, here in what most critics would dub his “ascension to the A-List?” Ownership. Rights. Long-term gains. As he makes it clear in his blog detailing his decision, it comes down to surveying his body of work and seeing no island on the horizon. Let’s be clear, he’s not mad. Or sad. In fact, he’s very grateful for the decade of work he’s been thrown since the dawn of his career. At the end of the day though, he puts it best:

“…the sum total of that work is not enough to support me in the distant future. My page rate is essentially the same as when I started at 21, so I’ve decided to invest in myself.”

Now, this brings up a debate I know we’ve all had here on ComicMix in the past – that of creators’ rights, and compensation. It seems we as an industry can’t last more than a few months before yet-another-creator is irate over the profits gained on their blood, sweat, and arthritic hands, that never see their own pocketbook. On the business side of things, we know the rub already. To work as an artist or writer in comic books for “the Big Two,” the work you do is theirs. They pay you a fee (and a small percentage of royalties of the sales of the book) for your creativity. Now, when you have a mortgage, insurance, and a rumble in your tummy… do you try to negotiate for the best deal, or do you sign your life away to stay alive? Of course no one is in such dire straights these days, but Marvel and DC certainly have more lawyers and iron-clad contracts than Stan Lee has catchphrases. As Paolo makes clear, he’s done with that side of the business. It’s time to invest in himself.

Certainly there are creators out there who are kicking ass and taking names doing their own creator-owned books. Mike Mignola, Eric Powel, Robert Kirkman, Warren Ellis… All great men who once (and on occasion still do) made a living working for “the man.” But each of those men now can rest on their laurels that their main source of funds comes directly from material they created, they own, and they see to market. Certainly when Hellboy made a second profitable movie, many an indie-creator must have taken note. Yes, Dark Horse had a lot to do with the success of the property on the business end, but Mignola is the crown prince of Anung Un Rama. Without his blessing, nary a product makes its way past a marketing meeting.

The same doesn’t hold true for Mr. Rivera. Should Marvel decide to make a tee-shirt with some of his art? He may see some royalties back from the sale – but he’d get laughed out of the office if he opposed them selling merchandise with his work on it. And when they reboot the movie franchise… he’ll see a blind eye if they use any of his striking work as reference or source material. Blind eye. Heh.

Ultimately, Rivera’s made a move that I hope works out for him. Admittedly I’ve come to the Daredevil party a bit too late, but I plan on picking up the issues as they are collected. Wherever Paolo roams from here on out, may his legion of fans follow. According to his musings, he’s kicking around an idea for an “original story, sci-fi in nature, with primal themes and a compact cast of characters.” He’s also looking into “experiments in both distribution and funding” a la Kickstarter. Thanks largely in-part to the interwebs, this very idea even exists. The last time artists with this much clout left Marvel, they made Image Comics. Certainly that won’t happen ever again, but in its place is something far more rewarding. Not necessarily in up-front hype and profits mind you, but rewarding none-the-less.

With Paolo Rivera setting his sites on the creator-owned market, I see the opportunity for a more level playing field. When the artists and writers have both a creative and monetary investment in a project, there is a passion that simply doesn’t exist on the other side of the aisle. As an Unshaven Comic, I care far more about The Samurnauts than I ever will about Kyle Rayner or GrimJack, even if I’m ever allowed to write or draw either of them. When I put my head to pillow, I know that my creations (made in part with two brilliant co-creators) are my own. And should the day ever come that our creation becomes “something,” it’s only fair that I (we) see the complete fruit of those labors.

Good on you, Paolo. May others follow suit as well.

SUNDAY: John Ostrander

 

Ray Bradbury U.S. Stamp Campaign

  • Uncategorized
  • June 17, 2012

All Pulp has been informed of a petition to commemorate the life of noted author, Ray Bradbury (who passed away on June 5, 2012) on a stamp from the United States Postal Service.

In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create.

A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time.

His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He wrote the screen play for John Huston’s classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award.

He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television’s The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree.

You can learn more about, and sign if interested, the petition at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/ray-bradbury-us-stamp-campaign.html

John Ostrander: Great Horny Toads!

Censorship can, sometimes, be a spur to the creative mind. It’s more often a pain in the ass but there are times when a creative mind finds ingenious ways of getting around the bans, whatever they may be.

For example, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, them crazy guys who created South Park (and, even more oddly, the Tony Award winning musical The Book of Mormon) originally wanted to call the South Park movie South Park: All Hell Breaks Loose. That got rejected by the MPAA for having the word “Hell” in the title. Parker and Stone re-named the film “Bigger, Longer, Uncut,” which is more salacious. Evidently, the MPAA were the only ones who didn’t get the penis reference. Creativity trumps censorship.

George Carlin in 1972 famously listed seven words you could never say on television. Not only can I say them here, but I think editor Mike Gold would insist. They are: “shit,” “piss,” “fuck,” “cunt,” “cocksucker,” “motherfucker,” and “tits.’’ These days I think you can get away with “shit,” “piss,” and “tits” on television sometimes) but the other ones are still right out. You definitely can’t say any of them in mainstream comics.

For example, Marvel’s Luke Cage is a streetwise badass motherfucker who swears like your granny. “Sweet Christmas!” is his most common swear word. When I wrote him in Heroes For Hire, I had a villain taunt him about it. Cage, as he beat the shit/poo (take your pick) out of the guy explained it was because his grandma didn’t approve of swearing and “she was tougher than you.”

On Battlestar Galactica, instead of saying “fuck,” the characters said “frak” but we all knew what they meant. The word has gone on to enter the vocabulary of the fans and some other sci/fi works. One of the things I enjoy about it is that the process of raping the earth and poisoning it to get at natural gas is called “frakking.’’ For me, it means they’re fucking us all to get at the natural gas and its profits.

George Carlin also famously noted that when we say “Fuck you” we’re actually wishing something nice on a person. Working from that, in some sci-fi stuff I tried replacing “fuck” with “nuke,” as in “Nuke you and the nuking horse you came in on.” Or calling someone a “mothernuker.’’ “Nuke” has the harsh “uk” sound as “fuck” and hoping that someone gets nuked is not wishing them a good time. However, the substitution seemed a little forced and drew too much attention to itself. It read like the author was trying to be clever, which I guess he was, so I dropped it. Sometimes you just can’t beat the fucking classics.

Worse than that is anything sexual. You can rip a guy’s arm off and beat another guy to death with it, all the while spurting gouts of blood but you show too much skin or a couple getting it on or (Christian Right Forbid!) any sort of same sex naughtiness going on and there will be a hue and cry far greater than any uproar over profanity. See the current Right Wing brouhaha over Alan Scott’s Green Lantern being gay or Northstar over at Marvel marrying his boyfriend.

For a long time, if a movie had a couple in bed together, at least one of them had to have one foot on the floor. On TV, I remember that on The Dick Van Dyke Show, whenever they went to the bedroom of Rob and Laura Petrie, they had separate beds. Who were they fooling? I was young at that time and even I, sheltered Roman Catholic boyo that I was, knew my folks slept in the same bed. I didn’t want to think whatever else they might be doing in that bed (still don’t – shudder!) but I knew sure as hell they didn’t have separate beds.

Still, there is a certain sexuality, a certain sensuality in suggestion rather than in statement. I remember when First Comics was doing Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! everyone talked about the sex and the nudity and all except … there wasn’t. It was implied. Sexy, yes – and sensual. It was a great, classic series whose rep is dirtier than the book ever was.

Over at DC, on Wasteland, we did all sorts of crap. We tossed a baby out of a window in a story called R.Ab (which stood for retroactive abortion) and we managed to honk off both pro-lifers and pro-choicers (and, if memory serves, our publisher) at the same time. We eviscerated a biology teacher for laughs and tried to get the reader into the mind of a serial killer among other things. Without bad language and without sex. We got accused of bad taste, which we reveled in, but rarely bad language or blatant sex.

I’m not saying that the envelope shouldn’t be pushed or that censorship is a good thing. However, if you try to establish boundaries and tell creative folks not to go there, odds are the creative folks figure out a way around it, if they can. That’s why they’re called creative. They’re never more creative when trying to do something naughty. Or juvenile. Or naughty juvenile.

Whoaaaa! Sounds dirty, that! Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more!

MONDAY: Mindy Newell

REVIEW: Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture

[[[Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture]]]
By Rob Salkowitz
McGraw-Hill, 304 pages, $27.00

Comic book fandom was a natural outgrowth of science fiction fandom, splintering off in 1961 as the revival of superhero comics was clearly here to stay. In that year, sci-fi fan and future author Richard Lupoff published Xero, the first comics-only fanzine. Just a few years later, in 1965, the first comic convention occurred in New York City, birthplace of the first science fiction con back in 1939. The success of the zine and the con inspired others to produce their own tributes to the comics of their youth and comics fandom spread rapidly, fueled by the nationwide furor ignited by ABC’s Batman in 1966.

Interestingly, the first to write about comic conventions and its attendees was Fredric Wertham, the very man pilloried for almost single-handedly destroying the field with his poorly researched Seduction of the Innocent. Since then, fans and the ways they display their affection have been usually relegated to footnotes in other histories about the field or pop culture. One of those fans, Rob Salkowitz, has changed that with his new book, Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture. Coming from McGraw-Hill and billed as a glimpse into this world for the business reader, it breezily takes us through the 2011 Comic-Con International experience. (more…)

AUTHOR HOSKIN TAKES A TRIP TO ‘DRAGON CITY’!


The latest volume of James Axler’s OUTLANDERS series, DRAGON CITY, is available from May.


With one of their team missing, another wounded and their base in ruins, the heroic Outlanders are at their lowest ebb when they are sent to explore the mysterious Dragon City that has sprung up on the banks of the Euphrates River.  Within its walls, they discover the template to a pantheon of reborn gods of evil — gearing up for the approaching God War.


This volume of the modern-day pulp sci-fi series is written by Rik Hoskin and can be read as a stand-alone as well as developing themes that have been building over the past few books.

About the author:  Writing as “James Axler”, Rik Hoskin has been the primary author of the Outlanders series since 2008 as well as contributing several volumes to James Axler’s Deathlands.  His fourth Outlanders book, Infinity Breach, paid homage to the 1930s pulp heroes while blurring the barrier between fiction and reality.  Beyond his Outlanders books, Hoskin is a comic book author who’s written Superman for DC Comics and helped develop a successful Spider-Man series for Marvel Comics’ European licensor, Panini, among others.  He currently writes for Star Wars: The Clone Wars Comic as well as several younger readers titles.

Challenging the Storm with Don Gates

  • News
  • April 22, 2012

Florida native Don Gates has produced one of the outstanding New Pulp novels of 2011, with “Challenger Storm: Isle of Blood.” Published by Airship 27, with cover and interior illustrations by legendary artist Mike Kaluta, this is non-stop action in the traditional pulp mold. Gates has his pulp chops down, but he brings to these characters a depth that was absent in the early days. He recently took some time to tell us about his inspirations, his new novel, and his plans for future projects.
All Pulp:  How long have you been writing, and at what point did you decide you wanted to write a book?”
Don Gates:  Writing is actually pretty new to me. I did a LOT of creating in my head- daydreaming and stuff like that- but I usually never got things on paper beyond just a rough outline. Before working on this book, I’d start to write things that usually fizzled out before chapter 3. I always loved pulps and always wanted to do a pulp-style story or series, I just never felt I had the right mix of elements, characters, etc. I asked some friends online to let me bounce some ideas off of them, and after finding out what worked and what didn’t I had a handful of ideas that I wanted to try my hand at, all existing in the same pulp “universe”. Challenger Storm is the first of those ideas.
AP: What do you like to read, and how did it lead you into wanting to do it yourself?”
DG: I like to read the classic pulps (of course) along with newer pulp-like fiction like the Dirk Pitt novels and the Agent Pendergast series, and I love the Destroyer series of paperbacks. Outside of that, I like classic sci-fi & adventure like Jules Verne and HG Wells, and I absolutely love William Gibson’s earlier cyberpunk novels. I’m a huge fan of HP Lovecraft, and in the last few years I’ve come to enjoy JRR Tolkien as well. And of course, I try to read as much of the “New Pulp” crop of authors as possible… there’s a LOT of really amazing work out there!
As far as being led to create my own pulp, I can sum that up in one instance: the first time I read Doc Savage. I was home sick from junior high school, laid-out on the couch with the Doc Omnibus #6. Even though I know now they’re kind of sub-par Doc Stories when compared to the earlier ones, I didn’t know that at the time. All I know is for a few hours I was transported away from home and into an incredibly fun adventurous world. If I can bring any of that feeling to my work, I’m happy.
AP: What were some of your inspirations for Challenger Storm? In some ways, he is a very conventional character, and in other ways he is not.”
DG: A lot of the major influences came from Doc Savage of course, but I wanted him to be more human and less godlike. As much as I enjoy infallible heroes like The Shadow, I always appreciate when a series’ hero is more vulnerable, and even though you know they’re going to win in the end you still worry about them getting into scrapes. I also wanted him to have a motivation beyond the simple pulp-hero credo: “I’m rich, smart, and fit… let’s get the bad guys!” I wanted it to be about redemption with Storm: he wants to make up for a past in which he was an awful, selfish, and self-important jerk. The three scars on his face aren’t just there as a visual-cue to make him stand-out from other square-jawed adventurers, they’re also tied in with his “origin” and serve to remind him of where he comes from and what he went through to change his life.
AP:  It’s obvious that you have more than a passing interest in aircraft. Tell us a little about that, and how it informs your work.
DG:  I am interested in vintage aviation, and it’s something that I’ve always been into for some reason. Now I’m not so into it that I can tell you what kind of horsepower the engines on a B-17 Flying Fortress had, but I love the look and elegance of pre-war and WWII-era aircraft. It was a national and worldwide fad during those days, a relatively new science. It’s so fascinating to compare that era’s air-travel with ours. In those days, they were focusing on comfort, designing airplanes and airships that were like ocean liners in the sky… these days, they pack as many people possible into a cramped, over-sized tin can and shoot you across the country. Sure it’s faster, but it’s lost a lot of the personality that the golden era of aviation had.
It was during the art process of the book that I found out that Michael Kaluta, who is the legendary artist who did the cover and interior illustrations, is a bit of an aviation-nut too, even more so than I am. I’ve always been a huge fan of his, and when I found this out it was just another example of a perfect fit for the book. It’s funny: when I had come up with the MARDL pursuit-plane (the Witch), I was inspired partially by an old racing plane, the De Havilland DH-88 Comet, but never mentioned this to anyone. Later when I wrote to Michael and asked what he had in mind for his version of the Witch, he emailed me back and told me his design was influenced by the Comet too. It was pure synchronicity, hahaha.
AP: How did “Isle of Blood” come about? Did you write the whole thing and submit it to publishers? What brought you and Airship 27 together?
DG:  I had the cast of heroes created and ready before I had their first story. “Isle of Blood” evolved from 2 things: an idea I had about a lost valley of floating rocks and an old photograph of a wealthy-looking man and his daughter that I found in an antique store. Those elements came into play as plot points A through Z, then it became a matter of coming up with B through Y to bring them together. I wrote the book off and on from mid 2007 through the end of 2009, experiencing the longest setback after my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died before the book was completed, and of course the book is partially dedicated to him.
As far as publishing it through Airship 27, I’d actually wrote the book with them in mind. I really like their books and their production values, and so they were on the “short list” of potential publishers. I sent them the book a few days before Christmas of 2009, and it was accepted shortly thereafter.
AP:  What do you have in mind for the future of Challenger Storm? Do you have any other characters or comcepts you’re working on?
DG:  I have quite a few Challenger Storm stories in the works, all in various stages of outlining and plotting. I’m working on the second book now, “The Curse of Poseidon”, and had a major idea for a new book that will probably become the third novel. Without giving too much away, it’s going to play in H.P. Lovecraft’s funhouse a little bit, and if I can pull it off it’s going to be kind of epic.
I have lots of other series and characters I’d like to work on. One is a vigilante series called The Cipher and has a secret-identity hook that I hope will grab people, and another is a character I’ve had in my head since I was about 13: a man-of-mystery character called Codename: Shanghai. There’s also a one-shot story told from a Challenger Storm villain’s point of view, as well as a stand-alone lost-world adventure. Challenger Storm’s legacy involving his son and grandchildren is another thing I’d like to work on a bit also, along with a sword & sorcery book… Like I said, I have a lot of ideas. Finding the time to do all that writing is the thing I have issues with, but I’m trying.
AP:  When did you first learn that Michael Kaluta would be doing the illustrations, and how did that make you feel? That’s a pretty big deal.
DG:  The Kaluta thing was something absolutely crazy… I’m still shocked that it happened. I’d been a fan of his for years, ever since discovering his work on The Shadow. My wife Annie contacted him a few years ago with questions about commission work and something about their personalities just clicked and they became email-acquaintances. When Airship 27’s Ron Fortier was trying to find an artist to do “The Isle of Blood”, Annie said to me “Why don’t you ask Mike Kaluta to do it?” at which point I seriously began doubting her sanity. She’s not a fangirl, though, and to her he’s just a regular guy so she had no trepidation about asking him. Long story short, he said “yes” and he and Ron hammered an agreement out with regards to fitting it into his busy (and I mean BUSY) schedule, and here I am with not one but two dreams fulfilled in a single swoop.
Universal Picking Up Charlize Theron Sci-Fi Project ‘Agent 13’

Universal Picking Up Charlize Theron Sci-Fi Project ‘Agent 13’

  • News
  • April 21, 2012

The Hollywood Reporter reports that “Rise of the Planet of the Apes'” director, Rupert Wyatt is attached to the Charlize Theron Sci-Fi Project ‘Agent 13’.

Universal is finalizing a deal to pick up Agent 13, a sci-fi project that sees Charlize Theron attached to star and Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt attached to direct.

T.S. Nowlin  is the writer behind the pitch, which is based on a little known comic book from 1988. It was created by G.I. Joe and Transformers cartoon writer Flint Dille and David Marconi, who went on to pen the Will Smith thriller Enemy of the State as well as Live Free or Die Hard. 

The comic had post-modern pulp overtones, replete with femme fatales and explosive cliffhangers. The main character is male and despite Theron’s involvement, will remain that way. (The actress is attached to play another part.)

Sean Daniels, one of those behind Universal’s Mummy franchise, discovered the comic and has been developing since at least last year, is one of the producers along with Jason Brown. Theron is also producing via her Denver and Delilah banner as is Union Entertainment.

For more information on Agent 13, check out All Pulp’s interview with Flint Dille and David Marconi from December 2010 at http://allpulp.blogspot.com/2010/12/all-pulps-flint-dille-and-david-marconi.html

MINDY NEWELL: Group Dynamics

Joss Whedon at the 2010 Comic Con in San Diego

There’s a great interview with Joss Whedon, director of the upcoming The Avengers movie, out May 4th, in Sunday’s Arts & Leisure section of the New York Times.

Anyone who reads these columns with any regularity already knows that I am a Buffy geek. But you don’t know that I originally ignored it.  Yep, that’s right.  I didn’t find the Buffster until the second half of the second season, about the time Angel went back to being Angelus. I found her thanks to my participation in a message board called The Coffee Nebula, which started as a Voyager fan fest, but spread out into other science fiction — I can’t call it sci-fi — and fantasy shows, especially after Voyager ended. (The Neb, as we “Nebsters” fondly call it, is still active, so you might want to check it out.)  Everyone was raving about Buffy The Vampire Slayer, so I finally gave in checked it out.  And was hooked.

I searched out and found the episodes I had missed.  They weren’t quite as strong as the current episodes, but thinking about it now — and after reading the interview — I’ve figured something out.

(more…)

POWELL AND CHASE OFFER A GLIMPSE AT THE EARTH’S CORE!

POWELL AND CHASE OFFER A GLIMPSE AT THE EARTH’S CORE!

  • News
  • April 12, 2012

Sequential Pulp shared some in-progress art from Jamie Chase for the upcoming graphic novel of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic sci-fi adventure, AT THE EARTH’S CORE. Written by Martin Powell with art by Jamie Chase and authorized by ERB, Inc. Coming soon from Sequential Pulp/Dark Horse Comics.

Slaves of the Sagoths being forced toward a dire fate, as recreated by artist Jamie Chase.
An art-in-progress view of the Mahars’ Death Arena as visualized by Jamie Chase.

A prehistoric princess personified, “Dian the Beautiful”, by artist Jamie Chase

You can learn more about Sequential Pulp Comics at http://www.sequentialpulpcomics.com/
You can learn more about Dark Horse Comics at http://www.darkhorse.com/

PRO SE PRESENTS #8 LIVE AS EBOOK!

  • News
  • April 3, 2012
NOW AVAILABLE AS AN EBOOK!

Puttin’ The Monthly Back into Pulp with Sci-Fi, Mystery, and Good ol’ Masked Vigilante Action, PRO SE PRESENT #8 hits the streets, adventure blasting from both barrels!

Van Allen Plexico’s exclusive epic novella ‘Hand Of The Machine’, featuring HAWK, his latest creation, concludes ! Kevin Rodgers takes us into the terrifying state of mind…or reality….known as ‘Paranoia’ and New Pulp’s Best New Writer of the Year Chuck Miller shares another tale of his wild and wacky hero, The Black Centipede, starring in ‘Funeral for a Fiend!’ With mind blowing art work provided by Sean Ali and Rowell Roque, PRO SE PRESENTS #8 is almost too much Pulp to handle! Available for the Kindle on Amazon, for the Nook on Barnes and Noble, and for other formats on Smashwords!

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