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.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t “review” a TV miniseries or movie until it was completed. You should know the story before you comment on it. I know this is heresy these days but I feel you should know something about a topic before you drop an opinion bomb on it. I have no use for those who have decided they don’t like something without having bothered to experience it. That’s lazy and presumptive. I fully admit some things I have not sampled based on what I know of it, but I don’t render an verdict on it. If I hate something it’s because I tried it – like broccoli. Yuck. Broccoli.
However, I’m currently watching the BBC miniseries Broadchurch on BBC America. I’ve just seen the third episode of the eight part series and I think it’s incredible. I want to tell people about it. The series is set in a small coastal English town and follows the investigation into the murder of a ten-year old boy and the effects the murder and the investigation has on everyone – including the ones investigating.
The series was created, written, and executive produced by Chris Chibnall. ComicMix readers might know of his work on Doctor Who and Torchwood, among other things. Other Who influences include David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor) as the lead inspector and Arthur Darvill (Rory) as the local pastor. I’ll be honest, it was Tennant that first drew me to Broadchurch; I’ve been interested in seeing what else he could do as an actor although, being honest again, I was not crazy about his performance in another BBC miniseries, Spies of Warsaw. His performance there, to my mind, was very one note.
Not so here. This time, he plays Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, a haunted depressed man with secrets of his own; there are levels in his performance that show his talent and skill.
He is matched by Olivia Colman as Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller. (That’s another Who connection; in Matt Smith’s first outing as the Doctor, Ms. Colman plays “Mother” – one of the identities that the villain of the piece assumes.) DS Miller comes back from vacation expecting to be promoted to DI, only to find DI Hardy – an outsider – has gotten the job. And the best friend of her own son has been murdered.
For me, the biggest star is the writing. Everyone has secrets in this small town and they are gradually peeled back, revealing deeper and deeper levels of characterization. Grief is real and palpable. The mystery so far deepens with each episode and, at this writing, I have no idea who killed the boy or why.
There is a slight Twin Peaks vibe to the show – it’s deliberately paced and it has a slight undertone of supernatural in the person of a very odd man who claims he is getting messages from the dead boy. He seems sincere but – is he? Unlike Twin Peaks, however, I have the sense that the creator, Chris Chibnail, knows exactly where he’s going and how to wind it up. I trust him; OTOH, I also trusted the creators of The X-Files at the beginning. I thought they knew what they were doing; they fooled me.
The show isn’t simply about the murder, although that’s the engine that drives everything. It’s about secrets and that’s one of the most powerful narrative tools I know. Everyone has secrets and what gets revealed to whom, when, and how and is that a good idea really drives narrative and character. The revelation of secrets may answer some questions but may raise more.
It’s not only the secrets the characters reveal to one another, but the secrets that we learn as viewers, when do we learn them, what does that tell us. There’s more going on here than we initially know and it is only gradually unfolded to us.
The production values and the direction are all first rate. The acting is wonderful throughout. The show may not be to everyone’s taste – some might find it slow – and it demands that you pay attention but I’m riveted.
If you’re interested in the first three episodes (and I would not recommend you watch the show without seeing them), you can find them on BBC America On Demand, Amazon Instant Video and probably elsewhere. I’m certain it’ll also eventually be available on DVD and Blu-ray and such. I plan to own it when it does. It’s gotten excellent reviews both in the UK and the States. A second series of the show is reportedly in development and I’ve heard there are plans for an American adaptation.
For me, this is first class television and I can’t wait for the next episode. It’s not broccoli.
The Golden Age Comics Figurine Collection is a new series of high quality, hand-painted resin figurines of public domain super hero, science fiction, and horror characters from the Golden Age of Comics, which dates from the late 1930s through the early 1950s. Each character is meticulously researched and carefully sculpted at 1/21 scale, the same scale as the recent Eaglemoss collections devoted to Marvel and DC super heroes. Figurines are typically 3.5″ (8.9 cm) to 4.3″ (10.9 cm) tall, depending upon the size of the original character. Each individually numbered, limited edition piece is produced in very small quantities, typically between 300-500 units. A custom printed, full color box comes standard with each figurine, which is protected with a molded plastic tray.
The Golden Age Comics Figurine Collection figurines are sold through the company’s online store, eBay, and Amazon; US customers are eligible for free economy shipping on all sites, while international customers can purchase the figurines through our store or eBay with additional shipping charges. Each figurine is double boxed prior to shipment to the Amazon warehouse, minimizing the possibility of damage when it arrives at your doorstep. Fletcher Hanks’s Stardust the Super Wizard is our first piece and is currently for sale on the site. Sign up for our newsletter, subscribe to our RSS feed, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date on when future figurines become available!
Learn more about The Golden Age Comics Figurine Collection here.
New Pulp Author Ron Fortier returns with another Pulp Fiction Review. This time out Ron takes a look at Sweet Money Won by Mycroft Magnusson.
SWEET MONEY WON
By Mycroft Magnusson
ISBN -13:978-1481952811
401 pages
Here’s a trick question for you. Can any well written book ever be too long for its own good? I would have thought that impossible until reading “Sweet Money Won.” Which is going to make this review a delicate balancing act as I want all of you to understand how much I truly liked this book; in many, many ways. Save one. So allow me to applaud what is a truly superbly well crafted crime comedy reminiscent of Elmore Leonard’s best efforts.
Rick and Liam are two small time conmen living in the seedy Koreatown section of Los Angeles. They survive hand to mouth on their meager rewards for the small cons they perpetuate, mostly on middle-class tourist visiting L.A. for the first time. Magnusson deftly defines both their personalities so that they immediately appealed to this reader. Liam, the smarter of the two, is the philosophical gambling addict who loves the Boston Patriots whereas Rick is the more reckless, by-the-seat-of-his-pants character who has a problem with pornography and sex, the latter being what gets them both into a world of hurt.
When Rick takes their entire money reserve to rescue a Russian porn-princess named Svetlana, whom he’s met on-line, from her muscle-bound pimps, he puts them both in harms way. Liam had placed a bet on a Patriot’s game, the cash being his debt should the Pats lose. Of course the Pats lose and the Korean strong-arm bookies are none too pleased when Liam doesn’t have the money to cover his bet. Now he and Rick have just twenty-four hours to come up with twenty thousand dollars. It is at this point when Svetlana agrees to help the boys by having sex with and then blackmailing a rich, up and coming congressman.
Reading “Sweet Money Won” is a truly engrossing, fun literary escapade that plays fast and loose with gunfire pacing. Again, Magnusson’s prose is both insightful and inventive when it needs to be. His writing is what is excellent and why I’m recommending you pick up a copy of this top-notch crime novel.
But Magnusson has to learn when scenes are extraneous and should be cut. Any scene that does not serve the plot should be excised and there are several of these that frustrated me. Rick’s Mexican weekend and Liam’s sports ticket scam are both unnecessary. A good editor could have trimmed this book by a hundred pages and helped shape it into an even better story. I hope that’s a lesson he learns soon. Rick and Liam and awesome characters and I’d love to see them in action again.
I must apologize for not being here last week. We had a family emergency, and the weekend was not fun.
No, not my dad. My mom. She was in the hospital.
I’ve talked about my dad here, but have rarely mentioned my mom.
She comes from a large family. Eleven kids. All of them, the girls as well as the boys, were raised to be independent, to be able to stand on their own two feet. My mom became a nurse, and down through the years, like Cherry Ames, she has worked in many areas of the field.
Laura Newell, Army Nurse. Laura Newell, Labor and Delivery Nurse. Laura Newell, Dialysis Nurse. Laura Newell, School Nurse. Laura Newell, Camp Nurse. Laura Newell, Public Health Nurse. Laura Newell, Emergency Room Nurse.
I thought a lot about my mom this past week. A professional woman before that was unremarkable. Able to sustain a marriage now 65 years in the making while raising two kids and continuing to work before there was daycare and flex-hours. Being in love, married to a man who was as proud of ability to help others heal as he was of her looks and housekeeping skills and never minded if she had to work an extra shift or stay overtime at the hospital? How had she done it? Where did she learn to how to do it?
And then I thought of my grandmother.
It was during the second wave of the East European Jewish immigration (which lasted from 1890 to 1924) that my grandmother, Anna Pecker, with her two young children – my Aunt Ida and my Uncle Phillip – crossed the ocean to America sometime in the early 1900’s. She was from a shtetl (Yiddish for “small town or village”) near Vilna, a city always known for its culture and book-learning, and which was sometimes part of Poland and sometimes part of Russia and is now a major city of Lithuania.
The thing is, no one knows what happened to her first husband. We don’t even know his name.
There are two theories. The first is that, like many young men of the times, he was conscripted into either the Polish or Russian Army and never returned. Her brother advised her by letter to come to America, saying that he could pay the steerage passage.
The second, and this is what makes it such an intriguing story, is that her husband was a miserable lout, always drunk, and always beating her and threatening the children. She hid her brother’s letters from the brute of a husband, as well as secreting money from him, as she saved for the journey from Vilna to Hamburg, Germany, where the ship would be docked. And then one day, young Anna had enough. She waited until her husband was asleep (or in a drunken stupor, or not home), took her kids, the money she had squirreled away, and left.
They mostly traveled by foot, saving money, and Anna would hire herself out as a maid or a cook to earn more, hiding the kids in a field or a forest. Supposedly they only travelled at night because it was safer, especially for a Jewess with two young children. I don’t know how long it took, but it must have taken weeks, if not months, to get to Hamburg. Either she wrote her brother and sent it from one of her stops along the way, or, reaching the German port, she wrote her brother to wire her the passage money. (No one is sure about that.) At any rate, she paid for and received booking on a steamer to New York.
When they finally reached America and Ellis Island, my Aunt Ida, who was about five, was almost turned back because the immigration doctors said she had tuberculosis. But my grandmother refused to allow that, and my grandmother’s brother, who was waiting for them, must have greased a lot of palms. Ida was allowed to stay, although she had to be in quarantine for about three months. Think little Vito Corleone in Godfather II.
Anna and her children lived with her brother and his family in Bayonne, New Jersey, which had a large and thriving Jewish community. Jacob Yontef, a tall, handsome widower with seven children, and considered a “hot catch” by widows or mothers with marriage-age daughters, saw Anna at a dance, and fell instantly head-over-heels in love. I mean, he only had eyes for her, as the song says.
But Anna wasn’t interested. She literally scoffed at him, or so the story goes.
Was it because Jacob already had seven children? Of course, back then large families were the norm, but still, I think any woman would hesitate inheriting such a large brood. Unless her name is Carol Brady. Or…
Was it because she was still legally married? Was she worried that her husband would track her down? The mind boggles at the possibilities.
But Jacob never gave up.
Finally, at least three years later, though some in my family say it was more, Jacob won his woman.
And Anna Pecker became Anna Yontef.
And into this family was born my mother, Loretta Yontef, called Laura by everyone. Three years later, another girl, Anita, who would almost immediately be rechristened Augie – though that’s a tale for another time – was born.
Eleven kids.
And it wasn’t until I was 19, after my grandmother’s passing, that not only did I hear this story for the first time while we sat shiva (a period of mourning) but also learned that only my mom and my Aunt Augie shared parents.
Now my mom is 87, the matriarch of the family, the last surviving member of a true Yiddisher mischpacha (“family” in English, pronounced mish-PA-cha, the cha as in Chanukah – a sound that is like clearing your throat.)
Last month she fell, but thankfully did not break her hip. Still, for the last four weeks she has been in a great deal of pain and she was finding it hard to walk. Then last Friday I got a call. My mother was in the ER. There was a reason for her constant pain of the last month. No, she hadn’t broken her hip. (Thank God, for that would have been a horrible nightmare.) But the fall had caused a linear fracture of her lower pelvis, and of course walking around for the last four weeks had exacerbated it.
There really isn’t anything to do for a fractured pelvis (dependent on the severity, of course) but to rest it and allow it to heal, which means bed rest and wheelchair, with appropriate physical therapy.
So now my mom is in the same rehab/nursing home facility as my dad. We tried to get them into the same room, but weren’t able to, which, in fact, is a blessing in disguise, because knowing my dad, he would most certainly get up in the middle of the night to check on her and considering his fragile state – he is confined to a wheelchair these days and his cognitive state is not good, to say the least – well, I don’t even want to go there in terms of what that could lead to…But my mom is three doors down, and they spend their days together. I tease them about “wheelchair races.”
Yesterday, after a wonderful day partying and celebrating my niece Isabel’s 13th birthday, we brought my parents back to the nursing home/rehab center. They were both exhausted. The nurses said they would put them to bed for us.
But before they were wheeled off to their separate bedrooms (something that is hard for me to watch), they leaned towards each other, and kissed each other good night.
Mechanoid Press Saddles Up for a Ride Through Some Strange Trails
ATLANTA, GA—Mechanoid Press, an innovative small press publisher of science fiction and pulp adventure, has just released their latest anthology, exploring the Weird West.
STRANGE TRAILS features exciting tales of a West that never was, written by some of the biggest names in New Pulp.
“The Weird Western is very popular today,” says Mechanoid Press publisher James Palmer. “I wanted to put something together to celebrate this bizarre yet exciting sub-genre.”
Palmer has assembled a posse of some of today’s most talented New Pulp authors. Riding the range is Josh Reynolds (Mr. Brass), Tommy Hancock and Morgan Minor (Pro Se Productions), Barry Reese (The Rook), Edward M. Erdelac (The Merkabah Rider), and Joel Jenkins (Dire Planet).
“Everyone in the book is there because they have solid New Pulp and/or Weird West chops,” says Palmer. “All the stories are terrific, and I know readers will love it.”
Mechanoid Press is an independent publisher specializing in science fiction and New Pulp e-books and books. Join the Robot Revolution at www.mechanoidpress.com, follow the ‘bot on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mechanoidpressand like them on Facebook.
Today, Francis Ford Coppola is celebrated, and justly so, for his work on The Godfather Trilogy, and being one of the 1970s wunderkinds who helped change the look of movies. But he’s also the same guy who cut his teeth on Roger Corman low budget genre offerings and he seems to have come full circle with Twixt.
Once more Coppola does it all: writing, directing, producing. Unfortunately, the results are visually stylish and emotionally empty. If the lead character is a bargain basement Stephen King, this is Coppola’s shoestring budget The Shining and neither looks particularly good.
Hall Baltimore (Val Kilmer) was a once-promising author reduced to writing occult novels with declining sales and readership, causing him to go wherever he can to personally sell his books. As a result, he winds up in a creepy small town, tucked in a corner of the hardware/bookstore when he is told of a serial killer by the local sheriff (Bruce Dern). Desperate for cash and reinvigorating his deteriorating career, he agrees to stick around and help the sheriff investigate, offering to share the sales, but secretly pocketing the advance from the hardnosed editor (David Paymer).
One reason he agrees is that he encounters an ethereal girl named Virginia (Elle Fanning) who claims to be a vampire and no one else can see. Audiences realize something’s up because the color palette is totally washed out except for Virginia in glowing white and red. Coppola cleverly plays with reality via color filters and digital trickery that gives the movie an interesting atmosphere and look.
Before long, though, the story spirals into lengthy expositions with flashbacks within flashbacks as we pick up the pieces about what really happened to the thirteen girls who mysteriously were killed in a now abandoned hotel. Baltimore’s investigations are helped along by the spirit of Edgar Allen Poe (Ben Chaplin) who once stayed at the hotel. Their conversations about the craft of writing and storytelling is among the freshest and most interesting parts of the film.
Coppola neglected to give the characters any real personality. Baltimore’s unhappy wife (Joanne Whalley) is a desperate shrew; Paymer’s editor is tough, the sheriff desperate for fame, and Baltimore a stereotypical alcoholic writer, mourning the loss of his daughter. In the commentary and documentary accompanying the 1:28 film, now on disc from 20th Century Home Entertainment, Coppola explains he dreamed about Virginia and woke up in 2009 and dictated his thoughts into a still-preserved recording. Clearly he decided the script should be as ephemeral so no character, alive or dead, is made three dimensional.
Kilmer’s distraught writer sleepwalks through the investigation, getting everyone around him to help with the investigation without a hint of gratitude. Whatever writing talent he had was many cases of whiskey back and he struggles to even begin his new manuscript without resorting to the very clichés his editor warns him against. The rest of the cast is never given much to work with and as playful and interesting as Fanning’s V promises to be, even she can’t make you care enough.
The film was shot in California and subsequently screened at numerous film festivals but could not secure a domestic distributor so audiences only now have a chance to see this thin, not terribly frightening misfire from a once great visionary. The movie has a so-so commentary from his grandson Gio or also shot the 37 minute Making Of featurette which is the sole extra accompanying the disc. The combo pack comes with Blu-ray and digital copy.
From Borgo Press and Author Christopher Yates comes a new tale of adventure featuring the classic character from Argosy Magazine, THE NIGHT WIND!
Borgo Press previously reprinted four Night Wind novels, edited by Yates. The fifth book, entitled Behold ‘The Night Wind’ is a newly written tale of adventure by Yates as the next book in the series. The book also features exquisite cover and interior artwork by noted artist Mark Maddox!
In the latest adventure of this classic character, Bingham and Katherine Harvard are polite, New York society. He is an Ivy League graduate, heir to his foster father’s fortune, and successor to the presidency of New York’s Centropolis Bank. She is the daughter of a United States Senator, scion of the Maxwilton family, the political dynasty of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Husband and wife reside at the sprawling Long Island estate, Myquest.
The Harvards’ elevated status in the social register is not high enough to avoid the clutch of crime. Years ago Bing earned an alias, The Night Wind, in a bare-fisted brawl with the law in an all-sweeping revenge against false witnesses. With five times the strength of an average man, Bingham prevailed. Lady Kate was a prisoner in her own home, but sprang self-made man-traps in a successful bid at freedom. Using sleuthing skills attained as a New York City police detective was no small advantage during her plight. Together they have resolved to take the battle to the villain instead of awaiting fate to drop yet another scoundrel on their doorstep.
Aided by the United States Secret Service, and their valet, Julius, the Harvards race headlong into Westerville, Ohio. A town dubbed the Dry Capital of the World and home of the Anti-Saloon League, the principal proponent of the successful drive for national prohibition. But a half dozen speakeasies go up in flames in nearby Columbus, drawing in organized crime from New York to protect their business…until they too go up in flames.
Amidst this turmoil, United States Senator Warren G. Harding is conducting his campaign for President of the United States from the front porch of his home in Marion, Ohio. His challenger for the Oval Office is the Governor of the State of Ohio.
History is being made in central Ohio this fall of 1920. Will it be historically tragic or triumphant?
The ingredients for anarchy are in the bowl waiting to be stirred.
Be prepared to be blown away. Behold, “The Night Wind!”
I’m a big fan of crowdsourcing — for comics and graphic novels on sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. So far I’ve only watched from a distance, calling attention to special projects and generally being a cheerleader for the ambitious creatives involved in these passion projects.
That was until DC Comics asked me to participate in their crowdsourced We Can Be Heroes fund-raiser — part of their ongoing initiative to raise money for and awareness of the plight of the hungry in the Horn of Africa.
My “bosses” gathered a veritable Who’s Who of some of DC and Warner Bros. most talented creators and said I could hang out with them and help a worthy cause in the process. We’re signing super exclusive and limited run graphic novels, animated movies, caps, T-shirts, prints and other assorted products (Did I mention you can have yourself written into a DC Comic? Or that none other than Jim Lee will come to your town and paint a mural on your wall?) with all the money going to fight something far more destructive than anything Lex Luthor has ever come up with on his worst day.
The best part about this campaign? It really does give the fans the opportunity be the hero here: every dollar you commit goes directly to International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps and Save the Children to help fund their efforts on the ground in the Horn of Africa. Every donation, no matter how small, helps.
In this particular case the goal is to raise $100,000… and we’re halfway there!
So please, take a moment – -watch the video — find one of the multitude of special incentives from the likes of Scott Snyder, David Goyer, Greg Pak, Kenneth Rocafort, Jim Lee, Geoff Johns, James Tucker, Mike Carlin… and some guy named Scott Lobdell!
Thursday July 11th is the deadline to order the The Scarlet Jaguar by Win Scott Eckert, and have your name appear in the book on the acknowledgments page. Baring a mass of last minute orders, this book will be a Signed Limited Edition of only 225 copies!
The Scarlet Jaguar will be released at FarmerCon VIII (held in conjunction with PulpFest, July 25 – 28) and there is no telling how many copies, if any, will be left after that weekend.
When we last saw Patricia Wildman, daughter of Doc Wildman, the bronze champion of justice, six months had passed since the main events of The Evil in Pemberley House. She and her associate Parker, an ex-Scotland Yard Inspector, had set up Empire State Investigations at her Pemberley House estate—and she just received a mysterious phone call from her supposedly late father . . .
Several months later, Pat receives a visitor, a young girl named Emma Ponsonby, whose father, a British diplomat to a small Central American country, has been kidnapped by the Scarlet Jaguar. Pat, following in her father’s footsteps of righting wrongs and assisting those in need, agrees to help, but before they can set off on their quest the Scarlet Jaguar sends a gruesome warning.
Undeterred, the investigation takes Pat, Parker, and their young charge from Pemberley House in the Derbyshire countryside . . . To New York, where they battle agents of the Scarlet Jaguar and meet Pat’s old friend, the icy, pale-skinned beauty Helen Benson, who agrees to join them on their quest . . . To the small nation of Xibum, where the Scarlet Jaguar’s reign of uncanny assassinations threatens to expand to the rest of Central America—and beyond!
Now, it’s a race against time deep in the wilds of the Central American jungle, as Pat Wildman and her crew search for Emma’s father, and confront the Scarlet Jaguar’s weird power to eliminate his enemies from afar, marked only by a wisp of crimson smoke—smoke resembling nothing so much as the head of a blood-red screaming jaguar. But who—or what—is the Scarlet Jaguar? A power-mad dictator determined to reclaim power? A revolutionary movement bent on taking over the country, and the rest of Central America?
Or a front for something even more sinister . . .?
