Explorer of the Unknown

BYOR (Bring Your Own Research)

2010-07-09T12:23:00.003-04:00

Call this a reservation of a topic for future research. In the fantastic anthology The Worlds of Philip Jose Farmer: Protean Dimensions, the "lost" story "My Summer Husband" aroused my interests.

The introduction by Michael Croteau states that the story of an Alaskan "bear-god" and his lesss than faithful human mate "doesn't seem to be related to any of his [Farmer's] other work." At this stage, I disagree; however, before I run off half-cocked and make a total idiot of my self, I need to reread a few of Farmer's later novels.

1959 TV Show That Would Never Make it to Air Today

2010-07-08T23:27:00.001-04:00

Dripping Fangs or Rotting Flesh: The Correct Identification of the Creatures from Robert E. Howard’s ‘The Hills of the Dead’

2010-07-07T22:28:00.005-04:00

In his short story “The Hills of the Dead” Robert E. Howard sets the Puritan adventurer against what he calls vampires. However, after reading the story I believe that the creatures described are not a loose tribe of vampires, but a human-flesh hungered mob of zombies. Throughout this article I will be referring to the Max Brook’s Zombie Survival Guide.

When the creatures attack Kane in his cave, they don’t use the vampire’s great strength or advanced speed, instead “the talon-like nails of the black were tearing at his face…” This is classic zombie tactics against the living. Interestingly, during the entire course of the story, there is not one mention of fangs. From all textual clues, it appears that the creatures possessed normal human teeth. (There is a mention during a later fight that the creatures were “sucking” at Kane’s wounds. While this is a possible mention of fangs, this fails to account for why there was no mention of this earlier.)

During this same fight, Kane makes the observation that the creature’s skin is hard as wood; later the creatures are described as “mummied monsters.” It is highly unlikely that vampires would have wood-hard skin, their unique form of immortality allows their bodies to continue replicating skin and blood cells—thus keeping their skin live-human smooth. Zombies lack this, and are consistently running down their walking corpse of a body as it decomposes ( Brooks; Zombie Survival Guide, pages 10-11). However with proper conditions, like an African desert, the zombies could have been naturally mummified by the shifting sands and winds.

Later, Zunna tells Kane that “Men and beasts flee them [the creatures]…” There is no record of animals fleeing vampires; most animals either treat them as living humans—though occasionally a dog will be mistrustful of a vampire. Zombies create terror in their local ecosystem as beasts flee to escape the virus.

After N’Longa takes over the body of Kran he tells Kane “Them vampires no talk nor yell; they dead.” As we know, all vampires talk; most seem to have an affliction that forces them to talk for pages, making these silent vampires almost unvampiric. Zombies are unable to talk; the only sounds they can issue are, at best, a low moan. Later it is mentioned that the creatures emitted “silent gibbering[s].” According to the dictionary “gibbering” is defined as “Unintelligible or foolish talk.” These two references do not apply to vampires, but quite handily match up with the moans of a zombie—what are moanings if not unintelligible talk.

When Kane and N’Longa cause the creatures to notice them, they attack in a hoard. “Out of the cave they came swarming, the terrible black silent shapes; up the slopes they came clambering, and their red eyes were turned toward the two humans who stood about the silent city. The caves belched them forth in an unholy judgment day.” Vampires rarely attack as a gang, and when they do, their numbers rarely reach over five or six. This, however, is a classic example of zombie behavior.

Finally, during the climatic fight where the creatures overrun Kane biting and tearing at his flesh, we find evidence that the creatures are incapable of feeling pain; as Howard records “skulls were shattered, their faces caved in and their limbs broken” yet they still continued to attack. If a vampire were given this rough treatment he would be forced to retreat until the great pain abated and he was physically ready for another round of combat. Zombies however, have been known to continue attacking even once more than 80% of their bodies were destroyed—and continued attacking until intensive trauma was induced on the brain. (As for the argument that Kane shattered the creature’s skulls, look again to the text. Right after “shattered skulls” Howard mentions “faces caved in,” it seems Kane was limiting his attacks to the front part of the head—dismembering their faces—thereby destroying the zombie’s sense of sight, smell, and (limited) communication, but doing little, if any, damage to the brain itself.

At this point in the article, I am willing to state that the creatures are unarguably zombies mummified by the African environment. Despite my wishes as author, a few pieces of evidence going against my findings need to be dealt with.

During his first encounter with the creatures, Kane manages to kill the things by stabbing them with his cat-headed wood staff. It would seem obvious that the wood killed the creatures (giving good evidence that the beasts are vampires) but I don’t find this the case. Kane is first shocked by this event—one so knowledgeable should not be stunned by finding a wooden stave useful against a vampire; second, Kane rationalizes that the magic within his staff is what killed the “vampires.” I am inclined to agree with him.
Several times in the short story, the creatures are noted as possessing red eyes. In truth, I can find no explanation for this phenomena (Max Brook’s The Zombie Survival Guide helpfully notes: “The eyes of a zombie are no different than those of a normal human.”) Red eyes only seem to exist in the skulls of vampires and demons; one category of beings with red eyes remains untapped for an explanation—normal humans afflicted (in life) with albinism.

It is possible that a thousand years before Kane arrived at the lost city, a number of albino children were born, and due to the fear of the city leaders were only allowed to breed among themselves, after several generations (and a lack of fresh albino children from the normal population) the slightly inbred albino population was allowed to intermarry with the normal population. This caused an explosion of albino population, and thus created a civilization of albinos. [1]

These albino zombies may provide explanation for one of the most curious events of the story. During the climatic battle, Solomon Kane’s flesh is bitten and “sucked” by the creatures many times. Kane is not turned into any type of monster and continues on his adventures. Some types of vampires need several feedings to transform a victim into a blood-sucker, but as shown above, the chances of these creatures being normal infective zombies is low to nil. From this we can conclude that the zombies in “Hills of the Dead” are inflicted with a noncontaminatory strain of the Solanum virus. (Note: the Solanum virus is the official name for the zombie plague, as divulged in the Zombie Survival Guide.) Perhaps the albino genes altered the Solanum virus into a genetic cocktail that can only be contracted by other Albinos.

One final puzzling note is worth pointing out: when Kane first encounters the creatures they exhibit both an attraction and fear of his fire. Neither vampires nor zombies have a fear of fire. A vampire would laugh, or at the very most back away, if a torch was waved in his face; a zombie would fail to recognize the fire and set himself alight—slowly burning himself to death. This is one of the more puzzling elements of the story, and the lone factor that could make a future researcher assign the creatures as a completely different type of monster.

Despite several odd features, I fully believe that the creatures Kane encountered in the African savanna were zombies. This historic encounter would dovetail nicely with the recorded history of zombie attacks recorded by Max Brooks (in his Zombie Survival Guide), where a reasonable argument is built that the Solanum virus progenated somewhere in the African continent.

Works Cited
Brooks, Max. The Zombie Survival Guide. New York: Three Rivers, 2003. Print.

Howard, Robert E. "The Hills of the Dead." 1930. The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. New York: Del Rey, 1998. 223-53. Print.

National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation. "NOAH — What Is Albinism?" The National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation. Web. 22 June 2010. .

The Size of Self-Importance: Gulliver as Agent of Identity Politics

2010-07-06T17:11:00.001-04:00

In the realm of nonsense political psychobabble we already have the ichorous depths of sexual-politics and race-politics; leave it to master satirist Jonathan Swift to invent and castrate the identity-politics movement four hundred years before its invention--in his immortal classic, Gulliver's Travels. Swift’s own periodic addition may be best termed Size-Politics.

When Lemuel Gulliver crashed upon the shores of the nation of Lilliput, he was a giant among tiny men—or like Godzilla among Japanese—and treated with awe and terror. In an effort to regain their self-importance, the Lilliputians attempt to teach this “Englishman” the greatness and ultimate superiority of their race and beliefs (they are especially fond of showing the extranational traveler the proper end of an egg to break—the only thing separating them from savages). Here the Lilliputians fall into the classic mindset of minority politics; Gulliver makes them feel the tang of nihilism, that their race is small and useless—thus they must strike back at him through legislation. The council demands that Gulliver’s eyes be struck from his face with the nation’s toothpick sized swords—all done in the name of fairness (and to a lesser extent, national security) to the little people. Gulliver escapes onto his next adventure.

Gulliver proves his ill-luck by getting abandoned on the shore of yet another island nation (Brobdingnagian) not long after the Lilliput fiasco—this island however, was filled with men proportionally the size he was to the Lilliputians. Here Gulliver, rather than being the person of strength he was in the nation of Lilliput, he reverts to attempting to prove the greatness to any Brobdingnagian that will give him their ear for a moment. Here the extra-national traveler plays the other part of identity politics, trying to be accepted as better than all majorities. Unlike those who play identity politics in America, Gulliver’s rantings about the glory of England are treated as an after-dinner joke.

Swift’s work exposes the idea of identity politics as little people trying to convince their betters (usually in truth, though sometimes betters by cultural luck) that their Lilliputian souls and ideas are better than the Brobdingnags themselves.

Road to Iran; An Irate Reader's Review of "Zombies of Mass Destruction"

2010-07-05T12:28:00.003-04:00

Zombies of Mass Destruction (or ZMD as its creators like to call it) is a mishmash of good ideas poorly executed, and mind-numbingly stupid ideas executed with all the aplomb of a bored four year old. This was written by Kevin Grevioux (blarg!) and drawn by Geraldo Borges & Dave Youkovich (who tried to save this series from itself).

The first issue starts with the only great idea the creators seem to have come up with. An American freighter flies overhead and drops metallic tubes over an Iranian nuclear bomb testing facility; zombies burst forth from the tubes and in a matter of hours overrun the entire complex. Fourteen hours after the tubes first struck the Iranian earth the zombie virus inside of them burns away, killing all chance of the infection spreading and causing a World War Z like global apocalypse. One zombie, however, does not burn and wonders off into the desert.

Now, five pages in, all the crap gets thrown at the poor reader. We are introduced to a shell-shocked almost parody of Captain America. This guy lacks the suit and shield, but in personality (when he has one) and looks he matches up perfectly with Steve Rogers. Apparently Not-Cap married a girl during the first Gulf War and then ditched her when she didn't move to America--or something: the creators are never quite clear what when on between them. For all the difference it makes we can assume that her Mother in Law tried to kill Not-Cap.

We are also introduced to a group of shadowy Republicans who are not sorry that zombies were unleashed on the Iranian site. Because of this, they are shown as the face of uncaring evil--all that is wrong with the American government.

But what did the Shadow Republicans do that was really wrong? Did they use a technology that was maybe best left unused? Yes. But by wiping that Iranian testing facility off the face of the Earth, lives were saved. Iran was then unable to produce the bombs necessary to blast Israel (something the current Iranian leader is itching to do); The Iranians are unable to bomb any other Arab country that fails to fall under their hand. Thus, by unleashing a small scale zombie outbreak on the nuclear facility countless lives were saved from an atomic holocaust.

Not-Cap complains about the Shadow Republicans then agrees to go and kill the escaped zombie. The escaped zombie's been doing what zombies do and eating people, converting them into his own undead army.

Not-Cap spends four pages introducing his team to the reader; but since the reader is given no reason to care about these morons they don't stick in the readers head and bleed together. Some of them right quick, making their introduction all the more pointless. Not-Cap gets bit, but since they have zombie-antidote it doesn't matter.

Not-Cap's commando team gets shot down by zombies with RPGs. The team is attacked by mutant scorpions, then saved by a team of Christian Iranian commandos (???).

From this point, the commandos are kidnapped by zombies and taken to Zombie Village where the Zombie King and Zombie Queen rule over the Temple of Dagon (this last bit was advertised in the blurb, but there is no appearance of any Lovecraftian reference). The Zombie King turns out to be Not-Cap's old Commanding Officer and wants to eat every human in the world. The Zombie Queen is, for even less of a logical reason, the ex-wife that Not-Cap abandoned in the Iranian deserts. She mocks him, and the commandos are thrown into a holding cell.

In the cell, two commandos try to set up a nuclear bomb and wipe out Zombie Village, but all the other commandos beat them up so they don't die. Thus, we can further determine that Not-Cap is a coward. Since this comic series makes no sense, Not-Cap's idiotic actions are presented as heroism.

Through a series of events that make no sense--including the leader of the Christian Iranian Commandos past as an expert on Iranian Temple Design (???)--the commandos escape. Not-Cap rescues his (for some reason still living) daughter and runs into the desert. The Shadow Republicans pull one final bit of "villainy" and carpet bomb Zombie Village to dust. I have no idea why the series wants me to feel sorry for the zombie army that wants to EAT US ALL.

I'm guessing that in this series, the zombies are supposed to be a philosophical stand-in for violent Islam. This is troubling because the message passed on to the reader is: They want to kill you; letting them kill you is the morally right thing to do. What a load of madness. The only characters in this series who acted logically again the undead were the Shadow Republicans with their policy of shutting down any threat with the most logically fitting action.

I normally love the comic books put out by Red 5 Comics (like the fantastic Atomic Robo) but this miniseries is the trash that makes me wary of independent comic publishers.

Final Grade: D-

Awesomer Lyrics: Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" Made into a Song Worth Listening To

2010-07-04T21:17:00.004-04:00

Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" is a song of punishment; in order to be enjoyable is needs a certain something. Scientific research has determined that something is Zombies. In a spirit of kindness for those oppressed by the musical taste of their girlfriends, I present you with the lyrics "Paparazzi" should have had:

We are the dead, we're c-comin' up
Cut my flesh off it's true
Still gonna eat you
It so magical you'd taste so fantastical

Shotgun and jeans, redneck amorous
Not sure what it means
But this Apocalypse of ours, it lacks all price
Ready for those blazing guns
'Cause you know that baby I

I'm your rotted ghoul I'll shamble after you until I eat you
Zom, Zombie
Baby there's no other humans, you know that I'll be
Your Zom, Zombie

Promise I'll be savage
And I won't stop until that brain is mine
Hunter you'll be dinner, chase you down until you're food
Zom, Zombie

I am the ghoul, in the back of your car
knotted ropes and grenades
Yeah cause you're my food, I jump from between the seats
KBar and splattered brains

Rites were fulfilled, Yellow King and return
My eyes are plucked out, clotted gore I cry
It don't have a price, being Zombie Patient One
Cause you know that baby I,

I'm your rotted ghoul I'll shamble after you until I eat you
Zom, Zombie
Baby there's no other humans, you know that I'll be
Your Zom, Zombie

Promise I'll be savage
And I won't stop until that brain is mine
Hunter you'll be dinner, chase you down until you're food
Zom, Zombie

Real good we devour the Earth
Nom Nom on the brains of the army
Don't stop for anyone
We're undead but we still must feed

I'm your rotted ghoul I'll shamble after you until I eat you
Zom, Zombie
Baby there's no other humans, you know that I'll be
Your Zom, Zombie

Promise I'll be savage
And I won't stop until that brain is mine
Hunter you'll be dinner, chase you down until you're dead
Zom, Zombie

(Original lyrics by currently unknown songwriter, provided by kovideo.net)

A Slow Moving Reptile (Essay About Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath

2010-05-04T13:15:00.002-04:00

“All the thoughts of a turtle are ‘turtle.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

The turtle, in John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, begins its unknown quest pulling itself from a dusty ditch, then getting sidewinded by a car and spinning around in a glibbering spinning ride. After this he is captured by the villainous Tom Joad and tied in the eternal binds of a heavy winter coat; he escapes and is captured again, this time with little hope of a final escape. But, in the end of his appearance, he is freed, and though briefly chased by a hungered orange cat, he continues on to his goal. At the end, he continues on his reptilian pursuit of the mysterious end.

The turtle’s adventure mirrors the journey of the Joad family through the Midwest. In the beginning the family rips themselves from the dusty land—just as the turtle pulled himself over the embankment. The family is then shocked—one could say sidewinded—by the heartlessness (and the heartless technology) of the world beyond their dust pits, just as the turtle was spun about by his own encounter with modern machinery.

Then, the family lived at two different styles of styles of camp—escaping from the first in the dead of night as the proper Law Enforcement agencies burnt the Red Hostel Camp to the rich Californian earth. The second camp held them tighter in communist grip than before as the darkly eternal philosophy of Karl Marx took its tool on the family and others at the camp. Surely this grip of the camps and its change of their philosophy directly relates to the captured turtle vainly attempting to escape (twice, no less) from the against-nature bonds of young Joad’s coat.

In the closing events of the novel, the Joad family escape from a raging flood that dashes the family; though the flood has, in some ways, the ability to end their lives, it does not because the family finds shelter in a barn. The turtles final events, find him chased by a cat, which he avoids by closing himself up In his scute shell. Consider the connection between cat and flood, both serve as a near life ending experience, yet are arrayed directly against each other for the simple reason that cats hate water.

Thus the turtle serves as a symbolic foreshadowing of the exploits of the Joad family. As to why Steinbeck included such a monstrosity, I can only think that he wished to earn the awards for his novel by adding in such blatant foreshadowing.

The Maddening Secret Cries of Lot 49: A Wold Newtonian Explanation

2010-04-08T09:08:00.002-04:00

“That is not danger, it is inevitable destruction. You stand in the way not merely of an individual but of a mighty organization, the full extent of which you, with all of your cleverness have been unable to realize.” Professor Moriarty in “The Final Problem.”

The Crying of Lot 49 presents a problem for the Wold Newton researcher. It must logically be included in the universe due to crossovers found in the Nicholas Meyer Sherlock Holmes pastiche The Canary Trainer, the 1984 science fiction film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension , and the television series Angel. So clearly this novel must take place in the confines of the Wold Newton Universe—despite the drug fueled nature of the work.

THRUSHing out the Nine
The main thrust of Pyston’s novel is that a woman, Opedia Maass, uncovers a long lasting war between two secret societies of postal carriers: Thurn and Taxis, and Trystero. The war supposedly began sometime in the sixteen hundreds. For what we know of the Wold Newton Universe (Henceforth WNU) there were two combative groups in operation during this time frame.

In Philip José Farmer’s The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, the Eridaneans and Capelleans had been in a secret war that began sometime in the sixteen hundreds. The battle between them ended, supposedly, in 1872 when the last of the Capellean Old Ones was killed. This seems logical, until certain facts come to light. Professor James Moriarty was one of the higher agents of the Capellean hierarchy; most of Moriarty’s agents joined him in his later criminal pursuits; during his meeting with Sherlock Holmes, Moriarty stated that he was the head of a “mighty organization” that even the heights of Holmes’ “cleverness [was] unable to realize” (“The Final Problem”); all indications point that the Capellean organization remained at work though Moriarty’s reign.

What then? Surely at the Napoleon of Crime’s death the group ended. Not so, in The Man From UNCLE: The Dagger Affair, a novel by David McDaniel, the true history of THRUSH is recounted. Shortly, the terrorist organization THRUSH (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity) is the current face of the once Moriarty gang.

This is all well and dandy, you may say, but who in Hades were the Eridaneans? I believe they were the immortal Nine (from Farmer's Nine trilogy). During The Other Log of Phileas Fogg many references are dropped to immortality—just as are in the Nine trilogy, also by Philip Jose Farmer. (However, digging deeper into this theory goes far beyond the scope of this paper.)

I believe that Trystero—a representation of the chaotic subculture of the 1960s—is thinly veiled sub-division of THRUSH. Opposed to Trystero in its mission (to do what is never made clear in Pynchon’s novel) is Thurn and Taxis—a representation of the establishment. To continue the dynamic furthor: I propose for Other Logg, it seems likely that the “establishment” forces are, in truth, the Nine—secret rulers of the world. Thankfully, Pynchon seems to understand the evil of both groups, unlike many in the 1960s who built up THRUSH as the catalyst for the ultimate society (see “The Cap and Gown Affair” and my forthcoming article on THRUSH for full information).

The Ring of Thoth-Amon
During her investigations in chapter 4, Oedipa encountered the Alzheimer’s ridden Mr. Thoth. He gave her a “dull gold signet ring” engraved with the WASTE posthorn. In truth, this scene happened much as described. Only Mr. Thoth’s name was changed by Pynchon in order to give the careful reader a clue to the signet ring’s true nature. In the Robert E. Howard penned Conan the Barbarian novella “The Phoenix on the Sword” the enslaved Egyptian warlock Thoth-amon lusts after his lost ring, a thing with which he may free himself from his bonds, and in turn, enslave the world. “It was of a metal like copper, and was made in the form of a scaled serpent, coiled in three loops, with its tail in its mouth. Its eyes were yellow gems which glittered balefully.”

Admittedly, these two descriptions disagree on all counts except that the ring is of a yellowish metal. The reader may now make this objection to my statements: does not Lot 49 reference gold, while Phoenix references copper? The answer for this seeming dichotomy lies within the works of Plato. In his Critias, the dialogue where the legends of Atlantis originate, mentions how the sides of the city’s walls “flashed with the red light of orichalcum.” It is likely that Thoth-amon’s ring was, due to its great age even by the time of the prehistoric Conan stories, orichalcum. Some historians have theorized that the Atlantian metal was a gold copper alloy—this could possibly account for the ring’s seeming property change. The author takes this theory to be true.

A far more weighty matter is the shifting designs; the ring was a coiled snake with yellow gem eyes, to a plain ring with a muted posthorn. One passable idea is that over the many millennia the ring’s signature engravings were whittled away, but Robert E. Howard write a present-day set semi-sequel to Phoenix entitled “The Haunter of the Ring.” This story involves a man using the power of the ring in order to destroy the life of a former lover; the crux of the matter for us is that the ring remains true to the description from Phoenix. “Haunter of the Ring” was first published in 1934, leaving a thirty-two year gap between it and Lot 49; it seems unlikely that during that hiatus the ring’s engraving was filed down, though the possibility does exist.

I take the truth of the matter of the ring to be a combination of Howard and Pynchon. Oedipa did in fact receive the ring of Thoth-amon, as hinted by forcing the name “Mr. Thoth” upon the old man, and the ring did have the snake-line markings. However, “Mr. Thoth” was most likely an agent of THRUSH during his youth and had picked up the ring on a mission. Inside the orichalcum band he marked what he thought be the symbol of his masters. Perhaps he did this as a sign of adoration, or a warning against those who may discover the ring in the future. Whatever his intent, the influence of Alzheimer’s made him offer this trophy Oedipa Maass.

Dangerous Doctors
Dr. Hilarious is another issue. He is presented as a German mad scientist who was instrumental in devising ways to kill Jews by mental means. These included making faces that drove the watcher into a comatic madness. Clearly this cannot work in the real world, so another explanation is needed. The clue to Hilarious’ true identity is contained within Pynchon's express interest in one of the doctor's funny faces: the “Fu Manchu.”

In the 1950s, Atlas Comics (later Marvel Comics) published a short lived series entitled Yellow Claw. The main villain, the titular Yellow Claw, was a blatant a rip-off of Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu. The creators made Yellow Claw so close to the then popular Devil Doctor that from my stand point the two characters can be used interchagiblely. (It also helps that the comic stories slip neatly into the Fu Manchu chronology. Scholar Dennis E. Power disagrees and theorizes that the Yellow Claw is a soul clone of Fu Manchu.)

Returning to “Dr. Hilarious,” in the first Yellow Claw story “The Coming of the Yellow Claw” the Yellow Claw forces the Nazi war criminal Fritz Voltzmann into his service. Volzmann is a liability: a complete believer in Nazi ideology—but he is a scientific genius of that comic book kind, that man capable of work in any cutting-edge fringe science.

The end point of Voltzmann’s service to the Yellow Claw was chronicled in the first issue of the comic book Agents of Atlas—where the German only appeared for a few panels. Yellow Claw escapes the incoming American forces, leaving Voltzmann to either die or be captured. (In one panel he is seen being tied up by one of the Americans, yet in the closing interior shot of the American plane, Voltzmann is nowhere to be seen. Since it’s highly likely Voltzmann would be executed for his actions from WW2 to the late 1950s, it seems that he took the chaos of the self-destructing base to escape.) His trail after this event becomes blurred. From the sources I have been able to locate, it seems that he returned to America and set up a successful (hallucinogenic drug fueled) psyologist office. After he seemingly lost his mind and went on a shooting spree, he disappeared. Perhaps the Israeli agents he screamed about were after him.

The inconclusive ending to The Crying of Lot 49 causes more questions. Was Oedipa insane? Exactly what was the goal of Trystero? Who was the unknown bidder? These questions will forever lack answers. But hopefully I have shed some light into darkened corners.

Alex Rider: Revolution (Immortal) 9

2010-04-06T16:14:00.003-04:00

The fifth Alex Rider [1] novel, Scorpia, penned by Anthony Horowitz, is an odd book; the focus switches from a youthful James Bond pastiche to a darker form of conspiracy fiction. In any case, the teenaged MI6 operative quickly gets in over his head when he attempts to uncover the organization his father worked for: Scorpia. However, for the Farmer-fan this novel takes on new dimensions. The whole organization of Scorpia seems to be closely modeled off of PJF’s the Nine and, from a Wold Newton perspective, slides neatly into the Nine saga.

The ruling council of Scorpia consists of nine people from different nations: an old German, an Israeli, a Welsh, a Chinese and several of unknown nationalities. As readers of the Nine Trilogy remember, there were several Germanics on the council of the Nine, as well as an Israeli. [2]

During the discussion that follows, it is uncovered that this group prefers the firearms built by the FN company (the weapon of choice for the candidates of the Nine), and that “Only nine were left. One had died of cancer. Two had been murdered” (page 5). This statement fits nicely with the body count from the Nine Trilogy. Xauxaz died of extreme old age [3]; Mubaniga and Jiizfan died at the hands of Lord Grandrith. The death that runs counter to this theory is Iwaldi, a traitor to the Nine who had perfected an immortality drug that not only retarded aging, but caused the user to de-age to his physical prime. However, as stated, he was a traitor, making unlikely the Nine would count him as a member in their histories.

Later in the novel, Rider attempts to sneak into a several hundred year old castle [4] where Scorpia is holding a meeting of all its members. As Rider goes poking about back rooms, he comes upon a white Bengal Tiger in a richly furnished bed room. The animal attacks him until a guard comes in the room and flips a switch on a remote control. “And then the impossible happened….[the tiger] slumped and lay still on the floor....and then it was asleep, it’s stomach rising and falling, its eyes closed.” This devise as described in the novel is nearly identical to the invention from The Mad Goblin which made implanted animals into somewhat autonomous soldiers by alternatively stroking their brain’s anger or fear impulses with a radio-wave machine.

After several minor adventures, Alex Rider is inveigled into joining the organization in memory of his father. After which he is then carted off to an island school for assassinations. During his stay on this small Italian isle, two events of note take place. The first is that in one of the classes, all of the other students were learning a lesson about cigar boxes (for more on the use of cigars in the Nine, I direct my reader to Christopher Paul Carey’s article “The Green Eyes Have It—Or Are They Blue?” contained in Myths for the Modern Age, Monkey Brain Books, 2005).

The much more important event of note is Rider’s mental health examination by a Dr. Karl Steiner. Another Dr. Karl has quite an interesting history, but at the moment we are only concerned with two of his many cover identities. During the first world war, he posed as Baron Karl von Hessel, the captain of the prison camp Loki (in Farmer’s Escape from Loki, Bantam, 1992). There he was obsessed with finding a potion for immortality; ultimately his efforts were destroyed by a young Doc Savage. The second moment of interest is from the final Doc Savage novel Up from Earth’s Center, where Karl poses as a psychologist in order to fulfill his goals (for complete information on these two adventures of Doc Savage and a fuller account of Dr. Karl please again look to Carey’s “The Green Eyes Have It—Or Are They Blue”). It is my belief that both of these Dr. Karls are one and the same man.

During the examination, Dr. Karl injects Rider with what he calls a “vitamin boost,” an amber colored elixir of unknown effect. Later in the novel Rider suspects that he has been injected full of a nanotech soup intended to kill him—but why would an organization that has spent so much money and time to develop a boy into a skilled killer wish to murder him during an unrelated a terror attack on London? Far more likely he was injected with the same strain of elixir that caused insanity in both Caliban and Grandrith—as will be seen below.

Immediately following his “vitamin boost” Rider is sent to murder one of his bosses at MI6, something he attempts willingly, despite it going against his character. This echoes Doc Caliban’s sufferings from the immortality potion throughout A Feast Unknown. The injection did not affect Rider in the same extreme ways, but it must be remembered that he is a pubescent boy and probably would not be physically able to exhibit some of the symptoms. His talk with his boss right before he tries to kill her plays like an encore to the finale of Feast where Grandrith attempts to talk Caliban down.

He is captured by government agents and sleeps off the effect of wanting to kill his boss. Within the context of the novel, this makes no sense as he wanted to murder her out of a mixture of revenge and hate. But within the context of the Nine trilogy, this makes perfect sense. A wounded Caliban slept off the effects of the potion after a nervous break down.

The final item of note is the goal of Scorpia. According to Horowitz, Scorpia is under contract by a Middle Eastern sheik to decimate the school age population of England and, possibly, cause war between England and America in the fallout. This seems plausible, but it is troubling that aside from three mentions, two by Scorpia and one by a British agent, no one seems to mention or care about this backer. I find it more likely that Scorpia, aka the Nine, were themselves responsible for this. Consider what the Nine wanted during the events of Lord of the Trees/The Mad Goblin: to return the earth to its ancient population levels. What better way to do this than start wars between two major countries?

Alex Rider was successful in his bid to end this Nine threat. After a lengthy recuperation from the mental and physical tortures of this mission he was forced into a return match against the Nine—thus time against their deadliest member: the immortal Dr. Fu Manchu. However, this battle goes far beyond the scope of this essay. (For complete information, please see my forthcoming article on the Alex Rider series.)

The ultimate question asked of this article is, did Anthony Horowitz knowing include all these seeming references to the Nine trilogy in homage to Philip José Farmer? This I leave for the reader to decide.

[1] It is worth noting that the Alex Rider series is filled with hints that it not only takes place within the same universe as the James Bond novels but that Rider is the grandson of James Bond by Honeychile Rider (the Bond girl from Doctor No). In The Man With the Golden Gun, Bond notes that Honeychile had twins some years before with a doctor from Philadelphia. Alex Rider’s father and his brother were twins. Two objections to this theory exist. The first is that the twins would have the same last name as Honey’s husband; this possibly resolved in Pearson’s Authorized Biography of 007 when Honey states that she is divorced, thus we may assume that her children took up the RIder name. The second objection is the question of whether Bond could have fathered the twins before Honey married and still leave her husband thinking the children are his own. Considering that Bond was going to take Honey to see an American doctor to fix her broken nose at the end of Doctor No, it is possible that she could have had a whirlwind romance and been married inside of a month.

Please see my forthcoming article on the Alex Rider series for a complete listing of the hints within the Alex Rider novels about Bond.

[2] Strangely, the Israeli wears an eye patch; the novel notes that he “accidentally” shot his eye out with his FN pistol. Perhaps with the death of Xauxaz in A Feast Unknown a new symbolic Odin was needed for the religious rights of the Nine.

[3] Death by old age is no longer recognized as a cause of death in the United States because there is always some deeper cause. It is possible that Xauxaz did die of cancer.

[4] It is worth noting that the castle was lit by candle power, perhaps they were used in place of torches to pass the immortality drug to the candidates. See Christopher Paul Carey’s “The Green Eyes Have it—or Are They Blue” (Myths for the Modern Age, 2004) for more information.

James Bojaciuk

Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo--Stieg Larsson

2010-04-06T15:48:00.005-04:00

I've given into the best-selling craze and read the first of Larrsson's mystery thrillers (Of course this had nothing to do with the fact that Amazon offered the book for a total of five dollars); Well I can't truly say if I loved it or loathed it.

The main set-up for the novel is the best materials for a locked room mystery I've seen; in Sweden there is an island owned by the billionaire Vanger family. The teenaged daughter disappeared during a time where nearly everyone on the island was attempting to clear the only possible exit from the island. Clearly, she had to have been murdered. The body was never found.

Larsson carefully builds two protagonists that meet my two critia for fictional characters, they feel real and I cared about what happened to them. But, they were both disgusting human beings.

This all said, the book has problems; the mystery isn't truly resolved. Near the end of the book, Larsson just pulls a solution out of the ether that just doesn't gel correctly with what we know. This is a pity, since all the building clues pointed in a beautifully devious solution to the case.

The other problem with the novel is the heavy sexual violence. It can be handled well (like in Eckert's The Evil in Pemberley House) or badly, like this. While reading what all happened to Lisbeth Salander, and on a different level the events missing Vanger girl was a part of, it never feels like Larsson cares about the characters and is having a good ol' time putting the poor girls though several rapes (making it worse is that Salander is slightly retarded). Perhaps I'm not stating clearly what exactly disturbs me about this; it's not just that he's having fun, it feels like Larsson is getting a sexual high of the misfortunes of his female characters. And that's just wrong.

Still, for pure page turning ability, I do give the novel points. I was hooked reading from the first page to the end.

Final Rating: B+

Wold Newton: Nothing that can be stated without research; but it seems this novel brings to light a slight interaction between THRUSH and the immortal Nine.

James Bojaciuk

Review: The Quest for Bowie's Blade--J.T. Edson (The Old West Maltese Falcon)

2010-02-27T12:46:00.004-05:00

This was the first J.T. Edson book I've had the pleasure to read. It had a nice, well flowing plot that I could easily see filmed as an hour long 1960s TV western.

The main thrust of the novel is the maneuverings of different (usually villainous) parties to recover Jim Bowie's knife. The knife supposedly holds the map to a crashed meteor.

One thing I enjoyed was the influence Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon played on the plot. Charles X. Guilemont blunders around like a French Casper Gutman; his sidekick, a female crook, plays in Cario role (I can't help but think that making the assistant a woman was a reference to the sexuality of Cario). In addition, the Ysabel Kid's parner is shot in the opening pages of the novel! All of these similarities could be chance(there could be more since it's been a long time since I've read Falcon), except that in the final pages of the novel, Guilemont announces that he is going to "locat[e]...a statuette of a falcon, sir...it is made of solid gold and encrusted with the finest jewels to be looted from the crusades. It's value, sir, in the right circles, is immense." For any too dense to pick up on the connection, there is a helpful footnote pointing the reader to The Maltese Falcon for more information.

Despite this somewhat glowing review I have to point out an oddity that docks the book quite a few points. In the second to last chapter, the Ysabel Kid and Guilemont head off to see if they can locate the Bowie Knife again. So, while waiting the two girls go down to the beach and have a ultra-violent bloody brawl. Since there are several mentions of ripped clothes and bared bosoms I guess this is supposed to be sexy--rather it just leaves the read confused as to What The Heck that was all about.

Wold Newton: Nothing much, there's a reference to the Maltese Falcon, as noted, and Guilemont works for James Moriarty--aside from these, the novel is a complete stand alone.

Final rating: B-
(B+ without the cat fight.)

Philip Jose Farmer Reprints that Will, Sadly, Never Exist

2010-02-18T21:05:00.008-05:00

Something I've wanted for a very long time is a three volume, leather bound, complete reprint of all the Wold Newton works by Philip Jose Farmer. In all likelyhood, this will never happen. Not only do legal rights hold some of his works from (perhaps ever) being reprinted, the cost of production alone reduces this to the dreams of Never-Never Land.

Still, since I had a few free minutes, I mapped out my ideal contents for each volume.

Volume 1: The Tarzan volume

Tarzan Alive
“An Exclusive Interview with Lord Greystoke”
“Extracts from the Memoirs of Lord Greystoke”
Time’s Last Gift
Hadon of Ancient Opar
Flight to Opar
“The Arms of Tarzan”
“A Reply to ‘The Red Herring’ “
“The Great Korak-Time Discrepancy”
“The Lord Mountford Mystery”
“From ERB to YGG”
“A Language for Opar”
Tarzan: The Dark Heart of Time

In setting this volume's contents up, I tried to place them in thematic sense. So it begins with the biography Tarzan Alive, and seges into the two smaller works that make up, more or less, extra addendums to the biography. After that, the reader is treated to the book-length prologue and first two tomes of the sadly uncompleted Khokarsa series. After that, PJF's sundry artcles on Tarzanic topics, including his inventive geneology of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Lastly, Phil's only true Tarzan novel Dark Heart of Time is reprinted to bookend the volume.

Volume 2: The Doc Savage volume

Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
“Jongor in the Wold Newton Universe”
Escape from Loki
“Doc Savage and the Cult of the Blue God”
“After King Kong Fell”
“Savage Shadow”
“Down to Earth’s Centre”
Ironcastle
“Skinburn”
“The Freshman”
“The Last Rise of Nick Adams”
Greatheart Silver
“The Volcano”
A Barnstormer in Oz

This volume stands in honor of the Man of Bronze; hitting readers first is Phil's biography of Doc and his aides, followed up by an abandoned geneological entry that brings another jungle lord to the Wold Newton family. Doc then escapes from a WWI prison camp in his first adventure. Following this is a screen treatment from a sequel to the George Pal Savage film, the true story of King Kong, and a parody of Doc by The Shadow author "Maxwell Grant." Doc battles demons from Hell, and in Ironcastle a friend of his father uncovers an alien country in the heart of Africa. After this last Doc Savage related tale, several more pulp fiction homage tales come, where Lovecraft, Hemingway, (Rex) Stout, and, in Greatheart Silver's case, every known pulp hero are given the Farmerian treatment. Tying up the volume is Phil's novel homage to the land of Oz.

Volume 3: Sherlock Holmes and the Nine Trilogy

The Other Log of Phileas Fogg
The Adventure of the Peerless Peer
“The Adventure of the Three Madmen”
“The Problem of Sore Bridge—Among Others”
“The Two Lord Ruftons”
“A Scarletin Study”
“The Doge Whose Baroque was worse than His Bight.”
"Who Stole Stonehenge" (fragment and outline)
“Jonathan Swift Somers III, Cosmic Traveller in a Wheelchair”
Venus on the Half-Shell
“The Obscure Life and Hard Times of Kilgore Trout”
A Feast Unknown
Lord of the Trees
The Mad Goblin
“The Monster on Hold”

This final volume opens with Phil's homage to Victorian fiction, before rushing though Holmes' meetings with Tarzan, Mowgli, and Raffles. An essay on the connections between Conan Doyle's different series is followed by the adventures of Ralph von Wau Wau--pity the cannine detective didn't have more stories devoted to him. A quick spin though the works of Kurt Vonnegut is followed by the grand finale of the works. The titanic Nine series, which managed to fit nearly all of Phil's obsessions into three novels and one fragment. (The only thing oddly missing is an air-ship.)

James Bojaciuk

Planetary Annotations--"Strange Harbours" (Issue Four)

2010-02-17T16:25:00.003-05:00

Theme: Captain Marvel

Quick Summary: Jim Wilder, private investigator for the Hark Corporation, chases a mugger though ground zero of a bomb blast that Planetary is also investigating. He makes contact with a artifact uncovered in the blast and is teleported to a pluriverse traversing ship. Wilder is augmented with alien technology, and agrees to find six other people willing to help him return the ship to its home universe.

Opening Line: "It was like Satan farted, that's what it was like."

Annotations:
Page 3, panel 3: “The Snowflake” is the representation of the pluriverse from issue one.

Page 10: Note the lightening bolt motif. Also, a gray alien is in the lower corner of the far right golden pillar.

Page 11: This is my favorite dialogue from the entire series.

Page 12: Doc Brass is glaring at Wilder because the “ship” he contacted was one of the foes the pulp heroes encountered. See issue five for slightly more information.

Page 13, panel 4: Again note the Captain Marvel-type lightening bolt motif.

Page 14, panel 1: Again, the snowflake reappears.

Page 17, panel 1: The number seven is reference to Captain Marvel’s transformative battle cry: “Shazam.” Which stood for:
Issue Four: “Strange Harbours”

Page 3, panel 3: “The Snowflake” is the representation of the pluriverse from issue one.

Page 10: Note the lightening bolt motif. Also, a gray alien is in the lower corner of the far right golden pillar.

Page 11: This is my favorite dialogue from the entire series.

Page 12: Doc Brass is glaring at Wilder because the “ship” he contacted was one of the foes the pulp heroes encountered. See issue five for slightly more information.

Page 13, panel 4: Again note the Captain Marvel-type lightening bolt motif.

Page 14, panel 1: Again, the snowflake reappears.

Page 17, panel 1: The number seven is reference to Captain Marvel’s transformative battle cry: “Shazam.” Which stood for:
S: The wisdom of Solomon.
H: The strength of Hercules.
A: The stamina of Atlas.
Z: The power of Zeus.
A: The courage of Achilles.
M: The speed of Mercury.

I can’t help but feel that the close relationship of the crew is a reference to the concept of the Marvel Family.

Page 18: panel 3: This outfit is mostly a pallet swap of Captain Marvel’s costume.

The Future of Books?

2010-01-31T21:39:00.000-05:00

Or a technological toy?

Planetary Annotations--"Dead Gunfighters" (Issue Three)

2010-01-30T20:54:00.002-05:00

This--along with the next issue--is going to be the shortest of my annotations. Also the next two weeks will have no Wold Newton Apologia. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programing

Theme: Chinese Action Flicks

Quick Summary: The Planetary team finds a ghost cop gunning down mobsters in Hong Kong.

Opening Line: Ah. Money to make, drugs to take, whores to kill. Hong Kong is so good to me."

Annotations:

Page 3, panel 1: The signs say “RHS” and “Kent,” I don’t know what, if any, significance they hold.

Page 9, panel 4: “Weekly World News” was a tongue in cheek newspaper that had such headlines as “Hillbillies Shoot Angel” or “I was Bigfoot’s Love Slave.” The complete run can be read at Google Books.

Page 14: The structure of this thing is similar to the reality ship from Issue 4: “Strange Harbours”

Page 16, panel 1: “196,833” is the number that of universe that exist, according to Doc Brass.

Planetary Annotations--Island (Issue Two)

2010-01-23T23:10:00.002-05:00

Theme: The early Godzilla films.

Quick Summary: The Planetary field team goes to Japan to attempt to rescue a group of Japanese cultists from Zero Island, the place where all the Godzilla type monsters originated from. The cultists are die during a confrontation with international guards placed on the isle to prevent people from discovering the giant bodies.

Opening Line: “It does us good to have our genitals frozen into small blue dead things.”

Annotations:

Pages4-5: This is the Kaiju, Mothra, from the Godzilla film series.

Page 6, panel 1: Three pop culture items are advertised on the electric signs. The apple is of course for Apple Computers, the “Zard” sign refers to the Japanese pop group, and the triple eyed smiley-face is from Warren Ellis’ comic series Transmetropolitan.
(It was also used as the symbol of the 2001 sci-fi film Evolution.)

Page 7: panel 3: Shinya has a Ninja action figure on his speakers. The ninja is, of course, one of the most prominent pop cultural symbols of Japan. (To foreigners like me, at anyrate.)

Page 9: panel 5: Both Shinya and Master Storyteller smoke Marlboros.

Page 10: panels 2-3: The Drummer is playing with a Game Boy Camera—a state of the art toy in 1999.

Page 10, panel 3: Aum Shin Ryko (Properly called “Aum Shinriko”) is a Japanese death cult that made a toxic attack on Japanese subways in 1995.

Page 11, panel 1: This is the Skelton of the kaiju King Ghidorah, the archenemy of Godzilla. (It is often named “Monster Zero,” perhaps this is the origin of the issue’s title.)

Page 12, panel 3: Note that Snow stole these cigarettes from Shinya. See page 9, panel 5.

Page 14, panel 3: This is Godzilla. King of the Monsters. Right now he is very dead.

Page 17, panel 2: Here Jakita shows another one of the Golden Age Superman powers: enhanced speed. (Faster Than a Speeding Bullet.)

Panel 4: The Zero Island guards carry WW2 era German MP40s. Perhaps this has something to do with the Nazi-Science left-overs that the Four started with. (See issue six, “4”)

Page 20, panel 2: The bright light was probably an extra-universal snow flake, much like the thing encountered by the pulp heroes earlier in 1945.

Page 22, panel 1: This is Rodan, the pterodactyl type creature from the Godzilla movies. He is the last survivor of Monster Island.

Planetary Wold Newton Apologia--"All Over the World"

2010-01-17T23:44:00.003-05:00

"The Spider versus The Scorpion"

In 1943, The Spider magazine ceased publication, leaving a question as to what happened to the most blood thirsty of the pulp heroes.
The question was first given attention in the afterward of “A Look at the Wimsey Family” by Mark Brown. The theory put forth is that The Spider disappeared on a secret WWII mission in 1943.
But the truth is much darker. I assume that Jess Nevin’s theory on the identity of “The Scorpion” is based off of the costume differences from the character in Planetary and Page’s Spider. I, for one, cannot find any reason preventing Scorpion from being Spider.*
The Spider joined up with Doc Brass (James Anthony) to create the perfect world—a land, presumably, without the world-wreckers he encountered on a daily basis. As we know from “All Over the World,” the plan failed.

* One exception exists. In the novel Invisible Death, by Lin Carter, the protagonist briefly meets a man named "Wentworth" who is engaged to a miss Nita Van Sloan. Perhaps

Planetary Annotations--All Over the World (Issue One)

2010-01-16T21:49:00.002-05:00

Issue One “All Over the World”

Theme: The 1930s pulp heroes.

Quick summary: Elijah Snow is a grumpy one hundred year old man who gets pulled away from his wilderness shack to consult for the organization Planetary. There he meets his teammates Jakita Wagner and The Drummer, and is sent out to a secret bunker in the Adirondacks. This bunker was used as a secret base by analogues of the pulp heroes. In 1945 they attempted to run a system that would turn Earth into a perfect planet, but their attempts were stopped by an alternate universe’s Justice League.

Opening Line: "Coffee tastes like your dog took a leak in it."

Annotations

Page 7, panel 2: The Drummer is drinking Whak Cola. “Whak” is probably a reference to the slang word “wacko,” as in The Drummer is out of his mind.

Page 7, panels 3 and 4: Note that the New York skyline is photographs. Something Jack Kirby often did in his later work.

Page 8, panel 3: Instead of typing, Drummer communicates with the computer by tapping on it with his drumsticks. Also note the little plastic frog head atop his machine. Is it supposed to be Kermit the Frog?

Page 10, panel 2: The drummer is communicating with the helicopter. Why?

Page 11, panels 2 and 3: here and through the rest of the series Jakita has the powers and temperament of Golden Age Superman. Considering what we learn of her parentage, it seems unlike that Superman had any influence on her. Though this could be Ellis’ playing with Golden Age superhero tropes. (Here Jakita jumps from a helicopter, and states that she probably could kick a rhino across the Grand Canyon.)

Page 12, panel 2: “The Vulcania Raven God” is probably a reference to all of the Lovecraftian horrors that stalked the 1930s.

Page 12, panel 3: “The Hull of the Charnel Ship” ties forward to issue 4, “Strange Harbours.” The second display case reads “Vestiments of the Black Crow King,“ I have no idea what this refers to. The third case: “The Murder Colonels” seem to be Ellis’ attempt to create a generic pulp villain.

Page 13, panel 1: This is Doc Alex Brass, the Planetary analogue for the pulp hero Doc Savage.

Page 14: The seating arrangement of the room is a morality index of the pulp heroes. Hark, the Fu Manchu analogue, and The Spider[1], analogue of The Spider, are the darkest men in the room. Neither would hesitate to brutally kill any who opposed them. Next two are Jimmy, Operator #5, and Lord Blackstock, Tarzan. Neither goes out of his way to kill, but they (sometimes) enjoy it more than they should. On The third tier we have Edison, Tom Swift, and the Pilot, G-8. I don’t think that Tom Swift ever killed anyone, and G-8 can be excused for his killings since they all happened during the course of the First World War. Lastly, we have Doc himself. In the pulps Savage rarely killed anyone, preferring to have them sent to his Crime College where the criminals could be lobotomized into model citizens.
However, there is another more simple explanation for the seating. Fu Manchu and The Spider took their personal wars seriously, never enjoying themselves; unless that enjoyment was found in torturing an enemy. Tarzan and Operator #5 had fun in their adventuring on occasion, but were mostly grim. G-8 and Tom Swift lived for the fun of action, the adrenalin rush of combat with evil. And then, Doc Savage; despite his high morals, he readily admitted through all his pulp novels that he adventured for the pure fun of it. While unlikely, there is a certain charm to this explanation.

Page 16, panel 1: The “computer” that Brass is working on seems very similar to the Blue Lantern technology from issue 10, “Magic and Loss.”

Page 17: This is the first full appearance of the “snowflake,” a representation of the multiverse. As for “196,833”; this is the “Monster” number. For more information, see here:

Page 22: The invaders are analogues of the Justice League. Starting at the top and running clockwise, they represent: Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Aquaman.
Page 23: Note that in the fight parings, Ellis is comparing the pulp heroes to their descendants, the superheroes. Doc Savage and Superman, the ultimate men, battle. The Spider and Batman, the terror shades of the night. Tarzan and Wonder Woman, those who were born in a more savage state. Hark battles Martian Manhunter in a battle of foreigners. (During the 1930s, China and Mars might as well have been the same distance for the normal person.) Edison takes on Flash, scientist versus scientist. Perhaps G-8 is fighting against the Green Lantern analogue as both were pilots.
The rest are less clear. I’m not quite sure why Operator #5 was killed by Wonder Woman, or why G-8 is killed by the Aquaman analogue.

Page 25, panel 1: The cargo of the third helicopter is possibly explosives, as seen in issue 18, “The Gun Club.”

Panel 4: The motto of the Planetary series is spoken for the first time. “It’s a strange world.” “Let’s keep it that way.”

Music I Like 01/11/10

2010-01-11T23:28:00.001-05:00

Planetary Wold Newton Apologia--"Nuclear Spring"

2010-01-10T23:01:00.003-05:00

This will be one of the shortest of the Wold Newton Universe (WNU) apologia entries, as there is so little to "fix" in order to let it slip into the small superhero corner of the Wold Newton Universe.

Right now, I am willing to take this as the more-or-less true account of the WNU Incredible Hulk, with three exceptions.

A) Bruce Banner (called David Paine in Planetary for legal reasons) was baithed in extra-universial energy saving a teenage boy, not the wife of General Ross.

B) The Hulk could change back into Banner from Hulk mode. While I disagree with Dennis E. Power's theory that Banner was some sort of lycanthrop, I agree whole heartedly that he is a desendant of Mr. Hyde.

C) The Hulk was finally captured by the American government in 1983 and left at the bottom of a deep shaft--he died ten years later in 1993.

James Bojaciuk

Planetary Annotations--Nuclear Spring (Preview Issue)

2010-01-09T15:38:00.005-05:00

Preview Issue: “Nuclear Spring”

Theme: The Incredible Hulk

Quick Summary: The Planetary team breaks into a secret government base where an aged general tells them the Planetary Universe version of the Incredible Hulk story.

Opening Line: "You come on in, boys. Have a drink on me. Been a long day."

Annotations:

Page 4, panel 1: The general seems to be overly green, his shirt, eyes, and skin all sharing in this tone. Perhaps this is a reflection of his hatred of David Paine.

Panel 2: It’s stated the experiment took place in 1962, this was the year the first issue of The Incredible Hulk hit the news stands.

Panel 4: The general makes mention of “integral series” bombs; then in the next panel notes that the bomb is also a computer. This relates to the mathematical Integral Test for Convergence. This test is used to find if a series of positive numbers are convergent. Perhaps this “convergence” relates to Planetary’s theme of attempting to break and analyze the veil between universes.

Page 5, panel 1: Paine was trying to “monkey” with the “machinery of the universe.” The result of the bomb, had it been successful would be more or less to replace the matter from Universe A with matter from Universe B; or as we see, take the matter from Universe A and combine it on the atomic level with matter from Universe B.

Panel 4: Paine called his device a “quantum box,” a theory more popularlly known as Schrodinger’s cat. This means in the context of the story that Paine doesn’t know what the result of the bomb blast will be since because of the bomb’s nature all possible states exist within the affected matter until it is observed.

Page 8, panel 1: This is the battlefield where the US army combated Planetary’s Hulk analogue. The way the general talks it seems that this battle happened shortly after Paine was blasted with the universal matter swap. But note the wreckage in the upper left corner. It is an Apache Helicopter, a piece of equipment that was not introduced to the army until 1984. In fact the first test flight was in 1975.
Surely you must be thinking that this is a simple error I uncovered, but I don’t think it is so simple. With any other comic series I would agree—a simple lapse on the part of Cassaday—but here, with the level of interconnectiveness and continuity, I can only assume that a later date during the 1980s is being hinted at.

Panel 4: “He finally died. In nineteen eighty three.” 1983 saw a story line where Bruce Banner’s mind took full control of the Hulk. This is most likely Ellis’ comment that the Hulk comics ran out of story lines there.

Planetary Annotations--Introduction

2010-01-09T15:33:00.003-05:00

Up to this point, no one has annotated the comic series Planetary—aside from one abortive and cluttered attempt by a college professor. (You can find his work, some of which I do adapt, at http://www.utdallas.edu/~jenelow/planet.html)

So I’ve taken up the job of searching every panel of Cassaday’s art for material worthy of comment. And since he’s a detail guy, and Warren Ellis adds so much to script, there is a lot of stuff to find—so keep watch.

The schedule for these posts will be an annotation of an issue on each Saturday. On Sunday, if applicable, I will post an apologia on how that issue of Planetary fits into the Wold Newton Universe.

Next: Nuclear Spring Annotation

James Bojaciuk

Writing Update 10/17/09

2009-10-17T14:00:00.002-04:00

I feel too sick at the moment to actually write, so I figured I should post some kind of update on my writng.
My novel is going smoothly dispite some problems with plotting. I hope to be finished by Christmas. This is a dream novel to be working on; each new problem just makes the work better.

I'm working on a major licenced short story, the research of which is going well. The hardest part is copying the style of the author who lefft this unfinished--but I've read enough of his work that it's not too much of a challenge to attempt his style.

A short story about a certain Lord of the Jungle finding himself shipwrecked on an island known for producing dinosaurs and giant apes. I'm aiming for publication in a future volume of the Lofficiers execelent Tales of the Shadowmen anthologies.
(Three pages of a projected 30 are complete.)

Also: A short story taking place in the present day where a very liberal public defender (To make a joke: Is there any other kind?) has a very personal encounter with some Lovecraftian things while working on his current case.
(Zero pages completed out of a projected eight-or-ten.)

Bonus A: I'm considering, when I finish my current projects, submitting a novel to Pulp Press. They're currently running an open call on 23,000 word action novels, so it sounds right up my alley.

Bonus B: A short novel titled "The Electric Demon." This tale features Doc Savage--in a fight for his life against the insane Doctor James Caliban, Monk and Ham--trapped in the Africian caves of the Unknown Nine, and, Fu Manchu--facing such foes as even his wicked mind could not dream.
The main reason this story is not yet complete is that I am working on this story as part of my school's Creative Writing class. (One page complete out of a projected 60.)

James Bojaciuk

Prologue of my novel.

2009-10-14T19:24:00.002-04:00

Take note that this will be removed in about a week.

Prologue
James Bojaciuk

The environmental leader’s face was violently ugly.
Or so thought Alice Clayton. She looked at Victor Lupin’s head again and shuddered. His nose had been broken in the past, and an ever so faint scar shaped like a sideways “N” was on his cheek. Although, it seemed apparent that the other girls at this “Save the Earth” party did not share her feelings, since many were hanging on the activist’s chest, arms, whatever they could get a hold of. He watched them hungrily with his green eyes. His mouth puffed at his long cigar even more hungrily.
“Thank you for inviting me Mr. Lupin.” Alice said. Even though he repulsed her, Alice’s mother had taught her nothing if not to always be polite.
“No, thank you for coming Miss. Clayton. It is a pleasure to have the youngest member of one of the world’s most famous environmentalist families.”
She already noticed that many of the guests were well under twenty. Sensing her thoughts, Lupin said: “If we do not use the young to win the culture wars, what have we gained? Does the earth live if we convert the old and dying to our cause? No, the children must be used. As an antagonist of mine once said, “A little child shall lead them.”
The walls of the party hall had been freshly painted a bright red which clashed with the old lime green tablecloths. On the far side of the room was a cluster of guests reading with reverence an old leather bound book. Nearer Alice and Lupin was the buffet table, which was now missing a steak knife, and a drink stand. Between the two far points was a row of doors leading deeper into the house.
Lupin saw that one of his fourteen-year-old assistants was gesticulating; two fingers swung above his head.
“I must apologize, but I am needed in the next room.”
Alice took a sip of her drink and nodded, watching Lupin walk away toward where the page was now frantic in his movements. She picked up the ladle and refilled her drink from the bowl, still remembering her grandfather’s warning. “Always watch for the lion when bending for a drink.”
Sure enough, the lion came hunting for a doe. He was wearing a loose robe over his street clothes. His face was pulled into a permanent hyena smirk.
“What’s a cute blonde like you doin’ without a boy?” She turned, her face disgusted. “Hoo, she’s got grey eyes too. Never bedded one of them before!”
“Make another comment like that and you will never be able to “bed” another woman again. Am I quite clear?” She said, still watching Lupin argue with the page. In her hand was a steak knife stolen from the buffet table. She welded her blade backhanded at roughly his crotch level. If he tried anything more, a simple backwards flick from her hand would sever something he would much rather not loose. Sweat poured down his pocked visage; he slowly backed away into the crowd.
The leader was now shouting quietly at his subordinate, quietly for he was attempting to keep the guests from finding out what the problem was. Lupin’s eyes shone yellow under the fluorescent lights near the door.
That’s funny, she thought, in the harsher light his eyes are almost the same color as Great Uncle Clark’s. She groped for the cross that hung from her neck. Dear Lord help me…it cannot be ...?
Lupin turned toward her, his eyes sending a message. I’ve found you out, wretch.
She was unsure now, If she ran no one would know what happened, but if she stayed she could very well die. But she was not afraid of death, if it came, then so be it. But why hurry the grave, she thought, folding the steak knife into a crease in her dress.
Lupin finished his harried conversation then spent the next twenty minutes rounding the room talking personally with each guest.
He then wove his way to the door and rested a gigantic hand upon the handle. His face was warped into a sickening smile and his eyes were, thanks to the shade he found himself in, half green and half yellow.
“Come my friends and supporters. I have for you tonight the preview of that which will save us from ourselves, please follow me.”
After a five minute walk through the halls and stairwells of the old house they arrived in a room near the center of the structure. In the center of the room was a pedestal with an indent in the top; it was visually similar to a birdbath but deeper. Lining the walls were computer servers of the newest models, clearly someone rich was funding this affair. But as to this money-man’s identity it was unclear. Lastly some chalk-marks marred the Victorian woodwork, but Alice could not see the design from where she stood.
“In one week’s time we shall open a universal hole where I stand.” He said, tapping the chalk mark with foot. “This shall allow entry of something we call…a Great Old One. He, or I suppose I should say “It” as its biology contains both male and female part such as some sea dwellers, will come and cleanse the earth of pollutants, saving the earth from murder, bigotry, and pollution. And all morality will be replaced with true morality—our own.”
All but one of the guests genuinely applauded these notions. Alice did so as well, but only not to stick out and show herself.
“We shall use the computers, manned ably by Mort. Who sadly could not come tonight due to tomorrow being the start of school. Our “magical” Miss. Millie will be handling the chalk and other things of her type. And lastly I shall be handing the r’’ok’og’a. It promises to be a night the world shall not forget.
“But before we all go home and sleep peacefully in our beds, we have two orders of housekeeping. The first is for everyone still in high school to remember to show for the young people convention in two days.
“The second is that we have a spy in this room.”
The guests were thrown into confusion, who could the traitor be? Alice kept from panic and followed the crowd, except she, unlike they, had no clue as to what Lupin’s plan was.
“Who’d ever betray us?” She said as a smokescreen.
‘Come now Miss. Clayton. Do you think I’d not know you were the spy? Come now. You insist on convorting around with that Cross. It’s a wonder that none other than I saw though your attempt at infiltrating us.
“Seize and eliminate this feminine nuisance.”
The crowd stopped being fearful, simultaneously they became murderously angry.
Alice Clayton hefted the knife and stabbed at the first attacker. He was a teenager, barely any older than her herself. Glasses dropped off his dead face and crunched to the floor.
Alice backed herself up against the room’s corner, and let them come to her. Her grandfather’s wisdom came back once more. No matter how bad the situation, no matter how deadly your enemy, remember that you must keep your smarts about you, and always repeat to your self, “I still live”, for as long as a single breath remains in your lungs the tide of battle can and knowing you, will, turn.
She grabbed the neck of the next attacker squeezed his jugular. Alice had learned this technique from a eastern marshal arts master, Lung Po. The attacker’s eye budged until his adam’s apple popped. Then letting that body drop to the ground, she did a jabbing lunge that caught another follower in the gut. At a minimum she guaranteed the man would have a long stay in the hospital. But with that thrust she over extended her reach, leaving herself open to attack. Two foes beat her head with their bare hands.
As their final blows connected she cried with the last of her strength, “I Still Live!”
Then she was out of time.

Review--The Terror of Fu Manchu

2009-10-14T16:22:00.003-04:00

MINIMAL SPOILER REVIEW

Fu Manchu's latest plot, written by William P. Maynard, involves saving the human race from...wait? What? Since when did the Devil Doctor care about the human race?

The novel is set during a break in the narrative of The Hand of Fu Manchu. This is during the period where Fu Manchu was, arguably, at his most blood thirsty. The novel has plenty of action, adventure and daring-do. (The excellent scene with Petrie attempting to save children from a crocodile comes to mind.) The plot is mostly concerned with Nayland Smith and his trusty aid Dr. Petrie tracking down members of a cult that may or may not be related to the Si-Fan.

The problems I had were few, Maynard is not only a talented writer, but he clearly knows his Rohmer. The only thing that bothered me on first read through was the Lovecraftian elements, as I felt that the magic/demon stuff clashed with the Fu Manchu series' focus on logic above all else. But, after a discussion of it with Maynard himself I feel that those elements fit perfectly with Rohmer's fictional universe.

Final Tally:
Prose: A++ (A perfect recreation of Rohmer's style, perhaps the most perfect pastiche I've ever read)
Characterization: A-
Plot: A

Wold Newton relevancy rating: 9. (It features Fu Manchu, a proven WN family member, several crossovers with other Rohmer characters, and the use of the theory on the identity of Dr. Petrie's father.)

RECOMMENDED

Music I like 09/28/09

2009-09-28T22:55:00.001-04:00

James Bojaciuk

How to Waste a Life

2009-09-28T22:48:00.003-04:00

"There's no such thing as adventure. There's no such thing as romance. There's only trouble and desire."

Someone said this to me today and it bugged me.
If there is no Romance, no love, no adventure, no excitment. What is the goal of life? Just to follow your biological impulses until you finally die? That sure sounds like a boring and wasted life to me.
I'm a Christian and to me not following Jesus is a wasted life. Just the thought of someone living their life as if that statement is ture gives me chills.
I can only see Edgar Rice Burroughs laughing at this quote as he writes.

James Bojaciuk

I Gave in to the Public Frenzy

2009-09-08T20:56:00.002-04:00

I now have a Twitter Account.

http://twitter.com/DocSavage35

Follow me. Please.

James Bojaciuk

Me Vs. a Quiz for Old People

2009-09-07T19:58:00.003-04:00

(This quiz is made for people 40 and up. Let's see how much a 17 year old can break it.)

Tired of all of those surveys made up by high school kids? ‘Have you ever kissed someone?’‘Missed someone?’ ‘Told someone you loved them?’ ‘Drank alcohol?’ Here are 50 questions for the people who are a little more “mature”…

1. What bill do you hate paying the most? Amazon.com (They have taken so, so much of my money.)
2. Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner? Uhh, never. (Though the girl may have thought it was romantic.)
3. Last time you puked from drinking? Never. I don't drink, nor do I ever intend to.
4. When was the last time you got drunk and danced on a bar? Never. See Above.
5. Name of your first grade teacher? Mrs. Beverly Bojaciuk. (I was Homeschooled.)
6. What do you really want to be doing right now? Writing my article about the Philip Jose Farmer monomyth, and writing my novel.
7. What did you want to be when you were growing up? I wanted to be Indiana Jones. Really.
8. How many colleges did you attend? None as of yet, (Still in High School) but I want to go to Wheaton College in Illinois.
9. Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now? It was a light shirt I won't sweat in.
10. Gas prices? Were bad but are now somewhat improving.
11. If you could move anywhere and take someone with you? A several day trip to someplace cold. As for the who, most likely Tori.1
2. First thought when the alarm went off this morning? "Time to win an Ebay item."
13. Last thought before going to sleep last night? None.
14. Favorite candy? Peanut Butter M&Ms
15. Favorite style of food? Italian.
16. What errand/chore do you despise? Doing the dishes.
17. If you didn't have to work, would you volunteer? Most likely.
18. Get up early or sleep in? I always get up early. I love doing it and being the only person awake in the house.
19. What is your favorite cartoon character? Bugs Bunny, no question.
20. Favorite non-sexual thing to do at night with a girl/guy? Talk, go for a walk, or watch a movie.
21. Have you found real love yet? No.
22. When did you first start feeling old? When no one at school knows what I'm talking about.
23. Favorite 80s movie? Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Fright Night, Rambo II, The Great Outdoors, and the list goes ever onward.
24. Favorite lunch meat? Corn beef.
25. What do you get every time you go into Sam's Club or Wal-Mart? Some DVD.
26. Beach or lake? Neither, I'll take the woods any day.
27. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual? Thats a NO. It's still, and will always be, a very important thing.
28. How many people do you stalk on Facebook? I don't think I stalk anyone.
29. Favorite guilty pleasure? Taylor Swift songs.
30. Favorite movie you wouldn't want anybody to find out about? None. All my favorite movies are out in the open.
31. What's your drink? Root beer.
32. Cowboys or Indians? Cowboys. My father introduced me to John Wayne when I was very young.
33. Cops or robbers? Cops.
34. Who from high school would you like to run into? I suppose all of them since I'm going to be seeing them all tomorrow.
35. What radio station is your car radio tuned to right now? 1210 am the Big Talker.
36. Norm or Cliff? I have no idea what this one means, so I'll go with Norm.
37. The Cosby Show or The Simpsons? The Simpsons.
38. Worst relationship mistake that you wish you could take back? Yeah, like I'm going to put this on the internet.
39. Do you like the person who sits directly across from you at work? N/A.
40. If you could get away with it, who would you kill? No one I can think of.
41. What famous persons would you like to have dinner with? Philip Jose Farmer, Lester Dent, and Sax Rohmer.
42. What famous person would you like to sleep with? Uhh, weird question. N/A.
43. Have you ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose? No.
44. Last book you read for real? Lord of the Trees by Philip Jose Farmer.
45. Do you have a teddy bear? No.
46. Strangest place you have ever brushed your teeth? Near a lake, out in the middle of no where.
47. Somewhere in California you've never been and would like to go? Disney Land!
48. Do you go to church? Yes.
49. At this point in your life would you rather start a new career or a new relationship? A new relationship, I guess.
50. Just how old are you? 17, but depending on the day I may feel younger or older.

James Bojaciuk

How Much Music Has Changed From the 1920s to Now

2009-09-02T13:01:00.001-04:00

What I Will One Day Own

2009-09-02T12:51:00.002-04:00

James Bojaciuk

Music I like 09/02/09

2009-09-02T12:35:00.004-04:00

Yeah, this song is a rip-off/parody of "Hey There Delilah" but for my time, this is the better version. (Though I do think that the line "He loves a killing spree" should be changed as "24" makes it clear that Jack doesn't like killing, but only does it because no one else will.)

James Bojaciuk

How I View a Crossover's Validity In the WNU

2009-08-10T12:23:00.003-04:00

I look at how seriously a crossover should be taken for the Wold Newton Universe as a series of Tiers. So a crossover on tier 1 should be taken completely while one on the last tier should be brought up in conversation only to amuse you friends with the creator of that project's stupidity.

Tier 1: The works of Philip Jose Farmer. As he created this group and style of fiction his crossovers get the most attention attached to them.

Tier 1B: The works of the writers cited as in the Wold Newton Universe by Philip Jose Farmer. So this includes Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming, and so on.

Tier 2: Fiction and essays by Wold Newton researchers. (Essays can be on the Internet, but fiction can only be professionally published.) As they are writing for this universe itself they get highly placed on the tiers.

Tier 3: Pastiches that do not violate Wold Newton continuity. Such as many of the new Sherlock Holmes novels.

Tier 3B: Original fiction.

Tier 4: Movies.

Tier 5: Television shows.

Tier 6: Comic books. But only following Win Eckert's process of adding comic characters. You can see it Here.

Tier 7: Any Japanese crossovers.

Tier 8: Pastiches that violate Wold Newton continuity is some small way.

Tier 9: Parodies. Such as Doorlock Holmes, or many others.

James B.

Music I Like 07/25/09

2009-07-25T23:54:00.000-04:00

And Now, an Open Letter from Anthony Tollin

2009-07-24T23:42:00.003-04:00

I have enjoyed the reprints from Mr. Tollin for some years now. I am honestly shocked by the things that Nostalgia Ventures is doing. Also there is a sick feeling in my gut because I bought some of these "Sale pulps" that Nostalgia Ventures was printing. Admittedly, I had no idea of their duplicity, but it still makes me sick to know, that in some small way, I was a part of their criminal actions.

Before we get to the letter, I want to applaud Conde Nast for honoring their verbal agreement with Walter Gibson in that the Gibson family would be given a share of all future profits derived from The Shadow. It is truly a rare thing to see decency like that in today's business world

Now to Mr. Tollin.

James B.

An open letter to the pulp community:

For those taking advantage of the discounted SHADOW and DOC SAVAGE volumes at Half-Price Books, please be aware
that Nostalgia Ventures began remaindering these books last summer in direct violation of its sub-contract with
me. Also, as of today (July 22, 2009), Nostalgia Ventures has still not paid royalties to either Condé Nast or me for any books it has sold since July 1st, 2008. (A semi-annual royalty payment was due back in February, and
another six months of royalties are coming due in August.) There is a very good reason why Nostalgia Ventures/Nostalgiatown is no longer co-publishing these books, and it involves a continuing series of contract violations.

And for anyone who may not be sympathetic because Condé Nast is a huge corporation, please be aware that Condé
Nast has chosen to continue the oral agreement it had for decades with Walter Gibson, and is splitting its royalties for the SHADOW reprints with Walter's family. This is an extremely rare and decent act that is quite unusual in the publishing world.

I think my SHADOW and DOC SAVAGE double-novel trade paperbacks are a great value at the $12.95 cover price.
Obviously, the books are an even better value at discounted prices. However, please be aware that purchasing these books from either Half-Price Books or Nostalgiatown does nothing to encourage the continuation of these series. And since Nostalgia Ventures still hasn't paid its contract-required royalties for any of the books it has sold during the past 12 1/2 months, the money from Nostalgia Ventures' and Half-Price Books' sales also hasn't been continuing on to Walter Gibson's family.

It's not necessary to purchase THE SHADOW and DOC SAVAGE directly from Sanctum Books to support the ongoing
publishing operation and encourage the continuation of these reprints. Bud Plant Comic Art, Adventure House, Mike Chomko, Vintage Library, Girasol, Edge Books, The Mysterious Bookshop and any comic specialty shop that orders its books from Diamond Comic Distributors all get their books either directly or indirectly through Sanctum Books (which continues to make its regular royalty payments to Condé Nast and would like to continue publishing these reprints for many more years).

Please feel free to forward this message on to other pulp-oriented email groups.

--Anthony Tollin
Sanctum Books

House of the Wolf Man

2009-07-23T23:55:00.002-04:00

Enough Said.

James B.

New Crossover Found in The Other Log of Phileas Fogg

2009-07-22T23:16:00.004-04:00

"While eating oysters in a Cheapside inn, the cards, dealt by a red-faced, fat middle-aged lady, told him to get hired as a valet for a Lord Windermere." The Other Log of Phileas Fogg by Philip Jose Farmer. (Page 48)[Bold is mine.]

Lord and Lady Windermere are from the Oscar Wilde play "Lady Windermere's Fan". I will check this out more fully tomorrow, and see if I can find Passepartout in the play.

Here's a link to the online text if you can't wait. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lady_Windermere%27s_Fan

James B.

The Ghostbusters vs. Cthulhu

2009-07-21T22:27:00.002-04:00

I suspect everyone has seen this already. But its a fun episode, so sue me.

James B.

Oh, how the Diogenes Club has fallen

2009-07-20T14:25:00.004-04:00

Once they were the foremost of Intelligence agencies (and investigators of the unexplained) in the world. They employed hundreds of agents all over the world. The chief of the organization, Mycroft Homles, saved England from unknown horrors too many times to count. What does this one mighty group do now, you may ask?

Now they produce techno-trash tunes for the night club market.

Red Sky (The Diogenes Club Remix)

Actually, it a pretty catchy tune.

Sledge Hammer in the WNU

2009-07-20T14:18:00.006-04:00

This is a cleaned-up and expanded final version of the post I did a long time back.
Enjoy!

THE PILOT (UNDER THE GUN)

At 1:42 you see John Vernon as the mayor of San Francisco. He also played the mayor of San Francisco in DIRTY HARRY. Plus, as far as my memory goes, he acts the same in both the movie and here.
At 5:40 to 5:52 in the backround you can see two men intended to be Crockett and Tubbs. (I never would have cought this one without the commetary)
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=kVWpH-yHMa8
(You can fine the rest of the episodes by the links on the right hand side)

COMRADE HAMMER

At 1:43 a man intended to be Alfred Hitchcock walks by the screen with his theme playing. Since Hitchcock cameos in all of his films, can we say all hitchcock films are in the WNU by this crossover?

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=APAOp41UNro
(You can find the rest of the episode by the links on the right hand side)

PLAY IT AGAIN SLEDGE
Due to the large ammount of crossovers here I'll be doing this one in parts.

Part 1
At 3:10 a man who looks a lot like Humphrey Bogart shows up. Who he is, and why he matters to us, is explaned at the end of part three.
At 6:08 the man mentions Richard Diamond, Sam Spade, and Philip Marlowe as if they were real people.
At 6:49 in the backround are a pair I'm quite sure We've seen before. As to how they can still be alive...I'll leave to someone else.
At 7:30 (with a much clearer shot at 7:52) the Maltese Falcon can be seen. Now, since when we last saw the real one it was in a shark's mouth, how does it get into Sledge's office? While we could call it one of the fake ones from the novel, what would be the fun in that?

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=em0OanhRwP0

Part 2
At 4:00 Sledge Mentions "That limey jerk" and seems very personal about it. As if Sledge and Bond met in the past and that meeting didn't go too well...

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=JvmRvrPXtR4& feature=related

Part 3
At 3:54 the man mentions Diamond, Spade and Marlowe again. This time with the added statement that he is not any of the three detectives. (or he is all of them, which clearly cannot work in the WNU.)

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=mdNB_mpxAts& feature=related

I'm sure there are many more crossovers in Sledge Hammer. But I think this is enough to get him into the Universe.

James B.

The Mark of Fu Manchu

2009-06-26T00:01:00.004-04:00

On my last post, William Maynard left a post allaying one of my fears about a modern-set Fu Manchu novel. But check out the last sentence of his comment.

Hi, James. As an ardent Rohmer fan myself, I'm looking forward to reading Richard's book, too. I can tell you that Nayland Smith does not appear so that's one you can cross off your list. Here's hoping my second book, THE MARK OF FU MANCHU (set between Rohmer's two WWII-era titles) is next on the list.
Best,
William Patrick Maynard (Italics & Boldness mine.)

I have two things to point out.
First We'll cover BOLD "next on the list" Because of this I'm beginning to think there are a lot of Fu Manchu novels in the works. It should be interesting to see if I'm right.

now for italics. The Mark of Fu Manchu (Cool title)
this title got me to thinking what it could be about, and I came up with these.
1. The mark is some sort of thing left on the bodies of victims.
2. The mark is the seal of the Si-Fan.
3. The title refers to the German mark, an indicates that Fu Manchu is toying with the German economy.
For my money, number three is my favorite.

(And William, if this gives too much away, of could insult the copyright holders, (especially the part about the multiple novels in the works) I'll be glad to take this down on your say so.)

James B.

The Revenge of the Immortal Fu Manchu

2009-06-20T19:09:00.006-04:00

Apparently there is a new Fu Manchu novel afoot. (Wow, I haven't said that in a long time) And it takes place in the present day?

This from Coming Attractions:

Fu Manchu
Bill Maynard has announced that his recent Fu Manchu novel, THE TERROR OF FU MANCHU, is only the beginning of the Fu Manchu literary revival. There is much more to come from reprints of the original series which Al Longden, the agent for the Literary Estate, will hopefully be announcing shortly to a forthcoming Fu Manchu novel set in the 21st Century. The title of the new adventure is THE IMMORTAL DR. FU MANCHU and the author is Richard Sand.

Well, this could turn out great, or more lame than a one footed tiger. But here's what they need to avoid:
1. Nayland Smith as the Central hero. Please don't make Smith an immortal too. Leave him as a very old man who offers the main hero(s) suport from base. Sort of like his role in Master of Kung Fu.

2. Fu Manchu just wants to be at peace with the world. I don't see this one happening but I'll bring it up anyhow.

3. The hero(s) other than Smith believe that Fu Manchu and the Si-Fan are a myth. After 100+ years of operations, there should be more than enough paper work to show the Si-Fan exist. However, I'm not against the hero(s) all believing Fu Manchu's dead, and that the events of the novel are the work of a copy-cat.

Now for stuff I do want to see:

1. Fu Manchu has a large number of Islamic terror groups in the Si-Fan. Also cool would be if they're attempting to take control away from the Council of Seven so they would have full control of all the cults and other operators of the Si-Fan.

2. Jack Bauer appears briefly as an American government agent, but this one's just me wanting to see Jack interact with Fu Manchu. How about the hero(s)(from either the British or American government) bring in Jack to torture information from a captured Fu Manchu, It would truly be a titanic battle of wills. But sadly, I know this one will not happen, just a pipe-dream on my part.

Still, I'm looking forward to it and I'll order it as soon as it becomes available.

James B.

"Mr. Fredricksen, you are cleared for landing on the 86th floor." or Up in the WNU

2009-06-20T15:06:00.005-04:00

I just got back from the theatre where I saw Up. It was very good and one of the few true A+ flicks I've seen this year. But of interest to this blog is where the adventure takes place

Check out the planning artwork above, remind you of anything? Yes, Conan Doyle's The Lost World. (or if you will, Maple White Land) And before we got further I'll add that in the movie proper the plateau looks identical, but sadly for our purposes I could not find any stills from the movie.
Now read this description of Maple White Land from Chapter 4 of The Lost World:

"I was still unable to sympathize. It was a full-page sketch of a landscape roughly tinted in color--the kind of painting which an open-air artist takes as a guide to a future more elaborate effort. There was a pale-green foreground of feathery vegetation, which sloped upwards and ended in a line of cliffs dark red in color, and curiously ribbed like some basaltic formations which I have seen. They extended in an unbroken wall right across the background. At one point was an isolated pyramidal rock, crowned by a great tree, which appeared to be separated by a cleft from the main crag. Behind it all, a blue tropical sky. A thin green line of vegetation fringed the summit of the ruddy cliff."

Who would have thought that a Pixar kiddie movie would be in the Wold Newton Universe?

James B.

Repairman Jack morns King Kong

2009-06-20T14:34:00.004-04:00

In the new F. Paul Wilson short story collection, Aftershock and Others, are some pretty interesting Wold Newton related stories. First up "Interlude At Duane's"
This is apparently a Repairman Jack story. From what I've gleaned online, Jack is an investigator of Cthulhuoid horrors, though nothing along those lines has anything to do with this story.
But what this story does have is a very solid connection to King Kong, easily bringing this story (if not the whole of Repairman Jack) into the newtonverse.
Here's the paragraph:

"He felt naked. Had to leave his trusty Glock and backup home today because of his annual trip to the Empire State Building. He'd designated April 19th King Kong Day. Every year he made a pilgrimage to the observation deck to leave a little wreath in memory to the Big Guy. The Major drawback to the outing was the metal detector everyone had to pass through before heading upstairs. That meant no heat."

James B.

Bionic Man, Corner Gas

2009-06-03T09:35:00.002-04:00

On the Corner Gas episode "Kids Stuff" Brent makes a reference to the Bionic Man. Although not as strong as prior links(Jack Bauer & The Little Hobo--click on the Corner Gas tag for them) this gives us the first link to the Newtonverse proper. Check it out at 4:39

James B.

The Revenge of Corner Gas

2009-05-26T23:01:00.004-04:00

In my last post I showed a rather interesting video with Jack Bauer getting a wrong number.
further research has shown Corner Gas is rife with crossovers, now it is just a matter of time before I find the link that connects to the Wold Newton Universe.
Anyhow, this time the Canadian "Lassie" the Little Hobo, had an entire appearance in Dog River (the town Corner Gas takes place in.)

And just because its an awesome theme tune, the theme to The Little Hobo

Jack Bauer vs the Canadians

2009-05-25T09:48:00.002-04:00

At 2:50 you can see Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer.
But really, watch the whole thing, (and the second and third parts) this is one of the funniest TV series ever made.

Memoral Day 2009

2009-05-25T09:41:00.001-04:00

Please take a moment to pray for our men and women overseas.

Letters from Fictional Characters, Volume 1

2009-04-18T20:11:00.005-04:00

Recently I sent a e-mail to the House of Sinanju at housinan@aol.com. I got reply thats illuminating to Wold Newtonian studys
For those not in the know the House of Sinanju is from the long running adventure novel series: The Destroyer.
As almost always a good summary can be found at Wikipedia
An e-text of a Destroyer short story can be found at sinanju.net. Just like the old pulps.

In my email I commented on how much I enjoyed the books and that I hoped a new publisher would be found soon. At the end though I added a quick question asking if Chiun had asulted Sherlock Holmes.
This comes from the from First, the Destroyer novel #83 Skull duggery where Chiun comments that he worked for Fu Manchu.
Secondly the Fu Manchu novel Ten Years Beyond Baker Street. Which, to the best of my knowledge is the only time in the entire Fu Manchu saga where a Korean is among Fu Manchu's agents. (correct me if I'm wrong)
Out of the email I got the first half was James Mullaney thanking me for my support.
the second half on the other hand:

p.s. From Chiun: Your correspondent asks if the Master ever encountered Sherlock Holmes. I have concluded that this letter writer must be American, for only an American would conflate fiction and reality. For all of you products of the American educational system within the sound of my voice: Sherlock Holmes is fictional, I am real, therefore we have not and can never meet. Fictional characters do not and cannot interact with real ones. You may thank the Master now for he has done you a service by explaining that which the sane parts of the world understand. Go back now to your sofas and remote controls, safe in the knowledge that Yogi Bear, Roger Rabbit and Nancy Pelosi will never leap out of your television screen and maul you in your sleep.

With moderate tolerance for you,

Chiun, Master of Sinanju Emeritus

Okay, since Chiun denies ever meeting Sherlock Holmes (or that he was even a real person) we must assume that Chiun was employed in an unrecorded Fu Manchu adventue. Or that he lied, his published exploits don't exactly show a trustworthy person to say the least.

James Bojaciuk

The Evil in Pemberley House, Pre-ordered!

2009-04-17T14:49:00.003-04:00

I pre-ordered this from Amazon last night.
This is only the third book I've seen that I had to not only buy, but pre-order as soon as I possibly could.
I can't wait for this.

James.

whats in the box? 04/16/09 Part 2

2009-04-16T11:16:00.004-04:00

I went over my memory limt on the last post. Here's the rest of it.
I started reading Loki as soon as I opened the box. Its great so far.

Whats in the box? 04/19/09

2009-04-16T11:03:00.002-04:00

All this stuff came in the last week and a half.

From Big Brother with Love

2009-04-15T19:11:00.003-04:00

This is what happens when I'm bored and don't feel like writing with my own characters. This is for the most part Bond vs. 1984.
Keep is mind this has had little editing.

Bond woke up with his head pounding from the previous nights engagements. It’s that damn soma. He thought to himself. Never again, I’ll stick with the victory gin.
He rolled over and found a surprise, the pretty young new council member, Miss Peel, was slumbering by his side. After the shock passed Bond ignored her and tended to him drink stand.
He poured three measures victory gin into into an oversized glass. After making sure that Peel was still out his reached under his dresser, pulled back the navy blue carpet and brought out an ancient bottle of pure Russian vodka he had procured back is the sixties. He poured two measures into his cup and replaced the rest of the illegal goods under the carpet.
He tore open the government-given daily pack. First item in today’s pack was a reefer. Bond immediately dropped this in the trash can and moved on. Next in the sack was a crudely drawn porn booklet produced by the whores at the Ministry of Truth. The booklet joined the reefer in the bucket.
Bond examined the piece of paper in the bottom of the packet. It was a “personal note from you true and just leader.” The note was printed on paper bearing the cruel handlebar mustached face of Big Brother. Bond considered burning it, but then thought it would ignite the maharani. The note drifted down and rested atop the growing pile in the waste bin.
He raised the goblet to his mouth and began to fill the liquors warm him up. Poor Vesper.
He felt the acute twang one feels when a gun is pointed at their back. Miss Peel was siting up in bed half covered by the sheets; in her hand was a small caliber pistol of German make.
“My dear Mr. Bond, I do believe you are guilty of thought crime. My heavens, you took part of none of our leaders gifts. Tut-tut. And, then Gaul of all Gauls. You don’t offer BB’s Representative any thing to drink. Come Come.”

This would be later on in the story.

He passed young Winston Smith in the hallway. Bond had known Winston’s father well. That worthy man had been killed in the second battle of Briton. He killed twenty invaders before they got him. Although now whenever Smith was mentioned, and that was not often, he was portrayed as a foolish coward who killed his doctor friend then turned the gun on himself so he would not have to face the “liberators” Poor Nayland Smith.

I'm curious to know what people think. Although not the plot so much as the writing itself.

The Mad Goblin, or, What Was I thinking?

2009-03-26T12:18:00.002-04:00

Three days ago I rated Philip Jose Farmer's The Mad Goblin a B.
I am now rectifying this Mistake. I am giving the Novel an A-.
It may have graded higher if I had not read it in an extremely loud environment. (one of my friends was watching a Vampire flick. So the last thirty or so pages was filled with noises and screaming.
Anyway, I have also learned never, under any cercumstances, or for any reason blog at one in the morning. nothing good will come of it.
Just like Moms old adage "Nothing good happens after midnight, just go to sleep."

Maxwell Smart Vs THRUSH!...?

2009-03-25T17:19:00.003-04:00

I was watching old episodes of Get Smart on youtube a few day ago. I was just sitting there minding my business laughing at Don Adams and wondering why they don't make shows like that anymore. (Or for that matter shoes like that?)
So I'm there and then 99 mentions THRUSH, and that the KAOS agent of the week was traded from THRUSH for some KAOS men. I can see why KAOS men twould want to jump ship.
Check it out around 7:34
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-DDB1SUsy0

(Blogger will not allow me to embed the video, so follow the link.)
(EDIT: Nor will they allow me to post a link. SO copy and paste is the way to go)

The Mad Goblin--Review

2009-03-22T00:38:00.002-04:00

Title: The Mad Goblin
Author: Philip Jose Farmer
Publisher: Ace Books
Copyright: 1970
This Doc Savage pastiche has a lot going for it. Its very well written. The characters are remarkably well drawn and jump off the page. (Although this is as much as Dent's responsibility as Farmer's) Enough action to make any red blooded teenage boy happy, and lastly a pretty good plot.
But it fumbles in the last thirty pages after Doc Caliban and his men get to England. Too bad it never really recovers.
A lot has been said about how to fit this into Wold Newton continually. While it is tempting to say "Chuck It" it has too much attachment to the rest for that. So, what to do?
I personally like the theory that Grandrith and Caliban are copys of Tarzan and Doc Savage raised by The Nine to A. Assist them in maintaining control of the world. and B. To kill the real Tarzan and Doc Savage (which failed)
How does this book stack up:
Prose:A-
Plot:B
Characterization:A+
Final Grade: B
Thats my one in the morning review of Philip Jose Farmer's The Mad Goblin

Whats in the Box? 03/21

2009-03-21T15:40:00.003-04:00

A box from Ebay arrived today. Inside was

I've been sick for about a week do this made my day. I'll tell you what I think off them when I finish reading them. Though that may take awhile because of all the stuff in my life.

What I'm reading as of 03/14/2009

2009-03-14T18:06:00.004-04:00

This morning I took my SATs after several weeks of oppressive prepping. Surprisingly not even a quarter of the prep stuff showed on the test. In fact only the simple stuff showed its malformed face. Go figure.
thanks to SAT, I have a huge back log of reading to do. In no particular order here's what I'm reading now:
The Mask of Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer
The House Subcommittee's findings at CTU (24) by Marc Cerasini (I'm a big 24 nut)
The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics by Various (I'm a bit strange. I read one chapter of a Encyclopedia a day)
To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
The Federalist Papers by Various
Invisible Death by Lin Carter
Ironcastle by Philip Jose Farmer
To your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer
Doc Savage: The devil Genghis by Lester Dent
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (one of my all time favorites)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
The Aeneid by Virgil (YAY!)
Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne
The Great Gatsby by F. Scot Fitzgerald
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (another of my all time favorites)
The Man from UNCLE, The Copenhagen Affair by John Oram
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
The Tombs of Anak by Frank Peretti

Give me a week or two tops and I should get through all that. I hope.

To end things here's an interesting link
http://www.tvtropes.org/
I don't really know how to describe it, but think of Wikipedia but only for fiction and its concepts. This site has vastly improved my writings, both fiction and non-fiction by helping me to avoid cliches and be original. What are you waiting for? Click!

Philip Jose Farmer, RIP

2009-03-06T14:08:00.002-05:00

Unknown Crossovers Week, Day 1: Sledge Hammer

2009-02-23T17:24:00.000-05:00

With this new daily series I'm going to expose some of the crossovers I've found, that to the best of my knowlege have never been exposed or expounded on before. Case in point: Sledge Hammer.
Heres a cut-down and corrected version of the wikipedia entry:
"Inspector Sledge Hammer of the San Francisco Police Department is a violent, sadistic, insensitive, yet oddly likable detective. His best friend is a .44 Magnum with a customized grip featuring a drawing of a sledgehammer. Hammer sleeps and showers with his gun, and even talks to it. Hammer believes in shooting first and asking questions never. In the pilot episode, he deals with a sniper on a roof by blowing up the entire building with a rocket launcher, then turns to the uniformed cops on scene and says "I think I got 'em"
While purportedly a stickler for law and order, Hammer is rather lax when it comes to following police regulations. He enjoys roughing up suspected criminals, whom he frequently refers to as "brain-dead mutants", "yogurt-sucking creeps", and the like. He is often suspended from duty.
Hammer drives a beat-up, bullet-riddled, lime green Dodge St. Regis with an "I ♥ VIOLENCE" bumper sticker. He prefers to wear cheap sports jackets, loud neckties, and dark sunglasses.
Despite his irresponsibility and utter incompetence, Hammer always ends up getting his man (or woman), often through sheer luck or brute force. Hammer's unintentionally ironic motto is "Trust me. I know what I'm doing." (Disaster usually follows afterward.)
Hammer's partner is the beautiful Detective Dori Doreau (played by Anne-Marie Martin), who is competent, kind, sensitive, intelligent, and sophisticated—everything Sledge is not. "

Still with me? good. Now, before we finaly get to what you came here for I have some videos for you guys:

The Opening

Sledge takes out a sniper

One last thing, Sledge Hammer was not a parady. except for several episodes from the mosty subpar second season, the show was about one slightly insane individual and his dealings with a society gone mad.
Now to the main event, The Crossovers

1. In the pilot, The Mayor of San Francisco is played by John Vernon, In Dirty Harry he played the mayor of San Francisco. In both he plays the exact same character(although he is a bit more full of him self in Sledge)
2. Miami Vice. Again in the pilot, when Sledge first goes into the captains office. On the other side of the glass you can see a pair clearly intended to be Crockett & Tubbs
3. Alfred Hitchcock. In the episode "Comrade Hammer" A man supposed to be Alfred Hitchcock walks by the screen, in fact he looks so close to Hitchcock that I though it was him himself, until I looked it up and saw that Hitchcock had died a few years before.I included this one on the condition that we could get all (or all least most) of Hitchcocks films into the Wold Newton Universe if we count his cameos as ligament crossovers. (which I do)
4. The Ghost of Sam Spade. In the episode "Play it Again Sledge" the ghost of Spade assists Sledge on a case. (Spade assists almost exactly like Al helped Sam Becket on Quantum Leap)
5. The Maltese Falcon. Again in the episode "Play it Again Sledge" Hammer is put on extended Suspension and buys an old detective agency. On display is...The Maltese Falcon.

An Essay on Doc & The Shadow

2009-02-22T12:58:00.000-05:00

For my English class we had to do a one page comparative essay. For some reason all my serious
ones were dropped for being far too broad.
I had 24 hours to think of a final report. My eyes fell on the Doc Savage paperback I had been reading, a desperate idea popped into my head and I ran with it. Just agumenting what was in my head with some books and websites.(I'm pretty sure I had the largest Works Cited list out of the entire class)
On this paper I got an A- for some grammeral errors and an incomplete sentence. I have not changed them for this blog.

Doc Savage Vs The Shadow
During the dark days of the Great Depression, two very different heroes began their crusades against crime and injustice. The Shadow, Master of darkness, settled mobsters’ scores with blazing automatics and a haunting, mocking laugh. Doc Savage, Man of Bronze, who was dedicated to wiping out evil through the use of science.
Both Doc Savage and The Shadow had assistants in his war. While The Shadow’s aides followed his instructions to the letter, Savage’s might disobey him. As seen in this excerpt from The Gold Ogre by Kenneth Robeson:
“Doc Savage shouted, “No Unnecessary killings!” It was his policy never to take a life if it could possibly be avoided. If Monk heard, he pretended not to, Monk not being entirely in sympathy with the bronze man’s respect for the lives of gentlemen such as Vick Francks…bullets began moving in quantities.”
Doc Savage preferred not to kill criminals, instead as he caught them, they were sent to his “Crime College” where they would be rehabilitated and “cured” of their criminal tendencies by the extreme method of brain surgery. This operation was the near equivalent of a lobotomy. As contrast, in Serpents of Siva by Maxwell Grant:
“[The Shadow’s] guns ripped from the instant the first thug entered…bullets were pounding those brass-faced walls. Crooks were dropping, with smoking guns in their fists.”
Savage operated with the full support of the government (although they knew nothing of the Crime College.) He and all of his men carried cards that guaranteed the full cooperation of any American law enforcement agency, and several foreign organizations.
While Savage did battle from the gleaming peaks of New York’s skyscrapers, The Shadow ran his crusade against crime from the darkness shaded alleyways and decrepit buildings where malevolence lurked. He had no help from the government, local or national, nor did he seek it. Unlike Savage, The Shadow did not bend the rules for justice, He broke them outright, in order in insure that the criminal learned that “Crime does not pay”
Both Doc Savage and The Shadow used a large array of gadgets. Savage’s were things that would not be invented for decades to come like, automated telephone answering machines, Bullet-proof vests, and a radar-like tracking device. While The Shadow’s were more mundane with things along the lines of mini-flashlights, grappling hooks, and magic tricks such as gunpowder flashes from his hands.
Oddly enough both made peculiar sounds. Doc Savage made a strange trilling sound whenever he was intrigued. The Shadow scorned his foes with a haunting laugh that struck fear into their dark hearts.
One man a World War One spy driven by whatever horrors he witnessed to go from being a “Black Eagle” to a living shadow, the other a muscled polymath trained from birth to be the ultimate human, driven ever onward toward the light. They are polar
opposites yet they are the same, Flip sides of the depression coin. One battling against the utter despair of today, the other looking forward to the joys of tomorrow.

Works Cited

Farmer, Philip J. (1975). Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. New York: Bantam Books.

Grant, Maxwell (2006). The Shadow: Crime, Insured. Encinitas, CA: Nostalgia Ventures.

Grant, Maxwell (2007). The Shadow: Serpents of Siva. Encinitas, CA: Nostalgia Venture.

Leary, Roman (2008). "The Evils Against Which We Strive" anthologized in Tales of the Shadowmen Vol.4. Ed. J. M. & Randy Lofficier. Encino, CA: Black Coat Press. 90-103

Robeson, Kenneth (1969). Doc Savage: The Gold Ogre. New York: Bantam Books.

Robeson, Kenneth (1982). Doc Savage: The Secret in the Sky. New York: Bantam Books.

Robeson, Kenneth (2008). Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze. Encinitas, CA: Nostalgia Ventures.

Kaluta, Michael & Goss, Joel (1993). The Shadow: In the Coils of Leviathan. Canada: Dark Horse Comics.

Web Pages Cited

Lai, Rick. "Chronology of Shadows, part 1." The Wold Newton Universe. 10 Feb. 2009.

Lai, Rick. "Chronology of Shadows, part 2." The Wold Newton Universe. 10 Feb. 2009.

Sippo, Art C. "Bullet-Proof vests." Weblog post. Speculations in Bronze. 7 July 2007. 11 Feb. 2009 .

The Return of the Revenge of Fu Manchu. YAY!

2009-02-11T20:40:00.000-05:00

If you didn't guess by the title, Fu Manchu is back, in a new novel by William Patrick Maynard. I don't know much about other than in set during The Hand of Fu Manchu. so its most likely going to end up something like Ten Years Beyond Baker Street except with out Sherlock Holmes.
You can see its page and eventually pre-order it at: http://www.blackcoatpress.com/terrorfumanchu.htm

A shout out to Win Scott Eckert and his blog for alerting me to this book. Thanks man!

Also at my other blog Ive posted the original magazine version of the first few chapters of The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu. They are a little bit different then the final book version. Nothing earth shattering though. but enough to be interesting.

Cyrano de Bergerac: a quick study

2009-01-29T19:51:00.000-05:00

Since my English teacher introduced me to this wonderful play, Ive done some farther reading on it. and Ive decided to share it with you.
first the play it self: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/cdben10h.htm
although we used a slightly different translation, this is similar enough that i won't feel guilty for recommending it heartily.
(Wold Newton Alert: in the first act D'Artagnan, hero of the three musketeers, appears. in the fourth act the plot of The Three Musketeers is referenced.)
The 1950 movie: http://www.archive.org/details/Cyrano_DeBergerac
excellent! I can't believe how much fun this movie is. as a plus the ending is a bit more noble for Cyrano. The actors did a great job with this, all of them were clearly having a great time in production. Also Jose Ferrar is now who I think of when I think of Cyrano.
The 1650 novel by...Cyrano Himself!?!?: http://www.bewilderingstories.com/special/tow.html
this one is just weird, I don't really know what to do with it. In it Cyrano travels to the moon and finds people from the Bible and some other stuff the makes even less sense.
I'm only halfway through and had to give it a rest because of how weird it was.
So that's that, I ran through most of the Cyrano stuff i know of, avoiding the Shadowmen story because i have not yet read it, so i hope you enjoy it!

Books I'm reading, and a somewhat odd bonus.

2009-01-16T18:37:00.000-05:00

for some reason my friend thinks its a good idea to post what books I'm reading at the moment. so to appease him I'm doing it.
Books Recently Read:
The Shadow: Serpents of Shiva by Walter Gibson
The New Destroyer Choke Hold by Warren Murphy
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Secret Files of the Diogenes Club by Kim Newman
Wolverine: Election Day by Peter David...or Wolverine Vs Obama, no really, I'm not kidding.
At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft
The Avenger Chronicles by Various
Doc Savage: The Fortress of Solitude by Lester Dent
Tintin in America by Herge

Books I'm Reading Now:
Gun Work by David J Schow
The Daughter of Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Alex Rider: Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz...or Alex Rider vs. Fu Manchu
Tales of the Shadowmen Vol 4 by Various...Favorite Stories so far "the atomos affair" The agents of UNCLE verses a Japanese madwoman &"the evil against which we strive" a young unnamed Nick Fury meets The Shadow and a french pulp guy. Fun All Around!
Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis

That was more fun than I thought it was going to be...huh.

And that bonus I was talking about.
What if I told you the the spy group U.N.C.L.E. existed in 1937. You would laugh. Until I showed you this nifty (yeah, i used nifty in a sentence, you got a problem?) little tale from the G-Men August 1937 issue.
the story in called Enemies of UNCLE. but why should i go on when you can read it at: http://pulpgen.com/pulp/downloads/getpdf.php?id=381
Have Fun and Think About it!

James Bond vs. Cthulhu

2009-01-04T13:35:00.000-05:00

Did anyone notice the Cthulhu crossover in the second Young James Bond novel?

In the novel Blood Fever by Charlie Higson Bond is battling a cult that is attempting to raise the Roman Empire. but interestingly this groups deities are never named. At one point in the Novel Bond visits his uncle in Italy. The uncle is a collector of modern art and has a slightly crazy artist named Poliponi who lives with him and creates art. on page 95 of the hardcover Bond is first introduced to this artists "art":

"If the room was unusual, what was in it was extraordinary. It was filled with paintings and statues and odd, incongruous objects. The paintings were unsettling and nightmarish. One gigantic canvas took up almost all of one wall -- it showed an octopus floating in the air, crushing various objects in its tentacles: naked women, an animal that looked like a hairless cow, and a car that looked somehow fleshy and alive."

then later on page 235 Bond sees another of the paintings: "

"...the unfinished painting of a boy standing on a desolate beach . he looked half reptilian with webbed feet and goggle eyes. he was holding the number seven in one hand and a sea urchin in the other. there was something dreamlike and disturbing about the picture, as if the boy were dead, a ghost." this description is surprisingly close to the creatures from "Shadows over Immouths"

Although the dialog suggests that this is a drawing of Bond i really don't buy that.

my reconstruction of events suggests that Poliponi (whose name is suspiciously close to Polyp) was one of the many Contacted by Cthulhu in 1928.[1] but that he was one of the few who did not recover entirely, and with his secret knowledge he began to make (and become one of the founders of) modern art.

and the roman cult in desperation at the rise of fascism turns to Cthulhu to bring the Roman Empire from the depths. This Plot is of course stopped by James Bond.

what do you think of my conclusions?

[1] In the classic short story "The Call of Cthulhu"

The First Post

2009-01-04T12:01:00.000-05:00

The Purpose of this blog is to examine old adventure novels, post fiction links, and have Fun doing it. and who knows maybe along the way Ill throw in some political ramblings.

so buckle up, put your seat in it upright position, and settle in, 'cause its gonna be a bumpy ride.