16 Months Later With MARK BOUSQUET

It’s been a while since the original Kickin’ The Willy Bobo interview with Mark so I thought it about time we caught up with what he’s all about and what he’s doing 16 MONTHS LATER…

Derrick Ferguson: Any major changes in your life since we last talked?

Mark Bousquet: Nope. Life is going well. I love living in Reno and I love my job. There's some uncertainty lurking on the horizon - my contract is up in June and won't be renewed for various departmental regulations (basically, a person is only allowed to hold my position for 3 years and then they have to leave - it doesn't matter how good or poor they have performed the position) so I don't know where I'll be living or what I'll be doing seven months from now, but that will take care of itself when the time comes. Maybe I'll still be in academics, or maybe I won't, but that's a question for the future. Right now, I'm happy to be doing what I'm doing where I'm doing it.

DF: How’s Darwin doing?

MB: He loves living in Reno even more than I do. Reno sits at the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and we live far enough away from downtown that we're in the hills almost every day. He couldn't ask for a better situation. I hope wherever we end up has the hiking possibilities it does here. Even after almost 2.5 years here we're still finding new paths and trails to hike within an hour's walk of our front door. He'll be 7 in December but whenever we head outside he's still as active as a pup.

DF: As a writer, in what ways do you feel you’ve grown and developed?

MB: I think I've developed a better sense of layering my stories and grown more comfortable with letting the story dictate itself instead of forcing it into a pre-determined box. THE HAUNTING OF KRAKEN MOOR was a huge positive in this regard. That novel (which takes place in the Gunfighter Gothic universe, though on the other side of the Atlantic) introduced a whole lotta new firsts for me: first horror novel, first first-person novel, first time writing as a female character, first time structuring the novel as a journal. I wrote the novel in "real time" as much as possible. Which is to say that even though the story is taking place in 1864, I wrote the January 1 entry on January 1 and so on. I even tried to match the time of day as much as possible. It was a fascinating experiment, given that writing in a journal is completely different act than writing a story, so there are moments in the book where the reader is frustrated by Beatrice's reluctance to include certain details, or her unwillingness to see every subplot through to the end, or her being contradictory. All of these elements are very human, I think, but it's not a standard way to write a novel.

I found it very liberating, and that led to two of my best pieces: "Why Grant Jannen Can'tHave Sex," available for free at my Atomic Anxiety site  and "The Pretty Girl with the Ugly Name," published in the PsychopompPunk Special from Artifice Comics. Both of these works show off a new narrative voice for me. Usually, I favor keeping the "me" parts of writing simple and neutral and I let the characters provide all the personality, but in these two pieces, just as in KRAKEN MOOR, I'm letting the author have a bit more say about the story's style.

DF: Have any of your attitudes about your work or your style of writing changed completely or modified in any way?

MB: I think all of us who write and publish in the Print on Demand area go through the cauldron when it comes to sales. There have been times when I've been really focused on how many copies I sell. Right now, though, I'm at the opposite end. I'm back where I started, just trying to tell the best stories I can in my own voice and letting the sales fall where they may. Finding a creative outlet with the various Artifice Comics publications (of which my contributions are all prose and not comics) has been a huge blessing. When I look at KRAKEN MOOR, "Grant Jannen," and "Pretty Girl," I can see a different voice than I usually use emerging and that's exciting. It's just more arrows in the quiver.

DF: In what direction do you think your work is heading in now as opposed to 16 months ago? Or is it going in the same direction?

MB: It's a much darker direction now than it was 16 months ago. KRAKEN MOOR stars a runaway American girl who goes to work at a castle estate in England where demons torture, kill, and sex everyone they can. There's nothing fun in that story. People die. People have sex with werewolves who turn around and eviscerate them. People make huge sacrifices.

The answer to the title of "Why Grant Jannen Can't Have Sex" is because he has the power to make people do what he wants. He's not aware of it for a very long time, but I wanted to examine the idea of what happens to a man when he finds out that all of the women he's ever had sex with only did so because of his superpower of influence. And if you can't stop your power, then how can you actually ever have sex again without knowing you might actually be getting someone to do something they wouldn't normally do? Check out the opening to the story, and you can see an example of a different voice than I usually use:

"By the time Grant was 24 years old, he had raped 47 women.

None of these rapes occurred in dark alleys. None of them involved stalking. Or violence. No woman had ever bit him or clawed him or struggled with him. No woman had ever said No. No woman had ever said Stop. No woman had ever complained in any way. There were no files on him in police stations, save for a marijuana bust last winter. Neither the state of New Hampshire, where he was born, nor the state of Minnesota, where he went to college, nor the state of Montana, where he now lives, nor the federal government of the United States considered Grant to be anything except an upstanding citizen who paid his taxes, always voted, had never married, and liked to travel alone.

Grant liked to travel alone because that had prevented him from raping anyone.

Two years, eight months, and a pocket full of days for change had passed since he raped Martha Teagarden. She did not complain. She does not regret what happened. She still calls every now and then.”

Not happy fun time.

I'm also writing less reviews but more travel writing which is a genre I very much enjoy working in.

DF: Update us on GUNFIGHTER GOTHIC: BLOOD OF THE UNIVERSE. What has been the feedback on that? Do you have a sequel in the works?

MB: Feedback has been very positive on GUNFIGHTER GOTHIC, which is good because Hanna and Jill are two of my favorite creations and I plan on releasing two or even three GOTHIC collections in 2014. I love how flawed they are - they fight, they bicker, they're grown-ups who sometimes still act like they did when they were kids, and they make plenty of mistakes. Yet, through it all, they can give each other crap in even the most ridiculous circumstances. I love that.

They have a complicated history - while they grew up in the same house, Jill is the merchant's daughter while Hanna was a servant's daughter. They got in all sorts of mischief, and Hanna eventually fell in love with Jill, and Jill returned that love only when it was convenient for her. Now, they're partners and on the same level and that allows for a whole lot of fun exchanges.

The sequel to BLOOD is done. It's called UNDER ZEPPELIN SKIES and it picks up where BLOOD left off, with Hanna and Jill on a zeppelin undergoing a zombie outbreak. 

There are four short stories (maybe 6 if I decide to include two reprints). As much as I love Hanna and Jill, ZEPPELIN was a hard book to write because the story kept spinning away from me. Or rather, the tone kept spinning away from me. It's a weird western, but it kept wanting to be ridiculous and fun, too, and it took a while for me to let it be what it wanted to be, which was to pepper UNFORGIVEN with a good heavy dose of BRISCO COUNTY, JR. The first story, "Waltzing Zombies Prefer Dixie," gives a bit of a different spin on the zombie story, as post-Civil War Confederates release a virus aboard a zeppelin that turns supporters of the Northern cause into zombies. People can slow, retard, or even stop that virus by acting in a pro-Confederate manner. People on board were pro-Union and the zombie infestation puts those ideals to the test. 

The other stories are "The Vampires of Jesus Christ," "Colorado Kaiju," and "Demon Winter," and I kept going back and forth between making ZEPPELIN a novel or a collection. There's an overall story of Jill and Hanna tracking down Jill's ex-fiance, but in the end I decided to go the short story route and minimize Dotson's direct involvement until the final story.

I have also just released a Kindle exclusive short story entitled "Thanksgiving at theHouse of Absinthe & Steam," which has Hanna and Jill fighting the weird in London. It's a very dark story but Hanna and Jill keep things fun - for the reader and for me. They're far from perfect, and end up getting drunk alongside the woman they're supposed to protect and one of them ends up getting buried alive. The story takes place after ZEPPELIN, yet is going to be published first, but it's designed to work as a stand-alone story. Eventually, "House of Absinthe" will wind up in GUNFIGHTER GOTHIC VOLUME 2: EUROPEAN HOLIDAY. It's interesting to me that the further I take Hanna and Jill away from the "western," the "weird" increases.

DF: I really loved THE HAUNTING OF KRAKEN MOOR. In what wonderfully diseased recess of your mind did that story come from and are you going to write any more stories in that style?

MB: First, thanks. KRAKEN MOOR has been a huge influence on GUNFIGHTER GOTHIC; the darker direction of "The House of Absinthe & Steam" is because of KRAKEN MOOR. In fact, the final story of ZEPPELIN is a sequel of sorts to KRAKEN MOOR, as it takes Hanna and Jill into the castle.

As to where it came from - I was sitting in my apartment last New Year's Eve, and around 1 or 2 PM I decided I wanted to do something new. I like being able to look at my bookshelf and say, "That's my western, that's my kids' book, that's my cosmic pulp, that's my urban fantasy," and I realized I couldn't point at anything and say, "That's my horror novel." I decided to take a bunch of the various things I wanted to try (horror, first person narration, writing in a woman's voice, etc.) and put them together. When I wrote the first entry, I had no real idea of what the story was going to be other than there was going to be a young American woman working in a haunted castle. From there, I let things progress rather organically. I was writing and posting the story online nearly every single day, so there was no time to go back and change things (though I did relent on this point a time or two) - most everything had to be done on the fly and I let my own reader response guide me. If I felt the story was getting a little boring, I introduced something exciting. Because I wanted a creepy horror story, that usually involved demonic sex. There are a few moments in the novel where this gets away from me, but on the whole I am tremendously pleased with how it turned out and I think it's my best full-length work.

DF: And then you can switch gears and do children’s books that are equally as imaginative and captivating to read such as STUFFED ANIMALS FOR HIRE and ADVENTURES OF THE FIVE. Do you have to consciously switch on a part of your brain to write children’s books or does it all come from the same place?

MB: Honestly, one is therapy for the other. When I spend too much time writing dark stories, it's nice to be able to go write some bright, shiny kids' stories for a while, and vice versa. As an academic, one of the things I look for are the intertextual connections between books. You can take any two stories and see what one says about the other one, and I like to do that when I'm writing. So if I'm writing a western, I'm not watching or reading other westerns. I'm watching Hercule Poirot movies, and when I write a detective story, I'm not watching POIROT, but I might be watching a bunch of spaghetti westerns. When I go write a detective story (as Idid for Artifice's Halloween special, resurrecting my old, briefly seenFrontier Publishing stomping grounds, Chalifax, the City of Dying Magic ) I knew I was going to hear Agatha Christie and David Suchet and Hugh Fraser anyway, so watching other genres helps me make sure I'm doing more than aping their style.

DF: I think it’s really exciting that you have opened up the DREAMER’S SYNDROME universe to other writers. Can you first explain DREAMER’S SYNDROME to those not familiar with the concept?

MB: Sure thing. God goes into hiding and sends an order back to the angels to remake the world so that everyone is transformed, overnight, into their childhood dream. If you wanted to be a pirate, you're a pirate. If you wanted to be an astronaut, you're an astronaut. The world is transformed, too, so the modern American southwest is largely reconfigured as the Wild West and New York is remade as a place for superheroes.

DF: Why did you decide to open it up to other writers?

MB: Over on Facebook, Greg Rosa asked when I was going to do it. I said, "I'd do it right now if there was interest" and he assured me he could line up a handful of writers to participate and between his writers and those responding to the Call for Proposals it looks like there might be enough for two collections. There's still time to submit, too, so if anyone out there is moved, send me a proposal. The majority of submissions, so far, are from people with very few publications and that's very exciting.

DF: You’ve taken a break from writing movie reviews. Can you tell us why and will there be another collection of your movie reviews coming?

MB: There's 700-800 reviews at Atomic Anxiety and I was getting burned out. I love writing DOCTOR WHO reviews and when I couldn't bring myself to keep up with the latest season (which I really liked), I knew it was time to step back for awhile. I've got enough reviews for a solid sci-fi collection, but there such a random collection of movie reviews, I'm wondering how to arrange them, and if I should wait until I get a few more classics reviewed. I've got the Marvel Comics on Film book out and it covers every Marvel movie I could watch through last year's AVENGERS (including the old '70s TV movies, of which DOCTOR STRANGE is a real standout). I'd like to go ahead and tackle DC's movies, at some point, too.

DF: Hollywood calls you up and says that they’re going to spend $500 million to make a movie out of one of your books and let you pick the director. Which book do you let them have and which director do you choose?

MB: Man, I've been pondering this question all week and I'm still not sure. I'm tempted to offer up combinations of GUNFIGHTER GOTHIC and J.T. Petty (director of the excellent and largely unseen THE BURROWERS) or DREAMER'S SYNDROME and Joe Cornish (director of the excellent and largely unseen ATTACK THE BLOCK or HARPSICHORD & THE WORMHOLE WITCHES and Matt Reeves (director of CLOVERFIELD) or STUFFED ANIMALS FOR HIRE (which is basically The A-Team for kids) and Gore Verbinski, but I think if we're gonna roll with a big budget, I'd pair ADVENTURES OF THE FIVE with Andrew Stanton. I think Stanton has demonstrated a fine ability to balance good humor with big emotions, and that's what THE FIVE is about.

DF: Recommend a movie, a book and a TV show.

MB: Movie: THE HOBBIT. We live in such a jaded age that people can't wait to turn on the things tomorrow that they loved yesterday. There's a certain segment of fandom that seems to be in a race to declare something awful. It's like there's a whole tribe of Dennis Millers, always with a cynical, snarky putdown at the ready. I get not liking a movie, but I do not understand when people decide to mount their own personal campaign against a movie whose only crime is that other people like it. THE HOBBIT is a big, fun movie. Is it as good as the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy? No, but that doesn't mean it ain't a really good film.

Book: I'm reading two books right now that are both fantastic: David Shoemaker's THE SQUARED CIRCLE, a history of professional wrestling, and Hal Needham's STUNTMAN!, an autobiography of his time in Hollywood. I'm in the beginning stages of both, but Needham's story is told very conversationally. I feel like he's sitting with me at a bar and telling stories about John Wayne and Burt Reynolds. I've been enjoying Shoemaker's writing on wrestling for years (he was the author of the "Dead Wrestler of the Week" feature at Deadspin, and he now writes for Grantland) and SQUARED CIRCLE sees him at the top of his game; he has a unique talent to always talk about the present in the context of the past that gives his writing some real power.

TV Show: MISS FISHER'S MURDER MYSTERIES. Netflix has finally started streaming POIROT, but they only have the first 6 seasons, which I devoured in a couple weeks. I went looking for another mystery to fill the void and stumbled onto FISHER'S. It's set in post-WWI Australia, and it's one of those shows where they set it in the past but fill it with a whole bunch of modern sensibilities. It's nothing deep, but like POIROT it's a whole lot of fun watching Phryne Fisher solve some really nasty crimes.

Derrick Ferguson: Anything else we should know?

Mark Bousquet: Until the end of 2013, anyone who wants a free .pdf copy of "Thanksgiving at the House of Absinthe & Steam" can have one by sending me an email at bousquet.mark@gmail.com. No strings attached - you don't have to write a review and you won't be put on a mailing list. 2014 is going to be a big year for GUNFIGHTER GOTHIC (time willing, I'm going to try and get Hanna and Jill in as many different anthologies as would be appropriate) and I think "House of Absinthe" is a really good intro into this world. Volume 1 will be out in late January or early February, so now is a good time to jump on board.

ADVENTURES OF THE FIVE: THE CHRISTMAS ENGINE will be out before Christmas, so anyone looking for a fun book for kids might find it to their liking.

I'm on the web at my personal website (themarkbousquet.com), my review site (atomicanxiety.wordpress.com), and on Twitter (@mark_bousquet), and all my published works can be found at my Author Central site (http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Bousquet/e/B004WWUTNU).

That covers it. Thanks, as always, for the chat, Derrick.

Derrick Ferguson Gets Stung By SKORPIO

File Size: 1534 KB

Print Length: 337 pages

Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited

Publisher: WordFire Press (October 14, 2013)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Language: English

ASIN: B00FWG9CLA

If you’re as well read as I think you are (and you must be…why else are you reading book reviews? You’re looking for something good to read, right?) then you should have some familiarity with the name Mike Baron. Mr. Baron first landed on my radar when I discovered his innovative science fiction comic book “Nexus” which he co-created with Mike Rude. Much like other great comic book pairings like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers or Marv Wolfman and Gene Colon, the two of them made magic together and if you haven’t read “Nexus” yet then you should correct that at your earliest opportunity.

Mr. Baron has also written many other comic book titles but in recent years he’s been working in prose, writing some really compelling novels such as “Helmet Head” which I really enjoyed. That’s a book you really ought to pick up as it reads like the lost novelization of a John Carpenter movie. Yeah, it’s that good.

SKORPIO is almost as good. It’s not a roller coaster ride like “Helmet Head’ which reads like a runaway train going downhill from start to finish. Mr. Baron takes his time setting up the situation and the characters before he gets to the guts of his story but I appreciate a writer who has the confidence to take his time to take us where we need to go so he can most effectively deliver the goods later on and yeah, SKORPIO delivers.

Vaughan Beadles is a Professor of Anthropology at Creighton University in Illinois where he enjoys a near rock star status. He’s too handsome for his own good with a gorgeous wife and beautiful baby boy. Beadles is riding high due to his acquisition of relics belonging to a previously lost Southwestern Indian tribe, the Azuma. But all that comes to a screeching halt when Beadles is framed for stealing some of the artifacts. And if that wasn’t enough, one of his students dies from a scorpion sting that he got when Beadles lets the kid get an unauthorized sneak peek at the artifacts.

His life rapidly falls into ruin. His wife leaves him, he loses his job and all of his money goes toward his legal fees. The only way Beadles can see to salvage his life is to find where the Azuma actually lived and prove his theories to be true. In his quest to find the birthplace, Beadles runs into a truly amazing diverse cast of characters. Some of them you’ll wonder what the hell they’re doing in the book but trust me, part of the enjoyment of reading SKORPIO is seeing just how Mike Baron pulls all of these characters together and makes them integral components of the story.

It takes a while for the title character to show up but when it does it’s worth the wait. Skorpio is a vengeful ghost of hideous power who appears in the sunlight, which is a nice twist as ghosts are usually associated with the nighttime. I also liked Mr. Baron’s choice of protagonist. Vaughan Beadles isn’t exactly squeaky clean in his dealings and he’s a bit of an opportunist, always actively looking for an angle to advance his career and fatten his bank account.

In fact, most of the characters in SKORPIO are a little more on the gray side than you might expect but I enjoyed that as it gave the book an unpredictability I found refreshing. There’s never any way to tell what these characters are going to do or say and for me, that’s always welcome in my fiction.

Mike Baron’s prose is as uncomplicated and straightforward as the word “No.”  He doesn’t go in for flowery purple prose. He’s a born storyteller who is concerned with only one thing: telling you a good story. He’s not interested in showing off his vocabulary or trying to impress you with his cleverness in turning a pithy phrase. He just wants you to have a good time and I certainly did have a good time reading SKORPIO. 

Kickin' The Willy Bobo With: ANDREA JUDY

Derrick Ferguson: Who is Andrea Judy?

Andrea Judy: Someone recently called me a pulp pixie and I like the sound of that. I’m fresh out of grad school and obsessed with pop culture.

DF: Where do you live and what do you do to keep the bill collectors away?

AJ: I work for a large university in Atlanta, GA where I manage social media accounts, pay the bills, and generally keep the office running smoothly. My coworkers are pretty much the most awesome people ever, and we nerd out on a regular basis.

DF: How long have you been writing?

AJ: Forever? I’ve been writing since I learned how to put the pencil to paper and form coherent sentences, but I’ve been telling stories since I could talk.


DF: What writers have influenced you?

AJ: Peter S. Beagle and “The Last Unicorn” was one of my favorite things as a child, and I think that has helped keep a sense of fantasy and wonder in me even as an adult. I also loved the  Jim Hensen movies “The Dark Crystal” and “Labyrinth” played on repeat at all times through my childhood.

Other writers that influence me are Neil Gaiman, Kelly Sue Deconnick, and Lisa Mannetti.


DF: What do you think about New Pulp? Is it here to stay?

AJ: I think it’s absolutely here to stay. Fast-paced, fun adventurous stories are something that world needs and that people want. Whether the name of New Pulp will stick with the genre or not, I’m not sure. I’m of the belief that pulp is the style of the writing and story, not the name of the genre or movement as a whole.

DF: What’s the best advice you can give someone who wants to write New Pulp?

AJ: The same advice I’d give any upcoming writer. FINISH WHAT YOU START. You can’t sell a story until it’s done, and you can’t rewrite something until it’s been written. It’s so easy to get caught up in talking about writing, in plotting, researching, planning, etc. Butt in char and fingers on keyboard (or writing by pen and pencil if that’s your thing) are the most important things that a new writer can learn.


DF: How did you develop the character of The Bone Queen?

AJ: I’ve always had a morbid obsession with graveyards and things that go bump in the night, so when I was tasked with creating a story for The Pulptress, I knew that I wanted something dark.

A few years ago, I studied in Paris, and visited the catacombs several times. I stayed fascinated by them, and by Paris, long after my return home, and The Pulptress seemed a perfect fit. I also wanted to put her in a place where guns weren’t the norm, and the world was a little bit different than here in America.

The Bone Queen came about because I needed someone equal to The Pulptress, someone that could be her shadow. I love spooky, supernatural things so I dove right in to giving The Bone Queen the ability to rise the dead by eating their bones and never looked back.


DF: When she made her first appearance in “The Pulptress” did you know you were going to write a novel about her?

AJ: I had no idea there would ever be a stand-alone work about her! In fact I wasn’t even sure there’d be a story in “The Pulptress!”

A little known fact is that my story in “The Pulptress” was written from scratch at the eleventh hour. My computer corrupted and I lost everything I had from the story and had to start over right at the deadline. I was so focused on making sure the story was sharp (and done!) that I never entertained the possibility of doing more with her. Luckily, the new version worked much better than the lost drafts (and was much better for Paulette and Pascal) and as soon as it was turned in and off for edits, I took a nice long nap before I even entertained the possibility of doing anything else.

After “The Pulptress” released, there was a lot of interest in her, and the story was really popular. Eventually I was approached about doing an origin story for her. I jumped at the chance. I adore villains and I think there’s a distinct lack of lady villains so getting the chance to explore where she came from was an incredible opportunity.


DF: Tell us about the novel itself. What is THE BONE QUEEN about?

AJ: The Bone Queen is about where this villain came from and how she gained her powers. It follows Renata, a devotee of the goddess of death, and her band of survivors as they struggle through Black Plague ravaged France. The dead are rising and going to war, and the living are barely scraping by. Renata vows to find the person responsible for this abomination against death and sets onto a path that explores just how much she’s willing to give up to achieve that goal.

DF: Tell us about your future plans for The Bone Queen.

AJ: The Bone Queen will be making another appearance in my second digest novel with Pro Se which will throw The Pulptress and The Bone Queen into battle once again. I’m very excited about this story and can’t wait for everyone to see it!


DF: Anything else you’re working on that we should know about?

AJ: I have a superhero story coming out in “Capes and Clockwork”, a steampunk superhero anthology that will be out soon. It’s about a female detective whose left arm can turn into anything she’s touched, and her hunt for a killer who freezes people from the inside out.


DF: What audience are you trying to reach with your work? Is there an audience out there for Andrea Judy?

AJ: I think my audience is anyone who enjoys a good, fast-paced story with a bit of darkness to it. I rarely write with a specific audience in mind. I write to tell an awesome story!


DF: What’s a typical Day In The Life of Andrea Judy like?

AJ: Hm... typical… Usually I’m up by 5:30. I work out, and then goof around on the Internet, schedule posts on social media, and read my favorite webcomics before going to work.

I’m lucky that I get to read during my commute so I usually am reading some new book. It’s awesome because this way I can go through 2-3 books a week just by reading on the train.

During lunch I try to write or work on something but it doesn’t always pan out that way. When I get home, I sit down and write at least 750 words before I eat. After that I write, edit, read, watch a movie or play video games.


Derrick Ferguson: Anything else we should know about Andrea Judy?

Andrea Judy: A fun fact is that I’m very short. I’m under five feet tall and I think a lot of my friends are convinced I am actually a pixie and not a human at all.

My Favorite New Pulp Heroes

Daggone that Barry Reese. You may recall that awhile back Barry posted over at his blog a list of his 10 Favorite Classic Pulp Heroes. Me being a blatant copycat I quickly followed suit with my own list.

Well, now he's done it again but this time it's a list of his 10 Favorite New Pulp Heroes. And quite naturally I again have followed in his illustrious footsteps and done the same.

Some of you might nitpick about my placing Captain Hazzard on this list as he was created back in 1937. My argument for that is this: there was only one story published and with his four Captain Hazzard novels, I consider Ron Fortier to have sufficiently re-imagined the character enough for him to qualify as a New Pulp hero. If you think I'm wrong, feel free to let me know and we'll jaw about it. Okay? Okay.

And I also have a special shout out of my own to Joel Jenkins who made my list twice. So without further delay here's my list of my Favorite New Pulp Heroes:


10: The Imposter (Created by Richard Lee Byers)
9: The Merkabah Rider (Created by Ed Erdelac)
8: Captain Hazzard (Re-Imagined by Ron Fortier)
7: The Pulptress (Created by Tommy Hancock)
6: Damage, Inc. (Created by Joel Jenkins)
5: The Gantlet Brothers (Created by Joel Jenkins)
4: Elisa Hill (Created by Percival Constantine)
3: The Black Centipede (Created by Chuck Miller)
2: Lazarus Gray (Created by Barry Reese)
1: Mr. Brass (Created by Joshua Reynolds)

More information about Mr. Brass can be found here and if you haven't yet read any of his adventures, I heartily suggest you do so.

My Favorite Pulp Heroes

Over at his blog Barry Reese put together a list of his 10 Favorite Pulp Heroes. Never being one to resist a good game of “monkey see, monkey do” I decided to throw together my own list of favorite heroes. So here we go, counting down from 10-1. And playing by Barry’s rules, I kept it to Classic Pulp Heroes.

Here we go:

10. John Carter

9. Secret Agent X

8. Tarzan

7. Eric John Stark

6. Solomon Kane

5. Conan

4. The Avenger

3.The Spider

2. The Shadow

1. Doc Savage

Anybody who knows me well enough isn’t surprised at Doc Savage being #1. I got hooked on Doc when I was around 14 or 15 which is just about the perfect age for a red-blooded All-American boy to get hooked on Doc Savage.

In times past my first three slots would automatically be taken by Doc Savage, The Shadow and The Avenger, The Holy Trinity of Pulp Heroes. But that was before I discovered The Spider. Good googlymoogly, his adventures are so barking mad and he’s such an hysterically epic character that he’s replaced The Avenger in The Holy Trinity. I had heard about The Spider for years but it’s only been in the past two or three years that I’ve actually read his adventures and they’re terrific.

Bit of explanation about Eric John Stark. Leigh Brackett created him back in the fifties for a series of space opera stories taking place on various worlds in our Solar System. Stark himself is an orphan raised by a tribe of aborigines on Mercury but I didn’t read any of those earlier adventures until much, much later. I read “The Skaith Trilogy” back in the mid-70’s which took Stark out of our Solar System to have adventures on a far distant world. I immediately fell in love with Stark because the way Leigh Brackett described him, it was obvious to me that Stark was a black man and I was thrilled to be reading about a black hero having exotic, thrilling adventures on strange and distant worlds. 

On the cover of the first book of the trilogy, Jim Steranko drew an Eric John Stark that looked to me like Steranko was attempting to stay true to the character’s ethnic background by hiding him in shadow so that if the art director said anything, he could claim it was the shadows that made him look dark:

I don’t think he was able to get away with it because the next two covers were bright enough so that there was no doubt whatsoever to potential readers thinking about picking up the book that the hero was a white guy:

In any case, do yourself a favor and get hold of any Eric John Stark stories you can. Leigh Brackett was a fantastically gifted writer and she knew how to tell a ripping good yarn. She wrote western movie screenplays for John Ford and she worked on the screenplay of what is in my opinion (and many others) the best of the Star Wars movies; "The Empire Strikes Back" There's a reason she was known as The Queen of Space Opera.  if you don't know the work of Leigh Brackett, I suggest you educate yourself.

So what’s Your 10 Favorite Pulp Heroes?

Derrick Ferguson Gets Bit By LEZ VAMPS

See, I had no idea at all there there was even a Lesbian Vampire genre in print or movies. If I had, you can bet your sweet bippy I’d have been all over it in no time at all. Mark Wheatley explains it all in his highly entertaining introduction to LEZ VAMPS but I’ll give you the thumbnail: the short stories in LEZ VAMPS are based upon one of Mr. Wheatley’s paintings. His fans liked it so much a contest was launched to find the best short story based on that painting. And an extraordinary painting it is.  But don’t take my word for it. Bounce on over to his Facebook page and check 'em out for yourself.

Fortunately for us, the decision was made to collect some of the best entries into a digital anthology that is available for free. And it’s made a believer outta me when it come to the Lesbian Vampire genre.

But the first story “The Adoption” by James Smith wasn’t the one that did it for me. It’s the sort of story that as I was reading it I was way too aware of the fact that I was reading a story. It’s supposed to be humorous, I get that. But the overall effect on me was that of a guy in a bar jabbing you in your ribs with his elbow telling you what he thinks is the funniest joke in the world and you’re sitting there praying he’ll finish so you can get back to watching the ball game and drinking your beer.

“Boundary Dispute” by Cynthia and Mike Arsuaga did sell me on the premise, I’m happy to say and it should have been the first story in the book. This piece is drenched in sensual atmosphere and moodiness. Let’s face it, you give me a story that’s about Lesbian Vampires and I expect my fair share of erotic titillation. This story delivered exactly that.

“Lez Vamps” by Johnda Estep is what I call a Hit The Ground Running Story. It starts off fast and doesn’t let up. Most of it is carried along by dialog which is something I greatly admire in any writer as I feel my own work just doesn’t feel like if it has much meat unless I provide description. But some writers can convey exactly what they want to a reader by the skillful use of dialog and that’s what’s going on here. It’s a nice change up from the previous story which is heavy on description that feels like a heavy cloak wrapping around you. This one bounces back and forth and never slows down from start to finish.

Gordon Dymowski’s “Out There In The Night” is a straightforward story of vampire seduction. Mr. Dymowski tells a story that could easily be the beginning of a novel, if he wishes to take it further. But then again, he doesn’t have to. Between this story and “Boundary Dispute” I was beginning to get the whole thing about Vampire Lesbians…it’s not about sex and it’s really not even about the vampirism. It’s all about the seduction. Like the song says, that’s the hook that keeps you coming back and that’s the hook that kept me reading.

“Theatrics” by Bill Nichols did what I think “The Adoption” was trying to do: be a funny Lesbian Vampire story. The difference is that “Theatrics” actually is funny because Mr. Nichols got out of the way of his story and told the story instead of trying to impress me with how much of a funny guy he is.

“The Prey” by Askshat Sinha is really one that made me sit up and go ‘whoa’ because it started out to be one kind of story and subtly shifted into another so smoothly that I got blindsided and that’s exactly what I think the author was going for. This is the kind of story I read anthologies for and why I love them so much. “The Prey” has a gut punch of an ending I found very satisfying and enjoyable.

“The Undead” by Charles Baird also continues in that theme of seduction that I found I responded to in my favorite stories of this anthology. The sex and the actual vampirism is almost a byproduct of the way that the characters come into vampirism. They want to be seduced and they want to feel the overwhelming emotion of being pursued and seduced.  It’s like a drug and this story as well as “The Prey” and “Out There In The Night” communicates that very well.

“Vampires: A Short Essay” by Russ Rogers didn’t turn my crank at all.  Just like “The Adaption” it’s a story that came across to me as the writer trying to show how how hip and cool and funny he is rather than giving me a story worth my time to read.

There are a couple of poems in this anthology as well: “Night” by Johanda Estep and “Savior In The Tent Of Countess Reynardine” by Steffan Gilbert” that I didn’t review because when it comes down to poetry, I am way outta my league. My appreciation of poetry begins and ends with Dr. Seuss and I’m not ashamed to admit it. But if if you’re a fan and appreciate erotic poetry then by all means, check out the two offerings and maybe you’ll get more out of them than I did.

So should you read LEZ VAMPS? Well, first of all it’s a free read so there’s that to take into account. And most of the stories are pretty good so I’d say Yes. As for me, I’m going to hunt up more movies and stories about this Lesbian Vampires genre apparently you guys have been hiding from me.

Kickin' The Willy Bobo With: NICK AHLHELM

Derrick Ferguson: Who is Nicholas Ahlhelm?

Nicholas Ahlhelm: Man, I’ve been asking that question for years now! The short answer is that I’m a writer, editor and blogger living in Eastern Iowa. I’m a lover of all things superhero and a whole lot of wrestling.

DF: How long have you been writing?

NA: Since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I started the site that would evolve into Metahuman Press back in 2003 and published my first book back in 2008.

DF: For the folks at home who don’t know you, clue us in on your background.

NA: I was born and raised in Iowa and have lived there for most of my life outside brief excursions to St. Louis and Springfield, Illinois. I mainly used my allowance to buy comics, first issues of G.I. Joe and Transformers before jumping into basically every superhero comic I could find on the newsstand. That history shaped what I wanted to do as I reached adulthood and decided to start a serious attempt to become a professional writer.

DF: Writing. Editing. Publishing. Which one is the most difficult and which one gives you the most satisfaction?

NA: Editing is by far the most difficult. The publishing process is complicated, but can be learned, and once you have it down, it remains just a variation on the same theme to usher one book as another. Editing on the other hand can take you anywhere. Some stories require a firm hand while some need a lighter touch. And some writers respond better to one than the other. It can be a hard thing to figure out what works best until you’ve started to know your regular writers a bit.

The most satisfying personally will always be writing. Ushering my own stories from a blank sheet of paper (or at least a blank screen) to a final draft remains astonishing to me. I still sometimes find it amazing I can accomplish it at all. 

DF: What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

NA: I promise I’m not just saying this because I’m here to talk about it, but the answer is Lightweight. Two and a half stories into the first collection I can already say this is the most solid tale I’ve ever told. The character is strong and the story around him has literally had twenty years of gestation before making it to the page.

DF: You are most definitely a superhero fan to the max. What do superheroes represent to you?

NA: Untapped potential. While conceptually superheroes have been around for seventy something years, they still possess so much room for amazing stories. Years ago it was Steven Grant that I first heard describe superheroes as a setting rather than a genre. By that he meant they were just a trapping layered over sci fi, mystery, historical fiction or whatever. And that has shaped how I’ve seen super powered fiction ever since. This is room to tell new stories and stretch the reality of fiction, no matter the form it takes.

DF: Why are we so fascinated with the concept of superheroes?

NA: I think in many ways, superheroes are the action hero of the twenty-first century. When we can see people in real life doing stuff like parkour and our technology in our phone can do half of what we saw in any 80s sci-fi movie, society needed something bigger in their heroes. And I think because of that, the comic book style superhero rose to prominence for the same reason kids loved them for years: they are larger than life, but still grounded in a level of reality.

DF: Superhero prose fiction is hot right now. You’ve been involved in that genre years before its current popularity. Why is superhero prose popping right now?

NA: I’m not sure if it’s hot now, but it does seem to be the growing market trend. I think the reason is two-fold. Obviously, the popularity of superhero films has a lot to do with it. Superheroes have money potential, even if so many of the comics don’t really realize it.

Secondly, I think that a lot of writers have latched on to the fact that a lot of story potential exists in superheroes, either by expanding the concept into new territory or by subverting it into something else.

DF: Tell us about Metahuman Press.

NA: Metahuman Press is my small press outfit. I’ve been running it for several years, dating back to the first printing of Freedom Patton: A Dangerous Place to Live and the early numbered Pulp Empire volumes. In the last few years, we’ve expanded with a few original novels, but our main focus is still super powered and new pulp anthologies.

DF: Tell us about Lightweight.

NA: LIGHTWEIGHT is my attempt to innovate super powered fiction. Comics have ran character’s lives for decades and decades month in and month out. Lightweight is my attempt to tell a prose storyline through approximately 8000 word chapters, each published as an ebook monthly and collected periodically. The goal is to tell individual tales that will build a greater narrative as they continue, until they form a massive project that truly follows the life of a super powered young man.

Lightweight is the tale of Kevin Mathis, a 17 year old high school senior that suffers from dreams of floating. Only he learns those dreams aren’t just dreams. He finds himself in dangerous situations and feels a compulsion to act. With a costume in place, he becomes Lightweight. But even as he embarks on a career in crime-fighting with the help of his friend Millie, he begins to learn his entire world may be at the center of a centuries old war.

DF: Why Kickstarter?

NA: My goal with taking Lightweight to Kickstarter is two-fold. I wanted to make sure my cover artist Brent Sprecher, a veteran of the gaming world, gets paid a professional salary for his cover work.

At the same time, I also needed to prove that the concept had enough power to draw in fans of superheroes. My plan is to dedicate a significant portion of my life to Lightweight in the future. I want to make sure I can find a market for monthly super powered prose before I dive into it feet first.

DF: There’s a plethora of Kickstarter projects so why should the good folks at home throw their support behind Lightweight?

NA:While Kickstarter is always filled with great projects (which I spotlight every Monday in fact on my SuperPoweredFiction.com blog), this is the first time anyone truly attempted a monthly ongoing superhero prose story, at least outside fan fiction sites. My plan is to keep Lightweight going for years to come. I have plots for nearly three years of stories with outlines for nearly five more. But without proof of concept, they may never see light of day.

DF: What’s the future of Metahuman Press and Lightweight?

NA: Metahuman Press has several projects coming in the near future. Supernatural West, I Was A Teenage Metahuman and the second volume of Modern Gods are all in some stage of the production process with several more books to follow through the end of the year and the beginning of the next.

The future of Lightweight is in the hands of the people out there. If you’re a fan of superheroes, support the project on Kickstarter. It could be years before I attempt a project of this scope again should the Kickstarter not succeed.

DF: What’s the future of Nicholas Ahlhelm?

NA: A lot more writing. I have a “Fight Card” novel I’ve been ushering into publishable form in the last few weeks, followed by a half dozen short stories for various Airship 27 and Metahuman Press anthologies. Of course, I’ve already got my annual Nanowrimo project in the development stages for this November, a huge tale that will serve as a back story for Lightweight.

And of course, if Lightweight is successful on Kickstarter, a whole heck of a lot more writing for him. Here’s hoping I get to tell my complete tale of Kevin Mathis and company over the next several years.

Derrick Ferguson: Anything else we should know?

Nick Ahlhelm: I just want to thank all the backers that have supported the project so far and will do so in the days ahead. Nothing makes a writer’s heart happier than knowing someone is reading his work and wants to read more.