The Revised Complete Chronology of Bronze: A Review

Review: A stunning tour de force of Savageology

Rick Lai’s The Revised Complete Chronology of Bronze arrived, a timeline of pulp hero Doc Savage's adventures, and I read it in a day, in one sitting. That’s not because it’s light reading, but because it’s so compelling.

Generously acknowledging the research of other chronologists, including the late Philip José Farmer's Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, Lai sets a new bar in scholarship, and it’s a high bar indeed. He meticulously, and yet quite understandably, lays out his methodology, and describes why and how if differs from methodologies employed by prior chronologies. He also includes the radio adventures where appropriate (recently collected by Moonstone Books as Doc Savage: The Lost Radio Scripts of Lester Dent), as well as the continuation novels by Farmer (Escape from Loki) and Will Murray (such as Python Isle, Flight Into Fear, etc.).

When reconciling conflicting or contradictory information, Lai relies on well-reasoned and erudite theories and research. Lai not only provides the definitive (in my view) timeline of Doc’s supersagas, he also includes several informative and entertaining appendices covering Apocryphal Adventures (such as Farmer’s “After King Kong Fell” and Ironcastle and my own collaboration with Farmer, The Evil in Pemberley House; Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer; and Jean-Marc Lofficier’s translation of Guy d’Armen’s Doc Ardan: City of Gold and Lepers), and so on; this section also includes fascinating essays regarding Doc’s possible interactions with characters such as Fu Manchu and The Shadow), the literary works of Clark Savage, Jr., and easy-to-read checklists.

The cover art by Keith Wilson is a beauty (the back cover art is quite amusing) and the folks at Altus Press have put together a nice, clean package. I’ll be referring to Rick's Chronology of Bronze time and again, both as a Doc Savage fan and as a pulp adventure writer, as it has immediately attained the status of my primary reference work in this area.

Creative Mythographers on the Move

TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN, VOLUME 3: DANSE MACABRE edited by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier. Black Coat Press, 2007.

The third annual merry-go-round of heroes and villains of popular literature, the danse macabre of the Shadowmen. The stories take place in a fictional world where all of the characters and events from adventure literature actually exist in the same universe. ike the previous two volumes, Tales of the Shadowmen 3: Danse Macabre is packed with pulp meta-fiction. Stories feature Doc Ardan (Doc Savage), Adélaïde Lupin (daughter of legendary thief Arsène Lupin), private eye Nestor Burma, Fantômas, Hercule Poirot, Doctor Omega (Doctor Who), Judex (a French version of The Shadow), King Kong, the vampire Countess Elisabeth Bathory, John Devil, the Mahars of Pellucidar, Captain Kronos, Madame Atomos, the Black Coats, Modesty Blaise, the Lovecraftian Mythos, Solomon Kane, Dr. Mystère, OSS 117, and more.

Contributors include Michael Moorcock, Brian Stableford, Chris Roberson, David A. McIntee, Paul Di Filippo, John Peel, Matthew Baugh, Bill Cunningham, Brad Mangel, Win Scott Ecker, and many more.

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Creative Mythographers on the Move

Rick Lai’s Secret Histories: Criminal Masterminds (Altus Press, 2009)

The follow-up to Lai’s Daring Adventurers collection, this volume contains the following: “The Chronological Crimes of Wu Fang and Yen Sin,” “The Secret History of Captain Nemo,” “A Brief Biography of Dr. Caber (1883-1945?),” “The Bride of Shiwan Khan,” “The Mask of Erik,” “The Life of Dr. Antonio Nikola (1856-1898?),” “The Brothers Zaroff,” “The Savage Killer,” “Irma of the Ilsa,” “The Trail of the Feathered Serpent,” “Zanigew the Killer,” “The Balkan Tigress,” “Astar of Opar: The Secret Origin of Sumuru,” “The Hansoms of John Clay,” “The Tiger of Haiti,” “Professor Moriarty’s Other Daughter,” “The Third Most Dangerous Man in London,” “Some Chronological Observations on the Fu Manchu Series,” “Fu Manchu Vs. Cthulhu,” “Ah Ling, Brother to Fu Manchu,” “The Legacy of Hanoi Shan,” “The Secret of Erlik Khan,” “Partners in Crime: Fu Manchu and Carl Peterson,” “Alias Dr. Natas,” “Sirens of the Si-Fan,” “The Hidden Hand of Shiwan Khan,” and “John Sunlight and the Si-Fan Succession.”

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Creative Mythographers on the Move

TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN, VOLUME 2: GENTLEMEN OF THE NIGHT edited by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier. Black Coat Press, 2006 .

More short stories inspired by French, American, and British pulp fiction. The stories take place in a fictional world where all of the characters and events from adventure literature actually exist in the same universe. Like the first volume, Tales of the Shadowmen 2: Gentlemen of the Night is chock full of Wold Newtonian and pulp fiction goodness. Stories feature Doc Ardan, Arsène Lupin, Fantômas, Harry Dickson, the Phantom of the Opera, Sherlock Holmes, Zenith the Albino, D'Artagnan, Doctor Omega (Doctor Who), Irene Adler, the Nyctalope, the Sâr Dubnotal, Judex, The Time Traveler, John Devil, Frankenstein, Countess Cagliostro, Rouletabille, the Moonstone, Joseph Jorkens, the Lovecraftian Mythos, and more.

Contributors include Kim Newman, Chris Roberson, Brian Stableford, John Peel, Jess Nevins, Bill Cunningham, Matthew Baugh, Win Scott Eckert, and many others.

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Creative Mythographers on the Move

Rick Lai’s Secret Histories: Daring Adventurers (Altus Press, 2008)

The first in a series of article collections by one of the Wold Newton authors.

This volume contains the following: “A Chronology for the Avenger,” “Yasmini of India,” “The Life and Times of Steve Harrison,” “The Legend of El Borak,” “The Life and Times of Wild Bill Clanton,” “The Saga of Singapore Sammy,” “The Sgt. Jaeger Chronology,” “The Mystery of Harry Quatermain and Other Conundrums,” “The Saga of John Gorman,” “Secrets of Sir Henry Merrivale,” “The Lecoq Universe,” “Peter the Brazen: The Inconsistencies,” “Peter the Brazen Vs . Fu Manchu,” “The Hand of Kong,” “The Contradictions of Khlit the Cossack,” “The A .J . Raffles Chronology,” “The Insane Captain Wentworth,” “The Anomaly of Professor Challenger’s Daughter,” “A Scandal in Ruritania,” “The Holmes-Lupin Rivalry,” “The Savage Family of India,” “The Tragic Case of John Blakeney” and “The Jules de Grandin Chronology” (co-authored with Matthew Baugh).

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Creative Mythographers On the Move

Short fiction by Arthur C. Sippo, MD, MHP

The Loki Comrades stories depend heavily on the background from Philip José Farmer in his authorized Doc Savage novel Escape from Loki and his biography Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life.

• "His Last Hand" - Zine of Bronze 3
• "Long Tom Robber" - Zine of Bronze 4
• "Andy and Ted’s Excellent Adventure" - Zine of Bronze 5

Forthcoming: a Pat Savage pastiche, "The Perils of Patricia," to be published in Zine of Bronze 7.

Stories about Sun Koh, the heir to Atlantis who has come forward from the deep past to prepare mankind to survive the coming Ice Age:

• "How art thou Fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer!"
• "Thou Preparest a Table Before Me"
• "Sit Thou at My Right Hand"

Not yet published:

• "As far as the East is from the West"
  
• "The Triumph of the Will"

Creative Mythographers on the Move

Glimmerglass, edited by John Allen Small

Glimmerglass: The Creative Writer's Annual (Volume 1) is now available, including contributions from writers such as Roman Leary, P.J. Lozito, Dennis E. Power, Arthur C. Sippo, Michael D. Winkle, and John Allen Small.

• A high school student finds more excitement than she bargained for when a new classmate talks her into spending the night in a haunted barn....
• A mysterious traveler and his young granddaughter find themselves coming to the aid of one of the greatest adventurers of the 20th century....
• An investigative journalist uncovers the incredible true story behind the legendary rampage of a giant gorilla in New York City....

These tales and more can be found in the pages of this publication, which was created especially for people who love to read by people who love to write. It represents the efforts of a collection of individuals who are sensitive to the power of the written word, people who care about their craft and who might one day place in front of your child or grandchild a sentence or paragraph that may in some fashion change that child's life. For such is the power of creative writing.

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CROSSOVERS: A Secret Chronology of the World, Volume 1 -- cover by Mark Maddox!

...And here it is!

Artist Mark Maddox has done a wonderful job bringing my and Black Coat Press publisher Jean Marc Lofficier's vision for the cover to life.

We've already supplied our direction for Volume 2 and have no doubt the results will be equally stunning!

Creative Mythographers On the Move

In Micah S. Harris' THE ELDRITCH NEW ADVENTURES OF BECKY SHARP, the villainess of the Victorian classic Vanity Fair enters the Cthulhu Mythos as an agent of H.P. Lovecraft's Great Race of Yith!

Cover, frontispiece, and title page illustrations by Loston Wallace! With a mini-introductory essay by Mark (Xenoxoic Tales, The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, King Features' Prince Valiant) Schultz!

And the answers to these and other metafictional mysteries: 1) The circumstances of the unheralded first attempted Lidenbrock Expedition to the Center of the Earth! 2) The secret parentage of Ann Darrow, bride of the fearsome Kong! 3) The apocalyptic origins and final fate of Queequeg's fetish and how it went from pagan idol among the wreckage of the Pequod to a dust-gathering paperweight at 221-B Baker Street!

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Creative Mythographers On the Move

TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN, VOLUME 1: THE MODERN BABYLON edited by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier. Black Coat Press, 2005.

This anthology features short stories inspired by French pulp fiction, written by several Wold Newton "creative mythographers," including Matthew Baugh, Win Scott Eckert, Greg Gick, and Rick Lai, as well as wll-known names such as Brian Stableford, Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier, John Peel, Terrance Dicks, Chris Roberson, and Robert Sheckley, among others. Nor are the stories limited to only French characters... Wold Newton Family members such as Doc Savage (aka "Doc Ardan," appearing in Win Scott Eckert's "The Vanishing Devil"), Fu Manchu, Sherlock Holmes, and The Shadow, all make appearances in the anthology (albeit some of them appear in disguise), as do perennial French Wold Newton Family members C. Auguste Dupin and Arsène Lupin. Several of the stories refer to or utilize Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Family theories and concepts. For fans of the monster corner of the Wold Newton Universe, there are stories featuring Frankenstein's Creature, the Cthulhu Mythos, and Erik (Phantom of the Opera).

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Creative Mythographers On the Move

Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction
An Encyclopedia from Able Team to Z-Comm
Brad Mengel

ISBN 978-0-7864-4165-5
bibliographies, index
softcover (7 x 10) 2009

"Rough justice has often been served in the pages of serial novels, notably beginning with Don Pendleton’s The Executioner in 1969. This is the first overview of the serial vigilante genre, which featured such hard-boiled protagonists as Nick Carter, Mark Stone, Jake Brand and Able Team among the 130 series that followed Pendleton’s novel. Serial vigilantes repeatedly take the law into their own hands, establishing and imposing their own moral standards, usually by force. The book examines the connections between the serial vigilante and the pulp hero that preceded him and how the serial vigilante has influenced a variety of tough guys, private eyes, spies and cops in different media. A complete bibliography for each series is featured."

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About the Author
Brad Mengel works in Australia’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. He’s contributed critical analysis to Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe and short fiction to Tales of the Shadowmen Vol. 3.

Creative Mythographers On the Move

John Allen Small's Days Gone By: Legends and Tales of Sipokni West

"This collection of short stories was inspired by the establishment of an Old West-themed attraction in southern Oklahoma known as Sipokni West, which has doubled as an actual set for several Western film and television productions. These stories were conceived as a sort of spin-off of that project, as a means of presenting some of the fictional community's memorable events and colorful characters as if they were a part of actual history. Some of the stories were originally published in our local newspaper, the Johnston County Capital-Democrat; others were printed individually in slim volumes and sold as souvenirs to visitors at Sipokni West, while several others have never before been published in any form. This collection marks the first time all the Sipokni West stories written to date have appeared together in a single volume."

This neat little collection also contains a few tales with some familiar faces, of the Old West, and perhaps a crossover or three. Check it out, why don't you?

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Creative Mythographers On the Move

This the first in an ongoing series of posts highlighting the literary exploits of the contributors to Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (and diverse associates who've also more than earned the sobriquet "creative mythographer").

First up is Rick Lai's Chronology of Shadows: A Timeline of The Shadow's Exploits.

"For the first time in print, Rick Lai's Chronology of Shadows (his timeline of the pulp character The Shadow) has been updated & assembled in one easy-to-read volume."

Rick has read all The Shadow pulp novels and has done an immense amount of research. I'm eagerly awaiting the companion volume which will cover Doc Savage.

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