Crossover: Shell Scott meets Secret Agent X-9 (Secret Agent Corrigan)

Check this out! I'll definitely be adding this to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World.

I'm also feeling a short Wold-Newtonry essay coming on sometime soon. I think it's about time that Shell Scott was linked into Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Family.

Since I'm particularly jazzed at discovering this crossover tonight, here's a bonus Shell Scott oriented pic o' the day. :-)

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Wold Newton fan letter in SHANG CHI: MASTER OF KUNG FU lettercol

To the left is a letter (click to enlarge) from the original Wold Newton Meteoritics Society, pointing out the Wold-Newtonian connections in Marvel's brilliant Shang Chi: Master of Kung Fu series. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

In the shameless self-promotion department, you can read Shang Chi's secret Wold-Newtonian origin in my story "The Vanishing Devil" in Tales of the Shadowmen, Volume 1. Clive Reston's mom appears in "The Eye of Oran" in Tales of the Shadowmen, Volume 2.

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Dave Stevens on Philip José Farmer

Micah Harris provides this quote from the 6/21/91 issue of The Comics Buyer Guide, the special Rocketeer issue. In it, Dave Stevens said, "My intention with Cliff [The Rocketeer] was to root him in the real world, at the same time integrating the pulp world. Because for me, the pulp world is the real world of the 1930s. It's what we call B.S. history. It's taking elements from actual historical events and integrating fictional characters into that. Of everybody I've read, Philip José Farmer did that brilliantly. I've always been a real aficionado of that kind of thing. I'm not into trivia and things like that, but I appreciate the ascetic of breathing life into these fictional characters and trying to (integrate) them into nonfiction situations. To me that is just devilish fun."

As I said earlier this year, the late Dave Stevens was a major influence on my initial forays into using crossovers in Wold-Newtonry. So it makes a world of sense that he admired Phil Farmer.

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No One Reads That Old Stuff Anymore

Self-ganked from The Magic River:

I'd been thinking about this post for a while ... as a response to comments I've heard here and there to the effect that there's no market anymore for classic pulp adventure. My own, admittedly somewhat arbitrary perspective is this: if classic pulp adventure is dead, if no one cares about these characters and series anymore, if there's really no market for this old stuff ... then how come I can walk into my local bookstore, either the local chain B&N or Borders -- or even better, the independent Tattered Cover -- and buy this old stuff right off the shelves?

So this is an overview of what the bookstore buyers have decided I can just walk in and get off the shelf, without special ordering it in, or turning to online bookstores, etc. (This is not meant to be a dig at, or utterly dismissive of, publishers with non-traditional distribution models -- heck, anything but, because some of them publish me. I'm trying to make a point about the market viability of this genre, and let's face it, bookstore distribution is still very important.)

Nostalgia Ventures reprints of the Doc Savage and The Shadow pulp novels, two novels each coming out each month in very nice reproduction volumes, are available at online bookstores, via the Diamond catalog which mainly serves direct-market comic shops, and mail order services. But better than that, imagine one of the most thrilling pulp-buying experiences of all, that of walking into a B&N and seeing this shelved cover out in the sf section:

I haven't had the pleasure of that experience since buying the many of the Bantam Books Doc Savage reprints from my local strip mall B. Dalton when I was a kid. And the local B&N didn't just have the book pictured to the left. There was half a shelf devoted to many in the series, right up there with the Doctor Who, Torchwood, Star Trek and Star Wars books.

Too cool.

Paizo's Planet Stories line also deserves special mention; it was, amazingly, launched just a year ago and is putting out an impressive one book a month. R.E. Howard, C.L. Moore, Michael Moorcock, Henry Kuttner, etc., what's not to love?

Baen Books is putting out omnibus editions of The Spider novels. The first trade did well enough to warrant a mass market reprint and a second trade.

• The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps
• Tarzan of the Apes (B&N Classics)
• The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril (Simon & Schuster; to be fair, a fiction adventure of two pulp classic pulp writers rather than a revival of older pulp characters ... but still...)
• The Indiana Jones series (Bantam Books & Del Rey; again, the character did not originate in the 1930s, but is an homage to the pulps and serials)
• The hardboiled and noirish mysteries from Hard Case Crime (a mix of rare and classic reprints and new novels ... and check out those beautifully lurid covers)
• The Mark of Zorro (Tor Books)
  
• Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet remain constantly in print (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
• Robert E. Howard's Conan, King Kull, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, etc. (Del Rey/Ballantine/Random House, Wildside, Dark Horse Comics, Paizo, Subterranean)

• H.P. Lovecraft (Penguin, Del Rey/Ballantine/Random House, etc.)
• New stories of classic pulp heroes The Spider, The Avenger, The Domino Lady, Zorro, and Lost Radio Scripts of Doc Savage (Moonstone Books; and in the interests of fair and full disclosure, I'm privileged to be a contributor to the Avenger book)
  
• A Princess of Mars (Penguin, Dover)
• Fantomas (Penguin, Dover)
  
• Arsene Lupin (Penguin)

Now again, this survey was arbitrary in that it sets as the bar what can I reasonably expect to walk into a brick-and-mortar bookstore any buy off the shelf ... and that's a damn good list. I also should point out that some of the entries above are in the public domain, and thus presumably much cheaper to reprint (and I left out many PD reprints which appeared to be on-the-cheap, focusing on traditionally quality reprint editions from the likes of B&N Classics, Penguin, and Dover). But ... most of the list above is not PD. That means publishers are paying license holders $$ to reprint old stories or write new ones.

Also, the definition I used for "pulp fiction" was strictly narrow (tales actually and literally published in pulp magazines from the 1910s-1940s, and I noted where I deviated from the strict definition), whereas my own definition for my personal reading is much more wide-ranging, to include the Sherlock Holmes stories, the James Bond novels, and so on.

There's other great stuff to be had and -- let's admit it -- some not so great, both in reprinted pulp fiction and in "neo-pulp," that doesn't fall into the "buy-it-in-a-bookstore" category. You can check out Bill Thom's weekly updates to his Coming Attractions site for the latest in pulp-related news in books, comics, and movies. There's a lot to digest at Thom's site. I'll save some of my favorite high-quality non-brick-and-mortar recommendations for a later post, but one thing is certain: pulp is not dead.

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The 2008 Wold Newton Award

Better late than never, it's worth noting that Jean-Marc Lofficier won the 2008 Wold Newton Award, or the "Woldy," which was handed out at Farmercon 90 in on July 26 in Peoria, IL. (Hey, I haven't even had time to download the Farmercon pics from my digital camera yet! But I will soon, I promise, and post a few good shots here.)

Here is the message about the award on Jean-Marc's Black Coat Press website.

Congrats to JM!

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For my good pal Mike Croteau...

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Two books of interest to Wold Newton fans

In 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!

The Eldritch New Adventures of Becky Sharp by Micah S. Harris is now available for $14.95 ($15.27 Canada) plus $4.00 postage and handling for First Class mailing US (Total: $18.95) and $7.00 postage Canada (Total $22.27). Overseas mailing is priority only at $15.00 ($29.95 total).Pay via Paypal and pay to MHa6106@aol.com. Please specify "Becky Sharp Book" and include your name and complete address (including country if overseas) and if you wish your copy to be signed by the author. Also available on Amazon.com.

******

Altus Press has put together a collection of Rick Lai's articles (mainly involving heroes). The book is entitled SECRET HISTORIES: DARING ADVENTURERS.

Contents:

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

The Jules de Grandin Chronology (co-authored with Matthew Baugh)

There will be a collection called SECRET HISTORIES: CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS in the future. This will include all Rick's other Fu Manchu articles.

THE OTHER IN THE MIRROR by Philip José Farmer

A couple weeks ago Chris Carey broke the news about a new collection coming from Philip José Farmer and Subterranean Press, The Other in the Mirror. Chris tells us that the trade edition has now been listed on Amazon.

Books details:

The Other in the Mirror By Philip Jose Farmer (preorder--to be published in early 2009)
Dust jacket by Bob Eggleton
ISBN: 978-1-59606-231-3Length: 496 pages
Lettered: $300Limited: $125 Trade: $45

The Other in the Mirror brings together three classic novels by Philip José Farmer: Fire and the Night, Jesus on Mars, and Night of Light. All three are united by one of SF’s central tropes, that of The Other.

Fire and the Night is a mainstream novel so rare that even many of Farmer’s most dedicated fans have never read it. First published in 1962, it is also one of the author’s most daring works, exploring the issue of racial Otherness in a mesmerizing tale of temptation and entrapment in a small industrial Midwestern town.

In Jesus on Mars, Richard Orme and the crew of the Barsoom embark on the first manned mission to the Red Planet, intent on investigating what seemed to be evidence of life beamed back to Earth by a robotic survey satellite. But Orme discovers in the hollowed-out Martian caverns what he and the scientists back home least expect: a group of aliens, as well as humans transplanted from first century A.D. Earth, led by a being who claims to be Jesus of Nazareth Himself. Soon Orme and his crew are shocked to find that The Other they face is made all that more alien because of its similarity to humanity’s past.

Night of Light is not only one of Farmer’s most psychologically gripping SF tales, it is also the novel which inspired Jimi Hendrix’s psychedelic rock classic “Purple Haze.” John Carmody is a fugitive from Earth, condemned to exile for brutally murdering his wife. Hired by the galactic Church on a mission to squelch a burgeoning rival religion, Carmody must take the Chance on the planet Dante’s Joy and risk his worst nightmares becoming reality. But that’s not the worst of it: the Fathers of Algul and the Fathers of Yess have their own plans for the conscienceless Carmody—for to the inhabitants of Dante’s Joy, Carmody himself is The Other...and they need his alien flesh to give birth to God.

Lettered: 26 signed leatherbound copies, housed in a custom traycase Limited: 125 signed numbered copies, slipcased Trade: fully cloth bound hardcover edition

VENUS ON THE HALF-SHELL Lettered Edition Shipping Soon

Chris Carey informs us that the lettered edition of Philip José Farmer's Venus on the Half-Shell and Others is shipping soon from Subterranean Press! (Chris modestly neglects to mention that he edited the collection.)

Letter from Philip José Farmer to DC Comics TARZAN Lettercol

Click to enlarge and read....

Phil never did reveal Tarzan's true identity in 1982. Something else to investigate... ;-)

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German SF/F site Fantastyguide on "New books by SF master Philip José Farmer!"

The German SF/F site Fantastyguide has picked up on the news, announced at Farmercon 90 in late July, about the new Philip José Farmer novels and stories. Here is the imperfect but more than adequate Google translation.

Nice to see the word is starting to spread on this. The Evil in Pemberley House will be excerpted in issue 14 of Farmerphile, coming out next month.

More good news!

Ganked in its entirety from my pal Chris Carey's blog:

"Lots of good news coming in today. First the short story sale, and now news that my good friend and Farmerphile publisher Mike Croteau has started a blog, as well as an announcement by Subterranean Press of a new Philip José Farmer omnibus, The Other in the Mirror, which will feature three classic Farmer novels, Fire and the Night (the only edition of this book is extremely rare!), Jesus on Mars, and Night of Light. No mention yet who they asked to write the intro to the book, la, la, la... :-) Oh, and I just stumbled across this photo on Rias Nuninga's wonderful PJF International Bibliography from the panel during which the new Farmer collaborations were announced at this summer's Farmercon.


From right to left: Win Scott Eckert (co-author, The Evil in Pemberley House), Paul Spiteri (co-author, "Getting Ready to Write"), Tracy Knight (co-author, Cougar by the Tail), and me (co-author, The Song of Kwasin). Photo courtesy of Rias Nuninga."

Short story sale to Tales of the Shadowmen Vol. 5: The Vampires of Paris

I'm very pleased to announce that my friend and collaborator Christopher Paul Carey and I have sold our short story "Iron and Bronze" to Jean-Marc Lofficier at Black Coat Press, for the anthology Tales of the Shadowmen: The Vampires of Paris (due for release in January 2009).

The tale combines elements drawn from Pierre Benoit's L'Atlantide, Jules Verne's duology The Barsac Mission, J. H. Rosny and Philip José Farmer's Ironcastle, and Guy d'Armen's Doc Ardan, against the backdrop of H. Rider Haggard's Africa.

I have a deep admiration for Chris' atmospheric style and crisp plotting, and it was a real pleasure to work with him on the story. If our schedules permit, I have a feeling we'll do it again someday!

August pjfarmer.com website update: New Farmer novels!

Ganked from Philip José Farmer's MySpace blog... _____________________________________________________________

Dear friends of Philip José Farmer:

Please stop by The Official Philip José Farmer Home Page (http:www. pjfarmer. com) and check out our latest update. This month brings an exciting announcement made a couple weeks ago at Farmercon 90 about three "lost" Farmer novels and a Farmer short story, which have been completed or are being completed by writers of Phil's choosing. Also included with the update is a gallery of photos from Farmercon 90, as well as a newly discovered photo of Phil with his high school track team in 1936! And Philip José Farmer meets...Hellboy??? You'll have to visit Phil's site to find out about it!

Sincerely,Mike Croteau,
Proprietor, The Official Philip José Farmer Home Page
Publisher, Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer
________________________________________________________

Two of the lost Farmer novels described above are The Song of Kwasin completed in collaboration with Christopher Paul Carey, and The Evil in Pemberley House completed by my own self (Bronze pulp superhero's daughter in a 1970s Gothic horror, set at Pemberley House from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, against the backdrop of the Sherlock Holmes mythos. Only Phil Farmer.....). Both books in the hands of Phil's agent, so stay tuned (hopefully).

Farmerphile 13 Now Available - Includes excerpt from new PJF novel!

Issue No. 13 - July 2008
52 pages (5.5 x 8.5 inches)
$11 (includes shipping in the US and Canada)


Table of contents:
Farmerphile Interviews Christopher Paul Carey

Excerpt from The Song of Kwasin
- by Philip José Farmer & Christopher Paul Carey
--- illustrated by Keith Howell
--- map by Charles Berlin

Farmer of the Apes
- by Charles R. Saunders

Creative Mythography: Sahhindar through the Centuries
- by Win Scott Eckert & Dennis E. Power

Escape from Loki Again, and Again, and Again
- by Steve Mattsson

The Wild Weird Clime
- by Philip José Farmer

To Be, or Not to Be
- by Tom Wode Bellman

Bibliophile
- by Heidi Ruby Miller

Unpolished Pearls from the Magic Filing Cabinet
Polytropical Paramyths
- by Philip José Farmer

Getting Ready to Write
- by Philip José Farmer & Paul Spiteri
--- illustrated by Charles Berlin

Cover art by Vladimir Verano
Order your copy today at: http://www.pjfarmer.com/farmerphile.htm

Announcement: The Evil in Pemberley House - A new novel by Philip José Farmer & Win Scott Eckert

Earlier today, at FarmerCon 90, a convention in honor of Philip José Farmer's 90th birthday held at the Lakeview branch of the Peoria Public Library, a "Mystery Panel" was held in which it was revealed that Phil and Bette Farmer made the decision to have writers they trusted complete some of Phil's unfinished manuscripts.

Among these are:

• The Song of Kwasin, a continuation of the Khokarsa cycle, the first two books being Hadon of Ancient Opar and Flight to Opar - completed by collaborator Christopher Paul Carey (I've read it, and it's a wonderfully stirring conclusion to the saga, which fans of H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and, of course, Phil Farmer, are going to absolutely love; read Chris' own blog post here)


• A Western, Cougar By the Tail, with collaborator Tracy Knight (author of many short stories and two novels, Beneath a Whiskey Sky and The Astonished Eye
  
• "Getting Ready to Write," a very funny Polytropical Paramyth written with Paul Spiteri, and appearing in Farmerphile #13 (July 2008)


• The Evil in Pemberley House with collaborator Win Scott Eckert
  

I first discovered the short synopsis, longer outline, handwritten notes, and incomplete manuscript for The Evil in Pemberley House in the "Magic Filing Cabinet" in Phil Farmer's basement on a trip to Peoria with Mike Croteau, publisher of Farmerphile and webmaster of the Official Philip José Farmer Home Page, in July 2005. (During the same trip we also discovered the Kwasin manuscript and notes, much to Chris Carey's joy.) At Phil's bequest, I researched and prepared to finish the novel for two years (amidst other writing projects, in particular finalizing the manuscript for Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World, long-anticipated and coming in 2010 from MonkeyBrain Books) and wrote in earnest this past year.

During this time Chris Carey was also completing The Song of Kwasin and I can't thank him enough for the literally hundreds of emails and many phone calls, in which we bounced ideas around, exchanged feedback, and in general provided much needed support and encouragement.

It's an incredible honor and supreme thrill to have been selected to tell the story that Phil didn't complete, the "origin story" of Patricia Wildman, the "woman of bronze," the daughter of "Doc" Wildman, who was a renaissance man and battler of evil-doers from the Golden Age of the 1930s. (For fans who may have forgotten, Phil brought this bronze superman's real name and family background to the world-at-large in a "fictional biography" published in the early 1970s.)

With Phil and Bette Farmer's blessing, the manuscript is now in the hands of Phil's agent.

For more information, I've launched a website for The Evil in Pemberley House. Please bookmark it and check back often for news, a forthcoming book trailer, etc. I'm thrilled beyond belief to be involved in this project, and to finally launch it in earnest to the blogosphere. An excerpt from the novel will appear in Farmerphile #14 (October 2008).

In the meantime, content yourself with the gorgeous spot illustration of Patricia Wildman, woman of bronze (lovingly rendered by the amazing Keith Howell) and read below the summary which appeared in the convention booklet handed out today at FarmerCon 90.

THE EVIL IN PEMBERLEY HOUSE

For over thirty years, readers have marveled at Philip José Farmer’s clever integration of some of popular fiction and literature’s most beloved characters, in a mythical web known as the Wold Newton Family. First described in the fictional biographies Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, Farmer expanded the mythos in The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, the Tarzan-Sherlock Holmes pastiche The Adventure of the Peerless Peer, Time’s Last Gift, Hadon of Ancient Opar, Flight to Opar, and the authorized series novels The Dark Heart of Time: A Tarzan Novel and Escape from Loki: Doc Savage’s First Adventure.

Now, from imagination of Philip José Farmer and Wold Newton expert Win Scott Eckert, comes an addition to the Wold Newton cycle, a Gothic tale of adventure which builds upon the Canon of Sherlock Holmes mysteries and explores the psyche of a pulp superman’s offspring…

It’s 1973, and Patricia Wildman is traveling from New York to Derbyshire in England to claim her legacy, the grand estate known as Pemberley House. The descendant of famous and infamous dukes and duchesses, and of Pemberley’s memorable Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet from Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice, Patricia is also the daughter of the world-renowned crimefighter of the 1930s and ’40s, Dr. James Clarke “Doc” Wildman. She is also the inheritor of her father’s bronzed skin, gold-flecked eyes, and his physical and intellectual perfection, as well as her mother’s cunning and compassion.

Patricia is looking to put her past behind her and start a new life at Pemberley. Instead, she’s almost immediately attacked by poachers and has to contend with the resentful inhabitants of Pemberley who would prefer the venerable estate pass to them. Foremost among those seeking to prevent Patricia from accepting her legacy and becoming the new Baroness of Lambton are the imperious 103-year-old dowager duchess of Pemberley, her adopted grandchildren, and her personal physician, Dr. Augustus Moran.

Patricia, however, is not only faced with the devious machinations of British nobility and greedy hangers-on, but must also contend with being haunted by her direct ancestor, the 16th century Baroness, Bess of Pemberley. Or is the “Pemberley Curse” really the product of the conniving residents of Pemberley House?

As Patricia struggles to reconcile the supernatural evidence in front of her with her rational scientific upbringing, she also attempts to work through unresolved feelings about her late parents. It’s not easy being the daughter of a superman, after all…

The Evil in Pemberley House is an adventure, Gothic horror, and genealogical mystery set against the backdrop of Jane Austen’s Derbyshire, which will excite a broad array of readers of both pulp and popular literature, especially fans of the Doc Savage pulp novels, the Sherlock Holmes mysteries of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Farmer’s own celebrated Wold Newton Family mythos.

FARMERPHILE - FREE samples online

Check 'em out, won't you? Most of the free sample essays happen to very Wold Newton oriented.

... and.... they're free! If you've been hankering for some new Wold Newton essays to read, and missing the website updates (sorry, I've been really busy with other writing projects, but I promise I haven't forgotten the Wold Newton Universe website and I will get back to it with new articles), well then here's your free articles right here:

http://www.pjfarmer.com/fpawards.htm

Also check out the info this year's FarmerCon. I and several other will be appearing on a Wold Newton Panel, giving presentations on several of our favorite Wold Newton topics. The current line up includes: me, Christopher Paul Carey, Dennis E. Power, Rick Lai, John Small and Henry Covert.

Anyway, the sample articles from Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer.... Did I mention they're free?

Win

Good news on "secret project x"

It took another positive step forward today.

And that's really all I can say about it. ;-)

Farmerphile #12 -- The Sherlock Holmes issue

FARMERPHILE: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer no. 12 is now available.

This is the Sherlock Holmes issue, and as such it's selling out quickly. Plus, those interested in Phil's Wold Newton family tree are going to want to pick up this issue, because we've discovered an addition to the tree by him that somehow didn't make it into the final printed version of DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE!

http://www.pjfarmer.com/farmerphile.htm#iss12

Full Contents:

The Roller Coaster Ride with Phil Farmer- by Bette Farmer

We Were Introduced by Sherlock Holmes- by George Scheetz

Sherlock Holmes and Sufism- by Philip José Farmer--- illustrated by Charles Berlin

Philip José Farmer and The Case of the Two Jungle Lords- by Dennis E. Power

Urania's Babysitter- by Rick Lai

A Study of Ralph von Wau Wau- by Danny Adams

Creative Mythography: The Farmerian Holmes- by Win Scott Eckert

Bibliophile: The Other Log of Phileas Fogg- by Paul Spiteri

How Much Free Will Does a Pumpkin Have?- by Christopher Paul Carey

Jongor in the Wold Newton Family- by Philip José Farmer

The Lure of the Emergency Shelf- by Michael Carroll

Full Blown Comic Book Images of the Beast- by Steve Mattsson

Unpolished Pearls from the Magic Filing Cabinet:

• Three Metafictional Proposals- by Philip José Farmer


• Uncle Sam's Mad Tea Party- by Philip José Farmer


• Down to Earth's Centre- by Philip José Farmer

Cover art by Keith Howell

And Doc Savage aficionados... If you're thinking that the title "Down to Earth's Centre" might be something Doc-related... you're right!

Dedicated Sherlockians, Savageologists, and of course Farmerphiles won't want to miss this issue. Ordering info is here:http://www.pjfarmer.com/farmerphile.htm

We put a lot into this issue, so please check it out!

Best,

Win

www.winscotteckert.com

Dave Stevens, R.I.P.

I usually restrict my blogging to my own writing and podcast news. Today I am making a sad exception.

Dave Stevens, creator of the magnificent comic series, The Rocketeer, has passed away. The Rocketeer, with its unnamed but crystal clear cameos by pulp heroes Doc Savage and The Shadow, was the very first story that got me started thinking in terms of an expanded Wold Newton Universe that had a continuity and character list which went beyond Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Family tree. The Rocketeer was without a doubt the very first entry in what would become the Crossover Chronology, which will see print next year from MonkeyBrain Books. Steven's artwork was absolutely gorgeous, a retro merging of photo-realistic and Golden Age comic-booky that I have rarely seen elsewhere. His good girl art is spectacular, and he almost single-handedly responsible for the pop-cultural resurgence of Bettie Page.

Stevens was a comics hero of mine, probably THE comics hero, although he was never prolific. With The Rocketeer, he taught me there was a lot more to comics, a lot more potential there, than superheroes. He reinvigorated the interest of my adolescent self in the pulps (of course my love for the pulps was originally inspired by Phil Farmer) at a time when I was being distracted by superhero comics.

The closest I came to Stevens was at Comic-Con International 2005, when Savage Chuck Loridans saw him at his booth. At least I got to shake his hand and thank him for his influence.

It's just depressing to see someone go who is so young and talented.

Geekerati - Pulp podcast tomorrow night (Mon., Feb. 11, 2008): "Black Coats and Justice Inc."

Black Coats and Justice Inc.: Black Coat Press and Moonstone Books Keep the Pulp Tradition Alive

"For many young readers, the discovery of the adventures of Doc Savage, John Carter, the Spider, the Shadow, or Richard Benson can lead to a life time love affair with literature of all kinds. Our guest Win Scott Eckert, and host Bill Cunningham, are two individuals who are continuing in the noble tradition of action storytelling. They will be discussing the 'Chronicles' series by Moonstone Books in addition to the Tales of the Shadowmen project of Black Coat Press."

The podcast starts at 7 pm Pacific / 10 pm Eastern time.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Geekerati

Hope you'll give it a listen. If you can't make it, the podcast will be available as an mp3 download after the show, both from the Geekerati website and from iTunes.

Best,

Win

www.winscotteckert.com

Tales of the Shadowmen 4: Lords of Terror

For immediate release:

"Tales of the Shadowmen 4: Lords of Terror has been released by Black Coat Press. It features the talents of contributing sf, mystery, and horror writers Kim Newman, Brian Stableford, John Shirley, John Peel, and Jean-Marc Lofficier, as well as newer genre writers familiar to followers of Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe, such as Matthew Baugh, Jess Nevins, Bill Cunningham, Rick Lai, and Win Scott Eckert.

Join us again for this fourth volume and meet the most villainous cast to ever grace the pages of popular literature, spreading evil from the foggy underworld of London to the seedy taverns of Mars, and from the flowery banks of the Seine to New York's grimy Hell Kitchen...

Fantômas, Countess Cagliostro, Victor Frankenstein, Irma Vep, Count Orlock, Erik, Madame Atomos, the Black Coats, Charles Foster Kane, and even Great Cthulhu himself... Dare meet--the Lords of Terror!"

Ordering info:
Amazon.com
Publisher direct

My story pits Madame Atomos, female Fu Manchu-like mastermind of Japanese descent, against the agents of U.N.C.L.E.

A letter Philip Jose Farmer once wrote to The Baker Street Journal indicates he was a fan of, or at least interested in the show The Man From U.N.C.L.E. We don't know the contents of the BSJ articles Phil was defending in his letter, but it makes sense that he was interested in the show, since several of the original U.N.C.L.E. novels written by the late David McDaniel have strong ties to the Sherlockian canon, and also contain crossovers galore with popular characters such as Fu Manchu, The Saint, The Avengers, Miss Marple, and Sherlock Holmes himself. (See my Wold Newton Universe Crossover Chronology for the complete listings).

I hope you'll check it out.

Win
www.winscotteckert.com

Moonstone Books' THE AVENGER CHRONICLES

Yesterday morning I received word that Moonstone considers my tale, "Death and the Countess," finalized and ready to go for the anthology.

The Avenger Chronicles comes out in March. More details on the three variant edition are at Bill Thom's Coming Attractions site, the destination for info about neo-pulp, pulp reprints, pulp-related comics and films, etc.

Last post I showed off the cover by Peter Caras, the cover artist for the first eight Avenger novel reprints by Warner Books in the early 1970s.

This post, here is the alternate cover by Dave Dorman. (There will be a third cover, for the Limited Edition, by Douglas Kaluba.)

The book is due out in March/April 2008. Hope you'll check it out!

In a flaming crucible was born... The Avenger!

In a move that has left me utterly gobsmacked -- and thrilled beyond belief -- Moonstone Books, which recently licensed the rights to the classic pulp hero, The Avenger, has asked me to contribute a tale to their upcoming prose anthology The Avenger Chronicles.

Here is the preliminary cover art by Peter Caras. Caras, along with George Gross, did the covers for the paperback reprints (and new novels by Ron Goulart) by Warner Books in the 1970s.

Wow.

Based on the guidelines I've received, Moonstone is intent on doing this character right, with tales that honor the spirit of the original characters and stories.

The original pulp novels were written by Paul Ernst and appeared under the traditional Street & Smith byline of "Kenneth Robeson," the same byline used on the Doc Savage novels (although Ernst did not write the Doc Savages). The later 1970s books by Goulart also appeared under the Robeson name.

I don't think that Moonstone is issuing the new stories under the Robeson byline (don't quote me on that, I'm not really sure), but either way, what a blast to be able to say -- in a very small, small way -- I am one of the "Kenneth Robesons!"

The story is due in 30 days, so I'll been running fairly silent for the next few weeks.

New Interview - Heidi's Pick Six

Over at LiveJournal, ambasadora was kind enough to include me in her Heidi's Pick Six interview project. You can check it out here.

LANCE STAR--SKY RANGER - available only for a limited time....

Reposted from my fellow writer Bobby Nash at: http://www.myspace.com/bobbynash:

"LANCE STAR--SKY RANGER PULP ANTHOLOGY - STILL AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME

Wild Cat Books has announced that the Lance Star--Sky Ranger pulp anthology will be out of print effective January 1, 2008. This is your last chance to pick up this amazing collection that Amazon.com reviewers labeled as "a gem of an adventure" and "high-soaring, fast-paced adventure."

Order from Amazon or B&N.com.

The LANCE STAR--SKY RANGER anthology is a collection of stories features pulse-pounding prose by Frank Dirscherl, Bobby Nash, Win Scott Eckert, and Bill Spangler and produced by pulp fiction wordsmith, Ron Fortier. Artwork by Rich Woodall... Stories include: "Attack Of The Bird Man", "Where The Sea Meets The Sky", "Shadows Over Kunlun", and "Talons Of The Red Condors"... plus the special feature article "Pulp Aviation Heroes and the Rise of the Model Aviation Press" by Larry Marshall..."

Wold Newton Universe fans take note...My tale, "Shadows Over Kunlun" has plenty of Wold Newton goodness. Check it out, won't you?

-Win
www.winscotteckert.com

Novel progress

Although I can't provide details, I received what one would term "Good News" -- one might even say Excellent News -- today regarding the novel I'm writing.

Wish I didn't have to be so cryptic, but when the stars are right, I'll go public.

And in the meantime, I'll just keep on writing.

-Win