Friday, February 27, 2009

FIGHT KLUB FRIDAY - Shipping NOW



That's right! Fight Klub is NOW shipping!!! The first batch is being send out signed by the Decipher staff...

Here's some cards from TWO. It is for sale as well.






The cards are here!

The site is open to all!

Now is the time to sign up and join in the fun!



GO TO FIGHT KLUB NOW!!!


To access the site you will be asked who invited you. That person will be your Mentor. When you get to the door that asks "Who Sent You?", think Spike.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Pulp item of the Week - Doc Savage faux Movie Poster

I love the tagline:

PREPARE TO BE SUPERAMALGAMATED


This item is lifted straight from the Coming Attractions pulp related news site. Check it out, they have all kinds of great stuff.


Doc Savage faux movie poster - Now available!

For those of you that weren’t luck enough to attend the
New York Comic Con, NEVER FEAR!

A limited number of the NYCC exclusive faux
Doc Savage movie posters by Bob Larkin are available!

These 11” x 17” prints are hand signed by Bob and are only
$20.00 per copy plus shipping.

Prints will ship flat.
Priority Mail with delivery confirmation is $12.00 per order.
Insurance is $1.75 additional, if desired.
Foreign buys, please e-mail for shipping costs.
100% of all profits from the sale of these prints will go directly to Bob Larkin.

Payment is accepted via Paypal or by mail.

Payments or inquiries should be sent to docsavagefan@yahoo.com

Mail Orders Should Be Sent To:
Terry Allen
16921 Kara Ln
Lake Oswego, OR
97035-4580



Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Tannhäuser Tuesday - Roger the Homunculus


Here is a sneak peek at the Character Card for Roger the Homunculus. I will be adding to Roger in the weeks to come. Here is a look at Roger's figure from the Heroclix BPRD set. In this case he is re-based for HeroScape.




This is the HeroScape card I created. The Tannhäuser version will expand greatly beyond the ideas on this card.





I FEEL U-CHRONIC!!!



© 2009 Peter Miller


My custom additions to Tannhäuser are not created by, distributed, or endorsed by Take on You, Asmodee, or Fantasy Flight. Tannhäuser and all related characters are trademarks of Take on You and © Take on You LTD. Roger the Homunculus is trademark and © Mike Mignola. All Rights Reserved.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

FIGHT KLUB FRIDAY - The Site is Open to All!!!

Great Times!




The cards are here!


The site is open to all!


Now is the time to sign up and join in the fun!




GO TO FIGHT KLUB NOW!!!


To access the site you will be asked who invited you. That person will be your Mentor. When you get to the door that asks "Who Sent You?", think Spike.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Tannhäuser Tuesday - Abe Sapien Cards




Here is the rest of the material for Abe. I will be redoing the Tokens because I noticed that Abe doesn't have a drop shadow...

Hellboy is next. Then who should I do? Roger? Agents? Liz? Young Hellboy?





I FEEL U-CHRONIC!!!



© 2009 Peter Miller


My custom additions to Tannhäuser are not created by, distributed, or endorsed by Take on You, Asmodee, or Fantasy Flight. Tannhäuser and all related characters are trademarks of Take on You and © Take on You LTD. Abe Sapien is trademark and © Mike Mignola. All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Tannhäuser Tuesday - Abe Sapien Tokens


Here is version 1 of Abe Sapien's tokens. Next week should see the full 2-page character sheet.









I FEEL U-CHRONIC!!!



© 2009 Peter Miller


My custom additions to Tannhäuser are not created by, distributed, or endorsed by Take on You, Asmodee, or Fantasy Flight. Tannhäuser and all related characters are trademarks of Take on You and © Take on You LTD. Abe Sapien is trademark and © Mike Mignola. All Rights Reserved.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Pulp of the Week - Capt. Hazzard #1


Captain Hazzard is the pulp hero called America's Ace Adventurer in the first and only issue of Captain Hazzard Magazine published in May 1938. Written by Paul Chadwick but published under the house name Chester Hawks, Capt. Hazzard is notorious as a blatant Doc Savage knockoff. John P. Gunnison has reprinted his sole pulp appearance in issue #72 of High Adventure Magazine. If you act quickly, this and many other issues (including some G-8s) are on sale for 3 or 4 dollars!!! As you will read later, modern pulp writer Ron Fortier has picked up the baton and continued the adventures of Capt. Hazzard.

I recently purchased a back issue copy from Adventure House and read Python Men of Lost City on my recent vacation. My other holiday reading consisted of Doc Savage #2, Green Lama #5, and the great book, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America. I will be adding reviews of those in the coming days. But today is devoted to Captain Hazzard.

Capt. Hazzard steals elements superficially from Doc Savage. He is rich, handsome and has a team of assistants who set out to right wrongs around the globe. However, the similarity ends there. The assistants are just that; they are hired hands rather than brothers in arms. He has not trained every day since birth to follow in his father's footsteps as an adventurer. He is not a perfect blend of intellectual and physical perfection, but that's OK. He is not the Doc clone that some would make you think. His character is quite different.

Capt. Hazzard was blinded when he was a baby. As a boy he learned Braille pushed all his other senses to their limit. Then he turned his mind inward, developing his mental processes. He studied psychology, yoga, hypnotism, shamanistic powers and telepathy. He developed all his senses far beyond those of ordinary men.

Experimental surgery (Wold-Newtonians probably insist that Doc Savage was the surgeon) restored his sight and Hazzard turned to action, adventure, and enhancing his knowledge about the world around him. He is vastly wealthy, the novel says, "...his brilliant researches and inventions in his Long Island laboratory, as well as his startling world adventures, have brought him not only wealth and fame, but recognition from his government."

Hazzard tests the psychic talents of all prospective employees. Many of his closest associates are the ones that scored highest on the test. He believes that the humanity is on the cusp of a new age of telepathy, mind reading, and other psychic powers and that he is the pioneer in the field.

TEAM HAZZARD
Crawley - A newspaper reporter on the Hazzard payroll. Opens telepathic communication with Hazzard. Warns of atomic curtain.

Crandall - Pilot- Gets Catapult Plane ready. He has no first (or is it last?) name and no telepathic abilities are in evidence.

Martin Tracey - Asked to get the Silver Bullet plane ready telepathically. In one section is called Lacey. He has a line or two of character, but not much.

Washington "Wash" MacGowen - Mathematical physicist - tall, bald, 40, steel rimmed glasses. Skilled in the lab. Has telepathic abilities.

Jake Cole has "straw-blonde hair, deadpan face, ungainly hands", a broken nose, gum chewer, and is a wizard with a lasso, "He could shoot like an Apache with rifle or six-gun" and is an expert tracker. Jake has no extra-sensory perception, no knowledge of science or math and "an auto engine was a deep enigma to him." He is a hired gun that has more character than anyone except Hazzard and Mary Parker.

The use of telepathy and ESP is what makes Capt. Hazzard unique. He communicates with his assistants telepathically. He can see through their eyes and give them telepathic orders. It is the use of these mental powers that separates Hazzard from other pulp heroes. It was the most refreshing thing about the novel.

The story opens with the death of a man on the waterfront, killed by a mysterious device that projects a deadly curtain of energy between two antennas. Crawley, a newspaper reporter on Hazzard's payroll, witnesses the event and opens mental communication with Hazzard in time for the hero to see the deadly effect of the atomic field. The dead man was carrying a distress message from the industrialist Mr. Parker who is trapped in Central America by the mysterious Phoenix.

Hazzard races to the the Parker home, fearing for the family's safety and to tell them of Mr. Parker's message. Capt. Hazzard reaches the house and meets the young and attractive Mary Parker. They are attacked and barely escape with their lives. There are more harrowing escapes and then Hazzard, his men, and Miss Parker are taking off in the Silver Bullet, Hazzard's single wing speed plane. They fly to Guatemala where Mary's father is being held prisoner.

The plane is attacked, but they escape by using the L.O., a liquid oxygen powered rocket motor that rises up out of the fuselage of the Silver Bullet. The heroes arrive in the south american jungle and realize that the Phoenix's secret lair is inside a volcano. After a series of traps and escapes, the Phoenix is foiled and his horrifying scheme is put to rest.

I have to say that the writing isn't terribly good. Much of it is terrible. That may be a large part of the failure of the magazine. The story is credited to Chester Hawks, a house name at Magazine Publishers. It was actually written by Paul Chadwick.

Wikipedia says:
"Paul Chadwick was a pulp magazine author who wrote many stories under his own name and various pseudonyms. As was the case with many prolific contributors to the pulps, he wrote in a number of different genres including detective stories, science fiction and westerns. He wrote stories for the magazine Secret Agent X under the "house name" of Brant House, and also wrote the one and only issue of the Doc Savage clone Captain Hazzard (May 1938) under the name of Chester Hawks. Many of Chadwick's detective stories feature the hardboiled character Wade Hammond, who first appeared in Ten Detective Aces magazine in 1934."

The story races from one cliff-hanger to the next, but really isn't that exciting. I was not enthralled or involved in the tale. Other than Capt. Hazzard and Miss Parker, none of the characters have much to offer the reader. They are flat and uninteresting, in one case even changing names back and forth mid-story. The Phoenix has little motivation beyond greed and being insane, but I guess that's enough. Coincidentally, this and Doc Savage #2 "The Land of Terror" that I read the same week both featured volcanos in the stories. In this case the Phoenix is getting power from the volcano.

The basic set-up is fairly good and the telepathic and mental powers make Hazzard interesting. Mary Parker is a good character, full of spunk and has some good moments. Hopefully she continues along with the new adventures. The little hints of romance; a soft touch here, a look there were refreshing as well. Without Miss Parker, the tale would have been very dry indeed. Sadly, I cannot recommend Capt. Hazzard #1. You can find the Adventure House reprint on their site, but it is not worth it. It is currently on sale for $3. They do have many other great pulps, though, so check out their sale.

I give this novel a score of 1 out of 10. It is possibly the worst book I have read, however, the basic premise and set-up has value.



A New Beginning


There is a reason that the original magazine never made it past the first issue. It is bad. However, modern pulp writer Ron Fortier has breathed new life into the character and along with co-writer Martin Powell has written some new tales of the copyright-expired Hazzard. Hopefully their work will realize the potential of this interesting but poorly executed original.

Mr. Fortier started with the first issue and re-wrote it from word one. In a recent email he said, "When I finally decided to realize my dream of becoming a pulp writer, I let it be known I was going to do new Captain Hazzard adventures. Then, before getting started on such, I opted to re-write the horribly written Python Men of the Lost City."


He finished the rewrite and it was published. It did well enough that Fortier was ready to write an original Hazzard novel. Ron said, "So my pal, Martin Powell and me, started work soon after (publication of the rewritten #1) on the first all new Hazzard, Citadel of Fear. We were half-way through that when pulp fan Don O'Malley writes me asking if I have plans of some day tackling the second (pulp original) Hazzard novel?"

Ron Fortier is confused because there was never a second issue of Capt. Hazzard published. But there was one written. Ron explains, "When the editors asked Paul Chadwick to write Captain Hazzard, they told him he would be competition for Doc Savage. Chadwick turned in book #1, Python Men of the Lost City, and then proceeded to write the second adventure. Lo and behold #1 is published, but then immediately canceled. Yet Chadwick has already turned in a second script. The editors were committed to paying for it and there was no way they were not going to get some use out of it. Sooo...they handed it back to Chadwick and told him to go home and turn it into a Secret Agent X story. X being their most popular pulp hero ever. Chadwick goes home, does the dirty deed and turns in a story called, Curse of the Crimson Horde, which appear the following year, 1939, in Secret Agent X."


So following completion of Capt. Hazzard #2 "Citadel of Fear", Ron Fortier rewrites the rewritten Agent X story back to a Capt. Hazzard novel called, "Curse of the Crimson Maggot". That book is published as Capt. Hazzard #3 and just recently Ron has written and published Capt. Hazzard #4, "Cavemen in New York."


You can check out all the Ron Fortier News at Airship 27 or at The Pulp Factory. Amazon has many of Ron's books. The Hazzard books are available at Lulu. Currently only Hazzard #3 and #4 are available, but Ron says that reprints of #1 and #2 are in the works. I look forward to reading them.



© 2009 W. Peter Miller

Friday, February 6, 2009

FIGHT KLUB FRIDAY - Shipping Dates

From the Decipher President:

"At present, we plan to ship product the week of 2/16. I will keep you updated on shipping dates on this forum. Thus far, here’s what I know:

(1) The cards have been printed.
(2) The cards are scheduled to be shipped to our warehouse, and are expected to arrive early next week (week of 2/9).
(3) All of our order processing systems related to this website are new, so we will be testing those systems next week, while we simultaneously pack out product.
(4) Shipping will be USPS first class to U.S. customers and priority mail to international.
(5) We ask that you please allow a full ten (10) days for delivery."

So GREAT news!!! The cards are printed and shipping!!!


The site will open to everyone soon so get ready to join the fun!




That address isn't working quite yet, but soon it will be. To access the site you will be asked who invited you. That person will be your Mentor. When you get to the door that asks "Who Sent You?", think Spike.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Tannhäuser Tuesday - Dero Preview


by littlewars


This month I thought I would share a work in progress; the Dero faction. The Dero are ancient constructs created by the Atlanteans after they retreated to the hollow earth (known as Agartha) a millennium ago.

Though they are mechanical, they possess organic brains encased in a metal frame, and communicate telepathically. Powered by the mysterious Vril energy harnessed from the smoky sun of the inner earth, they pilot the saucers that monitor the outer earth.


Agartha is said to reside in the Earth's core. It is an underworld realm populated by initiates lead by the "Ascended Masters" who are the Spiritual leaders of humanity. It is mentioned in various ancient texts, including the Tibetan Kalachakra Tantra. The Kirgiz people of Russia knew it through oral legends as Janaidar.

Shambhala (also known as Shambalah or Shangri-La) is said to be its colony. According to Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre (1842-1909), it is situated in the Himalayas in Tibet. He wrote about its secret location in his Mission de l'Inde en Europeä published in 1886. Worried he revealed too much he destroyed all but two copies of his book.


In The Smoky God, Willis George Emerson's 1908 biography of the Nowegian sailor Olaf Janson, it explains how Janson sailed through an entrance to the earth's interior at the North Pole where he lived for two years with the Agarthans.

The inhabitants of Agartha or the "Elder Race" as they are known, are said to have reservoirs of ancient knowledge and advanced technology far beyond that of the people who live on the surface of the planet. Millions of years ago, the cataclysm of the Atlantian-Lemurian war drove the Elder Race that populated the surface world, underground.



In 1945 Richard Shaver claimed he had been the guest of what remained of an underground civilization. He contended that the Elder Race, after a time of living on the surface, escaped underground, building huge subterranean complexes in which to live.

Eventually, they decided to seek a new home on a new planet, evacuating the Earth in spaceships, and leaving behind their underground cities populated by artificial beings: the Dero. It was these beings that Shaver claimed to have met.


On July 3rd 1947, an unidentified flying object crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. The wreckage was transferred to the Area 51 where it was studied by the Union scientist Professor Himmelberg.

The Dero faction is composed of 2 Heroes (Pilot and Scout) and 1 Trooper (Drone), with the option to play 1 Hero and 3 Troopers. The pictures on the cards depict Storm, Assault, and Grim Golems from the AT-43 game by Rackham. You only need to choose 3 minis, from a single Therian pack, that differ enough to easily keep track of who's who.
All the equipment tokens and cards are finished. Once the play testing is complete, I will post the finished faction, available here on Savage Tales.




© 2009 littlewars


These custom additions to Tannhäuser are not created by, distributed, or endorsed by Take on You, Asmodee, or Fantasy Flight. Tannhäuser and all related characters are trademarks of Take on You and © Take on You LTD. AT-43 characters are trademark and © Rackham. All Rights Reserved.