Doc and Kong are 80... together

HAPPY 80th

KING KONG

DOC SAVAGE

Through the persistence and talents of Will Murray and Joe De Vito we get to celebrate the creation of two enduring legends...

Altus Press says on their blog, "Eighty years ago in February, 1933, the Street & Smith company released the first issue of Doc Savage Magazine, introducing one of the most popular and influential pulp superheroes ever to hit the American scene. Doc Savage was the greatest adventure and scientist of his era, and while his magazine ended in 1949, he influenced the creators of Superman, Batman, Star Trek, The Man from UNCLE and the Marvel Universe—to name only a few.

"While that first issue of Doc Savage was fresh on Depression newsstands, RKO released one of the most important fantasy films of all time. Everyone knows the story of how King Kong was discovered on Skull Island and hauled back to New York in chains, only to perish tragically atop the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Empire State Building.

"As it happened, that was where Doc Savage had his world headquarters. For decades, fans have wondered: Where was Doc the day Kong fell?

"On the eightieth anniversary of these fictional giants, Altus Press is proud to release the first authorized clash between The Man of Bronze and the Eighth Wonder of the World—Doc Savage: Skull Island. Written by Will Murray in collaboration with Joe DeVito, creator of KONG: King of Skull Island, Doc Savage: Skull Island is a new pulp epic."

This is big news to me and I will be picking this book up.

Oscar 2012 - Les Miz and final recap

Les Misérables is the last of the 9 Best Picture Nominees that I screened. While it is not what I would choose for Best Picture out of the field, it has some very good qualities...

What stands out in Les Miz... The performances by Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway were spellbinding. Amanda Seyfried was a revelation. The production was spectacular—beautiful in its lived-in splendor and glorious in the detail of the design and photography. I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but I was surprised by the scale and sheer breathtaking audacity of it all. Well done.

The negatives are particular to me and my likes and dislikes. I don't care for Russell Crowe in general and didn't care for him here, either. His acting was good, but his singing voice is not of the caliber of the rest of the cast.

While I enjoy musicals, I am not a fan of the modern use of the word for shows like Phantom, Miss Saigon, and Les Misérables. To me, musicals have songs and dialog. Opera is all singing. The (what I would call) songs in Les Misérables are good. However... the dialog songs, the ones where a regular musical would just have the people talk, are not. The melodies are weak and not necessary. Just let the characters talk.

So, to recap, other than the dialog songs, and the sometimes dragging pace, I thought the film was outstanding, but not Best Picture.

Here is my personal (and really hard to do with this many really good movies) ranking of the choices for Best Picture:

Argo

Lincoln 

Zero Dark Thirty

Django Unchained

Silver Linings Playbook

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Les Misérables

Life of Pi

Amour

None of these are bad movies, in fact, they are all really good and this is a tough choice this year. All of these movies are very good. It was fun pushing myself to watch all nine nominees this year and something I haven't done in many years...

More Love For Studio Spectre

  

The All Pulp Blog has taken over the New Pulp Print Bestseller list from the overworked Barry Reese and The Studio Spectre is ranked #7!

The list goes up every Monday and covers New Pulp titles published in the last three months.

Here's the list - Visit All Pulp for the full list.

1) Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, Volume 4 by Various (Airship 27)

2) Finn’s Golem by Gregg Taylor (Autogyro)

3) Fight Card: Bluff City Brawler by Heath Lowrance as Jack Tunney (Fight Card)

4) Prohibition by Terrence McCauley, (Airship 27)

5) The Fangslinger and the Preacher by Bret Lee Hart (Western Trail Blazer)


6) The New Adventures of the Griffon by Various (Pro Se Productions)

7) The Studio Spectre by W. Peter Miller (Uchronic Press)

8 ) Sentinels: Metalgod by Van Plexico (White Rocket Books)


9) Three Against the Stars by Joe Bonadonna (Airship 27)

10) Pro Se Presents # 16 by Various (Pro Se Press)

There is a rumor that an eBook list may be next...

Pulp Ark Awards!

The Pulp Ark Award nominations were announced today on the All Pulp blog and I am proud to say that Mike Fyles was nominated for his cover of The Claim!

Congratulations, Mike!

2012 Oscar Nominations PT 3

LIFE OF PI

This adventure story features the journey of a young man who survives a shipwreck and ends up trapped in a lifeboat with a Bengal Tiger. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of the movie that did not take place on the boat. There were many places visited in the story of a young boy nicknamed Pi, whose family owned a small zoo in India. When the family moves, they pack up the whole zoo, load it up on a ship, and head off to Canada.

It is no spoiler to say that that the boy and the tiger end up in a lifeboat and there spend many months adrift at sea and learn to survive together.

The film is quite beautiful and much visually richer than one might imagine given such a confining sounding premise. However, in the final analysis, I found the film good, but not great.

AMOUR

This official Austrian entry which is also a nominee for Best foreign language film also got nominated in a number of other categories including Best Picture. The story follows an elderly couple as the wife slides into the decline of old age and her husband struggles to care for her. The film is wonderfully acted and starkly honest in dealing with the issues of aging. However, I found it leaning toward dull.

Just one more Best Picture Nominee to go - Les Misérables...

2012 Oscar Nominations PT 2

DJANGO UNCHAINED

Quentin Tarantino's tip of the hat to Sergio Leone is fast and nasty. Like most Tarantino films Django is full of strongly drawn characters, goofy cameos, wildly creative dialog, plot twists,  overlong, and thoroughly entertaining. This is why he is brilliant and maddening at the same time. There are several sequences that could have just gone away and many others that could have been shorter.

I have a feeling that Django Unchained uses the 'N' word about 5000 times too many to actually win the Best Picture Oscar. Christoph Waltz certainly should win for his astonishing portrayal of a bounty hunter that hates slavery and takes Django under his wing. However, it is absurd that he is nominated for Actor in a Supporting Role. The only conceivable reason this isn't a lead role is that he is not the title character. Jamie Fox is terrific as well, but Waltz soars. Tarantino is also nominated for the Original Screenplay and may earn that, but I find it equally likely that award will go to Zero Dark Thirty.

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

The damaged people at the center of this Philadelphia-based quirky romantic comedy give this film a depth and humanity usually missing from mainstream romcoms. Bradley Cooper stars (and also Executive Produces) as the just sprung from psych ward Pat who snapped upon finding his wife in the shower with another man. He is sent home to live in his parents (Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver) attic and to learn to adjust to his new life. Pat desperately loves his estranged wife and yearns to have her back.

The new girl, wonderfully played by Jennifer Lawrence, is a bundle of mess herself having lost her husband. Together they meet and push each other's buttons and settle into a messy friendship. The supporting cast is interesting and I was never sure if or how the story would ever get to a happy ending. The film is one of the best romantic comedies I have seen in a long time and worthy of the Best Picture nomination.

One thing that is very cliche in Hollywood films is the age difference between the two main characters. Cooper is 15 years older than Lawrence. She is just 22 now, so was 20 or 21 when the movie was made. That difference is how Hollywood operates, cycling through an endless series of 20-something leading women. Few last long before being replaced with younger stars.

That said, Lawrence plays the role with strength and charm. She fully earned the Golden Globe she won and should have as long a career as one can have in Hollywood.

De Niro and Jacki Weaver were great as Pat's harried parents annoyed at their son for his circumstances for returning to their home (yet lovingly concerned), and Chris Tucker is better than I have ever seen him (usually annoys me with the manic).


Odds makers will probably rate Silver Linings Playbook a longshot at winning the Best Picture award. I agree. Currently, I would put Lincoln and Argo at the front of the pack - but I still have not seen Life of Pi, Les Miserables, and Armour.

Pulp of the Week - The Inexplicables

Cherie Priest
The Inexplicables
The Clockwork Century Book 5

The zombie filled, blight ridden, great-walled Seattle returns in this 5th book in the Clockwork Century series by Cherie Priest. The story focuses on the young Rector Sherman, a victim of the blight, though he grew up in the region of Seattle outside the walls. That giant wall did not protect him enough, as he grew into an addict of that most addictive byproduct of the blight, its distilled and cooked up form called sap.

I found this tale a delightful return to the city that we first saw in Boneshaker, the first and best of the series, and Priest picks up the characters lives farther down their road of life, but she focuses on the young'uns - Rector, Zeke, and the Chinese boy inventor, Huey. That trio of friends propel the book through several new mysteries that shake up the landscape of the walled city. Where are the rotters (the zombies) going? Who are the strange newcomers and what are they doing to the wall? What is the Inexplicable?

The answers to those questions power this highly enjoyable novel that begins taking the walled city into a new era, and provide hope for the future.

The amazing cover painting of The Inexplicables is by Cliff Nielsen and I was thrilled to find that it is an illustration of a scene in the book as opposed to a thematic piece. When Rector and his pals reach this point, I flipped the book to the cover and marveled at the view.

Now for the rating... In terms of this series (which I like quite a bit) I would rank The Inexplicables as third favorite of the series, right in the middle, though only by the smallest fraction above Clementine. I would rank the books in this order [the bracketed number is the series number] from best to least best (I won't say worse, because these books are all good.)

Boneshaker [1]
Ganymede [4]
Inexplicables [5]
Clementine [3]
Dreadnought [2]

With all that said, I give The Inexplicables an 8.75...