Captain Hazzard is Back!

Ron Fortier of Airship 27 sent me a message that his book CAPTAIN HAZZARD: Python Men of the Lost City is back in print via Lulu. This second edition sports an amazingly beautiful cover painting by Mark Maddox.

Go here to purchase a copy for yourself.

Pulp (Screen) Writing...

Pulp screenwriting is dependent upon so many things that are beyond the writer's ability to control - the production's talent, organization, vision - that when it comes to delivering a screenplay to your producer you always have to remember to a) make it entertaining, and b) make it bulletproof.

Now the first one is easy if you have talent and storytelling chops -- the craft of it all.

But the latter is where many new screenwriters get hung up. They want to jam pack their story with so many - characters, ideas, FX, locations, you name it - that they paint their script with a target and hold it up for the producer to take shotgun blasts at it.

I've always been an advocate of keeping it simple. One idea taken to its logical extreme rather than 50 ideas all crying out for attention in the "script-nursery." One of the areas where I think writers tend to shortchange themselves is in thinking that way - that they have to generate a ton of ideas in order to make the world they've built within the script "real" enough.

What they are really doing is drawing attention away from what should be the focus of your script - that one idea that is so cool it carries the story on its shoulders through that marathon of 96+ pages. So forget the "mosaic" or "cornucopia of ideas" approach to writing and stick with what works, what makes your story better.

In pulp storytelling - comics, prose or film - the story you are telling doesn't have to be "real." It just has to be real within the context of the story you are telling. That gives you a lot of room to explore that one idea you have that sparked the story in the first place. It gives you a lot of room to stylize and enhance that one idea rather than having to stylize and enhance 50 ideas, some of which are probably working at cross-purposes from one another.

In pulp storytelling - you want clarity and entertainment value. Again, that one idea that is turned on its side and looked at from a new perspective. That one idea that will resonate like the single note held by an opera singer's voice, instead of the crashing din of a thousand singers each singing a different tune. Each trying desperately to be heard above the rest - but to no effect.

But really - don't just listen to me about this. Go read Steven Grant's latest column at Comic Book Resources. He discusses the comics of "Mad Ideas" but really it's all the same thing - pulp.

If you want to amp up the value of your screenwriting - that is, get it sold - then switch up your strategy and start focusing on one idea you can explore instead of twenty ideas you can jam into your script because they are cool.

Because a producer is going to be able to shoot a script that explores one idea really well, and he's going to reject anything else.

Pulp Review: THE IRON DUKE

L. Ron Hubbard wrote a lot of pulp. Tons of it in fact, melding his extraordinary life experiences (travel, military service, writing, exploration, aviation) into a variety of genres and hybrids that are being re-released in print and audio by Galaxy Press, the arm of the Hubbard empire dealing with science fiction publishing.

I recently received another set of books to review for this blog: DANGER IN THE DARK and THE IRON DUKE. DANGER had elements of the supernatural and mysterious to it, and frankly seemed to be an easy fit into the oeuvre of this corner of the blogosphere. Perhaps it was this very reason I decided to take the road less travelled (are you surprised?) and review IRON DUKE first - a romantic, action-adventure set in 1930's "far flung" eastern Europe.

Or maybe it was just the really cool cover.

From the synopsis at Golden Age Stories:

American arms merchant Blacky Lee is wanted by nearly every government in 1930s Europe— especially the Nazis. They want Blacky's head for selling them dud weapons, prompting his rapid (and illegal) escape across the Balkans to the kingdom of Aldoria with his business partner in tow.

Aldoria is well chosen. Years before, Blacky discovered he was the spitting image of the country's Prince Philip, learned the archduke's speaking voice and memorized the royal family tree just in case. When Blacky brazenly impersonates the leader, things go surprisingly well . . . that is, until he finds himself caught in the middle of a Communist plot to rig elections and take over.

Now we've all read this plot before - from THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER to THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK - and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if Hubbard were inspired by these classics. This was after all the pulp era, where you were expected to churn out quantity as well as quality. The thing is IRON DUKE is such a classic charmer of a story that I really don't mind if he did take the story and twist to his purposes. It was well worth it.

In the short space of a few pages, Hubbard gives us a fun, adventuresome character in Blacky Lee and if you are a fan of the sort of hijinx that occur in the OCEAN'S ELEVEN movies or Hitchcock's TO CATCH A THIEF then you're going to feel right at home with your feet curled right next to the fire with this story. Long on wit, short on fat, IRON DUKE is a movie that hasn't happened yet -- but should. I would cast George Clooney in the lead with the Coen Bros. as the directing - producing team. This is a story that plays into all their sensibilities and period piece excellence.

I urge all my readers to pick this one up and give it a try. If I were to find fault with any of it, it would be that the story is too short. A small nit to pick to be sure in a story that features con games, sword fights, train escapes, royal politics, humor and romance.

This is also a great introduction the the 79 other books in the series crossing a wide range of genres and styles...

The Things I Get Sent...

Make me wonder sometimes.... but seriously, Jewish Nazi Porn?????

More here with a couple of links in the discussion about "Stalags."

Pulp Notes:

Sullivan has a post here regarding one of the better examples of tension in television - the BATTLESTAR GALCTICA episode "33." This picks up the mantle from a question posted by The Mystery Man regarding the best thrills and tension from film.

What brought me to this meme is the idea of finding ways to create tension in your (screen)writing. Certainly there are many ways to do so -

Saying one thing and meaning something else entirely (also works for comedy)

The ticking clock

Unexplained narrative information (you have to figure it out)

The objective POV of the camera (which shows peril that the characters don't know about)

Lies/Deception and the threat of discovery

The Near Death experience (The shots from the gun get closer and closer...)

and many others...


I have a little notebook - a Moleskine in fact - that I keep little pulp notes in. I then transfer those titles, notes, snatches of dialogue, roughly formed ideas onto a word document and file it away. if I get stuck with writing something, I go to that document titled "Pulp Notes" and do a word search down through the (now 20 +) pages looking for little tidbits of ideas that will help me write a really tense scene, or fill out a character by giving him a cool flaw, or finding a new location to stage a fight.

Once I use it - I delete it from the document.

Here are some examples of dialogue/etc from Pulp Notes:

"The clock is at 28 minutes 20 seconds to rebound."

"Rebound is imminent."

JETPACK NATION

"Hide it in your ass. [pause] No? Would you prefer I hide it in your ass?!"

His skin cracks and withers like old parchment as the water and fat is drawn out of it. His skin pulls tight across his face yanking his jaw open in a rictus grin as it splits. Veins...

(note the purply color of the prose....)

Enjoy your weekend.

Music Memey-ness

Okay: I saw this on Piers' blog and Jim's joint so I thought I would jump right in even though I haven't been officially tagged.


"What song best exemplifies what it means to be a (pulp) writer?"



But of course with much less eye shadow...

Flash! Ahaaaaa....

Flesk Publications announces the January release of Al Williamson's Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic.

From the press release:

Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic, collects all the major works of the artist featuring the character. At 256 pages, it encompasses Williamson’s three stints of depicting Flash in comic book format: the legendary King Comics stories from the 1960s, the 1980 adaptation of the Universal Flash Gordon motion picture, and the Marvel Comics miniseries of 1994.

In addition to these classics of sequential storytelling, Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon features Williamson’s Flash drawings done for commercial illustration and prints, his assists on the Flash Gordon comic strip, a variety of Flash images contributed to amateur publications, and a selection of largely unpublished images spanning his interest in the character from childhood to the conclusion of his career. With an introduction by Sergio Aragones, text by Mark Schultz, and images reproduced directly from the artist’s original drawings, this long-overdue collection of evocative artwork documents the lifelong impact that Flash Gordon had on Williamson and the particular impact that Williamson had on Flash Gordon.

Hardcover, 256 pages, $44.95
ISBN-10: 193386513X
ISBN-13: 978-1933865133

H/T to Coming Attractions for the info.

Golden Age Goodness...

Everyone knows I love classic pulp fiction, but often they are extremely hard to find or the reprints are of such poor quality that it hardly justifies the purchase price.

Well, the folks at Galaxy Press have taken care of that and gone and created a book club for former pulp author turned founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard. I was skeptical at first, but after glimpsing some of the books at Comic Con, and now having had the chance to read one, I am convinced this is a bargain at twice the price (only $9.95 each).

But not only have they taken Hubbard's stories and re-released them in fine, new editions - they have taken the time to try and recapture the feeling of the pulp magazines for a new audience.

The books feature vibrant covers on durable cardstock, and a delicious cream colored paper stock for the interior printing. The type has all be reset and is clean and easy to read. The pages are slightly offset and not trimmed (like today's paperbacks) so you get that impression of rough-edged paper with flakes of pulp nesting in your lap.

But of course, you're wondering about the stories themselves. I have to be honest and say I didn't care for "The Beast" nor "The Slaver" included in this edition, but I thoroughly enjoyed both "Space Can" and the title story "The Great Secret." Both are what I consider to be "good pulp" - short, entertaining and thought-provoking while not being overbearing. I think Hubbard comes off as pretentious sometimes, but part of that is the "theatricality" of pulp writing in the time period.

But what's amazing is that Galaxy Press has made the commitment to over 80 novels in this format, not only in these beautiful print editions, but in both audiobooks, mp3 downloads and e-texts. They've even gone so far as to load up ipods with all of the stories in the library so you don't have to do any of the downloading. That's a publisher that understands readers - pulp readers to be exact.

So yes, I have to give this book a thumbs up and a thumbs up for the series overall.

Stupendous, Outrageous, Pulp!

Seriously, where in today's mainstream media do you get titles and images like these?

Give me Green Globes of Death, Satan's Scalpel and Killers' Snatch any day!

"A Million Million Books Hatching Shadows..."

Wow... just... wow.

What He Said...

"I write for fanboy moments. I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of. I write to do all the things the viewers want too. So the intensity of the fan response is enormously gratifying. It means I hit a nerve. "

--- Joss Whedon

(Tip o' the hat to Jill Golick)

"Calling Rip Rocket! Emergency... Calling Rip Rocket!"

Oh yes, my little pulpsters - the lines between serials, pulps and real life just intersected.

Now all we need are underwater and Moon bases and I'm set...

Oh, and a raygun.

I need the raygun.

Speaking of Pulp Heroes:

Curt over at The Groovy Age of Horror has been reviewing all the DOC SAVAGE paperback editions from Bantam.

Go over and check them out.

This Might Be Fun...

But I am looking at all this stuff on the web and wondering why all these films (including some I'm dealing with) feel they have to parody pulp and serials and so forth...

Hmmmm... I have to say I think that's a mistake. Comedy is hard (and not pretty).