The Red Panda

Has arrived! The mailman just delivered my complimentary copy of THE RED PANDA: THE CRIME CABAL by Decoder Ring front man Gregg Taylor.

Go run and get your copy!

Before it's too late and the Crime Cabal snatches them all up!

Ive Been Posting This Around...

But I thought I would post it here too...

Would there be any interest in an illustrated version of the radio play script, complete with illustrations, photos, my editorial notes and maybe a bonus Knightmare short story?

Say $1.99 for a Kindle / PDF download or $5.99 print ? (I'm estimating pricing here)

Please comment.

Pulp 2.0 Theatre of the Mind

Just a reminder...

The Knightmare: The Murder Legion Strikes at Midnight can be found here:

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Don't forget to join our Facebook Group or check out Decoder Ring Theatre's other radio adventures!

Thanks for your support of New Pulp Media.

The Knightmare: The Murder Legion Strikes at Midnight Pt. 2

Is here.

The Knightmare races to Carol Lane's rescue as the top-secret Nazi shock troops of the Murder Legion strike at the reception at the Griffith Observatory.
Can The Knightmare elude the vengeful Lt. McGrath and escape the attacks of fantastic weapons developed in Hitler's evil laboratories?

Tune in and find out!

Got to our Fans of the Knightmare Facebook page.

Or join the fun at the Audio Drama Talk boards!

The Knightmare: A Hero is His Car

Maybe this is an American thing, or possibly an Angeleno thing, but many of our pulp heroes and heroines have been defined by the vehicle they drive (or pilot):

Batman has the Bat-mobile...
The Shadow has Shrevvy the cab driver chauffeur him around in a Yellow cab...
The Green Hornet has The Black Beauty...
and Wonder Woman has her Invisible Plane.

So, while I paint a pretty good audio picture of our horrific hero's car in part one of The Knightmare: The Murder Legion Strikes at Midnight, it was one sharp-eared listener who goes by the handle "Planish" over at the Audio Drama Talk forums who knew the truth...

The Knightmare's rolling arsenal is real.

From the Corsair wiki (emphasis mine):

Heinz planned to put the Phantom Corsair, which cost approximately $24,000 to produce in 1938 (approximately $300,000 in 2005 dollars) into limited production at an estimated selling price of $12,500. However, Heinz's death, shortly after the car was completed, ended those plans.

The completely unique 1938 Phantom Corsair now resides in the National Automobile Museum (The Harrah Collection) in Reno, Nevada.

The full story of this car, as well as studio pictures, appears in the October 2006 edition of Classic and Sports Car magazine.

I hate to burst their bubble, but that's not the full story...

You can discuss this here or over at the Fans of the Knightmare Facebook board.

Thanks!

To everyone who's sent emails and notes from across the internet about Chapter One of "The Murder Legion Strikes at Midnight."

I am very gratified that everyone has boarded the fun train [TM by Rogers] with us - from Gregg who took a chance, to the actors who gave life to my scribbling, to Scott and Matt who gave our hero a "look."

I look forward to answering some of your questions and dropping a few hints on my plans for the character and for New Pulp Media.

If you haven't heard it yet (and shame on you if you haven't) - go here.

He Knows What You Fear!

Right here.

Thanks go to Gregg and the gang at Decoder Ring.

Enjoy... I have to get back to cropping video for my garage sale....Tomorrow!

New Pulp Media Loves The Knightmare !

I wanted to pass along some of the linkage we've received for our upcoming Knightmare radio serial "The Murder Legion Strikes at Midnight" debuting May 30th on Decoder Ring Theatre.

The first is a bit of two-fisted promotion by our own Scotty Godlewski.

Dave Flora of Ghost Zero fame has tweeted for us: you can reach him here: @dave_flora

and "Pappy" Ron Fortier has linked with us over at Airship 27.

If you link to any Knightmare post or our Facebook Page then please shoot me an email and send me the link.

The picture left is from historic Mack Sennett / Keystone studios in Edendale (Now Echo Park) - a suburb of Los Angeles.

If the original Knightmare serial and radio show had gone forward as Cameron Tyler had planned this would have been where they shot it.

For the whole story, please join our Facebook Group.

And above all: SUPPORT NEW PULP MEDIA!

It's My Blog and I'll Pulp If I Want to...

Yes, thank you all for your kind Birthday wishes to me. I thought I would throw out my will list and other randomness for this year:

- I will get my waistline down 12 inches from my age.
- I will get more people to understand this.
- One year ago today I was in the screening room watching the Leverage pilot. Time flies!
- I will get more people to read these.

2009 is going to be a good one:

- a radioplay is coming out from Decoder Ring Theater featuring something by yours truly.
- I've made some major in-roads to setting up NPM
- I have a movie going into production (once I get the script written)
- and there's a lot of stuff going on that I can't talk about yet, but that will change how we look at pulp and comic media. Just sayin...
- oh and I'm launching the newsletter. (see sidebar to subscribe)

Sunday Coffee Talk with the Bastard

Finished 4 pages of webcomic yesterday and it was one of the most gut-wrenching experiences as I had to keep my editor hat on as I was doing it, figuring out some panels and angles that play into the storytelling.

I will finish up tomorrow and then set it aside for a day or two so I can relax and read it with no preconceived notions - ha!

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I now have to work on some contractual stuff with an artist I am working with for that other thing I can't really talk about yet. Contracts are terrible to go over and work out.

(I'm sorry I'm such a damn tease)

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Already started organizing my calendar for the new year. I am going to be busy. Very busy.

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Saw this movie this morning while in bed. Would have liked to have had my own pulp hottie to share that with, but it was not to be...

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As I understand it, things are going along swimmingly up North regarding The Knightmare.

(who of course, is the subject of my upcoming webcomic)

Diversity Thy Name is Internet

I love getting emails like this from friends around the world using the internet to their advantage when it comes to creating cool entertainments.

From my Knightmare radio-producer, Gregg Taylor of Toronto's Decoder Ring Theater:

Dear Bill,

I know this sort of crossover effort is near and dear to your heart, so I offer you our latest venture... the Black Jack Justice comic at www.addictivecomics.com We're along for the ride on this in many ways... the whole thing is the new Scott Sigler joint (he who turned podcasting audio novels into bestselling actual novels), and it's nifty to be on the ground floor for once instead of outside in the cold, pressed up against the glass and quaking with envy. Mark Hester is the driving force (and also our inker!) and the pencils are being done by this dude from Finland who has a feel for the noir that I can't believe.

Anyway, the first pages are up today... take a peek when you have a chance.

Cheers,

Gregg

Go to Decoder Ring Theatre today to listen to the audio adventures of Black Jack Justice! (or go to the webcomic and read his adventures!)

(K)nightmarish Lessons 2: The Sequel

Got those wonderful, pithy notes back from Gregg and as usual his voice of experience cut through the din and got right to the pulp of the matter:

1. I am a visual writer. That doesn't always work in a frikkin audio adventure!!! Have to rethink my "tried and true."

2. It's not the writing it's the rewriting.

3. I am used to The three tier story: A plot, B plot and C plot that are all intertwined somehow. Will probably have to cut that to an A and B plot format. Yank the story elements out that absolutely need telling and hose off the excess. Shake and towel off.

4. I came in heavy - at 45 pages - but the show is only supposed to be 1/2 hour. I have to up the momentum.

(K)nightmarish Lessons Learned:

So, I just turned in my draft of our Knightmare radio play that I'm doing with Decoder Ring Theatre. Along the way I've learned a few lessons that I feel I should chronicle if not pass along to you, my fellow pulpsters:

(Note: These are some of the lessons that inspired the Pulp Writer's Warm Up seen below)

1. Real life drama (which I won't go into other than to say it was both financial and legal and a pain in the ass) got in the way of my writing. This is a major no-no here at the Mad Pulp Headquarters. It prevented me from moving forward and honoring my commitments in a timely manner. It wasn't professional of me, and it really hurts that I was so paralyzed by it. If this weren't a personal, non-paying gig I would have fired myself.

2. During this time, I learned I have a lot of good friends who stepped up and for that I am grateful. You know who you are as you listened to me whine, and didn't offer me cheese with that.

3. I realized I like owning my characters. I like building things and laying the groundwork for people to build upon what I've started. Gregg is going to have his hands full with the script I've turned in, and I am sure he will hit it out of the park (or slap it into the goal. Whatever it is you Canucks do...) I am so happy I acquired the rights to do The Knightmare and make him my own. I know Cameron Tyler would be proud.

4. This internet thingie is really built on the short burst entertainment model. I am trying to embrace that in my work, realizing that most folks who read (or listen, or watch, or play, or interact with) material online do so in small increments. It makes sense to build on that and not try to shoe-horn longer forms onto the web - not only for attention-span reasons but for bandwidth issues too.

(Yes, I am talking yet again about the serial. Get over it)

5. It's hard writing a radio drama. You find yourself laying a ton of narrative pipe in the dialog (characters asking questions. Exclamations with tags of info on them, vague references) and it doesn't sound right - at all. Thank Dog I am working with Gregg who has a better ear for that than I do because he knows what works and what doesn't. I will have to do more of these things and develop my chops.

6. I also realized/cemented/committed to doing my next project online. Moving forward and building the infrastructure for NewPulp. More on that later.

Heroic Derring-Do ...

Tonight on Geekerati. If you like these guys pictured, then you'll want to tune in and listen to us discuss Old Time Radio and the goings-on over at Decoder Ring Theatre (Featuring the exploits of The Red Panda (pictured) and Black Jack Justice). My friend Gregg Taylor and I will also spill some behind-the-scenes secrets about our upcoming radio mystery-drama, The Knightmare.
So join Christian, Shawna, Eric, Gregg and myself for some pulpy OTR fun.

Edit to add: We had a great time last night. Gregg was a remarkable, very eloquent guest who is obviously very familiar with speaking to groups. Take a listen from the player in my sidebar and you'll hear my amateurish reading of the first page from The Knightmare radio mystery. One interesting sidenote is the fact that Gregg edits his shows on freeware that he found online. 4GM in effect - yo!