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Author: William Patrick Maynard

Husband and Father. Authorized by Sax Rohmer's Literary Estate to continue the Fu Manchu thrillers. THE TERROR OF FU MANCHU was published by Black Coat Press in April 2009. THE DESTINY OF FU MANCHU followed in 2012. Contributed short stories to numerous anthologies including GASLIGHT GROTESQUE (EDGE Publishing, 2009), TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN: GRAND GUIGNOL (Black Coat Press, 2009), THE RUBY FILES (Airship 27, 2012), FURTHER ENCOUNTERS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Titan Books, 2014), THE MX BOOK OF NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES (MX Books, 2015), TOWERS OF METROPOLIS (Airship 27, 2016), and THE MX BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES CHRISTMAS ADVENTURES (MX Books, 2016).
Blogging Dan Barry’s Flash Gordon, Part Two

Blogging Dan Barry’s Flash Gordon, Part Two

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2520373-ama1ggpb1542“The Butterfly Men” was artist Dan Barry and writer Harvey Kurtzman’s follow-up to “The City of Ice” and was published by King Features Syndicate from June 16 to August 9, 1952. The storyline is simple sci-fi hokum, but of a type not previously seen in the series. Flash and Queen Marla materialize on the planet Tanium in the Alpha Centauri system. Of course, it is sheer luck that has brought them to the same planet that Dale and the crew of the X-3 have journeyed to in their quest for the missing Dr. Carson. It is also sheer coincidence that Flash and Marla are met by Ray Carson, the doctor’s young son who broke away from the crew of the X-3 in his eagerness to search for his father. The trio reaches the X-3 only to discover the ship deserted with disturbing telltale signs of a struggle, including Dale’s torn, bloodstained clothing.

Weakened by their hunger and thirst, they scour the barren landscape where they encounter a giant insect. Marla shoots the creature with a heat ray, although Flash is convinced it is harmless. The wounded creature limps off and spins a cocoon around its injured body. The visitors then see the strange sight of giant butterflies with the bodies of men descending upon them from the air. The butterfly men are the dominant life form of Tanium and are the adult form of the strange giant insects following their natural metamorphosis.

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Blogging Dan Barry’s Flash Gordon, Part One

Blogging Dan Barry’s Flash Gordon, Part One

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1157a$(KGrHqF,!qsFCyOZfKsuBQ8Ij2JJjw~~60_35While Mac Raboy kept alive the Flash Gordon Sunday strip from 1948 until his death in 1967, Dan Barry emerged on the scene to take the reins of a revived daily strip in November 1951. Barry became the longest running artist ever associated with the character and eventually took over the Sunday strip after Mac Raboy’s untimely demise. He illustrated the strip for nearly forty years before stepping down in 1990.

Interestingly, Barry’s revival of the daily strip marked a radical departure from past continuity and would be seen as a reboot of the property in modern parlance. The strip established Flash Gordon and his girlfriend Dale Arden as seasoned space explorers who have visited Mars on more than one occasion and are currently leading an expedition to Jupiter. This marks Earth’s third Jupiter mission (the first two having ended in disaster). As an amusing aside, the strip places the site of the U.S. space program in Ohio.

“Space Prison” was serialized by King Features Syndicate from November 19, 1951 to February 16, 1952. The story kicks off with the X-3 mission running into immediate problems when one of the booster rockets fails. The ship is forced to make an emergency landing on a space station that also serves as a space prison.

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Blogging Mac Raboy’s Flash Gordon, Part Two – “Yeti”

Blogging Mac Raboy’s Flash Gordon, Part Two – “Yeti”

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Flash Gordon 1Flash Gordon 2Mac Raboy succeeded Austin Briggs in illustrating the Flash Gordon Sunday strip from 1948 until his death in 1967. As an artist, Raboy was heavily influenced by the strip’s creator, Alex Raymond, and did a fine job of continuing the series. Dark Horse reprinted the entire Mac Raboy run in four oversized monochrome trade paperbacks a few years ago. Titan Books will reprint the series in full color as part of their ongoing hardcover reprints of the entire run of the series. At present, I have only two Mac Raboy stories (one early and one late-period) as a sample of his two decade run on the strip.

“Yeti” was serialized by King Features Syndicate from July 21 to November 17, 1963. Raboy’s artwork was not as strong by this point as it had been earlier, but having succeeded Don Moore in writing his own scripts, it is clear that Raboy was taking a cue from Dan Barry’s concurrent daily strip in moving the series away from Alex Raymond’s original template.

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Blogging Mac Raboy’s Flash Gordon, Part One – “Polaria”

Blogging Mac Raboy’s Flash Gordon, Part One – “Polaria”

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Flash Gordon 4Flash Gordon 3Mac Raboy succeeded Austin Briggs in illustrating the Flash Gordon Sunday strip from 1948 until his death in 1967. As an artist, Raboy was heavily influenced by the strip’s creator, Alex Raymond, and did a fine job of continuing the series. Dark Horse reprinted the entire Mac Raboy run in four oversized monochrome trade paperbacks a few years ago. Titan Books will reprint the series in full color as part of their ongoing hardcover reprints of the entire run of the series. At present, I have only two Mac Raboy stories (one early and one late-period) as a sample of his two decade run on the strip.

“Polaria” was serialized by King Features Syndicate from September 18, 1949 to January 1, 1950. Raboy’s artwork never approached the grandeur of Alex Raymond’s vistas (to be fair, he wasn’t allotted the space), but the realism of his characters (particularly their windswept hair) exceeded the originals. Don Moore’s scripts remained unchanged fifteen years after the fact, as the storyline concerned yet another regional monarch’s desire to become Emperor of Mongo and follow in the footsteps of both Ming the Merciless and Kang the Cruel.

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The Unexpected Delights of Renner and Quist

The Unexpected Delights of Renner and Quist

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skatesSkate coverThis review wasn’t supposed to happen. I’m up in the Albian wastes in Alberta for my day job and the review that was scheduled to run this week fell through. John O’Neill came to my rescue with a short ebook just published by Samhain Publishing. The book is called The Skates and it is part of the series of Renner and Quist adventures written by Mark Rigney.

I’ll be honest up front in stating I had not heard of the publisher, author, or series before this time, although I’ve since realized Mr. Rigney is a fellow Black Gate blogger with several short stories to his credit already published by the online magazine. My main relief was that John allowed me to get a review done without missing a week and the ebook was short enough to read through in barely an hour.

Then I read the damn thing and my perception changed instantly.

I curse simply because I envy Rigney for his talents. This wasn’t a fun, enjoyable read so much as it was a story I instantly loved. I’m sure the folks at Samhain Publishing are nice people, but why hasn’t Rigney’s fiction been noticed by editors at major publishing houses? Yes, it is that good. I’m fairly familiar with the New Pulp world and Rigney can write circles around most of us as he seamlessly blurs the lines between genres and switches voice from one first person narrator to the other.

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The Next Generation comes to New Pulp

The Next Generation comes to New Pulp

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nate-the-greatBarryCoverAttending Windy City Pulp and Paper Con in Chicago reinforced the fact that the burgeoning New Pulp world is quickly becoming as diverse as the classic originals. While most people tend to stereotype pulp as falling between sword & sorcery, hardboiled detective fiction, and costumed avengers, it was really far more broad in its appeal, encompassing everything from sci-fi to swashbucklers to boxing tales to romance to humor. A few months ago, I spotlighted Pro Se Presents for doing an excellent job of bringing diversity back to contemporary pulp fiction. This week’s article looks at two new titles from New Pulp publishers and creators that push the boundaries in unexpected directions.

First off is the new title from Airship 27 from the team of Richard Kellogg and Gary Kato. It is no surprise to see Airship 27 continuing the tradition of giving readers new Sherlock Holmes titles to enjoy. What is surprising is that Kellogg and Kato’s book, Barry Baskerville Solves a Case, is aimed squarely at children.

The title is equal parts Encyclopedia Brown, Nate the Great, and Sherlock Holmes. While my own kids are too big to enjoy this, I can’t wait to read this title to my grandkids one day. Barry Baskerville is an absolute hoot for Holmes fans. Each page is dripping with wonderful references to the canon that parents will love (a bit like finding Easter eggs on a DVD). Best of all the many references never detract from the story to spoil the fun for kids who will want to be just like Barry.

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Set Sail on the Waters of Darkness

Set Sail on the Waters of Darkness

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waters darknessfrazetta pirate-smallWaters of Darkness is the new novel from David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna, published by Damnation Books. Longtime readers of my column will recognize Bonadonna as the author of the well-received sword & sorcery title, Mad Shadows and the recent space fantasy, Three Against the Stars. David C. Smith will be familiar to Robert E. Howard fans for his series of Red Sonja novels in the 1980s.

The shade of Robert E. Howard lingers over every page of Waters of Darkness, the first collaboration by these two talented authors to see print.

The principal characters, Crimson Kate O’Toole and Bloody Red Buchanan, would have fit in nicely had this 17th Century swashbuckler first seen print in the pages of Weird Tales in the 1930s. A quest for fabled treasure sets these two buccaneers sailing for the Isle of Shadow in the far distant Eastern Seas.

They find themselves combating an evil priest of Dagon and the sorcerer in his thrall along the way and most of the crew of the Raven pays the cost for their having crossed paths.

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The Resurrection of Dr. Phibes

The Resurrection of Dr. Phibes

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vulnavias secretLSOH PhibesLongtime readers will be well aware of my love for Dr. Phibes, the cult classic character played by Vincent Price in two campy AIP productions forty years ago. “Phibes is special,” is how my old friend, Chris Winland summarized the property a couple decades ago and his understatement couldn’t be more accurate. Equal parts horror, comedy, thriller, and romance, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Part of what made Phibes special is there were only two films, despite several attempts over the years to get a third film as well as a TV series off the ground. A few years ago, the character’s co-creator, William Goldstein, acquired the literary rights to his property from MGM, who control the AIP catalog. At the time, Goldstein had to contend with unlicensed comic book appearances and an attempt by his former writing partner to revive the series with a new film. Having settled legal matters, Goldstein set about reviving the book series.

Forty years ago, Goldstein not only novelized the screenplay he co-authored for the original film, but he also novelized the sequel he helped develop. The movie tie-in novels are a very different beast from the films. Devoid of the eye-popping art deco sets and costumes, the campy scores and the scene-stealing performances by the likes of Vincent Price, Joseph Cotton, Robert Quarry, and Terry-Thomas; the books read like old-fashioned pulp thrillers with an exceptionally keen eye for historical detail.

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HAMMETT UNDONE

HAMMETT UNDONE

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HammettUnwritten1-e1352575372778Sharks-Never-Sleep-A-Novel-Featuring-the-Black-Mask-Boys-Nolan-William-F-9780312193317No writer enjoys receiving a bad review of their work. Sometimes the reviewer pinpoints a genuine weakness and the writer benefits from constructive criticism. Many times, the writer is left feeling the reviewer was influenced by petty jealousy or an unspecified bias or was just fond of exercising the power of the pen to tear others down and amuse their own regular readers. I don’t enjoy receiving bad reviews and I can’t say I enjoy writing them either. If I take the time to read a book, I want to walk away having felt it was time well-spent.

I am not a fan of Hammett Unwritten by Gordon McAlpine writing as Owen Fitzstephen. McAlpine is a good writer. I do not have much in the way of constructive criticism to offer. I disliked his book because I am biased. I considered dropping the review entirely. After all, why make an enemy of the author or his friends? Nothing is worse than typing the title of your book in a search engine only to find some hack tearing you to shreds for no good reason. It was the recognition of my bias against the book that I felt justified sharing why it rubbed me the wrong way.

I revere the work of Dashiell Hammett. Beyond the books and short stories, I’ve read every Hammett biography and critical analysis I could find. I’ve read his published letters. I’ve read works of fiction involving Hammett as the principal character. Some, such as Joe Gores’s Hammett and Ace Atkins’s Devil’s Garden, were brilliant works that rang true in their portrayal of Hammett the man and their evocation of Hammett’s writing style. Others, such as William F. Nolan’s Black Mask Boys series and McAlpine’s Hammett Unwritten, left a bad taste solely because I wanted to love the books, but walked away disappointed.

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P.G. Sturges Delivers His Best Yet

P.G. Sturges Delivers His Best Yet

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angelgatetribulationspbkAngel’s Gate is the third entry in P. G. Sturges’s award-winning Shortcut Man hardboiled mystery series. The book sat on my night stand untouched for a week or so as I couldn’t shake the suspicion that it would mark the descent into formula that befalls most series. It would still be amusing and Sturges’s prose would still be engaging, but it would be the inevitable come down after the joy and freshness of the first two titles.

Early on in the book, there is a sequence where Dick Henry, the Shortcut Man, is hired by a client to find her sister who came out to Hollywood seeking fame and fortune ten years before and has since fallen off the map. It’s a familiar scene that immediately recalls Raymond Chandler’s The Little Sister, likewise a hardboiled mystery about Hollywood scandal and hypocrisy. That book was Chandler’s fifth and, while still essential reading, it lacks the freshness and vitality of his early Philip Marlowe mysteries.

I was certain I would feel the same way about Angel’s Gate. Happily, I was dead wrong.

The premise this time revolves around a highly successful movie director who disfigures and tortures a starlet during a drug-fueled sex romp and the lengths his handlers are willing to go to protect the director’s reputation and prevent bad publicity coming down upon his current production. Complicating matters is the fact that the starlet is one of a stable of nearly thirty nubile women that the reclusive and highly idiosyncratic movie mogul Howard Hogue has selected as his personal concubines. Hogue doesn’t share his women. Hogue is also the director’s producer. Early on, Sturges establishes the madness of big studio Hollywood as a house of cards just waiting for the Shortcut Man to blow it down.

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