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Post by mikelmidnight on Jan 2, 2020 12:48:19 GMT -5
In that line, Robert Rodi ( a name from comic fandom) wrote a novel, What They Did to Princess Paragon, about a superstar creator being hired by the elder statesman company, to revive sales on their Wonder Woman-like character. The writer/artist goes for a take that presses the idea that an Amazonian heroine would likely be a lesbian or bi-sexual and the company is desperate enough to let it happen. They even hire a lesbian independent comic editor to shepherd the book and really embrace the idea. The writer/artist is also a closeted homosexual, which informs his take on things. Meanwhile, a repressed comic fan, who works as night security, at a grocery store, hears about this and decides to confront the creator at a big convention. A huge backlash at the convention sends the creator into a collision course with the fan, then the book looks at what happens after they meet. Very well written (Rodi has had several acclaimed novels). He definitely understands the comics industry and fandom, especially of the 1990s, when it was written. I thought this novel was a lot of fun, with snarky but affectionate takes on some of the 90s big name comic creators. Back when I had my Comics Timelines website up I had actually done a timeline for all the comics in the novel, and corresponded briefly with Rodi about it (he was flattered, but unfortunately had no notes to clear up questions I had about some of the vaguer entries.
If we're going to mention Rodi's novel though, surely we ought to give include Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which includes two chapters devoted to the origins of Escapist and Luna Moth.
If you like pulp, try Black Coat Books Tales of the Shadowmen anthologies. They are edited by Jean-Marc and Rand Lofficier, and feature a variety of writers, penning stories about French pulp literary chaarcters, as well as characters from film, television, comics and elsewhere. Michael Moorcock contributed a Seaton Begg story, Kim Newman originated his Angels of Musik there, and Xavier Maumejean has had several brilliant stories, including one with the birth of The Village (from the Prisoner) which features Sherlock Holmes and Nayland Smith; another where Bertie Wooster and Jeeves meet Hercule Poirot and the "little grey cells" are matched against Jeeves' "wonderful brain." An early story has Judex encountering one Kent Allard, while investigating the theft of the Gotham Girasol, a ring possessed by Martha Wayne. There are allusions to the future Bruce Wayne's parentage that Finger and Kane never considered. Irma Vep, of Les Vampires (a silent crime serial) meets up with Fantomas, and several others make appearances. Kim newman is also a great source, with his Anno Dracula novels, which feature characters from vampire lore, literature, film and television. meanwhile, his Diogenes Club books feature a government agency that deals in weird events; kind of the Jon pertwee Doctor Who-meets-The Avengers, with a little Jason King and Sapphire and Steel mixed in. Newman's Angels of Music and Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School appeal to those sensibilities and his Moriarty: Hound of the D'Urbevilles is the anti-matter version of Sherlock Holmes, with Prof Moriarty and Col. Sebastian Moran as consulting criminals. Also, you can't beat Phillip Jose Farmer, who did all kinds of pulp pastiches and modern pulp, including A Feast Unknown, Lord of the Trees, The Mad Goblin, The Greatheart Silver stories, The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, the Peerless Peer (Tarzan meets Sherlock Holmes), Barnstormer of Oz, and some more.
I was a huge fan of the Weird Heroes series and lamented its end, although all the above you mentioned are worthy successors (although sometimes Farmer's stuff irks me). I did enjoy the pulp comedy takes in the first Greatheart Silver story; the others were entertaining but never stood out in my memory as well.
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Post by berkley on Jan 2, 2020 22:31:49 GMT -5
Has anyone read the John Varley edited anthology, Superheroes? I never heard of it until seeing it on the shelves somewhere a year or two ago. Looks like it came out in 1995. Roger Zelazny is the biggest name I recognise but there are a few other well-known people, besides Varley, who contributes a story himself.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 3, 2020 3:41:03 GMT -5
Has anyone read the John Varley edited anthology, Superheroes? I never heard of it until seeing it on the shelves somewhere a year or two ago. Looks like it came out in 1995. Roger Zelazny is the biggest name I recognise but there are a few other well-known people, besides Varley, who contributes a story himself. Not yet. It's been sitting on my shelf for over a year now. Someday...
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Post by mikelmidnight on Jan 3, 2020 12:51:17 GMT -5
I'm not sure. I've read a couple of different superhero prose anthologies and rarely liked them. Mainly because I tend to feel the stories were written to be comic relief (sometimes funny, or sometimes comic BOOK) in the context of a science fiction anthology, so when placed all together I feel like there's something lacking.
Not mentioned somehow, but I assume most folks have read the Wild Cards books.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 3, 2020 13:37:57 GMT -5
Has anyone read the John Varley edited anthology, Superheroes? I never heard of it until seeing it on the shelves somewhere a year or two ago. Looks like it came out in 1995. Roger Zelazny is the biggest name I recognise but there are a few other well-known people, besides Varley, who contributes a story himself. I read it years ago, when it was published; but, never revisited it. I recall only liking a couple of stories and those not that deeply. There were a couple of interesting ideas, like a superheroine whose powers fluctuated with her menstrual cycle; but, on the whole, they were neither great adventures of strong character studies. For that kind of thing the Wild Cards series, edited by George RR Martin, were vastly superior. You had more interesting characters, some imaginative abilities, some play with history and culture, and some good mysteries/adventure. However, I was kind of burnt out when they started having publisher issues, before they restarted things at a new one. I also liked the earlier books better than the later stuff. Superheroics are hard to portray on the page and the best I ever read in that line was Elliot Maggin, with his two Superman novels. He would give you enough description to visualize things and employed strategies for the use of Superman's powers, rather than just punching things. He also made Luthor a complex and interesting character and I don't think anyone has equalled his take.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2020 15:27:48 GMT -5
James Patterson will team with Condé Nast for a new series of book featuring The Shadow. The first book is due to be released in Fall 2021.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 16, 2020 19:32:03 GMT -5
James Patterson will team with Condé Nast for a new series of book featuring The Shadow. The first book is due to be released in Fall 2021. Ugh; not a fan. Lot better ideas out there, including Paul Malmont, author of the Chinatown death Cloud Peril; Glen David Gould, of Carter Beats the Devil Fame, Chris Robeson, Kim Newman... Obviously they want his name, he he doesn't write half to 2/3 of the books with his name on them (his so-called collaborations are him mostly editing other peoples drafts); so, I doubt he would write or probably even plot them. I don't see this having great legs, especially with the state of the book market. I'd love to be proven wrong, from a longevity and quality standpoint; but, I'm not holding my breath.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2020 22:24:08 GMT -5
James Patterson will team with Condé Nast for a new series of book featuring The Shadow. The first book is due to be released in Fall 2021. Ugh; not a fan. Lot better ideas out there, including Paul Malmont, author of the Chinatown death Cloud Peril; Glen David Gould, of Carter Beats the Devil Fame, Chris Robeson, Kim Newman... Obviously they want his name, he he doesn't write half to 2/3 of the books with his name on them (his so-called collaborations are him mostly editing other peoples drafts); so, I doubt he would write or probably even plot them. I don't see this having great legs, especially with the state of the book market. I'd love to be proven wrong, from a longevity and quality standpoint; but, I'm not holding my breath. from the article... Of course, as the article states, their ultimate goal is to tun the books into movies or TV, so they probably want Patterson's name to raise the profile so they can have multiple bidders for the options/broadcast rights. The books just need to raise the profile of the character, not succeed as print products in and of themselves. -M
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2021 18:37:19 GMT -5
The first synopsis of the James Patterson Shadow book reads: And this is possibly the cover (it looks like the usual Patterson fare:
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Post by brutalis on Jan 21, 2021 19:44:19 GMT -5
The first synopsis of the James Patterson Shadow book reads: And this is possibly the cover (it looks like the usual Patterson fare: Really poor cover. I mean The Shadow as a name just screams tanbrown/cream? Aren't shadows dark or black? And another wasted posed photo cover which does nothing to draw you into picking up the book. Does nobody really understand the basics of publishing anymore? Where is the ART dagnabbit rassin frassin mumble grumble
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Post by berkley on Jan 21, 2021 21:46:53 GMT -5
The first synopsis of the James Patterson Shadow book reads: And this is possibly the cover (it looks like the usual Patterson fare: Really poor cover. I mean The Shadow as a name just screams tanbrown/cream? Aren't shadows dark or black? And another wasted posed photo cover which does nothing to draw you into picking up the book. Does nobody really understand the basics of publishing anymore? Where is the ART dagnabbit rassin frassin mumble grumble Also, the trenchcoat and hat look too generic and un-Shadow-like to me. I get more of a late 1940s or 50s vibe from it than 30s, but I suppose that might be nit-picking. I can't quite make out the cars parked in the background to see if they furnish a clue.
When they say it's set "150 years in the future", do they mean 150 years from the original Shadow stories, so the 2080s?
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 21, 2021 22:00:28 GMT -5
Sounds rather like a mix of Chaykin's mini-series and Adam Christopher's Empire State.
See my above statement about Patterson's name being on books he doesn't write. He basically acts as an editor and gets the bigger share of the royalties.
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Post by berkley on Jan 21, 2021 23:06:35 GMT -5
I had to look up his name to see who he was and I still don't feel enlightened so this might be the first I've heard of him. Patterson, I mean.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2021 23:15:44 GMT -5
I dig Patterson's whole mission "to prove that there is no such thing as a person who “doesn’t like to read,” only people who haven’t found the right book" ideas and love his attempts to get stories to as many people as possible.
That being said, I was hoping for a little bit more from the presentation. I'll probably pick it up regardless.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 22, 2021 0:27:13 GMT -5
I had to look up his name to see who he was and I still don't feel enlightened so this might be the first I've heard of him. Patterson, I mean. Patterson write thrillers, the most notable one is Along Came a Spider, which was adapted into the film with Morgan Freeman and Monica Potter. Freeman plays Alex Cross, the hero of the bulk of Patterson's thrillers, credited only to him. Patterson has several other series with co-authors listed and has admitted that they do the key writing. He says he writes the subsequent drafts but it sound more like the edits and re-writes segments, not entire drafts. This is not dissimilar to Tom Clancy's work with others or his series, like Op Center and Power Plays, where work-for-hire authors write the stories, while Clancy edited the line and created the premise. Patterson's non-thriller work is often derivative, including young adult material, like the Maximum ride series, which is pretty much an X-Men rip-off, or the Middle School series, which pretty much apes whatever is popular in YA fiction, from better authors. His thrillers aren't particularly original, but there isn't much that hasn't been done in that genre, anyway. They tend to live or die on the strength of a recurring character, like Clancy's Jack Ryan, Lee Child's Jack Reacher, Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt or Patterson's Alex Cross, much like the pulp heroes of old. Thing is, Patterson deals in modern pulp, not the vintage hero stuff and there are more vastly qualified people out there to deliver something that might actually be good. Patterson's name will draw attention from Publisher's Weekly and bookstore and Amazon buyers; but, it will take more than that to bring the Shadow to a new generation. Patterson is pretty much popcorn reading, which is fine, it has its place as much as your average superhero comic. Some people just want an entertaining story and he delivers that to his fans. His work has little depth and even his thrillers don't stand with the real masters of the field; but, they make for engaging reading and are favorite travel books and the like, which fuels the thriller market. Stephen King is not a fan and they have sniped at each other for some years and others have criticized his writing and the sheer volume that are written with others, who do the heavy lifting. He isn't the first, won't be the last. It's less a scam than Alloy, the book packaging group who owns copyrights on several YA series, where they hire writers to write the books, but pay them far lower shares of the royalties than they would normally get, even in work-for-hire contracts for licensed books. Basically, they exploit young writers, publishing multiples until they find a hit, then churn those out. The authors get a pittance, by comparison. Not unlike some of the exploitation in the comic field, throughout its history. I seriously doubt this will attract a readership , any more than Jeffrey Deaver or Sebastian Falks' James Bond novels brought a Bond literary resurgence. It will sell a higher number with the first title, due to Patterson's name and probably not much more, after the initial 6 weeks. I doubt it will spawn a bestselling series, nor do I think that a film franchise will ensue. I'm sure Conde Nast hopes it will; but, I think they are flogging a dead horse. Hollywood has a short attention span; but, I doubt we will see a pulp hero resurgence. Notice we are no nearer a Doc Savage film, even with Shane Black and Dwayne Johnson attached, any more than when Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached, in the late 80s. If you are curious, I would wait 6 months or so for it to hit the remainder bins and get it on the cheap.
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