Author Archives: Nick Ahlhelm

About Nick Ahlhelm

Nicholas Ahlhelm has let his love for superheroes as a concept pretty much overwhelm his good sense. A fan of super-powered prose fiction since he discovered Wild Cards at twelve. Since then, he has expanded his reading and viewing to cover superheroes through every means he can find, whether comics, prose fiction, movies, television, or transmedia sources. In the mean time, he regular maintains three fiction-producing website publications: Metahuman Press, Pulp Empire, and The Dead Walk Again. At the same time, he writes the weekly web comic Arc with artist Jay Rainford-Nash, published every Tuesday. (Other comic works are in various stages of production.) He lives in Eastern Iowa with his wife and two daughters, in an increasingly small house.

Prose: Challenger Storm in The Isle of Blood

  By Nick Ahlhelm | June 28, 2012 - 12:28 pm |
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From New Pulp Fiction:

Airship 27 is probably the best company currently in the new pulp field when it comes to reviving classic pulp heroes. And while they have introduced several new heroes in their two Mystery Men (& Women) anthologies, classic characters have always seemed to be their focus.

Challenger Storm: Isle of Blood is one of several novels that looks to change that. Challenger Storm is something of a Doc Savage sort, a heroic adventurer with a crew of allies and a desire to help those in need. He’s an exceptional man, a talented pilot and an all around Renaissance man.

His first adventure takes him to La Isla de Sangre, the Isle of Blood mentioned in the subtitle. He’s there to rescue a kidnapped young woman from a guerilla force, but he quickly finds he’s in the middle of an all out war. Ultimately, he and his men must take on the murderous Villalobos brother, would be conquerors of the entire island.

Don Gates develops a solid tale for the first adventure of his new hero. Challenger seems like a genuinely interesting character to lead the story. Unfortunately the tale sometimes feels like it gets bogged down with too many viewpoint supporting cast members. While reading, I couldn’t help but yearn for more Challenger in the book that carries his own name!

While this is Gates’s first novel, his artistic collaborator is far from a rookie. The book features a painted cover and interior line drawings by the legendary Michael Kaluta. Kaluta’s fantasy art is almost legendary in the field, but long time pulp fans might remember his classic, and gorgeous, work on both the 70s and 90s incarnations of the Shadow.

To be honest, Kaluta’s art is worth the price of the book alone. But Gates keeps up as best as he can with the superstar artist and delivers a solid adventure yard. While Challenger Storm: Isle of Blood walks little new ground, it is a rip-roaring adventure yarn, well worth a look by any new pulp reader.

The book is now available for $14.99 in print or for a cool $3 as a PDF download from the Airship 27 Hangar.

Thor’s Day 24: Into the Valley of Death!

  By Nick Ahlhelm | June 28, 2012 - 7:30 am |
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Thor's enemy looks like he's ready for the next Grateful Dead reunion.

Thor 360 picks up with the return of the Asgardian warriors back to their home realm. He immediately sets them up to go to war again, this time in the land of the dead to rescue some mortal souls. But before they can depart he, Sif, and Heimdall have a discussion of domestic abuse.

 

I can only think of the many, more entertaining, ways that Idris Elba would handle this.

Thor doesn’t really have a good entrance to Hel, so he instead turns to the goddess Angerboda.

Angerboda doesn't just have a cool name, she looks pretty cool and enjoys have circles drawn around her eye.

Angerboda quickly gets argumentative with Thor about giving him information before turning in to the rock and roll icon seen on the cover. She nearly overcomes Thor, but he uses his hammer to shatter the runes that summon her and send her back to Hel.

Even as that fight occurs the Enchantress (apparently on the side of the angels) has a confrontation with Skurge the Executioner (a former villain that also helped out the Asgardians in their fight with the dark elves).

Balder eventually answers Thor’s summons of him earlier in this issue (and has the adventures described in the Balder the Brave limited series) with a warning for Thor not to enter Hel. He recounts the tale of his own harrowing escape from the pit.

When all is done, not even Balder’s tale can stop Thor from his quest. Alongside Skurge and a small army, he races off to find his path to Hel.

...and has to look bad@$$ doing it.

Wrestling Wednesday: Ladies’ Edition

  By Nick Ahlhelm | June 27, 2012 - 7:30 am |
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Montgomery Gentry continues to cross promote with Impact Wrestling. This time they feature Velvet Sky as the star of their new music video. Read about all the details, then watch the video below!

The WWE may have a new diva. Former SoCal standout Buggy Nova has made appearances recently at WWE events in Florida. Read all about it at the Examiner.

Finally, the fine folks over at Gerweck.net have started a list of the 100 hottest women in pro wrestling. The list is about a fifth of the way through as I write this, but it is already looking like a solid list of current wrestling talent. The biggest crime on the list. This woman is at #94:

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