Tag Archives: Airship 27

Prose: Captain Action at Airship 27

  By Nick Ahlhelm | July 9, 2012 - 11:30 am |
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Press Release:

CAPTAIN ACTION – PULP HERO!

Airship 27 Productions, one of the premier publishers in the New Pulp movement, and Captain Action Enterprises, licensors of the popular Captain Action toy line, have joined forces to produce the first ever Captain Action pulp novel, “Riddle of the Glowing Men,” by Jim Beard.  The book debuts this Aug. at Pulp Fest in Columbus, Ohio.

“We are tremendously excited to be working with Joe Ahearn and Ed Catto of Captain Action Enterprises,” said Airship 27 Productions’ Managing Editor, Ron Fortier.  “This is the first time we’ve ever put together a title based on a highly popular and successful license.”

Captain Action is based on the action figure created in 1966 by Stan Weston for Ideal Toys. He came equipped with a wardrobe of costumes allowing him to become many different heroes such as Batman, The Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet and many more. In 1967, Captain Action proved so popular that the line was expanded to include a sidekick, Action Boy and a blue skinned alien foe with bug eyes, the nefarious Dr. Evil.  The following year, DC Comics licensed the character from Ideal and published five issues of Captain Action featuring industry luminaries such as Jim Shooter, Wally Wood and Gil Kane.

Since 2005, Captain Action Enterprises, has been producing an array of exciting new collectibles, including statues, toys, comics, trading cards, and apparel.  Still, the one remaining venue the enduring hero had yet to conquer was that of a prose novel.  Enter veteran writer Jim Beard, a life-long fan of the character.  “Jim approached us late last year with this idea for a Captain Action pulp novel,” recalls Catto. “We were immediately intrigued by the possibilities and began seriously exploring the idea.”

It was Beard who then brought Ahearn and Catto to Airship 27 Productions.  “At the time I’d just finished my first book for Airship 27,” Beard elaborates.  “Impressed with their industry leading quality and professionalism, I knew they were the right people to usher Captain Action into the fast-paced world of pulpdom.”

The challenge of doing a licensed property appealed to Fortier and his partner and Art Director, Rob Davis and they signed on.  Their first goal was to assemble the finest art team possible. This was achieved by recruiting the talented cover painter, Nick Runge. Runge’s work on such IDW titles as Angel & Terminator –Salvation has spotlighted him as being one of the finest new artists in the graphic field today.  Davis himself took on the task of doing the nine interior illustrations while also designing the entire package.

“Riddle of the Glowing Men,” is set in the sixties where secret agent, Miles Drake, aka, Captain Action, is attacked at A.C.T.I.O.N. headquarters by several assassins whose green skin glows as if radiated.  In the process of learning the identity of these killers and the reason behind their attack, Captain Action teams with a beautiful female Russian agent and their quest leads them to a hidden civilization under the frozen wasteland of Siberia. “Jim Beard has written a terrific, authentic Captain Action adventure,” applauds Fortier. “It perfectly captures the break-neck speed and thrills of the early pulps only with today’s modern sensibilities. This book is sure to appeal to both Captain Action fans and new pulp enthusiasts alike.”

Joe Ahearn and Ed Catto will be hosting a Captain Action panel at this year’s San Diego Comic Con with further details about other exciting plans for the classic hero.  Artist Nick Runge will also be present at his table in Artist Alley.  Fortier, Davis and Beard will be in attendance at Pulp Fest and will announce the book’s actual publication date.

About Captain Action Enterprises

As Retropreneurs, Captain Action Enterprises, LLC specializes in taking old properties and rejuvenating them for a new generation. Captain Action now appears in an on-going comic book series, lithographs, statues, action figures, T-shirts, model kits and an iPhone app. Additional properties include Lady Action, the Zeroids and Savage Beauty. For additional information, contact ed.catto@bonfireagency.com.

About Airship 27 Productions

Begun in 2004 to produce new novels and anthologies featuring classic, public domain pulp heroes of the 30s and 40s, Airship 27 Productions was one of the major factors behind the pulp renaissance which evolved into the New Pulp Movement.  Today they have over fifty titles in their ever expanding catalog, sell both hard copy and digital versions of their books and will soon be launching audio books of their titles. They can be found atairship27hangar.com.

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.

Super Powered Prose: Mystery Men (& Women) v. 2

  By Nick Ahlhelm | December 29, 2011 - 11:48 am |
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This review originally appearad at New Pulp.

A few months ago, I reviewed Mystery Men (& Women) Volume One and enjoyed it greatly. So it is with some delight that I take a look at its sequel, the rather unsurprisingly titled Mystery Men (&Women) Volume Two.

Just like the previous volume in the series, this book breaks its contents up in to four stories of four original creations by a variety of new pulp writers of various skill levels and popularity.

The book opens with Mark Halegua & Andrew Salmon’s “The Red Badge”. This book has nothing to do with a Stephen Crane novel but instead focuses on a truly mysterious New York vigilante. In a city run rampant with crime and where the police have been bought and sold long ago, the Red Badge uses strange technologies to fight crime his own way. The writers use a multiple viewpoint narrative to present the Red Badge as a true mystery. They give us many suspects for the vigilante, but never answer exactly who the masked avenger actually is. While the crime fighting angle is rather run of the mill, the mystery angle gives the character a bit more to make him interesting in stories to come.

Greg Bastianelli’s “Lair of the Mole People” is a very different yarn. It takes a cop and “Ace Crime Reporter” Jack Minch under the ground in search of the very location from the title. They are on the hunt for a lost reporter, Lavonne Valliere, who disappeared over a week ago in search of the mole people. This leads Minch and his erstwhile ally Mike in to battles with giant monsters, mad killers, and not one but two secret societies under the earth. It’s a rip roaring pulp tale, but I’m not sure it fits the overall structure of the book. The title tells me this is a book filled with “Mystery Men” and Jack Minch fails to meet that criteria in my mind. He’s a classic style pulp lead, but he’s far from a costumed hero or even the pinnacle of human perfection. I can’t help but feel this story was included in the anthology simply because there wasn’t anywhere better to put it.

“Dock Doyle & The Wandering City” by Adam Lance Garcia can best be described as meta-pulp. The narrative takes the form of the real life adventures of a pulp fiction hero and serial star. In real life, Dock is just a former baseball idol that gained fame in a gunfight. He’s stuck dealing with the difference between his on screen action hero persona and his real life. Of course this leads him on a larger than life adventure, only that adventure also proves to be more than it seems. The narrative is far darker and violent than any other Airship 27 fare I’ve read and the protagonist far more ambiguous. It’s still pulp, but more akin to the darker crime pulp than the heroic pulp of many New Pulp authors and publishers. It is definitely the kind of tale that could prove divisive in any conversation about what New Pulp is and where it should go in the future.

Derrick Ferguson is a name synonymous with New Pulp and just as Barry Reese anchored the first volume of Mystery Men, Ferguson anchors this one. His tale “A Man Called Mongrel” moves things to the modern day, but makes his setting the third of the four tales to be set in New York. His story comes straight out of the Doc Savage vein, but with an interesting twist. Mongrel isn’t the everyman adventurer with an empire of technology and genius achievements. That guy is his brother. Mongrel is instead a world-class adventurer willing to put his life on the line at a moment’s notice. He ends up embroiled in a case that involves a cyborg killer and a mysterious doctor, all of which sets up nicely…

…but doesn’t finish. Ferguson closes his tale with a cliffhanger that seems like a letdown after the large exciting build of the rest of the novella. Of all the characters introduced in this book though, it seems clear that Mongrel will definitely be returning.

Overall, Mystery Men (& Women) Volume 2 starts strong and finishes strong, but the middle of the book seems to bog down with heroes that may not be the best fit for the book’s concept. While the book as a whole isn’t as strong as the original, it is still offers exciting pieces of narrative fiction that I highly recommend to anyone that enjoys original pulp characters.

Recommended.

 

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