The Spider - Classic Pulp Covers

Feeling the desire to read another one of these!

 

Doc Savage Pulp Covers

 

For some reason this week I've been thinking about Doc Savage and I realized a sad thing. There will never be another film version of the character made. We've aged out of the period in which there were enough creative people behind the scenes with a love of the character willing to push a new film forward. While there have been sporadic revivals with various comic book series and even a series of generally excellent new books called The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage published starting in 2011, I just don't see anyone willing to bankroll a film based on a character that debuted in 1933. Even the possibility of a 100th anniversary celebration wouldn't be enough to get things off the ground, I fear. Our last chance came and went about ten years ago when Shane Black wanted to cast Dwayne Johnson in the role but he just didn't have the clout. (Maybe if he hadn't cut his Predator film down to the bone he would have had the financial success to get the project off the ground but Black is often his own worst editor.)

So now, for all eternity we are saddled with the incredibly flawed and silly 1975 George Pal film as the only cinematic version of the character available. Doc Savage deserved better, but at least the original pulps are regularly reprinted in cheap versions so he won't completely fade away. But his fanbase shrinks smaller with each passing year and that is a shame.

Happy Birthday Tarzan of the Apes!

Today is the anniversary of when "Tarzan of the Apes" by Edgar Rice Burroughs first hit the newsstands in the October 1912 issue of The All-Story pulp magazine! There seems to be some thought among scholars that the true release date might be September 10, 1912 but I'll just celebrate both days and be happy. 

Elric of Melniboné - Cover Gallery

Elric of Melniboné is the tragic, brooding antihero and sorcerer-king created by Michael Moorcock and is recognized as the blueprint for the dark fantasy protagonist. The pale, albino ruler of a decadent, ancient empire, he relies on magic and herbs to survive using the horrifying soul-eating rune blade Stormbringer. The black sword grants Elric immense strength, speed, and magical power in combat, but requires him to constantly feed it the souls of his victims which often leads him to inadvertently murder those he loves. I have read and reread the original six novels and I find my desire rising to revisit them again. I still hope for someone to take a stab at a live action adaptation. 

 

Perry Rhodan Cover Gallery

I really need to get back to this series.

 

Cover Gallery for Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree

 

Philip Jose Farmer's 'Venus on the Half-Shell'

Lately I’ve been reading some older science fiction novels that I’ve had on the ‘to read’ pile for a while. After Arthur C. Clarke’s excellent The City and the Stars I dove into Philip Jose Farmer’s comic novel Venus on the Half-Shell. Written as if it was a novel penned by the fictional Kilgore Trout (who was created by Kurt Vonnegut) it is very funny and becomes more amusing the more you know about the machine-gun speed references Farmer packs the story with. I’ll finish it up in the next couple of days as time permits, but it is so much fun I kind of want to just sit and laugh my way through it right now!

 

I’ve paused reading because one humorous detail in the story keeps popping back into my head and making me giggle. The protagonist Simon Wagstaff (yes, that is a penis joke) has found a one man escape spacecraft and he relates that it was built by Titanic & Icarus Spaceship Company, Inc. He notes that name does not inspire confidence.

 

It’s not the funniest moment so far but my brain keeps circling back to it and making me smile. Sometimes it’s the smaller bits that stick the longest.