Episode 004: The Man of Steel When DC decided its flagship character needed a top-to-bottom reboot for the post-Crisis era, they turned to superstar writer-artist John Byrne. The six-issue origin series The Man of Steel introduced a streamlined, modernized, and … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode 003: Spawn and the Image Revolution In 1992, Todd McFarlane and his fellow Marvel superstar creators jumped ship to found Image, creating a major independent alternative to the comics industry’s “Big Two.” In this episode, we examine how McFarlane’s … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode 002: X-Men #1 While DC was breaking new ground with the Crisis/Dark Knight/Watchmen trifecta, Marvel entered a paradigm shift of its own with the rise of superstar artists like Jim Lee. Under Lee’s creative direction, 1991’s X-Men #1 became … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Great Boos Up and W.S. Punk have a podcast! The Iron Age of Comics is a podcast about comic books. We are taking a critical look at the comics produced between 1985 and 2000, a chunk of time we are … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics Podcast
It’s Spooky Season and time for a scary story, or at least another pulp-horror enterprise set in the same setting (albeit a different time and place) as the other Punk Fiction stories. This one is 5000 words, a but gorier … Continue reading Punk Fiction
I wrote another piece of fiction, a bit of pulp-horror perhaps more appropriate in October than the first one was in March. Its a little longer than I’d hoped it would be when I started it – its a little … Continue reading Punk Fiction
Distinct from “Paperback Punk,” these will be reviews of more modern, even new or about to be published books, but most likely still focusing on genre fiction, fantasy and sci-fi primarily. Ordinary Monsters By J. M. Miro Published by Flatiron … Continue reading Punk Reviews…
The Assassins Novgorod, 1899 “Why are we taking a train to Siberia, Arkady?” asked the big man in the dark suit. Solidly built, with big bones and harsh features, he wore a long black beard shot with gray beneath a … Continue reading Punk Fiction
One of the key components to the success of the Vikings during the Viking Age was the ship. And the greatest innovation of the Viking ship, beyond the shallow draught or the clinker construction, was the sail. Sails first appeared … Continue reading The History Thread is Invaded by Vikings
Hiero’s Journey a novel by Sterling Lanier While Dungeons & Dragons has become a genre unto itself, it was initially informed by a whole host of influences, primarily pulp adventure, weird fiction, sci-fi and fantasy novels. The first edition Dungeon … Continue reading Paperback Punk
Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan The blame can squarely be placed upon George Lucas. Unable to secure the rights to make a Flash Gordon film, instead in 1977 he produced Star Wars which made a huge, lasting impact … Continue reading Paperback Punk
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn Some preliminaries out of the way: romance is not a genre I have a great deal of experience with, outside of romantic comedy films, but I have no prejudice against it. I do … Continue reading Paperback Punk
Lord Tyger by Philip Jose Farmer “Season One” of this column began with a Tarzan novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, so I thought for the return (sporadic as these reviews are likely to be) I would revisit the lord of … Continue reading Paperback Punk
I am not a deep thinker. I am not given to profundity. I am that classic trope, the academically gifted Gen X underachiever. Because I am smart, I tend to grasp concepts quickly, and because I grasp them quickly, I … Continue reading Words and Pictures: The Invisibles
On May 12th, 1215, English barons rose in rebellion against their king, the John made famous by Robin Hood legends and “The Lion in Winter.” Rebellions against English kings happened all the time, but this was the first occurrence involving … Continue reading A History Thread
The Gate of Time by Philip Jose Farmer I am often caught by surprise when I discover the influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs in a piece of genre fiction. I don’t know why that should be. For the generations before … Continue reading Paperback Punk
Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse I grew up in a Celtics house. Not that I was ever a huge basketball fan, but if a game played on the radio or the television, then it was a Celtics … Continue reading Paperback Punk
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner I’ve heard about Alan Garner’s addition to the fantasy canon many times over the years, but this was my first real exposure to the book itself. I had no knowledge of the plot … Continue reading Paperback Punk
Kothar of the Magic Sword by Gardner Fox Gather ‘round, children; an old man is speaking. Back in the early 1980s, there was only one edition of Dungeons & Dragons and we called it Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. There were … Continue reading Paperback Punk
Flash Gordon: The Lion Men of Mongo By Con Steffanson “Flash Gordon” is one of those properties that has always been with me. I saw the Filmation feature length cartoon and watched the corresponding Saturday morning cartoon enough times … Continue reading Paperback Punk
Bulldog Drummond by “Sapper” I must admit to some level of apprehension when I started reading this book. I initially snatched it up together with The Thin Man about six weeks ago, but in the interim someone in the movie … Continue reading Paperback Punk
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