{"id":281,"date":"2007-05-11T10:24:51","date_gmt":"2007-05-11T17:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepulp.net\/PulpBlogs\/YellowedPerils_test\/?p=281"},"modified":"2011-07-29T22:56:33","modified_gmt":"2011-07-30T05:56:33","slug":"return-of-the-pulp-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/2007\/05\/11\/return-of-the-pulp-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Return of the pulp hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

In addition to dozens of pulp reprints and replicas<\/a> being published these days, there are a handful of folks out there producing new \u201cpulp\u201d adventures and resurrecting vintage characters. Among those folks is Ron Fortier<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Ron wrote the Green Hornet series for Now Comics in the early \u201990s, Brother Grimm<\/em> from a few years ago and, more recently pulling from the pulps, Captain Hazzard<\/a>, The Spider<\/a>, The Moon Man<\/a>, Ki-Gor<\/a> and Secret Agent X<\/a> revivals. (Oh, and he\u2019s contributed a few reviews<\/a> a few years back to ThePulp.Net\u2019s Pulp Companion<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Captain
Captain Hazzard: Curse of the Red Maggot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So why pick vintage pulp characters to write new stories for, rather than create new characters?<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause people don’t know how to write heroes any more,\u201d Ron says. \u201cI\u2019m sorry to have to say that, but look at the so-called heroes that have emerged from the 1960s onward, with James Bond (a good guy assassin… isn’t that an oxymoron?) and Clint Eastwood (a good guy archetype 10 times crueler than the bad guys he wipes out). Duh?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, we live in the age of the anti-hero (another oxymoron if ever there was one). So going back in time to when one knew who the good guys were, was a no brainer.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of what I was attempting to do was wake up an entire generation unfamiliar with true heroes, by revisiting these grand old pulp characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his first Captain Hazzard<\/a> book, Python Men of the Lost City,<\/em> Ron took Chester Hawks<\/a>\u2019 original pulp story and patched all of the holes, expanded on the characters and plot, and turned a prime example of the pulp era\u2019s worst into a fun read. Ron\u2019s since written two more Captain Hazzard novels and is working on a fourth.<\/p>\n

When I spoke to him at last year\u2019s PulpCon, Ron was working with Ron Hanna<\/strong>\u2019s Wild Cat Books<\/a>. Recently, though, it was announced that Ron Fortier\u2019s Airship 27 Productions<\/a> had signed with Adamant Entertainment<\/a> to publish and distribute his books. But that\u2019s changed, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it seems the publishing game is way more volatile than I could have ever imagined and before we could produce one single book with Adamant, our plans hit a snag and we were forced to call the entire deal off. It truly was no one’s fault, just a truly unfortunate series of events. So now I’m a packager with no one to package for.\u201d<\/p>\n

A packager?<\/p>\n

\u201cA packager is someone who devises the idea for a book, be it anthology or novel, then recruits the writers and artists to do it,\u201d Ron says. \u201cWhen the work comes in, he designs the entire package, cover to cover so that it is ready for the printers. And although we have parted ways with Adamant, (artist Rob Davis<\/strong>) and I hope to continue packaging pulp books in the future, if we can make deals with other publishers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says, \u201cAdamant would have assumed the role of publisher, i.e. taking the books which we put together, then publishing them and offering them to distributors. Without a publisher, we couldn’t proceed with our plans and many of the writers and artists who would have worked on our books have now gone to Wild Cat Books.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of writers and artists, Ron\u2019s been involved in the creation of a virtual bullpen of modern-day fictioneers call the Pulp Factory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne old designer at Wild Cat Books, Anthony Schiavino<\/strong> got the idea for us starting a group of pulp writers and artists informal internet club. So we first created the public Pulp Factory blog where we can promote our various efforts to the public at large.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we established a Yahoo Group… which is private and by invitation only, where we can talk freely amongst ourselves. So far the Pulp Factory\u2019s been a rousing success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though you probably don\u2019t have access to the Pulp Factory\u2019s Yahoo Group, you can keep up with their latest projects on their blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s up next for Ron?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, now with the packaging operation of Airship 27 Production on hold, I’m going to be devoting a little more time to my own writings. I’m working on a fourth Captain Hazzard novel which I hope to have out by the end of the year. Moonstone has also graciously invited me to participate in their forthcoming The Phantom Chronicles<\/em> and The Avenger Chronicles<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd my artist amigo Rob Davis and I are looking at publishing one or two books we had finished assembling when the deal with Adamant terminated. I don’t want to name these books, as getting them done and out is still tentative and would rather keep that private until we are ready to announce (if we can get it done) the official publication of these volumes. So we aren’t completely dead yet. Ha.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever they are, I\u2019m sure they will be of interest to pulp fans. Keep an eye on Ron\u2019s blog<\/a> for the latest.<\/p>\n

\u2013 William<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In addition to dozens of pulp reprints and replicas being published these days, there are a handful of folks out there producing new \u201cpulp\u201d adventures and resurrecting vintage characters. Among those folks is Ron Fortier. Ron wrote the Green Hornet series for Now Comics in the early \u201990s, Brother Grimm from a few years ago […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[4,9,10,11],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-people","category-publications","category-pulps"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2qgXO-4x","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1269,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/1269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}