It's Pulptastic here at the Lair lately

We have been in full on Pulp mode here at the Lair. I've been working on Dicey Tales, and  reading A. Merritt's  Seven Footprints to Satan. 

The Minions have been watching the Tailspin DVD collection (Costco has it for $8.99) , and we are all awaiting our Amazon order of the Tales of the Gold Monkey DVD set.  


I also ordered a cool looking book called The Rook.  It isn't The Rook from the old Warren magazines, but it looks interesting just the same. 
Ron Fortier recommended it, so thats good enough for me.

Bittersweet Serenity

Every year I get my DVD collection of Firefly and Serenity and watch the whole saga. Today was that day. And as always it was a bittersweet experience for me. I love everything about this series from the haunting melody of the theme to the "Grrr, Arrgh" at the end. Its safe to say its my favorite TV show of all time. And as much as I enjoy watching it, I also get mad when I think of its too short life. When I think of all the crap that gets renewed season after season- ah there I go again. 


 I suppose all fans feel that way. I'm sure there are "Model Latina" fans out there campaigning for a new season who could care less for Captain Mal and his crew.
I can at least take comfort in the fact that I have the DVD set and the movie to console me (There are fans of the High Chaparral and Thundarr the Barbarian who don't even have that).

Get ready for a "nerdgasm" - War of the Worlds - Goliath DVD

Chris just sent this in to me. check out this trailer!

I checked their Blog- no updates since August (not a good sign) but I'll keep my fingers crossed, cause this looks too damned good.

Buy it, rent it, borrow it- Apocaplypto is a MUST SEE!

I was laid up in bed today and had a chance to see a DVD I picked up over the weekend- Apocalypto.
Apocalypto is a story of adventure set in Central America prior to the European invasion.
This was a film by Mel Gibson-say what you want about the man and his opinions- he is a passionate movie maker, and Apocalypto is a showcase of his passion.

This is a spectacularly beautiful movie, rich in detail and action.

I was mesmerized.

Zero Wolf played by Raoul Trujillo- this character just takes bad ass to a whole new level.

Gaming and DVD's

ZeFRS
The other day here on the blog I was giving a rundown on upcoming projects that I hope to get realized soon. One important project that I forgot to mention was a Dark Ages Sword & Sorcery campaign world for ZeFRS. No name yet - but I'm gathering resources for it. Two main sources of inspiration are the Arak comic series by DC and the AD&D Historical Series (primarily Charlemagne's Paladins and the Vikings).
The world map will be physically the same but in all other ways it will be a grim Sword & Sorcery world.
Historical accuracy will take a backseat (or in some cases, tossed out all together) as Berbers and other North African sea traders begin colonizing the southern half of the Southeastern seaboard of North America and Norsemen will colonize the northern half. The Aztec and Incan empires will exist and neither will be ruled by superstitious priests. Arab and Chinese traders coming to those lands will be met on the beach by warriors with weapons in hand. In Spain the Emirate of Cordoba will be much stronger and their influence will be felt.
My goal will be a world that's somewhat familiar to fans of this period but with a few surprises.




Turok
I Picked up the DVD the other day and watched it with my oldest minion. as an independent direct to video animated movie-Turok son of Stone Kicks ass. This adaptation of the Turok saga is more faithful to the classic Dell comics version than to the more modern tales from Valiant comics or the video games. First off be warned, this is an animated story NOT a cartoon. the violence is graphic and plentiful. the first few minutes might fool you, but believe me this may not be something you want to watch with the little ones. It's a Hero's journey type of tale, with questing, revenge, honor, doubt etc. The animation is solid. it's visually pleasing, and the story delivers exactly what it intends to.
One thing i always hated as a child was when a cool premise for a cartoon series was "dumbed down" by the addition of a cutesy/goofy sidekick ala; Godzooky,or the stupid bird in the Conan series (Thundarr the Barbarian avoided this, which is why it's remained a fan-boy favorite). Well, Turok has none of that. it's a slick lean graphic novel on film. For fans of adventure comics or "Lost World" stories it's a must.

Pulp Thursday

Turok son of stone DVD
The classic Dell comic character who had a brief resurgence at the end of the 20th century is headed to DVD. The trailer looks cool. With all the dinosaurs chomping people in half , it’s probably safe to say this one ain’t for the kiddies.





Dark Kingdom
Image comics came out with the Death Dealer comic a few months ago. Now we have Dark Kingdom set to hit the shelves in April. So far, it looks like Image is gonna do the whole Molly Hatchet catalogue.




Red Nails
There may never be a Red Nails animated DVD, but by the Gods there will be a complete audio version available for download!






Italian pulp
The Acrobatic flea gave me the heads up on this one.
I have no idea what this site is saying, but I had a great time checking it out.
Here is the skinny on it:
La Domenica del Corriere (”Sunday Courier”) was Sunday insert for Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper that ran for 90 years, from 1899 to 1989. For most of that time the section featured a full-page illustration on its cover each week.
These were often dramatic gouache or watercolor illustrations, almost in a pulp-illustration vein, but they presumably illustrated actual news stories (think of all of the notable and dramatic events that occurred during that period of time).
There is a site devoted to them at www.illustrated-history.org/, containing an archive of the illustrations and a bit of the history.
There is a search function on the home page that allows you to search by region (Per luoghi), by artist (Per autore) or event (Ricerca avanzata), with attendant drop-down menus.
It appears that there is a concentration on two artists in particular, Walter Molino (above left) and Achillies Beltrame (above right), whose work is sought after by collectors. Searching for these two may be a good place to start. Once you are on a page with a featured illustration, clicking on that image provides a pop-up with a wonderfully large reproduction of the painting. (I’ve included a full-size crop from a small section of each illustration above.) You can also informally browse from an illustration page to other pages by incrementing or decrementing the database number at the end of the URL in your browser’s address field.
Some of the illustrations are less interesting than others and there is some repetition of subject as they looked for sensational topics to illustrate (lots of train wrecks and other disasters), but some of these images are just wonderful and make the trouble of searching and browsing worth your while.
This is intended to be more of an illustrated history than an appreciation of the artists, but it serves as both. You can take a fascinating stroll through the early to mid 20th Century and view some wonderful pulp-style illustrations in the process.
I also found a blog on a site devoted to the paper, Blog del Club Domenica del Corriere, also in Italian, that features the illustrations, but doesn’t dwell on them exclusively.




Gold Monkey
Now I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up…It’s just a rumor…But, “Tales of the Gold Monkey” could finally be headed for DVD!

And that is your Pulp Thursday Report!

Thoughts turn to gaming

Top Secret / SI –Taking another look
I mentioned the other day that I am scheduled to start gaming, as a player no less!
Chris our prospective GM is an experienced Gamer who has spent time on both sides of the screen. He hasn’t played Top Secret /SI before but in the spirit of trying new things he has agreed to run a Pulp style game using the TS/SI rules set. As I was doing research for several proposed characters I really started to take a close look at the TS/SI rules and a couple of the Sourcebooks that TSR came out with for the game. This may not come as news to you older guys, but man TS/SI is a really sweet system. The character Generation is fast and straight forward (with an optional “point buy” which I’ll be using) the combat is uncomplicated and the rules for Hand to hand combat actually looks fun to try out (since it’s Pulp I’m looking to have My character go “Mano a Mano” as often as I can).
I went online and scored the rest of the TS/SI line that I was missing and found them very affordable on EBay.



Supernatural Chill
Since the writers strike, “She who must be obeyed” and I have been watching a lot of DVD’s. We recently started watching the first season of a TV show called “Supernatural”.
It’s the story of two brothers who come from a family of modern day “Monster Hunters”. Their dad, who was out on a “Hunt”, has gone missing, and now the son’s are following dads trail-trying to locate him and helping folks plagued by supernatural phenomena along the way. Basically they blow into town on dad’s trail and find some weir phenomena of the week (ghosts, demons, monsters, etc.) blow it to hell, and move on to the next town, still looking for dad. It’s a fun show.
Anyway, the gamer in me was already thinking of how to make it into a game, and while almost any set of modern horror rules would work, I personally would like to try this with the Mayfair version of Chill.
We have a secret, loose organization of Monster Hunters, traveling the land like modern-day Paladins, fighting the monster of the week, saving the town, kissing the girl, and then heading off into the sunset. Linear? Yes, but sometimes linear is okay, Especially when you want to just roll some dice and blast the shit out of a monster.

Jack of all Trades (Savage worlds, Unisystem, Bloode Island XPG)
How the hell did I miss this show on TV? Probably because it only lasted two seasons, on a network I never watched, and they only showed it at 2:00AM on Sunday night.
The King of Cult Cinema himself- Bruce Campbell stars as a Colonial era American spy working under cover in a fictitious island nation, thwarting the nefarious plans of Emperor Napoleon’s inept lackey’s. Historically it’s flawed as all hell, but from a gamers angle it’s “Manna from Heaven”. Take your favorite rules light system (Hopefully something that has info and rules for the Pirate/ Colonial period) and have at it! And don’t sweat the details too much; it’s Bruce Campbell fer God sakes!

Who knew Air Elementalists could be so kick ass?

One of my oldest and most beloved AD&D characters was Mister Wu. Mister Wu was a Wu-Jen Fire Elementalist. Back in my RPGA days I played him in all the "Living city" tournaments in Hawaii. I always figured Fire Elementalist was the way to go (with Earth Elementalist a close second). But after watching Avatar: The Last Airbender, playing an Air Elementalist is looking kinda cool.

While I'm not a fan of the Anime style of animation, I have been pleasantly surprised by the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. I caught an episode the other night on Nickelodean and got hooked. since it's now in it's third season I had some catch up to do. I tracked down the first season and have been watching it with the minions. It's a great story, awesome premise, involved characters, yet it's at times goofy like a kids show should be. It's good family fun and gamers will relate to it from the opening credits.
Oh and it features one of Mako's final roles before his death, which is a +5 to the geek coolness factor right there.




Ok I will not make a snap decision on the long awaited Dragonlance movie. But I will say that I'm not liking the mixing of CGI and animation that this one is showing on the trailer. Being a gamer I've gotta wish it the best. fingers crossed.

Friday funny (with a slice of "Hella cool")

One of the guys over at the RPGSite posted a link to this short movie.

Robot Bastard! It's funny, violent, and very, very cool! Two thumbs up from The Evil DM!

Rock climbing

Today I was home having a little MST3K marathon. I t was a double feature Deathstalker and Lost Continent (rock climbing). I remember when I first ran across MST3K back in the 90’s. I swear I had never laughed so hard. I can’t remember my first episode; it might have been “The Painted Hills” or maybe one of the “Master Ninjas”. I have a bunch of episodes on DVD, and every once in a while I get the urge for good old MST fix. “She who must be obeyed” doesn’t get it, but she’s not supposed to I guess. Maybe it’s a “guy thing”.
MST3K is for a select few, like fans of the Three Stooges. The Minions enjoy it; the jokes are risqué rather than out and out dirty (like the constant references to Cesar Romero’s sexual orientation). You really have to be in the same age group as Joel and the other writers to truly appreciate all the “in jokes” and pop culture references.

By the way, did you know the "The Lost Continent" was remade again?
I had no idea. I must find a copy!

Sunday Geekfest

My Geekfest today started with a trip to Wal-Mart where I found three of the five GI Joe adventure team figures. These are the Wal-Mart exclusives that I wrote about a few weeks back- Retro packaging, Kung-Fu grip, fuzzy hair and only $9.99 each!

I also picked up a DVD copy of “The Princess Bride”. I figured the Minions enjoyed ‘Stardust” so much last week they would enjoy this classic as well. I was right.

“She who must be obeyed” and I also shopping for clothes and books- her clothes, my books. We hit one of my favorite used bookstores where I scored a copy of Andre Norton’s Quag Keep.


Quag Keep is not one Norton’s better known novels, unless you’re a gamer, more specifically a gamer who cut his teeth on AD&D in the 70’s-80’s then you should know what I’m talking about. Few have the module, I suspect fewer still have the book, it was an awesome Geek boy find.

I also managed to plug some holes in my S&S book collection. I found #4 in the “Death Dealer” series- Plague of knives, and #3 in the Carson of Venus series- Escape on Venus. These incidentally bring my S&S paperback collection to 70 books.

I’m also working on a concept for a pulp game tentatively titled Mission: Adventure! That takes place in the cold war 60’s as opposed to the typical 1930’s pulp that everyone else is doing. I’m thinking a little “Jonny Quest”, little “Mack Bolan”, A little “Challengers of the Unknown”. I’m still in the early stages of development but I started collecting some research material to steal…er um…get inspiration from. I often do judge a book by it’s cover and this one looked fun. More reading!

Get it while its hot...or not

Well the DVD release of the 300 is coming out Tuesday, but I don’t know about snapping it up so quick. It seems nowadays when you buy a new movie they wait 6 months and then come out with a "Double secret extended version" or a "extra special directors cut version".
It happened to me with the first Lord of the Rings movie and again with the
movie "Kingdom of Heaven" which has like 40 minutes worth of additional scenes, and made the confusing theatrical release crystal clear and wholly enjoyable as a directors cut edition. And although far from a great movie, the directors cut of Daredevil at least filled in some huge gaping plot holes. It seems to have become standard marketing operating procedure to hold back certain key elements of even the lamest films and then and re-release them in subsequent editions in the expectation that DVD nerds like me will buy the new edition just to have the coolest version of the movie. So bottom line- I will be getting 300…eventually, but I waited this long, I might have to wait a bit longer just to be
safe.

Wow Movies Part II

Braveheart-1995
I had watched a ton of war movies up to the point when I sat in the theater watching Braveheart for the first time. But I had never, NEVER seen melee combat that looked so damn realistic. There is one part where Wallace just *CHUNKS* a pick into some guys head. My buddy and I stayed in the theater and watched it again just for the battles.

The Last of the Mohicans-1992
Another movie with some kick butt fight scenes. But as a gamer what “Wowed” me were the characters of Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachgook. From the way they tracked, moved through the wooded hillsides, fought (Hawkeye used a tomahawk in one hand and a hunting knife in the other) these guys were the epitome of what a Ranger in AD&D should be.

Glengarry Glen Ross-1992
Alec Baldwin’s Motivational speech.

Blade Runner-1982 (is it really that old?)
The cityscape shots from the movie Blade Runner make it into my “Wow” book. Unfortunately this moment may be lost to many of you, because unless you are able to see Blade Runner on the big screen you just won’t feel it. The movie does make its way to “art house” movie theaters from time to time. You might get lucky.


Reservoir dogs-1992
Reservoir Dogs is another movie that I applied to gaming. This flick should be required viewing for every gamer that wants to come in your campaign and ruin it by trying to play an evil character. A skill that few gamers can do competently.
All the Evil alignments are represented.
Lawful Evil- Mr. White
Neutral Evil- Mr. Pink
Chaotic Evil- Mr. Blonde
If you allow Mr. Blonde in you campaign, its your own damn fault.


And finally for this round: three great charges.

Gettysburg-1993
Wow moment-The rendition of Lawrence’s…er, uh… Colonel Chamberlain’s defense and subsequent charge on little round top.

The Lighthorsemen-1987
When they charged the wells at Beersheba. Totally kick ass.

Wind & Lion-1975
The climax battle, where the Berbers charge the Sultans “Advisors”.

“The world will never love us. They respect us - they might even grow to fear us. But they will never love us, for we have too much audacity! And, we're a bit blind and reckless at times too.”
Teddy Roosevelt- the Wind & the Lion

More later...

"WOW" movies part I

I’ve watched a lot of movies in my life. I’m not a student of film or a connoisseur of the cinema but I know what I like. There are good films, great films, and films that contain what I call a “wow” moment. A wow moment is when you see something in a film that mesmerizes you, affects you, changes your perspective, or opens you up to a new world of thought. It could also just be something that is so cool it just makes you stop and go "wow".

In no particular order here are a few of my favorite “wow” film moments.

Saving Private Ryan-1998
Two wow moments.
First was the beach landing. Man, what can you say? The terror, chaos, guys dying left and right. You could hear a pin drop in the theater after that scene.
Second, when Cpl Upham is frozen in terror and wont go to PVT Mellish’s aid. I called that little cowardly SOB every name in the book. But somewhere inside me I wondered if I would do the same thing. You want to say “Hell no”. But unless you’ve been in combat you’ll really never know.

Platoon-1986
Another battle. This one was the final battle where the platoon were all in prepared positions waiting for the enemy. When they came, they came from all over, swarming over positions. It was a total adrenaline rush.

Enter the Dragon-1973
Who the hell moves like that? Bruce Lee was amazing! None of my friends or I had ever seen anything like that. He made all the other action stars of the day look slow and plodding. The guy was like water. Can you just imagine if he would have been given the part in the TV Series Kung Fu (which he developed, by the way)? After Enter the Dragon, the action hero bar was set much higher. I wasn’t awed by a martial arts performance in a movie until I saw Steven Seagal snap peoples arms off in “Above the Law” 15 years later.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail-1975
It was British humor- I was 11 years old, and I got it. I credit my intense Three Stooges training regimen (every day after school from 3-3:30pm on channel 40).

The Usual Suspects-1995
It stumped me. Kaiser Soeze you bastard! I’ll get you, if it’s the last thing I ever do!!

The Sixth Sense-1999
This one stumped me too. And if you say it didn’t stump you, you’re a lying sack of shit. This movie stumped everybody.

From Dusk till Dawn-1996
When Salma Hayek took the stage with that big snake, I was floored. That girl was lust personified-that is, until she turned into a snake demon and ripped your throat out.

Planet of the Apes-1968
The Statue of Liberty.

Sahara-1943
When Sgt. Major Tambul and Waco are sitting in the well having a talk about women, this was one of the first times that I remember seeing a movie of that period where a person of color was treated as something more than just a caricature.


The Magnificent Seven-1960
Of course there is always the snooty guy who’s going to pop up and say “Actually, I prefer Kurosawa’s original “The Seven Samurai.”
Yeah? Well bite me, I not talking about plodding, B&W samurai movies with crappy soundtracks.
I’m talking about a fast paced, action packed, full color, western starring a collection of badass dudes the likes of which has never been seen on the screen together before or since. And don’t even get me started on the kick ass musical score.

Ok, by show of hands-How many people know who played the seven Samurai in the “Seven Samurai”? …….ok, now how many people know who was in “The Magnificent Seven”? That’s correct- Yul Brynner, Steve Mc Queen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn,
Napoleon Solo, and those other two guys. Thank you.

Tomorrow, Part II of my "WOW" movies series.

Weekend Matinees at the Lair

A couple of weeks ago I was reading an article on movie memories from the 80’s and I got to thinking that my boys have a serious lack of “the classics” –Kid classics to be more precise, the types of movies that made me “Ooo and Aww” when I was growing up. Here at the Lair we have a healthy and robust DVD library but I noticed a lack of movies like Ghostbusters, E.T., and Star Wars (the real Star Wars- not that Jar Jar Binks, baby Darth Vader crap).
Last Saturday we watched “The Secret of Nimh” this Sunday we have “Raiders of the lost Ark” on tap.
Popcorn, S’mores, and the rare treat of soda round out the experience.
Next week- Star Wars.

Here we go again...

Well it looks like it's on again. after months of nothing, the Red Nails website is back up and running. there are promises of frequent updates and creator blogs and an actual future release. Uh-huh.




I refuse to get excited over this though. Remember those Peanuts comics where Lucy would try to convince Charlie Brown to try and kick the football just one more time? Unfortunately that's how I feel about ever seeing this project completed.

FASERIP Pulp

For the last couple of months I’ve been working on a little labor of love. I’m trying to take one of my favorite systems –The FASERIP system from TSR’s Marvel Superhero game and apply it to one of my favorite gaming genres- 1930’s Pulp adventure. The result is what I call FASERIP Pulp. It’s not a rewrite of the rules, it’s more like a sourcebook with tips and suggestions for taking the FASERIP system into uncharted areas. Please give it a look over and let me know what you think. Any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. Here is the link to the PDF draft.

Best supporting

Sometimes an ok film becomes memorable not for the script or the star but from the performance of a supporting actor. I suppose that why the academy awards acknowledges such efforts. Two great performances that I always bring up when discussing genre films are; Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer in the movie “The Prophecy” and Bruce Spence’s portrayal as “The Mouth of Sauron” in the extended version of the “Lord of the Rings :The Return of the King”.


I’ve seen many cinematic portrayals of the devil, but none as convincing as Viggo’s, he has a seductive, persuasive, yet callous air about him. The Prophecy is about a celestial war amongst the angels that makes its way to earth. Christopher Walken commands the show as the Archangel Gabriel, and it’s a true testament to Viggo’s skill at acting to hold his own against such an intense actor as Walken.



Spence’s Performance lasts a few brief minutes, but it leaves you with a true appreciation of what life in Middle Earth would be like and just who would be running things if Sauron and his boys were in charge.

Pistol Rig

One of my friends in the Nor Cal GI Joe club made this pistol rig for me. It’s inspired by the one worn by Teresa Moreno, a Spanish guerilla leader in the “Sharpe” BBC television series. Since at the moment I don’t have a female action figure that would do it justice It’s being modeled by one of my favorite figures from the “Power Team” line- Pedro.

Sci-Fi sale

Amazon has a pretty decent Science Fiction DVD sale going on. For those of you looking to fill a hole in your library it may be worth a look.