PULPSPLOITATION
Edited by Nicholas Ahlhem
Metahuman Press
177 pages
Exploit – A notable deed or act. To use to best
advantage. To make use of selfishly or
unethically.
The word exploit didn’t attract any particular attention
until the folks in Hollywood got hold of
it and then we were given the Exploitation film which was usually applied to
any film which was considered to be low budget and attempting to gain financial
and critical success by “exploting” a current trend or a niche genre of a base
desire for lurid subject matter. This
meant these movies needed something to exploit and for most it was either sex
or violence. And we’ve all heard the
term, Sexploitation.
So it is only logical to assume an anthology calling itself
“Pulpsploitation” is going to be saturated with excessive, gratuitous sex and
violence in large quantity. To varying
the degrees, the five writers in this collection have no qualms of dishing out
both whenever necessary to keep their stories moving. Still, the idea of seeing a classic hero like
Airboy having sex is a bit unorthodox to this pulp fan; to say the least. So this review comes with a very emphatic
Adults Only recommendation.
Now the five tales that make up this book spotlight not only
classic pulp heroes but a few popular comic book stars also make an
appearance. Every story is a reimagining
of the character in a new, more modern setting and that is the real fun here.
Ahlelm starts the collection with that vary Airboy
adventure, “Time Enough For Love,” which has Davy Nelson reawakens after having
been a prisoner aboard the Air Tomb for over thirty years. The world of the 1980s is strange and alien
to him to say the least Still he has the aid of the Flying Dutchman’s beautiful
daughter to help get familiar with this brave new world. She explains to him that remnants of an old
Japanese foe are about to launch their own atomic bombs on the US and its up
to Airboy to save the day. But first he
must find his super-plane Birdie and satisfying the lustful longings of his
beautiful ally; which is where the tale gets R rated. Alhelm’s a solid writer and he knows these
golden age characters extremely well and we doubt seriously after reading
through the obligatory “sex scene,” many of you will ever consider Davy Nelson
a “boy” again.
Next up writer Teel James Glenn showcases as yet another
comic hero; the Gunmaster. Although
personally not familiar with this character, we were educated easily enough in
his story, “Praey For The Raven.”
Following the theme of the anthology, the story opens in the past with
Gunmaster Dumas Poe chasing after his nemesis, the Raven. He fails to capture him and many years later,
it falls to his son, Darian Poe, to complete the mission. In reading through this story, we were struck
with how much Gunmaster has in common with another classic pulp/comic hero; the
Green Lama. Both are given backgrounds
involving Far Easter mysticism, they both employ the same phrases and there
exist a connection in their names. All
in the all, the original Gunmaster was very much a Gun Toting Green Lama. Glenn is to be applauded for moving the
series forward by the creation of the original’s son and promises to do much
more with the concept in future volumes.
By far our favorite entry in this collection was Frank Byrns
creation of a brand new Black Bat to follow in the footsteps of the iconic pulp
hero. In the 80s, retired lawyer Tony
Quinn has begun a legal foundation to help the impoverished minorities living
in the poorer sections of New York. One of his lawyers is Jackie Clay, a black
man whose own brother is involved with dealing drugs. When a gang war with a rival faction
threatens to destroy innocent lives in his home community, Clay adopts the
mantle of the Black Bat to bring justice to these modern evil-doers, all under
the watchful eye of old Mr. Quinn. And
set to aid Clay in his future battles are two rather important members of the
Quinn Foundation; Carol O’Leary, the redheaded daughter of Butch O’Leary and Detective
Danny Kirby, the son of former conman, Silk Kirby. Byrns’ new Black Bat and company is
wonderfully realized and we can’t wait to read their further adventures. We also appreciate that he eschewed any kind
of sexual encounters; leaving us to enjoy a more traditional pulp yarn.
The fourth tale is another winner; this one by Australian
writer Steven Gepp. He offers up a
jungle hero named Tabu. Having never
heard of this character, we’ve no idea if he appeared in the pulps or
comics. It would have been nice if Gepp
could have provided us with a little background history along with his
bio. Regardless, Tabu is very much a
cookie-cutter figure who has been transplanted out of Africa and into a
metropolitan US
city where’s he’s become a big-time wrestling personality. That alone was enough to have us enjoying
this action story. The Col War Russians
are after a Star Wars type weapon invented by America and it’s up to Tabu to make
sure it doesn’t fall into their hands.
All in all a very fun romp.
Lastly we have E.A.G.L.E. – Alpha & Omega by Caine Dorr
that reads a great deal like many of the old classic pulp spy thrillers ala
Secret Agent X and the Secret Six.
Commander Shannon is a veteran operative for a super secret outfit
called E.A.G.L.E., which is his personal codename as well, that eliminates
threats to America
that cannot be dealt with by conventional law enforcement agencies; to include
assassinations. We have no idea if this
tale is based on an actual pulp or is the author’s own original creation. Either way, Commander Shannon comes across
like an older version of Mack Bolan and the writing here is crisp, fast paced
and delivers the standard action one would expect from such a genre.
All in all, book one of “Pulpsploitation” is extremely well
realized with five top-notch stories any “adult” pulp readers will find
entertaining. And we would be remiss if
we didn’t give kudos to a gorgeous cover provided by the super talented Nik
Powliko. This is a great package cover
to cover and we’re only to happy to give it major thumbs up. Hopefully a volume two is in the works.
1 comment:
Ron, I've read a couple of Gunmaster comics, and they're actually pretty good masked western tales. Sort of like Marvel's 60s western heroes, only from ACG.
Tabu is a pre-existing character, but I don't know much about him.
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