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My Favorite Pulp & Pulp-Influenced Movies

200px-Indiana_Jones_in_Raiders_of_the_Lost_ArkThere’s a lot of great pulp-influenced movies out there — here’s a quick rundown of some of my favorites. Check ’em out if you haven’t already!

First up is, of course, Raiders of the Lost Ark. All the Indiana Jones films are great but you gotta start with the first (and best).

Next, we have The Shadow. I know a lot of people don’t care for the Alec Baldwin flick but I thought it was great fun, even if it took some liberties.

The first two Mummy movies are wonderful fun — in fact, The Rook’s wife Evelyn was inspired by the female lead in these films.

Lee Falk’s Phantom came to life in a fun-filed movie starring Billy Zane. Is it perfect? No. But it’s still wonderful — and my young son really enjoyed it.

And finally, The Rocketeer. Based on the Dave Stevens’ comic, this was a fun little film — and features the deliciously lovely Jennifer Connelly.

What are some of your faves?

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My Favorite Pulp & Pulp-Influenced Movies

200px-Indiana_Jones_in_Raiders_of_the_Lost_ArkThere’s a lot of great pulp-influenced movies out there — here’s a quick rundown of some of my favorites. Check ’em out if you haven’t already!

First up is, of course, Raiders of the Lost Ark. All the Indiana Jones films are great but you gotta start with the first (and best).

Next, we have The Shadow. I know a lot of people don’t care for the Alec Baldwin flick but I thought it was great fun, even if it took some liberties.

The first two Mummy movies are wonderful fun — in fact, The Rook’s wife Evelyn was inspired by the female lead in these films.

Lee Falk’s Phantom came to life in a fun-filed movie starring Billy Zane. Is it perfect? No. But it’s still wonderful — and my young son really enjoyed it.

And finally, The Rocketeer. Based on the Dave Stevens’ comic, this was a fun little film — and features the deliciously lovely Jennifer Connelly.

What are some of your faves?

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Saturday Matinee: Flying High With The Rocketeer!

rocketeerEvery Saturday I find a movie or clip that I think will appeal to the fans of this blog. Since most of you enjoy action/adventure, I tend to focus on something that falls into that category. This week we’re looking at a fan-made homage to Dave Stevens’ classic The Rocketeer. This video is so awesome, I’d pay to see a full-length version. For those who don’t remember, The Rocketeer was a comic book creation of superstar Dave Stevens and the character was featured in a live-action Disney flick that, while I found enjoyable, was generally considered a bust at the box office.

But check this out and tell me that The Rocketeer doesn’t deserve a chance to fly again!

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Starting the Week Off Right — With a Rant!

spirit-RocketeerIt’s the start of a whole new week here at Ye Olde Blog and it also happens to be April Fool’s Day. I considered doing some sort of joke post for today but I’ve elected not to — so everything you read today is true, or at least as true as you can get when you’re dealing with a man who makes his career making stuff up!

I’m hoping to finish off my weird west story this week but there’s a lot of stuff going on so I’m not sure I’ll be able to swing it. Next week, though? That’s a definite, I would say.

Sales on The Adventures of Gravedigger look good — it’s at rank 383,742 in print and 100,960 in the Kindle store. Not bad at all!

Once I’m finished with the weird west tale, I might go ahead and start work on Gravedigger Volume 2… we’ll see. Something else might pop up before then that catches my attention.

Currently reading a biography of Oscar Wilde and The Return of Shiwan Khan. Good stuff, in both cases.

It was announced by IDW this weekend that they’ll be publishing a limited series pairing The Rocketeer with The Spirit. I like both characters so I’m immediately intrigued — especially since Paul Smith is doing the art! I’m less enthused by the presence of Mark Waid as writer… not that he’s not a talented author – he is. It’s just that over the years I’ve been increasingly unable to separate his writing from his arrogant, a**hole persona that he uses in interviews and at cons. I wish he took the high road more often and didn’t seem to look for every possible opportunity to slam his perceived enemies. Having said that, I loved his run on The Flash, enjoyed his first Captain America tenure tremendously and think his Daredevil, while not my cup of tea, is light years ahead of anything done with the character in a long,  long time. In other words, I’ll read this and I expect it to be great… and I expect Waid to slam DC Comics and anyone else who’s on his shit list this week whenever he can. I have the same feelings for Chris Roberson, whose chief beef with JMS seems to be that he has to share his royalties with the guy. Personally, I think Chris should look at it as a small price to pay for raising his profile tremendously. Then move on to bigger and better things, instead of wallowing in the mud whenever he gets the opportunity.

The Spirit is one of my favorite characters though it’s hard for anyone to match the post-War brilliance of Will Eisner. I might have to break out some of those old Kitchen Sink reprints I have….