Before the day's
of Spider-Man, The Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The X-Men, The
Avengers, and even Superman, there was a day when heroes appeared in
a thick paperback form known as “pulp” comics. Pulp was actually
the style of paper in which these books were printed on, but somehow
the name seemed to have followed these characters as if it was a
style of hero. For instance, Superman and Spider-Man are known as
“superheroes” while characters such as The Spider and The Shadow
are known as “pulp heroes”. Even though a “pulp hero” is
someone who starred in graphic novel format printed on pulp paper
back in the 20's, 30's, 40's, and 50's, people associate the word
“pulp” as a brand of hero, which is just hilarious.
Anyway.....I'm rambling, my apologies.
Today I wanted
to discuss some pulp heroes who are making a comeback thanks to a
comic book publisher known as Dynamite Entertainment, a company who
has licensed a number of these classic heroes of yesterday and
brought them back out of obscurity for comic book fans of today to
enjoy. Characters such as The Shadow, The Spider, The Green Hornet,
Tarzan, Zorro, Flash Gordon, and more are enjoying success in the
comic book market thanks to Dynamite, who's really put a push on
getting these classic characters in the hands of readers in a day and
age where many have forgotten who they even were. Sure, some other
companies have come along throughout the years and have published
comics based on some of these characters but their readership was so
small that the average comic book reader had no idea that these
characters were even being published. With Dynamite, these characters
have been promoted throughout the comic book industry and many fans
who have never purchased a comic book before are buying these books
because they happen to be fans of these properties thanks to other
media such as radio, television, and the silver screen.
I personally
wanted to bring some awareness to some of these books because I
actually read them and find them to be much more entertaining than
anything Marvel Comics is currently printing, and most of DC and
Image. Books such as The Spider and The Shadow feature a main hero
who isn't all about “Trust, Justice, and the American way”,
they'd just assume shoot you in the face for your crimes on the
public than see you locked away for the rest of your life. It's
almost refreshing to see because that's how I feel when I see on the
news that a little girl was hurt by some sick monster, or that some
whack job killed 10 people because of some silly reason. I'd love to
just pick up a revolver and shoot them in the face rather than see
them alive and well inside of a cell. It's violent, I know, but it's
in our nature to want to see someone who deserved it to suffer.
Instead of actually going out and doing something like that I can
open up a copy of The Spider and watch the hero kill someone because
they took their crime too far, it's nice really. And then you have
books like The Green Hornet which features a more traditional style
superhero within a pulp environment. The book is fun, witty,
entertaining, well written, and drawn beautifully, anyone can pick
this title up and enjoy it's rich story while feeling like their
enjoying a story with a nice mixture of pulp and superhero. Hey,
there I go lumping “pulp” into a category of hero.......well, sue
me.
It isn't like
these books are short on top tier talent either, many huge industry
players have either worked on these books or are currently working on
them as I write this. Guys like Garth Ennis, Kevin Smith, Alex Ross,
novelist David Liss, John Cassaday, Jae Lee, Jonathan Lau, and many
more are working hard to make these books the very best they possibly
can be, so give them a peek and tell me what you think. Look. How
many more of you are going to get duped into spending all kinds of
money on Marvel titles just so you can complete yet another massive
universe spanning event? Seriously, stop it. It's getting downright
silly and embarrassing. Try sinking your teeth into one of these
great titles by Dynamite Entertainment and start actually enjoying
your comics again for a change, after reading some of this top line
stuff you'll end up thanking me.
Trust me.
As always I want to take the time to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and CBR.
Take care,
Manga4life
©2012 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC
