The pulp universe currently being published by Dynamite Entertainment
has been nothing short of fantastic and if you're not reading these
books than from one comic book fan to another, shame on you. Ever
since Dynamite began publishing classic pulp characters starting with
Zorro back in 2008 they've kept a small focus on the medium but now
they've dove in head first with amazing books such as The Spider, The
Shadow, Green Hornet, Flash Gordon, Lord of the Jungle, and a super
crossover event called “Masks”. These books have all thrilled their readers on
many levels and Dynamite is planning on expanding the line with other classic heroes such as The
Black Bat as well as some other possible surprises like Mark
Waid taking on The Green Hornet and some Year One style stories based on
The Shadow. Obviously there is a market for these pulp comics despite the pulp downfall of the 50's and I'm
glad that Dynamite recognizes this and is doing their best to help
revitalize these classic characters for a wider audience than they've
been getting since their popularity demised back before many of this blogs readers were born (maybe even your parents).
This particular blog post is not really meant to be a long and deep
account about Dynamite's foray into the pulp market, I've already
covered that with a previous blog earlier this year, but instead I
wanted to talk about some of the things that Dynamite is trying to do
to keep the momentum for these pulp characters going and why you
should invest in this line of books. First off the biggest and most
important thing is the unification of these characters in Masks, an 8
issue limited-series that features characters such as Green Hornet, The
Shadow, The Spider, Zorro, and The Black Bat meeting up for the first time in
what could be seen as a Justice League style tale. On top of classic pulp characters we will also see characters from Dynamite's Project Superpowers line of books making appearances to help with the grand scale of this event. This title is wonderfully written
by Chris Roberson and the first issue was fully painted by Alex Ross,
if you love these characters and ever wanted to know what it would be
like if they were all working together than this book is an absolute
must buy for you. The first issue was so popular that it cracked the
top 25 in the Diamond top 300 ordered comics for the month of
November taking the 25th slot, that alone tells you that the market for pulp heroes is alive and healthy as long as you advertise your product. If that isn't enough for
you, this book is the launching point for the 1930's pulp hero The
Black Bat, a character that Batman was heavily modeled after. So
much, in fact, that the owners of The Black Bat at the time took
Batman's creators to court due to the similarities between both characters costumes thanks to Batman having his gloves modified to look more like Black
Bat's. The acclaim for this series has been nothing short of amazing,
almost every major comic review website has rated this book over a
9/10 and some have given the title a perfect 10 rating. That and the
fan response has been tremendous with high sales, positive praise, and
high orders for the second issue.
The Spider and The Shadow are two books that have really gained the
mainstream attention for pulp characters in the modern era and have
been insanely successful because of it. The Shadow remains one of
Dynamite's top selling books every month and one of the most popular
independent comics on store shelves while The Spider has garnered
praise for it's deep story and amazing artwork. In order to make
these characters relevant for today's audiences Dynamite has enlisted
in talented writers such as Garth Ennis, Victor Gischler, and David
Liss as well as amazing artists like Colton Worley, Jack Herbert, and
Aaron Campbell to lead the creative process. Some changes have been
made to these classic characters to kind of take them out of the 30's
and into the 2000's with The Spider being given an amazing new
costume to wear and The Shadow being given enhanced powers or
persuasion thanks to a red stone ring that he wears, to some this may
be a drastic change but mostly everyone has been in favor of the
changes and it hasn't hindered the experience one bit. Sure, some fans have noted that some of these changes may have been a bit radical to the long-term fan, but what they fail to see is that Dynamite is presenting these heroes to a whole new generation, many of the fans who read these characters back in the 30's-50's are now either dead or are way to old to get out and buy one of these books and that it's the general comic book fans that will keep these titles alive. If you've ever
been a fan of pulp characters or have ever been curious about these
classic characters than these two ongoing books are sure to excite
you, give them a shot and let me know what you think!
With Mark Waid jumping on board with The Green Hornet in 2013 he'll
be relaunching the series which will star the original Green Hornet,
if you've been reading the current Green Hornet book by Dynamite than you know
that these stories have been based on Britt Reid's son and not on
Britt Reid himself. The Green Hornet we will be getting is the Hornet
that we were presented with in Matt Wagner's amazing Year One tale
that Dynamite published some years back, that's a good thing in this
reader's opinion. We've also seen a couple different series from
Dynamite starring other pulp heroes, books such as Lord of the
Jungle, Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist, The Last Phantom, Zorro, and even
Warlord of Mars have graced store shelves and with DC loosing the
rights to a group of classic pulp characters I could see Dynamite
expanding this line heavily over the next two years. I truly believe
that it is something they should consider doing as having an identity
would be a good thing for the company, right now they just kind of do
a mix-n-match of many different titles spanning many different
mediums and becoming known as the “pulp company” wouldn't be such
a bad thing. I guess time will tell what Dynamite has in store for
it's little “pulp-verse” but I'll tell you this: If Dynamite
decides to expand the line and bring in other classic characters from
the pulp era, I know both myself and many other readers will be more
than happy to pour their hard earned cash into whatever it is they're
selling. Quote me on that.
As always I want to take the time to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated. Also, you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and CBR, feel free to say “hi”.
Take care,
Manga4life
©2012 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC
