Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

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Shock
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by Shock »

MacynSnow wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:38 am
Shock wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:28 am
MacynSnow wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 10:41 pm Yep,i'm talking the one Queen did god-awful work on and they STILL got a Grammy for it.
That is a MASTERPIECE of a soundtrack. How could you!?! :o :shock: :mrgreen:
You DO realize they even admitted to it ,right :|
While it was a well-done soundtrack, Queen just 'phoned-in' the main song.
I have that song as my ring-tone. Phoned-in or not, I love it. It's perfect for that movie.
Shock
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by Shock »

On a different note, I always thought the mythology behind Howard's Conan stories and Lovecrafts Mythos was very compatible. The way they described the demons and gods from ancient pre-history was very similar as was their general themes of the horrific unknown.
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Ares
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

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Shock wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 3:26 pm On a different note, I always thought the mythology behind Howard's Conan stories and Lovecrafts Mythos was very compatible. The way they described the demons and gods from ancient pre-history was very similar as was their general themes of the horrific unknown.
As you might or might not know, that was no accident. From what I've heard, Howard and Lovecraft were pen-pals and regularly traded ideas and encouraged the other to borrow/use ideas from their own mythology in the other's works.

Howard's stories are interesting in that they're really the precursor to the fantasy genre we all know and love today (beating out even Tolkien and Lewis), and was made basically because of the way pulp writers were paid at the time.

See, Howard loved historical fiction, but Pulp writers were basically paid by the word, often pennies by the word, so they could only sustain themselves by writing constantly. Howard needed to be putting out books incredibly fast, which meant he couldn't do the research he felt was needed to do a historically accurate story justice. Conan's Hyborian Age was created as a pre-historical setting that Howard could use to tell the kinds of stories he wanted without needing to adhere too close to historical accuracy. It basically let him throw all of his favorite eras of history into one big melting pot, allowing him to have Vikings, Pirates, Knights and the like all existing in the same time period for maximum fun. And since it was pre-history, he could throw in all kinds of weird magic and strange beings in there too, which set the stage for the Sword and Sorcery genre and later the High Fantasy genre.

And when Howard wanted to do something slightly more historically accurate, he did his Solomon Kane stuff.
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Shock
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by Shock »

Ares wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 3:44 pm
Shock wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 3:26 pm On a different note, I always thought the mythology behind Howard's Conan stories and Lovecrafts Mythos was very compatible. The way they described the demons and gods from ancient pre-history was very similar as was their general themes of the horrific unknown.
As you might or might not know, that was no accident. From what I've heard, Howard and Lovecraft were pen-pals and regularly traded ideas and encouraged the other to borrow/use ideas from their own mythology in the other's works.
I did know that. Lovecraft was a sort of mentor to quite a few writers, going so far as to organize the "Lovecraft Circle" a group of writers who all corresponded with each other to share ideas. Lovecraft was very generous with his ideas and encouraged others to build on what he created.
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by FuzzyBoots »

I always enjoyed the little nods by Fritz Leiber to the Lovecraft work as well, the result of their dialogue despite Leiber just beginning his writing career and Lovecraft being close to ending his. And, of course, Leiber was as much, if not more, of an influence on classical RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons than the more often attributed Middleearth works by Tolkein.
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by Beleriphon »

FuzzyBoots wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 4:21 pm I always enjoyed the little nods by Fritz Leiber to the Lovecraft work as well, the result of their dialogue despite Leiber just beginning his writing career and Lovecraft being close to ending his. And, of course, Leiber was as much, if not more, of an influence on classical RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons than the more often attributed Middleearth works by Tolkein.
Types of characters in D&D are riffs on Tolkien, while the types of stories are very much Leiber.
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by BriarThrone »

Interestingly, the successors to Lovecraft became much more iconic than Lovecraft's original work, to the point where, when "casuals" think of Lovecraft, they're probably not. For instance, when Lovecraft describes the horrific entities he's famous for - which is EXTREMELY rare - it's far more abstract and mind-bending than the seafood buffet later writers turned them into.

The horror from a good Lovecraft story is that you're often reading a narrator who is reading a narrator talking about conversations he's had with a person who has seen terrible things, or something of that nature, and the things you're reading are horrifying, but it's unclear how much is real and how much is insanity, and which and how many of the people involved are insane? Especially since the structure of the whole thing effectively makes you a link in that chain.

And then, when some Lovecraft-inspired movie comes out, the "fans" bitch because there's not a single shoggoth in the trailer.
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

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I'll admit, some of my favorite post-Lovecraft Cthulhu stuff is the Chaosium RPG "Escape from Innsmouth" and the video game "Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth", which is basically a video game adaptation of that tabletop RPG adventure. They're both very cool, IMO.

And yes, one of the big bits of horror in Lovecraft's work wasn't all of the slimy tentacle monsters, but the idea that those cosmic horrors were actually the real truth behind the universe, and the closer you got to "the truth", the more insane you appeared to everyone else. The real terror wasn't that the Old Ones were going to destroy humanity (that was a possibility), but that humanity could perhaps become like the Old Ones in time. Cthulhu waking up would basically kill off a good chunk of the world, drive most everyone else nuts, and from those insane people could rise a race as mad, evil and degenerate at the Old Ones themselves. That the only thing keeping us from becoming monsters was our own ignorance.

Another thing a lot of people get wrong is this idea that if you're a protagonist in a Lovecraft game/story, you're doomed to die or go insane. Which is weird, because in a good chunk of the Lovecraft stories I've read, the heroes actually win. Sure, in a lot of cases the heroes do die or go insane, but I'd say that only happens half the time. Hell, Prof. Armitage takes out the bastard child of an eldritch abomination with his sanity fully intact.

A lot of my favorite Lovecraft penned stories are things like The Call of Cthulhu, Shadow Over Innsmouth, the Re-Animator series, the Dunwich Horror, the Color Out of Space, the Shadow Out of Time, and several others.
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L-Space
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by L-Space »

Funny that you started this thread as I've just started to read some pulp novels. Read A Princess of Mars for the first time last week, the first Zorro novel, the Curse of Capistrano, this week and am planning on reading the first Rarzan book next week.

Have to say I really enjoyed A Princess of Mars, sychva fun book of adventure. Zorro was good too, but didn't quite captivate me as much.
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Ares
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by Ares »

The first three John Carter of Mars books are a lot of fun, and it's really criminal how poorly the movie did. I mean, visually the movie was great, but they turned John into this morose, money grubbing, family tragedy having sack of crap that completely undermined the chivalrous adventurer he is in the books. You know what John Carter DIDN'T need? A tragic backstory.

Burroughs' Mars is such a fun place rife with adventure opportunity, I'm amazed it took until recently for an official JCoM RPG, which I did back on Kickstarter and can't wait to get later this year.

And if you'd like any recommendations, there's plenty of people in here with suggestions. I could even recommend a website that has a lot of these characters in audio-book format.
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RUSCHE
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by RUSCHE »

The first time I heard and seen Doc Savage was the 1970's TV movie, it was fun but with no reference to compair it to I was unsure it it was a good representation of the source material. With all of this pulp talk on this thread I want to try a adventure involving Doc Savage , Tarzan but not sure who else I can involve. The adventure would start with Tarzan and a older and ill Jane, through all of Tarzan's adventurers he came across or was cursed ? With longevity. He heard of a mystic plant with properties that could cure and possibly restore Jane, with Doc Savage he heard of other hidden medicines and artifacts that he needs to keep safe from nefarious hands.
This would lead them both to Skull Island.
Not sure who else would or could be involved and if the two worlds would gel. Another possibility to Tarzan living so long is a curse placed on him by a witch due to his/her hatred of Tarzan and Jane's love for each other.

Input would be greatly appreciated or heck yell me it sucks would work as well. If in the wrong thread sorry in advance.
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Ares
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

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There are actually a pair of books by the same author that have King Kong encounter Doc Savage in one and then Tarzan in another. The same writer also did a pair of Doc Savage / The Shadow crossovers. I can link you to them if you like.

Skull Island is a great place for adventure, and if you're looking to have crossover stuff on it, I'd also recommend:
- The Phantom, because a team up between him and Tarzan is long overdue and he does jungle adventure well.
- The Rocketeer, because Cliff is always finding himself in crazy adventures like this.
- Indiana Jones, because clearly there are mysteries on that island that need exploring, and he and Johnny Littlejohn just need to encounter each other.

As for the Doc Savage movie, it's a bit of campy fun, but not really a good example of what the pulp stories were like. Doc is basically if you put Batman's brain in Capt. America's body and gave him Indiana Jones sense of adventure. He was also notable as being a pulp hero who refused to kill, which along with the Phantom, the Shadow, the Spider and the Green Hornet, made Doc a very early proto-superhero.
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RUSCHE
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by RUSCHE »

Ares wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 4:13 pm There are actually a pair of books by the same author that have King Kong encounter Doc Savage in one and then Tarzan in another. The same writer also did a pair of Doc Savage / The Shadow crossovers. I can link you to them if you like.

Skull Island is a great place for adventure, and if you're looking to have crossover stuff on it, I'd also recommend:
- The Phantom, because a team up between him and Tarzan is long overdue and he does jungle adventure well.
- The Rocketeer, because Cliff is always finding himself in crazy adventures like this.
- Indiana Jones, because clearly there are mysteries on that island that need exploring, and he and Johnny Littlejohn just need to encounter each other.

As for the Doc Savage movie, it's a bit of campy fun, but not really a good example of what the pulp stories were like. Doc is basically if you put Batman's brain in Capt. America's body and gave him Indiana Jones sense of adventure. He was also notable as being a pulp hero who refused to kill, which along with the Phantom, the Shadow, the Spider and the Green Hornet, made Doc a very early proto-superhero.
I would love the link, I had no idea about the Yarzan,Doc savage Kong cross overs. The setting and tone just screams adventure for me, I just need a better understanding of the source material. I have a special place in my heart for heroes with strong aversion to killing. On a side note did you see they ate doing a Captain Marvel(real one) series again? It still looks like they are using the 52 costume still...
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Ares
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by Ares »

RUSCHE wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 4:22 pm
I would love the link, I had no idea about the Yarzan,Doc savage Kong cross overs. The setting and tone just screams adventure for me, I just need a better understanding of the source material. I have a special place in my heart for heroes with strong aversion to killing.
Here's the links:

King Kong vs Tarzan - https://www.radioarchives.com/King_Kong ... /ap098.htm

King Kong vs Doc Savage - https://www.radioarchives.com/Doc_Savag ... /ap082.htm

Doc Savage meets the Shadow - https://www.radioarchives.com/Doc_Savag ... /ap090.htm

Doc Savage meets the Shadow again -
https://www.radioarchives.com/Doc_Savag ... /ap099.htm

Radio Archives in general is a great site for Pulp related material, including audiobooks, reprints of classic stuff and newer pulp stories. I recommend it to everyone here.
On a side note did you see they ate doing a Captain Marvel(real one) series again? It still looks like they are using the 52 costume still...
Unfortunately, it's a series about the Nu-52 "Shazam" rather than about Captain Marvel. John's is doing it to hype up the movie and refuses to let the classic Cap back into the DCU. Because whether it's a good idea or a bad idea, John's will run it into the frickin ground.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Ares wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 4:13 pm He was also notable as being a pulp hero who refused to kill, which along with the Phantom, the Shadow, the Spider and the Green Hornet, made Doc a very early proto-superhero.
^_^ Although his policy of giving criminals a "harmless lobotomy" instead hasn't aged well.
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