[Captain Audio]

Redshirts by John Scalzi is a hugo nominee that I read. It's a hoot and a holler.

Sounds like a good read.
The Redshirts always reminded me of Sinbad's crewmen, always wandering off and getting eaten or crushed by a giant of some sort.

In a Startrek Voyager episode they had several really classic red shirt style deaths, they didn't wear the red tunic then but these were redshirts just the same.

[narfstar]

Andrew Klavan wrote True Crime and Don't Say A Word that were made into movies. He also writes young adult books. I happen to like many young adult books. They often contain very good stories without the bad language and sex. Klavan wrote a 4 book series that has been collected in one volume called HOMELANDERS. It is pretty good but his other book IF WE SURVIVE is great. One of my favorites. I just finished a young adult fiction scifi book Torn By: Margaret Peterson Haddix in the Missing Series. I am a little/a lot weird. This is the last book in a time traveling series. I figured I could pick up the needed details from the earlier books in the last one, and I was right. Pretty good series. Yes I know I could have enjoyed the first offering but I am cheap and I have more than enough to read already. I must admit that I tend to enjoy light reading but I am also reading (every once in awhile on my phone) a biography of Stonewall Jackson written shortly after the Civil War. That makes it better and most likely more accurate.

[RickDeckard525]

On a P.G. Whodehouse binge. I wonder if we have any of work of his or any of his contemporaries' among our british story papers! Hmmm, I know he wrote some school stories, but those tended to be novel length. I also found some old British books like those at a a used bookstore in print, which is always nice because I get to see the illustrations! I would love some recommendations along the lines of our story papers and boys mags if you have any.

[RickDeckard525]

That gets me thinking about all the Dickens my teachers made me read WITHOUT the illustrations. Cheapskates!

[paw broon]

Re. Boys' mags, you could try Boys' Magazine, with Falcon Swift, detective short stories.  Here's one as an example:-
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=30344
Despite being a Nelson Lee fan, I would place The Magnet and Bunter even over the great detective. Many of the Christmas stories are great reading, but very English.  And English public school at that.  try this and the preceding issue:-
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=34945
Scoops is just amazing:-
https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=2460
The Thriller for fast British crime pulp:-
https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=740
And Union Jack for the best British detective:-   Some lovely covers.
https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=732
Much, much more and I'm sure others will suggest further excellent reads.

[RickDeckard525]

Thanks paw, I'll look into those. So far The only thing I have read myself in that department is the hotspur. I would also like to ask you guys about captain Billy's whiz bang. I have tried to read one issue, but I am stumped by all the editorial essays. Are they supposed to be funny? There are a awful lot of them and I guess I just don't know much about the politics of the time. The only reason I read them at all is because I heard abou it in the music man.

[Drusilla lives!]

Picked up a used copy of "Howard Pyle: American Master Rediscovered" about a month ago... it's a pretty decent retrospective on the artist's life, work and artistic legacy, complied for a recent exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum. 

I'm about half-way through it and I must admit, I'm surprised at how aesthetically similar his work is to some of the more impressive illustrators of the last century.  Looking at some of these paintings, I can't help but think of some of Frazetta's Warren and paperback cover work with it's loose brush work, or (even more surprising) the moody atmospheric stylings of Jeff Jones.  Then there are some examples of Pyle's pen and ink work which bring to mind some of Barry Windsor-Smith's better work. 

An American master rediscovered?... Perhaps.     

[Drusilla lives!]

I should (preemptively) add that I DO NOT mean to imply by my last post that I feel the lesser for some of the works of Frazetta, JJ, or BWS after seeing some of Pyle's.  Their creativity is genuinely their own imo, I'm just commenting on similarities of technique. 

For instance, imo there's also a bit of a stylistic spark from N.C. Wyeth in some of Frazetta's work as well... probably even more so then that of Pyle (and interestingly, Wyeth was an actual student of Pyle's)... but that doesn't diminish Frazetta's own style or expressive talent (at least not for me anyway).     

[mr_goldenage]

I am reading about Hugo Pratt. Interesting artist and all around talented guy.

Richard

[josemas]

Love Hugo Pratt.  His Corto Maltese is great.

Regarding Pyle and Wyeth I would recommend checking out the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and The Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, Delaware.  These museums have numerous originals of both artists and other artists of the Brandywine School (Frank Schoonover, Harvey Dunn, etc...).  I made trips to both museums during my Kubert School days and count myself lucky for being able to do so and see so many of these wonderful works by such great illustrators.

Best

Joe

[Captain Audio]

On a P.G. Whodehouse binge. I wonder if we have any of work of his or any of his contemporaries' among our british story papers! Hmmm, I know he wrote some school stories, but those tended to be novel length. I also found some old British books like those at a a used bookstore in print, which is always nice because I get to see the illustrations! I would love some recommendations along the lines of our story papers and boys mags if you have any.

Try Raffles: the Amateur Cracksman
http://manybooks.net/titles/hornungeetext96amatc10.html
Not illustrated but a good read.
E W Hornung was Author Conan Doyle's brother in law and wrote the Raffles stories as a sort of anti-Holmes character, a gentleman crook rather than a gentleman detective.
Another of the series with some illustrations.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33173/33173-h/33173-h.htm

[narfstar]

Just started reading SWIPE the first in a trilogy. Set in a not too distant, after another war between the states, (given current red vs blue states seems somewhat prophetic) with the use of a MARK and the rise of one world government. About a hundred pages in and pretty hooked it has me interested.

[paw broon]

Re. Pratt and Corto Maltese, I've been a huge fan since I bought my first Corto vol. in Paris umpteen years ago.  I think I posted a couple of pages on CB+ as examples of simply stunning, silent, action.  Can't remember where.  I'm sure you are all aware of this, so, for anyone who isn't, Pratt also was co-responsible for the Masked Mystery Man, Asso di Picche - Ace of Spades -
http://www.archivespratt.net/assodipicche.htm
and much later created L'Ombra - The Shadow (no relation), a most entertaining MMM comic.
http://www.archivespratt.net/l%27ombre.htm
I'm currently reading a French Maigret, Le Pendu de St. Pholien, an early Maigret mystery.
And re. Wodehouse, I'm half way through the full cast audio play of Uncle Fred in the Springtime. 

[RickDeckard525]

Thanks cap. Sorry I haven't been on for awhile, but I'm back.

[RickDeckard525]

Paw, have you read the Avon paperback adaptations of the phantom? The cover art is worth the price of admission alone, but the books are actually readable and nothing like the Flash Gordon ones. I'm not sure if there is a ghost writer and was wondering if you knew, being a scholar in these matters.

[Captain Audio]

Found my old hard back copy of "Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C Clarke.
Great hard sci fi, wish some one would film it.

[RickDeckard525]

I can't imagine anybody filming the moon bike thing for a modern audience. The chimps would be a big selling point though.

[narfstar]

I have or have had all the Avon Phantoms. They are really good. Covers are nice but I think the GK comic book covers are even better. Have you read the Whitman SON OF THE PHANTOM? It is one of my favorites giving some good history.

[Captain Audio]

I can't imagine anybody filming the moon bike thing for a modern audience. The chimps would be a big selling point though.

Apparently there's been a decades long effort to put "Rendezvous with Rama" on the big screen. Actor Morgan freeman has been trying to get the film made for many years. No explanations as to why it hasn't progressed.

[josemas]

Baby, Would I Lie?- Donald Westlake   Murder and scandal in Branson, Missouri.  Oh, my!  Westlake manages to shoehorn in a good bit of humor along the way.

Harbor Nocturne- Joseph Wambaugh   The latest Hollywood Station police procedural by Wambaugh.  These have sort of taken the place of the 87th Precinct novels by the late Ed McBain in that genre.

The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted- Mike Lofgren    The book's subtitle sez it all.  I couldn't find much to argue with in this book by the former, long-time Capitol Hill staffer (he was a Republican analyst on House and Senate budget committees for 28 years).

A Short History of Myth- Karen Armstrong   A good, quick look at the growth of religion and myth over the course of human history.

Hell Above Earth- Stephen Frater   Werner Goering was a top-notch U.S. pilot during WWII.  He was also believed to be the nephew of the head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Goering.  Thus, unknown to him, his copilot had standing orders to kill him if it ever looked like his plane might be going down and he could be taken by the Germans.  Tense, riveting true-war stuff.

The Great War: Walk in Hell- Harry Turtledove   The next in Turtledove's alternate history series where the Confederacy won the American Civil War.  Good stuff.

Best

Joe

[jimmm kelly]

I read RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA when it first came out--when I was a teen--but I never thought that it could be filmed. I guess now, with CGI, it's possible--but it still seems too big for the screen.

[paw broon]

"Paw, have you read the Avon paperback adaptations of the phantom? The cover art is worth the price of admission alone, but the books are actually readable and nothing like the Flash Gordon ones. I'm not sure if there is a ghost writer and was wondering if you knew, being a scholar in these matters."RickDeckard525
Sorry to be so long replying - been obsessed chasing down links to obscure Spanish comics.
As for Avon paperbacks, I'm ashamed to say that I don't have any of them, and I haven't read them either.  I asked my pal, Russell, about the writers but, for once, he came up blank. So your flattery was misplaced.  Still, nice to be so considered, and I'd love to have them in the collection.  Wasn't there a/some Mandrake stories as well?
What I did find recently was a link to some of The Avengers paperbacks and I'm currently working my way through them (The real Avengers, not the Marvel ones, of course)

[Captain Audio]

I read RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA when it first came out--when I was a teen--but I never thought that it could be filmed. I guess now, with CGI, it's possible--but it still seems too big for the screen.

Imagine in Imax 3D.
In San Francisco there's a very small experimental 3D movie house that's been there for many many years.
An inventor built the place to showcase his secret method.
I have no idea how the process does what it does but after a few minutes of watching a film there its as if you are transported inside the movie. Its like you are sitting at the same table as the characters.

I think the inventor made only one film, a short historical drama.
I suspect the effect only works on a small scale.

If they could get the same effect in a full size theatre people would go as wild over Rama as they did over 2001 a space odessy.

[RickDeckard525]

Mandrake and Flash Gordon were both novelized. I've never read any of the Mandrake ones and the Gordon ones are almost unreadable. I still love the Gordon covers though and if I come across one of them for less than five bucks I'll probably buy it and try to read it. I have never seen any Mandrake books for sale, though and they could be great for all I know.

[RickDeckard525]

I'm exploring some Van Vogt right now. The golden age masters are mostly forgotten in my sf circles, but I'm sure you guys are more familiar with his work. The polar opposite of the other huge success of his time