Aggressors - The new hero pulp

Okay, I didn't really get aggressive but I did go for 2 reasons: Wold Newtonry and Aggressors and come back happy with the results so I can't complain. I didn't get everything I wanted but I got a heap of cool stuff none the less.

Wold Newton - well to kick off the con I participated in the Wold Newton Panel with my good mates (funny how people I'd only met in person a few hours before can be some of my best mates in the world) from left to right Win Eckert, Me, Chuck Loridans, John Small, and Pete Coogan(Thank you Dennis for taking the photos at the panel)The panel went really well except for the very nervous Aussie, the questions presented at the end were interesting and showed that the audience were listening.

I managed to get my hands on the first four issues of Farmerphile Magazine, which presents some previously unpublished short fiction by Philip Jose Farmer as well as serialising an unpublished novel. It also offers articles offering perspectives on Farmer, including Win Eckert's Wold Newtonry articles.

I also got the new edition of Tarzan Alive signed by Win Eckert. I already have a copy but this edition has a couple of bonus features, new material by Win Eckert and Mike Resnick as well as the addition of "An Exclusive Interview with Lord Greystoke" and "Extracts from the Memiors of Lord Greystoke" both by Farmer.


Whilst delving through a paperback stall looking for Aggressor novels I found "Escape from Loki" A Doc Savage novel by Farmer and "The Adventure of the Peerless Peer" Tarzan meets Sherlock Holmes by Farmer

And I got to meet and hang out with the Wold Newton gang

Left to right Chris Carey, Chuck Loridans, Dennis Power, Me, Win Eckert and his wife Lisa, John Small and his wife Melisa and sons Joshua and William. Henry Covert and Rachel crouching (Thank you to Andre for taking the photo)

We sat around discussing Wold Newtonry, exploring crossovers and comparing theories and writings.

Aggressors-
Stack of Aggressor comics, The Punisher, Vigilante, Huntress, Tomb Raider, Buckaroo Banzai were purchased most to reviewed at a later date here.

I visted the Gold Eagle booth where I got hold of the first book of the Rogue Angel series. I'll fully review the book later but it seems that Gold Eagle is getting out of Men's Adventure and focussing on the Silhouette Bombshell Women's Adventure line. Perhaps it's more that the bombshell line is new and hence the heavier promotion.


Lionsgate had a booth and they tell me that the Punisher 2 is still being scripted and that will be going ahead, later on I had a chat to Tim Bradstreet (Punisher cover artist) who mention that he's been busy on an animated prologue for the director's cut of The Punisher.

I met Valerie Perez, who is playing Lara Croft, in the fan movie Tomb Raider: Tears of the Dragonand she was wonderful lady even being nice when I turned into gushing fanboy. We did discuss the Lara Croft Challenge, the Australian version was run by FHM magazine, the American version is run by Maxim.

Whilst I wasn't able to get autographs I did get photos of Marv Wolfman and George Perez co-creators of Vigilante.

I also met The Huntress

Whilst not at the Comic Con I did ring and speak to Chet Cunningham, who wrote the Penetrator, The Executioner (7 novels) and The Avenger. He's a really nice guy who encouraged me to write more and tald me he was busy on a new series titled Scream (not connected to the movie series) So I'll be keeping an eye out.

In closing I had a blast and a half and I've needed a week and a half to get back into the swing of reality but it was sooooooo worth it.

Butler is a former CIA agent who was fired from the CIA for being to critical of the agency, he now works for The Bancroft Institute as a an agent.

The Bancroft Institute is considered by the world at large as one of the great scientific enclaves but in reality it fights against military/industrial complex machinations of Hydra.

In this book, Butler discovers that Hydra was behind the assassination of JFK, and that Hydra is out to kill the President again. Butler infiltrates the assassins and stops the attempt after discovering that his old boss in the CIA is behind the plot.

Eventually Butler makes his way to the current power behind Hydra - Swami Coomiswamicurry. The Swami has been using his power to try and take over the world. Butler puts a stop to the Swami but realised that it's only a matter of time before Hydra reorganises and he's back fighting them.

One oddity about Butler is his relationships with women - he has great sex with them but they all seem to treat him with distain claiming that he forced them. In this book, Cora Calloway goads Butler into taking her, forcing him at gunpoint to finish the deed. But she then denies it.

Butler is a nice change of pace for this type of series.

The Penetrator is Mark Hardin, an orphan who later discovered that he is part Cheyenne. Like many of his fellow Aggressors Hardin served in Vietnam, working deep penetration missions into enemy territory (hence the Penetrator name) and in intellegence.

After his return from Vietnam he joined Professor Willard Haskins and David Red Eagle in their war on crime. Red Eagle is a Cheyenne Medicine man and taught Hardin various Cheyenne fighting and spiritual techniques, such as the Cheyenne Martial Art of Orenda Keowa and the mental and spiritual powers of Sho-tu-ca.

The novel opens with Red Eagle instructing Hardin, about how hatred drains his spirit and clouds his mind. Hardin then goes off and investigates the activites of Nobert Briscoe, a wheeler-dealer who has fleeced thousands and now lives in Costa Rico, unable to be extradited.

But as The Penetrator discovers Norbert has a plan to return to the United States, he's going to take over the Panama Canal and raise the price of going through the Canal. The raised prices of goods will force the politicans to pardon Briscoe and Briscoe will the return control of the Canal to the American Government.

After discovering this plot (and surviving an assissination attempt) posing as Manny Czonka, a disgraced union organiser from Briscoe's old neighbourhood, Hardin heads to Panama to see the situation there.

Hardin discovers that there is a second plot to take over the Canal by the Cuban government, with 3000 troops in conjunction with the local communist rebels. Hardin inflitrates the Cuban camp and then leads Panamanian troops to the Cubans.

Always busy, Hardin then returns to Costa Rico and manages to get Norbert Briscoe to give up his plot to take over the Panama Canal and lead him with incriminating documents into the arms of agents from the Justice Department.

The Penetrator is a good read and well worth picking up

Lionel Derrick was actually a house name shared by Mark Kelly Roberts (odd books) and Chet Cunningham (even books).