Gundam Best Girl Sayla + Michael Tierney Talks About the Comic Industry Shutdown

Back in February, we held a UC Gundam Best Girl Tournament.

We promised that we’d draw the winner of tournament on the art cover of Hell Arisen #1 and auction it off to raise money for Cirsova. Then I got really sick for several weeks. But here it is, Sayla Mass, who was crowned by the People as UC Gundam’s Best Girl. It’s on eBay here.

Also, on Saturday, Michael Tierney spoke with RJ Carter of Critical Blast about the state of the comics industry in the wake of the Diamond distribution shutdown in response to COVID19.

Black Gate Interview with Mongoose and Meerkat Author, Jim Breyfolge

Black Gate has posted an interview we did with Mongoose and Meerkat author, Jim Breyfogle!

You can read it here!

Be sure to hit the “Notify Me on Launch” button on our Kickstarter, which goes live on Wednesday!

Also, if you haven’t already, grab a copy of the latest issue of Cirsova featuring the all new Mongoose and Meerkat adventure, The Golden Pearl! I you have, leave a review!

One last cool bit of news, I’ll be on the Bunderdome with Mark Pellegrini this wednesday, talking about Mongoose and Meerkat, Michael’s comic store and his Wild Stars, the magazine and more!

Be sure to tune in!

 

 

Short Reviews – The Man Who Forgot, by Charles Creighton

The Man Who Forgot by Charles Creighton appeared in the February 1951 issue of Amazing Stories. It can be read hereat Archive.org.

This issue offers up yet another thriller with Charles Creighton’s The Man Who Forgot.

A man wakes up amnesiac on Mars; all he remembers is that he was from earth. Right away, he gets sucked into intrigue when he meets Clara, a beautiful martian woman and loyalist, and Karn, her shifty brother who is a secessionist and member of the Martian Secret Police.

The woman introduces the man to her family as Rand Beecher, a chess historian, with the hopes that it will buy him some cover and keep her brother from taking too much an interest in him.

Turns out that the opposite is true: Karn takes “Rand” to meet a fellow secessionist, to reveal the plot that’s afoot. In fact, whomever “Rand” is, he bears a striking resemblance to the real Rand Beecher and is familiar with his works. Karn and his ally Aaron have a proposition for Rand–as a brilliant chessmaster, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to dispassionately plan out an actual war. A war of Martian secession.

Trying to unravel the mystery of his identity, Rand concludes a number of possibilities. The most likely is that he is an earth sleeper agent, either the real Rand, or someone who resembled him, programmed by hypnosis to infiltrate the secession movement. He would either give them bad strategy or good strategy, and either harm the Martian rebel effort by misdirection or the sheer fact that whomever had set him up on earth already knew whatever gambits he had to offer the Martians. In all likelihood, he was set up with Clara’s family because of the easy contact with Karn or because the loyalists in the family were in on the operation… Or are they?

This was a pretty exciting little spy-fi adventure with a lot of twists and turns as the mystery of Rand’s real identity unravels. I don’t want to go into it too much, lest I spoil it too badly. This one’s worth reading, for sure.

Enjoy exciting pulpy adventures? Be sure to check out the new issue of Cirsova out now!

Also, don’t forget to click Notify me on Launch for our upcoming Mongoose & Meerkat Kickstarter launching next week!

Review of Jim Breyfogle’s The Golden Pearl

Nathan Housley over at Castalia House has reviewed the latest Mongoose & Meerkat story from Jim Breyfogle, The Golden Pearl.

With this aquatic adventure, Mangos and Kat cement themselves as Cirsova’s answer to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

You can read the whole review here.

The Golden Pearl, by Jim Breyfogle, appears in Cirsova #3, Out Now.

Catch up on all of Mangos and Kat’s adventures in Tales of the Mongoose and Meerkat Volume 1: Pursuit Without Asking, coming soon from Cirsova Publishing!

Summer Special Advertisements Available!

The Summer Special will be upon us soon [slated for May 23rd]!

We need to fill advertising slots ASAP! Our rates are here.

[Note that the back cover ad slot is already taken for this issue!]

This is a particularly good deal for editors, artists, designers and other freelancers to find clients who may be looking for work from indie authors.

 

Short Reviews – Vanguard of the Doomed, by ???? as Gerald Vance

Vanguard of the Doomed is credited as by Gerald Vance, an Amazing Stories house name shared by several authors. The actual author of Vanguard of the Doomed is unknown. It appeared in the February 1951 issue of Amazing Stories and can be read here at Archive.org.

A short-wave radio enthusiast and electronics engineer meets a girl over the air-waves. While she’s short and coy, the guy ends up absolutely head over heels for her, and she seems to like him. So when she cryptically signs off, telling him she’ll get in contact with him later if she can, then doesn’t show up for over a week, he worries begins to worry and decides to investigate.

What ensues is a tense, fairly action-packed post-war sci-fi thriller. Turns out the dame is the secretary of a mad scientist… who is actually an ex-Nazi posing as the mad scientist he’s done away with and using the mad scientist’s mad science to strike a blow for a resurrected Reich. Anyway, she’s stumbled on his secret plan to draw a planetoid referred to by astronomers and the media as “The Celestial Hammer”.

Remember the Max Fleischer Superman cartoon, where the astronomer has a magnet ray that he uses to get a better look at asteroids and meteors by directing them closer to earth and disaster ensues? Basically that, but the guy is doing it on purpose because he’s a Nazi and he’s gonna hold the world for ransom Cobra Commander style.

One interesting tidbit is that the Nazi villain is named Max Borzeny. Now, Borzney isn’t a real German name, but a thinly disguised spin on Skorzeny. Otto Skorzeny’s exploits in the war brought his profile much higher than his rank and responsibilities–he was larger-than-life boogeyman both feared and admired by Allies. The Borzeny in the story bears little resemblance to Skorzeny, but it is indicative of some of the mystique of SS Commando who, only a few years later, would be turned into ‘a real life pulp hero’ in Charles Foley’s hagiography Commando Extraordinary. Also worth noting, that despite being a relatively minor figure in the Reich, Skorzeny would go on after the war to basically become the real life Red Skull.

 

Review from Tangent Online

Tangent Online has its review of our new issue up.

https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/cirsova-3-spring-2020/

If you’ve read our latest issue, be sure to leave us a review on Amazon!

If you haven’t read our latest issue, what are you waiting for? Pick it up today!

Early Review of Some New Cirsova Stories, NJACC Postponed, and Looking for Summer Advertisers

Reviews – One early, and though partial, positive review is in for the new Cirsova from Jesse Abraham Lucas at PulpRev.com. Jesse offers pretty thorough, and glowing, reviews of both Alpdruck! by Michael Reyes and Pour Down Like Silver by Cynthia Ward.

If you have a review of the new issue, let us know!

Be sure to check out the new issue from one of these retailers!

Amazon [eBook and Print]

Barnes & Noble [Print Only]

Lulu [Hardcover Only]

AerBooks [Print Only]

NJACC – With the current Corona Virus scare, large events are shutting down right and left. Now that the first cases are showing up in Arkansas, my state is ready to get in on the panic, with toilet paper and hand sanitizer disappearing from shelves and price gouging laws going into effect.

So, Not Just Another Comic Con has been postponed to August 29 & 30. Probably a good thing, since if any of the headliners canceled, I’d be one of the most famous people there, and I can’t rely on that dismal level of foot traffic at my table.

That means that the next con we’ll be at will be Saline County Comic Expo, which is cool cuz we’ll be there with Tim Lim, who’s done some Wild Stars art for us, and Mark Pellegrini, whose story Just Don’t Open the Door is in our Summer Special.

Looking For Summer Advertisers – We’re looking for advertisers for our Summer Special. This one really snuck up on us, in part because I’ve been so sick the last few weeks, but we’re trying to line up advertisers for the May 23rd Summer issue. This one is gonna be a biggie!

Sky Hernstrom is back, plus both Paul Lucas and J. Manfred Weichsel. Not to mention Donald Uitvlugt has an all new Eldritch Earth story. Plus several excellent writers who are new to the pages of Cirsova Magazine!

Mongoose and Meerkat – Lastly, this is just a reminder, be sure to hit “Notify me on Launch” for the Mongoose and Meerkat Kickstarter!  We want to be able to hit our goal on the first day or so of the Kickstarter. So, uh… be ready with your credit card and be sure you have your parent’s permission!

Cirsova Spring 2020 Issue Out Now!

The Spring Issue of Cirsova is out now!

Amazon [eBook and Print]

Barnes & Noble [Print Only]

Lulu [Hardcover Only]

AerBooks [Print Only]

Alpdruck! by Michael Reyes

Clock has been dispatched to the private hell of a powerful demon–and only a being of true evil on its own path towards redemption can aid him in this deadly fight!

Pour Down Like Silver, by Cynthia Ward

Banished for refusing to follow her order-pair into death, Rhesanna seeks the Tower of Ancient Time to free her comrade’s soul from the demon they failed to slay!

Lest Darkness Wreck the Stars, by Robert Zoltan

When Dareon and Blue uncover a mysterious gemstone in the wastes, a strange violet star appears in the sky and visions of a lovely woman invade Dareon’s dreams!

The Golden Pearl, by Jim Breyfogle

After a harrowing experience in their search for Burning Fish, Kat and Mangos are determined to never be poisoned again—could a Golden Pearl be the answer?!

Slave Girls for Sacrifice, by D.M. Ritzlin

A powerful sorceress with a bestial lover requires a blood sacrifice to complete her vile rites… Will Avok’s brawn and bag of tricks be enough to stop the witch?!Praying to Thasaidon, by Tais Teng

No one prays to the Charnel God–but when a necromancer comes to collect on a family’s debts, there may be nowhere and no one to turn to but a god of death!

Adeste, Fideles, by G. Scott Huggins

Long ago, the “Last Fleet” was sent to find a new world for Earth’s orphaned children! That expedition to the fringes of space had been thought lost… Until now!

Return of the Dark Brotherhood, by Adrian Cole

Aruul Voruum nears completion of his witchfinder training… but the remnants of Daras Vorta’s cult have worked their tendrils into the heart of Mars’ government!

Outside the Outside?, by J. Comer

A review of The Tingleverse and Feast of Legends

My Name is John Carter (Part 8), by James Hutchings

James Hutchings continues his longform poem…

Plus, don’t forget to bookmark the Kickstarter page for Jim Breyfogle’s Tales of the Mongoose and Meerkat!

Woes of Using Ingram Spark

I hate Ingram Spark. They are a mediocre printer who is overpriced compared to Amazon, they overcharge on their Shipping & Handling via a S&H surcharge, and then they have the balls to send stuff that shows up like this:

The printer alignment is so bad on that bottom copy that it’s going 1/10″ past the bleed into what paper. This is a common occurrence with Ingram because they refuse to fix their cover printer alignment.

7 out of 12 books in the order were messed up.

“Well, why do you even use them? Why not find another printer?”

Trust me, we’re looking at our options, but here’s the reality:

-Amazon doesn’t allow you configure print books for pre-order. Plus, ever since they shut down Createspace, you can’t get salable copies ordered/sent prior to the Amazon live date.

-Ingram Content is THE service that gets books listed on Amazon, B&N, and allows other retailers to order copies of the book. Other POD outfits actually outsource listings to Ingram Content for an additional charge.

-I’ve really been happy with the quality of Lulu, but Lulu has garbage distribution. Selling on Amazon via Lulu nets maybe 10% of a sale as revenue, plus they can’t distribute many of the formats we offer anyway. No one goes to Lulu to look for books; people only buy from direct linking.

I don’t know what the quality of the books that people who buy from Amazon have been getting; I haven’t gotten many complaints, but Ingram Spark has a track record of sending us damaged books; the Wild Stars Anniversary Edition was an especially bad case and nearly tanked our release event when we had NO salable copies of Wild Stars 2 in the first batch we received.

I really don’t get it; it seems to me like it would be cheaper for Ingram Sparks to actually pack the books securely than to replace damaged copies, but their operation so far has been to just keep replacing damages and misprints rather than use some soft packing foam paper or fixing their printers.

For the record, we’ll be using Lulu, NOT Ingram Spark, as our printer for the Mongoose & Meerkat Kickstarter. Those of you who have bought our hardcovers KNOW that Lulu prints a quality product, even if Amazon won’t let them sell it…