This is why it’s so important to support Cirsova Classics projects on the front end:
We sacrificed physical copies of the pulps and spent countless hours salvaging this near-lost work for Timeless to come along and claim “we take every step possible to ensure the original integrity of this book has been upheld to its highest standard” when they dump the eBook that we donated to Project Gutenberg.
It’s their right to do so, just as it’s the right of anyone to publish works that are available in the public domain. But our edition remained unique for 1.5 months, and this mercenary edition from Timeless was published less than one month after the Project Gutenberg edition we donated went live.
So please, when we do these projects, support us however you can on the front end so we can afford to continue salvaging near-lost works of pulp fiction.
The Cirsova Classics editions of The Cosmic Courtship are available on Amazon at the following links:
*[The fact that this mercenary title is listed under the “Cirsova Classics” series on Amazon IS a violation of Cirsova Publishing’s trademarks. We have contacted Amazon regarding this issue.]
Cirsova Publishing is terminating its relationship with Ingram Spark effective December 9, 2021.
This comes after years of high damages, poor service, high fees, and other myriad issues.
We are adjusting our business model to accommodate this shift away from Ingram Spark.
This principally means that existing titles will be moved to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing service. We will rely more on Lulu for a wide range of products and services that KDP is incapable of delivering.
Most of our titles will remain available on Amazon. [note that none of our eBooks are currently affected by this change].
The following print titles will be going out of print and may no longer be available after December 9th, 2021:
“Going out of Print” does not necessarily mean “not available.” The remaining stock in the hands of retailers will remain available until it has been fully liquidated, however, retailers will no longer be able to place re-orders for these titles when they are out of stock.
*: Due to disambiguation issues with these titles as public domain works, these are constantly buried under other mercenary editions. Additionally, certain printing/trim issues that KDP has with these books that Ingram overlooked are treated as “blocking” issues. These may not be gone forever, but they will take some work to get reformatted, and it’s honestly not a top priority at the moment.
**: The paperback is probably going away forever, but there’s a chance we may release a new deluxe edition of the hardcover. I was honestly never very happy with the quality of the Ingram Spark version, so we may see what an improved Lulu version looks like.
***: Yeah, I know it’s not even out yet, but you’ll have all of November and then some of December to grab this! We may end up getting a Lulu pocketbook edition of it up at some point, but Lulu’s pocketbook trim size is marginally different from Ingram Spark’s so it will take some work. And honestly, pocketbooks are NOT economical for us and we will most likely not be offering them going forward.
****: We will make a Lulu version of this available before it goes out of print, but the hardcover with dust jacket as was received by backers of the Kickstarter will no longer be available after December 9th. The hardcover version available on Amazon will be replaced by a case-wrapped hardcover.
+: In all likelihood, gone and not coming back to Amazon. Ironically enough, according to Ingram, this should not have been allowed to be distributed in the first place. Their insistence that they would not distribute multiple formats of The Strange Recollections of Martha Klemm is a major reason for our break with them. This will be available in the future through Lulu, however.
++: The pocket book edition is going away on Amazon. It may end up on Lulu, but again, pocketbooks are not economical for us, so we’re not putting any energy into them going forward.
+++: This version of The Cosmic Courtship is being discontinued and, like The Paths of Cormanor, is being replaced by a casewrap edition. A dust-jacketed edition may come to Lulu in the future, but not to Amazon.
++++: The version on Amazon may be replaced by a case-wrapped edition. A dust-jacketed edition may come to Lulu in the future, but not to Amazon.
#: Duel Visions was falling out of the Cirsova catalog at the end of the year. Rather than create a stop-gap KDP version, we are simply allowing the print edition to lapse on December 9th when Ingram Spark closes our account. The eBook version will remain available through the end of the year.
We’re looking for an alternative printer going forward. We may switch back to splitting between KDP and Lulu, but after we get Martha Klemm out, we’re probably firing Ingram Spark. They’ve refused to distribute the pocketbook and magazine trim sizes [something that was not an issue for The Cosmic Courtship nor The Paths of Cormanor.]
In the meantime, please enjoy my neo-folk comfort EP with me.
Robert Zoltan, who you may know as the author of Rogues of Merth [which have appeared in Cirsova Magazine a time or two], is crowdfunding another issue of his Sexy Fantastic Magazine.
Found some old silver age and bronze age comics that I got a really great deal on at a flea market the other day. After reading the Doc Spektor Spine Tingling Tales [which were fantastic], I tried out a silver age cape comic that I had never heard of before from Dell. [It turns out that this issue was even drawn, at least in part, by Steve Ditko!]
This is Nukla, and I hate him and his stupid face.
In this issue, he fights some guy called Captain Whale.
Captain Whale is a salty Captain Nemo type. He hangs out around the Antarctic, chasing off scientists and researchers, driving off ships, and shooting down navy planes. The Antarctic is his, and he and his crew will be safe there when the nuclear war inevitably destroys our stupid civilizations. He has ships, planes, and even an underwater base He also has a pod of trained Killer Whales who obey his every command [because they know how rad he is]! What a badass!
Meanwhile, Nukla is a shitstain CIA agent with nuclear powers. The feds send him to the south pole because Captain Whale has taken a bunch of trespassing scientists prisoner. Nukla blows up a pod of Killer Whales and is all “haha, Captain Whale will be too busy taking care of his wounded friends to keep me from stopping him!” Man, what a scumbag! Anyway, because he’s the title character, Nukla ends up blowing up Captain Whale’s plane with atomic radiation.
I would totally read a Captain Whale solo book, but Nukla is crap.
I’ve been revisiting a lot of the old Sword & Sandals flicks that I loved as a kid when they’d show them on TNT in weekend marathons.
Having rewatched several of these, I think my favorites are:
1. the Steve Reeves Hercules
2. Son of Samson [a Mark Forest Maciste flick]
3. Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun
An Honorable Mention goes to Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules, which is absolutely terrible, but I love every minute of it, because it is non-stop cavemen beating each other with clubs and Maciste fighting dinosaur puppets.
Fire Monsters is must-watch viewing for fans of the United Caveman Federation. In AD&D terms, it’s the story of a high-level lawful good fighter who finds himself in the middle of a struggle between two patron-level factions of cavemen: good sun-worshiping cavemen in white furs and evil moon-worshiping cavemen in black furs who capture the women and are going to wife them and/or sacrifice them.
While a few of the bigger Peplum flicks (such as the top 3 I listed above) were brought to the US, dubbed and released as standalone movies, several (including Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules, actually Maciste Against the Monsters) were compiled into a TV Movie pseudo-series and released as The Sons of Hercules.
These were even given their own opening and closing themes.
The unifying theme of the Sons of Hercules movies was that the wandering strongmen, these titular “Sons of Hercules,” wandered the lands, righting wrongs and fighting injustice with their magnificent superhuman strength. Of course, many of these were either redubbed Maciste movies or other pseudo-historic/mythic flicks, like Perseus the Invincible.
One of the best of this bunch is Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules [Maciste, the Strongest Man in the World].
Anyway, these movies are a ton of fun, and I recommend you check them out!
But who is Maciste?
Maciste is an old Italian strongman character who goes back to the earliest days of silent film. There have been around 50 Maciste movies made, including both the silent-era films and the 60s peplum revival.
Many of the English releases of Maciste movies have transformed him into either Hercules, a Son of Hercules, a Son of Samson, etc, because it was easier to market him to non-European audiences that way. In fact, in the Sons of Hercules version of Maciste Against the Monsters, there’s a noticeable hiccup in the English dub whenever he introduces himself, “I am Maxus, Son of Hercules,” where another voice actor inserts the line to fit the franchise.
There is not really any sense of continuity or canon to the films: Maciste is just a wandering strongman fighting for the weak against injustice. He can appear anywhere in time, and has aided good tribes of cavemen against bad tribes of cavemen and dinosaurs and even stood against the Mongol hordes. But wherever Maciste appears, you know that wrongs will be righted by fantastic displays of strength and virtu. Plus there will be sultry sometimes villainous dames, who will be conquered by his manly honor.
I’m toying with the idea of doing a strong-man anthology series at some point, so consider writing some of these up. Even if I don’t go forward with it, your story will still stand a strong chance [rimshot] for 2023 Cirsova submissions next August.
I cannot adequately convey just how much of my time this project has eaten up, but at last I’m able to see the light at the end of the tunnel…
Last night, I finished my second pass on Sara was Judith, and now all of the scans and texts are in the capable hands of Mark Thompson, who you may know as one of Cirsova’s two copy editors. He’s doing another check against the scans for me so I don’t kill myself in doing a 3rd pass that will inevitably miss things because I’m so burned out. In fact, he’s already got the texts for Doris Dances and Fires Rekindled back to me, so my next task is going to be getting his fixes worked in and then putting the text into layout.
Meantime, our next big release will be November 1st, when The Paths of Cormanor hits Amazon. This fairytale adventure from Mongoose and Meerkat author Jim Breyfogle is sure to delight readers of all ages!
Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention that we need ALL ADs for the winter issue in by the end of this month! See here for details!
I had my weeks wrong, so Michael was on The LCS Guys show last weekend, where he was able to show off the Omnibus and the cards. It’s an inch thick, weighs about 3 pounds, is roughly 300 pages and contains over 200k words of Julian Hawthorne’s All-Story Weekly fiction.
Some computer issues wiped out a weekend’s worth of work on my end, but I think I’ve finally caught up and even managed to get a little ahead of where I was. I have 18 pages of scans left of Sara was Judith on my second pass before handing it over to Mark. After which, I’ll start finishing up the Doris Dances/Fires Rekindled volume, getting all of the formats into layout and uploaded.
If you’re interested in watching the whole LCS Guys show with Michael, I’ve linked it below.
Cirsova 