Net Find - Age of Aces

Age of Aces is a site dedicated to the Air War Pulps of the 30s and 40s. Bill Mann, Chris Kalb, and David Kalb reproduce the old pulp magazines by scanning the original content, re-typeseting the words, and restoring the original artwork for the completed book. You can either download fred PDFs or order the books from Amazon.com.

The site describes itself as follows:

Straight from the tattered pages of Popular Publication’s air war pulps, Age of Aces Books is proud to be able to bring you the best of these heroes. Don’t spend all that time and money tracking down dozens of the crumbling original magazines looking for your favorite aviator. Age of Aces has done that for you. Each of our books contain stories featuring a single exciting character or written by one of your favorite authors. We are also doing some books that are not air war but still have a connection to that era and those magazines.

If you're a GM running a Savage Worlds pulp campaign, I count this as must read content. Scenario ideas and NPCs will leap off the pages. As a player, you'll get all sorts of ideas and new directions for your character.

I've spent hours on the site reading the pulps, pulling sayings and settings for Thomas Gunn stories. Drop by and give them a read. You won't be disappointed.

Pulp Magazine Cover Fun

I found a great site the other day thanks to Shane Hensley. Pulp-O-Mizer has an amazing resource for generating your own pulp magazine covers. You simply plug in your headings and titles, select some art work and Viola! You've got pulpy goodness.

The site also offers serial fiction with loads of other content. I'm impressed most with the artwork, however. The main site, Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual, contains all sorts of resources for the pulp lover in all of use but most its a site that contains the stories of Bradley W. Schenck. The web site contains all his stories for free but you can also purchase non-electronic versions, if you like.

There are now two different kinds of stories on the site. The first are interactive, branching stories. The second kind are non-interactive, serial stories. The two have a lot in common regarding plot line and art.

The interactive stories have about three or four paragraphs of text followed by a set of actions. Your choice of paths dictates where the story goes next. Over all its lots of fun and a great time waster. You'll also be treated to some outstanding artwork.

The really great discovery was to find that almost all the artwork is draggable into TokenTool for use in MapTool. You can take any of the character portraits

This is a great pulp resource regardless of whether you're looking for some pulpy adventures, seeking artwork for your Savage Worlds game, or looking for tokens. I can't recommend it highly enough.  

San Diego Comic-Con 2012 Buck Rogers Panel ends with a Crazy!

The Savage Duck continues his San Diego Comic Con Trek. Be sure to check out the YouTube video at the end of the article

Hermes Press presents Buck Rogers: Past, Present, and Future panel took place from 6p to 7p on Friday the 13th, in Room 4. The big news was Howard Chaykin is doing a new 4 part Buck Rogers comic book in 2013. They were kind enough to hand out a promo poster and Howard signed it. The panel was moderated by Daniel Herman, Publisher, Flint Dille, Erin Gray (if I have to explain the connection...), and the excellent artist Howard Chaykin.

[Editor's Note: Any geek male between 45 and 50 will admit to having a huge crush to Erin Gray from her portrayal of Wilma Deering in Buck Rogers from 1979-81 - Troll]

Flint, Erin, and Howard

My inital draw was I could finally get Erin Gray to sign a picture I have of her and Gil Gerard as Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering on the 1980s movie and TV show. I was successful!!!


Daniel Herman had a short movie prepared going back to the original newspaper, radio, and serials including a very special 1935 reel shown at the Chicago Worlds Fair of a Buck Rogers episode made in Flint Dille's uncle's basement with neighborhood friends. I have the audio of the session and will have to put it up so you can get the remarkable story of how the reel found it's way to Flint 60 years later. Chaykin insisted he tell the story. 


We all asked questions and got wonderful answers. Lots of on set stories from Erin Gray were alot of fun including how she almost wasn't cast! The last question was asked by a self identified "Tycho". He was recognized by Flint and his conspiracy theory rant began. I immediately popped on my camera phone and recorded this which captured all but the first sentence of "you all know what's going on."   When Tycho was grabbed and escorted out, he dropped some of his conspiracy posters and I was able to grab 3 of them. Here's a mystery to solve for sure. Nothing like a little crazy to spice things up!!!


Here are "Crazy Tycho's" posters. They are signed Tycho: 3 of 5 (green headless), 4 of 5 (bottom), and 5 of 5 (blue '2 will die?' on top right).



And now for the crazy. 


[Editor's Note: A convention goer believes there is a grand conspiracy wrapped around Buck Rogers involving actual portals to other realms. I just hope the gentleman gets his medication adjusted to the proper levels. - Troll]