Dan Fowler G-man Vol.2

I am over the moon to see the public domain pulp hero Dan Fowler G-man revived in recent literature. With that said, let me steer you again to Airship 27, a publisher helmed by Ron Fortier. To me he and his subsequent writers have truly done justice to this amazing character of rough literature.

Dan Fowler G-man is a two-fisted FBI agent of the J Edgar Hoover days. Although he uses investigation, his methods lean more toward fisticuffs and gun work. In "the four gun blazing cases" from Airship 27's entry Dan Fowler G-man Vol. 2, you are treated to a cornucopia of action. As I said in an Amazon review, each author brings something different to the table.

• Derrick Ferguson in "The Undercover Puzzle" brings us a straight crime story full of solid action.
• Aaron Smith in "Monkey Business" gives us a weird supervillian that pays tribute to Chester Gould's bad guys in his Dick Tracy adventures.
• Joshua Reynolds gives us a team effort matching up the fearless FBI agent with Jim Anthony Super Detective. In this story there is a great shoot out scene at a bank that is right out of the movies.
• B C Smith's "Feasting on the predator's corpse" is a terrifying tale about a hit man named Chuck Dudka.  Dudka was modeled after the real life Mob torpedo Richard Kuklinski, alias "The Ice Man."  Now to be fair, some might say that Smith's depiction was too derivative of the real thing. I would disagree. I think this was a smart move and made the story easier to visualize since I have also read up on Kuklinski. Along with that, it had more commercial appeal.

Let me say again I thought all of these authors did a great job and I plan to check out their other stories. Dan Fowler G-Man Vol.2 can be purchased at www.amazon.com either in print or for your e reader.
      

Pulp, by Charles Bukowski

He dedicated his last book to bad writing. Pulp is truly bad writing. Or is it?

The  plot takes Nick Belane,the protagonist private eye, on a weird and wild journey through the streets of LA searching for the writer Celine who is supposed to be dead. He is working for none other than Death in the form of a voluptuous femme fatale in a red dress too tight due to as Belane puts it, to too many chocolate malts. The story degenerates from there and throws everything as well as the kitchen sink at you.

As I mentioned earlier, Bukowski is satirizing writing. On the surface he is mocking pulp fiction detective novels, hence the title Pulp. However, I also think he is poking fun at pretentious literature as well; the type that you are suppose to glean deep meaning from.

What is funny is that he beats you over the head with metaphors and double entendre. Again, this is very much how a bad writer would write; the word self indulgent also comes to mind.

Being one of the first Bukowski novels I read, it is a real favorite of mine. I can laugh a lot more  now that I am writing stories in the genre he is ridiculing.

His prose is purposely hammy and perfect for what he is trying to achieve. I think subconsciously I have taken cues from this work and a page from his playbook and started hamming a little in my prose, especially with my Huey Dusk stories.

I would also add that this novel reads more like Richard Brautigan than it does his other works-- and that is not a bad thing either.  If you are new to the works of Charles Bukowski, I would recommend this one. It is quite entertaining and a real page turner. True fans should also get this one to round out their collection.

Working feverishly on a new story.

Hi folks! Wow!! Ideas for stories are coming in on a whirlwind. But, I now have focus and am concentrating on one piece. All I can say, it is the type of story I 've been wanting to do for a long time. Looking forward to this journey and it is bound to be a pulpy one! Will keep you all posted.