AMAZING NEWS: 7/19/15

It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World & Mad Max: Fury Road Mashup (If you’ve never seen this outrageous comedy, starring Spencer Tracy,Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters, with cameos by Don Knotts, Jerry Lewis and The Three Stooges, you owe it to yourself to watch it NOW) (You should also probably go watch Mad Max: Fury Road).

A Book For Every Game: Put down those controllers and pick up a book!

First Look at X-Men Villians

X-Files Return

Force Awakens Excerpt

Aliens Images

Deadpool in HiRes

Giant Robot Tank 3D Printed

Installing a Star Ceiling

Axanar – Spectacular Vision

Win A Walk On on Star Trek Beyond

Today We Got the Welsh talking Klingon, Scots ditching their kilts, why not Irish Publishing Great Specfic? Albedo One

Fred & Jamie Todd Exchange Notes About Sekrit Writing Rooms

More Dogs Impersonating Ewoks

Yet More SF&F&H TV Shows We’ll Not Be Able To Keep Up With

INDUSTRY

Pay-to-Play Alert

Big Name Your Price SF Bundle

Online Life for Authors (You have to, but you might not want to)

MidAmeriCon II (and I) Publications

First Fandom: Haffner Press & David Kyle

If You Think Giant Cannibals Are Cool – Attack on Titan

Tucker Hotel Plans (Someone posted a link to a sketch of the Tucker Hotel – I think on Facebook – but I can find no credits and the link is to Dropbox, so here is the PDF reproduced in full. Original poster, please contact Amazing Stories.) Don’t know what the Tucker Hotel is/was? Then Hoy Ping Pong, Smoooooth! and Tuckerization are probably equally unfamiliar. You have a LOT of fannish catching up to do.

Click for larger view

Africa is the New Home of Science Fiction

Heinlein Bust Commissioned

Series Hugo Proposal Finalized

Mothership Zeta – New Zine

SFWA Points Out the Importance of Archiving

Mr. Deltoid is Dead

Shatner Hated His ST Uniforms

SCIENCE

Space Probes! (Untouched by alien hands)

Walk Along With Watney – Plot Astronaut’s Martian Jaunt

Where’s Cthulhu? On Pluto, of Course!

When Galaxies Collide

China Threatens Coral Reefs

Juno Only a Year Away from Jupiter (Great Red Spot Jealous of Pluto’s Heart)

Philae Wakes Up Again

Robot Staffed Hotel Opens in Japan You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave….

ISS Crew Threatened by Space Junk

xkcd Explains Pluto

More Pluto Photos

Buckyballs Fill the Aether

PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS

We are pleased to announce this year’s nominees for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. The winners will be announced at Sasquan, this year’s Worldcon, in Spokane, WA at 2:00 pm Pacific Time on August 21. The Sidewise Awards have been presented annually since 1995 to recognize excellence in alternate historical fiction. This year’s panel of judges was made up of Stephen Baxter, Evelyn Leeper, Jim Rittenhouse, Kurt Sidaway, and Steven H Silver.

Short Form

* Ken Liu, “The Long Haul” (Clarkesworld, 11/14)
* Igor Ljubuncic, “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair” (Wars to End All Wars: Alternate Tales from the Trenches, Amazon Digital Services)

* Robert Reed, “The Principles” (Asimov’s, 4-5/14)
* Aaron Rosenberg, “Let No Man Put Asunder” (Europa Universalis IV: What If?, Paradox Interactive)

* Lewis Shiner, “The Black Sun” (Subterranean, Summer 2014)

* Harry Turtledove, “The More It Changes” (Europa Universalis IV: What If?, Paradox Interactive)

Long Form

* Alexander M. Grace, Sr., Second Front: The Allied Invasion of France, 1942-1943 (Casemate)
* Kristine Kathryn Rusch, The Enemy Within (WMG Publishing)

* Tony Schumacher, The Darkest Hour (William Morrow)

* Allen Steele, V-S Day (Ace)

* Jo Walton, My Real Children (Tor)

The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were conceived in late 1995 to honor the best allohistorical genre publications of the year. The first awards were announced in summer 1996 and honored works from 1995. The award takes its name from Murray Leinster’s 1934 short story “Sidewise in Time,” in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with their analogs from other timelines.

Congratulations to all the nominees.

For more information, contact Steven H Silver at shsilver@sfsite.com or go to https://www.uchronia.net/sidewise.

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July 17, 2015

99 Cent Chandu The Magician, Volume 2 Bonus!

The brand new Chandu The Magician, Volume 2 radio set is only 99 cents through July 30th, when you place any order for $25 or more.

To take advantage of this special deal:
* Select $25.00 or more worth of merchandise and add it to your shopping cart
* Now add Chandu The Magician, Volume 2 to your shopping cart as well.

* When you are ready to check-out, type the code 99CentCD into the Coupon Code box to get your special pricing on the Audio CD set or type99CentDownload into the Coupon Code box for the download version.

This special offer is valid through July 30th! (Limit one 99 Cent bonus per customer.)

Chandu The Magician

The Search for Robert Regent

Volume 2

Tom Collins played the lead role of American-born Frank Chandler, who had learned occult secrets from a yogi in India. Known as Chandu, he possessed several supernatural skills, including astral projection, teleportation and the ability to create illusions. Chandu’s goal was to “go forth with his youth and strength to conquer the evil that threatens mankind”. “Time and space are only an illusion” to the American called Chandler. Endowed with strange gifts, in the first episode he teleported himself to his sister’s Beverly Hills home.

Launched in 1931 on KHJ in Los Angeles, the series was soon heard throughout the West Coast. It was then heard, starting in February 1932, over WOR in the East. Nationally, it aired over Mutual starting October 8, 1932.

Chandu the Magician was revived on the Mutual-Don Lee Network on June 28, 1948 as a 15-minute weekday program. Radio Archives has restored all 154 fifteen minute episodes of this exciting radio serial.

Starring Tom Collins as Chandu and Luis van Rooten as the villainous Roxor, plotting world domination. Chandu’s sister, Dorothy Regent, was portrayed by Irene Tedrow. Cyril Armbrister directed the scripts by Vera Oldham which took Chandu to far-flung locales, both real and mythical. Romantic interludes for Chandu were introduced with Egyptian Princess Nadji played by Veola Vonn. Also appearing in the cast were Norman Field, Lee Millar, and Joy Terry. Created by Harry A. Earnshaw and Raymond R. Morgan with Howard Culver as the announcer and music by organist Juan Rolando (Korla Pandit), the series continued until January 28, 1949 when it changed to a 30-minute format, each with a self-contained storyline. The oriental-styled musical score via an eerie organ and crashing symbols created a highly effective out-of-the world atmosphere.

White King Soap was the sponsor for all the episodes in this serial.

In 1932 Chandu the Magician was produced as a film, with Edmund Lowe as Chandu and Bela Lugosi as Roxor. In The Return of Chandu (1934) Lugosi portrayed Chandu, and in Chandu on the Magic Island (1935) Bela Lugosi once again played Chandu.

Chandu the Magician, Volume 2 The Search for Robert Regent has been expertly restored for Sparkling Audio Quality by Radio Archives and features a beautiful cover by the great artist Virgil Finlay.

8 hours – $11.99 Download / $23.98 Audio CDs

16″ Transcription Discs

Radio Archives has a large selection of transcription discs for sale. Browse through hundreds of unique and interesting 16″ transcription discs that are not part of the auctions. Add them to the shopping cart and they will be mailed today. Sold by Radio Archives.

The unsold discs from the May 2nd Broadway Records Auction have been added. These discs will be sold on a first come basis for the minimum bid. Browse through hundreds of UNSOLD transcription discs from recent Broadway Records disc auctions. Sold by Broadway Records.

Click here Service@RadioArchives.com to receive the latest auction list which started July 15th from Broadway Records.

The Spider #14 Audiobook

Death’s Crimson Juggernaut

by Norvell W. Page writing as Grant Stockbridge

Read by Nick Santa Maria

Hideous maniacal laughter shattered the dark silence of ghostly tenements. Sleepy-eyed men and women, stumbling through the dim halls of the building, found a sight that chilled their souls with terror. On a blank wall, spikes driven through her, hands and feet, blood coursing down her arms and breasts in tiny rivulets, a beautiful young woman was hanging, crucified, dying. Still another victim of the Torture Trust! And while panic spreads, while hundreds die victims of the Killers, the Spider is blinded, his faithful servants imprisoned, his friends dishonored! How can Richard Wentworth, desperate and alone, combat the powerful, well-organized Murder Syndicate whose gun hirelings hunt him down like a vicious mad dog?

The great pulp magazines of the 1930s and 40s produced a number of heroes, but none as action-oriented as the Spider. For almost exactly a decade, from October 1933 to December 1943, the Spider was the scourge of the Underworld, doling out his own particular brand of justice and imprinting his dreaded red Spider seal on the foreheads of those he has killed for the good of mankind.

The Spider followed the established pulp pattern of a wealthy man-about-town, Richard Wentworth III, master of disguise, dilettante of the arts, in perfect physical condition, and completely devoted to the pursuit of justice for the down-trodden, no matter what the cost to himself or loved ones. Secretly donning a decrepit black hat, a tattered black cape, a false hunch to his shoulders, a lank wig of stringy hair, an application of sinister face makeup and a pair of .45 automatics, Wentworth prowls the streets of New York as his alter-ego the Spider, chasing down criminal masterminds bent on enslaving or destroying humanity.

Nick Santa Maria brings the action to electrifying life in Death’s Crimson Juggernaut. Originally published in The Spider magazine, November, 1934.

5 hours – $9.99 Download / $19.98 Audio CDs

Nick Santa Maria!

Nick is a Hollywood voice actor currently recording 118 audiobooks of the Spider and is the Project Producer for our Lux Radio Theatre restorations. Nick is a film historian, actor, writer and his career has included commercials, voice-overs, TV, Film, and theatre. Nick has written a theatre play which he also produces and stars in. Real Men is part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival at The Laurie Beechman Theatre, 407 West 42nd Street which opened this week. Theater in the Now published this interview a week ago and we thought you’d like to see what “the Spider” is up to in New York. All of us at Radio Archives are so proud of Nick.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Spotlight On…Nick Santa Maria

Name: Nick Santa Maria

Hometown: Massapequa, Long Island, via Flatbush.

Education: Barely got through high school. I didn’t like school very much…except as an audience for my humor. I learn best when I’m doing the teaching.

Favorite Credits: Pseudolus in Forum, Max in The Producers, Franz in The Producers, Roger in The Producers, Vince Fontaine in Grease!, Max Prince in Laughter On The 23rd Floor, Richard III in The Lion In Winter.

Why theater?: To be honest, I tried stand up (didn’t like the lifestyle), comedy improv (couldn’t live on it), and TV and film (not consistent enough). Then one day I got a call from my old improv teacher and friend, Brian Bradley, who was playing Vince Fontaine in Tommy Tune’s production ofGrease! at the Eugene O’Neill. He wanted to know if I would mind if he recommended me to take over the role in the national tour. Since the character hosted a 45 minute, mostly ad lib pre-show I was eager to take the job. That led to the Broadway production, and ever since then I’ve been a stage animal. I find it amusing that I landed my first Broadway show without an audition. It was all about Brian’s recommendation. My theater friends want to strangle me, and I don’t blame them.

Tell us about Real Men: It’s a thoughtful and wild musical comedy showcasing the highs. lows, and in-betweens of being a guy in our world. We explore things like dating, having kids, getting old, being fat, confronting the influence of our fathers, getting along with our women, and more. There are also some very touching moments to counteract the zaniness. By the way, women have loved this show as much, if not more than the men. We’ve had an incredible response all the way around.

What inspired you to write Real Men?: Pauly and I have worked together (on and off) for almost 25 years. We worked mostly on children’s television utilizing our puppetry skills (although I am not in Pauly’s class in the puppetry department. He is a virtuoso. I play by ear). In between set ups on the kid shows we would perform more adult oriented humor using the puppets. We always discussed writing a show together using all of our strengths (Comedy, puppetry. composing tunes, writing lyrics, singing). This is the result of that collaboration. That was our inspiration. Oh, and money.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: My family had absolutely no interest in theater. So, I am more of a film than theater buff. I’m not a big fan of a lot of the musicals on Broadway today. I can’t hum the melodies. Too loud. Too crazy. Too atonal. I’m a freak. I watch Turner Classic Movies almost exclusively, and I could actually write the facts you hear during the introductions to the films. I’m a walking encyclopedia of film and vintage show biz. The comedians are my favorites, though and were my teachers: Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Abbott and Costello, The Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, etc. I could go on and on. I have a very nice publisher waiting for me to finalize a book I’ve written (with two collaborators). It’s called COMEDY CRAZY…60 Essays About Classic Comedians. Someday…

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Sophia Loren. Second choice Sophia Loren.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: Real Men, a musical for guys and the women who put up with them. Also a delightful one act called, Kill A Better Mousetrap, by Scott K. Ratner. It’s quite wonderful.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: I see George Clooney playing me (hey, it’s MY casting office!), and the film would be called, “NICHOLAS, YOU ARE RIDICULOUS” (something I grew up hearing as a child). Second choice of actor: Sophia Loren.

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Anything with one of the classic clowns of Broadway’s golden age. Musical shows used to be loosely structured for great comedians to run wild in and around. Strike Up The Band (Clark and McCullough), Animal Crackers (The Marx Brothers), Rain Or Shine (Joe Cook),Poppy (W.C. Fields), any of George White’s Scandals, or Ziegfeld’s Follies and the slew of comedians they hired through the years. I had the privilege of playing the great Willie Howard’s role in a very non-PC original version of Gershwin’s, Girl Crazy. It was an amazing and wonderful experience. It’s built for Howard and his ad libs and impersonations. I had a ball.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Driving cross country. I like to do it whenever I can. I go alone, too. Complete peace and freedom with a wonderful view. I meet people in places I probably would never had known about, and I listen to great music, and old radio shows. Great stuff.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: I’d want to sing with a great jazz band. Old New Orleans jazz. Scat singing, blues, Dixieland, swing…it’s where my heart is.

What’s up next?: I’m about to take a shower. But other than that, we are about to do Real Men at NYMF, and we have hopes of an Off-Broadway run and beyond. I have an offer to do Forum (my 4th Pseudolus) in January/February. I also record A LOT of audio books for RadioArchives.com every month.

Check out all the items in the Bargain Basement. Supplies are limited.

All the OTR LPs have now been listed and 380 OTR LPs have been lowered in price today.

Prices as low as $15 this week for 5 LPs.

12″ LP Vinyl Records

Radio Archives is selling off a collection of 689 OTR 12″ LP Vinyl Records. These are being sold in groups of 5 records per group over the next several months. The main exception is Group #80 which has the 17 LP boxed set of Shadow radio shows.

Each group has a scan of the front and back covers of the five records. No other listing or description is available.

The quality of the records is excellent and most have been played only once. A few are still shrink wrapped and have never been played. Plays on any standard record player.

We are starting the pricing at $50 per group, which is $10 per record. Every two weeks when the newsletter is sent out, the price of all unsold groups will be lowered by $5 or $1 per record. There are now groups selling for $45, $40, $35, $30, $25, $20, and $15.

During the 1970s and 1980s these records were fairly easy to acquire. Every year they are becoming rarer and harder to find. This collection contains most of the OTR records that were issued.

Quanities are limited. Wait for the price to drop but don’t wait too long and let someone else buy your favorite Old Time Radio LP.

The Wild Adventures!

Four years ago this week, Will Murray released The Desert Demons, the first book in the Wild Adventures series. With the release this month of Doc Savage: The Sinister Shadow andTarzan: Return to Pal-ul-don, Will Murray has written 10 books in the series with no signs of slowing down. Doc Savage fans couldn’t be happier. Here are Will’s two newest books and the book that started the series which is also available as an audiobook.

Doc Savage: The Sinister Shadow

by Will Murray and Lester Dent, writing as Kenneth Robeson, cover illustration by Joe DeVito

When millionaire Lamont Cranston and attorney Ham Brooks are kidnapped by gunmen driving a black hearse, it spells trouble for Doc Savage. Trouble with compound interest when Cranston’s personal lawyer is mysteriously murdered before he can consult with celebrated criminologist George Clarendon—who is secretly The Shadow!

These strange events put the Man of Bronze and the Dark Avenger on a collision course that threatens to expose the deepest secrets of both supermen. The conflict intensifies when underworld figure Cliff Marsland is captured and shipped off to Doc’s secret Crime College!

Will these legendary crimefighters join forces—or will the diabolical Funeral Director have the last laugh on Doc Savage and The Shadow? Softcover $24.95

Tarzan: Return to Pal-ul-don

by Will Murray, cover illustration by Joe DeVito

With the African continent engulfed by World War II, John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, abandons his role as Lord of the Jungle in order to combat the spreading Nazi menace.

Flying a P40 Tomahawk warplane, Clayton is sent on his first mission: to rescue the missing British Military Intelligence officer code-named Ilex. But the daring task plunges him into his savage past after he’s forced down in a lost land that seems hauntingly familiar.

When Tarzan of the Apes returns to the prehistoric realm called Pal-ul-don, he must revert to his most savage persona, that of Tarzan-jad-guru—Tarzan the Terrible! Softcover $24.95

Doc Savage: The Desert Demons

by Lester Dent and Will Murray, writing as Kenneth Robeson, cover illustration by Joe DeVito

Back after 20 years! Doc Savage and his mighty crew return in a brand-new series of nightmare exploits that can only be called. The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage! Ferocious blood-red Things begin dropping down from the sky, the state of California is besieged by the Desert Demons, a phenomenon so fierce that it triggers a modern exodus. Only Doc Savage, the scientist-superman who was forged in the fires of scientific knowledge to battle the unknown, is equal to the challenge. From the Hollywood hills to the alligator-infested interior of Florida, the Man of Bronze wages war with cyclonic monsters that seem to possess an intelligence of their own and a murderous malevolence that smacks of the unearthly!

The skies over California explode with blood-red energies that resemble demon cyclones, but behave like intelligent life.

Nothing can stand in their terrible path. Men, machines, even buildings are devoured by the all-destroying Desert Demons. What are they? What do they want?

Far away in his Fortress of Solitude, Doc Savage receives the summons to danger. Radioing his small band of fighting specialists, the mighty bronze man orders them to rush to Los Angeles, prepared to combat the otherworldly menace.

But this time it’s different. This time it’s personal.

For one of their own has fallen victim to the unstoppable, unearthly things. Softcover $24.95

The Shadow, Volume 97

The Master of Darkness uncovers hidden evil in the quiet New Jersey town of Northdale in two classic pulp thrillers by Walter B. Gibson writing as “Maxwell Grant.” First, the wail of the banshee signals “Crime at Seven Oaks” until The Shadow unleashes a giant Great Dane named Vulcan to bring a hidden killer to justice! Then in “The Northdale Mystery”, Lamont Cranston returns to Northdale with Margo Lane to investigate the mystery of a bizarre bank robbery and the puzzling distruction of the stolen funds. This deluxe pulp reprint showcases both original color pulp covers by Graves Gladney and George Rozen and the original interior illustrations by Earl Mayan and Paul Orban, with new commentary by popular culture historian Will Murray and a special tribute to man’s best friend. Double Novel Reprint $14.95

Doc Savage, Volume 81

The pulps’ legendary Man of Bronze returns in action-packed thrillers by William G. Bogart and Lester Dent writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, in “Tunnel Terror” a deadly fog envelopes men and transforms them into mummified corpses, threatening the construction of an important engineering project. Then, in “Once Over Lightly,” the owner of a California resort is murdered, but the victim’s own will could provide the clue to the mystery, in a rare adventure narrated in the first person! This deluxe pulp reprint showcases the classic color pulp covers by Emery Clarke and Walter Swenson, and also features the original interior illustrations by Paul Orban and historical commentary by Will Murray, author of fifteen Doc Savage novels. Double Novel Reprint $14.95

The Phantom Detective, Volume 2

The pulp era’s longest-running supersleuth returns in two novels edited by longtime Superman and Batman editor Mort Weisinger! First, newspaper editor Frank Havens installs a rooftop signal device to summon The Phantom to combat“Dealers in Death” in the classic pulp novel that inspired the Bat Signal. Then, Muriel Havens is kidnapped by The Bat, a cowled and cloaked mystery man, while investigating “The Yacht Club Murders,” in a thrilling pulp novel by Batman scripter Charles Greenberg! Bonus: a classic Phantom Detective illustrated story from Thrilling Comics! This double-novel collector’s edition showcases both classic color pulp covers and the original interior illustrations, with historical commentary by Will Murray. Double Novel Reprint $14.95

Comments From Our Customers!

Cherie Barton writes:
Strange Wills is a great series! We also love the Roy Rogers show and will be taking advantage of your 99 cent special soon. Keep up the good work. Thank you.

If you’d like to share a comment with us or if you have a question or a suggestion send an email to Service@RadioArchives.com. We’d love to hear from you!

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3. Email Reply to this email with what you want to order. Payment information will be sent to you.

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RPGnet Newsletter #12
July 14, 2015

New Columns

RPGnet added three new columns last week.

On Monday, we got the newest Fuzzy Thinking comic: “Anxious for Spells”.

Tuesday, Jim Myers gave us the third installment of Active Play – “Character Creation” – where he walks through some solid guidelines for completing the character creation process to result in group harmony, mechanical satisfaction, and a satisfactory backstory.

Thursday, RPGnet’s own Shannon Appelcline provided an update to the tale of industry mainstay Chaosium told in Designers & Dragons in “Chaosium – Recent History: 1997-Present”.

New Reviews

RPGnet added two new reviews of RPG supplements last week:

Edward Kabara’s review of “Shadowrun: Shadows in Focus: Cheyenne” (Shadowrun supplement)
kafka’s review of “Ships of Clement Sector 4-6: Traders, Scouts and Small Craft” (Traveller supplement)

Threads You Might Have Missed

It’s ComicCon week, which means major media-production companies releasing teasers, trailers, and other previews of their upcoming specials. Many of these were discussed in Other Media last week. Here’s a roundup of some of the highlights:

Sign Off

I’m glad that’s over. Now I can go back to squeeing over the Ash vs. Evil Deadtrailer. Groovy.RPGnet Newsletter Staff:

Tectrix
Actual Play Spotlight Columnist
Iustum
Newsletter Editor

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