It is much harder to do a series character than most mystery authors seem to think. You have to make your protagonist interesting, perhaps with a gimmick that can be used to intrigue the reader. You have to make the character likable but not too saintly, vulnerable but not too fragile.
You have to reintroduce the character in each new book for readers just coming to the series, and you have to make the character grow and be dynamic from one book to the next, but not to grow too far from the roots that made the character popular in the first place. It’s a tall task and it can be very limiting.
That’s why it’s such a joy to read of the adventures of Inspector Ian Rutledge. Rutledge is the creation of Charles Todd, a pseudonymous American mother-and-son team which has crafted Rutledge as a traumatized British ex-soldier from World War I.
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Lurker Films’ first two H.P. Lovecraft DVDs gathered up short films based on the author’s work, but this one – THE H.P. LOVECRAFT COLLECTION: VOLUME 3 – OUT OF MIND – features an interesting take on his writing.
Originally shot for the Bravo channel in Canada, OUT OF MIND: THE STORIES OF H.P. LOVECRAFT – the disc’s centerpiece – is a quasi-biography program about Lovecraft, in which the author interacts with one of his fictional characters. What starts out looking like archival footage of Lovecraft speaking into a camera is actually from now, just made to look old-timey.
We watch as Lovecraft walks in the woods, working out some of the names that will become some of his most important creations. Cut to today, where we are introduced to a man named Randolph Carter, who meets an lawyer with a package that’s been waiting for him for some 30 odd years. That package contains a mysterious book that will rock Carter’s world in a huge way.
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Our monthly depressing look at the search terms that bring pervs to BOOKGASM!
When you’re a kid who has to use your own meager allowance to buy comic books, a company’s surest way to snag that money is a team-up book. At least it was in my spending decision, because it was like getting two titles in one not normally seen together – the four-color equivalent of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
That explains why I grew up with a stack of DC’s THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD in my collection. Each month, Batman would fight crime alongside one B-level hero or another, and the variety of oddball partners month in and month out made for half of the fun. Now 21 before-my-time early issues are collected in the clumsily titled SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD BATMAN TEAM-UPS: VOLUME 1.
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When most people think of Robert E. Howard, one name comes to mind: Conan. But he created some other great characters. Now, like H.P. Lovecraft, there are various tomes of Howard’s writing with massive crossover, and I know what a pain it is to sift through stuff you might already have bought or read. Del Rey is reissuing Howard’s series character stories – Conan, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Kull – but there are other publishers tackling more obscure tales, such as these…
BOXING STORIES by Robert E. Howard – Out on shelves, there are two collections of Howard’s boxing stories: this 2005 one and another called WATERFRONT TALES. For those interested, grab this one, since it’s cheaper yet printed on better paper.
An avid boxing fan and boxer himself, Howard loved writing these stories, which mainly star a sailor named Steve Costigan. All the stories are from Howard’s manuscripts with original character names and titles intact. When these were put out in the fight pulps, those were changed to be made more gripping for readers. You’re probably thinking, “How could Howard write stories that don’t just repeat themselves over and over?” Simple: exotic locales featuring those down on their luck.
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