Filament Book Clublog

Coming Soon

            A while back, I asked about UFO movies, and mentioned one of my all time favorites, “The Day The Earth Stood Still”, a flying saucer flick from the 1950s. This was a morality movie, with a flying saucer landing in Washington D.C. An alien named Klatu exits the craft, with a nine foot tall robot following. The military immediately shoots the alien, wounding him, and the robot just as quickly wipes out tanks and artillery guns before you can blink an eye. This was a wonderful movie for its time. The message Klatu brings to the world is, “Cease your aggression, and join us in peace, or bring your war-like attitude to outer space, and we will turn your world into a burned out cinder!”

            Well, the good news is that Hollywood is remaking the film, which is to be released in May 2008. And current special effects should be fantastic. The bad news is that Hollywood cannot do justice to an old classic like this wonderful old flick. Just look what they did with the recent “War Of The Worlds”. But I can hope they treat it with the respect it deserves. Another great classic being remade is “The Incredible Shrinking Man”, in which a cloud of radiation causes a man to shrink, eventually to the size of a mouse. A house cat chases him into a cellar, where he must contend with a house spider for his food. In the original 1950s movie, they used a tarantula, although the novel called for a black widow spider. I think the remake will feature the more menacing black widow spider. There are enough horror elements in this movie for the horror fan, and science fiction elements for the sci-fi fan. Another movie I hope I am around to see. There is no release date set for this one yet.

            There is more good news on the horizon for this old pulp fiction fan. Sam Raimi who brought us the latest Spiderman movies, as well as the Darkman series, and other good movies, has obtained the film rights to Doc Savage and The Shadow, along with some of the other heroes from the pulp era. Raimi is an old fan of The Shadow, and plans on doing a top-notch version of the character. A dozen publishers are trying to get the publishing rights for both Doc Savage and The Shadow, in anticipation of the new movies, hoping to capitalize on their success when they are released. Plans are for anthologies of short stories. Unfortunately, so far Conde Nast, the current copyright holder of the properties are holding the characters for ransom, and publishers are not willing to shell out the high price they want for such small publishing ventures. In anticipation of the possibility of these anthologies, I have already written a Doc Savage short story for consideration, but until things come to a head, everything is in limbo. And I know that I was born to write at least one Shadow yarn in my life. I just hope I am still around when the opportunity arises.

            Still on the movie scene, we can expect a new Star Trek in 2008 or ’09, plus a new Green Hornet movie has been planned for 2009. Unfortunately, I understand the Green Hornet will be shot as a comedy. I think someone must have grown up with the old TV Batman series. “Wham! Bam!” So sad, if this is true.

            On the writing front, I have been turning out a ton of short stories for Wild Cat Books, a small press print publisher. They’ve re-started an old pulp magazine title, Startling Stories, and I have created two series for them. Captain Steve Danger, a hero in the mold of Flash Gordon, et al. And a galactic master thief, called The Forever Man, who has the ability to teleport, making him almost impossible to capture. So far, I’ve written two Captain Danger yarns, and two Forever Man stories, plus three other short stories for the new title. Plus, I have some other books and anthologies coming out with them. Other writers will also be churning out stories about Captain Danger and The Forever Man.

The second issue of Startling Stories was just released. This issue contains a Captain Danger story by K.G. McAbee, and my backup story, “What Goes There?”. Plus, I have a scientific article in the back pages to fill up the issue. So I’m trying to stay busy!

Atalanta And The Golden Lion

            After writing the Hercules story for Filament Book Club, I decided to give women equal billing, so went back to Greek myth for my next story. I had read about Atalanta previously, and to be honest, was quite fascinated with the character. She was quite probably the influence for the TV series, Zena, as well as Robert E. Howard’s Red Sonja, plus a dozen other s&s heroines of fiction, including those created by SF author, Leigh Brackett (if Nancy has taught me how to post pictures in the photo-section by the time I post this, there should be a photo of Leigh Brackett and me on file). There are even a lot of similarities between her and France’s Joan of Arc; both were bigger than life heroes and their lives ended in tragedy.

            Atalanta lived in the same period as Hercules, Jason, and Peleus, the father of Achilles. Achilles went on to become one of the heroes that fought at Troy, killing the defender, Hector. Atalanta’s son, Parthenopaeus was one of the Seven Heroes who died in the battle at Thebes. All became legends. One common theme among the Greek heroes, their lives all ended in tragedy. Although Odysseus eventually returned home to Ithaca after fighting at Troy, he was forced to wonder for twenty years before he saw his homeland again.

            I based my story on the Greek legends, which recorded the Calydonian Boar hunt, and her wrestling Peleus in the arena. There were many tales of her youth, one of those spoke of the she-bear, so I borrowed that to include with my story. And, of course, the infamous golden apples and the race that ended her single life as a free spirit, although there is some question to the man’s name that she married. I created the adventure in Ethiopia, and the slaying of the dragon and the Golden Lion, but these may have happened. After all, the historians still argue whether or not Atalanta sailed with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece. From what I have learned of Jason, I doubt he would have allowed her to go with him. Jason had to be the hero in his saga, and Atalanta (or Hercules) would have shared his glory, and Jason would not have allowed that. I don’t normally write in first person narrative, but in this case, I felt that I needed a storyteller who had stood beside her and fought the monsters that she faced. Some day, we may actually find his scrolls hidden in some lost Egyptian tomb. Who knows?

            Was Atalanta real? I would like to think so. After all, Hannibal and Alexander were real. Cleopatra and the Pharaohs were real. We now know that Troy really existed. Why not Achilles, Hercules, Hector, Paris, and even Atalanta? The Romans so loved the Greek tales, that they adopted the gods and tales as their own, so ancient scholars often became confused when telling and retelling the old stories. Names disappeared, or appeared in places at the wrong time, or were spelled differently from one tale to the next. Gods and monsters were created to add excitement to the tales, like we do today. Do you see the similarity between Atalanta and Atlantis? Was there a connection between her and the island that sank thousands of years ago? Perhaps recorded in scrolls that were lost over time, and forgotten by the ancient poets? We may never know, but that’s what makes us love mythology even more. It could have been based on some truth, and I would like to think that Hercules and Atalanta still live within us to some degree. Maybe our heroes don’t slay dragons and giant demons, but they stand tall in our own hearts anyway!

            When Filament Book Club releases “Atalanta And The Golden Lion”, I hope you will read the tale. I think you will fall in love with this untamed spirit. I know I did!

Tom Johnson

Seymour, Texas

June 17,2007

UFO Movies

            I know there are a number of good books on and about UFOs in the marketplace, including such titles as “Shoot Them Down” and “UFO Warminster”, as well as others on Filament Book Club. And let’s not forget Bill and Nancy’s outstanding UFO Magazine! All are great books to read. There are also some very good sci-fi novels on Filament, so you really don’t have to go elsewhere to find something good to read. However, once in a great while, I get a little lazy and am in the mood to watch a movie. Just, as I’m sure, all of us are.

Okay, that said, I recently stopped at the video store to rent something to watch on a slow night this past week, and to my surprise, I found  “Night Skies”, a new UFO flick, and without hesitation I rented the thing hoping for a good UFO movie after all the horror stuff that’s been showing at the theaters. Before I say anything about this cinema, let me ask the members of Filament when the last good UFO movie was that they watched? And what was the title?

            Two blockbusters that quickly come to mind are “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” and “Hanger 18”, both with great actors, good plots, and fantastic special effects. After that, we may have to go back to the 1950s for such classics as, “The Day The Earth Stood Still”, “This Island Earth”, “The Man From Planet X” (though I’m not sure just how much of a UFO film that was), and the sci-fi/horror classic, “The Thing From Another World” with James Arness as the pilot of the flying saucer that crashes in Alaska (or was that the North Pole?). However, my problem with this last one, they had Arness growling and grunting like a monster. Remember, one sign of intelligence is a spoken and written language. In order to pilot a flying saucer, there had to be some intelligence in the creature. Instead, this monster just knocked big chunks of wood out of doors with the thorns on his hands and growled a lot, scaring all of the kids who went to see the movie at the time. At least, with the “man” from Planet X, “he” had a language and was intelligent. We might even classify the original “War of the Worlds” as a good UFO movie, although it was really an alien invasion film, and had nothing to do with UFOs. But I’m stretching the rules a little as I search for “good” UFO movies. There just aren’t many out there that I am aware of.

            Okay, back to “Night Skies”. The hype claimed this was a true story based on the Phoenix lights of several years back. We all remember those strange lights that appeared in the skies over Phoenix, that the government claims were flares dropped by the air national guard. Uh huh. That incident! Well, my interest was instantly peaked, and if this was based on the truth, I had to see this movie. I rented it and rushed home and put it in the DVD player, popped some popcorn, and set back to watch “the truth” play out on the screen.

            Well, the “truth” may be out there, but it wasn’t in this movie!

            After an hour and a half, or whatever the length was, I was wishing I could get my money back! This movie was just another dumb teenager slasher flick, using UFOs and aliens as the bad guys instead of Freddie or Jason. You know the type. I wish someone had warned me about this movie before I laid down good money to see it.

            Please, when is Hollywood going to give us another “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind”? These mindless horror flicks are driving me crazy. Thankfully, we have The History Channel and the National Geographic Network that shows UFO research programs that are pretty decent. I even catch our boss, Bill Birnes on many of the episodes. And I’m about ready to disconnect from the Sci-Fi channel. For the life of me, I continue to watch their sci-fi movies, and I don’t know why! I’ll see something that sounds interesting in the listing and turn it on, only to watch about thirty minutes of the movie before I become disgusted and turn it off. Don’t they have any decent writers any more? There doesn’t seem to be any imagination to the stories being filmed, and they all play to the same old tired formula of horror and slash, cut and dismember Where’s the sci-fi?

            I sure wish there was something to watch. For now, I think I’ll stick to reading the great books on Filament, and watching The History Channel for studies on UFOs. Readers, do you have any suggestions? What good UFO movie did you last see? Comments, anyone?

Tom Johnson

June 1, 2007

The Black Ghost

The Black Ghost

            I recently got in trouble with a comic book reviewer that read one of my Black Ghost stories in an anthology. Basically, he said my character didn’t deserve the cape he wore since he couldn’t fly or leap over tall buildings. My response was that my character is not a comic book super hero, but a pulp crime fighter that wears a costume. Now, I admit there are a lot of similarities between comic book super heroes and pulp crime fighters, but there is a difference.

            After the financial Stock Market crash of ’29, the reading public was discouraged with the Roaring Twenties, and the popularization of the American gangster. They were looking for heroes, and the popular media of the day, the pulp magazines, gave them that change.

            In 1931, The Shadow hit the stands and was an instant success. In 1932, The Phantom Detective followed from another publishing house. By 1933, the market place was flooded with pulp heroes: The Spider, G-8, Doc Savage, and others. Most wore some weird costume, laughed eerily, or sported a domino mask. Most were copies of The Shadow. They were all a lot of fun.

            Walter Gibson, the man who gave us the character of The Shadow, drew from several sources in creating the character; turning New York City into a dark and forbidding locale like that of London in the period of Jack the Ripper, and then dressing our hero like the popular vampire of the movies, Dracula, black cape, hypnotic eyes, a sinister voice, et al. Gibson, himself a magician, put magic in his stories, both in atmosphere and in creativity. The character came alive. He appeared in 325 magazine novels, a 1960s updated paperback series, and two short stories, plus a long running radio drama, several movies, a number of comic book series, and a Saturday Matinee serial. He was extremely popular.

            When Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created their comic book super hero, Superman, they drew heavily from The Shadow & Doc Savage. Bob Kane and Bill Finger gave us the character of the Bat Man shortly after the appearance of Superman, and they also drew heavily from The Shadow. By the 1950s, the pulps were dying, being replaced by the comic book as the popular reading material of young adults, but the comic books had pulled heavily from the pulps. The main difference was the super abilities of the heroes. In the pulps, our heroes were tough, could swing a hard fist, was usually an expert in disguise, and carried heavy automatics with which to battle 1920s type gangsters on dark streets. The super heroes of the comics could jump over tall buildings, run faster than a speeding bullet, and even fly! Whereas the comic super heroes could not be real, the pulp crime fighters could be the guy/girl next door.

            I admit it, I was a fan of the comic books. In the mid 1940s, I was reading the Bat Man, Superman, and all the rest. But when I created the character of The Black Ghost, I drew from the pulps, especially the character of The Shadow. So the reviewer was correct, my character cannot jump tall buildings or fly, but he didn’t get his cape from the comic books. His cape came from much earlier, the pulp costumed crime fighter!

            For Filament readers that are not familiar with my Black Ghost stories, they take place in a modern city (never named), which could be anywhere. He fights crime with a pair of .45 automatics and a sinister laugh, while wearing all black to blend with the dark streets where crime dwells. His costume includes a black hood, which completely covers his head, and a black cape over his shoulder – not to fly, but more in keeping with Dracula of the movies. A martial arts expert, he often has to battle criminals who are also trained to kill with their hands. The stories are full of action, but I also work on plot and characterization, so that the stories are not just mindless action and gun battles. 

            One difference in my modern hero and those in the pulp era, the crime fighters of the 1930s and 1940s could never marry as long as they wore the mask of the hero. The Black Ghost, however, was married early in his career, recorded in a story entitled, “Hunter’s Moon”, and his wife has often donned the guise of the crime fighter to confuse the enemy.

            To-date, I have written nine adventures of The Black Ghost; Filament has five of them, with four already in print. If you like fast action, with a lot of gun battles along with a good mystery, I hope you will read the stories that Filament has made available to club members. I am always available for comment and discussion. Just don’t ask me why my character can’t fly!

Tom Johnson

Seymour, Texas

May 25, 2007

Hercules & The Moon Goddess

Essay:

            With the recent deaths of Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott my memory took me back to an earlier time when I was just beginning my adult life. During High School I had dreamed of becoming either a paleontologist or an entomologist, but there was no way I could attend college, so in 1958 I joined the Army after High School.

            In Early 1959, I had finished Army Basic (Company A, 2^nd Battle Group, 13^th Infantry, 9^th Infantry Division) at Fort Carson, Colorado, and MP School (Company G, PMGS) at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and was sent to Fort Hood, Texas to the 720^th MP BN (Company B) for my first duty station. I was 18 years old, tough, and thought I knew everything. Four other boys were assigned with me from Fort Gordon, all 17 and 18 years of age and straight from the farm, ranch, or a tough neighborhood street from some big city. There was D. Crist ("D" stood for either David or Don, I don't remember which), David Donnell, J.C. Fields, Patrick Hyland, and myself, and we were all close pals. The old Bob Dylan song, “Forever Young” comes to mind when I think of us back then. For we thought we had the world by the tail, and that we would stay young forever.

            I think we kind of grew up a little bit while at Fort Hood. I know that the Army turned us from boys into men. It was at Fort Hood that I tried pizza for the first time in my life, and hated it. Later on, I came to like pizza, but not the first time I tried it. It was also at Fort Hood that we saw Steve Reeves in Hercules at the post theater, and then a few of his other sand and sandal movies followed. Seeing those movies today, you laugh at their campy style, but back then they really influenced a bunch of young Army guys. It got us into the gym, where most of us got into judo and karate, while working out with weights. For me, it was something I stayed with the rest of my life. Judo and karate I stayed with until 1966, at which time I gave up the gym for good; it was demanding too much of my life. For a period from 1961 through early 1963, I was with the 4^th Army Judo & Karate team at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, training for the Olympics. But in 1963 I came down on orders for France, and gave up all hope of entering the Olympics, but I stayed with judo and karate training through 1966, when I returned to the States. After being separated from my wife while in France, I decided it was time to give up the gym for good. I bought a set of weights from Sears & Roebucks, and continued my weight program at home.

            In March of 2002, I had a stroke, and it ended my weight program, after about 43 years of training. I haven’t lifted weights since, and what muscles I did have, are now turning to fat, and I look back on my life and wonder why I did it in the first place? Of course, it was those campy Hercules movies we saw at Fort Hood, Texas!

            But we were young then, and tough, and were going to live forever. In writing this story for Filament Book Club, it brought back those memories from 1959, and my early Army days. I lost tract of Crist when we left Fort Hood, but Fields, Donnell, Hyland and I went to Korea together, but split up after that assignment, and I lost contact with the rest of my pals after Korea. But after retirement, I ran into Donnell and Hyland again. Donnell had retired in Texas, Hyland in Alaska. Donnell later died from heart problems ten years ago, and Hyland was killed in a car accident about the same time. Life seldom goes as planned, unless you work at it, and even then you can be blind-sided when you least expect it, so all you can do is your very best, and set your aims high. I heard that Crist later became a Chief of Police or Sheriff somewhere, and Fields ended up in Jackson, Mississippi.

            The story of Hercules was really a tragedy. Although he was strong, and courageous, he suffered throughout his life. Being a mortal, he was left to fend for himself, while his stepmother, Hera took out her vengeance on him, punishing him throughout his life. Only when Hercules laid himself on the funeral pyre and asked his friends to burn him alive (because of the terrible pain he was suffering), did the gods tell Hera that Hercules had suffered enough and she agreed, ending her anger, and Zeus sent Athena to bring him to heaven in her chariot, thus ending his saga on Earth.

            Regardless of what the skeptics want you to believe, myths are often based on some truth. The lands of Mu and Atlantis are examples. The Roman and Greek gods run parallel with stories in the Bible. In the Bible we are told, "The sons of God saw that the women of men were fair and mated with them, and there were great men of renown in those days." Hercules and Achilles were both the results of gods mating with mortal women. The story of Samson reads almost identical to the story of Hercules. Both had great strength, both in physical ability and in sexual prowess. And both were men of great renown. The gods in myth are often described as flying through the heavens in fiery chariots. Just read a UFO report today! The ancient civilizations connected the "fiery chariots" (UFOs) to the gods, and those "gods" were constantly interfering with the plans of man; guiding them with new technology (usually weapons), or punishing them for their iniquities.

When I wrote “Hercules And The Moon Goddess”, I tried to include elements from those old movies, as well as the mythology, along with the UFO phenomenon of today, and a touch of science fiction. There were short periods on Earth when Hercules enjoyed brief periods of love and peace, and it is one of those periods that I am bringing to you in this short epic that I hope you will pass on to your grandchildren, and they, theirs. For, unless they are told, the tales will never be heard by those who come after us.

            

Tom Johnson

Seymour, Texas

May 8, 2007

New books

We've just put up two new titles, both of which will stay in the top five for at least another couple of weeks. First is Admiral Byrd's Diary. Although probably apocryphal (US Navy records show that Byrd was at the South Pole when the diary says he was at the North Pole in 1947), the story is exciting and part of the urban legend regarding the Inner Earth. It could well be that whoever put together Byrd's Diary made a mistake in Byrd's location. In a book about the Inner Earth, which we will be putting up soon, the author indicates that the story in the Byrd diaries takes place at the South Pole, thereby making it comport with the actual records of Byrd's 1947 expedition.

The other book I put up recently was an interview with Nikola Tesla from an 1899 issue of Pearson's Magazine. I added a short story that Tesla wrote for a former teacher in 1939, illustrated with block print artwork from a 1939 Serbian calendar.

Because both of these titles are very inexpensive, it's probably best for book club members to buy them at club prices instead of redeeming them as book club selections.

More later,

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Hello world! And welcome to the Filament Book Club blog, or is it a Clublog? Here is a place where we can talk about books to our heart's content. Your books, my books, books you would like to read, and oh so much more.