How is January 2024 almost up already???
That’s a rhetorical question really as I’ve long since come to the realisation that as we gradually return to our natural state of sludge and atoms time just speeds up at a frankly ridiculous rate. It’s a shame too as (as ever) all I want to do is produce more episodes and talk to more people about the things I’m into. Only this morning in fact, I clocked the book cover above (another marvellous 70s thriller photo cover) on social media and immediately regretted not having the time to dip into the copious shelves/piles of similarly adorned paperbacks and run a side podcast diving into the world of Panther Crime novels, the wild array of Pan and Mayflower wonders, and further into NEL pulp exploitation books (which we have of course touched on with Andrew Nette). I’m sure Andrew would agree that there is probably an entire podcast just covering photo covers featuring women with guns (photo c/o his twitter feed).
But… no time…
So I’ll be sticking with the main roster of content for BITR, the next of which will be Moorcock/Butterworth/Hawkwind cross-over/mash-up The Time of the Hawklords in the company of Hawkwind: Days of the Underground author Joe Banks, returning to Derry & Toms for the third time. That will be out in a few days.
Over the coming weeks, we have some other things in the pipeline in the form of:
- a bit of Sheckley from Pops’s shelves that’s been on my mind for over 30 years w/Derek AKA Imrryr
- the return of Andrew Nette to talk about Quatermass (for reasons that will become apparent)
- Part two of The Pheonix in Obsidian w/ Phil
- a long overdue second look at Conan in some shape or form with Dave AKA SÖNUS
- MM’s obscure political chapbook w/ a variety of guests (possibly in multiple parts)
- Luther Arkwright w/ Tom Murphy
- Oswald Bastable (finally) with Robert MacMillan
- The Land That Time Forgot (in its various forms) with Allister Thompson AKA The Gateless Gate (and we’ll probably talk about The War of the Worlds again at some point)
…and some other stuff I’ve talked about with various interlocuters that we just haven’t managed to get in the diary yet including Loz, Hussein, Tash and Miles. The latter is something Miles and I have been mulling over for a while related to the perils of writing spin-offs for established IPs. MM has form for this of course… more on that when we decide how to tackle it.
Meanwhile, Andy Darby pinged me a link to a decent article on Esquire titled The Death of the Multiverse, ostensibly an observation on why ‘multiverse stories’ are getting tiring and a little bit passé for mainstream audiences thanks to Marvel and co but it delves deep into the philosophical dimensions of that type of storytelling and MM gets some coverage too. Well worth a read, particularly the bit about the actual origins of the term ‘multiverse’.
Now, I must take my leave to eat crisps, listen to the howling gales and hope our wheely bins are still local.
For now I’ll sign off with another Pulpcurry special, so wherever you are pards… take care, stay safe and be SUPER.
Breakfast in the Ruins 