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Post by PMP Webmaster on Jan 20, 2005 11:51:07 GMT -5
I'm sure you all have a few titles laying around that you think no one, and I mean NO ONE else has read (at least that you know of). Throw them around here, and lets see just how unique your collection is!
For my own entry, I'd have to say "Wade Barker's" (real name Richard Meyer) War of the Ninja Master four-volume miniseries is a collection of mine that I don't think anyone else I've ever talked to has read, much less heard of. Barker wrote a few titles under the "Ninja Master" heading and another four-volume continuation known as "Year of the Ninja Master".
Has anyone out there read these too?
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Post by The D-Molisher on Feb 8, 2005 22:45:54 GMT -5
The Survivalist, by Jerry Ahern. In my opinion this series was fairly well written, at least for the genre. It is basically about the adventures of a survival expert after the Soviets take over the continental US. I picked up a bunch of them from a used book store last year, but so far I have only read the first four or five.
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Post by PMP Webmaster on Feb 8, 2005 22:57:45 GMT -5
Yeah, I think I've got my copy of #1, and I read your copy of #2. I've got a few others in the series, and it's fairly entertaining. Perhaps over the summer I'll break down and read a good chunk of what we've got between the two of us.
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Django The Bastard
Junior Member
"They called him Django...he was a friend to me..."
Posts: 85
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Post by Django The Bastard on Feb 15, 2005 12:09:13 GMT -5
Some of my forgotten favorites would have to be The Butcher, in particular the later ones written by Mike Avallone, Richard Blade, and Killsquad...
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Post by PMP Webmaster on Feb 16, 2005 10:12:17 GMT -5
Michael Avallone is one of the collectees at the Boston University Howard Gottlieb Archival Research Center (say that five times fast...). I used to work there while an undergrad, and I've got some contacts there still. One of these days I might try and get ahold of a listing and see if he sent in any of his pulp works, either in published or manuscript form.
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Post by zanshin on Mar 13, 2005 15:43:36 GMT -5
How about this at the pmp site: a list of EVERY Action/Adventure Series we can find - from the major to the obscure. For example, it would be neat to know how many titles were in the Butcher series (33?). And I never knew about the Year of the Ninja Master series, had I not found your post. If we all added to the list, it probably wouldn't be that hard to compile. And a few cool cover scans would be fun. It could be alpha by author, or series title.
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Post by PMP Webmaster on Mar 14, 2005 10:53:38 GMT -5
Awesome idea.
I'll start a thread here that people can use as the "working list", and I'll move data from here to a page on PMP as it comes in.
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Post by Scott Free on Apr 11, 2005 15:02:49 GMT -5
I'm sure you all have a few titles laying around that you think no one, and I mean NO ONE else has read (at least that you know of). Throw them around here, and lets see just how unique your collection is! For my own entry, I'd have to say "Wade Barker's" (real name Richard Meyer) War of the Ninja Master four-volume miniseries is a collection of mine that I don't think anyone else I've ever talked to has read, much less heard of. Barker wrote a few titles under the "Ninja Master" heading and another four-volume continuation known as "Year of the Ninja Master". Has anyone out there read these too? I have read almost all of them. I have the 8 original novels, and the two 4 book miniseries. The books were interesting, especially to a 15 year old male when they first came out. I have never made it thru the WAR OF THE NINJA MASTER miniseries. The second book lost me but one of these days, I am going to tackle the whole series again. Scott
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Post by PMP Webmaster on Apr 11, 2005 15:28:36 GMT -5
Yeah, book two is kind of slow because it just jumps all the way to Hong Kong and starts up a whole new cast of characters, half of whom get killed off during the book. 1 is fun just to see Daremo teaching at a high school in Kansas, and for various other jewels here and there. #3 is my hands-down favorite - much more action, much less murky plot and counter-plotting going on.
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Post by English Teacher X on Mar 25, 2006 9:02:09 GMT -5
I was a big fan of all the men's adventure pulps of the 80's, the stranger the better. Funny to think how many complete geeks read them, rather than the he-men they were undoubtedly written for.
There were some really strange ones -- I think a lot of talented writers were writing these series to pay the bills, and they often really let their imaginations and sense of humour run wild.
HAWKER was a very good series, only 9 books as I recall, written by Carl Ramm, who is currently a best-selling novelist named Randy Wayne White (never read any of his current books, but I'd like to.) Fairly realistic, serious and dramatic adventures of a vigilante Chigaco cop. DETROIT COMBAT was a particularly juicy read, with a pornography ring run by an obese woman named Queen Faith who was the daughter of a famous serial killer.
THE SPECIALIST series was another favorite, written with tongue firmly in cheek by one John Cutter, alias John Shirley (who wrote THE CROW film, amongst many other fine novels. I also liked THEY CALL ME THE MERCENARY series, that was a fun one. Can't remember who wrote it. The one-eyed wise cracking mercenary named Hank Frost.
They really overflowed in those days, THE DOOMSDAY WARRIOR, CASCA THE MERCENENARY, PSI-MAN (another funny one.)
TNT, that was a pretty original one. Tony Nelson Twin, a journalist who got super-powers in some kind of H-Bomb explosion, and was always on these strange missions involving massive death traps that he could circumvent with his special powers. Not your typical shoot-em-up, again only lasted maybe 6 or 7 books. By Doug Masters, a few available still on Amazon.
There was only one that I found that was even more bizarre and brutal than The Death Merchant, and that was one known as THE CRIME MINISTER. I was only able to find two (in, of course, the used book shop!) Amazon tells me there are five; by one Ian Barclay.
The first one was extremely bizarre; at one point the Crime Minister (a hitman) goes to a gay bar to pick up a guy to use as a patsy corpse after an assassination he's planning. He makes out with the guy before he kills him -- there were a lot of homoerotic themes in these men's books, but this was the most blatant that I saw. The Crime Minister and The Death Merchant surely would have had a fun evening out together, although the Crime Minister was considerably more interested in getting laid. (Loads of heterosexual sex in the books, too.)
The .357 VIGILANTE series was good, too. Written by a college student, I understand, whose real name was Lee Goldberg and went on to write for DIAGNOSIS: MURDER and various other TV shows. Simple DEATH WISH style vigilantism by a guy whose policeman father got killed by a street gang. Only three written, because Pinnacle went belly-up about that time.
Another favorite was the TRACKER series (maybe spelled TRAKKER?) which was so obscure I can't find anything on Amazon about it -- it was about a Navy hotshot who was blinded in an accident, but had special bionic radar eyes (or something!) installed so he could see far better than most. Really bizarre, they had in one a transvestite hitman trying to assassinate George Bush (senior) at a basketball game with an M-79, and in another Tracker became a professional wrestler to kill a hitman (and part-time wrestler) who had given him some grief. (He fries the guys brain IN THE WRESTLING RING with his special laser finger.)
Ah, and there were so many more. . .
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Django The Bastard
Junior Member
"They called him Django...he was a friend to me..."
Posts: 85
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Post by Django The Bastard on Apr 5, 2006 11:41:40 GMT -5
I also liked THEY CALL ME THE MERCENARY series, that was a fun one. Can't remember who wrote it. The one-eyed wise cracking mercenary named Hank Frost. Hank Frost's adventures were written by one Axel Kilgore...a nom de guerre for none other than Jerry Ahern!
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Post by robonthejob on Jan 22, 2007 14:51:29 GMT -5
I have very fond memories of the heyday of PMP ... I was a Pinnacle junkie in the early 1970s; I collected nearly all of their titles, but unfortunately much of my collection eventually did not survive the many relocations of my early adulthood.
However, among the books I retained were the first five in Alain Cailou's "The Private Army of Col. Tobin" series. All were well-written and quite exciting ... I always heard there was a sixth volume "Death Charge" and maybe a seventh, but I have never found them in nearly 30 years of searching.
BTW, I love this site.
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Post by dougbassett on Jan 29, 2007 13:36:32 GMT -5
Regarding Alan Caillou, I have a few of the Colonel Tobin's series, including the much elusive volume six and seven. I haven't read them yet, but Six is called DEATH CHARGE and I think kills off most of the characters from the original run; seven is THE GARONSKY MISSLE and seems to pick up with the son of the original Tobin in the hero spot.
This series has a big rep in some circles as being one of the better written men's adventure series out there. I recommend Caillou's CABOT CAIN series, which I have read. Sort of an upscale Doc Savage type, running around the world having adventures. These might be easier to find than the Tobin series, as they were published by Jove, I think.
Caillou was also an actor, apparently. Seems like an interesting guy generally.
doug
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Django The Bastard
Junior Member
"They called him Django...he was a friend to me..."
Posts: 85
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Post by Django The Bastard on Jan 30, 2007 15:27:02 GMT -5
Who published the seventh Tobin? Was it Pinnacle?
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Post by dougbassett on Jan 30, 2007 19:12:02 GMT -5
Yep, Pinnacle in 1976.
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