The man in the hat.
You see him at conventions everywhere. There he is on Facebook. There he is
again on PRO SE PRODUCTION'S ever
expanding website. Who is this mysterious figure who runs one of the largest
pulp cartels in the world? He is an unapologetic pusher of pulp – that
dangerously addictive concoction of explosive action and imagination with the
ability to immediately whisk mainliners away from their mundane existence.
Like the man in the hat himself, you see pulp addicts
everywhere – victims of the El Chapo of
Pulp – normally efficient, healthy, individuals turned into hollow-eyed,
drooping, flesh bags from too much late night pulp, caffeine, and adrenaline.
They sit in their figurative work cubicles, pushing mountains of figurative
paperwork from inbox to out, counting the hours until they can get their next
pulp fix.
But now, the man in the hat is in custody and under the
bright lights of the interrogation room – subject to rubber hoses, and guys who
only believe in bad cop/worse cop.
It’s time to get some answers…
Every interrogation
starts with a few personal history questions – easy stuff to get a suspect
talking. What can you tell us about Tommy Hancock before he became a pulp
dealer?
That’s one of the nicest things I’ve been called since
starting down this winding dark alley of Pulp. Although I have to say my
favorite title, other than The Man in the
Hat, was once being called, The Pulp
Provocateur – a complicated word, but one dripping with all kinds of
interesting connotations.
It’s hard to say what I was doing before pulp became my
focus. In a way, pulp has always been my focus. I have always been a writer of pulp
fiction, even before I knew what it was. However, somewhere along the line, I
picked up a Master’s Degree in History. Then there was a period of time when I
thought I’d like to be a teacher, but after a six month bout of substituting, I
figured out how wrong the idea was. I also did some hard time as a college instructor
and working in the mental health field – yes,
working! I was a juvenile officer for
several years, and worked in Juvenile Court in Arkansas in a variety of
positions.
Program development was another thing, as was marketing for
a bit. Eventually, time doing child abuse
investigations and suicidal and
homicidal emergency assessments led to working as an attorney’s
investigator, for which I am still officially on retainer. But now, The Hat and I have finally found the destination
we took all those curves and twists to find. Currently, I work full time as
Editor in Chief for Pro Se Productions.
Somewhere in the midst of all those tangents, I met my wife
Lisa, an angel who didn’t mind her knights being somewhat tarnished, and who
has managed to put up with me for just short of nineteen years. She has given
me my miracle, Braeden (17), my gift, Alex (15), and my princess, Kailee (9).
When did you first
get hooked on pulp?
That’s sort of like asking Elvis when he first felt the urge
to gyrate. In my recollection, pulp has always been a part of who I am. Now,
that probably needs some clarification. I don’t see pulp as just being the
stories that appeared on pulp paper when published in the early 20th
Century. I see pulp as being a style of writing – of entertainment – encompassing
several key points. The most important of those points, for me, is it’s genre
entertainment filled to the brim with action and adventure coupled with clearly
defined heroes and villains. If you look at pulp that way, then I’ve always
been a fan. I enjoyed watching and reading westerns since I started turning
pages at age four, saw Star Wars the night it debuted in 1977, stayed up late
to watch detective movies and TV shows like Hawaii
Five-0, Columbo, and even stranger
fare like Manimal and Salvage One (yeah, the last one will
test some memories)…
Of course, there was also the Good Times Picture Show. This was an Arkansas produced program for
the Public Education channel. Produced by a gentleman named Ray (his last name
escapes me), Good Times Picture Show
broadcasted every Saturday with what was essentially a matinee just like
theaters used to show from the 1920s until sometime in the 1950s. It featured a
serial, a cartoon, newsreels, and a main feature, and all of them from the Golden Age period, which has fascinated
me for my entire life. The Good Times
Picture Show exposed me to Captain Marvel on screen, and to the Mesquiteers.
I saw Randy Rides Alone with John
Wayne via the Good Times Picture Show,
and so many other truly fantastic pulp-type adventures.
And we can’t forget a real first love of mine – old time
radio. My grandfather had given me a white box radio with a light up dial. I
used to have to plug it in and hide it under my blanket because at 9:30 – a good
30 minutes past my bedtime – a college radio station in a nearby town broadcasted
audio dramas. Monday nights was Star Wars,
but the other nights had shows no one my age (8) or even ten years older had
ever heard of. Shows like, The Six
Shooter, Fibber McGee and Molly, The Adventures of Harry Lime, or my
favorite at the time, Nightbeat. I
was fascinated by these gems from a past era and spent a lot of time as a kid
and teenager doing my best to hunt down episodes of OTR shows. Fortunately,
that quest has become easier as the years have gone by.
However, if you’re asking about my early exposure to actual pulp,
it happened at age nine in an Alco in Batesville, Arkansas. On the same spinner
rack where, a few short months earlier, I had bought a G.I. Joe comic with my
own money for the first time, I found a book someone must have stuck on the
rack instead of walking it back to the shelf. It was one of those large Doc Savage omnibus reprints, which made
the rounds in the early 80s. Needless to say, it went home with me and I was
hooked. After Doc came The Shadow and
then a voracious reading of anything similar I could get my hands on.
Was it a sudden
epiphany leading you to start Pro Se, or was it a deliberately planned
conspiracy to make the world a better
place through pulp?
Actually, the whole thing was more about me hearing
Opportunity knock with the right password. In my time in juvenile court, I
ended up working with an attorney who, in similar and different ways, had the
same interest I did in creating great stuff people would enjoy and maybe making
a little money from the effort.
The attorney, Fuller Bumpers by name – yes, yes, it’s a real
name – had been a writer in Hollywood and an actor. He had worked with everyone
from Judge Judy to Robert DeNiro, but had returned to Arkansas to hang out a
shingle and raise a family. Still interested in being creative, Fuller had established
Pro Se Productions and was looking
for a specific focus. I came on board as we got to know each other, first moving
in the direction of original audio drama. We produced a few things, ranging
from public domain boys’ adventure stuff from the early 20th Century
to our own original ideas. But about the same time, I found myself published in
the New Pulp world for the first
time.
Derrick Ferguson, one of my best friends thanks to the
wonders of technology, and one of the tops in New Pulp writing, pointed out
there was a company taking submissions for pulp short stories written by modern
types. This led me to Ron Fortier and Rob Davis at Airship 27 Productions. At the time the company was – and still is
– making a huge mark on what we now call New Pulp. I wrote Ron and Rob a Virgil
Earp story for an anthology. It was published, and the writer’s die was cast
for me.
Being an inquisitive investigator – okay, nosy – I began
looking into publishing as a possible direction for Pro Se. I quickly found
myself knee deep in the growing corner of genre fiction we called New Pulp. What
I found had wonderful possibilities – if the right people came together in just
the right way and had the patience to work at a singular goal for years, there
could be something great for all involved.
Readers who never knew they enjoyed the sort of stuff many
of us want to write would discover New Pulp. Authors who would never see the
light of day via traditional publishing houses, and who should have seen the
light of many days would get published. Even already well established writers who
wanted to cut loose and write descriptive, over the top pulp, could have a
place to do it. I took all of those inspirations, rolled it around in the
rather discombobulated mass in my head I refer to as a brain, and laid it all
out for Fuller – resulting in the concept of Pro Se Productions being born in
2010.
What was your initial
vision/goal for Pro Se and how has it grown into the insidious pulp empire it
is today?
Insidious? Now, I’m not so sure…well, okay, maybe…
The initial vision for Pro Se is still the path we’re
beating today. Without going into minutia, Pro Se is built on three five year
plans, with a short prologue phase.
The prologue phase began in 2010, when Pro Se first entered the
New Pulp field with a line of magazines – Masked
Gun Mystery, Peculiar Adventures,
and Fantasy and Fear. All three were very
much styled after classic pulp magazines. Using that model, we built a decent stable
of writers interested in continuing to work for Pro Se. We made connections
while continuing to research and explore the direction Pro Se needed to go in
order to become something special.
In 2011, we began publishing novels and anthologies as we kicked
off our first five year plan, which takes us to the end of next year. This
phase continued our initial intent of building a great catalog filled with writers
from New York Times Bestsellers to brand new writers who readers just had to
experience.
In achieving this early goal, we’ve also helped define New
Pulp more clearly, but also opened up was previously a niche interest to hordes
of new fans and possibilities. Embracing the fact New Pulp and genre fiction are
terms related to the sort of literature people want to write and read has gone
a long way to establish Pro Se and broaden the horizons of the market for other
independent writers and publishers inspired by pulp.
As the power behind
one of the largest modern pulp cartels, what happens during a typical day of
pushing pulp?
It’s a lot of hiding the bodies and intentionally forgetting
where you put them.
Actually, this thing I call a job is a whole lot of fun for
me. By nature, I am a person who needs to be busy. I like to have dozens of
plates loaded with armed bombs spinning all at once, which is what daily work
with Pro Se has become. To boil it down just to a few things in a list is
nearly impossible – which is why I’m willing to try.
Daily work for a pulp pusher? The best part is working
closely with the fantastic individuals who make up Pro Se’s staff , always
giving of themselves and their time –because nobody, including me, is getting
rich doing this stuff. I have a terrific Director of Corporate Operations who is
directly responsible for our editors. However, I still spend a lot of time
interacting with our great editing staff and work directly with the fantastic
artists responsible for the covers of our books. I also have a truly awesome
Submissions Editor who I stay in touch with as new works come to us looking for
a home at Pro Se.
I am constantly in contact with our writers, both those who
have been with us since the start, and those who are coming on board now. I am
actively recruiting when needed while also conducting research and marketing. One
of the biggest aspects of what I do daily is always looking for the next way to
expand, the next way to promote, how to improve what we are doing to make the
company operate better and expose more Pro Se creators to more readers, making
this effort more profitable and beneficial for all.
Amongst all the chaos, I work with the talented formatters
who make our books look good and make sure the books get published. I handle
all the interactions with vendors and other companies with whom we may be
involved. Basically, I do a lot of talking, of pushing and pulling, and putting
a shine on already sparkling work.
You’ve been revered
and sometimes reviled as putting a new addictive product on the street called New Pulp. Considering the never ending
argument between purists and progressives, what is your reaction to the term
and how do you define it?
Well, I always answer this sort of question with a
disclaimer. I am not the guy who invented New Pulp, not anywhere close. Nor am
I the pioneer who ventured into these waters first. In my opinion, New Pulp
started almost immediately after the classic pulp magazines ceased publication.
Writers from those venues moved on to paperbacks, TV, radio, movies, and took
the style they’d developed with them. Also, fans of the classic pulp stories
began writing their own stuff – putting it out there in every possible form
from self-produced fanzines to actually submitting their own characters to
publishing houses, magazines, and more.
As for where New Pulp is today, I fully believe the first
spark came when Joe Gentile started Moonstone Books. Focused on great pulpy
tales and even licensed characters like Kolchak
and The Phantom, Joe really brought
the style of what I call New Pulp to comic books, and then to prose
collections. Not long after Moonstone, other companies popped up, like Ron
Hanna’s Wild Cat Books, who began publishing new characters by great authors,
most notably Barry Reese and the aforementioned Ron Fortier. Then Ron went off
on his own to form Airship 27, and other companies popped such as Pulpwork
Press (which has a great collection of authors, including Derrick Ferguson),
and White Rocket Books, manned by Van Allen Plexico. Then Pro Se came into the
mix. So, I didn’t create or start New Pulp in any way. I just got to be
involved in taking New Pulp to the next level and beyond.
As for how I define New Pulp, I see it as a style of writing
owing a lot to the classic pulp stories written in the early 20th
Century. It is typically fast paced and plot oriented, with over the top larger
than life characters. But New Pulp is also about the language, how the story is
written. New Pulp is heavy with description, even purple to a point as long as
it’s done right and not to bruise like some illegal fight club match. New Pulp
is creative with its manipulation and even mangling of words, sentences,
grammar, and presentation of all the things that make a story.
A number of your
authors regularly appear at the top of many pulp fans Most Wanted lists. How
does that make you feel as you imitate Sisyphus pushing pulp up the mountain
again and again toward a successful tipping point?
I am just glad to be able to be the guy who can say he knew
many of the best future writers of genre fiction when. To be in at the start, or to have a hand in great careers
like Nancy Hansen’s, Nikki Nelson-Hicks’, Logan L. Masterson’s, Nick Piers’,
Chuck Miller’s, J. H. Fleming’s, Frank Schildiner’s, and so many others, that’s
my passion in this.
To also be known as a publisher and a publishing house which
allows writers to write what they want – what other venues won’t let them write
– is icing on the cake. Making money is great, but I have found there are
writers who will write just to get the tales they want to tell out to people
who want to read them – a list of people who have always wanted to write to
names which have dotted best seller lists for years.
I catch a lot of flak from some because I am hesitant to say
I am only in this for the money. Don’t get me wrong. This is now my full paying
job and I want it to stay that way. I want all our writers to one day be able
to do nothing but wordsmithing to put food on the table. But the real drive in
this for me, the real reason I hammer away at what sometimes seems a series of
impenetrable titanium walls, is to see creators get to tell their stories, to
watch as readers uncover new worlds and find themselves in new dimensions. To
be able to say that happens and the Pro Se logo is attached to it, there’s the
payoff.
What is the future of
Pro Se – where do you see the imprint in five years from now, ten years from
now?
Following our second and third five year plans, that’s
really about all I can say…or they’ll have to kill me. And not a specific them, but rather the shadowy, ubiquitous
them…
Thankfully, Pro Se has built a broad foundation, which gives
us a lot of opportunity to grow and go even further. What those who watch will
see in the next little bit will be a focusing of sorts, less of a narrowing,
more of a targeting on certain aspects. Business practices that work, authors who
have an impact, stories and concepts that both entice readers to return, and
risk taking to bring in even more fans. We’ve made a strong move into licensed
concepts and will continue to do so. Pro Se has also opened up a new door by
entering into an agreement with Radio Archives to produce audio books of our
catalog. Essentially, we are taking all the pieces that have worked so far and
focusing on how to make them work even better.
What can we look
forward to from Pro Se in the immediate future?
That answer might require a whole other grilling session. To
get into what we have coming up – with Pro Se having the potential to produce
anywhere from four to ten titles a month – would be a laundry list of wonderful
fiction. It could turn into me being put on a hit list if I left someone off
who was totally deserving of being mentioned. Let’s just say, the books coming
from Pro Se between now and the end of the year literally relate to every genre
one can probably imagine and a couple we’ve invented…
And finally…Tommy?
Tommy? Drat! Sound the alarm, the King of Pulp has just escaped down a tunnel hidden
under his chair…
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER: Novelist,
screenwriter, and television personality, Paul Bishop spent 35 years with the
Los Angeles Police Department where he was twice honored as Detective of the
Year. He continues to work privately as
a deception and interrogation expert. His fifteen novels include five in his
LAPD Homicide Detective Fey Croaker series. His latest novel, Lie Catchers,
begins a new series featuring top LAPD interrogators Ray Pagan and Calamity
Jane Randall.
* AMAZON * LIE CATCHERS *
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comment will be reviewed by the administrator before being posted...