Broken Frontier

Comic book writers and artists band together in a Pulp-y mass to help artist Josh Medors battle cancer.

The comic book business is a difficult one as many people know. For freelance artists and writers, healthcare costs alone can prove to be daunting let alone facing the specter of what might happen should they actually get sick. This year it was made public that artist Josh Medors was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. In true heroic spirit, the comic book community has already held several benefits and auctions and now publisher Boom! Studios steps into the ring with all proceeds from Pulp Tales going to help defray the costs of Medors’ medical bills.

Although nowadays the term "Pulp" is most often associated with crime fiction and private eyes, in the heyday there were pulps devoted to the "masked heroes" like the Shadow and the Green Hornet, adventure pulps featuring characters like Doc Savage, Sci-Fi pulps filled with strange worlds and rocket ships with fins, even Western and Horror pulps. Returning to that spirit, the writers and artists of Pulp Tales have written five stories in five different genres. There is B. Clay Moore’s satirical take on Doc Savage "Blue Jacket", Josh Fialkov’s over the top Western pastiche "Newt Lawman and the Secrets of the Valley – Chapter XV: Apache Rising", Kody Chamberlain’s masked hero story "The Crescent Flame", Tony Fleecs’ light parody of the hardboiled private eye genre "Crash Winters: Palooka P.I. – Chapter 8: Fallen Angels", and Steve Niles’ dead on target horror story done as an illustrated prose piece "Limbo’s Assassin". Each writer is at the top of the game, artfully crafting satires, pastiches, parodies, homages and more. In fact, if there is any complaint to be made, it is that each story is so good, the aim so dead on that the reader is left actually wanting more. The stories fly by so quickly that it is a shame to actually reach the end of the book. Out of all the stories, though, it must be said that Niles’ piece is the most complete – instead of just a quick tale, a little glimpse into a pulp genre – he delivers a short but fully satisfying story with a beginning, middle and an end.

Arrayed with every writer is an equally talented artist – although it must be said that Kody Chamberlain and Tony Fleecs are both writers and artists for their pieces. In particular, Andy B.’s work on the "Newt Lawman" story is immensely fun if for no other reason than he uses simple perspective and coloring tricks to give each panel a 3-D effect – no glasses needed! Chris Samnee also uses a slightly old-fashioned artistic style that merges the modern with the grace and action of classic Alex Raymond. While these two artists looked a little bit to the past for inspiration, Chamberlain kept to a more modern, spare style that echoes the work of Mike Mignola while Tony Fleecs’ went in an opposite direction and gave his Palooka P.I. a very cartoony style. Sarah Wilkerson provides only a couple of images for Niles’ story but they are detailed, dreamy, and haunting bits.

It is a tribute to the history of the pulps that the style can be bent, twisted, poked, prodded and teased here and yet it lends itself to all of it wonderfully. This collection of writers and artists display a good humor but also a love of the genre and style given freedom. In addition to all of that, the proceeds go to a good cause making this a rare thing – a guilt free comic.