Kevin Paul Shaw Broden - Four Names of Creativity

Author - Artist - Voice Over Actor

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden at Long Beach Comic Expo 2016

The Author of REVENGE OF THE MASKED GHOST will be appearing at the Long Beach Comic Expo

Photos of LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION

Look what arrived just before the New Year – LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION. A massive anthology of the greatest authors and artists in New Pulp. Pick up a copy at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Legends-New-Pulp-Fiction-Fortier/dp/0692601139/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1451628201&sr=1-1&keywords=legends+of+new+pulp+fiction

Legends of New Pulp Fiction

I have an illustration in this book along with other great artists and writers.

Look who made the list

The great author Derrick Ferguson has put together a list of New Pulp Novels he titles: “25 New Pulp Books To Get You Started”

This Friend of the Masked Ghost is greatly honored to be included.

There are a lot of great stories here. Start reading.

“The Crypt”

Been rereading HP Lovecraft this past few weeks. He’s not my normal read, but I like it from time to time. While reading the story “The Tomb” an idea of my own popped in my head whole though the ending surprised me. Wrote it in about three hours, and took a couple of days to edit. It maybe more Bradbury’s Dark Carnival than Lovecraft.  What follows is my very short story (Flash Fiction?) Let me know what you think.

“The Crypt”

by Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

The sun was only minutes from setting when I drove between the freshly white washed walls and rod iron gates. There would be less than half an hour before the caretaker would lock up for the evening so we didn’t have much time.

“Thank you for coming with me Arleen,” I said to my fiancée next to me as we drove between expansive green fields dotted with flat rectangular stones.

“Of course, John. I know family means everything to you.”

“I’m glad you understand. Especially since most of my family is here.”

My car left the newer green lawns behind and pulled on to gravel-covered paths between ancient trees that stood sentinel with weeping branches for those they guarded.

After parking, Arleen and I walked deeper into the darker and older parts of the cemetery.

Before us stood dozens of massive stones, each with my family name etched and carved into the marble and granite with a litany of names and dates. This land had once belonged to my family, and this had been their private graveyard. Over the years as the family spread out, and the population of the town increased, these fields were donated to the community and a necropolis was born.

I led Arleen between the cyclopean monuments, telling her of this great uncle, or that great great-grand father who went insane.

“There seems to be a lot of that in your family tree.”

“What?” I asked with great concern.

“You’re marrying me, aren’t you,” she laughed at her own joke. I did not find it all that funny, but politely smiled.

“Back here we have the oldest of my ancestors. They’re all in the—”

That’s when I saw them.

Three teenage hooligans huddling around iron-gate of my ancestors’ final home. One of them was rattling the lock and chain that sealed the ancient crypt.

“Hey, stay away from there,” Arleen shouted at them, “That’s private property!”

The boys turned at the sound, their faces drawn, eyes sunken; they looked like skeletons freshly up from their graves.

Quickly glancing about I spotted matches, aluminum foil, syringes and the rest of their drug paraphernalia sitting atop cousin Herbert’s stone. I half smiled realizing that if he was alive he’d probably join in their festivities.

The tallest of the three, who perhaps hadn’t yet lost his manhood to the drug, snarled at us. “Whose property? Ain’t nobody here to complain. Go away if you know what’s good for you!”

“This is his family!”

“Oh, it’s his family is it? Maybe he’d like to join them.” At the man’s words the other two pulled out knives.

Arleen now really was scared, but I took her hand and gave it a squeeze of reassurance that everything would be all right.

“You do know there are reasons why that gate is chained and locked up strong,” I said as one of the boys turned back to attempting to break open the old rusted lock.

“Ya, to keep out thieves like him!” Arleen snapped at them with a renewed surge of confidence.

“There ain’t a lot that can keep me out.” The man snarled again.

“Perhaps,” I let him have his ego, “there are some locks that aren’t meant to keep people out, rather they are to keep things from getting out.”

It took a second to sink in to their drug addled brains. The two knife wielding lowlifes looked at me then glanced at the old rusted lock and chain on the crypt’s iron door.

“Follow my lead,” I whispered to Arleen as the leader of the small gang swatted the heads of his compatriots like the stooges they were.

“Don’t listen to him, you fools. He’s just messing with you. There’s nothing there—”

“Shush.”

“Don’t ‘shush’ me!” He snapped back at me.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” I replied matter-of-factly, but stared into the darkness of the crypt behind him and then said; “Go back to sleep, they won’t be bothering you much longer.”

Arleen looking at me like I was crazy, but I again squeezed her hand in reassurance.

“Who the hell are you talking to?” He shouted at me.

I sighed, “You see, my family doesn’t like to be disturbed.”

“Do you think we’re mad?!” He shouted.

“There is little doubt.” I replied with a smirk and then made my eyes go wide with fear and took a step back.

“I warned you,” I said with as much terror I could muster and pointed a long finger toward the crypt behind him.

“Run!” I screamed and pulled Arleen with me. We took off towards the newer plots, but at an angle I could keep an eye on the three drugged out trespassers. They must never have confronted anyone like us before for their leader just stared at us in utter confusion. His lackeys were even more so. One of them must have jumped at my sudden shout and stepped backwards bumping into the rod-iron gate. The rusty old chain rattled into the darkness of the crypt and echoed out against at them like a cold breeze on their necks.

That’s all it took. The three jumped and screamed as one and ran as fast as they ever could. They soon over took us and were many yards a head and running for the exit of the cemetery. Perhaps the caretaker would catch them, perhaps not.

We stopped running and I gave a loud laugh at such a sight.

“That was very cruel to do to them,” Arleen said but couldn’t help laughing herself as we headed back to the stones.

It was then, as the last rays of sunlight faded, we heard the rattle of the chain once more as it fell loose, followed by a low screech of rusted hinges of the ancient iron-gate.

My family had arrived to celebrate our engagement.

The End

Mother of the Universe

Really got a thrill from all the people who liked my blog about Star Wars the other day, thanks a lot.

Tonight’s random thought is about He-Man and The Masters of the Universe.

I haven’t been following the current comic book version of THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE so I don’t know if they’ve cover this in their story, but I had a thought while driving tonight. (Yes, animation from the 1980s fills my mind from time to time).

There could be some really interesting stories told about Prince Adam’s mother. She could be a female Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers.

In the original animated series, we learn that Queen Marlena is actually from Earth. That she was an astronaut on an experimental trip to Europa but was knocked off course and crashed on to Eternia. As the story is told, King Randor finds her and eventually marries her.

That’s nice and romantic, but there is so much more that could be told. An Earth Astronaut (probably with military background) lands on a very alien world would want to know her new home and explore it. There would be many adventures she could have before finally marrying the King. Eventually having children who would become He-Man and She-Ra. She might even oppose the king until she finally falls for him (or he for her.)

As I said, Marlena Glenn (her last name obviously not a random choice for an astronaut) should be a female adventure hero like Flash Gordon on the planet Mongo, or Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

I write New Pulp, stories in the fashion of the old Pulp novels and about adventure heroes of the past, Marlena of Eternia would make a great heroine all on her own right standing up there with some of the greats.

There might also be a romantic triangle between her, King Randor, and the man who would become Skeletor (in some stories he’s Randor’s brother, so this would really work).

As a writer “I have the Power” to create adventure stories like this. I may have let that power go to my head.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity

A Saturday morning thought – Star Wars.

Saturday morning thought:

Thinking of the different outfits Princess Leia wore in the original movies. Most people think of the basic white from the first movie, and then they go directly to the sexy Slave Girl Leia outfit.

But I like her dressed as the bounty hunter “Boushh”, even though you can’t see that it’s her. It is perhaps the most romantic of the outfits, because it shows the effort Leia goes to in order to save the man she loves.

Just my thought for a Saturday morning.

Silly late night comic book thought…

Silly comic book thoughts (not based on any ‘announcement’ or image released today).

If the modern day Batman was became Ra’s Al Ghul in a similar way to whats happening in the ARROW tv series; he would move the entire League of Assassins to Gotham. They would become Batman Inc. and he’d put at least one member on every street corner.

A week later the Joker would have killed half of them with Joker gas.

…Okay, I’m too tired. Going to bed now.

The DC Comics Move

Thinking about DC Comics​ having now moved from New York to Burbank.

Having wanting to work for DC since childhood, I only got to visit their New York offices (666 5th Ave) once.

While on a family vacation we were touring the city, and thought it would be neat to drop off a fan letter directly to the offices. (It was for the first Annual of BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS.)

While touring the city we picked up lemonades from one of the street vendors. Unfortunately, I hadn’t finished mine when we arrived.

“I can’t take my drink into an office building,” and reached out my arm just as I entered. My arm got caught in the revolving door, and my watch was flung across the lobby. (I have no memory of what happened to the lemonade.)

Thank God my wrist wasn’t broken, but it did hurt for days.

Even with that happening, we still went on up to the DC Comics offices.  Being my shy self, and distracted by what had happened to my arm, I was slowly and quietly approached the reception desk. I told them that I had a letter to drop off.

I sat on the lobby couch next to the worlds famous Clark Kent (as many others have mentioned this past week), with the glass table filled with comics in front of me, and eventually got to talk with someone and give in my letter.  I didn’t get a tour or see art work, but it was still a really great time.

Since that time I have gotten to many of the artists and writers who were working for DC at the time.

Now that DC Comics has moved to Burbank, and I’ll be living only a few miles away starting this summer, maybe there is a greater chance for me to work for them.  I promise not to bring lemonade into the office or get hurt while I’m there.

Fashion Design for Flying Glory

Sometime ago JList posted the anime/manga meme image of a girl in a turtleneck sweater withe a keyhole front. It turns out that there is a lot of artwork of girls in these sweaters showing off their assets. Since then a lot of artists have done their own interpretation of the sweater. So, without doing the overt sexuality of it, I wanted to do something with the sweater with my FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY characters.

The band’s costume designer Krystal Wexler has been shown some art designs by Eddie Farmer (Capt’n Plunder of the Villains of Vengeance – stage villains during performances). Eddie is totally into Manga and Anime and designs his own Costplay outfits. So he designed a keyhole sweater based on the internet meme and Krystal liked it enough to make something for Debra (Flying Glory) to wear.

It doesn’t have the same impact as other girls wearing it would. But that’s the point.   Not every super heroine can be Power Girl, and they shouldn’t be.

Anyway, enjoy. Then goes visit the FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY webcomic at www.flying-glory.com

 

“That’s not my Superman” – Did I say that?

“That’s not my Superman”

I’ve heard variations of that mentioned many times before, especially a lot recently. Whether it is his New52 interpretation (and the Earth2 version) or how he appears in the movies. Was about to say it myself today, but caught myself.

What held me back was a memory from many years ago.

I wasn’t a regular Superman reader back then, but I would pick up an issue of Action Comics or his own book from time to time.

One of the books I did read every month was THE NEW TEEN TITIANS. As I was reading their most recent adventure, and all hope looked lost, I turned to the last page and there stood Superman.

(This story by Marv Wolfman stands out as it would lead in to the books first Annual.)

But wait, that didn’t look like Superman to me, but he was of course. The problem being I was use to seeing the Man of Steel being drawn by the legendary Curt Swan. Though I had seen him drawn by other artists, Mr. Swan was the Superman artist to me at the time.

So here was the Man From Krypton drawn by another artist…

None other than the great George Perez.

This is a postcard image by George Perez from 1984, around the time I’m writing about.(Image borrowed from www.VaultCollectables.com)

Here was an artist my young mind thought was fantastic. He certainly drew all of The New Teen Titians in a way that I wished I could draw (and still wish I could), and then when he began CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTH, you couldn’t pull me away from his pages.

But the problem was, his Superman didn’t look anything like the Superman in my head. He didn’t look like Curt Swan’s Superman.

Any you know what, that’s okay. I understood that back then, I really did. I would later come to love not only Perez’s Superman, but also the Man of Steel drawn by John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, and many others. Each had their own Superman, but did they match the Man of Steel in my mind. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But that’s okay.

It goes for Batman as well. There are many great artists who have drawn the Dark Knight; but in my mind there is only one Bat artist and that’s Jim Aparo.

Go find his work if you’ve never seen it. (Check out his Phantom Strange and Specter as well.)

As to interpretations of Superman in other media, I have to be honest; Superman just doesn’t work for me on the big screen. Christopher Reeve’s Superman came out when I was a kid, and as fun a story as it was; the character didn’t do it for me. Reeve’s Clark Kent really didn’t do it for me. (No one can explain to me why he allowed himself to be struck by the taxi when he first got to Metropolis. It is so annoying to me that it takes me out of the movie.)

That all said, my point is; find the Superman you like and continue to enjoy him. You’ve still got his comics in your collection, or can find reprints. But go and search out other versions of the character as well, and you will be surprised by how many of them you like as well. No one said you had to like them all.

New Story: THE COP WHO WOULDN’T DIE

Anyone who follows me on facebook or twitter (or Google+) will know I recently released a new story as an ebook. I really hope to be doing this more often, but for now here’s a little something about this one.

This short story was almost more fun to write than the original novel CLOCKWORK GENIE.

Though it didn’t start off all that fun. I had begun by working up a sequel novel, but all the characters wanted their moment in the spot light and that resulted in distractions from the main plot of the book. So I pruned away some of those side lines and found a very beautiful flower, which I call:

THE COP WHO WOULDN’T DIE: A Clockwork Genie Story

Police Detective Whitney Manning escaped from the horrors of the crimes she witnessed nearly everyday into the fantasy worlds of her books. Then one day, fantasy became all too real when she met a girl with a power genie and her life would never be the same.

Having faced on of the most powerful beings on the planet, and survive battle with a dragon made of living stone, how can Detective Manning return to the everyday world of crime and murder?

She was off duty and wasn’t supposed to be there when the bullet struck her chest. Detective Whitney Manning should be dead.

THE COP WHO WOULDN’T DIE

This is the first short story in a series of stories taking place in the world of CLOCKWORK GENIE, and eventually will all be collected in an anthology.

The next story in the series will be about the handsome homicide Detective Marcus Lambert as he discovers more of the secrets his new wife’s family and the genie of the watch.

After this anthology is complete I will return to the second novel fresh.

To those who have read and enjoyed CLOCKWORK GENIE (which you can purchase at one of the links to the right), let me know which of characters from the book deserves their own short story.

Thank you all again for your support.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

Terror from the Boob Tube – What scared me

I know I’m a couple of weeks late to be writing a Halloween blog about what scare me, but go with me here.

First off I don’t like horror movies, definitely not the modern ones, and certainly not the slasher films. All my teen friends would go see those, and I had no interest at all. Splatter blood across the screen and you’ve lost me.

As a kid I enjoyed monster movies. The original monster movies, if you will, the Universal Monsters at the top of the list. Frankenstein, his Bride, the Wolfman, the Mummy, and Dracula (he got plenty of women and didn’t ever sparkle.) I also enjoyed the b-movie monsters that would follow.

None of those scared me as a kid. I was the Mummy one year for Halloween, and Dracula at least twice.

So what terrified my little mind? Would you believe it was a sitcom?

And it was in all black and white.

This past Wednesday afternoon I tuned into the internet radio show STU’S SHOW. A great program that interviews people from the golden age of television. This episode’s guest was Carl Reiner, actor, writer, director, and producer. The multi-award winning Carl Reiner.

As they were talking about “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, the show Reiner created, a flood of memories struck me.

There are two television programs that terrified the little me of many years ago. Even then both series were in rerun syndication for many years.

One of which was “The Dummy” episode of The Twilight Zone. I always love ventriloquist shows, but the concept of the Dummy coming to life freaked me out; far more so than Talk Tina. She was trying to kill Kojac after all. The Dummy was just plain freaky and scary, and would haunt some of my nightmares.

The other show; really scary to a child who had loving parents, was an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. It was called “It May Look Like A Walnut.” Even thought it was a comedy, it was actually a story about fear, and how television and movies can scare the audience. It begins with Rob and Laura (Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore if you didn’t know) watching a late night movie in bed (let’s not get started on why they were in separate beds), the movie is terrifying Laura but Rob is complete engrossed in it and can’t stop talking about it. The movie is homage to the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (I wouldn’t see that movie till years later). Instead of Pod People, these aliens take over the humans through walnuts. (This has nothing to do with why walnuts are my favorite nuts, right?)

Rob’s obsession eventually goes too far until he dreams that the movie is real and his friends and family have been taken over by the aliens, and the world is filling with walnuts. In one scene Laura parts her hair to reveal to Rob she has eyes in the back of her head. No such eyes are shown on camera, but Rob’s reaction was enough. Even after all these years the terror I had as a child came rushing back seeing it again. Every parents and teacher tells kids they have eyes in the back of the heads, don’t they?

I was frightened because Rob was so scared. Even when he wakes up from this crazy dream, he was acting and feeling the same way I did waking from a nightmare and called out for my mommy.

It was all played for comedy; even with guest star Danny Thomas adding to the laughs, yet it is one of the most frightening shows I had seen in my young life.

Watching that show last night I saw what great quality writing and acting went into to make it dramatically scary while remaining funny all the way through.

Today’s TV shows could learn a lot.

There is also another level of fear that Reiner included in the story, one that he and his fellow writers probably experienced regularly, as do I: the fear of losing his imagination and being unable to write. That would truly be a nightmare.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

(Off to look for walnuts, I’m hungry)

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity

DC Comics on the move – or – Lemonade and Revolving Doors

It has just been announced that DC Comics will be moving and joining the rest of the DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Burbank, CA. (Read the CBR news story here.)

My #Mission818 passion is excited about this news

It also reminds me of when I got to visit the DC Comics offices in New York City when I was a kid.

The family was visiting New York before heading on with the rest of our travels.

Not only was I looking forward to visiting the offices of DC Comics, the publisher of my favorite super heroes, (actually, at that time I was only reading DC,) I also had a fan letter to drop off. It was for Mike W. Barr and the crew of BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS Annual #1. My one and only letter I’ve ever written to a comic.

Long before that time, I knew I wanted to work in comics, so the chance to visit their offices was a dream come true.

We had purchased lemonades from one of the stands at Rockefeller Plaza, and my drink wasn’t finished when we arrived at 666 5th Avenue. I was hesitant about entering the building with the drink. That hesitation caused my arm to get caught in revolving door. Not only did I spill the lemonade (which is what I was worried about happening,) the door yanked my watch completely off my wrist.

My wrist, though not broken, did hurt for days in to the rest of our trip; it didn’t matter a few minutes later when I was sitting next to Clark Kent in the lobby of the DC Comics offices.

Yes, I did deliver my letter (thought it wasn’t published), but that was nothing compared to being inside the company I dreamed of working for someday.

That dream is still alive.

Now, all these years later, DC Comics is moving to be near me. (That has to be the reason, right?) I trust their drawing, writing, and editing hands don’t caught in any doors when they arrive.

As stated many times before in this blog, I have had a passion for DC Comics all my life, and an ever-increasing desire to work for them.

Now that the company is coming to me, I hope my chances are improving.

I won’t bring a drink to the office this time. Promise.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

BLACK FEDORA – “The Man Who Stole Manhattan”

You have read the hero’s story, about how he saved the day and defeated the evil villain. Now it’s time to read the villain’s tale. Who is the man that is performing these most vile deeds?

You’ll get that answer and more in the pages of the Black Fedora.

Black Fedora is an anthology produced by New Pulp publisher Pro Se Productions with tales of the adversaries, or the evil ones, of the super villains.

It is my honor to stand alongside fellow authors B.C. Bell and Philip Drayer Duncan in these pages of crime, under the guiding hand of Tommy Handcock.

“The Man Who Stole Manhattan” is my submission to this collection about a villain who threatens the entire city for reasons known only to his dark heart.

If you pay close attention, you may discover connections to the hidden origins of Flying Glory.

Black Fedora is available in both paperback and ebook formats, at Amazon and Smashwords.

Give it a read and support your local bad guy.

More importantly, support your local author.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

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