Tuesday, January 19, 2016

THE EMPEROR’S AMAZING ADVENTURES

Available in Kindle from Amazon
Click the LINK (in RED text) to go to the book's sales page at Amazon
Charles Lee Jackson II
The Emperor's Gambit
Charles Lee Jackson II
The Emperor Marked for Death
Charles Lee Jackson II
The Emperor & the Masters of Disasters
Charles Lee Jackson II
The Emperor in the Cities of Danger
Charles Lee Jackson II
The Emperor in the Land Of Fire


THE EMPEROR'S SECRET FILES

Charles Lee Jackson II
Blonde Bombshells featuring Shooting Star and Solara
Charles Lee Jackson II
The Mark of Cypher featuring Fireball
Charles Lee Jackson II
The Trail Riders featuring Cassiday, Rafferty & Jones
Charles Lee Jackson II
The Avenger of Olympus featuring Nemesis and Solara
Charles Lee Jackson II
Thunder Bird featuring Thunder Bird
Charles Lee Jackson II
Perils of Kathlyn featuring Kathlyn
Charles Lee Jackson II
Target: Solara featuring Solara
Charles Lee Jackson II
Masked Justice featuring Fireball
Charles Lee Jackson II
Mistress of Darkness featuring Cat's-Eye
Charles Lee Jackson II
Sky Tiger featuring Cassiday, Rafferty & Jones

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Out Now: TARGET: SOLARA [The Emperor’s Secret Files] by Charles Lee Jackson II


Solara flies again!

The blonde bombshell of the Swashbucklers (and who we first met in, of course, Blonde Bombshells), returns in four exciting adventures from The Emperor’s Secret Files! From nuclear threat and earthquake to disaster from the heavens, Solara is on the job, risking her own life to save innocents. From where does Solara come? Not even her own civilian identity, Helia Laurel, knows her secret. But somehow, in times of danger, the blue-and-gold uniform flashes through the sky. Not a rocket... not a meteorite... but an adventuress whose battle against crime and evil makes her Target: Solara.

Finally set up in a new business, Helia Laurel has even hired her first employees. But an emergency client—the notorious Reverend Rosefeld—will cause trouble, placing Helia in immediate danger and sending the entire planet to the brink of disaster, bringing together “Solara and the Ring of Fire”.

Though it's hardly off the ground, Helia Laurel finds her business in ruins, and discovers that her fellow Venus Project astronauts are all being victimized by a super-powered menace that leads to a clash between “Solara and the Goddess of the Moon.”

Helia Laurel, already being plagued by scandalous accusations from a former colleague, finds herself the target of the daughter of one of Solara’s most dangerous foes from her earliest days in action—ghosts from the past, in “Shades of Solara”.

When mob violence wrecks an experimental gravitational device, a captive asteroid careens unfettered toward the Earth! Solara hurtles to the rescue, but vanishes in the attempt, leaving the planet in the path of onrushing doom. What has happened to the blonde bombshell? What will be the outcome for “Solara and the Gravity Telescope”?

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Free Sample Chapter The Story of Batman: The Comics, Serials & Beyond


"Charles Lee Jackson's knowledge of film history is encyclopedic" -Forrest J Ackerman. 

CHAPTER I



WHAT IS it that scares you? I mean, really gives you the willies? In 1939, a young man named Bob Kane thought he knew – at least for one segment of society. "Criminals," he posited, "are a superstitious, cowardly lot...."

He had been asked by Vincent Sullivan, editor at National Comics, to create a brand-new character, a follow-up to the previous year's "Superman". The twenty-two-year old Kane produced a hero who was in many ways the antithesis of the Man of Steel: skilled instead of super-powered, garbed in a costume of black and mauve rather than bright colors, more a man of mystery than a man of action; in short, he would be a perfect lead for National's premiere book, which had been floundering without a strong cover feature. He would be the star and anchor of Detective Comics.

Bob Kane had almost literally grown up with a pencil in his hand. His father had been a printer for the New York Daily News, and had brought home for his son the funny papers, which Kane traced and copied until he could draw the characters as well as some of the original artists. He began his career at the Eisner/Iger studio, doing strips such as "Peter Pupp" for Will Eisner, his former classmate at DeWitt Clinton High School. At seventeen, Kane had gone to the Fleischer Studios, working on "Betty Boop" cartoons. When the studio moved on to the new offices in Florida, Kane decided to stay in New York.

For his new character, Kane drew on several sources of inspiration, including The Shadow, Zorro, and the Scarlet Pimpernel, but the most important was the colorful villain from Mary Roberts Rinehart's popular novel, play, and films: The Bat!

He developed and designed "The Bat-Man" in coöperation with artist Jerry Robinson, and writer Bill Finger, another high school-mate, whom Kane called "...the unsung hero of Batman". It was Finger who, after looking over Kane's tracings of Superman with a domino mask and stiff bat-winged cape, showed the young artist a dictionary sketch of a real bat and suggested the idea of a full-head cowl for the design. He also suggested empty eye-slits to add an air of mystery to this grim figure. So successful was this device that four generations of cartoonists have made it a standard.

Finger's scripts defined all of the classic elements of the "Black Mask" school of fiction in which the Batman worked. Coupled with Kane's stylized, "Dick Tracy"-like art, this produced a classic of American popular art. Batman panels, in fact, hang in the Museum of Modern Art.

Their first collaboration headlined Detective Comics number 27, in May of 1939. This tale, "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate", introduced Police Commissioner James Gordon and his layabout friend, millionaire Bruce Wayne, as well as Wayne's alter-ego, a mysterious vigilante, the "Bat-Man". It would be some time until the Caped Crusader would become an officially recognized law-enforcement official.

The story did not include any indication as to why the Bat-Man fought crime. That explanation waited until Detective 33 (November 1939), in "The Bat-Man Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom", where we learned that, as a child, Wayne had watched his parents gunned down by a robber, and had sworn on their graves that he would not rest as long as there were lawless men preying upon the innocent. He had trained and studied for this crusade, and found himself one evening pondering how to go about his new career. "Criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts," he mused. "I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible...a..a..." Suddenly, through his open window flew "..A bat!" That was it: he would become a bat-man!

Soon, he acquired a companion, in the Boy Wonder, Robin, whose parents, highwire act "the Flying Graysons" had been killed in mid-performance by a gangster attempting extortion on a small circus. Thus young Dick Grayson went through the same nightmare as had Bruce Wayne years earlier. This fact was not lost on the Batman, who enlisted young Dick Grayson's help in wrecking the gang's plans. To disguise Grayson, Wayne presented the boy with a colorful costume and the nom de geurre Robin (named for the robin red-breast the coloring of which his costume mimics, and for the Earl of Huntingdon, Dick Grayson's childhood hero). Later, Wayne arranged for custody of the orphaned Grayson, and Robin became Batman's permanent sidekick.

The Batman quickly rose to the heights of his medium. Only Superman and Fawcett Comics’ Captain Marvel were more popular. And he had something the other two lacked: audience identification. No boy could realistically expect to grow up to be the Man of Steel or the Big Red Cheese; but with luck and pluck, a kid could – just maybe – grow up to be the Batman – could already be Robin.

And fight those amazing villains, another important part of Batman's oeuvre. Foremost of these is the Joker, the Clown Prince of Crime, whose terrifying Pagliacci face was inspired by Gwynplaine, The Man Who Laughs in the film of the same name. The Joker has faced the Batman nearly one hundred times over the years since his introduction in Batman number one (Spring 1940). With one marginal exception, the Joker is Batman's oldest recurring foe.

Faithful Alfred, the Wayne butler, who would become a cornerstone of the Canon, first appeared in Batman number 16, just, as shall become apparent, in the nick of time.

During the period of Batman's rise to fame, his owners were more concerned with the shepherding of their top gun, Superman. They eventually signed a licensing deal with Republic Pictures Corporation for a "Superman" serial, though that arrangement would come to naught. But the other studios had been keenly involved in the bidding, and were on the lookout for hot properties to adapt. And National Comics had this one other superstar...


Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Classic Dark Knight Avenger Profile "The Story of Batman: The Comics, the Serials, and Beyond" Now in Kindle 99 cents

Charles Lee Jackson has revised and updated his legendary Filmfax profile of the Batman phenomenon. 
Now only 99 cents for Kindle at Amazon.com.



BATMAN FOREVER!
Born in the mind of a young comicbook and movie fan in 1939, the character Batman went on to take the world by storm. Donning a costume in the shape of a bat to terrify criminals when he came swooping in out of the night, Batman had to rely on extreme physical training and a lightning-fast mind in his battles with criminals, supervillains and others. Batman's dark, implacable and human vulnerabilities were to make him DC Comics' most beloved hero.

Soon newspapers and movie serial makers wanted to capitalize on the Dark Knight's (as Batman came to be called) popularity. The result was a legendary newspaper series and one of the most memorable Saturday matinee cliffhangers of all time. So popular was the serial that it resulted in a sequel, "Batman and Robin".

Screen historian Charles Lee Jackson II tells the whole exciting story of Batman, from the beginning through the unforgettable 1960s television series to the award-winning animated show to the Dark Knight's latest screen portrayals and comicbook adventures. This unique ebook edition features drawings, stills and posters from Batman’s many incarnations

"Charles Lee Jackson's knowledge of film history is encyclopedic" -Forrest J Ackerman.

Revised, updated edition of an article originally appearing in Filmfax.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

"Solara" Creator Charles Lee Jackson II Talks About the Young Wendy Pini, Her Early Comic Series “The Infinauts,” How She Helped Design the Costume of His Most Famous Heroine







Working with Mac McCaughan and Wendy Pini (then Wendy Fletcher), I had a character and costume design, and now I produced a script and shipped it off to Wendy! It was the first time she ever drew a story from someone else's writing, though she had produced several installments of her own strip, "The Rebels"! As such this story became sort of a landmark for her (as well as being one of the first scripts that I wrote and didn't draw myself)! She stuck to the spirit if not the letter of mv script, and produced a tale that showed her collaboration in both the art and the dialogue!

Read the newest Solara novel, Target: Solara - now in kindle $0.99 or Borrow Free for KindleUnlimited.

Who is Solara? Listen to Charles Lee Jackson II on the Superheroine with the Split Personality

SOLARA - HER DAY JOB DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HER NIGHT JOB IS DOING!

Where does Solara come from? Not even her own civilian identity, Helia Laurel, knows her secret. But somehow, in times of danger, the blue-and-gold uniform flashes through the sky. Not a rocket – not a meteorite – but an adventuress whose battle against crime and evil makes her Target: Solara.






Read the newest Solara novel, Target: Solara - now in kindle $0.99 or Borrow Free for KindleUnlimited.



SEE HOW WENDY PINI DREW SOLARA & HOW CHARLES LEE JACKSON II DRAWS HER


TWO VIEWS OF CHARLES LEE JACKSON II's SUPERHEROINE- SOLARA


Working with Mac McCaughan and Wendy Pini (then Wendy Fletcher), I had a character and costume design, and now I produced a script and shipped it off to Wendy! It was the first time she ever drew a story from someone else's writing, though she had produced several installments of her own strip, "The Rebels"! As such this story became sort of a landmark for her (as well as being one of the first scripts that I wrote and didn't draw myself)! She stuck to the spirit if not the letter of mv script, and produced a tale that showed her collaboration in both the art and the dialogue!
 

Windy Pini's Initial Design.

Charles Lee Jackson II's Final Evolution.


Cover of first Solara solo adventure
Charles Lee Jackson II and Frankie Hill


Solara, the blonde bombshell of the Swashbucklers flies again, in four exciting adventures from “The Emperor’s Secret Files”! From nuclear threat and earthquake to disaster from the heavens, Solara is on the job, risking her own life to save innocents. But from where does Solara come? Not even her own civilian identity, Helia Laurel, knows her secret. But somehow, in times of danger, the blue-and-gold uniform flashes through the sky. Not a rocket – not a meteorite – but an adventuress whose battle against crime and evil makes her Target: Solara.

Read the newest Solara novel, Target: Solara - now in kindle $0.99 or Borrow Free for KindleUnlimited.