MEET THE FIRST NON-COSTUMED SUPERHERO: CHARLES LEE JACKSON II'S "THE EMPEROR"!

"Costumed superheroes, fast-paced action, and plots that will knock your  socks off! The 'Emperor' novels are fun, snappy, and a reflection of  the pulp fiction that readers have read and loved for decades. Jackson couples original characters with seductive situations that will have you  on the edge of your seat."
–J. D. Crayne, author, How to Bonk a Zombie.

Are you a fan of Superman, Captain America, the Flash, the Avengers. Doc Savage, and other superheroes? Then prepare to enter a world of adventure and danger, the world of a hero unequaled since the days of the movie serials, of comic books, and the yellowed pages of the pulp magazines. 

He could leap tall buildings, if he wanted to. He is nearly invulnerable, but doesn't like to show off. He is super-strong, super-smart, super-fast. But he'd rather wine and dine beautiful women than pummel bad guys.

But watch out, bad guys. Once he gets you in his sights…   

He's the Emperor, the world's first non-costumed superhero. Born in an underground comic in the 1960s, he's now featured in his own series of pulp novels.

A debonair crimefighter, head of an intrepid band of adventurers, the Emperor fights evil where ever it may arise. Able to pass unsuspected through any security or fortification, he has outwitted and outfought the cleverest and most deadly enemies. The Emperor’s exploits put those of James Bond, Jack Reacher, and those two men from U.N.C.L.E. to shame.   

Book One, The Emperor's Gambit, showcases four amazing adventures of The Emperor, as he and his able corps of agents fight international criminals, foreign terrorists, space aliens, and a madman with the gloves Thor used to wield Mjolnir, his mighty hammer! 

Don't miss this underground pulp and comic book sensation–now in book form. For forty years, Charles Lee Jackson II has been producing a body of work unprecedented in the annals of pulp magazines and comics. He has garnered a fanatic body of followers and admirers–but his work has never been made available to a mass audience before! Begin the adventure here, with the first volume of stories featuring Jackson's legendary cliffhanger hero in his fight against the forces of evil.

"Combines the best of heady 60s and 70s spy adventure with the breakneck pace and scale of the great Republic serials, with a wry sense of good humor that rivals Napoleon Solo's best lines."
–Steve Latshaw, screenwriter, Stan Lee's Lightspeed, and director, Return of the Killer Shrews.

Click here to buy Book One, The Emperor's Gambit, for Kindle only 99 cents.

Click here to read a free sample chapter of The Emperor's Gambit.

AND DON'T MISS...

HOW THE SERIAL "FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE" WAS MADE - PLUS FREE ALL 12 CHAPTERS

The following is excerpted from film historian Charles Lee Jackson II's ebook, The Story of the Making of the Flash Gordon Movie Serials, expanded from his classic Filmfax article.

Buy it now for only 99 cents in Kindle at Amazon.

 
   Plans for a sequel to 1939's Buck Rogers were scrapped when the public cried out for Buster Crabbe, who had also played Buck, to resume his "proper" role, and MacRae soon began work on the third and last in the series, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, to be released in late winter 1940.
  With MacRae back in charge, authenticity was again in the ascendant. In four years the strip had matured into one of the most beautifully drawn features on the comics pages, and this was reflected in the designs of the serial, making it one of the most opulent chapter-plays ever. Each of the main protagonists got several changes of wardrobe, with Dale seeming to get a new outfit every couple of chapters. Ming exchanged his robes for a tailored military uniform, and the Arborians all wore snazzy Merry Men cast-offs.

   Writers Plympton and Dickey returned, joined by Barry Shipman. Possibly to avoid mentioning "Trip to Mars", the script contains no direct references to earlier adventures, just a few general remarks. Ray Taylor also came back, to officially co-direct with Ford Beebe. The two teamed much in the same manner as Republic's Bill Witney and Jack English, alternating shooting days.

Standing sets from Green Hell and Tower of London, recently vacated, were pressed into service, and an assortment of movable wall flats were juggled and augmented with lighting effects to provide corridors. The impressive cliffs of Red Rock Canyon, just north of Mojave, and various back-lot areas were used for exteriors. One section of studio hillside was silvered up to match stock footage from the German The White Hell of Pitz Palü (which Universal had released in 1930, with an added sound and music track) for an arduous trek into forbidding Frigia, the polar land on Mongo. Jerome Ash and Eddie Keyes' miniatures rounded out the landscape, as well as the skyscapes with an assortment of new and old rocket ships.

Another lavish element is the sound track, with its variety of ray-gun blasts, explosions, and rocket motors. And the music – beginning with a rousing excerpt from "Les Preludes" by Franz Liszt behind the Main Titles and including newly orchestrated pieces originally heard in features such as Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, and Tower of London – makes the film as delightful to the ears as to the eyes.

A MacRae innovation that had previously seen service in Buck Rogers and other titles was the receding roll-up foreword, in which paragraphs of re-capitulation scroll up the screen and angle away from the viewer toward the upper frame line. George Lucas liked this so much that he later used an animated version for the "Star Wars" series.

Buy the full ebook The Making of the Flash Gordon Serials for only 99 cents! Click here.

To see Chapters 6-10 and read more of How the Serial "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe" Was Made click here.

HOW THE SERIAL "FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE" WAS MADE - PLUS WATCH CHAPTERS 6-10

The following is excerpted from film historian Charles Lee Jackson II's ebook, The Story of the Making of the Flash Gordon Movie Serials, expanded from his classic Filmfax article.

Buy it now for only 99 cents in Kindle at Amazon.

Casting was mostly easy: the principals returned, though Jean Rogers, who was by then at 20th Century-Fox, was unavailable (She later moved to M-G-M, where she attracted the eye of Louis B. Mayer [sound familiar?], whose advances she rebuffed). Pretty Carol Hughes, an ingénue from RKO and Warners, assumed the part of Dale Arden, and acquitted herself well, looking as much like Dale as Buster did Flash. Society-type player Roland Drew replaced Richard Alexander as Barin, who had slimmed down after settling into married life with Aura, now Shirley Deane. Republic cliffhanger star Lee Powell appeared as back-up hero Roka, and Donald Curtis (later of films such as It Came from Beneath the Sea) was Frigian Captain Ronal. William Royle, about to step into the shoes of Nayland Smith in Drums of Fu Manchu, played a Barin sympathizer in Ming's guard. Stocky Don Rowan was Torch, who had been (as Earl Askem) a mere officer in Flash Gordon, now Ming's trusted Captain. Veterans Byron Foulger, Michael Mark, Ben Taggart, Tom Chatterton, and Herbert Rawlinson, and comparative newcomers like Edgar Edwards and Jeanne Kelly (who was re-christened “Jean Brooks” at RKO Radio – as though someone might confuse her with a certain Metro dancer), as well as favorites Ernie Adams, Ray Mala, and Roy Barcroft in the fairly large cast.

Anne Gwynne, a rising starlet, got the bad-girl role as Lady Sonja. Sonja, carried over from the strip, had been a minor character who had loved Flash, but when rebuffed, allied herself with Ming. She aided the emperor in an escape in exchange for a promise of marriage. He made good his promise – but promptly had the new empress executed. That’s Ming for you. She fared little better on screen, though Gwynne went on to a career in Universal programmers, and still made an attractive star as late as 1958’s Meteor Monster.

Shooting commenced at the end of November 1939, with location work at Red Rock Canyon, the popular shooting location north of Hollywood. Delayed by bad weather, the unit never did quite catch up, even with the prodigious amount of scenes made back at the studio (and even with a second unit added to the picture), and MacRae’s continued efforts to trim the picture’s sequences. The picture closed $8000 over its $165,000 budget.

But the public knew nothing of these trials and tribulations; in fact, they got an added bonus in the "Flash Gordon" daily strip, which began while the serial was playing in theatres.

Buy the full ebook The Making of the Flash Gordon Serials for only 99 cents! Click here.

To see Chapters 11-12 and read more of How the Serial "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe" Was Made.click here.

HOW THE SERIAL "FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE" WAS MADE - FREE SEE CHAPTERS 11-12

The following is excerpted from film historian Charles Lee Jackson II's ebook, The Story of the Making of the Flash Gordon Movie Serials, expanded from his classic Filmfax article.

Buy it now for only 99 cents in Kindle at Amazon.

When the Earth finds itself the victim of a mysterious plague, the "Purple Death", Dr. Zarkov, suspecting interplanetary foul play, ascends once again like Little Eva to the heavens, accompanied of course by Flash and Dale. On Mongo, Flash learns that Ming has again seized power, and is indeed responsible for the Purple Death – which kills only intellectuals, leaving the Great Unwashed Masses ready for enslavement.

Zarkov determines that a mineral found only in the frozen north of Mongo can be used to make a cure, and, with Queen Fria's blessing, the adventurers and their new friends rocket to icy Frigia. Without protection (of course invented by Zarkov), Ming's men cannot venture there, so they send "annihilatons", walking bombs, to destroy the good guys.

Ming's forces fail, and Zarkov saves Earth, but Flash and company must return to Mongo to foil additional plans of their enemy. After a sojourn in the Land of the Dead (home of the aboriginal Rock Men), and despite the counter-plots of the evil Sonja, posing as one of Aura's courtiers, Flash eventually corners Ming in his tower. When Captain Sudin, supposedly Ming's trusted guard, locks him in, the emperor is helpless as an explosive-laden rocket homes in on the tower. (A line of dialogue was included to indicate that there was another way out, if only Ming weren't too terror-stricken to think of it – in case a fourth serial was made.)

Patting each other on the backs, the heroes prepare to return home. Told that he's saved the universe, Flash reminds his friends that Ming claimed in his mad ambition to be the universe. So Zarkov decides he'll radio Earth, "Flash Gordon conquers the universe". Wow.

Buy the full ebook The Making of the Flash Gordon Serials for only 99 cents! Click here.

New Blurb for "Trail Riders"

   If you liked "The Three Mesquiteers," "The Range Riders," and other classic Western movies, you will love reading this homage from the amazing imagination of Charles Lee Jackson II.

   Some of the roaring in the Roaring Twenties was from six-guns! At the end of WWI, three

soldiers set out to bring law and order to still-untamed reaches of the West. US Marshal Kit Cassiday, his singing sidekick Slim Rafferty, and their comical partner, Alibi Jones, earn a reputation for protecting the innocent and fighting villains—whether those villains break the law or hide behind it. Dubbed "The Trail Riders" and mounted on their faithful steeds, Gent, Duster, and Unk, these three out-ride, out-shoot, and out-think train robbers, cattle rustlers, claim jumpers, and other lawbreakers.

   Their rootin’-tootin’, rip-snortin’, gun-slingin’ adventures begin in "The Secret of Cibola," when Kit and Slim come to the aid of their old pal Alibi, who's been accused of robbery and murder. Next Slim and Alibi land in plenty of trouble when an entire train is stolen right out from under them—but Kit helps uncover the astounding how and why as they seek the “Train to Los Padres”. Then the trio investigates spooky doings when a herd of cattle vanishes into thin air, seemingly the loot of “Phantom Rustlers”. Finally, when the mail doesn't go through, and the US Mail driver is missing, the boys become "Cowboy Couriers", only to be drawn into a deadly trap by a very pretty young woman…

   More exciting adventures set in Charles Lee Jackson II's pulp and comic book inspired "Emperorverse," which has been compared to Lester Dent's over-the-top, widely beloved Doc Savage adventures. This new pulp novel, drawn from the Emperor's Secret Files, features a youthful Kit Cassiday, the retired lawman who many years later would sell the Emperor his Three-bar-R ranch and become one of his trusted advisers.

Read Trail Riders for only 99 cents at Amazon. Click on this line.

Emperor Forerunners: Saturday Matinee Cliffhangers - The Fighting Devil Dogs

"Westerns and serials in cinema were always interconnected in the "Golden Age" of motion pictures, and the best of them combined solid, if shallow, storylines with slam-bang action, and some of the best of these had their influences on my style. B-westerns routinely showed that action, romance, comedy, and even music could be mixed to provide great entertainment. Among serials, Republic's 1938 The Fighting Devil Dogs (with its fantastic villain, The Lightning),  helped me envision a milieu of heroes, villains, and plots that go beyond those influences but remember their past, and The Emperor owes The Fighting Devil Dogs a tip of the crown." - Charles Lee Jackson II

The Fighting Devil Dogs (1938) was a 12 chapter movie serial focusing on the efforts of two Marines to stop a terrorist with a taste for mass slaughter. As heroes, it featured Lee Powell (cinema's first Lone Ranger, who later starred in the "Frontier Marshals" movie series) and Olympic medal winner Herman Brix (who would experience much greater cinematic success when he changed his name to Bruce Bennett, appearing in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Mildred Pierce, and Dark Passage). Fighting Devil Dogs was a Republic serial, directed by that able and ubiquitous pair William Witney and John English.

However, as Charlie said, The Fighting Devil Dogs, is famed among aficionados for introducing "The Lightning," said to be the first costumed villain, whose distinctive head gear and cloak could easily have inspired Darth Vader's.

For masked villains, edge-of-the-seat action, and movie serial thrills check out Charles Lee Jackson II's homage to cliffhangers and B-movies,  The Emperor's Gambit. A 1960s hero and his intrepid band of adventurers battle a worldwide conspiracy.

 
 "Nonstop action, thriller fans will love it." -Joe Vadalma, author of The Chronicles of Morgaine the Witch.
 

Click here to begin reading Charles Lee Jackson's The Emperor Marked for Death - On sale now  only $0.99 in Kindle from Amazon. Save $3.00