Monday, January 01, 2007

My Favorite Fictional Characters - The Guilty Pleasures List

Some of my friends have been posting lists of favorite fictional characters. I thought I'd mention a few of my favorites who are fun but at least guilty pleasures of a sort.

1. Vampirella - originally a black-and-white Warren comic magazine sensation but also the star of some great paperback novels by Ron Goulart. She's a sexy vampire from the planet Draculon. She battles Cthulhu like monsters and pre-dates most of today's paranormal fantasy by many years.

2. Schlock Homes - a goofy Sherlocks Holmes take off by Robert L. Fish and frequently featured once upon a time in the pages of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

3. Remo Williams, The Destroyer - pulp paperback parody hero - light hearted and clever in the hands of the original authors.

4. Ed Noon - creation of the Michael Avalone, fastest typewriter in the East, maligned in the pages of Gun in Cheek, but loads of fun whether spying for the president or solving hardboiled mysteries including his first, The Tall Dolores.

5. Edge - Cowboy tales penned by a Brit and probably later a host of house authors, the Edge series is over the top, violent and his adventures are often impossible to put down. Think Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name as a comic book written in prose. Tougher than hard boiled, meaner than Mickey Spillane and sometimes featuring weird in jokes. In one adventure Edge encounters three Pinkerton agents named things like Lou Archer, Phil Marlowe and Samuel Spade or something like that.

6 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I also remember Vampirilla and Remo Williams with fondness. My favorite Destroyer book was "Mugger Blood," #30. It was absolutely hilarious. I've read a few of the Edge books but I still have a bunch of others lying around the house. Bought like 50 of them once at a book sale.

Sidney said...

My favorite Destroyer is propbably No. 25, "Sweet Dreams," in which a mad scientist creates a device that puts people's fantasies on a television screen.

It touches off wild competition and conspiracies. Loads of laughs and excitement.

The 20s and 30s in the series are probably some of the best where the formula was at its best.

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

i had forgotten that vampirealla was from another planet. i'd like to know more about this ed noon fellow.

Clifford said...

Us diehard fans call her "Vampi". Rhymes with "Trampy", though that's just a strange coincidence!

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

My god..I remember the Schlok Homes. Fish was incredibly fun. As was the Solar Pons series that was written by Derelith, if I am not mistaken.

I also remember something awful: Oy Oy Seven, Israeli Secret Agent. I believe the book was some abomination called: "Loxfinger".

Sidney said...

I i have not read "Loxfinger" but I like Solar Pons. While they mimic the Sherlock Holmes stories they also have a quality of their own that sets them apart from the average pastiche.

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