Worlds

Here’s a breakdown of all the worlds under discussion within this blog. I don’t intend to make things really confusing for folks; it’s just how my brain works.

My primary work these days is my novel and story writing within my Vanguard universe. It’s a contemporary genre-frappe (little fantasy, lot of conspiracy, bit of thriller, touch of mystery, etc.) that I hope to sell as a mainstream novel series. I have published three short stories within this universe, two of which are available now in the DAW anthologies Fellowship Fantastic and The Dimension Next Door (and a third story in an anthology out next year called Gamer Fantastic).

The gist of it is this–The Vanguard is but one of many magical secret societies in existence. It has been publishing altered accounts of their hidden activities (and the true magical and fantastical history of the world) as pulp, fantasy, and science fiction for decades. The head of the Vanguard also runs a publishing conglomerate as well–which isn’t any more convenient than Batman being a billionaire, really.

That’s the conceit of my site here–most (but not all) of the fictional worlds I’ll talk about are things published by Bulwark Publications, a long-lived corporation (with elements in Britain, Canada, and America across history) that publishes books, games, comics, and once produced pulp magazines back in the day (and dime novels before that). I’ve built in a long and complex publishing and world history, and I’m inviting all of you along for the ride. Or at least as much of the ride as I can reveal without destroying the suspension of disbelief for a story market.

Now here’s where it’ll get tricky (as some may note in one of my initial posts on the Torhanti)–Bulwark has been around for awhile. Unlike most other publishers of fiction, they bought all rights to the fiction they printed in Books Bizarre, Air Thrills, Scarab Stories, and such magazines. This allowed them a long history of using and reusing characters and properties that proved popular to readers. Thus, there are multiple versions of various characters, depending on when and in what medium they were printed. Thus, while MR. CONUNDRUM began in the pulps as a trenchcoated P.I. with supernatural cases, he’s appeared as a superhero in the 1960’s and currently is one of the more powerful mystics in the modern Bulwark Comics universe. Some characters–like ACE BARRIGAN and THE ILLUMINATED MAN–even branched out into audio and video media as radio plays or movie serials.

So, that’s the skinny on the many worlds that will pop up on this blog/website. It’s my tip of the hat to overarching meta-stories I love, be they Phillip Jose Farmer’s Wold Newton work, Edgar Rice Burrough’s introductory conceits (that he was merely transcribing stories told to him by others), or the comics universes I grew up with (in which superheroes licensed the comic books in which their adventures were printed).

So, all that and what are the worlds? Well, here’s a few, and expect more to grow along with reader interest.

VANGUARD–This is the baseline world in which I’m writing much of my current novels and stories. This world is ours, but with magic, altering reality paradigms, and a guarantee that life is far weirder than most people ever conceive of, let alone encounter. Many of the worlds below are part and parcel of the background world built for these tales.

KHARNDAM–a fantasy world begun in 1940 in the pulps; revived for a comic book series from 1968 through 1991; its greatest fanbase currently is in games, as it’s the central world for Guardian Games’ Bulwarks & Boggarts role-playing game system.

WISHLAND–a children’s fantasy setting contemporary with the OZ books (starting in 1897 and continuing in various forms through 1999) but primarily published in Britain; it has seen a resurgence in interest and has returned to print slowly after decades due to the rise of interest in faeries and faerie-lore, into which the series delved quite heavily.

SEVEN CITIES–While not a coherent world, there are seven notable and named cities within all the many Bulwark pulp stories. All seven were cities cursed with trouble, magic, bad luck, or even worse monsters and menaces. The stories of LEXICON JONES, THE REDRESSOR, THE CHANTEUSE, THE ILLUMINATED MAN, ACE BARRIGAN, and many others all took place in these cities, and many still visit FAIRGETH and others today via the Online Thrills online role-playing video game.

GOLDEN AGE–This is a name that came into being later, but suffices to discuss the comics from 1938 through 1958. Three things of note here–1) Dr. Frederick Wertham never published a book called Seduction of the Innocent in this world, so comics never drastically went away as they did in our world in the 1950’s. 2) There are two publishers with two different “universes” in these comics–Bulwark Comics, an American publisher, and Guardian Comics, its Canadian competitor (which was eventually bought out and subsumed into Bulwark Publications by 1959). 3) While Bulwark Comics used many of the same character names from the pulps, the comic writers and artists went off in wildly different directions with them, in effect crafting separate worlds from the same base concepts.

SILVER AGE–These are the Bulwark Comics from the mid-1960’s that continued into the early 1990’s. As DC did with their properties, characters were totally reimagined and reintroduced with old names but new concepts and identities. Eventually, writers revealed that the older Bulwark and Guardian characters from the comics (and the pulps) existed on parallel worlds and had adventures with them as well. When the comics market hit a slump in the early 1990’s, Bulwark brought their comics to a close with a company-wide crossover that used the Norse Gods’ Ragnarok to apparently bring that universe to a destructive end.

MODERN AGE–And as any comics fan will tell you, total destruction never stops a good hero. In 1998, Bulwark Comics revived their publishing with a second total reimagining of their trademarked characters and concepts. Obviously a new universe catering to newer fans, these comics are slowly building their fanbase, all the while luring others back as hints of the previous universes tantalize and tease older fans. Established early on are the existence of parallel universes, so many expect to see the previous four universes cross over into this one eventually.

There are many, many more worlds and universes out there just from the long history of Bulwark Press’ pulp magazines (1927 to 1959 with 21+ titles). Some worlds and universes might only be one story, but some spawn other spin-offs. How many worlds can fit under this idea? As many as can fit inside our heads.

Enjoy, and feel free to ask questions or mention things about which you’re interested in hearing more.