Tag: Hercules the Legendary Journeys

Hercules Versus

Hercules being pushed down by vampire woman.

Hercules is back! My old friend Rik Hoskin has just released the first novel in a whole brand new series of fantasy adventures. It follows the adventures of the legendary strongman and adventurer as he travels across the ancient world, protecting the weak while battling monsters and supernatural evils. Six books are already plans with intentions for more.

Book cover for 'Hercules Versus Vampires' featuring a muscular man resembling Hercules, a woman in a flowing dress, and eerie figures in the background. The title and author's name are prominently displayed.

The series opens with Hercules Versus Vampires. Hercules washes up at the island port of Baltus as a broken man. His legendary Labors behind him, he’s disillusioned and desires only to be left alone. But when he stumbles into a town where supernatural abductions are commonplace, and whose residents live in nightly fear, Hercules must once again find the hero within—or die trying!

Frequent readers of this blog will know Rik’s work. A New York Times bestselling author, and an award winner thanks to his graphic novel adaptation of Brandon Sanderson’s White Sands. He is a superb ideas man and depictor of action sequences. His characters are rich and dynamic. Hercules is a character he has enjoyed since he was a boy and these books are a dream project for him. He’s written many books for the Deathlands and Outlanders ranges of pulp novels, moving from guest writer to editor and principle writer, under the name James Axler. Amongst the franchises he’s written for are Star Wars, Doctor Who, Disney Princesses and Wallace and Gromit. Not to mention original novels like Bystander 27, a comic strip adaptation of stories from the the Mahabharata, The Vampire Invasion and numerous horror stort stories. I’ve not even mentioned the Terror Trumps card game yet. He’s also been a recurring guest on my podcast Very British Futures.

“Pal” Nick Taylor produced the cover sketches, whilst Sachin Nagar and Kewber Baal provided the marvellous cover paintings.

Hercules is one of the defining figures of Western mythology since ancient times. His name of course the Roman variation of Heracles from the antient Greek tales, who was worshipped as a god. This hero has been reinterpreted many times. In the 20th century, there was a whole Italian film industry built on him and similar strongmen, most famously portrayed by Steve Reeves, although I have fondness for Yorkshire bodybuilder Reg Park and his laid back appearances as the character. Marvel Comics added him to their roster of heroes. In the 90s Hercules: The Legendary Journeys was a big hit, whilst Disney made a movie about him that in time became a Broadway musical.

Read all about Hercules Versus at the dedicated website https://herculesversus.com Hercules Versus are available to buy on ebook and paperback from Amazon New titles will be appearing every two weeks. I’ve bought the first one and I’ll be publishing a review before too long.

April 2016 news round-up

It’s time for another quick collection of announcements about what my friends and I have been up to creatively and in some cases professionally too.

Last year I did an email interview about my times with BBV and writing three Doctor Who spin-offs, for a chap called Dylan Rees. Dylan is writing a book about the vibrant audio and video spin-off market which arose from the final years of the show’s original run and filled in the so-called “wilderness years” between the original and the revived versions of Doctor Who. It will be published later this year by Obverse Books. I’m looking forward to it, not just as a contributor but as a fan of that era. The cover has been already been released:

Downtimefrontcover-602x720

Notice Sylvester as The Foot Doctor on the cover too! You can pre-order it from Obverse Books now. I’ll review once it is out.

My ever busy mate Rik Hoskin has had several projects out recently, including the first of a new range e-books based on 90’s cult TV show Hercules – The Legendary Journeys. I enjoyed Storming Paradise enormously. It captures the feel of the show very well. You can try a sample and order it from Amazon. He’s also written a second motion comic episode of Wolfblood, the hit BBC children’s series about werewolves. You can watch a trailer of it here at the BBC website.

Finally I recently made a new trailer for the next Bolton Little Theatre production. Taking Sides by Ronald Harwood is an excellent drama based on real events surrounding a US army investigation into suspected Nazi party members, following Germany’s surrender in WWII. Was famous conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler just a patriot on the losing side of the war, or an active member of the Nazi party? Colonel Arnold, traumatised by witnessing the aftermath of Auschwitz, is determined to find some culprits. For this trailer I decided to create a movie style one which sold the story, rather than a behind the scenes talking head piece. The results I think are pretty successful and I intend to make all subsequent BLT trailers story based too.