help needed: Weird War/occult Dieselp. books?
Ok, I'm a great fan of all this weird war stuff found in some Dieselpunk related movies and comics.
You know - germans (or any other nation but they are best suited I guess
) trying to gain world domination by using occult and esoteric forces like in Hellboy, in the Indy movies, Captain Gravity, Life Eaters & War Of the Undead comics etc.pp.
With the preferred setting of WW1 or WW2
I don't know that many books and comics dealing with this themes, so maybe some people here can help me out with some recommendations which books and comics I should have to look out for.
The more "fantasy/occult" stuff included - the better (Hellboy has just the right mix, e.g.)
Here's a list of the few stuff I already know.
Books:
The Bloody Red Baron (man, I LOVE this book!!!)
The Judas Cross
The Spear
Devils of D-Day
They Used Dark Forces
some stuff of "G8 and his Battle Aces"
Comics:
Cpt. Gravity
Hellboy & BPRD
The Rocketeer
War of the Undead
The Life-Eaters
I guesss (and hope) there are tons more of this stuff to be found.
Any ideas?
You know - germans (or any other nation but they are best suited I guess
) trying to gain world domination by using occult and esoteric forces like in Hellboy, in the Indy movies, Captain Gravity, Life Eaters & War Of the Undead comics etc.pp.With the preferred setting of WW1 or WW2
I don't know that many books and comics dealing with this themes, so maybe some people here can help me out with some recommendations which books and comics I should have to look out for.
The more "fantasy/occult" stuff included - the better (Hellboy has just the right mix, e.g.)
Here's a list of the few stuff I already know.
Books:
The Bloody Red Baron (man, I LOVE this book!!!)
The Judas Cross
The Spear
Devils of D-Day
They Used Dark Forces
some stuff of "G8 and his Battle Aces"
Comics:
Cpt. Gravity
Hellboy & BPRD
The Rocketeer
War of the Undead
The Life-Eaters
I guesss (and hope) there are tons more of this stuff to be found.
Any ideas?
Comments
One suggestion I can offer though: The Nameless Nazi
Thanks.
But I digress.
I can think of a few off the top of my head (and Amazon.uk) like a new book called Sisterhood of the Rose by Jim Marrs, Midnight Guardian by Sara Jane Stratford and Atomic Robo as well.
And a shameless plug for my own book Tales of the First Occult War.
Aside from 'Devils of D-Day', Masterton also wrote a horror novel called 'Tengu' which is pretty decent stuff. You've mentioned one of Wheatley's 'Gregory Sallust' novels, all of which contain the occult and many of which are set during the war. Then there is a series of novels by David Bishop called 'Fiends of the Eastern Front' about vampires (also a novel about Japanese vampires and a comic book on which the novels were based).
COMICS:
I'm damned if I can remember the name but there was a fairly recent comic featuring angels and the Spear of Destiny. Lots of old British war comics had elements of the weird: human torpedos, Nazi robots at the North Pole, armoured fighting frames, huge bombardment cannons, super-sniper rifles etc. But they're incredibly difficult to find and very badly documented so I can't really point you in any directions. There's '30 Day of Night: Red Snow' about vampires on the Eastern Front, though not everyone likes Ben Templesmith's art style. If you're looking for retro there's the old US series 'The Haunted Tank' about...a haunted tank. Grant Morrison's 'Zenith' is set in the 1980's but has a flashback to the 1940's when Britain's superhero fought Germany's. Alan Moore's 'Top 10: The Forty Niner's' is about superheroes returning home from WW2. Then there is another comic called 'The Lost Squad' which features occultists, spider tanks and so on. Its fairly harmless fun.
AUDIO:
There are also radio dramas. I can think of two, both BBC. 'The Scarifiers' is technically set in the late 1930's but features British occult detectives, secret RAF projects and horrors from beyond the stars. There was another series called 'Slipstream' about a British Commando team hunting a Nazi flying saucer. Neither is brilliant but they're both fairly fun and worth a listen. There is also 'The Quatermass Memoirs' which is a mix of drama and interview with Nigel Kneale who created the Quatermass TV dramas that, whilst set just after WW2, are excellent, very close to the period and are full of interesting material (I can't recommend them enough!)
There are more, plenty more, but I'll have to rack my brains to remember them all. Hope this helps for now.
@xeoran:
Thanks for the detailled reply
I remember seeing "Red Snow" at my local comic dealer but I had completely forgotten about it till your post. So thanks for that. Also "The Lost Squad" I already have seen somewhere ina shelf at the store. Going to check that again. Sounds cool!
When back home I'm going to check out all the other stuff you (and the others) mentioned.
And please - keep your brain rotating until you remember the comic's name you mentioned (the one with the Spear). THAT sounds great!
edit:
if any german people here on the forum are reading this - if you're looking for a fantastic audioplay with such a theme, look out for the series "Die Schwarze Sonne"
http://www.die-schwarze-sonne.de/
A haunting series spanning from the 19th century over to the present time and incorporating lovecraftian stuff as well as the mentioned occult WW2 issues. The story is told with three timelines all having to do with the greater plot. Absolutely brilliant speakers, good music etc.
Ditto for any other Gatehouse members in good standing, just let me know.
I loved Zenith - for those not in the know, think Watchmen set in the UK at the end of the 20th Century. Also out at the same time in one of 2000AD's sister publications, and linked to it, was The New Statesmen, set in the USA.
"Crete" is great. Due to the island invasion theme is gets a form "Navarone meets Occult" touch (I love that one!!!). And you did a great job in describing the the main character Gio. I will have to be finishing the other book I'm reading now to then read the pdf completely!
Thanks again!
btw - where is the cover art (seen on amazon) taken from?
oh, and feedback is the minimum I can give you back for giving out the pdf
You have a very, hmmm... how to say...?, illustrative way of writing and the stories directly were somewhat visible in my imaginery.
Further I highly enjoyed that you weaved many different aspects of mythology into the stories and didn't just took "standard" approaches (in terms of: germans sticking only to norse myths, e.g.).
Besides the already mentioned "Crete", my fave stories were:
"Lemnos" with the cool idea of Hephaestus' automatons (oh, and I, too, am using Sebottendorf as a character in the novel I'm writing on since Nov. 2008, hehe - a person with great "fictional potential").
and
"Palestine". With the QNG you have created something with a lot of further potential in my opinion. I can see comics or even animated series showing the missions of the QNG! besides that the overall story was just great and finely crafted!
Also the basic ideas behind the "London" and "Los Angeles" stories were very cool.
Those I didn't like so much (but they were still at least quite good) were "Brcko" and "Moscow". "Brcko" wasn't somewhat deep enough imo and regarding "Moscow" - I personally am just a bit tired of the whole "undead" thing ;-)
Oh, but I loved the appearance of P38 Lightnings in Brcko - my fave fighting aeroplane
So, I hope you are going to write a lot more and maybe even a "full" novel. Palestine for instance offers great possibilities of becoming a "full length" (again - imo...)
As for the QNG....stay tuned, they will be breaking out on their own very, very soon.
Lamas Night, by Kathy Kurtz.
It deals with British occult groups attempting to create a cone of protection over the British Isles. The reasoning behind it is that the German High Command may attempt to use occult methods to boost the efforts of the London bombings.
Pulp Heroes: More Than Mortal. Not really an occult novel. It's more of a pastiche pulp novel where the author's versions of Doc Savage, The Spider, The Shadow, and, The Avenger, must unite to fight off the author's version of The Red Skull.
IMO, the best pulp pastiche ever written.
Hey, thanks. Both (esp. the first one) sound exactly like my cup of dark, weird tea
Going to put them on my books-to-buy list right away!
A somewhat different take on what your looking for can be found in Paul Wilson's The Keep.
A unit of SS is sent to route out resistance in Romania and sets their headquarters is an old, wait for it, keep.
Through their own stupidity they release the being that has been held there for a very very long time.
And no, it is not a vampire. It is something worse.