I was looking at the comments for that post and Alan Blank posted his review of the series on Goodreads which can be found here
In that review he mentions Simon Spector, a character I'd never heard of - a modern pulp character I'd never heard of. Naturally, this was something that had to be rectified.
Simon Spector was part of Ellis' Apparat line for Avatar Comics. The quick version is Ellis had a thought experiment - what if the pulp influence on comics was a little stronger and superheroes hadn't been as dominant. What might comics of various pulp genres look like? Science Fiction adventure, detective stories, aviator adventures and pulp vigilantes were the four genres picked and Angel Stomp Future, Frank Ironwine, Quit City and Simon Spector were the results.
Four one shots - it sounded intriguing. If I could find Simon Spector I wasn't off on a long term quest it was one and done. If I liked it then there were three more of similar style to track down.
And I found a reasonably priced copy and promptly bought it.
In the back of the book, Ellis talks of his inspiration for the line and this book in particular. How he would read Doc Savage, The Shadow and The Spider and speculate about the pharmacutical assistance these heroes must have.
It's an interesting idea, not one I'd be keen to see used for a proper Doc Savage or Shadow adventure but intriguing.
In fact now that I think about it, Ellis is running not quite in the same groove as Philip Jose Farmer in A Feast Unknown but a parallel track. Farmer isn't mentioned in his essay but ......
Simon Spector is a modern day riff on Doc Savage. He operates out what appears to be the spire at the top of the Chrysler Building.
The story opens when a woman comes to Spector's office telling about her kidnapped husband who works for a weapons manufacturer. She mentions that one of the kidnappers was named Cristos.
Cristos we discover is Spector's archenemy who was believed dead (first villian rule - if you don't see a body they are not dead) when the plane which he was locked in the cockpit crashed.
Spector takes a pill that effectively speeds up his brain (Not unlike NZT in Limitless movie and TV series and the drug in Lucy) There's a nice five page sequence after he takes the pill, where he asks for the lady's address and through deduction and knowledge of Cristos' MO is able to determine the villian's lair.
Spector grabs his custom made weapons (because a number of pulp vigilantes had custom made weapons) made with his parent's wedding rings.
He then makes his way to the hideout, where he battles Cristos.
There's a surprise or two in the confrontation that I won't spoil.
I really loved this book - it was perfectly self contained giving us everything we need to know about Simon Spector yet also managing to tantalise us with hints of a larger story. We don't know what happened to his parents, the nature of his earlier encounters with Cristos, what other villians has he faced, does he always need the tablets? Where did he meet his bodyguard and his doctor? Is Simon Spector his real name?
You could write a whole series of hundreds of adventures with this character and yet in this single adventure we know all that we need.
This was a really good comic I enjoyed it immensely. I'll have to see if I can find the other three Apparat books.
