Hard-boiled Surf Pulp

From Pacific-Noir Pulp Press
http://pacificnoirpulp.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/a-new-hard-boiled-action-packed-pulp-fiction-series/

An Article on Hard-boiled Surf Pulp Fiction’s Editor Craig Lockwood and Creative Director Rick Rietveld
THE BIG AWAKENING: NOTHING BUT THE FICTION
By Jon Cohen

Name’s Lockwood. Craig Lockwood. Local surfer from Laguna. Grows up to be an ink-stained wretch. Cuts his teeth at the Laguna Beach Post, then the Times-Mirror, as an editor at SURFING Magazine, stringer for Associated Press, Reuters and younameit, covering wars and revolutions everywhere from Southeast Asia to Central Asia, including Afghanistan and—

“All the bumfuckistans,” says Lockwood. “I seem to have a certain affinity for belted ammo and tracked vehicles.”

He writes several books exploring cults, street gangs and Hollywood mobster Mickey Cohen. But he never stops scribbling about his first love, surfing. Now Lockwood is merging fact with fiction in a new magazine, Hard-boiled Surf Pulp Fiction.

“Written for everyone who surfs,” he says.

Lockwood realizes that many surfers will have no idea what pulp fiction is, aside from the Quentin Tarantino movie by the same name. So he wants it known that in earlier times pulp was cranked out by great writers: Raymond Chandler, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ring Lardner, Dashiell Hammett. “Spicy romance, spicy detective,” Lockwood says. The short stories and novels also featured graphic illustrations. “They were the soft porn of their day, and the girls were charmingly dishabille. There’s a French word you don’t often hear.”

Lockwood (whose surf-related nonfiction book, Peanuts: Exploring Legend, Myth and Archetype in California’s Surf Culture was featured in the January 7 Wave Lines, and heralded as “This year’s best book on Surfing” by the Surfer’s Journal, 2010) is still putting the finishing touches on his soon-to-debut magazine, which he plans to sell as an e-zine on the Internet and as a print version on HYPERLINK “http://Amazon.com/”Amazon.com and in select surf shops and bookstores.

He believes that because so few venues exist for surf fiction, Hard Boiled Surf Pulp Fiction will build a loyal following. “We get to sow all our fantasy daisyfields when we write and read fiction,” says Lockwood. “If it’s well written, it will work, especially the stuff that has edge and is a little dark.”

The first issue will offer Lockwood’s novella, The Big Deep— a pun on Raymond Chandler’s classic pulp novel, The Big Sleep. Lockwood’s version chronicles the woes of surf-detective Sam Sand.

“Things are always going wrong for him,” Lockwood says.

Other stories in the magazine’s first issue include a sexually smoky yarn based in the Siargao Islands near the Philippines, and one set in outer space (a cadet gets in trouble surfing another moon).

“This isn’t about creating something that will be acceptable in a middle school library.”

For the new publishing house, Pacific-Noir Pulp Press, ®, Lockwood has teamed up with veteran surf artist Rick Rietveld. A co-founder of Maui and Sons, Rietveld designed that company’s well known cookie logo and Sharkman icon, went on to illustrate posters for many high-profile surf contests, and now has his own art-decorated surfwear company, Rietveld USA.

Rietveld’s comic surrealism blends well with Lockwood’s retro pulp sensibilities, and his website writings show that he, too, has a hardboiled streak in his blood.

“When in the water, Rick likes to drop in on old ladies and unsuspecting rookies,” he writes. “In a way, I feel like I’m doing them a service… life isn’t always fair on solid ground… why should it be any different in the water… right? Little kids… paraplegics… out there everybody is after my wave… out there I’m everybody’s daddy. Take my wave and expect a spanking!”

Lockwood expects their first issue will hit the stands next month. “God willing and the creeks don’t rise, we might see it by the end of June,” he says. Or as Sam Sand’s namesake, Sam Spade of Maltese Falcon fame, says: “Haven’t you anything better to do than to keep popping in here early every morning and asking a lot of fool questions?”

Potential contributors can contact Lockwood at: HYPERLINK “mailto:bylinecl@mac.com”bylinecl@mac.com

–Jon Cohen

ORDER A COPY OF HARD-BOILED SURF PULP FICTION #1 HERE:

http://www.surfbooks.com/booksforsale.htm