Will Murray (writer)
Encyclopedia
Will Murray is the author of more than fifty novels, a scholar of pulp fiction and a writer of numorous comic books. Much of his fiction has been published under pseudonyms.
, the creator of Doc Savage
, and has published eight Doc Savage novels from Dent's outlines under Dent's pseudonym, Kenneth Robeson
, the most recent of which, The Desert Demons,
is the first release in Altus Press's new Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series. He was one of the ghostwriters for The Destroyer series, writing or co-writing more than 40 of the novels. He has written Cthulhu Mythos
stories, including a pair of stories about Nug and Yeb, the Twin Blasphemies, and contributed single novels in the Executioner and Mars Attacks
series.
Murray is also a prolific author of nonfiction about pulp writers like Dent, Shadow creator Walter B. Gibson
and H. P. Lovecraft
. He edited the fanzines Duende and Skullduggery, and co-authored The Duende History of The Shadow Magazine and The Assassin's Handbook, a Destroyer sourcebook. For Necronomicon Press, he edited Tales of Zothique and The Book of Hyperborea, two collections of stories by Clark Ashton Smith
. His essays have appeared in books ranging from S. T. Joshi's compedium on H. P. Lovecraft, An Epicure in the Terrible, to Jim Beard's survey of the classic 1960s Batman
TV show, Gotham City 14 Miles. He also contributed to the encyclopedias St. James Crime and Mystery Writers, St. James Science Fiction Writers, Contemporary Authors and The Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Other Murray stories have appeared in The UFO Files, Future Crime, Miskatonic University, 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, 100 Creepy Little Creature Stories, 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories, The Cthulhu Cycle, Disciples of Cthulhu II, Cthulhu's Reign, The Yig Cycle, Dead But Dreaming II, Horror for the Hollidays and many others.
He wrote the retro-pulp collection Spicy Zeppelin Stories under various pen names.
For National Public Radio, he adapted Lester Dent's 1934 novel, The Thousand-Headed Man as a six-part serial for The Adventures of Doc Savage, which aired in 1985, and was released on CD by Radioarchives.com
in October 2010.
Many of his novels have been released as audiobooks. Radioarchives.com is issuing Murray's Doc Savage novels in talking book format, beginning with Python Isle and White Eyes in the summer of 2011. Murray is also providing audio commentary for the company's Spider
audiobooks, which are beling released as part of their Will Murray's Pulp Classics line.
Interviewed by Ralph Dula on
incident, where the co-pilot apparently threw his passenger jet into a fatal suicide dive while reciting verses from the Qur'an
. Murray went on to warn, "No one should be surprised if other elements of Empyre don't prove uncannily precognitive."
A year later on September 11, his prediction was validated in the most dramatic way possible.
With S. T. Joshi and Jon L. Cooke, Murray organized The Friends of H. P. Lovecraft
, which raised funds to place a memorial plaque dedicated to the Providence fantasy writer on the grounds of Brown University's John Hay Library on the centennial of Lovecraft's birth in August, 1990.
As former contributing editor to Starlog
magazine, Murray visited movie sets and locations all over the world, interviewing the casts and crews of Hollywood genre films ranging from 1985's Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
to Watchmen
in 2009. For Starlog Press, he single-handedly wrote most or all of the souvenir magazines and pressbooks for Rambo III
, Total Recall
and The Shadow
.
, Batman
, Wonder Woman
, Spider-Man
, Ant-Man
, The Hulk
, The Spider
, The Avenger, The Green Hornet
, The Secret 6, Sherlock Holmes
, Sky Captain, Honey West
, and Lee Falk
's immortal Ghost Who Walks, The Phantom.
For Marvel Comics
, he scripted The Destroyer black & white magazine, as well as single stories starring Iron Man
and The Punisher
.
With artist Steve Ditko
, Murray co-created Squirrel Girl
, and in her debut, Murray scripted an over the top story of a 14 year old girl who supposedly defeated Dr. Doom, one of the most powerful comic book villains of all time, by commanding ordinary squirrels to somehow chew through armor that is tough enough to withstand direct blows by the Incredible Hulk. Subsequent writers have continued this humorous conceit until the seemingly unbeatable mutant is now arguably the most powerful superhero in the Marvel Comics Universe.
Recently Murray wrote the introduction to the Marvel Comics Omnibus volume, which celebrates the 70th anniversary of Marvel Comics, as well as introductions to Volume 2 of Daring Mystery
Comics, Mighty Thor Masterworks Volume 9, and Mystic Comics Volume 1.
Murray's Year 2000 novel, Nick Fury
, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
: Empyre (which identifies him as a trained coordinate remote viewer) accurately predicted many of the operational details of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, including the use of hijacked airliners to target U. S. cities. One of his Destroyer novels, Rain of Terror (1989) told the tale of an Arab despot's attempts to attack America using magnetically-propelled steam locomotives as makeshift ICBMs. After the first strike failed to hit the White House, a second pulversizes the fictional Magnus Building and the multi-tower North Am complex in lower Manhattan, resulting in scenes of destruction and rescue that today read like excerpts from the September 11 tragedy. A later Destroyer, Angry White Mailmen (1996), focused on a terrorist group allied with the Taliban attempting to blow up the World Trade Towers. In one scene, a terrorist named Al Ladeen hires a private plane and after shooting the pilot, in a suicide strike flies the aircraft into a highrise hotel in lower Manhattan. It is to be noted that this book was released after the World Trade Towers were attacked in 1993. However, the Taliban did not come into power in Afghanistan until 1999.
, covering characters such as Secret Agent X
, The Cobra and Lester Dent's Lee Nace. With Off-Trail Publications' John Locke, he has co-edited the three-volume The Gangland Sagas of Big Nose Serrano, which collects all 12 of Anatole Feldman
's rare Big Nose Serrano stories, featuring the legendary Prohibition
gangster of early 1930s Chicago. For Black Dog Books
, he penned introductions to their ongoing Lester Dent Library series of pulp magazines reprints.
An explorer of the metaphysical, Murray's training includes six years at a Spiritualist Church, and four years with former U.S. Army Ranger and Star Gate Remote Viewer, Major David Morehouse
, author of Psychic Warrior. Working in the meta-consciousness field since 1997, he has taught Remote Viewing and related disciplines to a wide variety of persons, including journalists and law enforcement professionals.
Novels and magazines
Murray is the literary executor for the estate of Lester DentLester Dent
Lester Dent was a prolific pulp fiction author, best known as the creator and main author of the series of novels about the superhuman scientist and adventurer, Doc Savage. The 159 novels written over 16 years were credited to the house name Kenneth Robeson.-Early years:Dent was born in 1904 in...
, the creator of Doc Savage
Doc Savage
Doc Savage is a fictional character originally published in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L...
, and has published eight Doc Savage novels from Dent's outlines under Dent's pseudonym, Kenneth Robeson
Kenneth Robeson
Kenneth Robeson was the house name used by Street and Smith Publications as the author of their popular character Doc Savage and later The Avenger. Many authors wrote under this name, though most Doc Savage stories were written by the author Lester Dent:...
, the most recent of which, The Desert Demons,
is the first release in Altus Press's new Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series. He was one of the ghostwriters for The Destroyer series, writing or co-writing more than 40 of the novels. He has written Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
stories, including a pair of stories about Nug and Yeb, the Twin Blasphemies, and contributed single novels in the Executioner and Mars Attacks
Mars Attacks
Mars Attacks is a science fiction trading card series released in 1962. The cards feature artwork by science-fiction artist Wallace Wood and tell the story of the invasion of Earth by cruel, hideous Martians. The cards depicted futuristic battle scenes and bizarre methods of Martian attack, torture...
series.
Murray is also a prolific author of nonfiction about pulp writers like Dent, Shadow creator Walter B. Gibson
Walter B. Gibson
Walter Brown Gibson was an American author and professional magician, best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow...
and H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
. He edited the fanzines Duende and Skullduggery, and co-authored The Duende History of The Shadow Magazine and The Assassin's Handbook, a Destroyer sourcebook. For Necronomicon Press, he edited Tales of Zothique and The Book of Hyperborea, two collections of stories by Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...
. His essays have appeared in books ranging from S. T. Joshi's compedium on H. P. Lovecraft, An Epicure in the Terrible, to Jim Beard's survey of the classic 1960s Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
TV show, Gotham City 14 Miles. He also contributed to the encyclopedias St. James Crime and Mystery Writers, St. James Science Fiction Writers, Contemporary Authors and The Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Other Murray stories have appeared in The UFO Files, Future Crime, Miskatonic University, 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, 100 Creepy Little Creature Stories, 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories, The Cthulhu Cycle, Disciples of Cthulhu II, Cthulhu's Reign, The Yig Cycle, Dead But Dreaming II, Horror for the Hollidays and many others.
He wrote the retro-pulp collection Spicy Zeppelin Stories under various pen names.
For National Public Radio, he adapted Lester Dent's 1934 novel, The Thousand-Headed Man as a six-part serial for The Adventures of Doc Savage, which aired in 1985, and was released on CD by Radioarchives.com
in October 2010.
Many of his novels have been released as audiobooks. Radioarchives.com is issuing Murray's Doc Savage novels in talking book format, beginning with Python Isle and White Eyes in the summer of 2011. Murray is also providing audio commentary for the company's Spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
audiobooks, which are beling released as part of their Will Murray's Pulp Classics line.
Interviewed by Ralph Dula on
home.gate.net in July 2000 just before the publication of Empyre, Murray noted that since writing the book, some of it had already come true, specifically citing the Egypt Air 990EgyptAir Flight 990
EgyptAir Flight 990 was a regularly scheduled flight from Los Angeles International Airport, California to Cairo International Airport, Egypt, with a stop at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York...
incident, where the co-pilot apparently threw his passenger jet into a fatal suicide dive while reciting verses from the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
. Murray went on to warn, "No one should be surprised if other elements of Empyre don't prove uncannily precognitive."
A year later on September 11, his prediction was validated in the most dramatic way possible.
With S. T. Joshi and Jon L. Cooke, Murray organized The Friends of H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
, which raised funds to place a memorial plaque dedicated to the Providence fantasy writer on the grounds of Brown University's John Hay Library on the centennial of Lovecraft's birth in August, 1990.
As former contributing editor to Starlog
Starlog
Starlog was a monthly science-fiction film magazine published by Starlog Group Inc. The magazine was created by publishers Kerry O'Quinn and Norman Jacobs. O'Quinn was the magazine's editor while Jacobs ran the business side of things, dealing with typesetters, engravers and printers. They got...
magazine, Murray visited movie sets and locations all over the world, interviewing the casts and crews of Hollywood genre films ranging from 1985's Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, also released as Remo: Unarmed and Dangerous, is a 1985 American film. The action–adventure-thriller film featured Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley and Kate Mulgrew, as well as many guest roles...
to Watchmen
Watchmen
Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colourist John Higgins. The series was published by DC Comics during 1986 and 1987, and has been subsequently reprinted in collected form...
in 2009. For Starlog Press, he single-handedly wrote most or all of the souvenir magazines and pressbooks for Rambo III
Rambo III
Rambo III is an American Action film released on May 25, 1988. It is the third film in the Rambo series following First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Part II...
, Total Recall
Total Recall
Total Recall is a 1990 American science fiction action film. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Ronny Cox & Mel Johnson, Jr.. It is based on the Philip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”...
and The Shadow
The Shadow
The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in pulp magazines, then on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of the title character, a crime-fighting vigilante in the pulps, which carried over to the airwaves as a "wealthy, young man about town"...
.
Comic books
A contributor to numerous anthologies, Murray has written stories about such classic characters as SupermanSuperman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
, Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....
, Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
, Ant-Man
Ant-Man
Ant-Man is the name of several fictional characters appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. Ant-Man was originally the superhero persona of Hank Pym, a brilliant scientist who invented a substance that allowed him to change his size...
, The Hulk
Hulk (comics)
The Hulk is a fictional character, a superhero in the . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 ....
, The Spider
The Spider
The Spider was one of the major pulp magazine heroes of the 1930s and 1940s.- Background :The Spider was created by Harry Steeger at Popular Publications in 1933 as competition to Street and Smith Publications' vigilante hero, The Shadow...
, The Avenger, The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is an American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. Since his radio debut in the 1930s, the Green Hornet has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media...
, The Secret 6, Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
, Sky Captain, Honey West
Honey West
Honey West is a fictional character created by Gloria and Forest Fickling under the pseudonym "G.G. Fickling", and appearing in eleven mystery novels by the duo.The character is notable as being one of the first female private detectives in popular fiction...
, and Lee Falk
Lee Falk
Lee Falk, born Leon Harrison Gross , was an American writer, theater director, and producer, best known as the creator of the popular comic strip superheroes The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician, who at the height of their popularity attracted over a hundred million readers every day...
's immortal Ghost Who Walks, The Phantom.
For Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
, he scripted The Destroyer black & white magazine, as well as single stories starring Iron Man
Iron Man
Iron Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #39 .A billionaire playboy, industrialist and ingenious engineer,...
and The Punisher
Punisher
The Punisher is a fictional character, an anti-hero appearing in comic books based in the . Created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita, Sr., and Ross Andru, the character made its first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 .The Punisher is a vigilante who employs murder,...
.
With artist Steve Ditko
Steve Ditko
Stephen J. "Steve" Ditko is an American comic book artist and writer best known as the artist co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the Marvel Comics heroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange....
, Murray co-created Squirrel Girl
Squirrel Girl
Squirrel Girl, real name Doreen Green, is a fictional character and superhero in the . Her first appearance was in Marvel Super-Heroes #8 , in a story plotted and drawn by Steve Ditko and scripted by Will Murray. Her ability to control squirrels is surprisingly powerful and has allowed her to...
, and in her debut, Murray scripted an over the top story of a 14 year old girl who supposedly defeated Dr. Doom, one of the most powerful comic book villains of all time, by commanding ordinary squirrels to somehow chew through armor that is tough enough to withstand direct blows by the Incredible Hulk. Subsequent writers have continued this humorous conceit until the seemingly unbeatable mutant is now arguably the most powerful superhero in the Marvel Comics Universe.
Recently Murray wrote the introduction to the Marvel Comics Omnibus volume, which celebrates the 70th anniversary of Marvel Comics, as well as introductions to Volume 2 of Daring Mystery
Comics, Mighty Thor Masterworks Volume 9, and Mystic Comics Volume 1.
Murray's Year 2000 novel, Nick Fury
Nick Fury
Colonel Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Fury is a fictional World War II army hero and present-day super-spy in the Marvel Comics universe. Created by artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee, Fury first appeared in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 , a World War II combat series that portrayed the...
, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional espionage and a secret military law-enforcement agency in the Marvel Comics Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #135 , it often deals with superhuman threats....
: Empyre (which identifies him as a trained coordinate remote viewer) accurately predicted many of the operational details of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, including the use of hijacked airliners to target U. S. cities. One of his Destroyer novels, Rain of Terror (1989) told the tale of an Arab despot's attempts to attack America using magnetically-propelled steam locomotives as makeshift ICBMs. After the first strike failed to hit the White House, a second pulversizes the fictional Magnus Building and the multi-tower North Am complex in lower Manhattan, resulting in scenes of destruction and rescue that today read like excerpts from the September 11 tragedy. A later Destroyer, Angry White Mailmen (1996), focused on a terrorist group allied with the Taliban attempting to blow up the World Trade Towers. In one scene, a terrorist named Al Ladeen hires a private plane and after shooting the pilot, in a suicide strike flies the aircraft into a highrise hotel in lower Manhattan. It is to be noted that this book was released after the World Trade Towers were attacked in 1993. However, the Taliban did not come into power in Afghanistan until 1999.
Personal life
Murray currently acts as consulting editor for Sanctum Books' successful Doc Savage, Shadow, Avenger and Whisperer reprints. He has also written several introductions to the reprints being published by Altus PressAltus Press
Altus Press is a small-press publisher of works primarily related to the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 30s. Founded in 2006 by publisher Matthew Moring, Altus Press has focused on four categories of publications: Lost Race Library, New Pulps, Pulp Histories and Pulp Reprints.Altus is also the...
, covering characters such as Secret Agent X
Secret Agent X
Secret Agent X was the title of a U.S. pulp magazine published by A. A. Wyn's Ace Magazines, and the name of the main character featured in the magazine. The magazine ran for 41 issues between February 1934 and March 1939....
, The Cobra and Lester Dent's Lee Nace. With Off-Trail Publications' John Locke, he has co-edited the three-volume The Gangland Sagas of Big Nose Serrano, which collects all 12 of Anatole Feldman
Anatole Feldman
Anatole France Feldman is primarily known as a pulp magazine writer from the late-'20s to the late-'30s. He specialized in gangland fiction, appearing primarily in Harold Hersey's gang pulps, Gangster Stories, Racketeer Stories, and Gangland Stories...
's rare Big Nose Serrano stories, featuring the legendary Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
gangster of early 1930s Chicago. For Black Dog Books
Black Dog Books (US)
Black Dog Books located in Normal, Illinois, is one of the finest independent press operations in North America. Founded by publisher Tom Roberts to keep an outlet for adventure fiction alive, they have expanded to publish fiction in the adventure, mystery, science fiction, and horror genres.-...
, he penned introductions to their ongoing Lester Dent Library series of pulp magazines reprints.
An explorer of the metaphysical, Murray's training includes six years at a Spiritualist Church, and four years with former U.S. Army Ranger and Star Gate Remote Viewer, Major David Morehouse
David Morehouse
David Morehouse is a former political official and currently President and Chief Executive Officer of Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League....
, author of Psychic Warrior. Working in the meta-consciousness field since 1997, he has taught Remote Viewing and related disciplines to a wide variety of persons, including journalists and law enforcement professionals.