Hardboiled (or hard-boiled ) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction ). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence of organized crime that flourished during Prohibition (1920–1933) and its aftermath, while dealing with a legal system that has become as corrupt as the organized crime itself. Rendered cynical by this cycle of violence, the detectives of hardboiled fiction are often antiheroes . Notable hardboiled detectives include Dick Tracy , Philip Marlowe , Nick Charles , Mike Hammer , Sam Spade , Lew Archer , Slam Bradley , and The Continental Op .
23-481: Titan Publishing Group is the publishing division of the British entertainment company Titan Entertainment , which was established as Titan Books in 1981. The books division has two main areas of publishing: film and television tie-ins and cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics references and art titles. Its imprints are Titan Books , Titan Comics , Titan Magazines and Titan Manga. Titan Books
46-478: A fifteen-year run for ' Batman Legends '. Titan Magazines currently publishes the following comics and magazines: In 2022, the Titan Publishing Group launched Titan Manga, an imprint focused solely on manga series, with their first release being a "director's cut" of Takashi Okazaki 's Afro Samurai . Titan Entertainment Titan Entertainment is a British entertainment company. It
69-501: A number of mega stores in the UK, with the flagship store in London (which, over the years, has become world-renowned to fans of comic-books, movies, television, animation and gaming). As of 2023, Forbidden Planet London store has hosted over 2,000 signings. In 1981, Landau started Titan Books, publishers of both new and licensed graphic novels and film and TV tie-ins. Titan Books' first title
92-568: A wide range of original horror, science-fiction, fantasy, crime and thrillers. Titan Productions (which produced the West End stage play Thunderbirds: F.A.B. between 1989 and 1993) was originally part of the group, until it was sold to the John Gore Organization. In 1993, Landau became sole owner of Titan Books and Forbidden Planet (UK), establishing Titan Entertainment with his partner Vivian Cheung. Titan Magazines
115-404: Is a publisher of film, video game and TV tie-in books. As of 2011, the company publishes on average 30 to 40 such titles per year, across a range of formats from "making of" books to screenplays to TV companions and novels, and has a backlist reprint program. Titan Books' first title was a trade paperback collection of Brian Bolland 's Judge Dredd stories from 2000 AD . Titan Books followed
138-431: Is also associated with " noir fiction ". Eddie Duggan discusses the similarities and differences between the two related forms in his 1999 article on pulp writer Cornell Woolrich . In his full-length study of David Goodis, Jay Gertzman notes: "The best definition of hard boiled I know is that of critic Eddie Duggan. In noir, the primary focus is interior: psychic imbalance leading to self-hatred, aggression, sociopathy, or
161-729: Is often used as a synonym for hardboiled crime fiction or gangster fiction; some would distinguish within it the private-eye story from the crime novel itself. In the United States, the original hardboiled style has been emulated by innumerable writers, including James Ellroy , Paul Cain , Sue Grafton , Chester Himes , Paul Levine , John D. MacDonald , Ross Macdonald , Walter Mosley , Sara Paretsky , Robert B. Parker , and Mickey Spillane . Later, many hardboiled novels were published by houses specializing in paperback originals, most notably Gold Medal , and in later decades republished by houses such as Black Lizard . Hardboiled writing
184-612: The Vertigo comic-book title Sandman , The Simpsons , Star Wars , Tank Girl , The Real Ghostbusters , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Transformers , The Walking Dead , Life Is Strange , Roy of the Rovers , Dan Dare , WWE Heroes , World of Warcraft and Bloodborne . In addition to licensed titles, Titan Comics also publishes creator-owned series, such as Bloodthirsty: One Nation Under Water (2015–2016) and Man Plus (2015–2016). In 2010, Titan acquired
207-483: The direct market by setting up a direct sales service for US comic book retailers, creating a direct sales service between them and Marvel and DC. Landau was a vocal supporter of Seuling's initiative and Comic Media Distribution Service became Seuling's first international customer. After first being assisted by Richard Burton and then Mal Burns, Landau was joined by Mike Lake and Mike Luckman at Comic Media Distribution Service. Landau and his partners came to feel that
230-481: The hardboiled detective stories . In its earliest uses in the late 1920s, "hardboiled" did not refer to a type of crime fiction; it meant the tough (cynical) attitude towards emotions triggered by violence. The hardboiled crime story became a staple of several pulp magazines in the 1930s; most famously Black Mask under the editorship of Joseph T. Shaw , but also in other pulps such as Dime Detective and Detective Fiction Weekly . Consequently, "pulp fiction"
253-899: The American hardboiled fiction imprint Hard Case Crime , and since that time has released a number of comics and graphic novels under the Hard Case Crime brand. Heroic Signatures gave Titan the license to publish new titles featuring Conan the Barbarian in 2022. As of 2021, Titan Comics' publishing directors are Ricky Claydon and John Dziewiatkowski. Titan Magazines is the magazine-publishing division of Titan Publishing Group. Launched in 1995 with Star Trek Magazine , Titan had previously published several one shot film tie-in titles. Since then it has published many film, TV and comics titles, including poster magazines for Tim Burton 's Batman . Some of Titan's magazines are published in
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#1732797800134276-679: The Film published in 2020 and Escape from New York: The Official Story of the Film published in 2021, all written by John Walsh . As of 2016, Titan Books' editorial director is Laura Price. Titan Books also publishes trade paperbacks and graphic novels in the UK and United States under the imprint Titan Comics . The company has a backlist of over 1,000 graphic novels. Its titles include such licensed characters and properties as Batman , Doctor Who , Family Guy , Heroes , Nemi , Superman , Judge Dredd and other 2000 AD characters,
299-476: The Shell , etc). Titan Manga now publishes a variety of world English editions of celebrated Japanese manga, including Atom (the origin of Astro Boy ), Kamen Rider Kuuga , Afro Samurai , and Western-originated Americanised manga adaptations such as Cowboy Bebop and Robotech . Hardboiled The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over
322-525: The Titan name. In the early 1970s, Landau started trading his magazine Comic Media with US retailers. This evolved into a US fanzine importation service operating under the name Comic Media Distribution Service. On a trip to the US, an opportunity arose to expand this service into importing US newsstand comics into the UK. At this time, a Brooklyn teacher named Phil Seuling took the first steps towards creating
345-494: The UK and United States. Film, TV and gaming comics establishing itself as a high quality publisher of licensed properties. As of 2023, their publications include Gun Honey , Heatseeker , Doctor Who , Bloodborne , Blade Runner and Conan the Barbarian . Titan Manga was officially launched in 2023. Titan had already pioneered English language manga publishing throughout the 1990s and 2000s (publishing English-language editions of Akira , Crying Freeman , Ghost in
368-523: The US, although not all, some with an entirely separate magazine. In April 2016, Bleeding Cool published a blog/vlog entry pertaining to concerns over Titan's UK reprints of DC titles, specifically cancellations and a lack of updates and communication with readers, as well as addressing the frequent inconsistencies regarding the publication dates of future issues. Titan ceased publication of all their DC Comics titles in December 2018, most notably ending
391-533: The company had grown out of its original name and re-branded their operation with Landau's choice of company identity: Titan Distributors. In order to support their distribution business, Landau, Lake, and Luckman opened the first Forbidden Planet bookstore, on Denmark Street in London, in 1978. From 1978 through to 1993, Forbidden Planet grew to be a chain of stores in the UK, in addition to US stores in New York and Los Angeles. The Forbidden Planet chain comprised
414-689: The course of the decade, and refined by James M. Cain and by Raymond Chandler beginning in the late 1930s. English writer Gerald Butler was referred to as the " English James M. Cain ", and his characters were noted as hardboiled. Its heyday was in 1930s–50s America. From its earliest days, hardboiled fiction was published in and closely associated with so-called pulp magazines . Pulp historian Robert Sampson argues that Gordon Young 's "Don Everhard" stories (which appeared in Adventure magazine from 1917 onwards), about an "extremely tough, unsentimental, and lethal" gun-toting urban gambler, anticipated
437-963: The first title with numerous other 2000 AD reprints. Subsequently, the publishing company expanded operations, putting out its first original title in 1987 ( Pat Mills and Hunt Emerson 's You Are Maggie Thatcher ). Around this time, Titan also began publishing Escape magazine (although the title was canceled in 1989). Titan Books continues to publish both new and licensed graphic novels, as well as film and television tie-ins. Titan Books’ range of fiction includes limited comic books tie-ins and novelizations for such films as Alien (film) , Predator (film) and Alien vs. Predator , Terminator Salvation , Iron Man , The X-Files: I Want to Believe , Transformers , The Dark Knight Rises and Firefly . Titan also publishes coffee table books on animation, popular culture, collectibles and comic and fantasy art including Harryhausen: The Lost Movies published in 2019, Flash Gordon: The Official Story of
460-580: Was a trade paperback collection of Brian Bolland 's Judge Dredd stories from 2000 AD . This was one of the earliest high-quality, book-format publications of comic material in the UK and Titan Books followed this first title with many other 2000 AD reprints. Subsequently, Titan Books expanded operations, putting out its first original title in 1987. As of 2023, Titan Books is a global publishing company comprising illustrated and fiction divisions. Titan Books originally focused on film, TV and gaming tie-ins - and now both publishes in these categories and creates
483-428: Was founded from Forbidden Planet London in 1993 by Nick Landau and Vivian Cheung . The company comprises Forbidden Planet Limited and Titan Publishing Group , which has four divisions: Titan Books, Titan Comics, Titan Magazines, and Titan Merchandise. Titan Entertainment is the brand name of the group, outside of Forbidden Planet, and a number of different companies and subsidiaries have been established, utilising
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#1732797800134506-412: Was launched in 2012 and produces licensed merchandise for global properties, including Marvel Comics , Star Wars , Doctor Who , The Beatles , Star Trek , Alien , Breaking Bad , Ghostbusters , and Hammer Horror . Titan Comics was launched in 2012, with the intention of championing creators and original material publishing high quality comics, trade paperbacks and graphic novels across
529-651: Was the first division launched under Titan Entertainment in 1995, as a UK and later international newsstand publisher of genre titles. Titan Magazines originally published Star Trek Magazine, the Wallace and Gromit comic, UK editions of Simpsons Comics and a slew of licensed TV & film fantasy titles ( Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Battlestar Galactica , Star Wars , etc). Featuring articles written by key entertainment industry figures such as J. J. Abrams and J. Michael Straczynski . Titan Merchandise
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