[Link] Table Talk -- Readers' Questions, Take II

After the success of the first Table Talk with questions from readers, Barry Reese, Bobby Nash and Mike Bullock decided to continue taking questions "from the audience" every now and again. This week, the guys tackle the topic of archetypes and working with different characters. 

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Question (Josh Bell): Pulps, and subsequently comics, have quite a long history of recycling a lot of material when an idea proves successful. Sometimes, I think the end result grows into its own, my favorite example being Ka-Zar, whom I love almost as much as Tarzan. Though he started out as a very close imitation of the pre-eminent Jungle Lord, his revamp by Stan and Jack in the 60's led to him being, in my opinion, an engaging character in his own right. Closer to the pulp home, the Spider is obviously very similar too and inspired by the Shadow, right down to the slouch hat and twin .45's. This said, the Spider ultimately took a different direction than his predecessor. Still, for every Ka-Zar and the Spider, there are loads more incarnations of the pulp archetypes that fall flat. Do you guys, as the current guardians of pulp fiction, think that the recycling of archetypes is a good thing, as they can serve to reinforce what pulp is all about, or a hindrance, given that it can be seen to lack originality?

For the full article: http://www.newpulpfiction.com/2011/12/table-talk-readers-questions-take-ii.html