The creator of Roger Rabbit and an archbishop have created an homage to pulp scifi that sounds almost unbearably cheesy and derivative — and yet sort of awesome. Space Vulture, just published by Tor Books, is Who Framed Roger Rabbit writer Gary K. Wolf's tribute to Space Hawk, a pulpy scifi novel he read as a kid.

Space Vulture stars Corsaire, the "most righteous lawman in the galaxy," and his deadly nemesis Space Vulture, plus an anti-hero named Gil Terry, who starts out mean, but turns out to have a heart of gold. Oh, and there's a single mom, who prays. A lot. Because co-author John J. Myers is the Archbishop of Newark. (Sort of like being the Pope of a small asteroid, I guess.) Thanks to the writers' strike, Space Vulture was getting some attention in Hollywood, so the square-jawed Corsaire could be toting his raygun across our screens soon. [Patriot Ledger]