Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom (2009) by Tim Byrd has been described as a modern-day pulp novel. An Affectionate Parody of Doc Savage written by a guy who grew up reading pulp tales, Doc Wilde contains a lot of silly humor and really exaggerated situations, and very implausible adventures. Oh yeah, and unlike Doc Savage, Doc Wilde brings his kids, Brian and Wren, along.
Doc Wilde is a researcher/adventurer who is everything a man can be. He's very strong and muscular, very smart, and has enough money to have a giant laboratory and a base on the top of a 106-story skyscraper. His two kids are trained to kick ass, and even their very bedrooms are set up so that they're forced to show some athleticism in order to get out of bed in the morning. There is no "sorry, this mission is too dangerous for you" here - Doc brings his kids with him and actively prepares them to be part of the adventure.
Everything is over-the-top. The two companions who bicker and make fun of each other constantly. The descriptions of the training the Wilde family underwent, having apparently been trained by everything from monks to ninjas to survivalists. Wilde's athleticism puts Sportacus to shame, for that matter. All this in books comprised of dozens of really short chapters, with moments of Bold Inflation when exciting things happen!!
Well, book. The second one isn't out yet and is seeking funding.
This series provides examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: Count the characteristic elements of the Doc Savage series and see how many of them are duplicated and exaggerated here.
- Badass Bookworm: Basically the whole group, in a sense.
- Banana Republic: Hidalgo. The same one as in Doc Savage.
- Bold Inflation: Done to add to the over-the-top nature of the story.
- Casual Danger Dialog: Played for comedy. The plane the Wilde family is in is falling out of the sky. "I'm hungry" is what comes out of Wren's mouth. Or when they get taken prisoner:"Well," Wren said, "at least this way we'll get where we're going faster than we would have by tracking." "Yes," Doc Wilde said. "Getting captured can have its benefits."
- Crazy-Prepared: They have gadgets for every possible situation! Shoes that shoot out "crumbs" that leave an invisible trail of ultraviolet light, that can only be viewed with special goggles being just one example. Those inventions are used so that one character can leave the ultraviolet "crumbs" behind, for the other characters to follow so they can find his discovery. And there's many more over-the-top inventions.
- Eldritch Abomination: A silly variant involving a frog god from another dimension, in a Pastiche of H. P. Lovecraft.
- Kid Sidekick: They're with Doc everywhere he goes. The kids, however, do have their wits and athletic skills, which just happen to be not as good as Doc's. And access to some weaponry of their own.
- Satire/Parody/Pastiche: Not a satire, but a parody of Doc Savage and pastiche of adventure stories in general.
