Pulp Adventures #36

In July, Bold Venture Press came out with their Summer 2020 issue of Pulp Adventures, #36. This time with a cover by Howard Dodd from "Best True Facts Detective" in 1950, and as always a great selection of new and classic pulp stories in a wide range of genres, along with some non-fiction works related to the stories. For classic pulp fiction, we get a story from Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason, that has never been reprinted. In fact, the bibliographies I saw didn’t even have complete info on it. This is “Bloody Bill Obeys,” which was rejected by the pulps to see print in W.D. Boyce‘s "Chicago Ledger" in 1925, which was a weekly storypaper. It’s an interesting crime tale where Bill Sullivan, a man down on his luck, attends an illusionist act and decides to change his life, but not in the way you (or maybe he), expected. Along with this is a one-page profile of Gardner that I wrote. We get two works by a couple of popular authors from "Weird Tales", C.L. Moore and Henry S. Whitehead, along with an article by David Goudsward on the convoluted publishing history of these two pieces. C.L. Moore was one of the few female pulp authors, best known for space adventurer Northwest Smith and swordswomen Jirel of Joirey. Henry S. Whitehead was part of the H.P. Lovecraft circle, even hosting him for a visit in Florida. Whitehead died in 1932. Moore’s work is “Werewoman,” an early tale of Northwest Smith that appeared in an amateur publication after being rejected by "Weird Tales". I liked that we got a picture of the cover. Here, stuck on a planet, Smith encounters a pack of female werewolves and deals with a city of ghosts. “The Tree-Man” by Henry S. Whitehead, which first appeared in "Weird Tales", was revised and saw print in the same amateur publication. This work stars Whitehead’s semi-autobiographical character, who has a strange adventure in Haiti. We get another classic science fiction piece from E.C. Tubb, “Face to Infinity,” from 1976, which is a strange little tale that has a twist ending. And again from Charles Boeckman,, we get another crime tale in “Death Walks in the Fog” from "Double-Action Detective Stories" in 1954. A man sets out to take vengeance on someone, but things don’t go the way as planned. And Earle Basinsky Jr.‘s “Killer’s Choice” originally ran in a golden age comic book. Yes, early comic books often ran text pieces as it helped their postage rate. In this very short tale, a killer crook needs a lift across a fog-bound river. Does he make it? For new fiction, we get “Mona’s Back” by Michael A. Wexler, which is cover featured. It’s a classic-style crime tale of a cop and a PI dealing with the return of a hard-boiled woman they’d both like to forget. The backcover feature is “Codename: Intrepid,” which is a series of stories about a secret government team investigating strange occurrences in the 1930s, and is written by Robert J. Mendenhall. There is a volume already out from Airship 27 with five stories. “Case Gray” is a new story about the Nazis creating zombies as a tool of war. This is a good introduction to this group if you haven’t read the collection. In “Let’s Not Argue” by Conrad Adamson, a shopping trip shouldn’t put one in danger, but this one does. “Welcoming Amethyst Eyes,” by Steven L. Rowe, is set in America when Norseman were showing up and coming in conflict with the natives. But this one has a twist you might not get until the end. So it’s another good collection of new and old stories. I also like the increase in non-fiction pieces that highlight the fiction. I find that too often those who read pulp fiction know little about the history and authors, and these pieces help this. The next issue, Fall 2020, is already out. We get another E.C. Tubb work, another “lost” work by Earle Stanley Gardner, probably the other work that saw print in the "Chicago Ledger", and another work by Charles Boekmann, as well as several new pulp works. Should be getting it soon and reviewing it.

I really enjoyed reading Mona's Back. For a short story I feel it was very well written, just the right amount of the unknown, kept me interested and gave me an emotional connection to the Main Characters.