Pulp Adventures #24

Pulp Adventures #24 (Winter 2017) kicks off 2017 with this great pulp fanzine from Bold Venture Press. As always, we get a collection of classic and New Pulp fiction (with some notes) and this time also a pulp graphic novel, under an Emmet Watson cover, which ties to one of the stories reprinted here. For classic pulp, we get: The cover feature, “Sheridan Rides Again,” is a post Civil War adventure by Sam Merwin Jr. that first appeared in an issue of Thrilling Adventure in 1941. Accompanying this reprint is an article that appeared in the same issue by Merwin that explains the historical background of the story. A prolific pulp writer (mysteries and science fiction mainly) and editor (several leading science-fiction pulps), most of his works are out of print. Bold Venture plans on reprinting more of them soon. From the prolific H. Bedford-Jones we get “Down the Coast of Barbary,” an adventure story set in the Middle East. It appeared in Argosy All-Story in 1922. Altus Press has been reprinting quite of bit of his works of late. And finally, we get a short story by H.P. Lovecraft: “Polaris.” This story is one of several influenced by the works of Lord Dunsany, and is not part of his Cthulhu stories. A notable fact about this work is that it’s the first to make use of one of Lovecraft’s fictitious arcane tomes, in this case the Pnakotic Manuscripts. This one originally appeared in an amateur publication in 1920. I also enjoyed reading a little about the real Lovecraft, from the brother of one of Lovecraft’s best friends, whom he visited with in Florida. For New Pulp, we get several stories. Frank Schildiner, who has written several New Pulp novels and short stories, provides “Beneath the Skin of the Earth,” which is a Lovecraftian tale of horror. John E. Petty provides a horror tale in “Horror in the Desert” For a difference, Jack Bludis provides a hard-boiled thriller in “Borrowed Time.” And last, but not least, Richard A. Lupoff gives us a pulp hero who fights supernatural threats in “The Crimson Wizard and the Jewels of Lemuria.” This character takes equal inspiration from the early comic-book characters, as we learn in a sidebar. We are also treated with a Crimson Wizard comic-book cover as well. For pulp comics, we get one of Stuart Hopen‘s Daemon Mask stories. I had reviewed Daemon Mask previously here. This story is actually the first of the three created stories, giving the origin of The Whisper. And this is not your average pulp-hero origin. The Daemon Mask comic book is actually the third (and final?) story in the sequence. Up until now the first and second stories were only readable on-line, so this is its first real publication. Hopefully the second one will also be published in a future issue, as I don’t believe its available online any more. Bold Venture Press is also bring out his Twilight Patrol series, Hopen’s take on the air adventure pulp genre. As always, another great issue.