Pulp Adventures #29

On schedule, Bold Venture Press is back with another new issue of Pulp Adventures, #29 for Spring 2018. This time we get a Harold J. Ward cover. And as always, a mix of old and new pulp in a wide range of genres: mystery, western, horror, adventure, pulp hero and more. Bold Venture has done a great job of getting this out on a regular basis. For classic pulp, we get four stories: Charles Boeckman, who Bold Venture has been reprinting several of his works, gives us “The Absent Corpse” from Famous Detective Stories in 1955. If you’re not familiar with this pulp writer and jazz musician, there is a short blurb with the story. Another appropriate author is also included: Theodore Roscoe. Bold Venture has reprinted a couple of his novels, and editor Audrey Parente wrote a biography on him. “Where God Turns His Back” was missed in her research. Published in Action Stories in 1944, this adventure store stars curio hunter Peter Scarlet. Altus Press is reprinting this series, and has one volume out so far, which doesn’t have this story in it. Not sure how many are in this series. “Wreckage Reef” by Albert Richard Wetjen appeared in that same issue of Action Stories. From Laurence Donovan, who wrote some Doc Savage novels and created both The Skipper and The Whisperer for Street & Smith (and more for others), gives us “Golden Humbug” from Speed Western Stories in 1946. For New Pulp fiction, we get several stories. First up, from Andrew Bourelle, is “The Gentleman’s Exit,” where an assassin plans on retiring, if he can survive the next 30 days. Jack Burns gives us a short horror tale in “Bloody Mary,” and David Bernard gives us another horror tale, “Laguna del Espirita Santo,” which is set during the Spanish period of Florida. “The Sixty-Year Sleep” by Adam Beau McFarlane is a strange pirate tale. “Sick Dummies” by Johnny Strike is a strange tale. “Boxing, Babes & Bullets” by Gary Lovisi is a boxing story. Such stories were popular in the pulp era. And “The Gumshoe and the Glitterati” by Rie Sheridan Rose is a detective tale. For something different is “Judging a Book” by Jim Noy, which is an article that looks at the process Jim followed in creating the cover artwork for Bold Venture Press’s editions of Theodore Roscoe’s books. Too many have little idea what goes on in creating books, even at small presses, and I think this help lift the veil a little. Another great issues, and I look forward to the Summer issue. Again, if you’re not checking out and getting this great magazine and new and old fiction, do so today.