Pulp Adventures #30

Soon after my last review, Bold Venture Press is back with another new issue of Pulp Adventures, #30 for Summer 2018. This time we get a cover by John Frew that ties to “Maiden Voyage.” And as always, there is a mix of old and new pulp in a wide range of genres: mystery, western, horror, adventure, pulp hero, and more. We also get a second new Daemon Mask comic story! Bold Venture has done a great job of getting this zine out on a regular basis. For classic pulp, we get another crime fiction story by Charles Boeckman, “A Long Crime Ago.” Though maybe it’s not true pulp as it appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine in the 1970s. The cover story, taken from Astounding Stories in 1939, is Vic Philips‘ “Maiden Voyage.” Philips wrote pulp stories over a five-year period, but little is known about him. This story tells of the maiden voyage of a new space liner, and things don’t go smoothly. “Big-Nose Charley’s Dog Helps Out,” by Charles W. Tyler, is another story by an unknown pulpster. This one has a character similar to Johnston McCulley‘s Thubway Tham. Interestingly, both appeared in Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine, this one in 1920. And we get a short western story from an issue of Target Comics in 1940. For New Pulp, we get “’Twixt Heaven and Hell” by John Petty, who introduces a new hero, The Wraith. When Dr. Thomas Bannon is murdered, he becomes The Wraith, who is not quite dead or alive. In “I Spy,” by Pauline Turner, we met spy Brigit Hastings. Being a spy is dangerous. Does this affect those she knows and loves? Finally, we get “Daemon Mask: Queen of the Crystal Sword” a “new” Whisper comic story by Stuart Hopen and Russ Martin. This is The Whisper’s second adventure, which had previously only been online, so it sees print for the first time. We got his origin story in issue #24. This one brings him into conflict with an ancient love affair and reincarnation, which seems to re-define who and what he is from his origin. I wonder if Bold Venture might republish all three Whisper stories in one volume? This issue closes out four years of this new version of Pulp Adventures. This has been 16 issues of quality issues with classic and New Pulp stories in a wide range of genres. The closest any other New Pulp magazine came to this is the 14 issues of the new Startling Stories, though this was over six years, not four. I look forward to the upcoming issues of this magazine. If you haven’t looked into this one, check it out.