Pulp Adventures #41

After too long, Pulp Adventures #41 is out from Bold Venture Press, dated Fall 2022. As always, we get a selection of new and classic pulp stories, with some non-fiction pieces. This time the issue clocks in at 180 pages, longer than previous ones. I had hoped they can get back to being quarterly, but looks like we’ll get only two issues this year. This is the ninth year of publication for the new version of Pulp Adventures. The cover for #41 is by H.L. Parkhurst and taken from Private Detective (May 1938). For classic pulp, we first get a featured story by Roger Torrey (1901-46), who focused on detective and spicy stories. This one is “Contact Man,” which appeared in Private Detective. This is paired with a piece from pulp historian Will Murray that is a full biography on Torrey, which helps us understand his background that influenced his writing and that ultimately killed him. We get a weird-menace story in “Death’s Loving Arms” by Hugh B. Cave (1910-2004), a strange adventure tale of murder and mystery, with an unusual nude, white woman at the center. It’s from Terror Tales (October 1934). Also paired with it is a short piece on Cave by Audrey Parente, who wrote a biography on him. British author John Russell Fearn (1908-60) is best known for the Golden Amazon series, but he wrote other works for the pulps. Here we get “Death Asks the Question,” a bizarre mystery tale from Thrilling Mystery (July 1937). Accompanying it is a piece on his detective fiction by his biographer Phil Harbottle. We also get two short works by other British authors, with short pieces on them by Harbottle. From Shelley Smith, we get “Crooked Harvest” from Crime: 1947 Album. Smith was really Nancy Hermione Bodington (1912-98), who under that name wrote several well regarded detective and thriller novels. From John Burke (1922-2011) is the supernatural tale of “Lucille Would Have Known” from the book New Terrors 2. Finally, we get another work by pulpster and jazz musician Charles Boeckman (1920-2015), “Chain Reaction” from Manhunt (October 1961). It’s another noir tale of a put-upon wife who finally takes care of matters. For New Pulp, we get “How to Stihl Rubies” by Dr. Richard A. Olsen, a nice detective story of Nick Stihl Investigations. We are promised further stories. “Rainy Tuesday” is a little noir tale of lovers breaking up in an extreme way by Jack Halliday. From Teel James Glenn, we get “Light of Reason,” a new story of his occult detective Dr. Augustus Argent. This time he and his associate, Jack, go up against a vampire. Will they prevail? In a tale set in Florida by David Bernard is “The Stranglers Are Not the Forgiving Type.” It’s an interesting tale, but as a Florida native, I am not aware of any effort to link Ft. Lauderdale to the Gulf of Mexico via railroad. Again, it’s a good collection of new and old pulp. I especially liked having the additional non-fiction pieces with many of the classic pulp fiction, as too many modern readers are ignorant of pulp history, the authors, genres, and publishers that existed. I would hope this helps them to better appreciate these works. I had hoped Bold Venture would be able to get these out on a more consistent basis, but I know they have been busy putting out a lot of other works. But I encourage folks to check out this fanzine, and I’ll be getting the next one when it comes out. I also look forward to the omnibus volume they have planned of their original issues.