Fanzine focus: ‘Pulp Adventures’

When I got back into the pulp world back in the ’90s, one fanzine I got was Pulp Adventures, published by Rich Harvey through his Pulp Adventures Press and later his Bold Venture Press.

Thanks to desktop publishing at the time, the quality of Pulp Adventures was much higher than other pulp fanzines up until that time, almost looking like a professional magazine. The first six issues were digest-size, then they moved to a larger 8.5×11 size. A difference from other fanzines was the mix of both articles and fiction. A total of 14 issues were published between 1992-2001. And now finally we are getting a 15th issue.

I don’t have a complete collection, missing the first five issues along with #13. But wanted to review the ones I do have.

#6 (Spring 1996) In non-fiction, we get a reprint from the Writers Digest Yearbook of 1934 by Norvell Page (The Spider and many others) on “How I Write” that explains how he brings color and suspense to his stories. Another article looks at the “Suicide Squad” and their work against the Axis powers. Michael Avallone provides his take on putting suspense into stories. And in another reprint, this time from the New York Times, Earl Biggers explains the creation of Charlie Chan.

For fiction, we get an Ed Noon tale by Michael Avallone.

#7 (Summer 1996) In non-fiction, we get an article on the Phantom movie serial. Another (reprinted from other fanzines) looks at a charge of plagiarism laid against Lester Dent‘s Doc Savage novel, “The Man Who Shook the Earth,” that almost lead to a lawsuit. We look at custom pulp figures, and then take a look at a short-lived experiment with small, pocket-size pulps.

For fiction, we first get a short Spider story by Norvell Page that appeared in May 1942. Only two of these stories were done, and the second one will appear in the following issue. This story tells of The Spider’s first adventure, in India! Next is a reprint from 10 Story Western from 1947.

#8 (Summer 1997) is focused on The Spider, with a cover by Frank Hamilton.

In fiction, we get the second Spider short story by Norvell Page. Another tale of his earlier history, this reveals how he met Ram Singh. This is from the June 1942 issue. Next is a Doc Turner story by Arthur Leo Zagat, which was a backup series in The Spider. This is from the September 1934 issue.

In non-fiction, we have an article on John Fleming Gould, who illustrated the interior of Popular Publications pulps like The Spider, Operator #5, and more. An article on R.T.M. Scott, who wrote the first two Spider novels is next, and then we get a brief article on the characters created by author Arden X. Pangborn.

#9 (Winter 1998) This issue gives us the first of a two-part interview with Mike Kaluta, who is mainly known in the pulp world for this great comic-book interpretation of The Shadow. We get a photo tour of Popular Publications and its staff in a reprint from the Writer’s Digest. We learn about W.C. Tuttle, a humorous short-fiction writer from Adventure magazine, and we look into why we probably won’t get a Doc Savage animated series.

For fiction, we get “Red-handed,” a short story from the Aug. 1952 issue of New Detective Magazine.

#10 (Spring/Summer 1998) With this issue, Will Murray starts a new feature (to be called “Pulp Hound” in the next issue), and this time he looks at the editing, sometimes horrific, done to the Doc Savage novels. We get another article focused on pulpster Carl Jacobi, and the second part of the Mike Kaluta interview.

For fiction, we get two murder mysteries from Dime Detective.

#11 (Fall 1998) We get two items on pulpster John K. Butler. A Hollywood writer who worked in the pulp field writing stories for Black Mask and Dime Detective for awhile, we get an article on him followed by a memoir by his son. Will Murray provides his second Pulp Hound article, this time asking if Taz (from the Doc Savage novel “Mystery Under the Sea”) was supposed to be Atlantis. And we get a report on Pulpcon 27.

For fiction, we get part one of “A Coffin for Two” by John K. Butler from Dime Detective.

#12 (December of 1998) We get an interview with pulp researcher Don Hutchison (“The Great Pulp Heroes“) on his new book “The Scarlet Riders,” which is a collection of stories about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Will Murray’s next Pulp Hound article closes the matter of the lawsuit that almost arouse out of claims of plagiarism regarding Lester Dent’s “The Man Who Shook the Earth.”

For fiction, we get part two of “A Coffin for Two,” and a story of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police from Complete Northwest Novel in January 1936.

#13 (1999) Includes articles about The Spider, Weird Tales, pulp collecting, plus a short story originally published in .44 Western Magazine back in 1946.  This is another issue I don’t have.

After over a year, we didn’t get an issue. During that time, something happened between Rich Harvey and “Cat” Jaster (who had previously joined with Rich and the company had expanded), such that Pulp Adventure Press remained with Jaster, and Harvey formed Bold Venture Press and kept Pulp Adventures.

#14 (July 2001) We now get a slightly smaller size (about a half inch) with a slick color cover reprinted a work by Gloria Stoll Karn, the focus of an interview in this issue. She did many covers for Popular Publications. For other articles, we get an interview with Nils Nardin, publisher of the long running pulp fanzine Xenophile. We learn what happened to the zine and his disappearance from fandom. Will Murray looks into a missing section of the Doc Savage novel “The Three Devils.” And Wooda Carr starts the first of a three-part series looking at Emperor Rudolph from Operator #5.

For fiction in this issue, we get reprints from a couple of western pulps.

We were promised a next volume, coming in November 2001, that would include an article by John Wooley on Michael Avallone and the second part of Carr’s series. This didn’t happen. (So did these articles appear somewhere?) Bold Venture Press wasn’t as active as it used to be, and Pulp Adventure Press has disappeared.

Finally, in 2014 we got that next issue, but now done through Print on Demand and now an all-fiction zine.

#15 (Fall 2014) With a Norman Saunders cover, we get six works of fiction: two original and the rest reprints. We get a new pulp adventuress, Katy Fury from Ron Fortier (reprinted from Pro Se Presents).  We are promised more stories with this new occult investigator. C.J. Henderson provides his last story of PI Jack Hagee. The reprints are by several classic pulpsters — Robert Leslie Bellem, E. Hoffmann Price, G.T. Fleming-Roberts and Gardner Fox — from pulps like Private Detective Stories, Spicy Detective, Double-Action Gang, and Planet Stories.

Plans are for this new iteration of Pulp Adventures will be quarterly. The next issue is promised in February 2015.  Hope we see this one soon.