I have previously posted on Murania Press‘ (Ed Hulse‘s) excellent magazine Blood ‘n’ Thunder.
Last summer we got a single issue (#41) and after another delay, we g0t another huge triple issue for 2014-15 that covers #42-44. (You wonder if maybe they shouldn’t just go to an annual big issue?)
Blood ‘n’ Thunder covers not just pulps, but their dime novel forerunners, movie serials, and early radio. But every issue has something of interest to pulp fans, and these are no exception, having both new articles, and reprints of both fiction and non-fiction.
#41 (Summer 2014)
The column on serials focused on an interesting one from 1935, “The Lost City.” I had never heard of this one, and now I want to check it out.
The cover feature article is an survey of the short-lived but memorable Munsey pulp, All-American Fiction. Starting in 1937, it only lasted eight issues. Sounds like an interesting pulp that ran some great fiction.
Larry Latham provides an overview of dime novel heroes adapted to the movies. The Nick Carter one includes both the French ones, and the later ones as well.
We get part one of a look at actual court documents from a 1936 lawsuit between Thrilling and Popular Publications over the use of the title “G-Man” for pulp magazines.
For fiction, get “The Tenth Man” by Robert Simpson, from Adventure in 1922.
For a non-fiction reprint, we get an article by Arthur J. Burks (I’ve recently reviewed some reprints of his works) on producing in quantity.
2014-15 Special Issue (#42-44)
Editor and publisher Ed Hulse gives us a cover article which surveys Popular Publication’s weird menace title Terror Tales. This includes a lot of reprints of covers, sadly in black and white.
The big “article” in this issue is H. Bedford-Jones’ 1929 treatise on pulp writing, “This Fiction Business.” An interesting article that covers everything from plot ideas to the selling of foreign publication rights, this is a valuable pieces of historical writing about the pulps.
Pulp fan Link Hullar gives a retrospective as a pulp fan discovering Doc Savage through the Bantam paperback reprints, something I also experienced. Another retrospective comes from former Fawcett pulp editor Jack Smalley, writing in 1966. Another article comes from a pulp collector and dealer.
A different article from pulp historian Kurt Shoemaker gives an incredibly detailed chapter-by-chapter analysis of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “Tarzan the Untamed.”
Another different article is a photo essay on “pulp places” of actual Southern California locations mentioned in the hard-boiled detective fiction of Raymond Chandler.
We get part two of a look at actual court documents from a 1936 lawsuit between Thrilling and Popular Publications over the use of the title “G-Man” for pulp magazines that includes a deposition from Harry Steeger, followed by the judge’s decision.
Publisher Hulse also as an article on “Her Majesty’s Empire” which explores such classic Hollywood movies set in British India such as “Lives of a Bengal Lancer,” “Charge of the Light Brigade,” and “King of the Khyber Rifles.”
Old-Time Radio scholar Martin Grams describes a number of “lost” episodes from The Lone Ranger‘s first year on the air.
For fiction, we get a shorter piece this time, J. Allan Dunn‘s “The Chandu Clue.”
So yet another pair of great issue, with a lot that any pulp fan should enjoy. Get these! The next issue will be #45, Summer 2015 and will be coming out soon at Pulpfest.
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