One of the pulp fanzines I got when I first was involved in pulp fandom was Doug Ellis‘ excellent Pulp Vault.
Put out under his Tattered Pages Press name, the later Pulp Vault issues were high-quality zines. Sadly, the last issue I obtained was a double number, 12/13. I only have a couple of others (#10 and #11). During its run it was able to put out an unpublished Whisperer novel over two issues, and the last unpublished Doctor Death novel over two issues. It would be 15 years later — now involved with Black Dog Books — that Doug would finally come out with Pulp Vault #14.
A large-size issue, Pulp Vault #14 has a lot of great stuff.
For non-fiction, we have:
• An in-depth article on Blue Book, a long-running pulp that existed for 70 years.
• Robert Weinberg, pulp expert and author, takes a look at Strange Stories, a short-lived rival to Weird Tales, and what stories might have appeared in the unpublished issues.
• Will Murray, pulp researcher, takes a look at the short-lived pulp, The Thrill Book. The article includes all 16 issues. Adventure House is doing a complete reprint of The Thrill Book in two to three volumes, the first of which is out.
• Rick Lai, researcher and author, gives us an article on George Worts‘ character, Singapore Sammy. Black Dog Books has put out a reprint of the first five stories (from Short Stories) of the South Seas adventurer, which have never been reprinted before, and a second book that reprints the first half of the stories from Argosy.
• Pulp artist Norman Saunders gets a retrospective from his son, David.
• Pulp giant Hugh B. Cave had several reminiscences in past Pulp Vaults, and he contributed one more before he passed away.
• Pulpster Robert Barbour Johnson was a contributor to Weird Tales in the ’30s and ’40s. In the 1970s he wrote an account of this career to be published in Robert Weinberg’s pulp fanzine Pulp, but was never published. Now we get it.
• Western pulp author J. Edward Leithead, who wrote in the ’20s and ’30s, and wrote an account of this in 1967. It appears here for the first time.
• Pulp researcher Link Hullar gives a retrospect of artist Frank Hamilton.
And more.
For fiction, we get two reprints and an original work:
• From The Popular Magazine in 1922, we get “The Splendor of Asia” by L. Adams Beck, an adventure novel set in the Himalayas with lost cities, treasure and more.
• A jungle tale by Hugh B. Cave, “The Flaming Skull” from Popular Fiction in 1931.
• For the first time we get “The Giant and the Dinosaur” by Donald Wandrei. This is an unpublished story of his scientific detective, Cyrus North, who had six stories in Clues Detective in 1938 and ’39. Wandrei created North after having ended the I.V. Frost character, recently reprinted. Included with the story is an article on the character. I hope someone reprints the rest of these stories.
Overall, a great issue. I wish we could see reprints of the past issues, or maybe a “Best of” issue. I hope it won’t be 15 years until we see Pulp Vault #15.
