Last year when the great fanzine Blood ‘n’ Thunder ended with issue #50 (actually a double issue of #49/50), we were promised that BnT would continue as a series of standalone themed books.
Well, we now have the first of these: Blood ’n’ Thunder Presents #1: Pride of the Pulps!
Pulps, of course, were usually looked down upon regarding their literary quality. But a few, very few, published stories on par with the “slick” fiction magazines. So the focus of this volume is on the handful of top all-fiction pulp magazines, Adventure, All-American Fiction, Short Stories, The Popular Magazine, Famous Fantastic Mysteries and West (just the 1920s issues), that accomplished this.
This volume contains lengthy, in-depth surveys of these all-fiction magazines, reprinted from past issues of BnT. However, they have been revised and expanded from their original appearances. We see their evolution as magazines, and note the memorable authors, stories, and characters, which hopefully will spark an interest in searching out these stories and reading them.
The volume is profusely illustrated with covers (including some scans of original cover paintings) and interior illustrations. I just wish these were in color. As I looked over the covers for Adventure, I wish someone would produce these as posters. Leave the Adventure logo and get rid of the rest of the type so we can enjoy the colorful artwork.
As the first volume in this new series of books, I hope that those that follow will be of this caliber. No work yet as to what might be planned or when.
I should also point out that Murania Press has put out a Blood ‘n’ Thunder Sampler, a collection of previous articles. If you’ve never checked out BnT, this may be a great intro to the magazine.
