An interesting attempt to start a New Pulp magazine came from a group called Hidalgo Publishing Company, headed by pulp fan Mark O. Lambert.
First was Adventure Mystery Magazine, which appeared in early 1999. The first issue was dated Jan.-Feb.-March 1999. A second issue was promised, but instead a year later we got Adventure Mystery Tales, the first of a planned new series of large-size book-magazines. But it, too, would be the only issue. It did include all the stories promised for issue #2 of Adventure Mystery Magazine, along with two of the three stories from issues #1.
Both magazines were edited by Lambert, had cover artwork by Tim Faurote and interior artwork by Jeff Fraker.
Here are the highlights of each issue:
• Adventure Mystery Magazine #1: The cover story is Joel Jenkins‘ “Black Circle Storm,” a long story. Michael and Candice Thunder are in Australia, where Michael will be auto racing. But they run afoul of a man with strange powers tied to a sinister group called The Black Circle that has political plans. This story would not be reprinted in Tales.
“Dying on the Vine” from Kevin Olson is an origin story for his adventure hero, The Coward. Yes, a strange name for a hero, but you’ll learn why (somewhat) in this story.
The New Pulp hero The Red Fez is introduced in Seth Kallan Deitch‘s “The Laugh at Midnight.” Actually, that’s what others call him. He calls himself He Who Laughs at Midnight, and in this story he goes up against The Maestro. We learn who the Red Fez really is, and his background, and this Depression-era hero is fairly interesting.
• Adventure Mystery Tales #1: The cover story is Joséph McCullogh‘s “Eldritch Miers: Reunion,” which introduces this mysterious investigator who goes up against a sinister cult in Boston in the 1920s.
Kevin Olson is back with The Coward in his second appearance, “Dog-Walking the River Bottom,” along with his first appearance. This time, he deals with something from his youth.
Joel Jenkins has another story, “The Ikarian Connection.” Singer Matthias Gantlet gets involved in action when he stops a kidnapping, then is joined by a strongman Black Hawkins in fighting off a paramilitary group.
The Red Fez’s story is reprinted.
It’s too bad this effort didn’t succeed. While I know Joel Jenkins is a fairly prolific New Pulp author, I’m not as familiar with his other works. I know he has used Sly Gantlet, who I assume is a brother of Matthias (who mentions he is in a band named Gantlet made of his other brothers). No idea if that includes Matthias or Black Hawkins. And no idea if there have been further stories with The Coward, Red Fez, or Eldritch Miers.
As to the publisher, Hidalgo had previously put out the first Dent bio: Lester Dent: The Man, His Craft, and His Market by M. Martin McCarey-Laird in 1995. Lambert would later edit in 2007 Two-Fisted Tales of La Plata through Lulu, but using the Hidalgo name and logo on the book. I’ll cover these in other postings.
I would have thought had they shifted AMT to some print-on-demand form, it could succeed. But these were done I think before that emerged. If you look around, you should be able to find Tales. The earlier Magazine may be harder to find.
I’ve got a copy of ADVENTURE MYSTERY TALES autographed by Joel Jenkins, still in pristine condition as I have no doubt it’ll be worth a truckload of money some day.
And I really enjoyed Kevin Olson’s stories about The Coward. I wish he’d written more about this character.
I hope you have that issue slabbed, or it’ll lose value!!
Hi- I am the interior artist for these projects.
There were preparations for Issue Number 2 with all the stories completed.
I had drawn about 15-20 new drawings for it and if I’m not mistaken the cover was even finished.
If memory serves me correctly, I think that there was to be a few of the series heroes (Red Fez, A Eldritch Miers By McCullough called “Sound of the Bones”, The Thunders and The Coward) from the first magazine and book to be in volume 2, plus a couple of new (to the Adventure Mystery magazine/book) character series featuring Mark’s own hero called Prometheus in “To Tell the Truth” and his short story, “Postal Blues” and Dr Silver-The Ghost were slated to appear.
I don’t remember all of the writers or the story titles.
Those that I do remember were because I had integrated the titles into the artwork.
I think it was a case where Marks financial backer was tied up with another project.
We probably would have cranked out the issues had the current technology and ease of publication been available back then.
Thanks for the information.
I wonder why nothing has been done since. The “Hidalgo Publishing” company has used Lulu. Why did they not later use Lulu to put out this second issue, and if not, why didn’t these stories appear elsewhere?
Wish they’d reprint the Lester Dent bio they published on Lulu, as its out of print and a bit pricey. From comments, they probably could do some editing/re-formatting on it.
I’m not sure why nothing was pursued. I have lost touch with Mark over the years and have lost our correspondence through a computer crash and much has been lost in my own overstuffed memory.
I’m not sure that the stories were not published elsewhere- I would think the authors would retain all rights to their creations.
They may have been tied up in some sort of first publication clause since Mark paid to use them. Even so, I would think that there would be some sort of time limit to publish.
Mark and I dealt informally and even when his financial backing fell through he still paid me a large portion of what we agreed on, knowing he would not even put out a book.
He may have been discouraged because he lost so much out of his own pocket.
I enjoyed the experience and had hoped we could continue for more volumes.