An interesting, if short-lived, fanzine is Attic Revivals, which ran six issues from 1979 to 1983. Edited by Bernard A. Drew and published through his Attic Revivals Press. This fanzine mainly reprinted pulp fiction, with some accompanying non-fiction material, usually info on the author of the work. Almost all the non-fiction work was by Drew. Most issues were focused on a particular author or theme.
I discovered the fanzine when I was lucky to find a complete set in a local used bookstore (sadly now long gone). I figured I should take advantage of that and snapped them up.
The magazine changed format slightly over its run. It was always about 8.5- by 11-inches size, but the paper and binding changed. The first two issues were on higher quality white paper, but the rest were done on cheaper newsprint. Printing was professionally done, with good reproductions of pulp covers, no photocopying. Strangely issues #3 on didn’t have any issue numbers, and issues #4 and #5 were done as a weird “double issue” with issue #5 appearing inserted into issue #4 and stapled together, but clearly paginated separately.
I have no idea why it ended, other than guessing it did not sell well enough. I have no idea who Bernard Drew is but see from Galactic Central that he was contributing other non-fiction articles in pulp fandom around the same time. He is a journalist and freelance writer and historian who has published several scholarly reference works, the latest one on Hopalong Cassidy radio show.
Here is a rundown of each issue:
• #1 (1979) reprinted one of Judson P. Philips’ Park Avenue Hunt Club stories, “The Hawk.” The story first appeared in the Jan. 27, 1934, issue of Detective Fiction Weekly, and we get the cover reproduced here along with another with the return of The Hawk. This issue had the only real cover artwork, showing the four members of the Club, done by an unknown artist. We also get an article on Philips and a sidebar on the pulps, both by Drew. For those not aware, the Park Avenue Hunt Club was a group of upper class vigilantes who went after criminals in a popular and long running series.
• #2 (1980) focused on aviators and sort of had cover artwork (if you call a silhouette of a biplane artwork), the last for the magazine’s run. It’s also the biggest issue at 32 pages. We first get a Lester Dent story, “Bat Trap,” from War Aces in December 1931. We get an article by Will Murray on Monk prototypes, one of which appears in this story. And we get the cover of War Aces, as well as some Doc covers. The bulk of the issue is focused on an unknown pulp author named Herman Petersen who worked in the field for several years, from the early ’20s to around 1939. He then moved out of the pulps into hardcover mysteries but struggled there. Drew put together quite a bit of info from Petersen’s daughter. And it’s kind of informative as to the pulp writing world for the average author. Petersen also wrote a short series staring a female aviator, Barbe Pivet. One of those stories, “Barbe Plays A Lone Hand” — published as “Barbe Flies Alone” in Wings of June 1928 — is reprinted here. None of his works have been reprinted otherwise.
• #3 (1982) focuses on Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and reprints “Sword of Gimshi” from Jungle Stories, Spring 1954. We get a sidebar article on Sheena by Drew and several Sheena covers from pulps and comics.
• #4 (1982) focuses on Walter B. Gibson‘s magicians. We get a long article on Gibson, and a reprint of Gibson’s “The Strange Case of Washington Irving Bishop” from Mystery Digest of May 1957. Also a reprint of an article by Gibson, “The Amazing Randi,” from the June 1957 issue of Mystery Digest.
• #5 (1982) focuses on The Domino Lady. So we get a reprint of “The Domino Lady Collects,” her first appearance from Saucy Romantic Adventures of May 1936. We get several sidebar articles, all by Drew, on the Domino Lady, pulp authors William R. Cox, Kenneth A. Fowler, Bill Severn; publisher Harry Steeger; and “The Syndicate Option” which is how pulp authors got their works reprinted, in particular looking at the Chapman syndicate.
• #6 (1983) focused on Anthony M. Rud‘s weird tales. He actually had the cover feature in the first issue of Weird Tales: “Ooze.” He worked in several genres, but sadly died in 1942 at the age of 49. He had a few series, including a mystery series with character Jigger Masters that had a few hardcover novels. We get a reprint of a Jigger Masters story from Detective Fiction Weekly of Aug. 25, 1934, “The Feast of Skeletons,” along with a longish article on him. Doesn’t look like anyone has tried to reprint his works other than a volume from Ramble House, one of two planned collections of his weird fiction. But nothing of his mystery work.
As I said, it’s an interesting little magazine. I do wonder what we might have gotten had this continued. If anyone has more info on this zine, please post a comment.
