After three years, Ed Hulse‘s excellent magazine, Blood ‘n’ Thunder, comes back with a new series: Volume 2!
From 2002 and 2016, Blood ‘n’ Thunder covered not just pulps, but also their dime-novel forerunners, movie serials, and early radio. I’ve reviewed many of the issues here, including the two collections of articles from the first 22 issues, and the rest available through print-on-demand. BnT then became a series of books, under “Blood ‘n’ Thunder Presents,” four so far and more planned.
But for several reasons, Ed has brought back BnT, with the goal to putting out two issues a year in this shorter format.
So what do we have in this issue? Another great collection of articles on the pulps and related media. No fiction reprints this time, probably to keep the size in check.
Street & Smith’s The Avenger pulp hero had two radio series. The 1941-42 one has only a few known scripts, which Pulp Vault reprinted (tho the author here doesn’t seem to be aware of that). Here David Kalb documents this series and compares the scripts to the original pulp novels they are based on, sometimes loosely. Kalb may be better known as the designer for Age of Aces books, as well as Blood ‘n’ Thunder.
We get a profile of a forgotten pulp publisher, J. Thomas Wood, whose pulps I’m not familiar with. This one is by David Saunders, son of pulp artist Norman Saunders.
Well-known pulp historian Will Murray (and the new Kenneth Robeson) takes a look at “pulp pulchritrude,” those artists who provided pulp covers with alluring women. And it wasn’t just the spicy pulps who had them. We get several examples of these, and mention of many others. This is one of those times when I wish the interior artwork was reprinted in color. I had to go to Galactic Central to check out several of the covers mentioned.
Researcher Rick Lai provides a chronology and write-up of Talbot Mundy‘s Jimgrim saga, a series I want to get into myself. Though some are not readily available (the last half dozen or so), I think because these later works are not in the public domain. So I’ll have to read the ones I can and review them.
Hulse himself looks at the Zorro centennial with a behind-the-scenes account of the making of the 1920 Douglas Fairbanks hit, The Mark of Zorro, which is probably the main reason Zorro became such a hit. It seems clear to me that the first Zorro story was written to be a one-off novel, not the start of a series.
Hulse also provides a look at Hawk of the Wilderness, a 1938 serial adapted from the popular Kiowa pulp novels, of a Tarzan-like character. This one is a reprint.
The plan for this new version is to have at least two issues each year. Further, there will be two different prices. If you order this from Amazon, you’ll pay $12.95. But if you order this from the Murania Press website, you’ll pay only $9.95 (and still free shipping I believe). No subscriptions. So check out this new incarnation. I know I’ll be getting this one, and look forward to the next issue. The second issue is being worked on and will come out in November. Further will come if these are successful. And I still look forward to more BnT Presents books.
