In May, Bold Venture Press ut out the latest issue of Pulp Adventures, #35, for Spring 2020. This time with a cover by Ozni Brown (no relation) from True Detective in 1953, we get new and classic pulp stories that are mystery, science fiction, and horror, along with some non-fiction works.
For classic pulp fiction, we get another work from Charles Boeckman: “Home for Killers!” from the first issue of the short-lived Mobsters magazine from 1952. A man out on parole gets involved with a girl and a murder. Will he hightail it, leaving the girl to take the fall, or go back to save her and go back to jail? Read and find out.
Thubway Tham was Johnston McCulley‘s longest-running serial character with nearly 150 stories! “Thubway Tham’s Baggage Check” is one of the earlier ones from Detective Story Magazine (March 25, 1919). After a while away from his hometown digs in the New York subway, Tham is back. He is looking for the new pickpock who is working his territory, and trying to keep his nemesis Detective Craddock from noticing he’s back. If you haven’t read a Thubway Tham story, here’s your chance. Hopefully we’ll see more in the future.
We get some pulp sf. First up is “Space Burial” by Lew Merrill, was really Victor Rousseau Emanuel. It appeared in Spicy-Adventure Stories in 1941, from when Emanuel was solely writing for the spicies. In the typical unrealistic sf tales the the time, our hero is challenged by his mortal enemy to a fight in space to save his girl.
From British science-fiction author E.C. Tubb, probably better known for the long Dumarest of Terra series, we have “The Robbers” from the British New Worlds in 1954. In a future where war does not exist, a young man joins the military. Will he become the new kind of soldier? Or something else?
We get a classic H.P. Lovecraft story, “The Colour Out of Space,” which first appeared in Amazing Stories in 1927. It has had several film adaptions, including a recent one with Nicolas Cage. Audrey Parente provides a good sidebar article for the story. For those not aware, a strange meteor lands near a farm, and contaminates it with a strange “colour out of space.”
“Theft of the Crown Jewels” by John Clemons is one of two Shep Malone stories. It appeared in Thrilling Detective in 1935. Shep is a notorious thief. Well, not really. He’s actually a Secret Service agent who works undercover. Here he is working to unmask a fake count and return stolen crown jewels. And must avoid getting caught by police who don’t know who he is.
For new pulp fiction, we get four works.
For a bit of weird fiction, Robert W. Walker‘s “Sniffing Out the Rain Shadow” is about a cadaver-sniffing dog who leads his handlers to a bizarre ending.
We get another work from Adam Beau McFarlane, “Give ’Em Hell, Helen.” This one is about a female racer driving a car cross-country during the early 20th century to help promote the manufacturer, her father. But there is more to the story.
“The Occurrence of the Kali Curse” by Logan Robichaud is about a trio of British soldiers in British India and their dealing with a very real curse.
Jack Halliday‘s “Great Caesar’s Ghost” is a strange little tale of a man experienceing some ghostly encounters.
In addition, we get some non-fiction work. From Philip Harbottle, we get a short article on E.C. Tubb, which also tells of Harbottle’s involvement with the author as a young fan, whom he now represents as a literary agent. And from Rich Harvey we get a “Retro Review” of four paperback works by Ed Lacy (really Leonard Zinberg). Hopefully we’ll get more of these in future issues.
Another great issue. I believe the summer issue should be coming in July. I know we’ll be getting another E.C. Tubb work. Will we get another Thubway Tham tale? Just have to find out.
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