We recently received the PDF of the third issue of Pulp Fan, a great pulp fanzine from Jim Main. Sadly this zine comes out on an infrequent basis, as the first was December 2017, then Summer 2018, and now Fall 2021. The hardcopy issues have since come out.
Previous issues were done on slick paper with color covers and color interiors, and we get the same this time. Again, a nice package. We get a lot of artwork, both new and reprinted (various covers). The rest is a trio of articles, all illustrated. Artwork is by Tim Faurote, Richard Potter, Michael Shipley, Mike Maloney, Rusty Gilligan, and John Lambert, (with colors by Marc Haines), M.D. Jackson, Jay Mooers, and Michael Kaluta inked by Jeff Austin.
Under an interesting Doc Savage cover, with Ham and Monk being Ham and Monk (along with Pat?), the zine kicks off with Doc Savage researcher Will Murray providing an article on Doc’s gadget belt, which at times replaced his equipment vest. We get some good information on the belt, along with quotes from several issues.
Teel James Glenn takes a look at space pulp heroes: John Carter of Mars, Gulliver of Mars, Buck Rogers (who started in the pulps), Flash Gordon (who was a comic strip that became a pulp), and Captain Future. We even get a brief overview of Harold Hersey‘s brief run of pulps based on comic strips that I covered here as well (this is where the only pulp issue of Flash Gordon came from). Sadly missed was mention of the recent new Captain Future stories.
Finally, Link Hullar has “Pulps and Paperbacks: Transitioning From Pulp to Pulpwoody.” Here he speaks of the transition of pulp fiction that ran in pulp magazines to what he calls the “pulpwoody” fiction that replaced it, that existed in paperbacks and men’s adventure magazines (MAM). I agree that paperbacks and MAMs replaced the pulps and are their successors, but feel calling them “pulp” is incorrect. I think “pulpwoody” is a bit clunky, but more accurate than calling them pulp. There is also a great gallery of covers from MAM and paperback pulp reprints.
To get this one, reach out to Jim Main on Facebook. He may still have issues available, but if not you can order the PDF of this and the prior issues from him. If you want to see a fourth issue, reach out to him as well, or better yet create something for it.
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