Here we are with another look at an old pulp-hero fanzine, one that started in 1980 as Doc Savage Quarterly and was renamed The Shadow/Doc Savage Quest. All were produced by Bill Laidlaw.
It focused on works about Doc Savage, but also The Shadow and others. I don’t know much about Bill Laidlaw except that he also did the short-lived Pulp Letterzine, which lasted four issues in 1982-83, of which I have three, and later took over Collecting Paperbacks?. Pulp Letterzine actually published letters to The Shadow/Doc Savage Quest.
This zine ran as Doc Savage Quarterly for 10 issues. And Age of the Unicorn merged into it starting with issue 10, after Age ended following the final run on its own (#9-15). Then to broaden the focus, it was renamed The Shadow/Doc Savage Quest for issues #11-16. Age of the Unicorn remained till the end, and that was the end of that one as well.
All issues are 8.5- by 11-inches in size, side stapled at first, with color paper used for the covers. Then #11 was a slightly smaller size, on newsprint, and saddle stitched. This was due to having to change printers. It was reprinted in the style of #12, but I don’t have that. I will need to keep an eye out for one. With #12, it was saddle stitched with color-paper covers again. Early covers were pretty primitive until #8, and the page count was around 14 pages, though jumped to 40 pages with #10. No clear dates on the early issues, either.
For space reasons, I am not going to mention the various reviews that appeared in most issues.
Doc Savage Quarterly #1 (April 1980) features a front cover that is a stencil drawing of the Empire State Building. We get a review of the Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze movie by Laidlaw, and a listing of all the Doc pulp novels in order (also giving the Bantam book numbers at the time). There’s the first of a two-part fiction piece by “Operative 1701” (Laidlaw again?) titled “The Hidalgo Trading Corporation in 1979,” a modern tale of Doc, et al.
Doc Savage Quarterly #2 (1980) has a front cover looking like a spy dossier, with the cover of Doc Savage Comics Vol. 2 #7 from Street & Smith reproduced in black & white. We get an alphabetical listing of the Doc novels. An article on “The Man of Mystery,” about a John Montague. And the first of a five-part article/story, “Clark Savage Sr., Retired British Secret Service Agent,” by Laidlaw.
Doc Savage Quarterly #3 (1980) has front-cover artwork of the Red Baron‘s plane and a Sopwith Camel. This ties to the article “The Red Baron, The Avenger, and Doc Savage,” by Laidlaw. Another is “The Doc Savage Diet,” also by Laidlaw.
Doc Savage Quarterly #4 (February 1981) has front-cover artwork of a naval ship, this ties to the article “Terror for the Navy: What Really Happened?” by Laidlaw. And it includes some reprints from the pulps of “Doc Savage’s Method of Self Defense” and the Doc Savage Award that Street & Smith offered.
Doc Savage Quarterly #5 (April 1981) has front-cover artwork of a train that ties to the article “First Class Transportation in the 1930s: The Lone Survivor,” by Laidlaw. There is also “A Little Reoccuring Villain,” by Laidlaw, which gives the idea that Cadwiller Olden in “The Deadly Dwarf” also faced The Avenger.
Doc Savage Quarterly #6 (July 1981) has a front cover taken from a book on submarines. We get an article by Dafydd Neal Dyer, “The Eye of Day: Speculation on the Maternity of John Sunlight,” the first non-Laidlaw piece so far. From Steve Wawrzenski is a piece on Doc Savage Comics #1 from Street & Smith. And Will Murray provides “The Never-was Adventure”
Doc Savage Quarterly #7 (October 1981) gives us a cover by Samuel Joyner in the style of Frank Hamilton, with both Doc and The Shadow, as well as clearly stating the issue’s date. From Dafydd Neal Dyar, we get “The Bama Legacy.” Nick Carr, writing as Dickson Thorpe, provides “The Burning of Doc Savage.” “Pulp Notes” comes from Tom Johnson. Laidlaw gives a piece on “Tarzan’s Creator,” which is continued in the next issue. Steve Wawrzenski has an article on Doc in Shadow Comics #1.
Doc Savage Quarterly #8 (February 1982) has a Frank Hamilton cover of Doc Savage and his aides, but this is Ron Ely and the rest from the Doc Savage movie, not the pulps. We get two pieces by Tom Johnson. First is his next “Pulp Notes,” on the Doc novel “Target for Death,” and the second is an article on yesterday’s heroes of the radio and pulps. Nick Carr and Bob Sampson have an article on “Pulp Nostalgia.” Dyer takes a look at one of the novels Philip José Farmer claimed was “fictional,” “Land of Long JuJu,” as really being not. Steve Wawrzenski looks at the meeting of Doc and The Shadow in the Street & Smith comics.
Doc Savage Quarterly #9 (May 1982) has a cover by Marty Powell of Doc with the Space Shuttle. Tom Johnson has another of his “Pulp Notes,” this time on The Green Master, and Carr and Sampson offer another “Pulp Nostalgia.” Will Murray provides an article on the “Drab Gray Terror”: Doc’s sedans. Link Hullar has a piece on Nevada Jim, a western series from Bantam that had covers by Bama. Dyar takes a look at “Doc Might Have Beens,” the attempts to bring Doc into other mediums (comics, comic strips, radio, movies). Nick Carr looks at the “Prophet of Violence”: Ursus Young from Operator #5. And Daniel Gobbett has an article on Robert E. Howard.
Doc Savage Quarterly #10 (1982) is joined, as noted, by Age of the Unicorn, and the logo is included on the cover this time. The plans were to increase frequency to bimonthly and replace “Quarterly” with a different “Q” word. We get a lovely piece by Frank Hamilton of Prince Valiant. Al Tonik looks at some possible forerunners to The Avenger in “Immobile Faces.” Nick Carr handles “Pulp Nostalgia” alone. We get a fiction piece by “George Robeson” on Doc titled “Empire Builder” that was planned for Bronze Shadows but was never published. Dyer looks at the actual efforts by the Nazis to find occult items. From Robert Brooks is a piece titled “Memories of a Bronze Doctor.”
The Shadow/Doc Savage Quest #11 (December 1982) has another Hamilton cover that highlights Charles Manson and John Sunlight, which ties to an article by Laidlaw, Carles Watson, and Ray Hoekstra. Rick Lai gives the ancestry of John Sunlight. And Laidlaw and Dyer provide a follow-up piece to Dyer’s article in the last issue on Nazis’ hunting occult items. Steve Wawrzenski has a piece of the Archie Shadow comic. Will Murray looks at whether Ham dyed his hair, and Robert Sampson on Doc’s BB-gun. Or not.
The Shadow/Doc Savage Quest #12 (May 1983) gives us a Hamilton cover based on an unpublished Doc Savage cover by Walter Baumhofer. You’ll need to get the issue to find out the story behind it. Al Tonik looks at old-time radio. Nick Carr has another “Pulp Nostalgia” piece. Shelby L. Peck starts a new column called “What’s Up Doc?” Herman S. McGregor takes a look at Doc aide Johnny, and R. Brooks does the same for Renny in the form of an interview. Mike Avallone has a piece on “How to Talk to a
Writer.” Steve Wawrzenski looks at the “sacred ruby hood” version of Doc from the S&S comics. We get an updated article from Gerry de la Ree reprinted from Bronze Shadows on Irving Crump, author of the pulp character Og, Son of Fire. Rex E. Ward provides “A Pulp Reminiscence,” looking at the post-WWII changes on the pulps. There is a back-cover tribute to John Wayne, by Hamilton.
The Shadow/Doc Savage Quest #13 (November 1983) has another Hamilton cover, but this time it’s The Shadow. Will Murray provides “InciDENTals” #13, part of a series that had been appearing in Collecting Paperbacks? Laidlaw provides the first of what will be a new series starting in the next issue on the “Family Savage.” Nick Carr has another “Pulp Nostalgia.” Rick Lai has a piece on the idea of an organization for evil behind the various supervillains of fiction. Mac McGregor continues his “Comprehensive Survey of the Doc Savage Novels” that ended when Bronze Shadows ended. We also get an index for issues #1-11 that lists artwork and works by both author and title.
The Shadow/Doc Savage Quest #14/15 (July 1984) is a double issue
I don’t have the final issues, but know The Shadow/Doc Savage Quest ended with #16 on February 1985. If someone can help me find them, that would be great.
Whatever happened to Bill Laidlaw? It looks like from #13 that he also took over publishing Collecting Paperbacks? with Vol. 5 #1 (Aug 1984), but I suspect that started with V4#4. How long did that last? I know it existed into Vol. 6 (whole #26), and that he planned on using “Age of the Unicorn” as an umbrella term for both, due to the copy of Collecting Paperbacks? that I found (V4#4, tho I’ve seen a cover of this without the “Age of the Unicorn” logo on it, but I’ve seen the cover to V5#1 and there is no mention of “Age of the Unicorn”).
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