The 2023 Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention was held in April, and the new Windy City Pulp Stories #22 is out. This issue is again available through Amazon, as are most going back to #8, and is again published by Black Dog Books.
This year, the focus is on the emergence of the pulp heroes following the appearance of The Shadow. We get a sepia-tone photo illustration of a pulp- magazine rack from the time as the cover. As always, we get a great collection of new and old articles and fiction reprints, though most focus on what preceded the pulp heroes than the pulp heroes themselves.
Our first section is on the pulp heroes themselves, and we get an article from pulp historian Will Murray on the “other writers” of G-8. Now, we all know that Robert J. Hogan wrote all the G-8 novels under his own name, a rarity. So he can’t have had any ghostwriters? Well, read the article for more. Along the way, you’ll hopefully understand better how the pulp industry worked.
Next is another article from Will Murray. Sort of. Back in the early 1980s, Will organized a trio of articles with some of the leading pulp fans and historians on the best and worst The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Spider novels. Here we get the one on The Spider from Megavore #13 (1981), with input from Robert Sampson, Bob Weinberg, Michael Avallone, and others.
Next up is a section of pieces by or with R.T.M. Scott, who wrote the first Spider novels. He has been best known for creating Aurelius “Secret Service” Smith, a popular character of his time who would fall out of favor. There is much to the claim that Scott based elements of The Spider on Secret Service Smith.
Then we have some fiction pieces involving forerunners to the pulp heroes: The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Gray Seal, and Secret Service Smith. For each, we get a short fiction piece with the character, along with a nice article on the authors and their characters by Tom Roberts.
Dime novels preceded the pulps, and we get some anonymous articles on writing for the dime novels that appeared in the early 20th century.
One aspect that I think too many average fans are unaware of is how much the post office — and its rates for shipping periodicals — have had on the industry. This affected magazine publications, both dime novels and the pulps in their time, as well as comicbooks. Here we get an article by Frank Munsey, the creator of the pulp magazine, from 1911. This is preceded by an article by Tom Roberts to help set the stage.
Rounding out the issue is an article by Ed Hulse on the films shown at the 2023 Windy City show, all of which were adapted from pulp works.
Overall, it’s another great issue. I would have preferred more articles on just the pulp heroes. But there are many works out there already on them. The set of pieces here would be hard to find and I think would help more people have a greater appreciation of the underlying roots and influence of pulps and the pulp heroes. Another great volume for my shelves and I look forward to seeing what we get next year.
