I recently picked up the only two issues of the fanzine Pulse Pounding Adventure Stories published by Robert M. Price’s Cryptic Publications in the late 1980s.
For those not aware, Robert M. Price is a religious scholar and former Baptist minister who is also a writer and editor in the area of H.P. Lovecraft studies, putting out numerous anthologies, many from Chaosium. He is the editor (and at times publisher) of Crypt of Cthulhu and other magazines.
In the 1980s, he expanded Cryptic Publications, putting out Risque Stories (six issues), Shudder Stories (nine issues), Revelations from Yuggoth (three issues), Astro-Adventures (eight issues), Lurid Confessions (one issue), and several one-off chapbooks. Cryptic served as the publisher of Crypt of Cthulhu from #50-75 (1987-90), after which it moved to Necronomicon Press.
Like all the publications of Cryptic, these are chapbook-size magazines, saddle stitched, with colored-paper covers with black-and-white art. Both have cover art by Stephen Fabian, and contain new and classic pulp stories with a focus on adventure stories.
#1 (December 1986) has the following:
First up is “Intrigue in Kurdistan,” an unfinished El Borak story by Robert E. Howard that hadn’t previously been published.
From Richard Tierney (1936-2022) is “The Blade of the Slayer,” a story of his Simon of Gitta. This is also a first appearance of this sword-and-sorcery story.
From Carl Jacobi is “The Dark Circle.” While this story was written in the 1930s, this is its first publication, as it was rejected by several magazines at the time. It’s a story of pearl diving in the South Pacific.
Another original story is “Drums of the Bizango” by Marc A. Cerasini and Charles Hoffman, which makes use of REH’s John Gorman.
And finally from Manly Wade Wellman is one of his Hok stories, “The Love of Oloana.” It first appeared in a revised form as a chapter of Battle in the Dawn. For those not aware, Hok is intended to have been the inspiration of Hercules.
#2 (December 1987) has the following:
We get another Simon of Gitta story from Richard Tierney: “The Treasure of Horemkhu.” All the Simon stories up to that point would be reprinted in the Chaosium collection The Scroll of Thoth: Simon Magus and the Great Old Ones in 1997.
Another of Carl Jacobi’s unpublished works, “Your Witness, Tuan” was originally written around 1936 or ’37. It’s another South Seas tale.
From the late C.J. Henderson is “A Desert Story.” It’s set in the Middle East.
A reprint from West magazine (January 1943) by Robert Bloch is “Indian Sign.”
We are told in the editorial of the second issue that it would be the last, due to the other projects they were doing. So may have been a combination of poor sales along with the other publications they were doing. Too bad it didn’t last longer.
If you look around, you can find issues. And you may want to get them, as several of these stories have never been reprinted. I picked up mine off eBay, but know of another pulp reprinter/vendor with copies available.
And take a look at their other publications as well. I hope to start reviewing Price’s collections at some point, as well as on more Lovecraft-related works.
