Jim Main’s Pulp Fan #8, dated Fall 2023, arrived recently. This issue is themed around “pulp characters on the big screen,” starting with another great pair of covers by Tim Faurote and includes a great trio of articles and lots of art.
Like other issues, it is printed on slick paper with color covers and interiors, running around 40 pages in total.
From Will Murray is a long article on Walter Gibson and his creation of The Shadow and his views of the movie adaptions starting with the pair from Grand National: The Shadow Strikes and International Crime. Some of these movie adaptions were based on his works. This is a kind of different take on The Shadow movies, as it is as much an article on Gibson as it is on the movies.
The Spider’s movie serials is the subject of Michael F. Housel’s article. These are The Spider’s Web and The Return of the Spider. As it may not be easy for some to see both of these serials, this is a good overview of both.
Whether or not the Doc Savage movie is good or bad is the subject of Dennis Kininger’s article. Many fans have a dim view of this campy movie by George Pal. I think he did a good job of going into detail on this movie.
We get several Frank Hamilton pieces, but not as many new pieces of art. All three articles do include several stills and other pieces from the movies being discussed.
This is another great issue, and as is noted in the editorial, Jim has now equaled his other pulp fanzine, the excellent Zine of Bronze, which lasted eight issues.
Pulp Fan #9 is planned and all we know is it will feature two early pulp characters who are still getting new stories. Wonder who those are? Can’t wait!
