For 2023, we got three issues of The Bronze Gazette: #93 to 95.
This is the premier Doc Savage fanzine, which is offered in subscription sets of two to three issues. Thus for 2023, the subscription was for three issues. And I’m going back to reviewing all issues within those sets at once.
■ The Bronze Gazette #93 (April 2023), under a very nice Mark Wheatley cover, has a collection of articles from new and old contributors. Mark provides an article explaining the cover, with an interesting speculation about Doc Savage.
Howard Wright has three articles about an obscure 1975 one issue Doc fanzine called The Man of Bronze. Don’t worry if you’ve never seen it, I haven’t. You can download it off the Bronze Gazette website. He contacted the creator of the ‘zine, John Boehm. Another article is on his collaborator and art director, New Pulp author Mark Justice who recently passed away. Among other works, he did the Dead Sheriff series at Airship 27.
From Will Murray, we get a reprint of his article on Doug Wildey‘s Doc Savage work. Another article is on the use of AI art, which has become well-known in recent times. Craig McDonald “ships” Pat and Renny in his piece. Malcolm Deeley looks at Doc and women. I think many people online have at least heard of the Doc Talos works, which is a pastiche of a pastiche, as he’s not based on Doc Savage, but on Doc Caliban. Alexandre LeVasseur provides an overview of it.
■ The Bronze Gazette #94 (July 2023) uses Bob Larkin‘s “try-out” Doc cover that previously has only been shown once or twice in a smaller size. He also provides a short article on how it came about. I also see it being offered as a full-size limited-edition print.
Rick Forgus looks at the cover artwork of Doc, but in the Style Moderne, with some very interesting samples of this he created. From Daryl Morrissey is one of his “Refractions in Bronze,” this time on “The Devil Genghis.” Next, Steve Donoso looks at the final Doc novel, but also what was going on with the Street & Smith pulps from the editorial side. I knew some of this but not at this level of detail.
We then get a “creative mythology” article, by Atom Mudman Bezecny, linking J.G. Ballard‘s 1975 novel High-Rise and Doc. “The Original Monk” is the subject of Glen Held‘s article. In particular, gangster “Monk” Eastman. I remember Charles Atlas more from the various comicbook ads, and Mark Lambert looks at a possible link to Doc. And we get the first of a series of “what if” articles about Clark Savage Sr.
■ The Bronze Gazette #95 (December 2023) gives us a wrap-around cover by Kez Wilson, plus we get an array of Doc artwork through the issue by Kevin Dale Duncan that was created for a Doc project that never happened.
Matt Hiebert writes of his experiences encountering Boris Vallejo as the cover artist on the Bantam Docs. Daryl Morrissey gives us a different take on the creator behind Doc Savage and his development.
The original publisher of the Bronze Gazette, Howard Wright, gives us the story of the “other” Doc Savage Quarterly. And if you’re not sure why we say “other,” it’s Bill Laidlaw‘s Doc Savage Quarterly, which I’ve posted on, is what most people think of with that name.
Alexandre LeVasseur, who has been writing new stories with Adventurers Inc., talks about the differences between their only novel, The Crazy Indian, and the Doc novel it loosely based on, “The Magic Forest.” Will Murray continue his investigation into additional people who may or may not have ghosted Doc novels. I had thought this was a topic that had been addressed, but I guess not. And we will get a further article I think in the next issue.
Also, as I subscriber I got #95.5, which is the 2023 Christmas card.
It’s another great set of issues, and I will again be subscribing for the next set. Issue 100, here we come.
