I have been posting on the fanzine bare*bones, which is devoted to “unearthing vintage, forgotten, and overlooked horror/mystery/sci-fi/western/weird film – paperbacks – comics – pulp fiction – video.”
I reviewed the first 12 issues, though as this blog is focused on pulp and pulp fiction, that was my focus with those issues. Now as there are more issues, here are the next four issues.
Again, for many, there is probably other material included in this zine that will be of interest, but as this blog is focused on pulp, that is what I will also focus on. There are reviews of movies, books, comics, and more that you may enjoy. Each issue also has an in-depth look at different crime digests, a successor to the pulps.
bare*bones #13 (Winter 2023) has a lot of great articles on topics like Mike Shayne’s Mystery Magazine, the Agent 0008 paperback series, Marvel’s Tales of the Zombie black-&-white magazine, and more, but not too much on pulp.
We do get another installment in Duane Swierczynski’s “Field Guide to L.A. Pulp,” this time on David Goodis. He started his career in the pulps, writing an enormous amount of work for five years before moving to radio and movie scripts. Some of his pulp work has been reprinted by Stark House and others. And I’ve seen him covered in other works in the last year as well.
I would say pulp-adjacent is an article on the excellent Manhunter comicbook series from DC in the 1970s by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson. There have been several reprints of this over the years.
Another article is on the French sf movie Alphaville, which stars the noir detective Lemmy Caution who was created by a British writer in imitation to American noir detectives in several novels in the 1930s and ’40s.
bare*bones #14 (Spring 2023) has a lot of good articles on western paperbacks, sleaze paperbacks, mystery digests, and horror mags, but not much that is truly pulp-related in this issue.
The main item would be the next installment of Swierczynski’s “Field Guide to L.A. Pulp,” this time on Leigh Brackett. Maybe best known for her movie scripting, especially Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, she started out writing sf pulp and was known as the “Queen of the Space Opera.” Her writing appeared in Planet Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Startling Stories, and more. Her best-known creation is Eric John Stark, a Tarzan-like character raised on Mars.
bare*bones #15 (Summer 2023) We get an article on the marketing of John Carpenter‘s The Thing, a remake of a movie that was itself based on a classic pulp story, though Carpenter’s work is more in-line with the original pulp story.
This time with crime digests, we look at the first year of Michael Shayne Mystery Magazine, published by Leo Margulies, who was the main editor at the Thrilling pulps.
In Duane Swierczynski’s ongoing series “Field Guide to L.A. Pulp,” he looks at former cowboy and Pinkerton detective, and later author, Charlie Siringo, who did write some pulp works. Also good articles on Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner, etc.) and Marvel horror comics.
bare*bones #16 (Fall 2023) Several good articles. But the clearest one pulp-related is the latest in Duane Swierczynski’s “Field Guide to L.A. Pulp” tracks down Paul Cain. This was a pseudonym of George Caryl Sims who wrote hard-boiled pulp fiction for Black Mask and other magazines. He is best known for “Fast One,” which was later reprinted in book form. Steeger Books has a deluxe hardback with all his fiction from Black Mask along with some additional works. Close second would be a contination looking at Mike Shayne’s Mystery Magazine.
I did enjoy the articles on the Alistair MacLean movies and on the Professor Quatermass in TV and film. I always enjoyed the Hammer film Quatermaster and the Pit. As a kid I always thought it should have been Quartermass. Go figure. And I didn’t know the Hammer film X the Unknown was an unauthorized Quatermass sequel.
Again, it’s another great set of issues, and the publishers/editors (John Scoleri and Peter Enfantino) have been doing a great job of getting this out on a regular basis. Do check this one out. I always look forward to the next issues.
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