We continue to look at the fanzine Echoes ran from 1982 to 2002. Published by the late Tom and Ginger Johnson, it is probably the longest-running pulp fanzine.
Because of the changes in format, I’m not going with a strict 10 issues per posting. So we continue with the third format change, that occurred for issues #17 through #80. As I get closer to wrapping this up, there should be one more posting.
These issues are 8.5- by 11-inches and stapled along the left side and around 50 pages, though for a period they were 46 or 48 pages. They are on white 20-pound paper. We get different artists for the covers, several times playing with the Echoes name to tie in with the cover theme.
There are also letter pages, reviews, and a few columns. We get many works by leading pulp researchers like Al Tonik, Link Hullar, Don Hutchison, Nick Carr, Dickson Thorpe, Howard Hopkins, Will Murray, and others.
As usual, I will not note every article, but the ones I found most interesting. While we get a lot of articles on popular pulp heroes, we also get articles on western and romance pulps, digests, and movies.
Echoes #35 (February 1988). Continuing columns include Nick Carr’s “Spider Notes” on The Spider and Robert Sampson’s “Starting Again,” now at part 6. Rick Lai looks at the story President Fu Manchu. John Dinan looks further into the topic of the “Defective Detective” after the then-recent two collections from Popular Press, which I’ve reviewed.
Echoes #36 (April 1988). We have our third collection of articles on “Death-Defying Acts.” Nick Carr examines The Lone Eagle. And Rick Lai speaks on The Shadow foe Zanigew.
Echoes #37 (June 1988). Ron Wilber‘s cover is this time “Spicy Western Echoes,” which ties to several non-spicy western articles. Nick Carr and Link Hullar look at western hero The Black Death and also Happy Hay. These are part of a series by the two on unusual western heroes. Al Tonik writes about Long Sam Littlejohn and also Walt Slade. Dickson Thorpe tells us about the Pete Rice stories that appeared in Wild West Weekly.
Echoes #38 (August 1988). John Roy provides another article on Canadian pulps, his last as he passed away. Fred Cook provides a memorial on him. Will Murray continues his investigation into who Lars Anderson, the creator/writer of The Domino Lady. Nick Carr starts a series called “Anatomy of a Pulp Novel” where he examines in depth an Operator #5 novel. Rick Lai looks at the idea of “shocking revelations” from the pulp. We get another round-robin set of articles on the theme of “An Act of Pure Evil.”
Echoes #39 (October 1988). We get the first of Don Hutchison’s new column “Pulp Fever,” with its own logo. David Bates examines Scientific Detective magazine. Dickson Thorpe looks at Emperor Maximilian, the foe of the Purple War saga in Operator #5.
Echoes #40 (December 1988). We get a cover by Ron Wilber highlighting The Black Bat, with the title “Black Book Echoes.” This ties to the first of a series of articles on The Black Bat from Tom Johnson, which I believe was turned into The Black Bat Companion from Steeger Books. Will Murray looks into an interesting Maxwell Grant mystery. So we have a good idea of the basis for The Shadow’s three Better Little Book volumes I’ve posted on. Tom Johnson and Nick Carr look at comic-strip character Dan Dunn who became a pulp character as well. I did enjoy the humorous article by Allan J. Isobel titled “How to Make People Hate You at a Pulp Convention.” This needs to be reprinted in The Pulpster.
Echoes #41 (February 1989). A wonderful cover by Bobb Cotter for this issue, along with a portfolio of his work. Mostly we get columns, but we do get an article by Tom Johnson on “Polaris of the Snows,” and another by Mario DeMarco on the hero image that he illustrates.
Echoes #42 (April 1989). We get another rare color cover by Ron Wilber featuring Operator #5 during the Purple War saga. This ties to Nick Carr’s article, the first of several over the next few issues, on “Who’s Who in the Purple Invasion.” Pulp horror author Mary E. Counselman, whom I’ve reviewed here, writes about H.P. Lovecraft. Will Murray gives us an interview with Dave Darrigo, author of the comicbook Wordsmith. There is lots of interesting info I didn’t know at the time I did my review of it. And we get the first “Comics Commentary” by William Thom that would eventually turn into “Pulp Coming Attractions” over time.
Echoes #43 (June 1989). Dickson Thorpe writes about Lady Death from All Star Detective Stories. Pulp artist Norm Saunders is the subject of one of Nick Carr’s articles, the other subject is Jim Hatfield. Don Winslow is the topic of Tom Johnson and Nick Carr’s article. Al Tonik has another of his “Ramblings of a Perambulating Pulp Fan” column.
Echoes #44 (August 1989). Ron Wilber’s cover gives us “G-8 Echoes,” tying to Nick Carr’s article on G-8. While he also writes about “Tailspin” Tommy with Tom Johnson in another. John Edwards tells us about Ravenwood since reprinted by Steeger Books with new stories from Airship 27. Researcher Mike Ashley looks at British author Algernon Blackwood in the U.S. pulps.
Echoes #45 (October 1989). James Reasoner takes a look at the “Son of Jim Hatfield.” We get some articles on The Spider, not just Nick Carr’s column, but ones from Chuck Juzek and Rich Harvey.
Echoes #46 (December 1989). We get an sf cover by Ron Wilber as “Planet Echoes.” David Bates writes on pulp sf author Neil R. Jones, best known for the Professor Jameson series. We continue with the round-robin article on “A Death-Defying Act.” Shawn Danowski tells us about Steelmask from G-8 and His Battle Aces.
Echoes #47 (February 1990). Bobb Cotter’s cover features Jimmie Cordie and ties to the article by Robert Sampson. Steeger Books has since reprinted the whole series. Nick Carr tells us about who’s who in the pulp westerns. And Will Murray looks into what happened to pulp author Laurence Donovan. He wrote some Doc Savage novels, as well as The Skipper and The Whisperer and later The Phantom Detective.
Echoes #48 (April 1990). Ron Wilber gives us a Sheena cover to tie-in with several articles for “Jungle Echoes.” Jerry Page gives us two articles on Jungle Stories, and there will be two more in subsequent issues. Nick Carr writes about Sheena. And we get a three-page Sheena comic story by Ron Wilber as well.
Echoes #49 (June 1990). Burk Leake gives us part 1 of an article on Bill Barnes, the first of many articles on this and other aviation pulp heroes in the coming issues. Nick Carr has an Operator #5 article. Tom Johnson looks again at the fighting capabilities of certain pulp heroes. And Dickson Thorpe compares and contrasts two Johnston McCulley “bent” heroes: The Crimson Clown and The Man in Purple.
Echoes #50 (August 1990). Under a Ron Wilber cover of The Spider, this time we get a double-length issue at over 100 pages. Allan J. Isobel provides a long article that looks back over 50 issues of Echoes. Andy Biegel Jr. writes on the return of Peter the Brazen to Argosy in the 1930s. Howard Hopkins looks at youth potions in the pulps. Will Murray takes a look at who created the first Doctor Death. Burt Leake has two more articles on Bill Barnes. Tom Johnson looks at the Black Police saga from The Spider.
This is another great set of issues with many interesting articles. I really think Nick Carr’s “Spider Notes” and “Anatomy of a Pulp Novel” could be collected in book form. Other materials I know have been collected, but much here has not been.
Now to move on to the rest.
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