‘Blood ‘n’ Thunder 2024 Special Edition’

We now have the annual issue of Blood ‘n’ Thunder, the Blood ‘n’ Thunder 2024 Special Edition, from Murania Press, again a little before Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention.

This one clocks in at 276 pages, a little shorter than last year’s, with 16 articles on pulp, vintage movies, and old-time radio. We get several top contributors this time, along with some first-timers.

First up, we get an article by pulp researcher Will Murray that first appeared in a blog. This looks at a “lost” detective story supposedly written by Maltese Falcon creator Dashiell Hammett. This is another example of the difficulty at times to identify works of obscure authors as possible pseudonymous works by well-known authors.

Canadian pulp researcher and filmmaker Don Hutchison has two articles this time. One looks at the “northwestern” stories that starred Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the other is a re-evaluation of the classic poverty row film White Zombie (1932) that starred Bela Lugosi.

I remember watching the movie reviews by critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. But it’s only been in recent years that I’ve learned about Ebert’s involvement in sf fandom and writing for fanzines. Gilbert Colon takes a look into this period of his life.

Editor-publisher Ed Hulse gives us an expanded revisit to the occult world of Chandu the Magician, a character with a long career in radio adventures, movies, and serials during the 1930s. Some of these featured Bela Lugosi, first as the main villain in one film to being Chandu in a subsequent serial. Now that is unusual.

Paperback authority Gary Lovisi covers a mid-1920s series of proto paperbacks from Garden City Publications that reprinted mainly from the pulps using covers from Short Stories. This was possible because they were owned by Doubleday who also owned the pulp. I have been aware of them for several years, but this is the first time I’ve seen an article on them.

Also included is a revised and expanded version of my article on obscure pulpster Lemuel de Bra that first appeared in my print fanzine From the Desk of a Pulp Super-Fan that is included with the PEAPS mailing. This includes details on his book reprinting several of his “oriental intrigue” stories, The Ways They Are Wary. It would be nice if someone reprinted this with the artwork from the dust jacket. I hope this will not be my last contribution to BnT.

For the past several volumes, OTR expert Karl Schadow has been looking at various radio series that were tied to pulp magazines, often obscure ones. This time he looks at one from 1931 that was connected to Adventure magazine, called Moments of Adventure.

The Black Cat, a late 19th-century magazine that lasted until 1923, has often been cited as the precursor to Weird Tales because it sometimes contained “off trail” stories similar such that H.P. Lovecraft started to pick it up and even Clark Ashton Smith contributed to it. Thus historian Will Oliver looking into it to see if this claim holds up.

Author Richard Matheson is probably best known for his works that became the movies, I Am Legend and The Shrinking Man. Here Matthew Bradley takes a close and comprehensive look at his early pulp fantasy and science-fictional stories.

We get several articles from the Writer’s Digest by several prominent pulp-fiction writers and editors. These are always great as they give a “behind the door” look into writing for the pulps and what the editors wanted. From Leo Margulies, the long-time chief editor of the Thrilling line, we get a peek inside the first that was then publishing 25 monthly pulps with a combined circulation of two-million copies, as well as writing for the pulp westerns. From editor/publisher Hugo Gernsback, who started the first sf pulps, we learn about how to write science-fiction stories. From Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason and who got his start at Black Mask, we learn about how to incorporate local color. From sf author Henry Kuttner we learn how to sell fantasy stories. And from James H.S. Moynahan, who wrote for Black Mask, we learn about writing detective stories.

I always enjoy these volumes, and while I might not care for every article, there are always many I do enjoy. This goes on my shelf with my other pulp reference books. Also check out the new edition of the Blood ‘n’ Thunder Guide to Pulp Fiction that just came out.