With the start of 2025, Stormgate Press has put out their fifth issue of Pulp Reality, dated Winter 2025, three years after the last one. And sadly, this is the final issue.
I do hope that at some time, we see a return, but maybe their “Stormgate Quick Reads Books” series replaces this to a degree. Four more volumes of those, #4-7, just came out.
Like the previous issues, it’s a large size at 8.5- by 11-inches and 120 pages, less than last time, with five stories from five authors, all original (as far as I know) New Pulp heroes. There is a cover by comic artist Ronn Sutton, who is doing the current Carson of Venus online comic strip with, and interior art by Brian Rodman (Memoirs of an Angel).
From Jim Beard, maybe best known for Sgt. Janus, we get the “pulp hero without a name.” He wears an unusual full-face leather mask, has a strange origin, and doesn’t speak, so most just call him “No.” Set in 1950, there are several after some object in the possession of a police sergeant. But what is its importance? We are introduced to police detective Sandy Cleveland, who is wondering what is bothering his sergeant, whom he served with during the war. Things finally come to a head, revealing the secret behind the object. But what comes next for our silent hero?
Brian K. Morris has a story with King Steel, a former prize fighter named Kenneth Steelman. Despite his wealth, he wanders through the Depression, helping those he can. This time, he is helping a young boy, a runaway who has fallen in with a bad crowd. Can he get him to safety and maybe change his life? It’s hard to say because the criminal who runs things is after the boy.
We get another story set in post-war America by Clyde Hall (creator of B-Man), The Mannequin. Our main character, Milt Winger, reminisces about what happened in the neighborhood while he was at war. There was a mysterious vigilante called The Mannequin. Milt is surprised to find The Mannequin sprawled wounded in his living room. And he is surprised to learn that he knows who is behind the mask: an old friend who was almost like a father to him. The Mannequin may be dead, but he will live on, first taking on the crook who killed the old man? What will be his next mission?
With a piece by Bobby Nash (creator of Lance Star and Abraham Snow), we start with a corrupt alderman and crime lord. He takes things too far with the owner of a quarry, killing him and one of his employees. Or does he? Instead, he helped create Stone, who wants vengeance.
Finally, from publisher Charles Millhouse, we get the Phantom Badge. We meet him when he rescues ex-con John Blade from being eliminated after a drug drop. The Phantom Badge wants his help in taking down some corrupt cops. And there is a link between not only the Badge and Blade, but also between Badge and those cops. The conclusion of this one might surprise you.
I found these all enjoyable stories with unusual heroes. These are not your standard New Pulp heroes. I’m sad to see Pulp Reality go. And I wonder if we’ll see any more stories with these characters? We’ll just have to wait and see.
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