Pulp Adventures #48 from Bold Venture Press, dated Summer/Fall 2025, came out toward the end of September.
This time, we get classic pulp SF along with new fiction, plus reviews and info on some of the work. The cover for #48 is an original piece done with AI, as is the back cover, and both are tied to stories in this issue.
The cover story is “The Last Secret Weapon” by John Russell Fearn. The classic SF tale appeared in Marvel Stories (April 1941) under his Polton Cross alias. In it, a scientist creates a weapon but needs funding. Sadly, the wrong person steps up to fund it, and we learn the results of this.
Along with the story is an introduction by Philip Harbottle that tells of the influences on this story, as well as its expansion into a novel, The G-Bomb (1952).
For other classic stories, we first get “Visiting Celebrity” by E.C. Tubb, which first appeared in Futuristic Science Stories (1954) and is highlighted on the back cover. There is both a sidebar article that tells of the real-world inspiration for this story and an afterword, both by Harbottle, which focuses on Tubb’s Charles Grey alias, under which this work appeared. Set on Mars, it tells of a woman who visits a Martian bar and her effect on the patrons, both male and female.
Next is another work by U.K. author Shelley Smith, “Death of an Artist,” from 1945. It’s a mystery tale of an artist who thinks he can make a name for himself through murder.
For new fiction, we get three pieces. One is a science-fiction tale set in space from Dennis Kohler, focused on a spaceship captain.
From John Burke is “Handfast.” A man has lost his wife. He waits a whole month after her death to bed another lover, but his former wife still has some ideas about that.
Teel James Glenn gives us a Dr. Augustus Argent story. Dr. Argent appeared in a couple of volumes from Pro Se Press. This one is reprinted from the second collection. I hope we’ll see some new stories with this character. Dr. Argent is an occult detective working for the British Crown, dealing with various occult threats. Here he goes to New Orleans to deal with a vampire.
The volume is rounded out by James Reasoner’s review of several works, both new and classic.
Another good collection of stories, and I always look forward to this. It seems we will soon be hitting No. 50 with this magazine, which will be a great milestone.
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