In 1960, Caz co-founded, with the late Alfred Guillory Jr., the zine ERB-dom, devoted to the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. ERB-dom won the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1966; Caz continued publishing it until 1976.
He began publishing in 1988 a revived The Fantasy Collector, which evolved into The Fantastic Collector. In 1997, the zine became Pulpdom.
Caz closed a chapter on Pulpdom in August when he ended its printed run with number 75. Caz says the complete run of Pulpdom, issues 1-75, and an index soon will be available on disc.
Beginning in December, Caz and fellow pulp historian Mike Taylor will debut Pulpdom On-Line, which will feature pulp articles, books reviews and more on the Pulpdom website.
Now, on to Caz’s answers to “3 Pulp Questions”:[box type=”shadow”]
3 Pulp Questions
3 Pulp Questions is an opportunity for you to get to know fellow pulp collectors a bit better and, maybe, introduce you to pulps, authors, stories or characters that you haven’t explored.[/box]
1. How were you introduced to the pulps?
My dad had previously purchased two Grosset & Dunlap reprints in the mid-1940s. I was about 7-years-old in 1946, and he urged me to read them — even resorting to reading a few chapters out loud to get me hooked.
I read them, bought two or three more. I finally got all the G&D reprints of that era, but knew there were others. I also started listenting to “X Minus One,” “Sky King” and others on the radio. “X Minus One” led me to Galaxy magazine, where I met the old SF authors writing there, especially “Watchbird” by Robert Sheckley, which greatly impressed me. And now… “drones” are the norm. Remember that story? Worth re-reading: Drones are sent out to kill other rogue drones.
Anyway, Edria W. Bennett was a long-time pulp collector (Short Stories, Street & Smith’s Western Story, Max Brand, but was of course familiar with ERB and the general SF pulps. He was less interested in detective pulp types). He answered the ad, invited me over, and there, in his house, was a room with pulps stacked against the wall, floor to ceiling, with boxes everywhere, a tiny desk amongst the piles, a little desk lamp, little files of letters, and fanzines, in particular, from Darrell C. Richardson about Max Brand. I think he introduced me to Pete Ogden‘s ERBania… and Vern Coriell‘s publications.
That day: I’ll never forget him handing me me “The Resurection of Jimber-Jaw,” a picture of a primitive man frozen in a block of ice on the cover of a strange little magazine… called Argosy… and written by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
That was in the early 1950s. The rest is history.
2. What is your most prized pulp possession?
3. What overlooked (pulp magazine, story, author, character, or series) would you recommend to pulp fans and why?
Thank you, Caz, for participating in our inaugural installment. If you want to suggest someone for “3 Pulp Questions,” just let me know.
Then tune in soon for another “3 Pulp Questions.”
Caz Cazedessus’ photo courtesy of Bill Hillman at ERBzine.com.
That was very enjoyable, thanks. I started collecting ERB-dom with issue #41, and bought one or two back issues.. I subscribed to Pulp-dom also. I met a lot of good people through ERB=dom. Caz, included. Caz visited us several years ago in Texas, and we had long discussions about things Burroughs. Thanks for running the 3 Questions.
Tom
Very nice article. Looking forward to more of these. Thanks for linking to my site.
Glad you both enjoyed the post. More to come!
Sai, Pulp Flakes is one of the pulp blogs I read regularly. I highly recommend it.