Bill ThomYou are probably most familiar with Bill Thom through Pulp Coming Attractions, where weekly he posts the latest news regarding pulp-related publications and websites. He’s the next pulp to answer “3 pulp questions.”
Coming Attractions began as a printed feature in the long-running pulp fanzineEchoes. After Echoes ended, Bill moved Coming Attractions online in 2002. He posts his weekly updates on Friday evenings or Saturdays.
Bill, who won the first Munsey Award in 2009, also manages the Pulp Series Character Reprint Index, which lists pulp characters and details about when and where their stories have been reprinted. He also runs Howard Works, a site that provides a detailed listing of where Robert E. Howard‘s writings have appeared.
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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]
Let’s hear from Bill:
1. How were you introduced to the pulps?
It began one Christmas when I was young and my grandparents presented me with a gift of two Tom Swift Jr. adventures, “Tom Swift And His Flying Lab” and “Tom Swift and His Giant Robot.” I devoured them both and began haunting the book section of department stores when my parents went shopping and dragged me along.
It was on a trip to the local J.C. Penney store when I spotted my first Doc Savage paperbacks on the rack, “The Secret in the Sky” and “Mystery Under the Sea.” I was enamoured of the James Bama covers and successfully persuaded my parents to procure both titles for me. I do not recall which I read first, but I thoroughly enjoyed both books and sought out more Doc Savage.
In time I discovered the Berkley reprints of G-8 and The Spider as well as the Bantam reprints of The Shadow. Eventually, I spotted the FrazettaConan covers which began my interest in weird and horror fiction. I was hooked.
2. What is your most prized pulp possession?
That would have to be my collection of 80 or so The Shadow pulps.
3. What overlooked (pulp magazine, story, author, character, or series) would you recommend to pulp fans and why?
BrennanWeird Tales author Joseph Payne Brennan whose work I first discovered in a reprint from John Pelan’s “Midnight House.” Brennan’s stories effectively develop suspense and draw the reader into the story.
Brennan’s weird tales and his tales of occult detective Lucius Leffing need to be brought back into print in definitive editions for today’s readers.
