Way back in the early days of the web, John’s website was quite popular for posting scans of The Shadow stories. I’d propose that John’s efforts led to the return to print of the novels through Sanctum Books. I’m not sure Conde Nast realized that there was much interest in those old stories before then.
John wrote around 262 “Two-Minute Mysteries” featuring The Shadow, which were also on his site. (John says he’s also written about 60 short stories featuring The Shadow, which haven’t been published.)
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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]
Around the time Conde Nast began a copyright crackdown on websites, John removed the scans and mysteries. His website eventually morphed into reviews of The Shadow adventures, as well as profiles of some of the characters in the series.
“Every day I work with pulps… either in the fragile physical form, or in their electronic counterparts,” John says. “Every night I read pulps in bed before I fall to sleep. It’s what dreams are made of…”
Let’s hear from John:
1. How were you introduced to the pulps?
Back in the mid-1960s, I was listening to reruns of “The Shadow” on the radio and that transitioned me into reading the pulp version. I have to admit, however, that I was disappointed in the pulp version. There were no “good spots” where The Shadow clouded men’s minds in the pulps.
About the same time, I started reading paperback reprints of Doc Savage and loved them. Over the years my interest in pulp fare waxed and waned, but it was the mid-’90s when I caught pulp fever with The Shadow story “The Voodoo Master.” And since then I’ve read each Shadow story twice. That’s a lot of Shadow!
My work with RadioArchives.com on their huge pulp ebook project has exposed me to a lot more pulps like The Spider and G-8 and His Battle Aces… not to mention The Secret Six and The Mysterious Wu Fang and Doctor Death and Captain Future and weird menace and… yes, even Rangeland Romances.
2. What is your most prized pulp possession?
I don’t have any original pulp artwork, but I do have several of Scotty Phillips‘ reproductions of Shadow covers (including the one at right), and I value them highly.
Also in the most-prized category is something semi-pulp related. I have nearly all — about 99.5 percent — of “The Shadow” radio scripts, some dating back to 1932 when The Shadow was only a narrator, and wasn’t the main character. They may not be strictly pulp, but they are all prized.
3. What overlooked (pulp magazine, story, author, character, or series) would you recommend to pulp fans and why?
Dusty Ayres and His Battle Aces doesn’t get enough respect, so let me mention him. Think of G-8 and His Battle Aces, but replace the weird-menace angle with science fiction. The character appeared in a dozen pulp magazines, and was unique in that those 12 issues told a complete story of a near-future war.
The Black Invaders struck in issue number one, and were finally defeated in issue number 12. Even the short stories in the back of the magazine were set during that fictional war.
A year later, the Purple Invasion sub-series of Operator #5 did the same thing, although those 13 issues didn’t wrap things up as neatly. Just remember, Dusty Ayres was first! By-and-large, he is overlooked… and deserves remembering.
2. What is your most prized pulp possession?
