Several people recommended the writings of Dan (Stay Away, Joe) Cushman to me. Before becoming a successful paperback author in the 50s, Cushman wrote many stories for the pulps. Among them were the adventures of hook-armed Armless O’Neil. Set in Africa, these are well-written hard-boiled adventure stories that seem fresh in 2010. Volume 1, entitled Seekers of the Glittering Fetish: The Complete Armless O’Neil Volume 1, contains his first six stories from the pages of Action Stories and Jungle Stories. It should be going to a proofreader in a couple of weeks and I would expect it to be available well in time for the Windy City show. A second volume is already in the works, which would compile the last six stories. I’d expect this to be out by year’s end.

Another title, unannounced until now, is another volume in our Companion series. The Black Bat Companion will be in a similar format as last year’s The Phantom Detective Companion. Though it won’t be as long as the PD book, it should clock in at around 350 pages… not bad for a character with 1/3 of the adventures of The Phantom!

This will include material not only by primary author Tom Johnson, but also Will Murray and Al Tonik, among others. About 70 pages of The Black Bat’s 1940s comic stories will also be included, as well as a lengthy investigation of the German Black Bat. But the highlight of this may be the news that “The Celebrity Murders,” the last Black Bat story written by Norman Daniels & thought lost, has been discovered. We’ll tell you more in this book.

The Black Bat Companion is still being assembled. It is hoped that it will be available in time for PulpFest.

Much closer to availability is The Black Bat Omnibus Volume 1. This is the first volume of the complete reprinting of the series, this one containing the first three stories. It’s tough to guess at how many volumes this will take to complete, since the word counts fluctuated so much. While these early ones are about 40k words each, later ones are 15-20k. The Black Bat Omnibus Volume 1 is being proofread now and should be available for Windy City.

We’re also working on The Complete Adventures of Sangroo by J. Irving Crump. Sangroo is a Tarzan-like fella that only appeared twice in the pages of the ultra-rare Clayton title, Jungle Stories. I’d look for this in around PulpFest.

No doubt you noticed the book cover at the top of the page. Over a year in the making, The Weird Adventures of The Blond Adder: The Complete Casebook of Lee Nace by Lester Dent should be quite a tome. For those who don’t know Nace, it was a series Dent wrote for Ten Detective Aces in 1933, and it’s quite interesting to read the adventures of another gadget detective of Dent’s which were written during the first year of Doc Savage. Only two of these stories have been reprinted before. But what makes this special is that we’ve used the original Dent manuscripts as the source for four of the five stories (sadly, one’s manuscript doesn’t survive), and for one of the four, we’ve utilized sections of TWO drafts. It’s augmented with Dent’s original Nace character Bible, and scans of part of an early draft of one of the stories… which contain Dent’s hand-written corrections.

This is to be proofread soon, and will certainly be out well in time for Windy City. If not, much sooner.

A pair of Popular Publications books are nearly done being proofread, and will be available soon. The Hand of Red Finger collects all 12 of the Red Finger backups from the pages of Operator #5. Written by Arthur Leo Zagat, it’s a unique series written in a unique way. It’s one of Tom Johnson’s favorite series, and Tom’s included a newly-written Red Finger story to round out the collection.

The Casebook of Seekay and Other Prototypes of The Avenger is also nearly ready. Clocking in at over 300 pages and written by Paul Ernst, it collects all the known Avenger prototypes written for Popular’s mystery and crime pulps. In fact, several in the collection were only discovered while assembling this volume. It’s sure to be a page turner.

Tom Johnson’s Triple Detective is also back. Issue #4 should be available in 1-2 weeks and it’s our biggest one yet, clocking in at almost 180 pages with no price increase. A highlight of this collection is the first all-new adventure of The Eagle, Thrilling’s now-forgotten detective.

Tom’s also got another collection of pulp prose nearly available. Called The Pulp Detectives, this includes nine of Tom’s stories (featuring characters such as The Black Bat and The Phantom Detective) wrapped in a vintage cover. Look for it in a few weeks.

Another interesting title is by Chandler Whipple. Published in Dime Mystery magazine, The Curse of the Harcourts is a 6-episode story which is prime for a revival. You’ll have to read it to see what I mean. It’s going to be tough to write a back-cover blurb for this one! I’ll be out around PulpFest.

Nearly ready are three volumes in our Lost Race Library: Under the Andes by Rex Stout, Wings of Danger by Arthur A. Nelson and Yellow Men Sleep by Jeremy Lane. All come from 1910s pulps and are quite enjoyable. If you’re a fan of the lost race genre, these are for you. These will be out in a few weeks.

Finally, be on the lookout for Volume 4 in our Secret Agent “X” series. Containing four more stories and with a new introduction by Will Murray, it’s going to be a nice book.

Whew! I’m beat. But not to worry, there are plenty more collections coming. I need an intern…

First, you’ll notice that Volume 3 of our complete reprinting of the Secret Agent “X” series has been released. It’s the best edition yet, as Stephen Payne has written a thorough introduction for it. And the stories ain’t too shabby either. Two other books, A Man Named Jones and Super Detective Jim Anthony: The Complete Series Volume 1 are already available in hardcover. Their softcover counterparts are a few weeks away from availability on Amazon.

A Man Named Jones also ushers in a new sub-set of our book line: the Altus Press Lost Race Library. This will reprint material from this wonderful genre which was popularized by H. Rider Haggard and lasted until around 1920. Some of this material will be culled from the pulps, while others are taken directly from rare hardcovers. The inaugural wave of this series is comprised of four books, with Under the Andes being redesigned to match the Lost Race Library dress. The other two releases will be announced shortly.

Further pulp titles are coming soon, among them a collection of all of Arthur Leo Zagat’s Red Finger stories from the pages of Operator #5. There are several other Popular Publications-owned titles coming as well, and they’ll be announced soon.

The first of which is the magazine Pulpdom, published by Camille Cazedessus. Caz recently sent me two sample issues of the the mag, and they are great. If you like to read about the nuances of the pulps from ca. 1880 ’til their demise, Pulpdom is for you.

But first, a bit about the title. Caz has been been publishing it since 1997, and the 56th issue just came out. What’s really nice is that images are beautiful and in color. The sample issues contained a plethora of pics and articles on the early days of Argosy as well as the pulp writings of the sons of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Pulpdom retails for $30 for a five issue subscription. Contact me for details.

Another thing to check out is Anthony Schiavino’s Sergeant Zero comic book. No, it’s not out yet, but what I’ve seen via samples looks great. The art is beautiful, and it’s obvious he’s put a lot of thought and effort into the typography and lettering in order to make the art look as authentic as possible.

What I really like about this is that Anthony’s working hard to have several issues done before the first issue is released. This is one of the worst problems comics faces these days: creators who start a series, but just slack off, leaving readers hanging for months (and sometimes years). This won’t happen with Sergeant Zero.

Take a look around his website, pulptone.com, and see for yourself how good Sergeant Zero looks. And let’s get a publisher to get this in comic stores!

As of now, I’ve just listed a few Doc Savage pulps, but I’ll add more soon. And I’ll also list some other pulp-related books as well. And perhaps I’ll add several Altus Press titles to it, maybe at a discount. Keep watching!

To access the Store, just click on “Pulps for Sale” in the nav at the top of the site.

The Saturday night auction was a marathon; several hundred lots in 4 hours. I personally don’t get the appeal of Weird Tales, but I could certainly appreciate the beauty of the many high grade copies that were auctioned off. Between the two auctions, I’d say that if you weren’t just looking for high-grade copies, plenty of deals could be had. For example, several early Shadows (like #2-5 or so) only fetched a few hundred bucks.

Here are a few more pics of the con. Two are from the Saturday auction (sorry for the shaky camera), and the other is long-time collector Michelle Nolan.

I won the auction I needed to win; the 7 issues of Doc from 1933, which means I’ve now completed the Doc Savage pulp collection. And I picked up a small lot at the end of random pulps. I was surprised to find one of the books in that lot was signed on the cover by Baumhoffer!

I picked up the new Blood n Thunder and it looks great. Chris Kalb has completely redesigned it and it’s twice as thick.

I bought a pile if Triple Detectives. I bet there are some pulp nuggets on that series.

Met Mike Chomko and Frank Eisgruber as well (see pic). Nice to meet two great guys finally.

I’m eating now and then it’s back in until the auction.

I didn’t stick around too long, as I’m beat from a long day.

Well, A-Z have been added to the site. Look forward to seeing some visual changes to the layout soon.

Please enjoy this list and make use of it. And ask Will to publish the expanded version!

1. “Are you going to publish [insert title here]?”

Maybe! There are a lot of titles that are in-progress, that I’m planning, and that I’d like to do. I usually have several titles under construction, and at various stages of completion. As mentioned earlier, “The Pulp Adventures of The Hooded Detective” was released today (complete with a foreword and afterword by Will Murray) and “Tarrano the Conqueror” is scheduled for release in a few weeks. There are more pulp history books by Tom Johnson coming—each has been updated. Among them are stand-alone books on The Phantom Detective, The Black Bat and The Shadow. Another Secret Agent “X” reprint omnibus is on the horizon as well. And we’re working with the Lester Dent estate to reprint several collections in the near future, the first of which is “The Complete Blonde Adder,” containing all the Lee Nace stories. These have been restored from the original manuscripts, so this is pure Dent.

The pulp community is full of great, generous people, but there is also a handful of dirtbags. Because of past encounters with such human debris, I’m afraid I can’t announce any other titles yet. But I will announce titles about a month before publication in the future, or when there’s cover art to show (if cover art exists, the interior’s most likely complete).

Rest assured there are about a dozen titles which are coming soon. And we’ve come to an agreement with one pulp author’s estate to reprint all said author’s work (or in some cases, publish for the first time!), with another very prominent author possible within the next few weeks. This is material fans have been asking for, so keep an eye open!

I’ll continue the FAQ list in the next post…

Well, it’s never too late, I suppose, but to take advantage of the Christmas season it probably is. When’s the next milestone holiday… Valentine’s Day? Not a big one for pulp fans, I guess. But it’s something I plan on looking into. 

What I’m thinking is a pocket-sized reprint of some pulp-related nugget. Perhaps it’ll be free with purchase of three Altus Press books or something along those lines.

Let me know if you might be interested in a premium of this sort.

I’m an admirer of Ray Cummings. I know he’s been branded a one-trick pony, but I think that’s unfair. The guy wrote in many genres, including the hero pulps (The Phantom Detective, and possibly more). He’s known for his “The Girl in the Golden Atom” story, and yet he wrote for decades. Several of his works were published in book form. One of them, “Tarrano the Conqueror,” was published by A.C. McClurg as one of the sci-fi authors they published after Burroughs left them. Perhaps not his best novel, “Tarrano the Conqueror” is still an interesting read.

So I was pleased to encounter a fellow collector who’d picked up one of those pulp extract, home-brew collections of all the chapters to “Tarrano the Conqueror” from Science and Invention, an early Gernsback magazine. While I don’t know if there’s a big difference between the Science and Invention and McClurg versions, what really struck me was that the Science and Invention episodes contained a grand total of almost 60 illustrations by early pulp (and Marvel Comics #1) cover artist Frank R. Paul. These have not seen the light of day since they were published, and any sci-fi pulp fan should want to see them. 

This book is nearing the final stages of corrections, and I’m hoping to have it out by Christmas. As we get closer, I’ll try to post a few of the Paul illustrations to this blog. But this should be a must-own. Since I began working on it in 2006, a text version of this has appeared on Project Gutenberg, ripe with typos and such. Not surprisingly, several sketchy publishers immediately published their own book editions of this free-for-use text. Our version should be the one to own. Can I call it the “Final Cut”?

The first of which is The Pulp Adventures of The Hooded Detective, which collects for the first time all three pulp stories as published by Columbia in 1941-42. Until recently, this was supposed to be titled “The Pulp Adventures of The Black Hood,” but I recently learned that the Archive comic-book version of the character was being exhumed from the mothballs again, once again licenced by DC. So to stress that there’s a difference, this book has been slightly retitled. This is not a big deal, as I suppose we’re experiencing what Columbia did when these were originally published… at the time, Red Hood Detective and Black Mask were on the stands, which led to the title change to Hooded Detective.

So both hard- and soft-cover versions of this book are now available via Lulu, and I’ll be adding proper updates to this site shortly. And it will also be available via Amazon soon (as well as any bookstore, if you’re so inclined).

Speaking of Amazon, one of the reasons we’ve not cranked out new titles at our typical torrid pace is that we’ve been working to get our older titles onto Amazon. This allows our books to have an ISBN number, thus allowing them to be available for purchase in any bookstore. These are nice-looking, professional works which deserve a wider audience. So in about two weeks, nearly all of our Altus Press titles will be available there as well as Lulu. Note the books look nearly identical from both companies, so pick your poison. Unfortunately, we’re only able to offer our limited edition hardcovers via Lulu only. But hey, if they were on Amazon as well, that wouldn’t be too “limited.”