To the right, I’ve posted a thumbnail of a recent ad I did for the new Airship 27 book, The Green Lama – Unbound. We reckon, if someone’s interested in new Green Lama stories, certainly they’d be interested in the original stories. So here’s a sneak peak of the cover to Volume 1… or at least part of it. Enjoy!

During the 1930s and 1940s, Paul Powers (1905-1971) was a prolific and successful pulp fiction writer, writing over 400 stories for such pulp fiction magazines as Wild West Weekly, Weird Tales, Thrilling Western, Texas Rangers, and more. Later Paul wrote an acclaimed full-length Western novel, Doc Dillahay. Paul is also the author of Pulp Writer: Twenty Years in the American Grub Street, his memoir of his career as a prolific and successful pulp fiction writer during the 1930s and 1940s. Thanks to the promotions of his granddaughter Laurie Powers, Paul Powers’ work has achieved new-found appreciation in recent years.

Two of these new books will be collections of short stories discovered in 2009. These stories were written between 1945 and 1955 but were never published. Many are westerns, but there are also noir, thriller, animal, horror, and love stories. Together they show Powers’ remarkable versatility: He was an expert at writing westerns, but he loved writing other genres as well. Current publishing plans call for this material to be split into two collections: there will be at least one collection of western stories and one for the stories of other genres.

In addition to these never-before published stories, there will also be a third collection containing Powers’ westerns that appeared in such magazines as Thrilling Western, Range Riders Western, The Rio Kid Western, and other magazines from the 1940s and 1950s.

These stories will be published in traditional book form (both hard and softcover) as well as e-book form. Publication is expected to begin Winter 2009/10.

Altus Press is a premier pulp fiction publisher and has published authors such as Lester Dent, Johnston McCulley, Henry Kuttner, Norvell Page, Frederick C. Davis, Richard Sale, Tom Johnson, Will Murray and many more. In 2009, founder Matthew Moring won the Echoes Award for work benefiting the pulp community and has also won an American Graphic Design Award for book design.

http://www.pulpwriter.com
http://lauriepowerswildwest.blogspot.com
http://www.altuspress.com

P.S: enjoy the soon-to-be announced title to the right!

We’ve released a lot of great titles over the past for years, and in order to get them out in a timely manner I’ve had the good fortune to work with a lot of great proofreaders, most recently Ray Riethmeier and Ric Croxton. However, I’ll soon have a glut of completed titles that just need proofreading done on them, and I’m currently looking for other proofreaders who’d like to proof some of them.

I can’t pay for proofreading, but I can give you a free copy of the finished work, as well as a thank you in print. If you’re interested in proofreading, drop me a line using the form on the Contact Us tab.

All right, I’m back to work!

Are there any pulp/quasi-pulp collections that aren’t being done by other publishers that you’d like to see? If so, drop us a line at the “Contact Us” link above & tell us what you think. We’ve very interested in hearing from you.

Just wanted to let you all know that two new titles are ready & available for purchase in both hard- and softcover. You can now order The Casebook of Seekay and Other Prototypes of The Avenger as well as The Hand of Red Finger from this site.

And more title are coming shorty!

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.