THE BOOK CAVE PRESENTS PANEL FEST EPISODE 28: PULPFEST 2013 HERO PULP PREMIUMS

PulpFest website designer Chris Kalb hosted the Hero Pulp Premiums and Promotions panel at PulpFest 2013. The panel was recorded by The Book Cave’s Art Sippo.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 28: PulpFest 2013 Hero Pulp Premiums here.

About Hero Pulp Premiums and Promotions:
How did pulp magazine publishers keep readers coming back month after month? Of course the best way was to publish excellent stories. Regardless of genre, the leading pulps–Adventure, Astounding Stories, Black Mask, Blue Book, Dime Western, Doc Savage, Love Story, The Shadow, The Spider, Sports Stories, Startling Stories, Weird Tales, Wings–attempted to do just that, issue after issue.

Another method that publishers employed to lure dimes on a regular basis from buyers with thin wallets was to create a club and offer premiums. For a few cents or by clipping coupons from a favorite pulp magazine, a devoted fan could become a member in good standing of the Doc Savage Club, one of the Friends of the Phantom, or Adventure Magazine’s Camp-Fire Club. Also available were rings, pins, and other items such as the Spider Pencil, a celluloid mechanical pencil with rubber eraser of The Spider seal, produced in very limited quantity during 1941-42.

On Saturday, July 27th, PulpFest website designer Chris Kalb took us back to a time when a few cents not only bought a pulp magazine filled with thrills, but also an Operator #5 ring, a G-8 Battle Aces Club pin, or a membership in the Green Lama Club. Chris will be presenting Hero Pulp Premiums and Promotions, an event that you cannot afford to miss.

For a look at some other pulp premiums, please visit Pulpster editor Bill Lampkin’s The Pulp.Net website and do a search for “premiums.” Bill has photographs of rings, membership cards, pins, and other items on his highly informative website.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 28: PulpFest 2013 Hero Pulp Premiums here.

THE BOOK CAVE PRESENTS PANEL FEST EPISODE 27: PULPFEST 2013 YELLOW PERIL

Blood ‘n’ Thunder’s Ed Hulse hosted the Dr. Fu Manchu & the Yellow Peril panel at PulpFest 2013. The panel was recorded by The Book Cave’s Art Sippo.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 27: PulpFest 2013 Yellow Peril here.

About Dr. Fu Manchu and the Yellow Peril panel:
One hundred years ago, Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu made his American debut in Collier’s, a five-cent weekly. “The Zayat Kiss” ran in the February 15, 1913 number. Nine more stories featuring Rohmer’s “devil doctor” would appear in Collier’s through June 28, 1913. In September of that year, McBride would release The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu, collecting all ten tales into novel form.

Although Sax Rohmer did not create the “yellow peril” genre of pulp fiction, his Fu Manchu stories would greatly influence the bloody pulps. From writers as diverse as Dashiell Hammett, Carroll John Daly, Walter B. Gibson, Norvell W. Page, Arthur J. Burks, Philip Nowlan, H. P. Lovecraft, and Robert E. Howard, pulpsters delivered many a story inspired by Rohmer’s evil genius. Even Robert J. Hogan’s flying spy, G-8, battled oriental evildoers in the author’s fantasy version of the First World War.

On Saturday, July 27th, PulpFest 2013 saluted the American centennial of Dr. Fu Manchu with a panel exploring Sax Rohmer’s character and his influence on the pulp fiction of the early twentieth century. Moderated by Blood ‘n’ Thunder editor and publisher, Ed Hulse, the panel will consist of pop culture experts Gene Christie, editor of three collections of Rohmer’s fiction and a leading authority on early American science fiction and fantasy; Win Scott Eckert, known for his work on literary crossovers and chronologies, including Marvel Comics’ Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu, a classic series concerning the son of Dr. Fu Manchu; Nathan Madison, author of Anti-Foreign Imagery in American Pulps and Comics, 1920-1960; William Patrick Maynard, authorized by the literary estate of Sax Rohmer to continue the Fu Manchu series; and Will Murray, author of the Wild Adventures of Doc Savage and one of the world’s leading authorities on the pulp era.

The Page of Fu Manchu represents an ongoing effort by scholars and readers around the world to create a definitive Sax Rohmer bibliography, reference and archive. It is edited and maintained by Dr. Lawrence Knapp, an English Professor at Thomas Edison State College, located in Trenton, NJ.

Joseph Clement Coll’s Collier’s cover for April 12, 1913, illustrating “The Call of Siva,” Sax Rohmer’s fifth Fu-Manchu story to be published in the United States.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 27: PulpFest 2013 Yellow Peril here.

THE BOOK CAVE PRESENTS PANEL FEST EPISODE 26: PULPFEST 2013 JIM BEARD

Jim Beard

New Pulp Author Jim Beard does a reading from his books at PulpFest 2013. Recorded by The Book Cave’s Art Sippo.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 26: PulpFest 2013 Jim Beard here.

About The Beard . . . . New Fictioneer!:
Jim Beard was introduced to comic books by his father, who passed on to him a love for the medium and the pulp characters that preceded it. After decades of reading, collecting, and dissecting comics, Jim became a published writer when he sold a story to DC Comics in 2002. Since that time, he’s written comic stories for Dark Horse’s Star Wars and IDW’s Ghostbusters and contributed articles and essays to several volumes of comic book history.

A native of Toledo, Ohio where he is a regular columnist for the Toledo Free Press, Jim broke into the world of “New Pulp” in 2012 when Airship 27 published Sgt. Janus, Spirit-Breaker, a collection of ghost stories featuring an occult detective, and Captain Action: Riddle of the Glowing Men, the first prose novel based on the 1960s action figure. Jim provides regular content for Marvel.com, the official Marvel Comics website, and has new and forthcoming comic and prose work from Bluewater, TwoMorrows, Airship 27 and Pro Se Productions.

On Saturday, July 27th at PulpFest, “The Beard” did a reading from Sgt. Janus, Spirit-Breaker, Captain Action: Riddle of the Glowing Men, and “The Parade of Moments,” a story published in Monster Earth, a shared-world anthology of giant monster tales. And to learn more about this exciting new writer, please visit The Beard: The Jim Beard Fan Page.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 26: PulpFest 2013 Jim Beard here.

THE BOOK CAVE PRESENTS PANEL FEST EPISODE 25: PULPFEST 2013 WILL MURRAY

Cover Art: Joe Devito

The Doc Meets The King panel at Pulpfest 2013 featured a reading of the Doc Savage novel, Skull Island by Radio Archives’ Roger Price. Also, author Will Murray talks about how Skull Island came to be. It’s Doc Savage vs. King Kong live from Pulpfest. The panel was recorded by The Book Cave’s Art Sippo.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 25: PulpFest 2013 Will Murray here.

About Doc Meets The King:
Beginning with the premier of Standard Magazines’ The Phantom Detective at the start of the year and Nick Carter and Doc Savage from Street & Smith in February, on through to the fall when Popular Publications released G-8 and His Battle Aces and The Spider, 1933 was the “year of the hero pulp.” And let’s not forget that The Lone Eagle and Pete Rice likewise debuted that year.

But 1933 was not just the year of the hero pulp. On March 2 of that same year, RKO Radio Pictures premiered “the eighth wonder of the world,” King Kong, at New York’s Radio City Music Hall and the Roxy. In just four days, the film earned nearly $90,000, a substantial sum in those dark Depression days.

To celebrate the 80th anniversaries of “The Man of Bronze” and King Kong, Will Murray, author of The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage, paired the two characters in his novel, Skull Island. On Saturday, July 27th, at 2 PM, PulpFest 2013 hosted a special New Fictioneers reading of Mr. Murray’s bestselling novel by Radio Archives’ reader Roger Price.

During his lengthy career as an entertainer, Roger has performed on television, radio and the live stage. At one time or another, he has worked as a stand-up comic, hosted a late night movie series as a character called “The Baron,” worked as a morning radio personality, hosted and emceed numerous live events, served as an entertainment news anchor and even as a ring announcer for professional wrestling. Comic book and pop culture fans know Roger as the creator, director and “voice” of Mid-Ohio-Con, one of the largest and longest running shows of it’s kind.

Through Radio Archives, Roger Price can be heard reading various short stories on Strange Detective Mysteries #1, Captain Satan #1, Captain Zero #1 and other audiobooks. Roger also works with a wide variety of clients as an announcer and voice actor, specializing in character/cartoon voices and dialects.

Following the reading, both Will Murray and Roger Price were available for questions and conversation.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 25: PulpFest 2013 Will Murray here.

THE BOOK CAVE PRESENTS PANEL FEST EPISODE 24: PULPFEST 2013 WALTER BAUMHOFER

Davis Saunders hosted the Walter Baumhofer: King of the Pulps panel at the 2013 PulpFest convention, spotlighting the artist’s life and career. The panel was recorded by The Book Cave’s Art Sippo.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 24: PulpFest 2013 Walter Baumhofer here.

About Walter Baumhofer: King of the Pulps:
Adventure35-08-15Who was the “King of the Pulps?” Some say it was H. Bedford Jones, while others claim the title for Frederick Faust, better known as Max Brand. But to the young readers who devoured the pulp magazines and “delighted in his four-color depictions of action and adventure,” the one and only “King of the Pulps” was Walter M. Baumhofer.

When an injury at age fourteen left him unable to perform manual labor, Baumhofer began to intently study art. A scholarship allowed him to attend the prestigious Pratt Institute where he was able to study under Dean Cornwell and H. Winfield Scott. While still a student, he began his art career drawing pen and ink story illustrations for Adventure Magazine. By 1926, he was contributing covers to Clayton Publications and, soon thereafter, to Harold Hersey’s line of pulps. Street & Smith signed him to a contract in 1932 to paint a cover each week for their pulps. Around the same time, he was sought out by Popular Publications to provide cover art for their line of magazines, and so began his reign as the “King of the Pulps.”

Baumhofer labored for the pulp market for just over a decade, painting about 550 covers for a wide variety of titles including Ace High, Adventure, Detective Tales, Dime Mystery Magazine,

Doc Savage, Fire Fighters, Gangland Stories, The Spider, Spy Stories, Western Story Magazine, and others. He moved into the slick market and advertising art in the late thirties, contributing work to American Weekly, Collier’s, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Redbook, Women’s Day, and other magazines. In later years, his paintings graced the covers of Argosy, Outdoor Life, and Sports Afield and his portrait, landscape, and Western art were exhibited in fine art galleries nationwide.

At 9:30 PM on Friday, July 26th, David Saunders presented a biographical profile of Walter Baumhofer’s life story as well as the artist’s fascinating family history. He exhibited never-before-seen visual documents from the personal world of this pulp art master.  Walter was a close friend of the presenter’s father, Norman Saunders, and as such David was personally acquainted with the artist for over thirty years. Baumhofer was a

sensationally colorful character and David Saunders looks forward to sharing many amusing anecdotes and incidents that will help to promote a greater awareness of this legendary artist.

American Art Archives. Walter Baumhofer (1904-1987).

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 24: PulpFest 2013 Walter Baumhofer here.

PANEL FEST EPISODE 23: PULPFEST 2013 HEROES OF 1933 PANEL

Hosted by Blood ‘n’ Thunder’s Ed Hulse, the Doc Savage and the Pulp Heroes of 1933 panel at the 2013 PulpFest convention included Nick Carr, Don Hutchison, Garyn Roberts, and Will Murray as they discussed eighty years of “The Great Pulp Heroes”. The panel was recorded by The Book Cave’s Art Sippo.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 23: PulpFest2013 Heroes of 1933 here.

About Doc Savage and the Pulp Heroes of 1933:
Eighty years ago, following the astounding success of The Shadow Magazine, the pulp industry created a tremendous splash in publishing by releasing a wave of single-character magazines. The Phantom Detective, Nick Carter, Doc Savage, The Lone Eagle, G-8 and His Battle Aces, The Spider, and Pete Rice Magazine all debuted in 1933, despite the economic hardships wrought by The Great Depression.

The Shadow Magazine was introduced to readers by Street & Smith Publishing in early 1931. Employing the talents of author Walter B. Gibson, the magazine proved an instant hit. Planned as a quarterly, this first “hero” pulp became a monthly after just two issues. A year later, The Shadow Magazine became a semi-monthly, appearing twice each month until early 1943.

By 1932, Street & Smith was planning other single-character pulps, hoping to emulate the high-flying Shadow Magazine. Other publishing houses also noticed the strong sales experienced by Gibson’s “Dark Avenger.” As Henry Steeger of Popular Publications stated: “At this point in pulp history, individual titles became very popular, so we decided to try out a few . . .” And so began what we now call, “The Hero Pulp Explosion of 1933.”

On Friday, July 26th at 8:30 PM in the Fairfield Room of the Hyatt Regency Columbus, Ed Hulse, editor and publisher of Blood ‘n’ Thunder, and a panel of pulp historians took a look at Doc Savage and the Pulp Heroes of 1933. Joining Ed will be Nick Carr, one of the elders of the pulp community, who actually read The Spider and other pulps fresh off the newsstand, and has written countless articles about pulp heroes both known and little known; Don Hutchison, who also had the opportunity to buy pulps at a news agency and has likewise written many articles on the history of the pulps as well as the Stoker Award nominee, The

Great Pulp Heroes (a “must-read” book for fans of the hero pulps); a child of the sixties when he first discovered “The Man of Bronze” and now today’s “Kenneth Robeson,” Will Murray, yet another author of numerous books and articles concerning the pulps; and Garyn Roberts, professor of English and popular culture studies and unabashed pulp fan and editor of some of the best collections from the pulps including The Compleat Adventures of the Moon Man, The Magical Mysteries of Don Diavolo, and other titles will join Ed to discuss the causes and effects of the “Hero Pulp Explosion of 1933.”

Once again, Walter Baumhofer’s masterful cover to the first issue of Doc Savage Magazine, illustrating “The Man of Bronze.”

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 23: PulpFest2013 Heroes of 1933 here.

PANEL FEST EPISODE 21: PULPFEST 2013 READINGS

New Pulp Authors Win Scott Eckert and John Small performed readings from their work at the 2013 PulpFest convention. The panel was recorded by The Book Cave’s Art Sippo.

Listen to Panel Fest Episode 21: PulpFest 2013 Eckert and Small Readings here.

You can also see video of the readings here.

THE BOOK CAVE PRESENTS: PANEL FEST EPISODE 17- PULPFEST 2013 ED HULSE

The Book Cave’s Art Sippo recorded Ed Hulse’s panel on Pulps in Hollywood at the 2013 PulpFest Convention.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 17: PulpFest 2013 Ed Hulse here.

About From Pulp Page to Silver Screen:
Blood ‘n’ Thunder editor Ed Hulse explores the pulp-to-movie connection in his PulpFest presentation Hollywood and the Hero Pulps, one of several pre-convention programs scheduled for Thursday, July 25th, at 9 PM.

Motion-picture incarnations of pulp magazine protagonists date back to the medium’s earliest days. Moviegoers of the nickelodeon era—the pre-World War I years—were treated to

cinematic adaptations of Short Stories’ Hamilton Cleek and The Popular Magazine’s Terrence O’Rourke, among others. Tom Mix became the industry’s top Western star on the strength of his 1920 portrayal of Max Brand’s Whistlin’ Dan Barry. And master detective Nick Carter, who successfully made the transition from dime novel to pulp magazine, appeared on screens both in the U.S. and overseas in several sets of short subjects produced between 1908 and 1927.

With the coming of talkies and the emergence of Hollywood as the world’s filmmaking capital, pulp fiction became an even more frequent source of story material. Hundreds of movies released during the Thirties, Forties and Fifties—feature films and short subjects alike—were made from yarns originally printed in rough-paper periodicals.

As Blood ‘n’ Thunder readers know, Ed is the leading authority on pulp-related movies, having researched and written about them for decades. His PulpFest presentation will touch on many, but concentrate on those adapted from hero pulps, with special emphasis on such serials as The Spider’s Web (1938), The Shadow (1940), and The Spider Returns (1941). He’ll present little-known, behind-the-scenes info gleaned in part from his own interviews with people who worked on these episodic epics, including Victor Jory (who played the serial Shadow) and Iris Meredith (who played Nita in The Spider’s Web). Ed will address the rumor that Columbia Pictures planned a G-8 and His Battle Aces serial for 1939 release, and he’ll also report what little is known about the proposed Republic chapter plays that would have featured Doc Savage and Nick Carter.

This program, leading into the screening of Chapters One through Five of The Spider’s Web, promises to get PulpFest’s 2013 hero-pulp tribute off to a fascinating start.

Kenneth Duncan as Ram Singh reads an issue of The Spider in this publicity photo for the 1938 Columbia Pictures movie serial, The Spider’s Web.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 17: PulpFest 2013 Ed Hulse here.

THE BOOK CAVE PRESENTS: PANEL FEST EPISODE 16- PULPFEST 2013 RICK LAI

The Book Cave’s Art Sippo recorded Rick Lai's Fu Manchu panel at the 2013 PulpFest Convention.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 16- PulpFest 2013 Rick Lai here.

About The Pulps After Fu Manchu:
Wu Fang 36-03“Tall, thin with lizard-green eyes, yellow robe and black cap embroidered with coral bead, Fu Manchu was the very picture of warped genius. Such unusual potions as spiders, scorpions and plague-carrying tsetse flies were just part of Fu’s prescription to foreshorten the white race’s actuarial expectations. Master of  super  science and creative  toxicology, he . . . was the Yellow Peril.”

Although it is believed that Kaiser Wilhelm coined the term “Yellow Peril,” it was Sax Rohmer who profited most from the idea, largely through the villainous Dr. Fu Manchu. Little wonder that countless pulp writers, from Walter B. Gibson and Norvell W. Page to Robert E. Howard and George Worts, turned to the devil doctor to find inspiration for their lurid pulp tales.

To begin PulpFest‘s celebration of the 100th anniversary of Sax Rohmer’s infamous creation, Rick Lai looks at “The Pulp Descendents of Fu Manchu,” beginning at 8 PM on Thursday, July 25th in the Fairfield Room located on the second floor of the Hyatt Regency Columbus. Rick will discuss the influence of Sax Rohmer’s devil doctor on the pulps with a look at villains such as Wu Fang, Shiwan Khan, The Blue Scorpion from Peter the Brazen, and Robert E. Howard’s Skullface and Erlik Khan.

Best known for his articles expanding on Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe concepts, recently collected by Altus Press as Rick Lai’s Secret Histories: Daring Adventurers, Rick Lai’s Secret Histories: Criminal Masterminds, Chronology of Shadows: A Timeline of The Shadow’s Exploits and The Revised Complete Chronology of Bronze, Rick lives in New York. His short fiction has been collected in Shadows of the Opera (Wild Cat Books, 2011) and two upcoming Black Coat Press collections to be printed this year–Shadows of the Opera: Retribution in Blood and Sisters of the Shadows: The Cagliostro Curse.

You can listen to Panel Fest Episode 16- PulpFest 2013 Rick Lai here.
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