PULP VAULT 14:
The Greatest Single Issue Ever of a Pulp Fanzine
by Walker Martin


PULP FANZINES Pulp Vault

   Recently while discussing PulpFest 2011 I made the claim that Pulp Vault 14 was the best ever issue of a pulp fanzine. I was immediately questioned by a reader concerning this statement. First, what qualifies me to make such a claim? I’ve been collecting pulps since the 1950’s and I’ve read most of the pulp fanzines published along the way. (By the way, I’m not talking about the SF fanzines which is a different subject.)

   The first quality pulp fanzine that I read was Lynn Hickman’s Pulp Era in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. During the same period I was reading Fred Cook’s Bronze Shadows which published Robert Jones survey of the weird menace pulps in several issues.

   I was so impressed by this long article that I literally nagged Bob Jones into writing the book, The Shudder Pulps, and we became good friends especially through our correspondence which lasted 20 years until Bob’s early death.

PULP FANZINES Pulp Vault

    Robert Weinberg published Pulp which I recall as lasting 6 issues.

   Then I became a subscriber to Xenophile which was an excellent ad zine full of for sale and want ads. The editor was Nils Hardin who also started publishing articles about the pulps. The magazine lasted over 40 issues in the 1970’s. Echoes lasted over 100 issues and was edited by Tom and Ginger Johnson.

   John Gunnison published The Pulp Collector and Doug Ellis started Pulp Vault. Another quality pulp fanzine was Purple Prose edited by Mike Chomko. At present we have Blood n Thunder, edited by Ed Hulse, another excellent magazine which has just reached the 30th issue.

   Other magazines were published but the above titles remain in my memory as the best. If I have left out your favorite pulp fanzine please let me know in the comments.

PULP FANZINES Pulp Vault

   All the above editors have one thing in common, they all were awarded the Lamont Award, or in Mike Chomko’s case, the Munsey Award. If we tried to pick the best single issue from all the above titles, we would find no consensus among all the issues.

   Until Pulp Vault 14, that is. Fifteen years ago when Doug Ellis published Pulp Vault 12/13, I began pestering him about the next issue. It had taken him three years to publish issue 12/13 and I was worried that issue 14 might also take three years.

   Each year at Pulpcon, I asked him the same question, “When will Pulp Vault 14 be published?” His response was always “Soon, Walker”. Well it took 15 years but the wait was worth it.

   What makes this issue the best ever? First of all it is larger than any single issue that I recall: 264 pages in the large 8 by 10 inch format. It has at least 10 major articles including an unpublished Virgil Finlay cover. Actually one article makes this issue a must buy: a 44 page piece by Mike Ashley titled, “Blue Book — The Slick in Pulp Clothing.” This magazine is one of the great pulp titles and lasted over 50 years, 1905-1956. (It was later revived by another publisher as a men’s adventure magazine, 1960-1975.) Mike Ashley covers the magazine’s history in five long chapters.

PULP FANZINES Pulp Vault

   This tremendous survey belongs right up there with the great pulp surveys, such as Ed Hulse’s two-part coverage of Popular Magazine and his slightly shorter two-part article on Short Stories. Both articles appear in Blood n Thunder as well as excellent issues devoted to Adventure and Dime Detective.

   Sam Moskowitz’s history of the Munsey publications is another fascinating survey but though it mainly covers All Story and Argosy, it really is about several magazines and not a survey of one title like Mike Ashley’s.

   I also don’t want to forget the extensive coverage of Western Story Magazine in Jon Tuska’s The Max Brand Companion and in Eggenhofer: The Pulp Years. Another great pulp magazine, Adventure, is covered in a long article by Richard Bleiler in The Adventure Index. Astounding also had a book covering its history.

PULP FANZINES Pulp Vault

   So Mike Ashley’s long piece on Blue Book belongs with the great pulp surveys. But that is just a part of Pulp Vault 14. We also have a long essay on Thrill Book by Will Murray; a discussion of the Clues Detective character Cyrus North (with a unpublished long novelet!); an article by Hugh Cave with a reprint of one of his very best long stories.

   And there’s more: an article on Singapore Sammy by Rick Lai; a memoir by Robert Barbour Johnson on the Weird Tales days; an article by J. Edward Leithead on writing for the pulps, especially the early western titles; Otto Binder on his trip to NYC and many photos of the NYC World SF Convention in 1939; artist and publisher Tom Roberts on painting Doc Savage; and David Saunders on his father Norman Saunders.

   That’s like ten major, long articles! And there is more such as Bob Weinberg on Strange Stories; Link Hullar on artist Frank Hamilton; and a long adventure novelette from Popular Magazine. So this is why I call Pulp Vault 14 the greatest single issue ever published of any pulp fanzine. Copies may be obtained from Black Dog Books or Amazon.com.

   On page 2 of the issue editor Doug Ellis says, “Walker, please don’t ask us about issue number 15!” Needless to say the first thing out of my mouth when I saw Doug at PulpFest in July 2011 was, “Hey Doug, when will the next issue of Pulp Vault be out?”