The Secret Squadron: Pulps

Showing posts with label Pulps. Show all posts

"The Shadow" (Vol.35, No. 3, October 1940)

A great cover by Graves Gladney and the pulp is in excellent condition.

"O Jornal d'Aventuras - Texas Jack" (Portugal, 1910-1920's)

The 1906 German edition
(not in the collection)

This Portuguese pulp (more of a 12-page pamphlet, really) seems to be a reprint of a German series titled Texas Jack which started in 1906 and was published by Verlagshaus für Volkslitteratur und Kunst in Berlin. This series published 215 issues and it ended in 1911. It was reprinted later as Die Grosse Kundschafter (The Great Scout) in 1911 by Gustaf Müller under license from original publisher, publishing 100 issues. The series was later published as Texas Jack. Der Grosse Kundscahfter (Texas Jack, the Great Scout) in a total of 120 issues in 1930-1932, and finally as Texas Jack. Der Grosse Kundscahfter. Neue Folge (Texas Jack, the Great Scout, New Series) in 1932-1934 for 75 issues. The series was also published in France and Sweden, although with different covers.

Only the logo and cover layout indicate that this is a reprint of the first German series, probably in the 1910's or 1920's. Although I have very few issues and only until #20, I found a #90 for sale on the web, so there may have been many more.

Here is a translation of the titles:

#8 - The Mysterious Castle
#9 - The Hunters' Secret
#10 - Bloody Revenge
#11 - Martyrdom of the Blonde Virgin
#12 - The Mormon's Revenge
#17 - The Thief of Millions
#18 - The Wedding Night of Buena-Vista
#19 - The Destruction of Troya
#20 - Barnum & Texas

As a side-note, Bruce Sterling, one of my favourite authors, visited "The Pulp Zone", my old website about pulp magazines (now offline) in 2002 and had this to say about the site and Texas Jack in his column in "Bruce Sterling's Schism Matrix in The Infinite Matrix":

"Whoa. This Portuguese guy named Nuno Miranda is a loving devotee of American and British pulp magazines. And his webpages look like yellowing pulp. Nice design move!
This is the best part: I'm in Texas, blogging a Portuguese pulp adventure magazine about the fantastic life in Texas. I love that kind of global blowback. Check out that cool mag called "Martyrdom of the Blonde Virgin." Stuff like that happens in Texas all the time. Like, when you're commuting to your dayjob at Dell." -- August 30, 2002

So there. An honour! If you read this, Bruce, thank you and please write new stories! :)

Air Wonder Stories (September, 1929)

Hugo Gernsback in 1962 for
LIFE Magazine.

Air Wonder Stories was created after Hugo Gernsback lost ownership of his pioneering magazine Amazing Stories in 1926. In June 1927 Gernsback launched Science Wonder Stories and the following month Air Wonder Stories. As can be deducted from the not-too-subtle title, Air Wonder dealt primarily with airships and had very little in the line of interplanetary exploits. Eleven issues later, due to the advancing Depression in the U.S., he had to combine it with its sister magazine, creating Wonder Stories.

All the covers, and most of the interior black and white illustrations, for Air Wonder Stories were painted by Frank Paul. Inside this issue, the cover is described thus:

"On the Cover this month is illustrated the story "FLIGHT IN 1999" by "Bob" Olsen. Here we see graphically one of the lofty air stations several thousand feet up in the air, kept aloft by the mysterious Gravinul. The huge flyer, just approaching the platform, stops to take on passengers, who have risen to the station from the city. The passengers themselves wear the future flying suits and are propelled by a Gravinul."

Vol. 1, No.3, with a beautiful cover by Frank Paul.

"The Shadow Magazine" (April 1st, 1941)

"Ten Shadows in ten different poses marked this cover of the "Tenth Anniversary Number" as definitely unique. It involved a plotter called "The Time Master", who toyed with time once too often when he met the Timeless Shadow."

-- from "The Shadow Scrapbook" by Walter B. Gibson

April 1st, 1941. The "10th Anniversary Number". Cover by Graves Gladney.

This is my favourite Shadow pulp and it is in excellent condition. "The 10th Anniversary Number" has an amazing cover, almost a character style sheet for The Shadow. Inside, besides the story "The Time Master", there is an article covering the first decade of the Shadow's career, which you can find below.

And no, there weren't only three ratio stations broadcasting the adventures of The Shadow... The list continues on the next page, which is a column in very small letters (I didn't count them). It was impossible to miss an adventure!

"The Shadow Magazine" pulps

Here are my "The Shadow Magazine" pulps. Surely not the best copies available, but the thrill of holding a Shadow pulps is always there, no matter what shape the magazine is in!

November, 1933. Cover torn, but interior complete. I love it for the girasol ring
in the center.

December, 1934. I still can't fathom why someone would cut up the cover
in this fashion. The Shadow attracts some rather strange readers...

December 1st, 1936. Again, the cover was cut in a peculiar fashion, probably
the same reader as above?

July, 1945. Digest size.

Corsários (Tipográfica, Portugal, 1944-45)

In my quest to make some sense of my collection, I found this, which is surely is an oddity amongst pulps. As far as I know there haven't been many (any?) pulps about pirates. This Portuguese offering from 1944-45 is a 16-page flimsy in black and white and one single illustration on the first page. The fact that some covers were repeated indicates a rather low-budget for the series, but nevertheless was fun reading. These are all I could ever find and seem to be fairly rare. Enjoy!

"Uma Aventura nos Mares da China" (An Adventure in the China Seas)
"Luta de Morte no Oceano Pacífico" (Fight to the Death in the Pacific)
"A Mulher Pirata" (The Pirate Woman)
"A Conquista do Diadema" (The Conquest of the Tiara)
"Entre os Antropófagos" (Amongst the Cannibals)
"A Conquista da Cidade de Gêlo" (Conquest of the Ice City)
"A Derrota do Capitão Flint" (The Defeat of Captain Flint)
"Na Fogueira do Rajah" (In the Fire of the Rajah)
"Uma Expedição ao Polo Austral" (An Expedition to the Austral Pole)
"Caça aos Bandidos Árabes" (Hunting the Arabian Bandits)
"O Bloqueio de Guyaquil" (The Guyaquil Blockade)
"O Rei dos Filibusteiros" (King of the Buccaneers)
"O Navio Negro" (The Black Ship)
"Na Cidadela dos Piratas" (In the Pirate Citadel)
"Expedição para a Morte" (Expedition to Death)
"Traição a Bordo!" (Treason On Board!)
"O Falso Inquisidor" (The False Inquisitor)
"Uma Incursão no Mar do Norte" (An Incursion Into the North Sea)
"Luta de Gigantes" (Combat of Giants)
"Fantasmas a Bordo" (Ghosts On Board)
?
"Os Prisioneiros de Cambaia" (The Prisoners of Cambaia)
"O Palácio da Morte" (The Palace of Death)

Planet Stories (Vol.IV, No.5, Winter 1949)

Vol.4 #5, Winter 1949

Marvel Tales of Science and Fantasy (Vol.1, No.4, March-April, 1935)

Vol.1, No.4, March-April 1935

Includes the H.P. Lovecraft short story "The Doom That Came to Sarnath", originally published in 1920.

Astonishing Stories (Fictioneers, Inc, 1940-43)

Editorial to the 1st issue of Astonishing Stories

February 1940

Introducing Astonishing

In two months and a few days science fiction fans will celebrate the fourteenth anniversary of magazine science fiction in America.

There have been many changes in the stories and in the appearance of the science fiction magazine since then - there has been a constant inflow of new authors, the size of the magazine has been reduced by half, new magazines have appeared - but the basic concept of science fiction itself, the eternal dream of perfection which is at the heart of every fan, has not changed. The stories in any science fiction magazine today could be read with enjoyment by any fan of fourteen years ago.

But where fourteen years ago the readers of science fiction were a minute body, today they number in the hundreds of thousands.

That is why Astonishing Stories is possible today. At no time in the past could a science fiction magazine in the ten cent field have had a chance of success; today such a venture is backed and guaranteed by the numbers and the loyalty of the fans.

And so we present Astonishing Stories, the first, though probably not the last, dime science fiction magazine.

We want to make Astonishing Stories the kind of mmagazine you want. Penny for penny, it is the best buy in science fiction today as far as quantity and quality go; we want to make it your best buy in the services it renders you, over and above the entertainment of the stories. We want this magazine to be your guide in buying fantasy books, seeing movie pictures, subscribing to fan magazines.

If you have any suggestions which you would like to see embodied in the magazine, send them along. "What you wish - that you shall have" is our motto.

SPECIAL NOTE TO AUTHORS: We have no "formula". If you want to try some off-trail stories, Astonishing is your best market. Our only criterion for stories is "Is it an entertaining science fiction story?"

not signed

(but the editor was Frederik Pohl -- NM)

Vol.1 No.1, February 1940
Cover by Jack Binder

Novelettes

CHAMELEON PLANET...........................................Polton Cross

Life moved fast on Chameleon Planet - where an ape could become a Superman between meals!

HALF-BREED............................................................Isaac Asimov

Half of Earth, Half of Mars - the Tweenie!

THE LIFESTONE......................................................Paul Edmonds

For thousands of years the Desert Nations had worshipped the Lifestone. And when Lang stole it he made his biggest gamble -- a billion dollars against ten thousand lives!

Short Stories

WHITE LAND OF VENUS........................................Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr

Five million dollars in solium lay at the heart of the legendary White Land - but its guards were the blind and fearsome kathals.

ELEPHANT EARTH..................................................Gabriel Barclay

When all the living men had died, a dead man came to life again - and found the world ruled by elephants.

ASTEROID..................................................................Lee Gregor

The monster came down on their homes, sucking them in to a hot and horrible death. And all they could do was to give the men a headache.

AFTER THE PLAGUE...............................................Martin Vaeth

Jim Gleeson disappeared, and a new man, the Titan Garth, was born. And after eleven years Jim Gleeson returned, to find a hemisphere devastated by the awful Red Plague, peopled by fugitives and savages.

Vol.1 No.2, April 1940

Novelettes

THE SPACE BEASTS .............................................. Clifford D. Simak

There is no life in space - can't be, because there's no air. But that undeliable fact loses point when your own existence is threatened by that life which can't exist.

MASTER CONTROL .............................................. Harl Vincent

The story of Fowler Smith, Wearer of the Purple, who gave his life that Mankind might be ruled by a Man, and not a machine.

STEPSONS OF MARS ............................................. Ivar Towers

They thought the Greenies of Mars were utterly unlike anything human. But they weren't really,- in fact they were very much like some humans.

Short Stories

MURDER FROM MARS ........................................ Richard Wilson

The murderer of Count Paolo di Spiro wasn't safe in his killings - even if he was a ghost!

SALVAGE OF SPACE .............................................. Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr.

A space-derelict, like an abandoned ship, belongs to the first man to set foot on it - if he is man enough to bring it home!

THE CALLISTAN MENACE ................................... Isaac Asimov

What was on Callisto deadly enough to make seven well-armed, well-equipped space expeditions disappear?

Science Article

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE ......................... Milton Kaletsky

Vol.1 No.3, June 1940
Cover by Gabriel Mayorga

Novelettes

HE CONQUERED VENUS ....................................... John Russel Fearn

Mark Tyme conquered the cannibalistic natives and deadly jungles of Venus, but the "civilized" Earth conquered Mark Tyme!

INTO THE DARKNESS ............................................ Ross Rocklynne

The strangest hero science fiction ever had, on the vast quest for That Which Lay Beyond.

A MIRACLE IN TIME .............................................. Henry Hasse

Her crime: that she was a human being. Her punishment: that she be flung down the years to the times she loved.

Short Stories

JOSHUA'S BATTERING RAM ............................... Malcolm Jameson

The Sonomagnet was an air-conditioner's salesman's dream. But unfortunately, it had its little faults.

THE DEVIL'S POCKET ............................................ F.E. Hardart

An action-packed story of the dead who lived on as the ghastly homes of the tiny, malevolent Eyes of the Coal Sack.

CHILDREN OF ZEUS ............................................... E.A. Grosser

It is sometimes helpful to be the subject of a student's experiment. But if the student fails, and becomes angry.

IMPROBABILITY ..................................................... Paul Edmonds

What are the chances against a newspaper man's knocking out two bigger men and a bullet with a single high-voltage punch?

Vol.2 No.1, October 1940

Serial

QUICKSANDS OF YOUTHWARDNESS ................ Malcolm Jameson

First of three parts.

Athanata - planet where age was immortal, and youth could not live.

Novelettes

THE FUTURE'S FAIR ................................................ Vincent Reid

They had to lie to prevent panic, but their lie, incredibly, was true!

FLIGHT TO GALILEO .............................................. Lee Gregor

Bern Ryder was a little man, but a scientist is as big as his biggest discovery.

Short Stories

MISTER ISLAND ....................................................... E.A. Grosser

It was an odd sort of island, with one very odd inhabitant.

STEPSON OF SPACE...................................................Raymond Z. Gallun

Just a child's meaningless "invention" - but it worked!

PERSONALITY PLUS ................................................ Ray Cummings

Butterworth's amnesia machine hadn't failed - just worked too well.

OTHER WORLD ......................................................... Harl Vincent

Bartlett's new world was not quite as different as he had thought.

Vol.2 No.2, December 1940

Novelettes

HALF-BREEDS ON VENUS .................................... Isaac Asimov

The Tweenies land on Venus - and are pursued by their Terrestrial enemies.

AGE OF THE CEPHALODS .................................... John C. Craig

A bored Engineer and an intelligent Pipeliner spell - trouble!

Serial

QUICKSANDS OF YOUTHWARDNESS ............... Malcolm Jameson

Part Two of Three.

Athanata - planet where age is immortal, and youth cannot live!

Short Stories

ROCKET OF METAL MEN .................................... Manly Wade Wellman

Even drifting through the void is better than some types of rescue.

TROUBLE IN TIME ................................................. S.D. Gottesman

Traynor's crack-pot time machine didn't work - at lease, not exactly!

HOLD THAT COMET! ............................................. F.H. Hauser and H.B. Fyfe

The star of the shanghaied football eleven was - Player Number Twelve!

THE DOOR AT THE OPERA ................................... Ray Cummings

Henry Macomber hated the Opera - but he had his reasons for going!

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Further reading in Wikipedia.
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The content above was "lifted" from my own website "The Pulp Zone", founded in 1996 and now sadly offline. Still, I seemed to have a lot of free time, back then... But the "Pulp Zone" still lives, after a fashion, in the Way Back Machine.
Here's a snapshot from 2005! :)

The Shadow - Books

Rather than list every book individually, as there are rather a lot I chose to list them all under the same heading. This is where all the Shadow reprints will go, plus some assorted books. For further information on the paperbacks (and everything else Shadow-related) I recommend "The Shadow - Master of Darkness" website. You can find the original pulps listed elsewhere on the Secret Squadron.

Belmont (1963-1967)

Agência Portuguesa de Revistas

Portugal, circa 1965. This reprints the Belmont #6, "Cry Shadow!"

Gosset and Dunlap (1966)

Bantam (1969-1970)

Pyramid/Jove (1974-1978)

Covers by Jim Steranko, except number 13 of the Jove edition.
I'm missing Jove's #1, #11 and #12.
(My thanks to Tony Robertson who pointed out that Jove's #3 was not by Steranko and that he repainted the cover for Jove's #13, but it was never published.
You can find all the Steranko covers here.)

The cover on the right for #4, "Hands in the Dark", was misprinted for the 2nd printing of the paperback. It was actually the cover for #6. I have two copies of the original and correct #4, one of which is signed by Steranko, so the other is available for trade.