Fading Shadows Presents NEW PULP

Fading Shadows Presents

NEW PULP

Edited By Tom & Ginger Johnson

NOT FOR SALE. This anthology of New Pulp novels is collected for--and available to-- a few close friends in hope of keeping the stories on file for the future. Currently, each story is available for sale in their original publication, as long as those copies exist. But once they are gone, the stories may be lost forever.

The victims died with their faces eaten away by a mysterious, insidious power. A fiendish mastermind had decreed these ghastly murders--and, guarded by an army of killers, he thought himself safe from retribution. But a strange grey shape glided through the shadows, sworn to bring justice to . . . THE FLESH-DESTROYERS By Steve Mitchell

Sneering, Talking Skeletons, Formally Clad, Prophesy Doom For Members of The Swank, Exclusive Aegis Club, Turning It Into . . . THE CRIME CLUB a Complete Adventure of The Visage By Shawn Danowski.

CARNIVAL OF DEATH, a complete adventure of The Black Ghost By Tom Johnson. When a new menace rears its ugly head in his Great City, The Black Ghost finds that he may be up against an old enemy. One that refuses to stay dead! But why is Spider back, and who – or what – is Cipher, the team of ex soldiers that accompany her? And why is an agent of British Intelligence on the case? Plus, it seems the British government may know the identity of the intrepid fighter in black!

New Pulp And New Pulp Heroes

New Pulp & New Pulp Heroes

Clancy O’Hara’s PULP #7

The hero pulp magazines ended in the summer of 1953, while genre pulp magazines continued through the late fifties, and even into the 1960’s. One had the gall to hang on until about 1972. But the end had arrived. Men’s adventure paperbacks were taking the place of those old magazines on the racks, and digest magazines replaced the SF, Mystery, Western & Romance pulps.

The pulp magazines had kept to a strict moral code watched over by publishers and editors, though some of the covers might have gave a different impression of what was inside. By 1953, however, the hero pulps were not immune to the changing time, and the morals were beginning to evaporate. The final issues of The Phantom Detective, Dan Fowler (G-Men Detective), and The Black Bat (Black Book Detective) contained strong hints of sex and rougher language. But by then their time was dying, and the paperbacks had taken over for good.

Jerry Page’s The Armadillo

Let’s concentrate on the pulp hero, or I might use the term NEW PULP HERO at this phase. When did it start? That’s easy. The first we absolutely know of for sure, was Jerry Page’s The Armadillo, a masked hero that appeared in print just a few years after the hero pulp magazines ceased in the mid 1950s. By the 1960s there were new stories of The Shadow, to prove that OLD PULP HEROES were not dead. And others were writing clones of Doc Savage and Tarzan, like Phil Farmer and Lin Carter, among others. I don’t have a good track on all the new pulp heroes that were strangely appearing in paperback, but I could name some, if pressed. Even major comic book houses like Marvel and DC were bringing their characters out in prose paperback editions.

Tom Johnson’s The Black Ghost

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a concerted effort to maintain this new pulp/new pulp hero tradition until 1995. In January of that year – dated Winter - it all changed. The culprit was Clancy O’Hara’s PULP FICTION MAGAZINE - changed to PULP, A FICTION MAGAZINE with the third issue and just plain PULP with the seventh issue. And the first new pulp characters to arrive in Clancy’s magazine were Aaron B. Larson’s Haakon Jones, and Tom Johnson’s The Black Ghost, both appearing in early issues. In June 1995, Tom & Ginger’s FADING SHADOWS magazines kicked off with CLASSIC PULP FICTION STORIES and ran through December 2004, and the new pulp/new pulp heroes were claiming their place as “new pulp fiction”. Clancy may have been the first to call it NEW PULP, but we at FADING SHADOWS called it NEW STORIES IN THE PULP TRADITION. I’m not really sure when the NEW PULP banner started, but I imagine someone at Pro Se could fill us in.

As the reader can see, NEW PULP is really quite old. I still prefer NEW STORIES IN THE PULP TRADITION, however. Doesn’t that make sense? But whatever we call it, since 1995 NEW PULP FICTION has been going strong, and we’ve definitely seen some interesting characters show up on radar. In January 2015, the modern day pulp fiction will be twenty years old. Haakon Jones and The Black Ghost will also share that honor.

The Black Claw

The Black Claw

Creator: Douglas D. Hawk

Characters

Victoria Kirkland

Armand Devereaux

Peter D’Arcy

Sonja Gannon

Police Lt. Shane Chandler

Police Sergeant Marty O’Malley

Police Chief Alexander Firebaugh

Eddie Tobin

Yancy Fleet

            It’s April 1942, not long after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and pulled America into the world war. In an unnamed city, Nazi agents sabotage key points and are after secret documents from a military installation. The Operation, a government organization is set up to battle the threat; just who the organization is, is never revealed. One of their operatives is a masked vigilante called The Black Claw, dressed all in black, and carrying twin automatics; on the left glove is a claw, which can be used as a deadly weapon against foes.

            The local Operation is headed by a Frenchman named Armand Devereaux. Peter D’Arcy is his assistant. Among Armand’s agents is The Black Claw, a costumed vigilante.

            The Black Claw wears all black, and on the left glove are ebony claws, sharp and deadly, which can be used as weapons in a fight. Armed with twin automatics with silencers, the vigilante prefers not to kill, but does when absolutely necessary. Yellow cat’s eyes stare from the eye slits in the full-face mask. An electric filter helps disguise the voice, giving the vigilante a whisper; the police start calling the vigilante The Whisperer, after the popular pulp magazine character. A card with claws splayed in the center is left at every scene.

            The car is painted a flat, dull black Duesenburg V-12, with no chrome or shiny work anywhere. The body and windows are bullet proof. Equipped with black light, infrared goggles to see at night without headlights. The windows are tinted black also.

            Victoria Kirkland is a reporter for The Herald. She was stuck on the society column until The Black Claw started making headlines, now she seems to have inside information on the vigilante, and is moved to crime reporter. Vicky has the poise of a dancer, walks with an easy stride and light step. Her moves are with a confidence that spoke of someone comfortable in her own skin, secure in her character. Toned and tanned, she projected an athletic quality, a healthiness that conveyed a sense that this woman was accustomed to working up a sweat on a tennis or basketball court, yet her every action was unpretentious and natural. Her soft flowing hair fell to her shoulder in smooth waves of dark ginger, forming a face that was neither cute nor girlish, but classically beautiful. Green eyes held a depth in which men were often lost, although there was in them an innate and ancient sadness that even an unadulterated smile could not completely wash away. Some thought she had ice water in her veins. She drives a Pontiac coupe.

            Armand Devereaux is tall, thin, and dapper; with salt and pepper hair combed straight back from his angular, aristocratic continence. Besides being in charge of the local government agents, he's also the father of Vicky Kirkland. He and her mother had divorced, and Vicky’s mother married someone else. She has never liked her real father, but we are not told why.

            Yancy Fleet is a reporter for The American, a black newspaper. He is usually seen in his trademark chesterfield and broad brimmed fedora. He has a flare for writing, and a knack for scooping the competition.

            Eddie Tobin, with only an eighth grade education rose quickly from copy boy to reporter to managing editor of The Herald. He has an instinct for news, and could write copy that was snappy, clean and tight. He welds a blue editing pencil like a rapier. His face is always flushed, has a bulbous nose that bore the unmistakable reddish tint of a heavy drinker.

            Sonja “Blackie” Gannon is also an agent of the Operation. She's called “Blackie” because of her dark black hair. I kind of suspect the author has more plans for her in future stories.

            The police officials are Lieutenant Shane Chandler, and his partner Sergeant Marty O’Malley. Shane is smitten with Vicky in the first story. Marty is often caught reading a pulp magazine. One time he’s reading “The Jade Dragon”, a copy of The Shadow. Others are seen reading Spicy Detective Stories.

            Although the author has mapped out about ten stories, only two have been published so far. These were written in 1998, and only now been released on Kindle. Actually “Justice of The Black Claw” was written first, but “Mark of The Black Claw” became the actual first release. Published by Raptor Mountain Publishing.

“Mark of The Black Claw”

“Justice of The Black Claw”

           

Murder Town

“Murder Town” by Tom Johnson, now available on Kindle for $1.99 at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O2G0J6S

A drug lord murders young Jane Hayes when she attempts to force her way into his organization. Unbeknownst to him, she had called her girlfriend, thinking they would soon be in the money. When Peggy comes to town asking questions, they want her dead also. But her path has crossed that of a mysterious man in black – a man hunting the drug runners – a man with twin automatics, and a challenging laugh promising death… The Black Ghost!