Pulp: A Fiction Magazine

Pulp: A Fiction Magazine

In February 1995, Clancy O’Hara published a small-press magazine titled, Pulp: A Fiction Magazine (dated Winter 1995), a Ramrod Publications, out of Hermosa, California. Such stalwart writers as R.T. Lawton, Rick Brooks, and Aaron B. Larson were contributors. Clancy and Quentin Tarantino were friends at the time, so I’ve often wondered how much influence Tarantino’s 1994 movie had on Clancy’s magazine.

With issue #3, summer of 1995, Tom Johnson’s Black Ghost made his debut appearance in Clancy’s magazine. The first of four stories to star the new pulp hero, in an adventure titled “Behind The Mask”.

Clancy mentioned on a Blog that he published the magazine for three years, but there seems to be some doubt about the actual length of time Pulp: A Fiction Magazine ran. I only saw seven issues, and #7 was dated Spring, 1996. As it was, R.T. Lawton, Rick Brooks, and Aaron B. Larson quickly began writing for the Fading Shadows magazines.

The Black Shadow

The Black Shadow

Creator: Tom Johnson

Characters

Kim Young Ju

Chu Chul (The Cricket)

Ghi (The White Wasp)

Dorus Noel (Special Appearance)

            A Buddhist Monk, while just a student in the Kukkiwan* Temple in Korea, Kim Young Ju was guarding the gate one night when an old man he perceived to be a beggar, asked for food. Leaving his post to bring the old man a bowl of soup when he returned a huge mongrel was waiting in the dark and struck him over the head. The old beggar was Chu Chul, called The Cricket, an evil Chinaman seeking control of northern China, who needed money for his campaign. The treasures kept in the temple were his goal that night.

            Chu Chul’s attempt to gain control over China failed, and the temple eventually reclaimed most of the stolen treasure, except for a pair of vases from the Korya Dynasty, worth a fortune. Now The Cricket has offered these to the Kukkiwan Temple in return for a hundred thousand fighting men, in hopes of again starting another bid for China.

            Now full grown, and a Buddhist Monk Kim Young Ju believing himself to blame for the theft of the treasure has followed The Cricket to America, and New York’s Chinatown. He is here to retrieve the treasure and bring an end to the evil Chinaman.

            Arriving in Chinatown, Kim Young Ju seeks out Dorus Noel, and takes a job as his houseboy. He learned that Noel had fought against Chu Chul in China, and may have been responsible for ending The Cricket’s first bid for a throne.

            The Black Shadow: Kim came into the China Room wearing strange black garments; a long black cape was swung over his shoulders, and a wide brim black satgat, a conical coolie hat – this latter was kept on his head by a black silk chinstrap.

“A blur of shadow, and out of the corner of his eye Noel saw the Korean leap into the air and his feet shot out, one to right one to left, and heels crashed into the faces of two of the advancing men while Kim was still airborne. Chu Chul’s guards had yet to see the Korean in their midst, and when the ebony shadow landed his arms wrapped around two necks and twisted. There was an audible crack, and two more attackers dropped to the floor, lifeless.

“Then The Black Shadow whirled, his cape flaring outwards like the wings of some giant bat, deflecting knife thrusts and hatchet blades now that the ta chuen warriors saw their deadly enemy amongst them.”

Chu Chul was small enough to be Cantonese. His skin was yellow and pitted with smallpox scars. His black eyes seemed to have no pupils. His hands were long, like claws. His face was beardless. He walked to a throne-like edifice in a stoop, a twisted caricature of what once was a man, where he placed a white mask over his burned and scarred face.

Ghi wears all white, and is a feared killer. Her tiny darts carry deadly venom in which she kills at her father’s command. Ghi is the daughter of The Cricket, from a union with a French woman. As the girl turned into the shop, they got a clear view of her beauty. She had black eyes, and a wealth of black hair that formed a ruff for her shoulders. She had thin, white hands. From this distance she looked no more than eighteen or nineteen, her face was like peaches and cream. Her eyes were only slightly slanted, her lips like cherries, and teeth like little white pearls.

There has only been one story so far, but two more were planned. Though the premier adventure is a tie-in with Dorus Noel, The Black Shadow reclaims the Korya Vases, and now he must travel alone from New York to San Francisco, then cross the ocean back to his homeland by ship. These last two adventures of him alone are still on the drawing board.

“The Black Shadow” ECHOES 30 (written especially for our 30^th anniversary issue of ECHOES).

“The Black Shadow” Kindle edition.

(*Note: Kukkiwan is the birthplace of tae kwon do, the Korean martial arts.)

Fading Shadows Magazines

Fading Shadows Magazines

FADING SHADOWS was a small-press publishing house that began in June 1982 with the publication of ECHOES, the hobby magazine for the pulp enthusiast. The magazine lasted for 100 issues before becoming a newsletter, finally ceasing in December 2004. However, in June 1995, FADING SHADOWS branched out to fiction magazines with the first issue of CLASSIC PULP FICTION STORIES. That first issue contained a number of stories written in the pulp tradition, from a Vietnam War story to the start of a science fiction serial. Also in the first issue were new stories of Ki-Gor, Doc Harker, Bill Barnes, and the Phantom Detective. In coming issues, there were more of the same, though the characters still under copyright were quickly dropped. But the writers continued to send in new adventures of the Black Bat, Phantom Detective, Doctor Death, and even a Jim Hatfield western by James Reasoner.

Soon it became apparent that one magazine could not contain all of the stories coming in to FADING SHADOWS, so more titles were quickly added: WEIRD STORIES for the weird menace genre, STARTLING SCIENCE STORIES for the science fiction (title later changed to ALIEN WORLDS), DETECTIVE MYSTERY STORIES for the detective mystery fans, EXCITING UFO STORIES for the UFO crowd, and DOUBLE DANGER TALES for the new hero stories. There was no shortage in writers and artists, only in subscriptions.

In the beginning, there were only a few established authors. James Reasoner, Will Murray, Clayton and Patricia Matthews, and maybe one or two others. But many of the new writers that got their start with FADING SHADOWS went on to become established writers in their own right. Although FADING SHADOWS was not able to pay for their stories, they sharpened their writing skills while turning out great yarns for the genre magazines, and are now writing novels for paying markets. One writer that would have made it big passed away much too young. Sean Danowski was something of a creative genius, and could write any genre. He stood about seven foot tall – or more, and had to use a cane to walk, and was barely thirty years old when he died of a rare cancer. Sean created several new hero characters in the mold of The Shadow and Secret Agent X, but he preferred the title CLASSIC PULP FICTION STORIES over that of DOUBLE DANGER TALES, and wanted most of his stories in CPFS. Before he became too ill to sit up, Sean was putting his own weird menace book together, RACY MYSTERY STORIES, which he was writing and designing. Unfortunately, he never had the chance to finish it.

Other writers did become discouraged. Not because they were not being paid. They understood that ECHOES was paying the bill for printing the magazines, and FADING SHADOWS was not making any profit. What discouraged most of them was the lack of recognition from readers. Not only couldn’t the magazines bring in subscriptions, it was impossible to get letters of comment from readers.

To get a general idea of how many words were published in these genre magazines, each issue contained approximately 40,000 words. There were 91 issues of CLASSIC PULP FICTION STORIES, 32 issues of STARTLING SCIENCE STORIES, 39 issues of ALIEN WORLDS, 55 issues of DETECTIVE MYSTERY STORIES, 63 issues of DOUBLE DANGER TALES, 26 issues of WEIRD STORIES, and 6 issues of EXCITING UFO STORIES, for a total of 312 issues. You do the math. That adds up to a lot of words for a small-press publishing house.

Publishing on a monthly schedule made it impossible to get special art for each issue. Although there were probably a dozen topnotch artists contributing to the genre magazines, by the time a story came in, there wasn’t time to ask a specific artist to do something special for that story, so artists were asked to send generic art, i.e., a science fiction, a detective, or a general piece, or just a flying saucer or cowboy illustration, and when there was a story that sort of matched, that’s where the art went. And artists and writers were all treated the same. There were no favorites played. The only reason the same author might appear in six straight issues was because that author got his stories in on time. But even then, attention was given to each issue, and what authors and art was on hand, and what artist or author should be next.

There were problems. The magazines were a two-person operation, Tom and Ginger Johnson, both sharing in typing stories to format. The early years were done on manual typewriters, and then word processors, until finally, Ginger was using a computer. Most authors sent their manuscript in double-spaced, and each story had to be retyped to format dimensions. There was no time for a proofreader, and one was desperately needed, as typos appeared in every issue, if not every story! The magazines were amateurish at best, but the stories and art was top notch.

In a way, FADING SHADOWS paved the way for the current trend in new pulp titles. Genre magazines like ours closed out the last century and started the new century before ceasing publication. In March of 2002, Tom had a stroke, which limited his workload, and Ginger was not able to take on more of the responsibility, so it was decided to plan on stopping the magazines. ECHOES was now a newsletter, and not bringing in enough money to support the genre magazines anyway, so one at a time, the titles folded, until they were all gone by December of 2004.

Some day I would like to compile an index to the authors and stories that were published under the FADING SHADOWS imprint, but that would be a massive task, and I’m not sure I am up to it. However, all of the data is available, thanks to Bill Thom’s help.  http://www.geocities.com/fadingshadows1/index.html

Perhaps some of our other new pulp publishers would like to share their history with us also?

The Visage

The Visage

Creator: Sean Danowski

Characters

Nicholas “Nick” Dane

Jerry Maxion

Edward “Jazz” Bartler

Earl Wayford

Vladimir - Vlad

Nicholas “Nick” Dane had gone off to war as a young boy, but returned a man – changed! Thirty, dark-featured with dark eyes. He brought forth black gloves that he slipped over his hands. From another pocket he produced a white cloth mask that he slipped over his face. Save for twin slits for the eyes, the mask covered his face totally. Then taking his gray fedora he donned that as well. Two automatics rested in shoulder holsters beneath his coat.

Blonde-headed Jerry Maxion was a former Federal agent turned detective, whom The Visage had saved from a frame up years before. The small agency Jerry ran in Lower Manhattan was merely a front, for he was an agent of The Visage.

Edward “Jazz” Bartler is all bulk, everything about him suggested squares, from his compact build to his chiseled jaw and wide shoulders. A former jazz cornetist in Kansas City speakeasy bands, ex Chicago gangster, one-time member of the Capone mob, and now an agent of The Visage.

Earl Wayford is a broker for the wealthy. His office is on the fourteenth floor of the Luthridge Building just off Wall Street in the financial district. He is the third agent of The Visage.

Dane lives in the penthouse apartment of the left tower of the Zaggurat Towers. Black and gold trim, the twin towers were almost invisible in the night sky.

Vladimir - Vlad, is Dane’s faithful old Russian manservant. He had been with the Dane family for several generations.

There have been three novels so far, serialized in CLASSIC PULP FICTION STORIES.

The Murder Club CLASSIC PULP FICTION STORIES #8, 9, 10 & 11

Doom In The Hills    CLASSIC PULP FICTION STORIES #23, 24, 25 & 26

The Murder League CLASSIC PULP FICTION STORIES #32, 33, 34 & 35