Number 29

The Pulpster #29 (2020)

Number 29 of The Pulpster was published in August 2020. (PulpFest 2020 was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; an expanded edition of The Pulpster was published separately. Single copies of this number can be purchased on the Order page.)

A century of Bradbury

Once more for the road
The ideas and words of literary magician Ray Bradbury live on 100 years after his birth.
by Garyn G. Roberts

Mr. Bradbury, my friend
Recalling a three-decades-long friendship with “a very good and kind man.”
by Garyn G. Roberts

Bradbury: A fan’s reflection
A longtime fan remembers meeting “a legend.”
by Samuel James Maronie

Bradbury in Popular’s pulps
Fondly remembered for fantasy, Ray Bradbury also mastered mystery, crime, suspense, thriller, and detective fiction.
by Garyn G. Roberts

Bradbury’s Martian Legacy

A Martian fantasy lives on
In spite of the realities of space exploration, Bradbury’s Chronicles still takes us home.
by Michael Chomko

Visions of Mars: the pulp years
A look at Mars fiction from 1930s until 1953 sees a changing world.
by Sara Light-Waller

Evolution on Mars
A 1924 column from Science and Invention speculates how the Red Planet shaped its inhabitants.
by Hugo Gernsback

Of Bradbury, Burroughs, and Mars
Ray Bradbury credited Edgar Rice Burroughs with having a vast influence on generations of readers, including himself.
by Henry G. Franke III

Reality has changed our visions of Mars
Once spacecraft from Earth began showing us the real Mars, our fiction changed.
by Albert Wendland

‘Black Mask’ at 100

The Black Mask challenge
Joseph T. Shaw built on his predecessors’ successes and captained the magazine to its peak.
by Milton Shaw

Black Mask authors left too many tales untold
If only those old Black Mask writers could tell their stories today.
by Will Murray

Black, White, and read all over
Black Mask hardly gave up the ghost after Shaw left, and Kenneth White continued its legacy.
by John Wooley

A Black Mask story grips students 81 years later
William Cole’s short-short “Waiting for Rusty” resonates with a high-school class.
by Christopher Ryan

Black Mask by the circulation numbers
Looking at the magazine’s circulation data refines our understanding of its history.
by Brooks E. Hefner

Raoul Whitfield: Black Mask Boy and — killer?
Did the fictioneer’s life darkly imitate pulp noir?
by Craig McDonald

Articles

All along the newsstand
Folk-rocker Bob Dylan — a pulp magazine fan?
by William Lampkin

The countess of men’s adventure magazines
Model and actress Eva Lynd graced their covers (and photo spreads) from the ’50s to ’70s.
by Robert Deis

Brief reign of Canada’s ‘King of the Pulp Writers’
Despite appearing in Weird Tales, Thomas P. Kelley is best known for his Black Donnellys books.
by Tony Davis

Brackett, Hamilton reflect on SF
The married fictioneers talk about the history and future of the genre in a 1977 interview.
by Darrell Schweitzer

The history of Renfrew of the Mounted
The RCMP Inspector’s heroic exploits ranged from books, magazines, radio, and film.
by Martin Grams Jr.

The Philip Wylie connection
A deeper look at the man who inspired supermen — of both bronze and steel.
by Stuart Hopen

Departments

From the Editor, by William Lampkin

From the Publisher, by Michael Chomko

Final Chapters, by Tony Davis

On The Cover

Kelly Freas’s cover for “Lorelei of the Red Mist,” Tops in Science Fiction (Fall 1953).

Erratum

p. 2, Darrell Schweitzer co-edited the revived Weird Tales from 1988-2007 (not 1998-2007).