Magazine Review: Astounding Science Fiction July 1939

Magazine Review: Astounding Science Fiction July 1939 edited by John W. Campbell Astounding Science Fiction is now Analog, which is still being published; see earlier reviews on this blog. Today I’m looking at a key issue from the pulp days, July 1939. First, there’s this classic cover by Graves Gladney. Up front is “Addenda”, an… Continue reading Magazine Review: Astounding Science Fiction July 1939

Comic Book Review: Comic Book History of Comics: Birth of a Medium

Comic Book Review: Comic Book History of Comics: Birth of a Medium written by Fred van Lente, art by Ryan Dunlavey As a long-time comic book fan, I’ve been reading books and articles about the history of comic books since the early 1970s. It was inevitable that at some point there would be a comic… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Comic Book History of Comics: Birth of a Medium

Magazine Review: High Adventure #170: Best of Science Fiction Stories

Magazine Review: High Adventure #170: Best of Science Fiction Stories edited by John P. Gunnison This volume of the long-running pulp reprint magazine dips into the pages of Science Fiction and Science Fiction Stories, a magazine that ran from 1939 to 1943 with the last two issues being under the latter name. As so often… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #170: Best of Science Fiction Stories

Magazine Review: High Adventure #168: Wonder Stories

Magazine Review: High Adventure #168: Wonder Stories edited by John P. Gunnison This issue of pulp reprints gets its content from Wonder Stories November 1930 (when it was still edited by Hugo Gernsback) and Thrilling Wonder Stories December 1942 (after Gernsback had been bought out by the Thrilling Group.) As you might imagine, this means… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #168: Wonder Stories

Book Review: Nova 2

Book Review: Nova 2 edited by Harry Harrison In the introduction to this 1972 anthology, Mr. Harrison talks some about the internationalization of science fiction beyond North America and Western Europe. In recognition of this growing trend, he’s included a Brazilian author’s story. “Oh, and we have one story by a woman.” In reality, there… Continue reading Book Review: Nova 2

Magazine Review: Doctor Death February 1935

Magazine Review: Doctor Death February 1935 edited by Carson W. Mowre While most of the single-character pulps were named after the hero of the stories, like the Shadow and Doc Savage, there were a handful of attempts to have pulp magazines centered around mastermind villains. The three-issue Doctor Death series was one of them. The… Continue reading Magazine Review: Doctor Death February 1935

Book Review: Popular Book of Western Stories

Book Review: Popular Book of Western Stories edited by Leo Margulies The title of this 1948 paperback may seem a trifle misleading (“if it’s so popular, why have I never heard of it?”) but makes more sense when you learn that it came out from the publishing company Popular Library. Leo Margulies, a long-time pulp… Continue reading Book Review: Popular Book of Western Stories

Book Review: Tombstone & Speedy, Range Detectives

Book Review: Tombstone & Speedy, Range Detectives by W.C. Tuttle W.C. Tuttle (1883-1969) was a prolific author of short stories and novels, almost entirely Westerns. One of his specialties was comedic detective Western stories, with cowpokes solving mysteries, not always with their brains. This volume collects three such stories starring the duo of Speedy Smith… Continue reading Book Review: Tombstone & Speedy, Range Detectives

Magazine Review: High Adventure #166: The Big Foot Murder Mystery

Magazine Review: High Adventure #166: The Big Foot Murder Mystery by Edgar Wallace This time the pulp reprint magazine only has one story, which originally appeared in Complete Detective Novel Magazine in October, 1929. It was one of twelve novels Edgar Wallace (Richard Horatio Edgar Freeman) had published that year! One publisher claimed that nearly… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #166: The Big Foot Murder Mystery

Magazine Review: High Adventure #162: The Uranium Pomegranates

Magazine Review: High Adventure #162: The Uranium Pomegranates edited by John P. Gunnison World War Two is over, but the dust is still settling. Bud Harper has been out of the military just long enough to be bored in his old job of bond salesman for Lewis & Co. While delivering some bonds to dynamic… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #162: The Uranium Pomegranates