Saturday, January 20, 2007

New Additions to the Pulp Library

I went to my friendly neighborhood Borders Bookstore today to purchase some new additions to my pulp library. There's nothing I like doing better...wait a second, scratch that...there's nothing I like doing better with my pants on than going to a bookstore and browsing the shelves for some "buried treasure." While the local library is good too, especially here in Hollywood where they have many out of print volumes on serials, the bookstore is unfiltered for the most part. You can find just about anything there.

So with a cup of java in hand, I perused the shelves in search of said treasure...and I hit the motherload.

A Zorro novel by a noteworthy "serious" novelist. A New York Times bestseller no less. I look forward to reading it on my way to the office. I'll have to program some appropriate music into my ipod.


Then of course, I ran into these two characters and I just had to say, "Hello." Nostalgia Ventures Inc. are reprinting their adventures (starting with the more obscure ones which haven't been reprinted before) under the direction of pulp scholar Anthony Tollin. Two complete adventures come in each volume. The Shadow has "The Voodoo Master" and "The Red Blot", and Doc Savage contains "Resurrection Day" and "Repel."

Both volumes are printed in their original formats with some added editorial material and background. Good Stuff!

Last week I went to the LA Comics and Science Fiction Convention over at the Shrine auditorium and browsed around there as well (I seem to be on a book buying binge). While there I picked up some bargain British comics annuals - Dan Dare, Victor, Ranger, Lion and Thunder from the 70's. Interesting material and is a different view of comics than the one I grew up with. Very enlightening.

I also picked up a few DVDs. This nail-biting DVD here , and a DVD with the grim visage and terrifying laugh of this guy:



Edit: I just realized all of my book and DVD buying has been going against my paper and plastic austerity program I was trumpeting just a few months ago to my friends. Won't you publishers and distributors put some effort into getting this stuff all onto the web so I don't have to kill trees and use oil-base plastics? Thanks, it would be so much easier to have all this stuff on my laptop instead of filling my shelves...

5 comments:

Noah Brand said...

Jesus, aren't those old British comics a trip and a half? I got lots of DANDY and THE BEANO during the portion of my childhood spent in Britain, and while the humor stuff was generally about as funny as a puppy with cancer, the adventure stuff had this loopy charm.

All the stories seemed to be adhering to imaginary budgetary concerns; even when they could (presumably) draw anything, the stories themselves were always these small retail affairs. "The Iron Eaters" had huge aliens consuming all of Earth's iron, but the stories I saw were all about minor logistical problems. It was as though the comics had never been relieved of rationing, and the government needed all the big Jack Kirby shit to fight the Germans.

Tim Clague said...

Great blog. Looking at the Shadow and Zorro I wondered why pulp novels get turned into big budget films? Doesn't seem to fit!

DecoderRing said...

Mmmmm... those Nostalgia Ventures reprints are gooooood. Don't have Shadow vol #3 yet, gotta fix that. Sadly, Voodoo Master I do already have from the old Black Mask unauthorized editions, so it's one for the price of two this month... but who cares? Love it.

As for getting it electronicly... well, both The Shadow and Doc Savage have been pretty common on .pdf for years (again, unauthorized)... but it's just not the same. C'mon Bill, what'd those trees ever do for you?

Cunningham said...

This from the guy who PODCASTS a radio drama about a masked adventurer.

John Oak Dalton said...

Bill,

Start reading the "Hard Case Crime" series immediately.

Regards,

John