Pulp Adventures #33

With a new, lower price, but the same number of pages, Bold Venture Press has put out a new issue of Pulp Adventures, #33 for Fall 2019. Under a very nice cover by Harry Rosenbaum (not sure the source), we get a wide range of stories both new and classic pulp. For classic pulp fiction, we get several pieces by a variety of authors. Another crime tale from Charles Boeckman, the late jazz musician/pulp author is “Death Speaks Softly” from New Detective in 1950. A meek bank teller leaves his job for a new life, but gets pulled into crime. Frederick Pohl was a major sf author and editor, and his short tale “The Tunnel Under the World” is from Galaxy. A couple keep reliving the same day, and the reason is a pretty sinister. We get one of H.P. Lovecraft‘s early shorter works “The White Ship.” More part of his “Dreamland” sequence, a lighthouse keeper has a strange adventure on a mysterious ghost ship. First published in 1919, it was later reprinted in Weird Tales. Another tale from Sax Rohmer is “Breath of Allah” from The Premier Magazine in 1917. It’s an interesting piece about industrial espionage set in Egypt which turns into something else. A different work is “The Story of Misión San Juan Capistrano” by H. Bedford-Jones. This piece, a non-fiction history of this mission in California, saw publication in a small self-published pamphlet in 1918. And now for New Pulp works, we get a large selection. Jack Bludis introduces his PI character Ken Sligo in “New Guy on the Block.” He’s a veteran, now working as a PI shortly after World War II. He is just starting out, and has taken on a case to find someone who jumped bail, but it’s actually a setup. This character appears in his own novel from Bold Venture: The Killers Are Coming. From Michael R. Hayfields is “An Old Friend,” about a mysterious vigilante called The Death’s Head going after a corrupt military leader in Mexico. Teel James Glenn has written several works, and I’ve posted on his character of Dr. Shadows. In “The Pursuit of the Moor” has a jewel thief teamed up with a journalist to find a jewel he once owned but lost. The reason he wants it back is revealed at the end. “The Client” by Nils Gilbertson is another crime piece, which focuses on a lawyer who has to deal with an unusual client. A fairly short work is “Conspiracy Theory” by Carson Demanns about a conspiracy nut who becomes an internet legend when he dies, somewhat mysteriously. Adam Beau McFarlane gives us an unusual pirate tale in “Captain Warwick’s Hand.” He was looking for a new hand, but got a bit more then he was expecting. As always, it’s another great collection of stories. Hopefully the newer, lower cost will lead to better sales. This is a great series and I look forward to the next one. If people aren’t getting this series, they are missing out on some great works.