June 2012
The Book Cave: Enter At Your Own Risk
Recently I was interviewed by Ric Croxton and Art Sippo, co-hosts of the popular Book Cave podcast, which caters to fans of genre fiction, comic books, and other pop-culture storytelling forms. Every year around this time they graciously allow me to plug PulpFest as well as upcoming issues of Blood ‘n’ Thunder and other Murania [...]
READ MORE >>Pulp Historian Albert Tonik’s Collection Will Be Auctioned at PulpFest
Albert Tonik, long-time fan, scholar and collector of pulp magazines and related popular-culture artifacts, has decided to sell his holdings and has chosen PulpFest as the most appropriate venue to do so. Therefore, the vast majority of lots offered at this year’s Saturday-night auction will be choice items from Al’s huge collection of hardcovers, paperbacks, [...]
READ MORE >>More on “10-20-30” Melodrama
In addition to providing visceral thrills, 10-20-30 “mellers” regularly trafficked in narrative devices that would later be incorporated into motion-picture serials. They often revolved around a struggle for vitally important papers: the map to hidden wealth, the deed to a home, the will to an estate, the plans to an invention, the confession to a [...]
READ MORE >>The Movie Serial’s Precursor: “10-20-30” Stage Melodrama
(Have you ever wondered from whence the motion-picture serial developed? Here’s an excerpt from my upcoming book, Distressed Damsels and Masked Marauders, which explains the chapter play’s origin at some length.) From its beginnings, the motion-picture serial reflected the influences of popular-priced stage melodrama and mass-market fiction, the latter delivered to thrill-hungry readers in cheaply [...]
READ MORE >>The Unbearable Lightness of Leo
Lately I’ve been revisiting the “Thrilling Group” pulp magazines published by Ned Pines, whose numerous companies included Standard Magazines, Beacon Magazines, Better Publications, and Nedor Publishing Company. Pines, as many of you know, had a fetishistic attachment to the word “Thrilling,” which he used in no less than a dozen magazine titles. (He also had [...]
READ MORE >>Chandu? Can Do!
I don’t remember exactly how, when or where I first learned about Chandu the Magician. Most likely I saw stills from it in Famous Monsters of Filmland, Castle of Frankenstein, or one of the other “monster mags” published during the Sixties. I do remember being intrigued by the character right away, and a little research [...]
READ MORE >>Promising Pulp-Mag Series Characters Who Never Really Caught Fire
One of the items for sale on our Collectibles page is the November 23, 1935 issue of Detective Fiction Weekly. The cover story is Erle Stanley Gardner’s “The Silver Mask Murders,” featuring his short-lived vigilante hero The Man in the Silver Mask. This was the last of three novelettes Gardner wrote about this Shadow/Spider/Phantom Detective [...]
READ MORE >>Vintage Pulps Added to Collectibles Page
I’ve just added a dozen or so pulps to the Collectibles page, including a handful with stories by the late great Ray Bradbury. Half of them are science fiction, but you’ll also find Western, fantasy, detective, and general-adventure magazines for sale. Pretty good stuff, if I do say so myself. I’ll be listing a few [...]
READ MORE >>It’s Now Easier to Start or Renew Your BLOOD ‘N’ THUNDER Subscription
As some of you know, the Murania Press site was in development quite a while, with work conducted in fits and starts. Chris Kalb came up with the basic design for what began as a Blood ‘n’ Thunder site, but after launching the “Classic Pulp Reprints” line last year I decided to put all my [...]
READ MORE >>Recent Posts
- THE SHADOW (1994) on Blu-ray
- PulpFest Is Coming Up Fast!
- Murania’s Memorial Day Weekend Sale!
- Ruminating On The Nature Of Pulp
- Thanks To Our Loyal Subscribers!
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