EDitorial Comments

Pulp Pinup Queen Mala Mastroberte Joins Murania Press At Windy City Con!

Blood ‘n’ Thunder readers who hadn’t already heard of Mala Mastroberte got acquainted with her — well, acquainted with her work, anyway — in last year’s double issue. For those who didn’t get it (and what are you waiting for?), Mala is a lovely and talented woman whose fascination with pulp culture inspired her to try something unique in the annals of our hobby. She decided to recreate some of her favorite “Good Girl Art” covers from pulps, true-crime, and men’s-adventure magazines — with herself as the primary female subject.

As you can see from the Spicy Detective recreation below, Mala has the looks and figure for the job. But what makes her work special is that she is also the photographer and graphic designer of these covers! She begins by searching for wigs, props, and costumes that will enable her to pass for the women in the photos or paintings. Then she poses herself in the same positions, takes the pictures, and Photoshops herself into the covers. And she does an excellent job, believe me!

Mala now sells poster-sized prints of her cover recreations, and Binary Publications recently issued a book collecting some of her best efforts, titled Malaland Magazines.

I’m very happy to report that Mala will be joining me at the Murania Press table during next weekend’s Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention. She’ll be on hand all weekend to sell her book and copies of her prints, all of which I recommend highly. So stop by to purchase her wares and get them signed. (Also, I’ll have copies of the BnT issue with her portfolio, and I’m sure she would be glad to sign that too.) Thus far Rich Harvey’s Pulp Adventurecon is the only pulp-collector gathering Mala has attended, and she’s very much looking forward to the Windy City experience. Please make sure you give yourself plenty of time while at the show to visit our table and get acquainted.

Call Me Ish…er, Lazarus.

Yes, it’s true, I’m back from the dead. The last six months have been extraordinarily difficult ones for me in every conceivable way, and the six months before those weren’t much to brag about either. I’ve shared some of the details in previous posts and isolated e-mails, so there’s no point in going back over old ground. Suffice to say, during that period I promised enough without delivering that, after a while, I just backed off everything lest I be accused of being the boy who cried wolf.

But I’ve finally come through the long dark tunnel and am back in action. The long-overdue Distressed Damsels and Masked Marauders is now shipping and I’ve just completed a triple issue of Blood ‘n’ Thunder to make up for the three quarterly issues that subscribers should have received over the last nine months. Within the next few weeks I’ll also have the overdue Barehanded Castways sequel, The Island, ready for market. And I’m now working on other reprint projects to debut at PulpFest this summer.

The last couple months I’ve had some part-time help from a recently retired friend who generously offered to help me clean up the back-order mess, and I think we’ve just about gotten everybody squared away now. If you ordered something you still haven’t received — other than BnT, which has been on hiatus almost a year — please write to Kevin and muraniapress@yahoo.com and let him know.

Another DD&MM Hiccup….

Upon receiving a proof copy of Distressed Damsels and Masked Marauders last week, I was disappointed to see a number of photos that had not reproduced well. I probably should have expected this; with more than 300 illustrations, DD&MM is the most art-heavy book I’ve produced to date. In any event, I did the necessary Photoshop tweaking to the sub-standard pictures and have resubmitted the digital files to my printer. It’ll be another week before I get a second proof copy, but once I approve that, the book will be ready for shipping. The good news is that, aside from the errant photos, I was extremely happy with the final product and have no doubt that those who pre-ordered it so long ago will be equally impressed.

Countdown: 100 Days to Windy City!

At this writing the beginning of 2014’s Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention is just 100 days away. I’m already excited. The Windy City con is always a great show, and I’m proud to have been a part of it since 2002, when Doug Ellis invited me to handle the film program. For the first several years my choices were more or less random, although from the beginning I only ran movies adapted from stories originally published in pulp magazines. Later, when Doug began assigning themes to each convention, the annual film lineup was more sharply focused to reflect the authors, characters, or magazines being celebrated that year.

In 2014 Windy City will acknowledge two milestones in pulp history. First, the 95th anniversary of Street & Smith’s Western Story Magazine, which for many years was not only the genre’s best-selling title but also the home of Frederick Faust (aka Max Brand), whose innumerable works practically defined the horse opera. Second, the 85th anniversary of the serialization in Black Mask of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, arguably the greatest hardboiled private-eye novel of all and certainly one of the most influential yarns ever to appear in a pulp magazine. So this year’s film offerings will naturally pay homage to Black Mask and Western Story. I’ve already compiled a list of titles to be screened and am waiting only for confirmation of print availability before releasing it. Keep an eye on the Windy City home page for the complete lineup, which will be posted soon.

Needless to say, the film program is just a small part of the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention. Every year there’s also a top-notch exhibition of original pulp art; auctions featuring rare, desirable books and magazines from notable collections; panels and award presentations by the New Pulp community; and, above all, a massive dealers room crammed with hundreds of thousands of pulp and paper collectibles culled from the inventories of top dealers who come to Chicago from all over the country. As of today (January 15) some 136 of the 151 available exhibit tables have already been leased, and I have no doubt that the remaining space will be sold out before month’s end.

I know many, many serious collectors who don’t attend the conventions. “Why,” some say, “should I spend hundreds of dollars on airfare and hotel rooms when I can buy pulps and books on the internet or from mail-order dealers?”  But I’ve rarely encountered one who, having attended a convention like Windy City or PulpFest, has been disappointed by what he or she experienced there. To begin with, over a three-day period you’re surrounded by a quantity and quality of merchandise that you might not see on the internet, or in mail-order catalogues, for many years. But there’s also the camaraderie, the enjoyment derived from mingling with fellow enthusiasts, which is admittedly difficult to valuate in dollars and cents, but which is so vital a part of the convention experience.

If you’ve never been to a pulp convention, why not give this year’s Windy City a try?  In between frequent forays to the film room I’ll be manning the Murania Press table and selling our latest books (which, as I’ve previously announced, will include another issue of Blood ‘n’ Thunder, among others). I’ve always found Windy City to be an ideal venue for making new friends and renewing my acquaintances with old ones. I’d love to see you there this year.

BLOOD ‘N’ THUNDER #38 Update

Still in the process of working through back orders and getting ready to ship Distressed Damsels and Masked Marauders, I’ve decided that, at this late date, it would make no sense to print and ship Blood ‘n’ Thunder #38 in its present form.  Since the issue is so tardy, I’d have to whip up two more in quick succession just to get back on schedule.  So here’s what I’ve decided to do: double up numbers 38 and 39 (which, as the Fall 2013 issue, should have been published already), and then pair numbers 40 and 41 (Winter/Spring 2014) for release at the Windy City show in late April.  That’s the best way for me to catch up.

I already had two meaty articles in the hopper for use in #39, so they’ll see print in the upcoming double.  Larry Latham, whose outstanding articles and artwork graced many pulp fanzines in the Eighties, returns to pulp fandom with a terrific piece on the transition from dime novels and nickel weeklies to the pulp magazines we all know and love.  I’ve greatly expanded an article I did for Tony Tollin’s Sanctum Books Shadow reprints in late 2012; the original essay covered the two Shadow feature films of the late Thirties, but the revised version also covers the “Shadow Detective” featurettes released by Universal during the 1931-32 season. (In a previous issue Tony examined the first of the series, “A Burglar to the Rescue,” but I go into detail on the others.)  You’ll find lots of great behind-the-scenes info as well as a plethora of stills and poster reproductions from both features and featurettes.

I had planned on reprinting H. Bedford-Jones’ This Fiction Business, along with some recently rediscovered and unindexed HB-J Western stories, as a standalone volume in the “Classic Pulp Reprints” series. But I’ve just decided to include the non-fiction book’s text in the double issue and find another venue for the newly uncovered stories.

Along with some additional department installments, the above-named articles and reprint should make BnT 38/39 another very desirable issue. As soon as Distressed Damsels is out, I’ll add this extra material to the already-laid-out issue 38 and plan on having the double completed by the end of January or beginning of February.

Speaking of “Classic Pulp Reprints,” I haven’t forgotten The Island, J. Allan Dunn’s sequel to Barehanded Castaways.  This book was another casualty of my diminished activity in last year’s second half, but you can expect to see it too very soon.  The log jam is finally breaking up and I can promise you that this will be an active year for Murania Press.  I’ve now got someone helping me with order fulfillment and database maintenance, and together we’re beginning to make progress.  Once again I thank you all for being patient and promise you’ll find that the long-delayed books were well worth waiting for.

Celebrating The Serial’s Centennial

Exactly one hundred years ago today, motion-picture emporiums in selected cities across the country played Chapter One of the first true movie serial, Colonel William Selig’s The Adventures of Kathlyn. Over the next 40-odd years, more than 500 serials — or “chapter plays,” as they were also known — flashed across American theater screens in weekly installments.

Readers of Blood ‘n’ Thunder are treated regularly to in-depth articles covering the great movie serials; many of these essays have been collected in  the still-available Blood ‘n’ Thunder’s Cliffhanger Classics. Today, a full century after Kathlyn‘s debut, we celebrate the form’s early years.

Popular screen stars who made early appearances in silent-era serials included Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Constance Bennett, Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, Laura La Plante, Adolphe Menjou, Warner Oland, Esther Ralston, Milton Sills, Rudolph Valentino, Warren William, and Anna May Wong. Broadway favorites Billie Burke, Irene Castle, and Lillian Lorraine top-lined chapter plays, as did champion prizefighters Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Benny Leonard, and “Gentleman Jim” Corbett. Internationally known performers such as famed escape artist Harry Houdini and prominent vaudeville hypnotist J. Robert Pauline also starred in “cliffhangers,” adding new fans to their already sizable followings.

Future megaphone wielders James Cruze, Irving Cummings, and Robert Z. Leonard acted in early serials before taking up permanent residence behind the camera, where their achievements were considerably more significant. Journeyman directors W. S. Van Dyke, George Marshall, Richard Thorpe, and George B. Seitz enjoyed lengthy stints with major studios after helming episodic thrillers for Pathé and Mascot. Oscar-winning cinematographers Joseph August, Stanley Cortez, Linwood Dunn, Arthur Miller, and Leon Shamroy cranked cameras on serials before graduating to big-budget feature films. Playwright Philip Barry, whose Broadway hits included Holiday, The Animal Kingdom, and The Philadelphia Story, temporarily abandoned stage work to write a 1924 Pathé serial, Ten Scars Make a Man.

Notwithstanding the eventual prominence of the people named above, the serial’s importance in American film history cannot be attributed to the role it played in the development of those distinguished careers. The serial was consequential for other reasons. It changed the way motion pictures were advertised and distributed. It forged a much-desired link between newspapers and the film industry. It codified narrative devices still employed today in movies and TV series. And it made weekly theater attendance a habit for millions, thus facilitating the rapid growth of one of the nation’s most profitable industries.

Tom Santschi and Kathlyn Williams in THE ADVENTURES OF KATHLYN.

Now — finally, absolutely, and positively — I can announce publication of the long-delayed, oft-postponed Distressed Damsels and Masked Marauders, which goes to press shortly and will be available for shipping during the week of January 13. Without rehashing the turbulent history of this project, I’m prepared to promise that the finished product will please those of you who pre-ordered the book long ago and have been waiting patiently for it to materialize.

Today technically marks the chapter-play centennial, but 1914 saw the release of the most famous early serials, among them Pathé’s The Perils of Pauline, Thanhouser’s The Million Dollar Mystery, and Universal’s Lucille Love, Girl of Mystery. So in the coming weeks and months I’ll be celebrating their one-hundredth birthdays with posts in this space. The pioneering chapter plays, while hardly vital to the development of motion pictures as an art form, were enormously influential in making movie attendance a weekly habit for millions of Americans.

The serial’s success depended on the thrills, action, and suspense it generated with each weekly installment. In Distressed Damsels and Masked Marauders you’ll read about the real- and reel-life exploits of such daredevil chapter-play stars as Pearl White, Ruth Roland, Helen Holmes, Charles Hutchison, Eddie Polo, William Duncan, Joe Bonomo, William Desmond, Marie Walcamp, Francis Ford and Grace Cunard, Allene Ray and Walter Miller, and many more.

Only a relative few silent serials survive complete. Numerous others survive in fragmentary form. But I’ve seen just about all the existing footage and have painstakingly documented the making of the key titles. And I’ve illustrated the book with hundreds of rare stills, posters, ad cuts, and lobby cards. Many photos are candids, taken on location, and never before published. I’ll share a few with you in future blog posts, but for the bulk of them you’ll want to buy Distressed Damsels and Masked Marauders.

In the meantime, join me in wishing a Happy Hundredth Birthday to the American movie serial. Long may it be remembered!

Final Days For The Special Deal On BNT’s GUIDE TO PULP FICTION

Since its release late last July, the Blood ‘n’ Thunder Guide to Pulp Fiction has been available not only as a standalone item priced at $29.95, but also at 20 percent off when purchased in conjunction with a one-year subscription to Blood ‘n’ Thunder. That deal was scheduled to end on December 31 of this year, but as a convenience to folks who might be away between Christmas and New Year’s Day, I’m extending the deal to Sunday night, January 5. After that time the Guide will be available only at cover price (which still offers a kinda-sorta discount in that the $29.95 price tag includes shipping to domestic buyers). So shake loose some of that Christmas cash and take advantage of the sale’s final week.

Happy Holidays From Murania Press

I hope all our friends are enjoying the holiday season and have been imbued with the accompanying spirit of forgiveness, because it’s time for me to open up a big can of mea culpa. Murania Press has been dormant for way too long, and I want to apologize sincerely for being unable to follow through on the shipping of long-overdue titles.

As some of you already know, conditions here in the Phantom Empire have been pretty tough for a long time now, and more than once I’ve toyed with the idea of shutting the whole thing down. On several previous occasions I announced that operations were about to resume only to have another crisis pop up to prevent me from delivering books as promised. Finally, I elected to maintain radio silence until such time as I could predict with confidence that Murania Press had turned the corner.

That time has come.

Operating as a staff of one all these years has exacted a terrible toll on me, but help is on the way. Beginning January 6 I’ll have the assistance of an old friend who’s just retired and has graciously offered to pitch in at Murania Press world headquarters. He’s a customer-service pro who’s experienced in both order processing and mailing-list maintenance, making him the ideal person to help me catch up on back orders and update the subscriber database as needed. With his aid, I’m quite sure we’ll have everything ship-shape by this time next month. Those of you with questions about the status of future orders can reach him at muraniapress@yahoo.com. Just be sure to put his name — Kevin — in the subject heading of your e-mails. He’ll answer you promptly. But remember, he doesn’t begin work here until the sixth of January.

Meantime, I want to thank all those loyal customers who’ve been patient during this difficult period in my life. The last six months have been extremely draining and dispiriting for a variety of personal and professional reasons, but I’m confident the new year will bring better things. You’ll read about some of them here in the very near future, as I’m determined to pay more attention to this blog (among other things) in 2014. Here’s hoping the new year is a great one for all!

An Important Notice

Owing to the sudden convergence of rather severe problems — a Perfect Storm of bad luck, bad timing, unforeseen obstacles, and unintended consequences — the last several weeks have been extremely difficult for me. As a result I’ve been forced to postpone the printing and shipping of several Murania Press publications announced for late-Summer release, including Blood ‘n’ Thunder #38, the long-awaited Distressed Damsels and Masked Marauders, and Volume Five of the Classic Pulp Reprints series, J. Allan Dunn’s The Island. These items will ship soon; at least two of them by the end of September and the third in early October.

In some cases I’ve held up shipments of multiple items to include copies of the new BnT, and I thank those customers for their patience with me during this trying period.