“Echoes 30” is a special 30th anniversary of Echoes, a long running, but now defunct, pulp fanzine.
Echoes ran from 1982 to 2004, before the advent of Print On Demand changed pulp fan publishing and ushered in the current New Pulp era.
Echoes was published by Tom and Ginger Johnson for 100 issues and lasting over 10 years, then for a period of time it was an “newszine.” Its last new issue was “Echoes Revisited,” published about 10 years ago.
“Echoes 30: Three Decades of Pulp Fandom’s Greatest Magazine,” published by Altus Press, is a collection of articles, mainly written by Tom, but a few by Will Murray. Not all appeared in Echoes. (You need to read the fine print in the indicia to find out where.) Others are original, never-before-published works. And a few pulp story reprints are also included.
The book includes:
• “The Bloody Seven,” by Ginger, which talks about the seven major pulp collectors.
• “Fantastic Fighting Men of Fiction,” an article focusing on pulp characters (also included were some early paperback series heroes) with clear fighting skills: judo, karate, savate, etc.
• “Some Original Pulp Heroes,” a series of short (two, four or six pages) articles on second and third tier pulp heroes. Some had their own magazines; some only lasted one story. I would have liked more information on the availability in current reprint works, maybe some info on new stories using these characters.
• “Secret Service Aurelius Smith,” on R.T.M. Scott‘s character, which apparently got him the gig to write the first two Spider novels.
• “The Shadow’s Ladies,” on the female characters in The Shadow pulp.
• “An Essay on New Pulp Heroes,” mainly on the characters who cropped up about 10 or so years back, mostly in the other fanzines the Johnsons’ published. Several have since be reprinted in new collections. This is a new article and I wish it would have included info on where these characters appeared and where they are available to read. I am familiar with some, but not all, and that info would really help the reader.
• “The Coming of the Black Police,” a great article on the classic Spider trilogy, since reprinted by Age of Aces as “The Spider Vs. The Empire State.”
• “Captain Satan,” on this short-lived Popular Publications hero. Altus Press has just come out with a reprint of all his stories in two volumes.
• “The Belmont Shadows,” an in-depth article on the series of original Shadow novels published during the ’60s spy craze. This article is reprinted from a booklet the Johnsons published called “From Shadow to Superman” from 1991.
• “The Green Ghost,” an in-depth article on all aspects of this short-lived Thrilling character (reprinted from the booklet of the same name the Johnsons published back in 1991). The closest we’ll get to a “Green Ghost Companion.” I really wish someone would do a reasonably priced reprint of these stories (hint, hint).
• “The Black Hood,” an in-depth article on this short-lived pulp character based on a comic book character (a rarity). This series has been reprinted by Altus Press and reviewed by me.
• “The Missing Red Finger,” an original article on a rejected story written for the short-lived Red Finger spy pulp backup series. The complete series has been reprinted by Altus Press, but I don’t recall if it included this one. Have also reviewed this one.
• “Pulp Ladies,” an article on several of the major female characters, good and bad, from the pulps.
• “The Lone Wolf Detective,” an article looking at Lone Wolf Detective magazine as a possible location where unpublished Secret Agent “X” stories wound up (re-written, of course).
• “The Caretakers from Hell,” an article on the short lived Skull Killer pulps (aka The Octopus and The Scorpion).
Three articles by Will Murray:
• “Yesterday’s Man of Tomorrow,” an article on Captain Future.
• “The House Name that Fell Off,” this original article on discovering the authorship of a Masked Detective story thanks to a Canadian pulp reprint. Altus is supposed to reprint this series, but has yet to begin.
• “The Mysterious Dr. Zeng,” this original article is on this short-lived pulp character, reprinted by Altus Press.
Pulp Reprints:
• “The Green Ghost,” by Johnston McCulley, the first story of this character, now with a complete reprint by Altus Press.
• “The Red Sword,” by John Drummond, an interesting spy pulp story, with a character similar to The Eagle (which has been reprinted by Altus Press).
New Story:
• “The Black Shadow,” a new story using Dorus Noel, a character who appeared in several issues of All Detective magazine in 1933 and ’34, and reprinted by Off-Trail Publications. I have reviewed it here.
Overall, this is a great collection. It’s also the largest volume (width and height) that Altus Press has done (they have done thicker volumes).
A great collection. It would be nice if we could get similar collections of works from other classic fanzines of the past.
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