Between 2002 and 2016, BLOOD 'N' THUNDER was the premier journal for devotees of adventure, mystery and melodrama in American popular culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This award-winning magazine, written by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, eventually expanded its readership to include casual fans of vintage storytelling mediums: pulp fiction, motion pictures, and Old Time Radio drama.
BLOOD 'N' THUNDER, moribund for three years, has now returned in a new format but with the same excellence of writing and research. The articles and essays are scholarly without being dry or academic in nature; no publish-or-perish hackery here.
This revival issue (promoted as Volume Two, Number One) is now available on newsstands and Amazon.com and covers a variety of subjects, all related to pulp fiction. Most notably in the recent issue is recent archival digging from Brian Hochberg and David Kalb. David documents the history of the long-lost 1941-42 radio series featuring Street & Smith's The Avenger; he compares recently uncovered scripts to the novels from which they are adapted.
David Saunders, whose father Norman was among the most prolific painters of lurid pulp covers, profiles the forgotten publisher J. Thomas Wood. Novelist and pop-culture historian Will Murray weighs in on pulp pulchritude—an appreciation of artists whose covers sported alluring women. Indefatigable researcher Rick Lai offers a detailed chronology of the Jimgrim saga, a multi-novel series penned by pulp-fiction giant Talbot Mundy. BLOOD 'N' THUNDER editor Ed Hulse celebrates the Zorro centennial (he first appeared in a 1919 issue of the legendary ALL-STORY WEEKLY) with a behind-the-scenes account of the making of Douglas Fairbanks' 1920 swashbuckling hit THE MARK OF ZORRO. Ed also supplies a look at HAWK OF THE WILDERNESS, a 1938 cliffhanger serial adapted from the popular imitation-Tarzan novels that appeared in the venerable pulp BLUE BOOK.
The second issue was released this week and should be available now.
The second issue was released this week and should be available now.
You can also order a copy of the recent issue and all back issues from Murania Press at www.muraniapress.com
