In This Issue: Columns: Recent Reading ...............................................................................1 RGUS Reviews Zorro: The Masters Edition Vol. III....................................................2 Treasures of Tartary...........................................................................3 Pulpster #13.....................................................................................4 -A The Black Book #1..........................................................................5 Compliments of the Domino Lady ............................................... 6-7 Flashes From Readers Edgar Wallace ...................................................................................8 Robert Carse....................................................................................9 E. Hoffmann Price............................................................................9 95404 CA, Santa Rosa, ERALD Frank Del Clarke............................................................................10 Featured Issue 1130 Fourth Street, #116 1130 Fourth Street, H Detective Fiction Weekly...........................................................11-14 Acknowledgements: The author biographies from Detective Fiction Weekly for Edgar Wallace, Robert Carse and E. Hoffmann Price were originally posted to the fi ctionmags newsgroup by Monte Herridge. VENING Recent Reading: E Novels Read: Paratime H. Beam Piper Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen H. Beam Piper Agent of Byzantium Harry Turtledove Schrödinger’s Cat: The Universe Next Door Robert Anton Wilson Time Wars: The Dracula Caper Simon Hawke The Difference Engine William Gibson and Bruce Sterling The Man in the High Castle P. K. Dick The Guardians of Time Poul Anderson The Shield of Time Poul Anderson Too Many Magicians Randal Garrett The Legion of Time Jack Williamson ERSONVILLE Short Stories Read: Sideways in Time Murray Leinster APA APA Avery Jack The Wheels of If L. Sprauge de Camp P Brooklyn Project William Tenn Graphic Novels Read: HE The Adventures of Luther Arkwright Brian Talbot T The of Time… Its Ahead That’s Mystery Zine Prepared for EMD Prepared April 1, 2004April 1, (707) 577-0522 Issue 5 Revised email:[email protected] Herald-Argus and running in order to “Zorro’s Masked Menace” seem to be based on the same template. Gone is the verve of Current Reviews The Curse of Capistrano. However these are still Zorro stories, with plenty of chases, swordfi ghts and daring do. Each story is self- Reviewed by Jack Avery contained, usually featuring Zorro coming to the aid of a victim of injustice or embarrassing Sgt. Garcia in his Zorro: The Masters Edition V3 (1946-1947) foolish attempts to capture the outlaw. Still, it’s hard to By Johnston McCulley feel that Zorro is ever really in trouble. Cover by Joel F. Naprstek One nice feature is the reprinting of the original Pulp Adventures Press illustrations that accompanied the stories in West. In Large format paperbound addition to painting the cover, Joel F. Naprstek provides 128 pages several new black and white spot illustrations. $15.00 There is also a cover gallery showing all of the Zorro ISBN #1-891729-22-5 covers from West that are represented in this volume. While there is no introduction, there is a complete After a long wait, the third volume in Pulp Adven- checklist of Zorro appearances from the pulps. tures Press’s complete Zorro series is here. It certainly is nice to see that somebody remembers This is a nice thick book fi lled with short stories that Zorro began in the pulps and is making a sys- of the masked swashbuck- tematic effort to reprint the ler of old California. work of the original cre- The format of this will ator, even if the quality of be familiar to those who that work is uneven. have the fi rst two collec- On the offi cial Zorro tions with the same perfect Productions website, binding and in a uniform McCulley is barely size and design to the pre- acknowledged as the cre- vious collections. ator of Zor ro, as opposed to This edition picks up Isabel Allende, author of an chronologically from upcoming Zorro pastiche. where the last left off with There’s a nice big photo all stories reprinted from of her on the main Zorro Zorro’s long run in West. Productions website, while This is certainly a nice McCulley isn’t even men- book, and Zorro fans will tioned except on a page want a copy, but I can’t deep inside the site. help but feel that McCul- On the website, Zor- ley is just going through ro’s pulp origins are glossed the motions by 1947. over in favor of movies and Zorro by this point, TV shows. more than two decades Hopefully soon this after his creation, had long series will continue with since become a household the reprinting of the origi- name, and like the later nal sequel novel The Further Tarzan efforts by Edgar Adventures of Zorro. There Rice Burroughs, the orig- are also plenty more short inal inspiration seems to be stories from West, a few missing. from other magazines and another novel that have yet to The stories here, starting with “Zorro’s Masquerade” be reprinted in this series. The Personville Evening Herald-Argus is published whenever Jack Avery gets around to it. Contents copy- right 2004 by Jack Avery. All rights revert to creators upon publication. The Personville Evening Herald- Argus is prepared for the membership of Elementary My Dear Amateur Press Association. Copies of all issues in Acrobat PDF format can be found on the web at efanzines.com. 2 Herald-Argus geance. Early in the story his desire for vengeance leads him to join in a fi ght and aid a stranger. This gives him Current Reviews the means to pursue both his vengeance and the treasure. But once his vengeance is met and the treasure gained, he realizes that for the good of peace, he has to destroy the horde so it does not fall into the wrong hands. Ven- Review by Jack Avery geance is gained, self-imposed duty trumps greed. “Son of the White Wolf” stars El Borak, in my opin- Treasures of Tartary and Other Heroic Tales ion the greatest of Howard’s characters, in a thrilling By Robert E. Howard adventure set during World War I. This story hinges on Edited by Paul Herman shifting allegiances between enemies who join forces to Wildside Press fi ght a foe both agree must be stopped. There is treachery 2004 repaid, duty fulfi lled and honor followed even at peril of Hardcover death. $35.00 “Black Vulmea’s Vengeance” is a terrifi c pirate story. 218 pages Vulmea is captured by the same British sea captain who ISBN: 0-8095-1558-X tried to hang him when Vulmea was a boy. Vulmea plays on the captain’s greed to give himself a fi ghting It’s hard to believe that most of the fi ve stories in this chance at life, and to lead his enemy into death. Yet collection have been out of print for more than 15 years, Vulmea tries to minimize the number of the captain’s particularly since these are all in men who will also fall into the the public domain. trap. Once the tables are turned, All fi ve are strong adventure Vulmea is turned from his ven- stories showing the Howard geance by pity, certainly show- touch. But these stories were ing him to be a better man than passed over by the Baen Books the captain who was motivated “Robert E. Howard Library” only by greed. Of course there because they are non-fantastic. is fi ghting, adventure and danger There is a good variety rep- aplenty in a hidden ruin deep in resented here, two westerns, two the jungle before the end of the middle-eastern stories and a pirate story. yarn. At fi rst glance it would “Boot-Hill Payoff” is unusual seem to be a random assortment for Howard, in that the story’s of stories, but these fi ve stories character is seeking redemption belong together. Though dis- instead of vengeance. The young- parate in time and place, all est brother of a family of desper- are strong examples of Howard’s ados, he returns to the scene of major themes: honor, duty and their depredations determined to vengeance. There is also a coun- pay back the town for the wrongs tervailing theme of the way greed his family committed. To his sur- plays on men’s souls. prise he fi nds a gang impersonat- Some have questioned ing his dead brothers committing whether Howard’s characters, a reign of terror against the towns- rough and dangerous as they are, folk he has come to aid. With are really heroes. These stories almost all hands against him, he show his characters in a heroic light, braving danger for succeeds, with a little too much luck to be believed, in principles, taking pity on enemies, upholding a code of putting an end to the gang, and restoring his good name. honor, seeking redemption, fi ghting against the lure of He also gets to gun down the man who killed his brother greed and sacrifi cing in the name of duty. in an unfair duel. The title story is a Kirby O’Donnell adventure fea- The inverted nature of this story, the hero starts turing the man known as the False Kurd. On the surface out seeking redemption and only incidentally gains ven- it is the story of an attempt to steal a fantastic treasure. geance, may be traced to the origins of the work. This But O’Donnell is more than just a thief or adventurer. He’s also on the track of the man who betrayed his com- Please see Treasures panions, leaving him the only one alive to seek ven- Page 10 3 Herald-Argus The real gem of the issue is a reprint from True West. This 1967 article by pulp editor and writer J. Edward Current Reviews Leithead is fi lled with great information, but is not well organized. It is desperately in need of extensive footnot- ing a la the Steeger papers issue of Purple Prose.