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ED HULSE
Editor/Publisher: BLOOD 'N' THUNDER Magazine. Pulp Historian.
The magazine website is: http://www.geocities.com/poppub/
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: July 14, 2006.
Meeting Site: Bennett Books. Wyckoff, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 15.
Meeting Program: Talk Pulp Heroes.
Notes:
This was a Friday night meeting. The cancellation of a speaker and loss of our original arranged venue caused a hurried reschedule. The Bennetts were gracious enough to host the meeting on extremely short notice.
Ed Hulse also addressed the August 2004 meeting of the Association.
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2006 Philip J De Parto:
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County met on Friday, July 14, 2006 at Bennett Books in Wyckoff, New Jersey. The light attendance was disappointing but not unexpected, given the late hour switch of meeting site, date, and speaker.
The Final Frontier's pre meeting discussion of DOCTOR WHO was led by Philip De Parto. Most of the discussion revolved around the two latest Doctors, Chris Eccleston and David Tenent, although Bob Pinkus considered Tom Baker to be the only true doctor while Chuck Garofalo championed John Pertwee.
Phil and Chuck have both seen episodes of the second series featuring Tenent which have not yet aired in the States. Phil gave highlights of the first ten shows of the new series. Kathleen Holusha supplied information from British magazines which her daughter, Bonnie, had purchased while visiting abroad.
When Phil praised the acting of Billie Piper, Kathleen pointed out that the actress is primarily known in England as a singer. She is the U. K.'s version of Brittany Spears. As usual, there were digressions into many other areas as well.
Ed Hulse was the evening's guest speaker. Mr Hulse is a collector and authority on pulp magazines, movie serials, radio dramas, dime novels, and collectible paperbacks. He is the editor and publisher of BLOOD 'N THUNDER magazine, a four year old publication devoted to these interests.
Since the new Supeman and X-Men movies had recently been released, Mr Hulse decided to talk about the three most famous pulp heroes, The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Spider.
THE SHADOW was the oldest of the trio and had the most interesting back story. In 1931 Street and Smith publications decided to launch a new specialty pulp, DETECTIVE STORIES. The company came to an agreement with a New York radio station to do a weekly show which would dramatize one of the stories in the current issue of the magazine. The show would be introduced by an ongoing character, The Shadow. It was the radio station that introduced such catch phrases as "What evil lurks in the hearts of men? Only The Shadow knows!"
The broadcast became a hit, but there was a hitch. Listeners went down to their local magazine stands and asked for issues of THE SHADOW, not DETECTIVE STORIES. Being no dummies, S&S quickly launched THE SHADOW magazine and had a hit on their hands. The magazine became so popular that it was published twice a month for a while. Because The Shadow was created almost by accident, the radio program and the magazine occasionally went off in different directions about the hero. For example, although Lamont Cranston was a character in both versions, the radio show made him The Shadow's secret identity while the magazine made it clear that he was not.
The next pulp superhero discussed was Doc Savage. The Doc Savage tales were officially written by Kenneth Robeson, a Street & Smith house name. The actual author of almost all the tales was Lester Dent, a back up writer of THE SHADOW.
The Doc Savage stories often contained science fiction elements. Dent was fascinated by gadgets and was always incorporating mad scientists, death rays, and mechanical wonders and terrors into his plots. Unlike many other pulp heroes who tended to remain primarily in one location for their adventures, Doc Savage and his team traveled around the world to battle the forces of evil. Also unlike many other heroes, Doc Savage did not believe in killing bad guys. He would rather capture them and brainwash them into becoming productive members of society.
Comic book superheroes in general, and the character, Superman, in particular, owe much to the character of Doc Savage. Among these influences are Doc Savage being called the Man of Bronze while Clark Kent was titled the Man of Steel and that both Doc Savage and Superman have a Fortress of Solitude at the North Pole, though Savage was there first.
The Spider was the third character discussed. He was the Dirty Harry of the bunch. Time considerations kept his spotlight a brief one.