Paperback Fanatic #17

[dem bones]

Any day now ....

Justin Marriott (ed) - Paperback Fanatic #17 (January 2011)

68 pages, half in full colour!

Super spy Nick Carter has a full debrief on his many missions since the 1960s!

Horror pulps at Fawcett Crest with obscure titles and a full checklist!

Blaxploitation publishers Holloway House- home of Iceberg Slim, Donald Goines and Jospeh Nazel!

An in-depth look at the legendary SF publication New Worlds and Michael Moorcock!

A review of the the Zardoz Book Fair!

Letters, columns and more colour illustrations than ever!

.... the first Fanatic of the new decade! as yet, i've no more info than this, snagged from the PF online shop (get in quick). Anyone who reckons i'll be ripping off the Fawcett Crest horror pulps checklist for Vault must have a very low opinion of me is all i can say, although in this instance they are absolutely right. A feature on Nick Carter suggests the hand of Andy Decker is involved somewhere along the line? i can't think of any past coverage of a social occasion in PF so Justin's report on the annual drunken orgy euphemistically referred to here as 'the Zardoz Book Fair' breaks new ground (you may remember Mr. Marriott treated us to a dry run for the article shortly after the event). The word on the street is that last Halloween's fair was such a success that Mr. Zardoz is toying with the idea of going twice yearly though there's been no official confirmation as far as i'm aware. Those of you who put off ordering the beautiful Visual Guide To New English Library Vol 1 may want to look away now as it has .... SOLD OUT. i know the editor was slightly trepidatious as to how this one would go but 'phenomenally well!' is the answer to that one seeing as how it was only published mid-November!

Later edit

received a copy of this in the post late afternoon (!), so will add a breakdown of the contents over the coming days. no surprise that it looks absolutely stunning!

[severance]

Should get to grips with this at the weekend, only had time to read the Fawcett horror checklist so far - but I'm definitely going to have a word with Mr. Marriott, the first pargraph of it is virtually identical to the Gold Medal article I'm currently struggling to write - bastard

[pulphack]

there's a letter in this issue that says basically 'it gets better and better with each issue' and you know what? it does!

congratulations mr decker for the brilliant nick carter piece - i read some of these about 30 years ago, and it's funny but they never seem to turn up second hand. the whole sordid story of michael avallone being pushed out (well, maybe not given his reputation...), the amazing covers, and how they borrowed nick carter from the old pulp (i always did wonder about that - did LKE have to cough up to Conde Nast for this?), and all the rest. my favourite piece, run close by the holloway house article.

another one of those mysterious p/b houses with sleazy associations, but producing great pulp. i could never get on with iceberg slim, but donald goines is another matter. he was a great crime writer, second only to chester himes (but no-one tops him in US crime for me). i picked up about half a dozen of his p/b's in a charity shop about ten years ago (for only 50p each!!!!!) and loved them - sadly they've vanished and i don't know when and where. it would be great if someone like cannongate could republish him like they did himes (or have they and i missed it?) so he could be rediscovered. now there's joseph nazel, who sounds an erratic talent but worth exploring.

the new world and lang jones interview tapped into all the things that got me interested in sf (well, a certain sort) and made me want to a)go back and read some of the old stuff i've got and b)spend money i ain't got on some old new worlds issues! and you can't say more than that for a piece.

and then the fawcett piece - following on from some of the comments about it, i have to say it was all new to me, but the covers are wonderful and the variety of work in the list speaks of an editor who was either really good or a lot who bought at random!! but thanks to serendipity they did a cracking job.

so - even despite the rev lionel being held over, still one to top the others.

incidentally, i agree about guy smith being a little economic with the truth about the rev's stuff being devoid of padding... it was packed with it, but that was what made him so wonderful! i refer the jury to the bizarre passage about teeth mentioned elsewhere on this board...

[noose]

Another brilliant volume of THE most indispensable magazine on the planet read and filed away. Stand-outs was the Fawcett checklist and I really really enjoyed the piece on the blacksploitation novels - you know that the films exist and love 'em to bits, but the silly me never even thought that there would be novels too! I am so going to start looking out for some of those books. God, how I wish that there was a Blacula tie-in somewhere
Entertaining letters page as always and really looking forward to the next couple of issues. Did I mention that the PF is the most indispensable magazine on the planet?

[dem bones]

Ah! i was holding back until i knew they'd began arriving on doormats. A bumper 68 glossy pages to get stuck into time so lets begin with the full TOC.

Justin Marriott – Fanatical Thoughts (editorial)
Fanatical Mail – Ste Turzynski, Brian Bieniowski, Nigel Taylor, Bam!!, David Barraclough, Joe Kenny, Andrew Byers, Andy Boot, Andreas Decker, Johnny Mains.
Sennitt Sez … – Stephens response to #16. Health & Knowledge, Roberts A. W. Lowdnes, Guy N. Smith and more.
Justin Marriott – Behold The Mags: A History Of New Worlds
Justin Marriott – Notes From The Underground: Interview with Langdon Jones
Justin Marriott – Strange Seductions: The Fawcett Crest Horror Pulps (including a Fawcett horror checklist)
Andreas Decker – To Out-Bond James Bond: Nick Carter, Super-spy. (including a checklist of the first hundred titles in the series)
Justin Marriott – Black Fury. The golden age of Blaxploitation pulp.
Justin Marriott – The Zardoz Pulp Fair

i still have the Blaxploitation and New Worlds articles to go, but some random thoughts on Nick Carter, Fawcett & Co, while it's all still fresh in my mind.

"Nick Carter always carried three recognisable weapons ... [including] a little gas bomb named Pierre, which Carter always wore taped to his inner thigh or the scrotum. By todays standards this seems rather silly and slightly creepy in a serial killer kind of way, but the writers told this straight-faced for the whole run."

As with the magazine, so with Andreas Decker. His contributions get better and better. It might just be me but it comes across that Andy is writing with a lot more confidence than when he began and the lowdown on the Nick Carters is essential, particularly for those of us who've acquired a few of the books but don't know which to start on or, just as importantly, look out for in future. My rule of thumb to date has been to go for the ones with the sauciest covers and, while that's not about to change, at least now i know my Golden Serpent from my Devil's Cockpit which has surely got to count for something. To Out-Bond James Bond is full of insightful snippets like the one quoted above. For instance, after Michael Avallone and Award parted company, Valerie Moolman finished the novel he was working on and went on to write eight more, "a rare occurrence, a woman writing a macho men's series." As to Michael Avallone, i was delighted to find his instructive essay on when best to introduce 'the narrative hook' among the contents of a recently acquired Mystery Writers Handbook for 1975. "Don't be afraid to get into the middle of plot or character in the first sentence. Poe wasn't, I'm not, and it will pay you not to be." If it's good enough for the authors of The Fall Of The House Of Usher and Partridge Family #2: The Haunted Hall, it ought to be good enough for you.

We've already begun a separate thread for the Fawcett Crest Horror checklist, recycling and, hopefully, fleshing out Justin's original but a few words on the accompanying article wouldn't go amiss so will get around to that in next thrilling installment.

I can only echo Stephen Sennitt's endorsement of Robert A. W. Lowndes as one of the all-time great editor/ anthologists, "easily the equal of stellar acts like Peter Haining and Michel Parry, and for my money, somewhat superior to August Derleth." I was so overjoyed to read that, i've now completely forgiven Mr. Sennitt his entirely misguided condemnation of Gerald Suster's The Handyman in Fanatic #10. Despite Magazine Of Horror, Startling Mystery Stories and Weird Terror Tales's twenties-thirties pulp bias, when RAWL ran a contemporary story it almost invariably fit in seamlessly with the vintage gold. I really don't know how he pulled that off! Does anyone know what became of the remarkable Steffan B. Aletti? i don't think i ever saw any of his work outside of a Lowndes publications and he should have been huge! As to Guy N. Smith's overfond reminiscences re Badger Books, to be fair, i think Lionel Fanthorpe would be the first to contradict him if his comments in Mike Ashley's Fantasy Readers Guide are anything to go by.

Enjoyed the report on the Zardoz Pulp fair (the boys on the legal team are still analysing the more contentious content as we speak), especially as i can now put a name to some of the faces plying their tantalising wares and i'm delighted that Milan and Micheal Heaphy get a good look in: Justin makes the point that there were less authors conducting signing duties than in previous years, but, not being a great one for autograph-hunting, he wasn't so concerned by their absence. I must admit, i can take or leave getting stuff signed, but i think its a shame if that aspect is no longer being encouraged. The highlight of my first Zardoz visit back in 2005 was the opportunity to meet and chat with Michel Parry, Hugh Lamb, Mike Ashley, the late Syd Bounds and Sam Peffer (among others) in a stress-free environment as opposed to, say, the few BFS events i've attended where the celebs are hunted down in packs by people who want their photo taken being best mates with them (no wonder one big hitter, who i've found to be a really charming, unaffected guy, often seems very pissed off on such occasions). Having said all that, Stephen Jones, Micheal Micheal Smith, Andy Boot and Les Edwards were all present so it's not like we were starved of superstar attendees.

in his editorial, Justin asks what we'd like to see more of in PF - "the same!" is my easy answer to that.

[dem bones]

Jan 28, 2011 20:23:04 GMT pulphack said:

and then the fawcett piece - following on from some of the comments about it, i have to say it was all new to me, but the covers are wonderful and the variety of work in the list speaks of an editor who was either really good or a lot who bought at random!! but thanks to serendipity they did a cracking job.

This is what makes Paperback Fanatic such a godsend. Even if looked upon kindly by the Patron Saint of dodgy paperback enthusiasts (St. Pierce?), its unlikely many of us will be landing a trunk-load of Fawcetts from a dodgy market stall any time soon, but Justin's spadework with the checklist and insightful commentary at least put you wise for what to look for and, of course, several titles have made it into UK editions with Hamlyn, Corgi, NEL and Futura among those who got in on the act (maybe we should list them?). Something i particularly enjoyed about the article is mr. fanatic's delve into the Gothic Romances, one of few pulp genres PF has yet to explore in any depth.

By a stroke of good fortune called 'Riley's books', late year i finally landed a copy of David Sutton's booklet On The Fringes For Thirty Years: A History Of Horror In The British Small Press (Shadow Publishing, 2000), and the all-too brief feature on New Worlds might be it's micro SF companion piece. After a potted history of the early years, the article hones in on Michael Moorcock's stint as editor, when, inspired by what he saw was going on in International Times and the hippie underground press, he and J. G. Ballard instigated the fabled (i.e., even i've heard of it) new wave of British SF, encouraging the NW contributors to experiment with the form in much the same way David Sutton, Richard Davis and Ramsey Campbell would encourage their contemporaries to do the same with horror and supernatural fiction.

[andydecker]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. Glad you liked the Carter article. I was so delighted how good the coverscans are. I marvel how Justin does it.

Hard to say which one I liked best. I loved the article about NEW WORLDS as I was (and still am) a big Moorcock fan. Even if I think a lot of his fantasy hard to read today, but when I put my nose into books like The Brothel in Rosenstraße I have this itch to fall on my knees and worship him.

Incidently I got a few of the NW paperbacks cheap last year and read a few of these later storys, unfortunatly I never got my hand on an original. I had totally forgotten about the Spinrad "scandal", and this prompted me to get the german edition of Bug Jack Barron from the shelves where it sat unread for years. Like most of these outcrys it is hard to understand what the fuss was about. Guess you had to be there.

This is what I so like about PF. It prompts you to look old stuff up again. After Spinrad it sent me to my Brian Aldiss books Maybe this time I manage to finish Report on Probability A

If you look at todays utterly boring sf it is hard to imagine how important NW really was. Undoubtly it paved the road for a lot of fiction and helped getting sf accepted by the mainstream. (Which of course killed its importance, but this is another rant )

I was surprised how much I have of the important Fawcett Horror. Of the five to track down I have three And this is a good list. Running of Beasts is way ahead of its time, Falling Angel is a lot of fun, even if this is a rare case where I like the movie better, and All Heads Turn is also a very good novel.

And I was floored when I read that there are 5 Robert Arthur Smith novels! I only have The Prey, a strange historical horror about werewolves and the French Revolution. I will write it up some of these days. The cover is rather unspectacular and very similar to the Brandner´s.

The Nazel article was a lot of fun. One of those cases which are unique; can anybody imagine a publisher would put out a cover like the one with the black handgranade?

As for the Zardoz Fair, that must be fun. I am kind of glad I can´t attend; it would leave me broke and finally without a room for living

[noose]

Well if it wasn't for the NEW WORLDS article I would NEVER have picked this up today...

[Johnlprobert]

Feb 22, 2011 17:31:54 GMT @noose said:

Well if it wasn't for the NEW WORLDS article I would NEVER have picked this up today...

I've not read any Norman Spinrad apart from one Jerry Cornelius story. Bug Jack Barron was going to be made into a movie by Costa-Gavras back in the 1980s but I don't think it ever materialised. Let us know what you think if you read it, Johnny - I'm suspecting it might be quite weird if Spinrad was part of the New Worlds group!

[David A. Riley]

I remember reading Bug Jack Barron when it was first published in the UK. I was then a subscriber to New Worlds, which was sometimes quite an exciting magazine - and sometimes frustratingly odd. It was never boring, though.

I haven't read Bug Jack Barron since then and I do wonder just how it has stood up to the test of time. It was very much a product of its era, I think, and very political. Whether its politics now seem dated, I'm not sure. Though have American politics changed all that much fundamentally since then? I suppose Right-wing Republican shadiness could still be there. Bush's dubious second term win would have fit quite nicely into BJB, if my memory serves me right.

[dem bones]

Paperback Fanatic, so much to answer for, eh? made this inspired purchase in TYPE yesterday, purely on the strength of Andy Decker's enthusiastic comments in #17. it is not unlikely will eventually devote a thread to the exploits of Nick, kinky Gerda, Gina the sadistic lesbian maid & Co., but in the meantime, best of luck making sense of the back cover blurb.

Nick Carter (Manning Lee Stokes) - The Golden Serpent (Mayflower, 1967)

Blurb:
THE MIXTURE AS NEVER BEFORE ... for NICK CARTER, top agent of AXE, sometimes known as KILLMASTER.
TAKE a Mexican political party that demands the territorial return of Texas ... and New Mexico .... and Arizona .... and California.
ADD a Chinese paper-exporting operation that sends out a fine engraver's surface for the familiar five-dollar portrait of Lincoln.
STIR with a Countess who has made a fortune in cosmetics and runs a private little kingdom at her castle deep in the Mexican jungle.
MIX-IN the CIA and AXE, prickling each other's sensitivities while the nation and the highest men in government are stumped to stop the ruin of America's economy ....
And suddenly, in the meeting between Hawk and the CIA man, the ingredients have blended into a little pill they hand Nick Carter. With the instructions: straighten things out - or swallow your defeat in L pills!

[noose]

I've never bought a Nick Carter book before today...