Paperback Fanatic # 27: Comics into paperbacks special

[dem bones]

This just arrived from Fanatic HQ - 140 pages of lipsmackin thirstquenchin acetastin motivatin goodbuzzin cooltalkinhighwalkin fastlivin evergivin coolfizzin pulp paperback bliss!

Justin Marriott (ed) - Paperback Fanatic # 27: 'Comics into paperbacks' special (October, 2013)

Editor: Justin marriott
Assistant editor: Jim O'Brien

A Tale of Two Cities
The fanatic reflects on a month of book-buying in the US of A.

Cryptzoological top 10
Nick Pope's top ten of alien animals

Artists assemble!
The greatest team-up of all - comics artists and paperback covers! Jack Davis, FranK Frazetta, Catherine Jeffrey Jones, Boris Vallejo, Bill Ward & Co.

Russo of the living dead
John Russo's horror paperbacks

The American Biggles
Graham Andrews on the tie-in novel to DC comic's Blackhawk

From The Files of Ms Tree
Rob Matthews on the PY of paperbacks and comics

The Pulp Jungle
James Doig & Graeme Flanagan on another forgotten Australian pulp author - Gene Janes

Fantastic Fridays
The comics artists used by Ted White in his SF mags.

Who you gonna call?
Comic historian Ron Goulart and his many prose adaptations of comics characters

Mondo Bilbrew
Gene Bilbrew the comics artist that pursued a career in sleaze

Labyrinth
A look at shared pseudonyms at Belmont Tower

Blade Runner
Nigel Taylor on the movie tie-in that never was

Weird Heroes
The ground-breaking vision of Byron Preiss and his pulp anthology

Fanatical Mails
Response to issue 26: Nigel Taylor, Jim Walker, Bill Halvorsan, Joe Kenny, Stephen Sennitt, Charles Wing, Sandy Robertson, Alex Wurm, Paul Fearn, Graham Andrews, Andy Boot, Andrew Kersten.


Subscriptions, contact details from the Paperback Fanatic Megastore

Review to follow!

Thanks, Justin

[severance]

Thanks for starting this thread, Dem, my copy didn't arrive until after 3pm yesterday - call that a post service? Anyway, I've only, so far, read Justin's book-buying experiences in Scottsdale and San Diego - I'm glad he didn't splash out on a copy of 'Black Wings Has My Angel' otherwise we would't have got this issue. When he mentioned seeing mint copies of hard-boiled greats like Thompson, Willeford, Irish and Goodis - my first thought was 'who the hell is Irish?' I'm afraid it only came to me this morning that William Irish was a pseudonym used by Cornell Woolrich - I must be getting senile.

You might want to make a small edit to your post, Dem, you seem to have added an erroneous 'ck' into the list of contents - my article should read pi, not pick, Ms. Tree is a private investigator after all. The word pick makes it seem like the piece is more substantial than it actually is.

[pulphack]

Damn you, Justin – when this arrived it meant a day’s work went out the window and a bugger of a day yesterday catching up. But it was worth it. A themed issue in which the theme was none too obtrusive and there were also some side issues. Interesting concept, and works better for me. ‘Weird Tales’ was my least favourite issue purely because WT don’t do it for me, so it’ll be interesting to see how this one goes down.

I actually really liked it, which I wasn’t expecting as I don’t read that many comics these days; however, the 60s/70s focus meant it dragged up a youth when I did, so there was a lot of rediscovery in it for me. And, it has to be said, some lovely cover art and interiors. Not being a fan of sleaze, I was ready to gloss the Bilbrew piece, but the heavily stylised covers were incredibly eye-catching, and really did have a nasty undercurrent that made the few Stantons and Alexanders and Wards seem – well – innocent. It was also noticeably how those stylisations have crept into more mainstream areas over the years. So the A-Z and Bilbrew pieces were great to look at...

The articles I enjoyed best, though, were Justin’s foray into house names at BT/Leisure and James and Graeme’s piece on Gene Janes. Purely because they went into the meat of the business as much as the books produced. How those books got out, and the conditions they were produced under, I find endlessly fascinating (which is also why I think Len Levinson’s The Last Buffoon is the best book I’ve read in years), though I’ll grant that this probably puts me in a minority. Nonetheless, excellent work on both counts.
Our own Sev also produced an excellent piece on Ms Tree: Max Allan Collins is someone whose books I’ve only skimmed around over the years (some of his Dick Tracy and a Batman novel, if I’m honest, and even the latter was so far back I’m not sure I’m getting him mixed up with someone else), but on this showing he deserves a closer look. Nice research and a good critique – that’s what I like about PF, when it prods you into looking closer at someone you’d previously flick past in the racks.

Nigel Taylor does the same – I’ve always been blah about PK Dick, too, but his piece makes me want to go back and look again. The same cannot be said for John Russo, though having seen so many version of his Living Dead books over the years, it’s nice to have that cleared up – and I do like the US covers reproduced for the non-zombie books. Sadly, I would risk those on the covers if I saw them about... I’d always go for Goulart, though, even the comics adaptations. I agree that his best work is in his own creations, but I do have a soft spot for the Vampira novels. There was an excellent piece about him in PPC back in the day which got me interested, but I’ll come back to them in a moment...

The Byron Preiss books looked interesting, but he seems to have been a more interesting bloke than the work produced – it’s a pity he died relatively young, as the rise of POD since his passing would have given his ideas a better platform, perhaps? In the same way, the sidelight on William Rotsler was more interesting than the main thrust of the Blackhawk piece, as that sounds dreadfully dull. Rotsler’s other work looked really interesting, though, and is another on the list of names to look out for (which would bankrupt me if taken too seriously, let alone finding time to read through it).

The travelogue on book buying was eye-opening in some ways – the model presented by the Bookmans chain is my idea of a good time, but I wonder if it could work here? It could drag in footfall custom and tempt serious buyers away from the internet, but would there be enough of them in a country this size? I’d like to think so, but it would be a brave man who tried. I still firmly believe we have become a cult hobby on a par with model railways, as most younger readers either don’t have much truck with old crap (which, lets be frank, is most of what we like) or else they’ll go for a cheap e-book version. I got a kindle recently, and can now read Edgar Wallace books I’d looked high and low for and not found over a 25 year period at one click, and for free or under a quid. Looking at the bundles of old pulp and genre fiction, and the ebook only reissues of old crime titles by some publishers, I can see this squeezing the second hand market even more. Even on ‘antique’ value, books loose out because of their relative perishability.

Which brings me to what I felt was one of the most important bits of PF for its future – Stephen Stennit’s letter. He raised an issue which is possibly a vital one to the ongoing health of PF, given that Justin can’t be expected to dip into his pockets with falling subscriptions. I’m not sure that the cost/issue ratio is really a problem – yes, at first glance it did seem a hike, but given the increase in size and colour, if you thought about it was really an equal exchange. However, his concerns on content are key.

I’m a more general fan than him, I would suspect, and not so firmly niche in my interest. I get bored easily and go off and read old kids books or chick lit for a change until I get bored with that and come back to the old stand-by genres. As such, the diffusion of what PF carries suits me more. But I am aware that I am not a standard PF subscriber in that sense, as I am not a collector, more of a casual acquirer. If the core audience are collectors, then his argument is valid: at what point do you diversify to attract new trade at the risk of losing the interest of your core?

I’m probably the worst person to ask, given what I said above, but I think it’s a debate worth having if subs are falling off. For what it’s worth, this is my take on it. Book Collector always looked to big names, much as its sister magazine Record Collector did; they went for those names in best-seller lists now, and attracting money at auctions. It led to a product that repeated itself, was boring, and eventually lost even casual buyers before going down. Closer to home, Paperback and Pulp Collector was never a seriously going concern as Maurice Flanagan never seemed to have the time to get it regular. However, the last couple of issues were more diverse in their content, with some mainstream writers, and I’ve always wondered if reaction to that and the subs he got persuaded him to put it on ice (if you’re out there, Mr Flanagan, it would be useful to know).

I think it might be politic here to look at the already mentioned Record Collector. Years of some obscure and cult stuff buried under the continuing weight of putting Queen/Beatles/Stones/Bowie on the cover each month with an ever more desperate series of angles probably put off more people than it persuaded to buy – certainly, it was in serious trouble when the net collapsed its small ad trade. There are hardly any sales in the back now, BUT it’s picked up sales since Ian McCann took over reversed the editorial policy – now it’s packed full of cult and obscure stuff, with well written and researched articles, and sales are on the up. Because, basically, it has a sharper focus on what its readers want: the cult and buried treasure that is being unearthed every month. To keep the music theme going, Shindig has a relatively narrow focus, but still has sidelights into other areas, and it’s going from strength to strength – it must be, as it gets better distribution now, and that doesn’t happen by accident...

Now admittedly, PF is always on a smaller scale, because of the subject matter and because of Justin’s need to keep it that way (I’m guessing, of course, but unless it was really big he wouldn’t make a living, and the time a middling sized PF would take wouldn’t be worth the family time lost), but there are some lessons to be taken from RC and Shindig and its content policy that I think are worth discussion – if we don’t talk about it, then how will Justin be able to judge the best way forward that keeps him happy as an editor, and also hits the core audience?

[dem bones]

Oct 2, 2013 12:52:33 GMT severance said:

You might want to make a small edit to your post, Dem, you seem to have added an erroneous 'ck' into the list of contents - my article should read pi, not pick, Ms. Tree is a private investigator after all. The word pick makes it seem like the piece is more substantial than it actually is.

All fixed, Sev, and on the WordPress thing, too. I take desperate consolation that it happens to the worst of us, and occasionally, even the most capable. Issue 22 of "Justin Marriott's attractive and informative The Paperback Inferno" receives a glowing endorsement in Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror 24.

Pulphack, you sure are a fast worker! I've not even taken down any notes yet, though am making good progress on the issue. Will first try tackle the articles & galleries - lovely to see a generous amount of fetish artwork hit PF - and then give Mr. Sennitt's letter, and your response, my undivided attention.

[jamesdoig]

Oct 3, 2013 7:38:40 GMT pulphack said:

The articles I enjoyed best, though, were Justin’s foray into house names at BT/Leisure and James and Graeme’s piece on Gene Janes.

Thanks for the kind words Pulphack. It's a great little magazine and, when you think about it, amazing that it's lasted so long. A real labour of love from Justin. I'll certainly keep on contributing to it. There's a huge 3 or 4 volume bibliography of Australian literature published a few years ago that says hardly anything about these Aussie pulp authors, so PF is the only place you can get any decent facts about these guys.

[dem bones]

Oct 3, 2013 20:44:59 GMT jamesdoig said:

Thanks for the kind words Pulphack. It's a great little magazine and, when you think about it, amazing that it's lasted so long. A real labour of love from Justin. I'll certainly keep on contributing to it. There's a huge 3 or 4 volume bibliography of Australian literature published a few years ago that says hardly anything about these Aussie pulp authors, so PF is the only place you can get any decent facts about these guys.

I find that incredible, and not a little sad. Is there really so little interest in these fellows down under?

Still have plenty of issue left, but to make a start ....

I am a fan of Ron Goulart's Vampirella novelizations (the three Sphere reissues, at least: haven't read the rest), so Mr. Fanatic's 'Who You Gonna Call?' was always likely to score with this reader. I find Mr. Goulart fascinating in that he's so contrary. In his The Assault On Childhood (Victor Gollancz, 1970: the clue's in the title), he comes out strongly against violent, 'fetishistic' comic book superheroes as a corrupting influence on innocent minds. Six years is obviously several lifetimes in the publishing game because, come 1976, he's adapting half-dressed (if at all) Vampi's adventures for fun and profit, introducing us to the likes of charming rock manager Rigby along the way.

"Would you like to park that beautiful ass of yours in a chair, Vampi? ... I don't much like brainy broads ..... We all have our specialities. Mine is clever remarks, yours is nice tits ... I really don't go for a bimbo who flaunts her brains". (Vampirella 3: Deadwalk)

Tsk! Not in front of the little ones, uncle Ron.

Elsewhere in Assault ..., he's equally scathing of SF, although in this case he exonerates some of it's more literary practitioners as less terrible than the rest. Hard to believe this is the same guy who gave the world Gadget Man.

In Cheap Thrills: An Informal History Of The Pulps (Ace, September 1973), he's at it again, this time coming over all Frederic Wertham at the long dead shudder pulps, as an unacceptable face of horror fiction.

"Fortunately, unlike what has happened in the case of the relatively literate Weird Tales, none of the material from any of the weird menace pulps has been preserved in books or elsewhere, and the gruesome stuff is now as defunct as a mad doctor at the end of a Dime Mystery novelette."

Of all the sleaze articles to date, Mondo Bilbrow is by far my favourite. Without coming over too 'my life of sin', I've a fondness for fetish imagery, and Gene Bilbrow's work is hilariously pervy. For all I know, 'Helen Morgan's Blood Orgy may well be awful, but would love a copy for the lurid cover artwork alone. Actually, Satan Presses entire oeuvre looks devilishly attractive. And kinky. Very, very kinky.

Despite the authors' assurances that Gene James Come And Go Mad (!) is "workmanlike, if not particularly gripping", I'd not think twice if a battered copy showed up in this neck of the woods, and that purely based on the synopsis. Would imagine James & Graeme's continued revelations about Aus pulp and its practitioners has opened up a whole new world to most of us, as have Andy Decker's articles on the German equivalents, and it's made for a far stronger magazine.

Thought I'd heard of Sev's heroine, 'Ms. Tree' before, and sure enough, Maternity Leave is reproduced in its entirety in Paul Gravett's The Mammoth Book Of Best Crime Comics (Robinsons, 2008). There's definitely a touch of the Bettie Page in a raincoat about her, though Ms. Tree's adventures don't seem to involve initiating Sorority girls. From our Guns & Lingerie man's enthusiastic assessment of the series, it could make for a decent TV adaptation, kind of Randall & Hopkirk (deceased) minus the ghost.

Can only agree with the editor's assessment of John Russo's horror novels & novelizations. While both, very different versions of Return Of The Living Dead have their moments, ultimately they lack .... I really don't know what it is. Likewise, Inhuman has all the right ingredients in all the right places yet still disappoints - it did me, anyhow. Even Night Of The Living Dead seems flat. He doesn't really do enough to flesh out the screenplay. Having said that Midnight sounds like it ought to be a scream, but overall, perhaps George Romero has the better handle on adapting horror flicks to print.

Enjoyed Nick Pope's Cryptozoology Top Ten, and can't help thinking there's more mileage to be had from the subject, which usually translates as 'Vault will be ripping it off shortly'.

I hope Justin is bluffing when he writes that he'll only run part 2 of his exhaustive Artist's Assemble! showcase depending on a positive reaction to the first instalment. Never mind the readers, Mr. M., it's your magazine, print what you see fit - you've not let anyone down so far. I'd be wary of attaching too much importance to the readers polls, as it's not unlikely many of us don't know our own minds. Have lost count of the times I've decided that so-and-so article is "not really my thing" only to decide twenty minutes later that it's a best of issue contender, and I can't be that unique. How many of us would have thought "A Comics into Paperbacks' issue? That's a good idea" before we had the evidence before our eyes? I can at least understand why some may be uncomfortable with PF's relatively high sleaze quota, but as we've not really had much by way of Gothic or Westerns, surely it's too soon to decide there shouldn't be any. If nothing else, its missing an opportunity for a glorious cover gallery or two.

Expect further examples of unjoined up thinking once i've finished reading everything ....

[jamesdoig]

Oct 4, 2013 20:28:16 GMT dem bones said:

I find that incredible, and not a little sad. Is there really so little interest in these fellows down under?

Not much interest. They're not really on the radar of academics, who would normally do the writerly research and bibliographies - in any case they're invariably a bit sniffy when it comes to pulp. In the UK and US there's a decent contingent of book collectors and dealers who publish stuff - I guess PF and Paperback Pulp and Comic Collector are examples of that - you don't get that sort of thing over here, as far as I know anyway. Maybe that's why you can still pick up pulp paperbacks for bugger all at charity book fairs - though there are some dealers around who flog them for a bomb, check out Cornstalk, a great bookshop but prices out of this world: www.cornstalk.com.au/auspulp.htm

[dem bones]

Oct 4, 2013 21:16:53 GMT jamesdoig said:

In the UK and US there's a decent contingent of book collectors and dealers who publish stuff - I guess PF and Paperback Pulp and Comic Collector are examples of that - you don't get that sort of thing over here, as far as I know anyway.

The magazines are a great help, though I can't help thinking there's plenty of room for some old school, rough & ready, cut, paste & photocopy fanzine's too. Maybe when it's time to do something else ... It's such a shame that the annual Pulp & Paperback fair is gone (assuming no philanthropic sugar daddy has stepped in with a last minute reprieve. We live in hope). The fair became a focal point for a very disparate bunch of battered book junkies in much the same way I should imagine the World Fantasy Con does for contemporary authors, publishers and their audience. Friend Milan's shop was another huge loss as, had it only been able to get a few years under its belt, we might have been looking at another Fantasy Centre. Pulp fans - including contributors to PF and this forum - had begun travelling down to check it out, and the local students were beginning to show an interest (anything 'vintage' will usually do the trick in that regard). It was such a thrill to see copies of Paperback Fanatic in the window display, and my one regret is we couldn't do the same for the Black Books, but things were already looking a little bleak when that was suggested.

Perhaps where there are local pockets of interest, people will eventually bunch together to organise smaller regional events. It certainly doesn't begin and end with London, and i bet the price of hiring say, a church hall or scout hut (it really doesn't require the basement of a luxury hotel) is a lot cheaper away from the capital.

[severance]

I've now read Stephen Sennit's letter several times, as well as Justin's editorial and Mr. Bugg's post - and I'm still none the wiser about whether I agree, or not, with the former's concerns. Who's to say which authors can be categorized as too mainstream or safe? Does it matter if an author isn't edgy? What does that even mean? I like Bob Shaw's work and I'm glad of last issues article on his work, so who cares if he isn't Michael Moorcock?

When it comes down to content, I basically trust Justin's judgment implicitly. He's going to do whatever he feels is right for the magazine's continued existence, and isn't about to do articles on Tom Clancy and James Patterson - but after 27 issues and x-thousand pages, there comes a time when the tenth Guy N. Smith article just repeats the previous nine.

Okay, so I'm exaggerating - hopefully you can work out what I'm trying to say - because I'm not sure I do.

[pulphack]

Interesting thoughts from Sev and Dem... first off, the big D (as I like to call him behind his back)... I guess you're kind of halfway between a serious collector and a dilletante like me - very strong interests in certain areas, but keen to find new areas of sleaze and filth - sorry, academic interest. And it's true that the variety of genre and type on PF does spark this - certainly, I would never have thought I'd find old sleaze paperbacks that interesting* until Justin featured such interesting pieces on them. And of course you're right, Sev, Justin isn't about to start featuring the likes of Clancy, etc. I also completely agreee about the idea of a hundredth Guy Smith piece or suchlike being barrel-scraping. That was the kind of tactic that almost killed Record Collector, after all.

But if subs are dropping off, then it is worth discussion, us lot and other boards like us (there are? there must be!) are PF's core readership, and although Justin's hand on the tiller has so far been firm and true (proper writing there), even a Captain and old sea salt needs a chart to navigate waters that are, to him, unknown (ok, I'll drop the analogy now).

I guess the key here is why subs have fallen: is it the economic situation making people more cautious (I've kept mine but axed Classic Rock last year, for example)? Or is it that the content balance has put people off? If so, what would ammend that without ruining Justin's vision? I guess my view of Stephen's 'mainstream fiction' comment is that some of the writers or topics in recent times may be veering towards the kind of thing that can be seen in other genre or book small press, whereas PF's USP(**) is that it delves into areas and reaches parts that others can't reach. I don't really agree with the first part of that, but feel it's instructive to see how more hardened collectors and enthusiasts feel. So far, it looks like all three of us who've posted kind of feel the same - ie, carry on Justin!


(* alright, Dem, you did see me buy a Fiona Richmond paperback once, but generally... ahem...)
(** sorry, too much dealing with media execs over the years - it's a hateful term, but does sum it up)

[pulphack]

PS - another thing about Sev's post that illustrates his point for me - I'd always consider Moorcock a much more mainstream and well-known writer than Bob Shaw as he's sold more and is ubiquitous, whereas Shaw is much more a niche genre fave. However, MM has more cult credentials. So who is more PF cult/niche worthy? Perhaps this is a circular chase-the-tail debate after all?

[Craig Herbertson]

Interesting re Shaw and Moorcock. My impression based admittedly on reading about two of Shaw's stories and loads of Moorcock is that Shaw directed his stories at what he perceived to be the market for SF. (I've mentioned before that I heard somewhere that he never had a story rejected)On the other hand Moorcock virtually created his own market with his Chaos and Balance and multiverses. I think that's the difference in perception between mainstream and edgey. One works within, one pushed outwards.

[dem bones]

In cultprint we trust!

For this reader, FF has mutated into a part-work in true Marshall Cavendish tradition, each issue contributing to a slightly offbeat history of the post-WWII mass produced paperback. As the editor has become yet more widely read, so different genres have moved stage-centre to reflect his current obsessions. Seems healthy to me. It's inevitable that, as a project evolves, there will be a few dissenting voices, and nothing wrong with that at all, but I'd hate the day to arrive when we could predict an issue (Night Of The Crabs revisited, Richard Allen's Skinhead Exhumed, yet another early James Herbert retrospective - all good stuff, but, as we see from Mr. Doig's comments, there's a world of uncharted territory for Fanatic to explore, and surely the initial thrill is flicking through the latest and thinking "what the ...?" ).

anyway, sorry ph*t*b**cket, the thread needs a few illustrations, and who better to cheer us up than Gene Bilbrew?

'Ened' Sorority Girls, 1952-3

Searching my stash for further examples of his work, found the above in Stefano Piselli, Riccardo Morrocch & Marco Giovannini's The Glamorous Betty Page, Cult Model 1950's: An Illustrated Biography: Book 1 (Glittering Images, 1989), which comes very recommended if you like this sort of thing.

Found the Byron Preiss article enlightening. For those - like me - who weren't aware of it, while Michel Parry was peddling his freak out Dream Trips and Strange Ecstasies collections, across the Atlantic, Mr. Preiss, an elementary school teacher, was busy pushing an anti-drug, anti-violence message via eight volumes of Weird Heroes, and it's this series receives full PF treatment. Some of our readers will also be familiar with the attractively presented theme anthologies he later co-edited for Dell, beginning with The Ultimate Dracula. This was soon joined by 'ultimate' in Werewolf, Frankenstein, Witch, Zombie, Alien, Dinosaur, and Dragon short fantasy, although as to whether the books warrant his lofty claim for them is open to dispute. It's been a while, I can't recall any drug references off-hand, but the Dracula effort has its share of torture scenes, although admittedly, we're not talking Shaun Hutson torture scenes.

P.S. I'm not a collector, mr hack, just a reader who happens to have accumulated a few books because he can't bear to part with them. Tragic as it sounds, they are my friends, all the memories tied up in them, where and when they were bought, who I met. Syd Bentliff's Horror Anthology, for example, is an authentic 'snapped up in Spitalfield's Market on a creepy crawl with the real Andy Bugg before we had a few cans on the wall of Christ Church' find. It's why the whole on line shopping thing holds no appeal for me whatsoever.

- the big D.

(funnily enough, mrs dem calls me something similar ...... IN MY WILDEST DREAMS.

[justin]

Not sure if i should be commenting on a post about my own mag, but here goes....

First up, I see Vault as some sort of spiritual home so I always get a thrill from seeing some discussion about the mag go beyond Dem's initial post. Cheers.

I just wanted to pick up on the subscriptions thing that Stephen commented on in his thought-provoking mail to issue 27. I wasn't so much worried about losing subscriptions because that's how it's always been with the mag. I guess it's a cyclical thing, maybe in the same way people can drop off the Vault to be replaced by others. It was more the lack of fresh blood that I was commenting on. And I attributed that the relative lack of publicity The Fanatic now attracts. In the early days there were probably half-a-dozen blogs which reviewed each new issue and that inevitably bought the new blood to replace those that were letting their subs lapse. Over the last few years that hasn't been the case.

So I saw as it more of a call to arms, for people to publicize the mag, mention it to friends, on their blog etc. Subscription levels are healthy, so unless I've totally misjudged the latest issue and that drives a large number of drop-offs, the mag is secure. Even if that were the case and the book format was no longer financially viable, I think I'm so addicted to fanzine (vanity?) publishing, that I would scale back the operation and switch to three black and white zines each with their own niche; Pulp Horror, Men of Violence and Paperback Lust. I think you could guess their respective subjects!

Heartening to read such balanced thinking about the contents - I try to achieve a mix that has wide appeal and reflects my own changing interests i.e. less NEL and more sleaze and I agree, that 'Skinhead Exhumed' or 'Guy Smith- the contents of his recycling bin', would get boring very quickly for everyone. Often the stuff I'm not sure about running, such as Edgar Wallace or Bob Shaw gets an unexpectedly popular response. I try to judge an article's merits on how well it's written, and assume the subject matter is secondary to an extent. I also sense a thawing to sleaze material from some skeptics if I can find an interesting angle - and Gene Bilbrew certainly is an interesting one and I have a follow-up piece in mind. Also the mag's first look at JD paperbacks is being pulled together.

Shame about this year's book fair - I tend to agree that a Regional event could prove to be more sensible. The hall in the London hotel was £1,000 which require crowds and happy dealers. I'm sure that in the Midlands, for instance, their must be a pub near a Railway station that has an upstairs social room or a skittles alley that is unused on a Sunday afternoon and a landlord that would be quite happy to rent out for a few hundred quid. Would only need 4 or 5 dealers and 40 attendees to make it pay, small, intimate and with as much focus on the social side. And if the bar was downstairs you wouldn't have to go far to find Dem! With two young daughters I haven't the time at this stage of life, but I'm sure someone must have the inclination and there must be a demand.

[dem bones]

Hi Justin

The great thing about Steve Sennitt's letter (and now the thread it inspired), is that it demonstrates there are those who care deeply about 'Paperback Inferno' (© Stephen Jones). You have subscribers, a raft of talented contributors, seriously enthusiastic audience participation, and it wasn't so long ago that PF was involved in what smelled suspiciously like a takeover bid so, no, wouldn't consider it "vanity" publishing. It's not like you're printing off crate loads, hyping it to high heaven on every blog & messagebore known to man, still achieving zero interest. (incidentally, Mr. Jones addresses the evils of the "insidious" Apple iBooks author app and Amazon's digital text platform at close of his 'Horror in 2012' introductory essay to Best New Horror 24. Essential reading. The kiss off line is as deadly accurate as it is delicious).

Content: We all have our own pet genres. Personally, a Weird Tales special Vol II would do it for me, but, as Mr. Bugg points out in 'Fanatical Mails', if you're no fan of WT, issue #25 may come as a disappointment. With #27, I think you've hit on the right balance. Maybe two thirds devoted to the specialist subject, but still plenty of room for celebrating themes as diverse as Russo's horror fiction, Gene Janes' jungle warfare pulp, the Belmont Tower pseudonym challenge,& Co. And, as has been mentioned before, the letters often constitute articles in themselves.

Here's a thought. On the evidence of the letters page, one can only conclude that paperback fanaticism is primarily a male affliction, but I wonder how many of our partners secretly (or not so secretly) read it? From personal experience, invariably, the latest issue will 'mysteriously' vanish for a few days, only to just as mysteriously reappear exactly where i'd left it. The culprit isn't a great one for fiction, but admits to an enthusiasm for the design. The colour galleries always go down well, the more salacious the better ("That's disgusting! Show me again!", etc.). Perhaps there really is something for just about everybody in PF. Alternatively, the wives, girlfriends and boyfriends could form a mutual support group?

Holding the pulp fair in a plush hotel was a little extreme, but I'm going to miss that basement, bloody loved the place. Also, lurching through the foyer was usually an experience, with the guests all suited and booted and this strange bunch of scruffs blowing in off the street and treating the Plaza like a second home.