| "Oh!
What a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive."
Sir Walter Scott |
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Fall
2005, Web Mystery Magazine, Volume III, Issue 2 |
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By publishing their magazines (including Behind
the Mask & Action Adventure Stories, Detective Mystery Stories, and Echoes),
Tom and Ginger Johnson over the last 20 years have shone new light on
countless "lost" stories from the pulp heyday. The Johnsons' website offers a wealth of information on pulp history. Direct correspondence to Virginia E. Johnson or to editor@lifeloom.com. |
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Strange
Detective Mysteries |
Strange Detective Mysteries Another title from Harry Steeger's Popular Publications, Strange Detective Mysteries ran for only 28 issues, from October 1937 to May 1943. However, the title did cause problems for private collectors for years. What happened was this: two issues, October 1937, V1 N1, and November 1937, V1 N2 came out in 1937, then nothing was found of this title again until the November-December issue (V2 N4) came out in 1938. Collectors went crazy trying to find the missing issues. Then a similar puzzle occurred in another of Steeger's titles, Captain Satan, that began Mar 1938 as V1 N3 and ended July 1938 with V2 N3 (5 issues), that caused more headaches for collectors. Die-hard collectors searched for years for the missing two issues of Captain Satan. It took a while, but they finally added 2 plus 2 and came up with the two titles. After only two issues, Strange Detective Mysteries became Captain Satan, continuing the numbering and volume system. When Captain Satan didn't make a go of it, the title was dropped, and returned to Strange Detective Mysteries! In later years, Harry Steeger admitted at a convention that the reason he retitled the two magazines was because of postal regulations at the time. Instead of mailing out two different titles at that time, Steeger dropped Strange Detective Mysteries for Captain Satan. When Captain Satan failed to impact the reading public, Steeger dropped Captain Satan and returned to Strange Detective Mysteries. So private collectors stopped beating their heads against a stone wall. There were no missing issues of Strange Detective Mysteries in 1938. Captain Satan started with V1 N3: there was no V1 N1 or V1 N2. Copyright
2005 by |
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Pulp historian Virginia Johnson has selected seven stories for Tales of Masks & Mayhem, featuring neo-pulp stories in the super-hero tradition by a variety of authors. Characters include Doc Atlas, The Tarantula, The Black Ghost, Secret Agent X, The Moon Man, The Black Bat, The Grey Monk, and The Scarecrow. Tales
of Masks & Mayhem 
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| "Oh!
What a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive."
Sir Walter Scott |
|
Web Mystery Magazine
(ISSN: 1547-9609) is an on-line quarterly dedicated to investigating the
mysterious genre in print, in film, and in real-life. Web
Mystery Magazine welcomes well-researched, well-written
articles, reviews, and mystery fiction. Writers are invited to send comments
and inquiries to editor@lifeloom.com. Copyright 2003-2005, lifeloom.com |
