Clearly, deep sea diving was considered adventurous during the pulp era, because such scenes show up fairly often on pulp covers, such as this one by Rafael DeSoto from the March 1939 issue of ADVENTURE. The scene depicted may not actually be underwater, but you can tell the guy just came from there because of the chest of doubloons he's holding. I don't know if this cover illustrates one of the stories inside or is just a generic adventure image; the latter, I suspect. But I'm sure the stories in this issue are good, considering that they were written by Erle Stanley Gardner, Frank Gruber, Gordon MacCreagh, William E. Barrett, Anthony Rud, and Robert E. Pinkerton. Looks like a solid issue all the way around.
6 comments:
That's a great cover, and a very good lineup of authors. That's an issue I'd like to have!
Yes, the Teens and Twenties, when Arthur Sullivant Hoffman was the editor, are supposed to be the glory days for ADVENTURE, but I think it was still a very good pulp throughout the Thirties and on into the Forties.
I agree. I've read extensively in ADVENTURE and if you backed me into a corner and asked me about the best period I would definitely say the best years were during 1918 through 1927 when Arthur Sullivant Hoffman was editor.
However, beginning in 1934 Howard Bloomfield revived the magazine when Popular Publications took over and when he left in 1940, Ken White kept the standards on a high level during the 1940's.
Ken White seems to be an editor who's never really gotten the credit he deserves for putting out some good magazines. Popular's detective pulps were always good during the Forties, too.
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