The Heirs of Anthony Boucher Marvin Lachman

The Nineteen-Eighties
1980s, using distinctive green covers. Bishop was a great fan of horse racing mysteries,
and his May 1983 issue was dedicated to that subject, with articles by him and
by Jon L. Breen, equally devoted to that small sub-genre. Bishop went on to become
reviewer for Mike Shayne’s Mystery Magazine and later a successful writer of fiction,
but he kept his hand in fandom, especially with letters to MDM.
Echoes (1982–2004)
The time, effort, and expense of publishing cause many fan magazines to come
to an end quickly. An exception was Echoes, the fanzine started by Tom and Ginger
Johnson of Texas in June 1982; it lasted 176 issues, until December 2004. That it lasted
was due to the efforts of the Johnsons, not because they grew wealthy. In an editorial,
they said, “The magazine must break even if it is to survive.” At one time they drove
424 miles to get it printed at a price they could afford. Still, they lost $500 their first
year.
This was a nostalgia magazine, and though it was mostly about the pulps, there
was also material for fans of old films, old-time-radio, and collectors of juvenile series.
About half of each issue involved crime fiction, often about Doc Savage, Operator
#5, and The Spider. There were also articles on such unusual crime-related pulp
magazines as Gun Molls and Underworld Romances. I wrote an article on Dime Detective
which, because it was regarded as the second best pulp magazine after Black
Mask, I called “The Avis of Detective Pulps.” Echoes attracted the people who wrote
for other pulp fan magazines, including Robert Sampson, Will Murray, Nick Carr (a
cousin of John Dickson Carr), Link Hullar, and Rex Ward.
At its peak, Echoes had almost 300 readers, including two in France and one in
Australia. Controversy, largely absent from the pages of Echoes, surfaced with issue
#96 (December 1997) after readers complained about sexy covers drawn by Ron Wilber.
Many liked Wilber’s work, though one inappropriately compared objections to
Wilber’s covers to the Nazi holocaust. Tom Johnson defended his publishing the covers
and then at about this time had to defend himself from bad reviews in the Pulp
Era Amateur Press Association mailing. In issue #97 he expressed his dismay at the
“infighting” and announced he would stop Echoes after #100, turning it into a smaller
advertising/news magazine. He stopped publishing letters for issues #98–100. In
issue #100 (August 1998), he said that it was not only the “infighting” that caused him
to cease publication; there were also health reasons. Despite this, Johnson continued
Echoes as an 8-page monthly newsletter for pulp fans for over six more years.
The Elizabeth Linington Society and Linington Lineup (1984–2004)
In 1984 Rinehart S. Potts, of Glassboro State College in New Jersey, began this
group and the quarterly newsletter devoted to study and discussion of Elizabeth Linington,
the author of police procedurals who was equally famous under her Lesley
Egan and Dell Shannon pseudonyms. Potts seemed to share the right-wing political
views that Linington held, and this led him into disputes that I wrote about in connection
with The Poisoned Pen and CADS. The society remained active long after
Linington’s death in 1988, thanks to the efforts of Potts. However, Vol. 21, No. 6, November/December
2004, was his last issue, due to his advancing years and declining
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