Zorro: The Complete Pulp Adventures by Johnston McCulley Vol 1-6 from Bold Venture Press BOOK REVIEW

This review details the first complete reprinting of Johnston McCulley's immortal Zorro tales which are contained in six volumes from Bold Venture Press. I discuss some of the character's historical context, development over the time McCulley wrote the stories from 1919 until his death in the 1950's, earlier attempts to collect Zorro stories and a review of all six volumes in Bold Venture's series.
These stories are a treasure and represent the backbone of the entire comic book superhero landscape. They are absolutely timeless and never did I think I would be able to read all of them collected without tracking down original pulp and western magazines.

[@orboakin8074]

Awesome! Great video. My first introduction to Zorro was when i watched the 98 movie as a kid in Nigeria in 2001🤩 Loved it! I also have a love pf pulp fiction books and now i know how to get the Zorro books. Thanks

[@DonMiguelYT]

Excellent review. I read the Curse of Capistrano (Mark of Zorro) and wanted to read the other McCulley Zorro stories. Thanks.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

That’s exactly where I was at. I can’t believe it took me so long to read them but outside of Capistrano the availability of most of the stories is nil before the reprints. Aside from typos in some stories these can’t be beaten since they are the only complete reprint series ever done.

[@tphoto10]

Great review, thanks for talking about these.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

It was such a joy to read these let alone discover anyone had actually reprinted every story! Aside from the typos in some of the volumes these are absolute treasures.

[@donaldj.blakeslee1926]

Thanks for this video. Been sitting on the fence re: the Bold Ventures books. After watching this I think I'll take the plunge!

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

I hope you enjoy it! I’m so glad I took the plunge myself! The only really frustrating thing is the typos. Otherwise these are perfect and I hope it gets corrected. I found out about the hardcover versions after getting most of the volumes but they cost double and the paperbacks are already perfectly made.

[@zvonimirtomac7896]

I got the first one, and read it. It was good, though the typos were a bit distracting. The second one is coming soon. And this was a great review, really enjoyable and informative. Also, about this Zorro being darker than the movies, I'm don't completely agree since people do have carved Zs into them both in the 1920 movie, 1940 movie, and the 1998 movie and people do get killed. It's usually the TV shows that he only carves Zs in clothes or make him never kill.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

The typos kill me. These are otherwise perfect and then you hit one and just go argh! There’s more of a sense of pulpiness and bloodthirsty adventure I think which isn’t really translated into the films as much-probably it’s most apparent in the original 1920 Fairbanks version and of course by 1940 you had to deal with the production code.

[@JackClockerinos]

The movies can have darker interpretations, but carving Z's on flesh wasn't just what made Diego more bloodthirsty. It was his general attitude in the comics. In the book he literally kills Ramon after psychologically tormenting him throughout the book, and he is far meaner to Gonzales, as well as actually killing more soldiers in the original book. Zorro meant business in Curse of Capistrano, and he was far darker

[@Riddler95]

Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader, I too am a big fan of Zorro, and I recently borrowed a new book from my Public Library called Zorro's Shadow: How A Mexican Legend Became America's First Superhero. I would like to recommended it to you. It was released last year in September. First off it was extremely well written, it was a very detailed, it was a fantastic look at the creation of the character of Zorro, and the phenomenon that came over the years. It was so interesting and I honestly could not put the book down! There was tons of great information.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

That’s been on my to read list. Thanks for the recommendation!

[@Riddler95]

No problem. Will you be making more videos about Zorro in the future? I am interested in hearing your opinion on the Zorro movies.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

@@Riddler95 oh man I could do tons on just The Fox alone.

[@Riddler95]

I have been a fan of Zorro ever since I was a kid. I think the character should be reintroduced because it seems like nowadays Zorro is unfortunately not that popular anymore. If you are interested, Free Comic Book Day is going to be on August 14th, and one of the free comics will be World of Zorro #1. I have actually been on a bit of a Zorro kick lately. I re-watched The Mark of Zorro with Douglas Fairbanks and for the first time I watched it's sequel, Don Q, Son of Zorro. I also re-watched The Mark of Zorro with Tyrone Power. I absolutely love that movie and I agree, it is a masterpiece! I have the 20th Century Fox DVD from 2003 but I finally checked out the Blu-Ray from Kino and it had a lovely transfer! I actually saw both The Mask of Zorro and The Legend of Zorro in the Cinema when they were originally released. I own both on DVD but I want to upgrade them to Blu-Ray. My DVD copy of The Mask of Zorro is the 2-Disc SuperBit Deluxe Edition.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

@@Riddler95 I didn’t know that about free comic book day having a Zorro title. I’ll definitely check that out. I’ve always loved the character but what got me hooked forever was the old Vault Disney programming block late at night on the Disney channel running back to back episodes of the Disney Zorro series which to me is still the best of all the Zorro adaptations. I wish there was an available restored version but sadly the dvd was far overpriced and went OOP in a month or two. I adore the Fairbanks original which influenced McCulley’s writings. I just recently got the Flicker Alley restoration in the Fairbanks dvd set. Don Q while a bit different is still highly enjoyable. The 1940 film is another cherished favorite and that kino Blu is definitely the way to go. The 1995 LD is good and seems to be the restoration master used for the dvd and then eventual hd scan that became the Blu-ray. I have the Blu-ray double feature of Mask and Legend which can be had for quite cheap. Mask recently got a UHD upgrade which looks quite nice.