Captivating vintage enthusiasts with thrilling and sensational stories, Bold Venture Press (BVP) holds the key to a forgotten world of pulp fiction. Particularly for those who miss the novel stories printed from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s (on cheap wood-pulp paper), BVP offers hundreds of reprints and new titles, to encourage readers and authors to contribute to the longevity of this exciting genre.
Bold Venture Press, Logo
Rich Harvey is the visionary behind Bold Venture Press, with a lifelong appreciation for pulp fiction and graphic design. In 1992, he launched Pulp Adventures, a magazine full of classics and new stories from the distinctive pulp fiction universe. Rich started publishing licensed reprint fiction in 1996 and formed Venture Press in 2001, broadening his approach to span across several genres.
Bold Venture began as a witty reference to 1950s pop culture but was also inspired by a syndicated radio show featuring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall – a relationship embodied by Rich and BVP’s editor Audrey Parente.
Dating back to 1988, Rich and Audrey’s story began at a pulp convention, where they attended as passionate enthusiasts of the quirky genre. At the time, Audrey had just released a book and signed an autograph for Rich, who was studying journalism at the time. Years later in 2012, Rich met Audrey again and greeted her like an old friend – an encounter that sparked the revival of BVP. Since then, the pair have worked side by side with a shared love for pulp fiction.
Although the company launched officially in 2001, BVP published 14 volumes of Pulp Adventures, before the operation was put on hold. Sparked by Rich and Audrey’s unexpected rekindling, Bold Venture entered the market once again, with a more clear and amplified mission —to revitalize pulp fiction and address the needs of the modern audience. Since then, they have released more than 30 additional volumes of Pulp Adventures, received copyrights, a license to reprint classics, and published more than 400 titles in digital and paperback copy.
One of the publication’s proudest achievements is Zorro: The Complete Pulp Adventures, released under license from Zorro Productions, Inc. Leveraging a special arrangement with Zorro Productions, Bold Venture continues today, to release new Zorro publications – including a new anthology titled Zorro: The Daring Escapades. This anthology of sixteen new stories is created by multiple authors and is fondly called ‘Zorro’s Writing Legion’ by Audrey and Rich. Dedicated to breathing fresh air into pulp fiction, Bold Venture partners with creative authors and anthology curators who also hope to revive the glory and charm of the pulp fiction genre.
Zorro: The Complete Pulp Adventures, Volume One
“That’s the cycle of what we do,” adds Audrey. “We reprint all the old things, and then, if people buy or collect them, we produce new novels. We collect the best talent we can find and rewrite pulp fiction history by making it thrive in the 21st century.”
According to Rich and Audrey, pulp fiction contributes to the foundations of what we know now as ‘pop culture’ – with a wealth of references to the genre, scattered throughout modern art. Doubling down on this belief, Audrey explains: “In the first part of Batman, when Bruce watches his parents die outside of the theater, we see a Zorro poster. In The Joker, as he walks down the street, we see a marquee with Zorro, the Gay Blade written across. There are many Easter eggs like that hidden in contemporary culture, all referencing the hopefully never-forgotten art of pulp fiction, and it’s our mission to make pulp fiction last forever.”
