July 02, 2009
A Foundation for Pulp Fictioneering: Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Like the 1973 film, this novel is a romp. The camaraderie of the four heroes, and their contrasting characteristics -- that sometimes put their intentions at odds until adversity rears its head -- lays the groundwork for a multitude of teams that follow: Doc Savage’s scrappy adventurers, the Shadow’s slew of agents, the Challengers of the Unknown, the Fantastic Four, the X-Files, even Luke and Han and Chewie and a couple of robots, and so on. Dumas includes lots of action, with a dose of historical events (which aren’t necessarily accurate in their historic details), plus humor and court intrigue. And swordplay! - Read this articleJune 21, 2009
"The Sinister Ray" by Lester Dent
Gadgets, colorful characters with catchy names, and a lack of conjunctions mark Lester Dent’s work on the Doc Savage series in its early supersaga years. The same can be true in some of his pre-Doc work. - Read this articleMay 30, 2009
The Hero in Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days
Heroes, as we know them from pulp and other popular fiction, comic books, action movies, and TV shows, do amazing things: rescue maidens, battle dragons and monsters and alien civilizations attempting to enslave Earth, find treasure, discover lost civilizations, and light out for the territories to explore unknown lands, seas, planets, or simply The Unknown. - Read this articleJanuary 09, 2009
Inspector Frayne, the Best-dressed Man in the Police Department
By Monte Herridge, who brings us another essay about a series character from Detective Fiction Weekly. Harold de Polo created a short-lived series about a dandy police inspector named Frayne. Frayne prides himself on being the best-dressed man in the police department and one of the best in the city. His personal assistant is a red-haired detective named Don Haggerty, who was known in the department as Frayne’s right-hand man. He did many of the basic detective chores required in investigations, such as looking over the crime scene for any interesting signs or clues. In this role, he serves as a sort of Archie Goodwin to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe. - Read this articleDecember 22, 2008
Igor Kordey on Tarzan: The Rivers of Blood
On the Newsarama web site, which focuses on the comic book industry, an interview with comic artist Kordey appeared in 2002. Kordey had this to say about Tarzan: The Rivers of Blood: - Read this articleDecember 22, 2008
A List of Henning’s Tarzan Projects
Henning Kure had a wonderful portfolio of plans for Tarzan as a Semic/Malibu comic book. From scanning these ideas, it's clear he is a tremendous fan of Tarzan and Edgar Rice Burroughs' worlds. A listing of those projects follows. - Read this articleNovember 23, 2008
The Pulp Rack's Eccentric Shopping List for 2008
It’s time for The Pulp Rack's Eccentric Shopping List for 2008! - Read this articleNovember 17, 2008
“Where Have All the Fans Gone?”: An Interview with Henning Kure
European comics publisher Semic teamed with U.S. independent comics publisher Malibu in the 1990s to publish new Tarzan comics. Leading the charge in overseeing creative development was Henning Kure. This interview with Kure was conducted in 1992 at the annual convention of the Burroughs Bibliophiles, an international group of fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs. - Read this articleOctober 26, 2008
Philip Wylie's Gladiator: Superman with Feet of Clay
For a fan of pulp magazine and comic book heroes, reading Philip Wylie’s Gladiator is probably required as part of the Hero History 101 syllabus. - Read this articleSeptember 27, 2008
Delights in Pulp Prose
Delights are innumerable, as we know, in the words of pulp fictioneers. - Read this articleSeptember 06, 2007
Christopher's Ghosts: Charles McCarry's Continuing Pulp Tradition
Charles McCarry is a contemporary writer keeping alive the traditions of realistic pulp writing as it was practiced in magazines like Adventure and Blue Book. I find a difference between McCarry’s work and other contemporary pulp adventure writing in the ways the writers go about representing their stories in reality. - Read this articleSeptember 02, 2007
At the Mountains of Madness: 2001
Edgar Poe’s Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym initially presents itself as a true account of an actual sea voyage, and H.P. Lovecraft attempts to ground “At the Mountains of Madness” in the real world with a seemingly realistic account of an expedition to the Transantarctic Mountains. Mountains of Madness, by John Long, flips the card by being an actual account of fossil-hunting fieldwork in those mountains. - Read this articleAugust 31, 2007
The Mountains of Madness: 1931
By examining Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym we took a look at one of the authors and books that helped set the stage for pulp magazine writing in the 20th Century. It’s now appropriate to look at a work strikingly influenced -- perhaps inspired -- by Pym. - Read this articleAugust 28, 2007
Inspector Porky Neale: a Detective Fiction Weekly series
by Monte Herridge. Inspector Porky Neale was an interesting series by Roland Phillips that ran in DFW from about 1930-34. Porky was a nickname, and his real name was rarely if ever mentioned. - Read this articleJune 16, 2007
The Ice Sphinx: Verne’s Sequel to Poe’s Arthur Gordon Pym
by Brian Taves. This essay was written by Library of Congress researcher and Verne scholar Brian Taves as an introduction to The Ice Sphinx, published by Wildside Press. - Read this articleApril 29, 2007
From the Extraordinary to the Impossible: Verne at the Theatre
This is a play, not a novel (Verne had several successful plays based on his prose works -- in fact, he made more money from his theatrical work than he did from his novels, thanks in part to the details of his contract with his publisher, Hetzel), and this particular work was considered lost for many decades. - Read this articleApril 26, 2007
Jules Verne: Pre-Pulp Pioneer Extraordinaire
Verne's scientist-protagonists prefigure many of the heroes that later populated pulp magazines -- Doc Savage, Captain Future, and many of Robert Heinlein and Van Vogt's science heroes -- as well as later, pulp-influenced characters like Batman, the Challengers of the Unknown, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, and others. In the following entries to The Pulp Rack, we provide information on Verne's work and how it helped to shape or inform later pulp fiction. - Read this articleApril 20, 2007
Tug Norton, Detective: A Series from Detective Fiction Weekly
By Monte Herridge, who brings us another essay about a series character from Detective Fiction Weekly. Tug Norton is a private detective and creation of prolific author Edward Parrish Ware (1884-1967?). These stories are told first hand by Tug Norton: “. . . case of record in the archives of the Kaw Valley Detective Bureau, of which I, Tug Norton, am founder, owner and chief operative, . . .” ("The Queen’s Patteran") Norton notes that when business is dull, he entertains and instructs himself by studying his casebook ("The Devil Winks"). This is how some of the Norton stories begin, with him reliving the case he has looked up in his casebook. - Read this articleApril 06, 2007
Charles Stilson's ERB knockoff: Polaris—of the Snows
Despite the Burroughs boom and the wide availability of Burroughs-inspired novels from Ace and other paperback publishers during the 1960s, I hadn’t read this story until recently. Many thanks to Brian E. Brown for making an inexpensive reprint available — apparently the first complete-in-one publication edition of this novel, which first was published in All-Story Weekly December 18, 1915 thru January 1, 1916. - Read this articleMarch 30, 2007
Edgar Allan Poe and the Road to Pulp Fiction
Certainly by no means is Edgar Poe considered a pulp writer, but his work influenced many who toiled in the weird tale genre, and his name is frequently linked with that of H.P. Lovecraft as a writer with a similar focus. And Poe’s stories contain elements that would later be picked up by writers for the weird menace pulps. - Read this articleMarch 24, 2007
The Adventures of Captain Hatteras: Verne Lays the Foundation for Fictional Pulp Adventures to Foreign Lands
Verne is of interest to pulp readers because, first, as one of the most translated novelists in the world, his novels take the readers to many of the locations that would later be the exotic settings for many, many pulp adventure stories. - Read this articleJuly 18, 2006
The Girl From Farris’s
by Thomas Krabacher. Burroughs began writing The Girl From Farris’s in the summer of 1913. He originally intended to enter it in a best novel contest sponsored at the time by the publishing house of Reilly & Britton in hopes of winning the $10,000 first prize. He didn’t complete it, however, until sometime in the spring of 1914 well after the contest ended; eventually it saw publication as a four-part serial in All-Story Weekly in the fall of 1916. - Read this articleJuly 15, 2006
W. Ryerson Johnson, Pulp Fictioneer
Johnson's work shows care and effort. He didn't slam out stories in so prolific a manner as many other pulp fictioneers, but he provided entertainment just as well and better than others. - Read this articleJuly 13, 2006
Hugo Oakes, Lawyer-Detective
By Monte Herridge. One of the precursors of Erle Stanley Gardner’s series character Perry Mason, the attorney, the Hugo Oakes series is fairly entertaining. J. Lane Linklater created this series about a criminal defense attorney who solved crimes. It appeared in Detective Fiction Weekly from 1930-1934, a respectable run. - Read this articleAugust 09, 2005
Return Horatio Hornblower to the Screen!
The A&E cable TV network's series of Horatio Hornblower films has introduced many people to C.S. Forester's fascinating sea captain, and pleased many fans of Hornblower's literary adventures. - Read this articleMarch 22, 2005
Horatio Hornblower: A Brief Look
I’ve come late to the delights of C.S. Forester’s Hornblower novels. I say late, although it’s true that one encounters a writer’s work at whatever time he finally picks it up and reads it, no matter when that may be. - Read this articleMarch 01, 2005
If the Pulps Still Thrived: Charles McCarry as a Contemporary Blue Book writer
Imagine, if you will, that two venerable pulp magazines focusing on adventure fiction -- one aptly named Adventure, the other Blue Book -- still can be found on magazine racks in convenience stores and chain bookshops.... - Read this articleJanuary 15, 2003
Harold Lamb, Adventure Author Extraordinaire
An appreciation of this fine historian and excellent writer of historical adventure stories, written by Howard Jones, who maintains The Curved Saber site, which is devoted to Lamb. - Read this articleOctober 15, 2002
Harold Lamb's Grand Cham
Steve Young examines this Harold Lamb novel from a historical standpoint. - Read this articleOctober 07, 2002
Ancient Viking Pulp
Norse folklore and stories have inspired writers and artists for many years. I can imagine H. Bedford-Jones reading Egil's Saga with an eye turned toward writing a serial about Viking raiders for Argosy or Blue Book. - Read this articleSeptember 26, 2002
Hawk's Reference Works
If you've ever read a pulp story and thought that its style reminded you of another author's writing, you may have later discovered that the two writers were actually the same person. Prolific writers like Frederick Faust, H. Bedford-Jones, and... - Read this articleSeptember 04, 2002
