Discuss pulp stories here, including, but not limited to:>Sword & Sorcery >Hardboiled detective stories >Weird fiction >Cowboy westerns
>>23751153You know I'm always meaning to catch up on these. I guess I should look for a website that has a bunch
>>23751186Might want to give this a look
>Howard>Lovecraft >SmithWho else would you consider to be foundational for pulp fiction?
>>23752324I would say The Shadow and Doc Savage
Just finished Leningen vs the Ants the other day. Not necessarily pulp, I don’t think but right up that alley. Great stuff, I liked seeing how crafty Leningen was in dealing with millions of insects bearing down on him, and how he never lost his nerve.
>>23752425The ants represented collectivist thinking, I assume?
>>23752445>>23752445Originally it had a pro-Nazi message so no, but the version I read was a translation of the later denazified version, which still calls the Indians “simple minded”
>>23752452Well, Leningen sounds like quite the hero. Calm, cool, and collected.
a bump for the based pulp men
>>23751944Ooooh thank you!
What are some good cowboy pulps? And any medieval pulps? Gonna recommend everyone read The Curse of Capistrano (The Mark of Zorro), the original Zorro novel. https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/61620
>>23753869Whether he or his fans liked it or not, Louis L'amour is the quintessential western pulp author. You can grab a paperback collection of his short stories for less than $10 on Amazon if you're so inclined.
>>23752324I'd say Edgar Rice Burroughs is probably the most prominent pulp writer outside of the big. Mostly because of Tarzan, but the barsoom series heavily influenced Sci fi as well
>>23751153How erotic do these get? I have read that some stories were racy but I don't know if that means a woman showed her calf to a man who wasn't her husband or what.
>>23752392Absolutely these. I would also throw in Max Brand and L. Ron Hubbard. They were pulp writing GODS. Nearly 1.5 Million words in a year in the case of Max Brand.
>>23754703There used to be a pulp magazines that were called "spicy," which basically meant that they had erotic touches. Some of them were about as tame as you can imagine. Others would shock you.
Easily one of my favorite pulp stories. I didn't even realise for the longest time that this was written by Robert E. Howard. That guy was fucking incredible at writing.
>>23754544Perfect. Thanks. I had heard Louis L'amour's name before but I had completely forgotten about him. Once you start poking around the pulp world, you realize how big it is.
>>23754791Love pulp covers
>>23751944>1168 pagesNo kidding. Is it comprised of different genres or is it mostly crime?
>>23756480nta I think it is mostly crime. It looks like The Black Lizard has a few different pulp collections.>Crime>Black Mask stories>Locked-room mysteries
>>23755708There really is something for everyone within this style of writing, even if you're looking for something sappy and romantic you probably could find it.
>>23755938Oh la la>>23756480I believe it's just crime/detective stories
Fuck it, I'll keep posting spicy pulp.
>>23756826do it. pulp aesthetics is based.
>>23754740that cover is very sus
>>23757347I like this one. Back when fiction was actually about something.
>>23754740>that imageWhat did the artist mean by this?
>>23757355Hot women up to lurid stuff?
>>23756690Eh, I can dig it.
I posted this link in the last pulp fiction thread, before the jannies dumped everything last week. The best pulp sword & sorcery story I have encountered in recent years is this He-Man fanfic, written in the style of Robert E Howard. It’s pitch-perfect; reads like it was serialized in Weird Tales in the 30s. Atmospheric, violent, and Teela and Evil-Lyn get up to some spicy things too.https://m.fanfiction.net/s/14013454/1/The-Blood-Ring-of-Tytus-A-Masters-of-the-Universe-Adventure
>>23757777>Hot women up to lurid stuff?This. Men holding guns. Oil derricks.
> But that's a Men's Adventure magazine!Just because pulp paper was phased out doesn't mean that the spirit did not live on.
At what point is a story not pulp?
Jim Thompson>>23755708You can find tons of L'Amour's books at most thrift stores.
>>23758570>>23758287Keep these coming. I like the BDSM tone.
you guys ever see the site 'pulp fiction renaissance'? i found it looking for some pulp recs ect. its alright, a bit of cringe.
Picked up these the other day, just based off of the cover art. No idea what to expect, but got inspired by the last pulp thread.
>>23759436Blish is fairly well-known, wrote a bunch of Star Trek novelizations in addition to his own stuff.
>>23759305Say no more!These magazines were often written for men but does anyone suspect that more women read them than would be expected? 50 Shades's popularity does not come from a vacuum.
>>23759396I'll have to check it out.
>>23759631To be clear, I'm not saying that all pulps were written for men. After all, romance was about as big as ever during the pulp era. I mean that I suspect that a lot of these lurid pulps that involve torture, BDSM, and other such kinks look like they were written for men, but I bet women bought them too, leading to their proliferation.
>>23757353>>23757433Looks like BBC goes much further back than we thought.
>>23759641Romance pulps were definitely a thing, with varying degrees of spiciness. And it'd be hard to argue that Harlequin romance novels aren't direct descendants of pulp romances. I think the idea of pulp has more to do with how it's intended to be read, more than it being written for any specific group of people. Sure, some may be written with a specific demographic in mind, but the idea of a pulp is that it's mainly written to be a fun and easily read bit of entertainment and escapism.
>>23760214It seems like the publishing industry's shift to paperbacks away from fiction magazines led to a smaller readership of short stories and that is why pulps in their most pure form are all but dead.
>>23760281It's honestly kind of crazy because I even remember seeing a few magazines dedicated to stories in the 90s, but you are right but they have died out within the past two decades or so.
>>23760836There have been small attempts to bring it back. Not just here, but on the internet abroad. I've thought of tossing my hat into the ring, but I ain't doing it for free.
>>23761198I don't know if I would consistently do it for free, but a story or two, maybe.
>>23761224Where would an "aspiring pulp writer" even publish their work or make money off of it in the first place?
>>23761447Surprisingly, there are several smaller sword and sorcery publications that are paying. Whetstone, for example.
>>23761447>>23761607
>>23761830Whoops. Had something to say but I forgot to grab it from Notepad.Anyways, how much should one charge? Looking at typical magazines from the pulp era, they often charged 10 to 25 cents which, when adjusted for inflation, comes out to anywhere from $1.90 to $5.50 per 60k words i.e. the upper end of a pulp novel.
>>23754791>guy in turban starts doing fancy Revolver Ocelot shit>dude just stabs himPlease tell me a reverse Indiana Jones happens in this story
>>23761845That would be based. However, pulp covers rarely depicted literal events in the story. The art and the stories were usually created independently.
I wish even I knew where to find even half of these to read them. Anyone have links?Last post before I'm off to bed.
>>23761978Project Gutenberg is getting a lot of pulps now bexause they are starting to get into public domain. They arent well organized to you may have to search individual authors to find some. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine#Authors_featured
What word are they talking about?
>>23763617
Feminism wants to take these men's fates away from you.
>>23763617Whore?
>>23751153https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V0sVrQokhEJonathan Bowden on R. E. Howard.>>23763855Well said sir.
>>23764241Get that AI slop out of here
Is there such a thing as modern pulp lit?
>>23754740>running across a rickety bridge in high heelshahahahahaha
>>23764693Neo noire I guess? I know Akashic books used to put out this series of anthologies that had noir stories set in specific world cities like “Amsterdam Noir,” “Brooklyn Noir,” etc etc.. Might be worth checking out some authors attached to that project.
I hate pulp. every kind of pulp. pulp magazines. pulp fiction. pulp in my orange juice. i dont even write on paper. hate pulp, me
>>23764693Sort of. In many ways, most modern genre fiction evolved from the pulps. The paperback boom of the 1950s and 1960s as well as the postwar economy made fiction magazines printed on cheap pulp paper unnecessary when the average person had more than enough money to afford a similarly cheap paperback book. However, many authors of the paperback era cut their teeth on pulp fiction, so those sensibilities just changed media and survived, evolving with the times.Thus, the modern equivalent to the pulps would be any work of genre fiction that is produced for the sake of easy reading, cheap thrills, and being affordable. Shame that not much of it is short stories anymore though.
>>23765393Pulps seem like a popular expression of heroism and adventure. Truly, the latest pulps have been 80s/90s action movies,
>>23765446Depends on the pulp. I would hardly describe the work of HP Lovecraft with the words "heroism" or "adventure" as a quick example. That said, 80s and 90s action movies absolutely descended from the pulps. Ever heard of The Executioner?
I wonder how pic related made that estimate of "two hours of reading. "
>>23766226According to my research, the average reading speed is ~260 words per minute. Two solid hours of reading would thus be at least 30k words. However, I'm unsure if that was known back in the pulp days.
>>23766872Its probably1. A sales pitch2. These books are for children, who read slower
>>23766876Man, I would hate to be agent Tim O'Shane
>>23751153Best Weird Tales issues?
>>23767102>>23754744
>>23767079Indeed. Just imagine debating metaphysics with that loathsome she-devil. I'll bet she never even read Descartes or Aquinas or even Kant.
>>23767723Like agent Tim O'Shane, the man from T.O.M.C.A.T., I would bamboozle her into having sex and then destroy any criminal (or communist) enterprise she had going on. And when the President calls to congratulate me on another successful mission, and asks how I did it, I would say something like "Sir, I dont know much about metaphysics, but I do know how to give a mega-dicking haha" or "her head was full of communist ideas so I fucked her brains out haha".
>>23768226> ywn be cornered by a seductive communist she-devil > ywn escape by giving her a good capitalist dicking
A lot of pulp stuff is public domain, which is nice.https://eldritcharchives.bandcamp.com/
>>23768325good find
>>23768325Horrorbabble does a lot of pulp horror as well. Lots of Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Derleth.
>>23765393So light novels, greens and whatever comes out of fanfic sites ?
>>23768695Light novels are in fact literally descended from Japanese pulps. Fanfic I would not say is necessarily akin to the pulps. Different core spirit. What are "greens" though?
You think pulp authors like Lovecraft would have made better profit on Europe than in America?
>>23769389Europe had their own pulps. England had "penny dreadfuls" in the Victorian and Edwardian eras and I doubt they went away just because the price went up. Italy had "giallos" which were named for the cheap yellow paper they were printed on. They are also the source for the movie genre. Surely the rest of Western Europe had their equivalents to pulp. Knowing that, there was a market for the same sensibilities of fiction. The question becomes a matter of how American a given pulp writer's work was. Robert E Howard, Louis L'Amour, Dashiell Hammett - they probably could only have every been American hits. H. P. Lovecraft OTOH, a complete Anglophile, might have found greater success in England. We will never know.
Whats a good pulp story for a first start ? I have only read "the big sleep" in this kind of genre
>>23769695>Whats a good pulp story for a first start ?Tarzan of the Apes. The author Edgar Rice Burroughs is in my opinion the best pulp writer out of all of them.
>>23769695I'll second this>>23769768I read it recently and I was amazed how good it was.
Gonna start living the pulp life. Starting with morning exercises, clean shaven, and doing some serious reading/languages. Might have to start tackling the screen addiction lol
>>23769550That was what I was thinking. European authors made some good coin with their more "sophisticated" stories, and someone as Lovecraft I always felt like he was best suited for a longer format, like novels. In this same age some Anglo fantasy authors made bank in England, whist pulp writers were struggling despite their obvious talent.
Local thrift store has a decent western pulp selection, picked up a small handful. Will likely be back to get more soonish.
bump for based pulps
>>23771477I always passed up those authors because they looked like boomer fiction. Maybe they are, but maybe they were on to something after all. Any good?
>>23772773If you're into western pulps then they're considered pretty high tier
>>23751153What does one get out of reading pulps?
>>23759436Black Easter is cool.
>>23772829Enjoyment
>>23772859They look dumb and shallow
>>23772870That depends on how deep you read them. Thats the thing about popular literature. You won't get the thoughts of an individual genius, but you do get the instincts of humanity.
>>23772870Depends on which author you're reading. Some are meaningless drivel, others are much deeper than you'd expect. Conan, for example, can easily be read as pure escapism, but there are some surprisingly interesting takes on society and the nature of man in there as well. Basically, the more well respected the pulp author, the more there is to gain from their work alongside the usual entertainment value.
>>23764241>THIS WEEK ON MANS LIF>DODGING RESPONSIBILITY
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!
>>23773567>Awesome. Guys with bazookas. Exposing public enemies. Marciano. Exercise routines.Great issue
bump
What are your favorite pulps to read? For me it's the "hero" pulps followed by anything "weird."
Read this earlier last year, mainly for the cover. Pretty fun
>>23775276Sword & sorcery, westerns, and weird/cosmic horror.
Have any of you guys ever read Harold Lamb? He's really known for his biography of Genghis Khan, but apparently is fairly well regarded as a pulp writer as well.
>>23754744Holy shit, this is GOATed...i'm hardly convinced it's realhttps://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV07N06192606/page/n5/mode/2upThe four-toed foot... but with the mark described in the story... yet in the wrong place... the 10x more racist than H. P. Lovecraft after having to visit any city and coming home in need of catharsis... the wild twist ending... John Powell, the square-jawed manly man hero... the fucking twist...Howard R. Marsh doesn't show up in my searches but search is dying anyway. Wild.
>>23775636I have heard of the name but I have not read any of his work.
I read Deathlands books occasionally. They are basically Fallout without all the irony and 50's nostalgia. Pure cold-war era post-apocalyptic shit. Warped and radioactive wastelands, hidden bunkers with futuristic tech, grizzled survivalists, babes with big guns and bigger boobs, mutants, raiders, cannibals, psychics. I think the 70's and 80's were a kind of silver age for pulp.
>>23772870The only value of literature is as a form of entretainment
>>23776772That makes sense. During that period there were a lot of paperback reprints of pulp characters like Conan, Doc Savage, or The Shadow. Plus there were many latter day pulp era writers who continued their work as well as second generation writers who grew up reading the original era.
>>23777267That's not entirely true, we can read to learn as well. But if we're not doing that, then yes, entertainment is the main drive.
>>23777267The problem is the lack of concepts to talk about this stuff. Everyone feels a difference between, on the one hand, zoning out for an hour over youtube shorts of mechanical keyboards and grilling steaks, and on the other, leafing through an old pulp magazine and feeling like you're wandering, flashlight out, through the labyrinth of surreal fears and desires buried beneath the conventional aboveground culture of the 1930s. But we call them both 'entertainment', and don't have a good way to talk about the difference without sounding pretentious.
>>23778606There is a curious irony that the slop of yesteryear, by its nature, was still less passive entertainment and less brain rotting than what the twenty-first century offers.
Can you guys recommend some ancient Egyptian themed sword and sorcery? I know Imaro is set in Africa, but am unaware if that means Egypt or mudhuts.
>>23778606Great point. There is mindless vs engaging entertainment. Tiring vs energizing entertainment.
Any pulps with a very strong halloween/october vibe?
So Howard Andrew Jones has brain cancer. Any thoughts on his Chronicles of Hanuvar series, or any of his other works? He seems fairly well liked within the sword & sorcery/pulp community.
>>23779560Herbert West: Reanimator
>>23779560Dark Harvest
>>23781137This Lovecraft story ended too quickly. It could have been a full novel.
>>23751153How should I get started with pulp? Do the James Bond novels count as pulp? Does Harry Flashman? Those have been on my backlog for a while now.
>>23782331Yes sir they do. They are not from the golden age of pulp storytelling, but they are basically the second generation. The paperback boom of the 50s-70s is basically the silver age.
>>23751153If any of you are in the Toronto area, Re-Reading on the Danforth has a whole room dedicated to pulps for super cheap.
>>23782331Ive been reading the James Bond novels and they are great. Quite a bit different from teh movie. Very 1950s cold war.
>>23782331The Bond novels are high level pulp, but pulp nonetheless.
Damn, this is a good one. Plenty of twists, lots of good dry humor. About halfway done, but can already heartily recommend it
>>23783383I'm gonna download it now. I've never read a l'amour or a western but I am in the mood. Thanks for posting it.
>>23783449No problem. There's not so much in the way of action so far, but the story is compelling. Fun little read.
>>23751944Why the fuck can I not just buy this on Kindle?
>>23780578v_x status?
>>23784584>Baen author100% has not been needled
>>23783851We used to be a proper society.
>>23783896Weird. Says you have to go to an external site now.
sup pulpbros
>>23781798I agree but never really thought about it til you just mentioned. The way it's written actually feels like it was going to be now that I think back on it
>>23768738>What are "greens" though?short for greentext stories, the type people used to write in these boards here an archived example: https://1d6chan.miraheze.org/wiki/Stranded_in_fantasy
>>23786232Oh, okay. First time I heard them referred to by that term.
Are there any comedic pulps? I know there are more lighthearted stories than others but what about outright humor, comedy, laughs?
>>23761978The internet archive.https://archive.org/details/pulpmagazinearchive?tab=collectionDownload what you like while you still can. Before the site is killed for good.
>>23787211Nice! I will do just that. How many of these would be really be affected by that loss though?
>>23787211That archive if fantastic. It would be a crime for it to be deleted.
>>23788883unfortunately they did a royal fuckup in 2020 and publishers smelled blood in the water.
>>23788886Was that when they were promoted during covid and it exposed all their non-public domain content?
>>23788901I'm talking about their emergency library, where they decided to ignore the restricted lending. I think the publishers were okay with restricted lending since it was borderline enough that it wouldn't have been worth it to challenge, but that made the whole thing a slam dunk.
>>23788933Oh, I must have missed that that.
>>23787211I'm not exactly tech literate when it comes to some things, how hard would it be to transfer these over to a kindle?
>>23788968Can't you convert them with Calibre?
I like how reading and writing about exotic lands and people was satisfying enough for tales of adventure back then. There did not always need to be magic and demihumans or monsters.
>>23790837I agree. I'm reading Doc Savage, and I love how there still was a sense of the exotic and unknown. And the world was still made up of unique cultures.
>>23790872Back then, a trip to the country, the wilderness, or small town America was enough to justify an adventure for the Man of Bronze. Not far off from Scooby-Doo or more than a few Jack Reacher novels really. What's more, there was not necessarily a disdain or fear of such folk either. There might be villains from such settings, but they were terrorizing good-natured people from those areas. It was a different time of course.
I know that pulp evolved, but what actually is the modern equivalent to pulp?
I regret not buying more of these when they were in print. I find the hero pulps interesting in how they preceded superheroes. Since the superhero was not a fully formed idea yet, certain sensibilities and tropes are not only absent, but they are conceived differently. For example, The Shadow in the pulps is the leader of a network of agents who all are cops in a machine constructed to wage war on crime. The Shadow is more than a gun-toting vigilante. He is a mastermind, a positive reflection of what would be the big bad of another story.
>>23792507You know, I never really thought about it, but you're right. The Shadow basically just is a mob boss made into a good guy.
Batman is a curious case though. There are stories where he operates all but on his own. There are also stories where he has members of the Bat Family. By contrast though, none of the Shadow's network are also masked mystery men like him for example. They each played a role, but only The Shadow threw on the bandana and brandished the .45s.
>>23792507Whoops.> *cogs in a machine>>23794232I also meant to say more.Pulp heroes typically were not one-man shows. Doc Savage had his Band of Iron, The Avenger and The Spider had their support teams, and there are more examples besides. What I like about this is that it acknowledges that as extraordinary and larger-than-life these heroes are, they are still only one person.TBF superhero TV shows figured this out. Arrow, Peacemaker, and The Flash are examples of heroes who have a team to support them. Regardless of the quality of any of those shows, at least they tap into something that predates comic book superheroes.
>>23792507I don't regret spending a lot of money on all of these big Shadow reprints. My collection stands at around fifty. I hope to snag the other Street and Smith hero pulp reprints as time passes.>>23793983He's actually Dracula as a hero. Think about it.>>23791470Two equivalents exist. Fanfiction and Japanese light novels.>>23794376Hero pulps are much more closely tied to classic literature than what capeshit has sadly evolved into. If anyone in this thread wants a good pulp animated series, both the Secret Saturdays and the Venture Bros are quality examples.
>>23794397I wish that the reprints were at least available as ePubs or PDFs. I would love to read them on an e-reader.
>>23794376It's really quite interesting how old school hero pulps or superhero stuff has the hero closely tied to a community or a team at their backing. Even tokusatsu like Ultraman and Kamen Rider has this,>>23794409Nice. I got exactly one Whisperer reprint and one Doc Savage reprint. Hopefully one day, someone scans more of the Street and Smith reprints online. There's a lot of valuable stuff in them, particularly the old school ads that the original pulps came with, the artwork, and even interviews with comic creators inspired by the pulps.
>>23794397>>23794418Stuff like this is why I sometimes get the urge to try to write stories in the vein of hero pulps to bring superheroes/capeshit back to their origins and what made them great in the first place.
>>23794232The key distinction between The Shadow and Batman is that The Shadow is something Batman can never be: a man who has made the ultimate sacrifice through casting aside any chance at an ordinary life and becoming something greater. The Shadow has no Bat-Family to come home to and embrace. He has no Arkham Asylum as an eternal band of baddies to punch with new faces every week. He has no tragic backstory as his "one bad/good day", but many smaller events throughout his life. He doesn't really get to enjoy his civilian identity because technically speaking, he doesn't have one. "Kent Allard" is all but said to be just one of many identities he's either stolen or made a shared one through force (like with Lamont Cranston) to the point of assimilation. The Shadow is a lonely walking borderline super-man who might even have broke beyond his mortal limits (something the pulps, the movie, and the comics imply: he is perhaps supernatural but what he is specifically is left a mystery).
>>23794420I do too! I really fell in love with hero pulps after I got burned on recent/modern capeshit and how it isn't sustainable anymore for producing consistent quality.>>23794420I really think there's going to be a resurgence soon. The hero pulps are going to fall into the public domain within our lifetimes, and with morale towards capeshit in a weird state...anything could happen. Then you have Marvel and DC reprinting compact versions of their comics...it's easier than ever before to get into hero fiction.
>>23790872If anyone on this thread is interested in seeing recent fanart of the pulps, stupid-shadow-blog and jamjuice1936 do some great stuff. Really, just follow maxwell-grant and do yourself a favor if you want a blog dedicated to enthusiasm over pulp.
>>23794434It seems like the pulps were more comfortable with mythical characters than today. Same goes for Golden Age comic book superheroes for that matter.
>>23794475Exactly. The hero pulps in particular took heavy inspiration from mythology, religion, folklore, legend, fairy tales, etc. Doc Savage was modeled as "Christlike". The Shadow was inspired by Dracula and King Arthur.It also helps that pulp heroes usually lack traditional superpowers in the sense that it shapes their person or serves as an extension of their character's being. While The Shadow and Doc Savage do have some abilities that border on being superpowers (Doc's photographic memory, strength and intellect, and his ability to decrease/increase his height - or The Shadow's sheer skill in disguises to the point he might as well have some shape shifting crap going on, let alone the implication that he's no longer human), they're much closer to tools in the super-gadget sense. Meanwhile you can't imagine Superman with his powers, Spider-Man without his powers, or Batman without his "powers".
>>23794475I also wonder if it's a cultural thing. Most American pop fiction heroes created in the shadow of Spider-Man have a tendency to emphasize the human behind the cloak and mask persona. Marvel started it (and really, Batman laid the foundation), and ever since then there's been a consensus among the entertainment industry that making your superheroes more like ordinary people with ordinary struggles is the way to go: "relatability" as it were. It isn't just limited to capeshit, almost all western genre fiction across every medium has done this since Spider-Man changed the world. >Clearly, something happened in the 60s to mark this changeIt's not a bad thing: Spider-Man rocks. But I feel like something crucial was lost in the process. Spider-Man/Batman is when someone goes "but what if Harry Vincent was The Shadow" yet something just doesn't feel RIGHT about doing that. The Shadow and Doc Savage feel like angels. Spider-Man and his contemporaries are akin to going "now look, it was a human with wings and he's a mess".But at the same time, examples like Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, Fantomex, The Question, Jonah Hex, the Unknown Soldier, V (and Anarky) prove that you can make a superhero post-Spiderman (or pre-Spiderman) and then just...bring out the inner pulp hero in them and create something truly special.
>>23794528Like, look at the sheer energy in this fanart. I don't think Superman or even Batman could reach this level of Otherness.
>>23794488Nice digits. I am fascinated by characters who may not have superpowers per se but they have a certain essence in which whatever they are or do, they are godlike and iconic at it. For example, take Sherlock Holmes and his detective skills. For another example, look at Lupin III and his abilities as a thief. I love this narrative effect, and I think that The Shadow and Doc Savage have it.
>>23794548By the way, what do you personally think The Shadow's past entails? If he really is supernatural, what exactly is he? Where did he come from? It sounds cheesy, but my idea is that he literally is the Master of Darkness, as his title suggests. His very first mortal identity - hundreds, if not thousands of years ago - encountered the living embodiment of darkness and evil. It could be Satan, Ahriman, Azazel, Mara, Erlik, Nergal, etc. Not necessarily Evil in terms of being a horrible monster having done horrible things, but Evil as embodied within the human psyche. They engaged in a fight that ended with the human winning and then possessing this darkness in a reversal of the typical "demon possesses human", akin to Devilman's Akira Fudo possessing Amon.The old school heroes have this vitality to them, don't they? It isn't just something fun to engage in, but it's deeply inspiring. Almost like they're bringing out the inner super-man within you just by listening and reading to their daring tales...
>>23794548Doc Savage really highlights this: he's a super-man and an unflinching stoic. Not a stoic in that he shows no emotions or represses them (a modern misconception), but in that he has complete control over his psyche and emotional range. As a result, he can do whatever he wants.Perhaps it is that element of Christ encoded into their DNA? A man with absolute will and drive and not led astray by selfish desires that ground him to a fault. You can similarly find this with Japanese counterparts to pulp heroes and capes: Kamen Rider, Goku, Jonathan Joestar, Golden Bat, Luffy...all embody the Buddha.
>>23794572Hard to tell. Walter Gibson wrote the character to be a mystery even to himself. There are hints of mysticism to the character, but Walter Gibson was a trained stage magician himself. He easily projected himself upon the character through his own knowledge and experiences. Interesting that you delved into Jungian psychology, which was from that time.
>>23794528>The Shadow and Doc Savage feel like angels. Spider-Man and his contemporaries are akin to going "now look, it was a human with wings and he's a mess".That's a interesting way to put it, I like that.
>>23794606Yes, yes. I think we're drilling down to the bedrock on something here. Something that stretches across millennia. One of the essences of the figures of myth and legend which can be replicated.It is a testament to the value of being well-read as opposed to only reading pulp and genre fiction. If one reads mythology, philosophy, classic lit, etc, then one can impart their collective wisdom in a new and entertaining package to carry it forward.Obviously, this sort of talk does not apply to all pulp characters. There were scores of characters that were not so well realized as Conan, Cthulhu, or The Shadow and were flat characters with no inner soul.
>>23790837>>23794420Pulp came from an era when Americans’ favorite pastime was reading newspapers. People were constantly bombarded with sensational news, tales of violence, wars, and adventures from distant lands. Many pulp stories drew inspiration from headlines and the cultural zeitgeist of the era. If writers today embraced the spirit of pulp, you might see stories featuring a square-jawed American rescuing his sweetheart from a Haiti’s cannibal gang, or a young hot blooded engineer uncovering the corrupt inner circles of a Boeing stand-in.Think Southpark, but without a shade of irony. Life matters, people matter, and you need to treat everything with the seriousness it deserves.To capture the raw essence of pulp, you need to go on a news binge and channel the intense emotions you feel into your writing.
>>23794610That's the fun part of The Shadow. Compared to other pulp heroes and superheroes, we have very little to work with as to solving the big riddle that is the hero in question. He could be anything and it's such a powerful mystery.Sucks that the movie went "he was an Mongolian druglord named Ying Ko (who was just another alias of The Shadow, as seen with Kent Allard -> "Lamont Cranston" if we're going by the novelization/shooting script) but reformed into Lamont Cranston (but in reality has some weird connection to an never-seen shadowy "Beast" which has been following The Shadow across time).
>>23794627That's truly relevant considering I grew up watching the news religiously and got attached to it heavily in middle/high school. Huh. Small world.>>23794619I've been really getting into Jewish apocrypha and mysticism, as well as having a deep appreciation towards Freud, Jung, Stirner, etc. My favorite book growing up was Frankenstein...Perhaps pulp was something destined for me to fall in love with.
>>23794627>The Spider's author pulled inspiration from some of the most fucked up shit he could get his hands on in newspapers, to the point of dumpster-diving for it.>the modern equivalent would be searching for live-leak and gore videos of crime or horrific accidentsWild.
>>23794627Now that's a fresh take on how to approach it. I like it.
>>23794640I love The Spider precisely because of how fucked up shit gets in his novels. It does not stop there either. The rest of Norvell Page's work is like that too. I am consistently floored by the things that happen in his stories. I could hardly believe they were written in the 1930s.
>>23794627modern pulp stories:>chasing down mass shooters and then the follow-up of investigating (only to stumble into a larger conspiracy involving drug running and weapons deals)>exposing cults in the vein of Aleph or Scientology (who aim to take over the state or carry out bloody attacks)>Nazis, but they're in YOUR country (and backed by the feds)>small town hero wages war on a corrupt police force>a young woman is kidnapped by a human trafficking network with ties to the richest elite on Earthand so on
>>23794656I wish you could have seen the expressions I made as I read through the Spider pulps>"what the hell...that was disgusting...">"jesus">"EW">"oh fuck it gets worse????"
>>23794671
>>23794675
>>23794676I love that The Spider, a ruthless, gun-toting vigilante, has children's fanclubs.
>>23794681It tracks considering how The Shadow had children's fanclubs IRL. I wonder if Page was aware.
>>23794681Fuck. Yes.
>>23794660I feel like that is the starting point, but with proper pulp storytelling you take what happened in real life and then cast caution to the wind by taking it even further into stranger or wilder territory to excite the reader.
>>23758570SWIFTY NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
>>23794397> Japanese Light NovelsAnd let me guess: there is no equivalent here in the west today, is there?
Found this at a used book store. It is about the history and content of the weird menace, horror, and related genres of the pulps. I hope it's good.
>>23794627>If writers today embraced the spirit of pulp, you might see stories featuring a square-jawed American rescuing his sweetheart from a Haiti’s cannibal gang, or a young hot blooded engineer uncovering the corrupt inner circles of a Boeing stand-in.I would write this but have no idea where or how we could publish it
>>23795556Post it here. /pg/ is catching on. It'd be cool to have our own self pub collection going like /wfg/
>>23795687>/wfg/I have no idea what that means
>>23795687Would be cool if there was a /pg/ over on /ic/ to team up with.
>>23795687Call me cynical, but I think part of the spirit of the pulps is to not work for free.
>>23795297There really isn't. The only modern counterparts to pulp in western civilization would be creepypasta and fanfiction: not counting airport novels or beach reading (even though they more or less fill the void of pulp) since they're, well, novels.
>>23798001> creepy pasta> i.e. internet horror fiction (originally flash fiction internet "campfire tales" but I digress)> spinoff of copy-paste> "pulpypasta"Gentlemen, I have an idea.
>>23798125* spinoff of copypasta
>>23798125>pulpypasta>writing one-shot stories about manly men doing manly thingsbased
>>23798155So how long should a "pulpypasta" be? I have two ideas:1) They may only be as long as one 4chan post.2) Lester Dent has that 6k word story formula split into four 1500 word parts. A "pulpypasta" is as long as one part i.e. ~1500 words.3) The average reading speed is 260 wpm. A pulpypasta should only take about two minutes to read, so ~500 words. I might suggest that a pulpypasta is thus 500-1500 words long. They can be any genre so long as they keep to the pulp spirit. Two fisted adventure, sword & sorcery, hardboiled detective, weird menace, crime, masked mystery men, cosmic horror, westerns, even romance or "spicy" pulps will do.
>>23798207Interesting.I sometimes wonder if greentexts are another modern counterpart to pulps. Perhaps the key is to focus in on greentexts? Pulpypastas as a sub-category?
>>23798215Greentexts are more anecdotal than they are fictional so I would not equate the two. As noted upthread, there are "greens" though so there is precedent for greentext fiction. I still believe that pulps should have a profit motive, but given the sheer brevity of the pulpypasta idea, it might be a worthy exception.
>>23752324Manly Wade Wellman
>>23798207I'm going to try writing a "pulpypasta" later today. I will keep it within 500-1500 words. There will be a beginning, middle, and end to the story and it will all be pulp.
>>23798818>pulpypastaI love the idea, but I cannot describe how much I hate this name.
>>23799653Have any alternative suggestions?
>>23800247Greenpulp?
>>23800474I dunno. Here are more ideas:> Flash Pulp> Micro Pulp> Mini Pulp
The universe has conspired against me to prevent me from writing so much as 500 words. I refuse to be a total faggot though. That story will come, if late on schedule.
>>23800893>> Flash PulpI like this. More energetic sounding compared to the other idea. How about>Pulp Shot
What are the best Doc Savage stories? My local used book store has a huge stack of them and I just got halfway through picrel.
>>23751153Cool!
>>23801693Don't worry about the best. Just grab some and enjoy. Pic related is one that sticks out in my mind though.
>>23801586Flash Pulp probably has the best legs because it can be associated with flash fiction.
>>23752324Louis L’Amour
>>23801724>>23801586>>23800893"Flash" you say?
>>23802451Funny, that was one of the first things that went through my mind
>>23801721I started reading Doc Savage a few months ago and this has to be the best book series for self-improvement motivation.
>>23801721Kino suggestion, I'm gonna try and read them all in order, not that it makes a difference. Qui is the 12th one from what I can tell and I'm not having any trouble following the plot or understanding the characters.
>>23802451This cover always makes me kek>Apologize for the British Empire!>No.
>>23803063Yah, pulps novels definitely can be read at random and not much is lost. I think the writers were very happy to have a few boilerplate chapters that explain the characters and main story.
An absolute favourite of mine. http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/61/the-empire-of-the-necromancers
>>23803631It was a different world. Now people expect everything to have tight continuity and to be one long, serialized story. The idea that a hero takes on a new case, a new foe, a new adventure in each entry is treated like it is inherently bad writing. Asinine. I blame it on streaming shows and anime (but I still like anime).
>>23804335Its funny how tv writing used to be like that. Even if a show has a larger over-arching plot, every episode has its own story that gets concluded.
>>23804355Network TV still does it, but most network TV does not interest me though. And nowadays every book series seems like it needs to be part of a greater narrative too. It's what eventually turned me off of The Dresden Files. Should have just been cases of the week with recurring foes and developments here and there. That and how it got more and more "Reddit." That also got grating over time. Never finished the series and I don't care anymore.
bump for my pulpbros
>>23802837Yes! I love The Shadow to bits but something about Doc Savage just...has so much inspiring vitality to it. He's proof that anyone can be a "superman"...you just have to take control of your life. And the best way is to WORK OUT
>>23805248It's easy to draw comparisons between Batman and The Shadow, but Doc Savage is easily a strong influence on Batman as well, not just Superman. To say nothing of where the name "Clark Kent" came from...
Amazon had a hit with Reacher in part because he is a modern pulp hero. It was almost certainly a major reason, even if the creators not the audience explicitly understood it. Then they fucked it all up.
>>23805849When I learned that Doc Savage had a Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic made me lol
>>23805248I swear it is something like he represents the peak of American civilization (the good bits don't lol). The confrontational heroism, the tough old Christian morality, the utilization of science and technology, the development of personal excellence, acting outside of government with his gang of friends. He truly represents that part of America that tamed the old west, build industry, and put a man on the moon.
>>23806321How about how he is the Man of Bronze?
>>23806327Excellent post. The Pulp Era had a different idea of heroism than today. Today we are told that if something is not realistic that it means we should not be inspired by it. Instead we are told to be inspired by "heroes" that are not inspirational. They are creations that forget that the point of heroes is to be myth and legend, but writers have largely lost that ability to consciously craft modern myths, probably because they were educated on the evils of Western civilization and culture and thus their many myths.. Those are cultural touchstones that hold up societies as generations pass on ideas from one to the next. Once in a while a heroic character comes out that recaptures those ideas and becomes a hit because we are starved for them today.
>>23806550heh how did I miss that connection
>>23806563That is true. I believe that was what created the popularity of the Marvel films. They really tapped into that deep desire for the heroic and aspirational. My problem with them is those heroes rely too often on magical abilities and super powers instead of the development and practice of virtue. One only has to compare Superman to Doc Savage, or Spider-man and The Spider. I don't want to be too critical on the fans of the Marvel films though, because I think their hearts were in the right place.
>>23806277He would make a great Doc Savage, not that I want anyone getting their greasy remaking fingers on him.
posts
>>23807770Replies?
gonna bump the based pulp thread
Watching the 2005 King Kong on TV, also caught a bit of the Mummy, I’d like to see more stories about a group of people with distinct personalities and roles going somewhere savage and only a few make it out. I think stories like that are really neat
>>23808330Love a good 'getting the gang together scene'
Been reading Elric lately. It's the wildest S&S I've read yet. I like how each part reads like an episode. Love the pace and structure. I also like how Moorcock does not restrain his writing.We usually talk about the classic pulp era, but the "silver agers" or second generation pulp writers are not to be slept on. Who are some other good pulp writers from after the classic era?
>>23808330I never thought about it before, but how well does Jackson's KK pair up with '99 Mummy?
What is the essence of pulp horror?
Anyone ever read these?
Good morning pulpbros, what are we reading and doing today?
>>23810057Taking a break from writing pulp
>>23810249Nice work anon. I'm going to try writing some pulp as well. I've never really wrote before but I reckon diving in and trying is in the best tradition of pulps.
>>23810444Good on you, the trips seem to have your back. What are you writing, if I may ask? Sword and sorcery, detective, something else?
>>23810057Reading the second volume of Elric. Work is my life right now, but soon I hope to have time off to write a story.
>>23809222They’re both good but KK is really long.
I have pic related waiting on my shelf. Anyone here read John Carter of Mars? How is it? I like the notion that it predates fantasy and science fiction as we know them today so it is fuzzy on terms of genre.
>>23812798It’s an easy read. I finished book one in a day but couldn’t be bothered to read the sequels.As for genre, ERB’s books all repeat the same “colonial adventure” formula. Just replace America with Mars, Venus, Hollow Earth, or a random patch of jungle.A white man finds himself spirited away to “another world.” He fends off a few wild beasts, rescues a damsel in distress, gets involved with the local tribal conflict, and becomes a prince among the natives thanks to his superior white genes. Oh, and every character is nude all the time, which is pretty neat.ERB books were the Marvel universe of his era. They all read the same and take place in a shared universe where the characters can sometimes cross over with each other. Tarzan definitely got around.ERB, without a doubt, ripped off H.G. Wells, especially early on in his career, before other writers decided to rip him off and flooded the market with John Carter… but with clothes!Even our boy Howard used the ERB formula beat-for-beat to write Almuric. So ERB was definitely the figure other pulp adventure writers looked up to at the time.
Anyone here read Keith Taylor's Kamose stories?
>>23813762I have not. What's up with them?
>>23801721I tried finding that one at the book store, but they didn't have it. Funny how there are so many different stories that I could look through 3 huge stacks and still not find the one I'm looking for. Picked up this little gem, however. Judging by the synopsis, I'm hoping that the Sasquatch makes an appearance at some point.
>>23814910Looks rad. Give a review when you are done
>>23814944checkd and will do, my man.
>>23814588I stumbled upon them and was looking to see how well they were regarded.
>>23815057Read one and tell us about it
>>23814910Love those James Bama covers. What Frank Frazetta did for Conan he did for Doc Savage.
>>23814910There's a pretty iffy chance of that. In many Doc Savage novels there is a "rational" explanation for the supernatural where it's actually normal people behind things. The explanations are often farfetched and can leave you nonplussed. It's actually not far from Scooby Doo but with more fists, bullets, and gadgets.But then there are novels where Doc and his boys really are in a land where the dinosaurs survived so you never know.
>>23815103That's the plan. Gonna pick up the collection and give 'em a go.
Tell me /pg/, do you think that a sword and sorcery protagonist needs to be nigh unstoppable to be entertaining? Conan certainly is, as is Solomon Kane, but is that what makes those characters so entertaining, or is that merely part of the equation? Can a sword and sorcery protagonist make mistakes and lose occasionally? Or does that take away from them and make them less heroic and imposing?
>>23815208Yeah, there seems to be an attempt at balancing the logical with the fantastical. "Quest of Qui" starts off with some apparently supernatural shit going on, only to have it explained away later on as literal midgets playing tricks. Later on, though, they come across a fairly odd civilization of people, which are given some scientific explanation while at the same time retaining a mythological element to them.Something like a Sasquatch could easily be made plausible with a bit of pseudo-science tech babble. I mean, if giant spiders are being hinted at by the cover art, then a giant ape-man is still on the table.
>>23815546Haven't read the Conan books yet, but in the movie his character goes through a fair amount of abuse, so having the protagonist be vulnerable before overcoming odds could add depth if done properly.>Solomon KaneSuch a kino character. I really liked him as this unstoppable puritan who strikes into the dark heart of Africa with the rage of the Saxon wolf, although even he is not without his moments of adversity, His main struggle wasn't so much his own suffering, but the psychological anguish of not being able to save everyone he loves in time. Goes to show that even an unstoppable character can suffer in their own unique way, independent of their invulnerability, Did Howard write any more books about Kane beyond picrel?
>>23815584He wrote several Kane stories.
>>23815589Awesome! I thought as much, but my local book store didn't have anymore. Guess I'll just have to look them up and order them online.
>>23815620They're not books, they're short stories. Del Rey has all of them collected in one volume if you feel so inclined, pic related
Reading the original Zorro short story now
>>23795297Arguably the closest equivalent over here would be published or ebook versions of webnovels serialized on wattpad or royal road.
Does anyone know where I can find a scan of this online? I've looked everywhere.
>>23816382I got it off Anna’s Archive
>>23816382>>23816405Oh, wait, you meant specifically Black Mask, issue February 1942? Yeah, can’t help you there, anon.
>>23816405Exact issue? Only got partial matches when I tried to look up "black mask february 1942".
>>23816430Aw well. Worth a shot.
>>23816382There’s a good amount on the internet archivehttps://archive(.)org/search?query=subject%3A%22Black+Mask%22Couldn’t find that exact one tho
>Frank Miller says that he's going to release more Sin City comics>it's been 2 years>still no release dateFuck you, Frank Miller. How difficult is it to release your Western Sin City and your other unknown Sin City comics?
>>23816578Write your own Sin City and show him up.
>>23815645The hardcover of this is like $350 lmaoJust ordered the mass paperback for like $20, love this cover art
>>23817475The paperback version of the one I posted is $15 on Amazon
I’ve never been into sci-fi, but for some reason, all my pulp ideas are sci-fi adventure stories. Why is that?Idea #1:Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. For centuries, the stars have borne witness to their endless war. But when rogue insurgents destroy the Sacred Reproductive Machines on both planets, the survival of their species is left hanging by a thread.Facing the threat of extinction, the warlords of Mars and the matriarchs of Venus agree to an uneasy truce. In a desperate gamble, they decide to send their finest and brightest to the ravaged battleground of Earth. Amid the ruins of a once-thriving world, these sworn enemies must attempt the impossible: ensuring the continuation of their species.But passion burns hot, and hatred burns even hotter. Can these hot-blooded men and women set aside their centuries-old animosity long enough to create life, or will their ancient grudges doom both worlds to oblivion?Idea #2:Being a space trucker is a lonely, thankless job. But for Anon Anonson, things are about to get a lot worse. During a routine delivery, his ship is ripped from the stars and hurled through a mysterious wormhole, crash-landing on an uncharted planet.Amidst towering trees and murky swamps, Anon must face dangers beyond his wildest imagination: colossal alien beasts, savage native tribes, and the sinister Silver Warlock with his mechanical army. Outgunned and out of his depth, how can a simple space trucker hope to survive in this exotic world?But all isn’t lost. When Anon encounters a captivating native woman, he feels something hot stirring within him. Maybe, just maybe, there’s something on this forsaken planet worth fighting for.Idea #3:Man is not the apex predator. For eons, the Earth has trembled beneath the feet of colossal monsters, while humanity has scurried like ants in their shadow.But through the marvels of scientific progress, humanity has soared into the skies clad in gleaming flying armor. Armed with powerful guns and crackling lightning spears, the elite Skyknights can now battle these giants on equal footing. These airborne warriors represent humanity’s best chance to overcome the monsters that have ruled over them since time immemorial.However, by disrupting the natural order, the Skyknights inadvertently awaken something far more terrifying than the monsters they fight. Mankind will soon discover that even the scariest monstrosity have something they fear.
>>23817758That first idea sounds more like satire.
sup pulpbros. just reading some doc savage. some villain has an earthquake machine, but i think doc savage will be able to stop him.
>>23817727That's in American, which is at least 10 Toonies. Either way, I prefer the artwork of the other version. >>23818291idk bro, it might really be it for him this time!
>>23818586Well, he thought the villain was one guy, but it turns he isnt. the mystery continues.
Well, Doc Savage found the bad guy and destroyed the earthquake machine. Sorry for the spoiler. It was a fun novel, but I will admit, the ending was pretty weak. Doc Savage is a great character but, sometimes, he is a bit too overpowered.
>>23819083Don't hate the gigachad, hate the game.
>>23819309I'm tired of his stupid knock-out gas balls and machine guns that only stuns people.
>>23819438Then read a different flavor of pulp. There's lots to choose from, like sword & sorcery, westerns, and swashbuckling pirates. Hero pulps might not be your thing.
>>23819438Try The Avenger or The Skipper. Similar flavor, but sharper edge.
Think we should start a new thread? We're over 300 posts now.
>>23819732Before we start a new thread, let’s discuss what should go into the op.I recommend:The Pulp Magazine Archive: archive.org/details/pulpmagazinearchiveThe Pulp Magazines Project: https://www.pulpmags.org/Project Gutenberg Sci-fi: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/68*The Shadow Anthology (Books 001-336): https://archive.org/details/the-shadow-anthology-books-00-walter-b.-gibson*Note: I haven’t combed through this one, but I think it’s legit.HorrorBabble’s Cthulhu Mythos Audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJDIvebdG8U&t=14sThe Cybrarian’s Conan Audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmd1kGz5gLg&list=PLlFcav_ti8rkUvq2sqnHxKQ6AmeSN-2QK&index=3
>>23819939Fair. Those look like a good start. Also, I'm the guy who brought up "flash pulps" upthread. I finally had a day off to write one and I can kick off the new thread both with the idea as well as an inaugural entry.
>>23819939>>23820023Guess we need the https to get the mobile link working. Oops.The Pulp Magazine Archive: https://archive.org/details/pulpmagazinearchiveThe Pulp Magazines Project: https://www.pulpmags.org/Project Gutenberg Sci-fi: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/68The Shadow Anthology: https://archive.org/details/the-shadow-anthology-books-00-walter-b.-gibsonHorrorBabble’s Cthulhu Mythos Audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJDIvebdG8U&t=14sThe Cybrarian’s Conan Audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmd1kGz5gLg&list=PLlFcav_ti8rkUvq2sqnHxKQ6AmeSN-2QK&index=3As for the how to write pulp, I only found one book on the subject: https://ia801801.us.archive.org/21/items/how-to-write-pulp/How%20to%20Write%20Pulp%20Fiction%20by%20Bell%20James%20Scott.pdf
>>23820148Gotcha. I threw up a new thread already just to keep it going, but by next thread we should have a proper OP assembled and hopefully expanding.NEW THREAD: >>23820149NEW THREAD: >>23820149NEW THREAD: >>23820149
>>23819438I love how Doc never kills the bad guys, he just lobotomizes them into becoming "proper citizens". Kinda based, desu.
