PULP MAGAZINES....Monsters...Murder....Mystery!

[bigbud]

 



Hey, alot of great, and not so great, imaginary literature got a start in the cheap untrimmed rough wood pages of the Pulp magazine. Pulps were a 10 cent newstand thrill that dates back to the late 1800's and had a great ride until around 1953. Hundreds of titles exploded on the scene, and gave the middle and lower educated classes an affordable means of reading entertainment. Pulps came in all subjects....Westerns, Science Fiction, Mystery, Horror, Love......and the writers! Burroughs, Max Brand, Dashiell Hammett, Ray Bradbury, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, H.G. Wells, O. Henry, Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twain and on and on. But for me, the cover art of the Pulp pulled me in! Being a child of the comic book it was only natural to get totally involved with the incredible scenes depicted on pulp covers! I'm betting several of you UMAers can join with me in presenting some of those great Pulp magazines. I'm gonna start off with one of my favorites......Doc Savage Jan. 1934. A rather simple but very powerful cover titled.....Brand of the Werewolf......Buddy

Scan is under mylar.....I know you will appreciate my concern with leaving the pulp in it's sleave for scanning.......hey, it's only 77 years old!

[Illoman]

That is a cool Doc pulp, Buddy!!! Sadly I don't own any pulps, but *love*love*love* pulp art!! There was a simplicity and immediacy to them as they were all competing with each other on the newsstand for the customer's attention. And a dime for all that great reading?!? Unbelievable!!

[Hepcat]

Here are my entries in the pulp sweepstakes:





I wish I could find more of these men's adventure magazines but they're not widely available. And I don't just collect them for the pictures on the cover. I like the stories too.

[Scary Terry]

At the NYCC I saw a dealer with a complete set of the Doc Savage pulps!  Amazing to see them ALL on a shelf.

[bigbud]

And I don't just collect them for the pictures on the cover. I like the stories too.

Sure Hep.......and I use to buy Playboy for the articles.       Buddy

[bigbud]

Terry, Seeing all the Docs would be very cool! Here's a pulp with you in mind, Terry. These 2 upstanding citizens are traveling along singing..."Goin' Ta Kansas City, Kansas City Here I Come...."    Buddy

[Illoman]

Buddy! That's the same artwork used on a book of pulp art I've got!!!    Great to see it as it was originally used.

[Wicked Lester]

I love pulp fiction. Mostly weird menace/horror and hard boiled detective. I used to have at least a couple dozen issues of Dime Detective ,Thrilling Mystery ,Thrilling Detective, Popular Detective etc. Just like most of my collections I ended up selling them off. I still have a few westerns. This one is from Sept. 1941.



I have quite a few Weird Menace and HB Detective reprints. I especially like the work of Hugh B. Cave ,Robert Leslie Bellem , Norvell Page (gotta love The Spider) John K. Butler and Wyatt Blassingame just to name a few.

[bigbud]

Lester! That's a great Western cover!

Illo, I believe I have that same book you speak of! In fact, I tracked down that issue of Private Detective after I saw that book cover! One of the greatest Pulp covers ever! (In my opinion)   Buddy

[Hepcat]

Sure Hep.......and I use to buy Playboy for the articles.       Buddy

I guess neither of us can resist articles like "The Wanton Women of Wangbu" or "The Torrid Tiger Nymph of Nyasaland".

[Flower]

Sure Hep.......and I use to buy Playboy for the articles.       Buddy

I guess neither of us can resist articles like "The Wanton Women of Wangbu" or "The Torrid Tiger Nymph of Nyasaland".

I thought that men bought Playboy for the jokes, cartoons and Shel Silverstein's poems .. SIGH!

[bigbud]

When I was about 12 a friend of mine took me across the railroad tracks into the underbrush that grew on the other side......this was within sight of my house, so we didn't go far. In the weeds he pulled out something rolled in aluminum foil that he had hidden there. It was pages out of Playboy magazine. Man, did we enjoy checking those out. A week later I stood outside on my porch and watched a crew of weed whackers as they progressed along the backside of the railroad tracks swinging their long blades (no tractor mowers then). When they came to the area of my friends hidden treasure all work stopped. Much laughter was heard, and our adolescent fun disappeared.......Buddy

[Wicked Lester]

It really amazes me how much some of these issues have gone way high in price the last 5-7 years. Doing research on Ebay there are nice vg/f issues that are SELLING for 2-3X what I paid maybe 7-8 years ago. Mostly Detective/horror etc. The Westerns are still only slightly above but still a good value if you are getting multiple issue lots at 7-8 bucks an issue.
I thought I'd toss in a couple scans of reprints.



Now the above book in a solid F condition has sold for close to 1/2 a G. $35 reprint makes sense to me.

Never seen one of these show up for real.



One of the funnest so politically incorrect HB detective reprints and is a MUST own in any collection.


IMO THE best place to find reprints.

http://www.adventurehouse.com/

[bigbud]

That last cover, Roscoes In the Night, looks like it was originally on a Dan Turner Hollywood Detective. Those covers done by Ward are always fantastic! Here's my Dan Turner Hollywood Detective #1 with Ward cover. This pulp has the distinction of being from the pedigree "comic" collection titled the Kansas City Collection.

[Illoman]

Awesome, Buddy. I love that pulp style art with the loose brushwork and the primary colors. Great, great stuff!