Esprit De Corpse: A Johnny Liddell Thriller, by Frank Kane. Dell, 1965
"Johnny Amsterdam - eye with a beard"
I like It Cool, by Michael Lawrence. Popular Giant, 1960.
World Beyond Pluto: a new Johnny Mayhem novelette. Amazing Stories, November 1958. Cover by Ed Valigursky.
Johnny Staccato, by Frank Boyd (aka Frank Kane). Gold Medal Books, 1960.
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. Edited by Tommy Hancock. Moonstone Books, 2020.
This is an anthology of new pulp stories based on the popular 1950s radio series. Do check it out!
"Funny how?"
Johnny Havoc, by John Jakes. Belmont Books, 1960.
Johnny Comet, by Peter De Paulo and Frank Frazetta, 1953.
This was a short-lived syndicated comic strip in various Sunday newspapers and is now highly sought after!
The Suicide Squad (1939-46): Johnny Kerrigan, Stephen Klaw and Dan Murdoch. Three tough FBI agents sent to tackle the toughest crime bosses in America. They always came out shooting!
Johnny Bruck, one of the most prolific illustrators in science fiction. He painted over 6,000 covers during his career, as well as many interior illustrations. The vast majority were for one title: Perry Rhodan.
Misfits of Science (1985). Generation X-Men with super powers and a primetime TV show. Featuring Johnny B, who gained the power of electricity after he electrocuted himself on stage.
Oh and Courteney Cox...
Johnny Canuck (1940 onwards) The bare-chested Hitler wrestler of Saskatchewan, drawn by 16 year old Leo Bachle. What a guy!
Hello I'm Johnny Cash. Spire Christian Comics, 1976. Art by Al Hartley.
Johnny Alucard, the groovy Chelsea vampire from Hammer's "interesting" updating of the Dracula legend 'Dracula 1972 A.D.'
Yes his name is Dracula spelt backwards. No the audience didn't realise. Yes you should watch it at least once.
Jay Underwood as Johnny Storm, in Roger Corman's unreleased 1994 movie The Fantastic Four.
This is the only good Fantastic Four movie, so therefore it's never been officially released.
Introducing Johnny Alpha...
Star Lord issue 1, May 1978. This outsold 2000AD until IPC merged the two titles for cost reasons.
More Johnnys another time. Don't be rotten to each other...
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Today in pulp I'm looking back at one of the greatest albums of all time.
What are the chances...
By 1976 Jeff Wayne was already a successful composer and musician, as well as a producer for David Essex. His next plan was to compose a concept album.
War Of The Worlds was already a well known story, notorious due to the Orson Wells radio play production. For Wayne it seemed like a great choice for a rock opera.
Today in pulp I'm looking back at a very popular (and collectable) form of art: Micro Leyendas covers!
Micro Leyendas (mini legends) are a Mexican form of fumetto, small graphic novels normally pitting the everyday hero against the weird, the occult and the unfathomable.
The art of Micro Leyendas is bold, macabre and very funny. The books often tell a cautionary tale of revenge or humiliation, much like a modern folk tale.
Today in pulp: what makes a good opening sentence for a pulp novel?
Now this is a tricky one…
The opening sentence has an almost mythical status in writing. Authors agonise for months, even years, about crafting the right one. Often it’s the last thing to be written.
Which is odd, because very few people abandon a book if they don’t like the first sentence. It’s not like the first sip of wine that tells you if the Grand Cru has been corked! Most people at least finish Chapter One.
The Time Machine, Brave New World, 1984: these weren’t the first dystopian novels. There's an interesting history of Victorian and Edwardian literature looking at the impact of modernity on humans and finding it worrying.
Today in pulp I look at some early dystopian books…
Paris in the Twentieth Century, written in 1863, was the second novel penned by Jules Verne. However his publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel rejected it as too gloomy. The manuscript was only discovered in 1994 when Verne’s grandson hired a locksmith to break into an old family safe.
The novel, set in 1961, warns of the dangers of a utilitarian culture. Paris has street lights, motor cars and the electric chair but no artists or writers any more. Instead industry and commerce dominate and citizens see themselves as cogs in a great economic machine.