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Pulp Librarian Profile picture
@PulpLibrarian
Sep 14, 2021 • 10 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X
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Today in pulp... let me introduce you to Mark Hardin: The Penetrator!
Mark Hardin is a one-man strike force against corruption. Orphaned at the age of four he was brought up mean and hungry. He learned his fighting skills in Vietnam before returning to an America gone bad.
Actually The Penetrator is one of a long list of vigilante pulp heroes thrown up in the 1970s counter-counterculture backlash, along with The Destroyer, The Executioner The Iceman and The Marksman to name but a few.
Lionel Derrick was a Pinnacle house alias used by two pulp writers: Mark Roberts and Chet Cunningham. Overall they produced 52 Penetrator novels, with Roberts writing the odd-numbered books and Cunningham the evens.
Unlike other pulp vigilantes who only battle the Mafia, Mark Hardin fights anyone looking to destroy the American way of life: crooks, terrorists, pornographers, hippies, scientists...
But wherever he goes Mark Hardin knows how to blend in: his skills in covert operations and infiltration led to his uniquely memorable name - The Penetrator!
Are these books any good? Well there's plenty of bloody action and Hardin is always getting injured and having to fight against immense pain. Plus he has a moustache (sometimes). And a side parting. So he has lots to deal with.
If you like your books low on sex but high on blunt trauma, concussion and acid baths then The Penetrator is probably right up your alley. Omnibus editions ("Double Penetrator!") are also available.
But be warned: later Penetrator novels do get kinda weird: French-Canadian dwarf cults, mad Nicaraguan super-ants, mollusc assassins, remote controlled supervolcanoes etc.
The novels are easy to collect: prices are low and many editions are in reasonable condition, as they were only read once.

That's it for my look back at Mark Hardin and his one man war against weird villainy. More pulp heroes another time...

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Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Apr 3
It was a phenomenon, spawning a franchise that has lasted over fifty years. It's also a story with many surprising influences.

Today in pulp I look back at a sociological science-fiction classic, released today in 1968: Planet Of The Apes! Image
Pierre Boulle is probably best known for his 1952 novel Bridge On The River Kwai, based on his wartime experiences in Indochina. So it was possibly a surprise when 11 years later he authored a science fiction novel. Image
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Mar 25
Today I'm looking back at the work of British graphic designer Abram Games! Image
Abram Games was born in Whitechapel, London in 1914. His father, Joseph, was a photographer who taught him the art of colouring by airbrush. Image
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Mar 23
Today I'm looking back at the career of English painter, book illustrator and war artist Edward Ardizzone! Image
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Mar 14
Today in pulp I look back at the Witchploitation explosion of the late 1960s: black magic, bare bottoms and terrible, terrible curtains!

Come this way... Image
Mainstream occult magazines and books had been around since late Victorian times. These were mostly about spiritualism, with perhaps a bit of magic thrown in. Image
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Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Mar 8
Between 1960 and 1970 Penguin Books underwent several revolutions in cover layout, at a time when public tastes were rapidly changing.

Today in pulp I look back at 10 years that shook the Penguin! Image
Allen Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, aiming to bring high-quality paperbacks to the masses for the same price as a packet of cigarettes. Lane began by snapping up publishing rights for inexpensive mid-market novels and packaging them expertly for book lovers. Image
From the start Penguins were consciously designed; Lane wanted to distinguish his paperbacks from pulp novels. Edward Young created the first cover grid, using three horizontal bands and the new-ish Gill Sans typeface for the text. Image
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Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Mar 3
Today in pulp: a tale of an unintentionally radical publisher. It only produced 42 books between 1968-9, but it caught the hedonistic, solipsistic, free love mood of the West Coast freakout scene like no other.

This is the story of Essex House... Image
Essex House was an offshoot of Parliament Press, a California publishing company set up by pulp artist Milton Luros after the market for pulp magazines began to decline. It specialised in stag magazines sold through liquor stores, to skirt around US obscenity publishing laws. Image
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By the 1960s Parliament Press was already selling pornographic novels through its Brandon House imprint, though these were mostly reprints or translations of existing work. Luros was interested in publishing new erotic authors, and set up Essex House to do just that. Image
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