Time for a pulp countdown now, and today I attempt the impossible by picking my top 10 Ed Emshwiller illustrations!
No 10: Crisis in 2140, by H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire. Ace Doubles, 1957. Emsh paints fantastic villains, and this one is my favourite.
No 9: Ed Emshwiller's alternative cover for Super-Science Fiction, June 1957. The composition is lovely and the spaceship is excellent.
No 8: an interior illustration by Emsh for 'The Visitor at the Zoo' from Galaxy Magazine, April 1963. I just really like these aliens.
No 7: Star Wars, by Poul Anderson. Ace Doubles, 1957. It's easy to miss the details on this cover, but if anyone can get away with drawing a space kilt Ed Emshwiller can.
No 6: Galaxy Science Fiction, June 1951. There's a lot of wit in Emsh's work and this is one of my favourite Galaxy covers.
No 5: Ed Emshwiller's cover illustration for Rat in the Skull, by Rog Phillips. If Science Fiction, December 1958. Creepy and funny at the same time.
No 4: Starship Soldier, by Robert A. Heinlein. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1959. Emsh did a lot of Heinlein magazine covers and this captures the essence of what would become Starship Troopers.
No 3: Threshold Of Eternity, by John Brunner. Ace Doubles, 1959. Emshwiller breaks the 4th wall.
No 2: Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1951. Emsh regularly painted the Christmas Galaxy cover, and this one has a great Mid-Mod feel to it.
And No 1: Women's Work, by Murray Leinster. The Original Science Fiction Stories, November 1956. It's just my favourite.
More pulp countdowns another time...
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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.
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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.
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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.