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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What are the pulp archetypes? Pulp novels are usually written quickly and rely on a formula, but do they use different archetypal characters to other fiction?
Let's take a look at a few...
The Outlaw is a classic pulp archetype: from Dick Turpin onwards lawbreakers have been a staple of the genre. Crime never pays, but it's exciting and trangressive!
Some pulp outlaws however are principled...
As Bob Dylan sang "to live outside the law you must be honest." Michel Gourdon's 1915 hero Dr Christopher Syn is a good example. A clergyman turned pirate and smuggler, he starts as a revenger but becomes the moral magistrate of the smuggling gangs of Romney Marsh.
Given the current heatwave, I feel obliged to ask my favourite question: is it time to bring back the leisure suit?
Let's find out...
Now we all know what a man's lounge suit is, but if we're honest it can be a bit... stuffy. Formal. Businesslike. Not what you'd wear 'in da club' as the young folks say.
So for many years tailors have been experimenting with less formal, but still upmarket gents attire. The sort of garb you could wear for both a high level business meeting AND for listening to the Moody Blues in an espresso bar. Something versatile.
Today in pulp I look back at the publishing phenomenon of gamebooks: novels in which YOU are the hero!
A pencil and dice may be required for this thread...
Gamebooks are a simple but addictive concept: you control the narrative. At the end of each section of the story you are offered a choice of outcomes, and based on that you turn to the page indicated to see what happens next.
Gamebook plots are in fact complicated decision tree maps: one or more branches end in success, but many more end in failure! It's down to you to decide which path to tread.