OK, let's jump into the pulpmobile and head back to the world of 1976: they were having a #heatwave too!
The shirt of seduction: Casos Reales! 1976.
That is a very well-behaved bat.
Vampirella: Bloodstalk, by Ron Goulart. Sphere Books, 1976.
The healing of Brother Brian. Rolling Stone, November 1976.
What do we want? AGGRO!
How do we want it? IN A KID'S COMIC!!
Action, 18 September 1976.
You had me at Full-Size Messerschmitts...
Radio Models & Electronics, October 1976.
When the pupil is ready, the master will appear...
The Platypus of Doom and Other Nihilists, by Arthur Byron Cover. Warner Books, 1976.
"And from France... Stinky Toys!"
Punk at the 100 Club, Oxford St London in 1976.
It's only a matter of time...
The MAD Star Trek musical. MAD magazine, October 1976.
Rod, Jane and Freddy. Or was it Matthew? Was he before Roger? Or after original Bungle left? #SoManyQuestions... (1976)
The Finest In Roller Skates (1976). All in neon and suede.
Donald F Glut and the Extended Frankenstein Universe (1976)
And so it begins...
Night Of The Crabs, by Guy N Smith. NEL, 1976.
Star Trek: portfolio of the crew (1976) by Frank Kelly Freas.
Frank Frazetta's reimagined Flash Gordon from 1976.
Kids today* have too much screentime!** Something MUST be done etc.
(*1976)
(**monochrome)
How does Conan toast a panini? He puts it under the griller!
The Savage Sword of Conan. Issue 14, Sept 1976. Cover by Earl Norem.
Meryl Streep and John Cazale in Measure For Measure by William Shakespeare. Delacorte Theatre 1976, Central Park #NewYork.
"What are you two boys up to?"
The Electric Company Magazine: Mystery Issue, October 1976.
The Queen, sending her first email in 1976.
The Phantom* menace! RC Modeler December 1976.
(*press F4 to continue)
ABBA was everywhere in 1976...
The e-scooter of 1976: the Solo Electra.
They look more like The Goodies...
The Kids, by Tony Parsons. NEL, 1976
Nothing to see here Twitter, move along now...
Derai, by E C Tubb. Arrow, 1976.
"Twins, Basil. Twins!"
False Colours, by Georgette Heyer. Signet Regency Romance, 1976.
All This And World War II, the 1976 movie that mixed WW2 footage with Beatles cover versions by the Bee Gees, Bryan Ferry, Elton John, Keith Moon, Status Quo, Jeff Lynne, Tina Turner, Rod Stewart and Peter Gabriel:
Today in pulp: the searing, evocative power of a well crafted opening sentence!
For this thread I will draw my examples from the greatest writer* in the English language: the Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe.
(*based on synonym use)
On death:
"Bellenger was dead when they found him. That Bellenger was dead was probably the understatement of the year. Bellenger was horribly, violently dead!"
On crowds:
"The crowd had to be seen to be believed. There are crowds and crowds but this was the crowd to end all crowds. Never, perhaps ever before in the whole of human history had there been such a massive congregation. Such a teeming of humanity."
Today in pulp I look at time travel. It's full of paradoxes but there's one we rarely explore: does it break the Law of Conservation of Energy?
Let’s investigate…
Time travel is a staple of pulp science fiction and it often involves a paradox: changing history, killing your grandfather, creating a time loop etc. Solving the paradox, or realising too late that one is happening, is half the fun of these stories.
Thinking about the nature of time is also fun. Does it exist or is it emergent? It is a local or global event? How many dimensions does it come in? Why is there an ‘arrow of time’? There are many possible answers.
"I wanted a mission. And for my sins they gave me one."
"Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River by Navy patrol boat, pick up Colonel Kurtz's path at Nu Mung Ba, infiltrate his team by whatever means available... and terminate the Colonel's command."
People who feel they have no voice can have a powerful creative spark, sometimes born of suffering or solitude. Mostly it's hidden, but in the 20th century it began to be admired, celebrated, and even perhaps exploited.
Let's look at the story of 'Outsider Art'...
Outsider Art, Art Brut, Visionary Art, Naïve Art: nobody has really settled on a name for artworks made by untrained artists which express a raw, energetic experience of the world. It's art from a different perspective, demanding to be heard.
Outsider Art began to be recognised in 1911 by Der Blaue Reiter group of artists in Munich. The group was short-lived but influential: fundamental to Expressionism and admiring of artworks created by people struggling with their mental health.