Curator of the art, history and fiction of old dreams.
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Mar 7 • 21 tweets • 6 min read
Today in pulp... let's revisit 1981!
Escape From New York, by Mike McQuay. Bantam Books, 1981.
Mar 4 • 21 tweets • 9 min read
"Fear is the mind-killer," but movie production is a close second. As Denis Villeneuve's epic movie adaptations of Dune pull in audiences worldwide, I look back at an earlier struggle to bring that story to the silver screen.
This is the story of David Lynch's Dune...
Dune is an epic story: conceived by Frank Herbert after studying the Oregon Dunes in 1957 he spent five years researching, writing, and revising it before publication. He would go on to write a further five sequels.
Mar 2 • 31 tweets • 12 min read
Today in pulp: teenage detective novels!
Oh those meddling kids...
Detective stories have always been a staple of young adult fiction. I guess every young person wants to be a crime fighter at heart.
Mar 1 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Time for a pulp countdown now, and today it's my Top 10 Hardy Boys covers from the late '80s and early '90s!
Some of these still rock...
At #10: Carnival of Crime! Sparks will fly...
Feb 28 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Just time for my occasional series "ladies who love accordions!"
Squeezy does it...
"They said it couldn't be done!"
I'm sorry, I'll read that again...
"They said it shouldn't be done!"
Feb 25 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Time once again for my occasional series "Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses!"
And today all the titles are by Caroline Farr...
Note: this is a sea-circled island. None of your Oxbow lake nonsense here.
Terror On Duncan Island, by Caroline Farr. Signet Gothic, 1971.
Feb 25 • 24 tweets • 6 min read
Today in pulp... it's mostly Look-In covers!
The Police line-up: all guilty of centre partings.
Look-In, December 1980.
Feb 23 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
Today in pulp: True Cases of Women in Crime!
Now this is complicated...
True Cases of Women in Crime was also known as Women in Crime...
Feb 22 • 19 tweets • 7 min read
Hard-boiled and Noir are two distinct - but overlapping - genres of crime fiction. So it's no surprise that both have their roots in the same soil: a pulp magazine that broke the mould. Twice.
Let's look back at the legendary Black Mask...
"The Black Mask" started as an answer to a business problem: how could journalist H. L. Mencken and theatre critic George Jean Nathan keep their slick, influential but loss-making magazine 'The Smart Set' going?
Publishing a pulp title to subsidise it seemed to make sense.
Feb 14 • 19 tweets • 7 min read
“Space is big. Really big,” as Douglas Adams observed. So why haven’t we seen any alien life yet?
Odds are a big universe must have some – or are the odds wrong? This is the Fermi Paradox, and today in pulp I’m looking at some of the novels that have explored it.
Don’t panic…
In 1950 Physicists Enrico Fermi and Michael Hart were chatting in the Los Alamos canteen when the topic turned to UFOs. Where were they? After a few calculations Fermi felt the probability of alien life was high enough; we just didn’t have any evidence ‘they’ were out there.
Feb 8 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Today in pulp... The Beatniks!
"Explosive epic of the beat generation"
On The Road, by Jack Kerouac. Pan Giant M39, 1963.
Feb 3 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
Many readers have asked me "Why do so many pulp covers feature women in ripped red blouses standing in swamps while a man who looks a bit like David Bowie fights off an unusual animal attack?"
The answer is: pulp artist Wil Hulsey...
Wilbur "Wil" Hulsey was the undisputed king of the animal attack pulp cover. You name it, he'd paint it attacking you in a pool of stagnant water.
Feb 2 • 20 tweets • 8 min read
Many readers have asked me about the raft of lesbian pulp novels published in the '50s and '60s. How did they come about? And did they actually change people's attitudes to same-sex relationships?
Let's look back at the lesbian pulp explosion and try to uncover its legacy...
Pulp is often seen as lowbrow and cheap, so it could skirt around the censorship laws of the post-war period and cover subjects that 'serious' outlets had to hint at. And one taboo topic dominated pulp for decades: lesbian love!
Jan 27 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
Today in pulp I look back at the simple idea that launched a thousand fanzines: Letraset!
Launched in 1959 by Dai Davies and Fred Mackenzie it heralded a graphic design revolution that brought funky fonts to the masses.
Let's take a look...
Davis and Mackenzie – both experienced designers – created Letraset as a cheaper alternative to phototypesetting, to help speed up the design process. From humble beginnings in an old factory behind Waterloo station Letraset eventually swept across the design world.
Jan 23 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
Today in pulp... The Normans!
The Lady Is Taboo, by Norman Bligh. Quarter Books, 1951. Cover by George Gross.
Jan 20 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
Just time tonight in pulp to head back to 1954. A simpler time, seventy years ago...
"90 lbs of female fury that no man or jail could hold!"
Savage In Skirts! True Cases of Women in Crime, March 1954.
Jan 14 • 20 tweets • 7 min read
Today in pulp... I look back at Raleigh bikes: the most exciting bikes on the planet!
Raleigh was the all steel bike that defined a generation of cyclists: for many it was their first introduction to the joys - and perils - of cycling!
Jan 5 • 26 tweets • 6 min read
Office of the future, 1925.
Office of the future, 1922.
Jan 2 • 21 tweets • 10 min read
46 years ago today, the BBC aired its latest science fiction series. Dark, violent and dystopian it pitted a group of criminals against a neo-fascist Federation in a doomed battle for survival and freedom.
This is the story of Blakes 7...
Blakes 7 (no apostrophe) was unique. Created by Terry Nation, it was more George Orwell than George Lucas. Story arcs were long, morals were hazy, lead characters were gruesomely tortured or killed off. Cynicism, ruthlessness and paranoia were always present.
Nov 3, 2023 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
Time once again for my occasional series "Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses!"
And today it's all about fleeing in white dresses...
The Phantom Room by Elizabeth Erin Mande. Popular Library, 1971.
That is a huge choker she's wearing. Are they meant to be that big?
Nov 2, 2023 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Jon Juan: The One And Only Superlover!!
Issue 1, 1950. Cover by Alex Schomburg.
Not Batgirl. Nope...
Miss Fury. Issue 7, Fall 1945. Cover by Alex Schomburg.