pulp hero over opinions?

[PhantomNarrator]

I'm still positive about this book, and you can be sure my agents will be working to secure my hardcover and secret decoder ring, but frankly, when I compare this cover with the original art of the Justice Inc. box, I just want to

The logo is less offensive, but I'm sorry to say I think the cover is pedestrian. Worse, it's *computer generated* (shudder). Tres, tres non pulp!

[Derek Hiemforth]

The cover's awesome. I have it set as my wallpaper on my computer, and I have it printed out and posted on my wall. Words can't describe how wonderful the Pulp Hero cover art is. Woohoo!!!

[Dr Rotwang!]

I wanna know if Storn was, like, busy that day or in Reno or somethin'.

[Dr Rotwang!]

Upon further reflection, I find that the book's cover is, at worst, not very exciting or evocative. I want to look at a pulp RPG cover that looks exciting, lurid and dynamic.

[James Gillen]

I do a lot of Photoshop work and it looks like someone just found the text transformation tool for the "Pulp Hero" logo. As far as the art goes I don't care for it, but looking at Grigni's site I like his black&white art so I think it may just be the digital coloring that's just not evoking the pulp feel for me.

Yeah, the coloring is a bit too "mod" for me.
But let's see: Ancient temple in the background- check.
Jungle bridge decorated with skulls- check.
Nice looking blonde- check.
Strong-shouldered guy in jungle fatigues- check.
Zeppelin (MANDATORY)- check.
Map and/or map scrollcase- check.
One party with scrollcase firing at the other with the map, who is escaping via a ladder dangling from the zeppelin- extra credit.

No problem there.

JG

[Fazhoul]

I was rather hoping that they'd decide at the last minute to use the Pulp Hero cover I did for the latest Digital Hero on the book instead, but they'd already commissioned the book cover, layed it out, and sent it off to press.

Now THIS would have made an awesome cover. The covers are still too bright for a pulp cover though.

[st barbara]

I am not sure that the man on the cover is ACTUALLY shooting at the woman. Yes he is threatening her with his gun but he could just as easily be saying "Stop or I will shoot !"; trying to intimidate her into returning the stolen plans or blueprints or map or whatever she has in her hand.

[Old Man]

Cover art: meh. Could be better, but at least the subject matter is appropriate.

Logo: Pretty good, but could use a little extra... at least a thick stroke around the edges in a bold color like orange. Better would have been to separate 'Pulp' and 'Hero' visually by using different colors.

Interior layout is fantastic compared to previous genre books. See the difference a custom header font can make? There's still room for improvement, graphically, but at least we finally have a genre book that doesn't look like a Word document.

[demonjuice]

Having seen the cover in person, I am still admant about it being a very poor visual and business choice. In dramatic contrast to the qaulity of the content. It is like the company voiding it's bowels on it's own wedding cake.

[TheImperialKhan]

I wouldn't go that far.

But I have to say that I don't care for the Hero threatening a woman with a gun. It's just not appropriate for the genre.

Also I think the original JI cover had more pazzaz.

But you be the judge. Here's the JI cover to compare.

[st barbara]

Yes I think that the cover of "Justice Inc" was better; but the "Pulp Hero" cover is O K by me tto. Let's face it; the cover could have been all black with the words "Pulp Hero" in white block letters and I would still have bought it !

[AlHazred]

Compared to other Pulp RPGs, I find it to be fine. I mean, White Wolf's Adventure! cover was kind of blah color-wise and had a static pose, while The Secret of Zir'An cover has excellent colors but lame composition and content - where's the action? (Interestingly, an earlier version shows that the color scheme choice was made late in the game.) GURPS Cliffhangers, First Edition, is halfway decent, but you get the feeling the real action is about three seconds later; meanwhile the Second Edition cover has excellent action, but a crappy color scheme. Daredevils and its supplements from FGU had kind of a washed-out look, to me.

Of the independent, third-party pulp games: Planet Pulp's Pulp Adventures has an incredibly crappy cover artist, but he got the elements and the color scheme right. Two-Fisted Tales from Politically Incorrect Games has crappy cover art, especially the PDF - dark and dim, and with none of the elements that make a pulp cover.

So, from all that, I'd say I might have liked to have seen an homage to the classic Justice Inc. cover (probably the greatest pulp rpg cover of all time), but I'm happy enough with the one I got. And the logo is fine - it's just what I'd expect to see on the cover of a pulp magazine.

Incidentally, while investigating this, I came across this interesting resource on Gamemastering pulp adventures.