[Pulp] Suggested Reads

[Lord Liaden]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

Well, for starters you might take a look at ThePulp.Net. I'd particularly recommend "Pulp.Links" from the lefthand menu; you'll find lots on the history of the magazines, the characters, and collections of pulp covers and other illustrations.

 

Here are two other sources for general cultural background:

 

Dirty Thirties

 

Pulp Project 1557

[st barbara]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

To "Fenrisulf" I agree about A A Merritt; great reading if you are thinking about running (or playing in) a pulp "lost worlds"type of campaign ! If you can get hold of them the "Yesterday's Faces"series by Robert Sampson and "The Great Pulp Heroes"by Don Hutchison are excellent reference works on Pulp writing. Recent fiction worth a look include the "Tomb Raider"novelisations and those that were done for "The Mummy"and "The Scorpion King". Lloyd Alexander wrote a series of books for teenagers featuring an adventurous girl named "Vesper Holly"which are worth a look as are Robert McSkimmin's "Cairo Jim"books, which also seem to have been aimed at young readers .

[st barbara]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

To "Blacksword". I don't know how easy it would be to get now but "The Writer's Guide To Everyday Life From Prohibition Through World War ll" by Marc McCutcheon gives lots of useful information about fashion, radio shows, crime, cars,slang and what books, movies and songs were popular in the era. (Published 1995 by Writers Digest Books of Cincinnati Ohio) is a very useful resource for a pulp campaign.

[Markdoc]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

I also like "Weird Menace" story lines (man in mask pretends to be monster)' date=' though I don't know of any easily-available sorce of stories written by a particular author.[/quote']

 

In that case, may I introduce Carnacki the ghost finder?

 

http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff4/index.html

 

These cover both "actually, it turned out to be the cat" stories and genuine horripilations.

 

Hodgson is really a crappy writer - his style is lumpen, he tends to repeat himself and the Carnacki stories are a bit formulaic.

 

But.....

 

I read "The Whistling Room" in an anthology at the age of ten or so and it fair curled my toes - one of the very few horror stories that genuinely scared me as a kid. I read "the Hog" just recently (after downloading these stories) late at night, with the wind howling off the North Sea and went to bed feeling genuinely disturbed by it.

 

Also Carnacki's scientific approach to ghost-finding would fit right into most roleplaying campaigns. Recommended.

 

cheers, Mark

[tancred]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

Shadowpup, Dydeetown World is by F. Paul Wilson, author of the Repairman Jack series as well as The Tomb, The Keep, etc.

 

DW was a great read; picked it up at my local used book store just recently. It is a classic pulp tale, IMHO.

[BlackSword]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

To "Blacksword". I don't know how easy it would be to get now but "The Writer's Guide To Everyday Life From Prohibition Through World War ll" by Marc McCutcheon gives lots of useful information about fashion' date=' radio shows, crime, cars,slang and what books, movies and songs were popular in the era. (Published 1995 by Writers Digest Books of Cincinnati Ohio) is a very useful resource for a pulp campaign.[/quote']

It was pretty easy to find on Amazon, but the starting price on Amazon was $72. Thanks for the info, I will keep my eye out for it when I hit used book stores and the like.

[st barbara]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

To Kevin Scrivner I must warn people to be a bit careful with Zane Grey. I found "Riders of the Purple Sage"(Oops ! Almost put "Wage", which is Phil Farmer) to be long winded and filled with descriptive passages that failed to advance the plot ! How many pages does it take to describe a sunset for gosh sakes !

[Markdoc]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

To Kevin Scrivner I must warn people to be a bit careful with Zane Grey. I found "Riders of the Purple Sage"(Oops ! Almost put "Wage"' date=' which is Phil Farmer) [/quote']

 

Farmer also wrote "Spiders of the Purple Mage" the title of which made me smile

[st barbara]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

To "Tancred" I haven't read any of my F Paul Wilson books, but I did see the movie version of "The Keep"and it looked as if it would make a good pulp horror adventure. Because the originals are hard to get I have been looking out for more modern "neo-pulp"style of books like "Congo"by Michael Chrichton, "Big Thunder"by Peter Adkins (or Atkins, not sure but it seems to involve a particularly nasty pulp era vigilante coming to life in the modern era) and "Rare Earth"by Michael Asher which, although it has a modern setting, involves an archaeologist, rival corporations and a quest to get mineral deposits in Africa that would seem to be easily adaptable to a "Pulp"game !

[sinanju]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

IIRDC, the character Erle Stanley Gardner originally created is very muich different from the charfacter Raymond Burr made famous on TV. reading one of the original perry Mason novels from the 40s was a revlatory experience.

 

The original Perry Mason had a lot of rougish charm to him.; Sinking his teeth into a good, scandalous mystery was his favorite part of the pracitce of law, to the point that it frequently got him into trouble. he actually expresses delight when discovering corpses because it means a new challenge to his intellect. Burr's mason, by contrast, is grave to a fault and takes himself and everything around him extremely seriously.l

 

Yes--I highly recommend the Perry Mason novels. I love them. On top of which, many of them were written in the 40s or 50s, and it was truly a different world then. Reading those books will give you a real feel for how that world differed from ours.

 

Also, I highly recommend Peter O'Donnell's MODESTY BLAISE novels. They're more contemporary, but Modesty and Willie are classic pulp-style heroes, and the villains are all black-hearted villains thru and thru, perfect for copying into a campaign (along with the death traps and villainous schemes they employ). I've used the basic plot of LAST DAY IN LIMBO for several different groups of players over the years.

[st barbara]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

I'm not sure that I would call "Modesty Blaise" exactly a PULP character; but then I think that half of the thing with Pulp is the setting (pre 1945). You could probably drop them into a Pulp campaign easily enough (and Lucifer would make a good villain/ally as well !) or create analogs of them. (Hmm give Modesty an unusual , for the period, Martial Art such as Kung Fu and the "trained by a master"advantage and Willie a touch of ninjitsu plus their normal abilities and they might be fun !) You might need to make Modesty a "dashing aviatrix"type to account for her rather masculine taste in clothes, but hey, it could work ! They certainly might make an interesting pair of allies/nemeses for a bunch of P C's.

[sinanju]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

I'm not sure that I would call "Modesty Blaise" exactly a PULP character; but then I think that half of the thing with Pulp is the setting (pre 1945). You could probably drop them into a Pulp campaign easily enough (and Lucifer would make a good villain/ally as well !) or create analogs of them. (Hmm give Modesty an unusual ' date=' for the period, Martial Art such as Kung Fu and the "trained by a master"advantage and Willie a touch of ninjitsu plus their normal abilities and they might be fun !) You might need to make Modesty a "dashing aviatrix"type to account for her rather masculine taste in clothes, but hey, it could work ! They certainly might make an interesting pair of allies/nemeses for a bunch of P C's.[/quote']

 

You wouldn't call Modesty a pulp character? Are you mad? She and Willie are classic pulp-style characters. They're fantastically adept at combat and strategy and countless other adventuring skills, gorgeous/handsome and thoroughly oversexed, and they can't go out to dinner or visit friends without stumbling across a villainous scheme or having bad guys try to take them out pree-emptively.

 

Of course they're pulp characters!

 

Don't make me declare jihad on you!

[st barbara]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

To "Sinanju" Not mad, just careful with my definitions ! As I said I certainly think that Modesty, Willie et al COULD fit in a pulp era campaign, but they would have to be changed a bit, as would other characters such as James Bond. On a slightly different tack I am currently reading a GENUINE Pulp novel "Murder From The East"by Carroll John Daly First written in 1935 and featuring as vengeance driven and trigger happy a hero as anyone could wish for; Race Williams ! Part of my definition of "Pulp"is the setting, roughly the period from the turn of the 20th century and the end of World War 11. After that time it is too easy for technology to get in the way. If you want to include "Modesty Blaise"or "James Bond"or "The Men From Uncle"under a definition of "Pulp", that's fine, but generally I don't, although I do have a tendency to lump most "Lost World"type stories under the definition ! Whether this is simply an idiocincracy or not depends o.n how you want to construct your definition

[sinanju]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

Part of my definition of "Pulp"is the setting' date=' roughly the period from the turn of the 20th century and the end of World War 11. After that time it is too easy for technology to get in the way. [/quote']

 

Ah, well, that explains it. I don't consider the period important, except within _very_ broad parameters. If it has the _feel_ of a pulp story (massively competent heroes, very evil bad guys, lots of action--especially of the "get captured, then wreak havoc during your escape" kind (a staple of Modesty Blaise stories), then it's pulp in my eyes.

[st barbara]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

To "Sinanju" Fair enough ! As I said I have a fairly narrow definition of the "Pulp"time period. Robert Sampson in his multi volume study of the pulps defines it as "from 1896 to about 1957" ("Yesterday's Faces Vol1 pp 2) As I said I would have said 1945 as a finishing point, but you are correct when you say that characters like Modesty Blaise, or James Bond for that matter, owe a lot of their theme and style to the pulps. I still think that I prefer the stories with pre World War 11 technology and think of them as "more"pulp than similarly styled stories set later (Such as "Congo"which has a very "pulp"theme, complete with lost cities et al). Of course characters like Modesty Blaise or James Bond could fit into almost any time period with a bit of effort. You are also right when you suggest that "Pulp"is more about style than period but I still think that MY idea of a "pulp"game would be set between the two world wars !

[Metaphysician]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

Perhaps the term "neopulp" could be applied to pulpish stories set in later eras??

 

Also, the pre-WWII tech restriction conflicts with one major subgenre: pulp sci-fi.

[Prometheus]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

Anyone ever have a look at the comic strip series Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt? I don't know that it fits any of the definitions of "Pulp" given, but the stories have some little bits of the same flavor. I could see some of the plots being lifted, expanded, and polished for a few good Pulp Hero adventures.

[st barbara]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

To "Metaphysician" Neopulp would work. But I tend to use the term for pulp style stories written by modern day (post about 1945) writers.

[st barbara]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

I haven't read "Corto Maltese"(although I think that I saw it on sale). I have noticed however that "Titan Books"is reissuing "Modesty Blaise"in collected form ! Yeah !

[MeritRA]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

Also with the mention of Lovecraft, let us not forget the circle of writers that contributed to the Cthulhu Mythos. Like Robert E. Howard, Clark Aston Smith, August Derleth, and others.

 

Just a few of my favorite writers from the time.

[Barwickian]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

I'm rather late coming to this thread, but I have acouple of useful recommendations for the history/setting aspect of the pulp era.

 

Firstly, The Chronicle of the 20th Century is always a useful starting point for timelines.

 

I have a wonderful book called The World's Peoples and How They Live, published by Odhams Press of London. It's undated, but given the references to the Wandervogel and the Hitler Youth in the section on Germany, it was probably published in the mid-30s. It's also riddled with the 'benign racism', typical of the edutcated British attitude when we had the empire on which the sun never set.

 

Another good source is Stephen King-Hall's Our Own Times (1913-1938), published by Nicholson & Watson, London, in 1938, which looks at what was then modern history, current affairs, culture and economics.

 

The latter two were found in charity bookshops - always a good source of cheap and otherwise totally-unfindable resources.

[pwales]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

try vintagelibrary.com

i got a set of 8 double novels about the spider- a real tough hero

a great anthology of the mags is "the pulps: 50 years of american pulp culture" by tony goodstone

i got a secondhand copy on amazon

for sf pulps, try asimov's "golden age of science fiction"- he was brought up in the 1930s in a newspaper store and read all the sf pulps on sale and this is his collection

english pulp heroes (in books, not mags) include bulldog drummond by sapper

best wishes

[Burrito Boy]

Re: [Pulp] Suggested Reads

 

Lord Liaden beat me to posting the link to The Pulp.net but I figured I'd post my favorite site of those I've found through that one: http://ageofaces.home.att.net/index.htm

 

Click on the Age of Aces icon and you'll find a ton of WWI aerial adventures.

 

By the way, I'll take a look at my pulp collection and post a list of names later.