Pulp Reading

[Andrea]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

Posted by st barbara "I don't know "The Footprints on the Ceiling", but it sounds like a "locked room" whodunnit !"

 

In some way it is a whodunnit but it has many pulp elements, the eerie setting, the shady cottage, and a magician as the investigator ( I think that Glen David Gold owes much to Rawson).

I think that also "No coffin for the corpse" from the same author is really worth reading.

 

I trasformed both the two books in Cthulhu adventures and were very aprreciated by the PCs so I think that can be a good resource even for Pulp Heroes

[demonjuice]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

I am suprised no one has mentioned the superlative pulitzer prize winning tome " Freedom From Fear: the American People in Depression and War 1929-1945" by David M. Kenedy. It gives incredible insites into the personalities and character of the era in a engaging and easy to relate to way.

 

also for a more global perspective on the era there is ' The Dark Valley: a panoram of the 1930s" by Piers Brendon - not as strong or intimate, but a solid overview of the era.

[Steve Long]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

Good suggestions, demonjuice -- thanx! Even better, they're both available at my local library. I've already spent plenty of money on reference books; I'd just as soon save a little this time.

[demonjuice]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

I haven't seen a couple great books of pulp art listed here, and a great site for free digital pulp stories:

 

1- "Pulp Culture: the Art of Fiction Magazines" by Frank M Robinson (independant puplishers pop culture book of the year) it has 100s of covers with lots of info on the artists, the culture, and the industry

 

2- "Pulp Art: Original Cover Paintings for the Great American Pulp Magazines" by Robert Lesser - lots of covers and interviews

 

3- Pulp Gen over 500 free pulp pdfs to download all referencing the original publication, and most have the original graphics

http://pulpgen.com/pulp/downloads/index.html

[st barbara]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

A book which I received as a present last christmas which may interest Pulp fans is "The Classic Era Of Crime Fiction" by Peter Haining (Prion Books , U K, 2002) Starting with Edgar Allan Poe and going through to John Le Carre . Lots of illos and some useful information with lots of characters covered (albeit lightly) including such less well known characters as "The Thinking Machine" and "Dr Nikola".

[Nyrath]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

Some of "The Thinking Machine" stories are on-line here. Everybody's favorite is "The Problem of Cell 13". He is sort of a querlous Sherlock Holmes, an irritable genius scientist who cannot understand why everybody else is so stupid.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

My current reading material that is making me want to run a pulp game is the current run of Hawkamn. Not a character I have followed in the past but the stories are set in Louisiana within the context of a museum and a main character who is a multiply reincarnated soul of an Egyptian prince.

 

Very atmospheric even though it is set in the modern day.

 

 

 

Doc

[AnotherSkip]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

Actually Steve if you don't mind some adult reading and know of a place to get the goods Playboy did an overview of society during certain eras (1800's-1940's+ by decade) in 1997, with a focus on you know what, though not exclusively.

 

Copies can be provided from my stock if you want them.

 

 

I read them for the articles don't cha' know....

 

Really.

 

No really.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

S.M.Stirling's "Peshwar Lancers" novel has a good pulpy feel, IMO. Alternate history of post-apocalypse Victorian world, where center of the British Empire is now in India. Intrigue, swordplay, Russian Satanists...it's a good read.

[st barbara]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

I haven't read "Peshawar Lancers" yet but, to illustrate a point about "pulp" (or "NeoPulp") being all around I am reading "After The Puce Empress" by Geoffrey McSkimming (an Australian author). It is a book written for teenagers I think (certainly not very violent so far) but it contains many Pulp elements; a brave heroine given a mysterious artifact by a stranger who promptly dissapears; setting the heroine on am adventure to return a piece of puce jade to an ancient statue in China. She is followed by a magician out to gain "real magical power" from the statue, and assisted by a mysterious German lady with a remarkably useful walking stick . It could be turned into a Pulp Hero adventure with the greatest of ease !

[JmOz]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

It's a relativly modern comic book but:

 

Sandman Mystery Theater from DC Comics, I beleive they have put out 3 TPB to date. While it is "Masked Mystery Man" style so delves a little into Champions, it definatly has the pulp feel to it

 

Another title, that I don't know if it is really a pulp tytle to it, but it definatly has the feel sometimes was "Starman" from DC (The most recent) Again a bit of a hybrid with Champions...

[Fazhoul]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

I might recommend (especially for those who want to play a "pulp" detective) both the works of Max Allan Collins' date=' especially the novels featuring Nate Heller, a Chicago P I;[/quote']

I can second the recommendation of the Nathan Heller novels. Max Allan Collins is a master at mixing fictional characters with historic people and events. The first three books (True Crime, True Detective & the Million-Dollar Wound) have recently been rereleased in paperback as the "Frank Nitti Triliogy". Excellent pulp detective stories.

[Fazhoul]

Pulp & Pulp Era References

 

OK, I've worked up a list of books and materials that I have for my pulp games. I've not listed the Doc Savage, Shadow, Avenger, Spider, Operator 5 and Fu Manchu novels since they have all been mentioned previously. I also decided not to list the dozens of books on mythology that I have. Also, the best book on the list, The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life from the Prohibition through WWII is OOP and costs anywhere from $75 - $132 in the used bookstores online. I don't know why Writer's Digest Books hasn't kept the book in print.

 

The list is a Word document created in Office XP (2003). Let me know if you need it in a different format.

[st barbara]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

Thanks for the list "Fazhoul" I must try to get a copy of "Flying Blind". The first "Pulp" game I ever tried to run ("Daredevils") involved the PC's trying to rescue an Amelia Earhart analog !

[Fazhoul]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

Thanks for the list "Fazhoul" I must try to get a copy of "Flying Blind". The first "Pulp" game I ever tried to run ("Daredevils") involved the PC's trying to rescue an Amelia Earhart analog !

I'm glad to see someone checked out my reading list. I was afraid that it had gotten lost in the shuffle. I personally don't know how good Flying Blind is since I haven't read that far in the series yet but my mom and my mother-in-law both loved it.

[SKJAM!]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

Adventure House just put out four new pulp reprints: Don Winslow of the Navy, Spicy Mystery Stories and Saucy Movie Tales (x2). the June 1936 Saucy Movie Tales has a story, "Yellow Peril in Hollywood" which is...astoundingly racist, in a "did the author even have a clue?" way.

[st barbara]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

To "SKJAM" Unfortunately a lot of the Pulp writing was "astonishingly racist". Orientals were almost always evil, blacks were ignorant and superstitious etc. For role playing purposes I think that it can be best to ignore some of the less palatable conventions.

[SKJAM!]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

When I say "astonishingly racist" I mean "rancid even by the standards of 1936 pulp magazines." I've read quite a bit of this stuff, after all.

[The Monster]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

Philip Jose Farmer's biographies of Doc Savage and Tarzan (can't recall the titles off-the-cuff) I found good reading and added a bit of inspiration to my campaign. After reading these, my wife and I realized that the "mystery man" who'd been backing the heroes all these years must have been Doc Savage himself! The revelation was as thrilling to the other players as it was to me!

 

What I enjoyed is Farmer's ability to pull in so many pulp-style heroes - from the Scarlet Pimpernel on up - into a loosely related bloodline, drawing inferences from descriptions and attitudes among them.

[Koshka]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

From this week's update:

... though I did just order a couple more books, including what looks to be a darn good one about voodoo in Haiti circa 1930.

 

Sounds tempting, got a title/author for us?

[Steve Long]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

William Seabrook, The Magic Island.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

Philip Jose Farmer's biographies of Doc Savage and Tarzan (can't recall the titles off-the-cuff) I found good reading and added a bit of inspiration to my campaign.

Lord of the Trees is the one about Tarzan. I don't believe I've ever read the Doc Savage one.

[Koshka]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

Thanks, Steve

 

(off to check online bookstores .... )

[Fazhoul]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

The Doc Savage books by Philip Jose Farmer were:

 

A Feast Unknown - Not for the squeamish but a great, great book. Two of Farmer's all time favorite characters, Tarzan and Doc Savage (called Caliban here), do their best to kill each other. There is one problem though, they are being manipulated by a secret group called The Nine and every act of violence results in an erection and to kill results in an orgasm. Farmer does have an explanation for this and has a lot of fun with history in the process. This book has everything that Farmer does well, a must read.

 

Doc Savage: His Apocolyptic Life - Everything you ever wanted to know about Doc Savage and some stuff that Farmer figured out on his own. Farmer links this work to Tarzan Alive by the extended family tree that is in the front of both books. There are lots of other famous people, both real and imagined, in this amazing family.

 

The descriptions above were taken from the Official PJF Web Site.

[ThothAmon]

Re: Pulp Reading

 

The Doc Savage books by Philip Jose Farmer were:

 

A Feast Unknown - Not for the squeamish but a great, great book. Two of Farmer's all time favorite characters, Tarzan and Doc Savage (called Caliban here), do their best to kill each other. There is one problem though, they are being manipulated by a secret group called The Nine and every act of violence results in an erection and to kill results in an orgasm. Farmer does have an explanation for this and has a lot of fun with history in the process. This book has everything that Farmer does well, a must read.

 

Doc Savage: His Apocolyptic Life - Everything you ever wanted to know about Doc Savage and some stuff that Farmer figured out on his own. Farmer links this work to Tarzan Alive by the extended family tree that is in the front of both books. There are lots of other famous people, both real and imagined, in this amazing family.

 

The descriptions above were taken from the Official PJF Web Site.

 

You missed the novel 'The Mad Goblin' which is the Doc Savage equivalent novel to the Tarzan novel 'Lord of The Trees' . Both these novels are sequels to 'A Feast Unknown' noted above and both involve further adventures against the Nine. Also known by an alternative title 'Keepers Of The Secrets'.

 

Further worthy PJF reading is the novel 'White Tyger' which (SPOILER AHEAD HIGHLIGHT TO SEE) has a Tarzan protagonist who is actually a Nazi genetic / sociological experiment. Recommended as a real headf*ck.