Pulp magazine
Pulp fiction redirects here. For the 1994 film, see Pulp Fiction.
|
Flynn's Detective Fiction from 1941. |
Pulp magazines (or
pulp fiction; often referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive
fiction magazines. They were widely published from the
1920s through the
1950s. The term
pulp fiction can also refer to
mass market paperbacks since the
1950s.
The name "pulp" comes from the cheap
wood pulp paper on which such magazines were printed. Magazines printed on better paper and usually offering family-oriented content were often called "glossies" or "slicks". Pulps were the successor to the "
penny dreadfuls", "
dime novels", and short fiction magazines of the
nineteenth century. Although many respected writers wrote for pulps, the magazines are perhaps best remembered for their fast-paced, lurid,
sensational and
exploitative stories and thrilling cover art. Modern
superhero comic books are sometimes considered a descendent of "hero pulps"; pulp magazines often featured illustrated novel-length stories of heroic characters such as
the Shadow,
Doc Savage, and
the Phantom Detective. However the pulps were aimed more at adult readers whereas comic books were traditionally written for children and adolescents.
Because of the copyright laws at the time, there were distinct lines of this sort of magazine in Britain as well. These magazines, called "
story papers", were distributed throughout the British Empire. Story paper characters such as
Sexton Blake and
Nelson Lee were similar to American pulp characters. At the time, there was no global media market, so even though these were written in the same language, there was no recognition of the characters by each nation, just as in much of television today.
Pulp covers were famous for their half-dressed
damsels in distress, usually awaiting a rescuing
hero.
The first "pulp" is considered to be
Frank Munsey's revamped
Argosy Magazine of
1896. The format eventually declined (especially in the 1950s) with rising paper costs, competition from
comic books,
television, and the
paperback novel. Most remaining pulp magazines are
science fiction or
mystery magazines now in digest form. The format is still in use for some lengthy serials, like the German science fiction weekly
Perry Rhodan (over 2300 issues as of
2005).
A common misconception is that 'pulp fiction' is limited in scope to
1940s adventure fiction in the vein of
Indiana Jones. While such fiction is, in fact, encompassed under the heading of 'pulp fiction', the heading itself is by no means limited to describing
only that type of fiction.
Pulp magazines often contained a wide variety of
genre fiction, including, but not limited to,
detective/
mystery,
science fiction,
adventure,
westerns (also see
Dime Western),
war,
sports,
railroad,
men's adventure ("the sweats"),
romance,
horror/
occult ("weird menace"), and
Série Noire (French crime mystery). The
American Old West was a mainstay genre of early
turn of the century novels as well as later pulp magazines, and lasted longest of all the traditional pulps.
Many classic science fiction and crime novels were originally
serialised in pulp magazines such as
Weird Tales,
Amazing Stories, and
Black Mask.
Popular regular pulp fiction characters included:
*
The Avenger*
Biggles*
Hopalong Cassidy*
Conan the Barbarian*
Philo Gubb*
Doc Savage*
G-8*
John Carter of Mars*
Operator No. 5*
Sexton Blake*
The Black Bat*
The Eel*
The Phantom Detective*
The Shadow*
The Spider*
Tarzan*
ZorroKilgore Trout, the perennial character in the work of
Kurt Vonnegut, is a fictional pulp fiction writer.
Many well-known authors began their careers writing for pulps under assumed names. Well-known authors who wrote for the pulps include:
*
Frank A. Munsey Co.*
Popular Publications*
Better/Standard/Thrilling*
Street & Smith*
Hugo GernsbackAfter the year 2000, several small independent publishers released magazines which published short fiction, either short stories or novel-length presentations, in the tradition of the pulp magazines of the early twentieth century. These included
Blood 'N Thunder and
High Adventure. There was also a short lived magazine which revived the title
Argosy. These were specialist publications printed in limited press runs. These were pointedly not printed on the brittle, high-acid wood pulp paper of the old publications, and were not mass market publications targeted at a wide audience.
* Lesser, Robert.
Pulp Art: Original Cover Paintings for the Great American Pulp Magazines (Book Sales, 2003) ISBN 0785817077
* Parfrey, Adam, et. al.
It's a Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines, the Postwar Pulps (Feral House, 2003) ISBN 0922915814
*
The PULP! exhibition Pulpy photographs - from the www.telerealite.net art project by Olivier Marrache.
*
Pulp Magazine (Philippines)*
"Pulp and Adventure Heroes of the Pre-War Years":
Jess Nevins' compendium of pulp characters.
*
CNN: "Girls, Guns, and money" article November 2005*
Mammoth Pulp Pulpy tales of suspense - free on-line.
*
Cliffhanger Case Files Original stories inspired by the Pulps of yesteryear.
*
The Pulp.Net*
Hero Pulps*
Dr Hermes Reviews Reviews of hundreds of pulp novels and short stories
* http://www.spittel.de/sf/heftromane_net/index.htm // covers of German language pulp since 1945
*
Tales From the Vault! Canadian Pulp Fiction 1940-1952 Canadian pulp art and fiction collection.
*
Pulpgen.com Stories scanned from pulp magazines of the early to mid 1900s.
*
Dime Western*
Hard Case Crime*
Lesbian pulp fiction*
List of role-playing games by genrePulp Fiction motion picture
*
:Category:Pulp stories
