Pulp Power, a 352-page coffee table book, displays over a 100 gorgeous pulp magazine covers in breath-taking color. In his Foreword, Frank Miller expounds on the impact pulp fiction characters like The Shadow, Doc Savage, Nick Carter, and others had on our contemporary writers and artists.
Neil McGinness provides insightful histories of The Shadow and Doc Savage. He also explores the illustrators like Jim Steranko and James Bana. Bana says, “I read all 62 Doc novels that I did the covers for. And the editors let me do whatever I wanted for the cover paintings. That’s why they were so good.” (p. 274)
I’ve looked at plenty of books about pulp magazines and their artwork, but Pulp Power is stunning! If you’re a fan of this genre, you need to check this out! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword — 8
Chapter 1. The Shadow — 12
Chapter 2. Doc Savage — 142
Chapter 3. The super crew — 224
Chapter 4. Paperback revolution — 268
Chapter 5. Comics evolution — 304
Chapter 6. A new future — 336
Acknowledgments — 350
Credits — 352
George the Tempter strikes again! This one sound like a good one!
Jerry, PULP POWER delivers plenty of bang for the buck! And, weighing in at almost 6 pounds, you can also work on your pectoral muscles!
So, I’d probably like this heavyweight book a bushel and a “pec.”
Jerry, well said! You certainly know how to “pec” them!
And actually about pulp fiction (and even more illustration of pulp fiction). Latter-day “scholars ” might even insist its focus Too Narrow, since it doesn’t call the paperbacks “pulps”…
Todd, even this Super-Size format book can’t cover the whole Pulp genre. The major players and the eye-popping artwork is here. That’s enough for me!
Oh, my point remains that pulps are pulps. Paperbacks and digests aren’t.
By the time I became really aware of this stuff my reading tastes had moved beyond it. A few years earlier and I might at least have tried it.
Michael, I got hooked on the paperback reprints of The Shadow and Doc Savage. By then, the original pulps were outside my price range. But, I love these marvelous books with hundreds of classic covers!
I find most pulp writing pretty bad except for a few weird Tales and Black Mask writers. I like the cover illustrations usually more interesting than the stories.
Steve, you’re right about the cover artwork holding up better than the actual stories which can be quite dated.
A with everything, sifting for the good work is necessary.
Nice. Love the artwork, but zero interest in Doc Savage. I have seen Walter Gibson talk a couple of times and read a few of his Shadows, but no eal interest there either. Gibson was a wonderful character himself.
Jeff, Walter Gibson and Lester Dent could pound out a million words a year. The downside of such prolific writing results in stories that might not hold up 80 years later. But, the artwork certainly does!
Not all of it…https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2013/06/some-extremely-unimpressive-fiction.html
Bama. James Bama. Interviewed in Comickazi 1 by me and Robert Jack Juanillo.
Bob, James Bama’s covers on the paperback editions of DOC SAVAGE ignited interest and sales!
You wrote Bana.
Bob, no…WORDPRESS wrote Bana after I wrote Bama! It also changed Bama to Mama in an early version! WORDPRESS is the bane of my existence!