The Pulps

I'm not 100% certain how I first became aware of pulp magazines, but the book pictured above was certainly an early clue. I recall seeing the hardcover collection The Pulps at World Of Books in North Syracuse in the early '70s, maybe as early as 1971, but probably '72 or so. It was one of a number of books that caught my eye all at the same time, right alongside comic book celebrations All In Color For A Dime, Jules Feiffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes, and Crown Books' Superman From The 30's To The 70's and Batman From The 30's To The 70's. Edited by Tony Goodstone, The Pulps was the only one of these books that I didn't acquire in that early time frame. I was certainly intrigued by it nonetheless.



My real indoctrination into the world of pulp magazines came via Steranko's History Of Comics, I'd say around 1974. My high school library had both volumes of Steranko's captivating account of the Golden Age of comics, and I spent a lot of time immersing myself in those books. Steranko's chapter on "The Bloody Pulps" fascinated me, and fanned the flames of my nascent interest in The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Avenger, The Spider, Operator 5, The Phantom Detective, The Black Bat, and G-8 And His Battle Aces. 

(What's that? I should have been studying when I was in the school library? Ahem. Just move along.)



I read my first pulp adventure--The Land Of Terror, a Doc Savage paperback--before reading Steranko's account of the pulps, and possibly/probably before spying The Pulps at World Of Books. I told my story of discovering Doc Savage here--a sequel describing my discovery of The Shadow is forthcoming--and of my teenage fascination with superpulp paperbacks here. 



Somewhere in there, I picked up my first pulp anthology, The Fantastic Pulps (edited by Peter Haining), plus my very first actual pulp magazine, a flea market purchase of a forgotten random issue of Dime Detective. The flea market also provided me with a copy of The Crime Oracle And The Teeth Of The Dragon, a trade paperback reprint of two vintage Shadow pulp novels, reprints which included the illustrations from the original pulps (something the paperback reprints lacked). 





In the '80s, when I was living in Buffalo, I snagged a few more ragged pulps at the flea market. In later years I also bought some of Anthony Tollins' exquisite pulp reprints starring The Shadow and Doc Savage, and some Black Bat and Spider books, too.

And I finally did buy a copy of Tony Goodstone's The Pulps. Some time early in this newfangled new millennium, I saw a used copy on display (in very good shape) at Metropolis Books, one of the best little book shops that ever was. Metropolis was also in North Syracuse, pretty much kitty-corner across the street from where World Of Books used to be. I told Metropolis owner Mike Paduana about seeing The Pulps on the shelf when I was eleven or twelve, and gestured in the direction of the cafe that now occupied the hallowed ground that had once been World Of Books. And I mentioned to Mike how I always wanted that book when I was a kid, but never got around to getting it.

Mike kinda looked at me for a second before saying, "What are you waiting for? You know you're gonna buy it today."



Yep. Mike was right. Years later, it's on my bookshelf next to The Great Comic Book Heroes. Some things just take time.

Back cover of my Amazing Stories pulp, offered here for my friends in The Charlton Arrow Facebook group, a fine bunch of folks who have a thing about Uranus. And who wouldn't have a thing about Uranus?

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