Thursday, December 18, 2008

PULPS IN OUR FUTURE?


If another Great Depression is in our future, what kind of media will the public demand? My guess is something flamboyant and cathartic, something that'll focus our attention on other people's problems rather than our own...maybe the same kind of story that caught on in the last depression, maybe something gruesome and stylized with lots of action, something like...like the pulps!



If that's the case, then this crisis has a silver lining. The pulps were great! The covers alone were worth the price, and the writing was sometimes surprisingly good. Even the names of the stories were great: how do you like (above)"The Mole Men Want Your Eyes"?



Here's (below) an excerpt from a gangster story. An odd man walks into a diner and has a cup of coffee. When it's time to go...

He stood up unsteadily while his right hand
went to his pocket and came out clutching a dime.
He spun it on the marble counter in the direction of
the pockmarked waiter.
“It’s all I have,” he said sort of cheerfully. “But
I won’t be needing more where I’m going,” he
added.
Then he turned about and faced the front, drew
in a deep breath, threw out his chest, set his mouth
in a grim, thin line and made for the door with eyes
fixed straight ahead.
“Good-by,” he said, as he strode out into the
darkness of the deserted street, still erect, still with
perfect control.
“Good-by,” the waiter repeated dazedly, simply
because he could think of nothing better to say.

HE cold sweat beads stood out lividly on the
Kid’s pasty forehead now. His teeth crunched
and his knees began to tremble just as he stepped
over the threshold and down the single step to the
sidewalk.
The waiter turned his head away and closed his
eyes.
Rat a-tat-tat! Trr-r-r-r-r-r!
A screaming fusillade of sub-machine-gun slugs
splattered against the brick front of the Coffee Pot,
ricocheted off the walls and crashed the plate glass
windows with shattering impact.


Black Mask (above) was for pulp readers with a literary bent.



Here's (below) a story about the Yellow Peril, something that pulps were obsessed with. Here a female Chinese torturer is taken by surprise when the soldier of fortune manages to slip out of his restraints:

The torture-woman backed away, her features
suddenly pale. Shevlin sprang at her. She leaped
backward—
Leaped backward, and crashed full against the vat
of molten lead! It overturned on its stand. The half-
caste woman shrieked in sudden agony as the liquid,
white-hot metal cascaded over the sides of the tottering
vat and ate into her yellow flesh.... She swayed,
staggered, grasped at the sides of the vat to steady
herself. Then, as she toppled to the floor, she pulled
the huge pot of molten metal crashing over on her.
Bubbling molten lead streamed thickly over the
woman’s unclad body in a fiery Niagara of death!
But Tate Shevlin was not looking. He had flung
himself toward the rack upon which the Golden Girl
was bound. Now he slashed at her bonds with his knife.
The leather thongs parted. He started to lift her—
“One more move and I’ll shoot you where you
stand, dog!” a harsh voice snarled from the doorway.
Shevlin whirled—and stared into the muzzle of an
automatic in the hands of General Wu Shang!




Sometimes even the manly adventure pulps ran humorous stories (below):

What a mess for a guy like him to get in, he
thought to himself as he peered at the faint
outlines of the girls’ almost totally unclothed
bodies. Three girls! And he alone with them!
But it wasn’t his fault. The night before
when the gambling ship on which Tuffy worked
as deckhand had been raided by government
officials off the coast of California, he had
suddenly found himself pushed into the boat
with the three girls and told to stay out of sight
while the raid was on.
For an hour they had crouched in silence a
few feet away from the ship. Then, before their
startled eyes, the boat had pulled up anchor and
slipped off into the darkness. They had been
forgotten or deserted, one of the two. It didn’t
matter which.
And here they were, Tuffy Scott, with a
black stubble of beard on his roughly handsome
face, and three blonde girls in dance outfits
consisting of tiny red silk panties.

You have to like men. We're such simple creatures. Give us a story with three naked women on a raft with one man and we're happy. 



Men like weird anamalies too. Here's a paragraph from a story (below) about a murderous bag lady. She decides to bump off another bag lady who's carrying her hard-won life savings in the lining of her coat. In the shadows of a big city alley the two fight it out. Here's (below) how the author describes the motivation of the murderer:

"Annie wanted that money! She was determined
to have it, no matter what the cost. She vaguely
realized she was young no longer. Being ugly in the
bargain made it difficult to make the man she loved
notice her, not to talk of his falling for her. She was
crazy about Joe Thompson who hung around Mick’s
Poolroom Parlor all the time. There was only one
way to make that guy and keep him . . . with money!
If there was enough of it, who knows? He might
even get to marry her. She’d hook him, one way or
the other. All she needed was money and a couple of
gladrags."




Here's (above) a scene I'd love to do in animation: A robotic salt-shaker chicken  runs off with a girl, and is pursued by futuristic motorcycle police across a golf course...the audience would love it! 






25 comments:

Mike Tucker said...

The work of Dean Haspiel is worth the look, such as "Immortal".

Anonymous said...

That robotic salt shaker would enhance a water hazard.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Here's a comment from Charles Brubaker:

For the past few days I've been reading your blog. One I pay close attention, of course, are animation related.

I particulary enjoyed your take on the script vs. storyboarding debate that's going on in the animation industry. I agree with your take on how most script-based animation are done by people who would rather work in live-action.

It inspired me to write about what is probably the first ever live-action sitcom disguised as an animation - the 1961 ABC series "Calvin and the Colonel"

In fact, the sole purpose of "Calvin" WAS to disguise a live-action sitcom.

http://bakertoons.blogspot.com/2008/12/calvin-and-colonel.html

Unfortunately I can't judge the visual aspect properly because the only copies I have are in black and white. The show was made in color but ABC took it off the air before color television became mainstream. Judging by it though it seems that the artists working on the backgrounds made sure that the art translates well in b&w.

Do you know if ASIFA have any materials on this particular animated sitcom?

Charles Brubaker

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Charles: I watched as much as I could, but it was painful and I had to stop. You're right, this really is an Amos n' Andy live action TV show transferred to animation, and it doesn't work at all.

John A said...

Pulps may make a comeback, but we'll never see cover art like that again. Maybe from some independent publisher, but no major name will shell out the bucks to put fun art on their magazines anymore. Photoshop has pretty much killed classic illustation.

I love the hard sell approach to selling magazines back then. Every cover seems to be screaming, "Buy Me!Forget your boring life! Give me your pocket change in exchange for thrills beyond belief! Sex! Violence! Guns! Robots! Why are you still reading this? Why aren't you running home with me right now? Buy Me, Dammit!"

Shawn Dickinson said...

That would be GREAT if pulps made a comeback!!! I love that stuff! Suspenseful, manly stories with great cover art to boot! I often buy vintage pulps whenever I find them, simply for the artwork. But the stories are good too. "The Mole Men Want Your Eyes", hahaha! What a great title!

Anyone who likes pulp art should check out this book Men's Adventure:

http://www.amazon.com/Mens-Adventure-Magazines-Postwar-America/dp/3836503123/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229799838&sr=8-1

It's a big thick book, packed with almost 352 pages of pulp art from men's adventure mags, and the price is REALLY good for the quantity (and quality) of material.

Unfortunately, I doubt that the majority of the A.D.D. infected population today will ever have the attention spans to read pulps again. At least not enough for pulps to ever make a comeback. I think TV and the internet has ruined readers' mentality and attention spans for good. It's a shame. But, it's still fun to hope!

Shawn Dickinson said...

Hey, Charles. I watched "Calvin and the Colonel". I agree with Eddie. I think it's a good idea, but I don't think it works.

That title sequence at the beginning is great though! Those fonts along with that lively organ music sends me!

SEAN said...

Uncle Eddie, i pray to god that you're right. Nothing would make me happier or more money.

Barbasaurus Rex said...

You said a mouthful!! I am addicted to pulps. Eddie you always have your pulse on what rocks. Check out my pulp cover - http://talesofwhoa-meat.blogspot.com/

Ricardo Cantoral said...

I like how the art work is all realistic but the subject matter is extremely retarted.

Julian said...

Do you ever check Project Gutenberg, there's alot of pulps on that site. I enjoy looking through it for the stories with the craziest names, stuff like Satan's Incubator!

Anonymous said...

Almost as retarded as misspelling the word retarded.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Mike: Dean Haspiel? Thanks! I'll look it up!

Freckled: Wow! I'm always forgetting about how much good stuff is on your blogs!

Julian: Gutenberg has pulps!!!!??? Great! Thanks for the tip!

Anonymous said...

What do you think of Johns take on underground comics? I mostly agree, they're like classic comic strips if they were drawn in hell. I really don't care for the veneer of irony and cynicism that drips off of most "alt" comics

Anonymous said...

Please,stop and finish the attacks to PC or to anyone!! he has the same right as you to make comments.

Justin said...

I love pulps! I don't expect a resurrection any time soon though. Just the same old crappy magazines like People and Fangoria, but because of the second depression, they'll be on crappy paper. I guess that makes them "pulps" in a sense, but not technically.

Great post! Makes me want to go to a fleamarket and scrounge up some of those pulpy gems!

Ricardo Cantoral said...

Jorge: ALMOST !

Anonymous said...

I've never understood how the pulp novelist became the standard loser archetype in detective novels and such. Guys got his own place, a cool noir aesthetic going on, a hot girlfriend who even though she constantly nags him and calls him a loser still has sex with him.

I'd take that life in a second!

Ricardo Cantoral said...

Anon: Relax, Jorge meant nothing personal. He just wanted to be a smart-ass as usual. ;)

Anonymous said...

There's always been sensational literature and, since Gutenberg created a consumer market in sensational literature, sensational literature for lower class price ranges and tastes.

Today's pulps are comics and video games. The economics that made pulps possible in the 1920s/30s (replacing dime novels of the late 19th/early 20th century and their English cousins, the penny dreadfuls) gave way to digests in the late 40s/early 50s. Now the digests are virtually gone.

There are no mass markets for short stories and novelettes. The Internet provides free trashy fun (and I use "trashy" affectionately here, since I love the old pulps).

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Mike: I just read one of Dean Haspiel's comics! Impressive! Thanks for the tip!

Buzz: It's my fault for neglecting to say it, but what I really meant was the pulp sensibility translated into current types of media.

RedDiabla said...

Eddie: it was a blast meeting you at the Animation Guild holiday party, and I wasn't lying when I said that I LOVE your blog!

The pulps were great; I think the modern equivalent(*cough choke*) would be all the "reality" shows that are on now. A VERY distant second in terms of quality, but it goes to show what crap eveyone's willing to take.

Happy Holidays!

RD

Anonymous said...

Pulp sensibilites have long been present in contemporary media. Video games like GRAND THEFT AUTO are crime pulps, HALO is sci-fi, WORLD OF WARCRAFT is fantasy, RESIDENT EVIL is horror, etc. TV shows and movies have been pulp for quite some time (in fact, that's what's wrong with most of 'em -- they have a pulp mentality without the excuse of lack of resources).

Anonymous said...

Live action prime time TV shows may not have the excuse of a lack of resources but TV animation budgets have been in the crapper for most of this decade.

Kirk Nachman said...

wonderful cover selections, Ed.