Welcome to Cyclopaedia 32: Pulp Heroes. Cyclopaedia is a monthly article on the InnRoads Ministries website. I remember watching Tales of the Gold Monkey as a kid and falling in love with the 1930s time period and the hero of the series. Then soon after watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and King Solomon’s Mines. I was hooked on the brash, chivalrous, two-fisted heroes fending off villains in exotic locations. I loved superhero comics and cartoons, but I felt closer to this pulp heroes. They felt more realistic and approachable. Overtime the masked avengers of The Shadow, The Phantom, and The Spider fascinated me with their street level heroics. The pulp heroes were believable even with their fantastical abilities. Grab your favorite pair of .45-caliber semi-automatic pistols, crack your knuckles, put your newest pseudoscience gadget in your bag, and let’s go save the world.
If you have questions about this article or topics you would like me to consider researching for future Cyclopaedia articles, please leave a comment below.
Overview
Do you like your heroes and villains over-the-top? Do you enjoy two-fisted tales of action and adventure? Then the heroes of the pulp magazines of the late 1800s and early 1900s would excite you. The term pulps come from the reference to low-quality literature on inexpensive paper. Although some later famous authors and artists were to work on the pulps, the stories themselves were often considered sensational, exploitive, and rushed. Yet that is what made them so popular among the masses. The pulp magazines led to the penny dreadfuls, dime novels, and comic books.
For a minimal cost, readers were swept away on fantastical adventures of mystery, crime, romance, westerns, horror, science fiction, and masked avengers. For this article, we are focusing on the heroic and masked avenger pulps made famous with The Black Bat, Domino Lady, Doc Savage, The Phantom, The Shadow, The Spider, Zorro, and many others. For other stories, see other Cyclopaedias on Noir, Space Opera, Sword & Sorcery, and Wild West.
Argosy Magazine is seen as the first official pulp magazine and set the tone for all the others to come. Low costs for writers, the pulp paper, and printing led to affordable entertainment for the masses and allowed authors to stretch their imagination as they wrote quickly. They are stories of their time period and culture, so they don’t always age well for readers today. Yet, these stories were the predecessors to the scifi, superheroes, and action heroes we love today!
The Most Popular Pulp Magazines
There were over 150 pulp magazines in print at one time but these stood out as the greatest with the most significant stories and greatest longevity:
- Adventure
- Amazing Stories
- Argosy Magazine
- Black Mask
- Blue Book
- Dime Detective
- Flying Aces
- Marvel Tales
- Planet Stories
- Startling Stories
- Thrilling Wonder Stories
- Weird Tales
- Western Story Magazine
Following are sources of information pertaining to Pulp Heroes to assist prospective game masters, game designers, writers, and storytellers in knowing where to start their research.
ARTICLES
From Pulp Hero to Superhero: Culture, Race, and Identity in American Popular Culture, 1900-1940
By Chambliss, Julian and Svitasvsky, William
Source: https://scholarship.rollins.edu/as_facpub/2/
BOOKS
The Age of Dimes and Pulps: A History of Sensationalist Literature, 1830–1960
By Agnew, Jeremy
The Age of the Storytellers: British Popular Fiction Magazines, 1880-1950
By Ashley, Michael
Amazing Stories: Giant 35th Anniversary Issue
By Bradbury, Ray and Burroughs, Edgar Rice
Anti-Foreign Imagery in American Pulps and Comic Books, 1920–1960
By Madison, Nathan Vernon
The Art of the Pulps: An Illustrated History
By Ellis, Douglas and Hulse, Ed
The Best of Amazing Stories: The 1940 Anthology: Special Retro-Hugo Edition
By Wilcox, Don
Buckaroo Banzai
By Rauch, Earl Mac
The Call of Cthulhu
By Lovecraft, H. P.
Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of the Pulp Magazines
By Goulart, Ron
The Classic Era of American Pulp Magazines
By Haining, Peter
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
By Farmer, Philip Jose
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze
By Robeson, Kenneth
Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers
By Server, Lee
The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes
By Nevins, Jess
The Fantastic Pulps
By Haining, Peter
The Great Pulp Heroes
By Hutchison, Don
Hellboy – Comic Book
How to Write Pulp Fiction
By Bell, James Scott
Indiana Jones and the Longship of the Gods
By Hohlbein, Wolfgang
Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi
By Macgregor, Rob
It’s A Man’s World: Men’s Adventure Magazines, The Postwar Pulps, Expanded Edition
By Parfrey, Adam
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Comic Book
A Princess of Mars
By Burroughs, Edgar Rice
Pulp Art
By Lesser, Robert
Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines
By Robinson, Frank M.
The Pulps: Fifty Years of American Pop Culture
By Goodstone, Tony
The Pulps: A Yearly Guide
By Nevins, Jess
The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
By Howard, Robert E.
The Shadow – Comic Book
Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio
By DeForest, Tim
Tarzan of the Apes
By Burroughs, Edgar Rice
Weird Tales: Seven Decades of Terror
By Betancourt, John and Weinberg, Robert
Young Indiana Jones and the Plantation Treasure
By McCay, William
GAMES
.45 Adventure: Crimefighting Action in the Pulp Era – Tabletop Game
Adventure! – RPG
The Adventurers: The Pyramid of Horus – Tabletop Game
The Adventurers: The Temple of Chac – Tabletop Game
Arkham Horror – Tabletop Game
Ernest Evans – Video Game
Feng Shui – RPG
Fireball Island – Tabletop Game
Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game – Tabletop Game
The Adventures of Indiana Jones Role-Playing Game – RPG
John Carter: Warlord of Mars – Tabletop Game
Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes – RPG
Pulp Adventure – RPG
Pulp Era: Cinematic Adventures in the Yesteryear! – RPG
Pulp Cthulhu – RPG
Pulp Fantastic – RPG
Pulp Hero – RPG
Race to Adventure – Tabletop Game
The Spirit of the Century – RPG
Thrilling Tales – RPG
Tomb Raider – Video Game
Two-Fisted Tales – RPG
Uncharted – Video Game
Uncharted: Board Game – Tabletop Game
CINEMA
The Adventures of Bricso County, Jr. – TV
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The Adventures of Tintin
At the Earth’s Core
Biggles: Adventures in Time
Big Trouble in Little China
The Call of Cthulhu
Captain America: The First Avenger
Darkman
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze
Fantômas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine
Firewalker
The Green Hornet
Greystoke
Gunga Din
Hellboy
High Road to China
Hooten and the Lady – TV
Jonny Quest – TV
Judex
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
King Kong
King Solomon’s Mines
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The Legend of Tarzan
Librarians – TV
The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
Lost Horizon
The Lost World
The Mask of Fu Manchu
The Mask of Zorro
The Mummy
National Treasure
The Phantom
The Rocketeer
Red Tails
Relic Hunter – TV
Romancing the Stone
The Shadow
The Shadow Strikes
Sheena
Sin City
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Solomon Kane
The Spider’s Web
Tales of the Gold Monkey – TV
Tarzan the Ape Man
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Tomb Raider
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – TV
Zorro – TV
LOCATIONS
PulpFest
http://www.pulpfest.com
Pulp Fiction at the Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/pulp.html
Pulp Magazines Project
https://pulpmags.org/
Tarzana
http://www.tarzana.ca/
PEOPLE
Lars Anderson
Walter Baumhofer
Rudolph Belarski
Earle K. Bergey
Margaret Brundage
Edgar Rice Burroughs
John W. Campbell
Edd Cartier
Raymond Chandler
Robert H. Davis
Lester Dent
Lee Falk
John Philip Falter
Virgil Finlay
Walter B. Gibson
Maxwell Grant
Arthur Sullivant Hoffman
Robert E. Howard
L. Ron Hubbard
Gloria Stoll Karn
Murray Leinster
H.P. Lovecraft
Jess Nevins
Frank R. Paul
Henry W. Ralston
George Rozen
Norman Saunders
Doc Savage
Joseph T. Shaw
E.E. Smith
Harry Steeger
Hugh J. Ward
Farnsworth Wright
I hope you find these resources informative and inspiring for your adventures, storytelling, or game design.
Stay Creative!
T.R. Knight
( If you would like to save this list of resources as a convenient PDF for later reference, you can find that HERE )
WHO IS T.R. KNIGHT?
He is a freelance editor, proofreader, and writer in the game industry. He is also a Husband and Caregiver to his wife Angie, Father of Twins Emily and Rachel, Gardner and Hobby Chef, and Director of Academic Technology and User Services at Taylor University. You can learn more about T.R. at his blog http://www.thomasrknight.com.