Amazing Tales - The Graphic Design of the Pulps

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Action and Adventure

Weird science. Creatures from beyond space and time. Cowboys meting out justice with dual six-guns. Spicy stories of forbidden love. Masked vigilantes fighting dark criminal syndicates and corrupt politicians. Great white hunters delving into Darkest Africa. Streetwise detectives walking a thin line between the law and the truth. The pulp magazines of the early twentieth century told all of these stories. Growing out of the adventure serials of the Victorian era, the pulps spanned many genres and had a heyday lasting more than two decades. The publishing format was united by a few commonalities – the cheap stock of paper used to print the magazines (hence the name “pulps”), the rapid pace of publishing, and the unrelenting focus on action, thrills, and suspense. Though the rate and volume at which these works were published tended to encourage workmanlike, pedestrian style, a few pulp writers rose above the limitations of the style and became members of the literati. These were aut hors such as Tennessee Williams, Robert E. Howard, Raymond Chandler, H.P. Lovecraft, and Dashiell Hammet. Regardless of genre, the best pulp authors provided their readership with thought-provoking, taught prose.

The Hero Pulps

The Shadow. The Spider. Doc Savage. The “hero pulps” are the archetypal genre for pulp publishing. The direct ancestor of the pulps’ most famous descendant, the comic book superhero, the protagonist of the hero pulps would be familiar to fans of Batman, Captain America, and Spider-man. Commonly presented as a solitary man driven to punish criminals and avenge injustice, the pulp hero was usually far more morally ambiguous than his four-color comic book relative. Often the villain in these stories did not end the tale by being thrown in jail or meeting a dubious death with an absent corpse. Rather, the pulp hero had no qualms about using lethal force to prevent criminals from further menacing society.

Example titles: The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Spider

The Adventure Pulps

One of the earliest genres of pulp, the adventure stories were direct successors to the exciting boys’ tales and travelogues of Victorian serial magazines. Included in this genre were war stories, travel stories about danger and excitement in far-off lands, sports stories in sometimes esoteric categories (whole magazines were devoted to boxing, sailing, or polo), and the most famous adventure genre of all, the Western. These stories did not rely on bug-eyed monsters, criminal masterminds, or salacious violence for their sales. The adventure pulps used their settings in the “real world” and based-on-true-stories plots to provide vicarious thrills to their readers.

Example titles: Fight Stories, Wings, Rapid Fire Action Stories

The Horror & Fantasy Pulps

Like the adventure pulps, the horror and fantasy stories of the pulp magazines drew on Victorian literary genres for their inspiration. In this case, the scandalous "penny dreadfuls" provided the themes and motifs for the pulp writers. The masters of this genre were able to transport their readers to the most amazing, awe-inspiring worlds or into the darkest, most terrifying recesses of the human mind. The swashbuckling adventures of Conan were published beside the mind-bending horror of Cthulhu and the other Elder Gods. Whatever their topic, the authors of the horror and fantasy genre were among the most prolific and imaginative of the pulp authors.

Example titles: Weird Tales, Strange Tales, Unknown

The Detective Pulps

Rarely remembered among the ranks of the pulp magazines, the detective stories of the pulps were actually some of the more numerous and popular tales. The most famous authors, such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, were able to break out of the stereotype of the “pulp-writing hack” and enter their stories and characters into the American pantheon of literature and cinema. The detective pulps featured hard men making difficult choices that were never black and white. Success for the protagonist was counted as continued existence, and victory was rarely without cost.

Example titles: Black Mask, Detective Fiction Weekly, Dime Detective

The Romance Pulps

Fans of the pulps have purposefully forgotten the romance genre, although these magazines were quite popular in their heyday. Despite their suggestive titles, the stories tended to be rather tame. Secretaries swooned over their globe-trotting, handsome executive bosses and the frontier schoolmarm dreamed of being swept away by the taciturn widower rancher. Regular columns offered love advice or told “true stories” from readers. Pulp historians often include the decidedly racy “sex pulps” in this genre – a category of magazines often sold “under the counter” that included true erotica and/or pornography.

Example titles: Thrilling Love, Western Romances, Spicy Detective Stories

The Science Fiction Pulps

The plentiful science fiction pulps were the breeding ground for the visionary stories of Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Hugo Gernsback, and others. Inspiring some of the pulps' most fantastic cover art, the science fiction tales told stories of interstellar empires, strange conflicts between incomprehensible beings, and predicted the bright, inevitable progress of Man into the future. Many stories merely used the trappings of science fiction to tell yarns that could have easily been Westerns, detective stories, or horror stories sans their futuristic tropes. The best of the science fiction authors were able to use the fantastic technology in their stories as the pivot on which to hang compelling, personal dramas. In many ways, the science fiction novels of today have not lost site of their pulp heredity.

Example titles: Amazing Stories, Wonder Stories, Startling Stories

The "Weird Menace" Pulps

The “weird menace” stories are the most stereotypical pulp genre, yet they are the hardest to define. Quite often, the authors would be provided with the cover illustration first and then write a story with a plot incorporating the extraordinary elements from the image. Despite lurid covers that featured some of the most bizarre and improbable scenes, weird menace tales were pledged to feature only human characters in situations that could be ultimately explainable, if implausibly so. These stories may be about insane doctors performed unspeakable experiments on unwitting patients, or twisted serial killers on the run from determined law officers, or mad scientists risking their fortunes and scraps of sanity on wild flights of fancy. Imagine trying to develop a believable explanation for a scene of Egyptian pharaohs in chariots drawn by harnessed, scantily-clad women!

Example stories: Dime Mystery Magazine, Terror Tales, Horror Stories