The Pulps

Welcome Secret Squadron Members!

We are here to commemorate a part of American pop-culture.

The Pulps

What's a pulp you say? The Pulps were magazines sold at the corner newsstand during the first half of the 1900's. They were called "pulps" because of the wood-pulp paper that they were printed on. They carried stories from everything imaginable. There were Railroad stories, Ghost stories, Sci-fi, Horror, Love, General fiction stories, Pirate stories, Adventure, True Crime, Westerns, Detectives, and a myriad of others, but the ones we are going to concentrate on are the Hero pulps.

The Hero pulps gave literature some of the greatest characters of all time.

Have you ever heard of a guy named Tarzan? How about another chap named Zorro?

Yes, Tarzan and Zorro were first printed in pulps! Tarzan was in Blue Book and Zorro in Argosy.

Now on to other fellows like The Spider, Doc Savage, G-8 and his Battle Aces, and the most famous of all the pulp hereos, The Shadow.

The Shadow delivered justice with the barrels of two .45 automatics and thrived in his magazine, radio shows, movies, comics, movie serials, toys and other items for about 20 years. His magazine started in April 1931 and lasted a whopping 325 issues. His legacy was influential in creating another legend, Batman.

The Shadow has lasted 75 years and is still going strong with a current reprint series on the presses.

If you have never read a Shadow story, you don't know what you are missing. The Shadow stories are action packed mysteries. They can be somewhat of a difficult read but they are worth the effort.

The Spider was another character who was similar to The Shadow. The Spider was a little more ruthless in my opinion and does a lot of damage in his stories. In one of my favorite Spider stories most of Washington D.C. gets vaporized by a high explosive.

His villians do some damage and he is not afraid of stabbing hot lead in their direction.

Read The Spider if you get the chance. You won't be sorry.

To find out more, check back every so often for more pulp information and fun or drop me a line at: