The Hero Pulps!

The buzzword of the moment is EXTREME!
Extreme Tacos...Extreme Golf...MCI's Extreme Calling

Are you ready for some Extreme Fiction?

Put down that cynical, post-modern rehashed crap you've been told was hip
and get with Fiction's original flipside... Pure Concentrated Pulp!

Welcome...The edge of your seat just got a little closer!

The 1930s and '40s were a time of heroes...

Before comic books, there developed a different breed of hero. And even during the dawn of comics, as cartoonists hacked out roughly-hewn "classics," the heroes of cheaply produced pulp magazines were fighting menaces more grandly conceived and cleverly plotted. To this day, their exploits are all the more delicious and evocative because they were words on a page, feuling the minds eye with apocalyptic struggles unbound by panel walls!

Pulp heroes like Tarzan and Zorro have become household names. This site is dedicated to a "lost" breed that is more colorful, but doesn't have as good a publicist.

Doc Savage -- The Man of Bronze. By Kenneth Robeson. The grandfather of all superheroes! A superman of herculean strength and protean genius reared from birth to battle injustice. He is aided by fabulous gadgets, Mayan wealth, and the five greatest brains ever assembled to kick meglomaniacal ass! (I've spent most of my time on this site, The 86th Floor)

The Spider -- Master of Men! By Grant Stockbridge. The original playboy/dark vigilante. Richard Wentworth moves seamlessly from suave socialite to relentless killing machine relying on twin .45s and an indomitalble will. He is followed by fiction's most devoted team: a muderous fiancee, a vicious Hindu servant, and a reliable ex-military chauffer.

Operator #5 -- America's Undercover Ace. By Curtis Steele. Before Bond, Jimmy Christopher took on the impossible missions, bringing an isolationist America back from the brink of subjugation by foriegn powers and home-grown cults. That is until the "Central Empire" invades and succeeds (!) in taking over America! Operator #5 leads the second battle for American Independance in a 13-part epic known as The Purple Invasion Saga -- the "War and Peace" of the Bloody Pulps!

G-8 and His Battle Aces. By Robert J. Hogan (not a "house" name). WWI aerial espionage with a twist...a big one! Germany has signed on every mad scientist, steel-helmeted madman, green giant -- even Satan himelf -- to give the Allies hell! Our secret supernatural war with Germany can now be told! Popular Publications has thrown open the wild files of America's Flying Spy and his quarrelsome pals Nippy and Bull.

The Shadow. By Maxwell Grant. Check out this site maintained by John Sies a.k.a. Burbank, it's the unofficial Shadow site of record on the World Wide Web.

Many pulp stories have been reprinted in paperback, and may be available right now at your local used bookstore. But there's no need to even leave your computer screen to get embroiled in the wild world of pulp heroes. Vintage New Media is reprinting pulp stories online! Check out their free downloads or jump right into their amazing, inexpensive, growing selection. If you're still using paper, check your well-stocked magazine seller for Adventure House's bimonthly digest High Adventure, which reprints plenty of Popular Publications stuff, including Operator #5's struggle against the Purple Invasion.

For more information, check out the king-daddy of pulp links -- The Pulp.Net

Read what comics/entertainment veteran Jim Steranko has to say about The Bloody Pulps

site by Chris Kalb