by John Locke, Doug Ellis and John Gunnison

The Adventure House Guide to the Pulps

Was there ever a wilder era of fiction than the late, great pulp years? For the first half of the twentieth century, Americans got most of their popular reading from the pulps, rough-hewn magazines packed with fast-paced tales of adventure, mystery, fantasy, romance--and action!

To see a big-city newsstand in the glory years was to be overwhelmed by a gallery of gorgeous, gaudy, painted covers for THE SHADOW, THRILLING ADVENTURES, BATTLE BIRDS, BLACK BOOK DETECTIVE, STRANGE TALES, DIME DETECTIVE, WILD WEST WEEKLY, GANGSTER STORIES, THE LONE RANGER, SPICY DETECTIVE STORIES, EXCITING LOVE, TERROR TALES, ALL-AMERICAN FOOTBALL STORIES, ACE MYSTERY, RED-BLOODED STORIES, ASTOUNDING STORIES OF SUPER-SCIENCE, SAUCY ROMANTIC ADVENTURES, QUICK-TRIGGER WESTERN, THE PHANTOM DETECTIVE, DOC SAVAGE, ZEPPELIN STORIES, WEIRD TALES, and hundreds of others.

Most of these cheaply made magazines sold for a dime but their priceless stories spawned many cherished traditions of pop culture. The serials of Edgar Rice Burroughs gave us jungle legend, Tarzan. The hero pulps inspired the superhero comics and the exploits of Superman and Batman. The BLACK MASK thrillers of Hammett and Chandler opened the door to the hard-boiled detective. The space opera of the science-fiction pulps bred the spacemen, monsters, and robots of countless Saturday matinees. And so much more.

Here is the most complete accounting of the pulp era ever compiled, the essential volume for every fan, collector, and historian. From the famous and influential titles to the rare and obscure, THE ADVENTURE HOUSE GUIDE TO THE PULPS covers the field as it has never been covered before. Features include:

·         Publication history for more than 900 titles.

·         Each title presented as a useful, readable checklist of issues.

·         Additional data provided on title, publisher, and format changes.

·         More than 1,600 cover reproductions from every genre and title.

·         Extensive introductory material including A Two-Minute History of the Pulps, a complete guide to collecting pulps, pulp fandom, pulp appreciation, genres, authors, artists, the pulp market, grading, and preservation.

·         A detailed bibliography of books on the pulps.