Danger!

December 15, 2001 11:01 PM

Danger! Sex! Romance! From the early 1900s and seemingly hitting their height of popularity in the '40s (during WWII) pulp novels had heroes doing "manly", heroic things like "smashing the Axis" and evading the charms of villainous vixens. Witness: Doc Savage, Man of Bronze or The Shadow (Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Not Alec Baldwin.) Pulps also explored more subversive elements, like lesbianism. The tradition seems to live on in modern times with Remo Williams (The Destroyer).
posted by owillis (8 comments total)

Some folks say The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew are a part of this sub-genre as well.
posted by owillis at 11:03 PM on December 15, 2001

Yes! The Destroyer is a great pulp series. Chiun is a role model. Sadly, one that I have no chance of living up to... :)
posted by hadashi at 11:37 PM on December 15, 2001

I'm listening to an old radio program of The Shadow off of shadowradio.org. A hanged man exacting revenge from beyond the grave? How will The Shadow stop a ghost?
posted by bobo123 at 12:41 AM on December 16, 2001

I just ran across these funny faux pulp covers
posted by owillis at 2:11 AM on December 16, 2001

Like millions of other kids, I discovered Doc Savage through the Bantam paperback reissues in the early 1970s. Who could forget those incredibly hyperrealistic James Bama covers? At the 86th Floor website, I was horrified to read that there might be another Doc movie in the works starring Ah-nuld! I still can't get that crappy George Pal, Doc Savage-cum-Batman movie from the '70s out of my head. Now I can look forward to 2 hours of stupid Schwarzennegger one-liners? Blech.

I wonder why pulp novels tend to translate so poorly to the screen? Remo, Doc Savage, The Shadow...all of them were turned into either mediocre or downright awful films.
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:11 AM on December 16, 2001

Yay pulp!
Mickey Spillane kicks ass.
Quote from a back cover blurb off a Spillane book:
Relentless sex and violence!

They just don't write 'em llike the used to...
posted by juv3nal at 12:51 PM on December 16, 2001

and here's "The Storytelling Game of Pulp Action"
posted by tolkhan at 7:09 AM on December 17, 2001

Remo Williams was a bad movie as well. The stories always read much better than the movies play out.
posted by mikhail at 6:02 AM on December 18, 2001