From cops vs. hoods and other toughies to mad science and dramatic ledges and bridgewalkers, a vast and entertaining collection of vintage pulp art categorized into themes.
posted by madamjujujive on Mar 26, 2009 - 17 comments

From the Bookstalls of a Nigerian Market. Onitsha Market Literature consists of stories, plays, advice and moral discourses published primarily in the 1960s by local presses in the lively market town of Onitsha [in then-newly-independent Nigeria]... In the fresh and vigorous genre of Onitsha Market Literature, the commoner wrote pulp fiction and didactic handbooks for those who perused the bookstalls of Onitsha Market, one of Africa’s largest trading centers. Examples: How To Write And Reply Letters For Marriage, Engagement Letters, Love Letters And How To Know A Girl To Marry, Learn To Speak 360 Interesting Proverbs And Know Your True Brother, Struggle For Money [All full-text links are in pdf format, and some are quite large]. With links to additional resources.
posted by amyms on Jun 4, 2008 - 25 comments

from ACT I SCENE 4

J: Your pardon; did I break thy concentration?
Continue! Ah, but now thy tongue is still.
Allow me then to offer a response.
Describe Marsellus Wallace to me, pray. [more inside]
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas on Apr 20, 2008 - 170 comments

Ladies, have you ever dreamt of being whisked away kidnapped by a dashing young Prince? Or being swept off your feet and losing your virginity to a dark and mysterious stranger, who happens to be a Sheikh? Or how about being sold to an Arab aristocracy and living off the rest of your days in married bliss. No? Then how about considering a Royal who is so down-to-earth you won't meet anyone else quite like him? Much better than the alternative of marrying his polar opposite, don't you think? Of course, you can always try and keep it platonic if you wanted to. Welcome to the wonderful world of Sheikhs and Desert Love, where all of your fantasies can come true! (via)
posted by hadjiboy on Mar 15, 2008 - 44 comments

Good Girl Art is defined as "A cover illustration depicting an attractive young woman, usually in skimpy or form-fitting clothing, and designed for (mild erotic interest)[sic]. There have been several prior posts on pulp fiction cover art (1, 2, 3); this site focuses on the "good girls" usefully organized into categories such as "Swamp Babes", Ringside Jezebels, Crazy!, Vietnam Vixens, and Peeping Toms. via
posted by Rumple on Mar 12, 2008 - 29 comments

This week I've been perseverating on Chuck Berry's great 1964 song "You Never Can Tell", so now you get to too! Unless you're over 50, you probably know it from the Thurman/Travolta dance in Pulp Fiction, but here are some other versions worthy of your attention: [more inside]
posted by ubiquity on Feb 10, 2008 - 14 comments

Fonts at the movies. [more inside]
posted by Terminal Verbosity on Dec 14, 2007 - 21 comments

Brandon Hardesty [wiki, previously] is a comic actor who is best known for his movie re-enactments and his appearance on a Geico commercial (for which he was well compensated). He asked his thousands of YouTube fans for scene requests. He has now (despite a recent bout with mono) completed performances of the top five five winners: 5: Clerks, 4: Fight Club, 3: Full Metal Jacket, 2: Reservoir Dogs and 1: Pulp Fiction. [YouTube unless otherwise noted] [more inside]
posted by McLir on Oct 10, 2007 - 20 comments

Twenty hard-boiled pulp stories from a revived Black Mask Magazine. (Unfortunately, stories are mostly in PDF form.)
posted by klangklangston on Oct 10, 2007 - 10 comments

Pulp Muppets. The title says it all.
posted by Optamystic on May 1, 2007 - 40 comments

Civil War Posters, Soviet Children's Books, 19th Century Shipping Posters, and much, much more are all part of this Flickr user's amazing collection of printed ephemera.
posted by jonson on Mar 31, 2007 - 13 comments

Say What Again [audio NSFW] Pulp Fiction dialogue done with motion typography. [via]
posted by kirkaracha on Feb 23, 2007 - 26 comments

If you're a fan of pulp fiction paperback covers, then you've probably seen the artwork of R.A. Maguire. The Gallery on his personal site comes in three flavors: Covers, Reference Photos (to aid in cover renderings) and Original Art, which are essentialy covers stripped of the Title/Author/Publisher/Price info. via
posted by jonson on Nov 28, 2006 - 12 comments

Jules Winnfield on hockey. (4 min. video, NSFW audio)
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Apr 17, 2005 - 7 comments

Like many of us, I enjoy the bad women, from your garden variety betrayed women to the problem girls, the untamed youth running wild. An all too brief gallery of documentary films about this fascinating subculture is up over at retrocrush.
posted by jonson on Jul 24, 2003 - 10 comments

Doc Savage Pulp Covers, 1933-1949.
posted by crunchland on Jun 26, 2003 - 18 comments

Playing Doctors And Nurses Often Requires Loving Patients. Not to mention a high level of kitsch-resistance. Here's a delightful collection of nurse-obsessed penny-dreadfuls from the engaging Tiny Pinneapple weblog, complete with covers and zippy, erotocally charged made-to-order blurbs: "It was fortunate that Portugal had always held a strong attraction for Nigel Baxter, for otherwise she might not have agreed to her uncle Evan's request that she give up her vacation plans in order to take on a case there. Evan Baxter was one of David Wycherly's doctors, and since Mr. Wycherly had suffered a leg fracture while vacationing at his home in Estoril, Dr. Baxter felt that Nigel could care for him and at the same time fulfill her wish to see Portugal."
posted by MiguelCardoso on Feb 9, 2003 - 5 comments

Angie was a marked woman , paying her own ransom with a body none could resist.
Someone has spent an incredible amount of time and energy scanning in lesbian pulp fiction covers from the 50's and 60's. An interesting look into what was considered titillating 40 years ago.
posted by patrickje on Jan 8, 2003 - 21 comments

"Pulp" means a lot of different things today. To many people, "pulp"means something lurid, sleazy and sensationalist. That's what Quentin Tarantino meant when he called his movie "Pulp Fiction," a violent and outrageous look at the seedy side of American life. "Pulp" refers to something thrilling and low-rent at the same time - that, at least, is a common definition of the term. "Pulp," however, can refer to something more specific, a certain kind of magazine. [more inside]
posted by mooseindian on Aug 7, 2002 - 15 comments

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 on Dec 15, 2001 - 8 comments

Color me surprised. My annoyance at Tom Clancy for the shoddy quality of Rainbow Six is well known. I had expected to give up on him entirely; I didn't even plan to buy the new one in hardcover without reading it first...
posted by baylink on Aug 27, 2000 - 2 comments

Oh. My. Gawd. These are pretty funny, drawings of various pulp fiction scenes by the Simpsons animators.
posted by mathowie on Oct 18, 1999 - 0 comments