An Ongoing Exploration into the Many Worlds of Early 20th-Century Escapist Literature

An Ongoing Exploration into the Many Worlds of Early 20th-Century Escapist Literature -- Crime and Adventure, Fantasy and Science-Fiction, Horror and Weird

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Opening the Library

Hello, I'm Bill, I'm 26, have a BA in history and am far too deeply in love with all things "Pulp" then is to be expected of someone my age.  I grew up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, especially the John Carter stuff, from a very early age (in 5th grade I did a book report on A Princess of Mars!), later got into Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and that whole gang, and I'll take swords-and-sorcery over Tolkienesque high fantasy any day, and Weird, atmospheric horror over the latest slasher movie as well.  Then I started reading reprints of The Shadow and Doc Savage when I could get them.  More recently, I've begun dipping my toes into hardboiled detective/crime fiction - I'll take Dashiell Hammett over Chandler, I think, and both of them are an order of magnitude above Spillane.

I've spent five years writing a blog reviewing horror movies, and I'm ready to change things up.  I'd like to bring what I learned reviewing movies, as well as my history degree (since lord knows I'm not using it for anything that pays the bills), to bear talking about the cheap, disposable literature I enjoy so much.  No high-fangled literary criticism here -- I don't have the background for it.  Just discussions of what I've been reading and what I think of it.

Say hello.  I don't bite.

2 comments:

  1. Hi there! I'm a fan of the Pulp Era in adventure fiction too. One of the first SF books I ever read was "Doc" Smith's "The Skylark of Space". I discovered Doc Savage much later, but became a fan of him too.

    I'm currently drawing a webcomic titled Hannibal Tesla Adventure Magazine, set in the Futuristic World of 1935 and featuring a two-fisted scientist in the Doc Savage mold. My current storyline, "Cat-Men from Mars" draws some of its inspiration from the Buck Rogers comic strip. I welcome you to check it out: http://www.kurtoonsonline.com/ (/plug)

    I look forward to reading your blog.

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    1. Hi Kurt! I read Doc Smith's "Spacehounds of IPC" not too long ago myself - fun stuff, for sure! If you get a chance, check out the novel "The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril," as Doc Smith himself is a strong supporting character in that.

      I'm digging the webcomic! Keep up the great work!

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