The Twitter account @PulpLibrarian–when not posting covers of the absolutely baffling history of Nazi BDSM fantasy magazines of the 70s or the less baffling 50s/60s/70s sci-fi magazines–periodically posts covers from romance novels. One thread had focused on the covers of a specific, named, artist; another on those covers that shared similar landscapes and poses (e.g. that of a frightened woman, fleeing a Victorian castle, across the forbidding moors). I was surprised when in the first artist-focused thread, many readers commented on how much they appreciated the artist and knew their name, referencing other books whose covers they were responsible for. Seldom in other genres are artists so recognizable. (Although, admittedly, I have done my own research on pulp sci-fi covers, and it’s likely this is a common venture. I can now spot in the wilds the hand of several of the more productive artists.)
Continue reading My visit to the land of romanceCategory: Literature
The Barb Wire canon
Continuing my Great Literature series begun with Red Sonja and Conan, I’ve started reading the Barb Wire saga.
She’s a part of the Dark Horse Universe. We forget (or even don’t know) about it because of the supremacy of the DC and Marvel mythologies; like Greek and Roman, in no particular order, since so many of the super strength, super fast, invisible, other-dimension-origined, et al. are merely different manifestations of the same gods. Dark Horse fits into this framework but on a smaller scale and with some indie differences. For example: there is the odd character Concrete who is a man with his body replaced–for some reason–with a minimal-featured stone body, and who has to learn to live in his new circumstances. It’s more middle-aged Bildungsroman than superhero. Dark Horse’s polished indieness is appealing in a different manner than the experimentation of less established indie publishers. Solid yet daring.
Continue reading The Barb Wire canonLucky Starr
Red Sonja comics, Volumes 1-3
Updated 27 May 2020 with Conan collections
I’m not sure where but I’d seen covers of old superhero comics recently and, though I read mostly sci-fi comics growing up, it made me nostalgic for some classic 60s/70s pulp art cheese. Enter, somewhat unrelated, Comixology. I had resisted them in the same but greater way that I resist ebooks: physicality is important and especially so with art. However, also as with ebooks, for much of what I purchase physicality is not needed because some of the books are more… ephemeral? In other words: some are worthy of taking up space on a shelf and others not so much.
Continue reading Red Sonja comics, Volumes 1-3The pulp
Back in the 90s maybe earlier, no it can’t be earlier because I didn’t get to Atlanta until 85 or so, so probably late 80s early 90s. There was a used book store call Oxford Too that was at 2395 Peachtree Rd. (looking at Google Earth). It was an old house that had stacks of books, narrow hallways, lots of dust. Heaven.
