When Last We Left Our Intrepid Heroes….

I’ve recently been experiencing a resurgence of my interest in the Pulps, the mass-produced adventure fiction magazines of the early 20th century. I never really lose my interest, in fact– it’s one of those things that’s constantly part of my inner-geek make-up. During the past week or so, I’ve been reading up on the subject, and kicking around a couple of related creative projects– the idea of doing a pulp RPG (possibly using the brilliant OGL rules found in Green Ronin’s

Mutants and Masterminds
, which I mentioned below in my “Best of 2002” post), and some fiction featuring a character I created during my high school years (Erasmus Quinn and his World Class Irregulars– sort of a mix of Doc Savage (in that he’s a two-fisted scientist with assistants), Buckaroo Banzai (a healthy dose of 80s nostalgia) and Jonny Quest (but as an adult)). Not sure if it works better as short fiction, or if there might be a novel in there somewhere. I think I need to kick the idea around a bit more. I’m concerned that setting the fiction in the 80s makes it too similar to Banzai, but then again, Banzai is pretty much just Doc Savage fast-forwarded 50 years, so maybe that’s not too big a deal.

So, in keeping with my pulpy mindset, here are some wicked-cool links for you:

Chris Kalb’s Hero Pulps site: in my opinion, the best pulp site on the web. Features links to character-specific web sites.

Jess Nevins’ Pulp and Adventure Heroes: Companion site to Nevins’ wonderful listing of Victorian fiction characters, this one concentrating on the pulp characters from 1902-1939.

The Pulp.net: More exhaustive than Chris Kalb’s site, but without as much style. Great resource all the same, however.

AdventureStrips.com: a subscription-based site featuring pulp-influenced webcomics from comics professionals (like Mike W. Barr, Steve Bryant, etc.).

Blackmask Online: Free PDF and eBook versions of many pulp stories, including the Avenger, Doc Savage and The Shadow.

So, until next time—keep an eye out for the agents of the Sin Brotherhood, and keep your guns handy.

GMS

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