News of the World (of pulps)

Unlike the newspaper of the same name, news in the world of pulps slogs on.

I am happy that the blog gets read. One of the things that makes me most happy about both the blog and its website is that it gets a lot of high hits when it comes to scams. Now people who bother to look before they leap have something to look at--or at least show the unwary. In many cases, the old Wonderblog comes up BEFORE the scam's own net domain on the search engine. I hope this helps thwart crimes before they happen.

So far, none of the operators of the scams I have specifically made sport of has hit me with a lawsuit or even a complaint. This is because real crooks know the extent of their influence. Also there is the old maxim about not getting into a war of words with people who buy ink by the barrel.

That said, two defenders of Anthony Norvell have climbed out of the woodwork to yell foul at my piece. My suspicion is that these are peddlers of his work, all of which has fallen into the public domain. Why someone would want to peddle the OBVIOUS OLD FRAUD's works is beyond me, but it is a small internet industry. Thanks to the reach of the Wonderblog, yours truly now comes up before most of the sites peddling Norvell's trashola. I am sorry if this is impacting someone's living, but dishonesty is something that should not recycle. Norvell was a gigantic fraud and anyone posting, printing, whispering or yodeling words to the contrary either has a vested interest in doing so, is a fraud themselves or is a nut job.

Mind you, some very nice people are nut jobs. People can be taken in by the most obvious bits of twaddle and believe it until the day they die. But I don't think that's what is happening with the people posting about Norvell. I think they know Norvell was a fraud, too. As for proof, I've stated enough. I am sitting on a tad more.

A NOTE: Absolutely none of the works posted on either the Wonderblog or HIL-GLE are set in stone. If you have any information on the topics we have covered, please contact me. My research is not at all perfect. You are always invited to contact me, either through a comment on the blog or via email at Wunker2000@yahoo.com. My intention is to make these works as interesting and as accurate as I can. I can be very wrong about things and am not affraid to say so. Unlike Anthony Norvell, I do not claim to have any super powers.

Also: There is no book in the offing on any of these topics. At least not by me. My previous experience in the Hobby Game Industry has cured me of any desire to actually produce for sale works on niche history. This site is about fanning my own flames as a writer in general. I'm primarily a fiction writer. The blog is here to build platform (like building fuzz on your teeth). I write on subjects because I don't like to write about myself. (I am too exciting for mere words.)

As of late, I have not had that much time for the blog. My action packed life has again reared its ugly head and is making mince meat of my writing time. This may be the case for the next few weeks. (As it has been for the past two months.) It's not a lack of desire or topics to finish, but rather simply the call of other matters. I intend to resume as monk-like of an existence as possible shortly. Soon I will be all yours, but today I still belong to the big bad world. Sigh.

Newsweek Fumbles


Our Story So Far: Newsweek, once a dismal step-clone of Time Magazine, was ordered by its evil parent, a firm which does the online college scam, to tart up and make money, thus becoming a pulp magazine of the Scare Pulp variety for a short period. (Thus becoming our fodder.) It was since sold to an elderly inventor for one dollar and then editorially turned over to some second banana Huffington Post wannabe website. Things indeed looked bleak but then TINA BROWN PROVED SHE STILL HAD MAGIC IN HER BLOOD AND INSTANTLY TURNED IT INTO THE BEST MAGAZINE CURRENTLY BEING PUBLISHED IN AMERICA. (Ok, not quite. But the turn around has been nothing short of amazing.) Then THE ABOVE happened and we at Hil-Gle Wonderblog were rendered dumbfounded.

Sarah Palin isn't going to win anything, at least with her shirt on. She might not win anything given those conditions, either. Is it worth giving this deeply troubled woman (Sarah Palin that is, not Tina Brown) and her equally demented followers the exposure of your front cover just for purposes of exploiting them monetarily? Hell yes. Palin supporters have five dollars... maybe. Some of them might even buy the magazine again without the overripe prom queen on it--just out of a sense of loyalty. It's very Movie Magazine-Like of them. Another great Tina Brown move. And having the freak of the week essentially dictate their own cover story isn't a bad move, either.

We here at HIL-GLE are very pro Pulp Magazine. There is plenty of room between staid TIME and the lurid Enquirer. (Sadly, it's called Vanity Fair.) Ply these waters right and it will be TIME reaching for the reformulation.

But I will confess that was not my first impression. The rest of Newsweek has continued to improve. If this was a step in a new direction, I hope it is as outlined above. Otherwise it is evidence that Ms. Brown has run out of ideas.

Please Stop Doing This:



1. Stop publishing old magazine covers and then claiming they are "from the collection of." They're magazines--mass produced items, not individual works of art. No one needs to know the collector's name. Trust me, Rich Oberg (whose fine collection of rape fantasy magazines is featured) your estate will identify them as "Half a room full of soft core smut." I have been seeing a bit too much of this with pulps and comics, but it really started in the coins and stamps world. In any case, let's stamp it out. Unless the objects are original or ancient, the collector does not get to stick his name on the collection. And I don't care if it is Bill Clinton's comic book collection that we are talking about.

2. Stop letting shleps like Taschen get reprint rights to your out of print art book. Here's what he does. (A) Shrinks it to 1/3rd size, including text. This makes the text microscopic. (2) translates it randomly into German and French and (3) Prints one discount edition wherein the language changes each chapter--and you can't read it in the first place.

The reality of this was, Men's Adventure Magazines was a research work when it first came out. Now it's just vulgar pictures. The Taschen edition may be the worst book on any subject ever done. (With the exception of the next Taschen edition.) Most of Taschen's subjects seem to be porn. I know it's hard not to take the money, but don't. I now think considerably less of Max Allen Collins.

3. Stop Being Pulp Snobs. The last thing the world needs is another book that claims the pulp era ended with WWII and then neglects the so-called armpit slicks of the 1950s-1990s. Or one that treats the armpit slicks as if they were something new. Or that the Men's Adventure slicks were any worse than the Movie Mags or True Crime slicks or Confessions slicks of the time. They were all equally vulgar--and fairly much in the same way. They are all pulp magazines, as are the tabloids, paperbacks and digests of the time. Discriminating against one form or another is silly. The publishers and writers and artists didn't. Often the same material appeared in all of the formats. So drop it. There are no armpit slicks. It's just a type of pulp magazine.

Example:

My personal take is that you focus on the publishers. Last post I gave you a 1937 edition of Personal Adventure Stories.



This is put out by our pals at Centaur Comics. Really. Comics historians would say that isn't the case, but I digress. This time at bat Centaur is doing business as Resolute Publications, having previously done business as Utlem Publications. In this guise, Resolute is the publisher of smut, Comics Magazine, a Movie Magazine that William Cotton is running and the above.



Resolute ain't too resolute about nothing and Personal Adventure doesn't make it to 1938 as a pulp. Instead it is converted into a slightly higher priced slick. They didn't change the contents, except that there was a bit less of it. And they upped the sticker price because of the nice stock and spot color. (Note the White Slavery Story, a True Crime pulp staple.) The underlying advantage of this dealt with the printing. This is a photo offset magazine, which costs a little more to print but requires a shorter outlay for press run. In short, they cost a cent or so more per unit, but the break even on the run was 15k. With the letterpress pulps, the min run is 40k with almost three times the cash outlay. Photo offset was sweeping the industry and would have done in the pulps sooner, but WWII delayed the mass deployment of the presses. The shorter runs gave the publishers room to experiment. It's really not a new form, nor was it unique to Men's Adventure Magazines. You can find out more on our website's feature Real Nazi UFO Man-Eater Cults.

I will return as soon as my activities dictate. Hopefully within a week or so.