Belarski


Book Description

A master at building suspense through figure, perspective, and color, Rudolph Belarski dazzled the newsstand browser with pictorial headlines of vital action scenes pertaining to the interior story. In doing so, he sold magazines and books to a drama-craving audience, and propelled publishing's mass markets, thus infiltrating American minds with the trends and fashions of pop culture. His remarkable versatility as an artist can be seen in the range of his published work in pulp magazines, his exciting paintings appearing on the covers of Thrilling Mystery, Wings, and War Birds, as well as The Phantom Detective, Mystery Book, Argosy, and Western Round-Up.




Walter Baumhofer


Book Description

Pulp and illustration art historian David Saunders has written an insightful biography, chronicling the life and work of this influential artist. This is the consummate reference book on the life of Walter Baumhofer, filled with over 300 reproductions of original art, rare proof sheets, working drawings, reference photos, as well as historic family photos.




Pulp Art Masters


Book Description

For just a few short years, Walter Baumhofer sprang into Pop Culture history as the first artist to imagine Doc Savage, The Man of Bronze. Baumhofer's unofficial title of "King of the Pulps" was well earned, as most publishers were envious of those few firms that he painted covers and produced art that sold the magazines well beyond the stories themselves. This book explores Walter's vast influence on pulp art, and showcases his groundbreaking images for Doc Savage as well as for other pulp titles including Dime Detective, The Spider, Dime Mystery and many others.




Pulp Art


Book Description

The term pulp fiction has always had a certain resonance; but it is the artwork--bold, energized, dramatic, garishly colorful, and frequently grotesque--that has made pulp magazines memorable to so many people. Pulp Art is the groundbreaking--and ultimate--book on one of America's most important and spectacular forms of illustration art. At last, preserved in this volume are most of the still-existing originals created for the pulp covers, never before seen in all their sharply focused, vibrantly colored brilliance. Robert Lesser, a pioneering collector of this work and an expert on American popular culture, has assembled a gallery of these now-priceless originals. The dynamically pulp-flavored text is a complete historical survey of the pulps and their most important cover artists--Virgil Finlay, J. Allen St. John, Rafael de Soto, Hannes Bok, George and Jerome Rozen, Frank R. Paul, and many others. Also offered are critical discussions of individual paintings, as well as the major themes of the pulp magazines.




The Western Pulp Hero


Book Description

A popular and enthusiastic guide to the major continuing western hero characters of the American pulp magazine era, complete with bibliography, index, and illustrations of pulp covers, and with a new introduction by well-known Western writer, Ryerson Johnson.




Pulp Culture


Book Description

Pulp fiction' s lurid adventures were vividly reflected on the magazines' eye-catching covers. Hard-boiled dames, bizarre monsters, dicks and ' tecs, sinister villains, and muscled warriors all appeared each month to tempt readers out of their hard-earned dimes. This gorgeous full-color compilation features hundreds of the genre' s most thrilling covers and includes an index. Taken collectively, they provide a dazzling panorama of some 60 years of illustration and social commentary.




Masters of American Illustration


Book Description

From 1989 to 2001, author Fred Taraba was a regular contributor to the graphic arts publication, Step-By-Step Graphics. His column, Methods of the Masters, documented the lives and working methods of some of America s finest Golden Age illustrators. While a number of other writers contributed to the regular column, Fred himself wrote 41 installments. This book is a compilation of those 41 classic articles, which have been extensively reworked and revised with completely new artwork especially prepared for this volume. Featuring 41 of America's greatest illustrators, this book is a showcase for hundreds of reproductions of original paintings, photographs, and tearsheets of vintage printed ephemeral materials. Each artist's life and career is discussed, and their working methods are described in detail. This book is destined to be a classic, and belongs on the bookself of every serious student of American illustration history.




The First Geeks


Book Description

The writer Ray Bradbury, science fiction expert Forry Ackerman, and special effects genius Ray Harryhausen are world-famous for their careers involving tales of the imagination. Before anyone had heard of them, they were friends as teens and college-aged boys enjoying all that 1930s L.A. had to offer: getting celebrity autographs, watching blockbuster movies, and haunting dozens of bookstores. As members of the Los Angeles chapter of the Science Fiction League, the three belonged to a tight-knit group that was involved in the earliest science fiction conventions and the birth of cosplay. This book follows the lives and careers of these three literary and film legends and tracks the origins of science fiction fandom. Each chapter builds a chronology of how their paths intertwined, and ultimately connected to, the beginnings of renowned fan conventions like Comic-Con. Devoted science fiction fans and new readers alike will learn how a young friendship launched three illustrious careers and changed the face of science fiction forever.




The Shudder Pulps


Book Description

The shudder pulps published some of the grisliest, goriest, most outrageous mystery-terror fiction ever sold on the American newsstand, during the golden age of the pulp magazines. This volumes chronicles the authors, artists, and publishers of those classic thrill-fests!




A History of the Doc Savage Adventures in Pulps, Paperbacks, Comics, Fanzines, Radio and Film


Book Description

Doc Savage is the prototype of the modern fictional superhero. The character exploded onto the scene in 1933, with the Great Depression and the gathering clouds of war as a cultural backdrop. The adventure series is examined in relation to historical events and the changing tastes of readers, with special attention paid to the horror and science fiction elements. The artwork features illustrations, covers, and original art. Chapters cover Doc Savage paperbacks, pulp magazines, comic books, and fanzines, and an appendix offers biographies of all major contributors to the series.