A Cowboy, A Space Captain, a Private Detective and a Barbarian Walk Into a Bar…
That could be the beginnings of a really lame joke, but it’s something more. All four of these characters, these separate genre icons, share something Read More
Category: Occult Detectives
The Last Case of Jules deGrandjerque
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, does not always play out when the imitation proves to be a satire. I was surprised to hear Read More
The Werewolves of Weird Tales – 1936-1954
Continuing our list of great werewolf stories from “The Unique Magazine”. As the Pulp moved into the 1940s and the editorship of Dorothy McIlwraith the Read More
Werewolves of Weird Tales – 1923-1935
(Feel free to sing “Werewolves of Weird Tales” to Warren Zevon’s classic song. I know I did. I know you will, too.) If you are Read More
Sherlock Holmes Parodies
Every time you turn around someone comes out with their own Sherlock Holmes novel these days. But almost from the very beginning other writers have Read More
The Gods of East & West
In a previous article I showed how “The Tomb of Sarah” was the inspiration for one of Seabury Quinn’s Jules de Grandin stories. Quinn wrote Read More
Doc Savage: The Northerns
Doc Savage novels have the advantage of having a toe in many different genres. This means the story never has to stop in one place. Read More
The Night Gawker
Occult detective spoofs date back to the 1940s with Bob Hope and Paullette Goddard in The Ghostbreakers (1940) and the Universal Abbott and Costello pictures Read More
Pulp Writing: Opening With a Punch
I miss the Pulps. Not for the garish covers featuring aliens molesting sweet-young space maidens. Not for the variety that gave us the brash adventure Read More
The False Monster Tradition
The notion that a monster should prove to be a fraud is a fairly recent idea. The warriors gathered around the scop reciting Beowulf would Read More