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Category: Pulp

My Favorite Martian

My Favorite Martian

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J Allen St. John 1919

Has any writer of science fiction or fantasy ever had a more fertile imagination than Edgar Rice Burroughs? Anyone acquainted with his work will have no trouble reeling off the names of exotic and outlandish planets, continents, oceans, cities, animals, plants, races, gods, kings, princesses, heroes, and villains, ad infinitum.  Perhaps his most fecund setting was the first one he created — Barsoom (or Mars, as it’s even now called by the unenlightened), the site of eleven books written between 1912 and 1943. Filled with startling and memorable creations, Burroughs’ Barsoom is one of the most captivating places in the Atlas of the Imagination, and none of ERB’s “children” have taken a firmer hold on readers than John Carter’s enemies and allies, the great Green Martians that roam the deserts and dry sea-bottoms of that dying world.

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Forgotten Authors: T.L. Sherred

Forgotten Authors: T.L. Sherred

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Thomas L. Sherred

Thomas L. Sherred was born on August 27, 1915 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He wrote as T.L. Sherred.

Sherred had a limited career as a science fiction author, publishing his first short story in 1947 with additional stories appearing in 1953, 1954, and 1972, for a total of six stories, four of which were collected in the 1972 collection First Person, Peculiar. His debut story, “E for Effort,” was published in the May 1947 issue of Astounding. It was frequently reprinted, including in the anthology Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

When he wasn’t writing science fiction, Sherred worked in Detroit in the automotive field, beginning in tool rooms and eventually moving on to technical writing and public relations.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Rory Gallagher and the Continental Op

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Rory Gallagher and the Continental Op

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Gat_GallagherBlinds“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” — Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

I just finished the intro for Volume 4 of Steeger Books’ The Continental Op series. I’ll post it here after the book comes out, of course. But being in an Op mood, I wanted to bring back an Op mashup post which I did waaaay back in 2018.

Rory Gallagher passed in 1995. Wow – that’s 31 years ago now. An Irish blues-rock guitarist and singer, he is still revered throughout Europe. I don’t mean ‘popular.’ Think Eric Clapton status. There are statues of, and public spaces named after, him, in Ireland.

Of course musicians in America know of him. But he is not popularly-remembered here. Ask someone to name their ten favorite guitarists, and I don’t think you’ll hear his name very often.

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Forgotten Authors: Philip Francis Nowlan

Forgotten Authors: Philip Francis Nowlan

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Philip Francis Nowlan

Philip Francis Nowlan’s name may not be remembered by many, but he may be the most influential science author I’ll discuss in this series. Born on November 13, 1888 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nowlan earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 1910. At college, he was a member of The Mask and Wig Club, a college musical comedy troupe, and he wrote and performed in their shows. He married Teresa Marie Junker in 1918 and they had ten children, four daughters and six sons, one of whom, Michael Joseph Nowlan, died earlier this year at the age of 99. His son, Philip F. Nowlan, Jr., was enough of a science fiction fan that it was mentioned prominently in his obituary.

Although he worked for various newspapers, including the Public Ledger, the North American, and Retail Ledger, his most notable work was his debut science fiction story.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Marvel Goes Noir. And NAILS It!!!

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Marvel Goes Noir. And NAILS It!!!

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“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.”
– Raymond Chandler

Spider-Noir is the best thing to happen to Marvel streaming since…well, Daredevil: Born Again. So yeah, not that long ago. I’ve only watched the first three – of eight – episodes so far. Because this is too good to binge. It should be savored. It may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but I LOVE that it’s an homage to hardboiled Pulp and Noir. Which you might know I blog about once in awhile…

No spoilers here (if I can help it). I just wanna talk about the Noir vibe a bit. I’ll do a full blown post after I watch it all (and when some spoilers will be okay). These folks absolutely know their source material. And I’m talking about Pulp, not Marvel.

A little Spider-Man Noir history first. The character appeared in a short comic book run in 2009, which I had certainly never heard of. But I’m not a comic book guy.

Then, back in 2018, the first of the animated Spider-Verse movies came out, with Miles Morales as the main Spider-Man. In the same scene with Spider-Ham (he still cracks me up), Peter and Miles meet a Nicholas Cage-voiced Spider-Man Noir. He has a few scenes after that.

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Forgotten Authors: Rog Phillips

Forgotten Authors: Rog Phillips

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Rog Phillips

Roger Phillip Graham was born in Spokane, Washington on February 20, 1909 to John Alfred Graham and Abbie Susan (née McCalmont). His family moved often, spending time in Oklahoma, among other places. He returned to Spokane to attend Gonzaga College, from which he graduated in 1931 and did some graduate work at the University of Washington. Most of his sf work appeared under the name Rog Phillips.

During the pre-war years, Phillips held a variety of jobs, including working as a farm worker,  plumber, construction worker, and carpenter. During World War II, he worked as a power plant engineer and a shipyard welder.

Graham married Eleanor Cora Smith on October 8, 1938 in Spokane, although they were divorced by 1950, when he married sf fan and author Mari Wolf. They divorced in 1955 and the following year, he married another fan, Honey Wood, to whom he remained married until his death. Wood and Phillip were members of the Outlanders, a subset of LASFS fans who lived just outside Los Angeles.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Elliot Gould’s Better Philip Marlowe

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Elliot Gould’s Better Philip Marlowe

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“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.”

– Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

Back in the Summer of 2020, A (Black) Gat in the Hand looked at some screen and radio productions for Raymond Chandler’s private eye, Philip Marlowe. Two months before, I had done a separate post on Powers Boothe’s terrific series for HBO. That series was really the impetus to move me from not liking Raymond Chandler, to being a fan.

There was a second thing which brought me all the way in to being a Chandler guy. Now, I cannot abide Elliott Gould’s The Long Goodbye. My attempts to ‘try again’ inevitably lead to me quitting the re-watch. I don’t like my Marlowe in 1973, and it’s my least favorite Marlowe on screen.

However, as with Powers Boothe, I wouldn’t be a fan of Raymond Chandler if not for Gould. He recorded all the Marlowe novels, as well as several of Chandler’s non-Marlowe short stories, as audiobooks. This was way back in cassette days, and I was smart enough to pick up several of the CDs, even though I wasn’t into Chandler then.

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Forgotten Authors: Pauline Ashwell

Forgotten Authors: Pauline Ashwell

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Pauline Whitby/Pauline Ashwell/Paul Ash

Pauline Whitby was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire on January 25, 1926 to the headmaster and headmistress of Merchant Taylors’ School in Ashwell, the village from which she would gain her pseudonym. Whitby had a younger sister named Marie. Both of them attended the school their parents ran.

Whitby began publishing in 1941 when she was 15 years old, with the chapbook Little Red Steamer, a fantasy for children, which published by Methuen under the pseudonym Pauline Ashwell.

In July of 1942, her story “Invasion from Venus” appeared in the British magazine Yankee Science Fiction. She used the pseudonym Paul Ashwell for the story. Later, her first novelette, “Unwillingly to School” appeared in Astounding under her most famous pseudonym, Pauline Ashwell and earned her a Hugo nomination. Nine months later, her story “Big Sword” also appeared in Astounding, but again as by Paul Ash.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: All My Steeger Books Intros

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: All My Steeger Books Intros

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It’s mid-May, and I’ve been in something of a hardboiled mood lately. So with Summer looming, here’s a Black (Gat) in the Hand. More Pulp is coming, like a gumshoe with a gasper and a rod.

I am fortunate to be part of a star-studded roster of writers who provide intros to Pulp reprints from Steeger Books. More and more classic, and forgotten, Pulp is continually being brought back to print – and electronically as well. I just finished my tenth intro, and that will roll out with number eleven, later this year.

Below you can find links to all nine of the intros that have been printed so far. Plus a bonus one that didn’t quite make it. If you like what I had to say, you might be interested in checking out the books themselves. You’ll likely recognize at least a couple of the names below. But I cannot praise the Max Latin stories by Norbert Davis, enough. I have the audiobook, and that’s my bedtime listening multiple times a week, all year long. Love those stories.

BILL LENNOX (W.T. Ballard)

Ballard migrated West from Ohio and used his experience working for Hollywood studios by creating a studio troubleshooter, for Black Mask. These read like traditional private eye stories, with Lennox unable to resist a damsel in distress. And there are plenty of those in Tinseltown.

FAST ONE (Paul Cain)

Lead Party has all of Paul Cain’s short stories, as well as his lone novel, Fast One. Mine is one of five essays in this deluxe hardback. And I got to write about Fast One!

Raymond Chandler referred to it as “some kind of high point in the hardboiled manner.” I think this is a nearly flawless book, and it rivals The Maltese Falcon as my favorite Hardboiled novel. If you haven’t read it, you’re missing out on one of the best works in the genre.

Cain had somewhat of a mysterious life, and he wrote screenplays under the name Peter Rurik. While his legal name was George Sims. He died living quietly, his past largely buried.

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Forgotten Authors: Paul W. Fairman

Forgotten Authors: Paul W. Fairman

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Paul W. Fairman

If Paul W. Fairman’s name is known, it is likely as an editor or the ghostwriter who wrote several of the juvenile novels published under Lester del Rey’s name when the latter author suffered from writers block. However, he had his own career as an author and Marvin W. Hunt commented, his “novels deserve the attention of science fiction enthusiasts not only because his books display the requisite technological prescience of good science-fiction, but especially because they are well written.”

Fairman was born on August 22, 1909 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Fairman began publishing in the February 1947 issue of Mammoth Detective with the story “Late Rain,” and in 1950 he published his first science fiction story, “No Teeth for the Tiger” in the February issue of Amazing Stories. Between 1951 and 1953, he occasionally used the housename Ivar Jorgensen, and in 1954, the film Target Earth was based on Fairman’s story “Deadly City,” which appeared under that pseudonym.  He also used the pseudonyms Robert Eggert Lee and the housename E.K. Jarvis, which was also used by Robert Moore Williams.

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