Pulpflakes Blog: The Secrets Of The Pulps

For over five decades, the pulp magazines entertained people all over the world. Discover the people behind them; the authors, editors, illustrators and their stories. Look behind the scenes and learn the secrets of storytelling.

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  • Simple, Fast search of the FictionMags Index

    Simple, fast search of the FictionMags Index. It’s finally here. https://pulpflakes.com/fmisearch/ The FictionMags Index (FMI) is the biggest online index of English language fiction published in periodicals. Search the FMI by author or artist name, magazine title or look for a specific issue by date or issue number. Tips and tricks While search tolerates partial……

  • Battle Stories, December 1930: Killer Stories?

    After a long series of articles on Black Mask, I felt the need for a change. So here’s a review of a pulp title you don’t see that often: Fawcett’s Battle Stories. It was an attempt to cash in on the large and active group of American World War 1 veterans. These veterans had already……

  • One Man Show: Authors, pound that typewriter till it bleeds!

    During  my time attending pulp conventions, I heard about an author who, under one pseudonym or another, wrote the entire fiction contents of an all-fiction magazine. But it was never clear to me who it was we were talking about. Some authors were obvious candidates – H. Bedford-Jones, Max Brand, Arthur J. Burks etc. Could……

  • Bellem Lettres: The secret life of a pulpster

    And no, that isn’t a spelling mistake. Read on and find out why. While pursuing some research, I came across five letters from Robert Leslie Bellem, the creator of Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective and prodigious producer of pervy passion plots for the pulps. These letters have little personal stuff but quite a bit about the……

  • The mysterious life of Robert Reeves – Storyteller, Soldier

    Robert Reeves, the author of the Cellini Smith stories in Black Mask, is a mysterious character. The veil of mystery around Reeves starts with his life. He seems to appear out of nowhere in the magazines, showing no evidence of newspaper work or other professions connected to the publishing business. Who was he? Where did……

  2. The George Gross painting behind Digges La Touche also ended up in my collection (MAN’S ILLUSTRATED – Nov. 1955; SHOWDOWN…

  3. The Rafael De Soto Basketball Pulp Cover Painting found its way into my collection (FIFTEEN SPORTS STORIES – Jan. 1949).…

  4. The nice original Earle K. Bergey Football Cover Painting now sits in my collection (EXCITING SPORTS – Winter 1950). 😊