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……

  • Secrets of the Mask, part 18: Reappearance

    The last issue of Black Mask we saw was published in 1951, soon after which the magazine ceased to appear, till its sudden reappearance in 1974. Let’s find out how. After the decline of its pulp empire in the 1950s, Popular Publications published a much smaller group of magazines. Argosy was a slick men’s magazine……

  • Secrets of the Mask, part 17: Last Legs

    Earlier in this series of Black Mask reviews, we took a look at issues from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Here’s one from 1951 when the whole industry was on its last legs and most titles were only a few issues away from sudden death. The first thing you see is the logo, unrecognizably……

  • Secrets of the Mask, part 16: Sex appeal

    Last week we saw Harry Widmer took over Black Mask after Ken White left. He changed the look of the magazine, but were there changes in the content to appeal to a new audience and if so, what were they? Let’s find out by examining the January 1950 issue. Sex appeal The cover harks back……

  • Secrets of the Mask, part 15: Ace Editor

    With Ken White’s departure, the magazine was edited by Harry Widmer who had previously worked at Ace (1904-1970). Widmer is a man of mystery; one of those editors whose contributions to the pulps are unrecognized even by most pulp fans. He grew up in New York, I couldn’t find out anything about his childhood and……