trope: Pulp

Lair of the Crystal Fang: An Arkham Horror Novel

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Lair of the Crystal Fang: An Arkham Horror Novel
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When a mysterious killer haunts Arkham, three struggling investigators must confront the eldritch horrors of their past in this action-packed pulp adventure from the world of Arkham Horror

In the swirling sewers beneath Arkham, excavators uncover a crystalline formation that hints at dark events from the city’s past. As the discovery makes headlines, so too does a series of bizarre murders. With no leads, the Arkham police are always one step behind. Acting on a hunch, down-on-his luck former journalist Andy Van Nortwick reunites with adventurer Jake Williams and struggling filmmaker Maude Brion to unearth the truth. The trio know of the supernatural horrors that lurk beyond this world, and the reality haunts them. But time is running out and between them they must face their nightmares before the city of Arkham is lost to blood and chaos.

Fury From the Tomb: The Institute for Singular Antiquities

Fury From the Tomb: The Institute for Singular Antiquities
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Mummies, grave-robbing ghouls, hopping vampires, and evil monks  beset a young archaeologist, in this fast-paced Indiana Jones-style adventure

Saqqara, Egypt, 1888, and in the booby-trapped tomb of an ancient sorcerer, Rom, a young Egyptologist, makes the discovery of a lifetime: five coffins and an eerie, oversized sarcophagus. But the expedition seems cursed, for after unearthing the mummies, all but Rom die horribly. He faithfully returns to America with his disturbing cargo, continuing by train to Los Angeles, home of his reclusive sponsor.

When the train is hijacked by murderous banditos in the Arizona desert, who steal the mummies and flee over the border, Rom – with his benefactor’s rebellious daughter, an orphaned Chinese busboy, and a cold-blooded gunslinger – must ride into Mexico to bring the malevolent mummies back. If only mummies were their biggest problem…

Wrath of N’kai: (Arkham Horror)

Wrath of N'kai: (Arkham Horror)
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The first in a new range of novels of eldritch adventure from the wildly popular Arkham Horror; an international thief of esoteric artifacts stumbles onto a nightmarish cult in 1920s New England.

Countess Alessandra Zorzi, international adventurer and thief, arrives in  Arkham pursuing an ancient body freshly exhumed from a  mound in Oklahoma, of curious provenance and peculiar characteristics. But before she can steal it, another party beats her to it. During the resulting gunfight at the Miskatonic Museum, the countess makes eye contact with the petrified corpse and begins an adventure of discovery outside her wildest experiences. Now, caught between her mysterious client, the police, and a society of necrophagic connoisseurs, she finds herself on the trail of a resurrected mummy as well as the star-born terror gestating within it.

Unnatural History (Pax Britannia)

Unnatural History (Pax Britannia)
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Action and adventure in a new Age of Steam! In two scant months the nation and all her colonies will celebrate 160 years of Queen Victoria’s glorious reign. But all is not well at the heart of the empire. It begins with a break-in at the Natural History Museum.

A night watchman is murdered. An eminent Professor of Evolutionary Biology goes missing. Then a catastrophic Overground rail-crash unleashes the dinosaurs of London Zoo. But how are all these events connected? Is it really the work of crazed revolutionaries? Or are there yet more sinister forces at work? Enter Ulysses Quicksilver – ­ dandy, rogue and agent of the throne.

It is up to this dashing soldier of fortune to solve the mystery and uncover the truth before London degenerates into primitive madness and a villainous mastermind brings about the unthinkable – the downfall of the British empire! Pax Britannia is an exciting steampunk series, set on an alternate Earth where the British Empire still reigns and steam technology rules.

This, the first Ulysses Quicksilver adventure, is a must-have for fans of steampunk and swashbuckling adventure alike!

The Naked and the Deadly: Lawrence Block in Men’s Adventure Magazines

The Naked and the Deadly: Lawrence Block in Men's Adventure Magazines
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Lawrence Block’s “lost” stories, complete and uncut for the first time since their original publication!

The focus and subject matter of mid-century men’s adventure magazines (MAMs) could be wide-ranging, and versatile storytellers able to confidently navigate genres, approaches, and authorial voices found regular, lucrative work in their pages. Among those talented writers was a notable newcomer: Lawrence Block-though his initial pieces would see print under various pseudonyms.

Not the Lawrence Block you know, who is among the most widely read, respected, and celebrated writers of crime and mystery fiction in the world. A writer internationally read and internationally honored, upon whom The Mystery Writers of America bestowed the title of Grand Master. A writer with over 65 years of professional experience in damn near every kind of writing, whose essays, magazine columns, and non-fiction books focused on the art, craft, and business of writing have endured to inform generations.

Not that Lawrence Block.

Not yet…

He-Men, Bag Men & Nymphos: Classic Men’s Adventure Stories

He-Men, Bag Men & Nymphos: Classic Men's Adventure Stories
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“Walter Kaylin, come back!” – Mario Puzo, author of THE GODFATHER

Scores of great authors wrote for men’s adventure pulps: Elmore Leonard, Jim Thompson, Richard Matheson, Lawrence Block and Harlan Ellison, to name a few. But the one writers for MAN’S WORLD and TRUE ACTION envied most was Walter Kaylin.

Leaving an indelible mark on three decades of sweat-soaked pulp fiction, Walter Kaylin tackled testosterone-fueled subjects from Westerns to war, secret agents to sex sirens, Nazis to noir. His frequently over-the-top plots and characters scaled new heights of ingenuity and invention, while setting the standard for the kind of unapologetic savagery and excess that made men’s adventure magazines notorious, then and now.

“He looked like a divinity student, always buttoned up. Then the stories would come in. They were special … seamless and outrageous and wonderful. I let him do whatever he wanted and he rarely, if ever, disappointed. He really deserves a tribute. I think of him as a treasure.”
–Bruce Jay Friedman (STERN, LUCKY BRUCE), Kaylin’s editor at MEN and MALE

Robert Deis of MensPulpMags.com and Wyatt Doyle (STOP REQUESTED), editors of the acclaimed WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH! anthology, rescue a whopping 15 high-intensity Kaylin classics from pulp fiction purgatory, along with the jaw-dropping illustrations that accompanied their original magazine publication … plus reminiscences by Kaylin, his family, and his former editor, writer Bruce Jay Friedman.

HE-MEN, BAG MEN & NYMPHOS rips the lid off the pulps’ best kept secret to introduce Kaylin’s unique brand of tension and tough-guy thrills to a new generation of readers. But be warned: These are not stories for the delicate, or faint of heart. HE-MEN, BAG MEN & NYMPHOS hits like a clenched fist; get yours or get out of the way!

A Handful of Hell: Classic War and Adventure Stories (Men’s Adventure Library)

A Handful of Hell: Classic War and Adventure Stories (Men's Adventure Library)
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“These stories were being read by men who’d been there, done that. I had to have the personalities and the details right. They wouldn’t tolerate having men like themselves overly glorified, or to have war made glamorous. . . .”  

Aviator, diplomat, and historian, Robert F. Dorr was uniquely qualified to write for men’s adventure magazines, bringing sweat-and-blood, nuts-and-bolts authenticity to his stories of risk, combat, and sacrifice. Best known today for his highly regarded historical works, Dorr’s stories for the men’s pulps also drew from jaw-dropping true accounts,  as action-packed as any imagined by his hard-boiled peers.

In this tense, gritty collection, the master storyteller drops readers squarely into the action’s fiery crucible, both in the cockpit and on the front lines. Each story includes full-color reproductions of the explosive vintage art from the stories’ original publication by some of the greatest names in illustration.

A singular collection in the author’s vast bibliography, A Handful of Hell highlights the best of Robert F. Dorr’s vivid, gripping tales of aerial conflict, battlefield heroism and action—some fact, some fiction, all adrenaline-fueled, white-knuckle adventure.

“Robert F. Dorr sets the standard for writing about aviation and adventure.”

MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY

MEN'S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY
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The Men’s Adventure Quarterly is your source for all of the action, adventure and fun of yesteryear’s men’s adventure magazines. An offshoot of the pulp magazines of the 30s and 40s, the men’s adventure magazines were geared toward the returning soldier after World War II, Korea, and Viet Nam. They were jam-packed with the best commercial illustration by artists such as Norm Eastman, Al Rossi, Bruce Minney, Mort Künstler, Samson Pollen, James Bama and many others…

The lurid tales within were filled with adventure, excitement, thrills, chills, and sex. You could read tales of spies, guerillas, commandos, crime, cons, daring air aces, and menacing murder by noted authors like Don Honig, Walter Kaylin Don Pendleton, and even best-selling author Mario Puzo.

Each quarter, Men’s Adventure Quarterly collects some of the best stories and artwork for you to enjoy along with pinups and original articles on the men’s adventure magazine mayhem behind the scenes. Co-edited by Robert Deis, a noted expert and collector of men’s adventure magazines, and graphic designer Bill Cunningham whose Pulp 2.0 label has made its mark in the indie publishing space, The MAQ is their tribute to the men, women and stories that drove hundreds of thousands of readers to the newsstand every month.

The MAQ comes to readers in three formats: FULL-COLOR, NOIR, and DIGITAL REPLICA. The FULL COLOR edition is our stunning full-color tribute to the men’s adventure magazines of yesteryear. It is our prestige edition. The NOIR edition recreates the look and feel of the original Black & White magazines. The DIGITAL REPLICA edition is a full-color digital edition that mimics the page format of the magazines. Our goal is to bring you the thrills and chills of the men’s adventure magazines in whatever format you prefer. Be sure to check out the various editions when you search for THE MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY!

“This is a winner for anyone interested in vintage top notch men’s adventure fiction and the illustrations that accompanied them.” – Michael Stradford, author of Steve Holland: The World’s Greatest Illustration Art Model.

Letters of cold fire (occult cases of John Thunstone)

Letters of cold fire (occult cases of John Thunstone)
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You’ve never meant a ghost hunter or demon slayer like John Thunstone. Defying the naysayers’ vision of a pale, basement-dwelling hobbyist, Thunstone is tall, broad shouldered, athletic, and handsome. He likes to spend his evenings in nightclubs, holding court and charming women.

But does he lack focus? No! Thunstone is also a serious scholar, deeply studied in the occult and dark arts, and carries a blade of silver inscribed with the motto, “Sic pereant omnes inimici tui” (“thus perish all your enemies”), forged by Saint Dunstan, patron saint of silversmiths, and one of the few men the Devil himself feared.

Thunstone’s battles with the darkest forces haunting our world are the greatest creation of Edgar-, World Fantasy-, and British Fantasy Award-winner Manly Wade Wellman (also the only dark fantasy author nominated for the Pulitzer Prize). //

You’ll accompany our imposing hero on four of his most chilling adventures in this, the first volume of this series, reprinting all 15 of his original, classic adventures from the pages of the 1940s Weird Tales

HE DECLARED A ONE-MAN WAR AGAINST THE SUPERNATURAL! // “Chilling!” Cedar Rapids Gazette //”Spooky!” Muncie Evening Press// Thrill to the adventures of John Thunstone, straight from the pages of the world’s greatest horror magazine—the legendary Weird Tales. //

Carnacki the Ghost Finder, The Voice in the Night, and Other Horrors: The Best Weird Fiction and Ghost Stories of William Hope Hodgson

Carnacki the Ghost Finder, The Voice in the Night, and Other Horrors: The Best Weird Fiction and Ghost Stories of William Hope Hodgson
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ne of the leading names in classic weird fiction, William Hope Hodgson remains an influential and powerful storyteller, remembered chiefly for his nautical horror stories and for his occult detective, Carnacki the Ghost-finder. Hodgson’s career – cut off prematurely in World War One – was extensive and elaborate, and this book contains the cream of the crop: the Sargasso Sea Mythos, a broad selection of his best maritime horror stories, printings of his lesser known strange tales (including The Baumoff Explosive and The Goddess of Death), five of the most striking Carnacki cases, and excerpts from two of his elaborate supernatural novels.

Illustrated and annotated, these stories include episodes of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and mystery: floating stone ships, derelicts teeming with man-eating rats, ghost pirates, mutant weed men, carnivorous trees, parasitic fungi, were-sharks (you read that right), a ship with a heartbeat, a cursed room that whistles in the night, a castaway who refuses to let his hideous face be seen, freakish mutations, deadly ghost ships, bloodthirsty octopi, demonic hogs, and more. Hodgson’s fiction reveals a level of anguished vulnerability that blends the cynical realism with fantastic romanticism, creating a borderland – a liminal doorway – that brings the anxieties of the every-day into contact with the fantasias of the nightmarish.

The landscapes of his fiction – the weed-choked Sargasso Sea, the steaming South Pacific, Irish manor houses, derelict ghost ships – act as borderlands whereby these uncomfortable thoughts and existential pangs can enter into our world – to haunt and infect it.

The illustrated, annotated stories included in this unique anthology – stories of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and mystery – are among Hodgson’s best and will not fail to disturb, amuse, and inhabit your imagination.