io9: pulp

Pulp Classic The Swordsman of Mars Rescued from Publisher's Brutal Hack Job

Ed Grabianowski — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:20:00 PDT

Otis Adelbert Kline's fantastic pulp taleThe Swordsman of Mars was first published in Argosy magazine in 1933. Reprints from the 1960s hacked and slashed at the original text, chopping away entire chapters and completely rewriting huge sections. But now, the entire story has been published in its original form for the first time in over 70 years thanks to Paizo Publishing's Planet Stories imprint. Check out this excerpt that compares the original text to the 1960 Ace version.

We first told you about Planet Stories back in July - it's Paizo publisher Erik Mona's labor of love to bring classic sci-fi and fantasy stories back into print. The Swordsman of Mars is the latest edition, following protagonist Harry Thorne, who changes bodies with a Martian and goes back in time. In the Mars of the past, he has a series of very pulpy adventures in which he dispatches various creatures and enemies at the tip of his expertly wielded sword.

Over at the Paizo message board, Mona gave a brief example of the sort of "editing" that was perpetrated on Kline's story:

ORIGINAL ARGOSY VERSION (from the A.C. McClurg & Co 1929 harcover edition):

"Robert Ellsmore Grandon stifled a yawn with difficulty, as the curtain went down on the first act of "La Tosca." Opera bored him utterly. He silently wished that his well-meaning aunt would not drag him with such clocklike regularity to these monotonous matineés. She had taken a box in the Chicago Auditorium for the season, and so far he had not escaped a single performance."

1961 ACE PAPERBACK EDITON (published 15 years after Kline's death):

"Robert Ellsmore Grandon stifled a yawn with difficulty as the curtain went down on the first act of Don Giovanni and wondered what was the matter. It wasn't that opera bored him, or that tonight's performance was inferior; in fact, what he had been able to give his attention to struck him as among the best performances he had ever seen."

On his blog, Mona has an entire chapter from both versions for you to compare. The original text is about four times longer than the chopped 60s version! Image by: Paizo.

Two Swordsmen of Mars! [Paizo]

A Nerdy Scientist and a Hot Secretary on Mars in 1957

Lynn Peril — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:49:47 PDT

On December 4, 1957, the Disneyland TV show broadcast “Mars and Beyond,” a 53-minute exploration of the Red Planet’s history and future, as well as its impact on pop culture. A nerdy scientist, a hot secretary with a secret, and a Martian robot in tennis shoes (a la Warner Brother’s Marvin the Martian), plus awesome animation, and a surprising twist at the end make the show’s parody of pulp science fiction well worth a look.

Here's the exciting conclusion:

Luchadores... In Space!

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:30:00 PDT

Here's the cover illustration for the story "D-3 Base De Monstruos" by Spanish artist Jose Luis Sampedro Macias, who drew dozens of covers for the pulp magazine Luchadores del Espacio, plus tons of pulp paperbacks, in the 1950s. Despite (or maybe because of) being unable to see the work of American artists of the time, Jose Luis brings his own bright style to the pulp-art standbys of bug-eyed monsters, women and flying saucers. His work features prominently an amazing gallery of 1950s Spanish pulp science fiction covers, uploaded by El Estratografico. A few more of our favorites, after the jump.

See the rest of the covers in El Estratografico's Flickr gallery. [1950s Spanish Scifi Novels on Flickr, via EasyDreamer]

Newest Book Covers Don't "Scream Scifi"

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:02:22 PDT

There's an interesting discussion going on over at Media Bistro's Galleycat blog about when science fiction books should have dignified covers that look less pulpy and "skiffy." Case in point: Clifford Simak's The Way Station, which has had a host of lurid covers over the years (see left) and now has gotten reissued with a nice pastoral grasslands scene, which looks more like a Willa Cather novel. Click through to see the new, classier cover, plus a selection of the old pulpy covers.

Compare this "classy" version of The Way Station with these older covers:

Iain M. Banks' publisher, Orbit, says it's giving his Culture books covers that "don't scream scifi," in order to stand out from the rest of the pack. But sadly, the bottom line, says one reader, is that a cover should tell distributors and bookstore clerks where to shelve a book. [Media Bistro]

The Great Miss Universe Scandal of 2381

peril — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:40:12 PST

Behold Ed Emshwiller's magnificent cover for the February 1959 issue of Future Science Fiction. Yes, it gives away the ending of "You Do Something To Me," Calvin M. Knox's story of the "the white-skinned hideous horror from a distant world," but isn't it worth it? (Trivia moment: Calvin M. Knox is a pseudonym of Robert Silverberg.)

It's the Far Future of 1992 and Hot, Dominant Women Rule the World!

peril — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:40:30 PST

He must escape or die.
. . . Almost instantly the shrill sound of a whistle broke to his right and a street guard stepped from a doorway, struggling to free her rifle from her garments.
"Male Pig!" she screamed. "Halt!"

Welcome to the world of The Feminists, a pulp novel published in 1971. It's the story of cubicle drone Keith Montalvo, who has been caught consensually slipping the pink torpedo to a female co-worker. Unfortunately, it's 1992 and the Big-Sisterish "Committee" has outlawed all unauthorized heterosex, and his crime is punishable by death. Peek below for the cover in its full, unexpurgated glory.

Keith flees underground, literally and figuratively, where he meets Angela, a boot-wearing resistance fighter hottie. Luckily for Keith, while women on the outside reject all males, Angela and other female members of the Subterraneans resistance movement are "attached to the men with arm-clinging closeness." Soon he and Angela are working (arm-in-arm, of course) to assassinate the President, and reclaim gender supremacy for men.
The Feminists had about as much to do with the women's movement as Cheez Whiz does with a sharp Wisconsin cheddar but it probably simultaneously terrified and titillated readers threatened by the very thought of those uppity, "bra-burning" libbers. At least one person was thrilled by the vision it presented—don't miss the editorial comment scrawled on the front cover!

Must Read: League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen

charliejane — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:54:10 PDT

Must-read graphic novels are futuristic classics that shouldn't be missed. Of course, not every must-see is perfect. That's why we've rated them 1-5 on the patented "crunchy goodness" scale.

Title: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Date: 1999-present

Vitals: A bunch of pulpy public-domain characters from 100 years ago form a super team to fight Professor Moriarty, Fu Manchu, and the Martian invaders from War of the Worlds. The result? Manages to be campy and literary. Call it camperary, maybe.

Famous names: Alan "weirdgod" Moore, Kevin O'Neill

Crunchy goodness: 5
Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: The 2003 movie starring Sean Connery has been known to cause people's eyeballs to turn into projectile shit. Do not sit in the same room as someone watching this movie, or you'll wind up with shit-splattered clothes while your newly blind friend begs for death. Not nearly as fun as it sounds.

Sights you'll never unsee: Mister Hyde rapes the Invisible Man to death — and the gruesome results will make you wish the invisibility trick kept working posthumously.

The shit: You can literally spend hours poring over all the little in-jokes in the comic itself, while each issue comes with a ton of fake Victorian ads and little prose pieces that immerse you in a bizarre distortion of the era that gave us steampunk.

Notes on League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #1 by Jess Nevins and divers hands