The other day Doc Mystery posted a blog item about someone’s elaborate gaming basement, and that got me wondering, “Who has a pulp lair?”

I wouldn’t call my “pulp lair” much of a pulp lair. It’s just a six-foot bookshelf — stuffed with pulp reference books, reprints and paperbacks, and several boxes on top full of pulps — on one wall of our home office; two filing cabinet drawers full of pulp fanzines across the room; a framed transcription disc of an old-time radio episode of The Shadow hanging on another wall; and a terrific reproduction of The Shadow by Scotty Phillips hanging next to the bookshelf. Other pulp books are on bookshelves scattered throughout the house, plus more are stored away in boxes.

Not an overwhelming sight. But it’s my “pulp lair.”

Now, several of my Arizona pulp friends have quite nice pulp lairs. Jay Ryan converted his home office into the ultimate Doc Savage pulp lair. Jay’s Doc room is filled just about everything he mentions in his Collector’s Handbook of Bronze. (You get a glimpse of it about 8 minutes, 35 seconds into the Arizona Doc Con 2006 Highlights video on YouTube.com.)

Courtney Rogers and Rob Smalley have converted spare bedrooms into pulp lairs, with bookcases of pulps and pulp reprints and pulp-related (of mostly Doc Savage) prints on the walls.

But, getting back to my initial question: “Who has pulp lair?” Do you? Care to share it with other pulp fans? Post a comment or drop me an e-mail. If you have good photos, I’ll set up a gallery to share.

So, show off your pulp lair!

— William

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A stack of pulp-related books have accumulated on the corner of my desk since last summer (before I took a hiatus on Yellowed Perils). A bunch of the books are old, but two new ones deserve a bit of recognition.

First up is Norman Saunders, David Saunders’ tribute to his father. It’s possibly the best book devoted to a pulp artist yet.

At $40, it’s not inexpensive, but what you’re investing in is a 12-by-9.25-inch, 368-page hardback book (and an inch-and-a-half thick, though I don’t judge a book by it’s thickness) that’s packed full of tremendous paintings displayed full page, or at least a quarter of a page. No thumbnails in this book.

Though pulp covers were only a small portion of the elder Saunders’ output, they are well represented here. A lot of pulp covers were the works of moderately talented folks. In this volume (if you hadn’t already realized it), it’s clear Saunders was a true artist.

For fans of pulp cover art, Norman Saunders is a book you shouldn’t pass up.

Second is clearly a labor of love. Chris Kalb’s The Spider Vs. The Empire State for Age of Aces Books is one of the best pulp reprint books I’ve seen.

The book collects three stories from Popular Publication’s The Spider — “The City that Paid to Die,” “The Spider at Bay” and “Scourge of the Black Legion” — that appeared in the September, October and November 1938 issues.

A foreword by Thomas Krabacher, a professor at California State University, Sacramento, and a pulp collector, sets the scene for the Black Police trilogy by looking at current events during the 1930s. Profiles of Norvell Page, illustrator John Fleming Gould and cover painter John Newton Howitt, and a “Further Reading” section wrap up the 428-page book. (It’s over an inch thick, too. But, really, I don’t generally go around measuring the thickness of books.)

There are a number of The Spider novels that have been repeatedly reprinted. This is the first time these three stories have appeared in print since the pulps hit the newsstands over 71 years ago. For $17, you’ll be in for plenty of rousing pulp excitement.

— William

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Forget baseball, casting the Doc Savage movie has been America’s popular pastime in the Man of Bronze newsgroups over the years. Why not get the ball rolling again?

IGN Movies offers up its suggestion for the Man of Bronze in the latest Columbia possibility.

Without further ado, here are IGN’s picks (in alphabetical order) and the actors’ recent roles:

• Gerard Butler, Leonidas in 300

• Daniel Craig, Bond, James Bond

• Matt Damon, the Jason Bourne trilogy

• Jon Hamm, Don Draper on Mad Men

• Chris Hemsworth, Capt. George Krik (James T. Kirk’s father) in 2009’s Star Trek and Thor in the upcoming movies Thor and The Avengers

• Hugh Jackman, Wolverine in the X-Men movies

• Thomas Jane, Frank Castle in 2004’s The Punisher

• Dwayne Johnson, Tooth Fairy, The Mummy Returns and a lot of wrestling shows (a frequent suggestion in online discussions)

• Matthew McConaughey, Tropic Thunder, We Are Marshall and Dirk Pitt in Sahara

• Brad Pitt, Inglourious Basterds and Achilles in Troy

• Mark Valley, TV’s Fringe and Human Target (That’s him pictured above left.)

• Sam Worthington, Avatar and the upcoming Clash of the Titans remake

Some interesting choices.

— William

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Variety (among numerous other movie sites) reported Monday that a director has been linked to a potential Doc Savage movie:

Shane Black is attached to direct the film from a screenplay he is penning with Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry. Neal Moritz (Fast and Furious) will produce through his Sony-based Original Film banner.

Black also wrote Lethal Weapon 1 and 2, The Monster Squad, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero (which, coincidentally, starred Arnold Schwarzenegger who was also once linked to a Doc Savage movie), The Long Kiss Goodnight and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

He’s had some hits in there, but I don’t think any of his movies would be considered great. Variety says that he’s also known for his “vast collection” of pulp fiction.

But Variety also reports:

One of the most popular characters in the pulps of the 1930s and '40s, Doc Savage was also popularized on radio, film and TV.

Guess I missed that TV series.

— William

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A lot of the stories and novels I like to read are ephemeral. Literally.

I'm afraid of spending too much time holding my pulp magazines for fear they will turn to dust in my hands. They range from 55- to 114-years-old, and they are disappearing sliver by sliver. So I rarely open them up to read.

Is it worth paying $20, $50, $150 or, sometimes, much, much more for a pulpwood paper magazine that may not be around much longer? You seal them in a mylar bag and put them on the shelf, afraid to do much more than pick them up to look at the fade cover that once was vivid in its yellows, reds and blues.

I keep thinking about the quote attributed to publisher Frank Munsey: “The story is worth more than the paper it is printed on.”

Are the stories what you collect or the containers of the stories, the pulp magazines themselves?

Clearly there’s a market for printed pulp reproductions. Girasol Collectibles, Age of Aces, Sanctum Books, Wildcat Books, Altus Press and others are regularly producing pulp facsimiles or reprints.

But I’m thinking about just the stories and artwork alone. In e-book form.

The crew over on the Yahoo Group, Pulp Scans, have been scanning pulps and microfilm of pulps for several years now and have accumulated quite a selection of vintage fiction.

“Three years ago I started the Pulp Scans group,” Dave Reeder says, “and have been incredibly fortunate in attracting a number of dedicated pulp scanners, keen to preserve our heritage. I haven't kept count, but I think we’ve shared around 350 pulps so far, from early saucy titles to mainstream science fiction to western. The hero pulps we’ve stayed away from after a wake-up mail from Conde Nast's lawyers!”

Reeder says the group focuses on pulps that aren’t being reprinted, so as not to compete with reprint publishers.

“In a sense, I see our role as cultural archivists,” Reeder explains. “If this material is lost then nobody will ever be able top reprint it commercially. Plus it’s great to read! ...”

“The past crumbles. Digital preserves and shares. I guess it’s as simple as that,” Reeder says.

Is this the future of pulp collecting? As much as a lot of us are loath to admit, it probably is.

What if the cover of your pulp was vibrant? The text and interior illustrations a solid black on crispy white? What if you could tap twice to zoom in to make the story more legible? And you could carry your entire pulp collection around with you in your Apple iPad or other digital reader, without worrying about it crumbling to bits?

For me, the concept is getting more and more likable.

— William

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