‘The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 1’

The growing popularity of New Pulp is a double-edged sword.

We get new authors writing new stories of classic and original characters so we don’t have to worry about “running out.” What is nice is that some authors are able to use some characters to their full potential, while still remaining true to the characters.

But we also get new authors who don’t quite get it, writing works promoted as “pulp” that in my opinion aren’t pulp. Too modern (or post-modern) to be called “pulp.” These works would be better off not being pushed as “pulp,” no matter how well written they are. Sometimes I wonder if the authors were given any info on what “pulp” and “pulp heroes” are.

Alchemy Press is a British publisher which has several anthologies, and decided to try their hand with pulp heroes. They have done three so far, and this is first one. We are promised works in the tradition of characters like The Shadow, Doc Savage, the Continental Op, Sheena, and others. Hard-boiled detectives, vigilantes, villains, and set in big cities, jungles, and exotic lands.

So does this first collection live up to this promise?

Well, this work brings together over 15 experienced authors. A little disconcerting is that almost none of them have done New Pulp, and I’m not sure they’ve done any since. And while the cover is very nice, to me it more says “planetary romance” (like John Carter of Mars) than “pulp hero.”

First off we get a work by Mike Resnick to “set the mood.” This is actually one of two reprints in this collection. And I was a little disappointed that it’s really more a nod to a classic detective comic strip. Not pulp.

Next up, Robert William Iveniuk gives us a story about the author of a pulp hero that is a bit unusual. Sadly, more post-modern than pulp. (If you had given us a story of that pulp hero…)

A jungle story by Anne Nicholls is next, but there really isn’t much of a jungle hero.

But William Meikle delivers a new Professor Challenger story. He’s been doing other new Challenger stories, and this one is pretty good.

A murder mystery from Chris Iovenko is well done, but again, no pulp hero. This would have been great in a mystery anthology.

The next story sounds promising. But Bracken MacLeod gives a story that is more superhero-y. In a world of supers, an ordinary person must stand up for themselves. Again, not pulp. (More fitting to Kurt Busiek‘s Astro City.)

Josh Wolf‘s story would be a great candidate for a “Weird Tales” type collection, with pirates on a quest for treasure menaced by giant man-eating crabs. But no pulp hero here.

We get an interesting story about the first female NFL player who becomes an astronaut thanks to her physical prowess by James Hartley. An interesting sf tale, but no real pulp hero.

The characters from British comics, in particular occult detective Currier Dread (based on a real character) is the focus of Ian Gregory‘s story. Here the characters are based on real people, and the writer of Currier Dread needs the hero to fill him in on the story so he can write it up. Another interesting story, with a twist, but this, again, is not pulp.

A crime noir story by Amberle Husbands is next, dealing with a bookie and his mark.

Sports was a genre of pulps, and among these were boxing stories. Robert E. Howard actually did some, and so we get a boxing in space story from Michael Haynes.

We get another occult detective, Nick Nightmare, a hard-boiled detective who deals with occult matters. I hope this is the first of a series of stories by Adrian Cole. A story that lives up to the promise of this volume.

An interesting horror story (Robert E. Howard is cited) by Joel Lane follows. I think this could have fit well into a collection of pulp-inspired horror, but no pulp hero.

Finally we get a Western by Milo James Fowler, with a gunslinger asked to help out with tracking down a dangerous criminal. A little too self-referential to be a true pulp western story, but at least we do get a pulp hero.

Allen Ashley‘s tale is a kind of post-modern look at pulp heroes, with a focus on a larger-than-life pulp adventurer, his female associate, and main villain. Kind of a interesting tale that, in my opinion, is marred by its blatant elements of racism applied to the main character. Such racism was not that evident in pulp stories as some assume, versus what existed in prior literature. (Comment: Did readers have an issue that John Carter married an egg-laying, red-skinned Martian princess? Enough said.)

Peter Crowther‘s tale is another reprint. And like a couple of others, takes its inspiration more from comic-book heroes than pulp heroes, with a kind of post-modern look at heroes and villains from the villain’s viewpoint.

Another weird tale from Peter Atkins doesn’t look at a pulp heroes, but at an old actor who had portrayed the boy sidekick on a pulp hero TV show. A boy sidekick that didn’t exist in the original pulp stories. A young fan pulls him into helping him against gangsters.

If I seem negative about these stories, I want to be clear that these are all well written stories. But, we are promised stories of “pulp heroes.” Very few of these stories qualify as such. Some would have qualified as non-pulp hero pulp stores. And too many just don’t belong in any kind of pulp anthology (sorry, but if it’s not clear, comic book characters are not pulp). Had Alchemy Press promoted this as their “book of New Pulp” or the like, that would be one thing. But if you promise pulp heroes, give us pulp heroes.

As I noted, they have two more volumes out. I plan on getting the next one in hopes that they will deliver on their promise.