I have noted in the past the great articles by Wooda “Nick” Carr that have appeared in many pulp fanzines over the years. And there is a great collection of two dozen of his articles that came out in 2007 from Wild Cat Books, which hasn’t kept this available. Master of the Pulps comes in at 360 pages, with a lot of good articles, including artwork that appeared in fanzines from the ’70s through the ’90s.
The articles are a mix. There are some that look at a particular series or character, giving a good overview of them. Secret Six, Park Avenue Hunt Club, Operator #5, Wu Fang, Ki-Gor, Zorro, Matalaa, and others are all the subjects of articles.
Other articles take a deeper look into a particular aspect of a series. One article looks at the secondary characters in The Moon Man. Another at a particular event within the Purple War storyline in Operator #5: the massacre at the Grand Canyon.
Another at the femme fatales of Operator #5. Others look at other aspects of the pulps, like oriental villains, or sex and torture in the pulps. Another looks at Popular Publication publisher Harry Steeger, written after his passing where we learn of various items Carr learned in his years of correspondence with him.
Other articles are one that looks at the Top 10 G-8 stories.
As noted, this is a great collection of articles. I’m glad I got it when I did. I wish someone would either reprint this one (they’d need to include the artwork, maybe improve the reproduction of the pulp covers), or maybe an expanded edition that adds more articles. Fans today should have access to these works. Keep an eye out for this one.
