{"id":14931,"date":"2022-11-14T10:00:40","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T15:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=14931"},"modified":"2022-11-06T18:40:55","modified_gmt":"2022-11-06T23:40:55","slug":"sensuous-science-fiction-from-the-weird-and-spicy-pulps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2022\/11\/14\/sensuous-science-fiction-from-the-weird-and-spicy-pulps\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Sensuous Science Fiction From the Weird and Spicy Pulps’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been looking for the dime-novel and pulp-related works from Bowling Green State University’s Popular Press when I learned of one I wasn’t aware of: Sensuous Science Fiction From the Weird and Spicy Pulps<\/em> from 1984. This is another collection from the pulps by Sheldon Jaffrey<\/a><\/strong> (1934-2003) who also did the collection Selected Tales of Grim and Grue From the Horror Pulps<\/em> in 1987. He had two other works from Popular Press I may review.<\/p>\n

\"Sensuous<\/a>Again taking inspiration from the shudder pulps<\/a>, this is a collection of seven science-fiction takes from the weird-menace and spicy pulps. Some of the shudder pulps from Popular Publications ran science-fiction tales. We get one of those. A couple of the spicy pulps also did science fiction, especially Spicy-Adventure Stories<\/em> and sometimes Spicy Mystery<\/em>. And Marvin Goodman<\/strong>‘s Red Circle science fiction pulps took a turn for spicy and weird-menace elements. There is a nice intro by Jaffrey, who also prefaces each story as well.<\/p>\n

In the book, we get:<\/p>\n

From W. Wayne Robbins<\/strong> (1914-58), there is “Test-Tube Frankenstein,” which was noted on the cover of the May 1940 Terror Tales<\/em>. Robbins seems to mainly worked in Horror Stories<\/em> and Terror Tales<\/em>. In this one, a man deals with an organism created by a mad scientist that can take any form. Like his best friend. Or his wife. He destroys it. But did he?<\/p>\n

Next is the first Zenith Rand<\/strong> story, “Zenith Rand, Planet Vigilante” by Richard Tooker<\/strong>, which was cover featured in the June 1936 issue of Mystery Adventures<\/em>. This series ran three stories and I plan on posting on the complete series once I read the reprint volume from Black Dog Books<\/a>. Here Zenith and his female companion Sandra<\/strong> must deal with the Camian goat-women.<\/p>\n

From the Red Circle pulps, we get a pair of stories from the only two issues of Marvel Tales<\/em>, which was a retitling of Marvel Science Stories<\/em>, after which it was retitled Marvel Stories<\/em>. For those two issues, sex and sadism were a big element. Interestingly, both stories featured were by major sf authors under pseudonyms, though Jaffery wasn’t aware of one of them.<\/p>\n

First up is “The Angel from Hell” which was cover featured in the December 1939 issue. It’s really by Jack Williamson<\/strong> under the pseudonym Nils O. Sonderlund<\/strong>, which he only used for two stories in Marvel Tales<\/em>. In this story set in the Gobi desert, two pilots deal with a threat from different angles. One meets a winged woman, the last of her race who lives on a floating island. The other is recruited to join a group bent on world conquest, using strange weapons made by a mad scientist, using ideas he stole from the winged race and their island. Can the two pilots stop this threat?<\/p>\n

Next is “The World Without Sex” from the May 1940 issue and is by Edmond Hamilton<\/strong> under the name Robert Wentworth<\/strong>. Set in a bizarre, future world where women have taken over, the men finally rebel.<\/p>\n

Finally, we get a trio from Spicy-Adventure Stories<\/em>. All were under pseudonyms, though Jaffrey didn’t know any of the real author’s names. Two are by Victor Rousseau Emanuel<\/a><\/strong> (1879-1960), who I’ve posted on before who created super-detective Jim Anthony<\/a><\/strong> and was reduced to writing for the spicy pulps at this time in his career. Two of his pseudonyms were Lew Merrill<\/strong> and Hugh Speers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

First is “The Robot Awakes,” which is by Lew Merrill and was covered featured on the October 1940 issue. Set in the far future where mankind is dying, a robot rebels. But this is a biological robot sheathed in metal. Can he start a new human race?<\/p>\n

Next is “Shawm of the Stars” by Hugh Speers from September 1940. This is the first Shawm<\/strong> story, and there is at least one more from the next issue. Are there others? This is your standard adventurer in a space-style story.<\/p>\n

Finally, we have “Planet of Peril” by Henri St. Maur<\/strong> who was really James H.S. Moynahan<\/strong>, also from the September 1940 issue. It’s another tale of sex and space adventure.<\/p>\n

Overall, a nice collection of such stories from the spicy sf pulps. This one seems hard to find, and most copies I saw were fairly pricey. I would think with all the pulp reprinting going on this one could easily be brought back and maybe updated and revised. If you like these sorts of stories, take a look.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been looking for the dime-novel and pulp-related works from Bowling Green State University’s Popular Press when I learned of one I wasn’t aware of: Sensuous Science Fiction From the Weird and Spicy Pulps from 1984. This is another collection from the pulps by Sheldon Jaffrey (1934-2003) who also did the collection Selected Tales […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Pulp Super-Fan looks at \"Sensuous Science Fiction From the Weird and Spicy Pulps.\" #pulpmags #spicypulps #weirdmenace","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[1,135,14],"tags":[492,94,1077,374,651,231],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-14931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pulps","category-reprints","category-review","tag-popular-press","tag-science-fiction","tag-sheldon-jaffery","tag-spicy-pulps","tag-victor-rousseau","tag-weird-menace-pulps"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2022\/09\/sensuous-science-fiction-featured.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-3SP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14931"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15135,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14931\/revisions\/15135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14931"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=14931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}