Pulp Links

Pulp websites: the online world of the pulps

33 Min Read

Pulp magazines

The pulp magazines flourished from the late 1890s through the early 1950s, publishing millions of words of adventure, mystery, science fiction, horror, and romance on cheap wood-pulp paper, and in the process launching some of the most enduring characters in American popular fiction.

The curated links below are organized to take you from the broad to the specific: from the community and scholarship that surrounds the pulps, through the genres and characters that defined them, to the images and texts that bring them to life. Whether you’re just discovering the pulps or have been collecting them for decades, there’s something here worth clicking.

Links marked [Archived] are no longer active on the open web, but live on through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Links open archived versions; some pages and images may not be fully preserved, and links may take longer to load.


General pulp interest
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Quick links

PulpFest
Since 2009, PulpFest has taken its place as one of the preeminent pulp conventions and a worthy successor of the defunct Pulpcon. The PulpFest website provides details about the upcoming convention, including guests of honor and programming, and articles about pulps and pulp creators. PulpFest also has a YouTube channel that is regularly updated with content. In addition, it regularly features informational posts and articles about themes of the upcoming convention. PulpFest is held in early August in Mars, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh.
The Pulpster
The annual magazine about pulp magazines, which is published for each summer’s PulpFest, has its own website. There you will find details about the contents and covers of previous issues, as well as news about The Pulpster, information on article submissions, advertising in the magazine, and a short history of it.
Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention
Held each spring in Lombard, Ill., the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention is one of the premier annual gatherings for pulp and vintage-paperback collectors, featuring a large dealer room, art show, film festival, and two-night auction of pulps, paperbacks, and original cover art.
Murania Press / Blood ’n’ Thunder
Ed Hulse’s award-winning Blood ’n’ Thunder — a journal devoted to adventure, mystery, and melodrama in American popular culture of the early 20th century, with particular emphasis on pulp magazines — launched in 2002, ran through 2016, and has since returned as an ongoing annual collection. Murania Press is also the publisher of the Blood ’n’ Thunder Guide to Pulp Fiction (2024 third edition), widely considered the best single-volume reference on the pulps.
Pulp Magazines Research Guide (James Madison University)
James Madison University Libraries’ research guide to the pulps, compiled by humanities librarian Brian Flota, covers print and online resources for pulp research, with dedicated pages for Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories, Black Mask, Weird Tales, Love Story, and other notable pulps.
CGC Pulp Grading
Like it or not, “slabbing” of pulp magazines is here. CGC, the Certified Guaranty Co., began grading and encapsulating pulp magazines in 2024. Check out its population report of graded pulps. CGC also has a short YouTube video explaining what a pulp magazine is.
The Science Fiction Encyclopedia: Pulp Magazines
The SFE’s entry on pulp magazines traces the medium’s history from its dime-novel origins through the pulp era and into the paperback age, with cross-references to key publishers, editors, and writers along the way.
Reminiscing about pulps
Author and pulp historian Nick Carr recalls the heyday of pulps in an article for Reminisce online magazine.
Roger Ebert’s Blog
He was best known for his critical writing about the movies and using his thumbs on TV’s At the Movies, but the late Roger Ebert wrote a terrific blog. In this entry, he recalled a favorite pastime as a youth: reading science–fiction pulps and digests. He said he enjoyed the covers more later in life.
Relatos Pulp
Relatos Pulp, or “Pulp Stories,” is a Spanish website focused on pulps — both the classic pulps and New Pulp — as well as related topics, such as TV, movies, books and comic books. The site began in 2010, is regularly updated, and includes an active forum. [Google Translation]
DC’s other comics
The title on this page is certainly a misnomer. These weren’t other “comics,” but rather characters from the pulp magazines. Based on articles by Will Murray for Comic Book Marketplace, this portion of Bob Hughes’s history of DC Comics outlines the company’s role in the publishing of “saucy,” Spicy, Speed, and other pulp lines, which did indeed include a few pages of salacious comics.
Steranko on the pulps and Time on the pulps
Chris Kalb’s Doc Savage site, The 86th Floor, includes a couple of articles on the pulps and pulp reprints; one by Jim Steranko, the second from a 1971 Time magazine. The 86th Floor is no longer actively maintained but remains accessible as an archive.
Pulp Crazy
Until 2023, Jason Aiken produced a video blog called Pulp Crazy, which looked at pulps and pulp characters (but touched on other elements of popular culture). Links to websites mentioned in the videos appear with each post.
Rolling Back the Years: Popular Publications [Archived]
SF author and PulpFest Guest of Honor Frederik Pohl periodically writes a series of entries at his The Way the Future Blogs [Archived]. This time out, he’s written a series on his memories of Popular Publications, the pulp house that produced The Spider, Dime Detectives, and Super Science Stories, which was edited by a young Pohl. The title links to the first part, here are links to part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6 [All archived].


Reference & archives
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The resources here are the essential tools for serious pulp research: institutional archives holding original manuscripts and business records, comprehensive bibliographic databases, and indexes covering magazine contents from the earliest genre pulps through the digests of the 1960s. If you’re trying to track down a specific story, identify a pseudonym, or locate a reprint, start here.

Galactic Central
Phil Stephensen-Payne’s Galactic Central website is a treasure trove of information. It offers author bibliographies, fiction magazine listings, covers and indexes, the Pulp Coming Attractions archive, a partial restoration of the old PulpTrader database, and so much more. It’s one of the indispensable pulp websites.
The FictionMags Index
William G. Contento created and Phil Stephensen-Payne edits this index of magazine contents derived from information provided by members of the Fictionmags mailing list. Housed along with Galactic Central (above), the index ranges from fiction magazines from the late 1800s through the pulps and into the digests of the 1960s.
Search the FictionMags Index
Sai Shankar has built a fast, clean search interface for the FictionMags Index, making it much easier to track down specific stories, authors, and magazine issues than navigating the index directly. It’s an indispensable bookmark for anyone researching the pulps.
Street and Smith Preservation and Access Project (Syracuse University)
Syracuse University’s Special Collections Research Center holds the Street and Smith archive. This finding aid describes the collection’s contents, including pulps and related publications, and provides information on accessing the materials.
Popular Publications Records (New York Public Library)
The New York Public Library’s archive page for its Popular Publications collection provides background on the pulp publishing company founded by Henry Steeger. The site also lists the contents of the library’s collection.
Pulp fiction collection (Library of Congress)
Learn a bit about the Library of Congress’s Pulp Fiction Collection.
The Pulp Magazines Project (University of West Florida)
David Earle, dean of the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of West Florida, and Patrick Belk have put together the Pulp Magazines Project, which they describe as “an open–access digital archive of early twentieth–century pulp magazines.” There are background articles about the pulp magazines, thumbnail cover scans, and links to a variety of vintage publication sites, as well as an expanding online library of digitized pulps.
George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection (University at Buffalo)
The University at Buffalo Libraries hold more than 30,000 pulp magazines and paperbacks in the George Kelley Collection. This digital portal features high-resolution scans of more than 500 covers from the crime fiction and science fiction portions of the collection, browsable by artist and theme. It appears to lean heavily toward paperbacks, but pulps can be found by careful searching.
Pulp Fiction Collection (CSU, San Bernardino)
The Special Collections department at California State University, San Bernardino holds a solid collection of 20th-century pulp magazines, with particular strength in western, detective, and spicy titles. The site includes finding aids for researchers looking for physical holdings of specific titles, but the collection has a limited digital footprint
The Hevelin Collection (University of Iowa)
The University of Iowa’s James L. “Rusty” Hevelin Collection holds a large selection of early pulps and science-fiction fanzines. Rusty Hevelin, who died in 2011, was a co-founder of Pulpcon, the predecessor of PulpFest. His collection is a remarkable window into how the original readers engaged with the magazines. A substantial portion has been digitized.
The Internet Archive Pulp Magazine Collection
The Internet Archive’s dedicated pulp-magazine collection makes hundreds of digitized issues available for free reading or downloading in PDF, ePub, Kindle, and plain text formats, covering science fiction, mystery, horror, adventure, and hero pulps, with the collection continuing to grow through ongoing digitization efforts.
The Internet Speculative Fiction Database
The ISFDB is a community-maintained bibliographic database cataloging works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with comprehensive magazine content listings, author bibliographies, cover art credits, and pseudonym records covering the pulp era through the digests of the 1960s.
The Merrill Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation & Fantasy (Toronto Public Library)
Located at the Toronto Public Library, the Merrill Collection comprises thousands of rare pulp magazines and related materials. The online portal includes digitized highlights and finding aids for researchers interested in the collection. The Merrill Collection also hosts the annual Fantastic Pulps Show & Sale.
Pulp Superhero Index
Will Murray has expanded on Robert Weinberg and Lohr McKinstry’s Hero Pulp Index and refocused it on characters inspired by the success of The Shadow magazine in 1931. You’ll find characters, pulp magazines, authors, and publishers in this online timeline of the hero pulps.
The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes
Reference librarian and pulp historian Jess Nevins has put together more than 4,000 entries on series characters from the pulp era, drawing on pulps, magazines, novels, radio shows, comic strips, and other media from more than 50 countries. The online edition also includes a history of the pulps and a glossary. If you want to know whether a particular character appeared in the pulps, start here.
Pulp glossary [Archived]
Adventure House used to host this pulp glossary — offering a brief explanation of pulp-magazine-related terms, as well as brief info on authors and characters — until a website redesign.
Dashiell Hammett Papers (University of Texas at Austin)
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin holds the papers of Dashiell Hammett, creator of Sam Spade and the Continental Op. This finding aid describes the collection’s contents and provides information on accessing the materials.
Dashiell Hammett Family Papers (University of South Carolina)
The Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of South Carolina holds what has been described as the most comprehensive Dashiell Hammett collection in the world. It includes family correspondence, photographs, personal papers, more than 300 first editions, and 42 issues of Black Mask containing his original, serialized stories.
Archive of Raymond Chandler (Oxford University)
Oxford University’s Bodleian Libraries hold an archive of Raymond Chandler’s papers. This finding aid describes the collection and provides information on requesting materials for viewing.
Erle Stanley Gardner Papers (University of Texas at Austin)
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas holds the papers of Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason and one of the most prolific contributors to Black Mask and other detective pulps. This finding aid describes the collection and provides access information.
George Harmon Coxe Papers (Yale University)
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale holds the papers of George Harmon Coxe, the Black Mask regular best known for his photographer-detective Flash Casey. This PDF finding aid describes the collection’s contents and access conditions.


Character pulps
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The success of The Shadow Magazine in 1931 proved that a pulp magazine built around a single recurring hero could be a commercial and creative force. What followed was a wave of character pulps, each with its own protagonist, world, and devoted readership. The links below cover a selection of those characters. Note: The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Spider each have their own dedicated pages here at ThePulp.Net.

The Avenger in print and on radio
Robert Finnan’s page on The Avenger includes a listing of the hero’s magazine appearances and information on the short-lived radio series.
Dusty Ayres and his Battle Birds covers
General Atomic has posted eight covers from Dusty Ayres and His Battle Birds pulps. Witness action scenes from “Black Lightning,” “The Green Thunderbolt” and “The White Death.”
G-8’s Web base
In addition to his Doc Savage and The Spider sites, Chris Kalb has crafted a wonderful site devoted to the Flying Spy, which includes information on author Robert J. Hogan and interior artist J. Fleming Gould, the major characters in the series, an annotated bibliography of adventures and covers and interior art. Note: Unfortunately, this site requires Adobe Flash for some features; Flash was discontinued in December 2020, and those portions of the site no longer function in modern browsers.
Grace Culver
Thrilling Detective includes a page on Grace Culver, one of the popular back-page features of The Shadow. Along with brief background information, you’ll find a list of the stories in which she appeared. The website also includes information on scores of other detectives.
Edmond Hamilton’s Captain Future [Archived]
Larry Estep has put together a site devoted to Captain Future: Wizard of Science (later known as Man of Tomorrow). Learn more about Curt Newton and his fight against evil. The website includes information on Hamilton, the series’ writer, and a bibliography of the good captain.
Futuremania: The Captain Future Fan Site
This German website provides an extensive look at the Japanese and German animated Captain Future TV series. It also includes summaries of the original pulp novels and short stories, reprint info, and a profile of author Edmond Hamilton.
Captain Future: A German view
Sascha Goto’s Captain Future site includes information on the original pulp run of Edmond Hamilton’s character, as well as a Captain Future FAQ, and information on and sounds from the television program.
Capitaine Flam
This French site looks at Capitaine Flam, aka Captain Future. You’ll find e-texts, cover scans, and other inside features, as well as a history of Captain Future in pulp and video.
Lone Ranger Wiki: The Lone Ranger Magazine Stories
The Lone Ranger Wiki focuses mostly on the character’s appearances in other media, but there is a listing of the stories appearing in the 1937 pulp, The Lone Ranger Magazine.
Operator 5’s online operations
Chris Kalb (see G-8 above) provides an overview of America’s Undercover Ace and a bibliography of his adventures. The site is part of Chris’s Hero Pulp website.
Zorro’s home on the Web
The official Zorro site includes a complete listing of Zorro’s pulp adventures, information on fan clubs, collecting Zorro and the 1998 movie, and the latest Zorro news.
Cool French Comics: The Pulp Heritage
Despite the name, this site has an extensive English-language section covering the feuilletons and French pulp traditions that predated and influenced the American hero pulps, with profiles of international characters such as Fantômas, the Nyctalope, and Arsène Lupin.
Pulp heroes at Moonstone Books
Moonstone Books publishes novels, short stories, graphic novels, and comic books featuring a number of pulp characters, including The Avenger, The Black Bat, Domino Lady, the Phantom (Detective), Sheena, and others.
The pulp avengers
Brian Misiaszek has put together a FAQ about the pulps, pulp heroes, and how they can be used in role-playing games.
Pulp Culture review
Here’s a review of Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines with an eye toward role-playing games.
The Wold Newton family
Win Eckert takes a look at and expands on Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton theory of heroes and villains — a shared fictional universe connecting pulp characters including The Shadow, Doc Savage, Tarzan, and many others.
Wold Newton Family at Wikipedia
Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton concept was first introduced in his fictional biographies Tarzan Alive (1972) and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (1973). Wikipedia’s entry on the Wold Newton family explains the theory and lists the characters Farmer placed in the shared universe, from Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty to Tarzan and The Shadow.


The people behind the pulps
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The pulps were built by writers who could produce a novel in a week, artists who defined the look of American popular fiction, and editors who shaped entire genres. The links here focus on the individuals — fictioneers, illustrators, editors, and others — who made the pulps what they were. Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard each have their own sections below; this section covers the broader community of pulp contributors.

Fictioneers on Radio Wolinsky
Radio Wolinsky, a podcast from public radio station KPFA-FM, includes a selection of archival interviews — unedited and often extended — from the station’s programs, such as the long-running literary and cultural interview program Probabilities. Host Richard Wolinsky is often joined by co-hosts Lawrence Davidson and the late Richard A. Lupoff. We’ve combed through them for the pulp fictioneers:

Fictioneers at Black Mask Magazine
The Black Mask Magazine website includes profiles of several of the fictioneers who wrote for Black Mask:

Norman Saunders, pulp illustrator
David Saunders, son of Norman Saunders, has put together a site devoted to his artist father. There’s a biography, checklist and details and samples of the elder Saunders’ work in magazines and for Topps cards.
Gloria Stoll Karn [Archived]
One of the few female artists working in the pulps, Gloria Stoll Karn painted and illustrated for a variety of magazines, including Black Mask, Dime Mystery, Love Book, and All-Story Love. She was the Guest of Honor at PulpFest 2017; she died at age 98 in 2022.
Artist Spotlight: Walter Baumhofer
Advocate.com takes a look at pulp artist Walter Baumhofer and his work, with an emphasis on the appeal of some of his paintings to gay men.
Charles Boeckman: Pulp and Modern Fiction Author and Musician
The website for Charles Boeckman Jr., who wrote under the name Charles Bockman Jr., features fiction excerpts and bits of biography about the author and jazz clarinetist. It’s maintained by his wife, Patricia Boeckman.
The Curved Saber
Billed as “The Official Harold Lamb Site,” the late Howard Andrew Jones’ website hasn’t been updated since 2009, but still has plenty of useful information about the adventure fictioneer.
Edgar Wallace online
British author Edgar Wallace is the focus of this official site of the Edgar Wallace Society. Wallace was a popular author for British pulps.
Zane Grey’s West Society
The group’s website includes a biography of Zane Grey, information on the society, “How to Get Started Reading Zane Grey” and “Why You Should Read Zane Grey” sections. There’s also a bibliography of his stories and articles published in a variety of magazines, including the pulps.


Edgar Rice Burroughs
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Edgar Rice Burroughs didn’t just write for the pulps; he helped define what they could be. His signature character, Tarzan of the Apes, first appeared in All-Story in late 1912, and the characters Burroughs created, from John Carter of Mars (who actually preceded Tarzan by several months) to Carson Napier of Venus, remain among the most widely read pulp-era fiction in the world. These links cover Burroughs, his characters, and the active community of fans and scholars his work continues to attract.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc.
Edgar Rice Burroughs is probably most famous for Tarzan, but he wrote other pulp stories, including series featuring John Carter of Mars, Carson Napier of Venus, and David Innes. You’ll find plenty of information about Burroughs and his creations on this site, as well as links to sources for ERB comics and reprints and to the artists who drew them.
Official Website of Tarzan
Formerly the site for Disney’s Tarzan movie, Tarzan.com has reverted to ERB Inc. as one of its official sites. This one focuses exclusively on the Lord of the Apes.
ERBzine
Bill and Sue-On Hillman have put together an extensive website cataloging their ERBzine, a weekly online fanzine about Edgar Rice Burroughs, and ERB-related sources. The website also includes information on the Edgar Rice Burroughs Amateur Press Association.
The Burroughs Bibliophiles
The Burroughs Bibliophiles, a “worldwide organization of aficionados who share a love for the works and characters” of Edgar Rice Burroughs, was founded in 1960. It publishes a quarterly zine, The Burroughs Bulletin, and a monthly newsletter, The Gridley Wave, and sponsors the annual summer convention, The Dum-Dum. Annual membership in the organization includes a subscription to both publications.
Tarzan of the Internet
Ed Stephan’s website offers a jungle-size list of links to Tarzan pages, as well as images from Tarzan’s pulp appearances.
Edgar Rice Burroughs Literary Archive
Ken Lopez Bookseller, which specializes in rare books and manuscripts, offered for sale an extensive collection of items belonging to Edgar Rice Burroughs: correspondence, manuscript materials, photographs, and memorabilia from the 1920s to the 1940s. This website shows a rundown of the items, illustrated with photographs, broken down by time periods in ERB’s life.
John Carter official movie site
Here is Disney’s webpage on its 2012 movie John Carter. Find out information about its production and cast, and where it’s streaming.
The Game of Jetan
Here’s a different take on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars series. The web page, by Larry L. Smith and Hans Bodlaender, looks at the rules of Jetan, which is based on ERB’s “The Chessmen of Mars.”
Jetan, Barsoom’s Game of Chess
Here’s another page devoted to the rules of Jetan, the Martian game from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “The Chessmen of Mars.”
Earth’s Core review [Archived]
Steven H. Silver reviews Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “At the Earth’s Core” with an emphasis on how it stands up today.


Robert E. Howard
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Robert E. Howard was one of the defining voices of the pulp era. Creator of Conan the Barbarian, Solomon Kane, Kull of Atlantis, and dozens of other characters, Howard published prolifically in Weird Tales and other pulps before his death in 1936 at 30. His work continues to generate new editions, films, comics, and scholarly attention.

Robert E. Howard United Press Association
Keep up with the latest news regarding REH and his characters on the website for this long-running amateur press association. In addition to news items, the REHUPA site includes tips on collecting REH, bibliographies and checklist information, a biography of Howard, photos of him, and literary criticism about his works.
Messages From Crom
Bill Thom runs this Robert E. Howard newsline blog. He promises the “latest news regarding REH books, pulp reprints, comics, audio, conventions, games, and whatever else seems applicable.”
Howard Days
Every June, fans of Robert E. Howard gather in Cross Plains, Texas — where Howard lived and wrote — for Howard Days, an annual international celebration of his life and legacy. The weekend includes tours of Howard’s home and writing room, panel discussions, a banquet, a dealers’ area, and the singular experience of standing in the room where Conan, Solomon Kane, and Kull were conjured.
The Robert E. Howard Foundation
The nonprofit Robert E. Howard Foundation fosters understanding of Howard’s life and work, co-sponsors Howard Days, administers the annual REH Foundation Awards, and publishes original Howard scholarship through its REH Foundation Press imprint. As of 2026, the Foundation is also actively raising funds to restore Howard’s home in Cross Plains, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and in need of significant structural repair.
Howard Works: The Online Robert E. Howard Bibliography
Here is a comprehensive, illustrated bibliography of Robert E. Howard’s fiction and poetry, covering more than 95 percent of all known publications containing his work — from the pulps through decades of reprints and collections. A two-time winner of the Stygian Award for best REH-related website.
Glenn Lord Collection at the Harry Ransom Center
The University of Texas’s Harry Ransom Center holds the Glenn Lord Collection of Robert E. Howard materials, assembled by the longtime agent and bibliographer of Howard’s estate. This finding aid provides a preliminary inventory of the collection’s contents and access information.
The Barbarian Keep
Ed Waterman offers a bounty of information regarding Robert E. Howard and his works: from fan clubs and discussion groups to sources for REH books to fanzines and critical publications to information on REH movies and TV programs.
Robert E. Howard Archive
Steve Hogan and friends offer an insightful look at the creator of Conan, Solomon Kane, and other pulp barbarians.
Cimmerian Collection
In the Cimmerian Collection, Jeffrey Blair Latta reviews and lists the publication history books and stories by Robert E. Howard. He also includes covers of selected editions.
Conan the Official website
Look for information about Conan collectibles, books, comics, games, and more at this site for Conan Properties International. There’s also a Conan bibliography listing all of the barbarian’s book appearances.


Weird fantasy/horror
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Along with Robert E. Howard, Weird Tales was home to many other fictioneers, including H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. The collective influence of those three writers on weird-fantasy and horror fiction is difficult to overstate. The links below cover that broader weird-fiction world, from Lovecraft’s cosmic horror to Smith’s baroque fantasias and beyond.

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society
The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society takes the position that Lovecraft’s work is best experienced, not just read. The organization, with members in more than 20 countries, produces award-winning silent films (including an adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu shot in the style of a 1920s silent), 1930s-style audio dramas under the Dark Adventure Radio Theatre banner, audiobook recordings of Lovecraft’s complete fiction, musical productions, prop replicas, and publications. The Society’s motto, Ludo Fore Putavimus, translates as “We Thought It Would Be Fun.” It shows.
Clark Ashton Smith site
Boyd Pearson’s website, The Eldritch Dark, includes: biographical information on Smith; areas on his writings, including e-texts of his stories and poems; information about his art; and a Hyperborean glossary.
H.P. Lovecraft and the Shadow Over Horror
As part of NPR’s Summer Reader Poll 2018, Ruthanna Emrys wrote about H.P. Lovecraft as a foundation of modern horror fiction.
H.P. Lovecraft Archive
Learn more about the master of Weird Tales at Donovan Loucks’ site.
H.P. Lovecraft Collection at Brown University
Brown University’s John Hay Library holds one of the preeminent Lovecraft research collections in the world, including more than 1,000 books and magazines in 20 languages, over 2,000 original letters and manuscripts, and supporting materials from Lovecraft’s friends and associates.
Weird Tales: The Unique Magazine [Archived]
Lars Klores’ Weird Tales site features an impressive lineup of cover scans, information about the pulp’s authors (including their photos) and artists, and background on the unique magazine.


Science fiction/fantasy
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While the pulp magazines didn’t create science fiction, it was one of the pulps’ most fertile genres, producing writers, characters, and ideas that shaped the field for generations. The links here cover science-fiction pulps broadly, including the magazines, the fictioneers, the archival collections, and the international communities that have formed around them.

William J. Heron Collection of Speculative Fiction
Visit the website of the Library Special Collections Department at Virginia Tech. You’ll find information about the collection, but you may have to dig around for it.
Science fiction in French
NooSFere, the French encyclopedia of science fiction, includes covers and information about a variety of science-fiction pulp magazines, such as Astounding, Galaxy Science Fiction, and If.
Paskow Science Fiction Collection
Here is information about Temple University Library’s Paskow Science Fiction Collection, which includes some information on pulps and fanzines.
Blueprint for Space exhibit [Archived]
Learn about the connection between science-fiction literature and fact at the website for “Blueprint for Space: Science Fiction to Science Fact,” an exhibit that was displayed at the Johnson Space Center in Texas in 1992. You’ll find science-fiction pulp covers and Wernher Von Braun’s sketches for 1950s-vintage spacecraft.


Mystery/hardboiled
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Mystery and hardboiled detective fiction were among the defining genres of the pulp era — and Black Mask alone launched the careers of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. The links here cover the genre’s history and key figures, point collectors toward what’s worth seeking out, and offer an encyclopedic reference for anyone who wants to go deeper into the world of fictional private eyes.

Hardboiled Detectives
EBSCO’s Research Starters entry on hardboiled detective fiction, written by scholar Scott D. Yarbrough, covers the genre’s origins in the post–World War I era, the role of Black Mask magazine, the defining contributions of Hammett and Chandler, and the genre’s evolution through the 20th century and beyond. It’s a solid reference overview for newcomers and researchers alike.
The Thrilling Detective
Kevin Burton Smith’s long-running, encyclopedic site covers private eyes, hardboiled detectives, and crime fiction in all its forms — with character profiles, author bibliographies, alphabetical indexes of fictional P.I.s across print, film, radio, and television, and a steady stream of new content. Several articles on the site are particularly useful as starting points for pulp-era hardboiled fiction:

Checklist of Dashiell Hammett Fiction
Here’s a useful quick reference to Dashiell Hammett’s novels, novellas, and short stories, with publication history including original magazine appearances and all major book reprints.
Erle Stanley Gardner: A Bibliography of His Book Publications
Here’s a meticulously detailed, illustrated bibliography covering 157 titles and more than 1,960 editions and variants of Gardner’s books — from the Perry Mason novels through his pulp-era collections — with over 1,200 cover images.
Hardboiled Detective Fiction and the Private Library
L.D. Mitchell’s essay for the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers traces the genre from Edgar Allan Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin through the Black Mask era of Hammett and Chandler, with particular attention to what serious collectors should seek out and why. It’s a thoughtful overview that treats hardboiled fiction with the scholarly respect it deserves.
Twists, Slugs, and Roscoes
Not sure what a flivver is? Or a roscoe? Or mazuma? Then William Denton’s Glossary of Hardboiled Slang is just what you need.


Pulp images
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Pulp cover art is one of the most immediate and visceral entry points into the world of the pulps — lurid, dramatic, and often genuinely striking. The links here include artist profiles and image archives spanning the full run of the pulp era. If you’ve never encountered a rack of pulp magazines (and who among us has?), start here.

Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists
David Saunders, the son of pulp artist Norman Saunders, maintains the source for pulp artist information on the web. He continues to update and expand the biographical profiles of hundreds of pulp illustrators, including career histories and scans of cover and interior work.
Pulp Covers: The Best of the Worst
The definition of “pulp” is broadly defined at this website, and includes pulp magazines, paperback books, and more. But for pulp magazine fans, you’ll find plenty of garish eye candy in the large-size covers posted on this site.
Comic Art Fans
Despite the name, Comic Art Fans has a lot for pulp fans. Yes, most of the art is comic book related, but search for “pulp” or a specific pulp artist, and more than likely you’ll turn up something of interest. A number of pulp fans have set up galleries there with photos of original paintings and drawings.
Magazine Art
This website devoted to magazine art, in general, includes a section focusing on the pulps, including Adventure, Uncanny Tales, and other science-fiction and fantasy titles.
Pulp Covers Collection (Syracuse University)
A separate portal from Syracuse’s Street & Smith finding aid, this gallery focuses specifically on pulp covers, with high-resolution images browsable by artist and publisher.
Tales of Future Past
While most of the magazine illustrations here are from non-fiction science publications, there is a selection of science-fiction pulp covers scattered throughout.
Enoch Bolles
The blog focuses on artist Enoch Bolles, who is best known for his pinup covers for pulps, such as Breezy. It includes cover images and model reference photos.
Pulp art on CD–ROMs
Though Graffix Multimedia sells CD–ROMs of pulp cover scans, their site includes numerous cover samples from mystery, detective, science-fiction, and western pulps.
Pulps: A Japanese view
This site from Japan includes an excellent selection of pulp cover scans. They are chiefly science-fiction pulps, such as Amazing, Captain Future, Planet and such, but also Argosy, Blue Book, and Weird Tales. The text on this site is in Japanese.
Poulpe pulps
Francesca Myman takes a slightly skewed look at pulp magazine covers with her poulpe pulp site. It’s the octopus — the animal, not the pulp character — that takes the place of the BEM* on these covers. [*Bug-Eyed Monster]


E-texts
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The pulps were cheap to begin with, and a large portion of their fiction has entered the public domain, making it freely available online in a variety of formats. The links here cover digitized pulp collections, e-text archives, and reading resources. Whether you’re looking to sample the fiction for the first time or track down a specific story for research, visit the links below.

Pulpgen Archive
Larry Estep’s PulpGen site went dead back in 2021. The PulpGen Archive recovered much of the fiction posted there. It’s a nice selection of stories by David Goodis, E. Hoffmann Price, Major R.T.M. Scott, Theodore Tinsley, and others. (Look under the “Download the Stories” subhead and browse by author, magazine or recent additions.)
Pulpmagazines.org
Pulpmagazines.org maintains a growing collection of pulp magazines available to read online or download as PDFs for free, covering Weird Tales, Unknown, detective titles, science-fiction pulps, and more, with new issues added and a monthly update posted to the site. The site also includes a cover gallery, old comics, and links to related audiobooks and old-time radio recordings.
Diesel Punk Industries Pulp Library
Here are more than 1,200 issues available as scans, including sports pulps, westerns, detective titles, and other genres.
ERB pulp text
Miscellanea, formerly known as Retro Novello, includes e-texts of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Girl from Farris’s and The Efficiency Expert to download. You’ll also find several stories by Sax Rohmer.
Online Books Page
Links to sites with electronic texts of books.
Gutenberg Project
Search the Gutenberg Project’s directory of electronic texts. Here you’ll be able to find many Edgar Rice Burroughs’ adventures, as well as many, many other novels — and all are free.
The Eldritch Dark: The Sanctum of Clark Ashton Smith
The Fantasy Collector’s collection includes stories and poems by Smith. See also the Clark Ashton Smith site in the Weird Fantasy/Horror section above for a broader resource on Smith’s life and work.


Radio/TV/film
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The characters and stories that made the pulps popular didn’t stay on the page for long. The Shadow, Doc Savage, Tarzan, The Spider, and dozens of others made the leap to radio serials, movie serials, and feature films. The links here cover those adaptations and the old-time radio resources that document the pulps in other media. For information on The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Spider, please visit their pages.

The Serial Squadron
The Serial Squadron website, dedicated to movie, radio, and TV serials, includes information on serials featuring such pulp and dime novel characters as The Shadow, The Spider, Deadwood Dick, Tarzan, and others.
Old Time Radio show logs
Episode guides and air dates of a variety of old radio programs, including some based on pulp characters, such as The Shadow, Doc Savage, and Dr. Kildare.
Old Time Radio Show Catalog
OTRCat features a daily download from classic radio drama, as well as sells MP3 and audio CDs of vintage radio programs, including a variety of science-fiction shows based on pulp writers’ stories.


Before and after the pulps
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The pulps didn’t emerge from nothing, and they didn’t simply vanish. Dime novels and nickel weeklies established the audience, the genres, and many of the storytelling conventions that the pulps inherited and transformed. When the classic pulp era ended in the early 1950s, the men’s adventure magazines carried much of the same spirit — and many of the same artists and writers — forward into a new decade. These links cover that longer arc of popular fiction.

Dime novel and Story papers at Wikipedia
Wikipedia’s entries on the dime novel and the story paper cover the history, formats, and major publishers of the inexpensive popular fiction that preceded and overlapped with the pulps, from the 1860s through the early 20th century.
Story papers and nickel weeklies at BGSU
Bowling Green State University’s Browne Popular Culture Library has digitized hundreds of titles from two of the pulps’ direct predecessors: the story papers, serialized fiction newspapers of the mid-to-late 19th century, and the nickel weeklies, weekly adventure publications featuring characters such as Buffalo Bill and Frank Merriwell. Both collections are fully text-searchable.
Nickels and Dimes: From the Collections of Johannsen and LeBlanc
Northern Illinois University’s digitization project makes thousands of dime novels and story papers freely available online, drawn from two major collections spanning the genre’s run from 1860 to 1925 and covering publishers including Beadle & Adams, Street & Smith, and Frank Tousey. The site includes full-text searchable editions and detailed bibliographic information.
Dime novels and penny dreadfuls
Here is information on Stanford University’s collection of dime novels and penny dreadfuls. The site offers background on the popular fiction that led to the pulps.
Dime Novel Round-up
The 19th Century Girls’ Series website provides a content listing for Dime Novel Round-up zine, which looks at both dime novels, pulps, and other popular fiction genres.
The Men’s Adventure Magazines Blog
Bob Deis’s actively maintained site covers the men’s adventure magazines of the 1950s–’70s — the direct descendants of the classic pulps, sharing many of the same artists, writers, and readers — and includes coverage of pulp-era illustration, the ongoing Men’s Adventure Quarterly, which Deis co-edits with Bill Cunningham of Pulp 2.0 Press, and the Men’s Adventure Library of reprints, which he co-publishes with Wyatt Doyle of New Texture.
James Bond and the pulps
David Morefield’s essay traces the pulp fiction that influenced Ian Fleming and the James Bond novels. It originally appeared on the now-defunct site, Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Pulp events

Events are subject to change.

June 12-13, 2026: Robert E. Howard Days, Cross Plains, Texas

June 20, 2026: Afterlives of World Building: The Legacy of Robert E. Howard, via Zoom (free pre-registration required)

June 25-28, 2026: Edgar Rice Burroughs Convention 2026, Raleigh, N.C.

July 30-Aug. 2, 2026: PulpFest 2026, including Doc Con, FarmerCon, and Shadow Con, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Oct. 10, 2026: Doc Fan Gathering, La Plata, Mo.

On–going:
• Gotham Pulp Collectors Club, 1 p.m. the third Saturday of each month via Zoom. Check its website for location.