There was one thing that got under my skin during the whole “new pulp” kerfuffle a number of weeks ago. It was the allegation that I (and the rest of the so-called “old guard” pulp fans) had it in for New Pulp because I have a vested financial interest in keeping the old pulp magazines alive because we’re the ones “making money off it.”
Now, I’m speaking strictly about myself here. I’m not speaking for pulp magazine fans in general (though I would imagine that what I write here applies to the majority of them).
If I’m in it for the money, the fiscal tide has been flowing the wrong direction.
I’d hate to tally up how much I’ve spent on the pulp magazines, pulp reference books and biographies, pulp fanzines, pulp reprints and a few pulp collectibles since my interest in the pulps really took off in the early 1980s. Oh, and add to that the cost of maintaining ThePulp.Net for the past 15 years or so.
How much have I made off of my pulp interests?
Over the years, I’ve turned down a number of queries about placing advertising on ThePulp.Net. And I’ve tried to provide a broad listing of pulp dealers so as not to foster the impression I favor one over the others.
In fact, the only things pulp-related that I have ever sold have been a handful of duplicate pulp fanzines that I’ve taken to the Arizona Doc Con the past couple of years. The total, if I estimate upwards, might reach $50 (but I’d doubt it has been that much).
Otherwise, the bulk of my financial interest in the old pulp magazines has been vested in other people’s, well, vests.
So what’s behind my support of those long-dead pulp magazines?
I am a fan of the pulps. Period.
In that word — “pulps” — I include the stories, the covers, the art and design, the writers, the editors and publishers, their history, and the whole notion of a mass-market entertainment medium built on inexpensive fiction magazines sold on corner newsstands or shops and hundreds (if not thousands) of people writing, not because they were fans, but because they need the money to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. (And before anyone fires off an angry comment or email: No, that is not a subtle or obvious dig at New Pulp. It’s a statement of fact regarding that time period and one of the topics that I find very intriguing — how many of the pulp writers would have ever gotten into writing or gotten published, let alone made a living from writing, had it not been for that unique period of magazine publishing? Would anyone remember the names of H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Norvell Page or Lester Dent if not for the pulps?)
Yes, I do read a variety of other subjects and I do have a variety of other interests. (Formula 1 racing, anyone?) But none have been as deep or lasted as long as my interest in the pulps.
And to tell the truth, I have grown to have only a moderate interest in the actual pulp magazines themselves. They are decaying items; without expensive and extraordinary efforts, they will eventually disappear. But as long as the stories and art contained in them are preserved — through scanning or other means — and the tales behind the pulp magazines are recorded, the pulps will live on.
But, please, don’t label me as in it for the money. I’m in it because of a love for the pulps.
Now, about the use of “old” in “old guard”…
