Just Finished Reading: Danger is My Business – An Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines: 1896-1953 by Lee Server (FP: 1993) [137pp] 

Anyone who is, or has been, a regular here will know of my love for pulp cover art. I’m also a BIG fan of the Golden Age of Science Fiction and Noir fiction – both of which emerged in the pulp magazines in the first part of the 20th century – so how could I avoid something like this book. OK, I’ve actually had it stacked in a pile near one of my shelf units for some time now (it's a large ‘coffee-table’ book so wouldn’t fit on any of my shelves) but the point stands. 

Covering ALL of the genres (or at least most of them) including Horror/Fantasy, Adventure, Private-Eyes, Romance and Sex, Heroes (super or otherwise), Weird (there was a lot of that!) and, of course, Science-Fiction the author not only showed his knowledge of the subject but his love of all things pulpy too. So, not only was this a FUN experience I also learnt quite a bit about why the pulps emerged in the first place, how they explosively expanded in the 1920’s, stumbled a bit during the depression, reached new heights shortly after and them collapsed almost overnight. It seemed like one hell of a ride for all involved. Although I certainly knew about SOME of the genres covered here, I wasn’t fully aware of the hundreds of really niche markets some of the pulps serviced or how short some of the runs were – some magazines died a very early death whilst others, particularly crime, SF and westerns, went on year after year. 

Although quite thin at just under 140 pages the large format allowed the author to cover a lot of ground despite the book being heavily illustrated with some great, indeed iconic, pulp images which really helped the individual magazines to stand out on their stands and either gave great pleasure or the odd moralistic heart attack to those who saw them. Pretty tame by today’s ‘standards’ some of the covers really pushed the boundaries of good taste and are, therefore, HIGHLY collectable today. If you’re as much as a pulp fan as I am – either for their contents or their art work – this will be a real treat for you. Recommended.