By D. K. Latta Superhero movies and TV shows are big box office these days, with their roots in comic books. While comic book superheroes were inspired by the pulp magazine mystery men that preceded them. The themes and tropes and archetypes relating to superheroes and masked mystery men are Read More
Flaxman Low was one of the first “periodical” occult detectives. By that, I mean, a psychic investigator who was featured in a magazine as a recurring character. Low wasn’t the first. That honor belongs to Sherlock Holmes, who though he didn’t always chase the unknown, did on occasion face such Read More
The fourth issue of DARK WORLDS QUARTERLY is here! It has been a very long and hard winter and we’ve been doing some much needed hibernating. We’re very much awake now for Spring of 2018, and we managed to give the old Quarterly a bit of a new look! Plus Read More
This letter was written seven years later. The reason for it was to check on the copyright issues that might come from my selling an RPG article based on Manly Wade Wellman’s Silver John stories. The article never sold but I did get a great glimpse into Karl and Francis Read More
The term “Space Opera”, used to define a certain branch of Science Fiction, was coined by Wilson Tucker in 1941. It was not meant to be a compliment. The term “Soap Opera” has found its way into the larger public domain of common phrases, but it too came from this Read More
Why write horror? Why not the socially more accepted Science Fiction or Fantasy, in which the reader experiences wonder and the heights of imagination? Why not the even safer Mystery or Western? Literary forms so conventionalized you don’t have to worry about stepping on toes. Go to even greater lengths Read More
I think all Doc Savage fans dream of becoming Kenneth Robeson some day. Or you can be like Jack Mackenzie and try to create a Pulp character with all the fun of Doc Savage but with a more modern sensibility. And he succeeds in his upcoming book, Wild Incorporated. The Read More
I’ve loved the Occult Detective since I was twelve. That was 1975 and Carl Kolchak was on the television. Mine was a black& white Kenwood. Twenty inches wide and you had to change the channel with plyers. Carl was hunting down the greatest story in the world, whether it was Read More
In recent years, Josh Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity have brought the Space Western back to the public eye. Though not a commercial success, Whedon’s tales of the crew of the Serenity have sparked a new interest in the cowboys from space. The first Science Fiction pulp stories were not adventure-oriented. Read More