An Alternate History of Horror V: Pulp Fiction

[Gary Oswald]

Discuss this article by @RyanF here

 

[Charles EP M.]

Howard writing every genre possible is the core of the pulp generation for me, and their cousins in older comics, the mid-century paperbacks, and swathes of TV: you see something that could pay, you goddamn write it. Just do one genre, in this economy?

 

[varyar]

Great overview of the genre. I'll add one more author to the list - Manly Wade Wellman. His stuff was all over the map - action, horror, sci-fi, occult detectives, non-speculative fiction, history. Recommended for those what like that sort of thing.

 

[JesterBL]

Great overview of the genre. I'll add one more author to the list - Manly Wade Wellman. His stuff was all over the map - action, horror, sci-fi, occult detectives, non-speculative fiction, history. Recommended for those what like that sort of thing.

Really hard to find his stuff- out of print for awhile, no digital editions. I've heard of him for years but never seen his stuff.

 

[varyar]

Really hard to find his stuff- out of print for awhile, no digital editions. I've heard of him for years but never seen his stuff.

Ouch - I was able to get the Nightshade Press collections way back when. Looking at Amazon, there are some Kindle and Audible collections, but almost none of the Silver John or John Thunstone books. That's a shame.

 

[RyanF]

Howard writing every genre possible is the core of the pulp generation for me, and their cousins in older comics, the mid-century paperbacks, and swathes of TV: you see something that could pay, you goddamn write it. Just do one genre, in this economy?

This is my whole philosophy in writing. It's why I scratch my head at horror publishers that seek to specialise in really the most niche of subgenres. Present fora excluded, of course. And more often than not I do enjoy the specific thing they're pitching it's just thay I don't want a steady diet of it.

It's fine for a one off like noir/Lovecraft mash-ups or throwback pulp sci-fi before the solar system was confirmed to be as dead as a door nail, but when I see an organisation trying to get regular publication out of, for example, "dream and/or sleep themed horror, but not sleepwalking" I just think their either doomed to failure or to really drain the well of interest in that quickly.

To my mind, it goes beyond even specialising in just horror or just science fiction. I know there are people out there who enjoy reading all sorts of horror, all sorts of sci-fi, all sorts of fantasy, all sorts of crime/detective/mystery/thriller fiction. Why not cater to that wide an audience of possible. Unless the majority of readers would rather just read dream and/or sleep themed horror, but not sleepwalking, thank you very much, you might get in the niche fans too.

Want to resurrect the spirit of the pulps, albeit with some acknowledgement of the sundering of genres in the intervening century. Do a monthly publication, but change the genre each month for a quarter. So, horror in January, fantasy in February, thriller in March, science fiction in April, then back to horror for May and so on.

Have a few 'staff' writers that can contribute monthly, or maybe three out of every four, and then a few guest or open submission slots. Important thing would be to strive for diversity, both in what appears on the page and also who is writing the story.

Offer a full subscription with a little discount to those that do adore all the genres have to offer. Offer to just subscribe to one or any combination of the four for those that are a bit more picky, for less of a discount.

Pulp magazines, early comics, mid-century paperbacks, radio and television anthologies... they knew what they were doing, people!

Great overview of the genre. I'll add one more author to the list - Manly Wade Wellman. His stuff was all over the map - action, horror, sci-fi, occult detectives, non-speculative fiction, history. Recommended for those what like that sort of thing.

The most intriguing thing to me about Wellman is his longevity as an active writer. His earliest publications came during the pulp heyday but he was still writing on his deathbed in the 1980s.

He is up there with the trifecta I mention in the article, of course. For longevity and, as you point out, having the sense not to pencil yourself in to a specific genre.

Really hard to find his stuff- out of print for awhile, no digital editions. I've heard of him for years but never seen his stuff.

I think the only one that's been reprinted recently is Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds. And only then because it's a Holmes pastiche not because it's Wellman.

 

[Charles EP M.]

This is my whole philosophy in writing. It's why I scratch my head at horror publishers that seek to specialise in really the most niche of subgenres. Present fora excluded, of course. And more often than not I do enjoy the specific thing they're pitching it's just thay I don't want a steady diet of it.

Not wrong. I get why you'd do a company for a specific genre based on tone and themes - splatterpunk, for example - but very, very narrow subgenres look doomed after a while. What happens if tastes change even just a bit? Even Games Workshop's line of nothing but Warhammer stories will find subgenres and the like, they've got whole sub-imprints for crime stories and I wouldn't be surprised if we get Warhammer Romance one day.

(Then again, Severed Press has been making money off a steady diet of murderous dinosaurs and cryptids for years so what do I know?)

Want to resurrect the spirit of the pulps, albeit with some acknowledgement of the sundering of genres in the intervening century. Do a monthly publication, but change the genre each month for a quarter. So, horror in January, fantasy in February, thriller in March, science fiction in April, then back to horror for May and so on.

Do it really old-school, you partially change the title each time.

 

[RyanF]

Not wrong. I get why you'd do a company for a specific genre based on tone and themes - splatterpunk, for example - but very, very narrow subgenres look doomed after a while. What happens if tastes change even just a bit? Even Games Workshop's line of nothing but Warhammer stories will find subgenres and the like, they've got whole sub-imprints for crime stories and I wouldn't be surprised if we get Warhammer Romance one day.

(Then again, Severed Press has been making money off a steady diet of murderous dinosaurs and cryptids for years so what do I know?)

Even then the mission statement is a bit broader than the output. Kaiju, dinosaurs, military horror/sci-fi, apocalypse/post-apocalypse, and oddly literary RPGs and FPS.

That's actually a bunch, though it seems most tend towards a combination of the first three.

Plus, it's dinosaurs m8 their popularity never goes down.

Do it really old-school, you partially change the title each time.

Two steps ahead of the creditors at all times.

 

[Charles EP M.]

Plus, it's dinosaurs m8 their popularity never goes down.

Dino$aur$

 

[Jared]

Dino$aur$

Time to flesh out the vignette I had of Abel Tasman landing on an *New Zealand full of dinosaurs...

 

[RyanF]

Time to flesh out the vignette I had of Abel Tasman landing on an *New Zealand full of dinosaurs...

I mean, a dinosaur/prehistoric beasties collection isn't exactly that out there an idea for SLP.

 

[Jared]

I mean, a dinosaur/prehistoric beasties collection isn't exactly that out there an idea for SLP.

Well, for that particular vignette I have an idea to turn it into a novella or novel-length work, basically a series of interlinked scenes which explore more about the changed world. Problem is, as always, more ideas to write than time to write them, so it's not toward the front of the queue. If someone is editing an SLP anthology along those lines, I may well put the original story forward for consideration, but I may also hold it back because I think the story works well as an opener for a longer work.

 

[RyanF]

Well, for that particular vignette I have an idea to turn it into a novella or novel-length work, basically a series of interlinked scenes which explore more about the changed world. Problem is, as always, more ideas to write than time to write them, so it's not toward the front of the queue. If someone is editing an SLP anthology along those lines, I may well put the original story forward for consideration, but I may also hold it back because I think the story works well as an opener for a longer work.

Could always have the story in an anthology but later do a longer work as well, about time we had spin-offs.

 

[Jared]

Could always have the story in an anthology but later do a longer work as well, about time we had spin-offs.

There's issues about having the same content available in multiple online sources (even within Amazon) if you want to put a work in Kindle Unlimited. I would prefer to put all AH longer-form work I publish in KU because there's a significant number of readers who only touch works in KU, and not having it available there misses out on a significant chunk of potential income.

So if I put a story in an anthology that essentially rules it out from KU. That's not a problem for linked content in general, but stops me using something like this if I think it works particularly well as a novel opener.

 

[M_Kresal]

I mean, a dinosaur/prehistoric beasties collection isn't exactly that out there an idea for SLP.

I did nearly pitch a Nessie story for Alternate Scotlands but couldn’t decide if it was either so obvious an idea someone else had beaten me to the pitch or an alternative too far!

 

[RyanF]

I did nearly pitch a Nessie story for Alternate Scotlands but couldn’t decide if it was either so obvious an idea someone else had beaten me to the pitch or an alternative too far!

I wouldn't have rejected such a suggestion out of hand. All about the variety after all.

Don't actually think I got two pitches dealing with the same subject matter, as it happens.

 

[Alex Richards]

Got to admit, the most fascinating thing for me here was this continuous sense of realisation of what various elements of Hellboy were referencing.

 

[RyanF]

Got to admit, the most fascinating thing for me here was this continuous sense of realisation of what various elements of Hellboy were referencing.

It's amazing how prevalent in wider pop culture something can be whilst the original is still relatively obscure.

 

[Gary Oswald]

It is a constant disappointment to me that the Lovecraft pastiche Gaiman is famous for is the Holmes/Cthulu mash up and not the much superior pete and dud/lovecraft mashup wherein the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore characters are reinvented as innsmouth fishmen cultists. It's my favourite short story of his and never really gets talked about enough in my opinion.

 

[Thande]

It is a constant disappointment to me that the Lovecraft pastiche Gaiman is famous for is the Holmes/Cthulu mash up and not the much superior pete and dud/lovecraft mashup wherein the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore characters are reinvented as innsmouth fishmen cultists. It's my favourite short story of his and never really gets talked about enough in my opinion.

Is public fascination with Sherlock Holmes purely because it's Sherlock Holmes actually a creepier thing than anything Lovecraft came up with: discuss

(It's an awkward one because I do think Conan Doyle's Holmes stories are good, but one comes across as implying otherwise when talking about the creepily obsessive and multigenerational fandom).