Tagged: DC

PULP ARK WEEKEND-GUEST INTERVIEW WITH MARK HALEGUA

PULP ARK GUEST PREVIEW INTERVIEW

PULP ARK has a host of guests planning to attend in May.  ALL PULP will be posting interviews of some of these guests throughout ALL PULP WEEKEND, some of them interviewed for the first time time here, others interviewed specifically about their part in PULP ARK!  To kick this off, we have…

Mark Halegua-Collector/Writer/Entrepulpneur

AP: Mark, its really great of you to take time out to sit down with ALL PULP! First, tell us a little about yourself?
 

MH:OK, I live alone, except for my pet Sun Conure, Apollo, in Queens County NYC. Born in Alaska, came to NYC when 1 year old. Love to read, and generally prefer SF and fantasy, action/adventure (what some might refer to as new pulp like the Destroyer, Gunsmith, and others), and collect comic books. My favorite comic characters are Green Lantern, the Batman, Flash and mostly DC comics, used to have a complete set of Batman, golden age to current. Sold off a lot of the early issues. Like SF and action/adventure TV.

AP: Your involvement in Pulp is from a few different angles.
We’ll get into them, but can you give an overview of what you have done/do/are doing that relates to the field of Pulp?

MH: Well, I collect pulps, I’ve organized the Gotham Pulp Collectors Club, which meets once a month, I sell digital pulp cover images in sets from my big DVD with over 23,000 images to smaller CD genre sets for westerns, Detective and Mystery, Hero and Villain, Anthology titles, Air and War, and others to come., and I write pulp stories of which I’ll write more later.

AP: You are the organizer/driving force behind Gotham Pulp Collectors. What is the purpose of this group? Is there an overall mission or is this simply a gathering of enthusiasts?

MH: I guess you could say getting pulp fans is the mission. NYC and the metropolitan/Gotham area has a lot of collectors and we meet once a month, the 2nd Saturday, to share our common affliction um, hobby. For anyone interested they can go to the gothampulpcollectors.com web site.

When we get together we talk about old pulps, we sometimes have a show and tell showing our new acquisitions, we talk about pulp adaptations in film, radio, comics, and what ever other media. One of our members, Ed Hulse, is a film and serial aficionado and the Windy City film expert, playing pulp related films during the convention. Another, Chris Kalb maintains a couple of web sites on the Spider and other pulp heroes. He’s also involved in pulp reprints called Age of Aces and did the reprint of the Spider versus the Black Police. Robert Lesser collects pulp cover original art, has written some books on that subject. David Saunders is the son of pulp artist Norman Saunders, a pulp art historian (written books on his father and H. J. Ward). We have other members as well.

We sometimes play pulp related movies, TV, and radio. We don’t charge to attend or be a member. We just share a common insanity … er … like for pulps.
 
AP: Do you think organizing pulp fandom as you have with the Collectors and through other ways, like fanzines, blogs, etc. is important to the existence and future of pulp? If so, why?

MH: I haven’t done anything in fanzines or blogs other in response to the yahoo groups I’m part of, PulpMags and others. I did create a Google group for pulp collectors, but, since PulpMags already existed, I really haven’t done anything with it. One of the purposes of the GPCC is to try and get younger people involved in the hobby. It’s been a (very little) successful in that. Most pulp magazine collectors are in their late 40s and later. I do know of a very few younger, a couple attend the meeting (Chris Kalb is one)

AP: You show a definite interest in pulps, covers especially. So much so that you’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?
MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.
If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.
One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com/
AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.   

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published– 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.
That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

ALL PULP INTERVIEW-Mark Halegua-Collector/Writer/Entrepulpneur
AP: Mark, its really great of you to take time out to sit down with ALL PULP! First, tell us a little about yourself?
MH:OK, I live alone, except for my pet Sun Conure, Apollo, in Queens County NYC. Born in Alaska, came to NYC when 1 year old. Love to read, and generally prefer SF and fantasy, action/adventure (what some might refer to as new pulp like the Destroyer, Gunsmith, and others), and collect comic books. My favorite comic characters are Green Lantern, the Batman, Flash and mostly DC comics, used to have a complete set of Batman, golden age to current. Sold off a lot of the early issues. Like SF and action/adventure TV.
AP: Your involvement in Pulp is from a few different angles. We
MH: Well, I collect pulps, I’ve organized the Gotham Pulp Collectors Club, which meets once a month, I sell digital pulp cover images in sets from my big DVD with over 23,000 images to smaller CD genre sets for westerns, Detective and Mystery, Hero and Villain, Anthology titles, Air and War, and others to come., and I write pulp stories of which I’ll write more later.
AP: You are the organizer/driving force behind Gotham Pulp Collectors. What is the purpose of this group? Is there an overall mission or is this simply a gathering of enthusiasts?
MH: I guess you could say getting pulp fans is the mission. NYC and the metropolitan/Gotham area has a lot of collectors and we meet once a month, the 2nd Saturday, to share our common affliction um, hobby. For anyone interested they can go to the gothampulpcollectors.com web site.
When we get together we talk about old pulps, we sometimes have a show and tell showing our new acquisitions, we talk about pulp adaptations in film, radio, comics, and what ever other media. One of our members, Ed Hulse, is a film and serial aficionado and the Windy City film expert, playing pulp related films during the convention. Another, Chris Kalb maintains a couple of web sites on the Spider and other pulp heroes. He’s also involved in pulp reprints called Age of Aces and did the reprint of the Spider versus the Black Police. Robert Lesser collects pulp cover original art, has written some books on that subject. David Saunders is the son of pulp artist Norman Saunders, a pulp art historian (written books on his father and H. J. Ward). We have other members as well.
We sometimes play pulp related movies, TV, and radio. We don’t charge to attend or be a member. We just share a common insanity
 
AP: Do you think organizing pulp fandom as you have with the Collectors and through other ways, like fanzines, blogs, etc. is important to the existence and future of pulp? If so, why?
MH: I haven’t done anything in fanzines or blogs other in response to the yahoo groups I’m part of, PulpMags and others. I did create a Google group for pulp collectors, but, since PulpMags already existed, I really haven’t done anything with it. One of the purposes of the GPCC is to try and get younger people involved in the hobby. It’s been a (very little) successful in that. Most pulp magazine collectors are in their late 40s and later. I do know of a very few younger, a couple attend the meeting (Chris Kalb is one)
AP: You show a definite interest in pulps, covers especially. So much so that you
MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.
One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.
In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.
Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or
The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.
Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.
If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.http://red-badge.comAP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?
MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.
You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.
I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.
I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other
AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained
MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.
Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?
These show a lack of respect for the characters.
In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).
Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.
To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.
Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.
To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published
I’m not including real magic.
And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.
But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.
I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.
There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.
AP: What
MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?
My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.
That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.
I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.
I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.
And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.
Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.
AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.
AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?
MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.
AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?
MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.
I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.
AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?
MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.
The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.
This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.
After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.
The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.
If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to
’ll get into them, but can you give an overview of what you have done/do/are doing that relates to the field of Pulp?… er … like for pulps.’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?… well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.… well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?– 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

ALL PULP INTERVIEW-Mark Halegua-Collector/Writer/Entrepulpneur

AP: Mark, its really great of you to take time out to sit down with ALL PULP! First, tell us a little about yourself?

MH:OK, I live alone, except for my pet Sun Conure, Apollo, in Queens County NYC. Born in Alaska, came to NYC when 1 year old. Love to read, and generally prefer SF and fantasy, action/adventure (what some might refer to as new pulp like the Destroyer, Gunsmith, and others), and collect comic books. My favorite comic characters are Green Lantern, the Batman, Flash and mostly DC comics, used to have a complete set of Batman, golden age to current. Sold off a lot of the early issues. Like SF and action/adventure TV.

AP: Your involvement in Pulp is from a few different angles. We’ll get into them, but can you give an overview of what you have done/do/are doing that relates to the field of Pulp?

MH: Well, I collect pulps, I’ve organized the Gotham Pulp Collectors Club, which meets once a month, I sell digital pulp cover images in sets from my big DVD with over 23,000 images to smaller CD genre sets for westerns, Detective and Mystery, Hero and Villain, Anthology titles, Air and War, and others to come., and I write pulp stories of which I’ll write more later.

AP: You are the organizer/driving force behind Gotham Pulp Collectors. What is the purpose of this group? Is there an overall mission or is this simply a gathering of enthusiasts?

MH: I guess you could say getting pulp fans is the mission. NYC and the metropolitan/Gotham area has a lot of collectors and we meet once a month, the 2nd Saturday, to share our common affliction um, hobby. For anyone interested they can go to the gothampulpcollectors.com web site.

When we get together we talk about old pulps, we sometimes have a show and tell showing our new acquisitions, we talk about pulp adaptations in film, radio, comics, and what ever other media. One of our members, Ed Hulse, is a film and serial aficionado and the Windy City film expert, playing pulp related films during the convention. Another, Chris Kalb maintains a couple of web sites on the Spider and other pulp heroes. He’s also involved in pulp reprints called Age of Aces and did the reprint of the Spider versus the Black Police. Robert Lesser collects pulp cover original art, has written some books on that subject. David Saunders is the son of pulp artist Norman Saunders, a pulp art historian (written books on his father and H. J. Ward). We have other members as well.

We sometimes play pulp related movies, TV, and radio. We don’t charge to attend or be a member. We just share a common insanity … er … like for pulps.

 

AP: Do you think organizing pulp fandom as you have with the Collectors and through other ways, like fanzines, blogs, etc. is important to the existence and future of pulp? If so, why?

MH: I haven’t done anything in fanzines or blogs other in response to the yahoo groups I’m part of, PulpMags and others. I did create a Google group for pulp collectors, but, since PulpMags already existed, I really haven’t done anything with it. One of the purposes of the GPCC is to try and get younger people involved in the hobby. It’s been a (very little) successful in that. Most pulp magazine collectors are in their late 40s and later. I do know of a very few younger, a couple attend the meeting (Chris Kalb is one)

AP: You show a definite interest in pulps, covers especially. So much so that you’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?

MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!’ll get into them, but can you give an overview of what you have done/do/are doing that relates to the field of Pulp?

MH: Well, I collect pulps, I’ve organized the Gotham Pulp Collectors Club, which meets once a month, I sell digital pulp cover images in sets from my big DVD with over 23,000 images to smaller CD genre sets for westerns, Detective and Mystery, Hero and Villain, Anthology titles, Air and War, and others to come., and I write pulp stories of which I’ll write more later.

AP: You are the organizer/driving force behind Gotham Pulp Collectors. What is the purpose of this group? Is there an overall mission or is this simply a gathering of enthusiasts?

MH: I guess you could say getting pulp fans is the mission. NYC and the metropolitan/Gotham area has a lot of collectors and we meet once a month, the 2nd Saturday, to share our common affliction um, hobby. For anyone interested they can go to the gothampulpcollectors.com web site.

When we get together we talk about old pulps, we sometimes have a show and tell showing our new acquisitions, we talk about pulp adaptations in film, radio, comics, and what ever other media. One of our members, Ed Hulse, is a film and serial aficionado and the Windy City film expert, playing pulp related films during the convention. Another, Chris Kalb maintains a couple of web sites on the Spider and other pulp heroes. He’s also involved in pulp reprints called Age of Aces and did the reprint of the Spider versus the Black Police. Robert Lesser collects pulp cover original art, has written some books on that subject. David Saunders is the son of pulp artist Norman Saunders, a pulp art historian (written books on his father and H. J. Ward). We have other members as well.

We sometimes play pulp related movies, TV, and radio. We don’t charge to attend or be a member. We just share a common insanity … er … like for pulps.

 

AP: Do you think organizing pulp fandom as you have with the Collectors and through other ways, like fanzines, blogs, etc. is important to the existence and future of pulp? If so, why?

MH: I haven’t done anything in fanzines or blogs other in response to the yahoo groups I’m part of, PulpMags and others. I did create a Google group for pulp collectors, but, since PulpMags already existed, I really haven’t done anything with it. One of the purposes of the GPCC is to try and get younger people involved in the hobby. It’s been a (very little) successful in that. Most pulp magazine collectors are in their late 40s and later. I do know of a very few younger, a couple attend the meeting (Chris Kalb is one)

AP: You show a definite interest in pulps, covers especially. So much so that you’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?

MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!… er … like for pulps.

 

AP: Do you think organizing pulp fandom as you have with the Collectors and through other ways, like fanzines, blogs, etc. is important to the existence and future of pulp? If so, why?

MH: I haven’t done anything in fanzines or blogs other in response to the yahoo groups I’m part of, PulpMags and others. I did create a Google group for pulp collectors, but, since PulpMags already existed, I really haven’t done anything with it. One of the purposes of the GPCC is to try and get younger people involved in the hobby. It’s been a (very little) successful in that. Most pulp magazine collectors are in their late 40s and later. I do know of a very few younger, a couple attend the meeting (Chris Kalb is one)

AP: You show a definite interest in pulps, covers especially. So much so that you’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?

MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?

MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!… well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!… well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!– 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

ALL PULP INTERVIEW-Mark Halegua-Collector/Writer/Entrepulpneur

AP: Mark, its really great of you to take time out to sit down with ALL PULP! First, tell us a little about yourself?

MH:OK, I live alone, except for my pet Sun Conure, Apollo, in Queens County NYC. Born in Alaska, came to NYC when 1 year old. Love to read, and generally prefer SF and fantasy, action/adventure (what some might refer to as new pulp like the Destroyer, Gunsmith, and others), and collect comic books. My favorite comic characters are Green Lantern, the Batman, Flash and mostly DC comics, used to have a complete set of Batman, golden age to current. Sold off a lot of the early issues. Like SF and action/adventure TV.

AP: Your involvement in Pulp is from a few different angles. We’ll get into them, but can you give an overview of what you have done/do/are doing that relates to the field of Pulp?

MH: Well, I collect pulps, I’ve organized the Gotham Pulp Collectors Club, which meets once a month, I sell digital pulp cover images in sets from my big DVD with over 23,000 images to smaller CD genre sets for westerns, Detective and Mystery, Hero and Villain, Anthology titles, Air and War, and others to come., and I write pulp stories of which I’ll write more later.

AP: You are the organizer/driving force behind Gotham Pulp Collectors. What is the purpose of this group? Is there an overall mission or is this simply a gathering of enthusiasts?

MH: I guess you could say getting pulp fans is the mission. NYC and the metropolitan/Gotham area has a lot of collectors and we meet once a month, the 2nd Saturday, to share our common affliction um, hobby. For anyone interested they can go to the gothampulpcollectors.com web site.

When we get together we talk about old pulps, we sometimes have a show and tell showing our new acquisitions, we talk about pulp adaptations in film, radio, comics, and what ever other media. One of our members, Ed Hulse, is a film and serial aficionado and the Windy City film expert, playing pulp related films during the convention. Another, Chris Kalb maintains a couple of web sites on the Spider and other pulp heroes. He’s also involved in pulp reprints called Age of Aces and did the reprint of the Spider versus the Black Police. Robert Lesser collects pulp cover original art, has written some books on that subject. David Saunders is the son of pulp artist Norman Saunders, a pulp art historian (written books on his father and H. J. Ward). We have other members as well.

We sometimes play pulp related movies, TV, and radio. We don’t charge to attend or be a member. We just share a common insanity … er … like for pulps.

 

AP: Do you think organizing pulp fandom as you have with the Collectors and through other ways, like fanzines, blogs, etc. is important to the existence and future of pulp? If so, why?

MH: I haven’t done anything in fanzines or blogs other in response to the yahoo groups I’m part of, PulpMags and others. I did create a Google group for pulp collectors, but, since PulpMags already existed, I really haven’t done anything with it. One of the purposes of the GPCC is to try and get younger people involved in the hobby. It’s been a (very little) successful in that. Most pulp magazine collectors are in their late 40s and later. I do know of a very few younger, a couple attend the meeting (Chris Kalb is one)

AP: You show a definite interest in pulps, covers especially. So much so that you’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?

MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!’ll get into them, but can you give an overview of what you have done/do/are doing that relates to the field of Pulp?

MH: Well, I collect pulps, I’ve organized the Gotham Pulp Collectors Club, which meets once a month, I sell digital pulp cover images in sets from my big DVD with over 23,000 images to smaller CD genre sets for westerns, Detective and Mystery, Hero and Villain, Anthology titles, Air and War, and others to come., and I write pulp stories of which I’ll write more later.

AP: You are the organizer/driving force behind Gotham Pulp Collectors. What is the purpose of this group? Is there an overall mission or is this simply a gathering of enthusiasts?

MH: I guess you could say getting pulp fans is the mission. NYC and the metropolitan/Gotham area has a lot of collectors and we meet once a month, the 2nd Saturday, to share our common affliction um, hobby. For anyone interested they can go to the gothampulpcollectors.com web site.

When we get together we talk about old pulps, we sometimes have a show and tell showing our new acquisitions, we talk about pulp adaptations in film, radio, comics, and what ever other media. One of our members, Ed Hulse, is a film and serial aficionado and the Windy City film expert, playing pulp related films during the convention. Another, Chris Kalb maintains a couple of web sites on the Spider and other pulp heroes. He’s also involved in pulp reprints called Age of Aces and did the reprint of the Spider versus the Black Police. Robert Lesser collects pulp cover original art, has written some books on that subject. David Saunders is the son of pulp artist Norman Saunders, a pulp art historian (written books on his father and H. J. Ward). We have other members as well.

We sometimes play pulp related movies, TV, and radio. We don’t charge to attend or be a member. We just share a common insanity … er … like for pulps.

 

AP: Do you think organizing pulp fandom as you have with the Collectors and through other ways, like fanzines, blogs, etc. is important to the existence and future of pulp? If so, why?

MH: I haven’t done anything in fanzines or blogs other in response to the yahoo groups I’m part of, PulpMags and others. I did create a Google group for pulp collectors, but, since PulpMags already existed, I really haven’t done anything with it. One of the purposes of the GPCC is to try and get younger people involved in the hobby. It’s been a (very little) successful in that. Most pulp magazine collectors are in their late 40s and later. I do know of a very few younger, a couple attend the meeting (Chris Kalb is one)

AP: You show a definite interest in pulps, covers especially. So much so that you’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?

MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!… er … like for pulps.

 

AP: Do you think organizing pulp fandom as you have with the Collectors and through other ways, like fanzines, blogs, etc. is important to the existence and future of pulp? If so, why?

MH: I haven’t done anything in fanzines or blogs other in response to the yahoo groups I’m part of, PulpMags and others. I did create a Google group for pulp collectors, but, since PulpMags already existed, I really haven’t done anything with it. One of the purposes of the GPCC is to try and get younger people involved in the hobby. It’s been a (very little) successful in that. Most pulp magazine collectors are in their late 40s and later. I do know of a very few younger, a couple attend the meeting (Chris Kalb is one)

AP: You show a definite interest in pulps, covers especially. So much so that you’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?

MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?

MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!… well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!… well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!– 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

ALL PULP INTERVIEW-Mark Halegua-Collector/Writer/Entrepulpneur
AP: Mark, its really great of you to take time out to sit down with ALL PULP! First, tell us a little about yourself?
MH:OK, I live alone, except for my pet Sun Conure, Apollo, in Queens County NYC. Born in Alaska, came to NYC when 1 year old. Love to read, and generally prefer SF and fantasy, action/adventure (what some might refer to as new pulp like the Destroyer, Gunsmith, and others), and collect comic books. My favorite comic characters are Green Lantern, the Batman, Flash and mostly DC comics, used to have a complete set of Batman, golden age to current. Sold off a lot of the early issues. Like SF and action/adventure TV.
AP: Your involvement in Pulp is from a few different angles. We
MH: Well, I collect pulps, I’ve organized the Gotham Pulp Collectors Club, which meets once a month, I sell digital pulp cover images in sets from my big DVD with over 23,000 images to smaller CD genre sets for westerns, Detective and Mystery, Hero and Villain, Anthology titles, Air and War, and others to come., and I write pulp stories of which I’ll write more later.
AP: You are the organizer/driving force behind Gotham Pulp Collectors. What is the purpose of this group? Is there an overall mission or is this simply a gathering of enthusiasts?
MH: I guess you could say getting pulp fans is the mission. NYC and the metropolitan/Gotham area has a lot of collectors and we meet once a month, the 2nd Saturday, to share our common affliction um, hobby. For anyone interested they can go to the gothampulpcollectors.com web site.
When we get together we talk about old pulps, we sometimes have a show and tell showing our new acquisitions, we talk about pulp adaptations in film, radio, comics, and what ever other media. One of our members, Ed Hulse, is a film and serial aficionado and the Windy City film expert, playing pulp related films during the convention. Another, Chris Kalb maintains a couple of web sites on the Spider and other pulp heroes. He’s also involved in pulp reprints called Age of Aces and did the reprint of the Spider versus the Black Police. Robert Lesser collects pulp cover original art, has written some books on that subject. David Saunders is the son of pulp artist Norman Saunders, a pulp art historian (written books on his father and H. J. Ward). We have other members as well.
We sometimes play pulp related movies, TV, and radio. We don’t charge to attend or be a member. We just share a common insanity
 
AP: Do you think organizing pulp fandom as you have with the Collectors and through other ways, like fanzines, blogs, etc. is important to the existence and future of pulp? If so, why?
MH: I haven’t done anything in fanzines or blogs other in response to the yahoo groups I’m part of, PulpMags and others. I did create a Google group for pulp collectors, but, since PulpMags already existed, I really haven’t done anything with it. One of the purposes of the GPCC is to try and get younger people involved in the hobby. It’s been a (very little) successful in that. Most pulp magazine collectors are in their late 40s and later. I do know of a very few younger, a couple attend the meeting (Chris Kalb is one)
AP: You show a definite interest in pulps, covers especially. So much so that you
MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.
One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.
In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.
Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or
The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.
Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.
If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.http://red-badge.comAP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?
MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.
You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.
I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.
I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other
AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained
MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.
Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?
These show a lack of respect for the characters.
In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).
Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.
To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.
Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.
To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published
I’m not including real magic.
And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.
But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.
I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.
There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.
AP: What
MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?
My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.
That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.
I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.
I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.
And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.
Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.
AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.
AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?
MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.
AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?
MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.
I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.
AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?
MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.
The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.
This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.
After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.
The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.
If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to
’ll get into them, but can you give an overview of what you have done/do/are doing that relates to the field of Pulp?… er … like for pulps.’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?… well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.… well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?– 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

ALL PULP INTERVIEW-Mark Halegua-Collector/Writer/Entrepulpneur

AP: Mark, its really great of you to take time out to sit down with ALL PULP! First, tell us a little about yourself?

MH: OK, I live alone, except for my pet Sun Conure, Apollo, in Queens County NYC. Born in Alaska, came to NYC when 1 year old. Love to read, and generally prefer SF and fantasy, action/adventure (what some might refer to as new pulp like the Destroyer, Gunsmith, and others), and collect comic books. My favorite comic characters are Green Lantern, the Batman, Flash and mostly DC comics, used to have a complete set of Batman, golden age to current. Sold off a lot of the early issues. Like SF and action/adventure TV.

AP: Your involvement in Pulp is from a few different angles. We’ll get into them, but can you give an overview of what you have done/do/are doing that relates to the field of Pulp?

MH: Well, I collect pulps, I’ve organized the Gotham Pulp Collectors Club, which meets once a month, I sell digital pulp cover images in sets from my big DVD with over 23,000 images to smaller CD genre sets for westerns, Detective and Mystery, Hero and Villain, Anthology titles, Air and War, and others to come., and I write pulp stories of which I’ll write more later.

AP: You are the organizer/driving force behind Gotham Pulp Collectors. What is the purpose of this group? Is there an overall mission or is this simply a gathering of enthusiasts?

MH: I guess you could say getting pulp fans is the mission. NYC and the metropolitan/Gotham area has a lot of collectors and we meet once a month, the 2nd Saturday, to share our common affliction um, hobby. For anyone interested they can go to the gothampulpcollectors.com web site.

When we get together we talk about old pulps, we sometimes have a show and tell showing our new acquisitions, we talk about pulp adaptations in film, radio, comics, and what ever other media. One of our members, Ed Hulse, is a film and serial aficionado and the Windy City film expert, playing pulp related films during the convention. Another, Chris Kalb maintains a couple of web sites on the Spider and other pulp heroes. He’s also involved in pulp reprints called Age of Aces and did the reprint of the Spider versus the Black Police. Robert Lesser collects pulp cover original art, has written some books on that subject. David Saunders is the son of pulp artist Norman Saunders, a pulp art historian (written books on his father and H. J. Ward). We have other members as well.

We sometimes play pulp related movies, TV, and radio. We don’t charge to attend or be a member. We just share a common insanity … er … like for pulps.

 

AP: Do you think organizing pulp fandom as you have with the Collectors and through other ways, like fanzines, blogs, etc. is important to the existence and future of pulp? If so, why?

MH: I haven’t done anything in fanzines or blogs other in response to the yahoo groups I’m part of, PulpMags and others. I did create a Google group for pulp collectors, but, since PulpMags already existed, I really haven’t done anything with it. One of the purposes of the GPCC is to try and get younger people involved in the hobby. It’s been a (very little) successful in that. Most pulp magazine collectors are in their late 40s and later. I do know of a very few younger, a couple attend the meeting (Chris Kalb is one)

AP: You show a definite interest in pulps, covers especially. So much so that you’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?

MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!’ll get into them, but can you give an overview of what you have done/do/are doing that relates to the field of Pulp?

MH: Well, I collect pulps, I’ve organized the Gotham Pulp Collectors Club, which meets once a month, I sell digital pulp cover images in sets from my big DVD with over 23,000 images to smaller CD genre sets for westerns, Detective and Mystery, Hero and Villain, Anthology titles, Air and War, and others to come., and I write pulp stories of which I’ll write more later.

AP: You are the organizer/driving force behind Gotham Pulp Collectors. What is the purpose of this group? Is there an overall mission or is this simply a gathering of enthusiasts?

MH: I guess you could say getting pulp fans is the mission. NYC and the metropolitan/Gotham area has a lot of collectors and we meet once a month, the 2nd Saturday, to share our common affliction um, hobby. For anyone interested they can go to the gothampulpcollectors.com web site.

When we get together we talk about old pulps, we sometimes have a show and tell showing our new acquisitions, we talk about pulp adaptations in film, radio, comics, and what ever other media. One of our members, Ed Hulse, is a film and serial aficionado and the Windy City film expert, playing pulp related films during the convention. Another, Chris Kalb maintains a couple of web sites on the Spider and other pulp heroes. He’s also involved in pulp reprints called Age of Aces and did the reprint of the Spider versus the Black Police. Robert Lesser collects pulp cover original art, has written some books on that subject. David Saunders is the son of pulp artist Norman Saunders, a pulp art historian (written books on his father and H. J. Ward). We have other members as well.

We sometimes play pulp related movies, TV, and radio. We don’t charge to attend or be a member. We just share a common insanity … er … like for pulps.

 

AP: Do you think organizing pulp fandom as you have with the Collectors and through other ways, like fanzines, blogs, etc. is important to the existence and future of pulp? If so, why?

MH: I haven’t done anything in fanzines or blogs other in response to the yahoo groups I’m part of, PulpMags and others. I did create a Google group for pulp collectors, but, since PulpMags already existed, I really haven’t done anything with it. One of the purposes of the GPCC is to try and get younger people involved in the hobby. It’s been a (very little) successful in that. Most pulp magazine collectors are in their late 40s and later. I do know of a very few younger, a couple attend the meeting (Chris Kalb is one)

AP: You show a definite interest in pulps, covers especially. So much so that you’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?

MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!… er … like for pulps.

 

AP: Do you think organizing pulp fandom as you have with the Collectors and through other ways, like fanzines, blogs, etc. is important to the existence and future of pulp? If so, why?

MH: I haven’t done anything in fanzines or blogs other in response to the yahoo groups I’m part of, PulpMags and others. I did create a Google group for pulp collectors, but, since PulpMags already existed, I really haven’t done anything with it. One of the purposes of the GPCC is to try and get younger people involved in the hobby. It’s been a (very little) successful in that. Most pulp magazine collectors are in their late 40s and later. I do know of a very few younger, a couple attend the meeting (Chris Kalb is one)

AP: You show a definite interest in pulps, covers especially. So much so that you’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?

MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!’ve turned it into a business, Pulps 1st. A couple of questions about this. What is it about pulp covers that draws you and others as fans?

MH: I wouldn’t say I’m interested in covers particularly. I do like them. Frankly, my main interest is reading them. How I accumulated the images is interesting. Initially I did it for recognition purposes. I wanted to know what the covers I wanted looked like so I’d recognize them at conventions.

One day I wondered how many covers I’d gotten from the and other places. I had over 5,000! I thought to myself others might want to see them as well, and PulpCon was coming up in a few months, perhaps I could sell CDs of the images there. I’d already take tables at PulpCon in the past to sell pulp cover t-shirts. There are issues with doing that, so I wanted to change what to sell.

In the next few months before the convention I collected another 6,000 images, put together a disk, made my own cover for the disk, and went to the con. I sold 20 disks for $50 each. There was obviously a market for it.

Over the years I continued getting images and improving on images I already had. The current DVD now has over 23,000 images, including complete sets of Doc Savage, Shadow, Phantom Detective, and others and long runs of other titles (over 1,500 Argosy, nearly complete Weird Tales), this disk is the Pulp Image Library version 7. A few years after my first disk people started asking for single genre disks. They didn’t collect everything, only Western titles, or hero, or … well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!… well you get the idea. So, I’ve been adding them to the mix.

The market isn’t as big now. Anyone who has wanted a disk has one, so I don’t sell that many at conventions anymore.

Now, the question is, who has bought them? Well, artists, pulp collectors, people who like good cover art.

If anyone is interested, http://pulps1st.com. It needs updating, but they can enquire what I have for sale.

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

One thing I have done is add images scanned from my collection. Those are generally scanned at 150 and 300 DPI. I’d like to replace all my images with this kind of resolution, but I don’t own more than a couple three thousand pulps.

AP: What goes into turning an interest in pulp covers into a business? Is there a market for this and if so, who/what is it?

MH: I think I answered this above. There is a market, but it’s not a big one. I do all the work myself, from the DVD/CD covers to manufacturing the disks. One thing, I generally make enough money selling the disks and pulp mags I sell at my table to pay for the table and travel.

AP: You are a collector. Do you collect pulps in general or do you have a genre or character(s) you prefer? What draws you to the particular favorites you have?

MH:I started off collecting mostly hero and SF. I have widened my scope and have pulps in all genres. I started collecting Thrilling Western because the early covers were just beautiful. Ed Hulse got me more interested in Blue Book and Adventure (I’d already had some Argosy because of Zorro, Johnston McCulley, and Ray Cummings), and Earle Stanley Gardner stories got me into Detective Fiction Weekly. I love his Lester Lieth stories in particular, and pretty much anything he has written.

I also have, limited, samples of romance, sports, and railroad pulps.

AP: You are a creator and writer as well and have an original pulp character appearing soon. Just who/what is The Red Badge?

MH:Red Badge was born in tragedy and rage. A young woman was raped and beaten and left for dead. Someone didn’t like that. In the first story, Red Badge Attacks, he goes after one particular gang in a mid-western city (Central City) and. Like the Spider and Shadow) kills them. Unlike those two he also aims to cripple, shooting or knifing some of the gang in the joints. He wants the thugs to fear him more for the crippling than the killing.

The setting is the mid-1930s, a rather lawless time, where there are corrupt politicians and police.

This first story is scheduled for Airship 27’s Mystery Men and Women, vol 2, coming out sometime in mid year.

After submitting my bible for the characters and a short story, Ron Fortier asked me to add 10,000 words, which I did, and then Andrew Salmon helped me put a shine on it.

The mystery of the story is not what Red Badge or who he’s after is. The mystery is who is he behind the mask.

If you want to see one interpretation of how he looks, go to http://red-badge.com

AP: When creating a character that you want to be considered pulp, what goes into that, sort of like ingredients? What does a good modern pulp character need to have to be good and pulpy?

MH:Writing in a pulp style is interesting. It’s getting to the action quickly, not getting verbose and flowery. I’ve heard some say it’s a punch in the nose.

You want action! You want the protagonists to get in each other’s face and duke it out! It’s like a heavy weight prize fight with the fighters going toe-to-toe and trading punches! You do want a good story and plot, but action drives the story.

I think that comes out in the two pulp stories I’ve completed, the Red Badge, published later this year, and a story I wrote for Christmas and put on the group for pulp writers and artists thepulpfactory. This story, titled the Night Before Christmas, was also published here on All Pulp. It’s about Santa Claus as a crime fighter on Christmas Eve.

I’m working on a second Red Badge story, a Secret Agent X story, and a couple of other characters I’m creating, one called Crescent Moon and the other … well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!… well, I’m deciding between two names for him. Stay tuned.

AP: Pulp lately seems to be divided into three camps-The Purists who want new pulp to pretty much be in the vein of the classic pulps and for original pulp characters to be treated with respect and their original directions maintained…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!…The Modernists who want to bring in new themes, take characters different directions, and explore broader horizons through the venue of pulp…Then there’s those who don’t really fit either category or waffle back and forth. Where do you fall and why?

MH:In most ways I’m a purist, however, I don’t agree with your concept of three adversarial camps. What I don’t like is people making radical changes to characters. For example, what DC has been doing to Doc Savage and the Avenger. First, they exist in some unidentifiable time period that includes jets, cell phones, TVs, autogyros, zeppelins, and such.

Next, they have people call the Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, Benny? And have Josh Newton be an inveterate gambler, owing big money to bookies, with his hair in cornrows?

These show a lack of respect for the characters.

In trying to integrate this indiscriminate time period with some of the rest of the DC universe, Doc Savage and Batman are teamed. Batman has and uses guns (I know Batman used guns in his first year, 1939, but since then he doesn’t and abhors them. You’re going to forget 70 years of a character for one year most people don’t remember or know about?).

Plus, the story was lame, vanilla, and plot-less. It just seemed like a vehicle, a bad one, to get these two together. It made no use of the things they have in common (and they do have things in common) or the things which are totally different about them.

To fix this, at least for myself, I wrote a comic script teaming them and, did exactly what DC didn’t do. The story is available for pulpfactory members in the files section.

Moonstone seems to be following a similar path. I’ve only just read the semi-graphic novel teaming Black Bat, the Phantom (Detective), Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, and G-8, and I wasn’t impressed. I’d like to see at least one issue of the individual characters before I continue further.

To get to the question posed, I do like new stories about the old pulp characters. But radical changes no. I don’t want my pulp characters gaining super powers. There were only 3 such published – 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!– 4 if you count Captain Hazard and his telepathy – in the Black Bat being able to see in the dark, even when there was no light; Richard Henry Benson – The Avenger – when he could manipulate his face; Captain Zero, who could uncontrollably turn invisible (from midnight to 7AM).

I’m not including real magic.

And I don’t want their personalities to radically change either, or at least not without a period of time for it to happen.

But, I can see making gradual changes, with good reasons.

I’m not a fan of giving the Black Bat a costume, for example. He wore a business suit with a cowl (to hide his facial scars) and his ribbed cape (those stories need be before he was given a dog by Lt. McGrath). His guns were in shoulder holsters.

There’s enough good characters out there with good back stories radical changes are unnecessary. Use what’s given. There’s a lot given.

AP: What’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!’s coming up on all fronts pulp wise for you?

MH: What I’ve just expounded on isn’t enough?

My real job is as a Computer Consultant or Information Technologist (no, I’m not related to cousin It!). I try to keep up with technology and install and maintain it for small business and home users in New York.

That’s how I integrated my love for pulps and pulp covers into selling the disks. I combined my knowledge of one with my passion for the other.

I’m scheduled to attend the Windy City convention in April, Pulp Ark in May, and PulpFest in July.

I might come up with an update for vol 8 of my Pulp Image Library DVD and one or more of the genre CDs.

And I hope to have more pulp stories finished and published.

Whew, I’m tired just thinking about it.

AP: Mark, thanks for dropping by!

ALL PULP NEWSSTAND BULLDOG EDITION! 1/12/11

ALL PULP NEWSSTAND
BULLDOG EDITION
1/12/11
PRESS RELEASE:

Sequart is excited to announce that 2011 is the YEAR OF ELLIS — as in celebrated comics writer Warren Ellis. Throughout the year, we’ll be offering three books and a documentary film on Ellis, exploring his major works, his overall career, and why he deserves his status in the top pantheon of comics writers.

First up will be Keeping the World Strange: A Planetary Guide, edited by Cody Walker. This book of essays will study the exhilarating collaboration of Ellis and artist John Cassaday.  It features essays by CBR’s Chad Nevett and Timothy Callahan (Grant Morrison:  The Early Years), Julian Darius (Improving the Foundations), Patrick Meaney (Our Sentence is Up), legendary comics scholar Peter Sanderson, and many others. The book is scheduled for May 2011 publication.

Our second Ellis book of 2011 will be Shot in the Face:  A Savage Journey to the Heart of Transmetropolitan, edited by CBR’s Chad Nevett. This book of essays will study the riveting collaboration of Ellis and artist Darick Robertson.  It features essays by Greg Burgas, Johanna Draper Carlson, Julian Darius, Sara K. Ellis, Ryan K. Lindsay, Patrick Meaney, Jason Michelitch, Chris Murphy, Chad Nevett, Kevin Thurman, Brett Williams, and Sean Witzke.

Our third Ellis book of the year will be Voyage in Noise: Warren Ellis and the Demise of Western Civilization, authored by Kevin Thurman.  This book examines Ellis’s entire body of work for common themes, discovering philosophical perspectives and parallels that illuminate contemporary society.

To top it all off, 2011 will see the premier of the documentary film Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts, directed by Patrick Meaney and produced in association with Respect! Films (Amber Yoder, Jordan Rennert, and Patrick Meaney). It’s executive produced by Sequart (Julian Darius and Mike Phillips) and F. J. DeSanto, with creative consultant Kevin Thurman. This follow-up to Respect! and Sequart’s popular Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods features interviews with Ellis and a plethora of other comics professionals. It’s tentatively scheduled for late 2011 release.

Although 2011 is the Year of Ellis, that doesn’t mean Sequart won’t also be releasing other works. In fact, even before any of our Ellis titles, we’re offering Classics on Infinite Earths: The Justice League and DC Crossover Canon, authored by Julian Darius. The book examines classic Justice League stories and universe-wide DC crossovers, arguing that they constitute a literary canon. Along with this book, other non-Ellis projects are in the works, and we’ll be making some major announcements on those in the coming months.

Thanks for your support, and be sure to tweet and post about the Year of Ellis!

INTERVIEW WITH LOVECRAFT IS MISSING CREATOR, LARRY LATHAM!

ALL PULP INTERVIEW-Larry Latham-Writer/Artist/Creator (http://www.lovecraftismissing.com/)

AP: Larry, ALL PULP appreciates you taking time to visit today! First, tell us a bit about yourself if you will?

LL: Like everybody else in this business, I grew up reading comics, and remember when the first Marvel titles came out. I can even tell you most of the stores where I bought the first issues of each one, though most of those stores are long gone. I was discouraged from pursuing art, so went into movies instead. I worked in television animation for 25 years, then came back to Oklahoma to help a friend with a low-budget live action film in 2001. After 9/11, everything was so shaky, I thought I would ride it out in Oklahoma, and have just never been able to leave.

I freelanced some, worked in theatre as both actor and set designer, but my basic skill set was not of much value here. I finally found a school, OSU Institute of Technology, that was trying to build up an animation department….and here I am. I teach Maya and Flash. I love it, plus it allows me to experiment and learn new technology.

AP: You’re currently producing an online comic entitled LOVECRAFT IS MISSING. In a nutshell, can you sum up for us what the comic is about?

LL: Not really. I originally conceived it as an animated project, and it was in development for a year or so at Film Roman in L.A. My first notion was that I wanted to try and make a truly ‘adult’ animated series, meaning complex story and characterization rather than T and A and profanity. I wanted to do a horror show, and I am a big Lovecraft fan, but I’ve never much cared for Lovecraft adaptations, be they film or comic book. I wanted to express what I got out of those stories, but I really didn’t want to adapt any of Lovecraft’s actual stories, so I came up with my own. There were a few clichés I really wanted to stomp on, like everybody in the universe having a copy of the Necronomicon. In my story, no one, at least of the good guys, have ever even heard of it. Same with Cthulhu. The magic and mystery of these things is that they are very, very obscure.

AP: The next obvious question is of course just where did you get the idea for this concept? Was it always planned to be a comic book?

LL: I answered part of this above. I didn’t decide to make it into a comic book until I realized it was never going to get made any other way.

AP: Why go web comic with LOVECRAFT IS MISSING? Do you have a preference of web over print? What do you see as the differences between the two?

LL: I made one attempt to get LIM before a real publisher, via Howard Chaykin. He showed it to DC, but they weren’t interested.

By that time, I’d realized that throughout my career, I had always been working with someone over my shoulder, telling me to add this or not do that. I wanted to do something that was wholly mine, be it good or bad. It’s not that all the input I got over the years was bad; some of it was great. But by and large, the people in the executive suites had no animation or creative experience and their input was either superfluous or stupid, often both. I was once told by an NBC exec that the secret to a good cartoon for children was a loud noise every few minutes.

I opted for webcomics because it gave me complete freedom. I don’t make any money, but that’s worth it to be able to say the strip is all mine. I’m glad people like it, but I worry about pleasing myself first.

AP: Let’s talk a little about subject matter. Are you a Lovecraft fan? What about Lovecraft and his life and/or entire mythos appeals to you?

LL: Yep, big Lovecraft fan since high school, though I’ve never been that active in fandom. I’ve read all his stories multiple times, all the bios, most of the letters, most of the marginalia. When his stories work (and they don’t all achieve that) they evoke the dark corners of this old earth. He manages to convey, for me anyway, the notion that while the rest of the world is going on about its business, there are these perverse, mysterious, profane things taking place in secluded places. That’s one of the many reasons I don’t like the near-universality of the Necronomicon, et al., in many pastiches and adaptations, and one of the reasons I don’t think Lovecraftian stories set in the present are very effective. There are secluded corners of the world still, but they are harder to access, and anybody with a cellphone or a laptop can be in touch with like-minded thinkers in literally seconds. In The Call of Cthulhu, it takes the narrator months to accumulate all his data.

AP: We’ve talked about you. Now let’s talk more globally. Why do you think HP Lovecraft has had the effect on the world of literature, pulp and beyond, that he has? What about his work resonates, especially with today’s readers?

LL: I don’t think I can add much to what’s already been said by others. Lovecraft almost singlehandedly moved the weird tale out of the swamp of traditional ghost and vampire stories, and into the cosmos. His personal beliefs wouldn’t have allowed him to dismiss a vampire with a crucifix or lay a spirit to rest with a common exorcism. Things don’t always have explanations, they don’t always turn out well, the universe is a cold and uncaring place.

As far as his life goes, I like eccentrics, and he was certainly that. His story is a sad one, but that is an outside perspective. He seems to have been relatively resigned to his fate and reasonably happy within those limits.

AP: Are there any other pulp concepts that you’d like to work with, to play with as a writer and/or artist? Any established public domain concepts or even, like Lovecraft, other writers you’d like to put your spin on in the future?

LL: Sure. I have an idea for a 30s science fiction comic/novel/whatever that would strive for the feeling John Howitt got in his covers for the Spider and Operator 5. I want to do some short stories for the Shadowmen series from Black Coat Press as soon as a moment frees up, and those will use established characters. And there’s a particular 19th century science fiction potboiler that I want to use as a springboard for a new sotry. But I don’t have any attraction to doing Robert E. Howard is Missing or Clark Ashton Smith on Mars.

AP: How about original concepts, all freshly created by Larry Latham himself? Anything you have in mind of the original character pulp variety?

LL: It depends on how you look at it, I suppose. I have no ideas that rehash Doc Savage or the Shadow or the Spider or hard-boiled detectives. Those were done right the first time. But the next idea I want to do, which I will probably start as part of my MFA in Creative Writing, is very pulpy in concept, and yet it is not something that would interest any of the new pulp publishers. I’m really excited by it and think it is a strikingly original idea, which means I am not going to say anymore about it.:-)

AP: Here’s an easy one to ask, not so easy to answer. Is pulp relevant today? If so or if not, why?

LL: How are we defining pulp? As a type of story that appeared in actual pulp magazines, or one that appeared in a sleazy 1950s paperback? Do you consider crime dramas like CSI pulp? Are serials pulp? For my money, pulp is very relevant today. 24 was pure pulp from start to finish. (It was also, interstingly, a serial within a serial: each season was a serial in itself, yet each season was a chapter in a larger, 8 season serial.) Fringe strikes me as pulp, though without as much action. Star Wars is pulp, series books are pulp, comics are largely pulp, even romance novels harken back to the love pulps. So yes, I do think it’s relevant today, and will remain so because mass-produced shallow entertainment is always appealing. I don’t mean shallow as a put down, but no one is ever going to mistake Doc Savage for Holden Caufield.

AP: You’re showing off your definite comic skills with LOVECRAFT. Do you write prose as well and if so, which do you prefer and why?

LL: I wrote a young adult novel of which I am very proud, but it was rejected by the two publishers I sent it to. It is an historical novel with no fantasy, and there isn’t much call for that right now. I am working on horror short stories, but frankly, I have barely enough time to deal with my daily life: full-time job, family, night school and the time I put in on LIM.

I don’t know that I prefer either one; some ideas fit one medium better than another.

AP: What work do you have coming up that would interest pulp fans in say, the next year? And feel free to drop any LOVECRAFT teasers you want to…

LL: Well, it’s taken two years and four months to get to the halfway point of the Lovecraft is Missing arc, so unless I want to piss off everybody who has followed the strip thus far, that’s all I’ll be working on for the foreseeable future. The current issue, #4, will end in the early spring –a 50+ page effort, I might add—and then I will have to take a few months off (as I’ve done between each issue) to get ahead on issue 5. I’ve been looking forward to issue 5 since I started, as that is where some of my favorite story points will take place. We’ll learn more about Walter Cow and Luther Fickes, meet a few new original characters and rope in some more of Lovecraft’s own characters as well. We’ll find out more about those missing photographic plates that kicked the whole story off, and more about the Santapau device. I have a chase scene in mind that I think is going to be a triple-ding-doozy, and we might—or might not, depending on space—learn the origin of Dr. Kartophilus.

AP: Larry, it‘s been great! Thanks for taking some time for ALL PULP!

LL: You’re welcome. Loved it.

Marvel Boosts Disney TV Ratings To All Time High

mickey-mouse-marvelman-6946452Here’s yet more tangible proof that the Disney/Marvel merger was a good thing from a money-making POV: with help from various Marvel properties such as The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Spider-ManX-Men, and X-Men Evolution, 2010 became Disney XD’s most watched year ever (including as Toon Disney) in Total Day and Primetime with Total Viewers and kid demos.

In Total Day the network hit all time highs with Total Viewers (270,000) and K6-11 (107,000) and Boys 6-11 (69,000), the latter two demos up +14% and +17% respectively.

In Primetime Disney XD set records in Total Viewers (325,000) and among K6-11 (136,000) and Boys 6-11 (89,000), the latter two demos up by +21% and +24%, as well as with Tweens 9-14 (105,000) and Boys 9-14 (71,000), increasing by +28% and +29% respectively.

These were exactly the demographics that Disney was purported to be targeting, and it looks like they got them. In addition, of course, Disney saves lots of money by not paying outside licenses.

2010 was also the Disney Channel’s most-watched year in its history in Total
Day (6a-6a) with Total Viewers (1.72 million) and K6-11 (623,000) and
Tweens 9-14 (533,000).  Disney Channel was also the top TV network in
2010 in Total Day with Tweens 9-14.  In primetime for 2010, the network
was tops with K6-11 (1.06 million) and Tweens 9-14 (878,000).

Makes you wonder what will ever happen with DC and Cartoon Network, doesn’t it?

ComicMMXI: ComicMix Predicts 2011

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Now that we’ve taken a look back at the year – and boy oh boy, was that an interesting year – we can now look over the rainbow at what’s coming down the pike. Intelligent theories meet best guesses with a dash of wild-eyed visions; crystal ball, there’s so many things I gotta know… what’s coming in the New Year?

We’ve seen what the growth figures have been like for electronic reading, and now we can say there is no sign of slowing down. An estimated 70 different types of e-readers are expected to be on display at the Consumer Electronics Show later this month, and rumors have it that Apple is looking to purchase 65 million screens for iPads in the coming year, where book reading platforms are in the top 5 and two comics reading apps are in the top 20.

With the departure of Paul Levitz, Karen Berger is now the longest serving editorial employee at DC. But she’s on the other end of the country from where the action seems to be moving, and her sales figures haven’t been super-inspiring. Yes, Sandman moves lots of trade paperbacks a year– but what has she done for them lately? How many Big Events can they shove into the ever-narrowing pipeline? What if Green Lantern bombs? How do these new kids on the block respond? More THUNDER Agents? We will be told Wonder Woman is being given a bold new direction by a
new writer. This time the jacket will have fringe on it. The
DCU will get a few steps closer to being right back in the silver age.
Kyle Rayner and Wally West should buy some plots next to Ryan Choi any
day now.

How many Thor miniseries came out last year, in preparation for trade collection in time for the movie release? How about Captain America minis? Will the Spider-Man musical take flight – or will somebody get killed? Spider-Man himself will not die. Marvel’s Fear Itself will tie into Phobos being angry that daddy Ares was killed during Siege. The Avengers line-up will change and a new Avengers title will rise. Then, towards the end of 2011, we’ll have more Avengers mini-series than Richie Rich has tax shelters.

And then there’s the sword of Damocles hanging over the entire print industry. Steve Geppi’s financial problems are still touchy, not noticed as much because everybody’s had a softer year than most. Right now, we get the impression that Diamond’s treading water and has been able to refinance any cash flow problems, but shutting down their West Coast warehouse has to worry some folks about their future viability. But the real problem is with the Borders Book Chain: they closed the year not paying its creditors and returning tons of warehoused product. Sadly, Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million aren’t doing all that much better.

The Green Lantern movie will be better than Spider-Man Turn On The Dark… we think. The Green Hornet movie will not. Please, please, please prove us wrong.

Beware the FINAL PICKLE. It’s coming.

Dr. Mid-Nite, Dr. Doom, Dr. Who, and Dr. Strange will start a competing talk show to take on the syndicated The Doctors. The show will however fail when Dr. Doom’s “Top Ten Super Health Tips for 2011” begin with SUCCUMB TO DOOM’S WILL!

The JLA line-up will change and spin-off into a new title, and no one will buy that book either. DC will quickly reconsider their no-crossover policy to jump on the Avengers bandwagon. Marvel will laugh.

Reed Dies. Sue Dies. Johnny Dies. Ben Dies. Franklin Dies. …. H.E.R.B.I.E. Dies. His parts will be distributed at random in the “final” bagged edition of Fantastic Four.

With the entire Disney Animated Universe being milked dry by BOOM! (and, increasingly Disney-owned Marvel),
look out for Avatar’s cleaning of the wonderful world of DiC.

Odin will return from the dead in a very angry state of mind. And a new pair of glasses.

Stan Lee’s characters for BOOM! will be forgotten by the summer, but don’t worry… Striperella will hit the shelves in the fall. And get ready to forget Stan’s new Archie titles!

The Walking Dead series will end with a unique twist: It was all a dream. Then Tom Welling shows up.

Marvel’s relaunching of the CrossGen Line will prove once and for all there was a good reason CrossGen went out of business.

Robert Kirkman will release only 17 new IP’s for Image.

And the surprise of the year: that Aunt May is going to outlive Miss Grundy.

How about you? What does your magic 8-ball reveal?

(Marc Alan Fishman, Mike Gold, Glenn Hauman, and Alan Kistler contributed to this piece.)