Pulp Cover Friday: HEY, I DIDN’T KNOW THAT (part II)

Today we’re taking another ramble down the quaint and crooked byways of pulpdom and looking at some mags I was totally unaware of before getting involved in all this Cheese Magnet stuff. First, we’ll start with two high-tech zines for all you science nerds out there in cheeseland.

Both ALL ABOUT TELEVISION and ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER/SCIENCE AND INVENTION were, at one time or another, Hugo Gernsback magazines. Gernsback (lovingly referred to by H. P. Lovecraft as “Hugo the rat”) published the first science fiction magazine (AMAZING STORIES) in 1926. Before that he was heavily in the science end of things. This cover from ALL ABOUT TELEVISION is actually from 1927, but I had to include it because it’s such a breathtakingly prescient look at Super Bowl parties of the 21st century. I wonder if the set shown is hi-def?

This magazine was first called ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER (1913-1920) and then SCIENCE AND INVENTION (1920-1931) and was also aimed at the pointy-headed crowd though it did publish a fiction piece or two in most issues. This particular cover, showing marked pulpy tones, is from 1924, about two years before the birth of AMAZING STORIES.

This must have been a real cheery title. The public seemed to have a similar opinion, since PRISON LIFE STORIES lasted only 3 issues (Sept.- Dec. 1935). You can only write so many variations on the getting shived in the shower theme.

Sadly, for you horror fiends out there, REAL SPICY HORROR wasn’t a real gore zine, but a parody published THE YALE REVIEW. (April 1937). College kids. Even then know-it-all pains in the ass.

REAL BEDTIME TALES changed its name after the first issue to REAL BOUDOIR TALES, because, really, that’s so much classier. It lasted only from Sept. 1934 to April 1935. The stories must have sucked because the covers are muy caliente.

STRANGE SUICIDES has been called the most bizarrely themed pulp of the 1930s, and who am I to argue? I guess counting on readers with a deep fascination with suicide was not a wise business decision, because the zine lasted only two issues (Jan. and Feb. 1933).

To end on a more, well, positive note, here’s a cover from STOLEN SWEETS (Sept. 1933 – July 1936). Not much needs to be said about this one, except that I had a hard time picking out a cover. There’s more, if you want to see them. Let me know.

A note on the HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES front: Doubtlessly all of you are waiting breathlessly for the next installment of the Hound Face-Off. Don’t worry, I have succeeded in obtaining copies of all movies, and they should start arriving at my door next week. My backyard will soon be filled with killer Hounds from Hell, but again, don’t worry, the Chihuahua will keep them all in line.