New Book! - Anti-Foreign Imagery in American Pulps and Comic Books, 1920-1960

     I am quite pleased to announce that my first book is finally out, and available for purchase from the publisher, McFarland Books, directly, as well as from fine booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and others!


      Anti-Foreign Imagery in American Pulps and Comic Books, 1920-1960 began as my Master's thesis at Virginia Commonwealth University in the Fall of 2010. I was ( and admittedly, still am) fairly new to the pulps, so with what little I already knew, I engaged in a crash course in both pulp history itself, as well as the specific topic of my research, nativist imagery in such periodicals. I have always been interested in such depictions found in literature and comic books of the time; as I wrote in my Pulpfest 2012 report in the newest issue of Murania Press's Blood 'n' Thunder, I was always seeking out older comics and reprints of works from the 30s and 40s, when most of the other kids my age were buying the newest, sensationalized titles that predominated the comics medium in the early 1990s. It was a fascination that continues to this day, and it seemed an excellent topic for my Master's thesis when the time approached; the addition of pulp magazines, a fairly recent interest for me at the time, I thought only furthered the possibility of producing a unique work of cultural, American history.

     A number of changes have occurred between the end of my final semester in 2010 and the present; I have revised and rewritten the work a good deal, and with semestrial constraints no longer an issue, I was able to go back and add in a large amount of further information and sources, that I believe have helped create a better, and more coherent whole. Several sections, one dealing with the role of gender in nativist imagery throughout the years in question, is, for the most part, an entirely new addition absent from the original thesis, as is a brief historical narrative in the Introduction, concerning nativism's existence in the United States since colonial times.

     Above all else, I am hoping that I have produced a quality work that helps further pulp studies, and also gets away from the stigma of pulps as "gutter literature," as many works, academic and not, often portray them. I have no doubts that many veterans of pulp history will find something amiss, or that I did not spend as much time as I should have on a particular author, publisher or title of their preference, and I can certainly understand that, and really welcome any criticism, as long as it's constructive. Again, it is my central hope that I have contributed to the study of these literary artifacts, while also shedding some light on possible reasons behind the growth, and death of nativism as a popular, American sentiment within their pages.

     With this work now complete, I have a number of projects to work on. I was recently asked to write an introduction to a collection of Robert J. Pearsall's pulp stories for Altus Press and am both honored and excited to be working on that soon, just as I am concerning an upcoming article for the Pulp Magazines Project regarding race and gender in the pulps. I hope to have more time to devote to Argonotes; and from the research I am doing at work, I am hoping to produce an article for an academic, southern history journal, particularly concerning immigrant labor in various fields in post-Civil War Virginia, or something along those lines - as always, I have to see where the research takes me. And, as always, I am collecting information related to Frank Andrew Munsey, in the hopes of producing a work about him, and his role in the 1912 Presidential Elections.

     Thank you to all who read Argonotes, and to any and all who check out my book; I am hoping that it meets with your approval!

The Later Argosy - Mysteries, Monsters, and Extraterrestrials

November 1973

     By the late 1940s, pulp mainstay The Argosy (not long after it's purchase by Popular Publishing) had ceased to be the all-fiction weekly that had proved so successful in years past. Even earlier, in the years immediately preceding World War II, an all-fiction approach had been dropped in favor of adding sensationalized predictions concerning possible ways America could be drawn into the escalating war in Europe. The title's physical dimensions had been increased, page number decreased, and the quality of interior paper augmented, in an effort to better blend with the increasing number of non-pulp titles on the newsstand shelves. In attempts to compete with the "slicks" which were gaining in popularity at the time, Argosy underwent a number of changes to its content in the 50s and 60s. The science fiction, westerns, action and other fiction genres were replaced with articles about hunting, real-life adventures and other topics created to cater to the “men’s magazine” crowd. Such transitions were not limited to Argosy; other pulp stalwarts such as Blue Book and Adventure (also owned by Popular) were eventually reformatted into general interest or men's interest publications. By the late 1960s, Argosy adopted the form it would hold until its cancellation, that of a hodge-podge of articles and special interest pieces, covering everything from “Wisconsin’s Abominable Snowman” (April, 1969) to how to “Pick the Winning Horses By The Stars” (October, 1974) to “What You Need To Know To Bag a Bear” (July, 1975).

1975

In addition to its regular issues, Argosy also released several specials and mini-series, ranging in topics from collections of science fiction, to sports, to martial arts, to shark attacks. Some of the most interesting (in my mind) of these auxiliary issues were those dealing with the paranormal, and monsters and UFOs in particular. While probably not as large as the Flying Saucer craze of the early 1950s, the paranormal became a popular genre of both entertainment and non-fiction studies in the late 60s, and throughout the 70s. Erich Van Däniken's 1968 book Chariots of the Gods? helped popularize (some may say create) the "ancient astronaut" theories that still circulate today. On television, three hour-long documentaries narrated by The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling, and based in part on Van Däniken's work, broadcast to a large and enthusiastic audience: In Search of Ancient Astronauts (1973), In Search of Ancient Mysteries (1975) and The Outer Space Connection (1975); the success of these three specials led to the weekly television series In Search of..., which ran from 1976 to 1982, and was hosted and narrated by Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy (and is still one of my all-time favorite shows, despite my introduction to it coming in the form of reruns, long after it's original end-date). In 1977 Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind opened to critical acclaim, and some of the best and well-written works on the subject of extraterrestrials, Bigfoot, and other cryptids appeared around the same time. I have always, since my youth, held in interest in mysteries, cryptozoology, and other unsolved phenomena, so collecting these particular issues has become something of a focus of mine in and of itself. In addition to several stand-alone issues pertaining to monsters such as Bigfoot and the Yeti, there was a short-lived title, Argosy UFO running from 1976-1977, that dealt specifically with UFOs, flying saucers, and reports of extraterrestrial encounters.

1975

I have posted some scans of a few of the issues I have thus far and several pages, including an entire, short article concerning one of the many mysterious “globs” (now believed to be either decomposing octopi or whales) that have washed ashore in various places, from time to time.

1977