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Rating: 
Summary: The definitive book on the pulp heros in print.
Review: From about the mid 1920's to the mid-1950's, one of the most popular entertainments available that were serious competition to radio and the movies was the pulp magazine. Printed on the cheapest kind of paper and with the most lurid covers, these magazines provided some of the most vivid action and suspence in print in the 20th century. While the medium is largely dead now and replaced by TV, comics and the paperback novel, the most famous heroes still created descendents of some of our most popular current fictional adventure characters. They include Batman(inspired by the pulp character, The Shadow), Superman(Doc Savage) and James Bond (Operator #5). In this book, Don Hutchison talks about this influential medium focusing on the major characters and the writers who spun these wild yarns. With detailed knowledge, the reader can learn about these characters, their development and the source of their appeal with wonderful vividness. The only shortcoming I see is that I would have preferred to have some more detailed thoughts on their latter day influence. However, if you want learn about what popular literature was like before TV was developed and the comic book hit its full stride, then this is a book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: A History of the Best Known Pulp Fiction Characters
Review: From about the mid 1920's to the mid-1950's, one of the most popular entertainments available that were serious competition to radio and the movies was the pulp magazine. Printed on the cheapest kind of paper and with the most lurid covers, these magazines provided some of the most vivid action and suspence in print in the 20th century. While the medium is largely dead now and replaced by TV, comics and the paperback novel, the most famous heroes still created descendents of some of our most popular current fictional adventure characters. They include Batman(inspired by the pulp character, The Shadow), Superman(Doc Savage) and James Bond (Operator #5). In this book, Don Hutchison talks about this influential medium focusing on the major characters and the writers who spun these wild yarns. With detailed knowledge, the reader can learn about these characters, their development and the source of their appeal with wonderful vividness. The only shortcoming I see is that I would have preferred to have some more detailed thoughts on their latter day influence. However, if you want learn about what popular literature was like before TV was developed and the comic book hit its full stride, then this is a book for you.
Rating:
Summary: The definitive book on the pulp heros in print.
Review: The coverage of the characters, content, authors, and even some of the artists of the pulp hero era of American popular literature within this volume are excellent and help you really understand the blood, sweat and tears that went into the development of the pulps. A Must-read on the subject!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Pulp With Great Mistakes
Review: This is one of the few books I've come across that features a solid overview of the hero pulp era and touches on all the major titles, characters and trends. In addition, Don Hutchison gives the reader some fascinating inside stories on the creators behind "the masked men" themselves. He obviously has a deep love and a detailed knowledge of his subject matter. Unfortunately, this potentially great book is marred by some poor formatting, inconsistencies and more importantly, some really careless spelling mistakes. In fact, the editors at Mosaic must have had narcolepsy or something because I found one or more cropping up every couple of pages. It's just embarrassing, not to mention distracting. Sure, a couple of errors I could ignore. But c'mon guys, my edition is on the third printing! You should've caught all this by now. It's like they just threw the whole book together...which is too bad given the earnestness of Hutchison's writing. It's also too bad the book doesn't go further than it does (it only clocks in at about 276 pages with a large font) and it would've been nice if the cover section had featured some glossy colour instead of plain b&w (but I assume they're just trying to cut down on print costs.) Other than that, I certainly enjoyed the book and it's definitely worth the read...it's just all the errors I could've lived without.
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