Ninety years ago, inspired by the tremendous success of The Shadow Magazine, there was a revival of single-character magazines.
The hero pulps of 1933 revitalized an industry laid low by the Great Depression. Pulps such as The Phantom Detective, Doc Savage Magazine, Nick Carter Magazine, The Lone Eagle, G-8 and His Battle Aces, The Spider, and Pete Rice Magazine dominated the rough-paper field for the rest of the decade. They remain the most avidly collected and frequently reprinted periodicals of the pulp-collecting hobby.
Popular Publications got its start in late 1930 when Henry Steeger and Harold Goldsmith released their first four titles – Battle Aces, Detective Action Stories, Gang World, and Western Rangers. A year later, they were joined by two more – Underworld Romances and the magazine that helped send the company to the top of the pulp chain, Dime Detective Magazine.
During the spring and summer of 1933, Henry Steeger planned additional releases. Two would be targeted at the Western and love genres, while the others would mark Popular’s entry into the single-character market. “At this point in pulp history, character titles became very popular, so we decided to try out a few . . . ”
In September 1933, Popular Publications debuted their four newest titles — Star Western and Lovers Magazine; G-8 and His Battle Aces, their air-war hero pulp; and the company’s answer to The Shadow Magazine called The Spider.
Running for 118 issues, spread out over ten years, writers R.T.M. Scott, Norvell Page, Emile C. Tepperman, and Wayne Rogers pit The Spider and his cohort against an array of madmen and their henchmen in a never-ending war on crime.
We hope you’ll join PulpFest 2023 on Thursday, August 3, at 8:55 pm for “The Spider, Master of Men!’” Part of our celebration of the 90th anniversary of the great pulp heroes, it will feature graphic designer and illustrator Chris Kalb, Will Murray — author of three Spider novels and countless articles about the character — and Los Angeles crime writer Gary Phillips.
Chris is known in pulp circles for his hero pulp websites, like The 86th Floor and The Spider Returns, ventures that have helped to attract people who are new to the pulps. There isn’t anyone out there making better use of new technology while preserving the “oldness” of pulps and early twentieth century popular culture. He has become the person to go to for publishers who want a retro-design for their books or website, including Ed Hulse’s Murania Press. Chris is also the designer for Age of Aces Books, a pulp reprint house that specializes in air-war fiction. In 2010, Age of Aces received two National Indie Excellence Awards for Chris’s work on the bestselling The Spider vs. The Empire State. Chris was the designer of PulpFest‘s original website and for many years, put together the convention’s print advertisements. A freelance designer and illustrator, he was also the Art Director of Sci-Fi Magazine for many years.
Will Murray has written extensively about Lester Dent’s Doc Savage, as well as countless other pulp and pop culture topics. The literary agent for the Lester Dent properties, he has written over twenty adventures of Doc Savage (with two featuring The Shadow), a solo adventure featuring Pat Savage, three novels about the Popular Publications hero, The Spider, as well as new adventures of Cthulhu, King Kong, Sherlock Holmes, and Tarzan. His non-fiction books include The Dark Avenger, Master of Mystery: The Rise of The Shadow, Wordslingers: An Epitaph for the Western, and Writings in Bronze. You can find Will’s books at adventuresinbronze.com.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gary Phillips has written the adventures of the Green Hornet and Kato, Kolchak the Night Stalker, Captain Action, Honey West, the Avenger, the Spider (teamed with Operator 5), Johnny Dollar, and created Jimmie Flint, Secret Agent X-11, in the linked anthology he contributed to and edited, Day of the Destroyers. Phillips conceived, co-edited, and contributed to Black Pulp I & II — featuring his character Decimator Smith in 1930s Los Angeles — as well as stories for Asian Pulp and the Adventures of the Bronze Buckaroo. His novel Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem reimagined the real-life Arctic explorer in the pulp tradition. Phillips was also a writer and co-producer on FX’s Snowfall. To learn more about Gary and his work, please visit his official website at gdphillips.com.
The general public is welcome to attend our evening programming events free of charge. To learn more about our programming, please click the Schedule button at the top of this page.
For those who also want to enjoy our dealers’ room, you can join PulpFest by clicking the Registration button at the top of this page. And don’t forget to book a room at the DoubleTree. They’re going fast!
Our featured image was excerpted from Walter Baumhofer’s cover painting for the Octoberber 1933 issue of Popular Publications’ The Spider, the first issue of the long-running hero pulp magazine.
Our lead image was adapted by PulpFest advertising director William Lampkin from Rafael DeSoto’s cover painting for the October 1941 issue of The Spider.
In 2021, Will Murray released his third Spider novel, Fury in Steel. Published by Adventures in Bronze, it featured cover art by Gary Carbon, a Chicago-based freelance artist.
Gary Phillips teamed The Spider with Operator #5 in a story written for the anthology The Spider — Extreme Prejudice, published in 2013 by Moonstone Books and featuring cover art by Malcolm McClinton.
For more on the great pulp heroes, please visit our YouTube Channel to view Craig McDonald’s videos on The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Phantom Detective, G-8 and His Battle Aces, The Spider, Conan of Cimmeria, The Lone Eagle, Pete Rice, Nick Carter, Pat Savage, The Domino Lady, and The Moon Man, with more forthcoming. While you’re there, please be sure to subscribe to the PulpFest Channel. You don’t want to miss Craig’s video on The Avenger, premiering on June 1.
