Citizens,
After entreaties from several crime-fighting compatriots, I have reluctantly acceded to the request to argue why the annual August event dubbed “PulpFest” retains relevance in stubbornly troubled, 21st-century North America.
For longer than I care to contemplate, despite my unsought moniker, “The Master of Men,” I’ve in fact unswervingly set aside my personal ambitions and potential for domestic happiness, choosing instead to stand as a bulwark where the law fails, but by my singular efforts, some meaningful measure of justice may yet be meted out.
Time and again, with the assistance of my colleagues, honest law enforcement agents — and many times, heroic civilian aid and even ultimate sacrifice from citizens like yourselves — monstrous incursions, lethal horrors, plagues, would-be wholesale slaughter, and despotic designs have not just been mitigated, but righteously eradicated.
Indeed, I must be brief, because there are many threats presently afoot, in New York and beyond!
As was stated in one of the crumbling pulp magazines recording my exploits that some of you may soon purchase, “It is a common truth that human beings in peril tend to become united for protection against that peril . . . We become more determined to guard our own from any usurper, whether abroad or at home.”
This impulse for order and justice binds us as a globe-girdling and crusading army, standing strong against Lucifer’s hellish legions.
While many may regard my campaigns against criminal carnage as mere entertainments, I prefer to think of them as a prescriptive; even as instructive texts, casting a blinding light that not just illuminates, but inspires in the darkest of times!
Why PulpFest? Because like rust, the wicked never rest. Because, as my favorite poet stated, too often, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
Savor my exploits, but more importantly, learn from them! While you enjoy your annual gathering in The Steel City, also commit yourself to stand with me against evil’s would-be emperors!
THE SPIDER
Our featured image is excerpted from Rafael DeSoto’s front cover art for the April 1941 issue of Popular Publications’ The Spider.
The Spider ring pictured — which Wentworth used to “brand” his victims as criminals — is the 1934 edition of the premium, “first offered in the pages of The Spider in the March 1934 issue. Not coincidentally, this issue’s story, “Citadel of Hell,” marked the first time the ring had been featured in an adventure. . . . For 25 cents in coin or stamp, and the promise to curtail crime in their neighborhood, readers could own their very own replica of The Spider’s ring!”
Mr. Wentworth’s quotation originally appeared in an editorial published in the December 1939 issue of The Spider. The lead story, “Satan’s Murder Machines,” was written by Norvell W. Page, as Grant Stockbridge, a Popular Publications house name. Other writers who used the Stockbridge name included Emile C. Tepperman, Wayne Rogers, and Prentice Winchell. R.T.M.Scott, who wrote the first two adventures of The Spider, appeared under his own name.
The poem cited by Mr. Wentworth is “The Second Coming,” composed by William Butler Yeats.
If you would care to see a facsimile of Mr. Wentworth’s original letter as received by PulpFest, click the link embedded in the words above, “Why PulpFest?”
The return address on the original, bloodstained letter reads: “New York City, Manhattan, N.Y. 10118. No additional information was provided. Needless to say, we were ecstatic that Mr. Wentworth managed to find the time to disengage from his endless battle against crime and corruption to answer our question, “Why PulpFest?”
