Thanks Zevious, you've been helpful and I will be picking up Hellboy in Hell ans Abe Sapien next week!
Thanks Zevious, you've been helpful and I will be picking up Hellboy in Hell ans Abe Sapien next week!
Don't forget about BPRD!
The whole "pulp" designation is a bit obtuse of course because really almost any genre fiction can be fit under the pulp umbrella to some degree, but there is a certain quality in some stuff that just seems more pulp-like. Remender's Fear Agent is pulp sci-fi. Fatale is a combination of Lovecraftian and pulp noir. Its a pretty broad category...
In my mind I always thought pulp are more modern-like stories with a mysterious and heavy atmosphere.
Sci-fi pulps are things like creepy urban legends, Nazi occult, secret societies...etc, and high fantasy is not included.
While Hellboy's story is certainly told in the pulp-like narrative, sometimes it deals more with country stories, fables and folklore.
I thought the middle and perhaps the later part of Hellboy's TPB (after conqueror worm) is less pulp-like, except for certain shorts.
With that definition, I would say BPRD is pulp all the way through, and so is Abe Sapien.
BTW finally got the account, what's with the reboot?
Last edited by Septaryeth; 06-03-2014 at 07:03 AM.
Hmm...well I don't think theres generally necessarily a "modern" component to pulp. In fact the stories often take place in the early part of the 1900's. Certainly a mysterious atmosphere for sure though which is why they often have a "noir" element as well. For me a defining quality of pulp adventure stories is an emphasis on action and a lack of concern with more "emotional" aspects of the story. Pulp stories would rarely be described as having great "depth" or complexity (a generalization of course) and they generally have men/women of action as protagonists. The solutions to problems in pulp stories usually don't go much beyond fists and swords or tommy guns. But there were lots and lots of different types of stories that were published in the pulp mags of the 20s and 30s (the height of the pulp genre) - REHoward's Conan (as well as pretty much all his other writing), Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, Dashiell Hammet, Clark Ashton Smith...it's a pretty broad descriptor.
Last edited by zevious zoquis; 06-03-2014 at 11:05 AM.