Pulp a Passion
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Pulp fiction books, popular in Australia in the 1940s and 1950s, blended the graphics of comics with the layout of magazines. They had bold sexy covers, were cheap, took a few hours to read, and some were even banned in Queensland.
Despite their popularity, the genre was largely ignored before this year’s Pulp: A Collector’s Book of Australian Pulp Fiction by UQ Contemporary Studies lecturer Dr Toni Johnson-Woods.
It tells the stories behind pulp fiction authors, artists, and publishers, and includes 80 colour-plates of classics such as They Paid in Blood, Celluloid Suicide and Texan Tornado.
Dr Johnson-Woods spent two years researching the book at the National Library of Australia and said it was the first on Australian pulp fiction.
“It was one of the richest periods in Australian publishing history. Each month thousands of copies of dozens of titles were printed. They were the armchair entertainment of pre-TV days. And all for sixpence,” she said.
“Preachers, politicians and teachers warned parents about the dangers lurking between the covers. Several were banned in Queensland, but to the contemporary reader, the moral panic about these stories is laughable.”
