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John Betancourt: Pulp Classics (Paperback, Wildside Press) 2 stars

Review of 'Pulp Classics' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Two stars, but don't let that deter you. I like pulp fiction, have read several of these facsimile reprints, and publications in other forms. This one just didn't do it for me - the stories are, mostly, ludicrous and terrible, which I usually don't mind. Here, I did. Give me spicy stuff and adventures, horror and fantasy, all great, but this pulp magazine wasn't for me.

There are several non-fiction features about numerology, graphology, horoscopes, that kind of stuff, that I found fascinatingly boring. Again, if you want to be fascinated, go for it.

One redeeming feature was the middle section of the three-parter "The Phantom Menace of the Screen" by Arthur T. Joliffe: An evil (and undead?) hypnotist uses his powers and science to manipulate the shooting of a film so that everybody who watches the film turns into a violent maniac - using the fairly recent invention of the optical sound track. A much-used trope, but this is the oldest version applied to film that I know of.