Pulp Apocalypse

[dem bones]

Justin Marriott [ed.] - Pulp Apocalypse

I've still not managed to write up Hot Lead: Most Wanted, pretty unforgivable, seeing as I regard it the best of the all-review specials to date. Anyhow, up next - "plan to have it done in a few weeks all being well" - is, Pulp Apocalypse: Your Survival Guide to Men's Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Paperbacks & Comics.

The 1980s were an era defined by the seemingly real threat of a nuclear apocalypse which irradiated all elements of pop culture. Pulp Apocalypse takes the most in-depth look yet at the paperbacks and comics that fell-out of this fear and fascination. Heavily illustrated throughout with many reproductions of rare and outrageous paperback covers. Coverage includes definitive series such as Deathlands, The Survivalists, Endworld, Wingman and Traveler.

Articles and interviews with key authors Jan 'Doomsday Warrior' Stacey, David 'Endworld' Robbins, and David 'Phoenix' Alexander.
Special Reviews Sections

Bikers in post-apocalyptic fiction including The Outrider and Roadblaster series'.

Young adult fiction such as Firebrats, Dark Future, and USSA.

Comic books such as The Survivors, The Cursed Earth and The Tower King.

Will post details as we receive them, or you can drop Justin a line at thepaperbackfanaticATsky.com

*** replace AT with @

[rob4]

^^^ now available on amazon
www.amazon.co.uk/Pulp-Apocalypse-Justin-Marriott/dp/B08DC63V8L/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=pulp+apocalypse&qid=1595767718&sr=8-3

[dem bones]

Just in from Justin

Pulp Apocalypse is now live and available on as many Amazons as I could (sorry Australia!). 100-pages on post-apocalyptic mayhem and mutants in paperbacks and comics for a bargain price. All of the classics covered, plus a lot more.

Am*z*n

Am***n.uk

Ye editor was interviewed for the July 15th episode of the Six Gun Justice Podcast, extoling the virtues of fanzine publishing, so check that out.



Issue 44 of The Paperback Fanatic is just about to be copy-edited, so I expect to publish that in September. It’s a lock-down special with articles on disaster paperbacks, virus paperbacks, authors in permanent lockdown, and lots of reviews.



Next up is Sleazy Reader: the crime special which will include Crime Does Not Pay comic, sleazy crime digests, Mafia paperbacks, Harlan Ellison short stories, pre-code crime comics and true-crime magazines.



Then in the new year, two new projects. A military fiction special of Men of Violence, so if you want to contribute some snappy 250-word reviews please let me know. And in the early planning stages, a guide to forgotten writers, with volume one pencilled as in as thriller authors. Approx 75 short essays on authors who had a decent body of work in print in the 60s/70s but have since disappeared. Again, if you would like to contribute, please contact me and I’ll explain a bit more.



Also I have been very pleased to have worked on The Best of Bedabbled! (in a small capacity) which is a brilliant compendium of the best writing from the early issues of the fanzine about cult British cinema. Available from Amazon right now.



Best wishes.



Justin.

Contact:

thepaperbackfanaticATsky.com (replace AT with @ )

[dem bones]

"Just for giggles, the author throws in eight pages of savage black bear fighting a doomsday cowboy while a gladiator game ensues with motorcyclists mowing down human heads while a drooling, wheelchair-bound madman watches from Cinderella's castle."

As title suggests, a 100 page crash course in per-Millenial post-Apocalypse fiction. All you need to know and a whole lot more, much of it deeply unpleasant. Foreword and several articles by Eric 'The Paperback Warrior' Compton, plus contributions from, among others, Jules Burt, Steve Carroll, Andreas Decker, Joe Kenney, Scott Kime, Steve Myall, Jim O'Brien, Dan Shanahan, Tom Tesarek, Benjamin Thomas and Justin Marriott. Cover design: Bill Cunningham. Lousy 'review' to follow.

[dem bones]

A domain of monsters and mutants, a wasteland few men dare to cross.

As with the recent Hot Lead: Most Wanted, another of the ace dip-in dip-out reference works Mr. Fanatic favours these days. But for the occasional article or interview, Pulp Apocalypse is a 'reviews special' in all but name, encompassing, not merely a subgenre but, it seems to me, an entire enthused subculture in its own right.

Personal highlights: Justin Marriott on post-doomsday motorcycle hooligans; Eric the Paperback Warrior laying waste to Paul Hofrichter, whos Roadblaster is apparently "utterly awful" and "has no place in this world," Andreas Decker's overview of the impossibly long lived (and still going) Maddrax: Earths Dark Future saga; The Doomsday Comics and Armaggedon in YA fiction round-ups, Jim O'Brien's contributions in particular.

So which of us would be left standing should the World (which here usually translates as "America") be wiped out by nuclear strike/ plague/ famine/ giant cockroaches/ zombie uprising/ comet/ 99 red balloons/ other? If Pulp Apocalypse is anything to go by, the aforementioned outlaw bikers, Guns & Ammo subscribers, hardcore survivalists, fit women, vengeful vigilantes/men of violence who don't like anyone, are in with the best chance. No surprise they're all up and killing one another before the dust has settled.

I realise it's a fault in my wiring but, as ever, some of the alleged stinkers - Mutant's Amok: Rebel Attack, Swampmaster: Unholy Alliance, the three-book Roadblaster series in its entirety, etc - sound just as appealing as the justly lauded Day of the Triffids, The Death of Grass, and Co., in the same way as many of the so-bad-they're-bad vampire novels often prove way more entertaining than the acknowledged classics.

The End Days. You'll come out the other side just so long as you remember; "After the holocaust was over, the real killing began."