Help me find a pulp story to illustrate

May 17, 2007 7:05 AM

I'm looking for a short story from a pulp magazine, preferably an advenure story. Something along the lines of Edgar Rice Burroughs would be perfect. I want to design a pulp magazine cover illustrating a scene from a real pulp story for a college graphics project. I don't have alot of time and I'm a pretty slow reader so it has to be short. Is there anywhere I can find one online?
posted by Andy Harwood to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Burroughs' first few Mars books, A Princess of Mars and Thuvia, Maid of Mars, are available on Project Gutenberg. You will have to search a bit. They would have great images, of the Pre-Bellum and Ante-Bellum American South (John Carter's youth), of Arizona (John Carter's attempts at mining after the Civil War), and, of course, of the Red Planet. Drawing sword fights between green men with six arms and vicious white apes would fun, I would think. I'm artistically challenged, so I am willing to be corrected.

You might also look at Edward J. M. D. Plunkett, also known as Lord Dunsany. He wrote the original stories whose universe H.P. Lovecraft adopted. I always found his stories very compelling, in a kind of creepy way. They aren't adventure stories per se, they are more fantasy or horror stories.

You might also think of the Perry Mason books, if you are looking for more of an adventure, private eye kind of a story. The Perry Mason character of the later books is clever, but very cerebral. The earlier Perry Mason is more of a roisterer. He gets into fights at the drop of a hat, and a lot of hats drop.

I would guess that there are a bunch of other pulp fiction books on Project Gutenberg. Check out L. Ron Hubbard, or one of his aliases. You could find the aliases in Wikipedia.
posted by vilcxjo_BLANKA at 7:38 AM on May 17, 2007

There is a ton of awesome stuff on Gutenberg Australia's "SF" page, where SF stands for "Science, Speculative, Superhero, Swords, Sorcery, Spies, Supernatural and Scary Fiction."

There's even a small section of ERB short stories. One of the shortest (and most awful) is The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw, about a misogynistic caveman.
posted by miagaille at 7:52 AM on May 17, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks guys, the Mars books look great. I had no idea there was so much free ERB stuff online.
posted by Andy Harwood at 9:25 AM on May 17, 2007

While the Mars books are indeed great, I feel strongly that it would be AWESOME if you designed cover art for the Eye Of Argon, widely (and rightly) considered the worst pulp story ever written.
posted by dersins at 9:46 AM on May 17, 2007

Response by poster: I don't think I could possibly do justice to a line like "The disemboweled mercenary crumpled from his saddle and sank to the clouded sward, sprinkling the parched dust with crimson droplets of escaping life fluid."
posted by Andy Harwood at 10:43 AM on May 17, 2007