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The Unvarnished Gary Phillips: A Mondo Pulp Collection
Award-winning author, screenwriter, and editor Gary Phillips gathers his most thrilling, outlandish, and madcap pulp fiction in an 17-story collection that straddles the line between bizarro, science fiction, noir, and superhero classics. Aztec vampires, astral projecting killers, oxygen stealing bombs, undercover space rangers, aliens occupying Los Angeles, right wing specters haunting the ’hood, masked vigilantes, and mad scientists in their underground lairs plotting world domination populate the stories in this rip-snorting collection. In these pages grindhouse melds with blaxploitation along with strong doses of B movie hardcore drive-in fare. Phillips, editor of the Anthony Award-winning The Obama Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir , and author of One-Shot Harry and Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem , said this about pulp. “The most common definition of pulp is it’s fast-paced, a story containing out there characters and a wild plot. There is that. But certainly, as we’ve now arrived at the era of retro-pulp, these stories have elements of not just action, but a glimpse behind the steely eyes of these doers of incredible deeds.” As an added bonus, Phillips resurrects Phantasmo, a Golden Age comics character created by Black artist-writer E.C. Stoner in an all-new outing of ethereal doings (includes 4 original illustrations by cover artist Adam Shaw).
360 pages, Paperback
Published October 10, 2023
3 people are currently reading
2464 people want to read
About the author
Gary Phillips
201 books230 followersGARY PHILLIPS has been a community activist, labor organizer and delivered dog cages. He’s published various novels, comics, short stories and edited several anthologies including South Central Noir and the Anthony award-winning The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir. Violent Spring, first published in 1994 was named in 2020 one of the essential crime novels of Los Angeles. He was also a writer/co-producer on FX’s Snowfall (streaming on Hulu), about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central where he grew up. Recent novels include One-Shot Harry and Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem. He lives with his family in the wilds of Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 17, 2024
Pulp of every genre and facet! Gary Phillips’ stories are all precise versions of their genre of choice. I enjoyed joining him on this speed run of pulp worlds.
August 8, 2023
The Unvarnished Gary Phillips is comprised of 16 stories that have appeared in various anthologies over the years. I had already read several of the stories featured herein, but it was nice to have them under one roof, as it were. The seventeenth story is brand new, written exclusively for The Unvarnished (but more on this one in a bit).
The Unvarnished is a collection of pulp inspired tales that have many of the GP hallmarks: the city of Los Angeles, clear eyed social commentary, cool cars, period appropriate music, along with tough as nails heroes and heroines (from across a diverse range of backgrounds) battling shadowy cabals that are up to no damn good. Oh, and did I mention the Aztec vampire queen?
This book’s got something for almost every taste. You like superheroes? Private Eyes? Globe-trotting adventurers? Boxers? Street level vigilantes? Secret agents? Double agents? All present and accounted for. There are even a few science fiction stories (“Grag’s Last Escape,” “Desal Plant No. 9” and “I, Truck”) included in this volume as well.
The final tale of this collection, “Phantasmo and the Vault of Heaven” finds the titular character, a public domain superhero from the Golden Age, resurrected from the realm of four-color obscurity. Mr. Phillips gives this mystic hero the House of Ideas treatment, bringing the character forward in time, into the mid 1970’s. “Vault of Heaven” brings to mind the works of Jim Starlin and Denny O’Neil, with a touch of Howard Chaykin thrown in for good measure. Phantasmo was created by E.C. Stoner and now I have Ken Quattro’s Invisible Men: The Trailblazing Black Artists of Comic Books on my To Be Read list.
In his Introduction, the author states; “In these pages is where grindhouse meets blaxploitation with strong doses of hardcore B movie drive-in fare.” This is truth in advertising for sure. I would expect nothing less from the writer who seamlessly included in a Silver Age Green Lantern reference in his inaugural Harry Ingram mystery. The Unvarnished Gary Phillips stays true to the spirit of such periodicals as Doc Savage and The Avenger, while embracing modern sensibilities. This is 21st century pulp fiction at its finest.
Bravo, sir. So, when does A Mondo Pulp Collection volume 2 drop?
The Unvarnished is a collection of pulp inspired tales that have many of the GP hallmarks: the city of Los Angeles, clear eyed social commentary, cool cars, period appropriate music, along with tough as nails heroes and heroines (from across a diverse range of backgrounds) battling shadowy cabals that are up to no damn good. Oh, and did I mention the Aztec vampire queen?
This book’s got something for almost every taste. You like superheroes? Private Eyes? Globe-trotting adventurers? Boxers? Street level vigilantes? Secret agents? Double agents? All present and accounted for. There are even a few science fiction stories (“Grag’s Last Escape,” “Desal Plant No. 9” and “I, Truck”) included in this volume as well.
The final tale of this collection, “Phantasmo and the Vault of Heaven” finds the titular character, a public domain superhero from the Golden Age, resurrected from the realm of four-color obscurity. Mr. Phillips gives this mystic hero the House of Ideas treatment, bringing the character forward in time, into the mid 1970’s. “Vault of Heaven” brings to mind the works of Jim Starlin and Denny O’Neil, with a touch of Howard Chaykin thrown in for good measure. Phantasmo was created by E.C. Stoner and now I have Ken Quattro’s Invisible Men: The Trailblazing Black Artists of Comic Books on my To Be Read list.
In his Introduction, the author states; “In these pages is where grindhouse meets blaxploitation with strong doses of hardcore B movie drive-in fare.” This is truth in advertising for sure. I would expect nothing less from the writer who seamlessly included in a Silver Age Green Lantern reference in his inaugural Harry Ingram mystery. The Unvarnished Gary Phillips stays true to the spirit of such periodicals as Doc Savage and The Avenger, while embracing modern sensibilities. This is 21st century pulp fiction at its finest.
Bravo, sir. So, when does A Mondo Pulp Collection volume 2 drop?
February 29, 2024
Gary lives for pulp. His love for the form has led to a hefty canon of stories crafted with the simple desire to entertain. One would be hard-pressed to find a writer with more unlimited imagination.
January 11, 2024
2.5 stars
Personally, the stories felt too similar to be very enjoyable for me -- the settings varied from far-futures to the early 1900s, with a variety of fantasy and sci-fi elements, but the characters, plots, and story structures didn't vary much. The characters and plots (when there were plots) were thin, with a greater focus on the action, which was decent, though the writing was occasionally clunky, but, again, fairly same-y.
Personally, the stories felt too similar to be very enjoyable for me -- the settings varied from far-futures to the early 1900s, with a variety of fantasy and sci-fi elements, but the characters, plots, and story structures didn't vary much. The characters and plots (when there were plots) were thin, with a greater focus on the action, which was decent, though the writing was occasionally clunky, but, again, fairly same-y.
October 5, 2023
There were a few good stories in here, but overall this felt like a very disjointed and scattered collection. While some pieces worked well as a deconstruction of a genre, others felt more like filler, and were immediately forgotten. If you are already a fan of the author's work this may appeal to you, but as are curated short story collection, this didn't work for me.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews