Retro Pulp Tales

The Diogenes Club #(Clubland Heroes)

by Joe R. Lansdale (Editor)

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Pulp

235 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in more than two dozen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. His novella Bubba Ho-Tep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. His story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted to film for Showtime's "Masters of Horror," and he adapted his short story "Christmas with the Dead" to film hisownself. The film adaptation of his novel Cold in July was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Sundance Channel has adapted his Hap & Leonard novels for television.

He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.

Reviews

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the title says, stories inspired by the pulps and digest-sized magazines that lined newstands and drugstores in decades past. In his intro, Lansdale explains that the stories would be something that occurs prior to 1960 and might be found in the pulp/digest magazines of the day. Each tale is introduced by the author explaining the inspiration behind it. Standouts include James Reasoner's "G-8 and his Battle Aces" inspired aviation yarn "Devil Wings over France: a Dead-Stick Malloy Story", Chet Williamson's weird menace creeper "From the Back Pages", F. Paul Wilson's "Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong" (an irresistible title if there ever was one), Melissa Mia Hall's "Alien Love at Zero Break" which is really more 1950's drive-in then pulp. Norman Partridge hits one out of the park with "Carrion", a Robert Howard inspired tale of violence and terror in the desert, and Gary Phillips' combat / EC Comics "Incident on Hill 19".

Gripes: the women were definitely under-represented here, with Mellisa Mia Hall as the only female contributor...lots of testosterone man-shit going on here. Also, not every story honored the rules set by Lansdale regarding pulp and pre-1960's settings. Tim Lebbon's "The Body Lies" is one example like a waltz in a mosh pit. Decent enough story, but not pulp. Lansdale admits in his intro that some of the contributors "cheated" a bit, and you'll see which ones when you read it. Also, for the price of this book, it would have been nice to see more then twelve stories. I guess one can go get the sequel...

[Canavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

✭✭✭

“Devil Wings Over France: A Dead-Stick Malloy Story”, James Reasoner ✭✭✭
“From the Back Pages”, Chet Williamson ✭✭✭✭
“Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong”, F. Paul Wilson ✭✭✭½
“New Game in Town”, Alex Irvine ✭✭½
“Alien Love at Zero Break”, Melissa Mia Hall ✭✭✭½
“The Body Lies”, Tim Lebbon ✭✭✭½
“‘Zekiel Saw the Wheel’”, Bill Crider ✭✭✭
“Summer”, Al Sarrantonio ✭✭
“The Box”, Stephen Gallagher ✭✭✭✭½
“Clubland Heroes”, Kim Newman ✭✭✭½
“Incident on Hill 19”, Gary Phillips ✭✭✭
“Carrion”, Norman Partridge ✭✭✭

All stories published 2006.

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lansdale edited this anthology of old-fashioned adventure tales, but while I have enjoyed some of his fiction, the selection seemed wanting to me. I've read other anthologies on a similar premise (even including some of the same authors) and enjoyed them, but in this case most of the stories felt deliberately slight, leaving me underwhelmed by the ending.

The two standouts for my taste were Melissa Hall's "Alien Love at Zero Break," a surreal surf's up tale which may involve an alien invasion or simply be a shaggy dog (or shaggy moondoggie) tale, and Kim Newman's "Clubland Heroes," which takes the piss of more overt, atavistic superheroes (although even in this case, I find it a peculiar choice to be included, if one was to select from the Diogenes Club tales available ... at any rate, it's collected elsewhere).

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any anthology like this is a mixed bag, but this collection actually has a handful of well written stories mixed in among the average ones. Unfortunately, the editor has allowed several of the stories to contain racial slurs— slurs which might have been common in actual pulp stories of the early 20th century but which are inflammatory and unneeded in tribute stories of the 21st century.