Yesterday's Faces, Volume 2: Strange Days

Yesterday's Faces: A Study of Series Characters in the Early Pulp Magazines

by Robert Sampson

The second volume within this series presents more than fifty series characters within pulp fiction, selected to represent four popular story types from the 1907–1939 pulps—scientific detectives, occult and psychic investigators, jungle men, and adventurers in interplanetary romance. Some characters—Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Craig Kennedy, Anthony (Buck) Rogers—became internationally known. Others are now almost forgotten, except by collectors and specialists.

290 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic series over viewing the characters and publishers of the pulps. Very well researched and written. A great start if you want to learn the history of the pulp characters and their publishing history. Very Recommended

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am going to write a placeholder review for all of Robert Sampson's books because I plan to reread them soon. Hands down, the best writer/historian the pulps ever had! Why? Because he loves the pulps but he's not "in love" with them - he can show you why they were great, why they were awful, why they were brilliant, why they were cheap, how they were poetic and how they were trash, and do it all while informing you AND placing the whole shebang in it's cultural context AND entertaining you. An amazing writer, I believe I need one more book by him to have everything he ever wrote on the subject (that's been printed in book form, at least) - you may not ever need to actually read many pulp stories and now you don't have to - Robert Sampson has and can condense their weird wonder down into this strange, printed form of a magic elixir (a mixed metaphor!?! why, that would have made me 2/3rds of a cent if I was a bang-em out, hack pulp writer!)

Seriously, these are some stunning books and well worth your time if you have any interest in the topic of the pulps and dime novels and genre history.