Yesterday's Faces: A Study of Series Characters in the Early Pulp Magazines Volume 3: From The Dark Side

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

by Robert Sampson

More than forty criminal heroes are examined in this volume. They include evil characters such as Dr. Fu Manchu, Li Shoon, Black Star, the Spider, Rafferty, Mr. Clackworthy, Elegant Edward, Big-nose Charlie, Thubway Tham, the Thunderbolt, the Man in Purple, and the Crimson Clown, plus many, many more!
The development of these characters is traced across more than two decades of crime fiction published in Detective Story Magazine, Flynn’s, Black Mask, and other magazines. The conventions that made these stories a special part of popular fiction are examined in detail.

266 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

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.