"Your favorite Pulp Hero?" Topic

I like Commando Cody, but, for me, Rocky Jones wins out.

You?

1. John Carter of Mars – Was introduced to the books by my dad at an early age.
2. Flash Gordon – Alex Raymond was a genius
3. Doc Savage – Once again read the novels at an impressionable age.

Philip Marlowe.
Conan.
Solomon Kane.

They would make a hell of a law firm name: Conan, Marlowe and Kane

I like Conan so much I named my favorite dog after him. The ex said when we got him as a puppy, "We need to give him a TOUGH name." Conan was the first thing that came to mind, and for once she agreed with me.

I'll stay with R.E. Howard too, but go with Kull. Second choice would be Hammett's Continental Op – "You think I'm a man and you're a woman. That's wrong. I'm a manhunter and you're something that has been running in front of me."

I've been thinking that 'The Gutting of Couffignal' or the robbery in 'The Big Knockover' would be good pulp scenarios.

Chris

Another vote for Rocky Jones, with a tip of the hat to Winky and Vera.

Jack Burton.

Hey, The Thin Man is on tonight!

I watched Raiders of Lost Ark this afternoon. My son never saw it and we're playing the Lego video game. Still, I love the fellow in The Mummy. Can't think of his name right now. Ergh!

If you really want a true pulp serial hero then I would say Holt of the Secret Service. I was hooked on him as a kid!

Randolph Carter

Would Race Bannon be a pulp hero, if so he would get my vote.

The Spider.

Though I have soft spots for Savage and Benson.

Sam Spade

Detective Harry Philip Lovecraft (Fred Ward)

Brian

It's Solomon Kane for me.

The Thin Man…

I think you mean Nick Charles. The eponymous 'Thin Man' is the old scientist who gets murdered.

Red Sonja

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, followed closely by Conan and Sam Spade.

Nothing says pulp hero to me like Doc Savage!

Only the Shadow knows……

The fellow in The Mummy would be Rick O'Connell and his fine wife Evie.And i second Indy and Race Bannon

The Phantom, followed closely by Steve Canyon.

I have a soft spot for Kimball Kinnison, the Grey Lensman, because when I was 12 I read pretty much everything Doc Smith had written.

Philip Marlowe, The Shadow, Kull and John Carter are up there as well.

Perry Rhodan?

Luftkapitän Mors

I ain't so much into the "Crime pulp" like the Shadow, Green Hornet,etc.

Action/.etc. Indiana Jones. The Holy Grail of 30's Nazi pounding.

Crime fighter: Phillip Marlowe.

Favorite to listen to The Shadow
To watch Flash Gordon
To read in comic form The Phantom
In cartoon form Jonny Quest

I like the relatively recent (last 20 years) reincarnation (Matt Wagner and Guy Davis) of Sandman from the Mystery Theater series.

Jake Cutter

I love REHs Conan stories, but Conan, as a character, really isn't all that different than some of the other Howard S&S "heroes". Like Turlogh O'Brien for instance. So it would be hard to say that Conan is my favorite pulp hero.

I like the serial "Flash Gordon" more than I like Buster Crabb as the character. I'm luke warm about the 2nd two FG serials, which indicates to me that it's *all* of the elements of the 1st "Flash Gordon" that make it one of the best serials ever produced, not necessarily the hero. OTOH, I think that Flash Gordon, as rendered by Alex Raymond as a "comic strip" adventurer, is a truly outstanding hero.

Marlowe is certainly a top drawer private eye, but I prefer the earlier stories with "Carmody" and Chandler's other Black Mask "hard boiled" detectives which were later reworked into the longer Marlowe novels.

I like Bogart's interpretation of Sam Spade more than I like the same character in the original novel "The Maltese Falcon".

I've listened to *many* radio "Shadow" stories and that program is one of the earliest memories of my childhood, but now I much prefer the original pulp magazine version. IMO, the pulp "Shadow" is one of the most interesting fictional characters ever created. As for the 1994 film with Alec Baldwin, unfortunately the writer tried to combine the radio and pulp magazine versions shooting for a "nostalgic" film, and the director couldn't seem to make up his mind whether to "camp" it up as a comedy or to do it "straight". I couldn't get into it for those reasons.

Right now "The Spider" and "Operator #5" are running neck-and-neck on my list of great pulp characters. Both magazines offered some of the wildest pulp fiction ever produced.

I think though, if I had to narrow it down to one or two characters I'd pick the original pulp magazine Tarzan, not the film character, and Indiana Jones as he appeared in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", but not the sequels, and *certainly* not in "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".

Johnny Quest, of course. AAIIIEEEE!!!

Doc Savage, The Phantom, and John Carter.

As The Shadow knows, the "real" Tarzan; my favorite R. E. Howard character is Bran Mak Morn.

Biggles of the RAF.

I'd add Jonny Quest to my list, too.

Don Winslow of the Navy. The Seven Black Hawks. Don Winslow of the Coast Guard.Or How about the Adventures of Tim Tylor.

Conan and Mike Hammer.

Gee, hard to separate the "Pulp" from the "sword & Sorcery" genres here. How is "Pulp" defined here? WRITTEN during the early 1900s or SET in the early 1900s? Or something broader?

I love Jonny Quest but am not sure it is considered "pulp". Ditto certain comic book heroes -- are they "pulp"or newsprint?

But casting caution to the winds --

Jonny Quest
The Shadow
The Phantom
Tarzan
Solomon Kane

and as neo-Pulp, The Rocketeer

>>Gee, hard to separate the "Pulp" from the "sword & Sorcery" genres here. How is "Pulp" defined here? WRITTEN during the early 1900s or SET in the early 1900s? Or something broader?<<

The "pulp" era begins around WW I and ends around the mid 1950s when radio drama, film serials, and pulp magazines all ceased to exist within a few years of each other. We tend to include heroes from radio drama, comic strips, film serials, adventure, gangster, and detective movies, some "B" westerns, detective novels, and of course pulp magazines because many of the characters, like "The Shadow", "Tarzan", "Flash Gordon" and "Sam Spade" crossed over into more than one of those genres, and sometimes several. "Swords & Sorcery" stories by Robert E. Howard were published in "Weird Tales" which is one of the most popular and long lived pulp magazines of all time, so of course they are "pulp". "The Rocketeer", like "Indiana Jones", is set in the pulp era so he's "pulp" also. Most of the characters that you mentioned are "pulp". I don't know anything about "Jonny Quest".

I love the Jungle Pulps and Ki-Gor has recently surpassed Tarzan as my favorite. Reading a lot of Spider these days and trying out a couple Captain Futures and G-8s, but haven't been overly impressed by the good Captain.