Saturday 24 November 2018

Pulp cover for #Noirvember

Once upon a time, I used to display a cover from the old pulp magazine Detective Tales and comment on it, as a sort of monthly tradition. I thought this would be something perfect to do for #Noirvember. I decided to go for a stereotypical pulp fiction cover, from the November 1938 edition: a damsel in distress, a hero and a few villains in a dramatic action scene. The setting is what appears to be an exotic temple or palace. The damsel in distress is a blonde, gagged but curiously not tied up. There is a henchman holding her and towering over them what appears to be the leader, all clad in white and sporting a devilish looking goatee. The villains seem to be of Middle Eastern or Asian extraction, and they use old fashioned knives. There are three of them. The hero (private eye?) is already wounded and is fighting the biggest one, a thuggish looking guy with a bloody curved knife. Things are grim for the good guys. I wish I could find the story linked to that image, if there is one.

No comments: