Pulp.si
The AI guide to pulp fiction - the magazines that built genre storytelling
Dive into the golden age of pulp magazines - hardboiled detectives, pulp science fiction, weird tales, and the writers who invented modern genre fiction between the 1890s and 1950s. Ask about authors, magazines, tropes, and their lasting legacy in film and comics.
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What you get
Everything Pulp.si gives you
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Magazine encyclopedia
The landmark pulp titles that shaped crime, sci-fi, and fantasy fiction.
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Author deep dives
The writers behind the genre - their careers, styles, and famous creations.
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Genre origins
How noir, hardboiled crime, and pulp sci-fi tropes were born.
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Pulp Fiction Library
A literary history reference on the pulp magazine era and its lasting influence.
Landmark Magazines
- Argosy (1882) — Widely considered the first true pulp magazine, launching the format.
- Black Mask (1920) — The magazine that defined hardboiled crime fiction and launched Hammett and Chandler.
- Weird Tales (1923) — The essential horror and fantasy pulp, home to Lovecraft and Howard.
- Amazing Stories (1926) — The first magazine devoted entirely to science fiction, founded by Hugo Gernsback.
- Astounding Science Fiction — Under editor John W. Campbell, it drove the genre's 1940s Golden Age.
Influential Writers
- Dashiell Hammett — Former Pinkerton detective who pioneered hardboiled crime fiction in Black Mask.
- Raymond Chandler — Creator of detective Philip Marlowe and master of noir prose style.
- H.P. Lovecraft — Weird Tales writer who built the cosmic-horror mythos still influential today.
- Robert E. Howard — Creator of Conan the Barbarian, founding the sword-and-sorcery subgenre.
- Edgar Rice Burroughs — Author of Tarzan and the Barsoom series, a titan of pulp adventure fiction.
Legacy & Adaptations
- Film noir roots — 1940s Hollywood noir drew directly on hardboiled pulp crime fiction.
- Comic book heroes — Pulp characters like the Shadow and Doc Savage directly inspired superhero comics.
- Pulp sci-fi lineage — Space opera pulps of the 1930s-40s helped shape later works like Star Wars.
- Tarantino's homage — The 1994 film Pulp Fiction borrowed its title and tone from the crime pulp tradition.
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