Yes, some would call us strange and those of us involved in the world of collecting Pulp Fiction would agree that we do have some mighty fun adventures.  So, Strange Adventures does describe a little about the world that we traverse in on a regular basis. Trolling around websites, hitting garage sales, flea markets, and antique shops is what many of us can be found doing in our spare time.

The Players:

First, I’ll let you in on the players involved in this Strange World. The population consists of Finders and Keepers for the most part. The roles can interchange from time to time with no penalties accumulated. Some stick to strictly finding these wonderful old pulp publications to sell to the Keepers. However, Keepers can be finders and finders can be keepers in this quirky world of old paper.  I’ve heard tell a time or two that some died in the wool Finders get converted after seeing the light and quietly become Keepers of the best stuff. I call them Secret Keepers. They don’t want the other Keepers to know about their private stash…someone might try to persuade them to part with a treasure.  Secretly, I can see some of these Secret Keepers standing in the dark with a flashlight drooling words like “Oh my PRECIOUS!” It could be the Secret Keepers are just a myth, we may never know for certain.

The World:

Finders and Keepers, otherwise known as collectors, live in an interesting world. They visit digital lands where they can find pieces to add to their collection. They sometimes travel to garage sales to sort through stacks of old magazines looking for a hidden treasure. It isn’t unusual to find them driving several hundred miles, on the premise of a vacation with the family, to a destination where there is a flea market or antique shop that is known to have some coveted old pulp rags to look through.  Finders and Keepers will enter sizzling hot attics and damp basements when told that there are several old boxes of magazines they can look through.  The world will sometimes take on a musty smell from the old paper having gotten damp. Finders and Keepers both know that they will have to be quite cautious in handling these old magazines, as sometimes the paper has gotten so brittle it will crumble as the pages are turned.

The Treasures:

Finders and Keepers, collectors, are looking for treasures in their Strange World. The treasures will be the wonderful old cheap magazines that can go back as far as 1896.  Some will look for spectacular artwork from the covers.  Many have particular artists that they search for. Margaret Brundage, a female artist, is quite popular. She did covers often of scantily clad damsels in distress for pulp fiction magazines like Weird Tales. The January 1936 issue of WT just sold in an auction for $37,343.  (Boy, howdy, I would have loved to have been the Finder of that one!)

Another popular artist of pulp covers is Norman Saunders. His covers can be found on Eerie Mysteries, Wild West Weekly, and Saucy Movie Tales to name a few.  At one time he was receiving $25 to $75 a pop for doing the cover for a pulp. A copy of his May 1951 Marvel Science recently sold for $50,787.  L. Ron Hubbard was one of the authors in that issue.

Frank Kelly Freas is one of my favorites. He started out doing inside illustrations for some of the less popular pulps and eventually worked his way up to Astounding Science Fiction which was a goal for many of the Sci Fi artists as this pulp was printed with a little better paper.  He later became the cover artist for Mad Magazine from 1955 to 1962. He was also an official NASA artist with his posters now hanging in the Smithsonian.

Hugh J Ward illustrated many covers of pulps. His August 1936 issue of Spicy Mystery with a brunette in a pink two piece outfit being held captive to a bullseye with an arrow in her hair just sold in auction for…are you ready? $143,400!

Granted, not all Finders and Keepers come across pulps with this kind of value. We love the art though and there is always the chance that we just might stumble across something really special. Most of us feel that “the fun is in the hunt” anyway.

Many of the Keepers are not just interested in the cover art. Some find treasure in the authors included inside and collect solely for those purposes. They may collect Paul S. Powers stories. Powers is the grandfather of Laurie Powers who will be our guest this week on EWNN. Authors of a variety of genres are collected. L. Ron Hubbard, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and many others are coveted for their short stories, novelettes, and serials contained between the covers of these old Pulp Fiction magazines.

My Role:

Some of you may know, many of you might not, and still others will care less; but my role is mostly of a Finder in this Strange World of Pulp Collectors. My day job is that of an Ephemera Specialist in the Antiques World. Ephemera is a fancy word for old paper and Pulp magazines fall into that section of antiques and collectibles. Ephemera is something that was meant to have a short use and then tossed away. I’m mostly a Finder but do cross over to Keeper from time to time when something really awesome crosses my path.

Please tune in Sunday, August 22, 2010 at 6:30 PM (Eastern) to hear Laurie Powers interviewed about Pulp Fiction and her role in this wonderful world of collecting at EWNN.

© 2010, Bev Owens. All rights reserved.

When the shoulders of the other kids fell in disappointment over the report assignment, I was grinning from ear to ear and couldn't wait to get started. I've always loved doing research on topics and then writing about what I've found. My newest endeavors are blogging and writing fiction.

Bev Owens

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Tags: antiques, collecting, collectors, Fiction, flash, pulp fiction, strange world

This entry was posted on August 20, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Featured, Writing Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.