The only price guide of its kind, Popular Fiction Periodicals covers pulp magazines and digests of all genres, men's adventure magazines, true detective magazines, and other sensational newsstand periodicals of the mid-twentieth century. Now in a completely revised and expanded second edition, this informative and eye-opening book features thousands of actual market prices and over 1800 illustrations! You are sure to be surprised at the prices collectors are now paying for magazines that can still turn up in attics, basements, antique malls, used book stores, and garage sales. The book also includes an illustrated history of American fiction magazines, a 45 page retrospective cover art gallery highlighting the work of 125 leading vintage-era cover artists, tips for collectors, and more. Over 2000 magazine authors and 500 cover artists are identified and indexed. An essential reference for magazine and ephemera collectors, rare and used book dealers, Internet buyers and sellers, illustration art collectors, flea market bargain hunters, and anyone else with an interest in American popular fiction or magazine cover art.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"One of those books you'll be reading and looking at for years . . . it is a virtual art gallery of newsstand America in the twentieth century. The amount of research here is staggering" -- Ed Gorman, award-winning mystery author
"An essential reference" -- The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles
"A pleasant surprise and a pure pleasure to read . . . entirely worthwhile for the historical information alone" -- Glen Cook, bestselling science fiction and fantasy author
"A vital tool for anyone buying or selling pulps or other vintage fiction magazines" -- Richard A. Lupoff, author of The Great American Paperback
"Indispensable" -- The Oklahoma Gazette
"A unique and important contribution to the field, for fans and scholars alike. In terms of sheer breadth of topic, there is nothing else like it." -- Garyn G. Roberts, Ph.D., award-winning author of The Prentice Hall Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy and Dick Tracy and American Culture
"The coverage is exceptional" -- Robert Reed, Antique and Collectible News Service
"This is an amusing and instructive reference book" -- Firsts The Book Collector's Magazine
"A goldmine of research and perspective on the pulps and magazines increasingly sought by collectors" ---- Steve Weber, author of The Home-based Bookstore
"A pleasant surprise and a pure pleasure to read . . . entirely worthwhile for the historical information alone" --Glen Cook, bestselling science fiction and fantasy author
"A unique and important contribution to the field, for fans and scholars alike. In terms of sheer breadth of topic, there is nothing else like it." --Garyn G. Roberts, Ph.D., award-winning author of The Prentice Hall Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy and Dick Tracy and American Culture
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4.0 out of 5 stars
The pulp pages,
This review is from: Popular Fiction Periodicals: A Collectors' Guide to Vintage Pulps, Digests, and Magazines (Perfect Paperback)
The amount of information about magazines that Jeff Canja has packed into these pages is truly impressive and not only words but 1800 covers (with 144 in color). The idea behind the book is a comprehensive listing of fiction periodicals and I reckon there are over 3900 issues here with the usual price, condition and date information but also an indication to the main fiction writers in each issue. The quoted prices have the added advantage of being the real ones that were paid for each title rather than an estimate common in other guides.
But the book is a lot more than just a price guide. What interested me in particular are all the covers (and what a shame they weren't in color). Publishers of these down-market titles knew that their one chance of a sale was a bright dramatic colorful cover, ideally with a dominant female and strong come-on cover lines. Canja has managed to devote forty-two pages for a portfolio of 126 named cover artists with three covers each. All the favorites are here: Norm Saunders; Earle Bergey; Peter Driben; James Bama; Robert McGinnis; Mort Kunstler and others. As well as pages of covers there is a quite succinct history of fiction magazines from their beginnings to the golden days in the thirties and forties and eventual decline in the mid-fifties. The back of the book has pages of lists: titles; authors (sort of useful if your collecting someone in particular) cover artists; bibliography etc. You can cross reference stuff here for hours. Fascinating, though all this information is I felt the book's editorial was slightly flawed, so four stars. On the one hand there is the comprehensive list of titles, prices, formats and more, which collectors' would no doubt find invaluable but this information only fills about a third of each relevant page, the remaining space is filled with six covers. It seems to me that the listings could well have been a separate publication because their actual text probably takes up less than a third of the book. On the other hand there is the history of fiction titles, the artists' portfolio pages, two eight page glossy paper inserts with color covers and the space taken up with all the covers on the listings pages all of which could have made a separate book, especially if the covers had been in color. Overall an impressive survey (despite my editorial comment above) of the pulp magazine market that collectors' should find very useful. ***SEE WHAT'S INSIDE by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must for any enthusiast who wants a more complete collection,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Popular Fiction Periodicals: A Collectors' Guide to Vintage Pulps, Digests, and Magazines (Perfect Paperback)
Not everything has to be highbrow literature that's going to change the world. "Popular Fiction Periodicals: A Collector's Guide to Vintage Pulps, Digests, and Magazines" is a collector's guide to the old fashioned pulp fiction magazines of decades ago, that many young readers devoured with great interest. A complete and comprehensive reference, "Popular Fiction Periodicals" contains thousands of cover shots, indexing the authors behind these stories (in publications where some authors were embarrassed to put their real name on their work)! "Popular Fiction Periodicals" is a must for any enthusiast who wants a more complete collection.
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