Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular Fiction in America [Paperback]

Tim Deforest (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0786419024 | ISBN-13: 978-0786419029 | Publication Date: May 2004

The first half of the twentieth century was a golden age of American storytelling. Mailboxes burgeoned with pulp magazines, conveying an endless variety of fiction. Comic strips, with their ongoing dramatic storylines, were a staple of the papers, eagerly followed by millions of readers. Families gathered around the radio, anxious to hear the exploits of their favorite heroes and villains. Before the emergence of television as a dominant—and stifling—cultural force, storytelling blossomed in America as audiences and artists alike embraced new mediums of expression.

This examination of storytelling in America during the first half of the twentieth century covers comics, radio, and pulp magazines. Each was bolstered by new or improved technologies and used unique attributes to tell dramatic stories. Sections of the book cover each medium. One appendix gives a timeline for developments relative to the subject, and another highlights particular episodes and story arcs that typify radio drama. Illustrations and a bibliography are included.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tim DeForest lives in Sarasota, Florida, and is the circulation manager of the library at the Ringling School of Art and Design. His previously published articles cover a variety of subjects, from military history to the Wild West.

Product Details

• Paperback: 235 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786419024
• ISBN-13: 978-0786419029
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,000,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Romp through the History of Popular Storytelling, August 2, 2004

By 

A. Novak - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular Fiction in America (Paperback)

"Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio" is an easy-reading, fun romp through the history of popular storytelling in America. You can feel DeForest's enthusiasm for his subject on every page-he has obviously read everything he writes about and has no qualms about expressing his critical feelings about what he has read. While reading I found myself wanting to hunt down copies of the stories under discussion to see if I felt they were as great or as rotten as the author believed they were. Did I hunt them down? Well, that's another story.

"Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio" is an excellent survey of how storytelling has thrived in America through the various media that were popular at different times in our history. DeForest believes everybody loves a good story whatever its form of delivery, be it written, oral, or visual. Coverage includes dime novels, adventure stories, crime and detective stories, science fiction and strange stories, radio drama, and story based comics. An emphasis is placed on the role that changes in technology and economics played in the survival or demise of particular media. Particularly interesting is how many of America's greatest writers were involved, and how many, if not most, of America's favorite TV and movie heroes and heroines were born in the pulps, comics and radio shows of decades ago.

This book is probably best for those with little to average knowledge of the subject. Diehard pulp, comics and radio story fans, like DeForest, would probably not learn much here. They know it all already.

The only faults I find with this book are the high price tag (get your local library to buy a copy) and that DeForest blatantly omits the romance genre of his subject. So all of you women out there who might be interested in the history of the romance pulps and comics, you won't find it here. Deforest is too busy swashbuckling to swish you off your feet.

I have to admit that I actually did read this book and that I know the author and that I am one of the uncultured Philistines of Friday Snack Time mentioned on the frontispiece of the book. Therefore you can believe that I wrote this favorable review under threat of an ugly alien monster's death ray (which I didn't) or that it is all absolutely true (which it is).

It's a crying shame that this book was not priced at 10 cents so that everyone could afford to buy a copy.

Allen Novak, Librarian
Ringling School of Art and Design

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written - brings back memories, April 21, 2005

By 

Carl A. Dixon (Bradenton, Fl United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular Fiction in America (Paperback)

I am amazed this book is not in the top echelon of Amazon's sales. It is obviously because of the price the publisher has placed on it. But I assure you it is worth the price. Reading this book not only brought back memories of old comic strips and radio drama's but drove me to the internet to check some of this out. Tim is an engaging writer. He isn't just writing history. He is making it interesting and exciting. You will discover facts about old forms of media and specific programs that you didn't know before. There is not a boring paragraph in the book. If the publisher is reading this - lower the price and with a little promotion you have a best seller.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pulp and Radio Origins of TV and Comicbook Heroes, February 14, 2005

By 

F. Scott Valeri (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular Fiction in America (Paperback)

A wonderful and engagingly written overview of the origins of iconic heroes and TV/movie dramas looking back at their genesis in the pulp, radio and comic strip forms of the early twentieth century. Many suprises such as the radio versions of Dragnet and Gunsmoke long before the TV series. Great overviews of all of the major genres of storytelling (detective, western, action, mystery/horror, sci-fi, jungle) with revelations on every page. Serial storytelling in comicbooks and TV owe a huge debt to the decades of stories already explored in the pulp and radio serials. This book is a terrific intro to these somewhat forgotten forms. It is too bad this slim paperback is SO expensive, but if you bite the bullit it is a genuinely rewarding read.