Otto Penzler on The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps
Otto Penzler, editor of The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps, describes “pulps” for John J. Miller as “the primary source of entertainment for the vast number of Americans who read in the 1920s and 30s … They were called pulps because of the paper — cheap pulp paper — and the covers were garishly colored bright. Usually if they were crime pulps … there was usually a woman in jeopardy — you know, half-torn-off blouse and some evil looking character threatening her. And this appealed to a large number of readers — mostly male.”
